History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 62

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 62

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The Youghiogheny Navigation Company was in- corporated in 1843, under an act passed for that pur- pose, approved April 18th in that year. The com- missioners appointed by the act to receive subscrip- tions to the stock of the company were James Bell, Alexander Plummer, Adam Coon, Moses Robins, Joseph Markle, John Klingensmith, Jr., Joseph Lip- pincott, Joseph Guffy, Henry Null, John D. Davis, and James May. The capital stock of the company was thirty thousand dollars in six hundred shares of fifty dollars each ; the power and authority granted being the construction of a lock navigation from the mouth of the river to the borough of West Newton.

In recent years (1874 and 1875) surveys of the river were made by parties under charge of Maj. W. E. Merrill, who, in his report, January, 1881, said, "The whole of this distance has already been covered by surveys made under my direction in past years. The survey from Mckeesport to West Newton, nineteen miles, was made by Lieut. F. A. Maham's corps of engineers in 1874. The survey from West Newton to Connellsville, a distance of twenty-five and a half miles, was made in 1875 by my assistant, Capt. T. S. Sedgwick, as a part of the survey for the extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal trom Cumberland to Pittsburgh." The report gives the total fall of the river from Connellsville to Mckeesport (forty-four and one-third miles) as one hundred and forty-eight feet, requiring fifteen dams of ten feet lift each.

The proposition to extend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, as no- ticed in the extract given above from Maj. Merrill's report, has been under consideration from the time when the first surveys were made for that work. In- deed, it appears that the idea was first entertained by Gen. Washington, who, immediately after the close of the Revolutionary war, made extended journeys on horseback, examining the routes which were after- wards taken by the Erie Canal of New York, by the Pennsylvania canals along the Conemaugh and Ju- niata, and by the James River Canal in Virginia, also examining the country from the Potomac near Cum- berland, across the summit, by way of Castleman's River, to the Youghiogheny at Turkey Foot, and pronouncing the last-named route to be the best of all. Forty-five years later (about 1830) the same route was surveyed for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal by Gen. Bernard, assisted by Lieut .- Col. Totten, of the United States Topographical Engineers, and John L. Sulli- van, a distinguished civil engineer of Massachusetts. Gen. Bernard had been an aide-de-camp to the Em- peror Napoleon, and afterwards Minister of War to Louis Philippe, King of the French. He had sur- veyed the route of the canal from Georgetown, D. C., to Cumberland, and estimated the cost at $8,177,081. The actual cost was $11,071,176. His survey of the proposed extension from Cumberland to the Ohio at Pittsburgh showed in the seventy miles from Cum- berland over the summit, and by Castleman's River

Nothing of importance or permanent value to the navigation of the Youghiogheny was done by either of the above-mentioned companies, though the last- named company did complete their improvement from the mouth to West Newton, eighteen miles. Two dams were built, under supervision of their engineer, to the Youghiogheny, an ascent and descent of 1961 James E. Day, and the slack-water navigation was

feet, to be overcome by two hundred and forty-six

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

locks, the entire cost of this section of the work being estimated at $10,028,122. From the mouth of Castle- man's River, by way of the Youghiogheny and Mo- nongahela Rivers, to Pittsburgh, the fall was found to be six hundred and nineteen feet, necessitating the construction of seventy-eight locks. The estimated cost of this division of the work was 84,170,223. Total estimated cost of canal and slack-water be- tween Cumberland and Pittsburgh, $14,198,345. To- tal length of way, about one hundred and fifty-five miles, and whole number of locks, three hundred and twenty-four. Gen. Bernard estimated that the opening of this canal between Cumberland and Pittsburgh would, within six years from the time of its completion, enhance the value of lands along its route to the amount of eighty-two millions of dollars. But the estimated cost of the work was too appalling, and the enterprise was abandoned, though some other surveys were made atter that time, including those made under direction of Maj. Merrill, as already no- ticed. The old canal and slack-water project has even yet some adherents; but this is an age of railways, and the opening of the well-equipped and substantial line between Pittsburgh and Cumberland in 1871 ex- tinguished forever all hope for the construction of a canal to connect the waters of the Potomac and Youghiogheny.

RAILROADS.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was the first corporation which made any actual movement towards the construction of a railway line through the valleys of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers. That company having been incorporated by the Legislature of Maryland at their December ses- sion in the year 1826, applied to the General Assem- bly of Pennsylvania for authority to construct their road through this State to or towards a terminus on the Ohio. To this petition the Assembly responded by the passage of " An Act to authorize the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to construct a railroad through Pennsylvania, in a direction from Baltimore to the Ohio River." The act recited in its pre- amble, that "it is in accordance with that liberal course of policy which has ever been pursued by this Commonwealth to promote the facility of trade and intercourse between the citizens of Pennsylvania and the citizens of her sister States, and no doubt is en- tertained but the same motives of policy will govern the State of Maryland, should an application at any time hereafter be made by the government of this State for leave to intersect the said railroad in the State of Maryland by the construction of a railroad by the State of Pennsylvania, or any company which may by law be incorporated for such purpose." The company was required to complete its road in Penn- sylvania within fifteen years from the passage of the act, otherwise the act to be void and of no effect.

The time when the company commenced making surveys in Pennsylvania under authority of this act

is not known, but the fact that the engineers of the Baltimore and Ohio Company were engaged in pre- liminary surveys in this region as early as 1835, for the purpose of securing a line of communication through to Pittsburgh or other point on the Ohio, is noticed in the report (found in the newspapers of that time) of a "Great Railroad Meeting," held at Browns- ville on the 3d of November in the year named, "to promote the immediate construction of a railroad be- tween Cumberland and Brownsville, and thence to Wheeling and Pittsburgh," at which it was announced that the chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Company had made an examination of this section of country, and had made bis report to the effect that a railroad could be constructed between the places mentioned "without the use of any inclined plane."

The chairman of the meeting referred to, was George Hoyg; Vice-Presidents, David Binns and Michael Lewis ; Secretaries, G. H. Bowman and John L. Daw- son ; Committee to Draft Resolutions, James L. Bow- man, George Dawson, Robert Clarke, Jonathan Binns, Jr., and John Snowdon, Jr. The meeting resolved that it was expedient to hold a railroad convention at Brownsville on Thursday, the 25th of the same month, to be composed of delegates from the District of Co- lumbia, and from towns, cities, and counties feeling an interest in the enterprise. No report of such a convention has been found, nor does it appear that any further public action was taken in the premises It is evident that the Brownsville meeting of Novein- ber 3d did not convene for the purpose of adopting or considering any definite plan of action, but merely to express in general terms approval of the project of a railroad line from the Potomac to the Ohio by way of Brownsville.

The examination of this section of country by the chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (Jonathan Knight, Esq., of Washington County, Pa.) was quickly followed by preliminary surveys, made with a view to find and determine on a practicable route for a railroad from Cumberland to the Ohio. These surveys were made in 1836 to 1838, and in that part of the projected route passing through Fayette County were located on the southwest side of the Youghiogheny River, the route along the op- posite side, where the present railroad runs, appa- rently being at that time regarded as impracticable. Crossing Fayette County and the Monongahela River at Brownsville, the route was surveyed thence into the valley of Ten-Mile Creek, and up that valley to its head; from that point, crossing the dividing ridge to Templeton Run, it passed down the valleys of that stream and Wheeling Creek to the Ohio at Wheeling.1 Leaving the proposed main line near the crossing of the Monongahela, a branch road was surveyed to Pitts- burgh, in accordance with the requirement of the

1 Several other surveys were made, but this was the one which was considered the most practicable, and which was adopted by Chief Engi- neer Knight.

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ninth section of the act of Feb. 27, 1828, viz. : " That, as a condition on which this act is granted, it shall be the duty of the said company, in case the railroad aforesaid, made in this commonwealth in pursuance of this act, shall not terminate at the Ohio River in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, to construct a lateral rail- road simultaneously, on the same principles and plans of the main railroad, and which shall connect the city of Pittsburgh with the main railroad."

The preparations of the Baltimore and Ohio Com- pany for the construction of a railroad through Som- erset, Fayette, and Washington Counties embraced not only the making of elaborate surveys, but also the purchase of the right of way from a great number of land-owners, no less than one hundred and nine- teen such deeds being recorded by them in Fayette County in the year 1838. But at that time the atten- tion of the company was engrossed and their funds absorbed in the construction of their road between Baltimore and Cumberland, and as it had become ap- parent that they could not complete the Pennsylvania part of the road within the required time of fifteen years from the passage of the act of 1828, they asked an extension, which was granted by the General As- sembly of Pennsylvania in a supplemental act, ap- proved June 20, 1839, by the provisions of which the time in which the company were required to finish their road or roads in Pennsylvania was ex- tended four years, or to the 27th of February, 1847. 1

When the company had completed their road west- ward from Baltimore to Cumberland (in 1844) there remained less than three years in which to con- struct the part lying in Pennsylvania, under the re- quirement of the supplemental act of 1839. A fur- ther extension of time was necessary, and was applied for to the Pennsylvania Assembly ; but in the mean time the Pennsylvania Railroad was being pushed westward to cross the Alleghenies and make Pitts- burgh its western terminus, and now the business men, manufacturers, and people of influence in that city, who in 1828 and 1839 were ready to do all in their power to secure a railroad, even if it were but a branch from a main line, from the seaboard to Wheeling, were now, in view of the prospective direct connection with Philadelphia by the main line of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad (in which many of them were also stockholders), entirely favorable to that road, and as wholly opposed to the support of a competing line commencing at the Maryland metropolis, and to have its western terminus not at Pittsburgh but at the rival city of Wheeling.

superficial view of the matter was Gen. Henry W. Beeson, of Uniontown. He stoutly opposed the ex- tension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of Cumberland through Pennsylvania, and was thor- oughly sustained by nearly all his neighbors. On one occasion he made a public speech, in which he furnished a careful calculation of the number of horseshoes made by the blacksmiths, the number of nails required to fasten them to the feet of the horses used on the road, besides a great amount of other statistical information, intended to show that the National road was better adapted to promote the public welfare than railroads. Such arguments and others equally short-sighted and ridiculous, had the effect to create and keep alive a determined and almost universal opposition to the railroad among the inhabitants of the section through which it was pro- posed to be built. This opposition, added to the combined influence of the city of Pittsburgh and of the Pennsylvania Railroad, proved too powerful for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to over- come in the Assembly of this State ; and so that com- pany, after repeated ineffectual attempts to obtain a further extension of time for building their road through the State of Pennsylvania, found themselves compelled to abandon the enterprise and complete their road from Cumberland to Wheeling through the State of Virginia. Years afterwards, however, they accomplished one of the principal objects they then had in view (the extension of their line to the city of Pittsburgh ) by leasing roads already built by companies holding charters from Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company was the first to open a line of railway within any part of the county of Fayette. This company was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly, ap- proved April 3, 1837, which conferred on the com- pany authority " to construct a railroad of single or double tracks from the city of Pittsburgh, by the course of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers, to some suitable point at or near Connellsville." By the provisions of the act, a large number of commis- sioners were appointed to receive subscriptions to the stock of the company, those belonging to Fayette County being the following-named gentlemen, viz. : John Fuller, James C. Cummings, Samuel Marshall, Joseph Torrance, William L. Miller, Thomas G. Ew- ing, John Doogan, Thomas Foster, Daniel Rogers, Joseph Rogers, Alexander Johnston, Samuel Evans, William Davidson, Henry Blackston, Henry Geb- hart, William Espy, William Andrews, David B. Long, John M. Burney, Robert Smilie, Robert Bleak- ley, Robert Long, John W. Phillips, John P. Gibson, Jacob Weaver, James Paull, Jr., David A. C. Sher- rard, Col. John Bute, John M. Austin, Nathaniel Ewing, Henry W. Beeson, William B. Roberts, John Dawson, Joseph Paull, James Piper, Uriah Springer,

Besides the opposition of the people of Pittsburgh, the Baltimore and Ohio Company had to encounter the determined opposition of the inhabitants of the country through which their railroad was to pass. ; This strong opposition arose principally from the belief that the proposed railway would supersede and ruin the National road, and consequently ruin them- selves and the country. Among those who took this . Isaac Wood, William Crawford, Andrew Stewart,

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

James Fuller, Pierson Cope, Daniel Gallantine, Philip Lucas, Joseph H. Cunningham, Joseph Pen- nock, William Murphy, George McCray, Henry Smith, William Bryson, and Thomas Rankin.

The charter of the company provided and declared that " If the said company shall not commence the construction of the said railroad within the term of five years from the passing of this act, or if after the completion of the said railroad the said corporation shall suffer the same to go to decay and be impassa- ble for the term of two years, then this charter shall become null and void, except so far as compels said company to make reparation for damages."

The company was duly organized, but did not com- pły with the above-named requirement by commene- ing the construction of the road at the specified time, and their franchises were therefore forfeited; but on the 18th of March, 1843, an act was passed renewing, extending. and continuing in force the charter of 1837 upon the same terms, conditions, and limitations as were embraced in the original act, and also making the additional provision " that the said company shall have power and discretion to select any route from Pittsburgh to Turtle Creek which may be deemed most eligible and advantageous, and may extend said road beyond Connellsville to Smithfield, or any other point on the waters of the Youghiogheny and within the limits of this Commonwealth." The clause an- thorizing the extension of the road from Connellsville to the Maryland line was repealed the next day after its passage, but was re-enacted on the 3d of April, 1846.

By an act of the Legislature of Maryland, passed April 21, 1853, that State granted to the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Company authority to extend their road from the State line to Cumberland. In 1854 (April 6th ) an act was passed authorizing the Union- town and Waynesburg Railroad Company (chartered April 18, 1853) to transfer all its rights and franchises to this company, and they were accordingly so trans- ferred.

On the 22d of February, 1854, the chief engineer of the road, Oliver W. Barnes, submitted to the presi- dent and directors a report on the several proposed routes, whereupon the board "adopted the line oecu- pying the north bank of the Youghiogheny River, from a point at or near the borough of West Newton, in Westmoreland County, to a point at or near the borough of Connellsville, in Fayette County, as the final location for the construction of that portion of the road." Southward from Connellsville the route adopted was on the same side of the Youghiogheny to Turkey Foot, and thence through Somerset County (embracing a tunnel at Sand Patch ) to the Maryland line.

The line of road was divided for purposes of con- struction into five divisions, viz. :

No. 1 .- Pittsburgh to West Newton . . 32 miles.

" 2 .- West Newton to Connellsville . 25

No. 3 .- Connellsville to Turkey Foot . 30 miles.

4 .- Turkey Foot to Summit 29 66

5 .- Summit to Cumberland 31

From the report of the board of directors to the stockholders for 1854, the following information is gained in reference to the construction of the road. Contracts for construction were first let on division No. 2, West Newton to Connellsville, and on that division the work was begun.

This portion of the line was selected for the com- mencement "as presenting the advantage of a lo- cality which could most economically be brought into earliest profitable use, and when finished greatly promote the convenience of the company in the fur- ther prosecution of the work both eastwardly and westwardly. As a starting-point, it was easy of ac- cess by river in furnishing men and materiał, provis- ions, etc., from this city [Pittsburgh ], and when com- pleted it was believed would materially accelerate the extension of the work to its western terminus, thus promising earlier communication between the markets of Pittsburgh and the rich mineral and agri- cultural valleys of the Youghiogheny and Mononga- hela than could have been accomplished by a com- meneement at this city. The heavy character of the work on the sections embracing the Sand Patch tun- nel demanded that it should be put under contract simultaneously with the first work, as it was the opinion of the chief engineer that its vigorous prosecu- tion would be required contemporaneously with the remainder to secure its completion within the period of his estimate for the entire line."

With reference to the progress which had been made on the road up to the 1st of December, 1854, the date of the directors' report, that document says, "On the division between West Newton and Con- nellsville the graduation, masonry, and ballasting of about twenty sections [of one mile each] are fully completed, and the remainder will be ready to re- ceive the superstructure in the course of the present winter. The track-laying has been commenced, and will be vigorously pressed forward. The first locomo- tive, the 'George Washington,' will be immediately placed upon the road, and will greatly promote the progress of the work on the superstructure in the transportation of the heavy material required."

Contracts had previously been made for 2600 tons of rails, to be paid for in Allegheny County bonds, and to be delivered by boats at West Newton. Some of the iron had arrived at that point, and large quantities of ties were already delivered along the line. A contract had been made, several months before, with Messrs. Baldwin, of Philadelphia, for two first class coal-burning locomotives, one of which had already been received (the "George Washing- ton" above mentioned), and the other would be ready for shipment during the month (December, 1854). Arrangements had been made for a moderate equip- I ment of passenger, freight, and construction cars.

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Depot grounds had been secured at West Newton and Connellsville, and thirteen acres of coal lands had been purchased contiguous to the line at the latter borough. Amicable settlements for the right of way had been made in all cases but two within the limits of Fayette County, and land for stations (usually two acres at each place) had been tendered to the company at Port Royal, Smith's Mill, Jacob's Creek, Layton (foot of Big Falls), Old Franklin Iron- Works, Smilie's Run (Dawson), and at Rist's Run, below Connellsville. The total expenditure on divis- ion No. 2 (Connellsville to West Newton) up to Dec. 1, 1854, had been $318,663.18.

The road was opened to Connellsville in 1855. Beyond that place the amount of work done was small, only $9674.22 having been expended on the division extending from Connellsville to Turkey Foot prior to Dec. 1, 1854, and for a number of years after the opening of the road to Connellsville very little was done on the line southward and eastward from that point. A very strong opposition to the road was developed among the people living along that part of the route, their principal argument against it being that the opening of a railroad through that section would ruin the traffic on the old National road, which latter appeared to be regarded by them as paramount in importance to the securing of railroad facilities.

Finally, on the 29th of April, 1864, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed an act, which pro- vided and declared "That all the rights, powers, privileges, and franchises of every nature and kind whatsoever authorized or created by the act of As- sembly approved April 3, 1837, authorizing the in- corporation of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Rail- road Company, and all supplements thereto, so far as the same or any of them authorize the construction of any line or lines of railway southwardly or east- wardly from Connellsville, be and they are hereby revoked and resumed by the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania; and all the rights, powers, franchises, and privileges by the said act and its supplements con- ferred upon the said corporation, for and in respect to all that portion of the lines southwardly and east- wardly from Connellsville, be and the same are, by all and every authority in the Legislature for that purpose vested, resumed, revoked, repealed, and put an end to;" but it was also provided that all the out- lay and expenditure already made by the company on the line south and east of Connellsville should be reimbursed by any other company which might be empowered to complete the construction of that portion of the line.

Among the reasons for this repeal of the charter, as set forth in the preamble of the act by which it was accomplished, were that "The company, by said act [of 1837] and supplements created, have failed to complete the road therein provided for, and have so long delayed the construction of said road that now,

after the lapse of years from the granting of full au- thority by the State, less than one-half of said line of railroad has been constructed, and the line or lines east of Connellsville authorized by the supplements to said act not having been completed or prepared for public use," and that " In the opinion of the Legis- lature said corporation, by the delay referred to and by the embarrassments, financial and otherwise, in which said corporation has come to be involved, have misused and abused the powers by said act con- ferred," and that " In the opinion of the legislature it is injurious to the citizens of this Commonwealth that the said company should any longer have or en- joy any right, franchise, or privilege to build or con- struct any railroad, branch, or extension of their existing railroad southwardly or eastwardly from Connellsville."

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 62

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314