History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Part 78

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1408

USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio > Part 78

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The report of Chief Engineer Frederick Har- bach of the Erie and Kalamazoo Road, January 1, 1849, gave many facts of the history of that enterprise, and its relations to the Michigan Southern Road, showing something of its strug. gles for life. The report gave an estimate of the cash value of the road, aside from its fran- chise, aggregating $120,200. Of that sum $30,000 was for right of way, $33,000 for grading and trestle work, 824,000 for 800 tons of iron, $17,000 for machinery and materials, $7,000 for land and buildings in Toledo and $300 for same in Adrian. The total receipts for the year 1849 were $26,017, of which $9,575 was from passengers, and $15,236 for freights. The expenditures for the same period amounted to $13,831, including salaries of officers, agents and condnetors, 83,765 ; engineers and firemen, $1,318; fuel, $1,131; repairs of engines and cars $2,255; repairs of Road, $3,740; contin- gent, 8503. There was then dne for taxes in Michigan and Ohio, $1,344, and $2,738 on other accounts. The net income for the year was $8,132. The receipts for 10 years had ranged from 846,169 in 1839, to $25,114 in 1842. The falling off after 1839, was largely due to hitter competition from the Michigan Sonthern Road. Other causes operated to embarrass the Road, including " litigation and bad management." Sometimes it was in the hands of " Commission- ers acting for the Directors; sometimes of Trus- tees appointed by the Courts; then by a Re- ceiver at one end and by Commissioners at the other end; at one timo there being two distinct boards of Directors claiming authority." In 1848 the Company owned no land at Toledo, except two small lots, on one of which stood its Machine Shop on St. Clair Street and near La- fayette (since known as the O'Reagan Hotel). There was then neither passenger depot nor freight house-its business all being done in the open air on Water Street. Various points were considered with reference to a depot-two on Water Street, two in the Northern and two in the Sonthern part of the City. For the ex- isting traffic, it was thought one-half an acre would be ample for all purposes. Two and a half acres at the mouth of Swan Creek (West side), including the machine shop, conld be had for $20,000, which was deemed "a large price for what would eventually be inadequate to the wants of the Road." The remaining location was known asthe " Miedle Ground," belonging to the proprietors of Oliver's Addition to To- ledo, and consisted of 30 acres of those grounds and 14 acres of upland, the whole being offered for $3,000, or $70 per acre-conditioned that the depot be located there within two years. The cost of providing depot accommodations

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HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.

there was estimated at $10,000, a sum not war. ranted by the existing business of the Road, but when done, it would be a desirable location. It was urged that there " the Road would be rid of all municipal regulations, with the best possible connection with navigation, and in position to connect with Lake Shore lines." The advice thus given was acted upon, and on the $3,000 purchase are now found the net work of tracks, the Island House, Elevators, Freight Warehouses, and other extensive facilities of the Lake Shore Road. On the 14 acres of " upland," embraced in that purchase, has been constructed the new and more convenient Pas- senger Depot.

Mr. Harbach. during the few years of his activity in Ohio, gained a high position as a Railway Engineer. He was from Massachu- setts, his first experience in his profession being on the Boston and Albany Road. Coming West, his first connection was with the Erie and Kalamazoo Road. From there he went te Cleveland, to take charge of the survey and construction of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Road, in which capacity he still further developed his rare ability as a Railway Engineer. To him was largely due the excep- tional success of that enterprise. His excessive labors in that connection, are understood to have contributed largely to his death in 1851, at the early age of 33 years.

For some time during the early years of this Road, Mr. Mavor Brigham, yet a resident of Toledo, acted as Repair Agent of the same. Some idea of what railroading then was, may he had from that gentleman's statement of his experience. He says :

In December, 1841, one Saturday, the train left Toledo on time for Adrian. I was then at Pahnyra, intending to take the train for Adrian and return to Toledo that evening. Owing to a severe storm of rain, freezing as it fell, the track became covered with ive. The train reached Pahnyra abont 4 r. M. ben- tered the middle compartment of the car, as the train started for Adrian, and met in the car J. Baron Davis and wife, of Toledo, sitting in the forward seat. Being acquainted with them I thought I would take a seat with them, but seeing the enshion on the seat ont of place, I took the rear seat, facing the one I had rejected. We had not gone more than half a mile from Palmyra when a " snake-head," as they were called (the end of a loosened bar), came crashing through the floor of the car, passing diagonally through the seat I had left vacant, the end of the bar striking me in my neck under the chin and pushing me backward with such force as to break through the panel work partition which divides the compartiments of the car. Just at this moment the other end of the bar was torn from the track and carried along with the car. Recovering my conciousness a little, I found myself with head and shoulders protruding through the broken parti- tion, while I held the assaulting " snake-head" firmly grasped in both my hands, Being a stormy day, 1 had an extra amount of clothing abont my neek which the bar did not penetrate, so that my injuries were not serions. The train was stopped. Frederick Bissell, the conductor was much frightened. Before leaving the spot, the guilty "snake-head " was once more spiked down, and we moved on. reaching

Adrian at 6 p. M., having made the run of 33 miles in 10 hours.

This train left Adrian for Toledo at 7r. M., and worked its way along over the ice covered track until we got ont of wood and water, when we picked up sticks in the woods and replenished the tire, and with pails dipped up water from the ditches and fed the boiler, and made another run towards Toledo. Pass- ing Sylvania, we got the train to a point four miles from Toledo, when being again out of steam, wood and water, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier to foot it the rest of the way, than to try to get the train along any further. So we left the loco- motive and cars standing upon the track, and walked into the City, reaching here about 2:30 A. M. I was rather lame and sore from contact with the " snak(- head," but gratified that we were enjoying the "modern improvement "-Railway travel.

The loss of Toledo as an eligible Lake Port, and its promise of advantages from both Rail- road and prospective Canal, stimulated the young. State of Michigan to extraordinary measures for meeting such loss. To this end she launched ont into a grand scheme of inter- nal improvement, including a loan of 85,000,- 000 (an enormous sum at that time), for the improvement of Rivers, construction of Canals, and for three Railroads-a Southern, a Central, and a Northern Railroad. The Southern Road was to start at Monroe on Lake Erie, traverse the Southern tier of Counties, and terminate at New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. Chicago was then a mere Indian trading post, with a fort (Dearborn) in an apparantly irreclaimable quagmire. The track was laid with the flat or "strap" rail, 23 inches wide, 3 inch thick. The Road was opened as follows: Monroe to Petersburg, 18 miles, in 1839; to Adrian, 33 miles, in 1840, and to Hillsdale, 66 miles, 1843. This line comprised all of the Southern Road built by the State.

The Palmyra and Jacksonburg Railroad (now the "Jackson Branch ") was started by the owners of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad and was opened to Tecumseh, its terminus for nearly twenty years, with a celebration August 9, 1838. This Company became involved and the Road was sold to the State of Michigan in 1844, for the amount of the State's loan and interest, $22,000. The State united it with the Southern Road, as the " Tecumseh Branch," stipnlating in the sale of the Southern Road in 1846, that this branch should be extended to Jackson, which, after a delay of 10 years, was done. In 1846 the State sold the Road to a Company, with Edwin C. Litchfield at its head, for $50,000. The new Company did but little the next four years. During the years 1851-2 the Road was constructed very rapidly, reaching Chicago, 243 miles from Toledo ria Northern Indiana Road in March, 1852. The lease of the Erie & Kalamazoo, August 1, 1819, settled the struggle for supremacy between Monroe and Toledo, in favor of the latter. The Presidents of this Company were James J. Godfrey, 1846-47; Tunis B. Van Brunt,

407

RAILWAYS.

1847-48; Charles Noble, 1848-49 ; Geo. Bliss, 1849-52 ; John B. Jervis, 1852-53; Robert B. Doxtater, 1853; John B. Jervis, 1854-55. The Superintendents were J. II. Cleveland, 1840-46 (while operated by State of Michigan); Thomas G. Cole, 1846-50; Lewis W. Ashley, 1850 51 ; E. P. Williams, 1851-2; Joseph HI. Moore, 1852-54; James Moore, 1854-55 (to consolida- tion).

The Northern Indiana Railroad (originally the Buffalo and Mississippi) extended from the Michigan State line to Chicago. It was pro- jerted in 1835, and with different spasmodic efforts was kept alive until 1849, when the control of the enterprise passed into the hands of the Litchfields, who were rapidly pushing the Michigan Southern West, and on May 22, 1852, the first train passed over the two Roads, the Michigan Southern and the Northern Indi- ana, from Toledo to Chicago. Three years later, in April, 1855, the Michigan Southern and the Northern Indiana were consolidated. The following is a list of the Presidents of the Indiana Road during the protracted period of incubation : Robert Stewart, 1837; Gen. Joseph Orr, 1837-441; Jonathan Burr, 1841; (interim of eight years), William B. Ogden, 1847; (interim of two years) E. W. Chamber- lain, 1850; James It. Barnes, 1851; John Stryker, 1851; George Bliss, 1852; John B. Jervis, 1852-55.

The following comparative statement shows some- thing of the growth of business on the line of the old Erie and Kalamazoo Road :

Population.

Tons Freight Forwarded.

Passengers Forwarded.

Stations.

1860.

1880,

1860.

1880.

1860.

1880.

Toledo.

13,768

50,143

201,784

885,102

39,914

168,107

Holland

230

480

2,018

Sylvania ..

1,222

1.356

1,010

3,227

6,591

Ottawa Lake_

3.06-1

178

3,598

Riga

256

1,464

491

3,905

Blissfield

1,827

1,225

1,181

4.546

1.014

1,235

Palmyra

325

410

396

928

210

Lenawee Jet.

748

11,154

Adrian

6,213

7,819

9,015

15,788

25,123

57,841

The total traffic of this line in 1837, was $55,821 ; in 1838, $50,486; in 1839, $46, 169; in 1840, $35,544.

The consolidation of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Roads took place May 1, 1855. The new Company at once set abont very vigorons measures for extending its facili- ties, and the Air Line (Toledo to Elkhart, Indiana) and the Toledo and Detroit Road were constructed, and the Jackson Branch ex- tended to its Northern terminus. The elegant Lake Steamers, the Western Metropolis and the City of Buffalo, were then provided, for traffic between Toledo and Buffalo.

The financial revulsion of 1857 found the Company in an extended condition financially, which soon led almost to annihilation. Its

stock fell from 115 in 1856, to five and six per cent. in 1859. The Board of Directors all re- signed, and a new Board were chosen; and it is stated that at their first meeting in New York, they were compelled to borrow chairs from adjoining offices, the Sheriff having taken the office furniture under one of the 155 judg- ments obtained by its creditors. Henry Keep and his friends got the control of the Road in 1860 at a low cost and soon improved its cou- dition, by which means it was in shape to take such advantage of the sudden increase of traffic caused by the War of 1861-5, that its stock in 1863 had gone up to 110 per cent. The first dividend was declared August 1, 1863, the day on which the energetic Superintendent, John D. Campbell, died in Boston. In 1869, this Road was consolidated with the Lake Shore Railway. Its Presidents have been-1. John Wilkinson; 2. Edwin C. Litchfield; 3. Jona- than H. Ransom; 4. John B. Jervis; 5. Geo. Bliss; 6. Elisha M. Gilbert; 7. Martin L. Sykes, Jr .; 8. Elijah B. Phillips. And the General Superintendents: 1. James Moore ; 2. Sam. Brown; 3. John D. Campbell ; 4. Henry II. Porter; 5. Charles F. Hatch.

THE EASTERN RAILWAY LINES.

The Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Rail- road Company was organized in September, 1850, had its line constructed from Toledo to Cleveland via Fremont, Norwalk and Oberlin, the first train arriving at Toledo, December 20, 1852. It was consolidated with the Junction Railroad in 1853. Its Directors were C. L. Boalt, 1850-53 (died, 1870); Timothy Baker, 1850-53 (died, 1878); E. B. Perkins, 1850-52 : Frederick Chapman, 1850.53 (died, 1861); Matthew Johnson, 1850-53 (died, 1861) ; Alvin Coles, 1850-52; Dr. Geo. G. Baker, 1850-51 (died, 1877) ; Prof. Henry Cowles, 1851-53; Sardis Birchard, 1852-53 (died, 1874); John 11. Whitaker, 1852-53 (died, 1882). The officers were Charles L. Boalt, President, Timothy Baker, Vice President; E. B. Phillips, Super- intendent.

The Junction Railroad Company was organ- ized in 1850, with the following Directors : Ebenezer Lane (President), S. W. Baldwin, E. De Witt R. Starr, N. B. Gates, R. MeEachron, Heman Ely, Jr., Artemas Beebe, Alvin Coles, A. M. Porter, Heman B. Ely, John A. Foote, Daniel Hamilton. This Road was a rival for the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland, its line running from Cleveland, via Elyria, Sandusky, Port Clinton, Millbury, Perrysburg and Mau- mee City to Swanton, Lucas County, where it was designed to connect with the Air Line branch of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Road, and thus to constitute a cut-off and a diversion of traffic via Sandusdy. The construction of the Road was undertaken and proseented as fast as the means of the Com- pany would admit, until 1853, when, as stated,

Wood

417

517

408

HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.

it was consolidated with its rival, and the Cleveland and Toledo Road thus formed. The main reliance of both these lines for construc- tion was on County and Town subscriptions to their stock, and success or failure largely de- pended on the comparative facility with which such aid was obtained. It turned out that the Southern or Norwalk line was most prompt in that respect, and as a consequence, it was pushed most effectively, and soon gained van- tage-ground which secured the construction of its line; while the Junction or Sandusky enter- prise was struggling for completion, its man- agers being finally relieved of their embarrass- ment through consolidation. The principal Town subscriptions for the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Road, were-Toledo, $50,000; Fremont, $40,000; Bellevue, $20,000; Norwalk, $54,000; Oberlin, $15,000.

The first public meeting of citizens of Toledo, in connection with the Lake Shore (Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland) Railroad, was held September 6, 1850, of which James Myers was Chairman and Henry Bennett, Secretary. D. O. Morton, after a few explanatory remarks, introduced .lohn Gardiner and Dr, Geo. G. Baker, of Norwalk, who stated what had been done in Lorain, Ilnron and Sandusky Counties for the proposed Road. John C. Spink, of Perrysburg, and Andrew Young and Elisha Mack, of Man- mee, spoke of the plan of bringing the Road round by those places, to avoid the necessity of a draw-bridge at Toledo. John Fitch, H. D. Mason, Matthew Johnson, T. U. Bradbury and D. O. Morton, as a Committee for the pur- pose, reported resolutions, favoring the con- struction of the Road, and a City subscription to the stock of the same. John L. Greene, of Fremont, spoke of what was being done in Sandusky County. Judge Mason addressed the meeting, expressing the beliefthat the pro- posed Road would become " a link in the great chain of Railroad that would within 10 years unite the Atlantic with San Francisco." Mat- thew Johnson, W. J. Daniels, T. U. Bradbury, D. O. Morton and Henry Bennett, were con- stituted a Committee to open books for sub- scription to the stock of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company ; John E. Hunt, Geo. W. Reynolds and John Fitch, were appointed to take charge of the matter of se- curing a County vote for subscription of stock to the same. The question of ronte was one of prime importance. While the Toledo people naturally preferred the direct line from Fre- mont to their City, they were too sagacious to insist upon that, and largely for the reason that no favorable vote by the County could be seenred upon such basis. The result was, that two rontes were decided on from what is now Millbury Station-one to Toledo and one to Perrysburg and Maumee, and thence, to unite with the Toledo line at Swanton.

The first annual report of President Boalt of

the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, was made January 14, 1853, that being the only one made before consolidation. The report stated that votes of municipal corporations in aid of that Road were taken in the Spring of 1851. The contract for building the Road was let to Baxter, Brown & Co., in October follow- ing. The Road was opened from Cleveland to Monroeville (57 miles), January 20, 1853, and to Toledo the same year.

In this connection it may be stated that the section of this Road which in 1853 was esti- mated to pay nine per cent. on 816,000 per mile, in 1882 paid seven per cent. on $100,000 per mile.

In 1869 was organized the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company, by the consolidation of the following lines, to wit ;

1. Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana -Chicago to Toledo-with branches. 2. Cleve- land and Toledo-Toledo to Cleveland. 3. Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula -- Cleve- land to Erie. 4. Buffalo and Erie Railroad- Erie to Buffalo. The foregoing companies in- elude the main line, Buffalo to Chicago-540 miles - and 324 miles of branches, making 864 miles of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway proper. The Company also has the following proprietary Roads: Toledo and De- troit, 62.29; White Pigeon and Kalamazoo, 36.68; and Jonesville and Lansing, 61.14- total, 160.11.

Few names are as prominent in connection with the construction of the lines now consti- tuting the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, as is that of J. II. Sargent. In 1840 he began Railroad engineering in the employ of the Ohio Railroad Company, with which he continued until the collapse of that enterprise. Then he was employed in the construction of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Rail- way, remaining there until engaged in 1849 hy the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, to survey a line between LaPorte and Michigan City. From that time until 1854 he was on the Toledo and Chicago line. In an address delivered before the Civil Engineers' Club of Cleveland, Angust 9, 1887, Mr. Sargent gave many interesting and valuable facts and inci- dents connected with his professional service. Of the improvement and ocenpancy of the Middle Ground, at Toledo, for depot purposes, he said :

A circuitous line, crooking around among the Streets of the City, had been surveyed. I had been accustomed to deal with straight lines, so here again I took the bull by the horns, and, starting some four miles ont, I struck a tangent so as to clear the bend of Swan Creek and dive under the Canal just above the locks, showing a deep blue elay out for three- quarters of a mile. This project looked large in those days of small things; but the advantages were too obvious to be rejected, and the work was undertaken. The Middle Ground was all under water, the shoalest being four feet. A pile-track was driven three-quar- ters of a mile from the shore to the extreme end of

RAILWAYS.

409

the Middle Ground. Steam excavators were placed at the ent, and this heavy eut of blue clay was trans- ferred to the Middle Ground to make land, and four- teen acres where the new passenger-house now is, were required for the material with which to com- plete the filling. The dock line was established at twelve feet water. The bottom of the Middle Ground was a rich muck. It enclosed a bayou of stagnant water very prolific of frogs and malaria. Without the help of the divining rod, I had reason to believe that we might find, by boring, other water than the Maumee. I drove a foot-square box into the mud, the top coming above the water, and bored inside of it sixty feet. Here we struck bowlers and coarse gravel, and below them the lime rock, when up came a stream of pure, clean water, with just enough sulphur in it to be distasteful to the "bacteria." This pure fountain had much to do with the health of the engi- neers and workmen, who had to work in and above the filth. We were not allowed to interrupt the nav- igation of the Canal; so we built in the winter a temporary acqueduct over our works to carry the Canal. Our ent cleared the Canal lock but a few feet, and our foundation was lower than that of the lock. When our excavation was well out, a flood came, and the Canal took a new departure and sought the Maumee through our cut, instead of its own channel. We were forced to lock the boats down into the Maumee 12 miles above and tow them down to Toledo all one Summer, by which time we had completed a double-arched culvert or roadway for . our tracks. The State forced us to give six feet of water-way, so the crown stones of our arches were ten inches deep. Over this we laid in cement a two- inch course of brick. In the midst of it all, the cholera broke out with great vigor. East Toledo was entirely depopulated, and from my back office window I saw the freshly filled coffins passed out of the win- dows of the houses below. I slept in a bed-room off my office alone. A bottle of cholera medicine by the side of my bed was perfectly effectual without being uncorked. Persistent human effort accomplished its purpose in spite of opposing forces. So this Middle Ground station was completed, and we got out of the Maumee Valley on a straight line and on a twenty- foot grade. The Island House was built for an eating- house and boarding-house for the officers of the road and the train men. It was afterwards turned into a hotel.

For many years, Towns at the head of navi- gation on navigable streams deemed themselves safe from Railway competition which required the bridging of streams below them. This view was based upon the interpretation of the ordi- nance of 1787, establishing the Territory of the Northwest, in which navigable waters were sought to be protected from interruption in their proper use. Thus it was, that when the Junction Railroad (from Cleveland to San- dusky) was in progress of construction in 1852, the Milan Canal Company, whose line extended from the Lake, at Huron, to Milan, applied to the Court of Common Pleas (Judge L. B. Otis, presiding), for an order to restrain the Railroad Company from constructing a bridge across the Huron River at Huron. The ground for such application was the claim that such bridge would "obstruct the navigation " of the plaint- iff's Canal. The Court decided that the right of Railroads to cross " navigable streams" was settled ; that such crossing must be made in a manner to interfere with the prior use of the

stream as little as is possible with practicability ; and that it was not shown in the case, that the proposed mode of crossing created any unnec- essary obstruction to the navigation of the Canal. Ilence, the application for injunction was denied. Similar unsuccessful attempt was made to prevent the construction of the Cleve- land and Toledo Railroad bridge at Toledo, in 1855.

C. P. Leland, Esq., Auditor of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and for nearly 30 years connected therewith, has furnished much of interesting history of the same, which has been freely used in tho prepa- ration of this work. In an address delivered before the Civil Engineers' Club of Cleveland, May 10, 1887, that gentleman gave facts and figures of value connected with the development of the great Railway system of the country, from which the following statistics of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Road were taken :

Total miles of track used

2,16]

No. of locomotives employed 526

No. of cars __.

16,992

Passengers carried 513 miles average, 1886. 3,715,508 Average compensation on same $1 08 Tons freight transported, average 192 miles_ 8,305,597 Average charge per 100 tons per mile, 1854 $3 51 66 60 66

1860_

2 16

1865_

2 90

1870_

1 50

1875_

1 18

. .

1880.

No. employes of the Railroad, 1886 10,400

Amount paid same in March, 1886 $510,000

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History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Part 78

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company Number of Pages: 1408

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1408