History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 34

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424

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HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

the company to any individuals or corporations that should advance the sum of three hundred thousand dollars or any part of it to the Danville and Potts- ville Railroad Company, became a law. Bonds were sold at auction in Phila- delphia, and the entire amount authorized by the bill was placed without difficulty. In July, 1834, construction was begun on the section between Sunbury and Shamokin, the grading of which for a distance of twenty miles was completed in the summer of 1835. The formal opening to Stambach's tavern (Paxinos), a point thirteen and one half miles from Sunbury, occurred on Thursday, the 26th of November, 1835; the Sunbury Workingmen's Advo- cate gives the following account of this event :-

The two elegant and commodious passenger cars lately built at Pottsville [the "Shamokin " and "Mahanoy"], large enough to convey, inside and outside, about thirty persons each, having been placed on the road upon the bank of the Susquehanna, the ringing of bells at twelve o'clock and the joyful cheers of the traveling party and spectators announced their departure for the engineers' quarters at the eastern end of this completed division. Two of Mr. Weaver's mail-coach horses drew each car, if drawing it can be called, when drawing there was none.

The party in the cars were met by other citizens at the eastern end, where a dinner had been prepared in such profusion and excellence as showed that various modes of internal improvement were perfectly understood. The oldest citizen of Sunbury, and oldest member of the bar attending, Daniel Levy, was appointed president of the fes- tivity, Lewis Dewart and Charles G. Donnel, vice-presidents, Peter Lazarus and Daniel Brautigam, secretaries, and Hugh Bellas was requested to deliver an address.

Toasts were proposed and drank, to the memory of Girard and Mont- gomery, "the founders of the railroad," and in honor of its president and managers, Moncure Robinson, chief engineer, William S. Campbell and G. M. Totten, first assistant engineers, and their corps of assistants, Hugh Bellas, the orator of the occasion, Mr. and Mrs. Day, the host and hostess, etc. Many interesting circumstances in the history of the enterprise up to that time are embraced in the following extracts from Mr. Bellas's address :-

The origin and honor of the project of connecting the Susquehanna and Schuyl- kill by railway are due to General Daniel Montgomery. During the summer of 1828, General Montgomery, then a canal commissioner, obtained the services of Moncure Robinson in running various experimental lines and exploring the woods and waters between Danville and Sunbury, and Pottsville, to ascertain whether it were practicable to connect the rivers by railroad. Together they traversed the woods and climbed the hills, and searched the valleys for favorable routes. With great lahor and exposure, and with greater ardor and resolution, they persevered, until finally satisfied that a superior road to that at first contemplated ought to be constructed; and that a location could be made, saving a rise and fall of three hundred fifty-four feet from the first proposed route in passing the Broad mountain, beside shortening the road and dispens- ing with three inclined planes. These important facts were stated in Mr. Robinson's report in October, 1831, with an estimate of the cost at six hundred seventy-five thou- sand dollars. This was predicated upon grading the road from Sunbury to Pottsville for a double track, with a single track and the necessary turn-outs laid down, until increasing business should render the second track necessary. This report was adopted and sanctioned by the company; but the great loss sustained in the falling of the two main pillars of the structure, Girard and Montgomery, chilled the ardent hopes of our

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friends. It is well known that the sudden illness and death of Mr. Girard prevented his appropriation of three hundred thousand dollars to the completion of this work, besides his original subscription of two hundred thousand dollars.

In the summer of 1832 the road formation of the eastern division of the road was commenced, iu conformity to the desire of Mr. Girard and to the decision of a general meeting of the stockholders, and more than half was done before the close of the year. In his desire to prosecute the work vigorously, he ordered at ouce from England the iron to plate the rails for the whole road. More fully to enjoy its advantages, he effected arrangements and compromises with those who held conflicting claims to his large estate in the Mahanoy coal field. This portion of the road, extending from the Mount Carbon road, north of Pottsville, to Girardville, was completed about the close of the year 1833, with all its superstructure, machinery, planes, fixtures, and tuunel of eight hundred feet, at the estimated expense of one hundred ninety thousand dollars, forming a railway from Girardville to Mount Carbon of about twelve miles. The formation of the road has been extended westward from Girardville two miles and a half.

In 1834 the formation of this western portion was commenced, and finished early last summer; in August last, contracts were made for laying down the superstructure of thirteen miles and three eighths from the margin of the river at Sunbury to this place; and now, at the end of three months, it is finished and traveled, and well finished. Eastward of this point, running into the coal field some distance, six and a half miles of road are formed and ready for the superstructure. The sills and rails are all on the spot, and will be laid whenever the coal harbor is completed at Sunbury, with its lock to pass the coal boats into the great basin of the Pennsylvania canal.

The proceeds arising from the sale of the bonds appear to have been ex- hausted with the finishing of the road to Paxinos. No facilities had yet been completed at Sunbury for trans-shipment to the canal, and Mr. Robinson, the engineer, suggested a cessation of active construction until connection should be established with the Susquehanna river and Pennsylvania canal. This was duly granted; and in the general appropriation for internal improve- ments in 1838, the Danville and Pottsville Railroad Company received fifty thousand dollars, to be expended in making the necessary improvements upon the western section and in extending it to a point twenty and one half miles east of Sunbury. It was the evident purpose of this latter provision to in- sure the completion of the western section in order that it might prove a feeder to the canal, a State work, and also place the road in a position to yield a revenue for the payment of the interest upon its bonded debt. In Au- gust, 1838, the road was opened to Shamokin. This event was duly cele- brated by a dinner at Kram's Hotel, at which Burd Patterson, Hugh Bel- las, John C. Boyd, and others were present and delivered addresses. On this occasion the locomotive was first introduced; it was the " North Star," built by Eastwick & Harrison, of Philadelphia, transported thence by canal to Sunbury, and engineered by Mr. Eastwick himself. The first passenger train from Shamokin to Sunbury consisted of the "North Star," the " Shamokin " and " Mahanoy "-the cars previously mentioned-and a few other cars.

The road was now regularly opened for traffic and travel between Sunbury and Shamokin. A second engine, the "Mountaineer," was added shortly

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afterward; Charles Gill and Lewis Garretson were the first engineers of the "North Star" and "Mountaineer," respectively, but retained their positions only about five months, when the former was succeeded by Benjamin Kater- man and the latter by George Shipe. Two trips were regularly made each day during the season of navigation on the canal, the trains consisting of forty loaded coal cars containing two and one half tons, while the empty cars constituted the train on the return trip from Sunbury. But the opera- tion of the road was attended with many difficulties and discouragements. The track consisted of wooden cross-ties laid upon the ground at intervals of several feet; on these oak stringers were fastened with wooden wedges, and the stringers, or rails, were covered with bar iron two and one half inches wide and one half of an inch thick. The weight of the engines was dispropor- tionate to the strength of this structure, and as a consequence the train was frequently off the track, and the track was frequently off the rail, causing vexations and expensive delays and ultimately resulting in the substitution of horse-power for the locomotives. Then the revenue from the road was insuffi- cient to enable the company to meet the interest on its obligations, and after several years of unprofitable operation the property was placed in the hands of Samuel R. Wood as sequestrator. Mr. Wood was the second superin- tendent; he was preceded by Thomas Sharpe, with whom were associated Patrick Reilly as master mechanic and Messrs. Robinson, Totten, and Cleaver, civil engineers. Mr. Wood had charge of the property as seques- trator for some years. The rolling stock was sold at sheriff's sale. The road was leased to William and Reuben Fagely in 1842, and during the ten years following they used it for the transportation of coal to Sunbury by horse- power. For this purpose one hundred horses were required; the round trip to Sunbury was made in two days, four or five horses hauling a train of ten cars.

During all this time, the annual interest on three hundred thousand dol- lars at five per cent. was regularly paid by appropriations from the State treasury; and, as the company seemed to have abandoned all hope of improv- ing the earning power of their road, strenuous efforts were made in the legislature to secure some disposition of the property that would obviate the payment of the annual interest, or at least reduce it in amount. Overtures were several times made to the holders of the bonds, but without arriving at any basis of adjustment; at length, on the 2d of April, 1850, an act was passed, the preamble of which defined the position of the State in the follow- ing language :-

WHEREAS, By an act of Assembly passed the 8th day of March, 1834, the faith of the State was pledged for the payment of the interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum for twenty-seven years upon a loan of three hundred thousand dollars to the Danville and Pottsville Railroad Company; and the said railroad, with other prop- erty of the said company, was mortgaged for the re-payment of the said loan; and the said company, having constructed a portion of their road extending ten miles from the

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eastern terminus, and another portion, twenty miles in length, extending from Suubury into the Shamokin coal fields, have permitted the former to go to ruin, and have prac- tically abandoned all care of the latter portion; and the said company are insolvent, and there is no reasonable prospect that they will ever complete the said railroad, and relieve the State from the annual drain of fifteen thousand dollars from her treasury; and

WHEREAS, The State has already paid the sum of two hundred twenty-five thou- sand dollars and will be called upon to pay the further sum of one hundred eighty thousand dollars interest to the holders of the said loan during the next twelve years; and the said railroad is yearly decreasing in value, and will in a year or two become useless for all purposes of transportation; and it is manifest that the holders of the said loan will realize a much greater sum towards the repayment thereof by an imme- diate sale of the said railroad, and the State will be relieved from the payment of the interest on the sum thus realized by the sale thereof.

The auditor general was thereupon instructed to obtain, if possible, the assent of the holders of the loan to a sale of the property under the provisions of the acts of April 21, 1846, and March 16, 1847, the proceeds to be applied to extinguishing the loan, any part thereof remaining unpaid to bear interest until the termination of the period of twenty-seven years originally specified. This consent was accordingly obtained, and, agreeably to the wishes of the legislature, the property of the company, its franchises, appurten- ances, etc. were sold at sheriff's sale on the 16th of January, 1851, and purchased on behalf of the holders of the loan for the sum of one hundred thirty thousand and fifty dollars-fifty dollars more than the minimum amount required by the legislature. Deducting the fees of the sheriff, amounting to four hundred dollars, there remained the sum of one hundred seventy thousand three hundred fifty dollars for the interest upon which the State was still liable under the act of 1834.

The new purchasers proceeded to reorganize the company, electing Nathaniel Chauncey president, and at a meeting held on the fourth Monday of April, 1851, at the Franklin House, Philadelphia, the name was changed to the Philadelphia and Sunbury Railroad Company. The rehabilitation of the property was an immediate and imperative necessity. In 1853 the track be- tween Sunbury and Shamokin was relaid with iron rails; new locomotives, known, respectively, as the "David Longenecker," "A. R. Fiske," "Green Ridge," "Carbon Run," "Thomas Baumgardner," and "Lancaster," were procured; and on the 25th of August, 1853, the formal reopening occurred. In the following year the road was extended to Mt. Carmel, and under the superintendency of A. R. Fiske the company's prospects improved. But in 1858, the line of the road from Sunbury to its intersection with the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven railroad having been sold under foreclosure, a second reorganization occurred under the name of the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad Company, which was invested with all the franchises of the former companies by an act of the legislature approved, March 25, 1858. The road was operated by the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company and

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independently until the 27th of February, 1863, when it was leased for nine hundred ninety-nine years to the Northern Central Railway Company; it may thus be regarded as a part of the great Pennsylvania system, and, after having experienced many of the vicissitudes incident to railroad construction in the experimental stage, this line has been, since its lease to the Northern Central, a valuable and productive property.

The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company was chartered as the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company on the 3d of April, 1837, and received its present name by act of Assembly, March 7, 1861. Among the original corporators were Henry Reader, David Watson, Montgomery Sweney, R. H. Hammond, Samuel Hepburn, Henry Frick, James Hepburn, Joseph R. Priestley, Hugh Bellas, Charles G. Donnel, Alexander Jordan, E. Greenough, Edward Gobin, John C. Boyd, Daniel Levy, Henry Yoxtheimer, Henry Mas- ser, William Forsyth, James Dougal, and Frederick Lazarus, of Northumber- land county. The period allotted for its completion was extended from time to time, and finally, on the 12th of February, 1846, the company was allowed until the 1st of June, 1851, to begin construction. The road was opened be- tween Williamsport and Milton, December 18, 1854, and between Milton and Northumberland, September 24, 1855. It was at first operated by the Cata- wissa Railroad Company, which ran its rolling stock over the line for some time, paying to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company a percentage of the net receipts as rental for the use of the roadway. The railway bridges over the North Branch at Northumberland were completed in December, 1855, and on the 7th of January, 1856, the road was opened to Sunbury, its eastern terminus. The length of the line, extending from this point to Erie, is two hundred eighty-seven and fifty-six hundredths miles, and it was opened the entire distance, October 17, 1864, having been previously leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for nine hundred ninety-nine years from the 1st of January, 1862. The line in Northumberland county begins at the northeast corner of Market square and Third street in Sunbury, crosses the North Branch to Northumberland, and continues on the east bank of the West Branch through the townships of Point, Chillisquaque, Turbut, and Delaware, with stations at Sunbury, Northumberland, Kapp's, Montandon, Milton, Watsontown, and Dewart.

The Northern Central Railway Company was formed on the 9th of December, 1854, by the consolidation of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Company, the York and Maryland Line Railroad Company, the York and Cumberland Railroad Company, and the Susquehanna Railroad Company. The main line extends from Baltimore, Maryland, to Sunbury, Pennsylvania, a distance of one hundred thirty-six and eighty-two hun- dredths miles. The line through this county formed part of the Susque- hanna Railroad Company's authorized route prior to the consolidation.

A railroad from Harrisburg to Sunbury was first projected in 1837, and

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on the 3d of April in that year an act was passed by the legislature provid- ing for the incorporation of the Harrisburg and Sunbury Railroad Company, the line to extend from the terminus of the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mt. Joy, and Lancaster railroad at Harrisburg to the terminus of the Danville and Pottsville railroad at Sunbury. Among the commissioners were Alex- ander Jordan, Charles G. Donnel, E. Greenough, Hugh Bellas, Edward Gobin, John C. Boyd, Mr. Backhouse, Peter Lazarus, George Brosius, and James Hepburn, of Northumberland county. Ten years' time was granted for the completion of the road, in default of which the charter was forfeited.

The Susquehanna Railroad Company was incorporated on the 14th of April, 1851, with power to construct a railroad connecting with the York and Cumberland, or with the Pennsylvania railroad on either side of the Susque- hanna or on the Juniata, thence extending through Halifax and Millersburg to Sunbury, with the privilege of continuing the line to Williamsport. John B. Packer, Charles W. Hegins, Alexander Jordan, H. B. Masser, George B. Youngman, William L. Dewart, Edward Y. Bright, Joseph R. Priestley, William Forsyth, Amos E. Kapp, James Pollock, Robert M. Frick, and Reuben Fagely, of Northumberland county, were among the projectors. On the 24th of November, 1852, a contract for the grading and masonry of the entire line between Sunbury and Bridgeport was awarded to Dougherty & Lauman; under this contract construction was begun, but not completed until after the formation of the Northern Central Railway Company. The formal opening of a part of the line occurred on the 24th of July, 1857, when the first passenger train from Harrisburg arrived at Trevorton bridge, proceeding thence to Trevorton, where the company partook of a sumptuous banquet at the hotel of Henry B. Weaver, Mr. Beebe, of New York, presi- dent of the Trevorton Coal and Railroad Company, presiding; addresses were made by President Barnum, of the Northern Central, J. Pinckney Whyte, a prominent member of the Baltimore bar, David Taggart, of North- umberland, John B. Packer, of Sunbury, and others.

On the 26th of August, 1857, Messrs. Faries and Morrison and Warford and Wright, chief engineer and assistant of the Sunbury and Erie and North- ern Central railroads, respectively, were engaged in making a preliminary sur- vey for the purpose of establishing the connection of their respective roads in Sunbury. The council of that borough, at a meeting on the following day, authorized the Northern Central to locate its road "in or through any street, lane, or alley in said borough the said company may deem expedient," which action was unanimously ratified at a public meeting held in the court house on the 2d of September. Third street was accordingly selected, and on the 8th of February, 1858, the work of grading through the borough was begun. The formal opening of the road to Sunbury occurred on the 28th of June, 1858. At nine A. M. a train left Sunbury for Harrisburg, and among the passengers was Governor William F. Packer, one of the earliest and

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most persistent promoters of the enterprise. The first train north arrived at half past three in the afternoon, bringing Mr. Barnum, the president of the company, Mr. Magraw, one of the directors, A. B. Warford, chief engineer, and other prominent railroad magnates.

The Sunbury, Hazelton and Wilkesbarre Railroad extends from Sun- bury to Tomhicken, Pennsylvania, a distance of forty-three and forty-four hundredths miles. The company was originally chartered as the Wilkesbarre and Pittston, April 15, 1859, for the construction of a railroad along the Susquehanna river from Pittston to Danville or Sunbury. April 10, 1867, the name was changed to the Danville, Hazelton and Wilkesbarre Railroad Company. The survey of the route was begun by F. C. Arms on the 22d of April, 1867. On the 10th of October following the contract for its construc- tion was awarded J. V. Creswell and W. M. Wiley, and the grading of three miles between Sunbury and Danville was finished in the same year. The progress of construction was attended with protracted interruptions, and it was not until March, 1869, that the laying of the track was begun. The line was formally opened from Sunbury to Danville on Thursday, November 4, 1869. A train left Sunbury for Danville in the morning, returning with a numerous company, who joined those already assembled for the occasion at that point. The officers at that date were as follows: president, Thomas Woods, of Philadelphia; vice-president and superintendent, Simon P. Kase, of Dan- ville; treasurer, S. P. Wolverton, of Sunbury; secretary, George Hill, of Sunbury; directors: Robert B. Sterling, S. P. Wolverton, George Hill, Ben- jamin Hendricks, Simon P. Kase, A. F. Russell, and H. W. McReynolds. The road was sold under foreclosure, March 20, 1878, and the company reorganized under its present title, May 1, 1878; it was leased by the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for fifty years from the latter date, and has since been operated as a branch of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. The line in this county passes through Upper Augusta, Gearhart, and Rush townships, with stations at Sunbury, Klinesgrove, Wolverton, Kipp's Run, Riverside, and Boyd.

The Sunbury and Lewistown Railway has its eastern terminus at Selinsgrove Junction, upon the east bank of the Susquehanna river in Lower Augusta township, Northumberland county, where it forms a connection with the Northern Central railway; thence it crosses the Susquehanna river to Selinsgrove, and extends through Snyder and Mifflin counties to Lewistown, upon the Juniata river, where it forms a connection with the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. The line is forty-three and fifty-seven hundredths miles in length. It was opened in 1871, sold under foreclosure in 1874, and leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad was originally chartered, April 12, 1853, as the Lewisburg, Centre and Spence Creek, and reorganized under existing title, December 31, 1879. It has its eastern terminus at Montan-

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don, on the east bank of the West Branch in Chillisquaque township, North- umberland county, where it forms a connection with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad; thence the line crosses the West Branch to Lewisburg and extends to Tyrone, upon the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. It was opened in 1872, and is operated as a branch of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad under lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company was chartered, April 4, 1833, and the first through trains between Philadelphia and Pottsville were run in January, 1842. The chief business of the company is the trans- portation of coal from the first and second anthracite coal fields of Pennsyl- vania to Port Richmond, Philadelphia; it owns all the stock in the Philadel- phia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, and thus controls the production as well as the transportation of coal from the properties with which the rail- road is connected, of which several of considerable importance are located in Northumberland county. The Reading lines in this county are the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy and Shamokin, Catawissa, and Shamo- kin, Sunbury and Lewisburg railroads.

The Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad was chartered, March 24, 1828, and opened on the 8th of October, 1831, but not extended to Locust Gap until some years later. The main line extends from Schuylkill Haven to Locust Gap.

On the 18th of October, 1860, an excursion train of six coaches formally opened a through route from Philadelphia to Sunbury by way of the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven road. It was confidently expected that the Phila- delphia and Erie would bring to Philadelphia an immense and valuable lake trade, to accomodate which two routes were in operation-the Philadelphia and Reading railroad to Port Clinton, and the Catawissa railroad thence to Williamsport; and the Northern Central to Harrisburg, with the Pennsyl- vania railroad thence to Philadelphia. A favorable opportunity for the opening of a third route was presented when the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven railroad was constructed to a point within four miles of the terminus of the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville railroad. In the autumn of 1860 this link was supplied, thus placing the Shamokin coal region in direct rail communication with Philadelphia. The excursion by which this route was formally opened was arranged by J. Dutton Steele and G. A. Nicholls, vice- president and superintendent, respectively, of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad. At the junction with the Shamokin Valley railroad the train was taken in charge by A. R. Fiske, superintendent of that line. Sunbury was reached in the evening; a band of music escorted the party to the Central Hotel, where a banquet was held and addresses were delivered by Frederick Frailey, president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company,. ex-Chief Justice Ellis Lewis, Philip F. Price, a director in the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company, and others. Among the four hundred members of the party was

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History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 34

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829- Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424