USA > Ohio > Logan County > The historical review of Logan County, Ohio > Part 14
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They carry more than five hundred mil- lions of passengers annually, and more than seven hundred millions tons of freight, while their total annual earnings amount to fully one thousand five hundred millions of dol- lars, of which they pay out for labor and expenses about one thousand one hundred millions, leaving net earnings of something near four hundred millions to builders, in- vestors and stockholders: all of this with- in the space of three-quarters of a century.
It may be that the advance has been so rapid and the improvements so great that it will not be possible to continue in a like proportion within the next three-quarters of a century, but if there is only a moderate de-
MAD RIVER AND LAKE ERIE RAILROAD.
Unquestionably the first railroad pro- jected and built in Ohio was the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, from Sandusky. on Lake Erie, to Dayton, on the Mad river.
It was chartered by a special act of the legislature in 1832, and its construction be- gan, but so slow and crude. were the meth- ods of those early days that it did not reach Belleview, a distance of sixteen miles from Sandusky. until 1839. and continued its snaillike progress and reached Bellefontaine in September. 1847.
Being at this time substantially assisted by a Mr. Pierce. of Boston, and being financ- ed by eastern capitalists, it reached Spring- field in 1848; here it connected with the Little Miami Railroad and sent its trade and travel by way of Nenia to Cincinnati: it was not finished to Dayten until a few years later.
It is difficult in this day of swift rail- road construction, when they are building with all modern appliances and abundant cap- ital. to understand the delays and difficul- ties under which the early railways were financed and constructed.
The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was built almost entirely by local subscrip- tion, and by those interested in the improve- ment of the country.
The state of Ohio subscribed four hun- dred thousand dollars of its stock, and the work of construction was commenced at Sandusky on the Lake.
Money was so scarce that it was im- possible for those subscribing to pay their notes, and it became necessary to take in
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HISTORICAL REVIEW' OF LOGAN COUNTY.
payment horses, cattle, hogs, sheep. grain. co-workers: it is equally interesting to com- and any and every thing possible to be turn- pare it with the almost unlimited capital ed over to the contractors in payment for work, or into money in payment for mate- rials. which is now being expended in buikling. improving and extending the railways of the country, where instead of horses and cattle they talk of honds, stocks and loans by the uncounted millions ; it is equally interesting to compare the construction of those early days with the construction of today.
The first officers having been replaced. R. F. Rinkle became president and Robert Patterson, of Bellefontaine, secretary and treasurer, and the offices of the road were removed to Sandusky.
Mr. Patterson, in company with Judge Carey and others, was tireless in the labors necessary to keep the road under construc- tion, and they were constantly moving along the line soliciting aid and arranging for the continuance of the work and the payment for the same: in spite of all this labor and almost insuperable obstacles met on every hand. the road did not reach Bellefontaine until the fall of 1847. a peried of nearly fifteen years. after its projection.
A line of stage coaches had been running from Springfield to Sandusky, and they changed their base of operation as the road slowly moved southward, making their trips from the last railroad station, to Springfield.
The road having reached Bellefontaine. for some time the coaches ran between Springfield and Bellefontaine, connecting the Little Miami on the one end with the Mad River and Lake Erie on the other.
In 1848. the road having been so ma- terially assisted by Mr. Pierce was finished to Springfield: it is now a part of the sys- tem of the Big Four of the Vanderbilt lines.
EARLY RAILROAD BUILDING.
The Mad River Railroad was built under the first and oldest system of railroad con- struction: after the road-bed was graded. there were the mud- sills running lengthwise with the road. then cross-ties, upon which were the stringers running in the same di- rection as the mud-sills, and upon these the ribbon, and upon this ribbon the iron rail.
So that the readers of this younger gen- eration may have some idea of this complex construction, let me further explain it ; the mud-sills were large sticks of tim- ber cut from trees to make a sill two feet in width and eight inches in thickness; it could be of any length, which could be cut from the tree and fill the requirement.
These mud-sills were put into the ground upon either side of the track, and directly under the rail, making a continuous sill or foundation upon which the cross-ties were to be laid; these cross-ties were to be seven feet in length, and not less than eight inches square, although the most of them were dressed only upon two sides, making a tie eight inches thick, and of any width not less than eight inches.
It is interesting to look over the old statements made by Robert Patterson in Into these ties there was a gain or mor- tise cut about two inches deep and eight inches wide, into which the stringer, eight by eight. was placed to keep it from spreading his exact and painstaking methods, of the conditions of the road, its limited assets, its actual needs, and the hopeful and rosy view he was continually trying to infuse into his out of place: these stringers were long
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
timbers eight inches square and of any length possible to be cut from the tree, and they were securely wedged into the gain or mortise cut into the ties: upon these stringers a ribbon. one and one-half by four inches, was spiked, and upon this rib- bon the iron rails, two and one-half inches wide by five-eighths of an inch thick. were placed and securely fastened to the ribbon by large railroad spikes driven through the rail every two feet.
This made an expensive system of con- struction, and was a slow and laborious method of building railroads in early days : it was a most fortunate thing that Wood and timber were cheap, or the horses, cattle and sheep of the entire country would have been exhausted in securing the wood-work alone.
William G. Kennedy had the contract for the construction and timbering of the road from Bellefontaine to West Liberty. ready for the iron : just below Bellefontaine, upon the lands now owned by William E. Smith, Mr. Alexander O. Spencer, of Cin- cinnati, had a large body of heavy timber, and this was purchased by Mr. Kennedy for railroad use, and was cut into mud-sills, ties, stringers and ribbons, for the road, from Bellefontaine to West Liberty : the price paid Mr. Spencer for the timber large enough to be cut and used for this pir- pose was six cents per tree; the same tim- ber now would be worth more than two hun- dred-fold this price: every stick of this tim- ber was cut and hewed with broad axes for the purposes of the road. and a large body of men were busily engaged in this work during the winter of 1847: Mr. Ja- cob Dresback and his sons, William and Barney, were foremen in the work and
were especially skillful as axmen and in handling the broad axe.
The iron spiked upon the ribbons was only about five-eighths of an inch in thick- ness and so light and thin, that after a little wearing it was liable to kick at the joints and in a short time become dangerous, and frequently "snakeheads." as they were called. would come bursting up through the floors of the cars putting in peril all within reaching distance: this was caused by the wheels catching up a loose end and running under it. and pushing the rail up through the floor: there was general caution to take the center of the car to avoid danger of snakeheads near the wheels.
It is also interesting to know that the iron on this road came from England, as the low tariff had closed down our own mills, and that it cost $125.00 per ton; the same iron, or better still, American steel miis, can now be bought for from $20.00 to $30.00 per ton.
This old method of construction soon went out of date. and the present system of placing a tee rail upon the cross-ties came into use in 1850, and has since pre- vailed.
TIICC ROUND PRAIRIE.
Just south of Bellefontaine. on the Spencer farm, now owned by W. E. Smith, there is a small piece of low ground called the Round prairie; it was originally a small lake, upon the surface of which was floating the accumulating decayed vegetation which had been gath- ering for centuries.
The line of the railroad passed over this prairie, but for years the road ran around it because of the impossibility to grade and fill it: after years of labor and
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the expenditure of a large amount of money the prairie was filled, and the road now passes over it: the prairie has bat lately been dra ined and is now under cul- tivation: it required nearly ten years of time to fill this prairie, and it is claimed that fully twenty acres of timber was cut and put into it before it was filled. and that an expenditure necessary to complete the fill was nearly $100.000.
C., C., C. AND I. RAILROAD.
The Cleveland. Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway, commonly called the Big Four, which passes east and west. was originally the Bellefontaine and In- chana Railroad, running from Belleion- taine to Union City, or the Indiana line. where it connected with the Indian- apolis and Union railroad: this road was completed as far as Bellefontaine in 1851. the construction having been commenced in 1849. The work began at the Belle- fontaine end. and was continued west- ward.
The first railroad engineer was Stephen Quigley, who ran the construe- tion train, and afterwards the first passen- ger train, and whose son, Brock Quigley, is still an engineer on this line, after more than fifty years of service.
The construction of railroads was no longer such a difficult task, as the early promoters had found it to be, for rail- roads were most profitable and popular. and castern capital was to be commanded for these enterprises.
The line from Bellefontaine to Crest- line and thence to Cleveland was contin- ned in 1852, and was rapidly pushed to completion, Cleveland as well as eastern capitalists having taken hold of it.
Andrew DeGraff. a railroad builder of experience. had contracts for buil ling some considerable portion of the road out of Bellefontaine and a man named Apple- ton was his chief assistant.
The stock of this road was quickly sought for and soon commanded a good price in the market. as Cleveland capital- ists. headed by Jeptha Wade. Stillman Witt and Mr. Leonard Case, were making purchases with a view to its control.
This road gave Logan county an open- ing to all the eastern markets, and has ever since been one of the great thorough- fares to the cast ; it is now known as one of the Vanderbilt lines, and in connection with the Lake Shore. the New York Cen- tral. the Boston and Albany an 1 the Bos ton and Maine, makes a great line to the far east coast of the country: while to the West. in commection with the I. & St. I .. and the Missouri Pacific. it reaches Kan- sats City in the west. thus making nearly 2.500 miles of continuous railroad con- nections.
THE BELLEFONTAINE AND DELAWARE RAILROAD.
The impetus given by the Bellefon- taine and Indiana caused Robert Patter- son. William G. Kennedy and others to determine to contruct a road through Marysville to Delaware, there connecting with the Pennsylvania to the east. With this purpose in view they organized the Bellefontaine and Delaware railroad in 1851; a special act of the Legislature was procured and a charter obtained: Robert Patterson became president and William G. Kennedy secretary and treasurer.
Considerable progress was made in construction and the roadbed was graded
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
as far as Marysville: the rise in the price of stocks of the Bellefontaine and In- diana Railroad caused a flutter of excite- ment in railroad matters, and many per- sons rushed into the Bellefontane and Delaware with property for the purpose of investment; unfortunately, boite its completion, and during its construction. the panic which came at that time and the impossibility of securing funds for con- struction caused a collapse in all railroad construction throughout the country, and the Bellefontaine and Delaware suffered with the rest.
An attempt was made to revive and complete it by Mr. Benjamin Fanrot in 1885, but after the expenditure of many thousands of dollars, several of which were put into the deep cut, it was again suspended, and will now probably never be completed.
THE BELLEFONTAINE AND NORTHERN RAILROAD.
In 1897 another company was organ- ized. and the work of constructing a road on substantially the lines of the old Belle- fontaine and Delaware road was begin and successfully pushed to completion: it did not attempt to finish the "deep cut." but took a new and shorter route and one nmich less expensive: it was rapidly pushed to completion, and now runs from St. Mary's through Wapakoneta, Lakeview. Lewiston, Bellefontaine. Zanesfield, East Liberty and Peoria, and thence to Columbus.
It was soon leased by the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad. and now runs in connection with their line from Peoria, making a most convenient and accommo- dating road for the people of Logan county to the State capital.
THE T. AND O. C. RAILROAD.
The Toledo and Ohio Central railway runs through the northern part of the county and has been a great factor in the upbuilding and improvement of that re- gion; it runs through a rich and prosper- ous section of the county, furnishes fine trains, good accommodations and quick transit. and is a most valuable addition to our railway facilities.
THE OHIO SOUTHERN RAILWAY.
The Ohio Southern Railway runs through the western part of Logan county, north and south, and has contrib- uted liberally to the good of the county; it reaches a territory fertile and produc- tive in grains of all kinds and has done much for the improvement of the county; towns are springing up along its lines and traffic is liberal and profitable.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
Another railroad not duly incorpo- rated. but for many years having a most thorough organization, with its stations and stopping places at convenient places. was the Underground Railroad; it ran di- rectly through Logan county, and the good Quaker neighborhoods within the limits of the county were secure and safe resting places for the tired traveler on this highway to liberty.
The anti-slavery sentiment of this country had been slowly formulating into opposition and hatred of this infamous traffic in human bondage, but it was not loud and assertive, and the small number of its supporters did not inspire confi- dence in the masses; it was, therefore, un- popular to be an abolitionist or a "negro
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worshiper." as they were sometimes called in those early days.
Notwithstanding all this, there were a few brave men who did not stop to in- quire into its popularity, but were content to know that they were on the side of humanity and justice, and they did not hesitate to take the side of the poor negro flying from slavery, and seeking liberty beyond the reach of the slave driver's whip and the master's call.
Among these were especially con-pic- nous the followers of the faith and creed of William Penn, and the Quaker- of Lo- gan county were no exception to the rule : and the Underground Railroad had in our
Three negroes, the property of one of the Piatts in Kentucky, had attempted to escape from slavery, and crossing the Ohio river, had been assisted by friends in Cincinnati, and put on the cars for the Quaker neighborhoods some stations neith; most, unfortunately, they got off where the negro was as safe as if he was at West Liberty and were conducted to behind walls of the Bastile; and when once within the kindly intlue.fce and pro- tecting care of these neighborheels, neither law, dogs, nor slave drivers could find the fleeing fugitive.
Among those who early espoused the cause of the abolitionist in Logan county were James Walker. Anthony Casad. John Kirkpatrick. Neal Slicer, Ezra Bennett. William Il. West. Hiram McCartney and William Lawrence, and to this list may be added the entire Quaker contingent, and many others who were always ready to assist in the cause of liberty.
when it was most impopulir to do so, boldly proclaimed his abolition sentiments and stood ready to defend them.
Once before I gave an account of the Piatt negroes, who were escaping from Kentucky, and the attempt made to cap- ture and return them to their master; it was one of the occasions when liberty and slavery had a fair and equal bat- tle for supremacy in Logan county and liberty won.
the home of one of the Piatts near the village, who having discovered their own- ership, endeavored to detain them until the relative in Kentucky could be in- formed of their whereabouts and come to claim his slaves.
Oliver Ash, a colored citizen of that neighborhood, having discovered them, and gathering the facts, came late at night to Bellefontaine and engaged the sympathy and services of James Walker; Mr. Walker called to his assistance William II. West and Anthony Casad, and by the financial assis- tance of John Miller, Neal Slicer and John Kirkpatrick : they procured a writ of habeas corpus and sent the sheriff after the negroes ; they were brought in and quickly fol- lowed by Judge Benjamin M. Piatt, who was attempting to have them held until the United States marshal at Cincinnati could come by train and claim the slaves for his relative in Kentucky.
First and foremost of these as a fear- less and independent citizen. ready to stake his all upon the questions of right or wrong, and never for a single moment hesitating to espouse the cause of the op- pressed, was James Walker; his band and his purse were as ready as his personal aid in every case where there was need of assis- tance; he stood for many years as the Judge Ezra Bennett was the probate avowed advocate of human freedom, and judge, and it was before him the case was
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
parties and hear the arguments in the case. Judge Piatt attempted to talk against time so that the marshal might arrive on the in- coming train; he was, however, compelled to desist and Judge Bennett discharged the prisoners amidst the most intense excite- ment, and they were quickly hurried into a carriage, in waiting at the north of the court house square, with William Johnson. a colored barber, sitting on the front seat. as driver; no sooner were they seated than the carriage was driven at a breakneck speed up Columbus street to the castward: a party of horsemen headed by James W. Hicks followed as the guard of honor, and the race for the Quaker neighborhood be- gan: a light, misty rain was falling and the mud and slush flew like the foam from Niagara, as the carriage and horsemen made their hasty disappearance over the tops of the hills.
The United States marshal came in a few minutes later, but he was never able to discover the road the negroes had taken. nor the hiding-place which received them.
That evening they were taken to the house of a Mr. Johnson, near Pickerelltown, and from there, the same night. to Ridge- way, and thence to Canada.
James Walker lived to see the hated doctrines of the abolitionists become popular, and the time when there was no longer need of the underground Railroad nor of its stations in the neighborhoods of the follow- ers of William Penn.
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.
The period of electric railways is just in the beginning of its great and growing im- portance : at this time there is but a single line in operation in the streets of Bellefon-
heard : a large concourse gathered to see the taine, being the partly constructed line of the Bellefontaine and Urbana Electric Rail- road: this line is only the extension of the line already in operation from Urbana to Cincinnati; it will be a most important thoroughfare when completed from Urbana to Bellefontaine, thus making a through line to Cincinnati.
There are now a number of other lines projected : the line from Bellefontaine to Sidney, called the Bellefontaine and Sidney Electric line: the Bellefontaine and Ken- ton line, called the Bellefontaine and Nor- thern: the Bellefontaine and Lima, running hence to Columbus: the Bellefontaine and Silver Lake, and a hne running through the noi thern section of the county and going to- wards Columbus.
The construction of interurban electric lines is onlysin the beginning of what prom- ises to be a most wonderful development ; the comfort and convenience of this mode of travel has commended this system to the publie, as well as its cheapness ; they carry passengers for a little more than one- half the price charged by steam railway, and their cars run so frequently that they are becoming not only convenient, but a neces- sity: there is no question but the time is coming when they will run in all direc- tons and will substantially occupy all the usual thoroughfares of travel: in some measure they will interfere with the local traffic of steam railways, but they are build- ing up a trade peculiarly their own, which consists of the people along the line. pass- ing backwards and forwards for local trade, which the railroads did not have and could not get.
There would seem to be no doubt but the day of electricity is here, and intends to stay, and there is no question but that within
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a reasonable time it will be adopted as the motive power on all through railway lines. as well as the interurban, and that steam must give way to electricity.
OLD AND NEW RAILROADS COMPARED.
It may be interesting to the present gen- eration to compare the railroad system of the early days with the present.
The passenger cars first placed upon the Mad River railroad were small and without ornamentation and were about the size of a very ordinary street car of today: they had a seating capacity of twenty-four persons; the passenger trains ran from fifteen to twenty miles an hour.
The magnificent coaches which now con- nect the two oceans are veritable palaces in comparison. and have a seating capacity of more than a hundred persons, and are mak ing forty-five to sixty miles an hour.
The freight cars which first came into Bellefontaine were dumpy affairs, only a little longer than they were wide, each car had a carrying capacity of one hundred bushels of wheat or eighty bushels of corn. and ten to twelve cars made a train load.
The present freight cars, flying to the cast and carrying the grain of the west to the sea-board for trans-shipment to the European markets, are loaded with from nine hundred to a thousand bushels of wheat or from seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred bushels of corn: a single car of the present day has a carrying capacity al- most equal to a whole train load of half a century ago. The engines then in operation were small, crude and insignificant, with a smoke-stack nearly as big as the engine it- self, while they weighed from seven to ten tons: there was at least one thing in their favor, when they ran off the track, which
was not an infrequent occurence, it was not' very difficult to put them back again.
They burned wood, and coal was not then even a commercial commodity: wood stations were established along the road at points convenient to the timber supply, and at these places wood was gathered for rail- road consumption : the trains from time to time stopped at these wood-yards for a re- newed supply, and the whole train crew fre- quently joined by the passengers, went for- ward to assist in filling the tender of the en- gine with wood sufficient to carry them to another station.
As compared with the wonderful mechanism of the present day the engines of yesterday are but as the flies upon the chariot wheels.
To-day a marvelous Garstang or a Baldwin engine, with every possible mod- ern improvement, weighing from 120 to 195 tons, goes dashing through the coun- try at the rate of a mile a minute. fol- lowed by a train of palaces fit for em- perors or kings.
One of these trains passing over the old system of mud-sills, ties, stringers, ribbons and rails, would crush it to kin- dling wood.
In the early days of railroading there was no system of connections, and every railroad managed its own affairs without reference to its neighbors; tickets were sold only to the end of the road; bag- gage was not checked as now, but simply marked with a piece of chalk, the number placed upon it indicating the station at which it should be put off ; every passen- ger was expected to look after his own baggage, pick it out and claim it, have it transferred to the next road and see that it was chalked to its next destination.
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