USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > History of Huntingdon County, in the state of Pennsylvania : from the earliest times to the centennial anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1876 > Part 12
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To show the extent of the jubilant feeling at Huntingdon, we take another extract from the Gazette :
" On Saturday last (June 11, 1831,) hundreds of our citizens witnessed the launching of the James Clarke, a new and very handsome canal boat, into the basin at the west end of the borough, owned by Messrs. Williams & Miller. When safely launched into the basin, she was greeted by the hearty ac- clamations of these who witnessed the pleasing and inte- resting sight. What ! a canal boat launched in the vicinity of Huntingdon ! Had any one predicted an event of this kind some years back, he, in all probability, would have been 'yclept a wizard, or set down as beside himself. When the mail stage commenced running once a week from Phila- delphia to this place, our older citizens considered it a mar- velous affair. What will they say now ?"
Whatever of curiosity may have been mingled with this enthusiasm was soon satisfied. Boats were launched fre- quently after the first one, four of them within a month or two.
Superior as was the canal for puposes of transportation, it had connected with it many difficulties and disadvantages. The greatest of these was its liability to breaches and other injuries from storms and freshets, the same causes that had so often delayed the post-rider and mail coach. The packet boats did not altogether take the place of the latter, as there was a portion of the year when the canal was not navigable. The mail continued to be carried in the old way until the cars rendered both stages and packets useless. K
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
Under an act of Assembly of May 16th, 1857, the Penn- sylvania canal was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad com- pany, and was transferred to the purchaser on the 1st of Au- gust following. Since that time it has been operated under the name of the Pennsylvania Canal company.
And now a step has been taken which may seem to be one of retrogression, one which could never have entered into the contemplation of the projectors and builders of this canal, and at the mere suggestion of which they would have been deeply shocked. By authority of an act of Assembly of June 2nd, 1870, a part of it has been abandoned for pub- lic use. West of Huntingdon, locks have been removed, bridges torn down, and the bed of the channel left as dry as a road. The dam in Warrior's Ridge narrows is still main- tained as a feeder for the canal below Huntingdon. The act did not authorize its abandonment east of the latter place; that must remain open until further legislation per- mits the closing of it, but notwithstanding this fact, we are perhaps not far wrong in classing the Pennsylvania canal among the enterprises of the past.
CHAPTER XIX.
RAILROADS-PHILIPSBURG AND JUNIATA-HUNTINGDON AND CHAMBERS- BURG-HUNTINGDON AND HOLLIDAYSBURG-PENNSYLVANIA-HUNTING- DON AND BROAD TOP MOUNTAIN-DRAKE'S FERRY AND EAST BROAD TOP- EAST BROAD TOP RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY-LEWISBURG, CENTRE AND SPRUCE CREEK-TELEGRAPHS.
The decision by which the canal was continued to Holli- daysburg, instead of running a railroad from that place to Huntingdon, was the end of the first tangible proposition for the location of a railroad in this county. All projects of the kind have since been inaugurated by the passage of acts of Assembly incorporating companies for the purpose.
It was designed that the main lines of canals should consti- tute the great arteries of trade and commerce, and that they should have lateral communication with every part of the Commonwealth. Such connection by water, however, was not everywhere practicable or possible, and other modes of conveyance were sought to and from the general stream. Several railroads were proposed to run northward and southward from points on the canal in Hun- tingdon county. The first one was the "Philipsburg and Juniata Railroad, incorporated March 16th, 1830. The route described in the act of Assembly, was from the "Pennsylvania Canal, at or near the mouth of the Little Juniata, below Alexandria, in Huntingdon county, thence up the Little Juniata and Little Bald Eagle creeks, and through Emigh's Gap, to the coal mines in the neghborhood of Philipsburg, in Centre county." The commissioners from this county were Robert Allison and William Orbison. Books were to be opened at Philadelphia, at the house of William Alexander in Centre county, and at the house of John McConnell in Huntingdon. A survey was made on this route in 1833. Commencing at the northern terminus, the engineers arrived at Union Furnace in June of that year, and at the junction of the Juniatas in July. The road was never made, but it has been supplied by the Pennsyl-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
vania to Tyrone, and by the Clearfield branch to and beyond Philipsburg.
The next was the " Huntingdon and Chambersburg Rail- road Company," incorporated June 16th, 1836.
Even after the construction of the public works, the idea of a railroad from Huntingdon to Hollidaysburg was not abandoned. It is doubtful whether there was sufficient en- couragement to make such an improvement between points connected by the canal, but the project was not without agi- tators. The effort in its favor was earnest and determined, and resulted in the passage of an act incorporating the " Huntingdon and Hollidaysburg Railroad Company," July 2nd, 1839. This road was probably always unnecessary, and was certainly so after the making of the Pennsylvania railroad. That a need for it is now growing up, and that it will probably take the place of the dismantled canal, is one of the revolutions of progress.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was incorporated April 13th, 1846. Among the commissioners appointed by the act "to do and perform the several acts and things," therein mentioned, were John G. Miles, John Kerr, A. P. Wilson, Edwin F. Shoenberger, Benjamin Leas, John Mc- Cahen, John Long, Brice Blair, Thomas E. Orbison and John Porter, of Huntingdon county.
The first surveys through the county were made in the summer of 1847. By the 3rd of August, the engineers had progressed several miles west of Huntingdon in the di- rection of Petersburg. At that time they passed through the former borough on Washington street, but later in the same season they made a re-survey on Allegheny street, where the location of the road was determined upon. Proposals for the grading and masonry between Lewistown and Hun- tingdon were advertised for in April, 1848, and received until the 17th of May. Contracts were entered into within the next twenty days, and the work was at once commenced. At the close of the year the grading was almost completed.
The sections west of Huntingdon were in process of con- struction during the same year and the one succeeding it. .
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
On the tunnel near Spruce Creek, eleven hundred feet in length, great labor was required. An opening was effected through the mountain in June, 1849, eleven months after the first pick had been struck into it. But only three hun- dred and fifty feet were at that time finished. Several seri- ous accidents occurred at this tunnel from the premature explosion of blasts. In one of these, seven men were blown up, one of whom was killed and two others so badly injured that they were not expected to recover.
In the neighborhood of Birmingham there were a num- ber of riots among the laborers on the road in 1849. The Irish workmen were divided into several parties known as the " Far-downs," "Corkonians," etc., each determined to drive the others from the line. In June, of that year, the Sheriff of Huntingdon county, with a posse of about three hundred men from Petersburg, Alexandria and Spruce Creek, went as far as the western limits of the county, the rioters re- treating before them. No arrests were then made. At other times prisoners were taken and sent to jail in Hun- tingdon. For weeks the people living along the road, from Spruce Creek to Ironsville, were kept in a state of great alarm. Some of the laborers and contractors received severe injuries in the numerous skirmishes fought in that region between the opposing forces.
The Pennsylvania railroad being a through line, and the officers of the company, the principal stockholders and others most deeply interested in the making of it, being in distant cities, it bore no very close relations to our people until completed and in operation. It has since become. connected with all our interests and is the origin from which flows nearly every pulsation of improvement. Before the iron bands had been laid within any portion of our county, we could feel the throbbings of new life and vigor. While yet the cars came only to Lewistown, there was an increase of travel over our public highways and upon the canal to and from that point.
The first train of cars arrived at Huntingdon on Thurs- day, June 6th, 1850. It consisted of five or six trucks
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
drawn by the locomotive "Henry Clay." In a few days afterwards it proceeded westward, the road being then in running order to the Allegheny mountains. The excite- ment with which it was greeted probably exceeded that on the arrival of the first canal boat. Its approach had been heralded throughout the country for miles on both sides of the railroad, and as it was a trial trip, the train necessarily running slowly, the people had time to reach the railroad and witness the novel sight. In fact the engine announced itself by shrill whistles that even surprised the mountains through which they echoed. But there was disappointment. The idea had become general that trains never ran with less speed than lightning, and to see that one coming at the rate of three or four miles per hour was not what had been expected. It was not time yet for the express or the lim- ited mail.
The development of the resources and interests of the county, and the improvements which have followed the building of the Pennsylvania railroad, will be described in the sketches of the townships and towns through which it passes.
On the 11th of January, 1847, Hon. David Blair, repre- sentative from Huntingdon county, presented in the Legis- lature a bill entitled "An Act to incorporate the Hunting- don and Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company." It passed both Houses, and was sent to Governor Shunk for executive action. He returned it without his approval, and with a message stating his reasons therefor. Not having a copy of the bill before us, we cannot give even the sub- stance of its provisions; but judging from the Governor's message, which was probably the strongest. argument that could be made against it, it contained nothing improper. His objections to it were that it provided that the company should have the privilege of purchasing and holding five thousand acres of land, which he assumed they purposed farming, and that it did not make the stockholders individ u- ally liable for the debts of the corporation. Such messages deserve a place among the absurdities of official literature. .
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
The friends of the road renewed their efforts to obtain a charter of incorporation. A meeting was held at Stoners- town, in Bedford county, on the 20th day of September, 1847. Levi Evans was one of the secretaries, and Alexan- der Gwin and George W. Speer, of Huntingdon county, were present. Resolutions were adopted expressive of the views of the citizens of the adjoining parts of Bedford and Hunt- ingdon counties, and a committee was appointed to prepare a memorial to the Legislature. The matter had then taken a political turn, the Democrats sustaining Governor Shunk in his veto of the bill and opposing Mr. Blair, who was a candidate for reelection.
At the session of 1848, a bill was offered by Alexander King, of Bedford county, member of the Senate from this district, to incorporate a company under the original name. In the House of representatives it was amended by striking out the words, "and coal," leaving the title of the corpora- tion, "The Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad Company." It was passed in this shape, and received the approval and signature of the Governor. This act does not appear among the published laws of 1848, for the reason that the enrolment tax was never paid. We have not, there- fore, a list of the commissioners named by it.
The first public meeting to advance the purposes for which the act had been obtained of which we find any account, although there had been others previously, was held in the court house at Huntingdon on the 15th of August, 1851. General John Williamson presided, and among the vice-presidents were John Garner, Christian Shoutz and Thomas Adams. The secretaries were Charles Mickley, William Lewis and R. Bruce Petriken. A committee, con- sisting of Major James Patton, J. G. Miles and David Blair, was appointed to ascertain what coal lands and coal rights could be procured for the company, upon what terms, and their location and accessibility, and to take conveyances thereof for its use. Col. S. S. Wharton, James Entriken and Charles Mickley were appointed a committee to obtain releases of the right of way for the railroad. Addresses
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
were delivered by Williamson, Miles, Blair, Petriken and General A. P. Wilson. There was always an abundance of eloquence to assist this road out of its early difficulties, but not sufficient to extricate it from its later struggles.
Before any organization of the company had been made, or subscriptions to the stock taken, it was discovered that the act of 1848 was defective in not granting rights and privileges which were regarded as necessary in carrying on the operations of a mining and transporting corporation.
Another act was therefore passed May 6th, 1852, not a supplement to that of 1848, but a new one, incorporating the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company, and was approved and signed by Governor Big- ler. The names of the corporators are given in the fol- lowing list, those from Huntingdon county being designat- ed by italics :
John G. Miles, A. P. Wilson, Thomas Fisher, John Mc- Cahan, James Gwin, James Entriken, David Blair, James Saxton, John Ker, John Scott, S. S. Wharton, John A. Doyle, George Jackson, John Porter, Israel Grafius, S. M. Green, John Mc Culloch, James Clark, J. H. Wintrode, Jacob Cress- well, Charles Mickley, Alexander King, Job Mann, Samuel L. Russel, William Evans, Andrew J. Neff, William P. Schell, David McMurtrie, John B. Given, William Ayres, George W. Speer, William P. Orbison, Levi Evans, James Patton, R. B. Petriken, Adin W. Benedict, Alexander Port, James Maguire, Isaac Cook, George Gwin, James Campbell, Daniel Grove, Henry Zimmerman, and W. F. Dougherty.
More than five years had elapsed since the introduction of Mr. Blair's bill into the Legislature, and it was only now that the proper authority was granted to form a company with power to build a road and develop the semi-bitumi- nous coal region of Broad Top. On the 10th of June, 1852, books were opened at Huntingdon for subscriptions of stock. The amount subscribed that day was $15,000, and the next day it was increased to $20,000. Meetings were held at Markles- burg, Stonerstown and McConnellstown, subscriptions taken and committees appointed to solicit further subscriptions.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
The company was organized January 10th, 1853, by the election of a President, General William Ayres, of Harris- burg, and a Board of Directors, consisting of Alexander King, William P. Schell, James Entriken, James Saxton, A. P. Wilson, John Scott, J. H. Wintrode and Lewis T. Wattson.
The contracts for the making of the road were entered into in July, 1853, the letting having been in the previous month. Samuel W. Mifflin had been chosen chief engineer. “His labors in the preliminary surveys, before the organization of the company, as well as his reputation as a civil engineer, designated him for the station and he was selected by the board with entire unanimity." At the meeting of stock- holders for the election of officers, January 11th, 1854, the first annual report of the directors was presented. The company then owned two thousand acres of land, the amount that they could purchase and hold under their charter, the conveyances for most of which had been obtained. The number of shares of stock then subscribed was 3629, or, at the par value of fifty dollars par share, $181,450; the receipts by the Treasurer had been $68,807, and payments for all purposes $66,801, leaving a balance of $2,006. The com- pany had been in existence one year, six months of which time had been spent in " exploration, surveys and location." Since the commencement of the work, it had steadily pro- gressed, and all expenses had been promptly paid.
By the 13th of August, 1855, fourteen miles of track had been laid, and on that day cars commenced running to Marklesburg. At the beginning of the year 1856 the road was completed to Stonerstown, a distance of twenty-four miles, with the exception of the bridge over the Raystown branch, and the directors so reported to the stockholders at the annual meeting in January. The track to the mines was all laid but about a mile and a half, which the track- layers were then putting down. The road had been laid with T rail, weighing 56 pounds to the yard, on substantial cross-ties, ballasted with broken stone.
It was the original intention to make Bedford the south-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
ern terminus of the road, and before its completion to the place of connection with the Shoup's run branch, the work of extending it beyond that point had been far advanced. Branches were also made to the coal mines on Sandy run and Six Mile run. In 1857 the company became embar- rassed financially, and labor upon the road was brought to an end. It had then reached Mount Dallas, a station within six miles of Bedford, and remained in that unfinished con- dition until the making of the Bedford and Bridgeport rail- road established a through line from Huntingdon to Cum- berland, Maryland.
The present management of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad is most thorough and energetic. During the last two years, the road has been highly improved, the road-bed having been repaired and the rolling stock renewed and rendered safe and comfortable. The President is B. Andrews Knight, of Philadelphia, and the Superintendent, Geo. F. Gage, of Huntingdon.
The making of a railroad from the Pennsylvania canal and railroad at or near the present site of Mount Union to the Broad Top coal region, is almost as old a project as the Huntingdon and Broad Top mountain railroad. Early in 1848, meetings were held by the friends of the road at points on the proposed route. On the 28th of February in that year, one was held at Scottsville, at which John Lutz pre- sided. A committee of sixteen was appointed to report res- olutions, on which were Henry Brewster, George W. Speer, Kenzie L. Green, John Sharrer, John Ashman, Daniel Teague, and Samuel McVitty, of Huntingdon county. The follow- ing were a committee to present the resolutions to the Leg- islature : Hon. John Morrison, Brice Blair, Henry Brew- ster, Robert Speer, Benjamin Leas, George Hudson, Thos. T. Cromwell, James R. Brewster, John Ashman, Kenzie L. Green, John Brewster, John Stever, James Lyon, George Chestnut, John Sipes and John Dougherty. On the 25th of March following, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the Drake's Ferry and East Broad Top Railroad Company. No steps were ever taken towards the construction of this road.
155
HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
The ground is now occupied by the East Broad Top Rail- road and Coal Company.
The latter corporation was organized under an act of Assembly of April 16th, 1856. The persons most actively engaged in the organization of the company were Messrs. Edward Roberts, A. Pardee and J. G. Fell, assisted in the vicinity of the road by Wm. B. Leas, Samuel McVitty, Dr. Louis Royer, P. P. Dewees and others.
Work was commenced Sept. 16th, 1872, and the road opened for business as far as Orbisonia, a distance of 11 miles, Aug. 30th, 1873, and to Robertsdale, the terminus of the road, on Nov. 4th, '74.
The road is 30 miles long-3 ft. gauge. The northern terminus is Mount Union on the Pa. R. R., then running in a southern direction through or near the following towns or villages in the order named . Shirleysburg, Orbiso- nia, Three Springs, Saltillo and Cooks Mills, terminating at the Broad Top coal fields at Robertsdale.
The first officers of the corporation were, President, Wm. A. Ingham. Directors, Edward Roberts, A. Pardee, J. G. Fell, Percival Roberts, Randolph Wood, and C. R. Wood. Secretary, Percival Roberts; engineer, John B. Wingate. The latter gentleman was obliged to resign on account of failing health, and was succeeded by A. W. Sims, under whose supervision the surveys were completed and the road constructed.
The capital stock originally authorized was $500,000. Au- thority has since been obtained for an increase of $150,000.
The Lewisburg, Centre and Spruce Creek Railroad Com- pany was incorporated April 12th, 1853. The proposed southern terminus was at Spruce Creek, on the Pennsyl- vania railroad. By subsequent legislation it was changed to Tyrone, in Blair county, and the route of the road through Huntingdon county diverted from Franklin town- ship to Warrior's Mark township. The grading through the latter was done in 1873. Work then ceased for want of funds, and has not been resumed. An effort is now being made to connect this road with the Tyrone and Lock Haven
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
railroad at Bellefonte, which, if successful, will make a con- tinuous line from Lewisburg to Tyrone without entering Huntingdon county.
The first telegraph line was established through the county in 1850, by the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Com- pany. In April of that year, the Superintendent, J. D. Reid, was in Huntingdon, making arrangements for setting the posts and putting up the wires between Lewistown and Hollidaysburg. When finished to the latter point, the con- nection between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, by the Juniata route, was complete. This line was used for commercial and railroad business until 1856, when the Pennsylvania Railroad company put up a line of their own. In 1857 the Atlantic and Ohio line was consolidated with others, under the name of the National Atlantic and Ohio. In 1862 the Western Union Telegraph Company purchased the latter, and in 1864 put in new poles and ran five additional wires through to the east. In the same year the Pacific and At- lantic Telegraph Company, originating in the east, built an opposition line. A great deal of rivalry existed between the two companies until 1873, when the Western Union ob- tained a controling interest in the Pacific and Atlantic, and absorbed it. In 1875 another opposition line was con- structed by the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, and is now in a flourishing condition. The number of wires running through or terminating within the county are as follows: Western Union, nine; Atlantic and Pacific, one ; Pennsylvania Railroad, five; Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad, one.
CHAPTER XX.
ORGANIZATION OF FIRST AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY-ITS OBJECTS AND MAN- NER OF ADVANCING THEM-PRESENT AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY-ORGANI- ZATION-FIRST OFFICERS-INCORPORATION-DATES UPON WHICHI FAIRS HAVE BEEN HELD-PREMIUMS AND EXPENSES-PRESENT OFFICERS- STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.
A meeting of citizens of Huntingdon county was held in the court house at Huntingdon, on the 16th day of April, 1828, for the purpose of forming an Agricultural Society. The following were the officers of the meeting : President, John Patton; Vice President, John Blair; Secretaries, Jacob Miller and Matthew D. Gregg.
Robert Allison, Henry Miller, James Steel, M. D. Gregg, and William Simpson were appointed a committee to draft an ad- dress to the public and report the same at the next meeting.
Edward Bell, John Blair, of Blair's Gap, George Schmucker, Dr. John Henderson, Thomas T. Cromwell, Conrad Bucher, Maxwell Kinkead, and William Speer were appointed a committee to draft a constitution for the government of the society.
Joseph McCune, Stephen Davis, John Stewart, John Patton, John Blair, of Shade Gap, Adolphus Patterson, Jacob Miller and Matthew Wilson were appointed a com- mittee to receive subscriptions and the names of persons wishing to become members.
The next meeting was held on the 15th of August, 1828. John Patton again presided, and Jacob Miller acted as secre- tary. A constitution reported by Matthew D. Gregg was adopted. The first article and section, stating the objects and fixing the name of the society, was adopted :
"This society, having for its exclusive object the promo- tion and encouragement of agriculture and domestic manu- factures, shall be styled the Huntingdon County Agricultural and Manufacturing Society."
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