USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 33
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The state authorities were facing the inevitable in their endeavor to compete with a road that was open all the year and an all-rail route. As the New Portage could only be operated in connection with the canal, such a proposition was not prac- tical.
The $75,000,000 expended by the people to establish the practicability of constructing a mountain railroad was well spent, but as the road was being operated at a daily loss the As- sembly authorized its sale, providing that no bid should be re- ceived for less than $7,500,000. It was sold at public sale in Philadelphia, and the deed executed on the 31st day of July, 1857. Mr. S. H. Smith, of this city, was present on that oc- casion. The auctioneer had been trying to get a bid for some time, but could not, and late in the day J. Edgar Thomson with a wink and a slight nod of his head agreed to take the property at that price. Then the crowd set up a cheer and cried aloud, "We've got a bid," and the New Portage Railroad sold at the figure offered.
The only evidence of the Old Portage Railroad in or close
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
to Johnstown is a part of the roadbed from the "Five Points" up to a point near Franklin Borough. From there up to Plane No. 1 it was entirely swept away by the flood of 1889. But the most substantial thing to be seen is the bed of Plane No. 1 and the tunnel. The masonry in the openings of the tunnel is a beautiful piece of work, and an object of sufficient interest to still invite the inspection of mechanics.
It was constructed sixty-five years ago, and is as strong as when the arched stone blocks were first laid, piece by piece, and the keystone put in place, except at the east end, where they have been taken out for building purposes. Prior to the flood the Old Portage roadway was a fair passage way for carriages, but since that the only way to reach it is by way of the Pennsyl- vania road to Bridge No. 6. The tunnel was formerly used as a roadway for vehicles, but is now rarely trod. There is a sort of a road over it now.
The Viaduct spanning the Little Conemaugh about eight miles from town was a magnificent piece of workmanship and the admiration of engineers and mechanics. It was used by the Pennsylvania Road for its double tracks up to the time of the flood. It was in its day one of the highest single-span arches known, and was as strong the day it was swept away as when constructed in 1833.
It was what was termed an eighty-foot arch, that is, eighty feet across at water level, eighty feet from water level to the top of the arch, and eight feet to the tracks. It is said that there was seventy-nine feet of water behind it before it gave way in that terrible flood, while employes of the Company contend that there were ninety-eight, inasmuch as it held the eighty-eight feet to the level of the duct, and the water ran through the little cut on the easterly side of it to the height of ten feet like a Niagara Falls. Marks which seem to verify this view were there and may be there to this day.
In the "American Notes" of his trip in 1842, Charles Dickens writes of Johnstown and the Canal and road as follows : "The canal extends to the foot of the mountain, and there, of course, it stops, the passengers being conveyed across by land carriage and taken on afterward by another canal boat-the counterpart of the first-which awaits them on the other side. There are two canal lines of passage boats; one is called the Express, and one (a cheaper one) the Pioneer. The Pioneer gets first to the mountain and waits for the Express people to
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come up, both sets of passengers being conveyed across it at the same time.
"We were the Express company but when we had crossed the mountain, and had come to the second boat (at Johnstown) the proprietors took it into their heads to draft all the Pioneers into it likewise, so that we were five and forty, at least, and the accession of passengers was not at all of that kind which improved the prospect of sleeping at night. Our people grum- bled at this, as people do in such cases, but suffered the boat to be towed off with the whole freight aboard, nevertheless. At home, I should have protested lustily, but, being a foreigner here, I held my peace."
He refers to a thin-faced passenger who became famous, and continues in this manner :
"He cleft a path among the people on deck (we were nearly all on deck). and, without addressing anyone whomsoever, soliloquized as follows:
" 'This may suit you, this may; but it don't suit me. This may be all very well with Down-Easters and men of Boston raising, but it won't suit my figure nohow, and no two ways about that; and so I tell you, now! I'm from the brown for- ests of the Mississippi, I am; and when the sun shines on me, it does shine-a little. It don't glimmer where I live, the sun don't ; no, I'm a brown forester. I am; I ain't a Johnny cake. There are no smooth skins where I live; we're rough men there, rather. If Down-Easters and men of Boston a raising like this, I'm glad of it, but I'm none of that raising, nor of that breed, no. This company wants a little fixing, it does; I'm the wrong sort of a man for 'em, I am; they won't like me, they won't. This is piling of it up a little too mountainous, this is.' "
"At the end of every one of these short sentences he turned upon his heel and walked the other way, chuckling to himself abruptly when he had finished another short sentence, and turn . ing back again.
"It is impossible for me to say what terrific meaning was hidden in the words of this brown forester, but I know the other passengers looked on in a sort of admiring horror, and that presently the boat was put back to the wharf (at Johns- town), and as many of the Pioneers as could be coaxed or bullied into going away were got rid of."
In another note Dickens says: "We had left Harrisburg on Friday. On Sunday morning we arrived at the foot of the
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mountain (Hollidaysburg), which is crossed by railroad.
Occasionally the rails are laid upon the extreme verge of a giddy precipice; and looking from the carriage window, the traveler gazes sheer down, without a stone or scrap of fence between, into the mountain depths below. It was very pretty traveling like this, at a rapid pace along the heights of the mountain in a keen wind, to look down into a valley full of light and softness; catching glimpses, through the treetops, of scattered cabins; children running to the door; dogs bursting out to bark, whom we could see without hearing; terrified pigs scampering homeward; families sitting out in their rude gar- dens; cows gazing upward with a stupid indifference; men in their shirt sleeves looking in at their unfinished houses, plan- ning out to-morrow's work; and we riding onward, high above them, like a whirlwind. It was amusing, too, when we had dined, and rattled down a steep pass, having no other moving power than the weight of the carriages themselves, to see the engine released, long after us, come buzzing down alone, like a great insect, its back of green and gold so shining in the sun that if it had spread a pair of wings and soared away no one would have had occasion, as I fancied, for the least surprise. But it stopped short of us in a very business-like manner when we reached the canal (at Johnstown), and before we left the wharf went panting up this hill again, with the passengers who had waited our arrival for the means of traversing the road by which we had come.""
In those days the journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, or vice versa, was one of three and a half days' duration, the cost of which was ten dollars, not including the price of food.
At the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, one of the most inter- esting objects to transportation people, and especially to the residents of Johnstown, was the relief map of the Old Portage Railroad from Johnstown to the tunnel at the head of Plane No. 1, which had been prepared and was exhibited by the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company in its building.
The map, showing the basin, roadway, river, mountains, and gulches, was prepared from actual surveys and measurements, and had diminutive cars to explain how section boats, etc., were taken out of the water and carried over the mountains. The ex- hibit is now in the possession of that company in its Historical Department. in Philadelphia, where almost everything, from the
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wooden spoke and felloe to its successor now in use, is kept to show the progress made in transportation facilities.
The only inland competitor of the Old Portage road for the Western and Southern trade was the National turnpike, with its Conestoga wagons, traveling from Pittsburg to Cumberland, and a railroad from the latter place on to the East, beside the Bedford & Somerset turnpike, chartered March 13, 1816, and lat- terly the Stoyestown pike, and the Pittsburg and Hollidaysburg pike. The products of the West and South were brought to Pittsburg on the Ohio river, and at Pittsburg were trans- ferred to one of these routes to the east. The Johnstown route was the most expeditious and economical for nine months in the year, and was the preferable mode of shipment.
It seems incredible that less than fifty-seven years ago the situation of the commercial interests of the country and the question of transportation were in the condition depicted in the following letter, written by the man who became one of the greatest railroad men of the world-J. Edgar Thomson-the president of the Pennsylvania railroad. It was written in reply to a request made by William S. Campbell, the superintendent of the Old Portage, to arrange better connections with the Penn- sylvania, which was then in partial operation. Being out of the question to make close connections at both places-Holli- daysburg and Columbia, it was his opinion then that the planes would have to be operated until midnight-at least, in the fol- lowing year-but that event never occurred, as no trains were run over the road after dark:
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT P. R. R. Co. 2 HARRISBURG, Nov. 21st, 1850.
DEAR SIR: I have received yours of the 16th. The differ- ence between our case and yours is-
First. That we have a single track and must run one way at least to schedule or we would delay all of the trains on the road, so as to cause indescribable confusion.
Secondly. We run between two of the Commonwealth roads, and if we don't break connection with the Portage by waiting. we will with the Columbia road, and at the same time derange all our trains.
Of the two horns of the dilemma we have to choose the least. However, the season is now nearly over, and next year it seem to me that you will have to keep your planes going until midnight by two sets of hands. The business over the road, it appears to me, will require this arrangement. Yours truly,
J. EDGAR THOMSON,
Wm. S. Campbell, Esq., Supt. P. R. Road.
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
The State records show that between 1830 and 1859 the receipts for tolls and the expenses of its operations were :
Receipts Expenses
$32.270,712
30.400,433
Surplus
$1.870.279
This would make an average annual profit of $64,495.
In 1835, the first year after the opening of the Canal through to Philadelphia with its two railroads, the following business was transacted :
Twenty-five thousand passengers were hauled, 15,437 of whom were westbound and 9,563 eastbound.
It carried 52.719 tons of freight of 2,000 pounds to the ton.
Of it 29,740 tons were westbound, 15,439 were eastbound, and 7,540 were local shipments. Each car only carried 7.000 pounds, and the regulations would not permit them to run faster than five miles per hour, unless the cars were provided with extra strong springs.
In the early days of trails and paths, to transport a barrel of flour between Pittsburg and Philadelphia it cost $14; in 1835. by the Canal. $1.1212, and now about 22 cents.
In 1800, to transfer a ton of merchandise by wagon cost from $120 to $220 and took over two weeks in time, the rate depending upon the classification of the goods.
In 1835. when the Canal was in operation, these rates were reduced to $14 and $22 per ton, respectively ..
In 1851 it was further reduced to $9 and $18, and the rates of the same classification would today be from $1.75 to $10 per ton.
This decrease in the cost of transportation applies locally as well as upon through carriages; for instance, one of the larger boats, like the Cambria, could carry 300 barrels of flour, for which the cost would be twenty-five cents from Pittsburg to Johnstown; while at the present time a car holding 400 bar- rels will be carried the same distance for ten cents. or $40 for the service, as against $75 by water.
In 1828, after the Northern pike was opened and the Canal in operation between Pittsburg and Blairsville, it cost over $15 per ton to haul metal from the Sligo Iron Works in Hunt- ingdon county to Blairsville, a distance of 53 miles: in 1838, when the Canal and Old Portage were ready for business. the same service could be had for $4, and in 1835, when locomotives
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
iere first used on the levels in place of horses, the rate for the same was ninety-six cents per ton.
A captain of a boat of the Cambria class received $125 per month, out of which he was required to pay all the labor and their maintenance, leaving $55 to pay for his service and the cost of lines and oil.
The railroad employees on the Old Portage and the Penn- sylvania Railroad were paid the following rates for a day's wages of twelve hours :
1840.
Locomotive engineer
$2.00
Locomotive fireman
1.1216
Conductor or Captain 2.00
Flagman .75
Brakeman .75
John Matthews, collector at Johnstown, publishes the re- sult of the first month's operation of the Portage railroad and canal (the Old Portage being first opened for traffic March 18, 1834) as follows :
Collected on canal $3,576.091%
Collected on railroad 805.361/2
Total $4,381.46
Arrivals on canal 80
Departures on canal 81
Number of cars arrived on railroad. 639
Number of cars departed on railroad. 751
Tonnage on canal 3,657,447
Tonnage on railroad
. 3,200,003
CHAPTER XVIE.
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.
In the list of newspapers of Cambria county the Western Sky, a paper edited in what was then known as "the town of Beula, Somerset county, " during the year 1798 (Cambria county had not then been organized), is given precedence as the first attempt at the establishment of a permanent news- paper within its limits. Although the literary part of the work was done in Beula, it was printed in Philadelphia by Ephraim Conrad. It was designed principally as an advertisement for the projected town, and, according to the statement of John Lloyd, of Ebensburg, whose grandfather was its editor, but one number of the Sky was published.
The certainty of the publication of the second paper in the county cannot be established, but it has been said that a paper was in existence in Ebensburg at as early a date as 1810. If this were the case it could not have had any show of per- manency, as the county advertising was done either in Phil- adelphia, Blairsville, or Bedford papers for many years.
The late John Scott, of the firm of Canan & Scott, publish- ers of the Ebensburg Sky, is authority for the statement that when he came to Ebensburg in 1817 at the age of five years, a paper was published at Beula.
John Lloyd remembers an early paper which he thinks was called the Advocate, edited and published in Ebensburg in 1818 by Thomas Foley; and Mrs. Catherine Dimond, who died in Summerhill township at an advanced age, said that Foley pub- lished several papers in Ebensburg-one she thought as early as 1815.
Professor A. L. Guss, formerly a teacher in Johnstown, in an able paper treating on the subject of journalism in west- ern Pennsylvania, read before the Juniata Valley Newspaper Association, in referring to Mr. Foley's efforts, says that Thomas Foley established the Olive Branch and Cambria Record in Ebensburg in 1818, but that the venture failed in 1819.
Professor Guss also says that the Cambria Gazette was
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
started in 1828 by John Murray and Thomas McFarland, but after two years the materials were removed to Blairsville, Indiana county, for use on the Record. They were subse- quently brought back by John J. Canan and William B. Brown for the use of the firm in the publication of the Sky.
Guss says that the paper known as the Mountain Telegraph and Cambria Gazette was first issued November 6, 1828, by Dr. Robert and Samuel Young, but was soon suspended. From the title, it seems probable that it was a merger of the Cambria Gazette with the Mountain Telegraph, as the idea of two papers having existed simultaneously in a town the size of Ebensburg at that time appears unlikely.
W. R. Thompson, of Ebensburg, editor of the Mountaineer- Herald, has in his possession a copy of this paper which is No. 13, Vol. 1, bearing date January 29, 1829, which contains some interesting information concerning the then projected Portage railroad ; also an item regarding an "enormous cheese" which had been presented to President-elect Andrew Jackson by one Israel Cole. It weighed one hundred pounds, and was considered such a curiosity that as it passed on the road from Troy, New York. to Washington, many persons flocked to see the box containing it. The paper also contains a description of the then new and magnificent Capitol building at Washing- ton. The publishers of the Telegraph and Gazette accepted "grain of every description in payment for subscription," and "linen and cotton rags" were taken in payment at the office, as notices in several conspicuous places in the paper testify.
The census of 1830 credits Cambria county with one print- ing press, but says nothing about the existence of a news- paper; hence, we are forced to the conclusion that this was the press that was removed to Blairsville, and which was brought back in 1831 by Canan & Brown, and that no paper had an existence in the county at the time the census was taken.
The journal next is the Sky, and Robert D. Canan, of Al- toona, has the file of the paper during the time it was under the control of his father-the late John J. Canan. This file in- eludes, with two exceptions, all the numbers of the Sky from the time it was established in Ebensburg in 1831 until it passed into the hands of Steele Sample, in Johnstown, in the latter part of 1837. The Sky was a quarto, five-column paper, the editorials of which were in pica type. It was printed on a Ramage press, and at first balls were used to ink the type. It
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
was published by John J. Canan and William B. Brown. No. 3, Volume I, bearing date Thursday, July 28, 1831, would indicate that the birth of the paper occurred July 14, 1831. Originally the paper was neutral in politics, as it circulated among people of all shades of opinion. Communications from persons of both parties were published, and notices of mass meetings, political conventions and so forth, are found in its columns. It was not until after the Cambria Democrat, which was published by Arnold Downing in 1832, had for years upheld the cause of the Democratic, or Masonic, party, that the Sky came out during the Ritner campaign in 1835, as a Whig, or anti- Masonic, journal. Its aspirations, however, were intensely pa- triotic, and there was not any friendliness for the "mother country" exhibited in its columns-probably for the good rea- son that Moses Canan was the grandson of Captain William Henderson, who fighting under General Sullivan at the battle of Long Island, was there taken prisoner, confined for three months in a British prison ship in Wallabout Bay, and, upon his exchange after the battle of Trenton, served his country until the end of the war.
Moses Canan himself fought against England in 1812, and if his pen did not write the editorials of the new paper, his judgment doubtless dictated them, for Moses Canan, besides being a patriot and a lawyer of ability-one of the three legal gentlemen who attended the first court of Cambria county-was a man of literary tastes, and as early as 1810 he was a partner with W. R. Smith in the publication of the Huntingdon Literary Museum and Monthly Miscellany, a compilation of gems of poetical literature from the best authors of the time.
The editorials of the Sky were remarkable for their intelli- gence and dignity.
On May 13, 1836, M. A. Canan became a partner in the publication of the Sky. Tuesday, October 7, 1837, is the date of the last issue of the files under the Canans. The paper was afterward run for about a year by Stecle Sample, and was then purchased by Abraham Morrison, but suspended for three years, when, under the name of the Cambria Gazette, it was revived by Moses A. Canan, and, under various names, and under the control of different persons, continued to be the organ of the Whig party until, on December 7, 1853, the Cambria Tribune was launched on the sea of Cambria county journalism.
The issue of Cambria Gazette from Tuesday, July 27, Vol. I-24
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
1841-being No. 4 of Vol. I-to Wednesday, February 1, 1843, had Moses A. Canan, son of Moses Canan, and brother of S. Dean Canan, of this city, for its accredited editor and proprie- tor, although the editorials give evidence of the style and force of Moses Canan, who was undoubtedly the writer of the greater part of them. Moses A. Canan had in 1835 edited and published a small society paper for young people in Ebensburg, which was called the Mountain Clarion. It was devoted to social amusements, society notes and literature.
The Cambria Gazette (the second paper of that name to be published in the county) was a four-page, five-column paper, the columns eighteen inches in length. Tom Slick was its carrier.
Moses A. Canan died while editor of the Gazette, and the paper was for a time conducted by his father, and his brother- Robert H. Canan. Afterward Andrew J. Eckels and Thomas S. Reed conducted it for a twelvemonth, to be succeeded by James Morgan; but finally through lack of management, the paper came to a standstill. In 1848 William Foster, a young printer who had learned his trade in the office of the Bedford Inquirer, took hold, revived the paper, and changed its name to the Johnstown News.
A copy of this paper. the Johnstown News, Vol. II, No. 17, dated August 8 and 9, 1849, is a neat four-page, six-column paper printed and published by Foster & Cooper. A consider- able part of the paper was devoted to a communication signed H. Yeagley, being a comparison of the relative merits of Dr. William A. Smith and John Fenlon, Democratic and Whig can- didates for Assembly. There was about half a column of for- eign news, but not a local item. A note explains, however, that one of the editors was sick that week.
George W. Cooper, besides his ability as an editor, was also a successful practicing physician, and after he sold the Journal, which he published at Garnett, Kansas, until 1885, he resumed the practice of medicine at Peoria, Illinois, until his death at this former place, ten years later.
In 1848 William Foster procured the press and materials of the Cambria Gazette and launched the Valley Wreath as a. weekly paper in Johnstown. It was a Whig advocate. In 1849 or 1850 Dr. Cooper joined Foster as a partner, and became the editorial writer. In 1850 Frank W. Hay acquired the in- terest of Dr. Cooper, who had gone west, but withdrew in less
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
than a year. Foster continued to publish it until 1852, when he quit. It was at this time that James M. Swank began to publish the Cambrian.
The Cambrian was a Whig campaign paper edited and pub- lished in 1852, to advocate the candidacy of General Scott for the presidency. James M. Swank, not then twenty years of age, edited and published its first eighteen numbers, the first con- taining an account of the death of Henry Clay and the last an obituary of Daniel Webster and an account of the defeat of General Scott at the election that year. After the election its publication was continued by S. B. McCormick until that fall.
James Moore Swank founded the Cambria Tribune Decem- ber 7, 1853. It was the weekly successor of the Cambrian.
The Tribune was a six-column folio, 22 by 32 inches, printed on an old Ramage hand-press. The subscription price was $1.50 in advance, and transient advertising was "one square, three insertions, $1.50," making the rate about twenty-two cents per inch for each insertion. For other advertisements he took what- ever he could get in exchange. The early numbers, as was the custom of all country papers, were largely made up of litera- ture and national politics, with a great scarcity of local news. Mr. Swank's change of plan with special attention given to local events was soon followed by other county papers.
On May 28, 1856, when Mr. Swank temporarily withdrew from the Tribune and went to Wisconsin with his brother, George T. Swank, Colonel John M. Bowman became the editor and represented Mr. Swank's interest. During his absence D. J. Morrell and other Republicans procured a Washington press, which was substituted for the old Ramage. On March 20, 1858, Mr. Swank returned and entered into partnership for three years with Colonel Bowman, the former being the sole proprietor of the plant. They moved the office from the Man- sion House building to the brick building on the northwest cor- ner of Franklin street and Ebbert alley. On July 3 they printed the outside of the Tribune in blue and the inside in red. While Mr. Swank was absent Colonel Bowman, being a good newspaper man, enlarged the local features, which have been strictly observed in that office till this day. The Tribune was always a consistent and strong advocate of the Whig and Re- publican parties, and never bolted a regular nomination.
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