USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
296
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
later the State exchanged a portion of its canals for $3,500,000 of Sun- bury & Erie bonds ; and next year the Cleveland & Erie, under condi- tions imposed by the court, subscribed $500,000. Thus there was se- cured to the new railroad a fund of $5,500,000, and the enterprise was now an assured success.
Construction began promptly. By the end of 1854 the road was in running order from Sunbury to Williamsport, a distance of forty miles. Work was begun at this end of the road in 1856, and in 1859 it was completed from Erie to Warren, a distance of sixty miles. It is hardly proper to say it was completed in 1859, although trains could be operated over it, for the Erie terminus yet required that much should be done. The actual terminus then was on the east bank of Millcreek, for the stream had not yet been bridged, and a mere shanty served as a station building. However from this unpretentious depot the business of the road at Erie started. and for a considerable time freight was received and forwarded and passengers arrived and departed to and from Erie, Waterford and even Union Mills (now Union City). By December the road was complete to Warren, and ready for regular business, and the circumstance was celebrated by an excursion from Erie to Warren. The terminal passenger and freight station, on Front street at the foot of State, and the bridge over Mill creek had now been finished and the excursion, which occurred on December 12, 1859. was a notable affair. The Wayne Guards, which represented all that was desirable in the social life of Erie at the time, figured prominently, especially at the grand ball at Warren, when their brilliant uniforms lent gaiety to the affair, and the gallantry of the boys toward the ladies of the river town, earned for the soldiers a due measure of fame. The tickets were good to return on until the 17th of December, and dur- ing those five days there was much going to and fro between Lake Erie and the Allegheny river.
The freight business of the new road started very auspiciously, especially along a line upon which Erie then, and for years afterwards. built great hopes. A record of the time exhibits the following state- ment of crude oil received at the Erie station :
1859
August
.2341 barrels
November
21 barrels
September
2227 barrels
December
304 barrels
October
2775 barrels
November
.3069 barrels
December
.6431 barrels
February
115 barrels
1861
March
414 barrels
January 15092 barrels
April
980 barrels
February
.9421 barrels
May
1159 barrels
June
772 barrels
March .4383 barrels
July
1432 barrels
April .5521 barrels
Meanwhile work upon the other divisions of the road was progress- ing. In the spring of 1861 the name of the corporation was changed
1860
January
63 barrels
297
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
to the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad Company, but soon afterwards the War of the Rebellion having broken out, the stockholders were seized with alarm, and readily accepted the proposition of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to lease the road for 999 years, the lease being exe- cuted in 1862. Work was then pushed rapidly by the lessee and in 1864 it was completed. The first train to be run through was a special excursion train from Philadelphia, which reached Erie on October 5, 1864. It was a great event in the annals of Erie, and called forth the following from the Dispatch printed on October 6:
Yesterday was an eventful day for Erie-one pregnant with great- er importance than any other which has hitherto transpired. All hail to the iron bond which now joins Erie with Philadelphia and the sea- board. We have already elaborated on this subject so much that we cannot now extend our remarks without useless repetition. Suffice it that at 6 o'clock last evening a special train arrived in this city from Philadelphia, having on board 300 of the most substantial and reliable men of the State, who came forward to participate in the opening of a railroad which will prove to be the greatest enterprise of the State, both in point of prosperity and power, as well as one which will greatly enhance the entire interests of the Commonwealth as a State and as a people. The delegation was made up of citizens of Philadelphia, Harris- burg and intervening points, comprising merchants, manufacturers, ship- pers, editors, railroad directors, farmers, tradesmen and men of every line and caste in the business world. They were received at the Lake Shore depot by a committee appointed by the city councils and escorted to Brown's Hotel, headed by a brass band. At Brown's they partook of an excellent supper, ordered by the railroad company. They were waited upon by our principal citizens and many of them invited to private residences as guests to be honored and cordially entertained. In the evening a brilliant display of fireworks was made in honor of the event, the principal feature of which consisted of a very fine piece extended in front of the market house on which was blazoned the words "Philadelphia and Erie: The Delaware and the Lakes." The guests of the city were handsomely entertained during the entire evening and we hope were not disappointed in the good will and hospitality of our people.
The Dispatch of October 7 contained a detailed report of the con- tinuation of the festivities. The morning of the 6th was devoted to excursions on the bay and lake on the large stream tug Magnet, Capt. D. P. Dobbins. In the afternoon the guests, headed by Mehl's band, marched from Brown's Hotel to Farrar Hall (it was located where Park Opera House now stands) where a banquet was served. It was presided over by John H. Walker, once one of the leading "Shanghais," and he made a most excellent opening speech, concluding with a toast to William G. Moorhead, the president of the P. & E. Railroad, who in turn at the conclusion of his address introduced Governor Andrew
298
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
G. Curtin. The Governor was free to compliment all in connection with the road and to congratulate the people of Erie and of the State.
At this point occurred an incident more interesting than any other portion of the proceedings because it illustrated a condition, happily long past, that at the time was most discouraging. When the Sunbury & Erie Railroad was undertaken it was looked upon as an enterprise of such gigantic proportions that there were not lacking prophets. who foretold the complete failure of an effort of such proportions. It was the longest line of railroad that had been chartered by one company, and by many was spoken of as the giant. What Mr. Moorhead did at this juncture was to present to the assemblage a bottle of champagne. which was accompanied by a letter of explanation written by Hon. J. W. Maynard, to this effect :
"Please accept the accompanying bottle of champagne with my kindest regards. It was presented to me by T. H. Dupuey. Esq., in 1853, with the inscription on the label: 'To be opened when the Sun- bun & Erie Railroad is finished through to Erie and the first train passes over it.
"Mr. Dupuey was at that time chief engineer on the road. The work had then been suspended for the want of funds. Many who had been of the most sanguine of its friends were then with the most desponding. Our prospects were truly gloomy: the contracts suspended : the entire engineer corps, including its chief, dismissed: and many thought the giant was dead. It was indeed a marked case of suspended animation."
This letter shows the situation that the revulsion of feeling caused by the Railroad War, changed as by magic, allusion to which has already been made in this chapter of railroad history, and at the banquet the pay- ment of Mr. Dupuey's wager of a bottle of champagne that the railroad would never be built, was greeted with cheers. Judge Maynard was not able to be present to make a personal tender of the stake, wherefore the letter that was read by President Moorhead.
Speeches by Councilman Wister of Philadelphia, the editor of the Philadelphia Press and other gentlemen closed the proceedings with which the auspicious event was celebrated.
From the opening of the Western Division in December, 1859. the passenger and freight business was done at the little frame station on Front street at the foot of State, until 1864, when the passenger busi- ness was transferred to the new union depot. finished that year, an ar- rangement in accord with the ruling of the court at the time the Railroad War troubles were straightened out, under which the Philadelphia & Erie was vested with proportionate rights in the union station. The old station was continued in use as a freight depot until the completion of the new freight station on Parade and Fifteenth streets in 1880. At that time also the transfer station that had been maintained farther east was
290
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
abandoned, provision for transfer having been made in connection with the new station. The extensive repair shop at the "Outer Depot," was built soon after the road was opened, additions for the repair of cars and other work being made as the business of the road demanded.
The first general superintendent of the road was Joseph D. Potts, who took charge in 1864. The general officers of the company were then located in Erie, in Wrights' block, corner of State and Fifth streets (now Harlan's), but in 1874 they were removed to Williamsport. There were three divisions of the road. Eastern, Sunbury to Renovo: Middle, Renovo to Kane; Western, Kane to Erie. Samuel A. Black, appointed in 1859, was the first superintendent of the Western division. He was suc- ceeded in 1862 by William A. Baldwin, who retired in 1868, when Major John W. Reynolds was appointed, serving efficiently until the Middle and Western divisions were consolidated Jan. 1, 1901, being at that time ap- pointed resident agent. Meanwhile there had been wonderful develop- ments in progress both at the port and at the outer depot. East from the freight depot the yards had been extended for a distance of two miles or more affording accommodations for the storage of thousands of cars. At the harbor the developments are entitled to more extended mention, and form part of the history of Erie harbor, for the business of the Penn- sylvania Railroad did not stop at the docks. An extensive fleet of vessels, these of steadily increasing tonnage, carried on the business beyond Erie upon the great lakes.
Provision had early been made for a railroad to connect Erie with Pittsburg. Allusion was made in the chapter on the Railroad War to the Franklin Canal Company, which had been chartered to build a rail- road from Meadville to Franklin. This road was to have been extended south, along the valley of the Allegheny, to Pittsburg, and north from Meadville to Erie, but by the curious hocus-pocus of the time, having been permitted to build from Erie to the Ohio line instead of from Meadville to Franklin, when the day of final settlement came, it ceased to exist in connection with its original route. The court that declared the charter of the Franklin canal forfeited provided, however, for the construction of a railroad from Erie to Pittsburg. This was done by the requirement that the Erie & North East Railroad Company should subscribe $400,000 to a railroad to connect Pittsburg with Erie. A charter was obtained from the legislature in 1856 for the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad and the com- pany was organized, the principal subscribers being men who had been connected with the Erie & North East Railroad Co. Their subscriptions added to the $400,000 provided by the court, gave immediate impulse to the new undertaking, so that work was at once undertaken. An ar- rangement having been made to enter Erie over the line of the Cleveland & Erie, work on the Erie & Pittsburg road proper began at a point west of Elk Creek, known as Cross's, and the road was graded to Jamestown,
300
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
in Mercer county, and the track laid as far as Albion. It was not until 1864 that the track was laid all the way to New Castle, where the E. & P. proper ended, connection being there made with the New Castle & Beaver Valley railroad to Homewood, where another connection with the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago enabled it to reach Pittsburg.
Meanwhile work had been progressing on the short piece of road by which access to the harbor was to be obtained. This extended from the Dock Junction, at the Lake Shore Railroad two and a half miles west of Erie, down the valley of Cascade creek to the bay. At the harbor docks were built and provisions made for extensive yard accommodations, while yard facilities at the junction were also provided for and a line of track was laid from the junction to the shops of the company, then located at Sassafras and Twelfth streets. Originally constructed to be a feeder ot the Lake Shore Railroad, and operated by the E. & P. Company. in 1870 the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad was leased for a period of 999 years to the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. and a year later the lease was transferred to the Pennsylvania Company, a separate corporation, organized out of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to operate the roads west of Pitts- burg and Erie that had been controlled by the latter. The superintendents of the Erie & Pittsburg road have been R. N. Brown, J. L. Grant, W. S. Brown, J. J. Lawrence, F. N. Finney, J. M. Kimball, and H. W. Byers.
When the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad had been completed, extensive shops were established in Erie, occupying the square south of Twelfth street. Previously the shop had been the McCarter car works, but when the railroad company came into possession they were greatly enlarged and included every adjunct of an iron works except a foundary, and a large car repair shop as well. At these shops for years locomotive repairs to the extent of re-building were carried on. and the equipment was com- plete for all the requirements of a railroad of the period. Gradually, however, the work was transferred elsewhere. The Pennsylvania Com- pany, owning extensive shops at Allegheny, the rebuilding of locomotives was the first important class of work to be removed. However, the shops remained in operation until 1898, when they were abandoned, faci- lities for repairing having been established at the Dock Junction. In 1902 the round house in the city was abandoned and torn down, that hav- ing been replaced by a new round house at the Junction. There, while the repair plant is not quite as extensive in the variety of work done, it is much larger in capacity as indeed it must needs be, with the prodigious increase of the business of the present over what has been in the past.
The headquarters of the Erie & Pittsburg road were at Erie until 1881, when they were removed to Youngstown and subsequently were established at the Junction, a short distance from New Castle. From 1881 until the beginning of 1908 the general freight office of the Erie and Ashtabula divisions of the Pennsylvania Company was maintained at
301
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Erie, but in the latter year it was moved to Youngstown, and the road is now represented in Erie by Mr. F. E. Bradley, agent. Although there are frequent rumors of an intention to obtain a separate right of way for the E. & P. from Cross's to Erie nothing more tangible than the rumor has developed.
The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was a project of the decade of the fifties. Whether the ultimate purposes of the projectors of the Erie Railway enterprise would have been definitely accomplished if the road of six feet gauge had been built through to Erie and the harbor of Presque Isle Bay made the terminus of the road can never be known probably. And if it had been the limit of their desire at the time, it is yet more than likely they or their successors would have been moved, as the railroad business advanced, to do exactly what the others did, and, leaving the harbor push out into the west. However, the outcome of the clash with the New York Central interests, before the line between Dunkirk and the Pennsylvania State line was built, precipitated what, in accordance with the speculation just enunciated, might have occurred. Headed off on the lake shore, the Erie Railroad decided to push a line to the westward at some distance to the south. This western extension was the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, and is the same enterprise it was hoped to forestal by building the line of road from Little Valley to Erie harbor, for which the Erie City Railroad Company was organized in 1853. This extension connected with the line of the Erie Railway at Salamanca, and was completed as far west as Corry in June, 1861. In 1862 it was constructed westward and passes through Concord, Union and Le Bœuf townships leaving Erie county and entering Crawford directly south of Mill Village, the road following the valley of French Creek. This road was originally of the gauge of six feet, and for a considerable time the oil country roads, built of narrower gauge, because they had a large interchange of freight with the A. & G. W., had a third rail in use in order to accommodate the wider gauge cars of the Erie system. The broad gauge was, however, in 1884, changed to the standard gauge of the country.
The A. & G. W. Railroad. financed originally principally by English capitalists, did not prove a profitable enterprise, and after a number of years of unsuccessful operation became bankrupt. In 1882 it was re- organized as the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, and in 1883 was leased for ninety-nine years to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, and it is now operated in connection with the Erie Railway, all other names and terms being sunk in the one word "Erie."
The dream of making Erie, or if not Erie then some part or place of Erie county, the centre of the petroleum business, possessed a very large proportion of the people of the county with great pertinacity for a time.
302
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
At one period it seemed as though Corry had been elected to be that centre, located as it was upon two railroads, one leading to New York as well as to the west, and the other to Philadelphia and the great lakes. A little later Union (now Union City ) sprang into prominence as a rival of Corry for the oil business, and the results of this spirit of rivalry was the organization of a company to build the Union & Titusville Railroad. The enterprise came into existence in 1865, and Titusville was then the centre of oil. The road was built and completed for operation in 1871, when it came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This was an excellent arrangement for the latter, as by it a direct line of its own into the oil country was obtained. But there were changes im- pending. When the Union & Titusville road was built oil, both crude and refined, was carried in barrels. A few years wrought a revolution. Oil was transported in pipe lines, or if carried on the railroad was con- veyed in tank cars. Besides that, the business did not drift toward Erie at all, but in the direction of Cleveland, and worse yet, the production of oil in the original oil region fell away until it became of insignifi- cant proportions. There was a corresponding falling away of the rail- road's business until in 1892 of 1893 it was abandoned. The Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company, however, still exercises control over the fran- chises of the road.
When petroleum was discovered in Crawford county and the first big strike in 1858 on Oil Creek, started the great oil excitement, all that region of country was to all intents and purposes a remote wilderness. It was not thickly settled and the only means of communication were the rudest of dirt roads. When, therefore, a strike that produced 1,000 barrels of oil every twenty-four hours was made and the facilities for caring for all this wealth were as nothing, it is not strange that people got busy and that this spurt of activity was in the direction of securing a railroad. As a matter of fact there was more than one railroad enter- prise, but in 1862 a road had been finished from Corry to Miller Farm. It was a railroad laid in a hurry. Thomas Struthers was the chief pro- moter and pushed it to completion in three months. They used to say of it in the early days that they didn't stop to grub out the big stumps but went around them with the railroad. It was probably a libelous state- ment, but it certainly was a rough road to ride upon. Nevertheless it was a boom to that part of the country. For three years it was operated by the original company, but in 1865 the controlling interest in its stock was purchased by Dean Richmond and Thomas A. Scott, the former representing the New York Central and Lake Shore equally, and the latter the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and Samuel J. Tilden was made trustee of the three corporations. Next year, 1866, the road was extended to Petroleum Centre, where a connection was made with the Farmer's road to Oil City. In the early days there had been considerable
303
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
freighting of oil down the Allegheny river and some as well down Oil creek. But soon after a continuous line from Corry to Oil City had been built the Allegheny Valley Railroad was completed and there was then a continuous line to Pittsburg. Another link was built in 1867, which was intended to give the Oil Creek road direct connection with the Lake Shore road. This was called the Cross-cut road and extended from Brocton to Corry, by way of Mayville, at the head of Chautauqua Lake.
There was thus established a continuous line of railroad from the Lake Shore road at Brocton to Pittsburg. The failure of old Oil region proved disastrous to what had been a prosperous business venture, and in the course of time the Oil Creek road fell into the hands of the Alle- gheny Valley management and becoming part of the Western New York & Pennsylvania system they were consolidated as the Buffalo, Corry & Pittsburg Railroad. It is now operated by the great Pennsylvania Rail- road Company, which runs trains through from Buffalo to Pittsburg.
The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. popularly known as the Nickel Plate, was built by a company organized in 1880 to build a road from Buffalo to Chicago by way of Erie, Cleveland, Fostoria and Fort Wayne. It furnished one of the most striking examples of a rail- road built in a hurry and at the same time quite well built. Grading was begun in June, 1881, and in August 1882 the first through train passed over the road, the entire 525 miles having been completed in a little more than a year. In Erie, from French street to the western city limits the rail- road occupies the centre of Nineteenth street and this portion of the track was laid. ties and iron, so that a locomotive and cars could pass over it, during daylight on Sunday April 2, 1882, Sunday having been chosen in order to evade the service of court process. Regular trains began to be run over the Nickel Plate Railroad on October 23, 1882.
In the beginning it was said this road was built by an organization known as the Seney syndicate, and paralleled the Lake Shore road for the purpose of creating a market for it. Whether this was true or not does not signify, but in the winter of 1882-83 a controlling interest in the road was purchased in Erie by Wm. H. Vanderbilt and others in the in- terest of the Lake Shore railroad. At the time it was built it was under- stood by the citizens of Erie that, as a compensation for practically abandoning Nineteenth street to its use, extensive shops were to be erected and maintained here. This was never done, however, nor did Erie be- come the terminus of a division, that dignity going to Conneaut, where the shops were built. The station of the road is at Holland street, but for several years the principal passenger business at Erie was done at Peach street, a room in the old Densmore building being rented by the company for that purpose during that period.
Soon after the Erie Extension Canal, that had been acquired by the Pennsylvania Company, had been closed. a movement was set afoot to Vol. I-20
304
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
organize a company to build a railroad over the route or right of way of the canal. The prime mover in this enterprise was the late Hon. William W. Reed and the road he projected came to be popularly known as the "Canal Bed road." Mr. Reed had long been connected with the canal, and it was he who was the leader in the organization that had been effected to acquire the property and greatly enlarge it, a project that was thwarted by the sale to the Pennsylvania Company. Mr. Reed had faith to believe that that piece of property could be made profitable, if not as a canal, then as a railroad. He was thoroughly familiar with all of its physical features, and had unbounded faith in the practicability of what he proposed. Nevertheless be encountered great difficulty when it came to disposing of the stock, and more than one severe disappointment fell to his share. At one time he had reason to believe that a company of Dutch capitalists would furnish the necessary means, but reverses in other matters prevented them, and not long afterwards Mr. Reed, having other undertakings on his hands besides the Canal-Bed road, met with re- verses on his part which practically ruined him. Among his other as- sets that were put up to pay his debts, was the right of way of the canal railroad, which was advertised for sale by the sheriff. The official name of the railroad was the Erie, Shenango & Pittsburg Railroad. For some reason the sale of the right of way did not attract many buyers, and the result was that Miss Sarah Reed, sister of William W., was so fortunate as to become its owner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.