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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39021-8.txt b/39021-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bba7f15 --- /dev/null +++ b/39021-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6498 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and +Ogdensburg RailRoad, by Edward Hungerford + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailRoad + +Author: Edward Hungerford + +Release Date: March 1, 2012 [EBook #39021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +THE STORY OF THE ROME, WATERTOWN AND OGDENSBURGH RAILROAD + + + + +[Illustration: THE FLEET LOCOMOTIVE ANTWERP When She Dug Her Red Heels +into the Track the Railroad Men Reached for Their Watches.] + + + + + THE STORY + of the + Rome, Watertown and + Ogdensburgh Railroad + + + _By_ + EDWARD HUNGERFORD + + AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN RAILROAD," "OUR + RAILROADS--TOMORROW," ETC., ETC. + + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + + NEW YORK + ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY + 1922 + + + + + Copyright, 1922, by + EDWARD HUNGERFORD + + _Printed in the + United States of America_ + + Published, 1922 + + + + + TO THOSE PIONEERS + OF OUR + NORTH COUNTRY + WHO + _Labored Hard and Labored Well In + Order That It Might Enjoy the + Blessings of the Railroad, This + Book Is Dedicated by Its Author_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 1 + + II LOOKING TOWARD A RAILROAD 5 + + III THE COMING OF THE WATERTOWN & ROME 24 + + IV THE POTSDAM & WATERTOWN RAILROAD 59 + + V THE FORMATION OF THE R. W. & O. 79 + + VI THE R. W. & O. PROSPERS--AND EXPANDS 102 + + VII INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 128 + + VIII THE UTICA & BLACK RIVER 143 + + IX THE BRISK PARSONS' REGIME 171 + + X IN WHICH RAILROADS MULTIPLY 203 + + XI THE COMING OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL 227 + + XII THE END OF THE STORY 246 + + APPENDIX A 263 + + APPENDIX B 267 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The Fleet Locomotive _Antwerp_ _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + Orville Hungerford 31 + + The Cape Vincent Station 51 + + Early Railroad Tickets 71 + + Watertown in 1865 81 + + The Birth of the U. & B. R. 148 + + Hiram M. Britton 186 + + Snow Fighters 231 + + + + +PREFACE + + +Some railroads, like some men, experience many of the ups and downs of +life. They have their seasons of high prosperity, as well as those of deep +depression. Such a road was the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. In its +forty years of life it ran a full gamut of railroad existence. Alternately +it was one of the best railroads in creation; and one of the worst. + +The author within these pages has endeavored to put plain fact plainly. He +has written without malice--if anything, he still feels within his heart a +burst of warm sentiment for the old R. W. & O.--and with every effort +toward absolute impartiality in setting down these events that now are +History. He bespeaks for his little book, kindness, consideration, even +forbearance. And looks forward to the day when again he may take up his +pen in the scribbling of another narrative such as this. It has been a +task. But it has been a task of real fascination. + +E. H. + + + + +A LIST OF THOSE WHO HAVE ASSISTED MATERIALLY IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS +BOOK + + + RICHARD C. ELLSWORTH Canton + HAROLD B. JOHNSON Watertown + CORNELIUS CHRISTIE Syracuse + RICHARD HOLDEN Watertown + J. F. MAYNARD Utica + DR. CHARLES H. LEETE Potsdam + W. D. HANCHETTE Watertown + RICHARD T. STARSMEARE Kane, Pa. + W. D. CARNES Watertown + ARTHUR G. LEONARD Chicago + ROBERT WARD DAVIS Rochester + GEORGE W. KNOWLTON Watertown + L. S. HUNGERFORD Chicago + HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW New York + ELISHA B. POWELL Oswego + P. E. CROWLEY New York + IRA A. PLACE New York + F. E. MCCORMACK Corning + EDGAR VAN ETTEN Los Angeles + D. C. MOON Cleveland + JAMES H. HUSTIS Boston + F. W. THOMPSON San Francisco + HENRY N. ROCKWELL Albany + CHAS. H. HUNGERFORD Arlington, Vt. + CHARLES HOLCOMBE Biloxi, Miss. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION + + +In the late summer of 1836 the locomotive first reached Utica and a new +era in the development of Central and Northern New York was begun. + +For forty years before that time, however--in fact ever since the close of +the War of the Revolution--there had been a steady and increasing trek of +settlers into the heart of what was soon destined to become the richest as +well as the most populous state of the Union. But its development was +constantly retarded by the lack of proper transportation facilities. For +while the valley of the Mohawk, the gradual portage just west of Rome and +the way down to Oswego and Lake Ontario through Oneida Lake and its +emptying waterways, formed the one natural passage in the whole United +States of that day from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes and the +little-known country beyond, it was by no means an easy pathway. Not even +after the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company had builded its first +crude masonry locks in the narrow natural _impasse_ at Little Falls, so +that the _bateaux_ of the early settlers, which made the rest of the route +in comparative ease, might pass through its one very difficult +bottle-neck. + +It was not until the coming of the Erie Canal, there in the second decade +of the nineteenth century, that the route into the heart of New York from +tidewater at Albany, was rendered a reasonably safe and (for that day) +comfortable affair. With the completion of the Erie Canal, in 1827, there +was immediately inaugurated a fleet of packet-boats; extremely swift in +their day and generation and famed for many a day thereafter for their +comfortable cabins and the excellence of their meals. + +But the comfort of these ancient craft should not be overrated. At the +best they were but slow affairs indeed, taking three days to come from +Albany, where they connected with the early steamboats upon the Hudson, up +to Utica. And at the best they might operate but seven or eight months out +of the year. The rest of the twelvemonth, the unlucky wight of a traveler +must needs have recourse to a horse-drawn coach. + +These selfsame coaches were not to be scoffed at, however. Across the +central portion of New York; by relays all the way from Albany to Black +Rock or Buffalo, they made a swift passage of it. And up into the great +and little known North Country they sometimes made exceeding speed. That +country had received its first artificial pathways at the time of the +coming of the Second War with England, when it was thrust into a sudden +and great strategic importance. With the direct result that important +permanent highroads were at once constructed; from Utica north to the +Black River country, down the water-shed of that stream, and through +Watertown to Sackett's Harbor; and from Sackett's Harbor through +Brownville--the county seat and for a time the military headquarters of +General Jacob Brown--north to Ogdensburgh, thence east along the Canada +line to Plattsburgh upon Lake Champlain. + +These military roads still remain. And beside them traces of their +erstwhile glory. Usually these last in the form of ancient taverns--most +often built of limestone, the stone whitened to a marblelike color by the +passing of a hundred years, save where loving vines and ivy have clambered +over their surfaces. You may see them to-day all the way from Utica to +Sackett's Harbor; and, in turn, from Sackett's Harbor north and east to +Plattsburgh once again. But none more sad nor more melancholy than at +Martinsburgh; once in her pride the shire-town of the county of Lewis, +but now a mere hamlet of a few fine old homes and crumbling warehouses. A +great fire in the early fifties ended the ambitions of Martinsburgh--in a +single short hour destroyed it almost totally. And made its hated rival +Lowville, two miles to its north, the county seat and chief village of the +vicinage. + +There was much in this North Road to remind one of its prototype, the +Great North Road, which ran and still runs from London to York, far +overseas. A something in its relative importance that helps to make the +parallel. Whilst even the famous four-in-hands of its English predecessor +might hardly hope to do better than was done on this early road of our own +North Country. It is a matter of record that on February 19, 1829, and +with a level fall of thirty inches of snow upon the road, the mailstage +went from Utica to Sackett's Harbor, ninety-three miles, in nine hours and +forty-five minutes, including thirty-nine minutes for stops, horse relays +and the like. Which would not be bad time with a motor car this day. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LOOKING TOWARD A RAILROAD + + +The locomotive having reached Utica--upon the completion of the Utica & +Schenectady Railroad, August 2, 1836--was not to be long content to make +that his western stopping point. The fever of railroad building was upon +Central New York. Railroads it must have; railroads it would have. But +railroad building was not the quick and comparatively simple thing then +that it is to-day. And it was not until nearly four years after he had +first poked his head into Utica that the iron horse first thrust his nose +into Syracuse, fifty-three miles further west. In fact the railroad from +this last point to Auburn already had been completed more than a +twelvemonth and but fifteen months later trains would be running all the +way from Syracuse to Rochester; with but a single change of cars, at +Auburn. + +Upon the heels of this pioneer chain of railroads--a little later to +achieve distinction as the New York Central--came the building of a +railroad to the highly prosperous Lake Ontario port of Oswego--the +earliest of all white settlements upon the Great Lakes. + +At first it was planned that this railroad to the shores of Ontario should +deflect from the Utica & Syracuse Railroad--whose completion had followed +so closely upon the heels of the line between Schenectady and Utica--near +Rome, and after crossing Wood Creek and Fish Creek, should follow the +north shore of Oneida Lake and then down the valley of the Oswego River. +Oswego is but 185 miles from Lewiston by water and it was then estimated +that it could be reached in twenty-four or twenty-five hours from New York +by this combined rail and water route. + +Eventually however the pioneer line to Oswego was built out of Syracuse, +known at first as the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad; it afterwards became a +part of the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York and as a part of that line +eventually was merged, in 1872, into the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western +Railroad, which continues to operate it. This line of road led from the +original Syracuse station, between Salina and Warren Streets straight to +the waterside at Oswego harbor. There it made several boat connections; +the most important of these, the fleet of mail and passenger craft +operated by the one-time Ontario & St. Lawrence Steamboat Company. + +The steamers of this once famous line played no small part in the +development of the North Country. They operated through six or seven +months of the year, as a direct service between Lewiston which had at that +time highway and then later rail connection with Niagara Falls and +Buffalo, through Ogdensburgh, toward which, as we shall see in good time, +the Northern Railroad was being builded, close to the Canada line from +Lake Champlain and the Central Vermont Railroad at St. Albans as an outlet +between Northern New England and the water-borne traffic of the Great +Lakes. The steamers of this line, whose names, as well as the names of +their captains, were once household words in the North Country were: + + _Northerner_ Captain R. F. Child + _Ontario_ " H. N. Throop + _Bay State_ " J. Van Cleve + _New York_ " -------- + _Cataract_ " R. B. Chapman + _British Queen_ " Laflamme + _British Empire_ " Moody + +The first four of these steamers, each flying the American flag, were +deservedly the best known of the fleet. The _Ontario_, the _Bay State_ and +the _New York_ were built at French Creek upon the St Lawrence (now +Clayton) by John Oakes; the _Northerner_ was Oswego-built. They burned +wood in the beginning, and averaged about 230 feet in length and about 900 +tons burthen. There were in the fleet one or two other less consequential +boats, among them the _Rochester_, which plied between Lewiston and +Hamilton, in the then Canada West, as a connecting steamer with the main +line. The steamer _Niagara_, Captain A. D. Kilby, left Oswego each Monday, +Wednesday and Friday evening at eight, passing Rochester the next morning +and arriving at Toronto at four p. m. Returning she would leave Toronto on +the alternating days at 8:00 p. m., pass Rochester at 5:30 a. m. and +arrive at Oswego at 10:00 a. m., in full time to connect with the Oswego & +Syracuse R. R. train for Syracuse, and by connection, to Albany and the +Hudson River steamers for New York. A little later Captain John S. Warner, +of Henderson Harbor, was the Master of the _Niagara_. + +The "line boats," as the larger craft were known, also connected with +these through trains. In the morning they did not depart until after the +arrival of the train from Syracuse. In detail their schedule by 1850 was +as follows: + + Lv. Lewiston 4 p.m. + " Rochester 10 p.m. + " Oswego 9 a.m. + " Sackett's Harbor 12 m. + " Ogdensburgh 7 a.m. + Ar. Montreal 6 p.m. + + Lv. Montreal 9 a.m. + " Ogdensburgh 8 a.m. + " Kingston 4 p.m. + " Sackett's Harbor 9 p.m. + " Oswego 10 a.m. + " Rochester 6 p.m. + Ar. Lewiston 4 a.m. + +Here for many years, before the coming of the railroad, was an agreeable +way of travel into Northern New York. These steamers, even with thirty +foot paddle-wheels, were not fast; on the contrary they were extremely +slow. Neither were they gaudy craft, as one might find in other parts of +the land. But their rates of fare were very low and their meals, which +like the berths, were included in the cost of the passage ticket, had a +wide reputation for excellence. Until the coming of the railroad into +Northern New York, the line prospered exceedingly. Indeed, for a +considerable time thereafter it endeavored to compete against the +railroad--but with a sense of growing hopelessness. And eventually these +once famous steamers having grown both old and obsolete, the line was +abandoned. + +A rival line upon the north edge of Lake Ontario, the Richelieu & Ontario, +continued to prosper for many years, however, after the coming of the +railroad. Its steamers--the _Corsican_, the _Caspian_, the _Algerian_, +the _Spartan_, the _Corinthian_ and the _Passport_ best known, perhaps, +amongst them--ran from Hamilton, touching at Toronto, Kingston, Clayton, +Alexandria Bay, Prescott and Cornwall, through to Montreal, where +connections were made in turn for lower river ports. The last of these +boats continued in operation upon the St. Lawrence until within twenty +years or thereabouts ago. + +It is worthy of note that the completion in 1829 of the first Welland +Canal began to turn a really huge tide of traffic from Lake Erie into Lake +Ontario, and for two decades this steadily increased. In 1850 Ontario bore +some 400,000 tons of freight upon its bosom, yet in the following year +this had increased to nearly 700,000 tons, valued at more than thirty +millions of dollars. In 1853 a tonnage mark of more than a million was +passed and the Lake then achieved an activity that it has not known since. +In that year the Watertown & Rome Railroad began its really active +operations and the traffic of Ontario to dwindle in consequence. Whilst +the cross-St. Lawrence ferry at Cape Vincent, the first northern terminal +of the Rome road, began to assume an importance that it was not to lose +for nearly forty years. + + * * * * * + +Steamboat travel was hardly to be relied upon in a country which suffers +so rigorous a winter climate as that of Northern New York. And highway +travel in the bitter months between November and April was hardly better. +A railroad was the thing; and a railroad the North Country must have. The +agitation grew for a direct line at least between Watertown, already +coming into importance as a manufacturing center of much diversity of +product, to the Erie Canal and the chain of separate growing railroads, +that by the end of 1844, stretched as a continuous line of rails all the +way from Albany--and by way of the Western and the Boston & Worcester +Railroads (to-day the Boston and Albany) all the way from Boston +itself--to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Prosperity already was upon the +North Country. It was laying the foundations of its future wealth. It was +ordained that a railroad should be given it. The problem was just how and +where that railroad should be built. After a brief but bitter fight +between Rome and Utica for the honor of being the chief terminal of this +railroad up into the North Country, Rome was chosen; as far back as 1832. +Yet it was not until sixteen years later that the construction of the +Watertown & Rome Railroad, the pioneer road of Northern New York, was +actually begun. And had been preceded by a mighty and almost continuous +legislative battle in the old Capitol at Albany ... of which more in +another chapter. + +In the meantime other railroads had been projected into the North Country. +The real pioneer among all of these was the Northern Railroad, which was +projected to run due west from Rouse's Point to Ogdensburgh, just above +the head of the highest of the rapids of the St. Lawrence and so at that +time at the foot of the easy navigation of Ontario, and, by way of the +Welland Canal, of the entire chain of Great Lakes. + +The preliminary discussions which finally led to the construction of this +important early line also went as far back as 1829. Finally a meeting was +called (at Montpelier, Vt., on February 17, 1830) to seriously consider +the building of a railroad across the Northern Tier of New York counties, +from Rouse's Point, upon Lake Champlain, to Ogdensburgh, upon the St. +Lawrence. The promoters of the plan averred that trains might be operated +over the proposed line at fifteen miles an hour, that the entire journey +from Boston to Ogdensburgh might be accomplished in thirty-five hours. +There were, of course, many wise men who shook their heads at the rashness +of such prediction. But the idea fascinated them none the less; and +twenty-eight days later a similar meeting to that at Montpelier was held +at Ogdensburgh, to be followed a year later by one at Malone. + +So was the idea born. It grew, although very slowly. Communication itself +in the North Country was slow in those days, even though the fine military +road from Sackett's Harbor through Ogdensburgh to Plattsburgh was a +tolerable artery of travel most of the year. Money also was slow. And men, +over enterprises so extremely new and so untried as railroads, most +diffident. For it must be remembered that when the promoters of the +Northern Railroad first made that outrageous promise of going from Boston +to Ogdensburgh in thirty-five hours, at fifteen miles an hour, the +railroad in the United States was barely born. The first locomotive--the +_Stourbridge Lion_, at Honesdale, Penn.--had been operated less than a +twelvemonth before. In the entire United States there were less than +twenty-three miles of railroad in operation. So wonder it not that the +plan for the Northern Railroad grew very slowly indeed; that it did not +reach incorporation until fourteen long years afterward, when the +Legislature of New York authorized David C. Judson and Joseph Barnes, of +St. Lawrence County, S. C. Wead, of Franklin County and others as +commissioners to receive and distribute stock of the Northern Railroad; +$2,000,000 all told, divided into shares of $50 each. The date of the +formal incorporation of the road was May 14, 1845. Its organization was +not accomplished, however, until June, 1845, when the first meeting was +held in the then village of Ogdensburgh, and the following officers +elected: + + _President_, GEORGE PARISH, Ogdensburgh + _Treasurer_, S. S. WALLEY + _Secretary_, JAMES G. HOPKINS + _Chief Engineer_, COL. CHARLES L. SCHLATTER + + _Directors_ + + J. Leslie Russell, Canton + Charles Paine, Northfield, Vt. + Hiram Horton, Malone + S. F. Belknap, Windsor, Vt. + J. Wiley Edmonds, Boston + Benjamin Reed, Boston + Anthony C. Brown, Ogdensburgh + Isaac Spalding, Nashua, N. H. + Lawrence Myers, Plattsburgh + Abbot Lawrence, Boston + T. P. Chandler, Boston + S. S. Lewis, Boston + +Soon after the organization of the company, T. P. Chandler succeeded Mr. +Parish (who was for many years easily the most prominent citizen of +Ogdensburgh) as President, and steps were taken toward the immediate +construction of the line. After the inevitable preliminary contentions as +to the exact route to be followed, James Hayward made the complete surveys +of the line as it exists at present, while Colonel Schlatter, its chief +engineer and for a number of years its superintendent as well, prepared to +build it. Actual construction was begun in March, 1848, in the deep +cutting just east of Ogdensburgh. At the same time grading and the laying +of rail began at the east end of the road--at Rouse's Point at the foot of +Lake Champlain--with the result that in the fall of 1848 trains were in +regular operation between Rouse's Point and Centreville. A year later the +road had been extended to Ellenburgh; in June, 1850, to Chateaugay. On +October 1, 1850, trains ran into Malone. A month later it was finished and +open for its entire length of 117 miles. Its cost, including its equipment +and fixtures, was then placed at $5,022,121.31. + + * * * * * + +It is not within the province of this little book to set down in detail +the somewhat checkered career of the Northern Railroad. It started with +large ambitions--even before its incorporation, James G. Hopkins, who +afterwards became its Secretary, traveled through the Northern Tier and +expatiated upon its future possibilities in a widely circulated little +pamphlet. It was a road builded for a large traffic. So sure were its +promoters of this forthcoming business that they placed its track upon the +side of the right-of-way, rather than in the middle of it, in order that +it would not have to be moved when it came time to double-track the road. + +The road was never double-tracked. For some years it prospered--very well. +It made a direct connection between the large lake steamers at the foot of +navigation at Ogdensburgh--it will be remembered that Ogdensburgh is just +above the swift-running and always dangerous rapids of the St. +Lawrence--and the important port of Boston. The completion of the line was +followed almost immediately by the construction of a long bridge across +the foot of Lake Champlain which brought it into direct connection with +the rails of the Central Vermont at St. Albans--and so in active touch +with all of the New England lines. + +The ambitious hopes of the promoters of the Northern took shape not only +in the construction of the stone shops and the large covered depot at +Malone (built in 1850 by W. A. Wheeler--afterwards not only President of +the property, but Vice-President of the United States--it still stands in +active service) but in the building of 4000 feet of wharfage and elaborate +warehouses and other terminal structures upon the river bank at +Ogdensburgh. The most of these also still stand--memorials of the large +scale upon which the road originally was designed. + +Gradually, however, its strength faded. Other rail routes, more direct and +otherwise more advantageous, came to combat it. Fewer and still fewer +steamers came to its Ogdensburgh docks--at the best it was a seasonal +business; the St. Lawrence is thoroughly frozen and out of use for about +five months out of each year. The steamers of the upper Lakes outgrew in +size the locks of the Welland Canal and so made for Buffalo--in increasing +numbers. The Northern Railroad entered upon difficulties, to put it +mildly. It was reorganized and reorganized; it became the Ogdensburgh +Railroad, then the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain, then a branch of the +Central Vermont and then upon the partial dismemberment of that historic +property, a branch of the Rutland Railroad. As such it still continues +with a moderate degree of success. In any narrative of the development of +transport in the North Country it must be forever regarded, however, as a +genuine pioneer among its railroads. + + * * * * * + +One other route was seriously projected from the eastern end of the state +into the North Country--the Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Co. +which was chartered April 10, 1848. After desperate efforts to build a +railroad through the vast fastnesses of the North Woods--then a _terra +incognito_, almost impenetrable--and the expenditure of very considerable +sums of money, both in surveys and in actual construction, this +enterprise was finally abandoned. Yet one to-day can still see traces of +it across the forest. In the neighborhood of Beaver Falls, they become +most definite; a long cutting and an embankment reaching from it, a +melancholy reminder of a mighty human endeavor of just seventy years ago. +If this route had ever been completed, Watertown to-day would enjoy direct +rail communication with Boston, although not reaching within a dozen miles +of Albany. The Fitchburg, which always sought, but vainly, to make itself +an effective competitor of the powerful Boston & Albany, built itself +through to Saratoga Springs, largely in hopes that some day the line +through the forest to Sackett's Harbor would be completed. It was a vain +hope. The faintest chance of that line ever being built was quite gone. A +quarter of a century later the Fitchburg thrust another branch off from +its Saratoga line to reach the ambitious new West Shore at Rotterdam +Junction. That hope also faded. And the Fitchburg, now an important +division of the Boston & Maine, despite its direct route and short mileage +through the Hoosac Tunnel, became forever a secondary route across the +state of Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + +The reports of the prospecting parties of the Sackett's Harbor & Saratoga +form a pleasing picture of the Northern New York at the beginning of the +fifties. The company had been definitely formed with its chief offices at +80 Wall Street, New York, and the following officers and directors: + + _President_, WILLIAM COVENTRY H. WADDELL, New York + _Supt. of Operations_, GEN. S. P. LYMAN, New York + _Treasurer_, HENRY STANTON, New York + _Secretary_, SAMUEL ELLIS, Boston + _Counsel_, SAMUEL BEARDSLEY, Utica + _Consulting Engineer_, JOHN B. MILLS, New York + + _Directors_ + + Charles E. Clarke, Great Bend + Lyman R. Lyon, Lyons Falls + Robert Speir, West Milton + John R. Thurman, Chester + Zadock Pratt, Prattsville + Wm. Coventry H. Waddell, New York + P. Somerville Stewart, Carthage + E. G. Merrick, French Creek + James M. Marvin, Saratoga + Anson Thomas, Utica + Otis Clapp, Boston + Gen. S. P. Lyman, Utica + Henry Stanton, New York + +Mr. A. F. Edwards received his appointment as Chief Engineer of the +company on March 10, 1852, and soon afterwards entered upon a detailed +reconnoissance of the territory embraced within its charter. He examined +closely into its mineral and timber resources and gave great attention to +its future agricultural and industrial possibilities. In the early part of +his report he says: + +"In the latter part of September, 1852, I left Saratoga for the Racket +(Racquette) Lake, via Utica. On my way I noticed on the Mohawk that there +had been frost, and as I rode along in the stage from Utica to Boonville, +I saw that the frost had bitten quite sharply the squash vines and the +potatoes, the leaves having become quite black; but judge my surprise, +when three days later on visiting the settlement of the Racket, I found +the beans, cucumber vines, potatoes, &c., as fresh as in midsummer." + +His examination of the territory completed, Mr. Edwards began the rough +location of the line of the new railroad. From Saratoga it passed westerly +to the valley of the Kayaderosseras, in the town of Greenfield, thence +north through Greenfield Center, South Corinth and through the "Antonio +Notch" in the town of Corinth to the Sacondaga valley, up which it +proceeded to the village of Conklingville, easterly through Huntsville and +Northville, through the town of Hope to "the Forks." From there it went up +the east branch of the Sacondaga, through Wells and Gilman to the isolated +town of Lake Pleasant. Spruce Lake and the headwaters of the Canada Creek +were threaded to the summit of the line at the Canada Lakes. The middle +and the western branches of the Moose River were passed near Old Forge and +the line descended the Otter Creek valley, crossing the Independence River +and down the Crystal Creek through and near Dayansville and Beaver Falls +to Carthage where for the first time it would touch the Black River. + +From Carthage to Watertown it was planned that it would closely follow the +Black River valley, crossing the river three times, and leaving it at +Watertown for a straight run across the flats to Sackett's Harbor; along +the route of the already abandoned canal which Elisha Camp and a group of +associates had builded in 1822 and had left to its fate in 1832; in fact +almost precisely upon the line of the present Sackett's Harbor branch of +the New York Central. At the Harbor great terminal developments were +planned; an inner harbor in the village and an outer one of considerable +magnitude at Horse Island. + +From Carthage a branch line was projected to French Creek, now the busy +summer village of Clayton. The route was to diverge from the main line +about one mile west of Great Bend thence running in a tangent to the +Indian River, about a mile and one-half east of Evan's Mills, where after +crossing that stream upon a bridge of two spans and at a height of sixty +feet would recross it two miles further on and then run in an almost +straight line to Clayton. Here a very elaborate harbor improvement was +planned, with a loop track and almost continuous docks to encircle the +compact peninsula upon which the village is built. + +"At French Creek on a clear day," says Mr. Edwards, "the roofs of the +buildings at Kingston, across the St. Lawrence, can be seen with the naked +eye. All the steamers and sail vessels, up and down the river and lake, +pass this place and when the Grand Trunk Railroad is completed, it will be +as convenient a point as can be found to connect with the same." + +All the while he waxes most enthusiastic about the future possibilities of +Northern New York, particularly the westerly counties of it. He calls +attention to the thriving villages of Turin, Martinsburgh, Lowville, +Denmark, Lyonsdale (I am leaving the older names as he gives them in his +report) and Dayansville, in the Black River valley. + +"In the wealthy county of Jefferson," he adds, "are the towns of Carthage, +Great Bend, Felt's Mills, Lockport (now Black River), Brownville and +Dexter, with Watertown, its county seat, well located for a manufacturing +city, having ample water power, at the same time surrounded by a country +rich in its soil and highly cultivated to meet the wants of the +operatives. Watertown contains about 10,000 inhabitants and is the most +modern, city-like built, inland town in the Union, containing about 100 +stores, five banks, cotton and woolen factories, six large flouring +mills, machine shops, furnaces, paper mills, and innumerable other +branches of business, with many first class hotels, among which the +'Woodruff House' may be justly called the Metropolitan of Western New +York." + +In that early day, more than $795,000 had been invested in manufacturing +enterprises along the Black River, at Watertown and below. The territory +was a fine traffic plum for any railroad project. It seems a pity that +after all the ambitious dreams of the Sackett's Harbor & Saratoga and the +very considerable expenditures that were made upon its right-of-way, that +it was to be doomed to die without ever having operated a single through +train. The nineteen or twenty miles of its line that were put down, north +and west from Saratoga Springs, long since lost their separate identity as +a branch of the Delaware & Hudson system. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE COMING OF THE WATERTOWN & ROME + + +The first successful transportation venture of the North Country was still +ahead of it. The efforts of these patient souls, who struggled so hard to +establish the Northern Railroad as an entrance to the six counties from +the east, were being echoed by those who strove to gain a rail entrance +into it from the south. Long ago in this narrative we saw how as far back +as 1836 the locomotive first entered Utica. Six or seven years later there +was a continuous chain of railroads from Albany to Buffalo--precursors of +the present New York Central--and ambitious plans for building feeder +lines to them from surrounding territory, both to the north and to the +south. The early Oswego & Syracuse Railroad was typical of these. + +Of all these plans none was more ambitious, however, than that which +sought to build a line from Rome into the heart of the rich county of +Jefferson, the lower valley of the Black River and the St. Lawrence River +at almost the very point where Lake Ontario debouches into it. The scheme +for this road, in actuality, antedated the coming of the locomotive into +Utica by four years, for it was in 1832--upon the 17th day of April in +that year--that the Watertown & Rome Railroad was first incorporated and +Henry H. Coffeen, Edmund Kirby, Orville Hungerford and William Smith of +Jefferson County, Hiram Hubbell, Caleb Carr, Benjamin H. Wright and Elisha +Hart, of Oswego, and Jesse Armstrong, Alvah Sheldon, Artemas Trowbridge +and Seth D. Roberts, of Oneida, named by the Legislature as commissioners +to promote the enterprise. Later George C. Sherman, of Watertown, was +added to these commissioners. The act provided that the road should be +begun within three years and completed within five. Its capital stock was +fixed at $1,000,000, divided into shares of $100 each. + +The commercial audacity, the business daring of these men of the North +Country in even seeking to establish so huge an enterprise in those early +days of its settlement is hard to realize in this day, when our transport +has come to be so facile and easily understood a thing. Their courage was +the courage of mental giants. The railroad was less than three years +established in the United States; in the entire world less than five. Yet +they sought to bring into Northern New York, there at the beginning of the +third decade of the nineteenth century, hardly emerged from primeval +forest, the highway of iron rail, that even so highly a developed +civilization as that of England was receiving with great caution and +uncertainty. + +These men of the North Country had not alone courage, but vision; not +alone vision, but perseverance. Their railroad once born, even though as a +trembling thing that for years existed upon paper only, was not permitted +to die. It could not die. And that it should live the pioneers of +Jefferson and Oswego rode long miles over unspeakably bad roads with +determination in their hearts. + + * * * * * + +The act that established the Watertown & Rome Railroad was never permitted +to expire. It was revived; again and again and again--in 1837, in 1845, +and again in 1847. It is related how night after night William Smith and +Clarke Rice used to sit in an upper room of a house on Factory Street in +Watertown--then as now, the shire-town of Jefferson--and exhibit to +callers a model of a tiny train running upon a little track. Factory +Street was then one of the most attractive residence streets of Watertown. +The irony of fate was yet to transfer it into a rather grimy artery of +commerce--by the single process of the building of the main line of the +Potsdam & Watertown Railroad throughout its entire length. + +These men, and others, kept the project alive. William Dewey was one of +its most enthusiastic proponents. As the result of a meeting held at +Pulaski on June 27, 1836, he had been chosen to survey a line from +Watertown to Rome--through Pulaski. With the aid of Robert F. Livingston +and James Roberts, this was accomplished in the fall of 1836. Soon after +Dewey issued two thousand copies of a small thirty-two page pamphlet, +entitled _Suggestions Urging the Construction of a Railroad from Rome to +Watertown_. It was a potent factor in advocating the new enterprise; so +potent, in fact, that Cape Vincent, alarmed at not being included in all +of these plans, held a mass-meeting which was followed by the +incorporation of the Watertown & Cape Vincent Railroad, with a modest +capitalization of but $50,000. Surveys followed, and the immediate result +of this step was to include the present Cape Vincent branch in all the +plans for the construction of the original Watertown & Rome Railroad. + +These plans, as we have just seen, did not move rapidly. It is possible +that the handicap of the great distances of the North Country might have +been overcome had it not been that 1837 was destined as the year of the +first great financial crash that the United States had ever known. The +northern counties of New York were by no means immune from the severe +effects of that disaster. Money was tight. The future looked dark. But the +two gentlemen of Watertown kept their little train going there in the +small room on Factory Street. Faith in any time or place is a superb +thing. In business it is a very real asset indeed. And the faith of Clarke +Rice and William Smith was reflected in the courage of Dewey, who would +not let the new road die. To keep it alive he rode up and down the +proposed route on horseback, summer and winter, urging its great +necessity. + + * * * * * + +Out of that faith came large action once again. Railroad meetings began to +multiply in the North Country; the success of similar enterprises, not +only in New York State, but elsewhere within the Union, was related to +them. Finally there came one big meeting, on a very cold 10th of February +in 1847, in the old Universalist Church at Watertown. All Watertown came +to it; out of it grew a definite railroad. + +Yet it grew very slowly. In the files of the old _Northern State Journal_, +of Watertown, and under the date of March 29, 1848, I find an irritated +editorial reference to the continual delays in the building of the road. +Under the heading "Our Railroad," the _Journal_ describes a railroad +meeting held in the Jefferson County Court House a few days before and +goes on to say: + +"... Seldom has any meeting been held in this county where more unanimity +and enthusiastic devotion to a great public object have been displayed, +than was evidenced in the character and conduct of the assemblage that +filled the Court House.... _Go ahead_, and that _immediately_, was the +ruling motto in the speeches and resolutions and the whole meeting +sympathized in the sentiment. And indeed, it is time to go _ahead_. It is +now about sixteen years since a charter was first obtained and yet the +first blow is not struck. No excuse for further delay will be received. +None will be needed. We understand that measures have already been taken +to expend in season the amount necessary to secure the charter--to call in +the first installment of five per cent--to organize and put upon the line +the requisite number of engineers and surveyors--and to hold an election +for a new Board of Directors. + +"We trust that none but efficient men, firm friends of the Railroad, will +be put in the Direction. The Stockholders should look to this and vote for +no man that they do not know to be warmly in favor of an active +prosecution of the work to an early completion. This subject has been so +long before the community that every man's sentiments are known, and it +would be folly to expose the road to defeat now by not being careful in +the selection. With a Board of Directors such as can be found, the autumn +of 1849 should be signalized by the opening of the entire road from the +Cape to Rome. It can be done and it should be done. The road being a great +good the sooner we enjoy it the better." + +So it was that upon the sixth day of the following April the actual +organization of the Watertown & Rome Railroad was accomplished at the +American Hotel, in Watertown, and an emissary despatched to Albany, who +succeeded on April 28th in having the original Act for the construction of +the line extended, for a final time. It also provided for the increase of +the capitalization from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000--in order that the new +road, once built, could be properly equipped with iron rail, weighing at +least fifty-six pounds to the yard. It was not difficult by that time to +sell the additional stock in the company. The missionary work--to-day we +would call it propaganda--of its first promoters really had been a most +thorough job. + +[Illustration: ORVILLE HUNGERFORD First President of the Watertown & Rome +Railroad.] + +The original officers of the Watertown & Rome Railroad were: + + _President_, ORVILLE HUNGERFORD, Watertown + _Secretary_, CLARKE RICE, Watertown + _Treasurer_, O. V. BRAINARD, Watertown + _Superintendent_, R. B. DOXTATER, Watertown + + _Directors_ + + S. N. Dexter, New York + William C. Pierrepont, Brooklyn + John H. Whipple, New York + Norris M. Woodruff, Watertown + Samuel Buckley, Watertown + Jerre Carrier, Cape Vincent + Clarke Rice, Watertown + Robert B. Doxtater, New York + Orville Hungerford, Watertown + William Smith, Watertown + Edmund Kirby, Brownville + Theophilus Peugnet, Cape Vincent + +The summer of 1847 was spent chiefly in perfecting the organization and +financial plans of the new road, in eliminating a certain opposition to it +within its own ranks and in strengthening its morale. At the initial +meeting of the Board of Directors, William Smith had been allowed two +dollars a day for soliciting subscriptions while Messrs. Hungerford, +Pierrepont, Doxtater and Dexter were appointed a committee to go to New +York and Boston for the same purpose. A campaign fund of $500 was allotted +for this entire purpose. + +The question of finances was always a delicate and a difficult one. In the +minutes of the Board for May 10, 1848, I find that the question of where +the road should bank its funds had been a vexed one, indeed. It was then +settled by dividing the amount into twentieths, of which the Jefferson +County Bank should have eight, the Black River, four, Hungerford's, three, +the Bank of Watertown, three, and Wooster Sherman's two. + +Gradually these funds accumulated. The subscriptions had been solicited +upon a partial payment basis and these initial payments of five and ten +percent were providing the money for the expenses of organization and +careful survey. This last was accomplished in the summer of 1848, by Isaac +W. Crane, who had been engaged as Chief Engineer of the property at $2500 +a year. Mr. Crane made careful resurveys of the route--omitting Pulaski +this time; to the very great distress of that village--and estimated the +complete cost of the road at about $1,250,000. It is interesting to note +that its actual cost, when completed, was $1,957,992. + + * * * * * + +In that same summer, Mr. Brainard retired as Treasurer of the company and +was succeeded by Daniel Lee, of Watertown, whose annual compensation was +fixed at $800. Later, Mr. Lee increased this, by taking upon his shoulders +the similar post of the Potsdam & Watertown. The infant Watertown & Rome +found need of offices for itself. It engaged quarters over Tubbs' Hat +Store, which modestly it named The Railroad Rooms and there it was burned +out in the great fire of Watertown, May 13, 1849. + +All of these were indeed busy months of preparation. There were +locomotives to be ordered. Four second-hand engines, as we shall see in a +moment, were bought at once in New England, but the old engine _Cayuga_, +which the Schenectady & Utica had offered the Rome road at a +bargain-counter price of $2500 finally was refused. Negotiations were then +begun with the Taunton Locomotive Works for the construction of engines +which would be quite the equal of any turned out in the land up to that +time; and which were to be delivered to the company, at its terminal at +Rome--at a cost of $7150 apiece. Horace W. Woodruff, of Watertown, was +given the contract for building the cars for the new line; he was to be +paid for them, one-third in the stock of the company and two-thirds in +cash. His car-works were upon the north bank of the Black River, upon the +site now occupied by the Wise Machine Company and it was necessary to haul +the cars by oxen to the rails of the new road, then in the vicinity of +Watertown Junction. Yet despite the fact that his works in Watertown never +had a railroad siding Woodruff later attained quite a fame as a builder +of sleeping-cars. His cars at one time were used almost universally upon +the railroads of the Southwest. + + * * * * * + +Construction began upon the new line at Rome, obviously chosen because of +the facility with which materials could be brought to that point, either +by rail or by canal--although no small part of the iron for the road was +finally brought across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence to Cape +Vincent. Nat Hazeltine is credited with having turned the first bit of sod +for the line. The gentle nature of the country to be traversed by the new +railroad--the greater part of it upon the easy slopes at the easterly end +of Lake Ontario--presented no large obstacles, either to the engineers or +the contractors, these last, Messrs. Phelps, Matoon and Barnes, of +Springfield, Massachusetts. The rails, as provided in the extension of the +road's charter, were fifty-six pounds to the yard (to-day they are for the +greater part in excess of 100) and came from the rolling-mills of Guest & +Company, in Wales. The excellence of their material and their workmanship +is evidenced by the fact that they continued in service for many years, +without a single instance of breakage. When they finally were removed it +was because they were worn out and quite unfit for further service. + + * * * * * + +Construction once begun, went ahead very slowly, but unceasingly. By the +fall of 1850 track was laid for about twenty-four miles north of Rome and +upon September 10th of that year, a passenger service was installed +between Rome and Camden. Fares were fixed at three cents a mile--later a +so-called second-class, at one and one-half cents a mile was added--and a +brisk business started at once. + +It was not until May of the following year that the iron horse first poked +his nose into the county of Jefferson. The (Watertown) _Reformer_ +announced in its issue of May 1 that year that the six miles of track +already laid that spring would come into use that very week, bringing the +completed line into the now forgotten hamlet of Washingtonville in the +north part of Oswego county. Two weeks later, it predicted it would be in +Jefferson. + +Its prediction was accurately fulfilled. On the twenty-eighth day of the +month, at Pierrepont Manor, this important event formally came to pass and +was attended by a good-sized conclave of prominent citizens, who +afterwards repaired to the home of Mr. William C. Pierrepont, not far +from the depot, where refreshments were served. The rest your historian +leaves to your imagination. + +At that day and hour it seemed as if Pierrepont Manor was destined to +become an important town. The land office of its great squire was still +doing a thriving business. For Pierrepont Manor then, and for ten years +afterwards, was a railroad junction, with a famous eating-house as one of +its appendages. It seems that Sackett's Harbor had decided that it was not +going to permit itself to be outdone in this railroad business by Cape +Vincent. If the Harbor could not realize its dream of a railroad to +Saratoga it might at least build one to the new Watertown & Rome road +there at Pierrepont Manor, and so gain for itself a direct route to both +New York and Boston. And as a fairly immediate extension, a line on to +Pulaski, which might eventually reach Syracuse, was suggested. + +At any rate, on May 23, 1850, the Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh Railroad +was incorporated. Funds were quickly raised for its construction, and it +was builded almost coincidently with the Watertown & Rome. Thomas Stetson, +of Boston, had the contract for building the line; being paid $150,000; +two-thirds in cash and one-third in its capital stock. It was completed +and opened for business by the first day of January, 1853. It was not +destined, however, for a long existence. From the beginning it failed to +bring adequate returns--the Watertown & Rome management quite naturally +favoring its own water terminal at Cape Vincent. By 1860 it was in a +fearful quagmire. In November of that year, W. T. Searle, of Belleville, +its President and Superintendent, wrote to the State Engineer and Surveyor +at Albany, saying that the road had reorganized itself as the Sackett's +Harbor, Rome & New York, and that it was going to take a new try at life. +But it was a hard outlook. + +"The engine used by the company," Mr. Searle wrote, "belongs to persons, +who purchased it for the purpose of the operation of the road when it was +known by the corporate name of the Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh, and has +cost the corporation nothing up to the end of this year for its use. All +the cars used on the road (there were only four) except the passenger-car, +are in litigation, but in the possession of individuals, principally +stockholders in this road, who have allowed the corporation the use of +them free of expense...." + +Yet despite this gloom, the little road was keeping up at least the +pretense of its service. It had two trains a day; leaving Pierrepont Manor +at 9:40 a. m. and 5:00 p. m. and after intermediate stops at Belleville, +Henderson and Smithville reaching Sackett's Harbor at 10:45 a. m. (a +connection with the down boat for Kingston and for Ogdensburgh) and at +6:30 p. m. The trains returned from the Harbor at 11:00 a. m. and 7:00 p. +m. + +Reorganization, the grace of a new name, failed to save this line. The +Civil War broke upon the country, with it times of surpassing hardness and +in 1862 it was abandoned; the following year its rails torn up forever. +Yet to this day one who is even fairly acquainted with the topography of +Jefferson County may trace its path quite clearly. + +Here ended then, rather ignominiously to be sure, a fairly ambitious +little railroad project. And while Sackett's Harbor was eventually to have +rail transport service restored to it, Belleville was henceforth to be +left nearly stranded--until the coming of the improved highway and the +motor-propelled vehicle upon it. Yet it was Belleville that had furnished +most of the inspiration and the capital for the Sackett's Harbor & +Ellisburgh. And even though in its old records I find Mr. M. Loomis, of +the Harbor, listed as its Treasurer, Secretary, General Freight Agent and +General Ticket Agent--a regular Pooh Bah sort of a job--W. T. Searle, of +Belleville, was its President and Superintendent; and A. Dickinson, of +the same village, its Vice-President; George Clarke and A. J. Barney among +the Directors. These men had dared much to bring the railroad to their +village and failing eventually must finally have conceded much to the +impotence of human endeavor. + + * * * * * + +In the summer of 1851 work upon the Watertown & Rome steadily went forward +and at a swifter pace than ever before. All the way through to Cape +Vincent the contractors were at work upon the new line. They were racing +against time itself almost to complete the road. There were valuable mail +contracts to be obtained and upon these hung much of the immediate +financial success of the road. + +In the spring of 1922, by a rare stroke of good fortune, the author of +this book was enabled to obtain firsthand the story of the construction of +the northern section of the line. At Kane, Pa., he found a venerable +gentleman, Mr. Richard T. Starsmeare, who at the extremely advanced age of +ninety-five years was able to tell with a marvelous clearness of the part +that he, himself, had played in the construction of the line between +Chaumont and Cape Vincent. With a single wave of his hand he rolled back +seventy long years and told in simple fashion the story of his connection +with the Watertown & Rome: + +Young Starsmeare, a native of London, at the age of twenty had run away to +sea. He crossed on a lumber-ship to Quebec and slowly made his way up the +valley of the St. Lawrence. The year, 1850, had scarce been born, before +he found himself in the stout, gray old city of Kingston in what was then +called Upper Canada. It was an extremely hard winter and the St. Lawrence +was solidly frozen. So that Starsmeare had no difficulty whatsoever in +crossing on the ice to Cape Vincent. That was on the sixteenth day of +January. Sleighing in the North Country was good. The English lad had +little difficulty in picking up a ride here and a ride there until he was +come to Henderson Harbor to the farm of a man named Leffingwell. Here he +found employment. + +But Starsmeare had not come to America to be a farmer. And so, a year +later, when the spring was well advanced, he borrowed a half-dollar from +his employer and rode in the stage to Sackett's Harbor. That ancient port +was a gay place there at the beginning of the fifties. Its piers were so +crowded that vessels lay in the offing, their white sails clearly outlined +against the blue of the harbor and the sky, awaiting an opportunity to +berth against them. But the vessels had no more than a passing interest +for the young Englishman who saw them in all the rush and bustle of the +Sackett's Harbor of 1850. For men in the lakeside village were whispering +of the coming of the railroad, of the magic presence of the locomotive +that so soon was to be visited upon them. + +At these rumors the pulse of young Richard Starsmeare quickened. He had +seen the railroad already--back home. He had seen it in his home city of +London, had seen it cutting in great slits through Camden Town and Somers +Town, riding across Lambeth upon seemingly unending brick viaducts. His +desire formed itself. He would go to work upon this railroad.... The +master of a small coasting ship sailing out from Sackett's Harbor that +very afternoon offered him a lift as far as Three Mile Bay. At Three Mile +Bay they were to have the railroad. Yet when he arrived there were no +signs whatsoever of the iron horse or his special pathway. + +"At Chaumont you will find it," they told him there. Off toward Chaumont +he trudged. And presently was awarded by the sight of bright yellow stakes +set in the fields. He followed these for a little way and found teams and +wagons at work. Here was the railroad. The railroad needed men. +Specifically it needed young Starsmeare. He found the boss contractor; and +went to work for him. He helped get stone out of a nearby quarry for +Chaumont bridge. That winter he assisted in the building of Chaumont +bridge; a rather pretentious enterprise for those days. + + * * * * * + +Steadily the Watertown & Rome went ahead. On the Fourth of July, 1851, it +was completed to Adams, which was made the occasion of a mighty +Independence Day celebration in that brisk village. Upon the arrival of +the first train at its depot, a huge parade was formed which marched up +into the center of the town, where Levi H. Brown, of Watertown, read the +Declaration of Independence, and William Dewey, who had made the building +of the Watertown & Rome his life work, delivered a smashing address. +Afterwards the procession reformed and returned to the depot where a big +dinner was served and the drinking of toasts was in order. There were +fireworks in the evening and the Adams Guards honored the occasion with a +torchlight parade. + +For some weeks the line halted there at Adams. A citizen of Watertown +wrote in his diary in August of that year that he had had a fearful time +getting home from New York "... The cars only ran to Adams, and I had to +have my horse sent down there from Watertown. I had a hard time for a +young man...." he complains naïvely. + +The railroad was, however, opened to Watertown, its headquarters, its +chief town, and the inspiration that had brought it into being, on the +evening of September 5, 1851. At eleven o'clock that evening, up to the +front of the passenger station, then located near the foot of Stone +Street, the first locomotive came into Watertown. I am not at all sure +which one of the road's small fleet it was. It had started building +operations with four tiny second-hand locomotives which it had garnered +chiefly from New England--the _Lion_, the _Roxbury_, the _Commodore_ and +the _Chicopee_. Of these the _Lion_ was probably the oldest, certainly the +smallest. It had been builded by none other than the redoubtable George +Stephenson, himself, in England, some ten or fifteen years before it first +came into Northern New York. It was an eight-wheeled engine, of but +fourteen tons in weight. So very small was it in fact that it was of very +little practical use, that Louis L. Grant, of Rome, who was one of the +road's first repair-shop foreman, finally took off the light side-rods +between the drivers--the _Lion_ was inside connected, after the inevitable +British fashion, and had a V-hook gear and a variable cut-off--and gained +an appreciable tractive power for the little engine. + +But, at the best, she was hardly a practical locomotive, even for 1851. +And soon after the completion of the road to Cape Vincent she was +relegated to the round-house there and stored against an emergency. That +emergency came three or four years after the opening of the line. A +horseman had ridden in great haste to the Cape from Rosiere--then known as +LaBranche's Crossing--with news of possible disaster. + +"The wood-pile's all afire at the Crossing," he shouted. "Ef the road is a +goin' to have any fuel this winter you'd better be hustling down there." + +Richard Starsmeare was on duty at the round-house. He hurriedly summoned +the renowned Casey Eldredge, then and for many years afterwards a famed +engineer of the Rome road and Peter Runk, the extra fireman there. +Together they got out the little _Lion_ and made her fast to a flat-car +upon which had been put four or five barrels filled with water to +extinguish the conflagration. It would have been a serious matter indeed +to the road to have had that wood-pile destroyed. It was one of the chief +sources of fuel supply of the new railroad. The _Lion_, with its tiny +fire-fighting crew, went post-haste to LaBranche's. But when it had +arrived the farmers roundabout already had managed to extinguish the +flames.... Casey Eldredge reached for his watch. + +"Gee," said he, "we shall have to be getting out of this. The Steamboat +Express will be upon our heels. Peter, get the fire up again." + +Peter got the fire up. He opened the old fire-box door and thrust an +armful of pine into it. The blaze started up with a roar. And then the men +who were on the engine found themselves lying on their backs on the grass +beside the railroad.... + +They plowed the _Lion_ out of the fields around LaBranche's for the next +two years. Her safety-valve was turned out of the ground by a farmer's boy +a good two miles from the railroad. Starsmeare got it and carried it in +his tool-box for years thereafter--he quickly rose to the post of engineer +and in the days of the Civil War ran a locomotive upon the United States +Military Railroad from Washington south through Alexandria to Orange Court +House. + +So perished the _Lion_. The little _Roxbury's_ fate was more prosaic. With +the flanges upon her driving-wheels ground down and her frame set upon +brick piers she became the first powerhouse of the Rome shops. The +_Commodore_ and the _Chicopee_ were larger engines. With their names +changed they entered the road's permanent engine fleet. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the Watertown & Rome was having its own new locomotives +builded for it in a shop in the United States. Four of the new engines +were completed and ready for service about the time that the road was +opened into Watertown. The fifth engine, the _Orville Hungerford_, built +like its four immediate predecessors, by William Fairbanks, at Taunton, +Mass., was not delivered until the 19th day of that same September, 1851. +The _Hungerford_ was quite the best bit of the road's motive-power, then +and for a number of years thereafter. She was inside connected--her +cylinders and driving-rods being placed inside of the wheels; always the +fashion of British locomotives--and it was not until a long time +afterwards that she was rebuilt in the Rome shops and the cylinders and +rods placed outside, after the present-day American fashion. She was but +twenty-one and a half tons in weight all-told, while her four +predecessors, the _Watertown_, the _Rome_, the _Adams_ and the _Kingston_, +each twenty-two tons and a half. + + * * * * * + +I have digressed. It still is the evening of the fifth of September, 1851. +A great crowd had congregated that evening in the neighborhood of that +first, small temporary station at Watertown. The iron horse was greeted +with many salvos of applause, the waving of a thousand torches and, it is +to be presumed, with the presence of a band. Yet the real celebration over +the arrival of the railroad was delayed for nineteen days, when there was +a genuine _fête_. It was first announced by the _Reformer_ on the 4th of +September, saying: + +"... We are informed by R. B. Doxtater, Esq., the gentlemanly and +efficient Superintendent of the Watertown & Rome Railroad, that the public +celebration in connection with the opening of this road will take place on +Wednesday, the 24th September. This will be a proud day for Jefferson +County and we trust that she may wear the honor conferred upon her in a +becoming manner. The known liberality of our citizens induces the belief +that nothing will be left undone on their part to contribute to the +general festivities and interest of the occasion...." + +Nothing was left undone. The morning of the 24th of September was ushered +in by a salute of guns; thirteen in all, one for each member of the Board +of Directors. At 10 o'clock a parade formed in the Public Square, under +the direction of General Abner Baker, Grand Marshal of the day, and in the +following formation: + + Music + Watertown Citizens' Corps + Order of The Sons of Temperance + Fire Companies of Watertown and Rome + Order of Odd Fellows + Committee of Arrangements + Corporate Authorities of Watertown, Kingston, Rome and Utica + Clergy and the Press + Officers, Directors, Engineers and Contractors + of the + Watertown & Rome Railroad + Specially Invited Guests + Strangers from Abroad and the Stockholders + Citizens + +The procession marched down Stone Street to the passenger depot of the new +railroad where the special train from Rome arrived at a little after +eleven o'clock and was greeted by a salvo of seventy-two guns--one for +each mile of completed line. There it reformed, with its accessions from +the train and returned to the Public Square where there was unbridled +oratory for nearly an hour. After which a return to the depot in which a +large collation was served, before the return to the special train for +Rome. + +So came the railroad to Watertown. By an odd coincidence, the Hudson River +Railroad from New York to Albany was finished in almost that same month. +It was with a good deal of pride that the resident of Watertown +contemplated the fact that he might leave his village by the morning +train at five o'clock and be in the metropolis of the New World by six +o'clock that same evening. Such speed! Such progress! + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the Watertown & Rome Railroad had sustained a real loss; +in the death, on the morning of Sunday, April 6, 1851, of its first +President, the Hon. Orville Hungerford. As the son of one of the earliest +pioneers of Watertown, Mr. Hungerford had played no small part in its +development. Merchant, banker, Congressman, he had been to it. And to the +struggling Watertown & Rome Railroad he was not merely its President, but +its financial adviser and friend. It was due to his personal endorsement +of the project, as well as that of his bank, that hope in it was finally +revived. Then it was that foreign capitalists had their doubts as to its +final success dispelled and gave evidence of their faith in the new road +by substantial purchases of its securities. + +Mr. Hungerford was succeeded as President of the Watertown & Rome by Mr. +W. C. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, who, while in one sense an alien to +Jefferson County, was in another and far larger one, not only one of her +chief residents but one of her most loyal sons. He, too, had been a +powerful friend and advocate of the new road, had worked tirelessly in +its behalf. It was his rare opportunity to stand as its President when the +locomotive first arrived at Pierrepont Manor, the center of his land +holdings, and a very few months later in the same enviable post at +Watertown. It was his patient habit to go down to the depot at the Manor +evening after evening and with a spy-glass in hand watch the track toward +Mannsville for the coming of the evening train. There was no telegraph in +those days, of course, and the locomotive's smoke was the only signal of +its pending arrival. Neither was there any standard time. Finally it was +Pierrepont, himself, who fixed the official time for the road, +ascertaining by a skillful use of his chronometer that the suntime at +Watertown was just seven minutes and forty-eight seconds slower than that +of the City Hall in New York. And so it was officially fixed for the +railroad. + +Under Mr. Pierrepont's oversight the Watertown & Rome Railroad was +finished; through to the village of Chaumont in the fall of 1851, and then +in April of the following year to Cape Vincent, its original northern +terminal. At this last point elaborate plans were made for a water +terminal. Even though the harbor there was not to be protected by a +breakwater for many, many years to come, the town was recognized as an +international gateway of a very considerable importance. A ferry steamer, +_The Lady of the Lake_, which had attained a distinction from the fact +that it was the first upon these northern waters to have staterooms upon +its upper decks, was engaged for service between the Cape and the city of +Kingston, in Upper Canada. Extensive piers and an elevator were builded +there upon the bank of the St. Lawrence, and the large covered passenger +station that was so long a familiar landmark of that port. + +[Illustration: THE CAPE VINCENT STATION A Real Landmark of the Old Rome +Road, Built in 1852 and Destroyed by a Great Storm in 1895.] + +For forty years this station stood, even though the span of life of the +large hotel that adjoined it was ended a decade earlier by a most +devastating fire. But, upon the evening of September 11, 1895, when +Conductor W. D. Carnes--best known as "Billy" Carnes--brought his train +into the shed to connect with the Kingston boat, a violent storm thrust +itself down upon the Cape. In the rainburst that accompanied it, the folk +upon the dock sought shelter in the trainshed, and there they were +trapped. The wind swept through the open end of that ancient structure and +lifted it clear from the ground, dropping it a moment later in a thousand +different pieces. It was a real catastrophe. Two persons were killed +outright and a number were seriously injured. The event went into the +annals of a quiet North Country village, along with the fearful disaster +of the steamer _Wisconsin_, off nearby Grenadier Island, many years +before. + + * * * * * + +With the Cape Vincent terminal completed, the regular operation of trains +upon the Watertown & Rome began; formally upon the first day of May, 1852. +Six days later the road suffered its first accident, a distressing affair +in the neighborhood of Pierrepont Manor. A party of young men in that +village had taken upon themselves to "borrow" a hand-car, left by the +contractor beside the track and were whirling a group of young women of +their acquaintance upon it when around the curve from Adams came a "light" +locomotive at high-speed, which crashed into them head-on and killed three +of the women almost instantly; and seriously wounded a fourth. + +The first employe to lose his life in the service was brakeman George +Post, who, on October 13th, of that year, was going forward to lighten the +brakes on the northbound freight, as it reached the long down-grade, north +of Adams Centre, when he was struck by an overhead bridge and died before +aid could reach him. + +These men of the North Country were learning that railroading is not all +prunes and preserves. They had their own troubles with their new +property. For one thing, the engines kept running off the track. There +were three locomotive derailments in a single day in 1853 and the +Directors asked the Superintendent if he could not be a little more +careful in the operation of the line. They also officially chided, quite +mildly, one of their number who had contributed twenty-five dollars to the +Fourth-of-July celebration in Watertown that summer without asking the +consent of the full Board. On the other hand, they quite genially voted +annual passes for an indefinite number of years to the widows of Orville +Hungerford and of Edmund Kirby as well as their daughters. + +It was only two years later than this that there was a change in the +Superintendent's office, Job Collamer, who had succeeded its original +holder Robert B. Doxtater, being succeeded by Carlos Dutton who was paid +the rather astonishing salary, for those days, of $4000 a year. A year +later R. E. Hungerford, of Watertown, succeeded Daniel Lee, who was +compelled to retire by serious illness as the company's Treasurer and was +paid $1500 a year, with an occasional five-hundred-dollar bond from the +sinking fund as special compensation at Christmas time. It was about this +time also, that John S. Coons, now of Watertown, became station-agent at +Brownville, a post which he held for four or five years. + +These events were, perhaps, to be reckoned as fairly casual things in the +life of a railroad which, to almost any community is life itself. From the +beginning the Watertown & Rome played a most important part in the life of +the steadily growing territory that it served. Northern New York was +finally beginning to come into its own. More than a hundred thousand folk +already were residing in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties. No +longer was it regarded as a vast wilderness somewhere north of the Erie +Canal. Horace Greeley had visited it in the fifties, had lectured in what +was afterwards Washington Hall, Watertown, and had been tremendously +impressed by Mr. Bradford's portable steam engine. And in 1859 the eyes of +the entire land were focused upon Watertown and its immediate +surroundings. + +That was the year of the big ballooning. John Wise, of Lancaster, +Pennsylvania, a well-famed aeronaut, together with three companions--John +La Mountain, of Troy, and William Hyde and O. A. Geager, both of +Bennington, Vermont--had set forth from St. Louis in the evening in the +mammoth balloon, _Atlantic_, with the expressed intention of sailing to +New York City in it. All night long they traveled and sometime before +dawn La Mountain fancied that they were over one of the Great +Lakes--probably Erie. He awakened his sleeping companions and pointing far +over the basket-edge told them that they were passing over the surface of +a large body of water. + +"You can see the stars below you now," he explained. + +And so they were, over Erie. They continued to sail between the stars +until dawn, and sometime just before noon they crossed the Niagara River, +well in sight of the Falls. Winging their flight at a rate that man had +never before made and would not make again for many and many a year to +come, the _Atlantic_ traveled the whole length of Ontario before four +o'clock in the afternoon and finally made a forced landing not far from +the village of Henderson. + +The fame that arose from so vast an exploit literally swept around the +world. Hyde and Geager had had enough of ballooning and returned to their +Vermont home. Wise went back to Lancaster, but La Mountain found an +intrepid and a fearless companion in John A. Haddock, at that time editor +of the _Watertown Reformer_, who once had been into the wilds of Labrador +and had returned safely from them. Together these men rescued the +_Atlantic_ from the tangle of tree-tops into which it had fallen. On +August 11th of that same year they announced an ascension from the Fair +Grounds in Watertown, accompanied by La Mountain's young cousin, Miss +Ellen Moss. And on the twenty-second of the following September the two +men made what was destined to be the final ascent of the great _Atlantic_. +The balloon rose high--from the Public Square, this time--and floated off +toward the north in a strong wind. In a little less than three hours it +traversed some four hundred miles. Then a quick landing was made, in the +vast and untrodden Canadian forest, some 150 miles due north of Ottawa, a +region even more desolate then than to-day. + +For four days the men were lost, hopelessly. Their airship was abandoned +in the trees and they made their way afoot as best they might until they +came into the path of a party of lumbermen bound for Ottawa. It was +another seven days before they had reached the Canadian capital and the +outposts of the telegraph--in all eleven endless days before Watertown +knew the final result of the foolhardy ascension, and prepared a mighty +welcome for them, whom they had given up as dead. + + * * * * * + +To these really tremendous events in the history of the North Country the +Watertown & Rome and the Potsdam & Watertown railroads--of this last, +much more in a moment--ran excursions from all Northern New York. Vast +throngs of people came upon them. The effect upon the passenger revenues +of the two railroads was appreciable upon the occasion of the balloon +ascension, just as it had been three summers before, when the first State +Fair had been held in Watertown--in a pleasant grove very close to the +site of the present Jefferson County Orphans Home. At that time the Rome +road had taken in nearly $11,000 in excursion receipts and the Potsdam +road, although at that time only completed from Watertown to Gouverneur, +more than $5,000. This was used as an argument by the promoters of the +second State Fair at Watertown--held on the present county fair grounds in +the fall of 1860, for a subscription of a thousand dollars from each of +the roads--which was promptly granted. + +Yet the Watertown & Rome Railroad needed no excursions for its prosperity. +It had prospered greatly; from the beginning. Its four passenger trains a +day--two up and two down--were well filled always. Its freight train which +ran over the entire length of the line from Rome to Cape Vincent each day +did an equally good business. Already it had the third largest freight-car +equipment of any railroad in the state. Its success was a tremendous +incentive to all other railroad projects in the North Country. From it +they all took hope. We have seen long ago the serious efforts that were +being made to build a road direct from Sackett's Harbor up the valley of +the Black River to Watertown and Carthage and thence across the +all-but-impenetrable North Woods to Saratoga. Yet nowhere was it more +obvious that a railroad should be builded than between Watertown and some +convenient point upon the Northern Railroad, which already was in complete +operation between Lake Champlain and Ogdensburgh. Such a railroad +presently was builded; taking upon itself the appellation of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad. And to the consideration of the beginnings of that +railroad, a most vital part of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, that was +as yet unborn, we are now fairly come. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE POTSDAM & WATERTOWN RAILROAD + + +A very early survey of the Northern Railroad which, as we have already +seen, was the pioneer line of the North Country, projected the road +between Malone and Ogdensburgh through the prosperous villages of Canton +and Potsdam. This survey was rejected. The sponsors of the +Northern--almost all of them Boston and New England men and having little +personal knowledge of Northern New York and certainly none at all of its +possibilities--thrust this preliminary survey away from them. They decided +that the road should run between its terminals with as small a deviation +from a straight line as possible. So, from Rouse's Point to Ogdensburgh, +through Malone, the Northern Railroad ran with long tangents and few +curves and both Canton and Potsdam were left aside. Through traffic from +the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River was all that the early +directors of the line could see. Their vision was indeed limited. + +Canton and Potsdam began to feel their isolation from these earliest +railroad enterprises. They were cut off apparently from railroad +communication, either with the East or with the West. The Watertown & Rome +Railroad, as planned from Cape Vincent to Rome, would, of course, pass +through Watertown, but no one seemed to think of building it east from +that village. + +So, practically all of St. Lawrence County and the northern end of +Jefferson was left without railroad hopes. Dissatisfaction arose, even +before the completion of the Watertown & Rome, that so large a territory +had been so completely slighted. Potsdam, in particular, felt the +indignity that had been heaped upon it. And so it was, that, as far back +as 1850, fifty-eight of the public-spirited citizens of that village +organized themselves into the Potsdam Railroad Company and proceeded to +name as their directors: Joseph H. Sanford, William W. Goulding, Samuel +Partridge, Henry L. Knowles, Augustus Fling, Theodore Clark, Charles T. +Boswell, Willard M. Hitchcock, William A. Dart, Hiram E. Peck, Aaron T. +Hopkins, Charles Cox and Nathan Parmeter. Among the stockholders of this +early railroad company were Horace Allen and Liberty Knowles, whose +advanced age debarred them from active participation in its work, but who +responded liberally to frequent calls for aid in its construction. + +Soon after the incorporation of the Potsdam Railroad, it was built, +primarily as a branch of some five and one-half miles connecting Potsdam +with the Northern Railroad at a point, which, for lack of an immediate +better name, was called Potsdam Junction. Afterwards it was renamed +Norwood. An attractive village sprang up about the junction, which finally +boasted one of the best of the small hotels of the whole North Country; +the famed Whitney House, with which the name and fame of the late "Sid" +Phelps was so closely connected for so many years. + + * * * * * + +The success of Potsdam with her railroad and the consequent prosperity +that it brought to her stirred the interest and the envy of the +neighboring village of Canton; the shire-town of St. Lawrence. Gouverneur +spruced up also. The St. Lawrence towns began to coöperate. To them came a +great community of interest from the northerly townships and villages of +Jefferson as well--Antwerp, Philadelphia and Evan's Mills in particular. +The demand for a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam began to take a +definite form. + +It was not an easy task to which the towns and men of St. Lawrence and of +Jefferson had set themselves. Its financial aspects were portentous, to +put it mildly. The money for the Northern Railroad had come from New +England. That for the Watertown & Rome also had come with a comparative +ease. Watertown even then was a rich and promising industrial center and +there seemed to be genuine financial opportunities for a railroad that +would connect it with the outer world. But St. Lawrence County, there at +the beginning of the fifties, was poor and undeveloped. Necessarily, the +money for its railroad would have to come from its own territory. +Nevertheless, undaunted by difficulties, these men of that territory set +about to build a railroad from Potsdam to Watertown. They dared much. +Theirs was the spirit of the true pioneer, the same spirit that was +building a college at Canton and had built academies at Gouverneur and at +Potsdam, and that was planning in every way for the future development of +the North Country. + +These men knew more than a little of the resources of their townships. +They whispered among themselves of the wealth of their minerals. Along the +county-line between St. Lawrence and Jefferson, in the neighborhood of +Keene's Station, there stand to-day unused iron mines of a considerable +magnitude. Flooded and for the moment deserted, these mines house some of +the greatest of the untouched treasures of Northern New York; vast +deposits of red hematite, exceeding in percentage value even the famous +fields of the Mesaba district of Lake Superior. In the course of this +narrative I shall refer again to these Keene mines. For the moment +consider them as a monument--a somewhat neglected monument to be sure--to +the vision and persistence of James Sterling. + +It was largely due to the enterprise of this pioneer of Jefferson County +that mines and blast furnaces sprang up, not only at Keene's but at +Sterlingville and Lewisburgh as well. He built many of the highways and +bridges both of Antwerp and of Rossie. Yet, in the closing days of the +fifties, he was doomed to bitter disappointments. The great panic of 1857 +and the inrush of cheap iron that followed in its wake were quite too much +for him, and the man who had been known through the entire state as the +"Iron King of Northern New York" died in 1863, from a general physical and +mental breakdown, due in no small part to the collapse of his fortunes. + + * * * * * + +I anticipate, we were talking of railroads, not of men. Yet, somehow, men +must forever weave themselves into the web of a narrative such as this. +And no fair understanding can ever be had of the difficulties under which +the railroads of the North Country were born without an understanding of +the difficulties under which the men who helped give them birth labored. +To return once again to the main thread of our story, the agitation for +the building of a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam followed closely +upon the heels of the completion of the Northern Railroad and the branch +Potsdam Railroad, from it to the fine village of that name. Stock in the +Northern Railroad had been sold both there and in Canton, even though the +road when completed had passed each by. The men who held that stock wanted +to come to the aid of the newer project. With their money tied up in the +elder of the two, they were quite helpless. Eventually their release was +brought about, and the money that came to them from the sale of their +securities of the Northern was reinvested in those of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad, just coming into being. + +A meeting was held in Watertown in July, 1851 (the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad) and E. N. Brodhead employed to make a +preliminary survey of the proposed line; which would be followed +immediately with maps and estimates. He went to his task without delay, +and rendered a full report on the possibilities of the road at a meeting +held at Gouverneur on January 9, 1852. There were no dissenting voices in +regard to the proposed line. So it was, that then and there, the Potsdam +& Watertown Railroad was organized permanently, with the following +directors: + + Edwin Dodge, Gouverneur + Zenas Clark, Potsdam + Samuel Partridge, Potsdam + E. Miner, Canton + A. M. Adsit, Colton + O. V. Brainard, Watertown + W. E. Sterling, Gouverneur + Joseph H. Sanford, Potsdam + William W. Goulding, Potsdam + Barzillai Hodskin, Canton + H. B. Keene, Antwerp + Howell Cooper, Watertown + Hiram Holcomb, Watertown + + * * * * * + +The old minute-book of the Directors of this early railroad has been +carefully preserved in the village of Potsdam. It is a narrative of a +really stupendous effort, of struggles against adversity, of undaunted +courage, of optimism and of faith. It relates unemotionally what the +Directors did, but between the lines one also reads of the grave +situations that confronted them; not once, but again and again. And there +lies the real drama of the founding of the Potsdam & Watertown. + +The first meeting of the Directors was held, as we have just seen, on +January 9, 1852. Most of the men, who were that day elected as Directors, +had gone on that day to Gouverneur--many others too. Watertown, +Gouverneur, Canton and Potsdam were present in their citizens, men of +worth and distinction in their home communities. Their families are yet +represented in Northern New York, and succeeding generations owe to them a +debt of gratitude for their unselfish work in that early day. For what +could there be of selfishness in a task which promised so much of worry +and responsibility, and so little of any immediate financial return? + +It was planned, that January day in Gouverneur, that work should be begun +at both ends of the line and carried forward simultaneously, until the +construction crews should meet; somewhere between Potsdam and Watertown. +At an adjourned meeting, held ten days later at the American Hotel in +Watertown, it was formally resolved that; "all persons who have subscribed +toward the expenses of the survey of the Potsdam & Watertown Railroad +Company ... shall be entitled to a credit on the stock account for the +amount so subscribed and paid." At the same meeting it was decided that a +committee consisting of Messrs. Farwell, Holcomb and Dodge be appointed to +confer with the officers of the Watertown & Rome in regard to the +construction of a branch into the village of Watertown. It will be +remembered that in that early day the railroad did not approach the +village nearer than what is now known as the junction, at the foot of +Stone Street. + + * * * * * + +Progress was beginning, in real earnest. A third meeting was held on +February 26--again at Gouverneur, at Van Buren's Hotel--and the following +officers chosen: + + _President_, EDWIN DODGE, Gouverneur + _Vice-President_, ZENAS CLARK, Potsdam + _Secretary_, HENRY L. KNOWLES, Potsdam + _Treasurer_, DANIEL LEE, Watertown + +Mr. Lee was also Treasurer of the Watertown & Rome. His Potsdam & +Watertown compensation was fixed a little later at $600 annually. Four +years later he was succeeded as Treasurer by William W. Goulding, of +Potsdam, who was engaged at a salary of a thousand dollars a year. + +At that same Gouverneur meeting a memorial was prepared for the Trustees +of the Village of Watertown. It asked, as an important link of the pathway +for the new railroad, the use of Factory Street for its entire length. +Factory Street, as we have already seen, was one of the most aristocratic, +as well as one of the prettiest streets of the town. So great was +Watertown's appreciation of the advantages that were to accrue to it by +the completion of the line steel highway to the north that the permission +was finally granted by the Trustees, not, however, without a considerable +opposition. + + * * * * * + +So was our Potsdam & Watertown fairly started upon its important career. A +fund of something over $750,000 having been raised for its construction, +offices were opened at 6 Washington Street, Watertown, and definite +preparations made toward the actual building of the road. The breaking of +ground was bound to be preceded by a stout financial campaign. Money was +tight. And remember all the while, if you will, the real paucity of it in +the North Country of those days. And yet early in 1853, it was found +necessary to increase the capital stock to $2,000,000, in itself, an act +requiring some courage; yet after all, it might have required more courage +not to take the step. For, of a truth, the company needed the money. + +Gradually committees were appointed, not only to look after this and other +vexing financial questions, but also to supervise the location of the line +as well as to provide suitable station grounds and buildings. There were +many meetings of the Board before the road was definitely located; there +must have been much bitterness of spirit and of discussion. Hermon wanted +the road, and so an alternative route between Canton and Gouverneur was +surveyed to include it. In 1853 the Chief Engineer was directed "to cause +the middle route (so designated in Mr. Brodhead's report) in the towns of +Canton and DeKalb to be sufficiently surveyed for location as soon as +practicable, unless upon examination, the Engineer shall believe the +railroad can be constructed upon the Hermon route, so called, as cheaply +and with as much advantage to the company, and that in such case he cause +that route to be surveyed, instead of the middle route." But stock +subscriptions were light in Hermon and engineering difficult on its route, +and finally the "middle" and present route by the way of DeKalb and +Richville was selected. Similarly local discouragements turned the line +sharply toward the North, after crossing the Racket River at Potsdam, +instead of toward the South, and, a more direct route originally surveyed, +toward Canton. + +The location of the station grounds was another source of fruitful +discussion. In this regard, Gouverneur seems to have given the greatest +concern. Many committees wrestled with the problem of its depot site. In +the old minute-book, rival locations appear and, upon one occasion, the +matter having simmered down to a choice between the present station +grounds and prospective ones on the other side of the river, the Chief +Engineer was directed to survey out both locations and set stakes, so that +the whole Board could visit the village and see the thing for itself. + + * * * * * + +By 1854 distinct progress had been made. At a meeting held on February 4th +of that year, Messrs. Cooper, Brainard and Holcomb, of the Directorate, +were authorized as a committee to enter into negotiations for the purchase +of iron rails for the road, and to complete the purchase of 2500 tons of +these, by sale of the bonds of the company, "or otherwise." The financial +end of the transaction was apt always to be the most difficult part of it. +Yet somehow these were almost always solved. The Watertown & Rome road +guaranteed some of the bonds of the Potsdam & Watertown and Erastus +Corning, of Albany, and John H. Wolfe, of New York, loaned it considerable +sums of money. Construction proceeded, and on May 4, 1854, the Directors +decided to send 650 tons of the new iron to the easterly terminus of the +road; the remainder to the westerly building forces. + +In the fall of that year, a considerable amount of track having been laid +down, the Directors looked toward the purchase of rolling stock. At +their November meeting they decided to buy the engine _Montreal_, and +its tender, from the Watertown & Rome, at a cost of $4,500; also two +baggage and "post-office" cars, at $750 each. Which provided for the +beginning of operation at the west end of the road. + +[Illustration: EARLY RAILROAD TICKETS Including an Annual Pass Issued by +President Marcellus Massey, of the R. W. & O.] + +But the east end needed rolling-stock as well--a considerable gap still +intervened between the rail-heads of each incomplete section. So toward +the East, the Directors of the Potsdam & Watertown turned their attention. +They found some rolling stock in the hands of a man in Plattsburgh; +"Vilas, of Plattsburgh" is his sole designation in their minutes. This +Vilas, it would appear, was a hard-headed Clinton County business man who +seemed to have but little confidence in the financial soundness of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Nothing of the gambler appears in Vilas. He did not +believe in taking chances. He had a locomotive and two cars that he would +sell--for cash. Eventually, he sold them--for cash. Some of the Directors +of the P. & W. bought them, themselves, paying out their own hard-earned +cash for them; and recouping themselves by accepting pay in installments +from the company. + +Yet the possible danger in a continuance of such practices was recognized +even in that early day, and in order to avoid similar situations arising +at some later time, I find in the old tome a resolution reading: "Whereas +in raising money and carrying on the operations of our company for the +completion of the road, the unanimous coöperation of its Directors is +necessary, particularly in matters involving personal pecuniary liability, +therefore: Resolved; That each Director now present pledge himself to +endorse and guaranty all notes and bills of exchange required by the +committee on finance to be used in accordance with the preceding +resolution ... and that we hold it to be the duty of all Directors of this +company to do the same." + + * * * * * + +From time to time a note of pathos creeps into these old minutes and one +catches a glimpse of the trials and struggles of the little company. For +instance: "Resolved: That in our struggles for the construction of the +road of this company, we have not failed to appreciate the liberal spirit +with which we have been met and the encouragement and aid often freely +afforded us by Hon. George V. Hoyle, Superintendent of the Northern +Railroad, and we avail ourselves of this occasion to express to him, +individually and as Superintendent, and through him to those associated +with him the management of that road, our sense of obligation, indulging +the hope that we shall yet be able in the same spirit to reciprocate all +his kindness, and that the interest of Mr. Hoyle and his road may be +abundantly promoted by our success." + + * * * * * + +And then, finally, success! In the faded minutes Secretary Knowles +triumphantly records that "On the morning of the fifth of February, 1857, +a passenger train left Watertown at about nine o'clock a. m., with many of +the officers of the company and invited friends, passed leisurely over the +entire road to its junction with the Northern Railroad, thence with the +Superintendent of that road to Ogdensburgh, arriving at Ogdensburgh at +about four o'clock and returned the next day to Watertown." + +This is not to be interpreted, however, as meaning that the Potsdam & +Watertown was immediately ready for business. There remained much work to +be done in completing the track and the roadbed, station buildings, +equipment, and the other appurtenances necessary for a going railroad. The +contractors, Phelps, Mattoon and Barnes, who also had builded the +Watertown & Rome, had unpaid balances still remaining. There had been +numerous and one or two rather serious disagreements between the company +and its contractors. Finally these were all settled by a final cash +payment of $100,000, in addition, of course, to what had been paid before. +In order to make this large payment--for that day, at least--it became +necessary to bond the property still again; this time by a second +mortgage--which was made around $200,000, so that the road might be made +completely ready for business. + +Details which indicate the rapidly approaching time of such completion +soon begin to appear in the minutes. A committee is appointed to procure a +Superintendent--George B. Phelps, of Watertown, was appointed to this +post. Freight agents are directed to turn over their receipts to the +Treasurer weekly, ticket agents daily. The Board took its business +seriously and several meetings about this time were called for seven, half +past seven and eight o'clock in the morning, although, of course, this +might mean that the railroad business was gotten out of the way early, +leaving the day free for regular occupations. The vexed question of the +station grounds at Gouverneur was settled definitely early in 1857, and +the executive committee was instructed to erect on the "station grounds at +Gouverneur a building similar to the one at Antwerp in the speediest and +most economical manner." To this day the Antwerp building survives, but +Gouverneur, like Potsdam, for more than a decade past has rejoiced in the +possession of a new and ornate passenger station. + +It was not until June, 1857, that a definite passenger service was +established upon the line from Watertown, where it connected with the +trains of the W. & R., and thus to the present village of Norwood, +seventy-five miles distant. It is worth noting here that a few years after +this was accomplished a branch line was constructed from a point two miles +distant from the old village of DeKalb, and destined to be known to future +fame as DeKalb Junction, straight through to Ogdensburgh, but eighteen +miles distant. DeKalb Junction also had a famous hotel which for many +years "fed" the trains and "fed" them well. In its earlier days this +tavern was known as the Goulding House; in more recent years, however, it +has been the Hurley House, so named from the late Daniel Hurley, one of +the most popular and successful hotelmen in all the North Country. + + * * * * * + +The passenger trains of the Potsdam road were operated out of the new +station in Watertown, just back of the Woodruff House--which we shall see +in another chapter. For a time there was no train service for travelers +between its station and that of the Rome road at the foot of Stone Street, +the transfer between them being made by stages. But soon this was +rectified and the one o'clock train, north from Watertown, allowed +considerably more than an hour for connection after the arrival of the +train from Rome, which gave abundant time for the consumption of one of +Proprietor Dorsey's fine meals at the Woodruff. It was a good meal and not +high-priced. The charge per day for three of them and a night's lodging +thrown in was fixed at but $1.50. + +The early train which left Watertown at sharp six o'clock in the +morning--afterwards it was fixed at a slightly later hour--made connection +at Potsdam Junction with the through train on the Northern for Rouse's +Point and, going by that roundabout way, a traveler might hope to reach +Montreal in the evening of the day that he had left Watertown--if he +enjoyed good fortune. Whilst upon the completion of the short line a few +years later between DeKalb Junction and Ogdensburgh, one could reach the +Canadian metropolis in an even more direct fashion, by the ferry steamer +_Transit_ to Prescott, and then over the Grand Trunk Railway, just coming +into the heyday of its fame. Watertown no longer was cut off from rail +communication with the North. + + * * * * * + +The Potsdam & Watertown though now fairly launched, operating trains, and, +from all external evidences at least, doing a fair business, nevertheless +was grievously burdened with its grave financial difficulties. On May 16, +1857, a special finance committee, consisting of Messrs. Phelps, Cooper +and Goulding, was appointed with power to carry along the company's +growing floating debt, and in October of that selfsame year the President +joined with them in their appeals to the creditors to have a little more +patience. In the following spring the Directors discussed the propriety of +asking the Legislature for an act exempting from taxation all railroads in +the state that were not paying their dividends. + +The Potsdam road certainly was not paying _its_ dividends. Not only this, +but, on May 26, 1859, interest on the second mortgage, being unpaid for +six months, the trustees under the mortgage took possession of the +property and the Directors in meeting approved of the action. Such a step +quite naturally agitated the first mortgage holders, who began to protest. +In August, 1859, the P. & W. Board disclaimed any purpose whatsoever to +repudiate the payment of principal or interest upon its first mortgage +bonds, or its contingent obligation to the Watertown & Rome Railroad. It +invited the Directors of that larger and more prosperous road to attend a +joint meeting wherein the earnings of the Potsdam & Watertown might be +applied to the payment of the coupons upon its first mortgage bonds. There +was a growing community of interest between the two roads, anyway. The one +was the natural complement to the other. Such a community of interest led, +quite naturally, to a merger of the properties. In June, 1860, it was +announced that the Watertown & Rome had gained financial control of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Soon after the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +officially born and a new chapter in the development of Northern New York +was begun. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FORMATION OF THE R. W. & O. + + +That the Watertown & Rome and the Potsdam & Watertown Railroads would have +merged in any event was, from the first, almost a foregone conclusion. +Their interests were too common to escape such inevitable consolidation. +The actual union of the two properties was accomplished in the very early +sixties (July 4, 1861) and for the merged properties--the new trunk-line +of the North Country, if you please--the rather euphonious and embracing +title of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad was chosen. It was at +that time that the branch was built from DeKalb to Ogdensburgh. A combined +directorate was chosen from the governing bodies of the two merged +roads--I shall not take the trouble to set it down here and now--and Mr. +Pierrepont was chosen as the President of the new property, with Marcellus +Massey, of Brooklyn, as its Vice-President, R. E. Hungerford as Secretary +and Treasurer, H. T. Frary as General Ticket Agent, C. C. Case as General +Freight Agent and Addison Day as General Superintendent. Whilst the +general offices of the company were in Watertown, its shops and general +operating offices, at that time, were in Rome. It was in this latter city +that Addison Day was first located. Day was a resident of Rochester. He +refused to remove his home from that city, but spent each week-end with +his family there. + +He was a conspicuous figure upon the property, coming as the successor to +a number of superintendents, each of whom had served a comparatively short +time in office--Robert B. Doxtater, Job Collamer and Carlos Dutton, were +Addison Day's predecessors as Superintendents upon the property. These men +had been local in their opportunity. To Day was given a real job; that of +successfully operating 189 miles of a pretty well-built and essential +railroad. Yet his annual salary was fixed at but $2500, as compared with +the $4000 paid to Dutton. Later however Day was raised to $3000 a year. + +The main shops of the company, as I have just said, were then situated in +Rome. They were well equipped for that day and employed about one hundred +men, under William H. Griggs, the road's first Master Mechanic. A smaller +shop, of approximately one-half the capacity and used chiefly for +engine repairs and freight-car construction, was located at Watertown, +just back of the old engine house on Coffeen Street. + +[Illustration: WATERTOWN IN 1865 Showing the First Passenger Station of +the Potsdam & Watertown. Taken from the Woodruff House Tower.] + +But Watertown's chief comfort was in its passenger station, which stood in +the rear of the well-famed Woodruff House. Norris M. Woodruff had +completed his hotel at about the same time that the railroad first reached +Watertown. It was a huge structure--reputed to be at that time the largest +hotel in the United States west of New York City; and even the far-famed +Astor House of that metropolis, had no dining-salon which in height and +beauty quite equalled the dining-room of the Woodruff House. Mr. Woodruff +had given the railroad the site for its passenger station in the rear of +his hotel, on condition that the chief passenger terminal of the company +should forever be maintained there, which has been done ever since. Yet +the chief passenger station of the R. W. & O. of 1861 was a simple affair +indeed. Builded in brick it afterwards became the wing of the larger +station that was torn down to be replaced by the present station a decade +ago. It was not until 1870 that the three story "addition" to the original +station was built and the first station restaurant at Watertown opened, in +charge of Col. A. T. Dunton, from Bellows Falls, Vt. After the fashion of +the time, its opening was signalized by a banquet. + + * * * * * + +In front of me there lies a very early time-table of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh Railroad. It bears the date, April 20, 1863, and apparently is +the twelfth to be issued in the history of the road. It is signed by +Addison Day, as Superintendent. + +On this sheet, the chief northbound train, No. 7, Express and Mail, left +Rome at four o'clock each afternoon, reaching Watertown at 7:05 p. m., and +leaving there twenty minutes later, arrived at Ogdensburgh at 10:30 p. m. +The return movement of this train, was as No. 2, leaving Ogdensburgh at +4:25 o'clock in the morning, passing Watertown at 7:10 o'clock and +reaching Rome at 10:35 a. m. In addition to this double movement each day, +there was a similar one of accommodation trains; No. 1, leaving Rome at +2:35 o'clock each morning, arriving and leaving Watertown at 6:20 and 6:40 +a. m., respectively, and reaching Ogdensburgh at 10:10 a. m. As No. 8, the +accommodation returned, leaving Ogdensburgh at 4:30 p. m., passing +Watertown at 8:20 p. m., and arriving at Rome at 12:20 a. m. Apparently +folk who traveled in those days cared little about inconvenient hours of +arrival or departure. + +There were connecting trains upon both the Cape Vincent and the Potsdam +Junction branches--the branch from Richland to Oswego was just under +construction--and a scheduled freight train over the entire line each day. +Yet there, still, was an almost entire absence of mid-day passenger +service. + +Gradually this condition of things must have improved; for in Hamilton +Child's _Jefferson County Gazetteer and Business Directory_, for 1866, I +find the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh advertising three fast passenger +trains a day in each direction over the entire main line, in addition to +connections, not only for Cape Vincent and for Potsdam Junction, but also +over the new branch from Richland through Pulaski to Oswego. Pulaski, +humiliated in the beginning by the refusal of the Watertown & Rome to lay +its rails within four miles of that county-seat village, finally had +received the direct rail connection, that she had so long coveted. + +In that same advertisement there first appears announcement of through +sleeping-cars, between Watertown and New York, an arrangement which +continued for a number of years thereafter, then was abandoned for many +years, but, under the bitter protests of the citizens of Watertown and +other Northern New York communities, was finally restored in 1891 as an +all-the-year service. + +Upon the ancient time table of 1863 there appear the names of the old +stations, the most of which have come down unchanged until to-day. One of +them has disappeared both in name and existence, Centreville, two miles +south of Richland, while the adjacent station of Albion long since became +Altmar. Potsdam Junction we have already seen as Norwood, while nice +dignified old Sanford's Corners long since suffered the unspeakable insult +of being renamed, by some latter-day railroad official, Calcium. A similar +indignity at that time was heaped upon Adams Centre, being known +officially for a time as Edison! + +The Centre rebelled. It had no quarrel with Mr. Edison. On the contrary, +it held the highest esteem for that distinguished inventor. But for the +life of it, it could not see why the name of a nice old-fashioned +Seventh-Day-Baptist town should be sacrificed for the mere convenience of +a telegrapher's code. It was quite bad enough when Union Square, over on +the Syracuse line, was forced, willy-nilly, to become Maple View, and +Holmesville, Fernwood. Neither were the marvels of the lexicographers of +the Postoffice Department, under which all manner of strange changes were +made in the spelling of old North Country names (think of Sackett's +Harbor, time-honored government military and naval station, reduced to a +miserable "Sacket!") germane to Adams Centre's problem. Adams Centre it +was christened in the beginning, and Adams Centre it proposed to remain. +And after a brief but brisk fight with railroad and postoffice officials, +it succeeded in regaining its birthright. + + * * * * * + +Early in June, 1872, William C. Pierrepont retired as President of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh and was succeeded by Marcellus Massey, the +third holder of that important post of honor in the North Country. Mr. +Massey, although for the greater part of his life also a resident of +Brooklyn, was of Jefferson County stock, a brother of Hart and of Solon +Massey. He gave his whole time and interest to the steady upbuilding of +the road. Gradually it was coming to a point where it was considered, +without exception, the best operated railroad in the State of New York, if +not in the entire land. Sometimes it was called the Nickel Plate, although +that name nowadays is generally reserved for the brisk trunk +line--officially the New York, Chicago & St. Louis--that operates from +Buffalo, through Cleveland to Chicago. + +The R. W. & O. was in fact at that time an extremely high-grade railroad +property; it was the pride of Watertown, of the entire North Country as +well. Mr. Massey used to say that as a dividend payer--its annual ten per +cent came as steadily as clock-striking--his road could not be beat; +particularly in a day when many railroad investments were regarded as very +shaky things indeed. The crash of the Oswego Midland, which was to come a +few years later, was to add nothing to the confidence of investors in this +form of investment. + +Steadily Mr. Massey and his co-workers sought to perfect the property. The +service was a very especial consideration in their minds. A moment ago we +saw the time table of 1863 in brief, now consider how it had steadily been +improved, in the course of another eight years. + +In 1871 the passenger service of the R. W. & O. consisted of two trains +through from Rome to Ogdensburgh without change. The first left Rome at +4:30 a. m., passed through Watertown at 7:38 a. m., and arrived at +Ogdensburgh at 11:15 a. m. The second left Rome at 1:00 p. m., passed +through Watertown at 4:17 p. m., and arrived at Ogdensburgh at 7:10 p. m. +Returning the first of these trains left Ogdensburgh at 6:08 a. m., passed +through Watertown at 9:20 a. m., and arrived at Rome at 12:10 p. m.: the +second left Ogdensburgh at 3:00 p. m., passed through Watertown at 6:35 +p. m., and reached Rome and the New York Central at 9:05 p. m. The +similarity between these trains and those upon the present time-card, the +long established Seven and One and Four and Eight, is astonishing. Put an +important train but once upon a time card, and seemingly it is hard to get +it off again. + +In addition to these four important through trains there were others: The +Watertown Express, leaving Rome at 5:30 p. m. and "dying" at Watertown at +9:05 p. m., was the precursor of the present Number Three. The return +movement of this train was as the New York Express, leaving Watertown at +8:10 a. m. and reaching Rome at 11:35 a. m. There were also three trains a +day in each direction on the Cape Vincent, and Oswego branches and two on +the one between DeKalb and Potsdam Junctions. + + * * * * * + +For a railroad to render real service it must have, not alone good +track--in those early days the Rome road, as it was known colloquially, +gave great and constant attention to its right of way--but good engines. +Up to about 1870 these were exclusively wood-burners, many of them +weighing not more than from twenty to twenty-five tons each. They were of +a fairly wide variety of type. While the output of the Rome Locomotive +Works was always favored, there were numbers of engines from the Rhode +Island, the Taunton and the Schenectady Works. + +Thirty-eight of these wood-burning engines formed the motive-power +equipment of the Rome road in the spring of 1869. Their names--locomotives +in those days invariably were named--were as follows: + + 1. _Watertown_ + 2. _Rome_ + 3. _Adams_ + 4. _Kingston_ + 5. _O. Hungerford_ + 6. _Col. Edwin Kirby_ + 7. _Norris Woodruff_ + 8. _Camden_ + 9. _J. L. Grant_ + 10. _Job Collamer_ + 11. _Jefferson_ + 12. _R. B. Doxtater_ + 13. _O. V. Brainard_ + 14. _North Star_ + 15. _T. H. Camp_ + 16. _Silas Wright_ + 17. _Antwerp_ + 18. _Wm. C. Pierrepont_ + 19. _St. Lawrence_ + 20. _Potsdam_ + 21. _Ontario_ + 22. _Montreal_ + 23. _New York_ + 24. _Ogdensburgh_ + 25. _Oswego_ + 26. _D. DeWitt_ + 27. _D. Utley_ + 28. _M. Massey_ + 29. _H. Moore_ + 30. _C. Comstock_ + 31. _S. F. Phelps_ + 32. _Col. Wm. Lord_ + 33. _H. Alexander, Jr._ + 34. _Roxbury_ + 35. _Com. Perry_ + 36. _C. E. Bill_ + 37. _Gen. S. D. Hungerford_ + 38. _Gardner Colby_ + +Of this considerable fleet the _Antwerp_ was perhaps the best known. Oddly +enough she was the engine that the directors of the Potsdam & Watertown +had purchased from "Vilas, of Plattsburgh." She was then called the +_Plattsburgh_, but upon her coming to the R. W. & O. she was already +renamed _Antwerp_. Inside connected, like the _O. Hungerford_, she also +was a product of the old Taunton works down in Eastern Massachusetts. Her +bright red driving wheels made her a conspicuous figure on the line. + +The _Camden_ was also an inside connected engine. The _Ontario_ and the +_Potsdam_ and the _Montreal_ were other acquisitions from the Potsdam & +Watertown. The _Potsdam_ had a picture of a lion painted upon her front +boiler door, the work of some gifted local artist, unknown to present +fame. She came to the North Country as the _Chicopee_ from the Springfield +Locomotive Works, and with her came, as engineer and fireman, +respectively, the famous Haynes brothers, Orville and Rhett. Henry +Batchelder, a brother of the renowned Ben, who comes later into this +narrative, and who is now a resident of Potsdam, well recalls the first +train that made the trip between that village and Canton. Made up of +flat-cars with temporary plank seats atop of them, and hauled by the +_Potsdam_, it brought excursionists into Canton to enjoy the St. Lawrence +County Fair. That was in the year of 1855, and the railroad was only +completed to a point some two miles east of Canton. From that point the +travelers walked into town. + +Mr. Batchelder also remembers that the engineers and firemen of that early +day invariably wore white shirts upon their locomotives. The old +wood-burners were never so hard as the coal-burners on the apparel of +their crews. They were wonderful little engines and, as we shall see in a +moment, had a remarkable ability for speed with their trains. The +_Antwerp_ in particular had rare speed. Those red drivers of hers were the +largest upon the line. And when Jeff Wells was at her throttle and those +red heels of hers were digging into the iron, men reached for their +watches. + + * * * * * + +No true history of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh might ever be written +without mention of Jefferson B. Wells. In truth he was the commodore of +the old locomotive fleet. For skill and daring and precision in the +handling of an engine he was never excelled. Although bearing a certain +uncanny reputation for being in accidents, he was blamed for none of them. +Whether at the lever of his two favorites, the _T. H. Camp_ and the +_Antwerp_, or in later years as captain of the "44" he was in his element +in the engine-cab. The "44" spent most of the later years of her life, +and of Wells', in service upon the Cape Vincent branch. I can remember it +standing at Watertown Junction, sending an occasional soft ring of grayish +smoke off into the blue skies above. And distinctly can I recall Jeff +Wells himself, a large-eyed, tallish man, fond of a good joke, or a good +story, a man with a keen zest in life itself. He was a good poker player. +It is related of him, that one night, while engaged in a pleasant game at +Cape Vincent, word came from Watertown ordering him to his engine for a +special run down to the county-seat and back. + +For a moment old Jeff hesitated. He liked poker. But then the trained soul +of the railroader triumphed. He threw his hand down upon the table--it was +a good hand, too--and turning toward the call-boy said: + +"Son, I'll be at the round house within ten minutes." + + * * * * * + +That was Wells; best at home in the engine-cab, and, I think no engine-cab +was ever quite the same to him as that of the speedy _Antwerp_, with John +Leasure on the fireman's side of the cab--Leasure was pretty sure to have +previously bedecked the _Antwerp_ with a vast variety of cedar boughs, +flags and the like--and the President's car on behind. This, in later +years, was sure to be the old parlor-car, _Watertown_, gayly furbished for +the occasion. This special was sure to be given the right-of-way over all +other trains on the line that day; all the switch-points being ordered +spiked, in order to avoid the possibility of accidents. Yet, on at least +one occasion--at DeKalb Junction--this practice nearly led to a serious +mishap. Mr. Massey's train had swept past the little depot there and +around the curve onto the Ogdensburgh branch at seventy miles an hour. For +once there had been a miscalculation. The little train veered terribly as +it struck the branch-line rails; the directors were thrown from their +comfortable seats in the parlor-car, and poor Billy Lanfear, of Cape +Vincent, the fireman, was nearly carromed from his place in the cab. At +the last fractional part of a second he succeeded in catching hold of the +engineer's window as he started to shoot out. + +The wood-burners were not supposed to be fast engines--a great many of +them in the early days of the R. W. & O. had small drivers and this was an +added handicap to their speed. But sixty miles an hour was not out of the +question for them. Mr. Richard Holden, of Watertown, who started his +railroad career in the eating-house of the old station in that city, still +recalls several trips that he made in the cab of the engines on the Cape +branch. It had a fairly close schedule at the best, connecting at +Watertown Junction with Number Three up from Rome in the afternoon, and +turning and coming back in time to make connections with Number Six down +the line. It frequently would happen that Three would be fifteen or twenty +minutes late, which would mean a good deal of hustling on the part of the +Cape train to make her fifty mile run and turn-around and still avoid +delaying Number Six. But both Casey Eldredge and Chris Delaney, the +engineers on the branch at that time, could do it: Jeff Wells was still on +the main line and unwilling then to accept the easier Cape branch run, +which afterwards he was very glad to take. + +"The air-brake was unknown at that time," says Mr. Holden, "all trains +being stopped by the brakeman, assisted by the fireman, a brake being upon +the tender of all the engines. When some of these fast trains were +running, I used to take a great delight in riding on the engine, and +remember the running-time of the trip was thirty-five minutes, which +included stops at Brownville, Limerick, Chaumont and Three Mile Bay, my +recollection being that the station at Rosiere was not open at that time. +Deducting the time used for stops the actual running time would average +sixty miles an hour. All engines used on passenger trains had small +driving-wheels and it will be remembered that all passenger trains, except +One and Six, consisted of but a baggage-car and two coaches, consequently +an engine could get a train under good headway much faster than engines +with the heavy equipment in use at the present time." + + * * * * * + +In all these statements in regard to the speed of the trains upon the +early R. W. & O. it should not be forgotten that for the first twelve or +thirteen years of the road's existence, it had to worry along without +telegraphic or any other form of rapid interstation communication. It was +not until 1863 or 1864 that its trains were despatched upon telegraphic +orders; and even these were of the crudest possible form. The "Nineteen" +had not yet been evolved. A slip of paper torn from the handiest writing +block and scribbled in fairly indecipherable hieroglyphics was the train +order of those beginnings of modern railroading. The telegraph order, +instead of being a real help to the locomotive engineer, was apt to be one +of the puzzles and the banes of his existence. + +It was in 1866 that a railroad telegraph office was first established at +Watertown Junction and D. N. Bosworth engaged as despatcher there. +According to the recollections of Mr. W. D. Hanchette, of that city, who +is the nestor of all things telegraphic in Northern New York, Bosworth was +soon followed by a Mr. Warner, who was not, himself, a telegraphic +operator, but who had to be assisted by one. A Canadian, named Monk, was +one of the first of these. Warner was finally succeeded as despatcher at +Watertown Junction by N. B. Hine, a brother of Omar A. Hine and of A. C. +Hine--all of them much identified with the history of the Rome road. N. B. +Hine remained with the road for a long season of years as its train +despatcher, eventually moving his office from the Junction to the enlarged +passenger station back of the Woodruff House in Watertown. + +He learned his trade in the summer before Fort Sumter was fired upon; +using a small, home-made, wooden key at his father's farm, somewhere back +of DeKalb. A year after he had obtained his railroad job, Omar Hine was +appointed operator at Richland, opening the first telegraph office at that +place, and becoming its station agent as well. From Richland he was +promoted to the more important, similar post at Norwood. When he left +Norwood, Mr. Hine became a conductor upon the main line. In that service +he remained until the comparatively recent year of 1887. + +About the time that he was assigned to Richland, his brother, A. C. Hine, +was appointed operator and helper at the neighboring station of Sandy +Creek. So from a single North Country farm sprang three expert +telegraphers and railroaders. When they began their career, but a single +wire stretched all the way from Watertown to Ogdensburgh; and the movement +of trains by telegraph was occasional, not regular nor standardized. A +second wire was strung the entire length of the line in the fall of 1866 +and in the following spring, Mr. Bosworth began the difficult task of +trying to work a systematic method of telegraphic despatching, and +gradually brought the engineers of the road into a real coöperation with +his plan, a thing much more difficult to accomplish than might be at first +imagined. Those old-time engineers of the road were good men; but some of +them were a trifle "sot" in their ways. Their habits were not things +easily changed. + + * * * * * + +The full list of these old-time engineers of the R. W. & O. would run to a +considerable length. Remember again Orve Haynes--something of an +engine-runner was he--who afterwards went down to St. Louis to become +Master Mechanic upon the Iron Mountain road. The _J. L. Grant_ was named +after a Master Mechanic of the R. W. & O., who eventually became an +assistant superintendent. The _Grant_ was in steady use upon the Cape +branch prior to the coming of the "44." A good engineer in those days was +a good mechanic--invariably. Repair facilities were few and far between. +The ingenuity and quick wit of the man in the engine-cab more than once +was called into play. Engine failures were no less frequent then than now. + +Ben. F. Batchelder first came to fame as a well-known engineer of that +early decade; John Skinner was another. There was D. L. Van Allen and +Louis Bouran and John Mortimer and Casey Eldredge and Asa Rowell and old +"Parse" Hines, and George Schell and Jim Cheney--that list does indeed run +to lengths. In a later generation came Nathaniel R. Peterson ("Than") and +Conrad Shaler and Frank W. Smith and George H. Hazleton, and Frank Taylor, +and Charles Vogel--but again I must desist. This is a history, not a +necrology. It is hardly fair to pick but a few names, out of so many +deserving ones. + +The most of the engineers of that day have gone. A very few remain. One of +these is Frank W. Smith, of Watertown, who to-day (1922) has retired from +his engine-cab, but remains one of the expert billiard players in the +Lincoln League of that city. + +Mr. Smith entered upon his railroad career on November 9, 1866, at the +rather tender age of seventeen, as a wiper in the old round house in +Coffeen Street, Watertown. In those days all the engines upon the line +still were wood-burners. The most conspicuous thing about DeKalb Junction +in those days, aside from the red brick Goulding House, was the huge +wood-shed and wood-pile beyond the small depot, which still stands there. +It was customary for an engine to "wood up" at Watertown--in those days as +in these again, all trains changed engines at Watertown--and again at +DeKalb Junction before finishing her run into Ogdensburgh. Similarly upon +the return trip, she would stop again at DeKalb to fill her tender; which, +in turn, would carry her back to Watertown once again. Wood went all too +quickly. I remember, sometime in the mid-eighties, riding from Prescott to +Ottawa, upon the old Ottawa and St. Lawrence Railroad, and the wood-burner +stopping somewhere between those towns to appease its seemingly insatiable +appetite. + +The wood-burners upon the R. W. & O. began to disappear sometime about the +beginnings of the seventies. Apparently the first engine to have her +fire-boxes changed to permit of the use of soft coal was the _C. +Comstock_, which was rapidly followed by the _Phelps_, the _Lord_ and the +_Alexander_. They then had the extension boilers and the straight +"diamond" stacks. A red band ran around the under flare of the diamond. +About that time the road began adding to its motive power; new engines, +among them the _Theodore Irwin_ and the _C. Zabriskie_, were being +purchased, and these were all coal burners, bituminous, of course. When, +as we shall see, in a following chapter, the Syracuse Northern was merged +into the R. W. & O., eight new locomotives were added to the growing fleet +of the parent road; four Hinckleys and four Bloods. + +Even at that time the road was beginning, although in a modest and +somewhat hesitant way, the construction of its own locomotives in its own +shops. William Jackson, the Master Mechanic there in 1873, built the _J. +W. Moak_ and the _J. S. Farlow_, both of them coal-burners for passenger +service. He was succeeded by Abraham Close who built the _Cataract_ and +the _Lewiston_, and the _Moses Taylor_, too, in 1877. The following year +the late George H. Hazleton was to become the road's Master Mechanic and +so to remain as long as it retained its corporate existence. + +In later years there were to come those famous Mogul twins, the _Samson_ +and the _Goliath_. There were, as I recall it, still two others of these +Moguls, the _Energy_ and the _Efficiency_. In a still later time the road, +robbed of its pleasant personal way of locomotive nomenclature and +adopting a strictly impersonal method of denoting its engines by serial +numbers alone, was to take another forward step and bring in still larger +Moguls; the "1," "2," "3," and "4." + +But I anticipate. I cannot close this chapter without one more reference +to my good friend, Frank W. Smith. He was an energetic little fellow; and +after some twenty months of engine wiping there at Coffeen Street, and all +the abuse and cuffing and chaffing that went with it, he won an honest +promotion to the job of a locomotive fireman. It was a real job, real +responsibility and real pay, thirty-nine dollars a month. Yet this job +faded when he became an engineer. Job envied of all other jobs. How the +boys would crowd around the _Norris Woodruff_ at Adams depot, at +Gouverneur, and all the rest of the way along the line and feast their +eyes upon Frank Smith up there in the neat cab, that so quickly came to +look like home to him! Fifty dollars a month pay! Overtime? Of course not. +Agreements? Once more, no. This was nearly fifteen years ahead of that day +when the engineers upon the Central Railroad of New Jersey were to +formulate the first of these perplexing things. + +But a good engine, a good job and good pay. They had the pleasant habit of +assigning a crew to a definite engine in those days, and that piece of +motive power invariably became their pet and pride. A good job was not +only an honest one, but one of a considerable distinction. And fifty +dollars a month was not bad pay, when cheese was eight cents a pound and +butter seven, and a kind friend apt to give you all the eggs that you +could take home in the top of your hat. Remuneration, in its last analysis +is forever a comparative thing--and nothing more. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE R. W. & O. PROSPERS--AND EXPANDS + + +In the mid-seventies the young city of Watertown was entering upon a rare +era in which culture and great prosperity were to be blended. The men who +walked its pleasant maple-shaded streets were real men, indeed: the Flower +brothers--George W., Anson R. and Roswell P.--George B. Phelps, Norris +Winslow, the Knowlton brothers--John C. and George W.--Talcott H. Camp, +George A. Bagley, these were the men who were the town's captains of +industry of that day. An earlier generation had passed away; Norris +Woodruff, O. V. Brainard, Orville Hungerford; these men had played their +large parts in the upbuilding of Watertown and were gone or else living in +advanced years. A new generation of equal energy and ability had come to +replace them. Roswell P. Flower was upon the threshold of that remarkable +career in Wall Street that was to make him for a time its leader and give +him the large political honor of becoming Governor of the State of New +York. His brother, George W., first Mayor of Watertown, was tremendously +interested in each of the city's undertakings. George B. Phelps had risen +from the post of Superintendent of the old Potsdam & Watertown to be one +of the town's richest men. He had a city house in New York--a handsome +"brownstone front" in one of the "forties"--and in his huge house in Stone +Street, Watertown, the luxury of a negro valet, John Fletcher, for many +years a familiar figure upon the streets of the town. + +From the pulpit of the dignified First Presbyterian Church in Washington +Street, the venerable Dr. Isaac Brayton had now retired; his place was +being filled by Dr. Porter, long to be remembered in the annals of that +society. Dr. Olin was about entering old Trinity, still in Court Street. +Into the ancient structure of the Watertown High School, in State Street, +the genial and accomplished William Kerr Wickes was coming as principal. +The Musical Union was preparing for its record run of _Pinafore_ in +Washington Hall. And in the old stone cotton factory on Beebee's Island, +Fred Eames was tinkering with his vacuum air brake, little dreaming of the +tragic fate that was to await him but a few years later; more likely, +perhaps, of the great air brake industry to which he was giving birth and +which, three decades later, was to take its proper place among the town's +chief industries. Paper manufacturing, as it is known to-day in the North +Country, was then a comparatively small thing; there were few important +mills outside of those of the Knowltons or the Taggarts--the clans of +Remington, of Herring, of Sherman and of Anderson were yet to make their +deep impress upon the community. + +Carriage making was then a more important business than that of paper +making. The very thought of the motor-car was as yet unborn and +Watertonians reckoned the completion of a new carriage in the town in +minutes rather than in hours. It made steam engines and sewing machines. +All in all it created a very considerable traffic for its railroad--in +reality for its railroads, for in 1872 a rival line had come to contest +the monopoly of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh; of which more in good +time. + + * * * * * + +As went Watertown, so went the rest of the North Country. It was a brisk, +prosperous land, where industry and culture shared their forces. There was +a plenitude of manufacturing even outside of Watertown, whilst the mines +at Keene and Rossie had reopened and were shipping a modest five or six +cars a day of really splendid red ore. People worked well, people thought +well. The excellent seminaries at Belleville, at Adams, at Antwerp and at +Gouverneur reflected a general demand for an education better than the +public schools of that day might offer. The young St. Lawrence University +up at Canton, after a hard beginning fight, was at last on its way to its +present day strength and influence. + +Northern New Yorkers traveled. They traveled both far and near. Even +distant Europe was no sealed book to them. There were dozens of fine +homes, even well outside of the towns and villages, which boasted their +Steinway pianos and whose young folk, graduated from Yale or Mount +Holyoke, spoke intelligently with their elders of Napoleon III or of the +charms of the boulevards of Paris. + + * * * * * + +In the upbuilding of this prosperous era the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +had played its own large part. By 1875 it was nearly a quarter of a +century old. It was indeed an extremely high grade and prosperous +property, the pride, not only of Watertown, which had been so largely +responsible for its construction, but indeed of the entire North Country. +It had, as we have already seen, as far back as 1866, succeeded in +thrusting a line into Oswego, thirty miles west of Richland. After which +it felt that it needed an entrance into Syracuse, then as now, a most +important railroad center. To accomplish this entrance it leased, in 1875, +the Syracuse Northern Railroad, and then gained at last a firm two-footed +stand upon the tremendous main line of the New York Central & Hudson River +Railroad. It continued to maintain, of course, its original connection at +Rome--its long stone depot there still stands to-day, although far removed +from the railroad tracks. Yet one, in memory at least, may see it as the +brisk business place of yore, with the four tracks of the Vanderbilt trail +curving upon the one side of it and the brightly painted yellow cars of +the R. W. & O. waiting upon the other. The Rome connection gave the road +direct access to Boston, New York, and to the East generally; that at +Syracuse made the journey from Northern New York to western points much +easier and more direct, than it had been through the Rome gateway. It was +logical and it was strategic. And it is possible that had the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh been content to remain satisfied with its system +as it then existed, a good deal of railroad history that followed after, +would have remained unwritten. + + * * * * * + +The railroad scheme that finally led to the building of the Syracuse +Northern had been under discussion since 1851, the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad. Yet, largely because of the paucity of +good sized intermediate towns upon the lines of the proposed route, the +plan for a long time had languished. In the late sixties it was +successfully revived, however, and the Syracuse Northern Railroad +incorporated, early in 1870, with a capital stock of $1,250,000 and the +following officers: + + _President_, ALLEN MUNROE + _Secretary_, PATRICK H. AGAN + _Treasurer_, E. B. JUDSON + _Engineer_, A. C. POWELL + + _Directors_ + + Allen Munroe, Syracuse + E. W. Leavenworth, Syracuse + E. B. Judson, Syracuse + Patrick Lynch, Syracuse + Frank H. Hiscock, Syracuse + John A. Green, Syracuse + Jacob S. Smith, Syracuse + Horace K. White, Syracuse + Elizur Clark, Syracuse + Garret Doyle, Syracuse + William H. Canter, Brewerton + James A. Clark, Pulaski + Orin R. Earl, Sandy Creek + +The road once organized found a lively demand for its shares. Its largest +investor was the city of Syracuse, which subscribed for $250,000 worth of +its bonds. The first depot of the new line in the city that gave it its +birth was in Saxon Street, up in the old town of Salina. From there it was +that Denison, Belden & Company began the construction of the railroad. It +was not a difficult road to build, easy grades and but three bridges--a +small one at Parish and two fairly sizable ones at Brewerton and at +Pulaski--to go up, so it was finished and opened for traffic in the fall +of 1871--which was precisely the same year that the New York Central +opened its wonderful Grand Central Depot down on Forty-second Street, New +York. The line ran through from Syracuse to Sandy Creek, now Lacona. It +started off in good style, operating two passenger express trains, an +accommodation and two freights each day in each direction. At the +beginning it made a brave showing for itself, and soon after it was open +it built for itself a one-storied brick passenger station across from the +New York Central's, then new, depot in Syracuse, and at right angles to +it. That station still stands but is now used as the Syracuse freight +station of the American Railway Express. + +E. H. Bancroft was the first superintendent of the Syracuse Northern, C. +C. Morse, the second, and J. W. Brown, the third. J. Dewitt Mann was the +accounting officer and paymaster. The road never attained to a long +official roster of its own, however. Within a twelvemonth after its +opening the prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, having already seen +the advantages of a two-footed connection with the New York Central, +planned its purchase. The Syracuse road, having failed to become the +financial success of which its promoters had hoped, this act was easily +accomplished. The Sheriff of Onondaga County assisted. In 1875 there was a +foreclosure sale and the Syracuse Northern ceased to live thereafter, save +as a branch to Pulaski. A few years later the six miles of track between +that town and Sandy Creek were torn up and abandoned. The old road-bed is +still in plain sight, however, for a considerable distance along the line +of the state highway to Watertown as it leads out of Pulaski, while the +abutments of the former high railroad bridge over the Salmon River still +show conspicuously in that village. + + * * * * * + +With its system fairly well rounded out, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +began the intensive perfection of its service. It built, in 1874, the +first section of the long stone freight-house opposite the passenger +station--so long a landmark of Watertown--from stone furnished by Lawrence +Gage, of Chaumont. Mr. Moak, the Superintendent of the road at that time, +was criticized for this expenditure. As a matter of fact it was necessary +not only to twice enlarge it quite radically, but to build a relief +transfer station at the Junction before the stone freight-house was +finally torn down to make room for the present passenger station at +Watertown. + +Between the old freight-shed and the old passenger station there ran for +many years but a single passenger track, curving all the way, and beside +it the long platform, which was protected from the elements by a canopy, +which in turn, had a canopied connection with the waiting-room; at that +time still in the wing or original portion of the station; the main or +newer portion, being occupied by the restaurant, which had passed from the +hands of Col. Dunton into those of Silas Snell, Watertown's most famous +cornet player of that generation. + +At Watertown the Cape Vincent train would lay in at the end of the +freight-house siding, and, because the Coffeen Street crossover had not +then been constructed, would back in and out between the passenger station +and the Watertown Junction, a little over a mile distant. Watertown +Junction was still a point of considerable passenger importance. Long +platforms were placed between the tracks there and passengers destined +through to the St. Lawrence never went up into the main passenger station +at all, but changed at that point to the Cape train. + +The Thousand Islands were beginning to be known as a summer resort of +surpassing excellence. The famous Crossmon House at Alexandria Bay was +already more than two decades old. O. G. Staples had just finished that +nine-days-wonder, the Thousand Island House, and plans were in the making +for the building of the Round Island Hotel (afterwards the Frontenac) and +other huge hostelries that were to make social history at the St. +Lawrence, even before the coming of the cottage and club-house era. + + * * * * * + +It will be recalled that from the first the R. W. & O. developed excellent +docking facilities at Cape Vincent. At the outset it had builded the large +covered passenger station upon the wharf there, whose tragic destruction +we have already witnessed. Beyond this were the freight-sheds and the +grain elevator. For Cape Vincent's importance in those days was by no +means limited to the passenger travel, which there debouched from the +trains to take the steamers to the lower river points, or even that which +all the year around made its tedious way across the broad river to +Kingston, twenty-two miles away. + +The _Lady of the Lake_ passed out of existence some six or seven years +after the inauguration of the Kingston ferry in connection with the trains +into the Cape. She was replaced by the steamer _Pierrepont_--the first of +this name--which was built on Wolfe Island in the summer of 1856 and went +into service in the following spring. In that same summer of 1857 the +canal was dug through the waistline girth of Wolfe Island, and a short and +convenient route established through it, between Cape Vincent and +Kingston--some twelve or thirteen miles all told, as against nearly twice +that distance around either the head or the foot of the island. + +It was a pleasant ride through the old Wolfe Island canal. I can easily +remember it, myself, the slow and steady progress of the steamboat through +the rich farmlands and truck-gardens, the neatly whitewashed highway +bridges, swinging leisurely open from time to time to permit of our +progress. It is a great pity that the ditch was ever abandoned. + +The first _Pierrepont_ was not a particularly successful craft and it was +supplemented in 1864 by the _Watertown_, which gradually took the brunt of +the steadily increasing traffic across the St. Lawrence at this point. The +ferry grew steadily to huge proportions and for many years a great volume +of both passengers and freight was handled upon it. It is a fact worth +noting here, perhaps, that the first through shipment of silk from the +Orient over the newly completed transcontinental route of the Canadian +Pacific Railway was made into New York, by way of the Cape Vincent ferry +and the R. W. & O. in the late fall of 1883. + + * * * * * + +With the business of this international crossing steadily increasing, it +became necessary to keep two efficient steamers upon the route and so the +second _Pierrepont_ was builded, going into service in 1874. At about that +time the _Watertown_ ceased her active days upon the river and the lake +and was succeeded by the staunch steamer _Maud_. Here was a staunch craft +indeed, built upon the Clyde somewhere in the late fifties or the early +sixties, and shipped in sections from Glasgow to Montreal, where she was +set up for St. Lawrence service, in which she still is engaged, under the +name of the _America_. Her engines for many years were of a peculiar +Scotch pattern, by no means usual in this part of the world, and +apparently understood by no one other than Billy Derry, for many years her +engineer. Occasionally Derry would quarrel with the owners of the _Maud_ +and quit his job. They always sent their apologies after him, however. No +one else could run the boat, and they were faced with the alternative of +bowing to his whims or laying up the steamer. + +Yet, as I have already intimated, the passenger traffic was but a small +part of Cape Vincent's importance through three or four great decades. The +ferry carried mail, freight and express as well--the place was ever an +important ferry crossing, a seat of a custom house of the first rank. In +summer the steamer acted as ferry, for many years crossing the Wolfe +Island barrier four times daily, through three or four miles of canal, +which some time along in the early nineties was suffered to fill up and +was abandoned in 1892. In midwinter mail and freight and passengers alike +crossed in speed and a real degree of fine comfort in great four-horse +sleighs upon a hard roadway of thick, thick ice. It was between seasons, +when the ice was either forming or breaking and sleighs as utter an +impossibility as steamboats that the real problem arose. In those times of +the year a strange craft, which was neither sled nor boat, but a +combination of both, was used. It went through the water and over the ice. +Yet the result was not as easy as it sounds. More than one passenger paid +his dollar to go from Cape Vincent to Kingston, for the privilege of +pushing the heavy hand sled-boat over the ice, getting his feet wet in the +bargain. + + * * * * * + +Into the many vagaries of North Country weather, I shall not enter at this +time. In a later chapter we shall give some brief attention to them. It +is enough here to say that a man who could fight a blizzard, coming in +from off Ontario, and keep the line open could run a railroad anywhere +else in the world. In after years I was to see, myself, some of these rare +old fights; Russell plows getting into the drifts over their necks +around-about Pulaski and Richland and Sandy Creek, seemingly half the +motive power off the track. Yet these were no more than the road has had +since almost the very day of its inception. + +Once, in the midwinter of 1873, we had a noble old wind--the North Country +has a way of having noble old winds, even to-day--and the huge spire of +the First Presbyterian Church in Washington Street, Watertown, came +tumbling down into the road, smashed into a thousand bits, and seemingly +with no more noise than the sharp slamming of a blind. + +That night--it was the evening of the fifteenth of January--the railroad +in and about Watertown nearly collapsed. Trains were hugely delayed and +many of them abandoned. The _Watertown Times_ of the next day, naÏvely +announced: + +"Conductor Sandiforth didn't come home last night and missed a good deal +by not coming. He spent the evening with a party of shovelers working his +way from Richland to Pierrepont Manor. Conductor Aiken followed him up +with the night train but he couldn't pass him, and so both trains arrived +here at 9:30 this (Thursday) morning." + +Here Conductor Lew Sandiforth first comes into our picture and for a +moment I shall interrupt my narrative to give a bit of attention to him. +He is well worth the interruption of any narrative. We had many pretty +well-known conductors on the old R. W. & O.--but none half so well-known +as Lew Sandiforth. He was the wit of the old line, and its pet beau. It +was said of him, that if there was a good looking woman on the afternoon +train up to Watertown, Lew would quit taking tickets somewhere north of +Sandy Creek. The train then could go to the Old Harry for all he cared. He +had his social duties to perform. He was not one to shirk such +responsibilities. + +In those days a railroad conductor was something of an uncrowned king, +anyway. His pay was meager, but ofttimes his profits were large. One of +these famous old ticket punchers upon the Rome road lived at the Woodruff +House, in Watertown, throughout the seventies. His wage was seventy-five +dollars a month, but he paid ninety dollars a month board for his wife and +himself and kept a driver and a carriage in addition. No questions were +asked. The road, on the whole, was glad to get its freight and its ticket +office revenues. Even these last were nothing to brag about. It was a poor +sort of a public man in those days who could not have his wallet lined +with railroad annual passes. A large proportion of the passengers upon the +average train rode free of any charge. Sometimes this attained a +scandalous volume. Away back in 1858, I find the Directors of the Potsdam +& Watertown resolving that no officer of their company "shall give a free +pass for _more_ than one trip over the road to any one person, except +officers of other railroad companies; and that an account of all free +passes taken up shall be entered by the conductors in their daily returns +with the name of the person passed and the name of the person who gave the +pass, and the Superintendent shall submit statement thereof to each +meeting of the Board." Moreover, he was requested to notify the conductors +not to pass any persons without a pass except the Directors and Secretary +of the company, and their families, the roadmaster, paymaster, station +agents, and "persons who the conductors think are entitled to charity." + + * * * * * + +Despite obstacles to its full earning power such as this, the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh prospered ... and progressed. Forever it was +planning new frills to add to its operation. In 1865 it had placed a +through Wagner sleeping-car in service between Watertown and New York. In +1875 this was an established function, leaving Watertown on the 6:30 train +each evening and arriving in New York at 7:55 the next morning; returning +it left New York each evening at six, and Albany at 11:40, and was in +Watertown at 9:05 the next morning. A later management of the R. W. & O. +in a fit of economy discontinued this service, and for more than twenty +years the North Country stood in line for sleeping-car berths at Utica +station, while it fought for the restoration of its sleeping-cars. These +cars eventually came back, but not regularly until 1891, when the New York +Central took over the property and put its up-to-date traffic methods upon +it once again. + +The local management of the mid-seventies--composed almost entirely of +Watertown men--was not content to stop with the through sleeping cars +between their chief town and New York. They finally instructed H. H. +Sessions, their Master Mechanic, down in the old shops at Rome, to build +two wonderful new cars for their line, "the likes of which had never been +seen before." Mr. Sessions approached his new task with avidity. He was a +born car-builder, in after years destined to take charge of the motive +power department of the International & Great Northern Railway, at +Palestine, Texas, and then, in January, 1887, to become Manager of the +great Pullman car works at Pullman, Ill., just outside of Chicago. For six +years he held this position, afterwards resigning it to enter into +business for himself. The first vestibuled trains in which the platforms +were enclosed, were built under his supervision under what are known +to-day as the "Sessions Patents." He was indeed an inventive genius, and +also designed the first steel platforms and other very modern devices in +progressive car construction. + +Sessions produced two sleeping-cars for the old Rome road. The "likes of +them" had never been seen before, and never will be seen again. They were +named the _St. Lawrence_ and the _Ontario_, and, despite the fact that +they depended upon candle-light as their sole means of illumination, they +were wonderfully finished in the rarest of hard-woods. Alternately they +were sleeping-cars and parlor-cars. At the first they were distinguished +by the fact that they possessed no upper-berths, their mattresses, pillows +and linen being carried in closets at either end of the car. + + * * * * * + +These cars at one time were placed in service between Syracuse, Watertown +and Fabyan's, N. H., passing enroute through Norwood, Rouse's Point and +Montpelier. One of them was in charge of Ed. Frary, the son of the +General Ticket Agent of the R. W. & O. at that time, and the other in +charge of L. S. Hungerford, who originally came from Evan's Mills. This +was the Hungerford, who to-day is Vice-President and General Manager of +the Pullman Company, at Chicago. A third or "spare" car was afterwards +purchased from the Pullman Company and renamed the _DeKalb_. + +Because of the limited carrying capacity of these R. W. & O. sleeping-cars +they were never profitable. They did a little better when they were in day +service as parlor-cars. One of Mr. Richard Holden's most vivid memories is +of one of these cars coming into Watertown from the south on the afternoon +train, which would halt somewhere near the Pine Street cutting to slip it +off, preparatory to placing it on the Cape train at the Junction. + +"I remember," he says, "how proud the late Frank Cornish was in riding +down the straight on the first drawing-room car, with his hands on the +brakewheel. He was a brakeman at that time. Afterwards he was promoted to +baggageman and then to conductor, having the run on Number One and Number +Seven for many years, afterwards conducting a cigar-stand in the Yates +Hotel at Syracuse until he died." + +When hard times came upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh these cars +were laid up. Once in later years, under the Parsons management, they were +renamed the _Cataract_ and the _Niagara_, and operated in the Niagara +Falls night trains. But again, they proved too much of a financial drag, +and they were finally converted into day-coaches. There was another +parlor-car, the _Watertown_. Eventually this became the private-car of Mr. +H. M. Britton, General Manager of the R. W. & O., while the others +remained day coaches; still retaining, however, their wide plate-glass +windows and their general appearance of comfortable ease. + + * * * * * + +Here indeed was the golden age of the Rome road. Its bright, neat, yellow +cars, its smartly painted and trimmed engines all bespoke the existence of +a prosperous little rail carrier, that might have left well enough alone. +But, seemingly it could not. There is a man living in the western part of +this state, who recalls one fine day there in the mid-seventies, when Mr. +Massey--the President of the road, came walking out of the Watertown +station, talking all the time to Mr. Moak, its General +Superintendent--came over to him: + +"We're going to be a real railroad at last, John," said he. "We're going +through to Niagara Falls upon our own rails and get into the trunk-line +class." + +He was giving expression to a dream of years. A moment ago and we were +speaking of the operation through two or three summers of sleeping-cars +between Watertown and the White Mountains over the R. W. & O., the +Northern (at that time, already become the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain), +the Central Vermont, the Montpelier and Wells River, and the Portland and +Ogdensburgh. The officers of the Rome road felt that, if they could bridge +the gap existing between the terminals of their line at Oswego, and go +through to Suspension Bridge or Buffalo, where there were plenty of +competing lines through to Chicago and the West, that they could both +enter upon the competitive business of carrying western freight to the +Atlantic seaboard, and at the same time stand independent of the New York +Central. Eventually their idea was to take a concrete form, but again I +anticipate. + + * * * * * + +In that brisk day there was, in the slow and laborious process of building +a railroad, leading due west from Oswego. It was called the Lake Ontario +Shore Railroad, and its construction was indeed a laborious process. For +many years it came to an end just eighteen miles beyond Oswego. Finally it +reached the little village of Ontario, fifty-one miles beyond. And there +stopped dead. If it had forever been halted there, it would have been a +good thing. Its promoters were both industrious and persistent, however. +They chose to overlook the fact that the narrow territory, that they +sought to thread, promised small local traffic returns for many years to +come; a thin strip it was between the main line of the New York Central +and the south shore of Lake Ontario, and although nearly 150 miles in +length, never more than twelve or fifteen in width, and without any +sizable communities. The prospect of a profitable traffic, originating in +so thin a strip, was small indeed. + +The prospectors of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad did not see it that +way. They stressed the fact that at Sterling they would intersect the +Southern Central (now the Lehigh Valley), at Sodus the Northern Central +(now the Pennsylvania), at Charlotte; the port of Rochester, the Rochester +& State Line (now the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) all in addition to +the many valuable connections to be made at the Niagara River. Yet for a +considerable time after the road had been pushed through Western New +York, it came to a dead stop at Lewiston. Its original terminal can still +be seen in that small village. + +It was then thought possible and feasible to build a railroad bridge +across the Niagara and the international boundary between Lewiston and +Queenstown, in competition with the Suspension Bridge, which from the very +moment of its opening in 1849 had been an overwhelming success. The +energetic group of Oswego men who had promoted the building of the Lake +Ontario Shore, hoped to duplicate the success of the Suspension Bridge +there at Lewiston. They saw that small frontier New York town transformed +into a real railroad metropolis. + +"And what a line we shall have, running right up to it!" they argued. +"Seventy-three out of our seventy-six miles, west of the Genesee River, as +straight as the proverbial ruler-edge; and a maximum gradient of but +twenty-six feet to the mile! What opportunities for fast--and efficient +operation!" + +They had capitalized their line at $4,000,000 and in October, 1870, when I +first find official mention of it, they had expended $54,300 upon it. Its +officers at that time were: + + _President_, GILBERT MOLLISON, Oswego + _Treasurer_, LUTHER WRIGHT, Oswego + _Secretary_, HENRY L. DAVIS, Oswego + _Engineer_, ISAAC S. DOANE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Luther Wright, Oswego + Alanson S. Page, Oswego + Fred'k T. Carrington, Oswego + Gilbert Mollison, Oswego + Reuben F. Wilson, Wilson + Joseph L. Fowler, Ransonville + Oliver P. Scovell, Lewiston + George I. Post, Fairhaven + William O. Wood, Red Creek + Burt Van Horne, Lockport + James Brackett, Rochester + D. F. Worcester, Rochester + + * * * * * + +It is needless to say that the railroad bridge was never thrust across the +Niagara at Lewiston. That project died "a'borning." And so, almost, did +the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. As I have just said, the building of the +road finally was halted at Ontario, fifty-one miles west of Oswego. +Finally, by tremendous effort and the injection of some capital from the +wealthy city of Rochester into the project it was brought through in 1875 +as far as Kendall, a miserable little railroad, wretched and woe-begone +with its sole rolling stock consisting of two second-hand locomotives, two +passenger-cars and some fifty or sixty freight-cars. + +In the long run, just as most folk had anticipated from the beginning, it +was the wealthy and prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh that took +over the Lake Ontario Shore and completed it; in 1876 as far as Lewiston, +and a year or two later up the face of the Niagara escarpment to +Suspension Bridge and the immensely valuable connections there. The +merger, itself, was consummated in the midsummer of 1875. To reach the +tracks of the new connecting link, from those of the old road, it was +necessary not only to build an exceedingly difficult little tunnel under +the hill, upon which the Oswego Court House stands, but to bridge the wide +expanse of the river just beyond, a tedious and expensive process, which +occupied considerably more than a twelvemonth. + +All of this was not done until 1876 and by that time disaster threatened. +The Rome road had gone quite too far. Times were growing very hard once +again. A tight money market threatened; the storm of '73 had been passed +but that of '77 was still ahead. It began to be a question whether the R. +W. & O. could weather the large obligations that it had assumed when it +had absorbed the Lake Ontario Shore. Traffic did not come off the new +line; not, at least, in any considerable or profitable quantities. It +defaulted on the interest payments of its bonds. + +There was the beginning of disaster. The Rome road management realized +this. They cut their dividends a little, and then to nothing. Watertown +was staggered. For a long term of years up to 1870 the road had paid its +ten per cent annual dividend with astonishing regularity. In that year it +dropped a little--to eight per cent--the next year, to seven, and then in +the panic year of 1873 to but three and one-half. The following year it +had returned, with increasing good times, to seven. In the fiscal year of +1874-75 the Directors of the property had voted six and one-half. That was +the end. The cancer of the Lake Ontario Shore was upon the parent +property. The strong old R. W. & O. had permitted the default of the +interest payments upon the bonds of their leased property. Confusion ruled +among the men in the depot at Watertown. They were dazed with impending +disaster. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND + + +The enthusiasm which Mr. Marcellus Massey showed over the extension of his +railroad into Suspension Bridge was surface enthusiasm, indeed. In his +heart he felt that it had taken a very dangerous step. His mind was full +of forebodings. Some of these he confessed to his intimates in Watertown. +He felt that a mistake--if you please, an irrevocable mistake--had been +made. And there was no turning back. + +These forebodings were realized. As we have just seen, the Lake Ontario +Shore defaulted upon its bonds in 1876 and again in 1877. The reflection +of this disastrous step came directly upon the R. W. & O. It ceased paying +dividends. The North Country folk, who had come to regard its securities +as something hardly inferior to government bonds, were depressed and then +alarmed. Yet worse was to come. On August 1, 1878, the R. W. & O. +defaulted in its interest on its great mass of consolidated bonds. + +The blow had fallen! Failure impended! And receivership! Yet, in the long +run, both were avoided. Into the directorate of the railroad, up to that +time a fairly close Northern New York affair, a new man had come. He was a +smallish man, with a reputation for keenness and sagacity in railroad +affairs, second only to that of Jay Gould or Daniel Drew. There were more +ways than one in which Samuel Sloan, known far and wide as plain "Sam +Sloan," resembled both of these men. + +His touch with the R. W. & O. came physically, by way of the contact of +the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western with it at three points; at Oswego, +at Syracuse, and at Rome--this last, at that time through its leased +operation of the Rome & Clinton Railroad, which ceased July 1, 1883. He +had looked upon the development and the despair of the Rome road with +increasing interest. His careful and conservative mind must have stood +aghast at the foolhardiness of the Lake Ontario Shore venture. Sam Sloan +would have done nothing of that sort. The railroad that he dominated so +forcefully for many years--Lackawanna--would have taken no step of that +sort. Trust Sam Sloan for that. + +And yet, despite his evident dislike for the property, the R. W. & O. had +its fascinations for him. He must have seen certain opportunities in it. +The fact that it touched his own road at so many points, and, therefore, +was capable of becoming so large a potential feeder for it--despite the +malign influence of those Vanderbilts with their important New York +Central--must have appealed to the old man's heart. At any rate he took +direct steps to gain control of the Rome road. + + * * * * * + +The precise motives that impelled Samuel Sloan to gain a control of the R. +W. & O., and having once gained a control of it, to conduct it in the +remarkable manner that he did, in all probability, never will be known. +One may only indulge in surmises. But just why he should seek, apparently +with deliberateness and carefully preconceived plan, to wreck what had +been so recently the finest of all railroads in the state of New York is +not clearly apparent even to-day. + +Sloan was a man of many moods. Receptive and interested to-day, he was +cold and bitter to-morrow. One might never count upon him. He flattered +Marcellus Massey, raised his salary as the President of the Rome road from +$7500 to $10,000 a year, and then induced him to purchase large holdings +of Lackawanna stock, putting up as collateral his large holdings of the +shares of the R. W. & O., just beginning their long drop towards a +pitifully low figure--all the time holding the bait to the old President +of the amazing property that he was about to upbuild in Northern New York. +So, eventually Sloan ruined Massey, financially and physically, and a +broken hearted man went out from the old President's office of the R. W. & +O. in Watertown. + +In 1877, the year before the Rome road all but created financial disaster +in Northern New York, Sloan had bought enough of its bargain-sale stock to +have himself elected as its President. The official roster of the road +then became: + + _President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York + _Vice-President_, MARCELLUS MASSEY, Watertown + _Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown + _General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Watertown + _General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown + _Supt. R. W. & O. Division_, J. W. MOAK, Watertown + _Supt. L. O. & S. N. Division_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Marcellus Massey, Watertown + Samuel Sloan, New York + William E. Dodge, New York + John S. Farlow, Boston + Percy R. Pyne, New York + Talcott H. Camp, Watertown + Moses Taylor, Scranton + C. Zabriskie, New York + John S. Barnes, New York + S. D. Hungerford, Adams + Gardner R. Colby, New York + William M. White, Utica + Theodore Irwin, Oswego + +The North Country complexion of the directorate had all but disappeared. +As far back as 1871, Addison Day had ceased to be Superintendent of the +road, and had become Superintendent of the Utica & Black River. He had +been succeeded by J. W. Moak, a former roadmaster of the Rome road. Moak +was not only equally as efficient as Day, but he was much more popular, +both with the road's employees and its patrons. Yet one of Sloan's first +acts was to relieve him of a portion of his territory and responsibility. +He made the point, and it was not without force, that it was all but +impossible for an operating officer at Watertown to supervise properly the +western end of the now far-flung system. So, he took the former Syracuse +Northern, the Lake Ontario Shore and the branch from Richland to +Oswego--all the lines west of Richland, in fact--and made them into a new +division, with headquarters at Oswego. For this division he brought one of +his few favored officers from the Lackawanna, E. A. Van Horne, who had +been a Superintendent upon that property. Van Horne was a forceful man, +who, as he went upward, made a distinct impress upon the railroad history +of the North Country. He was quick tempered, decisive, yet possessing +certain very likable qualities that were of tremendous help to him there. + +Another of Sloan's early acts--more easily understood than some +others--was to tear out the soft-coal grates of the fire boxes of the R. +W. & O. locomotives, and substitute for them hard-coal grates. Anthracite +then, as now, was a great specialty of the Lackawanna. And in the road to +the north of him Sloan possessed a customer of no mean dimensions. + + * * * * * + +For the next four or five years the R. W. & O. grubbed along--and barely +dodged receivership. Its service steadily went from bad to worse. It now +took the best passenger trains upon the line four hours to go from +Watertown to Rome, seventy-two miles (in the very beginnings of the road, +they had done it in an even three hours). No one knew when a freight car +would reach New York from Watertown. Confusion reigned. Chaos was at hand. +And when Watertown merchants and manufacturers would go to Oswego to +protest to Mr. Van Horne (Mr. Moak finally had been demoted, and Watertown +suffered the humiliation of having the operating headquarters of the +system moved away from it) they would hear from the General Superintendent +of the property his utter helplessness in the matter; the threats from +Sloan were that he might close down the road altogether, and Van Horne was +beside himself for explanations: + +"Gentlemen, I cannot do better," he said, over and over again, "our track +is in deplorable condition. I dare not send a train over the road without +sending a man afoot, station to station, ahead of it to make sure that the +rails will hold." + +So it was. The track inspectors' jobs were cut out for them these days. +They made some long-distance walking records. Yet, despite their +vigilance, train wrecks came with increasing frequency. Morale was gone. +The fine old R. W. & O. was at the bottom of the Slough of Despond. Added +to all this were the rigors of a North Country winter, which we are to see +in some detail in another chapter. According to the veracious diary of +Moses Eames, on January 2nd, 1879, the first train came into Watertown +since Christmas Day. The following day it snowed again, and fiercely and +the R. W. & O. went out of business for another ten days. That storm was +almost a record-breaker: more than a fortnight of continuous snow and +extreme low temperature. + + * * * * * + +In those days Samuel Sloan was busy occupying himself with an extension of +his beloved Lackawanna into Buffalo. That, in itself, was a real job. For +years the D. L. & W. had terminated at Great Bend, a few miles east of +Binghamton, and had used trackage rights upon the Erie from there West, +not only into the Buffalo gateway, but also to reach its branch-line +properties into Utica, Rome, Syracuse and Ithaca. Sloan finally had +quarreled with the Erie--it was a way he ofttimes had. And, for once at +least, had made a bold strategic move through to the far end of the Empire +State. + +To build so many miles of railroad one must have rail. And rail costs much +money, unless one may borrow it from a friendly property. So Sloan went up +into the North Country and "borrowed" rail. He "borrowed" so much that +travel upon the R. W. & O. became fraught with many real dangers--and the +life of his General Superintendent at Oswego, Van Horne, a nightmare. Some +of the rails were, in his own words, not more than six feet long. Finally +in desperation he appealed to his chief competitor in the North Country, +the Utica & Black River, which rapidly was substituting steel for iron +upon its main line. In sheer pity, J. F. Maynard, General Superintendent +of the Utica & Black River, sent his discarded iron to his paralyzed +competitor. + +There was little steel upon the Rome road in 1883--less than sixty miles +of its 417 miles of main line track was so equipped. Neither were there +sufficient locomotives; but fifty-two of them all-told, in addition to two +or three that the Lackawanna had had the extreme kindness to "loan" the +property--upon a perfectly adequate rental basis. Long since it had ceased +to operate such frills as sleeping-cars or parlor-cars. It had only +fifty-four passenger-coaches; not nearly enough to meet the needs of so +far-flung a line. And many of these were in extreme disrepair. An elderly +citizen of Ogdensburgh says that it was a nightly occasion for the R. W. & +O. train to come in from DeKalb with more than half of its journals +ablaze. + + * * * * * + +Yet, despite these bitter years, the road had managed to avoid +receivership and in 1882 it succeeded in effecting a reorganization; under +which it dropped the interest on its bonds to five per cent and assessed +its stockholders ten dollars a share for a cash working fund to keep it +alive. They were given income bonds for the amount so contributed by them. +There were a few grumbles at this arrangement, but not many. The huge +potential possibilities of the property--or rather of the rich and still +undeveloped territory that it served--were too generally recognized. + +It began to be rumored that new outside interests were buying into the +stock in Wall Street. These rumors were brought to Sloan's attention. + +"Look out," he was warned, "some one will get that old heap of junk away +from you yet." + +He laughed. At the best you could tell Samuel Sloan but little. Gradually, +he proceeded with his reorganization, and in 1883 we find the official +roster of the reorganized R. W. & O. reading in this fashion: + + _President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown + _General Superintendent_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego + _Master Mechanic_, G. H. HASELTON, Oswego + _General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown + _General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Talcott H. Camp, Watertown + S. D. Hungerford, Adams + William M. White, Utica + Theodore Irwin, Oswego + William E. Dodge, New York + Roswell G. Ralston, New York + Charles Parsons, New York + Clarence S. Day, New York + Percy R. Pyne, New York + John S. Barnes, New York + John S. Farlow, Boston + Gardner R. Colby, New York + +The rumor-mongers were not without fact to support them, for a new name +will be noticed upon this list; that of Charles Parsons, of New York, who +had been carefully garnering in R. W. & O. stock, at from ten to fifteen +cents on the dollar. Two names had disappeared, those of Marcellus Massey +and of J. W. Moak. But we focus our attention upon the name of Parsons, +and then step forward in our narrative until the sixth day of June, 1883, +when the Directors of the R. W. & O. held a meeting in the back room of +the Jefferson County Bank in Watertown. + +There was an unusually full attendance of the Board. Mr. Sloan, as was his +prerogative through his office as President of the road, sat at the head +of the long table. Near its foot sat Mr. Parsons, a cadaverous man, with +prematurely white hair, given to much thought but little speech. The +business of the meeting, the election of officers for the ensuing year, +was perfunctory and quickly accomplished. The Secretary arose and +announced that Mr. Parsons had been elected President of the R. W. & O. +Sloan flushed, and then prepared to spring a _coup d'etat_. He brought a +packet of papers from out of an inside pocket. + +"What do you propose to do with these?" he snarled. + +"What are they?" asked Parsons. + +"Notes of the road for $300,000 that I've advanced it, to keep it out of +bankruptcy," was the reply. + +"Let me see them," said its new President.... He glanced at the papers for +a moment, then reached for his check-book and wrote his check to Sloan for +a clean $300,000. He handed it across the table. The retiring President +scrutinized it sharply, placed it within his wallet and left the room. +His connection with the road was terminated. At the best it was a sinister +connection. There were few to regret his going. + + * * * * * + +With his hand firmly fixed upon its wheel, Parsons began the complete +reorganization of his newly acquired property. He had his long-time +associate, Clarence S. Day, elected as its Vice-President, and within a +very few weeks had brought to the operating headquarters in Oswego a fine +upstanding man, the late H. M. Britton, as General Manager of the road, a +newly created title and office. Mr. Britton at once chose two operating +lieutenants for himself; W. H. Chauncey, as Assistant Superintendent of +the Western Division (west of Richland) at Oswego, and the famous "Jud" +Remington, as Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern Division, at +Watertown. + +Watertown had hoped that with the new management of the road--that +railroad which it had been prone to call "its road"--would reëstablish the +operating headquarters of the property there, also new and enlarged shops. +In these hopes it was to be doomed to great disappointment. For not only +was a Sloan policy to consolidate shop facilities at Oswego continued and +enlarged--the shops both at Rome and at Watertown were reduced to +facilities for emergency repairs only--but the corporate executive +offices were removed from it to New York City, while the chief operating +headquarters of the company remained at Oswego. + +Yet Watertown might easily enough take hope. The service upon the road was +improved--at once. In front of me I have a copy of the shortlived _Daily +Republican_, which once was printed there. It is dated, July 24, 1885, and +its rules are turned to black borders of mourning in tribute to General +Grant, who died upon the preceding day. In the lower corner of one of its +pages is an advertisement of the summer service upon the R. W. & O. It was +a real service, indeed--five trains a day over the main line in each +direction, and adequate schedules upon the branches. In that season of the +year there was through sleeping-car service between Watertown and New +York, upon the sleeping-cars that were operated in and out of Cape Vincent +to serve the steadily, increasing, tourist trade upon the St. Lawrence. +The Parsons' management, however, like the Sloan, steadfastly refused to +operate this sleeping-car service through the autumn, winter and spring +months of the year. There was a through sleeping-car service, also, to the +White Mountains, the car coming through from Niagara Falls, passing +Watertown at four o'clock in the morning and reaching Fabyan's, N. H., at +twenty-eight minutes after four in the afternoon; Portland, Me., by direct +connection, at 8:25 p. m. This advertisement is signed by W. F. Parsons, +as General Passenger Agent, and by Mr. Britton, as General Manager of the +line. + + * * * * * + +Britton was alert to suggestion and to complaint. To favored persons he +was apt to make an occasional suggestion upon the company's stock. + +"Buy it now," he urged. "Buy it--and hold it." + +Most folk shook their heads negatively at that suggestion. Watertown had +been burned once in a railroad experience. It now emulated the traditional +wise child. "Buy the stock," whispered Britton to a Watertown +manufacturer. It then was at twenty-five. The Watertownian demurred. A +year later it was forty. "Buy it now," Britton still whispered to him. And +still our cautious soul of the North Country hesitated. It touched fifty. +Britton still urged. Of course, the Watertown man would not buy it _then_. +He prided himself that he never bought anything at the top of the market. +Sixty, seventy, then R. W. & O. in the great market of Wall Street touched +seventy-five. + +"How about it now?" said Britton over the wire. + +The Watertown man laughed. He had made a mistake--one of the few financial +errors that he ever made--and he could afford to laugh at this one. Buy R. +W. & O. at seventy-five? Not he. Let the other man do it. Afterwards he +did not laugh as hard. He lived long enough to see R. W. & O. reach par +once again--and then cross it and keep upwards all the while. He saw it +reach 105, then 110 and then on a certain memorable March day in 1891, +123. + +But this anticipates. We are riding too rapidly with our narrative. If old +"Jud" Remington were traveling with us upon this special he would do, as +sometimes was his wont, reach up and pull the bell-cord to slow the train. +He took no risks, did "Jud"--bless his fine, old heart. + +We have anticipated--and perhaps we have neglected. All these years, of +which we have been writing, the R. W. & O. had a competitor--a very live +competitor, we must have you understand. So live, that to gain a permanent +position for itself, that competitor must needs be completely eliminated. +To that competitor--the Utica & Black River Railroad--we must now turn our +attention. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE UTICA & BLACK RIVER + + +The beginnings of the Utica & Black River Railroad go away back to +1852--the year of the real completion and opening of the Watertown & Rome. +The fact that not only could that line be built successfully, but that +there would come to it immediately a fine flow of traffic was not without +its effect upon the staunch old city of Utica, which had felt rather +bitterly about the loss, to its smaller neighbor, Rome, of the prestige of +being the gateway city to the North Country. From the beginning Utica had +been that gateway. Long ago we read of the fine records that were made on +the old post-road from Utica through Martinsburgh and Watertown to +Sackett's Harbor. The Black River valley was the logical pathway to the +Northern Tier. The people who dwelt there felt that God had made it so. +And now the infamy had come to pass that a new man-built highway had +ignored it completely; had passed far to the west of it. + +Spurred by such feelings, stung by a new-found feeling of isolation, the +people of Lewis County held a mass meeting on a December evening in 1852, +at Lowville, to which their county-seat had already been moved from +Martinsburgh, but two miles distant. They set the fire to a popular +feeling that already demanded a railroad through the natural easy +gradients of the valley of the Black River. The blaze of indignation +spread. Within a fortnight similar meetings were held at Boonville and at +Theresa. And within a few months the Black River Railroad Company was +organized at the first of these towns with a capital of $1,200,000 and +Herkimer, in the valley of the Mohawk, was designated as its probably +southern terminal. + +Once again Utica writhed in civic anguish. But in three days gave answer +to this proposed, second blow to her prestige by the organization of the +Black River & Utica Railroad, with a capital of $1,000,000--a tentative +figure of course. As an evidence of her good faith she raised a cash fund +for the employment of Daniel C. Jenney to survey a route for her own +railroad, north and straight through to French Creek (about to become the +present village of Clayton) one hundred miles distant. + +To this move Rome replied. Having acquired a new and exclusive prestige, +she was quite unwilling that it should be lost, or even dimmed. She +called attention to the fact that she was, in her own eyes, of course, the +logical gateway to the Black River country, as well as to the eastern +shore of Lake Ontario, to which the Watertown & Rome already led. There +was a natural pass that rested just behind her that led to Boonville and +the upper waters of the Black River. Had not this natural route been +recognized some years before by the builders of the Black River Canal, who +readily had chosen it for the waterway, which to this day remains in +operation through it? + +Rome felt that her argument was quite irrefutable. To support it, however, +she pledged herself to furnish terminal grounds for the new line at $250 +an acre, in addition to subscribing $450,000 to the stock and bonds of the +company. Money talks. Utica came back with an offer of terminal lands at +$200 an acre and proffered a subscription of $650,000 to the securities of +the Black River & Utica. A meeting was held. The mooted question of a +southern terminal was put to vote. Rome and Utica tied with twenty-two +votes each; Herkimer, despite her suggestion of the valley of Canada Creek +as a natural pathway for the new line north to the watershed of the Black +River, had but two votes. She promptly withdrew from the contest. + +Money does talk. Eventually Utica had the terminal of the Black River +road, even though the noble Romans, retiring to their camp in a blue funk +for a time threatened a rival line straight north from their town to +Boonville and beyond. They went so far as to incorporate this company; as +the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome. The promoters of the Black River & Utica +having planned to locate their line in the low levels of the flats of the +river, the Rome group said that they would build _their_ road upon the +higher level, rather closely paralleling the ancient state highway and so +making especial appeal to the towns along it, which felt miffed at the +indifference of the Utica group to them. + +In the long run, as we all know, the road was built along the low level of +the Black River valley, and many of the once thriving towns along the +State Road left stranded high and dry. The road from Rome became a memory. +From time to time the suggestion has been revived, however--in my boyhood +days we had the fine classical suggestion of the Rome & Carthage Railroad +all ready for incorporation--but there is little prospect now that such a +road will ever be built. The times are not propitious now for that sort of +enterprise. + + * * * * * + +Ground was broken at Utica for the new Black River line on August 27, +1853. There was a deal of ceremony to the occasion; no less a personage +than the distinguished Governor Horatio Seymour, being designated to make +remarks appropriate to it. And, as was the custom in those days for such +an event, there was a parade, music by the bands and other appropriate +festivities. Construction, in the hands of Contractor J. S. T. Stranahan, +of Brooklyn, went ahead with great briskness. Within two years the line +had been builded over the hard rolling country of the upper Canada +Creek--it included the crossing of a deep gully near Trenton Falls by a +high trestle (subsequently replaced by a huge embankment)--to Boonville, +thirty-five miles distant from Utica. + +This much done, the Black River & Utica subsided and became apparently a +semi-dormant enterprise--for a number of long years. The promises which +its promoters had made to have the line completed to Clayton by the first +of July, 1855, apparently were forgotten. These had been made at a mass +meeting of the enthusiastic proponents of the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome, +held at Constableville on the evening of Monday, August 22, 1853. They +were definite, and the Rome crowd under them badly worsted. But promises +were as easily made in those days as in these. As easily accepted ... and +as easily broken. + + * * * * * + +In 1857, the Black River & Utica Railroad was operating a single passenger +train a day, between Utica and Boonville. It left Boonville at eight +o'clock in the morning and arrived at Utica at 10:20 a. m. The return run +left Utica at 4:00 p. m. and arrived at Boonville at 6:20 p. m. +Seventy-five cents was charged to ride from Utica to Trenton and $1.25 +from Utica to Boonville. The little road then had four locomotives, the +_T. S. Faxton_, the _J. Butterfield_, the _Boonville_ and the _D. C. +Jenney_. The _Faxton_ hauled the passenger train, and a young man from +Boonville, who also owned a coal-yard there, was its conductor. His name +was Richard Marcy and afterwards he was to come to prominent position, not +only as exclusive holder of its coal-selling franchise for a number of +years, but also as a politician of real parts. + +In 1858, the little road doubled its passenger service. Now there were two +passenger trains a day in each direction. And each was at least fairly +well-filled, for the Black River & Utica held as its supreme attraction +Trenton Falls. Indeed, if it had not been for the prominence of Trenton +Falls as a resort in those years, it is quite probable that a good many +folk in the State of New York would never have even heard of it. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF THE U. & B. R. The Boonville Passenger Train +Standing in the Utica Station, Away Back in 1865.] + +But Trenton Falls--Trenton Falls of the sixties, of the fifties--all the +way back to the late twenties, if you please--here was a place to be +reckoned! All the great travelers of the early half of the last +century--European as well as American--made a point of visiting it. The +most of them wrote of it in their memoirs. That indefatigable tourist, N. +P. Willis, could not miss this exquisitely beautiful place--alas, in these +late days, the exquisitely beautiful place has fallen under the vandal +hands of power engineers, and the exquisite beauty no longer is. Trenton +Falls is but a memory. Yet the record of its one-time magnificence still +remains. + +"... The company of strangers at Trenton is made somewhat select by the +expense and difficulty of access," wrote Willis, late in the fifties. The +Black River & Utica had then barely been opened through to the Falls. +"Most who come stay two or three days, but there are usually boarders here +who stay for a longer time.... Nothing could be more agreeable than the +footing upon which these chance-met residents and their daily accessions +of newcomers pass their evenings and take strolls up the ravine together; +and for those who love country air and romantic rambles without 'dressing +for dinner' or waltzing by a band, this is 'a place to stay.' These are +not the most numerous frequenters of Trenton, however. It is a very +popular place of resort from every village within thirty miles; and from +ten in the morning until four in the afternoon there is gay work with the +country girls and their beaux--swinging under trees, strolling about in +the woods near the house, bowling, singing, and dancing--at all of which +(owing, perhaps to a certain gypsy-ish promiscuosity of my nature that I +never could aristocrify by the keeping of better company) I am delighted +to be, at least, a looker-on. The average number of these visitors from +the neighborhood is forty or fifty a day, so that breakfast and tea are +the nearest approach to 'dress meals'--the dinner, though profuse and +dainty in its fare, being eaten in what is commonly thought to be rather +'mixed society.' I am inclined to think that, from French intermixture, or +some other cause, the inhabitants of this region are a little peculiar in +their manners. There is an unconsciousness or carelessness of others' +observation and presence that I have hitherto seen only abroad. We have +songs, duets and choruses, sung here by village girls, within the last few +days, in a style that drew all in the house to listen very admiringly; and +even the ladies all agree that there have been very pretty girls day +after day among them. I find they are Fourierites to the extent of common +hair-brush and other personal furniture--walking into anybody's room for +the temporary repairs which belles require on their travels, and availing +themselves of whatever was therein, with a simplicity, perhaps, a little +transcendental. I had obtained the extra privilege for myself of a small +dressing room apart, for which I presumed the various trousers and other +merely masculine belongings would be protective scarecrows sufficient to +keep out these daily female invaders, but, walking in yesterday, I found +my combs and brushes in active employ, and two very tidy looking girls +making themselves at home without shutting the door and no more disturbed +by my _entrée_ than if I had been a large male fly. As friends were +waiting I apologized for intruding long enough to take a pair of boots +from under their protection, but my presence was evidently no +interruption. One of the girls (a tall figure, like a woman in two +syllables connected by a hyphen at the waist) continued to look at the +back of her dress in the glass, and the other went on threading her most +prodigal chevelure with my doubtless very embarrassed though unresisting +hair-brush, and so I abandoned the field, as of course I was expected to +do ... I do not know that they would go to the length of 'fraternizing' +one's tooth-brush, but with the exception of locking up that rather +confidential article, I give in to the customs of the country, and have +ever since left open door to the ladies...." + +We have drifted away for the moment from the railroad. I wanted to show, +through Mr. Willis's observant eyes, the Northern New York of the day that +the Black River & Utica was first being builded. One other excerpt has +observed the various sentiments, sacred and profane, penciled about the +place and its excellent hotel and concludes: + +"... Farther off ... a man records the arrival of himself 'and servant,' +below which is the following inscription: + +"'G. Squires, wife and two babies. No servant, owing to the hardness of +the times.' + +"And under this again; + +"'G. W. Douglas, and servant. No wife and babies, owing to the hardness of +the times.'" + + * * * * * + +The tremendous popularity of Trenton Falls in those early days was a vast +aid to the slender passenger possibilities of the early Black River & +Utica. There was not much else for it south of Boonville. True it was that +at that thriving village it tapped the fairly busy Black River Canal +which led down to the navigable upper waters of that river. Yet this was +hardly satisfactory to the progressive folk of the Black River valley. +They kept the project alive. And once when the old company's continued +existence became quite hopeless they helped effect a complete +reorganization of it, under the title of the Utica & Black River. This was +formally accomplished, March 31, 1860. As the Utica & Black River, the new +railroad came, upon its completion into the North Country, into a season +of continued prosperity. It did not share the vast reversals of fortune of +its larger competitor, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Through all the +years of its complete operation as a separate railroad it never missed its +six per cent dividends. It was a delight, both to its owners and to the +communities it served. + + * * * * * + +The Black River road thrust itself into Lowville in the fall of 1868. Four +years later it had reached Carthage. The next year it was at the bank of +the St. Lawrence, at Clayton. And before the end of the following year it +again touched with its rails the shore of that great river; at both +Morristown and Ogdensburgh. As railroads went, in those days, it was at +last a through-route; with important connections at both of its +terminals. At Utica it had fine shop and yard facilities adjoining the +tracks of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, whose venerable +passenger station it shared. And, when at one time, it sought a close +personal connection for itself with the Ontario & Western there, it +builded an expensive bridge connection over the New York Central tracks. +This bridge is now gone, but the piers remain. + +At both Clayton and Ogdensburgh the Black River road possessed fine +waterside terminals. Its station in the latter city still stands; for many +years it has been the local storage warehouse of Armour & Co., of Chicago. + + * * * * * + +In the busy months that the Utica & Black River was building its line up +through Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, a railroad was being builded +from it at Carthage down the lower valley of the Black River to Watertown +and to Sackett's Harbor. This was distinctly a local enterprise; the +Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, financed and built almost entirely +by Watertownians and retaining its separate corporate existence until but +a few years ago. It was inspired not only by the great success of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh at that time, but by the quite natural +desire of the one really industrial city of the North Country to have +competitive railroad service. There have been few times when there were +not in Watertown a generous plenty of men who stood ready to put their +hands deep into their pockets in order to promote an enterprise whose +value seemed so obvious and so genuinely important to the town. + +So it was then that the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor first came +into its existence, there at the extreme end of the sixties; in the very +year that Watertown itself was first becoming a city. Its officers and +directors as it was first organized were as follows: + + _President_, GEORGE B. PHELPS, Watertown + _Secretary and Treasurer_, LOTUS INGALLS, Watertown + _Engineer_, F. A. HINDS, Watertown + + _Directors_ + + George P. Phelps, Watertown + Lotus Ingalls, Watertown + Norris Winslow, Watertown + Pearson Mundy, Watertown + L. D. Doolittle, Watertown + George H. Sherman, Watertown + George A. Bagley, Watertown + Hiram Converse, Watertown + Theodore Canfield, Sackett's Harbor + Walter B. Camp, Sackett's Harbor + David Dexter, Black River + William N. Coburn, Carthage + Alexander Brown, Carthage + +A little later Mr. Hinds was succeeded as the road's Engineer, by L. B. +Cook also of Watertown. And eventually Mr. Bagley succeeded Mr. Phelps, +as its President, George W. Knowlton, becoming its Vice-President. + + * * * * * + +To encourage the new line, which it prepared itself to operate, the Utica +& Black River made quite a remarkable contract. Shorn of its verbiage it +agreed to give the C. W. & S. H. forty per cent of the gross revenue that +should arise upon the line. This contract in a very few years arose to +bedevil the railroad situation in the North Country. As the paper industry +began to expand there, and huge mills to multiply along the lower reaches +of the Black River, this contract grew irksome indeed to the U. & B. R. R. +Finally it sought to modify its terms, very greatly. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, quite naturally refused. "After all," it +said, through its President, the late George A. Bagley, "what is a +contract but--a contract?" + +The Utica road pressed its point. It finally went down to New York and +gained a promise from Roswell P. Flower that the agreement would be +greatly mollified, if not abrogated. It did seem absurd that a carload of +paper moving eighteen miles from Watertown to Carthage and seventy-five +from Carthage to Utica should pay forty per cent of its charges to the +road upon which it had moved but eighteen miles. Yet, a contract is a +contract. + +Governor Flower went up to Watertown and put the matter before the +officers and directors of the C. W. & S. H. But, led by the stout-hearted +Bagley, they refused to move, a single inch. + +"I've given my promise," stormed Roswell P. Flower, "that you would do the +right thing in this matter. And in New York I am known as a man who always +keeps his word." + +Bagley said nothing. The meeting ended abruptly--in all the bitterness of +disagreement. The Utica & Black River decided upon a master stroke; it +would terminate paying its rental, based chiefly on this forty per cent +division to its leased road. That would cause trouble. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor was, itself, liable to its bondholders, for +the mortgage that they held against it. It would have to pay their +interest. Without receiving its rental money from the Black River road it +would be hard pressed indeed to meet these coupons. It looked as if it +might have to go into receivership, even though at that moment its stock +had reached well above par. + +The situation was saved for it by a New York banking house, Vermilye & +Company, who sent a lawyer up to Watertown who examined the famous +contract and pronounced it perfectly valid. The Vermilye's then announced +their willingness to advance the C. W. & S. H. the money to meet its +interest charges--for an indefinite period. After which the Black River +people came down a peg or two and bought the stock and bonds of their +leased road, at par. While the city of Watertown and some of its adjoining +communities possessed of a sudden and unexpected wealth refunded a portion +of their taxes for a year or two. + +Mr. Bagley had won his point. He had the reward of a good deed well +performed. He had another reward. His salary as President of the Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor had remained unpaid; for a number of years. +He collected back pay from the Black River settlement; for several years +at the rate of $15,000 a year. + + * * * * * + +I have anticipated. We are building the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's +Harbor, not, as yet, operating it. The construction of the line began late +in the year of 1870, westward from Carthage, its base of supplies. The +road from Watertown to the Harbor--eleven miles--was constructed in the +following summer. After a disagreeable fight with the R. W. & O., its main +line finally was crossed at grade at Mill Street, closely adjacent to the +passenger stations of the two rival roads and, after following the +embankment for a mile, once again at Watertown Junction. Its entrance +into the Harbor was accomplished over the right-of-way of the former +Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh, which had been abandoned a decade before. +It utilized the old depot there. + +George W. Flower, the first Mayor of Watertown, who we have already seen +in these pages, had the contract for the building of this section of the +line. He rented a locomotive from his competitor and obtained the loan of +engineer, Frank W. Smith. For himself, he kept oversight over the progress +from the saddle seat of a fine horse that he possessed. + +This section of the road was completed and ready for operation early in +'74. But because of certain legal complications the Utica & Black River +refused to accept it at once. A large celebration had been planned at the +Harbor for the Fourth of July that year and rather than disappoint the +folk who wanted to go down to it, Mr. Flower took his leased locomotive +and hitched behind it a long line of flat contractor's cars, equipped with +temporary wooden benches. His improvised excursion train did a good +business and he realized a comfortable sum from the haulage of both +passengers and freight before the line was turned over to the Utica & +Black River for operation. + +The first passenger station of that line in Watertown was in a former +brick residence in Factory Street, just beyond the junction with Mill. It +was small, not overclean and most inconvenient. But a few years later, the +U. & B. R. built the handsome passenger station at the Northeast corner of +Public Square which for many years now has been the office and +headquarters of the Marcy, Buck & Riley Company. Its original brick +freight-house nearby--afterwards relieved by the construction of a most +substantial stone freight-house at the foot of Court Street--still stands. +Back of it a block or so was the round-house. I remember that round-house +well. It was a favorite resort of mine through some extremely tender years +of youth. + + * * * * * + +I have not set down the earliest lists of officers of the Utica road. They +are not particularly germane to this record. It is, perhaps, enough for it +to know that, with the exception of the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's +Harbor--which, as we have just seen, was financed chiefly by the Flowers, +the Knowltons, George A. Bagley and George B. Phelps, of Watertown--the U. +& B. R. as reorganized, was constructed and managed almost exclusively by +Uticans--John Thorn, Isaac Maynard, Theodore Faxon and John +Butterfield--and New Yorkers--Robert Lenox Kennedy, John J. Kennedy (who +afterwards had a prominent rôle in the early financing of the Canadian +Pacific) and others. + +Charles Millar was the first Superintendent of the road. He was succeeded, +along about 1865, by Hugh Crocker, who a couple of years later was killed +while in the cab of a locomotive running between Lyons Falls and Glendale. +It was in the season of high water and the Black River was following its +usual springtime custom of overflowing the flats of the upper valley. The +railroad was fresh and green and young. The water undermined its +embankments and sent Crocker's locomotive tumbling over upon its side; and +Crocker to his death. J. D. Schultz, who still is residing in Glendale and +who is one of the best-known of the pioneers of the old R. W. & O. in his +own arms carried young Crocker's body out of the wreck. It was a most +pathetic incident. Yet it is a remarkable fact, and one well worth +recording here, that in its entire thirty-one years of operation not one +passenger was killed while riding upon the Utica & Black River. + +The unfortunate Crocker was succeeded by Addison Day, who we already have +seen upon the R. W. & O. as an early and distinguished Superintendent. A +little later Thomas W. Spencer, who had been the Construction Engineer of +the road, replaced Day, and in 1872, J. Fred Maynard, son of Isaac Maynard +of Utica, assumed the operating management of the road, first with the +title of Superintendent and eventually as its Vice-President and General +Manager. He remained in that post through the remainder of the operating +existence of the road. + + * * * * * + +Steadily the Black River sought to improve its service. As it succeeded in +so doing it became more and more of a thorn in the side of the R. W. & O. +It touched that system at three points only--but they were important +points. It was a slightly longer route into Watertown from the New York +Central's main stem, but considerably shorter to both Philadelphia--where +it crossed the R. W. & O. at a precise right-angle--and Ogdensburgh. At +the first of these two last towns it developed an irritating habit of +holding its trains until the Rome road train had come, in hopes of luring +Ogdensburgh passengers away from it and getting them in to their +destination at an earlier hour than they had hoped. Several times it was +suggested that the roads pool their interests and work in harmony. For one +reason or another this was accomplished but once--the R. W. & O. +management almost always opposed such plans. It apparently preferred to +play the lone hand. + +The Utica & Black River had a very considerable tourist advantage in +reaching the St. Lawrence River at Clayton, in the very heart of the +Thousand Island district, instead of at Cape Vincent, which was rather +remote from the large hotel and cottage sections. It established its own +boat connections with the _John Thorn_, as the flagship of its fleet. + +John Thorn's name and personality were again reflected in a fine +coal-burning, Schenectady-built locomotive, which also bore his name (the +U. & B. R. in those days had a decided penchant for the engines that the +Ellises were building at Schenectady). Its motive-power was almost always +in the pink of condition, brightly painted like its cars, which bore the +same shade of yellow upon their sides that had been borrowed from the Lake +Shore & Michigan Southern. Like the R. W. & O., the locomotives were all +named. In addition to the _John Thorn_, there were the _Isaac Maynard_, +the _DeWitt C. West_ (named after a resident of Lowville, who was an early +president of the road), the _Theodore Faxton_, the _Fred S. Easton_, the +_Charles Millar_, the _John Butterfield_, the _J. F. Maynard_, the _Ludlow +Patton_, the _A. G. Brower_, the _Lewis Lawrence_, the _D. B. Goodwin_, +and others too. The road at the end of the seventies had a fleet of about +twenty locomotives. + +There was one time, at least, when the upkeep of the motive power suffered +a real shock. I am referring to the noisy way in which the road entered +Watertown, by the explosion of the locomotive _Charles Millar_, No. 4, +near the Mill Street crossing there on May 9, 1872. It was one of the few +accidents, however, in the entire history of the Utica & Black River. +Augustus Unser, better known as "Gus" Unser, of Watertown was at that time +engineer of the _Millar_, which was one of the earliest wood-burners that +the road ever possessed--it did not begin the installation of coal grates +until 1874. Unser was standing in the cab at the moment of the explosion, +talking to Jacob H. Herman--better known as "Jake" Herman--who was at that +time conductor on the Rome road. + +Without the slightest warning came the explosion. There was a terrific +roar and a crash, followed by a rain of small engine parts over a goodly +portion of Watertown. Fortunately neither Unser nor Herman were seriously +injured. An investigation into the cause of the wreck, which tore the +_Millar_ into an unrecognizable mass of metal, failed to develop the cause +of the accident. It was generally supposed, however, that the engine-crew +had permitted the water in the boiler to fall below the level of the +crown-sheet. + + * * * * * + +Back of the highly developed and independent Utica & Black River of a +decade later there stood a pretty well developed human organization. John +Thorn was its President; the head and front of its aggressive and alert +policy. The full official roster was, in 1882: + + _President_, JOHN THORN, Utica + _Vice-Pres. and Gen'l Man'g'r_, J. F. MAYNARD, Utica + _Treasurer_, ISAAC MAYNARD, Utica + _Secretary_, W. E. HOPKINS, Utica + _Gen'l Supt._, E. A. VAN HORNE, Utica + _Asst. Supt._, H. W. HAMMOND, Utica + _Gen. Pass. and Fgt. Agent_, THEO. BUTTERFIELD, Utica + + _Directors_ + + Robt. L. Kennedy, New York + John Thorn, Utica + Abijah J. Williams, Utica + Isaac Maynard, Utica + Lewis Lawrence, Utica + William J. Bacon, Utica + Edmund A. Graham, Utica + Theodore S. Sayre, Utica + Abram G. Brower, Utica + Russell Wheeler, Utica + J. F. Maynard, Utica + Daniel B. Goodwin, Waterville + Fred S. Easton, Lowville + + * * * * * + +The final thrust of the Utica & Black River into the sides of its older +competitor, whilst that competitor was still in the anguish of the Sloan +administration of its affairs, came in the ferry row up at Ogdensburgh. By +1880 the once-brisk lake trade of that port had fallen to low levels. The +fourteen-foot locks of the Welland Canal, between Lakes Ontario and Erie +had failed utterly to keep pace with the development of carriers upon the +upper Lakes. The steamers that still came to the elaborate piers of the +old Northern Railroad at Ogdensburgh--for many years now, the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain--were comparatively small and infrequent. Buffalo was a +more popular and a more accessible port. And yet the time had been when +the Northern Railroad had had a daily service between Chicago and +Ogdensburgh; some fifteen staunch steamers in its fleet. + +One most important form of water-borne traffic has always remained at +Ogdensburgh, however; the ferry route across the St. Lawrence to Prescott +upon the Canadian shore just opposite. Prescott is not only upon the old +main line of the Grand Trunk Railway but also has a direct railroad +connection with Ottawa by a branch of the Canadian Pacific (formerly the +Ottawa and St. Lawrence). The original boat upon this route was a small +three-car craft, the _Transit_, which was owned in Prescott. In the +mid-seventies this steamer was supplanted by the staunch steam car-ferry, +_William Armstrong_, whose whistle was reputed to be the loudest and the +most awful thing ever heard on inland waters anywhere. The _Armstrong_ +speedily became one of the fixtures of Ogdensburgh. Twice she sank, under +excessive loading, and twice she was again raised and replaced in service. +In 1919 she was sold to a firm of contractors at Trenton, Ont., and she is +still in use as a drill-boat in the vicinity of that village. The +important ferry at Ogdensburgh still continues, however, under the +direction of Edward Dillingham, for many years the Rome road's agent in +that city. + +To compete with the service that the _Armstrong_ rendered the R. W. & O. +at Ogdensburgh, the Utica & Black River along about 1880 put a car-float +and tug into a hastily contrived ferry between its station grounds at +Morristown, eleven miles up the river from Ogdensburgh and the small +Canadian city of Brockville just opposite. Into Brockville came the +Canadian Pacific, beginning to feel its oats and pushing its rails rapidly +westward each month. That was a better connection than the somewhat longer +one of the St. Lawrence & Ottawa, and gradually freight began deserting +the old ferry for this new one; with the result that within a year the +_Armstrong_ was moved up the river to the Morristown-Brockville crossing, +and Ogdensburgh gnashed its teeth in its despair. It appealed to the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh for relief in the situation. + +That road was in its most important change of management--the succession +of the Parsons' administration to that of Samuel Sloan. Charles Parsons +had had his eye upon the Utica & Black River for some time. It was a +potential factor of danger within his territory. Suppose that the +Vanderbilts should come along and purchase it? That nearly happened twice +in the early eighties. There was strong New York Central sympathy and +interest in the U. & B. R. It showed itself in an increase of traffic +agreements and coöperative working arrangements. The Rome road tried to +offset this strengthening alliance of the Utica & Black River by making +closer working agreements with the New York, Ontario & Western, which it +touched at Rome, at Central Square and at Oswego. But the O. & W. with its +wobbly line down over the hills to New York was a far different +proposition than the straight main line and the easy grades of the New +York Central. It is possible that had the West Shore, which was completed +through from New York to Buffalo in the summer of 1883, been successful, +it might eventually have succeeded in absorbing the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh; in which case the New York Central certainly would have taken +the Utica & Black River, and the competitive system of railroading been +assured to the North Country for many years to come. But that possibility +was a slight one. The disastrous collapse of the West Shore soon ended it. + +Yet the Utica road was a constant menace to Charles Parsons. No one knew +it better than he. And because he knew, he reached out and absorbed it; +within three years of the day that he had first acquired the R. W. & O. He +not only guaranteed the $2,100,000 of outstanding U. & B. R. bonds and +seven per cent annually upon a $2,100,000 capitalization, but, in order to +make assurance doubly sure, he purchased a majority interest of $1,200,000 +of Utica & Black River shares and turned them into the steadily +strengthening treasury of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Utica +road formally passed into the hands of the Rome road on April 15, 1886. +The mere announcement of the transfer was a stunning blow to the North +Country. + +Now Parsons had a real railroad indeed; more than six hundred miles of +line--the Utica road had brought him 180 miles of main line track. Now he +had over eighty locomotives and an adequate supply of other rolling stock. +From the U. & B. R. he received twenty-four locomotives, of a size and +type excellent for that day, twenty-six passenger-cars, fourteen +baggage-cars and 361 freight cars. But, best of all, he was now kingpin +in Northern New York. There was none to dispute his authority, unless you +were to regard the tottering Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain as a real +competitor. He was king in a real kingdom. The only prospect that even +threatened his monopoly was that the Vanderbilts might sometime take it +into their heads to build North into the valleys of the Black River and +the St. Lawrence. But that was not likely--not for the moment at any rate. +They were too occupied just then in counting the costs of the terrific, +even though successful, battle in which they had smashed the West Shore +into pulp, to be ready for immediate further adventures. If they should +come to war seven or eight years later, Parsons would be ready for them. +In the meantime he set out to reorganize and perfect his merged property. +He wanted once again to make the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh the best +run railroad in the state of New York. And in this he all but completely +succeeded. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BRISK PARSONS' REGIME + + +With the Black River thoroughly merged into his Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh, Parsons began the extremely difficult job of the merging of +the personnel of the two lines. Britton, quite naturally, was not to be +disturbed. On the contrary, his authority was to be very greatly +increased. The U. & B. R. operating forces gave way to his domination. On +the other hand, Theodore Butterfield, who was recognized as a traffic man +of unusual astuteness and experience, was brought from Utica to Oswego and +made General Passenger Agent of the combined property. The shops were +merged. Most of the sixty-five workers of the Utica shop were also moved +to Oswego; it was retained only for the very lightest sort of repairs. + +As soon as the arrangements could be made, the U. & B. R. passenger trains +were brought into the R. W. & O. stations at both Watertown and +Ogdensburgh; while the time-tables of the combined road were readjusted +so as to make Philadelphia, where the two former competing, main lines +crossed one another at right angles, a general point of traffic +interchange, similar to Richland. Cape Vincent lost, almost in a single +hour, the large railroad prestige that it had held for thirty-three long +years. To bind it more closely with the Thousand Island resorts, the +swift, new steamer, _St. Lawrence_, had been built at Clayton in the +summer of 1883, and at once crowned Queen of the River. Now the _St. +Lawrence_ was used in the Clayton-Alexandria Bay service exclusively. For +a number of years service was maintained intermittently between the Cape +and Alexandria Bay by a small steamer--generally the _J. F. Maynard_--but +after a time even this was abandoned. Until the coming of the motor-car +and improved state highways, Cape Vincent was all but marooned from the +busier portions of the river. + +Clayton gradually was developed into a river gateway of importance. The +Golden Age of the Thousand Islands, during the season of huge summer +traffic--which lasted for nearly two decades--did not really begin until +about 1890. Yet by the mid-eighties it was beginning to blossom forth. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of that decade knew the value of +advertising. It adopted the four-leaved clover as its emblem--the long +stem served very well to carry the attenuated line that ran West from +Oswego to Rochester and to Niagara Falls--and made it a famous trade-mark +over the entire face of the land. It was emblazoned upon the sides of all +its freight-cars. Theodore E. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent, +devised this interesting emblem for it. It was he who also chose the +French word, _bonheur_, for the clover stem. It was, as subsequent events +proved, a most fortuitous choice. + + * * * * * + +Charles Parsons, having merged the two important railroads of Northern New +York, was now engaged in rounding out his system as a complete and +well-contained unit. For more than a decade the Lake Ontario Shore +extension of the R. W. & O. had passed close to the city of Rochester +through the then village of Charlotte (now a ward of an enlarged +Rochester), and had touched that city only through indifferent connections +from Charlotte. Parsons, at Britton's suggestion, decided that the road +must have a direct entrance into Rochester; which already was beginning +its abounding and wonderful growth. The two men found their opportunity in +a small and sickly suburban railroad which ran down the east bank of the +Genesee from the northern limits of the city and over which there ran from +time to time a small train, propelled by an extremely small locomotive. +They easily acquired that road and gradually pushed it well into the heart +of the city; to a passenger and freight terminal in State Street, not far +from the famed Four Corners. To reach this terminal--upon the West Side of +the town--it was necessary to build a very high and tenuous bridge over +the deep gorge of the Genesee. This took nearly a year to construct. +Injunction proceedings had been brought against the construction of the R. +W. & O. into the heart of the city of Rochester. Yet, under the laws of +that time, these were ineffective upon the Sabbath day. Parsons took +advantage of this technical defect in the statutes, and on a Sabbath day +he successfully brought his railroad into its largest city. + +In the meantime a fine, old-fashioned, brick residence in State Street had +been acquired for a Rochester passenger terminal. To make this building +serve as a passenger-station, and be in proper relation to the tracks, it +was necessary to change its position upon the tract of land that it +occupied. This was successfully done, and, I believe, was the record feat +at that time for the moving of a large, brick building. The bridge was +completed and the station opened for the regular use of passenger trains +in the fall of 1887. + + * * * * * + +At the same time that the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was slipping so +stealthily into Rochester, it was building two other extensions; neither +of them of great length, but each of them of a considerable importance. +Away back in 1872 it had leased the Syracuse, Phoenix & New York--a +proposed competing line against the Lackawanna between Oswego and +Syracuse, which had been organized two or three years before--but the +project had been permitted to lie dormant. First it lacked the necessary +funds and then Samuel Sloan, quite naturally, could have no enthusiasm +over it. Parsons had no compunctions of that sort. The more he could dig +into Sloan the better he seemed to like it. Moreover the Syracuse, Phoenix +& New York involved very little actual track construction; only some +seventeen miles of track from Woodward's to Fulton, which was very little +for a thirty-seven mile line. From Woodward's into Syracuse it would use +the R. W. & O.'s own rails, put in long before, as the Syracuse Northern, +whilst from Fulton into Oswego the Ontario & Western was most glad to sell +trackage rights. + +The seventeen-mile link was easily laid down; a sort of local summer +resort was created at Three River Point upon it, and five passenger trains +a day, in each direction, began service over it, between Syracuse and +Oswego in the early spring of 1886. In that same summer another extension +was also being builded; at the extreme northeastern corner of the +property. The Grand Trunk Railway had built a line with very direct and +short-distance Montreal connections, down across the international +boundary to Massena Springs, in St. Lawrence County--then a spa of +considerable repute, but destined to become a few years later, with the +development of the St. Lawrence water-power, an industrial community of +great standing in the North Country, second only to Watertown in size and +importance. To reach this new line, the R. W. & O. put down thirteen miles +of track from its long established terminus at Norwood, and moved that +terminal to Massena Springs. The right-of-way for the line was entirely +donated by the adjoining property-holders. For a time it was thought that +an important through route would be created through this new gateway, +which was opened in March, 1886, but somehow the traffic failed to +materialize. And to this day a rail journey from Watertown to Montreal +remains a portentous and a fearful thing. Yet the two cities are only +about 175 miles apart. + + * * * * * + +Parsons was, in heart and essence, a master of the strategy of railroad +traffic, as well as of railroad construction. Whilst he was making the +important link between Norwood and the Grand Trunk terminus at Massena +Springs, but thirteen miles distant, he was coquetting with the Central +Vermont--in one of its repeated stages of reorganization--for the better +development of its lines in connection with the Boston & Maine and the +Maine Central through to the Atlantic at Portland. In all of this he was +assisted by his two most capable assistants, E. M. Moore, General Freight +Agent, and Mr. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent. Mr. Butterfield +we have already seen. He took very good care of the travel necessities of +the property. Mr. Moore had been with it for many years. He, too, was a +seasoned traffic man. More than this he was a maker of traffic men; from +his office came at least two experts in this specialty of railroad +salesmanship--H. D. Carter, who rose eventually to be Freight Traffic +Manager of the New York Central Lines, and Frank L. Wilson, who is to-day +their Division Freight and Passenger Agent at Watertown. Mr. Wilson bears +the distinction of being the only officer on the property in the North +Country who also was an officer of the old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +He started his service in Watertown as a messenger-boy for the Dominion +Telegraph Company when its office was located in the old Hanford store at +the entrance of the Paddock Arcade. Later he began his railroad service +with the R. W. & O. as operator at Limerick Station. From that time +forward his rise was steady and constant. + + * * * * * + +I have digressed once again. We left Parsons strengthening a through line +from Suspension Bridge to Portland, Maine, through Northern New York and +across the White Mountains. As an earnest of his interest in this route he +established, almost as soon as he had acquired control of the Rome road, +the once-famous White Mountain Express. In an earlier chapter we have seen +how the local Watertown management of the road had, some years before, set +up a through sleeping-car service in the summers between Watertown and +Fabyan's; using its fine old cars, the _Ontario_ and the _St. Lawrence_ +for this service. + +The White Mountain Express of the Parsons' régime was a far different +thing from a mere sleeping-car service. It was a genuine through-train, +with Wagner sleeping-cars all the way from Chicago to Portland. It passed +over the rails of the R. W. & O. almost entirely by night; and because of +the high speed set for it over so many miles of congested single-track, +the older engineers refused to run it. The younger men took the gambling +chance with it. And while they expected to run off the miserable track +that Samuel Sloan had left for Parsons, and which could not be rebuilded +in a day or a week or a month or a year, they managed fairly well, +although there were one or two times when the accidents to this train were +serious affairs indeed. + +There comes to my mind even now the dim memories of that nasty wreck at +the very beginning of the Parsons' overlordship, when the east-bound White +Mountain, traveling at fifty miles an hour, came a terrible cropper at +Carlyon (now known as Ashwood), thirty miles west of Charlotte. It was on +the evening of the 27th of July, 1883, barely six weeks after Parsons and +Britton had taken the management of the road into their hands. The White +Mountain, in charge of Conductor E. Garrison, had left Niagara Falls, very +heavily laden, and twenty minutes late, at 7:30 p. m., hauled by two of +the road's best locomotives. It consisted of a baggage-car, a day-coach +and nine sleepers; six of these Wagners, and the other three the company's +own cars, the _Ontario_, the _St. Lawrence_ and the _DeKalb_. + +A fearful wind blowing off the lake had dislodged a recreant box-car from +the facing-point siding there at Carlyon and had sent it trundling down +toward the oncoming express. In the driving rain the train thrust its nose +right into the clumsy thing. Derailment followed. The leading engine, upon +which Train Despatcher and Assistant Superintendent W. H. Chauncey was +riding, was thrown into the ditch at one side of the track, and the +trailing engine into the ditch at the other. Its engineer and fireman were +killed instantly. The wreckage piled high. It caught fire and it was with +extreme difficulty that the flames were extinguished. In that memorable +calamity seventeen lives were lost and forty persons seriously injured. +Yet out of it came a definite blessing. Up to that time the air-brake had +never been used upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Carlyon +accident forced its adoption. + + * * * * * + +I have no mind to linger on the details of disasters such as this; or of +the one at Forest Lawn a little later when a suburban passenger-train +bound into Rochester was in a fearful rear-end collision with the delayed +west-bound White Mountain and more lives were sacrificed. The Rome road, +as a rule, had a fairly clean record on wrecks, on disastrous ones at any +rate. There was in 1887 a wretched rear-end collision just opposite the +passenger depot at Canton, which cost two or three lives and made +Conductor Omar A. Hine decide that he had had quite enough of active +railroading. And shortly before this there had been a more fortunate, yet +decidedly embarrassing affair down on the old Black River near Glenfield; +the breaking of a side-rod upon a locomotive which killed the engineer and +seriously delayed a distinguished passenger on his way to the Thousand +Islands--Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States, was taking +his bride for a little outing upon the shores of the St. Lawrence River. A +few years later Theodore Roosevelt, in the same post, was to ride up over +that nice picturesque stretch of line. Yet was to see far less of it than +his predecessor had seen. At Utica he had accepted with avidity the +Superintendent's invitation to ride in the engine-cab of his special. He +swung himself quickly up into it. Then reached into his pocket, produced a +small leather-bound book and had a bully time--reading all the way to +Watertown. + +One more wreck invites our attention, and then we are done with this +forever grewsome side of railroading: This last a spectacular affair, if +you please, more so even than that dire business back to Carlyon. The +Barnum & Bailey circus was a pretty regular annual visitor to Northern New +York in those days. It began coming in 1873 and for more than a quarter of +a century thereafter it hardly missed a season--generally playing Oswego +(where once the tent blew down, during the afternoon performance, and +there was a genuine panic), Watertown and Ogdensburgh. In this particular +summer week, the show had gone from Watertown to Gouverneur, where it +violated its tradition and abandoned the evening performance in order that +it might promptly entrain for the long haul to Montreal where it was due +to play upon the morrow. + +Going down the steep grade at Clark's Crossing, two miles east of Potsdam, +the axle of one of the elephant cars, in one of the sections, broke and +the train piled up behind it--a fearful and a curious mass of wreckage. +Fortunately the sacrifice of human life was not a feature of this +accident. But the loss of animal life was very heavy. Valuable riding +horses, trained beasts and many rare and curious animals were killed. Into +the annals of Northern New York it all went as a wonderful night. In the +glare of great bonfires men and women from many climes and in curious +garb stalked solemnly around and whispered alarmedly in tongues strange +indeed to Potsdam and its vicinage. Giraffes and elephants and sacred cows +found refuge in Mr. Clark's barn. Outside long trenches were dug for the +burial of the wreck victims. John O'Sullivan, for forty years station +agent at Potsdam, and now resting honorably from his labors, says that it +was the worst day that he ever put in. + +It was at this wreck that Ben Batchelder, whose name brings many memories +to every old R. W. & O. man, finding that his wrecking equipment was +entirely inadequate for clearing the miniature mountain range of débris +that ran along the track, put the Barnum & Bailey elephants at work +clearing it. Under the charge of their keepers these alien animals pulled +on huge chains and long ropes and slowly cleared the iron. Yet it was not +until late in the afternoon of the following day that the track was fully +restored and usable. By that time the children of Montreal had been robbed +of that which was their right. And Charles Parsons, in New York, was +remarking to his son, that perhaps, a fleet of well-trained elephants +would make a good addition to a wrecking crew. + + * * * * * + +Once again I have digressed. Yet offer no apologies. Parsons did not let +the wrecks of the White Mountain discourage him in the operation of the +train. On the contrary, he ordered Mr. Britton to proceed with haste to +the complete installation of the air-brake--then still a considerable +novelty--upon every corner of the road. He steadily bettered the bridges +and the track, tore out the old, stub-switches and substituted for them +the newest, split-switches, with signal lights. The White Mountain +remained; all through his day, and many a day thereafter--even though in +the years after Mr. Britton and he were gone from the road, it was to be +operated between Buffalo and Syracuse over the main line of the New York +Central. And, inasmuch as he was steadily increasing his affiliations with +the Ontario & Western, he installed in connection with it and the Wabash, +a through train from Chicago to Weehawken (opposite New York); going over +the rails of the R. W. & O. from Suspension Bridge to Oswego. This train, +running the year round, and also put at a pretty swift schedule, had +little reputation for adhering to it. Upon one occasion a commercial +traveler bound to Charlotte approaching the old station at "the Bridge" to +find out how late "the O. & W." was reported, was astounded when the agent +replied "on time." Such a thing had not been known before that winter, or +for many winters. And the fact that for a week past it had stormed almost +continuously, only compounded the drummer's perplexity. + +"How is it--on time?" he stammered. + +"This is yesterday's train," was the prompt response. "She's just +twenty-four hours late." + +Eventually and in the close campaign for railroad economy that came across +the land a few years ago, this train, too, was sacrificed. For a time the +experiment was tried of sending its through sleeping-car over the main +line of the Central from Suspension Bridge to Syracuse on a through train; +passing it on from the latter town to the Ontario & Western by way of the +old Chenango Valley branch of the West Shore. The experiment lingered for +a time and then expired. It is not likely that it will ever be renewed. + + * * * * * + +By 1888 Parsons had begun to develop a very real railroad, indeed. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh once again was a power in the land. It had +ninety-one locomotives, ninety-one passenger-cars, forty-eight baggage, +mail and express cars, and 2302 freight-cars, of one type or another. +Parsons, as its President, was assisted by two Vice-Presidents, Clarence +S. Day, and his son, Charles Parsons, Jr. Mr. Lawyer still remained +Secretary and Treasurer of the road, even though his offices had been +moved two years before from Watertown to New York City. At Watertown, the +veteran local agent, R. R. Smiley, remained in charge of affairs, with the +title of Assistant Secretary of the company. And Mr. Britton was, of +course, still its General Manager, at Oswego. + +He was really a tremendous man, Hiram M. Britton, in appearance, a big +upstanding citizen, red of beard and clear of eye. I have not, as yet, +given anything like the proper amount of consideration to his dominating +personality. He made a position for himself in North Country railroading +that would fairly entitle him to a whole chapter in a book such as this. + +Mr. Britton was born in Concord, Mass., November 22, 1831. At that time +that little town was almost at the height of its high fame as a literary +center. As a boy he claimed Ralph Waldo Emerson as a friend. The influence +that Emerson had upon Britton remained with him all the years of his life. + +At seventeen, owing to financial reverses that his father had sustained, +young Britton was compelled to leave school and go to work. He found a job +on the old Fitchburg as fireman; from that he quickly rose to be engineer +and then Master Mechanic. He made his way down into New Jersey and became +Superintendent of the New Jersey and North Eastern Railway; after that +General Manager of the New Jersey Midland, the portion of the old +Oswego Midland to-day embraced by a considerable part of the New York, +Susquehanna & Western.... From that last post, in the summer of 1883 to +the management of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. That position he +retained until 1890, when increasing ill-health forced him to relinquish +it and travel throughout Europe in a vain effort to regain his strength. +The presidencies, both of the Rome road and of one of the Pennsylvania +System lines were offered him. He was compelled to refuse both. His +strength gradually failed, and in 1893 he died. + +[Illustration: HIRAM M. BRITTON The First General Manager of the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh and a Railroad Genius.] + +The old R. W. & O. was compelled in its day and generation to assume some +pretty hard, human handicaps. But Britton was a mighty asset to it. He +loved his work. It was a real and an eternal delight to him to achieve the +things that he had set out to do. He was always approachable, obliging and +ready to meet all reasonable requests that came within his power; he had +the faculty of making friends of those who came in contact with him, and +of retaining their friendship. A man's man was Hiram M. Britton, a +railroad captain of great alertness, and possessed not only of vast +enthusiasm, but also of a wondrous ability for hard work. The hard +problems of his job never feazed him. Even the winter snows--forever its +_bete noire_--did not discourage him, not for long, at any rate. He came, +as came so many men from outside the borders of the North Country, with +something like a contempt for its midwinter storms. Before Britton had +been long on the job, however, the line from Potsdam to Watertown was +completely blocked for four long days, and he learned that it was all in a +day's work when the ticking wires reported two engines and a plow derailed +at Pulaski, two more off at Kasoag, and not a train in or out of Watertown +for more than thirty hours. At all of which he would relight his pipe and +send a few telegrams of real encouragement up and down the line. That is, +he sent the telegrams when the wires remained up above the tops of the +snow-drifts and the men were using them to hang their coats upon as they +shoveled the heavy snow. Ofttimes the wires went down, and once in a while +they were deliberately cut--by some harassed and nerve-racked, +snow-fighting boss. + +That was before the days of the famous Dewey episode at Manila, but the +emergency at the moment must have seemed quite as great. At any rate the +Gordian knot, translated into a thin thread of copper wire, was cut--not +once, but frequently. I myself, in later years, have seen a Superintendent +go into our lower yard at Watertown late at night when congestion piled +upon congestion, when the zero wind whistled up through the flats from +down Sackett's Harbor way, and the evening train up the line nestled +somewhere near Massey Street crossing in a hopelessly inert and frozen +fashion, and clean up the mess there. Once one of these inbound trains +from down the line coming down the long grade into the yard crashed into a +snowbound freight there, and split the caboose asunder, as clean a job as +if it had been done with a sharp ax. There were six men asleep in the +caboose--to say nothing of two in the cab of the oncoming train, and yet +no lives were lost. Even though the Watertown Fire Department spent most +of the rest of the night putting out the fearful blaze that arose from the +wreckage. Corn meal was spread bountifully about atop of the snow, and no +one on the flats lacked for pudding the rest of that winter. + + * * * * * + +Once, in the Britton régime, there had been nearly a week when Watertown +was entirely cut off from Richland and the towns to the South of it. A +show-troupe, marooned at that junction for seven fearful days, had rigged +up a theater in the old depot and there had played _Ten Nights in a +Barroom_, in order to pay its hotel bill. At least so runs the tradition. + +The Rome road felt that it owed some obligation to its old, chief town and +all the while it kept steadily at its all but hopeless task, although +every night the fresh wind blowing down from Canada and across the icy +surface of Ontario filled the long miles of railroad cuts and completely +erased the sight of the rails. Parsons had bought plows for the road such +as it had never seen before--huge Russells and giant rotaries that would +cut the snow as with a giant gimlet, and then send it shooting a quarter +of a mile off over the country, so that it would not blow back at once +into the cuttings. There is a good deal of real technique in this +practical science of fighting snow--and a deal of variance as to the +proper technique. For instance, in the Rome road they used to place its +old-fashioned "wing-plows" ahead of its pushing locomotives, while the +Black River line invariably had its plows follow the engine. It claimed +for itself the proof of the pudding, in the fact that whereas in blizzard +weather the Rome road almost invariably was blocked, the Black River line +rarely was. It is but fair to add, however, that the original construction +of the R. W. & O. north of Richland was very bad for snow-fighting; there +were many miles of shallow cuttings into which the prevailing winds off +Lake Ontario could easily pack the soft wet snow. In after years and +under New York Central management this primary defect was corrected. And +the large expense of the track elevation was quite offset by the great +economies in snow-fighting costs that immediately ensued. + +Yet try as H. M. Britton might and did try he seemed fated there in the +eighties to buck against the worst storms that the North Country had known +in more than half a century. That same storm that tied up his main line +roundabout Richland--always a snow trouble center--completely paralyzed +the Cape Vincent branch. It came as the grand finale to a sequence of +particularly severe snowfalls and hard blows. The deficit upon the Cape +Vincent branch that winter--I think it was the spring of 1887--rose to an +appalling figure. Finally the R. W. & O. gave up the Cape branch as a +hopeless proposition and hired a liveryman to carry the mails between +Watertown and Cape Vincent, in order that it might not violate its +contract with the Postoffice Department. + +After the branch had been abandoned a full fortnight, a delegation of +citizens from the Cape drove to Watertown and there confronted Britton, +who had made an appointment to meet them. They made their little speeches +and they were pretty hot little speeches--hot enough to have melted away +more than one good-sized drift. + +"When are you going to cart that snow off our line?" finally demanded the +spokesman of the Cape Vincent folk. + +Britton looked at the delegation coolly, and lighted a fresh cigar. + +"I am going to let the man that put it there," he said slowly, "take it +away." + +And he did. It was thirty-two days before a railroad engine entered Cape +Vincent from the time that the last one had left it. + + * * * * * + +The days of that final decade of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh were, +most of them, however, good days indeed. Fondly do the men of that era, +getting, alas, fewer each year, speak of the time when the Rome road had +its corporate identity and, what meant far more to them, a corporate +personality. For the R. W. & O. did have in those last days those elusive +qualities, that even the so-called inanimate corporation can sometimes +have--a heart and a soul. Yet, in every case, attributes such as these +must come from above, from the men in real charge of a property. The +courtesy of the ticket-agent, the friendliness of the conductor are the +reflection of the courtesy and the friendliness of the men above him. It +is enough to say that H. M. Britton was at all times both courteous and +friendly. He was a tremendous inspiration to the men with, and below him. + +In the doleful days of the Sloan administration the R. W. & O. began to +deteriorate in its morale, with a tremendous rapidity. In the days after +the coming of Parsons and of Britton it began slowly, but very surely, to +regain this quality so precious and so essential to the successful +operation of any railroad. The property began to pick up amazingly. At +first it was, indeed, a heartbreaking task. As we have seen, at the end of +the Sloan régime little but a shell remained of a once proud and +prosperous railroad. The road needed ties and rails, bridges, shops, +power, rolling-stock--everything. More than these even it needed the +future confidence of its employes. It needed men with ideas and men with +vision. From its new owners gradually came all of these things. + +Yet, before the things material, came the things spiritual, if you will +let me put it that way. Britton gained the confidence of his men. He +played the game and he played it fairly. And no one knows better when it's +being played fairly by the big bosses at headquarters, than does your +keen-witted railroader of the rank and file. Perhaps, the best testimony +to the bigness of H. M. Britton came not long ago, from one of the men +who had worked under him--a veteran engineer, to-day retired and living at +his home in St. Lawrence County. + +"We didn't get much money, I'll grant you," says this man, "but somehow we +didn't seem to need much. And yet, I don't know but what we had as much to +live on as we do now. But that didn't make any difference. We were +interested in the road and we were all helping to put it in the position +that we felt it ought to be in. In those earliest days, you know, our +engines used to have a lot of brasswork. We used to spend hours over them, +keeping them in shape, polishing them and scrubbing them. And when we had +no polishing or scrubbing to do, we'd go down to the yard and just sit in +them. They belonged to us. The company may have paid for them, but we +owned them." + +So was it. "Charley" Vogel running the local freight from Watertown to +Norwood, down one day and back the next, in "opposition" to "Than" +Peterson used to boast that he could eat his lunch from the running-board +of his cleanly engine; which had started her career years before as the +_Moses Taylor_, No. 35. Ed. Geer, his fireman, was as hard a worker as the +skipper. This frame of mind was characteristic of all ranks and of all +classes. Indeed, the company may have paid for the road, but the men did +own it. And they owned it in a sense that cannot easily be understood +to-day--in the confusion of national agreements and decisions by the Labor +Board out at Chicago and a vast and pathetic multiplicity of red-tape +between the railroad worker and his boss. + +Take Ben Batchelder: We saw him a moment ago with John O'Sullivan working +a thirty-six hour day to clean up a circus wreck just outside of Potsdam. +That was Ben Batchelder's way always. Incidentally, it was just one of his +days. One time, in midwinter, during a fortnight of constant and heavy +snow, when Ben had become Master Mechanic at Watertown, the Despatcher +called him on the 'phone and asked for a locomotive to operate a +snow-plow. Ben replied that all the locomotives were frozen and that it +would be slow work thawing them out, and making them ready for service. + +"Then why don't you take them into the house and thaw them out?" shouted +the Despatcher. + +"There's no roof on the house, and I'm too busy to-day to put one on," was +the quick retort. + +Faith and loyalty--we did not call it morale in those days, but it was, +just the same. Here was Conductor William Schram with a brisk little job, +handling the way freight on the old Cape branch: He had just spent three +days bringing a big Russell plow through from the Cape to Watertown. On +getting into Watertown it was needed to open up the road between that city +and Philadelphia. Schram had been on duty three days without rest. Another +conductor was called to relieve him. William Schram protested. He said +that he did not feel that he could desert the road when it was in a fix. + +Three other conductors, well famed in the days of the Parsons' régime of +the Rome road, were Andrew Dixon, Tom Cooper and Daniel Eggleston--and a +fourth was the well-known Jacob Herman, of Watertown. Jake was a warm +personal friend of both Parsons and Britton. Finally, it came to a point +where the President would have no other man in charge of his train when he +made his inspection trips over the property, and he advanced and protected +him in every conceivable way. He insisted even upon Jake accompanying him +back and forth from New York on the occasion of his frequent visits into +the North Country. + +In an earlier chapter I referred to the easy traditions of the long-agos +in regard to the passenger receipts from the average American railroad. +The R. W. & O. had been no exception to this general rule. Along about +1888 or 1889 Parsons decided that he would make it an exception +henceforth. He violated the old traditions and sent "spotters" out upon +the passenger trains. As a direct result of their observations some +thirteen or fourteen of the oldest men on the line were dropped from its +service. Not only this, but several months' pay was withheld from the +envelopes of each of them as they were discharged. Just prior to this +volcano-like eruption on the part of "the old man" Parsons sent Herman up +to Watertown as station master--a position which he has continued to hold +until comparatively recent months. + +The "stove committees" "joshed" Jake pretty well over his boss's strategy, +knowing full well all the while, that if there was one honest conductor on +the whole line, it was that selfsame Jacob Herman. Not only honest, but +courageous. It was in a slightly earlier era that the road had a good deal +of trouble on the Rome branch with what they called "bark +peelers"--woodsmen, who would come down out of the forest and in their +boisterous fashion make a deal of trouble for the train-crew. + +Jake Herman was told off to end that nuisance. It was a regular +honest-to-goodness-carry-the-message-to-Garcia sort of a job. Well, Jake +got the message through to Garcia. He picked out six brakemen as +assistant messengers, any one of whom would have made a real Cornell +center-rush. They were the "flower of the flock." + +At Richland the gang boarded the evening train down from Watertown. +Somewhere between that station and Kasoag they detrained--as a military +man might put it. But not in a military fashion. Along the right-of-way +Captain Jake and his lieutenants distributed "bark-peelers," with a fair +degree of regularity of interval. Up to that time it had been no sinecure, +being a conductor or a trainman on the old Rome road. After that it became +as easy as running an infant class in a Sunday School. + +John D. Tapley was another well known conductor of those days, and so was +W. S. Hammond, who afterwards became division superintendent at Carthage. +These men were U. & B. R. graduates, and it was but logical that when +Hammond came to his promotion reward, it should be upon the corner of the +property on which he had been schooled and with which he was most +familiar. He was a man of tremendous popularity among his men. + + * * * * * + +Sometimes these men of the rank and file had their reward. More often they +did not. John O'Sullivan's came when in 1890, after a few years of +unsuccessful experimentation, General Passenger Agent Butterfield handed +him the annual Northern New York Sunday excursion to Ontario Beach (in the +outskirts of Rochester) and asked him what he could do with it. O'Sullivan +replied that he could make it go. He had watched the success of the road's +annual long-distance excursions; to Washington in the spring and to New +York in October--this last for a fixed fare of six dollars, for a six or +seven hundred mile journey. The excursions ran coaches, parlor-cars, +dining-cars and sleeping-cars, and did a land-office business. Northern +New York had acquired a taste for railroad travel. O'Sullivan knew this. + +"I'll take you on," said he to Mr. Butterfield. + +And so he did. For seventeen successive years thereafter he handled the +annual Ontario Beach excursion from Potsdam and all its adjoining +stations--all the way from Norwood to Watertown--on a one-day trip over +some four hundred miles of single-track railroad. The excursion had a vast +business--invariably running in several sections, each drawn by two +locomotives, and having from fifteen to sixteen cars each. It carried +passengers for $2.50 for the round trip. Few Northern New York folk along +the road went to bed until it returned, which was always well into the wee +small hours of Monday morning. And yet, it was withal, a reasonably +orderly crowd. O'Sullivan kept it so. On the handbills which announced it +each year appeared these conspicuous words: + +"Behave yourself. If you can't behave yourself, don't go." + + * * * * * + +Yet a practical reward such as this could in truth be handed to but a very +few of the road's workers indeed. Yet it continued until the end to +command their loyalty. Not even the cruel handling of the property by the +predecessors of Parsons could dampen that loyalty. To even attempt to make +a list of the hard-working and energetic workers of that day and +generation of the eighties would mean a catalogue far larger than this +little book. There comes to mind a brilliant list--names some of them +to-day still with us, and some of them but affectionate traditions: George +Snell, who began by running the _Doxtater_; Patsy Tobin, who had the old +_Gardner Colby_ on the day that she exploded on Harrison Hill, just +outside of Canton; Ed. McNiff; William Bavis; Butler (who had started his +career toward an engine-cab as blacksmith at DeKalb Junction, trimming for +relaying the old iron rails that the section-gangs brought to him); and +Superintendent W. S. (Billy) Jones. + +Jones was a much-loved officer of the old R. W. & O. He started his +railroad career at Sandy Creek, as an operator, receiving his messages +with one of the old-fashioned printing-telegraphs. One day Richard Holden, +of Watertown, dropped into the Sandy Creek depot and suggested to Jones +that he throw the old contraption out of the window--it was forever +getting out of order. Jones demurred for a time; then accepted the +suggestion. And in a few weeks was one of the best operators on the line, +which led presently to his appointment as agent at Ogdensburgh, where he +remained until the days of the Parsons' control. + +Both Britton and Parsons were constantly on the alert to discover the best +available material on their property and Jones was appointed in the +mid-eighties to be superintendent of the line east of Watertown, with +headquarters at DeKalb. Later he was moved to Watertown and there became +one of the fixtures of the town. + + * * * * * + +I cannot close this chapter of the second golden age of the Rome road +without a passing reference to George H. Haselton, who died but a year or +two ago. Mr. Haselton was the successor of Griggs of Jackson and of Close, +becoming Master Mechanic of the road in 1878, or at about the time its +shops were moved from Rome to Oswego. He builded in the latter city the +engines that were the precursors of the mighty power of to-day. He used +great facility in building and rebuilding the early locomotives of the R. +W. & O.--in keeping them in service, seemingly forever and a day. In the +North Country a locomotive goes in for long service and, in its difficult +climate, hard service, too. There still is, or was until very recently at +least, a locomotive in service at the plant of the Hannawa Pulp Company at +Potsdam, which although ordered by the Union Pacific Railroad from the +Taunton Locomotive Works was delivered to the Central Vermont in May, +1869. First named the _St. Albans_ and then the _Shelbourne_, she was +inherited by the Rutland Railroad and then, after many rebuildings turned +over by its Ogdensburgh branch (the former Northern Railroad) to the +Norwood & St. Lawrence Railroad. Fifty years of service through a stern +northland seemed to work little damage to this staunch old settler. She +was typical of her kind--old-fashioned built, and with old-fashioned +standards of the service to be rendered. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH RAILROADS MULTIPLY + + +The all but defunct Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, of 1880, was not a +property to attract any considerable amount of attention from the +financiers and big railroaders, who had located themselves in the city of +New York. A local and feeding line of but some four hundred miles of +trackage--and most of that in an utterly wretched and deplorable +condition--it commanded neither the attention nor the respect of the +metropolis. The Vanderbilts in their comfortable offices in the still-new +Grand Central Depot, snapped their fingers contemptuously at it. They +would have but little of it. They did not need it. It fed their prosperous +main line anyway. As we have already seen, William H. Vanderbilt had at +one time acquired a considerable interest in the Utica & Black River +Railroad. Twice he had actually moved toward securing control of that snug +little property. It seemed to be a far more logical feeder to the New York +Central than the Rome road might ever become. Yet, eventually Mr. +Vanderbilt sold his Black River stock. + +"I am not going to dissipate my energies in sundries," he then told one of +his cronies. "I am going to stick by the main line hereafter." + +As I have already intimated if he had succeeded in acquiring the Utica & +Black River, there at the beginning of the eighties the entire railroad +history of the North Country might have been changed, down to this very +day. It was in that uncertain hour that the elaborate but ill-fated West +Shore was being builded through from New York to Buffalo--a route ten +miles shorter than the main line of the New York Central. The West Shore +needed feeders, very greatly needed them, and it was having a hard time +getting them. Remember too, if you will, that if the Utica & Black River +had become the sole Northern New York feeding line of the New York +Central, it is entirely probable and consistent that the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh would have been an extremely valuable and essential factor of +the West Shore. The greater part of the state of New York would then have +been placed upon a competitive railroad basis. Instead of being, as it is +to-day, largely upon the monopolistic basis. + + * * * * * + +The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of 1890 was an extremely different +railroad from the woe-begone and utterly wretched property that had borne +that name but a decade earlier. Reorganized, to a large extent rebuilded, +it was a reincarnation of the excellent rail highway which the citizens of +Watertown and other communities of the North Country had built for +themselves away back there at the beginning of the fifties. Charles +Parsons was never a popular figure in Northern New York. He made no +efforts toward popularity. Yet simple justice compels the recognition of +the fact, that in the rebuilding of the R. W. & O. he accomplished a very +large constructive work. He had relaid and reballasted hundreds of miles +of main line track and put down not only many miles of sidings but also a +considerable quantity of new main line; between Norwood and Massena +Springs, between Oswego and Syracuse, between Windsor Beach and Rochester, +chief among these extensions. He had built new bridges by the dozens; +purchased and rebuilded cars and locomotives by the hundreds. It was +almost as if he had built a brand new railroad. + +Now--in 1890--he had 643 main line miles of as good a railroad, generally +speaking, as one might find in the entire land. The Rome road owned an +even hundred locomotives, ninety-eight passenger-cars, thirty-five +baggage-cars, and 2609 freight-cars of one type or another. It was a +monopoly within its territory. Its busy main-stem stretched all the way +from Suspension Bridge (with excellent western connections) to Norwood and +Massena Springs (each with excellent eastern connections). It was in a +superb strategic position as a competitor for through freight from the +interior of the land to the Atlantic seaboard ports--either Boston, or +Portland, or Montreal. Parsons was unusually expert in his traffic +strategy. Frequently he went so far and dared so much that the line of the +four-leaved clover gradually became something of a thorn in the side of +some of its larger competitors. Parsons in competitive territory was a +rate-smasher. He did not hesitate to put the screws upon the territory +wherein his road was a purely monopolistic carrier. There are citizens +dwelling in the northern portions of Jefferson county who still +remember--and with bitterness in their memories--how he helped put the +Keene mines out of business. + +In an earlier chapter of this book I referred to the large part that James +Sterling had played in the upbuilding of this iron industry. After several +successive failures the mines had, sometime in the seventies, been put +upon a basis, seemingly permanent. Their ore was good--and popular. At the +time that Parsons first assumed control of the Rome road, the Keene mines +were shipping out from six to eight carloads of hematite daily--to +connecting lines at Syracuse, at Sterling and at Charlotte--at an average +rate of $1.25 a ton. Parsons advanced the rate to $1.50 a ton, and they +quit. They have remained idle ever since; their abandoned shaft-houses +melancholy reminders of a vanished enterprise. Yet the ore is still there, +in vast quantities; richer than the Messaba and in the opinion of many +experts, extending up to and under the St. Lawrence, and into the province +of Ontario. + + * * * * * + +Oddly enough, as Keene quit other mine districts of Northern New York +began to open up. It had been known for many years that in the +neighborhood of the small village of Harrisville in the north part of +Lewis county there were valuable deposits of black, magnetic iron ore. To +reach these beds, to open and to develop them had long been the dream of +certain North Country men, notably George Gilbert, of Carthage and Joseph +Pahud, of Harrisville. As far back as 1866, a line had been surveyed from +Carthage to Harrisville, twenty-one miles. Yet, it was not until twenty +years later that a standard railroad was put down between these two +villages. + +In the meantime--to be exact, in the summer of 1869--the so-called +"wooden railroad" was built for the ten miles between Carthage and Natural +Bridge. Literally this line--its corporate name was the Black River & St. +Lawrence Railway Company--had rails hewn and smoothed from maple. It was +so very crude that it was doomed to failure from the beginning. Yet its +right-of-way served a similar purpose for the Carthage & Adirondack +Railroad which was organized in 1883, and which opened its line through to +Jayville, thirty miles distant three years later; and on to Bensons Mines +in the fall of 1889. A little later it was completed to Newton Falls, its +present terminus. + +One other small railroad was built out from Carthage a few years later. It +deserves at least a paragraph of reference. The quiet old-fashioned North +Country village of Copenhagen, situated upon the historic State Road from +Utica to Sackett's Harbor, between Lowville and Watertown, had not ceased +to regret how the building of the Black River road--which quite naturally +had followed the water-level of the river valley--had completely passed it +by. Copenhagen also wanted a railroad. It waited for forty years after the +completion of the Utica & Black River before its desire was fulfilled. +Then, by almost superhuman effort on the part of its citizens, as well as +those of Carthage, it built its railroad to that village, eleven miles +distant. A former citizen of the town, one Jimmy March, who had won fame +and success as a contractor in New York City, bought a second-hand +passenger-coach from the Erie Railroad and presented it to the Carthage & +Copenhagen. A locomotive was purchased with a few work-cars and a brave +but almost hopeless transportation effort begun. + +The Carthage & Copenhagen already has ceased to exist. The recent +development of the state highways and with them, of the motor-truck and +the motor omnibus sealed its fate. In 1917 it was abandoned and its track +torn up, for its wartime value in scrap iron: Its little yellow depot at +Copenhagen still stands. And upon it, but two or three years ago, there +still was affixed the blue and white signs of the telegraph company and +the express company. Yet no longer a track led to it; only a half-hidden +and weed-grown row of rotting ties, stretching away off in the distance +toward Carthage. In truth it has become but a mere mockery of a railroad +depot. + +The day of the small railroad apparently is gone; its fate sealed. True it +is that the little railroad from Norwood to Waddington and the one that +the Lewis family built from Lowville to Croghan and Beaver Falls are both +still in operation, but these have large local industries to serve--they +are, in fact, hardly more than independently operating industrial sidings. +So, too, has continued the branch road from Gouverneur to Edwards, which +Engineer Bockus helped open in 1893 and upon which he has run ever since. + + * * * * * + +Charles Parsons had but little use for the small railroad. He thought of +railroads in large units indeed. His thought of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh was, forever and a day, as a trunk-line, nothing less. +Sometimes he talked, rather airily to be sure, of buying the Ogdensburgh & +Lake Champlain or even the Wabash. Yet, in reality, he would have had +nothing of either of these somewhat moribund properties. He did not need +them. They were not germane to a single one of his plans. For one, and the +most important thing, neither of them could stand alone. The R. W. & O. +could. In the largest sense, it was a self-contained property; with its +monopolistic control of a huge territory, rich in basic wealth and still +in a period of healthy and continued growth. + +Once, there at the beginning of the nineties, Grand Trunk made tentative +offers for the control of the rebuilded property. It hinted at a +willingness to pay par for such an interest. Parsons paid no attention to +the offer. Some people said that he was waiting for the Canadian Pacific +to come along and buy his road; there have always been plans for +international bridges across the St. Lawrence; all the way from Cape +Vincent to Morristown. + +But even Canadian Pacific was not the big thing in Parsons' mind. I think +it may be safely said that from the middle of the eighties he had realized +the necessity that would yet confront the Vanderbilts of owning the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh. At that earlier time they were having their hands +full with the aftermath of their victorious but terribly costly battle +with the West Shore. It would be some years before they would be in a +position to go further afield than their own main line territory. But +Parsons could wait--wait and upbuild his property. And show his constant +independence of the New York Central. + +In a hundred different ways he showed this. More than ever he became a +thorn in the side of the bigger road. He slashed more through rates--and +raised more of the local ones to make good the loss to his treasury. +Northern New York groaned, and yet was helpless. Parsons laughed at it. As +far as possible he kept out of it. He cut the wires. His right-hand man, +Hiram M. Britton, began breaking physically under the pressure and the +criticism, finally was forced to leave his desk altogether to seek, +vainly, the restoration of his health in Europe. + +Mr. E. S. Bowen succeeded Mr. Britton as General Manager of the road. A +quiet, gentle sort of a man--a native of Lock Haven, Pa., and a former +General Superintendent of the Erie--of far less dominant personality than +his predecessor. He came quite too late upon the property to make a large +personal impress upon it. The memories that he left of himself are mostly +negative. He was thorough, conscientious, apparently seeking to please, in +an all but impossible situation. He was the last General Manager of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad. + + * * * * * + +The steadily increasing clamor of the North Country against the road and +its management brought a man up from the South with a definite scheme for +building a competitive relief line into it. His name was Austin Corbin, +and while primarily he was always promoter rather than railroader, he did +have one or two railroad successes distinctly to his credit. In control of +the Long Island, his had been the vision that planned the creation of a +great ocean terminal at Fort Pond Bay, near Montauk Point. From here +Corbin saw four-day steamers plying that would connect America and Europe. +A day would be saved in not bringing these fast super-craft in and out of +the crowded harbor of New York. It was a fascinating plan and one which +still is revived every few years. + +Corbin did some distinctly creative work upon the Long Island; and yet +forever was promoter, rather than railroader. He had associated with +himself, A. A. McLeod, who a little later was to achieve a spectacular +notoriety by successfully uniting--for a short time--such conservative +properties as Reading, Lehigh Valley and Boston & Maine into a single, +sprawling, top-heavy railroad. Together these men had picked up for a song +an unhappy railroad, which stretched more than halfway across New York +State and which was known as the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira. Corbin acquired +this road in 1882. It was a wonder. It reached neither Utica nor Ithaca +nor Elmira. Starting at Horseheads, four or five miles north of Elmira, it +twisted and turned itself through the hills of the Southern Tier and of +Central New York, narrowly missing Ithaca--which steadily and consistently +refused to build itself up the hill to meet it--threading Cortland and +finally terminating at Canastota. + +This road came almost as a gift to Corbin and his associates. Its sole +value was that in its brief course it intersected nearly all of the +important railroads in New York state; the Pennsylvania, Erie, Lehigh +Valley, Lackawanna, and the New York Central. Corbin renamed the road, +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, and in 1887, extended it north from Canastota +to Camden, intersecting the Ontario & Western and the Rome road. He was +then within about fifty miles of Watertown. At about the same time he gave +his property its own entrance well within the heart of Elmira. + +Vainly Corbin tried to peddle this road either to the Pennsylvania or to +the Vanderbilts. He finally offered it to them at the assumption of its +mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. Even then it fell dead. As a last +resource he determined upon Watertown. Word of that small but growing +city's traffic plight had come to him. He jumped aboard a train and went +up to the rich county-seat of Jefferson, cultivated the friendship of its +men of affairs. Alluringly he spoke to them of the road he owned, of its +rare connections, its peculiar value as a coal-carrier, his ambition to +thrust it still further across the state. + +So there was formed, in May, 1890, the Camden, Watertown & Northern +Railroad to fill at least the fifty mile gap between Camden, which was +nothing as a railroad terminus, and Watertown, which even then had a heavy +originating traffic. Watertown even in 1890, was employing 2500 workers +in its factories which alone burned more than 33,000 tons of coal +annually. It was receiving 68,000 tons of freight a year and sending out +about 178,000. It was a fair fling under any conditions for a competing +railroad; under the peculiar conditions that then prevailed seemingly a +double opportunity. + +Corbin, himself, became President of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. As +its Secretary and Treasurer, James L. Newton was chosen. Around these men +a most representative directorate was grouped; S. F. Bagg, B. B. Taggart, +H. F. Inglehart, George W. Knowlton, George A. Bagley and A. D. Remington. +Whatever might have been Corbin's motive in the entire undertaking, there +was no mistaking the motives of the Watertown men, who had gathered about +him. They were determined to give their town a competing line; to undo, if +possible, the fiasco of a few years before when the Carthage, Watertown & +Sackett's Harbor had passed from their hands to hands unfriendly and +alien. + + * * * * * + +All these preparations Parsons watched with a great equanimity. He +realized the potential weaknesses of the connecting link of the proposed +new line; the terrific curves and the heavy grades of the E. C. & N. +Perhaps, he realized these fundamental weaknesses all the more because of +the steadily growing alliance between his road and the Ontario & Western. +The R. W. & O. sought to dig more deeply than ever into the sides of the +Vanderbilts by taking more and more traffic away from them; in the five +years from 1885 to 1890, the business delivered by the Rome road to the +New York Central at Utica, at Rome and at Syracuse had dwindled from two +million dollars a year to a little less than a million, and that of the +Ontario & Western had practically doubled. + +The Vanderbilts have never taken punishment easily. But they are good +waiters. And apparently they did not propose in this instance to be +hurried into reprisals. William H. Vanderbilt hated to do business with +Charles Parsons. He detested going down to the Rome road's offices in Wall +Street, and there facing his new rival, a tall, cadaverous man, whose hair +in his Rome road years had changed from part-white to snow-white, and who +persisted in an inordinate habit of sitting at his desk in his stocking +feet; sometimes Parsons flaunted his feet upon the radiator. If the pedal +extremities of the fastidious Vanderbilt ever hurt him, he succeeded at +least in keeping his shoes on. Decency compels many things. + +Across from Parsons sat his son, another Charles, who held the post of +Vice-President of the road of which his father was President. Together +they smoked cigarettes, incessantly. It was not usual for elderly men in +those days to smoke cigarettes and because the elder Parsons did it in his +office, Mr. Vanderbilt distrusted him all the more. + +And yet, there were about Parsons certain distinct qualities of charm and +interest. A State of Maine man--he came from Kennebunkport--he was a born +horse-trader, as his operations in the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +steadily showed. He was not a man to pay for that which he might possibly +get for nothing. On one memorable occasion he came to the office of +William Buchanan, the veteran Motive Power Superintendent of the New York +Central, who designed and built the famous No. 999, in order to get some +free advice on locomotive equipment. The Rome road then had a rather fair +supply of antiquated motive-power--it still was using some of the +converted wood-burners of its earliest days--and Parsons wanted to buy, +second-hand, some of the older engines of the N. Y. C. & H. R. He argued +that his bridges would not permit the purchase of heavy modern +locomotives. + +But the Central folk argued back that they had scrapped all their light +engines, save those that they still needed for certain local and +branch-line services. In the long run they drew up plans for locomotives +suited to the special necessities of the Rome road and presented Parsons +with them. From that time on he came frequently to consult the technical +authorities in the Grand Central Depot. + +"I have a first-class staff working for me and I don't have to pay it a +blessed cent," he would chuckle as he went out of its doors. + +The funny part of it all being that the Vanderbilts apparently were +perfectly willing that he should make such use of their staff. + + * * * * * + +Here was Charles Parsons steadily proposing the most disagreeable things +to the Vanderbilts. The Lehigh Valley which, like the Lackawanna of a +decade before, had begun to tire of the Erie as a sole entrance into the +Buffalo gateway, and was building its own line into that important city, +was making eyes at the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Parsons, still +smoking his cigarettes, made eyes back at the Lehigh Valley and its +owners, the enormously wealthy Packer family of South Bethlehem, +Pennsylvania. Together they slipped into an alliance. For ten years +Charles Parsons had coveted an entrance of his own into Buffalo. The +Packers wanted to get from Buffalo into the traffic hub of Suspension +Bridge. On a competitive basis, neither the existing lines of the New +York Central nor of the Erie between those two places were open to them. + +The interests of the R. W. & O. and the Lehigh Valley in this situation +were identical. It was quite logical therefore that they should get +together and form the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland; quite a grand +sounding appellation for twenty-four miles of railroad, which was to run +from Buffalo to Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge. Once formed, there in +the eventful midsummer of 1890, no time was lost in acquiring the +right-of-way for this important railroad link. As a separate corporation +it expended something over a million dollars for land and for preliminary +grading. + +To complete its line it was necessary that it should cross the lines of +the then New York Central & Hudson River--not once, but several times. Up +to that time the New York Central had generally pursued a pretty +broad-gauge policy in permitting other railroads to cross its lines. Even +in this instance it granted the necessary permissions, but this time Mr. +Parsons went north to the Grand Central Depot and not Mr. Vanderbilt south +to Wall Street. Mr. Vanderbilt was quite willing that Mr. Parsons should +cross his tracks, when and where it was absolutely necessary, but, of +course, Mr. Parsons would reciprocate, if ever the occasion should arise +and permit the New York Central to cross the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +tracks, if ever it should become necessary? What is sauce for the goose is +sauce for the gander. + +What could Mr. Parsons do? Mr. Parsons acceded. Of course. Reciprocal +contracts covering all future grade-crossing matters were signed; and +duplicate copies of the peace treaty, signed, sealed and delivered. After +which work on the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland went ahead quite +merrily once more. + + * * * * * + +It was in December of that same year, 1890, hardly more than six months +after Mr. Austin Corbin had made the first of his Queen-of-Sheba visits to +Watertown that that brisk community found that it was to have a very +special gift in its Christmas stocking. Watertown was not only going to +have one new railroad. It was going to have two. Intimations reached +it--in that strange but sure way that big business always has of sending +out its intimations--that Watertown within the twelvemonth was to be upon +the lines of the New York Central. That seemed to be too good to be true. +But it was true. Telegraphic confirmation followed upon the heels of mere +rumor. The Vanderbilts, tired of shilly-shallying with Parsons and his +railroad and of playing second fiddle to Ontario & Western, were going to +build their own feeder line into Northern New York. Already, it was +organized and named--the Mohawk & St. Lawrence--preliminary surveying +parties were already struggling through the deep December drifts. + +All the oldtime rage and rivalry between Utica and Rome as to which should +be the recognized gateway broke out anew. The jealousies of thirty and +forty years before were renewed. Even Herkimer joined the squabble, +pushing forward the narrow-gauge line that had been built from her limits +north to the little village of Newport and Poland some years before. +Finally talk led to promises. Subscription papers were passed. Rome +trotted out the terminal grounds and the right-of-way for the Black River +& Utica Railroad that had passed her by there before the beginnings of the +sixties. Utica met her offers. Yet it seemed as if Rome was to be chosen. +The congestion of the New York Central yards in Utica--it was, of course, +well before the days of the Barge Canal and the straightening of the +Mohawk--made Rome the most practical terminal. + +Railroad meetings were again the order of the day throughout the North +Country. Carthage vied with Gouverneur and even Cape Vincent, stung to +the quick by the neglect of her port by the Parsons' management, joined in +the clamor. And Watertown? Watertown was beside herself with enthusiasm. +She saw herself as the future railroad capital of the state. Corbin and +his local backers were not slow to take advantage of the situation. +Adroitly they urged that while the Mohawk & St. Lawrence would approach +the city from the southeast and the upper Black River valley, the Camden, +Watertown & Northern would reach it from the southwest. They even hinted +at the possibilities of a union station. Perhaps, the union station would +be big enough to take in a recreant but reformed R. W. & O. And some one +hinted that the Canadian Pacific by a series of wondrous bridges was to +build into the town from Kingston and the northwest. In the union station +of Watertown of a decade hence one was to be able to go in through limited +trains-de-luxe to almost any quarter of the land. And this in a town which +up to that day, at least, had never seen a dining-car come into its +ancient station. + +All that winter Watertown ate railroads, slept railroads, dreamed +railroads. Surveyors went across back lots and put funny little yellow +wooden stakes in the snow drifts, where there had been potato rows the +previous summer and the next might see the beginnings of a great railroad +yard. Soft-voiced and persuasive young men went before the Common Council +and had all manner of permissive ordinances passed without a single word +of protest. Plans and routes by the dozen were filed with the County +Clerk. A local poetess burst into song in the _Times_ in commemoration of +the spirit of the hour. + + * * * * * + +As I look back upon the printed records of these proceedings, after thirty +years, quite dispassionately, it seems to me that there was, after all, an +extraordinary vagueness in the plans of these railroad promoters of that +strenuous time. The railroad lines ran here and there and everywhere upon +the map. But very little real money was expended, either in land or in +construction. The promoters, of both of the proposed new railroads, who +suddenly had become wondrously accessible to the dear public and its +advance agents, the newspaper reporters, were taking very few real steps +toward the real construction of a railroad. + +Mr. Parsons, stung to the quick apparently by the newfound energy of his +friend, Mr. Vanderbilt, retaliated at once by threats of building a line +from his southeastern terminal at Utica through the Mohawk valley--even +through the narrow _impasse_ of Little Falls--to Rotterdam Junction and +the Fitchburg some seventy miles distant. To link Utica with Rome and (by +a more direct line, than by the way of Richland), with Oswego and his +straight through route to Suspension Bridge would be the next and a +comparatively easy step. That done he would at least have a powerful, +competitive route, as against the New York Central's, east to Troy and +Boston--and for ten months of the year by water down the Hudson to New +York. Yet I cannot find any record of Mr. Parsons buying any real estate +in the Mohawk valley. + +Finally the Camden, Watertown & Northern did buy two plats of land +somewhere in the outskirts of Watertown, a fact which was promptly +recorded and spread to the four winds. It did more. It began laying track. +It laid nearly a hundred feet of unballasted track in the yards of Taggart +Brothers' Paper Mill and all Watertown went down in the chilly days at the +beginning of March and venerated that little piece of track. It was a +precious symbol. + +To offset land-buying and track-laying the Vanderbilts sent the flower of +their railroad flocks up to see Watertown, to see and be seen, to ask +questions and to be interviewed. More maps were filed. One only had to +squint one's eyes half closed and see the New York Central feeder +following the north side of the river through the town, and the Camden, +Watertown & Northern squeezing its way, somehow, along the south side of +it. The enthusiasm quickened. A despatch from Utica said that the +contractors, their men and their horses were setting up their quarters +upon the old Oneida County Fair Grounds. Actual construction of the Mohawk +& St. Lawrence was to begin within the fortnight. Watertown braced up and +finished the subscription for the purchase of the right-of-way and depot +site for the new road through its heart. + + * * * * * + +And then? + +Then-- + +On the fourteenth day of March, 1891, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a +quiet little telegraphic message--unemotional and uninspired, flashed its +monotonous way over the railroad wires into the gray old Watertown +passenger station back of the Woodruff House. It read, as follows: + + OSWEGO, March 14, 1891. + + _To all Division Superintendents_: + + The entire road and property of this company has been leased to the + New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and by direction of the + President, I have delivered possession to H. Walter Webb, Third + Vice-President of that company. Each Superintendent please acknowledge + and advise all agents on your division by wire. + + (Signed) E. S. BOWEN, + _General Manager_. + +And Watertown? + +Poor Watertown! + +It was as if a man had touched the tip of a lighted cigar to a tiny, but +much distended gas-balloon. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE COMING OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL + + +Out of the vast wreckage of great hopes and broken ambitions there slowly +arose the smoke of a great wrath. Watertown, in particular, smoldered in +her anger. Her position was a most uncomfortable one. Her pride had not +only been touched but sorely tried. She felt, and truly, that she had +helped to shake the bushes while the New York Central got all the plums. +It hurt. Her traditional rivals pointed their fingers of fine scorn toward +her. Ogdensburgh chuckled with glee. Oswego chortled. + +Yet out of her uncomfortable position she was yet to gain much. She was in +a position not only to demand but to receive. And because of the inherent +power of that position the ranking officers of the New York Central made +every effort to placate her. For one of the very few times, if not indeed +the only time in his life, Cornelius Vanderbilt--then the ranking head of +the family--made public appearance upon the stage of her Opera House, +before a great throng of her citizens, who crowded that ample place and +sat and stood there with anger in their hearts, but with justice in their +minds. They had not appreciated being made dupes. And yet they stood there +willing to give the newcomers the square deal. Which spoke whole volumes +for their upbringing. + +That was a memorable night in the history of Watertown; the evening of +March 24, 1891. The meeting at the City Opera House had been hastily +arranged. The telegraph wires only that morning had announced the coming +of Mr. Vanderbilt, accompanied by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, his personal +friend and adviser and at that time President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, as well as a small group of other railroad officers. The +party had left New York the preceding evening. All that day it held +meetings in the North Country--at Carthage, at Gouverneur, at Potsdam and +at Ogdensburgh. To a large extent these meetings were, however, somewhat +perfunctory. The real event of that memorable day was the evening meeting +at Watertown. In announcing the affair, but a few hours before, the editor +of the _Times_ (we suspect Mr. William D. McKinstry's own brilliant hand +in the penning of these paragraphs) had said: + +"Of course Mr. Depew will be the spokesman of the party. Having had his +dinner, which will be at his own expense, he will be in a good mood to +meet our citizens, and will, of course, have many pleasant things to say. +But we hope he will come no joke on our citizens. With us, this railroad +business is no joking matter. It affects us closely; it comes right into +our homes, affects our comfort of living and the prosperity of our +business enterprises. It puts more or less coal in our fires to warm our +homes, according to the price we have to pay for it, and it makes a +difference with how we are to be fed and clothed. This new railroad +monopoly has the power, if it chooses, to make us the most happy, +contented and prosperous people, or the most dejected and discontented.... +It is a great power to have and it calls for the utmost consideration in +its use...." + +So was laid the platform for the evening meeting; fairly and squarely. To +it the New York Central officers responded, fairly and squarely. Even the +genial Doctor Depew, to whom a speech without a funny story was as a +circus without an elephant, respected the real seriousness of the issue. +At the beginning he told some funny stories--of course. He alluded +playfully to the fact that the citizens of Watertown had met them without +a band--referring inferentially to the first official visit of Charles +Parsons as President of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, upon which +occasion the City Band had been engaged and the whole affair given the +appearance of a _fête_. Mr. Depew alluded half jestingly to the demise of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence and then turned seriously to the real kernel of +the situation--the inevitable tendency of American railroads toward +consolidation into larger single operating units. + +The merger of the Utica & Black River into the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh five years before had been in obedience to such a natural law. +The R. W. & O. system, reaching only Northern New York, disconnected and +not united to the great railroad properties of the country which spread +all over the face of the United States, had, partly by reason of its +isolation, failed to properly develop the territory that it had set out to +serve. It had been hedged in by barriers that it could not surmount. + +It was a good speech, filled not only with good intention, but with a deal +of economic hard sense. The crowded Opera House listened to it with +courtesy, with attention and with applause. But always with a feeling that +the deeds of the new management and not their mere words or promises would +be the atonement for the indignity that had been heaped upon the town. +And the next evening the _Times_ again said editorially: + +[Illustration: SNOW FIGHTERS A Scene in the Richland Yard on Almost Any +Zero Day in the Dead of a North Country Winter.] + +"... Mr. Depew appeared last evening and made the apology which is +reported in full in our local columns. He did it nicely. He called it +frescoing. Whitewashing is the common name for it when the job is done by +less artistic hands. But, by whatever name, it was pleasantly received by +an audience which packed the Opera House and a good feeling was created. +Mr. Depew ... did not go into any detailed statement of what the new +management of the R. W. & O. proposed to do except to make the general +statement that they had come to stay; that our interests were mutual; that +in building up the prosperity of this section they would be adding to +their own prosperity and that they would be one with us in every way. In +carrying out this assurance everything else must follow, and therefore it +is sufficient and satisfactory to our citizens. They will give the +management a good, fair chance to carry out this assurance and wait +confidently for acts to take the place of words ..." + + * * * * * + +That the new management had some real desire to assuage the extremely +irritated local situation became evident within the next few days. The +members of the Vanderbilt party had had many quiet consultations with the +leading men of Watertown and the North Country generally; had noted with +great patience and care the many, many transport grievances of the entire +territory. And proceeded wherever it was possible to remedy these, at +once. + +As a first earnest of its desires it tore down the high, unpainted, +hemlock fence around the Watertown passenger station. That high-board +fence had been an eyesore. It had been far worse than that however. It had +been a slap in the face to the average Watertownian who for years past had +regarded it as part of his inherent right and privilege to go down to the +depot whenever and as often as he pleased, not alone to greet friends or +to see them off, but also for the sheer joy of seeing the cars come in and +depart. Upon the occasion of the state firemen's convention in the +preceding August, the R. W. & O. management caused the ugly fence to be +builded--as a temporary measure. But the firemen's convention gone and a +matter of joyous memory, the fence remained. One might only enter within +upon showing one's ticket. + +Now, no matter how common and sensible a practice that might be elsewhere, +in this broad world, Watertown resented it, as an invasion of personal +privilege. It protested to the R. W. & O. management over at Oswego. Its +protests were laughed at. The fence remained. The New York Central tore it +down ... within a fortnight after it had acquired the road. + + * * * * * + +I have mentioned this episode in some detail because it is so typical of +the fashion that so many railroad managements, and with so much to gain, +go blindly ahead neglecting utterly the one great thing essential toward +the gaining of their larger ends--public sympathy and public support. +Charles Parsons, with everything to gain from Northern New York, scoffed +at these great aids, so easily purchased. Vastly bigger than Sloan in most +ways, he, nevertheless, shared the contempt of the old genius of the +Lackawanna for public opinion. The Vanderbilts rarely have made this +mistake with their railroads. I think that it can be put down as one of +the great open secrets of their success. + +Similarly Parsons had offended Watertown by his treatment of its newly +born street railway. It had been planned to extend in a single straight +line from the northeastern corner of the city, just beyond Sewall's Island +through High, and State, and Court, and Main Streets to the westerly +limits of the town, and thence down the populous valley of the Black +River through Brownville to the little manufacturing village of Dexter, +eight miles distant. In this course it needed to cross the steam railroad +tracks four times at grade--all of these within the city limits. + +The old R. W. & O had stoutly fought these crossings; using one specious +argument after another. The new management of the property said that the +crossings could go down as soon as the street railway company could have +them manufactured. It kept its word. The street railway went ahead--and +thrived; and the steam railroad lost little by its slight competition +between Watertown and Brownville. + +One other very popular form of grievance still remained--I shall take up +the question of the freight and passenger rates at another time--the +persistent refusal of the Parsons' administration to install through +all-the-year sleeping-car service between Watertown and New York. The +Vanderbilts installed that service, also one between Oswego and New York +within three weeks of their acquisition of the road. These have remained +ever since with the single exception of a short period during the Chicago +World's Fair, when the extreme shortage of sleeping-cars induced the +headquarters of the New York Central temporarily to withdraw the +Watertown cars. A protest from the Northern New York metropolis brought +them back--within seven days' time. + +The new management did more. It instituted Sunday trains upon the line; +also as an all-the-year feature, a travel necessity for which the North +Country had cried for years, vainly. It placed parlor-cars upon the +principal trains. It shortened the running-time of all of these. It showed +in almost every conceivable fashion a real desire to propitiate its +public. And for that desire much of the Mohawk & St. Lawrence fiasco was +eventually forgiven it. + + * * * * * + +One other problem--and a passing large one--confronted it; the question of +taking proper care of the official personnel of the Rome road. That is +always a difficult and delicate question in a merger of large +properties.... The Parsons family was taken care of--although in the +entire transaction it had taken pretty good care of itself. Arrangements +were made to carry its members upon the New York Central pay-rolls for a +season, even though they were quickly off and into new enterprises--the +New York & New England and South Carolina Railroad--but never again was +there to be such a killing as they had had in the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Such an opportunity does not arise once in a lifetime; not +once in a thousand lifetimes. + +The rest of the official roster was to be continued, for the next two or +three months at any rate. With great astuteness the Vanderbilts planned to +upset the operation of the road, to the least possible degree. It was to +keep its name and its individuality as far as was possible. As a matter of +operating convenience it was arranged to abolish the auditing offices at +Oswego and to have the R. W. & O. agents and conductors make their reports +direct to the New York Central headquarters in the Grand Central Station, +in New York City. Similarly orders went forth from those headquarters to +drop the old name, "Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh" from the locomotive +tenders and the sides of the passenger-cars. A rather bitter blow that +was. With all of its hatred against the property at one time and another, +the North Country cherished a real affection for the name. In deference, +to which sentiment, the Vanderbilts still clung to it for a number of +years; in their advertising and printed matter of every sort. It was +necessary, in their opinion, to emblazon "New York Central" upon their +newly acquired rolling-stock in order to permit a greater flexibility in +its interchange with that they already held. They had not owned the R. W. +& O. a fortnight before its eternal shortage of motive-power had been +relieved, by the assignment to it of engines No. 316 and No. 414 of the N. +Y. C. & H. R. R. And it should not be forgotten that one large reason for +all of these orders was the large affection of the Vanderbilt family for +the name and the fame of the New York Central. Both have loomed large in +their eyes. + + * * * * * + +The old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, quickly reorganized in that +March-time of 1891, had then as its chief officers the following men: + + _President_, CHARLES PARSONS, New York + _First Vice-President_, CLARENCE S. DAY, New York + _Second Vice-President_, CHARLES PARSONS, JR., New York + _Third Vice-President_, H. WALTER WEBB, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, New York + _Freight Traffic Manager_, L. A. EMERSON, New York + _Gen. Pass. Agent_, THEODORE E. BUTTERFIELD, Oswego + _General Manager_, E. S. BOWEN, Oswego + _Supt. of Transportation_, W. W. CURRIER, Oswego + _Master Mechanic_, GEORGE H. HASELTON, Oswego + + _Superintendents_ + + W. S. Jones, Watertown + H. W. Hammond, Carthage + I. H. McEwen, Oswego + +Mr. Webb, who also was the Third Vice-President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, was now, of course, the real guiding head of the property. +Well schooled in the Vanderbilt methods of railroad operation, it was his +task to begin their introduction into the newly acquired railroad. How +well he succeeded can easily be adjudged by the results that were +attained. They need no comment by the historian. + +To this group of men was given the operation of 643 miles of busy +single-track railroad. Prior to the acquisition of the R. W. & O., the New +York Central & Hudson River, itself, had only contained some 1420 miles of +line, including those which it held on leasehold. The Rome road then had +given it upwards of two thousand miles of route line--not to be confused +with mere miles of trackage, which would run to a far greater total. The +capital stock of the R. W. & O. as shown on its balance-sheet for the year +ending June 30, 1890, was $6,230,100, of which $238,243 was still in the +company's treasury. Its funded debt came to $12,672,090 (this latter +included income bonds, also in the company's treasury). In addition to +which there was a profit and loss account of $762,298. Parsons had builded +up a real railroad. Always himself short of ready cash he had acquired a +habit of dealing in millions--in a day when a million dollars still +represented a good deal of money. + + * * * * * + +The real problem of the new management of the Rome road lay, however, in +an immediate readjustment of its rates; particularly its freight rates. +The hemlock fence around the Watertown depot, the persecution of the +little street railway system of that community, the irritating defects of +the passenger service, were in the eyes of the commercial factors of the +North Country as nothing compared with the railroad freight tariffs that +it was called upon to pay. Charles Parsons, as I have said already, had +had no hesitation whatsoever in putting the burden of his income +necessities upon his non-competitive territory in order that he might be +in a position to slash rates right and left wherever and whenever he was +forced to compete. + +New York Central control promised a modification of this situation. To a +certain extent it accomplished it. Some of the rates were slashed from +twenty-five to fifty per cent, and Mr. Parsons lived long enough to see +more equitable systems of freight-carrying charges established on the old +line. It was only a short time after the New York Central had acquired the +Rome road before the huge Solvay Process Company had located themselves on +the western limits of Syracuse. Their location there was due primarily to +the salt-beds but they also needed great quantities of limestone daily for +their products. This the R. W. & O. furnished by means of an attractive +low rate. And, after a little time, there was a solid train each day from +Chaumont on the old Cape branch to Syracuse, laden exclusively with +limestone rock. At other times there would be solid trains of paper, and +in the season, of such rare specialties as strawberries from the Richland +section and turkeys from St. Lawrence county for the New York City +markets. And despite the well-famed superiority of the North Country in +cheese making, its rich dairy areas were invaded by the milk-supply +companies of the swift-growing metropolis. + +All made business--and lots of it--for the new owners of the North +Country's old road. They could afford to forget Parsons' dream of a +through route along the northerly border of the country--single-track and +filled with hard curvature and grades--to the seaboard docks of Portland, +Maine. The intensive development of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +their opportunity; and this opportunity they promptly seized. And +accomplished. Even the once despised Lake Ontario Shore Railroad came at +last into its own. Along its rails upgrew the greatest orchard industry in +the United States. And even as powerful and as resourceful a railroad as +the New York Central, at times, is hard put to find sufficient equipment +for the proper handling of the vast quantities of apples, pears and +peaches that to-day are grown upon the gentle south shore of Ontario. + +The Vanderbilts paid a high price for the R. W. & O. And then it was a +bargain. Not only was competition practically forestalled forever in one +of the richest industrial and agricultural areas in the entire United +States--by an odd coincidence the actual acquisition of the R. W. & O. was +followed a few months later by the enactment of a state law forbidding one +railroad acquiring a parallel or competing line--but the menace of the +powerful and strategic Canadian Pacific ever reaching the city of New York +was practically removed. A high price, and yet a low one. Which marks the +beginning and the end of railroad strategy. + + * * * * * + +For some time now we have lost track of Mr. Austin Corbin and his +ambitious plan of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. Upon the explosion of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence bubble a good many keen Watertown men who were +bent, heart and soul, upon providing their community with competitive +railroad service turned earnestly toward the Corbin scheme. The most of +the $60,000 that had been hastily subscribed in the town toward providing +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence with a free right-of-way and depot grounds +through it, was turned over to Mr. Corbin. Edward M. Gates, who was very +active in the matter, went further. He wired Mr. H. Walter Webb, who, as +Third Vice-President of the New York Central, and personal representative +of the Vanderbilts, had made a personal subscription of $30,000 to the +Watertown fund, if he, too, would agree to turning his subscription to the +Camden, Watertown & Northern. There is no record of a reply from Mr. Webb +on this proposition. + +Gradually Corbin grew lukewarm upon his Camden, Watertown & Northern plan. +Truth to tell, he had lost his largest opportunity on the day that Charles +Parsons had landed the Vanderbilts with the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +They had needed that road. They had never thought that they needed the +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, not even at the time that Corbin offered it +to them at the assumption of its mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. +Eventually he succeeded in getting the Lehigh Valley, which at just that +time was cherishing a fond idea that it might succeed in seriously cutting +into the New York Central's traffic between the seaboard and Central and +Northern New York, to buy the E. C. & N. Thereafter the Corbin project +disappeared. From time to time it has been revived, as a possible +extension of the Lehigh Valley, north from its present unsatisfactory +terminal at Camden to Watertown or even beyond. It is hardly likely now +that that extension will ever be builded. For one thing, the day of +building competing railroads is over, and for another, the E. C. & N. is +far too unsatisfactory a railroad dog to which to tie an efficient tail. +The Ontario & Western would have been a far more advantageous opportunity. + + * * * * * + +Out of all the tumult and excitement of that strenuous winter of 1890-91 +the net result then to Northern New York was no new railroads. No, permit +me to correct that statement. One new railroad was builded, and an +important enterprise it was. A brother of H. Walter Webb's, Dr. Seward +Webb, who had married into the Vanderbilt family, was instrumental in +acquiring from Henry S. Ives, of New York, and some of his associates, the +little narrow-gauge Herkimer, Newport & Poland Railroad, stretching some +twenty miles northward from Herkimer in the Mohawk valley and upon the +main line of the New York Central. With the road renamed, the Mohawk & +Malone, Dr. Webb conceived the idea of building it through the North Woods +to the Canada line. Where the long ago promoters of the Sackett's Harbor +& Saratoga had failed, he succeeded after a fashion. He moved the +contractors' duffle from the terminal of the nascent Mohawk & St. +Lawrence, at Utica, down to Herkimer, and began by first changing the H. +N. & P. into a standard-gauge railroad. This done he proceeded with its +extension, up the valley of the Canada Creek to Remsen, where it touched +the Utica line of the R. W. & O. (the main line of the former Utica & +Black River). + +This done, and arrangements made for handling the through trains of the +Mohawk & Malone over the R. W. & O. for the twenty-two miles between Utica +and Remsen, Dr. Webb struck his new road off through the depths of the +untrodden forests for nearly 150 miles. At first it was said that it was +his aim to meet and terminate his line at Tupper Lake, which had been +reached by the one-time Northern Adirondack from Moira, on the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain. Dr. Webb did meet this line, also the tenuous branch of +the Delaware & Hudson, extending westward from Plattsburg, and then down +to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. But he passed by all of these. His scheme +was a far more ambitious one. He had determined to build a railroad from +Utica to Montreal, and build a railroad from Utica to Montreal he did. +Before he was done the New York Central had its own rails from its main +line almost into the very heart of the Canadian metropolis. And while this +route was a little longer in mileage between New York City and Montreal +than the direct routes along both shores of Lake Champlain, it possessed +large strategic value for the western end of the New York Central & Hudson +River. And it was entirely a Vanderbilt line. As such it probably was +worth all it cost; and it was not a cheap road to build. + +This line was then the one tangible result of the most agitated railroad +experience that the people of New York state ever faced--with the possible +exception of the West Shore fiasco. The other plans--you still can find +them by the dozens carefully filed in the clerk's office of the Northern +New York counties--all came to nought. The folk of the North Country +ceased their dreamings; settled down to the intensive development of their +rarely rich territory. And sought to make its existing transport +facilities equal to their every need. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE END OF THE STORY + + +For six or seven years after it had secured possession of the property, +the New York Central continued the operation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh as a separate railroad, to a very large degree, at least. +Gradually, however, the individual executive officers of the leased road +ceased to exist; in some cases berths with the parent road were found for +them; in others, they were glad to retire to a life of comfortable ease. +The separate corporate existence of the R. W. & O. as well as that of the +Utica & Black River and the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, was +continued, however, until 1914, when the Vanderbilts made a single +corporation under the title of the New York Central Railroad of some of +their most important properties; the New York Central & Hudson River, the +Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, +chief amongst them. That step taken, the R. W. & O. had ceased to +exist--legally as well as technically. Yet the work that it had done in +the development of a huge community of communities could never die. It was +to live after it; for many years to come. + + * * * * * + +On the 20th of May, 1891, within three months after the leasing of the +Rome road, its headquarters were moved back to the place where originally +they had been located, and from which they never should have been +removed--Watertown. The entire property was then consolidated into a +single division, and Mr. McEwen brought over from Oswego to become its +Superintendent, with Mr. Jones his assistant at Oswego and Mr. Hammond in +a similar capacity at Watertown. Mr. P. E. Crowley was, also, promoted at +this time to the position of Chief Despatcher of the division. This +arrangement did not long continue, however. Charles Parsons already was +interesting himself in the New York & New England, and presently he called +to that property, as superintendents, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Jones, who +established their offices at Hartford, Conn. Soon afterwards Mr. Hammond +followed them. There had come a real change in _régime_. + +The R. W. & O. division of the New York Central & Hudson River, as the old +property then became known, stretched all the way from Suspension Bridge +to Massena Springs and was, I believe, with its 643 miles of route +mileage, the longest single railroad division in the United States at that +time. To run that division was a man's job, and only a real man could +survive it. + +Yet into that grimy old station at Watertown there came, one by one, a +succession of as brilliant railroaders as this country has ever known--Van +Etten, Russell, Moon, Hustis, Christie. These were men tested and tried +before they were sent up into the North Country--it was no place for +novices up there. Once there they made good, by both their wits and their +energies. Success on that division called for almost superhuman energy. +And when once it had been won; when down in the Grand Central they could +say that "X--had been to Watertown and made good there," it meant that +X--had taken, successfully, the thirty-third degree in modern railroading. + +There were a few men between these five, who did not make good--but +somehow that was never charged against them. Other jobs were found for +them; headquarters felt that perhaps the mistake in some way should +rightly be charged against it. + +After seventeen years of operation of the R. W. & O. as a single division +it was recognized at headquarters that the test was not a fair one; and +the famous old road was divided into two divisions, with Watertown +Junction as the dividing point and the divisions named, the St. Lawrence +and Ontario, with Watertown and Oswego as their respective division +headquarters. Just why the system was divided in that way no one seems to +know. It would have been more logical to have made the former Rome road, +east of Oswego, a single division with headquarters at Watertown, and have +split the old Lake Ontario Shore into the main line divisions of the +western part of the state. Yet this is history, and not a criticism. The +men who have run the New York Central have generally known their business +pretty well. + + * * * * * + +Edgar Van Etten came to the railroad game by way of the historic Erie. He +is a native of Port Jervis, New York, a famous old Erie town, and it was +just as natural as buttering bread for him to go to work upon that road, +rising in quick successive steps, freight conductor, to-day, trainmaster +to-morrow--oddly enough there was a little time when he was Superintendent +of the Ontario division of the R. W. & O., in the days of the Parsons' +control. Then we see him as Superintendent of the Erie at Buffalo, finally +General Manager of the Western New York Car Association, in that same busy +railroad center. From that task the Vanderbilts picked him for an even +greater one--taking that newly merged, single-track 643-mile-division of +the R. W. & O., and putting it upon their operating methods and +discipline. + +Only an Edgar Van Etten could have done the trick. A lion of a man he was +in those Watertown days, relentless, indomitable, fearless--yet possessing +in his varied nature keen qualities of humor and of human understanding +that were tremendous factors in the winning of his success. It was but +natural that so keen a talent should have been recognized in his promotion +from Watertown to the vastly responsible post of General Superintendent of +the New York Central at the Grand Central Station. In those days the +position of Operating Vice-President of the property had not been created. +Nor was there even a General Manager. The General Superintendent was the +big boss who moved the trains and moved them well. If he could not, the +Vanderbilts discovered it before they ever made him a big boss. + +Mr. Van Etten's final promotion came in his advancement to the post of +Vice-President and General Manager of their important Boston & Albany +property; a position on that road corresponding to the presidency of +almost any other one. Here he remained until 1907, when ill-health caused +his retirement from railroading. He moved across the continent to +California, where he is to-day an enthusiastic resident of Los Angeles. + + * * * * * + +E. G. Russell was cast in a somewhat gentler mold than Van Etten. Thorough +railroader he was at that, a man of large vision and seeking every +opportunity for the advancement of the property that he headed. For +remember that in all these years at Watertown these men were virtual +General Managers of a goodly property, in everything but actual title. +Upon their initiative, upon their ability to make quick decisions--and +accurate--in crises, to handle even matters of a goodly size the huge +division rose or fell. Theirs was no job for the weakling or the hesitant. + +Mr. Russell was neither a weakling nor hesitant. On the contrary he risked +much--even the friendship of the organized labor of the road--when he felt +that he was right and must go ahead upon the right path. Eventually his +policies in regard to labor forced his retirement from the R. W. & O. +division. He went, capable railroader that he always was, to Scranton +where he became General Superintendent of the Lackawanna. From there he +went to one of the roads in lower Canada, and finally to Michigan, where +he met his tragic death late at night on a lonely railroad pier in the +dead of winter. + + * * * * * + +After Russell, Dewitt C. Moon; a man with an unusual genius for placating +labor and getting the very best results out of it. Mr. Moon succeeded Mr. +Russell as Superintendent at Watertown, April 1, 1899, leaving that post +September 1, 1902, to become General Manager of the Lake Erie & Western, a +Vanderbilt property of the mid-West. He had been schooled in that family +of railroads, starting in as telegraph operator on the old Dunkirk, +Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh, which was gradually merged, first into the +Lake Shore and then into the parent reorganized New York Central of +to-day. Before that reorganization, he had become General Manager of the +former Lake Shore in some respects the very finest of the old Vanderbilt +properties--at Cleveland. At Cleveland he still remains, as Assistant to +the Vice-President of the New York Central in that important city. He is a +railroader of the old school, trained in exquisite thoroughness and with a +capacity for detail, not less than marvelous. + +Moon's great forte, however, was and still is, coöperation. Men like him. +He likes men. A big and genial nature, a quick sympathy and understanding +have proved great assets to a railroad executive. These assets Moon has +possessed from the beginning. Upon them he had builded--and upgrown. + + * * * * * + +Still another of this famous quintette to whom the running of a 650 mile +railroad division was as but part of a day's work--James H. Hustis. More +than any of the three who preceded him Hustis is in every sense a thorough +graduate of the Vanderbilt school of railroading. He was born to it. His +father, too, was a veteran New York Central man. "Jim" Hustis entered that +school in 1878, as office-boy to the late John M. Toucey, then General +Superintendent of the New York Central in the old Grand Central depot. He +rose rapidly in the ranks, filling several superintendencies in the old +parent property before he went to Watertown, in the late summer of 1902. + +He left there on October 1, 1906, to assume executive charge of the Boston +& Albany. And it was soon after he left that the old division was broken +into two parts and the R. W. & O. ceased to exist, even as a division +name. Mr. Hustis is to-day President of the Boston & Maine Railroad. He +holds the unique distinction of having headed the three most important +railroads of New England. After leaving the office of Vice-President and +General Manager of the Boston & Albany--as we have already seen the +ranking position of that property--he was for a time President of the New +York, New Haven & Hartford, before going to his present post with the +Boston & Maine. That he is a thorough railroader, hardly needs to be said +here--if nothing else said that, the fact that he spent four successful +years in full control at Watertown, of itself would tell it. + + * * * * * + +After Hustis, Cornelius Christie, the last of the executive +Superintendents that were to supervise the operation of the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh as a single unit--why the folks down in the Grand +Central did not create a general superintendency at Watertown, I never +could understand. Christie, a huge six-foot-three man, big both physically +and mentally, also was trained in the wondrous Vanderbilt school of +railroading. Long service both upon the main line of the Central and the +West Shore, equipped him most adequately for the arduous task at +Watertown. + +It was in Christie's day--in the summer of 1908--that the famous old +division was divided into two large parts, as we have already seen; the +Ontario and the St. Lawrence. For three years more, Mr. Christie remained +at Watertown, as Superintendent of the St. Lawrence, being promoted from +that post to a similar one on the busy Hudson River division between +Albany and New York. He was succeeded at Watertown by F. E. Williamson, +the present General Superintendent of the New York Central at Albany. + +At the time Christie became Superintendent of the St. Lawrence Division at +Watertown, Frank E. McCormack was set up in a similar job, heading the +Ontario Division at Oswego. The genial Frank was R. W. & O. trained and +bred. As far back as April 1, 1885, he was working for the property as +night operator and pumper, at a salary of $25 a month. Some one must have +recognized the real railroader in him, however, for but a year later his +"salary" was raised to $30 and the following year he was transferred to +the Superintendent's office at Watertown as confidential clerk and +operator. From that time on his progress was steady and uninterrupted; +despatcher, chief despatcher, trainmaster, and with one or two more +intermediate steps, Superintendent. + + * * * * * + +To attempt even a listing of the able railroad crowd that hovered around +the old Watertown depot, in the years that measured the beginnings of the +Vanderbilt operation of the old Rome road again, would be quite beyond the +province of this little book. H. D. Carter, Frank E. Wilson, George C. +Gridley, W. H. Northrop, Clare Hartigan, how the names come trippingly to +mind! And how many, many more there are of them. + +Yet I cannot close these paragraphs without singling out two of +them--Wilgus and Crowley. Here are two more graduates of its hard, hard +school, in which the Rome road may hold exceeding pride. Colonel W. J. +Wilgus was with the old division for but four years--from 1893 to +1897--but they were years of exceeding activity in the rebuilding of the +property; particularly its "double-tracking" and the extremely important +job of raising the track-levels for many miles north of Richland so that +the eternal enemy of the road--snow--would have a much harder time +henceforth in endeavoring to fight it. From that job he went to far bigger +ones; such as building the new Grand Central Terminal and installing +electric operation on the lines that entered it, digging the Michigan +Central tunnel under the river at Detroit and building the new station in +that city. These and others. But none more interesting to him, I dare say, +than the task that he laid out overseas in the Great War, building and +arranging the rail lines of communication for the American Army in France. +A job to which he brought all his experience, his great energy and his +rare tact. + +And finally, Patrick E. Crowley. Mr. Crowley's connection with the Rome +road goes back to the Parsons' régime--even though before that day he had +had eleven hard years of experience with the old Erie; in about every +conceivable job from station agent to train despatcher. He was with the R. +W. & O., however, almost an even year before its acquisition by the New +York Central--as train despatcher at Oswego. In May, 1891, he was +transferred to Watertown as chief train despatcher and later as train +master. His stepping upward has been continuous and earned. To-day as +Vice-President, in charge of operation, of the entire New York Central +system he is recognized as one of the king-pins of railroad operators of +all creation and is the same simple and unassuming gentleman that one +found him in the old days at Oswego and Watertown. + +That seems to be the mark of the real railroader, always. Ostentation does +not get a man very far in the game. In the North Country it got him +nowhere, whatsoever. In our land of the great snows and the hard years a +very real and simple democracy plus energy and some real knowledge of the +problems in hand were the only qualities that put a big boss ahead. +Forever--no matter what the name or how long the division--the job up +there was the survival of the fittest. The fit man might be here, there, +anywhere. He might be a greaser in the round-house, a news-butcher upon +the train, an office boy upstairs in the depot headquarters, an operator +in a lonely country station. If he was fit he got ahead and got ahead +quickly. Merit won its own promotion and generally won it pretty quickly. + +Not that everything was always plain sailing. There is one pretty keen +railroad executive in the land who remembers his joy at being promoted to +Despatcher on the old Rome road. The pay was eighty dollars a month, which +was good in those days. He walked into the new job with a plenty of +cocksure enthusiasm. The "super" did not like young men with cocksure +enthusiasms. He said so, frankly. And in order to drive his ideas home +paid the young man the Despatcher's rate for thirty days; then, for the +next five or six months at the old-time operator's rate. The young man +caught on. He understood. A job's a job and a boss is a boss. And all the +jobs in the world are not worth the paper that they are written on, unless +the boss wants to make them so. Which may be put down as an unscientific +maxim; yet a very true one nevertheless. + + * * * * * + +Back of these men who sought with all their energy and vigor, of mind and +of body alike, steadily to upbuild the old Rome road, was the great +wealth, organization and _esprit de corps_ of one of the leading railroad +organizations of the world. The Vanderbilts were always thorough +sportsmen. They showed it in their reincarnation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Parsons had been handicapped, forever and a day, by the +constant lack of ready cash--there have been few times when the New York +Central has been so handicapped. I bear no brief for the Vanderbilts. They +have made their mistakes and they have been grievous ones. But they have +not often made the mistake of being miserly with their properties. That +mistake was not made in Northern New York. + +Into the R. W. & O., once they had clinched their title to it, they poured +money like water--whenever they could be shown the necessity of such a +procedure. New track went down and then new bridges went up--superb +structures every one of them--until there no longer were any limitations +upon the motive-power for the North Country's rail transport system. A +locomotive that could run upon the main line could run practically +anywhere upon the Rome road divisions. And when Watertown complained that +the traffic was rising to a volume that no longer could be handled upon a +single-track basis, the Vanderbilts double-tracked the road--in all of +its essential stretches, many, many miles of it all told. They built and +rebuilt the round-houses and the shops. "Property improvement" became +their slogan. + +In such property improvement Watertown has always shared, most liberally. +The double-tracking of the old main-stem of the R. W. & O. brought with it +as a corollary the construction of a much needed freight cut-off outside +the crowded heart of that city. That done the local freight facilities +were removed from the old stone freight-house opposite the +passenger-station and that staunch old landmark torn down. To replace it a +huge freight terminal of the most modern type and worthy of a city of +sixty thousand population was erected on a convenient site upon the North +side of the river. As a final step in this program of progress the old +depot was torn away--without many expressions of regret on the part of the +townsfolk--and the present magnificent passenger terminal erected, at a +cost of close to a quarter of a million dollars. The management of what +Watertown will always know as the "old Rome road" has not been niggardly +with its chief town. + +Nor has it been niggardly with any other parts of Northern New York +territory. Oswego has rejoiced in a new station--the blessed old Lake +Shore Hotel, which for many years housed tavern and railroad offices and +passenger depot, combined, is now a thing of memory. Ogdensburgh has a +fine new station, and so has Massena Springs. Norwood still worries along +with its old depot, but Richland rejoices in a neat but excellent +structure, in which the Wright brothers still serve the coffee, the rolls, +the sausage and the buckwheat cakes that cannot be excelled. The North +Country has never taken to the dining-car habit; perhaps, because it never +has had the chance. But it actually likes its old-fashioned way of living; +the innate democracy of the American plan hotel and +dinner-in-the-middle-of-the-day. + + * * * * * + +Never can I ride up through it in these fine basking days of peace and of +prosperity over its well-maintained railroad without thinking of the days +when journeying into the North Country was not a comfortable matter of +Pullman cars and swift trains by day and by night; of the days when one +came to Utica by stage or by canal and immediately reëmbarked upon another +stage for an even hundred miles of rackingly hard riding over an uneven +plank-road into Watertown. If one went further toward the North, travel +conditions became still worse. Such expeditions were not for tender folk. + +And sometimes to-day when I ride north from Watertown upon the +railroad--and the cars toil laboriously through Factory Street, as they +have been toiling for sixty-five long years past--I press my face against +the window and look for a little house upon that Appian Way; the little, +old, stone house in which Clarke Rice and William Smith were wont, so long +ago, to operate their toy train upon the table and so try to induce the +folk of the village to invest their money in a scheme which then seemed so +utter chimerical. A house in which a real idea was born forever fascinates +me. For it I hold naught by sympathy--and understanding. So many of us are +dreamers.... And so few of us may ever live to see the full fruition of +our dreams. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +(Being taken bodily from a poster issued at Watertown in the Summer of +1847.) + + +WATERTOWN, ROME, AND CAPE-VINCENT RAIL-ROAD + +ACCORDING TO NOTICE IN THE JEFFERSON COUNTY PAPERS, the inhabitants of +this Town will be speedily called on to complete subscriptions towards the +above named Road, sufficient to warrant a commencement. + +BY THE CHARTER WE HAVE TILL THE 14TH OF MAY, 1848, to complete +subscriptions, and make an expenditure towards the Road. + +THE TIME IS SHORT IN WHICH TO DO THIS BUSINESS; therefore it is highly +important that every citizen, from the St. Lawrence on the North to the +Erie canal on the South--from the highlands on the East to the lake on the +West, come forward and spread himself to his full extent for the Road. + +TO STIMULATE US TO ACTION LET IT BE BORNE IN MIND that the sun never shone +on so glorious a land as lies within the bounds above described. To one +who for the first time visits our towns, the scene is enchanting in the +extreme. Our climate is bland and salubrious; winters more mild than in +any part of New England or southern New York--the atmosphere being +softened by the prevalence of southwesterly winds coursing up the Valley +of the Mississippi and along the waters of Erie and Ontario, to such +degree that for salubrity and comfort we stand almost unrivalled. + +WHEAT, CORN, BARLEY, OATS, PEASE, BEANS, BUCKWHEAT, fruit, butter, cheese, +pork, beef, horses, sheep, cattle, minerals, lumber, etc., are produced +here with a facility that warrants the hand of labor a bountiful return. + +WE HAVE WATER POWER ENOUGH TO TURN EVERY SPINDLE in Great Britain and +America. In fact we have every thing man could desire on this globe, +except a cheap and expeditious method of getting rid of our surplus +products and holding communication with the exterior world. + +THE WANT OF THIS, PLACES US _THIRTY YEARS_ BEHIND almost every other +portion of the State. When we might be _first_, we suffer ourselves to be +last. + +CITIZENS! HOW LONG IS THIS STATE OF THINGS TO ENDURE? After having lain +dormant until we have acquired the dimensions of a young giant, will we, +like the brute beast, ignorant of his powers, be still led captive in the +train of our country's prosperity--affording, by our supineness, a foil to +set off the triumphs of our more enterprising brethren of the East, the +South, and the West? + +NO,--FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, LET US RESOLVE to cut a passage to the +marts of the New World, and, by the abundance of our resources, strike +their "Merchant Princes" with admiration and astonishment. + +THIS CAN EASILY BE DONE IF UNANIMITY, PERSEVERANCE, and, above all, +LIBERALITY, be exhibited. If every farmer owning 100 acres of land, and he +not much in debt, will take five shares in the Road, _and others in +proportion_, the decree will go forth that the work is done. _Without +this_, it is feared the whole must be a failure. + +VIEWED IN AN ENLIGHTENED MANNER, THERE NEED BE NO hesitation on the part +of the owners of the soil. They are the ones to be most essentially +benefited. There is no reason why their lands, from having a market and +increased price of products, would not be worth fifty to eighty dollars +per acre, as is the case in less favored sections, where Rail Roads have +been constructed. The very fact that a Road was to be made would add +_half_ to the value of land--its completion would more than _double_ the +present prices. + +A TAX ON THE LAND TEN MILES EACH SIDE OF THE ROAD, to build it, would in +three years repay itself, and leave to the present population and their +posterity an enduring source of wealth and importance. We lose one hundred +thousand dollars annually in the price of butter and cheese alone, when +compared with the prices obtained by Lewis and the northerly part of +Oneida, simply because they are nearer the Canal and the Rail Road. + +BUT TAKING STOCK IS _NOT A TAX_, IN ANY SENSE OF THE phrase. It is only +resolving to purchase a certain amount of property in the Road, which, +taking similar investments elsewhere as a sample, will pay interest, or +can be at all times sold at par, or at an advance, like other property or +evidence of value. The owner of shares can at any time sell out, and have +the satisfaction of knowing that he has greatly added to his wealth merely +by affording countenance to the project while in embryo. + +THE DIRECTORS ARE POWERLESS UNLESS THE PEOPLE RALLY to their aid. They +have made efforts abroad for capital to build the Road, by adding to the +subscriptions on hand at the time they were chosen. Owing to causes not +prejudicial to the character of our enterprise, they have not for the +present succeeded. Aid they have been promised, but they are enjoined +first to show a larger figure at home. The ability and disposition of our +population must be more thoroughly evinced than has yet been the case. + +AGENTS ARE AT WORK, OR SPEEDILY WILL BE, ON THE whole length and breadth +of the line from Cape Vincent to Rome. A searching operation is to be had. +If the Road is a failure, the Directors are determined that it shall not +be laid at their door. Let this be remembered, and every one hereafter +hold his peace. + + CLARKE RICE, + Secretary W. & R. R. R. Co. + +Watertown, Aug. 27, 1847. + + + + +APPENDIX B + +A LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND AGENTS OF THE ROME, WATERTOWN & OGDENSBURGH +RAILROAD (March 22, 1886) + + + _President_, CHARLES PARSONS, New York + _Vice-President_, CLARENCE S. DAY, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, New York + _General Manager_, H. M. BRITTON, Oswego + _Supt. of Transportation_, W. W. CURRIER, Oswego + _Gen'l Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Oswego + _Gen'l Pass. Agt._ (Acting), G. C. GRIDLEY, Oswego + _Gen'l Baggage Agent_, T. M. PETTY, Oswego + _Gen'l Road Master_, H. A. SMITH, Oswego + _Supt. of Motive Power_, GEO. H. HASELTON, Oswego + + + _Assistant Superintendents_ + + W. H. Chauncey, Oswego + J. D. Remington, Watertown + W. S. Jones, DeKalb Junction + + + _Agents_ + + Suspension Bridge, G. G. Chauncey + River View, J. B. S. Colt + Lewiston, Samuel Barton + Ransonville, D. C. Hitchcock + Wilson, G. Wadsworth + Newfane, F. S. Coates + Hess Road, C. Sheehan + Somerset, Thomas Malloy + County Line, G. Resseguie + Lyndonville, B. A. Barry + Carlyon, T. A. Newnham + Waterport, A. J. Joslin + Carlton, O. Wiltse + East Carlton, J. C. Wilson + Kendall, J. W. Simkins + East Kendall, George L. Lovejoy + Hamlin, C. S. Snook + East Hamlin, D. W. Dorgan + Parma, L. V. Byer + Greece, W. E. Vrooman + Charlotte, H. N. Woods + Pierces, Chas. Ten Broeck + Webster, F. E. Sadler + Union Hill, C. B. Hart + Lakeside, I. H. Middleton + Ontario, George M. Sabin + Williamson, J. E. Tufts + Sodus, J. P. Canfield + Wallington, E. T. Boyd + Alton, H. S. McIntyre + Rose, A. A. Stearns + Wolcott, W. V. Bidwell + Red Creek, S. G. Murray + Sterling, W. A. Spear + Sterling Valley, W. R. Crockett + Hannibal, A. D. Cowles + Furniss, G. Hollenbeck + Oswego, F. W. Parsons + " Ticket Agent, T. M. Petty + East Oswego, F. W. Parsons + Scriba, R. M. Russell + New Haven, E. W. Robinson + Mexico, R. E. Barron + Sand Hill, W. K. Mathewson + Pulaski, W. H. Austin + Richland, T. Higham + Holmesville, C. L. Goodrich + Union Square, F. A. Nicholson + Parish, C. J. Lawton + Mallory, R. E. Brown + Central Square, J. P. Tracey + Brewerton, C. R. Rogers + Clay, Wilber Hatch + Woodard, A. J. Eaton + Liverpool, F. Wyker + Syracuse, M. Breen + " Ticket Agent, Jennie Kellar + Fulton, F. E. Sutherland + Phoenix, O. C. Breed + Rome, J. Graves + " Ticket Agent, A. G. Roof + Taberg, S. A. Cutler + McConnellsville, G. Gibbons + Camden, H. A. Case + West Camden, D. D. Spear + Williamstown, E. B. Acker + Kasoag, J. A. Frost + Albion, J. Buckley + Sandy Creek, W. J. Stevens + Mannsville, J. G. Clark + Pierrepont Manor, L. V. Evans, Jr. + Adams, D. Fish + Adams Centre, W. H. McIntyre + Rices, Miss L. A. Ayers + Watertown, R. E. Smiley + " Ticket Agent, Pitt Adams + Sanfords Corners, M. H. Matty + Evans Mills, F. E. Croissant + Philadelphia, C. T. Barr + Antwerp, Geo. H. Haywood + Keenes, W. E. Giffin + Gouverneur, A. F. Coates + Richville, W. D. Hurley + DeKalb Junction, E. G. Webb + Canton, J. H. Bixby + Potsdam, J. O'Sullivan + Norwood, M. R. Stanton + Rensselaer Falls, A. Walker + Heuvelton, H. B. Whittemore + Ogdensburgh, E. Dillingham + Brownville, G. C. Whittemore + Limerick, F. E. Rundell + Chaumont, W. A. Casler + Three Mile Bay, A. H. Dewey + Rosiere, Joseph Burgess + Cape Vincent, I. A. Whittemore + + + _Superintendent of Motive Power_, GEO. H. HASELTON, Oswego + + + _In Charge of Repairs_ + + Syracuse, John Knapp + Watertown, B. F. Batchelder + Rome, W. D. Watson + + + _General Road Master_, H. A. SMITH, Oswego + + + _Division Road Masters_ + + Suspension Bridge, Geo. Keith + Oswego, S. Bishop + Syracuse, S. Littlefield + Rome, A. M. Hollenbeck + E. Dennison, DeKalb Junction + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and +Ogdensburg RailRoad, by Edward Hungerford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 39021-8.txt or 39021-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/2/39021/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailRoad + +Author: Edward Hungerford + +Release Date: March 1, 2012 [EBook #39021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<h1><small>THE STORY OF THE<br /> +ROME, WATERTOWN AND<br /> +OGDENSBURGH RAILROAD</small></h1> + + + +<p> </p><p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">THE FLEET LOCOMOTIVE ANTWERP<br />When She Dug Her Red Heels into the Track the Railroad Men Reached for Their Watches.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE STORY</span><br /> +of the<br /> +<span class="huge">Rome, Watertown and<br /> +Ogdensburgh Railroad</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><small><i>By</i></small><br /> +<span class="large">EDWARD HUNGERFORD</span><br /> +<small><span class="smcap">Author of “The Modern Railroad,” “Our<br /> +Railroads—Tomorrow,” Etc., Etc.</span></small></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY<br /> +1922</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">Copyright, 1922, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">Edward Hungerford</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Printed in the<br /> +United States of America</i></p> + +<p class="center">Published, 1922</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To Those Pioneers<br /> +of our<br /> +North Country<br /> +who</span><br /> +<i>Labored Hard and Labored Well<br /> +In Order That It Might Enjoy the<br /> +Blessings of the Railroad, This<br /> +Book Is Dedicated by Its Author</i>.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p class="title">CONTENTS</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td><td><span class="smcap">By Way of Introduction</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Looking Toward a Railroad</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Coming of the Watertown & Rome</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Potsdam & Watertown Railroad</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Formation of the R. W. & O.</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The R. W. & O. Prospers—and Expands</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Into the Slough of Despond</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Utica & Black River</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Brisk Parsons’ Regime</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></td><td><span class="smcap">In Which Railroads Multiply</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Coming of the New York Central</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The End of the Story</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Appendix A</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Appendix B</span></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p class="title">ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>The Fleet Locomotive <i>Antwerp</i></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>FACING PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td>Orville Hungerford</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_30">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Cape Vincent Station</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Early Railroad Tickets</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Watertown in 1865</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Birth of the U. & B. R.</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Hiram M. Britton</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_187">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Snow Fighters</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<div class="note"> +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Some</span> railroads, like some men, experience many of the ups and downs of +life. They have their seasons of high prosperity, as well as those of deep +depression. Such a road was the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. In its +forty years of life it ran a full gamut of railroad existence. Alternately +it was one of the best railroads in creation; and one of the worst.</p> + +<p>The author within these pages has endeavored to put plain fact plainly. He +has written without malice—if anything, he still feels within his heart a +burst of warm sentiment for the old R. W. & O.—and with every effort +toward absolute impartiality in setting down these events that now are +History. He bespeaks for his little book, kindness, consideration, even +forbearance. And looks forward to the day when again he may take up his +pen in the scribbling of another narrative such as this. It has been a +task. But it has been a task of real fascination.</p> + +<p class="right">E. H.</p></div> + + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p class="center">A LIST OF THOSE WHO HAVE ASSISTED MATERIALLY IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS BOOK</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Richard C. Ellsworth</span></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Canton</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Harold B. Johnson</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cornelius Christie</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Syracuse</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Richard Holden</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">J. F. Maynard</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dr. Charles H. Leete</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Potsdam</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">W. D. Hanchette</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Richard T. Starsmeare</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Kane, Pa.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">W. D. Carnes</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Arthur G. Leonard</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Chicago</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Robert Ward Davis</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Rochester</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">George W. Knowlton</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">L. S. Hungerford</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Chicago</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Hon. Chauncey M. Depew</span></td><td> </td> + <td>New York</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Elisha B. Powell</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">P. E. Crowley</span></td><td> </td> + <td>New York</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Ira A. Place</span></td><td> </td> + <td>New York</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">F. E. McCormack</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Corning</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Edgar Van Etten</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Los Angeles</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">D. C. Moon</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Cleveland</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">James H. Hustis</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">F. W. Thompson</span></td><td> </td> + <td>San Francisco</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Henry N. Rockwell</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Albany</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chas. H. Hungerford</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Arlington, Vt.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Charles Holcombe</span></td><td> </td> + <td>Biloxi, Miss.</td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> +<p class="title">BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> the late summer of 1836 the locomotive first reached Utica and a new +era in the development of Central and Northern New York was begun.</p> + +<p>For forty years before that time, however—in fact ever since the close of +the War of the Revolution—there had been a steady and increasing trek of +settlers into the heart of what was soon destined to become the richest as +well as the most populous state of the Union. But its development was +constantly retarded by the lack of proper transportation facilities. For +while the valley of the Mohawk, the gradual portage just west of Rome and +the way down to Oswego and Lake Ontario through Oneida Lake and its +emptying waterways, formed the one natural passage in the whole United +States of that day from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes and the +little-known country beyond, it was by no means an easy pathway. Not even +after the Western Inland Lock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> Navigation Company had builded its first +crude masonry locks in the narrow natural <i>impasse</i> at Little Falls, so +that the <i>bateaux</i> of the early settlers, which made the rest of the route +in comparative ease, might pass through its one very difficult +bottle-neck.</p> + +<p>It was not until the coming of the Erie Canal, there in the second decade +of the nineteenth century, that the route into the heart of New York from +tidewater at Albany, was rendered a reasonably safe and (for that day) +comfortable affair. With the completion of the Erie Canal, in 1827, there +was immediately inaugurated a fleet of packet-boats; extremely swift in +their day and generation and famed for many a day thereafter for their +comfortable cabins and the excellence of their meals.</p> + +<p>But the comfort of these ancient craft should not be overrated. At the +best they were but slow affairs indeed, taking three days to come from +Albany, where they connected with the early steamboats upon the Hudson, up +to Utica. And at the best they might operate but seven or eight months out +of the year. The rest of the twelvemonth, the unlucky wight of a traveler +must needs have recourse to a horse-drawn coach.</p> + +<p>These selfsame coaches were not to be scoffed at, however. Across the +central portion of New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> York; by relays all the way from Albany to Black +Rock or Buffalo, they made a swift passage of it. And up into the great +and little known North Country they sometimes made exceeding speed. That +country had received its first artificial pathways at the time of the +coming of the Second War with England, when it was thrust into a sudden +and great strategic importance. With the direct result that important +permanent highroads were at once constructed; from Utica north to the +Black River country, down the water-shed of that stream, and through +Watertown to Sackett’s Harbor; and from Sackett’s Harbor through +Brownville—the county seat and for a time the military headquarters of +General Jacob Brown—north to Ogdensburgh, thence east along the Canada +line to Plattsburgh upon Lake Champlain.</p> + +<p>These military roads still remain. And beside them traces of their +erstwhile glory. Usually these last in the form of ancient taverns—most +often built of limestone, the stone whitened to a marblelike color by the +passing of a hundred years, save where loving vines and ivy have clambered +over their surfaces. You may see them to-day all the way from Utica to +Sackett’s Harbor; and, in turn, from Sackett’s Harbor north and east to +Plattsburgh once again. But none more sad nor more melancholy than at +Martinsburgh;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> once in her pride the shire-town of the county of Lewis, +but now a mere hamlet of a few fine old homes and crumbling warehouses. A +great fire in the early fifties ended the ambitions of Martinsburgh—in a +single short hour destroyed it almost totally. And made its hated rival +Lowville, two miles to its north, the county seat and chief village of the +vicinage.</p> + +<p>There was much in this North Road to remind one of its prototype, the +Great North Road, which ran and still runs from London to York, far +overseas. A something in its relative importance that helps to make the +parallel. Whilst even the famous four-in-hands of its English predecessor +might hardly hope to do better than was done on this early road of our own +North Country. It is a matter of record that on February 19, 1829, and +with a level fall of thirty inches of snow upon the road, the mailstage +went from Utica to Sackett’s Harbor, ninety-three miles, in nine hours and +forty-five minutes, including thirty-nine minutes for stops, horse relays +and the like. Which would not be bad time with a motor car this day.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> +<p class="title">LOOKING TOWARD A RAILROAD</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> locomotive having reached Utica—upon the completion of the Utica & +Schenectady Railroad, August 2, 1836—was not to be long content to make +that his western stopping point. The fever of railroad building was upon +Central New York. Railroads it must have; railroads it would have. But +railroad building was not the quick and comparatively simple thing then +that it is to-day. And it was not until nearly four years after he had +first poked his head into Utica that the iron horse first thrust his nose +into Syracuse, fifty-three miles further west. In fact the railroad from +this last point to Auburn already had been completed more than a +twelvemonth and but fifteen months later trains would be running all the +way from Syracuse to Rochester; with but a single change of cars, at +Auburn.</p> + +<p>Upon the heels of this pioneer chain of railroads—a little later to +achieve distinction as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> New York Central—came the building of a +railroad to the highly prosperous Lake Ontario port of Oswego—the +earliest of all white settlements upon the Great Lakes.</p> + +<p>At first it was planned that this railroad to the shores of Ontario should +deflect from the Utica & Syracuse Railroad—whose completion had followed +so closely upon the heels of the line between Schenectady and Utica—near +Rome, and after crossing Wood Creek and Fish Creek, should follow the +north shore of Oneida Lake and then down the valley of the Oswego River. +Oswego is but 185 miles from Lewiston by water and it was then estimated +that it could be reached in twenty-four or twenty-five hours from New York +by this combined rail and water route.</p> + +<p>Eventually however the pioneer line to Oswego was built out of Syracuse, +known at first as the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad; it afterwards became a +part of the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York and as a part of that line +eventually was merged, in 1872, into the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western +Railroad, which continues to operate it. This line of road led from the +original Syracuse station, between Salina and Warren Streets straight to +the waterside at Oswego harbor. There it made several boat connections; +the most important of these, the fleet of mail and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>passenger craft +operated by the one-time Ontario & St. Lawrence Steamboat Company.</p> + +<p>The steamers of this once famous line played no small part in the +development of the North Country. They operated through six or seven +months of the year, as a direct service between Lewiston which had at that +time highway and then later rail connection with Niagara Falls and +Buffalo, through Ogdensburgh, toward which, as we shall see in good time, +the Northern Railroad was being builded, close to the Canada line from +Lake Champlain and the Central Vermont Railroad at St. Albans as an outlet +between Northern New England and the water-borne traffic of the Great +Lakes. The steamers of this line, whose names, as well as the names of +their captains, were once household words in the North Country were:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td><i>Northerner</i></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Captain </td> + <td>R. F. Child</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>Ontario</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>H. N. Throop</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>Bay State</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>J. Van Cleve</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>New York</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>————</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>Cataract</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>R. B. Chapman</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>British Queen</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Laflamme</td></tr> +<tr><td><i>British Empire</i></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Moody</td></tr></table> + +<p>The first four of these steamers, each flying the American flag, were +deservedly the best known of the fleet. The <i>Ontario</i>, the <i>Bay State</i> and +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> <i>New York</i> were built at French Creek upon the St Lawrence (now +Clayton) by John Oakes; the <i>Northerner</i> was Oswego-built. They burned +wood in the beginning, and averaged about 230 feet in length and about 900 +tons burthen. There were in the fleet one or two other less consequential +boats, among them the <i>Rochester</i>, which plied between Lewiston and +Hamilton, in the then Canada West, as a connecting steamer with the main +line. The steamer <i>Niagara</i>, Captain A. D. Kilby, left Oswego each Monday, +Wednesday and Friday evening at eight, passing Rochester the next morning +and arriving at Toronto at four p. m. Returning she would leave Toronto on +the alternating days at 8:00 p. m., pass Rochester at 5:30 a. m. and +arrive at Oswego at 10:00 a. m., in full time to connect with the Oswego & +Syracuse R. R. train for Syracuse, and by connection, to Albany and the +Hudson River steamers for New York. A little later Captain John S. Warner, +of Henderson Harbor, was the Master of the <i>Niagara</i>.</p> + +<p>The “line boats,” as the larger craft were known, also connected with +these through trains. In the morning they did not depart until after the +arrival of the train from Syracuse. In detail their schedule by 1850 was +as follows:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>Lv.</td> + <td>Lewiston</td> + <td align="right">4</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Lv.</td> + <td>Montreal</td> + <td align="right">9</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td> + <td>Rochester</td> + <td align="right">10</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Ogdensburgh</td> + <td align="right">8</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td> + <td>Oswego</td> + <td align="right">9</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Kingston</td> + <td align="right">4</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td> + <td>Sackett’s Harbor </td> + <td align="right">12</td> + <td align="right">m.</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Sackett’s Harbor</td> + <td align="right">9</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td> + <td>Ogdensburgh</td> + <td align="right">7</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Oswego</td> + <td align="right">10</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">Ar.</td> + <td>Montreal</td> + <td align="right">6</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td> + <td>Rochester</td> + <td align="right">6</td> + <td align="right">p.m.</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"> </td> + <td>Ar.</td> + <td>Lewiston</td> + <td align="right">4</td> + <td align="right">a.m.</td></tr></table> + +<p>Here for many years, before the coming of the railroad, was an agreeable +way of travel into Northern New York. These steamers, even with thirty +foot paddle-wheels, were not fast; on the contrary they were extremely +slow. Neither were they gaudy craft, as one might find in other parts of +the land. But their rates of fare were very low and their meals, which +like the berths, were included in the cost of the passage ticket, had a +wide reputation for excellence. Until the coming of the railroad into +Northern New York, the line prospered exceedingly. Indeed, for a +considerable time thereafter it endeavored to compete against the +railroad—but with a sense of growing hopelessness. And eventually these +once famous steamers having grown both old and obsolete, the line was +abandoned.</p> + +<p>A rival line upon the north edge of Lake Ontario, the Richelieu & Ontario, +continued to prosper for many years, however, after the coming of the +railroad. Its steamers—the <i>Corsican</i>, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> <i>Caspian</i>, the <i>Algerian</i>, +the <i>Spartan</i>, the <i>Corinthian</i> and the <i>Passport</i> best known, perhaps, +amongst them—ran from Hamilton, touching at Toronto, Kingston, Clayton, +Alexandria Bay, Prescott and Cornwall, through to Montreal, where +connections were made in turn for lower river ports. The last of these +boats continued in operation upon the St. Lawrence until within twenty +years or thereabouts ago.</p> + +<p>It is worthy of note that the completion in 1829 of the first Welland +Canal began to turn a really huge tide of traffic from Lake Erie into Lake +Ontario, and for two decades this steadily increased. In 1850 Ontario bore +some 400,000 tons of freight upon its bosom, yet in the following year +this had increased to nearly 700,000 tons, valued at more than thirty +millions of dollars. In 1853 a tonnage mark of more than a million was +passed and the Lake then achieved an activity that it has not known since. +In that year the Watertown & Rome Railroad began its really active +operations and the traffic of Ontario to dwindle in consequence. Whilst +the cross-St. Lawrence ferry at Cape Vincent, the first northern terminal +of the Rome road, began to assume an importance that it was not to lose +for nearly forty years.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Steamboat travel was hardly to be relied upon in a country which suffers +so rigorous a winter climate as that of Northern New York. And highway +travel in the bitter months between November and April was hardly better. +A railroad was the thing; and a railroad the North Country must have. The +agitation grew for a direct line at least between Watertown, already +coming into importance as a manufacturing center of much diversity of +product, to the Erie Canal and the chain of separate growing railroads, +that by the end of 1844, stretched as a continuous line of rails all the +way from Albany—and by way of the Western and the Boston & Worcester +Railroads (to-day the Boston and Albany) all the way from Boston +itself—to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Prosperity already was upon the +North Country. It was laying the foundations of its future wealth. It was +ordained that a railroad should be given it. The problem was just how and +where that railroad should be built. After a brief but bitter fight +between Rome and Utica for the honor of being the chief terminal of this +railroad up into the North Country, Rome was chosen; as far back as 1832. +Yet it was not until sixteen years later that the construction of the +Watertown & Rome Railroad, the pioneer road of Northern New York, was +actually begun. And had been preceded by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> a mighty and almost continuous +legislative battle in the old Capitol at Albany ... of which more in +another chapter.</p> + +<p>In the meantime other railroads had been projected into the North Country. +The real pioneer among all of these was the Northern Railroad, which was +projected to run due west from Rouse’s Point to Ogdensburgh, just above +the head of the highest of the rapids of the St. Lawrence and so at that +time at the foot of the easy navigation of Ontario, and, by way of the +Welland Canal, of the entire chain of Great Lakes.</p> + +<p>The preliminary discussions which finally led to the construction of this +important early line also went as far back as 1829. Finally a meeting was +called (at Montpelier, Vt., on February 17, 1830) to seriously consider +the building of a railroad across the Northern Tier of New York counties, +from Rouse’s Point, upon Lake Champlain, to Ogdensburgh, upon the St. +Lawrence. The promoters of the plan averred that trains might be operated +over the proposed line at fifteen miles an hour, that the entire journey +from Boston to Ogdensburgh might be accomplished in thirty-five hours. +There were, of course, many wise men who shook their heads at the rashness +of such prediction. But the idea fascinated them none the less; and +twenty-eight days later a similar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> meeting to that at Montpelier was held +at Ogdensburgh, to be followed a year later by one at Malone.</p> + +<p>So was the idea born. It grew, although very slowly. Communication itself +in the North Country was slow in those days, even though the fine military +road from Sackett’s Harbor through Ogdensburgh to Plattsburgh was a +tolerable artery of travel most of the year. Money also was slow. And men, +over enterprises so extremely new and so untried as railroads, most +diffident. For it must be remembered that when the promoters of the +Northern Railroad first made that outrageous promise of going from Boston +to Ogdensburgh in thirty-five hours, at fifteen miles an hour, the +railroad in the United States was barely born. The first locomotive—the +<i>Stourbridge Lion</i>, at Honesdale, Penn.—had been operated less than a +twelvemonth before. In the entire United States there were less than +twenty-three miles of railroad in operation. So wonder it not that the +plan for the Northern Railroad grew very slowly indeed; that it did not +reach incorporation until fourteen long years afterward, when the +Legislature of New York authorized David C. Judson and Joseph Barnes, of +St. Lawrence County, S. C. Wead, of Franklin County and others as +commissioners to receive and distribute stock of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Northern Railroad; +$2,000,000 all told, divided into shares of $50 each. The date of the +formal incorporation of the road was May 14, 1845. Its organization was +not accomplished, however, until June, 1845, when the first meeting was +held in the then village of Ogdensburgh, and the following officers +elected:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">George Parish</span>, Ogdensburgh</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">S. S. Walley</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">James G. Hopkins</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Chief Engineer</i>, <span class="smcap">Col. Charles L. Schlatter</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>J. Leslie Russell, Canton</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Anthony C. Brown, Ogdensburgh</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charles Paine, Northfield, Vt.</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Isaac Spalding, Nashua, N. H.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hiram Horton, Malone</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Lawrence Myers, Plattsburgh</td></tr> +<tr><td>S. F. Belknap, Windsor, Vt.</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Abbot Lawrence, Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td>J. Wiley Edmonds, Boston</td> + <td> </td> + <td>T. P. Chandler, Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td>Benjamin Reed, Boston</td> + <td> </td> + <td>S. S. Lewis, Boston</td></tr></table> + +<p>Soon after the organization of the company, T. P. Chandler succeeded Mr. +Parish (who was for many years easily the most prominent citizen of +Ogdensburgh) as President, and steps were taken toward the immediate +construction of the line. After the inevitable preliminary contentions as +to the exact route to be followed, James Hayward made the complete surveys +of the line as it exists at present, while Colonel Schlatter, its chief +engineer and for a number of years its superintendent as well, prepared to +build it. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>Actual construction was begun in March, 1848, in the deep +cutting just east of Ogdensburgh. At the same time grading and the laying +of rail began at the east end of the road—at Rouse’s Point at the foot of +Lake Champlain—with the result that in the fall of 1848 trains were in +regular operation between Rouse’s Point and Centreville. A year later the +road had been extended to Ellenburgh; in June, 1850, to Chateaugay. On +October 1, 1850, trains ran into Malone. A month later it was finished and +open for its entire length of 117 miles. Its cost, including its equipment +and fixtures, was then placed at $5,022,121.31.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>It is not within the province of this little book to set down in detail +the somewhat checkered career of the Northern Railroad. It started with +large ambitions—even before its incorporation, James G. Hopkins, who +afterwards became its Secretary, traveled through the Northern Tier and +expatiated upon its future possibilities in a widely circulated little +pamphlet. It was a road builded for a large traffic. So sure were its +promoters of this forthcoming business that they placed its track upon the +side of the right-of-way, rather than in the middle of it, in order that +it would not have to be moved when it came time to double-track the road.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>The road was never double-tracked. For some years it prospered—very well. +It made a direct connection between the large lake steamers at the foot of +navigation at Ogdensburgh—it will be remembered that Ogdensburgh is just +above the swift-running and always dangerous rapids of the St. +Lawrence—and the important port of Boston. The completion of the line was +followed almost immediately by the construction of a long bridge across +the foot of Lake Champlain which brought it into direct connection with +the rails of the Central Vermont at St. Albans—and so in active touch +with all of the New England lines.</p> + +<p>The ambitious hopes of the promoters of the Northern took shape not only +in the construction of the stone shops and the large covered depot at +Malone (built in 1850 by W. A. Wheeler—afterwards not only President of +the property, but Vice-President of the United States—it still stands in +active service) but in the building of 4000 feet of wharfage and elaborate +warehouses and other terminal structures upon the river bank at +Ogdensburgh. The most of these also still stand—memorials of the large +scale upon which the road originally was designed.</p> + +<p>Gradually, however, its strength faded. Other rail routes, more direct and +otherwise more advantageous, came to combat it. Fewer and still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> fewer +steamers came to its Ogdensburgh docks—at the best it was a seasonal +business; the St. Lawrence is thoroughly frozen and out of use for about +five months out of each year. The steamers of the upper Lakes outgrew in +size the locks of the Welland Canal and so made for Buffalo—in increasing +numbers. The Northern Railroad entered upon difficulties, to put it +mildly. It was reorganized and reorganized; it became the Ogdensburgh +Railroad, then the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain, then a branch of the +Central Vermont and then upon the partial dismemberment of that historic +property, a branch of the Rutland Railroad. As such it still continues +with a moderate degree of success. In any narrative of the development of +transport in the North Country it must be forever regarded, however, as a +genuine pioneer among its railroads.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>One other route was seriously projected from the eastern end of the state +into the North Country—the Sackett’s Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Co. +which was chartered April 10, 1848. After desperate efforts to build a +railroad through the vast fastnesses of the North Woods—then a <i>terra +incognito</i>, almost impenetrable—and the expenditure of very considerable +sums of money, both in surveys and in actual construction, this +enterprise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> was finally abandoned. Yet one to-day can still see traces of +it across the forest. In the neighborhood of Beaver Falls, they become +most definite; a long cutting and an embankment reaching from it, a +melancholy reminder of a mighty human endeavor of just seventy years ago. +If this route had ever been completed, Watertown to-day would enjoy direct +rail communication with Boston, although not reaching within a dozen miles +of Albany. The Fitchburg, which always sought, but vainly, to make itself +an effective competitor of the powerful Boston & Albany, built itself +through to Saratoga Springs, largely in hopes that some day the line +through the forest to Sackett’s Harbor would be completed. It was a vain +hope. The faintest chance of that line ever being built was quite gone. A +quarter of a century later the Fitchburg thrust another branch off from +its Saratoga line to reach the ambitious new West Shore at Rotterdam +Junction. That hope also faded. And the Fitchburg, now an important +division of the Boston & Maine, despite its direct route and short mileage +through the Hoosac Tunnel, became forever a secondary route across the +state of Massachusetts.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The reports of the prospecting parties of the Sackett’s Harbor & Saratoga +form a pleasing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>picture of the Northern New York at the beginning of the +fifties. The company had been definitely formed with its chief offices at +80 Wall Street, New York, and the following officers and directors:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">William Coventry H. Waddell</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. of Operations</i>, <span class="smcap">Gen. S. P. Lyman</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">Henry Stanton</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">Samuel Ellis</span>, Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Counsel</i>, <span class="smcap">Samuel Beardsley</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Consulting Engineer</i>, <span class="smcap">John B. Mills</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Charles E. Clarke, Great Bend</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>P. Somerville Stewart, Carthage</td></tr> +<tr><td>Lyman R. Lyon, Lyons Falls</td> + <td> </td> + <td>E. G. Merrick, French Creek</td></tr> +<tr><td>Robert Speir, West Milton</td> + <td> </td> + <td>James M. Marvin, Saratoga</td></tr> +<tr><td>John R. Thurman, Chester</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Anson Thomas, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>Zadock Pratt, Prattsville</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Otis Clapp, Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td>Wm. Coventry H. Waddell, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gen. S. P. Lyman, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Henry Stanton, New York</td></tr></table> + +<p>Mr. A. F. Edwards received his appointment as Chief Engineer of the +company on March 10, 1852, and soon afterwards entered upon a detailed +reconnoissance of the territory embraced within its charter. He examined +closely into its mineral and timber resources and gave great attention to +its future agricultural and industrial possibilities. In the early part of +his report he says:</p> + +<p>“In the latter part of September, 1852, I left Saratoga for the Racket +(Racquette) Lake, via Utica. On my way I noticed on the Mohawk that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> there +had been frost, and as I rode along in the stage from Utica to Boonville, +I saw that the frost had bitten quite sharply the squash vines and the +potatoes, the leaves having become quite black; but judge my surprise, +when three days later on visiting the settlement of the Racket, I found +the beans, cucumber vines, potatoes, &c., as fresh as in midsummer.”</p> + +<p>His examination of the territory completed, Mr. Edwards began the rough +location of the line of the new railroad. From Saratoga it passed westerly +to the valley of the Kayaderosseras, in the town of Greenfield, thence +north through Greenfield Center, South Corinth and through the “Antonio +Notch” in the town of Corinth to the Sacondaga valley, up which it +proceeded to the village of Conklingville, easterly through Huntsville and +Northville, through the town of Hope to “the Forks.” From there it went up +the east branch of the Sacondaga, through Wells and Gilman to the isolated +town of Lake Pleasant. Spruce Lake and the headwaters of the Canada Creek +were threaded to the summit of the line at the Canada Lakes. The middle +and the western branches of the Moose River were passed near Old Forge and +the line descended the Otter Creek valley, crossing the Independence River +and down the Crystal Creek through and near Dayansville<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and Beaver Falls +to Carthage where for the first time it would touch the Black River.</p> + +<p>From Carthage to Watertown it was planned that it would closely follow the +Black River valley, crossing the river three times, and leaving it at +Watertown for a straight run across the flats to Sackett’s Harbor; along +the route of the already abandoned canal which Elisha Camp and a group of +associates had builded in 1822 and had left to its fate in 1832; in fact +almost precisely upon the line of the present Sackett’s Harbor branch of +the New York Central. At the Harbor great terminal developments were +planned; an inner harbor in the village and an outer one of considerable +magnitude at Horse Island.</p> + +<p>From Carthage a branch line was projected to French Creek, now the busy +summer village of Clayton. The route was to diverge from the main line +about one mile west of Great Bend thence running in a tangent to the +Indian River, about a mile and one-half east of Evan’s Mills, where after +crossing that stream upon a bridge of two spans and at a height of sixty +feet would recross it two miles further on and then run in an almost +straight line to Clayton. Here a very elaborate harbor improvement was +planned, with a loop track and almost continuous docks to encircle the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +compact peninsula upon which the village is built.</p> + +<p>“At French Creek on a clear day,” says Mr. Edwards, “the roofs of the +buildings at Kingston, across the St. Lawrence, can be seen with the naked +eye. All the steamers and sail vessels, up and down the river and lake, +pass this place and when the Grand Trunk Railroad is completed, it will be +as convenient a point as can be found to connect with the same.”</p> + +<p>All the while he waxes most enthusiastic about the future possibilities of +Northern New York, particularly the westerly counties of it. He calls +attention to the thriving villages of Turin, Martinsburgh, Lowville, +Denmark, Lyonsdale (I am leaving the older names as he gives them in his +report) and Dayansville, in the Black River valley.</p> + +<p>“In the wealthy county of Jefferson,” he adds, “are the towns of Carthage, +Great Bend, Felt’s Mills, Lockport (now Black River), Brownville and +Dexter, with Watertown, its county seat, well located for a manufacturing +city, having ample water power, at the same time surrounded by a country +rich in its soil and highly cultivated to meet the wants of the +operatives. Watertown contains about 10,000 inhabitants and is the most +modern, city-like built, inland town in the Union, containing about 100 +stores, five banks, cotton and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> woolen factories, six large flouring +mills, machine shops, furnaces, paper mills, and innumerable other +branches of business, with many first class hotels, among which the +‘Woodruff House’ may be justly called the Metropolitan of Western New +York.”</p> + +<p>In that early day, more than $795,000 had been invested in manufacturing +enterprises along the Black River, at Watertown and below. The territory +was a fine traffic plum for any railroad project. It seems a pity that +after all the ambitious dreams of the Sackett’s Harbor & Saratoga and the +very considerable expenditures that were made upon its right-of-way, that +it was to be doomed to die without ever having operated a single through +train. The nineteen or twenty miles of its line that were put down, north +and west from Saratoga Springs, long since lost their separate identity as +a branch of the Delaware & Hudson system.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> +<p class="title">THE COMING OF THE WATERTOWN & ROME</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> first successful transportation venture of the North Country was still +ahead of it. The efforts of these patient souls, who struggled so hard to +establish the Northern Railroad as an entrance to the six counties from +the east, were being echoed by those who strove to gain a rail entrance +into it from the south. Long ago in this narrative we saw how as far back +as 1836 the locomotive first entered Utica. Six or seven years later there +was a continuous chain of railroads from Albany to Buffalo—precursors of +the present New York Central—and ambitious plans for building feeder +lines to them from surrounding territory, both to the north and to the +south. The early Oswego & Syracuse Railroad was typical of these.</p> + +<p>Of all these plans none was more ambitious, however, than that which +sought to build a line from Rome into the heart of the rich county of +Jefferson, the lower valley of the Black River and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> St. Lawrence River +at almost the very point where Lake Ontario debouches into it. The scheme +for this road, in actuality, antedated the coming of the locomotive into +Utica by four years, for it was in 1832—upon the 17th day of April in +that year—that the Watertown & Rome Railroad was first incorporated and +Henry H. Coffeen, Edmund Kirby, Orville Hungerford and William Smith of +Jefferson County, Hiram Hubbell, Caleb Carr, Benjamin H. Wright and Elisha +Hart, of Oswego, and Jesse Armstrong, Alvah Sheldon, Artemas Trowbridge +and Seth D. Roberts, of Oneida, named by the Legislature as commissioners +to promote the enterprise. Later George C. Sherman, of Watertown, was +added to these commissioners. The act provided that the road should be +begun within three years and completed within five. Its capital stock was +fixed at $1,000,000, divided into shares of $100 each.</p> + +<p>The commercial audacity, the business daring of these men of the North +Country in even seeking to establish so huge an enterprise in those early +days of its settlement is hard to realize in this day, when our transport +has come to be so facile and easily understood a thing. Their courage was +the courage of mental giants. The railroad was less than three years +established in the United States; in the entire world less than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> five. Yet +they sought to bring into Northern New York, there at the beginning of the +third decade of the nineteenth century, hardly emerged from primeval +forest, the highway of iron rail, that even so highly a developed +civilization as that of England was receiving with great caution and +uncertainty.</p> + +<p>These men of the North Country had not alone courage, but vision; not +alone vision, but perseverance. Their railroad once born, even though as a +trembling thing that for years existed upon paper only, was not permitted +to die. It could not die. And that it should live the pioneers of +Jefferson and Oswego rode long miles over unspeakably bad roads with +determination in their hearts.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The act that established the Watertown & Rome Railroad was never permitted +to expire. It was revived; again and again and again—in 1837, in 1845, +and again in 1847. It is related how night after night William Smith and +Clarke Rice used to sit in an upper room of a house on Factory Street in +Watertown—then as now, the shire-town of Jefferson—and exhibit to +callers a model of a tiny train running upon a little track. Factory +Street was then one of the most attractive residence streets of Watertown. +The irony of fate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> was yet to transfer it into a rather grimy artery of +commerce—by the single process of the building of the main line of the +Potsdam & Watertown Railroad throughout its entire length.</p> + +<p>These men, and others, kept the project alive. William Dewey was one of +its most enthusiastic proponents. As the result of a meeting held at +Pulaski on June 27, 1836, he had been chosen to survey a line from +Watertown to Rome—through Pulaski. With the aid of Robert F. Livingston +and James Roberts, this was accomplished in the fall of 1836. Soon after +Dewey issued two thousand copies of a small thirty-two page pamphlet, +entitled <i>Suggestions Urging the Construction of a Railroad from Rome to +Watertown</i>. It was a potent factor in advocating the new enterprise; so +potent, in fact, that Cape Vincent, alarmed at not being included in all +of these plans, held a mass-meeting which was followed by the +incorporation of the Watertown & Cape Vincent Railroad, with a modest +capitalization of but $50,000. Surveys followed, and the immediate result +of this step was to include the present Cape Vincent branch in all the +plans for the construction of the original Watertown & Rome Railroad.</p> + +<p>These plans, as we have just seen, did not move rapidly. It is possible +that the handicap of the great distances of the North Country might have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +been overcome had it not been that 1837 was destined as the year of the +first great financial crash that the United States had ever known. The +northern counties of New York were by no means immune from the severe +effects of that disaster. Money was tight. The future looked dark. But the +two gentlemen of Watertown kept their little train going there in the +small room on Factory Street. Faith in any time or place is a superb +thing. In business it is a very real asset indeed. And the faith of Clarke +Rice and William Smith was reflected in the courage of Dewey, who would +not let the new road die. To keep it alive he rode up and down the +proposed route on horseback, summer and winter, urging its great +necessity.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Out of that faith came large action once again. Railroad meetings began to +multiply in the North Country; the success of similar enterprises, not +only in New York State, but elsewhere within the Union, was related to +them. Finally there came one big meeting, on a very cold 10th of February +in 1847, in the old Universalist Church at Watertown. All Watertown came +to it; out of it grew a definite railroad.</p> + +<p>Yet it grew very slowly. In the files of the old <i>Northern State Journal</i>, +of Watertown, and under the date of March 29, 1848, I find an irritated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>editorial reference to the continual delays in the building of the road. +Under the heading “Our Railroad,” the <i>Journal</i> describes a railroad +meeting held in the Jefferson County Court House a few days before and +goes on to say:</p> + +<p>“... Seldom has any meeting been held in this county where more unanimity +and enthusiastic devotion to a great public object have been displayed, +than was evidenced in the character and conduct of the assemblage that +filled the Court House.... <i>Go ahead</i>, and that <i>immediately</i>, was the +ruling motto in the speeches and resolutions and the whole meeting +sympathized in the sentiment. And indeed, it is time to go <i>ahead</i>. It is +now about sixteen years since a charter was first obtained and yet the +first blow is not struck. No excuse for further delay will be received. +None will be needed. We understand that measures have already been taken +to expend in season the amount necessary to secure the charter—to call in +the first installment of five per cent—to organize and put upon the line +the requisite number of engineers and surveyors—and to hold an election +for a new Board of Directors.</p> + +<p>“We trust that none but efficient men, firm friends of the Railroad, will +be put in the Direction. The Stockholders should look to this and vote for +no man that they do not know to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> warmly in favor of an active +prosecution of the work to an early completion. This subject has been so +long before the community that every man’s sentiments are known, and it +would be folly to expose the road to defeat now by not being careful in +the selection. With a Board of Directors such as can be found, the autumn +of 1849 should be signalized by the opening of the entire road from the +Cape to Rome. It can be done and it should be done. The road being a great +good the sooner we enjoy it the better.”</p> + +<p>So it was that upon the sixth day of the following April the actual +organization of the Watertown & Rome Railroad was accomplished at the +American Hotel, in Watertown, and an emissary despatched to Albany, who +succeeded on April 28th in having the original Act for the construction of +the line extended, for a final time. It also provided for the increase of +the capitalization from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000—in order that the new +road, once built, could be properly equipped with iron rail, weighing at +least fifty-six pounds to the yard. It was not difficult by that time to +sell the additional stock in the company. The missionary work—to-day we +would call it propaganda—of its first promoters really had been a most +thorough job.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">ORVILLE HUNGERFORD<br />First President of the Watertown & Rome Railroad.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>The original officers of the Watertown & Rome Railroad were:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Orville Hungerford</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">Clarke Rice</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">O. V. Brainard</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Superintendent</i>, <span class="smcap">R. B. Doxtater</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>S. N. Dexter, New York</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Clarke Rice, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td>William C. Pierrepont, Brooklyn</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Robert B. Doxtater, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>John H. Whipple, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Orville Hungerford, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td>Norris M. Woodruff, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William Smith, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td>Samuel Buckley, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Edmund Kirby, Brownville</td></tr> +<tr><td>Jerre Carrier, Cape Vincent</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Theophilus Peugnet, Cape Vincent</td></tr></table> + +<p>The summer of 1847 was spent chiefly in perfecting the organization and +financial plans of the new road, in eliminating a certain opposition to it +within its own ranks and in strengthening its morale. At the initial +meeting of the Board of Directors, William Smith had been allowed two +dollars a day for soliciting subscriptions while Messrs. Hungerford, +Pierrepont, Doxtater and Dexter were appointed a committee to go to New +York and Boston for the same purpose. A campaign fund of $500 was allotted +for this entire purpose.</p> + +<p>The question of finances was always a delicate and a difficult one. In the +minutes of the Board<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> for May 10, 1848, I find that the question of where +the road should bank its funds had been a vexed one, indeed. It was then +settled by dividing the amount into twentieths, of which the Jefferson +County Bank should have eight, the Black River, four, Hungerford’s, three, +the Bank of Watertown, three, and Wooster Sherman’s two.</p> + +<p>Gradually these funds accumulated. The subscriptions had been solicited +upon a partial payment basis and these initial payments of five and ten +percent were providing the money for the expenses of organization and +careful survey. This last was accomplished in the summer of 1848, by Isaac +W. Crane, who had been engaged as Chief Engineer of the property at $2500 +a year. Mr. Crane made careful resurveys of the route—omitting Pulaski +this time; to the very great distress of that village—and estimated the +complete cost of the road at about $1,250,000. It is interesting to note +that its actual cost, when completed, was $1,957,992.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In that same summer, Mr. Brainard retired as Treasurer of the company and +was succeeded by Daniel Lee, of Watertown, whose annual compensation was +fixed at $800. Later, Mr. Lee increased this, by taking upon his shoulders +the similar post of the Potsdam & Watertown. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> infant Watertown & Rome +found need of offices for itself. It engaged quarters over Tubbs’ Hat +Store, which modestly it named The Railroad Rooms and there it was burned +out in the great fire of Watertown, May 13, 1849.</p> + + +<p>All of these were indeed busy months of preparation. There were +locomotives to be ordered. Four second-hand engines, as we shall see in a +moment, were bought at once in New England, but the old engine <i>Cayuga</i>, +which the Schenectady & Utica had offered the Rome road at a +bargain-counter price of $2500 finally was refused. Negotiations were then +begun with the Taunton Locomotive Works for the construction of engines +which would be quite the equal of any turned out in the land up to that +time; and which were to be delivered to the company, at its terminal at +Rome—at a cost of $7150 apiece. Horace W. Woodruff, of Watertown, was +given the contract for building the cars for the new line; he was to be +paid for them, one-third in the stock of the company and two-thirds in +cash. His car-works were upon the north bank of the Black River, upon the +site now occupied by the Wise Machine Company and it was necessary to haul +the cars by oxen to the rails of the new road, then in the vicinity of +Watertown Junction. Yet despite the fact that his works in Watertown never +had a railroad siding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> Woodruff later attained quite a fame as a builder +of sleeping-cars. His cars at one time were used almost universally upon +the railroads of the Southwest.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Construction began upon the new line at Rome, obviously chosen because of +the facility with which materials could be brought to that point, either +by rail or by canal—although no small part of the iron for the road was +finally brought across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence to Cape +Vincent. Nat Hazeltine is credited with having turned the first bit of sod +for the line. The gentle nature of the country to be traversed by the new +railroad—the greater part of it upon the easy slopes at the easterly end +of Lake Ontario—presented no large obstacles, either to the engineers or +the contractors, these last, Messrs. Phelps, Matoon and Barnes, of +Springfield, Massachusetts. The rails, as provided in the extension of the +road’s charter, were fifty-six pounds to the yard (to-day they are for the +greater part in excess of 100) and came from the rolling-mills of Guest & +Company, in Wales. The excellence of their material and their workmanship +is evidenced by the fact that they continued in service for many years, +without a single instance of breakage. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> they finally were removed it +was because they were worn out and quite unfit for further service.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Construction once begun, went ahead very slowly, but unceasingly. By the +fall of 1850 track was laid for about twenty-four miles north of Rome and +upon September 10th of that year, a passenger service was installed +between Rome and Camden. Fares were fixed at three cents a mile—later a +so-called second-class, at one and one-half cents a mile was added—and a +brisk business started at once.</p> + +<p>It was not until May of the following year that the iron horse first poked +his nose into the county of Jefferson. The (Watertown) <i>Reformer</i> +announced in its issue of May 1 that year that the six miles of track +already laid that spring would come into use that very week, bringing the +completed line into the now forgotten hamlet of Washingtonville in the +north part of Oswego county. Two weeks later, it predicted it would be in +Jefferson.</p> + +<p>Its prediction was accurately fulfilled. On the twenty-eighth day of the +month, at Pierrepont Manor, this important event formally came to pass and +was attended by a good-sized conclave of prominent citizens, who +afterwards repaired to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the home of Mr. William C. Pierrepont, not far +from the depot, where refreshments were served. The rest your historian +leaves to your imagination.</p> + +<p>At that day and hour it seemed as if Pierrepont Manor was destined to +become an important town. The land office of its great squire was still +doing a thriving business. For Pierrepont Manor then, and for ten years +afterwards, was a railroad junction, with a famous eating-house as one of +its appendages. It seems that Sackett’s Harbor had decided that it was not +going to permit itself to be outdone in this railroad business by Cape +Vincent. If the Harbor could not realize its dream of a railroad to +Saratoga it might at least build one to the new Watertown & Rome road +there at Pierrepont Manor, and so gain for itself a direct route to both +New York and Boston. And as a fairly immediate extension, a line on to +Pulaski, which might eventually reach Syracuse, was suggested.</p> + +<p>At any rate, on May 23, 1850, the Sackett’s Harbor & Ellisburgh Railroad +was incorporated. Funds were quickly raised for its construction, and it +was builded almost coincidently with the Watertown & Rome. Thomas Stetson, +of Boston, had the contract for building the line; being paid $150,000; +two-thirds in cash and one-third in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> capital stock. It was completed +and opened for business by the first day of January, 1853. It was not +destined, however, for a long existence. From the beginning it failed to +bring adequate returns—the Watertown & Rome management quite naturally +favoring its own water terminal at Cape Vincent. By 1860 it was in a +fearful quagmire. In November of that year, W. T. Searle, of Belleville, +its President and Superintendent, wrote to the State Engineer and Surveyor +at Albany, saying that the road had reorganized itself as the Sackett’s +Harbor, Rome & New York, and that it was going to take a new try at life. +But it was a hard outlook.</p> + +<p>“The engine used by the company,” Mr. Searle wrote, “belongs to persons, +who purchased it for the purpose of the operation of the road when it was +known by the corporate name of the Sackett’s Harbor & Ellisburgh, and has +cost the corporation nothing up to the end of this year for its use. All +the cars used on the road (there were only four) except the passenger-car, +are in litigation, but in the possession of individuals, principally +stockholders in this road, who have allowed the corporation the use of +them free of expense....”</p> + +<p>Yet despite this gloom, the little road was keeping up at least the +pretense of its service. It had two trains a day; leaving Pierrepont Manor +at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> 9:40 a. m. and 5:00 p. m. and after intermediate stops at Belleville, +Henderson and Smithville reaching Sackett’s Harbor at 10:45 a. m. (a +connection with the down boat for Kingston and for Ogdensburgh) and at +6:30 p. m. The trains returned from the Harbor at 11:00 a. m. and 7:00 p. +m.</p> + +<p>Reorganization, the grace of a new name, failed to save this line. The +Civil War broke upon the country, with it times of surpassing hardness and +in 1862 it was abandoned; the following year its rails torn up forever. +Yet to this day one who is even fairly acquainted with the topography of +Jefferson County may trace its path quite clearly.</p> + +<p>Here ended then, rather ignominiously to be sure, a fairly ambitious +little railroad project. And while Sackett’s Harbor was eventually to have +rail transport service restored to it, Belleville was henceforth to be +left nearly stranded—until the coming of the improved highway and the +motor-propelled vehicle upon it. Yet it was Belleville that had furnished +most of the inspiration and the capital for the Sackett’s Harbor & +Ellisburgh. And even though in its old records I find Mr. M. Loomis, of +the Harbor, listed as its Treasurer, Secretary, General Freight Agent and +General Ticket Agent—a regular Pooh Bah sort of a job—W. T. Searle, of +Belleville, was its President<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> and Superintendent; and A. Dickinson, of +the same village, its Vice-President; George Clarke and A. J. Barney among +the Directors. These men had dared much to bring the railroad to their +village and failing eventually must finally have conceded much to the +impotence of human endeavor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In the summer of 1851 work upon the Watertown & Rome steadily went forward +and at a swifter pace than ever before. All the way through to Cape +Vincent the contractors were at work upon the new line. They were racing +against time itself almost to complete the road. There were valuable mail +contracts to be obtained and upon these hung much of the immediate +financial success of the road.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1922, by a rare stroke of good fortune, the author of +this book was enabled to obtain firsthand the story of the construction of +the northern section of the line. At Kane, Pa., he found a venerable +gentleman, Mr. Richard T. Starsmeare, who at the extremely advanced age of +ninety-five years was able to tell with a marvelous clearness of the part +that he, himself, had played in the construction of the line between +Chaumont and Cape Vincent. With a single wave of his hand he rolled back +seventy long years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> and told in simple fashion the story of his connection +with the Watertown & Rome:</p> + +<p>Young Starsmeare, a native of London, at the age of twenty had run away to +sea. He crossed on a lumber-ship to Quebec and slowly made his way up the +valley of the St. Lawrence. The year, 1850, had scarce been born, before +he found himself in the stout, gray old city of Kingston in what was then +called Upper Canada. It was an extremely hard winter and the St. Lawrence +was solidly frozen. So that Starsmeare had no difficulty whatsoever in +crossing on the ice to Cape Vincent. That was on the sixteenth day of +January. Sleighing in the North Country was good. The English lad had +little difficulty in picking up a ride here and a ride there until he was +come to Henderson Harbor to the farm of a man named Leffingwell. Here he +found employment.</p> + +<p>But Starsmeare had not come to America to be a farmer. And so, a year +later, when the spring was well advanced, he borrowed a half-dollar from +his employer and rode in the stage to Sackett’s Harbor. That ancient port +was a gay place there at the beginning of the fifties. Its piers were so +crowded that vessels lay in the offing, their white sails clearly outlined +against the blue of the harbor and the sky, awaiting an opportunity to +berth against them. But the vessels had no more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> a passing interest +for the young Englishman who saw them in all the rush and bustle of the +Sackett’s Harbor of 1850. For men in the lakeside village were whispering +of the coming of the railroad, of the magic presence of the locomotive +that so soon was to be visited upon them.</p> + +<p>At these rumors the pulse of young Richard Starsmeare quickened. He had +seen the railroad already—back home. He had seen it in his home city of +London, had seen it cutting in great slits through Camden Town and Somers +Town, riding across Lambeth upon seemingly unending brick viaducts. His +desire formed itself. He would go to work upon this railroad.... The +master of a small coasting ship sailing out from Sackett’s Harbor that +very afternoon offered him a lift as far as Three Mile Bay. At Three Mile +Bay they were to have the railroad. Yet when he arrived there were no +signs whatsoever of the iron horse or his special pathway.</p> + +<p>“At Chaumont you will find it,” they told him there. Off toward Chaumont +he trudged. And presently was awarded by the sight of bright yellow stakes +set in the fields. He followed these for a little way and found teams and +wagons at work. Here was the railroad. The railroad needed men. +Specifically it needed young Starsmeare. He found the boss contractor; and +went to work for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> him. He helped get stone out of a nearby quarry for +Chaumont bridge. That winter he assisted in the building of Chaumont +bridge; a rather pretentious enterprise for those days.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Steadily the Watertown & Rome went ahead. On the Fourth of July, 1851, it +was completed to Adams, which was made the occasion of a mighty +Independence Day celebration in that brisk village. Upon the arrival of +the first train at its depot, a huge parade was formed which marched up +into the center of the town, where Levi H. Brown, of Watertown, read the +Declaration of Independence, and William Dewey, who had made the building +of the Watertown & Rome his life work, delivered a smashing address. +Afterwards the procession reformed and returned to the depot where a big +dinner was served and the drinking of toasts was in order. There were +fireworks in the evening and the Adams Guards honored the occasion with a +torchlight parade.</p> + +<p>For some weeks the line halted there at Adams. A citizen of Watertown +wrote in his diary in August of that year that he had had a fearful time +getting home from New York “... The cars only ran to Adams, and I had to +have my horse sent down there from Watertown. I had a hard time for a +young man....” he complains naïvely.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>The railroad was, however, opened to Watertown, its headquarters, its +chief town, and the inspiration that had brought it into being, on the +evening of September 5, 1851. At eleven o’clock that evening, up to the +front of the passenger station, then located near the foot of Stone +Street, the first locomotive came into Watertown. I am not at all sure +which one of the road’s small fleet it was. It had started building +operations with four tiny second-hand locomotives which it had garnered +chiefly from New England—the <i>Lion</i>, the <i>Roxbury</i>, the <i>Commodore</i> and +the <i>Chicopee</i>. Of these the <i>Lion</i> was probably the oldest, certainly the +smallest. It had been builded by none other than the redoubtable George +Stephenson, himself, in England, some ten or fifteen years before it first +came into Northern New York. It was an eight-wheeled engine, of but +fourteen tons in weight. So very small was it in fact that it was of very +little practical use, that Louis L. Grant, of Rome, who was one of the +road’s first repair-shop foreman, finally took off the light side-rods +between the drivers—the <i>Lion</i> was inside connected, after the inevitable +British fashion, and had a V-hook gear and a variable cut-off—and gained +an appreciable tractive power for the little engine.</p> + +<p>But, at the best, she was hardly a practical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>locomotive, even for 1851. +And soon after the completion of the road to Cape Vincent she was +relegated to the round-house there and stored against an emergency. That +emergency came three or four years after the opening of the line. A +horseman had ridden in great haste to the Cape from Rosiere—then known as +LaBranche’s Crossing—with news of possible disaster.</p> + +<p>“The wood-pile’s all afire at the Crossing,” he shouted. “Ef the road is a +goin’ to have any fuel this winter you’d better be hustling down there.”</p> + +<p>Richard Starsmeare was on duty at the round-house. He hurriedly summoned +the renowned Casey Eldredge, then and for many years afterwards a famed +engineer of the Rome road and Peter Runk, the extra fireman there. +Together they got out the little <i>Lion</i> and made her fast to a flat-car +upon which had been put four or five barrels filled with water to +extinguish the conflagration. It would have been a serious matter indeed +to the road to have had that wood-pile destroyed. It was one of the chief +sources of fuel supply of the new railroad. The <i>Lion</i>, with its tiny +fire-fighting crew, went post-haste to LaBranche’s. But when it had +arrived the farmers roundabout already had managed to extinguish the +flames.... Casey Eldredge reached for his watch.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>“Gee,” said he, “we shall have to be getting out of this. The Steamboat +Express will be upon our heels. Peter, get the fire up again.”</p> + +<p>Peter got the fire up. He opened the old fire-box door and thrust an +armful of pine into it. The blaze started up with a roar. And then the men +who were on the engine found themselves lying on their backs on the grass +beside the railroad....</p> + +<p>They plowed the <i>Lion</i> out of the fields around LaBranche’s for the next +two years. Her safety-valve was turned out of the ground by a farmer’s boy +a good two miles from the railroad. Starsmeare got it and carried it in +his tool-box for years thereafter—he quickly rose to the post of engineer +and in the days of the Civil War ran a locomotive upon the United States +Military Railroad from Washington south through Alexandria to Orange Court +House.</p> + +<p>So perished the <i>Lion</i>. The little <i>Roxbury’s</i> fate was more prosaic. With +the flanges upon her driving-wheels ground down and her frame set upon +brick piers she became the first powerhouse of the Rome shops. The +<i>Commodore</i> and the <i>Chicopee</i> were larger engines. With their names +changed they entered the road’s permanent engine fleet.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In the meantime the Watertown & Rome was having its own new locomotives +builded for it in a shop in the United States. Four of the new engines +were completed and ready for service about the time that the road was +opened into Watertown. The fifth engine, the <i>Orville Hungerford</i>, built +like its four immediate predecessors, by William Fairbanks, at Taunton, +Mass., was not delivered until the 19th day of that same September, 1851. +The <i>Hungerford</i> was quite the best bit of the road’s motive-power, then +and for a number of years thereafter. She was inside connected—her +cylinders and driving-rods being placed inside of the wheels; always the +fashion of British locomotives—and it was not until a long time +afterwards that she was rebuilt in the Rome shops and the cylinders and +rods placed outside, after the present-day American fashion. She was but +twenty-one and a half tons in weight all-told, while her four +predecessors, the <i>Watertown</i>, the <i>Rome</i>, the <i>Adams</i> and the <i>Kingston</i>, +each twenty-two tons and a half.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have digressed. It still is the evening of the fifth of September, 1851. +A great crowd had congregated that evening in the neighborhood of that +first, small temporary station at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>Watertown. The iron horse was greeted +with many salvos of applause, the waving of a thousand torches and, it is +to be presumed, with the presence of a band. Yet the real celebration over +the arrival of the railroad was delayed for nineteen days, when there was +a genuine <i>fête</i>. It was first announced by the <i>Reformer</i> on the 4th of +September, saying:</p> + +<p>“... We are informed by R. B. Doxtater, Esq., the gentlemanly and +efficient Superintendent of the Watertown & Rome Railroad, that the public +celebration in connection with the opening of this road will take place on +Wednesday, the 24th September. This will be a proud day for Jefferson +County and we trust that she may wear the honor conferred upon her in a +becoming manner. The known liberality of our citizens induces the belief +that nothing will be left undone on their part to contribute to the +general festivities and interest of the occasion....”</p> + +<p>Nothing was left undone. The morning of the 24th of September was ushered +in by a salute of guns; thirteen in all, one for each member of the Board +of Directors. At 10 o’clock a parade formed in the Public Square, under +the direction of General Abner Baker, Grand Marshal of the day, and in the +following formation:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +Music<br /> +Watertown Citizens’ Corps<br /> +Order of The Sons of Temperance<br /> +Fire Companies of Watertown and Rome<br /> +Order of Odd Fellows<br /> +Committee of Arrangements<br /> +Corporate Authorities of Watertown, Kingston, Rome and Utica<br /> +Clergy and the Press<br /> +Officers, Directors, Engineers and Contractors<br /> +of the<br /> +Watertown & Rome Railroad<br /> +Specially Invited Guests<br /> +Strangers from Abroad and the Stockholders<br /> +Citizens</p> + +<p>The procession marched down Stone Street to the passenger depot of the new +railroad where the special train from Rome arrived at a little after +eleven o’clock and was greeted by a salvo of seventy-two guns—one for +each mile of completed line. There it reformed, with its accessions from +the train and returned to the Public Square where there was unbridled +oratory for nearly an hour. After which a return to the depot in which a +large collation was served, before the return to the special train for +Rome.</p> + +<p>So came the railroad to Watertown. By an odd coincidence, the Hudson River +Railroad from New York to Albany was finished in almost that same month. +It was with a good deal of pride that the resident of Watertown +contemplated the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> he might leave his village by the morning +train at five o’clock and be in the metropolis of the New World by six +o’clock that same evening. Such speed! Such progress!</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In the meantime the Watertown & Rome Railroad had sustained a real loss; +in the death, on the morning of Sunday, April 6, 1851, of its first +President, the Hon. Orville Hungerford. As the son of one of the earliest +pioneers of Watertown, Mr. Hungerford had played no small part in its +development. Merchant, banker, Congressman, he had been to it. And to the +struggling Watertown & Rome Railroad he was not merely its President, but +its financial adviser and friend. It was due to his personal endorsement +of the project, as well as that of his bank, that hope in it was finally +revived. Then it was that foreign capitalists had their doubts as to its +final success dispelled and gave evidence of their faith in the new road +by substantial purchases of its securities.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hungerford was succeeded as President of the Watertown & Rome by Mr. +W. C. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, who, while in one sense an alien to +Jefferson County, was in another and far larger one, not only one of her +chief residents but one of her most loyal sons. He, too, had been a +powerful friend and advocate of the new road, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> worked tirelessly in +its behalf. It was his rare opportunity to stand as its President when the +locomotive first arrived at Pierrepont Manor, the center of his land +holdings, and a very few months later in the same enviable post at +Watertown. It was his patient habit to go down to the depot at the Manor +evening after evening and with a spy-glass in hand watch the track toward +Mannsville for the coming of the evening train. There was no telegraph in +those days, of course, and the locomotive’s smoke was the only signal of +its pending arrival. Neither was there any standard time. Finally it was +Pierrepont, himself, who fixed the official time for the road, +ascertaining by a skillful use of his chronometer that the suntime at +Watertown was just seven minutes and forty-eight seconds slower than that +of the City Hall in New York. And so it was officially fixed for the +railroad.</p> + +<p>Under Mr. Pierrepont’s oversight the Watertown & Rome Railroad was +finished; through to the village of Chaumont in the fall of 1851, and then +in April of the following year to Cape Vincent, its original northern +terminal. At this last point elaborate plans were made for a water +terminal. Even though the harbor there was not to be protected by a +breakwater for many, many years to come, the town was recognized as an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +international gateway of a very considerable importance. A ferry steamer, +<i>The Lady of the Lake</i>, which had attained a distinction from the fact +that it was the first upon these northern waters to have staterooms upon +its upper decks, was engaged for service between the Cape and the city of +Kingston, in Upper Canada. Extensive piers and an elevator were builded +there upon the bank of the St. Lawrence, and the large covered passenger +station that was so long a familiar landmark of that port.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">THE CAPE VINCENT STATION<br />A Real Landmark of the Old Rome Road, Built in 1852 and Destroyed by a Great Storm in 1895.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>For forty years this station stood, even though the span of life of the +large hotel that adjoined it was ended a decade earlier by a most +devastating fire. But, upon the evening of September 11, 1895, when +Conductor W. D. Carnes—best known as “Billy” Carnes—brought his train +into the shed to connect with the Kingston boat, a violent storm thrust +itself down upon the Cape. In the rainburst that accompanied it, the folk +upon the dock sought shelter in the trainshed, and there they were +trapped. The wind swept through the open end of that ancient structure and +lifted it clear from the ground, dropping it a moment later in a thousand +different pieces. It was a real catastrophe. Two persons were killed +outright and a number were seriously injured. The event went into the +annals of a quiet North Country <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>village, along with the fearful disaster +of the steamer <i>Wisconsin</i>, off nearby Grenadier Island, many years +before.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>With the Cape Vincent terminal completed, the regular operation of trains +upon the Watertown & Rome began; formally upon the first day of May, 1852. +Six days later the road suffered its first accident, a distressing affair +in the neighborhood of Pierrepont Manor. A party of young men in that +village had taken upon themselves to “borrow” a hand-car, left by the +contractor beside the track and were whirling a group of young women of +their acquaintance upon it when around the curve from Adams came a “light” +locomotive at high-speed, which crashed into them head-on and killed three +of the women almost instantly; and seriously wounded a fourth.</p> + +<p>The first employe to lose his life in the service was brakeman George +Post, who, on October 13th, of that year, was going forward to lighten the +brakes on the northbound freight, as it reached the long down-grade, north +of Adams Centre, when he was struck by an overhead bridge and died before +aid could reach him.</p> + +<p>These men of the North Country were learning that railroading is not all +prunes and preserves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> They had their own troubles with their new +property. For one thing, the engines kept running off the track. There +were three locomotive derailments in a single day in 1853 and the +Directors asked the Superintendent if he could not be a little more +careful in the operation of the line. They also officially chided, quite +mildly, one of their number who had contributed twenty-five dollars to the +Fourth-of-July celebration in Watertown that summer without asking the +consent of the full Board. On the other hand, they quite genially voted +annual passes for an indefinite number of years to the widows of Orville +Hungerford and of Edmund Kirby as well as their daughters.</p> + +<p>It was only two years later than this that there was a change in the +Superintendent’s office, Job Collamer, who had succeeded its original +holder Robert B. Doxtater, being succeeded by Carlos Dutton who was paid +the rather astonishing salary, for those days, of $4000 a year. A year +later R. E. Hungerford, of Watertown, succeeded Daniel Lee, who was +compelled to retire by serious illness as the company’s Treasurer and was +paid $1500 a year, with an occasional five-hundred-dollar bond from the +sinking fund as special compensation at Christmas time. It was about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> this +time also, that John S. Coons, now of Watertown, became station-agent at +Brownville, a post which he held for four or five years.</p> + +<p>These events were, perhaps, to be reckoned as fairly casual things in the +life of a railroad which, to almost any community is life itself. From the +beginning the Watertown & Rome played a most important part in the life of +the steadily growing territory that it served. Northern New York was +finally beginning to come into its own. More than a hundred thousand folk +already were residing in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties. No +longer was it regarded as a vast wilderness somewhere north of the Erie +Canal. Horace Greeley had visited it in the fifties, had lectured in what +was afterwards Washington Hall, Watertown, and had been tremendously +impressed by Mr. Bradford’s portable steam engine. And in 1859 the eyes of +the entire land were focused upon Watertown and its immediate +surroundings.</p> + +<p>That was the year of the big ballooning. John Wise, of Lancaster, +Pennsylvania, a well-famed aeronaut, together with three companions—John +La Mountain, of Troy, and William Hyde and O. A. Geager, both of +Bennington, Vermont—had set forth from St. Louis in the evening in the +mammoth balloon, <i>Atlantic</i>, with the expressed intention of sailing to +New York City in it. All<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> night long they traveled and sometime before +dawn La Mountain fancied that they were over one of the Great +Lakes—probably Erie. He awakened his sleeping companions and pointing far +over the basket-edge told them that they were passing over the surface of +a large body of water.</p> + +<p>“You can see the stars below you now,” he explained.</p> + +<p>And so they were, over Erie. They continued to sail between the stars +until dawn, and sometime just before noon they crossed the Niagara River, +well in sight of the Falls. Winging their flight at a rate that man had +never before made and would not make again for many and many a year to +come, the <i>Atlantic</i> traveled the whole length of Ontario before four +o’clock in the afternoon and finally made a forced landing not far from +the village of Henderson.</p> + +<p>The fame that arose from so vast an exploit literally swept around the +world. Hyde and Geager had had enough of ballooning and returned to their +Vermont home. Wise went back to Lancaster, but La Mountain found an +intrepid and a fearless companion in John A. Haddock, at that time editor +of the <i>Watertown Reformer</i>, who once had been into the wilds of Labrador +and had returned safely from them. Together these men rescued the +<i>Atlantic</i> from the tangle of tree-tops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> into which it had fallen. On +August 11th of that same year they announced an ascension from the Fair +Grounds in Watertown, accompanied by La Mountain’s young cousin, Miss +Ellen Moss. And on the twenty-second of the following September the two +men made what was destined to be the final ascent of the great <i>Atlantic</i>. +The balloon rose high—from the Public Square, this time—and floated off +toward the north in a strong wind. In a little less than three hours it +traversed some four hundred miles. Then a quick landing was made, in the +vast and untrodden Canadian forest, some 150 miles due north of Ottawa, a +region even more desolate then than to-day.</p> + +<p>For four days the men were lost, hopelessly. Their airship was abandoned +in the trees and they made their way afoot as best they might until they +came into the path of a party of lumbermen bound for Ottawa. It was +another seven days before they had reached the Canadian capital and the +outposts of the telegraph—in all eleven endless days before Watertown +knew the final result of the foolhardy ascension, and prepared a mighty +welcome for them, whom they had given up as dead.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>To these really tremendous events in the history of the North Country the +Watertown & Rome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and the Potsdam & Watertown railroads—of this last, +much more in a moment—ran excursions from all Northern New York. Vast +throngs of people came upon them. The effect upon the passenger revenues +of the two railroads was appreciable upon the occasion of the balloon +ascension, just as it had been three summers before, when the first State +Fair had been held in Watertown—in a pleasant grove very close to the +site of the present Jefferson County Orphans Home. At that time the Rome +road had taken in nearly $11,000 in excursion receipts and the Potsdam +road, although at that time only completed from Watertown to Gouverneur, +more than $5,000. This was used as an argument by the promoters of the +second State Fair at Watertown—held on the present county fair grounds in +the fall of 1860, for a subscription of a thousand dollars from each of +the roads—which was promptly granted.</p> + +<p>Yet the Watertown & Rome Railroad needed no excursions for its prosperity. +It had prospered greatly; from the beginning. Its four passenger trains a +day—two up and two down—were well filled always. Its freight train which +ran over the entire length of the line from Rome to Cape Vincent each day +did an equally good business. Already it had the third largest freight-car +equipment of any railroad in the state. Its success was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> a tremendous +incentive to all other railroad projects in the North Country. From it +they all took hope. We have seen long ago the serious efforts that were +being made to build a road direct from Sackett’s Harbor up the valley of +the Black River to Watertown and Carthage and thence across the +all-but-impenetrable North Woods to Saratoga. Yet nowhere was it more +obvious that a railroad should be builded than between Watertown and some +convenient point upon the Northern Railroad, which already was in complete +operation between Lake Champlain and Ogdensburgh. Such a railroad +presently was builded; taking upon itself the appellation of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad. And to the consideration of the beginnings of that +railroad, a most vital part of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, that was +as yet unborn, we are now fairly come.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<p class="title">THE POTSDAM & WATERTOWN RAILROAD</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">A very</span> early survey of the Northern Railroad which, as we have already +seen, was the pioneer line of the North Country, projected the road +between Malone and Ogdensburgh through the prosperous villages of Canton +and Potsdam. This survey was rejected. The sponsors of the +Northern—almost all of them Boston and New England men and having little +personal knowledge of Northern New York and certainly none at all of its +possibilities—thrust this preliminary survey away from them. They decided +that the road should run between its terminals with as small a deviation +from a straight line as possible. So, from Rouse’s Point to Ogdensburgh, +through Malone, the Northern Railroad ran with long tangents and few +curves and both Canton and Potsdam were left aside. Through traffic from +the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River was all that the early +directors of the line could see. Their vision was indeed limited.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Canton and Potsdam began to feel their isolation from these earliest +railroad enterprises. They were cut off apparently from railroad +communication, either with the East or with the West. The Watertown & Rome +Railroad, as planned from Cape Vincent to Rome, would, of course, pass +through Watertown, but no one seemed to think of building it east from +that village.</p> + +<p>So, practically all of St. Lawrence County and the northern end of +Jefferson was left without railroad hopes. Dissatisfaction arose, even +before the completion of the Watertown & Rome, that so large a territory +had been so completely slighted. Potsdam, in particular, felt the +indignity that had been heaped upon it. And so it was, that, as far back +as 1850, fifty-eight of the public-spirited citizens of that village +organized themselves into the Potsdam Railroad Company and proceeded to +name as their directors: Joseph H. Sanford, William W. Goulding, Samuel +Partridge, Henry L. Knowles, Augustus Fling, Theodore Clark, Charles T. +Boswell, Willard M. Hitchcock, William A. Dart, Hiram E. Peck, Aaron T. +Hopkins, Charles Cox and Nathan Parmeter. Among the stockholders of this +early railroad company were Horace Allen and Liberty Knowles, whose +advanced age debarred them from active participation in its work, but who +responded liberally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> to frequent calls for aid in its construction.</p> + +<p>Soon after the incorporation of the Potsdam Railroad, it was built, +primarily as a branch of some five and one-half miles connecting Potsdam +with the Northern Railroad at a point, which, for lack of an immediate +better name, was called Potsdam Junction. Afterwards it was renamed +Norwood. An attractive village sprang up about the junction, which finally +boasted one of the best of the small hotels of the whole North Country; +the famed Whitney House, with which the name and fame of the late “Sid” +Phelps was so closely connected for so many years.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The success of Potsdam with her railroad and the consequent prosperity +that it brought to her stirred the interest and the envy of the +neighboring village of Canton; the shire-town of St. Lawrence. Gouverneur +spruced up also. The St. Lawrence towns began to coöperate. To them came a +great community of interest from the northerly townships and villages of +Jefferson as well—Antwerp, Philadelphia and Evan’s Mills in particular. +The demand for a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam began to take a +definite form.</p> + +<p>It was not an easy task to which the towns and men of St. Lawrence and of +Jefferson had set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> themselves. Its financial aspects were portentous, to +put it mildly. The money for the Northern Railroad had come from New +England. That for the Watertown & Rome also had come with a comparative +ease. Watertown even then was a rich and promising industrial center and +there seemed to be genuine financial opportunities for a railroad that +would connect it with the outer world. But St. Lawrence County, there at +the beginning of the fifties, was poor and undeveloped. Necessarily, the +money for its railroad would have to come from its own territory. +Nevertheless, undaunted by difficulties, these men of that territory set +about to build a railroad from Potsdam to Watertown. They dared much. +Theirs was the spirit of the true pioneer, the same spirit that was +building a college at Canton and had built academies at Gouverneur and at +Potsdam, and that was planning in every way for the future development of +the North Country.</p> + +<p>These men knew more than a little of the resources of their townships. +They whispered among themselves of the wealth of their minerals. Along the +county-line between St. Lawrence and Jefferson, in the neighborhood of +Keene’s Station, there stand to-day unused iron mines of a considerable +magnitude. Flooded and for the moment deserted, these mines house some of +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> greatest of the untouched treasures of Northern New York; vast +deposits of red hematite, exceeding in percentage value even the famous +fields of the Mesaba district of Lake Superior. In the course of this +narrative I shall refer again to these Keene mines. For the moment +consider them as a monument—a somewhat neglected monument to be sure—to +the vision and persistence of James Sterling.</p> + +<p>It was largely due to the enterprise of this pioneer of Jefferson County +that mines and blast furnaces sprang up, not only at Keene’s but at +Sterlingville and Lewisburgh as well. He built many of the highways and +bridges both of Antwerp and of Rossie. Yet, in the closing days of the +fifties, he was doomed to bitter disappointments. The great panic of 1857 +and the inrush of cheap iron that followed in its wake were quite too much +for him, and the man who had been known through the entire state as the +“Iron King of Northern New York” died in 1863, from a general physical and +mental breakdown, due in no small part to the collapse of his fortunes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I anticipate, we were talking of railroads, not of men. Yet, somehow, men +must forever weave themselves into the web of a narrative such as this. +And no fair understanding can ever be had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of the difficulties under which +the railroads of the North Country were born without an understanding of +the difficulties under which the men who helped give them birth labored. +To return once again to the main thread of our story, the agitation for +the building of a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam followed closely +upon the heels of the completion of the Northern Railroad and the branch +Potsdam Railroad, from it to the fine village of that name. Stock in the +Northern Railroad had been sold both there and in Canton, even though the +road when completed had passed each by. The men who held that stock wanted +to come to the aid of the newer project. With their money tied up in the +elder of the two, they were quite helpless. Eventually their release was +brought about, and the money that came to them from the sale of their +securities of the Northern was reinvested in those of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad, just coming into being.</p> + +<p>A meeting was held in Watertown in July, 1851 (the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad) and E. N. Brodhead employed to make +a preliminary survey of the proposed line; which would be followed +immediately with maps and estimates. He went to his task without delay, +and rendered a full report on the possibilities of the road at a meeting +held at Gouverneur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> on January 9, 1852. There were no dissenting voices in +regard to the proposed line. So it was, that then and there, the Potsdam +& Watertown Railroad was organized permanently, with the following +directors:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td>Edwin Dodge, Gouverneur</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>W. E. Sterling, Gouverneur</td></tr> +<tr><td>Zenas Clark, Potsdam</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Joseph H. Sanford, Potsdam</td></tr> +<tr><td>Samuel Partridge, Potsdam</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William W. Goulding, Potsdam</td></tr> +<tr><td>E. Miner, Canton</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Barzillai Hodskin, Canton</td></tr> +<tr><td>A. M. Adsit, Colton</td> + <td> </td> + <td>H. B. Keene, Antwerp</td></tr> +<tr><td>O. V. Brainard, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Howell Cooper, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Hiram Holcomb, Watertown</td></tr></table> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The old minute-book of the Directors of this early railroad has been +carefully preserved in the village of Potsdam. It is a narrative of a +really stupendous effort, of struggles against adversity, of undaunted +courage, of optimism and of faith. It relates unemotionally what the +Directors did, but between the lines one also reads of the grave +situations that confronted them; not once, but again and again. And there +lies the real drama of the founding of the Potsdam & Watertown.</p> + +<p>The first meeting of the Directors was held, as we have just seen, on +January 9, 1852. Most of the men, who were that day elected as Directors, +had gone on that day to Gouverneur—many others too. Watertown, +Gouverneur, Canton and Potsdam were present in their citizens, men of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +worth and distinction in their home communities. Their families are yet +represented in Northern New York, and succeeding generations owe to them a +debt of gratitude for their unselfish work in that early day. For what +could there be of selfishness in a task which promised so much of worry +and responsibility, and so little of any immediate financial return?</p> + +<p>It was planned, that January day in Gouverneur, that work should be begun +at both ends of the line and carried forward simultaneously, until the +construction crews should meet; somewhere between Potsdam and Watertown. +At an adjourned meeting, held ten days later at the American Hotel in +Watertown, it was formally resolved that; “all persons who have subscribed +toward the expenses of the survey of the Potsdam & Watertown Railroad +Company ... shall be entitled to a credit on the stock account for the +amount so subscribed and paid.” At the same meeting it was decided that a +committee consisting of Messrs. Farwell, Holcomb and Dodge be appointed to +confer with the officers of the Watertown & Rome in regard to the +construction of a branch into the village of Watertown. It will be +remembered that in that early day the railroad did not approach the +village nearer than what is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> now known as the junction, at the foot of +Stone Street.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Progress was beginning, in real earnest. A third meeting was held on +February 26—again at Gouverneur, at Van Buren’s Hotel—and the following +officers chosen:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Edwin Dodge</span>, Gouverneur<br /> +<i>Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">Zenas Clark</span>, Potsdam<br /> +<i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">Henry L. Knowles</span>, Potsdam<br /> +<i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">Daniel Lee</span>, Watertown</td></tr></table> + +<p>Mr. Lee was also Treasurer of the Watertown & Rome. His Potsdam & +Watertown compensation was fixed a little later at $600 annually. Four +years later he was succeeded as Treasurer by William W. Goulding, of +Potsdam, who was engaged at a salary of a thousand dollars a year.</p> + +<p>At that same Gouverneur meeting a memorial was prepared for the Trustees +of the Village of Watertown. It asked, as an important link of the pathway +for the new railroad, the use of Factory Street for its entire length. +Factory Street, as we have already seen, was one of the most aristocratic, +as well as one of the prettiest streets of the town. So great was +Watertown’s appreciation of the advantages that were to accrue to it by +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> completion of the line steel highway to the north that the permission +was finally granted by the Trustees, not, however, without a considerable +opposition.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>So was our Potsdam & Watertown fairly started upon its important +career. A fund of something over $750,000 having been raised for its +construction, offices were opened at 6 Washington Street, Watertown, and +definite preparations made toward the actual building of the road. The +breaking of ground was bound to be preceded by a stout financial campaign. +Money was tight. And remember all the while, if you will, the real paucity +of it in the North Country of those days. And yet early in 1853, it was +found necessary to increase the capital stock to $2,000,000, in itself, an +act requiring some courage; yet after all, it might have required more +courage not to take the step. For, of a truth, the company needed the +money.</p> + +<p>Gradually committees were appointed, not only to look after this and other +vexing financial questions, but also to supervise the location of the line +as well as to provide suitable station grounds and buildings. There were +many meetings of the Board before the road was definitely located; there +must have been much bitterness of spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> and of discussion. Hermon wanted +the road, and so an alternative route between Canton and Gouverneur was +surveyed to include it. In 1853 the Chief Engineer was directed “to cause +the middle route (so designated in Mr. Brodhead’s report) in the towns of +Canton and DeKalb to be sufficiently surveyed for location as soon as +practicable, unless upon examination, the Engineer shall believe the +railroad can be constructed upon the Hermon route, so called, as cheaply +and with as much advantage to the company, and that in such case he cause +that route to be surveyed, instead of the middle route.” But stock +subscriptions were light in Hermon and engineering difficult on its route, +and finally the “middle” and present route by the way of DeKalb and +Richville was selected. Similarly local discouragements turned the line +sharply toward the North, after crossing the Racket River at Potsdam, +instead of toward the South, and, a more direct route originally surveyed, +toward Canton.</p> + +<p>The location of the station grounds was another source of fruitful +discussion. In this regard, Gouverneur seems to have given the greatest +concern. Many committees wrestled with the problem of its depot site. In +the old minute-book, rival locations appear and, upon one occasion, the +matter having simmered down to a choice between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> the present station +grounds and prospective ones on the other side of the river, the Chief +Engineer was directed to survey out both locations and set stakes, so that +the whole Board could visit the village and see the thing for itself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>By 1854 distinct progress had been made. At a meeting held on February 4th +of that year, Messrs. Cooper, Brainard and Holcomb, of the Directorate, +were authorized as a committee to enter into negotiations for the purchase +of iron rails for the road, and to complete the purchase of 2500 tons of +these, by sale of the bonds of the company, “or otherwise.” The financial +end of the transaction was apt always to be the most difficult part of it. +Yet somehow these were almost always solved. The Watertown & Rome road +guaranteed some of the bonds of the Potsdam & Watertown and Erastus +Corning, of Albany, and John H. Wolfe, of New York, loaned it considerable +sums of money. Construction proceeded, and on May 4, 1854, the Directors +decided to send 650 tons of the new iron to the easterly terminus of the +road; the remainder to the westerly building forces.</p> + +<p>In the fall of that year, a considerable amount of track having been laid +down, the Directors looked toward the purchase of rolling stock. At +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>their November meeting they decided to buy the engine <i>Montreal</i>, and +its tender, from the Watertown & Rome, at a cost of $4,500; also two +baggage and “post-office” cars, at $750 each. Which provided for the +beginning of operation at the west end of the road.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img04.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">EARLY RAILROAD TICKETS<br />Including an Annual Pass Issued by President Marcellus Massey, of the R. W. & O.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>But the east end needed rolling-stock as well—a considerable gap still +intervened between the rail-heads of each incomplete section. So toward +the East, the Directors of the Potsdam & Watertown turned their attention. +They found some rolling stock in the hands of a man in Plattsburgh; +“Vilas, of Plattsburgh” is his sole designation in their minutes. This +Vilas, it would appear, was a hard-headed Clinton County business man who +seemed to have but little confidence in the financial soundness of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Nothing of the gambler appears in Vilas. He did not +believe in taking chances. He had a locomotive and two cars that he would +sell—for cash. Eventually, he sold them—for cash. Some of the Directors +of the P. & W. bought them, themselves, paying out their own hard-earned +cash for them; and recouping themselves by accepting pay in installments +from the company.</p> + +<p>Yet the possible danger in a continuance of such practices was recognized +even in that early day, and in order to avoid similar situations arising +at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> some later time, I find in the old tome a resolution reading: “Whereas +in raising money and carrying on the operations of our company for the +completion of the road, the unanimous coöperation of its Directors is +necessary, particularly in matters involving personal pecuniary liability, +therefore: Resolved; That each Director now present pledge himself to +endorse and guaranty all notes and bills of exchange required by the +committee on finance to be used in accordance with the preceding +resolution ... and that we hold it to be the duty of all Directors of this +company to do the same.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>From time to time a note of pathos creeps into these old minutes and one +catches a glimpse of the trials and struggles of the little company. For +instance: “Resolved: That in our struggles for the construction of the +road of this company, we have not failed to appreciate the liberal spirit +with which we have been met and the encouragement and aid often freely +afforded us by Hon. George V. Hoyle, Superintendent of the Northern +Railroad, and we avail ourselves of this occasion to express to him, +individually and as Superintendent, and through him to those associated +with him the management of that road, our sense of obligation, indulging +the hope that we shall yet be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> able in the same spirit to reciprocate all +his kindness, and that the interest of Mr. Hoyle and his road may be +abundantly promoted by our success.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>And then, finally, success! In the faded minutes Secretary Knowles +triumphantly records that “On the morning of the fifth of February, 1857, +a passenger train left Watertown at about nine o’clock a. m., with many of +the officers of the company and invited friends, passed leisurely over the +entire road to its junction with the Northern Railroad, thence with the +Superintendent of that road to Ogdensburgh, arriving at Ogdensburgh at +about four o’clock and returned the next day to Watertown.”</p> + +<p>This is not to be interpreted, however, as meaning that the Potsdam & +Watertown was immediately ready for business. There remained much work to +be done in completing the track and the roadbed, station buildings, +equipment, and the other appurtenances necessary for a going railroad. The +contractors, Phelps, Mattoon and Barnes, who also had builded the +Watertown & Rome, had unpaid balances still remaining. There had been +numerous and one or two rather serious disagreements between the company +and its contractors. Finally these were all settled by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> a final cash +payment of $100,000, in addition, of course, to what had been paid before. +In order to make this large payment—for that day, at least—it became +necessary to bond the property still again; this time by a second +mortgage—which was made around $200,000, so that the road might be made +completely ready for business.</p> + +<p>Details which indicate the rapidly approaching time of such completion +soon begin to appear in the minutes. A committee is appointed to procure a +Superintendent—George B. Phelps, of Watertown, was appointed to this +post. Freight agents are directed to turn over their receipts to the +Treasurer weekly, ticket agents daily. The Board took its business +seriously and several meetings about this time were called for seven, half +past seven and eight o’clock in the morning, although, of course, this +might mean that the railroad business was gotten out of the way early, +leaving the day free for regular occupations. The vexed question of the +station grounds at Gouverneur was settled definitely early in 1857, and +the executive committee was instructed to erect on the “station grounds at +Gouverneur a building similar to the one at Antwerp in the speediest and +most economical manner.” To this day the Antwerp building survives, but +Gouverneur, like Potsdam, for more than a decade past<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> has rejoiced in the +possession of a new and ornate passenger station.</p> + +<p>It was not until June, 1857, that a definite passenger service was +established upon the line from Watertown, where it connected with the +trains of the W. & R., and thus to the present village of Norwood, +seventy-five miles distant. It is worth noting here that a few years after +this was accomplished a branch line was constructed from a point two miles +distant from the old village of DeKalb, and destined to be known to future +fame as DeKalb Junction, straight through to Ogdensburgh, but eighteen +miles distant. DeKalb Junction also had a famous hotel which for many +years “fed” the trains and “fed” them well. In its earlier days this +tavern was known as the Goulding House; in more recent years, however, it +has been the Hurley House, so named from the late Daniel Hurley, one of +the most popular and successful hotelmen in all the North Country.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The passenger trains of the Potsdam road were operated out of the new +station in Watertown, just back of the Woodruff House—which we shall see +in another chapter. For a time there was no train service for travelers +between its station and that of the Rome road at the foot of Stone Street, +the transfer between them being made by stages.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> But soon this was +rectified and the one o’clock train, north from Watertown, allowed +considerably more than an hour for connection after the arrival of the +train from Rome, which gave abundant time for the consumption of one of +Proprietor Dorsey’s fine meals at the Woodruff. It was a good meal and not +high-priced. The charge per day for three of them and a night’s lodging +thrown in was fixed at but $1.50.</p> + +<p>The early train which left Watertown at sharp six o’clock in the +morning—afterwards it was fixed at a slightly later hour—made connection +at Potsdam Junction with the through train on the Northern for Rouse’s +Point and, going by that roundabout way, a traveler might hope to reach +Montreal in the evening of the day that he had left Watertown—if he +enjoyed good fortune. Whilst upon the completion of the short line a few +years later between DeKalb Junction and Ogdensburgh, one could reach the +Canadian metropolis in an even more direct fashion, by the ferry steamer +<i>Transit</i> to Prescott, and then over the Grand Trunk Railway, just coming +into the heyday of its fame. Watertown no longer was cut off from rail +communication with the North.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The Potsdam & Watertown though now fairly launched, operating trains, and, +from all external<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> evidences at least, doing a fair business, nevertheless +was grievously burdened with its grave financial difficulties. On May 16, +1857, a special finance committee, consisting of Messrs. Phelps, Cooper +and Goulding, was appointed with power to carry along the company’s +growing floating debt, and in October of that selfsame year the President +joined with them in their appeals to the creditors to have a little more +patience. In the following spring the Directors discussed the propriety of +asking the Legislature for an act exempting from taxation all railroads in +the state that were not paying their dividends.</p> + +<p>The Potsdam road certainly was not paying <i>its</i> dividends. Not only this, +but, on May 26, 1859, interest on the second mortgage, being unpaid for +six months, the trustees under the mortgage took possession of the +property and the Directors in meeting approved of the action. Such a step +quite naturally agitated the first mortgage holders, who began to protest. +In August, 1859, the P. & W. Board disclaimed any purpose whatsoever to +repudiate the payment of principal or interest upon its first mortgage +bonds, or its contingent obligation to the Watertown & Rome Railroad. It +invited the Directors of that larger and more prosperous road to attend a +joint meeting wherein the earnings of the Potsdam & Watertown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> might be +applied to the payment of the coupons upon its first mortgage bonds. There +was a growing community of interest between the two roads, anyway. The one +was the natural complement to the other. Such a community of interest led, +quite naturally, to a merger of the properties. In June, 1860, it was +announced that the Watertown & Rome had gained financial control of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Soon after the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +officially born and a new chapter in the development of Northern New York +was begun.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> +<p class="title">THE FORMATION OF THE R. W. & O.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">That</span> the Watertown & Rome and the Potsdam & Watertown Railroads would have +merged in any event was, from the first, almost a foregone conclusion. +Their interests were too common to escape such inevitable consolidation. +The actual union of the two properties was accomplished in the very early +sixties (July 4, 1861) and for the merged properties—the new trunk-line +of the North Country, if you please—the rather euphonious and embracing +title of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad was chosen. It was at +that time that the branch was built from DeKalb to Ogdensburgh. A combined +directorate was chosen from the governing bodies of the two merged +roads—I shall not take the trouble to set it down here and now—and Mr. +Pierrepont was chosen as the President of the new property, with Marcellus +Massey, of Brooklyn, as its Vice-President, R. E. Hungerford as Secretary +and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>Treasurer, H. T. Frary as General Ticket Agent, C. C. Case as General +Freight Agent and Addison Day as General Superintendent. Whilst the +general offices of the company were in Watertown, its shops and general +operating offices, at that time, were in Rome. It was in this latter city +that Addison Day was first located. Day was a resident of Rochester. He +refused to remove his home from that city, but spent each week-end with +his family there.</p> + +<p>He was a conspicuous figure upon the property, coming as the successor to +a number of superintendents, each of whom had served a comparatively short +time in office—Robert B. Doxtater, Job Collamer and Carlos Dutton, were +Addison Day’s predecessors as Superintendents upon the property. These men +had been local in their opportunity. To Day was given a real job; that of +successfully operating 189 miles of a pretty well-built and essential +railroad. Yet his annual salary was fixed at but $2500, as compared with +the $4000 paid to Dutton. Later however Day was raised to $3000 a year.</p> + +<p>The main shops of the company, as I have just said, were then situated in +Rome. They were well equipped for that day and employed about one hundred +men, under William H. Griggs, the road’s first Master Mechanic. A smaller +shop, of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>approximately one-half the capacity and used chiefly for +engine repairs and freight-car construction, was located at Watertown, +just back of the old engine house on Coffeen Street.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">WATERTOWN IN 1865<br />Showing the First Passenger Station of the Potsdam & Watertown.<br />Taken from the Woodruff House Tower.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>But Watertown’s chief comfort was in its passenger station, which stood in +the rear of the well-famed Woodruff House. Norris M. Woodruff had +completed his hotel at about the same time that the railroad first reached +Watertown. It was a huge structure—reputed to be at that time the largest +hotel in the United States west of New York City; and even the far-famed +Astor House of that metropolis, had no dining-salon which in height and +beauty quite equalled the dining-room of the Woodruff House. Mr. Woodruff +had given the railroad the site for its passenger station in the rear of +his hotel, on condition that the chief passenger terminal of the company +should forever be maintained there, which has been done ever since. Yet +the chief passenger station of the R. W. & O. of 1861 was a simple affair +indeed. Builded in brick it afterwards became the wing of the larger +station that was torn down to be replaced by the present station a decade +ago. It was not until 1870 that the three story “addition” to the original +station was built and the first station restaurant at Watertown opened, in +charge of Col. A. T. Dunton, from Bellows Falls, Vt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> After the fashion of +the time, its opening was signalized by a banquet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In front of me there lies a very early time-table of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh Railroad. It bears the date, April 20, 1863, and apparently is +the twelfth to be issued in the history of the road. It is signed by +Addison Day, as Superintendent.</p> + +<p>On this sheet, the chief northbound train, No. 7, Express and Mail, left +Rome at four o’clock each afternoon, reaching Watertown at 7:05 p. m., and +leaving there twenty minutes later, arrived at Ogdensburgh at 10:30 p. m. +The return movement of this train, was as No. 2, leaving Ogdensburgh at +4:25 o’clock in the morning, passing Watertown at 7:10 o’clock and +reaching Rome at 10:35 a. m. In addition to this double movement each day, +there was a similar one of accommodation trains; No. 1, leaving Rome at +2:35 o’clock each morning, arriving and leaving Watertown at 6:20 and 6:40 +a. m., respectively, and reaching Ogdensburgh at 10:10 a. m. As No. 8, the +accommodation returned, leaving Ogdensburgh at 4:30 p. m., passing +Watertown at 8:20 p. m., and arriving at Rome at 12:20 a. m. Apparently +folk who traveled in those days cared little about inconvenient hours of +arrival or departure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>There were connecting trains upon both the Cape Vincent and the Potsdam +Junction branches—the branch from Richland to Oswego was just under +construction—and a scheduled freight train over the entire line each day. +Yet there, still, was an almost entire absence of mid-day passenger +service.</p> + +<p>Gradually this condition of things must have improved; for in Hamilton +Child’s <i>Jefferson County Gazetteer and Business Directory</i>, for 1866, I +find the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh advertising three fast passenger +trains a day in each direction over the entire main line, in addition to +connections, not only for Cape Vincent and for Potsdam Junction, but also +over the new branch from Richland through Pulaski to Oswego. Pulaski, +humiliated in the beginning by the refusal of the Watertown & Rome to lay +its rails within four miles of that county-seat village, finally had +received the direct rail connection, that she had so long coveted.</p> + +<p>In that same advertisement there first appears announcement of through +sleeping-cars, between Watertown and New York, an arrangement which +continued for a number of years thereafter, then was abandoned for many +years, but, under the bitter protests of the citizens of Watertown and +other Northern New York communities, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> finally restored in 1891 as an +all-the-year service.</p> + +<p>Upon the ancient time table of 1863 there appear the names of the old +stations, the most of which have come down unchanged until to-day. One of +them has disappeared both in name and existence, Centreville, two miles +south of Richland, while the adjacent station of Albion long since became +Altmar. Potsdam Junction we have already seen as Norwood, while nice +dignified old Sanford’s Corners long since suffered the unspeakable insult +of being renamed, by some latter-day railroad official, Calcium. A similar +indignity at that time was heaped upon Adams Centre, being known +officially for a time as Edison!</p> + +<p>The Centre rebelled. It had no quarrel with Mr. Edison. On the contrary, +it held the highest esteem for that distinguished inventor. But for the +life of it, it could not see why the name of a nice old-fashioned +Seventh-Day-Baptist town should be sacrificed for the mere convenience of +a telegrapher’s code. It was quite bad enough when Union Square, over on +the Syracuse line, was forced, willy-nilly, to become Maple View, and +Holmesville, Fernwood. Neither were the marvels of the lexicographers of +the Postoffice Department, under which all manner of strange changes were +made in the spelling of old North Country names (think of Sackett’s +Harbor, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>time-honored government military and naval station, reduced to a +miserable “Sacket!”) germane to Adams Centre’s problem. Adams Centre it +was christened in the beginning, and Adams Centre it proposed to remain. +And after a brief but brisk fight with railroad and postoffice officials, +it succeeded in regaining its birthright.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Early in June, 1872, William C. Pierrepont retired as President of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh and was succeeded by Marcellus Massey, the +third holder of that important post of honor in the North Country. Mr. +Massey, although for the greater part of his life also a resident of +Brooklyn, was of Jefferson County stock, a brother of Hart and of Solon +Massey. He gave his whole time and interest to the steady upbuilding of +the road. Gradually it was coming to a point where it was considered, +without exception, the best operated railroad in the State of New York, if +not in the entire land. Sometimes it was called the Nickel Plate, although +that name nowadays is generally reserved for the brisk trunk +line—officially the New York, Chicago & St. Louis—that operates from +Buffalo, through Cleveland to Chicago.</p> + +<p>The R. W. & O. was in fact at that time an extremely high-grade railroad +property; it was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> pride of Watertown, of the entire North Country as +well. Mr. Massey used to say that as a dividend payer—its annual ten per +cent came as steadily as clock-striking—his road could not be beat; +particularly in a day when many railroad investments were regarded as very +shaky things indeed. The crash of the Oswego Midland, which was to come a +few years later, was to add nothing to the confidence of investors in this +form of investment.</p> + +<p>Steadily Mr. Massey and his co-workers sought to perfect the property. The +service was a very especial consideration in their minds. A moment ago we +saw the time table of 1863 in brief, now consider how it had steadily been +improved, in the course of another eight years.</p> + +<p>In 1871 the passenger service of the R. W. & O. consisted of two trains +through from Rome to Ogdensburgh without change. The first left Rome at +4:30 a. m., passed through Watertown at 7:38 a. m., and arrived at +Ogdensburgh at 11:15 a. m. The second left Rome at 1:00 p. m., passed +through Watertown at 4:17 p. m., and arrived at Ogdensburgh at 7:10 p. m. +Returning the first of these trains left Ogdensburgh at 6:08 a. m., passed +through Watertown at 9:20 a. m., and arrived at Rome at 12:10 p. m.: the +second left Ogdensburgh at 3:00 p. m., passed through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> Watertown at 6:35 +p. m., and reached Rome and the New York Central at 9:05 p. m. The +similarity between these trains and those upon the present time-card, the +long established Seven and One and Four and Eight, is astonishing. Put an +important train but once upon a time card, and seemingly it is hard to get +it off again.</p> + +<p>In addition to these four important through trains there were others: The +Watertown Express, leaving Rome at 5:30 p. m. and “dying” at Watertown at +9:05 p. m., was the precursor of the present Number Three. The return +movement of this train was as the New York Express, leaving Watertown at +8:10 a. m. and reaching Rome at 11:35 a. m. There were also three trains a +day in each direction on the Cape Vincent, and Oswego branches and two on +the one between DeKalb and Potsdam Junctions.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>For a railroad to render real service it must have, not alone good +track—in those early days the Rome road, as it was known colloquially, +gave great and constant attention to its right of way—but good engines. +Up to about 1870 these were exclusively wood-burners, many of them +weighing not more than from twenty to twenty-five tons each. They were of +a fairly wide variety of type. While the output of the Rome Locomotive +Works<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> was always favored, there were numbers of engines from the Rhode +Island, the Taunton and the Schenectady Works.</p> + +<p>Thirty-eight of these wood-burning engines formed the motive-power +equipment of the Rome road in the spring of 1869. Their names—locomotives +in those days invariably were named—were as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td align="right">1.</td><td><i>Watertown</i></td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="right">20.</td> + <td><i>Potsdam</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">2.</td><td><i>Rome</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">21.</td> + <td><i>Ontario</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">3.</td><td><i>Adams</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">22.</td> + <td><i>Montreal</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">4.</td><td><i>Kingston</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">23.</td> + <td><i>New York</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">5.</td><td><i>O. Hungerford</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">24.</td> + <td><i>Ogdensburgh</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">6.</td><td><i>Col. Edwin Kirby</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">25.</td> + <td><i>Oswego</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">7.</td><td><i>Norris Woodruff</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">26.</td> + <td><i>D. DeWitt</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">8.</td><td><i>Camden</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">27.</td> + <td><i>D. Utley</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">9.</td><td><i>J. L. Grant</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">28.</td> + <td><i>M. Massey</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">10.</td><td><i>Job Collamer</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">29.</td> + <td><i>H. Moore</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">11.</td><td><i>Jefferson</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">30.</td> + <td><i>C. Comstock</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">12.</td><td><i>R. B. Doxtater</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">31.</td> + <td><i>S. F. Phelps</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">13.</td><td><i>O. V. Brainard</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">32.</td> + <td><i>Col. Wm. Lord</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">14.</td><td><i>North Star</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">33.</td> + <td><i>H. Alexander, Jr.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">15.</td><td><i>T. H. Camp</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">34.</td> + <td><i>Roxbury</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">16.</td><td><i>Silas Wright</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">35.</td> + <td><i>Com. Perry</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">17.</td><td><i>Antwerp</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">36.</td> + <td><i>C. E. Bill</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">18.</td><td><i>Wm. C. Pierrepont</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">37.</td> + <td><i>Gen. S. D. Hungerford</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">19.</td><td><i>St. Lawrence</i></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">38.</td> + <td><i>Gardner Colby</i></td></tr></table> + +<p>Of this considerable fleet the <i>Antwerp</i> was perhaps the best known. Oddly +enough she was the engine that the directors of the Potsdam & Watertown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +had purchased from “Vilas, of Plattsburgh.” She was then called the +<i>Plattsburgh</i>, but upon her coming to the R. W. & O. she was already +renamed <i>Antwerp</i>. Inside connected, like the <i>O. Hungerford</i>, she also +was a product of the old Taunton works down in Eastern Massachusetts. Her +bright red driving wheels made her a conspicuous figure on the line.</p> + +<p>The <i>Camden</i> was also an inside connected engine. The <i>Ontario</i> and the +<i>Potsdam</i> and the <i>Montreal</i> were other acquisitions from the Potsdam & +Watertown. The <i>Potsdam</i> had a picture of a lion painted upon her front +boiler door, the work of some gifted local artist, unknown to present +fame. She came to the North Country as the <i>Chicopee</i> from the Springfield +Locomotive Works, and with her came, as engineer and fireman, +respectively, the famous Haynes brothers, Orville and Rhett. Henry +Batchelder, a brother of the renowned Ben, who comes later into this +narrative, and who is now a resident of Potsdam, well recalls the first +train that made the trip between that village and Canton. Made up of +flat-cars with temporary plank seats atop of them, and hauled by the +<i>Potsdam</i>, it brought excursionists into Canton to enjoy the St. Lawrence +County Fair. That was in the year of 1855, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>railroad was only +completed to a point some two miles east of Canton. From that point the +travelers walked into town.</p> + +<p>Mr. Batchelder also remembers that the engineers and firemen of that early +day invariably wore white shirts upon their locomotives. The old +wood-burners were never so hard as the coal-burners on the apparel of +their crews. They were wonderful little engines and, as we shall see in a +moment, had a remarkable ability for speed with their trains. The +<i>Antwerp</i> in particular had rare speed. Those red drivers of hers were the +largest upon the line. And when Jeff Wells was at her throttle and those +red heels of hers were digging into the iron, men reached for their +watches.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>No true history of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh might ever be written +without mention of Jefferson B. Wells. In truth he was the commodore of +the old locomotive fleet. For skill and daring and precision in the +handling of an engine he was never excelled. Although bearing a certain +uncanny reputation for being in accidents, he was blamed for none of them. +Whether at the lever of his two favorites, the <i>T. H. Camp</i> and the +<i>Antwerp</i>, or in later years as captain of the “44” he was in his element +in the engine-cab. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> “44” spent most of the later years of her life, +and of Wells’, in service upon the Cape Vincent branch. I can remember it +standing at Watertown Junction, sending an occasional soft ring of grayish +smoke off into the blue skies above. And distinctly can I recall Jeff +Wells himself, a large-eyed, tallish man, fond of a good joke, or a good +story, a man with a keen zest in life itself. He was a good poker player. +It is related of him, that one night, while engaged in a pleasant game at +Cape Vincent, word came from Watertown ordering him to his engine for a +special run down to the county-seat and back.</p> + +<p>For a moment old Jeff hesitated. He liked poker. But then the trained soul +of the railroader triumphed. He threw his hand down upon the table—it was +a good hand, too—and turning toward the call-boy said:</p> + +<p>“Son, I’ll be at the round house within ten minutes.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>That was Wells; best at home in the engine-cab, and, I think no engine-cab +was ever quite the same to him as that of the speedy <i>Antwerp</i>, with John +Leasure on the fireman’s side of the cab—Leasure was pretty sure to have +previously bedecked the <i>Antwerp</i> with a vast variety of cedar boughs, +flags and the like—and the President’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> car on behind. This, in later +years, was sure to be the old parlor-car, <i>Watertown</i>, gayly furbished for +the occasion. This special was sure to be given the right-of-way over all +other trains on the line that day; all the switch-points being ordered +spiked, in order to avoid the possibility of accidents. Yet, on at least +one occasion—at DeKalb Junction—this practice nearly led to a serious +mishap. Mr. Massey’s train had swept past the little depot there and +around the curve onto the Ogdensburgh branch at seventy miles an hour. For +once there had been a miscalculation. The little train veered terribly as +it struck the branch-line rails; the directors were thrown from their +comfortable seats in the parlor-car, and poor Billy Lanfear, of Cape +Vincent, the fireman, was nearly carromed from his place in the cab. At +the last fractional part of a second he succeeded in catching hold of the +engineer’s window as he started to shoot out.</p> + +<p>The wood-burners were not supposed to be fast engines—a great many of +them in the early days of the R. W. & O. had small drivers and this was an +added handicap to their speed. But sixty miles an hour was not out of the +question for them. Mr. Richard Holden, of Watertown, who started his +railroad career in the eating-house of the old station in that city, still +recalls several trips that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> he made in the cab of the engines on the Cape +branch. It had a fairly close schedule at the best, connecting at +Watertown Junction with Number Three up from Rome in the afternoon, and +turning and coming back in time to make connections with Number Six down +the line. It frequently would happen that Three would be fifteen or twenty +minutes late, which would mean a good deal of hustling on the part of the +Cape train to make her fifty mile run and turn-around and still avoid +delaying Number Six. But both Casey Eldredge and Chris Delaney, the +engineers on the branch at that time, could do it: Jeff Wells was still on +the main line and unwilling then to accept the easier Cape branch run, +which afterwards he was very glad to take.</p> + +<p>“The air-brake was unknown at that time,” says Mr. Holden, “all trains +being stopped by the brakeman, assisted by the fireman, a brake being upon +the tender of all the engines. When some of these fast trains were +running, I used to take a great delight in riding on the engine, and +remember the running-time of the trip was thirty-five minutes, which +included stops at Brownville, Limerick, Chaumont and Three Mile Bay, my +recollection being that the station at Rosiere was not open at that time. +Deducting the time used for stops the actual running time would average<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +sixty miles an hour. All engines used on passenger trains had small +driving-wheels and it will be remembered that all passenger trains, except +One and Six, consisted of but a baggage-car and two coaches, consequently +an engine could get a train under good headway much faster than engines +with the heavy equipment in use at the present time.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In all these statements in regard to the speed of the trains upon the +early R. W. & O. it should not be forgotten that for the first twelve or +thirteen years of the road’s existence, it had to worry along without +telegraphic or any other form of rapid interstation communication. It was +not until 1863 or 1864 that its trains were despatched upon telegraphic +orders; and even these were of the crudest possible form. The “Nineteen” +had not yet been evolved. A slip of paper torn from the handiest writing +block and scribbled in fairly indecipherable hieroglyphics was the train +order of those beginnings of modern railroading. The telegraph order, +instead of being a real help to the locomotive engineer, was apt to be one +of the puzzles and the banes of his existence.</p> + +<p>It was in 1866 that a railroad telegraph office was first established at +Watertown Junction and D. N. Bosworth engaged as despatcher there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +According to the recollections of Mr. W. D. Hanchette, of that city, who +is the nestor of all things telegraphic in Northern New York, Bosworth was +soon followed by a Mr. Warner, who was not, himself, a telegraphic +operator, but who had to be assisted by one. A Canadian, named Monk, was +one of the first of these. Warner was finally succeeded as despatcher at +Watertown Junction by N. B. Hine, a brother of Omar A. Hine and of A. C. +Hine—all of them much identified with the history of the Rome road. N. B. +Hine remained with the road for a long season of years as its train +despatcher, eventually moving his office from the Junction to the enlarged +passenger station back of the Woodruff House in Watertown.</p> + +<p>He learned his trade in the summer before Fort Sumter was fired upon; +using a small, home-made, wooden key at his father’s farm, somewhere back +of DeKalb. A year after he had obtained his railroad job, Omar Hine was +appointed operator at Richland, opening the first telegraph office at that +place, and becoming its station agent as well. From Richland he was +promoted to the more important, similar post at Norwood. When he left +Norwood, Mr. Hine became a conductor upon the main line. In that service +he remained until the comparatively recent year of 1887.</p> + +<p>About the time that he was assigned to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>Richland, his brother, A. C. Hine, +was appointed operator and helper at the neighboring station of Sandy +Creek. So from a single North Country farm sprang three expert +telegraphers and railroaders. When they began their career, but a single +wire stretched all the way from Watertown to Ogdensburgh; and the movement +of trains by telegraph was occasional, not regular nor standardized. A +second wire was strung the entire length of the line in the fall of 1866 +and in the following spring, Mr. Bosworth began the difficult task of +trying to work a systematic method of telegraphic despatching, and +gradually brought the engineers of the road into a real coöperation with +his plan, a thing much more difficult to accomplish than might be at first +imagined. Those old-time engineers of the road were good men; but some of +them were a trifle “sot” in their ways. Their habits were not things +easily changed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The full list of these old-time engineers of the R. W. & O. would run to a +considerable length. Remember again Orve Haynes—something of an +engine-runner was he—who afterwards went down to St. Louis to become +Master Mechanic upon the Iron Mountain road. The <i>J. L. Grant</i> was named +after a Master Mechanic of the R. W. & O., who eventually became an +assistant superintendent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> The <i>Grant</i> was in steady use upon the Cape +branch prior to the coming of the “44.” A good engineer in those days was +a good mechanic—invariably. Repair facilities were few and far between. +The ingenuity and quick wit of the man in the engine-cab more than once +was called into play. Engine failures were no less frequent then than now.</p> + +<p>Ben. F. Batchelder first came to fame as a well-known engineer of that +early decade; John Skinner was another. There was D. L. Van Allen and +Louis Bouran and John Mortimer and Casey Eldredge and Asa Rowell and old +“Parse” Hines, and George Schell and Jim Cheney—that list does indeed run +to lengths. In a later generation came Nathaniel R. Peterson (“Than”) and +Conrad Shaler and Frank W. Smith and George H. Hazleton, and Frank Taylor, +and Charles Vogel—but again I must desist. This is a history, not a +necrology. It is hardly fair to pick but a few names, out of so many +deserving ones.</p> + +<p>The most of the engineers of that day have gone. A very few remain. One of +these is Frank W. Smith, of Watertown, who to-day (1922) has retired from +his engine-cab, but remains one of the expert billiard players in the +Lincoln League of that city.</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith entered upon his railroad career on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> November 9, 1866, at the +rather tender age of seventeen, as a wiper in the old round house in +Coffeen Street, Watertown. In those days all the engines upon the line +still were wood-burners. The most conspicuous thing about DeKalb Junction +in those days, aside from the red brick Goulding House, was the huge +wood-shed and wood-pile beyond the small depot, which still stands there. +It was customary for an engine to “wood up” at Watertown—in those days as +in these again, all trains changed engines at Watertown—and again at +DeKalb Junction before finishing her run into Ogdensburgh. Similarly upon +the return trip, she would stop again at DeKalb to fill her tender; which, +in turn, would carry her back to Watertown once again. Wood went all too +quickly. I remember, sometime in the mid-eighties, riding from Prescott to +Ottawa, upon the old Ottawa and St. Lawrence Railroad, and the wood-burner +stopping somewhere between those towns to appease its seemingly insatiable +appetite.</p> + +<p>The wood-burners upon the R. W. & O. began to disappear sometime about the +beginnings of the seventies. Apparently the first engine to have her +fire-boxes changed to permit of the use of soft coal was the <i>C. +Comstock</i>, which was rapidly followed by the <i>Phelps</i>, the <i>Lord</i> and the +<i>Alexander</i>. They then had the extension boilers and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> straight +“diamond” stacks. A red band ran around the under flare of the diamond. +About that time the road began adding to its motive power; new engines, +among them the <i>Theodore Irwin</i> and the <i>C. Zabriskie</i>, were being +purchased, and these were all coal burners, bituminous, of course. When, +as we shall see, in a following chapter, the Syracuse Northern was merged +into the R. W. & O., eight new locomotives were added to the growing fleet +of the parent road; four Hinckleys and four Bloods.</p> + +<p>Even at that time the road was beginning, although in a modest and +somewhat hesitant way, the construction of its own locomotives in its own +shops. William Jackson, the Master Mechanic there in 1873, built the <i>J. +W. Moak</i> and the <i>J. S. Farlow</i>, both of them coal-burners for passenger +service. He was succeeded by Abraham Close who built the <i>Cataract</i> and +the <i>Lewiston</i>, and the <i>Moses Taylor</i>, too, in 1877. The following year +the late George H. Hazleton was to become the road’s Master Mechanic and +so to remain as long as it retained its corporate existence.</p> + +<p>In later years there were to come those famous Mogul twins, the <i>Samson</i> +and the <i>Goliath</i>. There were, as I recall it, still two others of these +Moguls, the <i>Energy</i> and the <i>Efficiency</i>. In a still later time the road, +robbed of its pleasant <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>personal way of locomotive nomenclature and +adopting a strictly impersonal method of denoting its engines by serial +numbers alone, was to take another forward step and bring in still larger +Moguls; the “1,” “2,” “3,” and “4.”</p> + +<p>But I anticipate. I cannot close this chapter without one more reference +to my good friend, Frank W. Smith. He was an energetic little fellow; and +after some twenty months of engine wiping there at Coffeen Street, and all +the abuse and cuffing and chaffing that went with it, he won an honest +promotion to the job of a locomotive fireman. It was a real job, real +responsibility and real pay, thirty-nine dollars a month. Yet this job +faded when he became an engineer. Job envied of all other jobs. How the +boys would crowd around the <i>Norris Woodruff</i> at Adams depot, at +Gouverneur, and all the rest of the way along the line and feast their +eyes upon Frank Smith up there in the neat cab, that so quickly came to +look like home to him! Fifty dollars a month pay! Overtime? Of course not. +Agreements? Once more, no. This was nearly fifteen years ahead of that day +when the engineers upon the Central Railroad of New Jersey were to +formulate the first of these perplexing things.</p> + +<p>But a good engine, a good job and good pay. They had the pleasant habit of +assigning a crew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> to a definite engine in those days, and that piece of +motive power invariably became their pet and pride. A good job was not +only an honest one, but one of a considerable distinction. And fifty +dollars a month was not bad pay, when cheese was eight cents a pound and +butter seven, and a kind friend apt to give you all the eggs that you +could take home in the top of your hat. Remuneration, in its last analysis +is forever a comparative thing—and nothing more.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<p class="title">THE R. W. & O. PROSPERS—AND EXPANDS</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> the mid-seventies the young city of Watertown was entering upon a rare +era in which culture and great prosperity were to be blended. The men who +walked its pleasant maple-shaded streets were real men, indeed: the Flower +brothers—George W., Anson R. and Roswell P.—George B. Phelps, Norris +Winslow, the Knowlton brothers—John C. and George W.—Talcott H. Camp, +George A. Bagley, these were the men who were the town’s captains of +industry of that day. An earlier generation had passed away; Norris +Woodruff, O. V. Brainard, Orville Hungerford; these men had played their +large parts in the upbuilding of Watertown and were gone or else living in +advanced years. A new generation of equal energy and ability had come to +replace them. Roswell P. Flower was upon the threshold of that remarkable +career in Wall Street that was to make him for a time its leader and give +him the large political honor of becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Governor of the State of New +York. His brother, George W., first Mayor of Watertown, was tremendously +interested in each of the city’s undertakings. George B. Phelps had risen +from the post of Superintendent of the old Potsdam & Watertown to be one +of the town’s richest men. He had a city house in New York—a handsome +“brownstone front” in one of the “forties”—and in his huge house in Stone +Street, Watertown, the luxury of a negro valet, John Fletcher, for many +years a familiar figure upon the streets of the town.</p> + +<p>From the pulpit of the dignified First Presbyterian Church in Washington +Street, the venerable Dr. Isaac Brayton had now retired; his place was +being filled by Dr. Porter, long to be remembered in the annals of that +society. Dr. Olin was about entering old Trinity, still in Court Street. +Into the ancient structure of the Watertown High School, in State Street, +the genial and accomplished William Kerr Wickes was coming as principal. +The Musical Union was preparing for its record run of <i>Pinafore</i> in +Washington Hall. And in the old stone cotton factory on Beebee’s Island, +Fred Eames was tinkering with his vacuum air brake, little dreaming of the +tragic fate that was to await him but a few years later; more likely, +perhaps, of the great air brake industry to which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> he was giving birth and +which, three decades later, was to take its proper place among the town’s +chief industries. Paper manufacturing, as it is known to-day in the North +Country, was then a comparatively small thing; there were few important +mills outside of those of the Knowltons or the Taggarts—the clans of +Remington, of Herring, of Sherman and of Anderson were yet to make their +deep impress upon the community.</p> + +<p>Carriage making was then a more important business than that of paper +making. The very thought of the motor-car was as yet unborn and +Watertonians reckoned the completion of a new carriage in the town in +minutes rather than in hours. It made steam engines and sewing machines. +All in all it created a very considerable traffic for its railroad—in +reality for its railroads, for in 1872 a rival line had come to contest +the monopoly of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh; of which more in good +time.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>As went Watertown, so went the rest of the North Country. It was a brisk, +prosperous land, where industry and culture shared their forces. There was +a plenitude of manufacturing even outside of Watertown, whilst the mines +at Keene and Rossie had reopened and were shipping a modest five or six +cars a day of really splendid red ore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> People worked well, people thought +well. The excellent seminaries at Belleville, at Adams, at Antwerp and at +Gouverneur reflected a general demand for an education better than the +public schools of that day might offer. The young St. Lawrence University +up at Canton, after a hard beginning fight, was at last on its way to its +present day strength and influence.</p> + +<p>Northern New Yorkers traveled. They traveled both far and near. Even +distant Europe was no sealed book to them. There were dozens of fine +homes, even well outside of the towns and villages, which boasted their +Steinway pianos and whose young folk, graduated from Yale or Mount +Holyoke, spoke intelligently with their elders of Napoleon III or of the +charms of the boulevards of Paris.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In the upbuilding of this prosperous era the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +had played its own large part. By 1875 it was nearly a quarter of a +century old. It was indeed an extremely high grade and prosperous +property, the pride, not only of Watertown, which had been so largely +responsible for its construction, but indeed of the entire North Country. +It had, as we have already seen, as far back as 1866, succeeded in +thrusting a line into Oswego, thirty miles west of Richland.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> After which +it felt that it needed an entrance into Syracuse, then as now, a most +important railroad center. To accomplish this entrance it leased, in 1875, +the Syracuse Northern Railroad, and then gained at last a firm two-footed +stand upon the tremendous main line of the New York Central & Hudson River +Railroad. It continued to maintain, of course, its original connection at +Rome—its long stone depot there still stands to-day, although far removed +from the railroad tracks. Yet one, in memory at least, may see it as the +brisk business place of yore, with the four tracks of the Vanderbilt trail +curving upon the one side of it and the brightly painted yellow cars of +the R. W. & O. waiting upon the other. The Rome connection gave the road +direct access to Boston, New York, and to the East generally; that at +Syracuse made the journey from Northern New York to western points much +easier and more direct, than it had been through the Rome gateway. It was +logical and it was strategic. And it is possible that had the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh been content to remain satisfied with its system +as it then existed, a good deal of railroad history that followed after, +would have remained unwritten.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The railroad scheme that finally led to the building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> of the Syracuse +Northern had been under discussion since 1851, the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad. Yet, largely because of the paucity of +good sized intermediate towns upon the lines of the proposed route, the +plan for a long time had languished. In the late sixties it was +successfully revived, however, and the Syracuse Northern Railroad +incorporated, early in 1870, with a capital stock of $1,250,000 and the +following officers:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Allen Munroe</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">Patrick H. Agan</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">E. B. Judson</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Engineer</i>, <span class="smcap">A. C. Powell</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Allen Munroe, Syracuse</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Jacob S. Smith, Syracuse</td></tr> +<tr><td>E. W. Leavenworth, Syracuse</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Horace K. White, Syracuse</td></tr> +<tr><td>E. B. Judson, Syracuse</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Elizur Clark, Syracuse</td></tr> +<tr><td>Patrick Lynch, Syracuse</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Garret Doyle, Syracuse</td></tr> +<tr><td>Frank H. Hiscock, Syracuse</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William H. Canter, Brewerton</td></tr> +<tr><td>John A. Green, Syracuse</td> + <td> </td> + <td>James A. Clark, Pulaski</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Orin R. Earl, Sandy Creek</td></tr></table> + +<p>The road once organized found a lively demand for its shares. Its largest +investor was the city of Syracuse, which subscribed for $250,000 worth of +its bonds. The first depot of the new line in the city that gave it its +birth was in Saxon Street, up in the old town of Salina. From there it was +that Denison, Belden & Company began the construction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> of the railroad. It +was not a difficult road to build, easy grades and but three bridges—a +small one at Parish and two fairly sizable ones at Brewerton and at +Pulaski—to go up, so it was finished and opened for traffic in the fall +of 1871—which was precisely the same year that the New York Central +opened its wonderful Grand Central Depot down on Forty-second Street, New +York. The line ran through from Syracuse to Sandy Creek, now Lacona. It +started off in good style, operating two passenger express trains, an +accommodation and two freights each day in each direction. At the +beginning it made a brave showing for itself, and soon after it was open +it built for itself a one-storied brick passenger station across from the +New York Central’s, then new, depot in Syracuse, and at right angles to +it. That station still stands but is now used as the Syracuse freight +station of the American Railway Express.</p> + +<p>E. H. Bancroft was the first superintendent of the Syracuse Northern, C. +C. Morse, the second, and J. W. Brown, the third. J. Dewitt Mann was the +accounting officer and paymaster. The road never attained to a long +official roster of its own, however. Within a twelvemonth after its +opening the prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, having already seen +the advantages of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> two-footed connection with the New York Central, +planned its purchase. The Syracuse road, having failed to become the +financial success of which its promoters had hoped, this act was easily +accomplished. The Sheriff of Onondaga County assisted. In 1875 there was a +foreclosure sale and the Syracuse Northern ceased to live thereafter, save +as a branch to Pulaski. A few years later the six miles of track between +that town and Sandy Creek were torn up and abandoned. The old road-bed is +still in plain sight, however, for a considerable distance along the line +of the state highway to Watertown as it leads out of Pulaski, while the +abutments of the former high railroad bridge over the Salmon River still +show conspicuously in that village.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>With its system fairly well rounded out, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +began the intensive perfection of its service. It built, in 1874, the +first section of the long stone freight-house opposite the passenger +station—so long a landmark of Watertown—from stone furnished by Lawrence +Gage, of Chaumont. Mr. Moak, the Superintendent of the road at that time, +was criticized for this expenditure. As a matter of fact it was necessary +not only to twice enlarge it quite radically, but to build a relief +transfer station at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the Junction before the stone freight-house was +finally torn down to make room for the present passenger station at +Watertown.</p> + +<p>Between the old freight-shed and the old passenger station there ran for +many years but a single passenger track, curving all the way, and beside +it the long platform, which was protected from the elements by a canopy, +which in turn, had a canopied connection with the waiting-room; at that +time still in the wing or original portion of the station; the main or +newer portion, being occupied by the restaurant, which had passed from the +hands of Col. Dunton into those of Silas Snell, Watertown’s most famous +cornet player of that generation.</p> + +<p>At Watertown the Cape Vincent train would lay in at the end of the +freight-house siding, and, because the Coffeen Street crossover had not +then been constructed, would back in and out between the passenger station +and the Watertown Junction, a little over a mile distant. Watertown +Junction was still a point of considerable passenger importance. Long +platforms were placed between the tracks there and passengers destined +through to the St. Lawrence never went up into the main passenger station +at all, but changed at that point to the Cape train.</p> + +<p>The Thousand Islands were beginning to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> known as a summer resort of +surpassing excellence. The famous Crossmon House at Alexandria Bay was +already more than two decades old. O. G. Staples had just finished that +nine-days-wonder, the Thousand Island House, and plans were in the making +for the building of the Round Island Hotel (afterwards the Frontenac) and +other huge hostelries that were to make social history at the St. +Lawrence, even before the coming of the cottage and club-house era.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>It will be recalled that from the first the R. W. & O. developed excellent +docking facilities at Cape Vincent. At the outset it had builded the large +covered passenger station upon the wharf there, whose tragic destruction +we have already witnessed. Beyond this were the freight-sheds and the +grain elevator. For Cape Vincent’s importance in those days was by no +means limited to the passenger travel, which there debouched from the +trains to take the steamers to the lower river points, or even that which +all the year around made its tedious way across the broad river to +Kingston, twenty-two miles away.</p> + +<p>The <i>Lady of the Lake</i> passed out of existence some six or seven years +after the inauguration of the Kingston ferry in connection with the trains +into the Cape. She was replaced by the steamer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> <i>Pierrepont</i>—the first of +this name—which was built on Wolfe Island in the summer of 1856 and went +into service in the following spring. In that same summer of 1857 the +canal was dug through the waistline girth of Wolfe Island, and a short and +convenient route established through it, between Cape Vincent and +Kingston—some twelve or thirteen miles all told, as against nearly twice +that distance around either the head or the foot of the island.</p> + +<p>It was a pleasant ride through the old Wolfe Island canal. I can easily +remember it, myself, the slow and steady progress of the steamboat through +the rich farmlands and truck-gardens, the neatly whitewashed highway +bridges, swinging leisurely open from time to time to permit of our +progress. It is a great pity that the ditch was ever abandoned.</p> + +<p>The first <i>Pierrepont</i> was not a particularly successful craft and it was +supplemented in 1864 by the <i>Watertown</i>, which gradually took the brunt of +the steadily increasing traffic across the St. Lawrence at this point. The +ferry grew steadily to huge proportions and for many years a great volume +of both passengers and freight was handled upon it. It is a fact worth +noting here, perhaps, that the first through shipment of silk from the +Orient over the newly completed transcontinental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> route of the Canadian +Pacific Railway was made into New York, by way of the Cape Vincent ferry +and the R. W. & O. in the late fall of 1883.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>With the business of this international crossing steadily increasing, it +became necessary to keep two efficient steamers upon the route and so the +second <i>Pierrepont</i> was builded, going into service in 1874. At about that +time the <i>Watertown</i> ceased her active days upon the river and the lake +and was succeeded by the staunch steamer <i>Maud</i>. Here was a staunch craft +indeed, built upon the Clyde somewhere in the late fifties or the early +sixties, and shipped in sections from Glasgow to Montreal, where she was +set up for St. Lawrence service, in which she still is engaged, under the +name of the <i>America</i>. Her engines for many years were of a peculiar +Scotch pattern, by no means usual in this part of the world, and +apparently understood by no one other than Billy Derry, for many years her +engineer. Occasionally Derry would quarrel with the owners of the <i>Maud</i> +and quit his job. They always sent their apologies after him, however. No +one else could run the boat, and they were faced with the alternative of +bowing to his whims or laying up the steamer.</p> + +<p>Yet, as I have already intimated, the passenger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> traffic was but a small +part of Cape Vincent’s importance through three or four great decades. The +ferry carried mail, freight and express as well—the place was ever an +important ferry crossing, a seat of a custom house of the first rank. In +summer the steamer acted as ferry, for many years crossing the Wolfe +Island barrier four times daily, through three or four miles of canal, +which some time along in the early nineties was suffered to fill up and +was abandoned in 1892. In midwinter mail and freight and passengers alike +crossed in speed and a real degree of fine comfort in great four-horse +sleighs upon a hard roadway of thick, thick ice. It was between seasons, +when the ice was either forming or breaking and sleighs as utter an +impossibility as steamboats that the real problem arose. In those times of +the year a strange craft, which was neither sled nor boat, but a +combination of both, was used. It went through the water and over the ice. +Yet the result was not as easy as it sounds. More than one passenger paid +his dollar to go from Cape Vincent to Kingston, for the privilege of +pushing the heavy hand sled-boat over the ice, getting his feet wet in the +bargain.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Into the many vagaries of North Country weather, I shall not enter at this +time. In a later<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> chapter we shall give some brief attention to them. It +is enough here to say that a man who could fight a blizzard, coming in +from off Ontario, and keep the line open could run a railroad anywhere +else in the world. In after years I was to see, myself, some of these rare +old fights; Russell plows getting into the drifts over their necks +around-about Pulaski and Richland and Sandy Creek, seemingly half the +motive power off the track. Yet these were no more than the road has had +since almost the very day of its inception.</p> + +<p>Once, in the midwinter of 1873, we had a noble old wind—the North Country +has a way of having noble old winds, even to-day—and the huge spire of +the First Presbyterian Church in Washington Street, Watertown, came +tumbling down into the road, smashed into a thousand bits, and seemingly +with no more noise than the sharp slamming of a blind.</p> + +<p>That night—it was the evening of the fifteenth of January—the railroad +in and about Watertown nearly collapsed. Trains were hugely delayed and +many of them abandoned. The <i>Watertown Times</i> of the next day, naÏvely +announced:</p> + +<p>“Conductor Sandiforth didn’t come home last night and missed a good deal +by not coming. He spent the evening with a party of shovelers working his +way from Richland to Pierrepont Manor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Conductor Aiken followed him up +with the night train but he couldn’t pass him, and so both trains arrived +here at 9:30 this (Thursday) morning.”</p> + +<p>Here Conductor Lew Sandiforth first comes into our picture and for a +moment I shall interrupt my narrative to give a bit of attention to him. +He is well worth the interruption of any narrative. We had many pretty +well-known conductors on the old R. W. & O.—but none half so well-known +as Lew Sandiforth. He was the wit of the old line, and its pet beau. It +was said of him, that if there was a good looking woman on the afternoon +train up to Watertown, Lew would quit taking tickets somewhere north of +Sandy Creek. The train then could go to the Old Harry for all he cared. He +had his social duties to perform. He was not one to shirk such +responsibilities.</p> + +<p>In those days a railroad conductor was something of an uncrowned king, +anyway. His pay was meager, but ofttimes his profits were large. One of +these famous old ticket punchers upon the Rome road lived at the Woodruff +House, in Watertown, throughout the seventies. His wage was seventy-five +dollars a month, but he paid ninety dollars a month board for his wife and +himself and kept a driver and a carriage in addition. No questions were +asked. The road, on the whole, was glad to get its freight and its ticket<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +office revenues. Even these last were nothing to brag about. It was a poor +sort of a public man in those days who could not have his wallet lined +with railroad annual passes. A large proportion of the passengers upon the +average train rode free of any charge. Sometimes this attained a +scandalous volume. Away back in 1858, I find the Directors of the Potsdam +& Watertown resolving that no officer of their company “shall give a free +pass for <i>more</i> than one trip over the road to any one person, except +officers of other railroad companies; and that an account of all free +passes taken up shall be entered by the conductors in their daily returns +with the name of the person passed and the name of the person who gave the +pass, and the Superintendent shall submit statement thereof to each +meeting of the Board.” Moreover, he was requested to notify the conductors +not to pass any persons without a pass except the Directors and Secretary +of the company, and their families, the roadmaster, paymaster, station +agents, and “persons who the conductors think are entitled to charity.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Despite obstacles to its full earning power such as this, the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh prospered ... and progressed. Forever it was +planning new frills to add to its operation. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> 1865 it had placed a +through Wagner sleeping-car in service between Watertown and New York. In +1875 this was an established function, leaving Watertown on the 6:30 train +each evening and arriving in New York at 7:55 the next morning; returning +it left New York each evening at six, and Albany at 11:40, and was in +Watertown at 9:05 the next morning. A later management of the R. W. & O. +in a fit of economy discontinued this service, and for more than twenty +years the North Country stood in line for sleeping-car berths at Utica +station, while it fought for the restoration of its sleeping-cars. These +cars eventually came back, but not regularly until 1891, when the New York +Central took over the property and put its up-to-date traffic methods upon +it once again.</p> + +<p>The local management of the mid-seventies—composed almost entirely of +Watertown men—was not content to stop with the through sleeping cars +between their chief town and New York. They finally instructed H. H. +Sessions, their Master Mechanic, down in the old shops at Rome, to build +two wonderful new cars for their line, “the likes of which had never been +seen before.” Mr. Sessions approached his new task with avidity. He was a +born car-builder, in after years destined to take charge of the motive +power department of the International & Great Northern Railway, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +Palestine, Texas, and then, in January, 1887, to become Manager of the +great Pullman car works at Pullman, Ill., just outside of Chicago. For six +years he held this position, afterwards resigning it to enter into +business for himself. The first vestibuled trains in which the platforms +were enclosed, were built under his supervision under what are known +to-day as the “Sessions Patents.” He was indeed an inventive genius, and +also designed the first steel platforms and other very modern devices in +progressive car construction.</p> + +<p>Sessions produced two sleeping-cars for the old Rome road. The “likes of +them” had never been seen before, and never will be seen again. They were +named the <i>St. Lawrence</i> and the <i>Ontario</i>, and, despite the fact that +they depended upon candle-light as their sole means of illumination, they +were wonderfully finished in the rarest of hard-woods. Alternately they +were sleeping-cars and parlor-cars. At the first they were distinguished +by the fact that they possessed no upper-berths, their mattresses, pillows +and linen being carried in closets at either end of the car.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>These cars at one time were placed in service between Syracuse, Watertown +and Fabyan’s, N. H., passing enroute through Norwood, Rouse’s Point and +Montpelier. One of them was in charge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> of Ed. Frary, the son of the +General Ticket Agent of the R. W. & O. at that time, and the other in +charge of L. S. Hungerford, who originally came from Evan’s Mills. This +was the Hungerford, who to-day is Vice-President and General Manager of +the Pullman Company, at Chicago. A third or “spare” car was afterwards +purchased from the Pullman Company and renamed the <i>DeKalb</i>.</p> + +<p>Because of the limited carrying capacity of these R. W. & O. sleeping-cars +they were never profitable. They did a little better when they were in day +service as parlor-cars. One of Mr. Richard Holden’s most vivid memories is +of one of these cars coming into Watertown from the south on the afternoon +train, which would halt somewhere near the Pine Street cutting to slip it +off, preparatory to placing it on the Cape train at the Junction.</p> + +<p>“I remember,” he says, “how proud the late Frank Cornish was in riding +down the straight on the first drawing-room car, with his hands on the +brakewheel. He was a brakeman at that time. Afterwards he was promoted to +baggageman and then to conductor, having the run on Number One and Number +Seven for many years, afterwards conducting a cigar-stand in the Yates +Hotel at Syracuse until he died.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>When hard times came upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh these cars +were laid up. Once in later years, under the Parsons management, they were +renamed the <i>Cataract</i> and the <i>Niagara</i>, and operated in the Niagara +Falls night trains. But again, they proved too much of a financial drag, +and they were finally converted into day-coaches. There was another +parlor-car, the <i>Watertown</i>. Eventually this became the private-car of Mr. +H. M. Britton, General Manager of the R. W. & O., while the others +remained day coaches; still retaining, however, their wide plate-glass +windows and their general appearance of comfortable ease.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Here indeed was the golden age of the Rome road. Its bright, neat, yellow +cars, its smartly painted and trimmed engines all bespoke the existence of +a prosperous little rail carrier, that might have left well enough alone. +But, seemingly it could not. There is a man living in the western part of +this state, who recalls one fine day there in the mid-seventies, when Mr. +Massey—the President of the road, came walking out of the Watertown +station, talking all the time to Mr. Moak, its General +Superintendent—came over to him:</p> + +<p>“We’re going to be a real railroad at last,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +John,” said he. “We’re going through to Niagara Falls upon our own rails and get into the trunk-line class.”</p> + +<p>He was giving expression to a dream of years. A moment ago and we were +speaking of the operation through two or three summers of sleeping-cars +between Watertown and the White Mountains over the R. W. & O., the +Northern (at that time, already become the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain), +the Central Vermont, the Montpelier and Wells River, and the Portland and +Ogdensburgh. The officers of the Rome road felt that, if they could bridge +the gap existing between the terminals of their line at Oswego, and go +through to Suspension Bridge or Buffalo, where there were plenty of +competing lines through to Chicago and the West, that they could both +enter upon the competitive business of carrying western freight to the +Atlantic seaboard, and at the same time stand independent of the New York +Central. Eventually their idea was to take a concrete form, but again I +anticipate.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In that brisk day there was, in the slow and laborious process of building +a railroad, leading due west from Oswego. It was called the Lake Ontario +Shore Railroad, and its construction was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> indeed a laborious process. For +many years it came to an end just eighteen miles beyond Oswego. Finally it +reached the little village of Ontario, fifty-one miles beyond. And there +stopped dead. If it had forever been halted there, it would have been a +good thing. Its promoters were both industrious and persistent, however. +They chose to overlook the fact that the narrow territory, that they +sought to thread, promised small local traffic returns for many years to +come; a thin strip it was between the main line of the New York Central +and the south shore of Lake Ontario, and although nearly 150 miles in +length, never more than twelve or fifteen in width, and without any +sizable communities. The prospect of a profitable traffic, originating in +so thin a strip, was small indeed.</p> + +<p>The prospectors of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad did not see it that +way. They stressed the fact that at Sterling they would intersect the +Southern Central (now the Lehigh Valley), at Sodus the Northern Central +(now the Pennsylvania), at Charlotte; the port of Rochester, the Rochester +& State Line (now the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) all in addition to +the many valuable connections to be made at the Niagara River. Yet for a +considerable time after the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> road had been pushed through Western New +York, it came to a dead stop at Lewiston. Its original terminal can still +be seen in that small village.</p> + +<p>It was then thought possible and feasible to build a railroad bridge +across the Niagara and the international boundary between Lewiston and +Queenstown, in competition with the Suspension Bridge, which from the very +moment of its opening in 1849 had been an overwhelming success. The +energetic group of Oswego men who had promoted the building of the Lake +Ontario Shore, hoped to duplicate the success of the Suspension Bridge +there at Lewiston. They saw that small frontier New York town transformed +into a real railroad metropolis.</p> + +<p>“And what a line we shall have, running right up to it!” they argued. +“Seventy-three out of our seventy-six miles, west of the Genesee River, as +straight as the proverbial ruler-edge; and a maximum gradient of but +twenty-six feet to the mile! What opportunities for fast—and efficient +operation!”</p> + +<p>They had capitalized their line at $4,000,000 and in October, 1870, when I +first find official mention of it, they had expended $54,300 upon it. Its +officers at that time were:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Gilbert Mollison</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">Luther Wright</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">Henry L. Davis</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Engineer</i>, <span class="smcap">Isaac S. Doane</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Luther Wright, Oswego</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Oliver P. Scovell, Lewiston</td></tr> +<tr><td>Alanson S. Page, Oswego</td> + <td> </td> + <td>George I. Post, Fairhaven</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fred’k T. Carrington, Oswego</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William O. Wood, Red Creek</td></tr> +<tr><td>Gilbert Mollison, Oswego</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Burt Van Horne, Lockport</td></tr> +<tr><td>Reuben F. Wilson, Wilson</td> + <td> </td> + <td>James Brackett, Rochester</td></tr> +<tr><td>Joseph L. Fowler, Ransonville</td> + <td> </td> + <td>D. F. Worcester, Rochester</td></tr></table> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>It is needless to say that the railroad bridge was never thrust across the +Niagara at Lewiston. That project died “a’borning.” And so, almost, did +the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. As I have just said, the building of the +road finally was halted at Ontario, fifty-one miles west of Oswego. +Finally, by tremendous effort and the injection of some capital from the +wealthy city of Rochester into the project it was brought through in 1875 +as far as Kendall, a miserable little railroad, wretched and woe-begone +with its sole rolling stock consisting of two second-hand locomotives, two +passenger-cars and some fifty or sixty freight-cars.</p> + +<p>In the long run, just as most folk had anticipated from the beginning, it +was the wealthy and prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> that took +over the Lake Ontario Shore and completed it; in 1876 as far as Lewiston, +and a year or two later up the face of the Niagara escarpment to +Suspension Bridge and the immensely valuable connections there. The +merger, itself, was consummated in the midsummer of 1875. To reach the +tracks of the new connecting link, from those of the old road, it was +necessary not only to build an exceedingly difficult little tunnel under +the hill, upon which the Oswego Court House stands, but to bridge the wide +expanse of the river just beyond, a tedious and expensive process, which +occupied considerably more than a twelvemonth.</p> + +<p>All of this was not done until 1876 and by that time disaster threatened. +The Rome road had gone quite too far. Times were growing very hard once +again. A tight money market threatened; the storm of ’73 had been passed +but that of ’77 was still ahead. It began to be a question whether the R. +W. & O. could weather the large obligations that it had assumed when it +had absorbed the Lake Ontario Shore. Traffic did not come off the new +line; not, at least, in any considerable or profitable quantities. It +defaulted on the interest payments of its bonds.</p> + +<p>There was the beginning of disaster. The Rome road management realized +this. They cut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> their dividends a little, and then to nothing. Watertown +was staggered. For a long term of years up to 1870 the road had paid its +ten per cent annual dividend with astonishing regularity. In that year it +dropped a little—to eight per cent—the next year, to seven, and then in +the panic year of 1873 to but three and one-half. The following year it +had returned, with increasing good times, to seven. In the fiscal year of +1874-75 the Directors of the property had voted six and one-half. That was +the end. The cancer of the Lake Ontario Shore was upon the parent +property. The strong old R. W. & O. had permitted the default of the +interest payments upon the bonds of their leased property. Confusion ruled +among the men in the depot at Watertown. They were dazed with impending +disaster.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<p class="title">INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> enthusiasm which Mr. Marcellus Massey showed over the extension of his +railroad into Suspension Bridge was surface enthusiasm, indeed. In his +heart he felt that it had taken a very dangerous step. His mind was full +of forebodings. Some of these he confessed to his intimates in Watertown. +He felt that a mistake—if you please, an irrevocable mistake—had been +made. And there was no turning back.</p> + +<p>These forebodings were realized. As we have just seen, the Lake Ontario +Shore defaulted upon its bonds in 1876 and again in 1877. The reflection +of this disastrous step came directly upon the R. W. & O. It ceased paying +dividends. The North Country folk, who had come to regard its securities +as something hardly inferior to government bonds, were depressed and then +alarmed. Yet worse was to come. On August 1, 1878, the R. W. & O. +defaulted in its interest on its great mass of consolidated bonds.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>The blow had fallen! Failure impended! And receivership! Yet, in the long +run, both were avoided. Into the directorate of the railroad, up to that +time a fairly close Northern New York affair, a new man had come. He was a +smallish man, with a reputation for keenness and sagacity in railroad +affairs, second only to that of Jay Gould or Daniel Drew. There were more +ways than one in which Samuel Sloan, known far and wide as plain “Sam +Sloan,” resembled both of these men.</p> + +<p>His touch with the R. W. & O. came physically, by way of the contact of +the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western with it at three points; at Oswego, +at Syracuse, and at Rome—this last, at that time through its leased +operation of the Rome & Clinton Railroad, which ceased July 1, 1883. He +had looked upon the development and the despair of the Rome road with +increasing interest. His careful and conservative mind must have stood +aghast at the foolhardiness of the Lake Ontario Shore venture. Sam Sloan +would have done nothing of that sort. The railroad that he dominated so +forcefully for many years—Lackawanna—would have taken no step of that +sort. Trust Sam Sloan for that.</p> + +<p>And yet, despite his evident dislike for the property, the R. W. & O. had +its fascinations for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> him. He must have seen certain opportunities in it. +The fact that it touched his own road at so many points, and, therefore, +was capable of becoming so large a potential feeder for it—despite the +malign influence of those Vanderbilts with their important New York +Central—must have appealed to the old man’s heart. At any rate he took +direct steps to gain control of the Rome road.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The precise motives that impelled Samuel Sloan to gain a control of the R. +W. & O., and having once gained a control of it, to conduct it in the +remarkable manner that he did, in all probability, never will be known. +One may only indulge in surmises. But just why he should seek, apparently +with deliberateness and carefully preconceived plan, to wreck what had +been so recently the finest of all railroads in the state of New York is +not clearly apparent even to-day.</p> + +<p>Sloan was a man of many moods. Receptive and interested to-day, he was +cold and bitter to-morrow. One might never count upon him. He flattered +Marcellus Massey, raised his salary as the President of the Rome road from +$7500 to $10,000 a year, and then induced him to purchase large holdings +of Lackawanna stock, putting up as collateral his large holdings of the +shares of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the R. W. & O., just beginning their long drop towards a +pitifully low figure—all the time holding the bait to the old President +of the amazing property that he was about to upbuild in Northern New York. +So, eventually Sloan ruined Massey, financially and physically, and a +broken hearted man went out from the old President’s office of the R. W. & +O. in Watertown.</p> + +<p>In 1877, the year before the Rome road all but created financial disaster +in Northern New York, Sloan had bought enough of its bargain-sale stock to +have himself elected as its President. The official roster of the road +then became:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Samuel Sloan</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">Marcellus Massey</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">J. A. Lawyer</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Freight Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">E. M. Moore</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Ticket Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">H. T. Frary</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. R. W. & O. Division</i>, <span class="smcap">J. W. Moak</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. L. O. & S. N. Division</i>, <span class="smcap">E. A. Van Horne</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Marcellus Massey, Watertown</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Moses Taylor, Scranton</td></tr> +<tr><td>Samuel Sloan, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>C. Zabriskie, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>William E. Dodge, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>John S. Barnes, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>John S. Farlow, Boston</td> + <td> </td> + <td>S. D. Hungerford, Adams</td></tr> +<tr><td>Percy R. Pyne, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gardner R. Colby, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>Talcott H. Camp, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William M. White, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Theodore Irwin, Oswego</td></tr></table> + +<p>The North Country complexion of the directorate had all but disappeared. +As far back as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> 1871, Addison Day had ceased to be Superintendent of the +road, and had become Superintendent of the Utica & Black River. He had +been succeeded by J. W. Moak, a former roadmaster of the Rome road. Moak +was not only equally as efficient as Day, but he was much more popular, +both with the road’s employees and its patrons. Yet one of Sloan’s first +acts was to relieve him of a portion of his territory and responsibility. +He made the point, and it was not without force, that it was all but +impossible for an operating officer at Watertown to supervise properly the +western end of the now far-flung system. So, he took the former Syracuse +Northern, the Lake Ontario Shore and the branch from Richland to +Oswego—all the lines west of Richland, in fact—and made them into a new +division, with headquarters at Oswego. For this division he brought one of +his few favored officers from the Lackawanna, E. A. Van Horne, who had +been a Superintendent upon that property. Van Horne was a forceful man, +who, as he went upward, made a distinct impress upon the railroad history +of the North Country. He was quick tempered, decisive, yet possessing +certain very likable qualities that were of tremendous help to him there.</p> + +<p>Another of Sloan’s early acts—more easily understood than some +others—was to tear out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> soft-coal grates of the fire boxes of the R. +W. & O. locomotives, and substitute for them hard-coal grates. Anthracite +then, as now, was a great specialty of the Lackawanna. And in the road to +the north of him Sloan possessed a customer of no mean dimensions.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>For the next four or five years the R. W. & O. grubbed along—and barely +dodged receivership. Its service steadily went from bad to worse. It now +took the best passenger trains upon the line four hours to go from +Watertown to Rome, seventy-two miles (in the very beginnings of the road, +they had done it in an even three hours). No one knew when a freight car +would reach New York from Watertown. Confusion reigned. Chaos was at hand. +And when Watertown merchants and manufacturers would go to Oswego to +protest to Mr. Van Horne (Mr. Moak finally had been demoted, and Watertown +suffered the humiliation of having the operating headquarters of the +system moved away from it) they would hear from the General Superintendent +of the property his utter helplessness in the matter; the threats from +Sloan were that he might close down the road altogether, and Van Horne was +beside himself for explanations:</p> + +<p>“Gentlemen, I cannot do better,” he said, over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +and over again, “our track is in deplorable condition. I dare not send a train over the road without +sending a man afoot, station to station, ahead of it to make sure that the +rails will hold.”</p> + +<p>So it was. The track inspectors’ jobs were cut out for them these days. +They made some long-distance walking records. Yet, despite their +vigilance, train wrecks came with increasing frequency. Morale was gone. +The fine old R. W. & O. was at the bottom of the Slough of Despond. Added +to all this were the rigors of a North Country winter, which we are to see +in some detail in another chapter. According to the veracious diary of +Moses Eames, on January 2nd, 1879, the first train came into Watertown +since Christmas Day. The following day it snowed again, and fiercely and +the R. W. & O. went out of business for another ten days. That storm was +almost a record-breaker: more than a fortnight of continuous snow and +extreme low temperature.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In those days Samuel Sloan was busy occupying himself with an extension of +his beloved Lackawanna into Buffalo. That, in itself, was a real job. For +years the D. L. & W. had terminated at Great Bend, a few miles east of +Binghamton, and had used trackage rights upon the Erie from there West, +not only into the Buffalo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> gateway, but also to reach its branch-line +properties into Utica, Rome, Syracuse and Ithaca. Sloan finally had +quarreled with the Erie—it was a way he ofttimes had. And, for once at +least, had made a bold strategic move through to the far end of the Empire +State.</p> + +<p>To build so many miles of railroad one must have rail. And rail costs much +money, unless one may borrow it from a friendly property. So Sloan went up +into the North Country and “borrowed” rail. He “borrowed” so much that +travel upon the R. W. & O. became fraught with many real dangers—and the +life of his General Superintendent at Oswego, Van Horne, a nightmare. Some +of the rails were, in his own words, not more than six feet long. Finally +in desperation he appealed to his chief competitor in the North Country, +the Utica & Black River, which rapidly was substituting steel for iron +upon its main line. In sheer pity, J. F. Maynard, General Superintendent +of the Utica & Black River, sent his discarded iron to his paralyzed +competitor.</p> + +<p>There was little steel upon the Rome road in 1883—less than sixty miles +of its 417 miles of main line track was so equipped. Neither were there +sufficient locomotives; but fifty-two of them all-told, in addition to two +or three that the Lackawanna had had the extreme kindness to “loan”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> the +property—upon a perfectly adequate rental basis. Long since it had ceased +to operate such frills as sleeping-cars or parlor-cars. It had only +fifty-four passenger-coaches; not nearly enough to meet the needs of so +far-flung a line. And many of these were in extreme disrepair. An elderly +citizen of Ogdensburgh says that it was a nightly occasion for the R. W. & +O. train to come in from DeKalb with more than half of its journals +ablaze.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Yet, despite these bitter years, the road had managed to avoid +receivership and in 1882 it succeeded in effecting a reorganization; under +which it dropped the interest on its bonds to five per cent and assessed +its stockholders ten dollars a share for a cash working fund to keep it +alive. They were given income bonds for the amount so contributed by them. +There were a few grumbles at this arrangement, but not many. The huge +potential possibilities of the property—or rather of the rich and still +undeveloped territory that it served—were too generally recognized.</p> + +<p>It began to be rumored that new outside interests were buying into the +stock in Wall Street. These rumors were brought to Sloan’s attention.</p> + +<p>“Look out,” he was warned, “some one will get that old heap of junk away +from you yet.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>He laughed. At the best you could tell Samuel Sloan but little. Gradually, +he proceeded with his reorganization, and in 1883 we find the official +roster of the reorganized R. W. & O. reading in this fashion:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Samuel Sloan</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary and Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">J. A. Lawyer</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Superintendent</i>, <span class="smcap">E. A. Van Horne</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Master Mechanic</i>, <span class="smcap">G. H. Haselton</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Ticket Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">H. T. Frary</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Freight Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">E. M. Moore</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Talcott H. Camp, Watertown</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Charles Parsons, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>S. D. Hungerford, Adams</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Clarence S. Day, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>William M. White, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Percy R. Pyne, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>Theodore Irwin, Oswego</td> + <td> </td> + <td>John S. Barnes, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td>William E. Dodge, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>John S. Farlow, Boston</td></tr> +<tr><td>Roswell G. Ralston, New York</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gardner R. Colby, New York</td></tr></table> + +<p>The rumor-mongers were not without fact to support them, for a new name +will be noticed upon this list; that of Charles Parsons, of New York, who +had been carefully garnering in R. W. & O. stock, at from ten to fifteen +cents on the dollar. Two names had disappeared, those of Marcellus Massey +and of J. W. Moak. But we focus our attention upon the name of Parsons, +and then step forward in our narrative until the sixth day of June, 1883, +when the Directors of the R. W. & O.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> held a meeting in the back room of +the Jefferson County Bank in Watertown.</p> + +<p>There was an unusually full attendance of the Board. Mr. Sloan, as was his +prerogative through his office as President of the road, sat at the head +of the long table. Near its foot sat Mr. Parsons, a cadaverous man, with +prematurely white hair, given to much thought but little speech. The +business of the meeting, the election of officers for the ensuing year, +was perfunctory and quickly accomplished. The Secretary arose and +announced that Mr. Parsons had been elected President of the R. W. & O. +Sloan flushed, and then prepared to spring a <i>coup d’etat</i>. He brought a +packet of papers from out of an inside pocket.</p> + +<p>“What do you propose to do with these?” he snarled.</p> + +<p>“What are they?” asked Parsons.</p> + +<p>“Notes of the road for $300,000 that I’ve advanced it, to keep it out of +bankruptcy,” was the reply.</p> + +<p>“Let me see them,” said its new President.... He glanced at the papers for +a moment, then reached for his check-book and wrote his check to Sloan for +a clean $300,000. He handed it across the table. The retiring President +scrutinized it sharply, placed it within his wallet and left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> the room. +His connection with the road was terminated. At the best it was a sinister +connection. There were few to regret his going.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>With his hand firmly fixed upon its wheel, Parsons began the complete +reorganization of his newly acquired property. He had his long-time +associate, Clarence S. Day, elected as its Vice-President, and within a +very few weeks had brought to the operating headquarters in Oswego a fine +upstanding man, the late H. M. Britton, as General Manager of the road, a +newly created title and office. Mr. Britton at once chose two operating +lieutenants for himself; W. H. Chauncey, as Assistant Superintendent of +the Western Division (west of Richland) at Oswego, and the famous “Jud” +Remington, as Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern Division, at +Watertown.</p> + +<p>Watertown had hoped that with the new management of the road—that +railroad which it had been prone to call “its road”—would reëstablish the +operating headquarters of the property there, also new and enlarged shops. +In these hopes it was to be doomed to great disappointment. For not only +was a Sloan policy to consolidate shop facilities at Oswego continued and +enlarged—the shops both at Rome and at Watertown were reduced to +facilities for emergency <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>repairs only—but the corporate executive +offices were removed from it to New York City, while the chief operating +headquarters of the company remained at Oswego.</p> + +<p>Yet Watertown might easily enough take hope. The service upon the road was +improved—at once. In front of me I have a copy of the shortlived <i>Daily +Republican</i>, which once was printed there. It is dated, July 24, 1885, and +its rules are turned to black borders of mourning in tribute to General +Grant, who died upon the preceding day. In the lower corner of one of its +pages is an advertisement of the summer service upon the R. W. & O. It was +a real service, indeed—five trains a day over the main line in each +direction, and adequate schedules upon the branches. In that season of the +year there was through sleeping-car service between Watertown and New +York, upon the sleeping-cars that were operated in and out of Cape Vincent +to serve the steadily, increasing, tourist trade upon the St. Lawrence. +The Parsons’ management, however, like the Sloan, steadfastly refused to +operate this sleeping-car service through the autumn, winter and spring +months of the year. There was a through sleeping-car service, also, to the +White Mountains, the car coming through from Niagara Falls, passing +Watertown at four o’clock in the morning and reaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> Fabyan’s, N. H., at +twenty-eight minutes after four in the afternoon; Portland, Me., by direct +connection, at 8:25 p. m. This advertisement is signed by W. F. Parsons, +as General Passenger Agent, and by Mr. Britton, as General Manager of the +line.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Britton was alert to suggestion and to complaint. To favored persons he +was apt to make an occasional suggestion upon the company’s stock.</p> + +<p>“Buy it now,” he urged. “Buy it—and hold it.”</p> + +<p>Most folk shook their heads negatively at that suggestion. Watertown had +been burned once in a railroad experience. It now emulated the traditional +wise child. “Buy the stock,” whispered Britton to a Watertown +manufacturer. It then was at twenty-five. The Watertownian demurred. A +year later it was forty. “Buy it now,” Britton still whispered to him. And +still our cautious soul of the North Country hesitated. It touched fifty. +Britton still urged. Of course, the Watertown man would not buy it <i>then</i>. +He prided himself that he never bought anything at the top of the market. +Sixty, seventy, then R. W. & O. in the great market of Wall Street touched +seventy-five.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>“How about it now?” said Britton over the wire.</p> + +<p>The Watertown man laughed. He had made a mistake—one of the few financial +errors that he ever made—and he could afford to laugh at this one. Buy R. +W. & O. at seventy-five? Not he. Let the other man do it. Afterwards he +did not laugh as hard. He lived long enough to see R. W. & O. reach par +once again—and then cross it and keep upwards all the while. He saw it +reach 105, then 110 and then on a certain memorable March day in 1891, +123.</p> + +<p>But this anticipates. We are riding too rapidly with our narrative. If old +“Jud” Remington were traveling with us upon this special he would do, as +sometimes was his wont, reach up and pull the bell-cord to slow the train. +He took no risks, did “Jud”—bless his fine, old heart.</p> + +<p>We have anticipated—and perhaps we have neglected. All these years, of +which we have been writing, the R. W. & O. had a competitor—a very live +competitor, we must have you understand. So live, that to gain a permanent +position for itself, that competitor must needs be completely eliminated. +To that competitor—the Utica & Black River Railroad—we must now turn our +attention.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<p class="title">THE UTICA & BLACK RIVER</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> beginnings of the Utica & Black River Railroad go away back to +1852—the year of the real completion and opening of the Watertown & Rome. +The fact that not only could that line be built successfully, but that +there would come to it immediately a fine flow of traffic was not without +its effect upon the staunch old city of Utica, which had felt rather +bitterly about the loss, to its smaller neighbor, Rome, of the prestige of +being the gateway city to the North Country. From the beginning Utica had +been that gateway. Long ago we read of the fine records that were made on +the old post-road from Utica through Martinsburgh and Watertown to +Sackett’s Harbor. The Black River valley was the logical pathway to the +Northern Tier. The people who dwelt there felt that God had made it so. +And now the infamy had come to pass that a new man-built highway had +ignored it completely; had passed far to the west of it.</p> + +<p>Spurred by such feelings, stung by a new-found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> feeling of isolation, the +people of Lewis County held a mass meeting on a December evening in 1852, +at Lowville, to which their county-seat had already been moved from +Martinsburgh, but two miles distant. They set the fire to a popular +feeling that already demanded a railroad through the natural easy +gradients of the valley of the Black River. The blaze of indignation +spread. Within a fortnight similar meetings were held at Boonville and at +Theresa. And within a few months the Black River Railroad Company was +organized at the first of these towns with a capital of $1,200,000 and +Herkimer, in the valley of the Mohawk, was designated as its probably +southern terminal.</p> + +<p>Once again Utica writhed in civic anguish. But in three days gave answer +to this proposed, second blow to her prestige by the organization of the +Black River & Utica Railroad, with a capital of $1,000,000—a tentative +figure of course. As an evidence of her good faith she raised a cash fund +for the employment of Daniel C. Jenney to survey a route for her own +railroad, north and straight through to French Creek (about to become the +present village of Clayton) one hundred miles distant.</p> + +<p>To this move Rome replied. Having acquired a new and exclusive prestige, +she was quite <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>unwilling that it should be lost, or even dimmed. She +called attention to the fact that she was, in her own eyes, of course, the +logical gateway to the Black River country, as well as to the eastern +shore of Lake Ontario, to which the Watertown & Rome already led. There +was a natural pass that rested just behind her that led to Boonville and +the upper waters of the Black River. Had not this natural route been +recognized some years before by the builders of the Black River Canal, who +readily had chosen it for the waterway, which to this day remains in +operation through it?</p> + +<p>Rome felt that her argument was quite irrefutable. To support it, however, +she pledged herself to furnish terminal grounds for the new line at $250 +an acre, in addition to subscribing $450,000 to the stock and bonds of the +company. Money talks. Utica came back with an offer of terminal lands at +$200 an acre and proffered a subscription of $650,000 to the securities of +the Black River & Utica. A meeting was held. The mooted question of a +southern terminal was put to vote. Rome and Utica tied with twenty-two +votes each; Herkimer, despite her suggestion of the valley of Canada Creek +as a natural pathway for the new line north to the watershed of the Black +River, had but two votes. She promptly withdrew from the contest.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>Money does talk. Eventually Utica had the terminal of the Black River +road, even though the noble Romans, retiring to their camp in a blue funk +for a time threatened a rival line straight north from their town to +Boonville and beyond. They went so far as to incorporate this company; as +the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome. The promoters of the Black River & Utica +having planned to locate their line in the low levels of the flats of the +river, the Rome group said that they would build <i>their</i> road upon the +higher level, rather closely paralleling the ancient state highway and so +making especial appeal to the towns along it, which felt miffed at the +indifference of the Utica group to them.</p> + +<p>In the long run, as we all know, the road was built along the low level of +the Black River valley, and many of the once thriving towns along the +State Road left stranded high and dry. The road from Rome became a memory. +From time to time the suggestion has been revived, however—in my boyhood +days we had the fine classical suggestion of the Rome & Carthage Railroad +all ready for incorporation—but there is little prospect now that such a +road will ever be built. The times are not propitious now for that sort of +enterprise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Ground was broken at Utica for the new Black River line on August 27, +1853. There was a deal of ceremony to the occasion; no less a personage +than the distinguished Governor Horatio Seymour, being designated to make +remarks appropriate to it. And, as was the custom in those days for such +an event, there was a parade, music by the bands and other appropriate +festivities. Construction, in the hands of Contractor J. S. T. Stranahan, +of Brooklyn, went ahead with great briskness. Within two years the line +had been builded over the hard rolling country of the upper Canada +Creek—it included the crossing of a deep gully near Trenton Falls by a +high trestle (subsequently replaced by a huge embankment)—to Boonville, +thirty-five miles distant from Utica.</p> + +<p>This much done, the Black River & Utica subsided and became apparently a +semi-dormant enterprise—for a number of long years. The promises which +its promoters had made to have the line completed to Clayton by the first +of July, 1855, apparently were forgotten. These had been made at a mass +meeting of the enthusiastic proponents of the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome, +held at Constableville on the evening of Monday, August 22, 1853. They +were definite, and the Rome crowd under them badly worsted. But promises +were as easily made in those days as in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> these. As easily accepted ... and +as easily broken.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In 1857, the Black River & Utica Railroad was operating a single passenger +train a day, between Utica and Boonville. It left Boonville at eight +o’clock in the morning and arrived at Utica at 10:20 a. m. The return run +left Utica at 4:00 p. m. and arrived at Boonville at 6:20 p. m. +Seventy-five cents was charged to ride from Utica to Trenton and $1.25 +from Utica to Boonville. The little road then had four locomotives, the +<i>T. S. Faxton</i>, the <i>J. Butterfield</i>, the <i>Boonville</i> and the <i>D. C. +Jenney</i>. The <i>Faxton</i> hauled the passenger train, and a young man from +Boonville, who also owned a coal-yard there, was its conductor. His name +was Richard Marcy and afterwards he was to come to prominent position, not +only as exclusive holder of its coal-selling franchise for a number of +years, but also as a politician of real parts.</p> + +<p>In 1858, the little road doubled its passenger service. Now there were two +passenger trains a day in each direction. And each was at least fairly +well-filled, for the Black River & Utica held as its supreme attraction +Trenton Falls. Indeed, if it had not been for the prominence of Trenton +Falls as a resort in those years, it is quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> probable that a good many +folk in the State of New York would never have even heard of it.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">THE BIRTH OF THE U. & B. R.<br />The Boonville Passenger Train Standing in the Utica Station, Away Back in 1865.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>But Trenton Falls—Trenton Falls of the sixties, of the fifties—all the +way back to the late twenties, if you please—here was a place to be +reckoned! All the great travelers of the early half of the last +century—European as well as American—made a point of visiting it. The +most of them wrote of it in their memoirs. That indefatigable tourist, N. +P. Willis, could not miss this exquisitely beautiful place—alas, in these +late days, the exquisitely beautiful place has fallen under the vandal +hands of power engineers, and the exquisite beauty no longer is. Trenton +Falls is but a memory. Yet the record of its one-time magnificence still +remains.</p> + +<p>“... The company of strangers at Trenton is made somewhat select by the +expense and difficulty of access,” wrote Willis, late in the fifties. The +Black River & Utica had then barely been opened through to the Falls. +“Most who come stay two or three days, but there are usually boarders here +who stay for a longer time.... Nothing could be more agreeable than the +footing upon which these chance-met residents and their daily accessions +of newcomers pass their evenings and take strolls up the ravine together; +and for those who love country air and romantic <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>rambles without ‘dressing +for dinner’ or waltzing by a band, this is ‘a place to stay.’ These are +not the most numerous frequenters of Trenton, however. It is a very +popular place of resort from every village within thirty miles; and from +ten in the morning until four in the afternoon there is gay work with the +country girls and their beaux—swinging under trees, strolling about in +the woods near the house, bowling, singing, and dancing—at all of which +(owing, perhaps to a certain gypsy-ish promiscuosity of my nature that I +never could aristocrify by the keeping of better company) I am delighted +to be, at least, a looker-on. The average number of these visitors from +the neighborhood is forty or fifty a day, so that breakfast and tea are +the nearest approach to ‘dress meals’—the dinner, though profuse and +dainty in its fare, being eaten in what is commonly thought to be rather +‘mixed society.’ I am inclined to think that, from French intermixture, or +some other cause, the inhabitants of this region are a little peculiar in +their manners. There is an unconsciousness or carelessness of others’ +observation and presence that I have hitherto seen only abroad. We have +songs, duets and choruses, sung here by village girls, within the last few +days, in a style that drew all in the house to listen very admiringly; and +even the ladies all agree<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> that there have been very pretty girls day +after day among them. I find they are Fourierites to the extent of common +hair-brush and other personal furniture—walking into anybody’s room for +the temporary repairs which belles require on their travels, and availing +themselves of whatever was therein, with a simplicity, perhaps, a little +transcendental. I had obtained the extra privilege for myself of a small +dressing room apart, for which I presumed the various trousers and other +merely masculine belongings would be protective scarecrows sufficient to +keep out these daily female invaders, but, walking in yesterday, I found +my combs and brushes in active employ, and two very tidy looking girls +making themselves at home without shutting the door and no more disturbed +by my <i>entrée</i> than if I had been a large male fly. As friends were +waiting I apologized for intruding long enough to take a pair of boots +from under their protection, but my presence was evidently no +interruption. One of the girls (a tall figure, like a woman in two +syllables connected by a hyphen at the waist) continued to look at the +back of her dress in the glass, and the other went on threading her most +prodigal chevelure with my doubtless very embarrassed though unresisting +hair-brush, and so I abandoned the field, as of course I was expected to +do ... I do not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> know that they would go to the length of ‘fraternizing’ +one’s tooth-brush, but with the exception of locking up that rather +confidential article, I give in to the customs of the country, and have +ever since left open door to the ladies....”</p> + +<p>We have drifted away for the moment from the railroad. I wanted to show, +through Mr. Willis’s observant eyes, the Northern New York of the day that +the Black River & Utica was first being builded. One other excerpt has +observed the various sentiments, sacred and profane, penciled about the +place and its excellent hotel and concludes:</p> + +<p>“... Farther off ... a man records the arrival of himself ‘and servant,’ +below which is the following inscription:</p> + +<p>“‘G. Squires, wife and two babies. No servant, owing to the hardness of +the times.’</p> + +<p>“And under this again;</p> + +<p>“‘G. W. Douglas, and servant. No wife and babies, owing to the hardness of +the times.’”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The tremendous popularity of Trenton Falls in those early days was a vast +aid to the slender passenger possibilities of the early Black River & +Utica. There was not much else for it south of Boonville. True it was that +at that thriving village it tapped the fairly busy Black River Canal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +which led down to the navigable upper waters of that river. Yet this was +hardly satisfactory to the progressive folk of the Black River valley. +They kept the project alive. And once when the old company’s continued +existence became quite hopeless they helped effect a complete +reorganization of it, under the title of the Utica & Black River. This was +formally accomplished, March 31, 1860. As the Utica & Black River, the new +railroad came, upon its completion into the North Country, into a season +of continued prosperity. It did not share the vast reversals of fortune of +its larger competitor, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Through all the +years of its complete operation as a separate railroad it never missed its +six per cent dividends. It was a delight, both to its owners and to the +communities it served.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The Black River road thrust itself into Lowville in the fall of 1868. Four +years later it had reached Carthage. The next year it was at the bank of +the St. Lawrence, at Clayton. And before the end of the following year it +again touched with its rails the shore of that great river; at both +Morristown and Ogdensburgh. As railroads went, in those days, it was at +last a through-route; with important connections at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> both of its +terminals. At Utica it had fine shop and yard facilities adjoining the +tracks of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, whose venerable +passenger station it shared. And, when at one time, it sought a close +personal connection for itself with the Ontario & Western there, it +builded an expensive bridge connection over the New York Central tracks. +This bridge is now gone, but the piers remain.</p> + +<p>At both Clayton and Ogdensburgh the Black River road possessed fine +waterside terminals. Its station in the latter city still stands; for many +years it has been the local storage warehouse of Armour & Co., of Chicago.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>In the busy months that the Utica & Black River was building its line up +through Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, a railroad was being builded +from it at Carthage down the lower valley of the Black River to Watertown +and to Sackett’s Harbor. This was distinctly a local enterprise; the +Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor, financed and built almost entirely +by Watertownians and retaining its separate corporate existence until but +a few years ago. It was inspired not only by the great success of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh at that time, but by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> the quite natural +desire of the one really industrial city of the North Country to have +competitive railroad service. There have been few times when there were +not in Watertown a generous plenty of men who stood ready to put their +hands deep into their pockets in order to promote an enterprise whose +value seemed so obvious and so genuinely important to the town.</p> + +<p>So it was then that the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor first came +into its existence, there at the extreme end of the sixties; in the very +year that Watertown itself was first becoming a city. Its officers and +directors as it was first organized were as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">George B. Phelps</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary and Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">Lotus Ingalls</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Engineer</i>, <span class="smcap">F. A. Hinds</span>, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>George P. Phelps, Watertown</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>George A. Bagley, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td>Lotus Ingalls, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Hiram Converse, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td>Norris Winslow, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Theodore Canfield, Sackett’s Harbor</td></tr> +<tr><td>Pearson Mundy, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Walter B. Camp, Sackett’s Harbor</td></tr> +<tr><td>L. D. Doolittle, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>David Dexter, Black River</td></tr> +<tr><td>George H. Sherman, Watertown</td> + <td> </td> + <td>William N. Coburn, Carthage</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Alexander Brown, Carthage</td></tr></table> + +<p>A little later Mr. Hinds was succeeded as the road’s Engineer, by L. B. +Cook also of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>Watertown. And eventually Mr. Bagley succeeded Mr. Phelps, +as its President, George W. Knowlton, becoming its Vice-President.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>To encourage the new line, which it prepared itself to operate, the Utica +& Black River made quite a remarkable contract. Shorn of its verbiage it +agreed to give the C. W. & S. H. forty per cent of the gross revenue that +should arise upon the line. This contract in a very few years arose to +bedevil the railroad situation in the North Country. As the paper industry +began to expand there, and huge mills to multiply along the lower reaches +of the Black River, this contract grew irksome indeed to the U. & B. R. R. +Finally it sought to modify its terms, very greatly. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor, quite naturally refused. “After all,” it +said, through its President, the late George A. Bagley, “what is a +contract but—a contract?”</p> + +<p>The Utica road pressed its point. It finally went down to New York and +gained a promise from Roswell P. Flower that the agreement would be +greatly mollified, if not abrogated. It did seem absurd that a carload of +paper moving eighteen miles from Watertown to Carthage and seventy-five +from Carthage to Utica should pay forty per cent of its charges to the +road upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> which it had moved but eighteen miles. Yet, a contract is a +contract.</p> + +<p>Governor Flower went up to Watertown and put the matter before the +officers and directors of the C. W. & S. H. But, led by the stout-hearted +Bagley, they refused to move, a single inch.</p> + +<p>“I’ve given my promise,” stormed Roswell P. Flower, “that you would do the +right thing in this matter. And in New York I am known as a man who always +keeps his word.”</p> + +<p>Bagley said nothing. The meeting ended abruptly—in all the bitterness of +disagreement. The Utica & Black River decided upon a master stroke; it +would terminate paying its rental, based chiefly on this forty per cent +division to its leased road. That would cause trouble. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor was, itself, liable to its bondholders, for +the mortgage that they held against it. It would have to pay their +interest. Without receiving its rental money from the Black River road it +would be hard pressed indeed to meet these coupons. It looked as if it +might have to go into receivership, even though at that moment its stock +had reached well above par.</p> + +<p>The situation was saved for it by a New York banking house, Vermilye & +Company, who sent a lawyer up to Watertown who examined the famous +contract and pronounced it perfectly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> valid. The Vermilye’s then announced +their willingness to advance the C. W. & S. H. the money to meet its +interest charges—for an indefinite period. After which the Black River +people came down a peg or two and bought the stock and bonds of their +leased road, at par. While the city of Watertown and some of its adjoining +communities possessed of a sudden and unexpected wealth refunded a portion +of their taxes for a year or two.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bagley had won his point. He had the reward of a good deed well +performed. He had another reward. His salary as President of the Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor had remained unpaid; for a number of years. +He collected back pay from the Black River settlement; for several years +at the rate of $15,000 a year.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have anticipated. We are building the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s +Harbor, not, as yet, operating it. The construction of the line began late +in the year of 1870, westward from Carthage, its base of supplies. The +road from Watertown to the Harbor—eleven miles—was constructed in the +following summer. After a disagreeable fight with the R. W. & O., its main +line finally was crossed at grade at Mill Street, closely adjacent to the +passenger stations of the two rival roads and, after following the +embankment for a mile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> once again at Watertown Junction. Its entrance +into the Harbor was accomplished over the right-of-way of the former +Sackett’s Harbor & Ellisburgh, which had been abandoned a decade before. +It utilized the old depot there.</p> + +<p>George W. Flower, the first Mayor of Watertown, who we have already seen +in these pages, had the contract for the building of this section of the +line. He rented a locomotive from his competitor and obtained the loan of +engineer, Frank W. Smith. For himself, he kept oversight over the progress +from the saddle seat of a fine horse that he possessed.</p> + +<p>This section of the road was completed and ready for operation early in +’74. But because of certain legal complications the Utica & Black River +refused to accept it at once. A large celebration had been planned at the +Harbor for the Fourth of July that year and rather than disappoint the +folk who wanted to go down to it, Mr. Flower took his leased locomotive +and hitched behind it a long line of flat contractor’s cars, equipped with +temporary wooden benches. His improvised excursion train did a good +business and he realized a comfortable sum from the haulage of both +passengers and freight before the line was turned over to the Utica & +Black River for operation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>The first passenger station of that line in Watertown was in a former +brick residence in Factory Street, just beyond the junction with Mill. It +was small, not overclean and most inconvenient. But a few years later, the +U. & B. R. built the handsome passenger station at the Northeast corner of +Public Square which for many years now has been the office and +headquarters of the Marcy, Buck & Riley Company. Its original brick +freight-house nearby—afterwards relieved by the construction of a most +substantial stone freight-house at the foot of Court Street—still stands. +Back of it a block or so was the round-house. I remember that round-house +well. It was a favorite resort of mine through some extremely tender years +of youth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have not set down the earliest lists of officers of the Utica road. They +are not particularly germane to this record. It is, perhaps, enough for it +to know that, with the exception of the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s +Harbor—which, as we have just seen, was financed chiefly by the Flowers, +the Knowltons, George A. Bagley and George B. Phelps, of Watertown—the U. +& B. R. as reorganized, was constructed and managed almost exclusively by +Uticans—John Thorn, Isaac Maynard, Theodore Faxon and John +Butterfield—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> New Yorkers—Robert Lenox Kennedy, John J. Kennedy (who +afterwards had a prominent rôle in the early financing of the Canadian +Pacific) and others.</p> + +<p>Charles Millar was the first Superintendent of the road. He was succeeded, +along about 1865, by Hugh Crocker, who a couple of years later was killed +while in the cab of a locomotive running between Lyons Falls and Glendale. +It was in the season of high water and the Black River was following its +usual springtime custom of overflowing the flats of the upper valley. The +railroad was fresh and green and young. The water undermined its +embankments and sent Crocker’s locomotive tumbling over upon its side; and +Crocker to his death. J. D. Schultz, who still is residing in Glendale and +who is one of the best-known of the pioneers of the old R. W. & O. in his +own arms carried young Crocker’s body out of the wreck. It was a most +pathetic incident. Yet it is a remarkable fact, and one well worth +recording here, that in its entire thirty-one years of operation not one +passenger was killed while riding upon the Utica & Black River.</p> + +<p>The unfortunate Crocker was succeeded by Addison Day, who we already have +seen upon the R. W. & O. as an early and distinguished Superintendent. A +little later Thomas W. Spencer, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> had been the Construction Engineer of +the road, replaced Day, and in 1872, J. Fred Maynard, son of Isaac Maynard +of Utica, assumed the operating management of the road, first with the +title of Superintendent and eventually as its Vice-President and General +Manager. He remained in that post through the remainder of the operating +existence of the road.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Steadily the Black River sought to improve its service. As it succeeded in +so doing it became more and more of a thorn in the side of the R. W. & O. +It touched that system at three points only—but they were important +points. It was a slightly longer route into Watertown from the New York +Central’s main stem, but considerably shorter to both Philadelphia—where +it crossed the R. W. & O. at a precise right-angle—and Ogdensburgh. At +the first of these two last towns it developed an irritating habit of +holding its trains until the Rome road train had come, in hopes of luring +Ogdensburgh passengers away from it and getting them in to their +destination at an earlier hour than they had hoped. Several times it was +suggested that the roads pool their interests and work in harmony. For one +reason or another this was accomplished but once—the R. W. & O. +management almost always opposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> such plans. It apparently preferred to +play the lone hand.</p> + +<p>The Utica & Black River had a very considerable tourist advantage in +reaching the St. Lawrence River at Clayton, in the very heart of the +Thousand Island district, instead of at Cape Vincent, which was rather +remote from the large hotel and cottage sections. It established its own +boat connections with the <i>John Thorn</i>, as the flagship of its fleet.</p> + +<p>John Thorn’s name and personality were again reflected in a fine +coal-burning, Schenectady-built locomotive, which also bore his name (the +U. & B. R. in those days had a decided penchant for the engines that the +Ellises were building at Schenectady). Its motive-power was almost always +in the pink of condition, brightly painted like its cars, which bore the +same shade of yellow upon their sides that had been borrowed from the Lake +Shore & Michigan Southern. Like the R. W. & O., the locomotives were all +named. In addition to the <i>John Thorn</i>, there were the <i>Isaac Maynard</i>, +the <i>DeWitt C. West</i> (named after a resident of Lowville, who was an early +president of the road), the <i>Theodore Faxton</i>, the <i>Fred S. Easton</i>, the +<i>Charles Millar</i>, the <i>John Butterfield</i>, the <i>J. F. Maynard</i>, the <i>Ludlow +Patton</i>, the <i>A. G. Brower</i>, the <i>Lewis Lawrence</i>, the <i>D. B. Goodwin</i>, +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> others too. The road at the end of the seventies had a fleet of about +twenty locomotives.</p> + +<p>There was one time, at least, when the upkeep of the motive power suffered +a real shock. I am referring to the noisy way in which the road entered +Watertown, by the explosion of the locomotive <i>Charles Millar</i>, No. 4, +near the Mill Street crossing there on May 9, 1872. It was one of the few +accidents, however, in the entire history of the Utica & Black River. +Augustus Unser, better known as “Gus” Unser, of Watertown was at that time +engineer of the <i>Millar</i>, which was one of the earliest wood-burners that +the road ever possessed—it did not begin the installation of coal grates +until 1874. Unser was standing in the cab at the moment of the explosion, +talking to Jacob H. Herman—better known as “Jake” Herman—who was at that +time conductor on the Rome road.</p> + +<p>Without the slightest warning came the explosion. There was a terrific +roar and a crash, followed by a rain of small engine parts over a goodly +portion of Watertown. Fortunately neither Unser nor Herman were seriously +injured. An investigation into the cause of the wreck, which tore the +<i>Millar</i> into an unrecognizable mass of metal, failed to develop the cause +of the accident. It was generally supposed, however, that the engine-crew +had permitted the water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> in the boiler to fall below the level of the +crown-sheet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Back of the highly developed and independent Utica & Black River of a +decade later there stood a pretty well developed human organization. John +Thorn was its President; the head and front of its aggressive and alert +policy. The full official roster was, in 1882:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">John Thorn</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Vice-Pres. and Gen’l Man’g’r</i>, <span class="smcap">J. F. Maynard</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">Isaac Maynard</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary</i>, <span class="smcap">W. E. Hopkins</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen’l Supt.</i>, <span class="smcap">E. A. Van Horne</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Asst. Supt.</i>, <span class="smcap">H. W. Hammond</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen. Pass. and Fgt. Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">Theo. Butterfield</span>, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Directors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Robt. L. Kennedy, New York</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>Edmund A. Graham, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>John Thorn, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Theodore S. Sayre, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>Abijah J. Williams, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Abram G. Brower, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>Isaac Maynard, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Russell Wheeler, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>Lewis Lawrence, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>J. F. Maynard, Utica</td></tr> +<tr><td>William J. Bacon, Utica</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Daniel B. Goodwin, Waterville</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Fred S. Easton, Lowville</td></tr></table> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The final thrust of the Utica & Black River into the sides of its older +competitor, whilst that competitor was still in the anguish of the Sloan +administration of its affairs, came in the ferry row up at Ogdensburgh. By +1880 the once-brisk lake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> trade of that port had fallen to low levels. The +fourteen-foot locks of the Welland Canal, between Lakes Ontario and Erie +had failed utterly to keep pace with the development of carriers upon the +upper Lakes. The steamers that still came to the elaborate piers of the +old Northern Railroad at Ogdensburgh—for many years now, the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain—were comparatively small and infrequent. Buffalo was a +more popular and a more accessible port. And yet the time had been when +the Northern Railroad had had a daily service between Chicago and +Ogdensburgh; some fifteen staunch steamers in its fleet.</p> + +<p>One most important form of water-borne traffic has always remained at +Ogdensburgh, however; the ferry route across the St. Lawrence to Prescott +upon the Canadian shore just opposite. Prescott is not only upon the old +main line of the Grand Trunk Railway but also has a direct railroad +connection with Ottawa by a branch of the Canadian Pacific (formerly the +Ottawa and St. Lawrence). The original boat upon this route was a small +three-car craft, the <i>Transit</i>, which was owned in Prescott. In the +mid-seventies this steamer was supplanted by the staunch steam car-ferry, +<i>William Armstrong</i>, whose whistle was reputed to be the loudest and the +most awful thing ever heard on inland waters anywhere. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> <i>Armstrong</i> +speedily became one of the fixtures of Ogdensburgh. Twice she sank, under +excessive loading, and twice she was again raised and replaced in service. +In 1919 she was sold to a firm of contractors at Trenton, Ont., and she is +still in use as a drill-boat in the vicinity of that village. The +important ferry at Ogdensburgh still continues, however, under the +direction of Edward Dillingham, for many years the Rome road’s agent in +that city.</p> + +<p>To compete with the service that the <i>Armstrong</i> rendered the R. W. & O. +at Ogdensburgh, the Utica & Black River along about 1880 put a car-float +and tug into a hastily contrived ferry between its station grounds at +Morristown, eleven miles up the river from Ogdensburgh and the small +Canadian city of Brockville just opposite. Into Brockville came the +Canadian Pacific, beginning to feel its oats and pushing its rails rapidly +westward each month. That was a better connection than the somewhat longer +one of the St. Lawrence & Ottawa, and gradually freight began deserting +the old ferry for this new one; with the result that within a year the +<i>Armstrong</i> was moved up the river to the Morristown-Brockville crossing, +and Ogdensburgh gnashed its teeth in its despair. It appealed to the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh for relief in the situation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>That road was in its most important change of management—the succession +of the Parsons’ administration to that of Samuel Sloan. Charles Parsons +had had his eye upon the Utica & Black River for some time. It was a +potential factor of danger within his territory. Suppose that the +Vanderbilts should come along and purchase it? That nearly happened twice +in the early eighties. There was strong New York Central sympathy and +interest in the U. & B. R. It showed itself in an increase of traffic +agreements and coöperative working arrangements. The Rome road tried to +offset this strengthening alliance of the Utica & Black River by making +closer working agreements with the New York, Ontario & Western, which it +touched at Rome, at Central Square and at Oswego. But the O. & W. with its +wobbly line down over the hills to New York was a far different +proposition than the straight main line and the easy grades of the New +York Central. It is possible that had the West Shore, which was completed +through from New York to Buffalo in the summer of 1883, been successful, +it might eventually have succeeded in absorbing the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh; in which case the New York Central certainly would have taken +the Utica & Black River, and the competitive system of railroading been +assured to the North Country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> for many years to come. But that possibility +was a slight one. The disastrous collapse of the West Shore soon ended it.</p> + +<p>Yet the Utica road was a constant menace to Charles Parsons. No one knew +it better than he. And because he knew, he reached out and absorbed it; +within three years of the day that he had first acquired the R. W. & O. He +not only guaranteed the $2,100,000 of outstanding U. & B. R. bonds and +seven per cent annually upon a $2,100,000 capitalization, but, in order to +make assurance doubly sure, he purchased a majority interest of $1,200,000 +of Utica & Black River shares and turned them into the steadily +strengthening treasury of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Utica +road formally passed into the hands of the Rome road on April 15, 1886. +The mere announcement of the transfer was a stunning blow to the North +Country.</p> + +<p>Now Parsons had a real railroad indeed; more than six hundred miles of +line—the Utica road had brought him 180 miles of main line track. Now he +had over eighty locomotives and an adequate supply of other rolling stock. +From the U. & B. R. he received twenty-four locomotives, of a size and +type excellent for that day, twenty-six passenger-cars, fourteen +baggage-cars and 361 freight cars. But, best of all, he was now kingpin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +in Northern New York. There was none to dispute his authority, unless you +were to regard the tottering Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain as a real +competitor. He was king in a real kingdom. The only prospect that even +threatened his monopoly was that the Vanderbilts might sometime take it +into their heads to build North into the valleys of the Black River and +the St. Lawrence. But that was not likely—not for the moment at any rate. +They were too occupied just then in counting the costs of the terrific, +even though successful, battle in which they had smashed the West Shore +into pulp, to be ready for immediate further adventures. If they should +come to war seven or eight years later, Parsons would be ready for them. +In the meantime he set out to reorganize and perfect his merged property. +He wanted once again to make the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh the best +run railroad in the state of New York. And in this he all but completely +succeeded.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<p class="title">THE BRISK PARSONS’ REGIME</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">With</span> the Black River thoroughly merged into his Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh, Parsons began the extremely difficult job of the merging of +the personnel of the two lines. Britton, quite naturally, was not to be +disturbed. On the contrary, his authority was to be very greatly +increased. The U. & B. R. operating forces gave way to his domination. On +the other hand, Theodore Butterfield, who was recognized as a traffic man +of unusual astuteness and experience, was brought from Utica to Oswego and +made General Passenger Agent of the combined property. The shops were +merged. Most of the sixty-five workers of the Utica shop were also moved +to Oswego; it was retained only for the very lightest sort of repairs.</p> + +<p>As soon as the arrangements could be made, the U. & B. R. passenger trains +were brought into the R. W. & O. stations at both Watertown and +Ogdensburgh; while the time-tables of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>combined road were readjusted +so as to make Philadelphia, where the two former competing, main lines +crossed one another at right angles, a general point of traffic +interchange, similar to Richland. Cape Vincent lost, almost in a single +hour, the large railroad prestige that it had held for thirty-three long +years. To bind it more closely with the Thousand Island resorts, the +swift, new steamer, <i>St. Lawrence</i>, had been built at Clayton in the +summer of 1883, and at once crowned Queen of the River. Now the <i>St. +Lawrence</i> was used in the Clayton-Alexandria Bay service exclusively. For +a number of years service was maintained intermittently between the Cape +and Alexandria Bay by a small steamer—generally the <i>J. F. Maynard</i>—but +after a time even this was abandoned. Until the coming of the motor-car +and improved state highways, Cape Vincent was all but marooned from the +busier portions of the river.</p> + +<p>Clayton gradually was developed into a river gateway of importance. The +Golden Age of the Thousand Islands, during the season of huge summer +traffic—which lasted for nearly two decades—did not really begin until +about 1890. Yet by the mid-eighties it was beginning to blossom forth. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of that decade knew the value of +advertising. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> adopted the four-leaved clover as its emblem—the long +stem served very well to carry the attenuated line that ran West from +Oswego to Rochester and to Niagara Falls—and made it a famous trade-mark +over the entire face of the land. It was emblazoned upon the sides of all +its freight-cars. Theodore E. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent, +devised this interesting emblem for it. It was he who also chose the +French word, <i>bonheur</i>, for the clover stem. It was, as subsequent events +proved, a most fortuitous choice.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Charles Parsons, having merged the two important railroads of Northern New +York, was now engaged in rounding out his system as a complete and +well-contained unit. For more than a decade the Lake Ontario Shore +extension of the R. W. & O. had passed close to the city of Rochester +through the then village of Charlotte (now a ward of an enlarged +Rochester), and had touched that city only through indifferent connections +from Charlotte. Parsons, at Britton’s suggestion, decided that the road +must have a direct entrance into Rochester; which already was beginning +its abounding and wonderful growth. The two men found their opportunity in +a small and sickly suburban railroad which ran down the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> east bank of the +Genesee from the northern limits of the city and over which there ran from +time to time a small train, propelled by an extremely small locomotive. +They easily acquired that road and gradually pushed it well into the heart +of the city; to a passenger and freight terminal in State Street, not far +from the famed Four Corners. To reach this terminal—upon the West Side of +the town—it was necessary to build a very high and tenuous bridge over +the deep gorge of the Genesee. This took nearly a year to construct. +Injunction proceedings had been brought against the construction of the R. +W. & O. into the heart of the city of Rochester. Yet, under the laws of +that time, these were ineffective upon the Sabbath day. Parsons took +advantage of this technical defect in the statutes, and on a Sabbath day +he successfully brought his railroad into its largest city.</p> + +<p>In the meantime a fine, old-fashioned, brick residence in State Street had +been acquired for a Rochester passenger terminal. To make this building +serve as a passenger-station, and be in proper relation to the tracks, it +was necessary to change its position upon the tract of land that it +occupied. This was successfully done, and, I believe, was the record feat +at that time for the moving of a large, brick building. The bridge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> was +completed and the station opened for the regular use of passenger trains +in the fall of 1887.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>At the same time that the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was slipping so +stealthily into Rochester, it was building two other extensions; neither +of them of great length, but each of them of a considerable importance. +Away back in 1872 it had leased the Syracuse, Phoenix & New York—a +proposed competing line against the Lackawanna between Oswego and +Syracuse, which had been organized two or three years before—but the +project had been permitted to lie dormant. First it lacked the necessary +funds and then Samuel Sloan, quite naturally, could have no enthusiasm +over it. Parsons had no compunctions of that sort. The more he could dig +into Sloan the better he seemed to like it. Moreover the Syracuse, Phoenix +& New York involved very little actual track construction; only some +seventeen miles of track from Woodward’s to Fulton, which was very little +for a thirty-seven mile line. From Woodward’s into Syracuse it would use +the R. W. & O.’s own rails, put in long before, as the Syracuse Northern, +whilst from Fulton into Oswego the Ontario & Western was most glad to sell +trackage rights.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>The seventeen-mile link was easily laid down; a sort of local summer +resort was created at Three River Point upon it, and five passenger trains +a day, in each direction, began service over it, between Syracuse and +Oswego in the early spring of 1886. In that same summer another extension +was also being builded; at the extreme northeastern corner of the +property. The Grand Trunk Railway had built a line with very direct and +short-distance Montreal connections, down across the international +boundary to Massena Springs, in St. Lawrence County—then a spa of +considerable repute, but destined to become a few years later, with the +development of the St. Lawrence water-power, an industrial community of +great standing in the North Country, second only to Watertown in size and +importance. To reach this new line, the R. W. & O. put down thirteen miles +of track from its long established terminus at Norwood, and moved that +terminal to Massena Springs. The right-of-way for the line was entirely +donated by the adjoining property-holders. For a time it was thought that +an important through route would be created through this new gateway, +which was opened in March, 1886, but somehow the traffic failed to +materialize. And to this day a rail journey from Watertown to Montreal +remains a portentous and a fearful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> thing. Yet the two cities are only +about 175 miles apart.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Parsons was, in heart and essence, a master of the strategy of railroad +traffic, as well as of railroad construction. Whilst he was making the +important link between Norwood and the Grand Trunk terminus at Massena +Springs, but thirteen miles distant, he was coquetting with the Central +Vermont—in one of its repeated stages of reorganization—for the better +development of its lines in connection with the Boston & Maine and the +Maine Central through to the Atlantic at Portland. In all of this he was +assisted by his two most capable assistants, E. M. Moore, General Freight +Agent, and Mr. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent. Mr. Butterfield +we have already seen. He took very good care of the travel necessities of +the property. Mr. Moore had been with it for many years. He, too, was a +seasoned traffic man. More than this he was a maker of traffic men; from +his office came at least two experts in this specialty of railroad +salesmanship—H. D. Carter, who rose eventually to be Freight Traffic +Manager of the New York Central Lines, and Frank L. Wilson, who is to-day +their Division Freight and Passenger Agent at Watertown. Mr. Wilson bears +the distinction of being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the only officer on the property in the North +Country who also was an officer of the old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +He started his service in Watertown as a messenger-boy for the Dominion +Telegraph Company when its office was located in the old Hanford store at +the entrance of the Paddock Arcade. Later he began his railroad service +with the R. W. & O. as operator at Limerick Station. From that time +forward his rise was steady and constant.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have digressed once again. We left Parsons strengthening a through line +from Suspension Bridge to Portland, Maine, through Northern New York and +across the White Mountains. As an earnest of his interest in this route he +established, almost as soon as he had acquired control of the Rome road, +the once-famous White Mountain Express. In an earlier chapter we have seen +how the local Watertown management of the road had, some years before, set +up a through sleeping-car service in the summers between Watertown and +Fabyan’s; using its fine old cars, the <i>Ontario</i> and the <i>St. Lawrence</i> +for this service.</p> + +<p>The White Mountain Express of the Parsons’ régime was a far different +thing from a mere sleeping-car service. It was a genuine <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>through-train, +with Wagner sleeping-cars all the way from Chicago to Portland. It passed +over the rails of the R. W. & O. almost entirely by night; and because of +the high speed set for it over so many miles of congested single-track, +the older engineers refused to run it. The younger men took the gambling +chance with it. And while they expected to run off the miserable track +that Samuel Sloan had left for Parsons, and which could not be rebuilded +in a day or a week or a month or a year, they managed fairly well, +although there were one or two times when the accidents to this train were +serious affairs indeed.</p> + +<p>There comes to my mind even now the dim memories of that nasty wreck at +the very beginning of the Parsons’ overlordship, when the east-bound White +Mountain, traveling at fifty miles an hour, came a terrible cropper at +Carlyon (now known as Ashwood), thirty miles west of Charlotte. It was on +the evening of the 27th of July, 1883, barely six weeks after Parsons and +Britton had taken the management of the road into their hands. The White +Mountain, in charge of Conductor E. Garrison, had left Niagara Falls, very +heavily laden, and twenty minutes late, at 7:30 p. m., hauled by two of +the road’s best locomotives. It consisted of a baggage-car, a day-coach<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +and nine sleepers; six of these Wagners, and the other three the company’s +own cars, the <i>Ontario</i>, the <i>St. Lawrence</i> and the <i>DeKalb</i>.</p> + +<p>A fearful wind blowing off the lake had dislodged a recreant box-car from +the facing-point siding there at Carlyon and had sent it trundling down +toward the oncoming express. In the driving rain the train thrust its nose +right into the clumsy thing. Derailment followed. The leading engine, upon +which Train Despatcher and Assistant Superintendent W. H. Chauncey was +riding, was thrown into the ditch at one side of the track, and the +trailing engine into the ditch at the other. Its engineer and fireman were +killed instantly. The wreckage piled high. It caught fire and it was with +extreme difficulty that the flames were extinguished. In that memorable +calamity seventeen lives were lost and forty persons seriously injured. +Yet out of it came a definite blessing. Up to that time the air-brake had +never been used upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Carlyon +accident forced its adoption.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have no mind to linger on the details of disasters such as this; or of +the one at Forest Lawn a little later when a suburban passenger-train +bound into Rochester was in a fearful rear-end collision with the delayed +west-bound White<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> Mountain and more lives were sacrificed. The Rome road, +as a rule, had a fairly clean record on wrecks, on disastrous ones at any +rate. There was in 1887 a wretched rear-end collision just opposite the +passenger depot at Canton, which cost two or three lives and made +Conductor Omar A. Hine decide that he had had quite enough of active +railroading. And shortly before this there had been a more fortunate, yet +decidedly embarrassing affair down on the old Black River near Glenfield; +the breaking of a side-rod upon a locomotive which killed the engineer and +seriously delayed a distinguished passenger on his way to the Thousand +Islands—Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States, was taking +his bride for a little outing upon the shores of the St. Lawrence River. A +few years later Theodore Roosevelt, in the same post, was to ride up over +that nice picturesque stretch of line. Yet was to see far less of it than +his predecessor had seen. At Utica he had accepted with avidity the +Superintendent’s invitation to ride in the engine-cab of his special. He +swung himself quickly up into it. Then reached into his pocket, produced a +small leather-bound book and had a bully time—reading all the way to +Watertown.</p> + +<p>One more wreck invites our attention, and then we are done with this +forever grewsome side of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> railroading: This last a spectacular affair, if +you please, more so even than that dire business back to Carlyon. The +Barnum & Bailey circus was a pretty regular annual visitor to Northern New +York in those days. It began coming in 1873 and for more than a quarter of +a century thereafter it hardly missed a season—generally playing Oswego +(where once the tent blew down, during the afternoon performance, and +there was a genuine panic), Watertown and Ogdensburgh. In this particular +summer week, the show had gone from Watertown to Gouverneur, where it +violated its tradition and abandoned the evening performance in order that +it might promptly entrain for the long haul to Montreal where it was due +to play upon the morrow.</p> + +<p>Going down the steep grade at Clark’s Crossing, two miles east of Potsdam, +the axle of one of the elephant cars, in one of the sections, broke and +the train piled up behind it—a fearful and a curious mass of wreckage. +Fortunately the sacrifice of human life was not a feature of this +accident. But the loss of animal life was very heavy. Valuable riding +horses, trained beasts and many rare and curious animals were killed. Into +the annals of Northern New York it all went as a wonderful night. In the +glare of great bonfires men and women from many climes and in curious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +garb stalked solemnly around and whispered alarmedly in tongues strange +indeed to Potsdam and its vicinage. Giraffes and elephants and sacred cows +found refuge in Mr. Clark’s barn. Outside long trenches were dug for the +burial of the wreck victims. John O’Sullivan, for forty years station +agent at Potsdam, and now resting honorably from his labors, says that it +was the worst day that he ever put in.</p> + +<p>It was at this wreck that Ben Batchelder, whose name brings many memories +to every old R. W. & O. man, finding that his wrecking equipment was +entirely inadequate for clearing the miniature mountain range of débris +that ran along the track, put the Barnum & Bailey elephants at work +clearing it. Under the charge of their keepers these alien animals pulled +on huge chains and long ropes and slowly cleared the iron. Yet it was not +until late in the afternoon of the following day that the track was fully +restored and usable. By that time the children of Montreal had been robbed +of that which was their right. And Charles Parsons, in New York, was +remarking to his son, that perhaps, a fleet of well-trained elephants +would make a good addition to a wrecking crew.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Once again I have digressed. Yet offer no apologies. Parsons did not let +the wrecks of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> White Mountain discourage him in the operation of the +train. On the contrary, he ordered Mr. Britton to proceed with haste to +the complete installation of the air-brake—then still a considerable +novelty—upon every corner of the road. He steadily bettered the bridges +and the track, tore out the old, stub-switches and substituted for them +the newest, split-switches, with signal lights. The White Mountain +remained; all through his day, and many a day thereafter—even though in +the years after Mr. Britton and he were gone from the road, it was to be +operated between Buffalo and Syracuse over the main line of the New York +Central. And, inasmuch as he was steadily increasing his affiliations with +the Ontario & Western, he installed in connection with it and the Wabash, +a through train from Chicago to Weehawken (opposite New York); going over +the rails of the R. W. & O. from Suspension Bridge to Oswego. This train, +running the year round, and also put at a pretty swift schedule, had +little reputation for adhering to it. Upon one occasion a commercial +traveler bound to Charlotte approaching the old station at “the Bridge” to +find out how late “the O. & W.” was reported, was astounded when the agent +replied “on time.” Such a thing had not been known before that winter, or +for many winters. And the fact that for a week past it had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> stormed almost +continuously, only compounded the drummer’s perplexity.</p> + +<p>“How is it—on time?” he stammered.</p> + +<p>“This is yesterday’s train,” was the prompt response. “She’s just +twenty-four hours late.”</p> + +<p>Eventually and in the close campaign for railroad economy that came across +the land a few years ago, this train, too, was sacrificed. For a time the +experiment was tried of sending its through sleeping-car over the main +line of the Central from Suspension Bridge to Syracuse on a through train; +passing it on from the latter town to the Ontario & Western by way of the +old Chenango Valley branch of the West Shore. The experiment lingered for +a time and then expired. It is not likely that it will ever be renewed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>By 1888 Parsons had begun to develop a very real railroad, indeed. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh once again was a power in the land. It had +ninety-one locomotives, ninety-one passenger-cars, forty-eight baggage, +mail and express cars, and 2302 freight-cars, of one type or another. +Parsons, as its President, was assisted by two Vice-Presidents, Clarence +S. Day, and his son, Charles Parsons, Jr. Mr. Lawyer still remained +Secretary and Treasurer of the road, even though his offices had been +moved two years before from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> Watertown to New York City. At Watertown, the +veteran local agent, R. R. Smiley, remained in charge of affairs, with the +title of Assistant Secretary of the company. And Mr. Britton was, of +course, still its General Manager, at Oswego.</p> + +<p>He was really a tremendous man, Hiram M. Britton, in appearance, a big +upstanding citizen, red of beard and clear of eye. I have not, as yet, +given anything like the proper amount of consideration to his dominating +personality. He made a position for himself in North Country railroading +that would fairly entitle him to a whole chapter in a book such as this.</p> + +<p>Mr. Britton was born in Concord, Mass., November 22, 1831. At that time +that little town was almost at the height of its high fame as a literary +center. As a boy he claimed Ralph Waldo Emerson as a friend. The influence +that Emerson had upon Britton remained with him all the years of his life.</p> + +<p>At seventeen, owing to financial reverses that his father had sustained, +young Britton was compelled to leave school and go to work. He found a job +on the old Fitchburg as fireman; from that he quickly rose to be engineer +and then Master Mechanic. He made his way down into New Jersey and became +Superintendent of the New Jersey and North Eastern Railway; after that +General <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>Manager of the New Jersey Midland, the portion of the old +Oswego Midland to-day embraced by a considerable part of the New York, +Susquehanna & Western.... From that last post, in the summer of 1883 to +the management of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. That position he +retained until 1890, when increasing ill-health forced him to relinquish +it and travel throughout Europe in a vain effort to regain his strength. +The presidencies, both of the Rome road and of one of the Pennsylvania +System lines were offered him. He was compelled to refuse both. His +strength gradually failed, and in 1893 he died.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">HIRAM M. BRITTON<br />The First General Manager of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh and a Railroad Genius.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The old R. W. & O. was compelled in its day and generation to assume some +pretty hard, human handicaps. But Britton was a mighty asset to it. He +loved his work. It was a real and an eternal delight to him to achieve the +things that he had set out to do. He was always approachable, obliging and +ready to meet all reasonable requests that came within his power; he had +the faculty of making friends of those who came in contact with him, and +of retaining their friendship. A man’s man was Hiram M. Britton, a +railroad captain of great alertness, and possessed not only of vast +enthusiasm, but also of a wondrous ability for hard work. The hard +problems of his job never feazed him. Even the winter snows—forever its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span><i>bete noire</i>—did not discourage him, not for long, at any rate. He came, +as came so many men from outside the borders of the North Country, with +something like a contempt for its midwinter storms. Before Britton had +been long on the job, however, the line from Potsdam to Watertown was +completely blocked for four long days, and he learned that it was all in a +day’s work when the ticking wires reported two engines and a plow derailed +at Pulaski, two more off at Kasoag, and not a train in or out of Watertown +for more than thirty hours. At all of which he would relight his pipe and +send a few telegrams of real encouragement up and down the line. That is, +he sent the telegrams when the wires remained up above the tops of the +snow-drifts and the men were using them to hang their coats upon as they +shoveled the heavy snow. Ofttimes the wires went down, and once in a while +they were deliberately cut—by some harassed and nerve-racked, +snow-fighting boss.</p> + +<p>That was before the days of the famous Dewey episode at Manila, but the +emergency at the moment must have seemed quite as great. At any rate the +Gordian knot, translated into a thin thread of copper wire, was cut—not +once, but frequently. I myself, in later years, have seen a Superintendent +go into our lower yard at Watertown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> late at night when congestion piled +upon congestion, when the zero wind whistled up through the flats from +down Sackett’s Harbor way, and the evening train up the line nestled +somewhere near Massey Street crossing in a hopelessly inert and frozen +fashion, and clean up the mess there. Once one of these inbound trains +from down the line coming down the long grade into the yard crashed into a +snowbound freight there, and split the caboose asunder, as clean a job as +if it had been done with a sharp ax. There were six men asleep in the +caboose—to say nothing of two in the cab of the oncoming train, and yet +no lives were lost. Even though the Watertown Fire Department spent most +of the rest of the night putting out the fearful blaze that arose from the +wreckage. Corn meal was spread bountifully about atop of the snow, and no +one on the flats lacked for pudding the rest of that winter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Once, in the Britton régime, there had been nearly a week when Watertown +was entirely cut off from Richland and the towns to the South of it. A +show-troupe, marooned at that junction for seven fearful days, had rigged +up a theater in the old depot and there had played <i>Ten Nights in a +Barroom</i>, in order to pay its hotel bill. At least so runs the tradition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>The Rome road felt that it owed some obligation to its old, chief town and +all the while it kept steadily at its all but hopeless task, although +every night the fresh wind blowing down from Canada and across the icy +surface of Ontario filled the long miles of railroad cuts and completely +erased the sight of the rails. Parsons had bought plows for the road such +as it had never seen before—huge Russells and giant rotaries that would +cut the snow as with a giant gimlet, and then send it shooting a quarter +of a mile off over the country, so that it would not blow back at once +into the cuttings. There is a good deal of real technique in this +practical science of fighting snow—and a deal of variance as to the +proper technique. For instance, in the Rome road they used to place its +old-fashioned “wing-plows” ahead of its pushing locomotives, while the +Black River line invariably had its plows follow the engine. It claimed +for itself the proof of the pudding, in the fact that whereas in blizzard +weather the Rome road almost invariably was blocked, the Black River line +rarely was. It is but fair to add, however, that the original construction +of the R. W. & O. north of Richland was very bad for snow-fighting; there +were many miles of shallow cuttings into which the prevailing winds off +Lake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> Ontario could easily pack the soft wet snow. In after years and +under New York Central management this primary defect was corrected. And +the large expense of the track elevation was quite offset by the great +economies in snow-fighting costs that immediately ensued.</p> + +<p>Yet try as H. M. Britton might and did try he seemed fated there in the +eighties to buck against the worst storms that the North Country had known +in more than half a century. That same storm that tied up his main line +roundabout Richland—always a snow trouble center—completely paralyzed +the Cape Vincent branch. It came as the grand finale to a sequence of +particularly severe snowfalls and hard blows. The deficit upon the Cape +Vincent branch that winter—I think it was the spring of 1887—rose to an +appalling figure. Finally the R. W. & O. gave up the Cape branch as a +hopeless proposition and hired a liveryman to carry the mails between +Watertown and Cape Vincent, in order that it might not violate its +contract with the Postoffice Department.</p> + +<p>After the branch had been abandoned a full fortnight, a delegation of +citizens from the Cape drove to Watertown and there confronted Britton, +who had made an appointment to meet them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> They made their little speeches +and they were pretty hot little speeches—hot enough to have melted away +more than one good-sized drift.</p> + +<p>“When are you going to cart that snow off our line?” finally demanded the +spokesman of the Cape Vincent folk.</p> + +<p>Britton looked at the delegation coolly, and lighted a fresh cigar.</p> + +<p>“I am going to let the man that put it there,” he said slowly, “take it +away.”</p> + +<p>And he did. It was thirty-two days before a railroad engine entered Cape +Vincent from the time that the last one had left it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The days of that final decade of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh were, +most of them, however, good days indeed. Fondly do the men of that era, +getting, alas, fewer each year, speak of the time when the Rome road had +its corporate identity and, what meant far more to them, a corporate +personality. For the R. W. & O. did have in those last days those elusive +qualities, that even the so-called inanimate corporation can sometimes +have—a heart and a soul. Yet, in every case, attributes such as these +must come from above, from the men in real charge of a property. The +courtesy of the ticket-agent, the friendliness of the conductor are the +reflection of the courtesy and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> the friendliness of the men above him. It +is enough to say that H. M. Britton was at all times both courteous and +friendly. He was a tremendous inspiration to the men with, and below him.</p> + +<p>In the doleful days of the Sloan administration the R. W. & O. began to +deteriorate in its morale, with a tremendous rapidity. In the days after +the coming of Parsons and of Britton it began slowly, but very surely, to +regain this quality so precious and so essential to the successful +operation of any railroad. The property began to pick up amazingly. At +first it was, indeed, a heartbreaking task. As we have seen, at the end of +the Sloan régime little but a shell remained of a once proud and +prosperous railroad. The road needed ties and rails, bridges, shops, +power, rolling-stock—everything. More than these even it needed the +future confidence of its employes. It needed men with ideas and men with +vision. From its new owners gradually came all of these things.</p> + +<p>Yet, before the things material, came the things spiritual, if you will +let me put it that way. Britton gained the confidence of his men. He +played the game and he played it fairly. And no one knows better when it’s +being played fairly by the big bosses at headquarters, than does your +keen-witted railroader of the rank and file. Perhaps, the best testimony +to the bigness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> H. M. Britton came not long ago, from one of the men +who had worked under him—a veteran engineer, to-day retired and living at +his home in St. Lawrence County.</p> + +<p>“We didn’t get much money, I’ll grant you,” says this man, “but somehow we +didn’t seem to need much. And yet, I don’t know but what we had as much to +live on as we do now. But that didn’t make any difference. We were +interested in the road and we were all helping to put it in the position +that we felt it ought to be in. In those earliest days, you know, our +engines used to have a lot of brasswork. We used to spend hours over them, +keeping them in shape, polishing them and scrubbing them. And when we had +no polishing or scrubbing to do, we’d go down to the yard and just sit in +them. They belonged to us. The company may have paid for them, but we +owned them.”</p> + +<p>So was it. “Charley” Vogel running the local freight from Watertown to +Norwood, down one day and back the next, in “opposition” to “Than” +Peterson used to boast that he could eat his lunch from the running-board +of his cleanly engine; which had started her career years before as the +<i>Moses Taylor</i>, No. 35. Ed. Geer, his fireman, was as hard a worker as the +skipper. This frame of mind was characteristic of all ranks and of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +classes. Indeed, the company may have paid for the road, but the men did +own it. And they owned it in a sense that cannot easily be understood +to-day—in the confusion of national agreements and decisions by the Labor +Board out at Chicago and a vast and pathetic multiplicity of red-tape +between the railroad worker and his boss.</p> + +<p>Take Ben Batchelder: We saw him a moment ago with John O’Sullivan working +a thirty-six hour day to clean up a circus wreck just outside of Potsdam. +That was Ben Batchelder’s way always. Incidentally, it was just one of his +days. One time, in midwinter, during a fortnight of constant and heavy +snow, when Ben had become Master Mechanic at Watertown, the Despatcher +called him on the ’phone and asked for a locomotive to operate a +snow-plow. Ben replied that all the locomotives were frozen and that it +would be slow work thawing them out, and making them ready for service.</p> + +<p>“Then why don’t you take them into the house and thaw them out?” shouted +the Despatcher.</p> + +<p>“There’s no roof on the house, and I’m too busy to-day to put one on,” was +the quick retort.</p> + +<p>Faith and loyalty—we did not call it morale in those days, but it was, +just the same. Here was Conductor William Schram with a brisk little job, +handling the way freight on the old Cape branch:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> He had just spent three +days bringing a big Russell plow through from the Cape to Watertown. On +getting into Watertown it was needed to open up the road between that city +and Philadelphia. Schram had been on duty three days without rest. Another +conductor was called to relieve him. William Schram protested. He said +that he did not feel that he could desert the road when it was in a fix.</p> + +<p>Three other conductors, well famed in the days of the Parsons’ régime of +the Rome road, were Andrew Dixon, Tom Cooper and Daniel Eggleston—and a +fourth was the well-known Jacob Herman, of Watertown. Jake was a warm +personal friend of both Parsons and Britton. Finally, it came to a point +where the President would have no other man in charge of his train when he +made his inspection trips over the property, and he advanced and protected +him in every conceivable way. He insisted even upon Jake accompanying him +back and forth from New York on the occasion of his frequent visits into +the North Country.</p> + +<p>In an earlier chapter I referred to the easy traditions of the long-agos +in regard to the passenger receipts from the average American railroad. +The R. W. & O. had been no exception to this general rule. Along about +1888 or 1889 Parsons <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>decided that he would make it an exception +henceforth. He violated the old traditions and sent “spotters” out upon +the passenger trains. As a direct result of their observations some +thirteen or fourteen of the oldest men on the line were dropped from its +service. Not only this, but several months’ pay was withheld from the +envelopes of each of them as they were discharged. Just prior to this +volcano-like eruption on the part of “the old man” Parsons sent Herman up +to Watertown as station master—a position which he has continued to hold +until comparatively recent months.</p> + +<p>The “stove committees” “joshed” Jake pretty well over his boss’s strategy, +knowing full well all the while, that if there was one honest conductor on +the whole line, it was that selfsame Jacob Herman. Not only honest, but +courageous. It was in a slightly earlier era that the road had a good deal +of trouble on the Rome branch with what they called “bark +peelers”—woodsmen, who would come down out of the forest and in their +boisterous fashion make a deal of trouble for the train-crew.</p> + +<p>Jake Herman was told off to end that nuisance. It was a regular +honest-to-goodness-carry-the-message-to-Garcia sort of a job. Well, Jake +got the message through to Garcia. He picked out six<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> brakemen as +assistant messengers, any one of whom would have made a real Cornell +center-rush. They were the “flower of the flock.”</p> + +<p>At Richland the gang boarded the evening train down from Watertown. +Somewhere between that station and Kasoag they detrained—as a military +man might put it. But not in a military fashion. Along the right-of-way +Captain Jake and his lieutenants distributed “bark-peelers,” with a fair +degree of regularity of interval. Up to that time it had been no sinecure, +being a conductor or a trainman on the old Rome road. After that it became +as easy as running an infant class in a Sunday School.</p> + +<p>John D. Tapley was another well known conductor of those days, and so was +W. S. Hammond, who afterwards became division superintendent at Carthage. +These men were U. & B. R. graduates, and it was but logical that when +Hammond came to his promotion reward, it should be upon the corner of the +property on which he had been schooled and with which he was most +familiar. He was a man of tremendous popularity among his men.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Sometimes these men of the rank and file had their reward. More often they +did not. John O’Sullivan’s came when in 1890, after a few years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> of +unsuccessful experimentation, General Passenger Agent Butterfield handed +him the annual Northern New York Sunday excursion to Ontario Beach (in the +outskirts of Rochester) and asked him what he could do with it. O’Sullivan +replied that he could make it go. He had watched the success of the road’s +annual long-distance excursions; to Washington in the spring and to New +York in October—this last for a fixed fare of six dollars, for a six or +seven hundred mile journey. The excursions ran coaches, parlor-cars, +dining-cars and sleeping-cars, and did a land-office business. Northern +New York had acquired a taste for railroad travel. O’Sullivan knew this.</p> + +<p>“I’ll take you on,” said he to Mr. Butterfield.</p> + +<p>And so he did. For seventeen successive years thereafter he handled the +annual Ontario Beach excursion from Potsdam and all its adjoining +stations—all the way from Norwood to Watertown—on a one-day trip over +some four hundred miles of single-track railroad. The excursion had a vast +business—invariably running in several sections, each drawn by two +locomotives, and having from fifteen to sixteen cars each. It carried +passengers for $2.50 for the round trip. Few Northern New York folk along +the road went to bed until it returned, which was always well into the wee +small hours of Monday morning. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> yet, it was withal, a reasonably +orderly crowd. O’Sullivan kept it so. On the handbills which announced it +each year appeared these conspicuous words:</p> + +<p>“Behave yourself. If you can’t behave yourself, don’t go.”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Yet a practical reward such as this could in truth be handed to but a very +few of the road’s workers indeed. Yet it continued until the end to +command their loyalty. Not even the cruel handling of the property by the +predecessors of Parsons could dampen that loyalty. To even attempt to make +a list of the hard-working and energetic workers of that day and +generation of the eighties would mean a catalogue far larger than this +little book. There comes to mind a brilliant list—names some of them +to-day still with us, and some of them but affectionate traditions: George +Snell, who began by running the <i>Doxtater</i>; Patsy Tobin, who had the old +<i>Gardner Colby</i> on the day that she exploded on Harrison Hill, just +outside of Canton; Ed. McNiff; William Bavis; Butler (who had started his +career toward an engine-cab as blacksmith at DeKalb Junction, trimming for +relaying the old iron rails that the section-gangs brought to him); and +Superintendent W. S. (Billy) Jones.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>Jones was a much-loved officer of the old R. W. & O. He started his +railroad career at Sandy Creek, as an operator, receiving his messages +with one of the old-fashioned printing-telegraphs. One day Richard Holden, +of Watertown, dropped into the Sandy Creek depot and suggested to Jones +that he throw the old contraption out of the window—it was forever +getting out of order. Jones demurred for a time; then accepted the +suggestion. And in a few weeks was one of the best operators on the line, +which led presently to his appointment as agent at Ogdensburgh, where he +remained until the days of the Parsons’ control.</p> + +<p>Both Britton and Parsons were constantly on the alert to discover the best +available material on their property and Jones was appointed in the +mid-eighties to be superintendent of the line east of Watertown, with +headquarters at DeKalb. Later he was moved to Watertown and there became +one of the fixtures of the town.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I cannot close this chapter of the second golden age of the Rome road +without a passing reference to George H. Haselton, who died but a year or +two ago. Mr. Haselton was the successor of Griggs of Jackson and of Close, +becoming Master Mechanic of the road in 1878, or at about the time its +shops were moved from Rome to Oswego. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> builded in the latter city the +engines that were the precursors of the mighty power of to-day. He used +great facility in building and rebuilding the early locomotives of the R. +W. & O.—in keeping them in service, seemingly forever and a day. In the +North Country a locomotive goes in for long service and, in its difficult +climate, hard service, too. There still is, or was until very recently at +least, a locomotive in service at the plant of the Hannawa Pulp Company at +Potsdam, which although ordered by the Union Pacific Railroad from the +Taunton Locomotive Works was delivered to the Central Vermont in May, +1869. First named the <i>St. Albans</i> and then the <i>Shelbourne</i>, she was +inherited by the Rutland Railroad and then, after many rebuildings turned +over by its Ogdensburgh branch (the former Northern Railroad) to the +Norwood & St. Lawrence Railroad. Fifty years of service through a stern +northland seemed to work little damage to this staunch old settler. She +was typical of her kind—old-fashioned built, and with old-fashioned +standards of the service to be rendered.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> +<p class="title">IN WHICH RAILROADS MULTIPLY</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> all but defunct Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, of 1880, was not a +property to attract any considerable amount of attention from the +financiers and big railroaders, who had located themselves in the city of +New York. A local and feeding line of but some four hundred miles of +trackage—and most of that in an utterly wretched and deplorable +condition—it commanded neither the attention nor the respect of the +metropolis. The Vanderbilts in their comfortable offices in the still-new +Grand Central Depot, snapped their fingers contemptuously at it. They +would have but little of it. They did not need it. It fed their prosperous +main line anyway. As we have already seen, William H. Vanderbilt had at +one time acquired a considerable interest in the Utica & Black River +Railroad. Twice he had actually moved toward securing control of that snug +little property. It seemed to be a far more logical feeder to the New York +Central than the Rome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> road might ever become. Yet, eventually Mr. +Vanderbilt sold his Black River stock.</p> + +<p>“I am not going to dissipate my energies in sundries,” he then told one of +his cronies. “I am going to stick by the main line hereafter.”</p> + +<p>As I have already intimated if he had succeeded in acquiring the Utica & +Black River, there at the beginning of the eighties the entire railroad +history of the North Country might have been changed, down to this very +day. It was in that uncertain hour that the elaborate but ill-fated West +Shore was being builded through from New York to Buffalo—a route ten +miles shorter than the main line of the New York Central. The West Shore +needed feeders, very greatly needed them, and it was having a hard time +getting them. Remember too, if you will, that if the Utica & Black River +had become the sole Northern New York feeding line of the New York +Central, it is entirely probable and consistent that the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh would have been an extremely valuable and essential factor of +the West Shore. The greater part of the state of New York would then have +been placed upon a competitive railroad basis. Instead of being, as it is +to-day, largely upon the monopolistic basis.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of 1890<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> was an extremely different +railroad from the woe-begone and utterly wretched property that had borne +that name but a decade earlier. Reorganized, to a large extent rebuilded, +it was a reincarnation of the excellent rail highway which the citizens of +Watertown and other communities of the North Country had built for +themselves away back there at the beginning of the fifties. Charles +Parsons was never a popular figure in Northern New York. He made no +efforts toward popularity. Yet simple justice compels the recognition of +the fact, that in the rebuilding of the R. W. & O. he accomplished a very +large constructive work. He had relaid and reballasted hundreds of miles +of main line track and put down not only many miles of sidings but also a +considerable quantity of new main line; between Norwood and Massena +Springs, between Oswego and Syracuse, between Windsor Beach and Rochester, +chief among these extensions. He had built new bridges by the dozens; +purchased and rebuilded cars and locomotives by the hundreds. It was +almost as if he had built a brand new railroad.</p> + +<p>Now—in 1890—he had 643 main line miles of as good a railroad, generally +speaking, as one might find in the entire land. The Rome road owned an +even hundred locomotives, ninety-eight passenger-cars, thirty-five +baggage-cars, and 2609 freight-cars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> of one type or another. It was a +monopoly within its territory. Its busy main-stem stretched all the way +from Suspension Bridge (with excellent western connections) to Norwood and +Massena Springs (each with excellent eastern connections). It was in a +superb strategic position as a competitor for through freight from the +interior of the land to the Atlantic seaboard ports—either Boston, or +Portland, or Montreal. Parsons was unusually expert in his traffic +strategy. Frequently he went so far and dared so much that the line of the +four-leaved clover gradually became something of a thorn in the side of +some of its larger competitors. Parsons in competitive territory was a +rate-smasher. He did not hesitate to put the screws upon the territory +wherein his road was a purely monopolistic carrier. There are citizens +dwelling in the northern portions of Jefferson county who still +remember—and with bitterness in their memories—how he helped put the +Keene mines out of business.</p> + +<p>In an earlier chapter of this book I referred to the large part that James +Sterling had played in the upbuilding of this iron industry. After several +successive failures the mines had, sometime in the seventies, been put +upon a basis, seemingly permanent. Their ore was good—and popular. At the +time that Parsons first assumed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>control of the Rome road, the Keene mines +were shipping out from six to eight carloads of hematite daily—to +connecting lines at Syracuse, at Sterling and at Charlotte—at an average +rate of $1.25 a ton. Parsons advanced the rate to $1.50 a ton, and they +quit. They have remained idle ever since; their abandoned shaft-houses +melancholy reminders of a vanished enterprise. Yet the ore is still there, +in vast quantities; richer than the Messaba and in the opinion of many +experts, extending up to and under the St. Lawrence, and into the province +of Ontario.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Oddly enough, as Keene quit other mine districts of Northern New York +began to open up. It had been known for many years that in the +neighborhood of the small village of Harrisville in the north part of +Lewis county there were valuable deposits of black, magnetic iron ore. To +reach these beds, to open and to develop them had long been the dream of +certain North Country men, notably George Gilbert, of Carthage and Joseph +Pahud, of Harrisville. As far back as 1866, a line had been surveyed from +Carthage to Harrisville, twenty-one miles. Yet, it was not until twenty +years later that a standard railroad was put down between these two +villages.</p> + +<p>In the meantime—to be exact, in the summer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> 1869—the so-called +“wooden railroad” was built for the ten miles between Carthage and Natural +Bridge. Literally this line—its corporate name was the Black River & St. +Lawrence Railway Company—had rails hewn and smoothed from maple. It was +so very crude that it was doomed to failure from the beginning. Yet its +right-of-way served a similar purpose for the Carthage & Adirondack +Railroad which was organized in 1883, and which opened its line through to +Jayville, thirty miles distant three years later; and on to Bensons Mines +in the fall of 1889. A little later it was completed to Newton Falls, its +present terminus.</p> + +<p>One other small railroad was built out from Carthage a few years later. It +deserves at least a paragraph of reference. The quiet old-fashioned North +Country village of Copenhagen, situated upon the historic State Road from +Utica to Sackett’s Harbor, between Lowville and Watertown, had not ceased +to regret how the building of the Black River road—which quite naturally +had followed the water-level of the river valley—had completely passed it +by. Copenhagen also wanted a railroad. It waited for forty years after the +completion of the Utica & Black River before its desire was fulfilled. +Then, by almost superhuman effort on the part of its citizens, as well as +those of Carthage, it built its railroad to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> that village, eleven miles +distant. A former citizen of the town, one Jimmy March, who had won fame +and success as a contractor in New York City, bought a second-hand +passenger-coach from the Erie Railroad and presented it to the Carthage & +Copenhagen. A locomotive was purchased with a few work-cars and a brave +but almost hopeless transportation effort begun.</p> + +<p>The Carthage & Copenhagen already has ceased to exist. The recent +development of the state highways and with them, of the motor-truck and +the motor omnibus sealed its fate. In 1917 it was abandoned and its track +torn up, for its wartime value in scrap iron: Its little yellow depot at +Copenhagen still stands. And upon it, but two or three years ago, there +still was affixed the blue and white signs of the telegraph company and +the express company. Yet no longer a track led to it; only a half-hidden +and weed-grown row of rotting ties, stretching away off in the distance +toward Carthage. In truth it has become but a mere mockery of a railroad +depot.</p> + +<p>The day of the small railroad apparently is gone; its fate sealed. True it +is that the little railroad from Norwood to Waddington and the one that +the Lewis family built from Lowville to Croghan and Beaver Falls are both +still in operation, but these have large local industries to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>serve—they +are, in fact, hardly more than independently operating industrial sidings. +So, too, has continued the branch road from Gouverneur to Edwards, which +Engineer Bockus helped open in 1893 and upon which he has run ever since.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Charles Parsons had but little use for the small railroad. He thought of +railroads in large units indeed. His thought of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh was, forever and a day, as a trunk-line, nothing less. +Sometimes he talked, rather airily to be sure, of buying the Ogdensburgh & +Lake Champlain or even the Wabash. Yet, in reality, he would have had +nothing of either of these somewhat moribund properties. He did not need +them. They were not germane to a single one of his plans. For one, and the +most important thing, neither of them could stand alone. The R. W. & O. +could. In the largest sense, it was a self-contained property; with its +monopolistic control of a huge territory, rich in basic wealth and still +in a period of healthy and continued growth.</p> + +<p>Once, there at the beginning of the nineties, Grand Trunk made tentative +offers for the control of the rebuilded property. It hinted at a +willingness to pay par for such an interest. Parsons paid no attention to +the offer. Some people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> said that he was waiting for the Canadian Pacific +to come along and buy his road; there have always been plans for +international bridges across the St. Lawrence; all the way from Cape +Vincent to Morristown.</p> + +<p>But even Canadian Pacific was not the big thing in Parsons’ mind. I think +it may be safely said that from the middle of the eighties he had realized +the necessity that would yet confront the Vanderbilts of owning the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh. At that earlier time they were having their hands +full with the aftermath of their victorious but terribly costly battle +with the West Shore. It would be some years before they would be in a +position to go further afield than their own main line territory. But +Parsons could wait—wait and upbuild his property. And show his constant +independence of the New York Central.</p> + +<p>In a hundred different ways he showed this. More than ever he became a +thorn in the side of the bigger road. He slashed more through rates—and +raised more of the local ones to make good the loss to his treasury. +Northern New York groaned, and yet was helpless. Parsons laughed at it. As +far as possible he kept out of it. He cut the wires. His right-hand man, +Hiram M. Britton, began breaking physically under the pressure and the +criticism, finally was forced to leave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> his desk altogether to seek, +vainly, the restoration of his health in Europe.</p> + +<p>Mr. E. S. Bowen succeeded Mr. Britton as General Manager of the road. A +quiet, gentle sort of a man—a native of Lock Haven, Pa., and a former +General Superintendent of the Erie—of far less dominant personality than +his predecessor. He came quite too late upon the property to make a large +personal impress upon it. The memories that he left of himself are mostly +negative. He was thorough, conscientious, apparently seeking to please, in +an all but impossible situation. He was the last General Manager of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The steadily increasing clamor of the North Country against the road and +its management brought a man up from the South with a definite scheme for +building a competitive relief line into it. His name was Austin Corbin, +and while primarily he was always promoter rather than railroader, he did +have one or two railroad successes distinctly to his credit. In control of +the Long Island, his had been the vision that planned the creation of a +great ocean terminal at Fort Pond Bay, near Montauk Point. From here +Corbin saw four-day steamers plying that would connect America and Europe. +A day would be saved in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> not bringing these fast super-craft in and out of +the crowded harbor of New York. It was a fascinating plan and one which +still is revived every few years.</p> + +<p>Corbin did some distinctly creative work upon the Long Island; and yet +forever was promoter, rather than railroader. He had associated with +himself, A. A. McLeod, who a little later was to achieve a spectacular +notoriety by successfully uniting—for a short time—such conservative +properties as Reading, Lehigh Valley and Boston & Maine into a single, +sprawling, top-heavy railroad. Together these men had picked up for a song +an unhappy railroad, which stretched more than halfway across New York +State and which was known as the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira. Corbin acquired +this road in 1882. It was a wonder. It reached neither Utica nor Ithaca +nor Elmira. Starting at Horseheads, four or five miles north of Elmira, it +twisted and turned itself through the hills of the Southern Tier and of +Central New York, narrowly missing Ithaca—which steadily and consistently +refused to build itself up the hill to meet it—threading Cortland and +finally terminating at Canastota.</p> + +<p>This road came almost as a gift to Corbin and his associates. Its sole +value was that in its brief course it intersected nearly all of the +important<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> railroads in New York state; the Pennsylvania, Erie, Lehigh +Valley, Lackawanna, and the New York Central. Corbin renamed the road, +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, and in 1887, extended it north from Canastota +to Camden, intersecting the Ontario & Western and the Rome road. He was +then within about fifty miles of Watertown. At about the same time he gave +his property its own entrance well within the heart of Elmira.</p> + +<p>Vainly Corbin tried to peddle this road either to the Pennsylvania or to +the Vanderbilts. He finally offered it to them at the assumption of its +mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. Even then it fell dead. As a last +resource he determined upon Watertown. Word of that small but growing +city’s traffic plight had come to him. He jumped aboard a train and went +up to the rich county-seat of Jefferson, cultivated the friendship of its +men of affairs. Alluringly he spoke to them of the road he owned, of its +rare connections, its peculiar value as a coal-carrier, his ambition to +thrust it still further across the state.</p> + +<p>So there was formed, in May, 1890, the Camden, Watertown & Northern +Railroad to fill at least the fifty mile gap between Camden, which was +nothing as a railroad terminus, and Watertown, which even then had a heavy +originating traffic. Watertown even in 1890, was employing 2500<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> workers +in its factories which alone burned more than 33,000 tons of coal +annually. It was receiving 68,000 tons of freight a year and sending out +about 178,000. It was a fair fling under any conditions for a competing +railroad; under the peculiar conditions that then prevailed seemingly a +double opportunity.</p> + +<p>Corbin, himself, became President of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. As +its Secretary and Treasurer, James L. Newton was chosen. Around these men +a most representative directorate was grouped; S. F. Bagg, B. B. Taggart, +H. F. Inglehart, George W. Knowlton, George A. Bagley and A. D. Remington. +Whatever might have been Corbin’s motive in the entire undertaking, there +was no mistaking the motives of the Watertown men, who had gathered about +him. They were determined to give their town a competing line; to undo, if +possible, the fiasco of a few years before when the Carthage, Watertown & +Sackett’s Harbor had passed from their hands to hands unfriendly and +alien.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>All these preparations Parsons watched with a great equanimity. He +realized the potential weaknesses of the connecting link of the proposed +new line; the terrific curves and the heavy grades of the E. C. & N. +Perhaps, he realized these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> fundamental weaknesses all the more because of +the steadily growing alliance between his road and the Ontario & Western. +The R. W. & O. sought to dig more deeply than ever into the sides of the +Vanderbilts by taking more and more traffic away from them; in the five +years from 1885 to 1890, the business delivered by the Rome road to the +New York Central at Utica, at Rome and at Syracuse had dwindled from two +million dollars a year to a little less than a million, and that of the +Ontario & Western had practically doubled.</p> + +<p>The Vanderbilts have never taken punishment easily. But they are good +waiters. And apparently they did not propose in this instance to be +hurried into reprisals. William H. Vanderbilt hated to do business with +Charles Parsons. He detested going down to the Rome road’s offices in Wall +Street, and there facing his new rival, a tall, cadaverous man, whose hair +in his Rome road years had changed from part-white to snow-white, and who +persisted in an inordinate habit of sitting at his desk in his stocking +feet; sometimes Parsons flaunted his feet upon the radiator. If the pedal +extremities of the fastidious Vanderbilt ever hurt him, he succeeded at +least in keeping his shoes on. Decency compels many things.</p> + +<p>Across from Parsons sat his son, another Charles, who held the post of +Vice-President of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> the road of which his father was President. Together +they smoked cigarettes, incessantly. It was not usual for elderly men in +those days to smoke cigarettes and because the elder Parsons did it in his +office, Mr. Vanderbilt distrusted him all the more.</p> + +<p>And yet, there were about Parsons certain distinct qualities of charm and +interest. A State of Maine man—he came from Kennebunkport—he was a born +horse-trader, as his operations in the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +steadily showed. He was not a man to pay for that which he might possibly +get for nothing. On one memorable occasion he came to the office of +William Buchanan, the veteran Motive Power Superintendent of the New York +Central, who designed and built the famous No. 999, in order to get some +free advice on locomotive equipment. The Rome road then had a rather fair +supply of antiquated motive-power—it still was using some of the +converted wood-burners of its earliest days—and Parsons wanted to buy, +second-hand, some of the older engines of the N. Y. C. & H. R. He argued +that his bridges would not permit the purchase of heavy modern +locomotives.</p> + +<p>But the Central folk argued back that they had scrapped all their light +engines, save those that they still needed for certain local and +branch-line<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> services. In the long run they drew up plans for locomotives +suited to the special necessities of the Rome road and presented Parsons +with them. From that time on he came frequently to consult the technical +authorities in the Grand Central Depot.</p> + +<p>“I have a first-class staff working for me and I don’t have to pay it a +blessed cent,” he would chuckle as he went out of its doors.</p> + +<p>The funny part of it all being that the Vanderbilts apparently were +perfectly willing that he should make such use of their staff.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Here was Charles Parsons steadily proposing the most disagreeable things +to the Vanderbilts. The Lehigh Valley which, like the Lackawanna of a +decade before, had begun to tire of the Erie as a sole entrance into the +Buffalo gateway, and was building its own line into that important city, +was making eyes at the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Parsons, still +smoking his cigarettes, made eyes back at the Lehigh Valley and its +owners, the enormously wealthy Packer family of South Bethlehem, +Pennsylvania. Together they slipped into an alliance. For ten years +Charles Parsons had coveted an entrance of his own into Buffalo. The +Packers wanted to get from Buffalo into the traffic hub of Suspension +Bridge. On a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> competitive basis, neither the existing lines of the New +York Central nor of the Erie between those two places were open to them.</p> + +<p>The interests of the R. W. & O. and the Lehigh Valley in this situation +were identical. It was quite logical therefore that they should get +together and form the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland; quite a grand +sounding appellation for twenty-four miles of railroad, which was to run +from Buffalo to Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge. Once formed, there in +the eventful midsummer of 1890, no time was lost in acquiring the +right-of-way for this important railroad link. As a separate corporation +it expended something over a million dollars for land and for preliminary +grading.</p> + +<p>To complete its line it was necessary that it should cross the lines of +the then New York Central & Hudson River—not once, but several times. Up +to that time the New York Central had generally pursued a pretty +broad-gauge policy in permitting other railroads to cross its lines. Even +in this instance it granted the necessary permissions, but this time Mr. +Parsons went north to the Grand Central Depot and not Mr. Vanderbilt south +to Wall Street. Mr. Vanderbilt was quite willing that Mr. Parsons should +cross his tracks, when and where it was absolutely necessary, but,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> of +course, Mr. Parsons would reciprocate, if ever the occasion should arise +and permit the New York Central to cross the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +tracks, if ever it should become necessary? What is sauce for the goose is +sauce for the gander.</p> + +<p>What could Mr. Parsons do? Mr. Parsons acceded. Of course. Reciprocal +contracts covering all future grade-crossing matters were signed; and +duplicate copies of the peace treaty, signed, sealed and delivered. After +which work on the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland went ahead quite +merrily once more.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>It was in December of that same year, 1890, hardly more than six months +after Mr. Austin Corbin had made the first of his Queen-of-Sheba visits to +Watertown that that brisk community found that it was to have a very +special gift in its Christmas stocking. Watertown was not only going to +have one new railroad. It was going to have two. Intimations reached +it—in that strange but sure way that big business always has of sending +out its intimations—that Watertown within the twelvemonth was to be upon +the lines of the New York Central. That seemed to be too good to be true. +But it was true. Telegraphic confirmation followed upon the heels of mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +rumor. The Vanderbilts, tired of shilly-shallying with Parsons and his +railroad and of playing second fiddle to Ontario & Western, were going to +build their own feeder line into Northern New York. Already, it was +organized and named—the Mohawk & St. Lawrence—preliminary surveying +parties were already struggling through the deep December drifts.</p> + +<p>All the oldtime rage and rivalry between Utica and Rome as to which should +be the recognized gateway broke out anew. The jealousies of thirty and +forty years before were renewed. Even Herkimer joined the squabble, +pushing forward the narrow-gauge line that had been built from her limits +north to the little village of Newport and Poland some years before. +Finally talk led to promises. Subscription papers were passed. Rome +trotted out the terminal grounds and the right-of-way for the Black River +& Utica Railroad that had passed her by there before the beginnings of the +sixties. Utica met her offers. Yet it seemed as if Rome was to be chosen. +The congestion of the New York Central yards in Utica—it was, of course, +well before the days of the Barge Canal and the straightening of the +Mohawk—made Rome the most practical terminal.</p> + +<p>Railroad meetings were again the order of the day throughout the North +Country. Carthage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> vied with Gouverneur and even Cape Vincent, stung to +the quick by the neglect of her port by the Parsons’ management, joined in +the clamor. And Watertown? Watertown was beside herself with enthusiasm. +She saw herself as the future railroad capital of the state. Corbin and +his local backers were not slow to take advantage of the situation. +Adroitly they urged that while the Mohawk & St. Lawrence would approach +the city from the southeast and the upper Black River valley, the Camden, +Watertown & Northern would reach it from the southwest. They even hinted +at the possibilities of a union station. Perhaps, the union station would +be big enough to take in a recreant but reformed R. W. & O. And some one +hinted that the Canadian Pacific by a series of wondrous bridges was to +build into the town from Kingston and the northwest. In the union station +of Watertown of a decade hence one was to be able to go in through limited +trains-de-luxe to almost any quarter of the land. And this in a town which +up to that day, at least, had never seen a dining-car come into its +ancient station.</p> + +<p>All that winter Watertown ate railroads, slept railroads, dreamed +railroads. Surveyors went across back lots and put funny little yellow +wooden stakes in the snow drifts, where there had been potato rows the +previous summer and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> next might see the beginnings of a great railroad +yard. Soft-voiced and persuasive young men went before the Common Council +and had all manner of permissive ordinances passed without a single word +of protest. Plans and routes by the dozen were filed with the County +Clerk. A local poetess burst into song in the <i>Times</i> in commemoration of +the spirit of the hour.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>As I look back upon the printed records of these proceedings, after thirty +years, quite dispassionately, it seems to me that there was, after all, an +extraordinary vagueness in the plans of these railroad promoters of that +strenuous time. The railroad lines ran here and there and everywhere upon +the map. But very little real money was expended, either in land or in +construction. The promoters, of both of the proposed new railroads, who +suddenly had become wondrously accessible to the dear public and its +advance agents, the newspaper reporters, were taking very few real steps +toward the real construction of a railroad.</p> + +<p>Mr. Parsons, stung to the quick apparently by the newfound energy of his +friend, Mr. Vanderbilt, retaliated at once by threats of building a line +from his southeastern terminal at Utica through the Mohawk valley—even +through the narrow <i>impasse</i> of Little Falls—to Rotterdam Junction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> and +the Fitchburg some seventy miles distant. To link Utica with Rome and (by +a more direct line, than by the way of Richland), with Oswego and his +straight through route to Suspension Bridge would be the next and a +comparatively easy step. That done he would at least have a powerful, +competitive route, as against the New York Central’s, east to Troy and +Boston—and for ten months of the year by water down the Hudson to New +York. Yet I cannot find any record of Mr. Parsons buying any real estate +in the Mohawk valley.</p> + +<p>Finally the Camden, Watertown & Northern did buy two plats of land +somewhere in the outskirts of Watertown, a fact which was promptly +recorded and spread to the four winds. It did more. It began laying track. +It laid nearly a hundred feet of unballasted track in the yards of Taggart +Brothers’ Paper Mill and all Watertown went down in the chilly days at the +beginning of March and venerated that little piece of track. It was a +precious symbol.</p> + +<p>To offset land-buying and track-laying the Vanderbilts sent the flower of +their railroad flocks up to see Watertown, to see and be seen, to ask +questions and to be interviewed. More maps were filed. One only had to +squint one’s eyes half closed and see the New York Central feeder +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>following the north side of the river through the town, and the Camden, +Watertown & Northern squeezing its way, somehow, along the south side of +it. The enthusiasm quickened. A despatch from Utica said that the +contractors, their men and their horses were setting up their quarters +upon the old Oneida County Fair Grounds. Actual construction of the Mohawk +& St. Lawrence was to begin within the fortnight. Watertown braced up and +finished the subscription for the purchase of the right-of-way and depot +site for the new road through its heart.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>And then?</p> + +<p>Then—</p> + +<p>On the fourteenth day of March, 1891, at one o’clock in the afternoon, a +quiet little telegraphic message—unemotional and uninspired, flashed its +monotonous way over the railroad wires into the gray old Watertown +passenger station back of the Woodruff House. It read, as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Oswego</span>, March 14, 1891.</p> + +<p><i>To all Division Superintendents</i>:</p> + +<p>The entire road and property of this company has been leased to the +New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and by direction of the +President, I have delivered possession to H. Walter <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>Webb, Third +Vice-President of that company. Each Superintendent please acknowledge +and advise all agents on your division by wire.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">(Signed) <span class="smcap">E. S. Bowen</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;"><i>General Manager</i>.</span></p></div> + +<p>And Watertown?</p> + +<p>Poor Watertown!</p> + +<p>It was as if a man had touched the tip of a lighted cigar to a tiny, but +much distended gas-balloon.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<p class="title">THE COMING OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Out</span> of the vast wreckage of great hopes and broken ambitions there slowly +arose the smoke of a great wrath. Watertown, in particular, smoldered in +her anger. Her position was a most uncomfortable one. Her pride had not +only been touched but sorely tried. She felt, and truly, that she had +helped to shake the bushes while the New York Central got all the plums. +It hurt. Her traditional rivals pointed their fingers of fine scorn toward +her. Ogdensburgh chuckled with glee. Oswego chortled.</p> + +<p>Yet out of her uncomfortable position she was yet to gain much. She was in +a position not only to demand but to receive. And because of the inherent +power of that position the ranking officers of the New York Central made +every effort to placate her. For one of the very few times, if not indeed +the only time in his life, Cornelius Vanderbilt—then the ranking head of +the family—made public appearance upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> stage of her Opera House, +before a great throng of her citizens, who crowded that ample place and +sat and stood there with anger in their hearts, but with justice in their +minds. They had not appreciated being made dupes. And yet they stood there +willing to give the newcomers the square deal. Which spoke whole volumes +for their upbringing.</p> + +<p>That was a memorable night in the history of Watertown; the evening of +March 24, 1891. The meeting at the City Opera House had been hastily +arranged. The telegraph wires only that morning had announced the coming +of Mr. Vanderbilt, accompanied by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, his personal +friend and adviser and at that time President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, as well as a small group of other railroad officers. The +party had left New York the preceding evening. All that day it held +meetings in the North Country—at Carthage, at Gouverneur, at Potsdam and +at Ogdensburgh. To a large extent these meetings were, however, somewhat +perfunctory. The real event of that memorable day was the evening meeting +at Watertown. In announcing the affair, but a few hours before, the editor +of the <i>Times</i> (we suspect Mr. William D. McKinstry’s own brilliant hand +in the penning of these paragraphs) had said:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>“Of course Mr. Depew will be the spokesman of the party. Having had his +dinner, which will be at his own expense, he will be in a good mood to +meet our citizens, and will, of course, have many pleasant things to say. +But we hope he will come no joke on our citizens. With us, this railroad +business is no joking matter. It affects us closely; it comes right into +our homes, affects our comfort of living and the prosperity of our +business enterprises. It puts more or less coal in our fires to warm our +homes, according to the price we have to pay for it, and it makes a +difference with how we are to be fed and clothed. This new railroad +monopoly has the power, if it chooses, to make us the most happy, +contented and prosperous people, or the most dejected and discontented.... +It is a great power to have and it calls for the utmost consideration in +its use....”</p> + +<p>So was laid the platform for the evening meeting; fairly and squarely. To +it the New York Central officers responded, fairly and squarely. Even the +genial Doctor Depew, to whom a speech without a funny story was as a +circus without an elephant, respected the real seriousness of the issue. +At the beginning he told some funny stories—of course. He alluded +playfully to the fact that the citizens of Watertown had met them without +a band—referring inferentially to the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> official visit of Charles +Parsons as President of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, upon which +occasion the City Band had been engaged and the whole affair given the +appearance of a <i>fête</i>. Mr. Depew alluded half jestingly to the demise of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence and then turned seriously to the real kernel of +the situation—the inevitable tendency of American railroads toward +consolidation into larger single operating units.</p> + +<p>The merger of the Utica & Black River into the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh five years before had been in obedience to such a natural law. +The R. W. & O. system, reaching only Northern New York, disconnected and +not united to the great railroad properties of the country which spread +all over the face of the United States, had, partly by reason of its +isolation, failed to properly develop the territory that it had set out to +serve. It had been hedged in by barriers that it could not surmount.</p> + +<p>It was a good speech, filled not only with good intention, but with a deal +of economic hard sense. The crowded Opera House listened to it with +courtesy, with attention and with applause. But always with a feeling that +the deeds of the new management and not their mere words or promises would +be the atonement for the indignity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> that had been heaped upon the town. +And the next evening the <i>Times</i> again said editorially:</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center">SNOW FIGHTERS<br />A Scene in the Richland Yard on Almost Any Zero Day in the Dead of a North Country Winter.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>“... Mr. Depew appeared last evening and made the apology which is +reported in full in our local columns. He did it nicely. He called it +frescoing. Whitewashing is the common name for it when the job is done by +less artistic hands. But, by whatever name, it was pleasantly received by +an audience which packed the Opera House and a good feeling was created. +Mr. Depew ... did not go into any detailed statement of what the new +management of the R. W. & O. proposed to do except to make the general +statement that they had come to stay; that our interests were mutual; that +in building up the prosperity of this section they would be adding to +their own prosperity and that they would be one with us in every way. In +carrying out this assurance everything else must follow, and therefore it +is sufficient and satisfactory to our citizens. They will give the +management a good, fair chance to carry out this assurance and wait +confidently for acts to take the place of words ...”</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>That the new management had some real desire to assuage the extremely +irritated local situation became evident within the next few days.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> The +members of the Vanderbilt party had had many quiet consultations with the +leading men of Watertown and the North Country generally; had noted with +great patience and care the many, many transport grievances of the entire +territory. And proceeded wherever it was possible to remedy these, at +once.</p> + +<p>As a first earnest of its desires it tore down the high, unpainted, +hemlock fence around the Watertown passenger station. That high-board +fence had been an eyesore. It had been far worse than that however. It had +been a slap in the face to the average Watertownian who for years past had +regarded it as part of his inherent right and privilege to go down to the +depot whenever and as often as he pleased, not alone to greet friends or +to see them off, but also for the sheer joy of seeing the cars come in and +depart. Upon the occasion of the state firemen’s convention in the +preceding August, the R. W. & O. management caused the ugly fence to be +builded—as a temporary measure. But the firemen’s convention gone and a +matter of joyous memory, the fence remained. One might only enter within +upon showing one’s ticket.</p> + +<p>Now, no matter how common and sensible a practice that might be elsewhere, +in this broad world, Watertown resented it, as an invasion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> personal +privilege. It protested to the R. W. & O. management over at Oswego. Its +protests were laughed at. The fence remained. The New York Central tore it +down ... within a fortnight after it had acquired the road.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>I have mentioned this episode in some detail because it is so typical of +the fashion that so many railroad managements, and with so much to gain, +go blindly ahead neglecting utterly the one great thing essential toward +the gaining of their larger ends—public sympathy and public support. +Charles Parsons, with everything to gain from Northern New York, scoffed +at these great aids, so easily purchased. Vastly bigger than Sloan in most +ways, he, nevertheless, shared the contempt of the old genius of the +Lackawanna for public opinion. The Vanderbilts rarely have made this +mistake with their railroads. I think that it can be put down as one of +the great open secrets of their success.</p> + +<p>Similarly Parsons had offended Watertown by his treatment of its newly +born street railway. It had been planned to extend in a single straight +line from the northeastern corner of the city, just beyond Sewall’s Island +through High, and State, and Court, and Main Streets to the westerly +limits of the town, and thence down the populous valley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> of the Black +River through Brownville to the little manufacturing village of Dexter, +eight miles distant. In this course it needed to cross the steam railroad +tracks four times at grade—all of these within the city limits.</p> + +<p>The old R. W. & O had stoutly fought these crossings; using one specious +argument after another. The new management of the property said that the +crossings could go down as soon as the street railway company could have +them manufactured. It kept its word. The street railway went ahead—and +thrived; and the steam railroad lost little by its slight competition +between Watertown and Brownville.</p> + +<p>One other very popular form of grievance still remained—I shall take up +the question of the freight and passenger rates at another time—the +persistent refusal of the Parsons’ administration to install through +all-the-year sleeping-car service between Watertown and New York. The +Vanderbilts installed that service, also one between Oswego and New York +within three weeks of their acquisition of the road. These have remained +ever since with the single exception of a short period during the Chicago +World’s Fair, when the extreme shortage of sleeping-cars induced the +headquarters of the New York Central <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>temporarily to withdraw the +Watertown cars. A protest from the Northern New York metropolis brought +them back—within seven days’ time.</p> + +<p>The new management did more. It instituted Sunday trains upon the line; +also as an all-the-year feature, a travel necessity for which the North +Country had cried for years, vainly. It placed parlor-cars upon the +principal trains. It shortened the running-time of all of these. It showed +in almost every conceivable fashion a real desire to propitiate its +public. And for that desire much of the Mohawk & St. Lawrence fiasco was +eventually forgiven it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>One other problem—and a passing large one—confronted it; the question of +taking proper care of the official personnel of the Rome road. That is +always a difficult and delicate question in a merger of large +properties.... The Parsons family was taken care of—although in the +entire transaction it had taken pretty good care of itself. Arrangements +were made to carry its members upon the New York Central pay-rolls for a +season, even though they were quickly off and into new enterprises—the +New York & New England and South Carolina Railroad—but never again was +there to be such a killing as they had had in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Such an opportunity does not arise once in a lifetime; not +once in a thousand lifetimes.</p> + +<p>The rest of the official roster was to be continued, for the next two or +three months at any rate. With great astuteness the Vanderbilts planned to +upset the operation of the road, to the least possible degree. It was to +keep its name and its individuality as far as was possible. As a matter of +operating convenience it was arranged to abolish the auditing offices at +Oswego and to have the R. W. & O. agents and conductors make their reports +direct to the New York Central headquarters in the Grand Central Station, +in New York City. Similarly orders went forth from those headquarters to +drop the old name, “Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh” from the locomotive +tenders and the sides of the passenger-cars. A rather bitter blow that +was. With all of its hatred against the property at one time and another, +the North Country cherished a real affection for the name. In deference, +to which sentiment, the Vanderbilts still clung to it for a number of +years; in their advertising and printed matter of every sort. It was +necessary, in their opinion, to emblazon “New York Central” upon their +newly acquired rolling-stock in order to permit a greater flexibility in +its interchange with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> that they already held. They had not owned the R. W. +& O. a fortnight before its eternal shortage of motive-power had been +relieved, by the assignment to it of engines No. 316 and No. 414 of the N. +Y. C. & H. R. R. And it should not be forgotten that one large reason for +all of these orders was the large affection of the Vanderbilt family for +the name and the fame of the New York Central. Both have loomed large in +their eyes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, quickly reorganized in that +March-time of 1891, had then as its chief officers the following men:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Charles Parsons</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>First Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">Clarence S. Day</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Second Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">Charles Parsons, Jr.</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Third Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">H. Walter Webb</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary and Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">J. A. Lawyer</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Freight Traffic Manager</i>, <span class="smcap">L. A. Emerson</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen. Pass. Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">Theodore E. Butterfield</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Manager</i>, <span class="smcap">E. S. Bowen</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. of Transportation</i>, <span class="smcap">W. W. Currier</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Master Mechanic</i>, <span class="smcap">George H. Haselton</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Superintendents</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>W. S. Jones, Watertown</td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td>H. W. Hammond, Carthage</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">I. H. McEwen, Oswego</td></tr></table> + +<p>Mr. Webb, who also was the Third Vice-President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, was now, of course, the real guiding head of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> the property. +Well schooled in the Vanderbilt methods of railroad operation, it was his +task to begin their introduction into the newly acquired railroad. How +well he succeeded can easily be adjudged by the results that were +attained. They need no comment by the historian.</p> + +<p>To this group of men was given the operation of 643 miles of busy +single-track railroad. Prior to the acquisition of the R. W. & O., the New +York Central & Hudson River, itself, had only contained some 1420 miles of +line, including those which it held on leasehold. The Rome road then had +given it upwards of two thousand miles of route line—not to be confused +with mere miles of trackage, which would run to a far greater total. The +capital stock of the R. W. & O. as shown on its balance-sheet for the year +ending June 30, 1890, was $6,230,100, of which $238,243 was still in the +company’s treasury. Its funded debt came to $12,672,090 (this latter +included income bonds, also in the company’s treasury). In addition to +which there was a profit and loss account of $762,298. Parsons had builded +up a real railroad. Always himself short of ready cash he had acquired a +habit of dealing in millions—in a day when a million dollars still +represented a good deal of money.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>The real problem of the new management of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the Rome road lay, however, in +an immediate readjustment of its rates; particularly its freight rates. +The hemlock fence around the Watertown depot, the persecution of the +little street railway system of that community, the irritating defects of +the passenger service, were in the eyes of the commercial factors of the +North Country as nothing compared with the railroad freight tariffs that +it was called upon to pay. Charles Parsons, as I have said already, had +had no hesitation whatsoever in putting the burden of his income +necessities upon his non-competitive territory in order that he might be +in a position to slash rates right and left wherever and whenever he was +forced to compete.</p> + +<p>New York Central control promised a modification of this situation. To a +certain extent it accomplished it. Some of the rates were slashed from +twenty-five to fifty per cent, and Mr. Parsons lived long enough to see +more equitable systems of freight-carrying charges established on the old +line. It was only a short time after the New York Central had acquired the +Rome road before the huge Solvay Process Company had located themselves on +the western limits of Syracuse. Their location there was due primarily to +the salt-beds but they also needed great quantities of limestone daily for +their products.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> This the R. W. & O. furnished by means of an attractive +low rate. And, after a little time, there was a solid train each day from +Chaumont on the old Cape branch to Syracuse, laden exclusively with +limestone rock. At other times there would be solid trains of paper, and +in the season, of such rare specialties as strawberries from the Richland +section and turkeys from St. Lawrence county for the New York City +markets. And despite the well-famed superiority of the North Country in +cheese making, its rich dairy areas were invaded by the milk-supply +companies of the swift-growing metropolis.</p> + +<p>All made business—and lots of it—for the new owners of the North +Country’s old road. They could afford to forget Parsons’ dream of a +through route along the northerly border of the country—single-track and +filled with hard curvature and grades—to the seaboard docks of Portland, +Maine. The intensive development of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +their opportunity; and this opportunity they promptly seized. And +accomplished. Even the once despised Lake Ontario Shore Railroad came at +last into its own. Along its rails upgrew the greatest orchard industry in +the United States. And even as powerful and as resourceful a railroad as +the New York Central, at times, is hard put to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> sufficient equipment +for the proper handling of the vast quantities of apples, pears and +peaches that to-day are grown upon the gentle south shore of Ontario.</p> + +<p>The Vanderbilts paid a high price for the R. W. & O. And then it was a +bargain. Not only was competition practically forestalled forever in one +of the richest industrial and agricultural areas in the entire United +States—by an odd coincidence the actual acquisition of the R. W. & O. was +followed a few months later by the enactment of a state law forbidding one +railroad acquiring a parallel or competing line—but the menace of the +powerful and strategic Canadian Pacific ever reaching the city of New York +was practically removed. A high price, and yet a low one. Which marks the +beginning and the end of railroad strategy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>For some time now we have lost track of Mr. Austin Corbin and his +ambitious plan of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. Upon the explosion of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence bubble a good many keen Watertown men who were +bent, heart and soul, upon providing their community with competitive +railroad service turned earnestly toward the Corbin scheme. The most of +the $60,000 that had been hastily subscribed in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> town toward providing +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence with a free right-of-way and depot grounds +through it, was turned over to Mr. Corbin. Edward M. Gates, who was very +active in the matter, went further. He wired Mr. H. Walter Webb, who, as +Third Vice-President of the New York Central, and personal representative +of the Vanderbilts, had made a personal subscription of $30,000 to the +Watertown fund, if he, too, would agree to turning his subscription to the +Camden, Watertown & Northern. There is no record of a reply from Mr. Webb +on this proposition.</p> + +<p>Gradually Corbin grew lukewarm upon his Camden, Watertown & Northern plan. +Truth to tell, he had lost his largest opportunity on the day that Charles +Parsons had landed the Vanderbilts with the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +They had needed that road. They had never thought that they needed the +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, not even at the time that Corbin offered it +to them at the assumption of its mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. +Eventually he succeeded in getting the Lehigh Valley, which at just that +time was cherishing a fond idea that it might succeed in seriously cutting +into the New York Central’s traffic between the seaboard and Central and +Northern New York, to buy the E. C. & N. Thereafter the Corbin project +disappeared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> From time to time it has been revived, as a possible +extension of the Lehigh Valley, north from its present unsatisfactory +terminal at Camden to Watertown or even beyond. It is hardly likely now +that that extension will ever be builded. For one thing, the day of +building competing railroads is over, and for another, the E. C. & N. is +far too unsatisfactory a railroad dog to which to tie an efficient tail. +The Ontario & Western would have been a far more advantageous opportunity.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Out of all the tumult and excitement of that strenuous winter of 1890-91 +the net result then to Northern New York was no new railroads. No, permit +me to correct that statement. One new railroad was builded, and an +important enterprise it was. A brother of H. Walter Webb’s, Dr. Seward +Webb, who had married into the Vanderbilt family, was instrumental in +acquiring from Henry S. Ives, of New York, and some of his associates, the +little narrow-gauge Herkimer, Newport & Poland Railroad, stretching some +twenty miles northward from Herkimer in the Mohawk valley and upon the +main line of the New York Central. With the road renamed, the Mohawk & +Malone, Dr. Webb conceived the idea of building it through the North Woods +to the Canada line. Where the long ago promoters of the Sackett’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> Harbor +& Saratoga had failed, he succeeded after a fashion. He moved the +contractors’ duffle from the terminal of the nascent Mohawk & St. +Lawrence, at Utica, down to Herkimer, and began by first changing the H. +N. & P. into a standard-gauge railroad. This done he proceeded with its +extension, up the valley of the Canada Creek to Remsen, where it touched +the Utica line of the R. W. & O. (the main line of the former Utica & +Black River).</p> + +<p>This done, and arrangements made for handling the through trains of the +Mohawk & Malone over the R. W. & O. for the twenty-two miles between Utica +and Remsen, Dr. Webb struck his new road off through the depths of the +untrodden forests for nearly 150 miles. At first it was said that it was +his aim to meet and terminate his line at Tupper Lake, which had been +reached by the one-time Northern Adirondack from Moira, on the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain. Dr. Webb did meet this line, also the tenuous branch of +the Delaware & Hudson, extending westward from Plattsburg, and then down +to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. But he passed by all of these. His scheme +was a far more ambitious one. He had determined to build a railroad from +Utica to Montreal, and build a railroad from Utica to Montreal he did. +Before he was done the New York<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> Central had its own rails from its main +line almost into the very heart of the Canadian metropolis. And while this +route was a little longer in mileage between New York City and Montreal +than the direct routes along both shores of Lake Champlain, it possessed +large strategic value for the western end of the New York Central & Hudson +River. And it was entirely a Vanderbilt line. As such it probably was +worth all it cost; and it was not a cheap road to build.</p> + +<p>This line was then the one tangible result of the most agitated railroad +experience that the people of New York state ever faced—with the possible +exception of the West Shore fiasco. The other plans—you still can find +them by the dozens carefully filed in the clerk’s office of the Northern +New York counties—all came to nought. The folk of the North Country +ceased their dreamings; settled down to the intensive development of their +rarely rich territory. And sought to make its existing transport +facilities equal to their every need.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<p class="title">THE END OF THE STORY</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">For</span> six or seven years after it had secured possession of the property, +the New York Central continued the operation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh as a separate railroad, to a very large degree, at least. +Gradually, however, the individual executive officers of the leased road +ceased to exist; in some cases berths with the parent road were found for +them; in others, they were glad to retire to a life of comfortable ease. +The separate corporate existence of the R. W. & O. as well as that of the +Utica & Black River and the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor, was +continued, however, until 1914, when the Vanderbilts made a single +corporation under the title of the New York Central Railroad of some of +their most important properties; the New York Central & Hudson River, the +Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, +chief amongst them. That step taken, the R. W. & O. had ceased to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>exist—legally as well as technically. Yet the work that it had done in +the development of a huge community of communities could never die. It was +to live after it; for many years to come.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>On the 20th of May, 1891, within three months after the leasing of the +Rome road, its headquarters were moved back to the place where originally +they had been located, and from which they never should have been +removed—Watertown. The entire property was then consolidated into a +single division, and Mr. McEwen brought over from Oswego to become its +Superintendent, with Mr. Jones his assistant at Oswego and Mr. Hammond in +a similar capacity at Watertown. Mr. P. E. Crowley was, also, promoted at +this time to the position of Chief Despatcher of the division. This +arrangement did not long continue, however. Charles Parsons already was +interesting himself in the New York & New England, and presently he called +to that property, as superintendents, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Jones, who +established their offices at Hartford, Conn. Soon afterwards Mr. Hammond +followed them. There had come a real change in <i>régime</i>.</p> + +<p>The R. W. & O. division of the New York Central & Hudson River, as the old +property then became known, stretched all the way from Suspension<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> Bridge +to Massena Springs and was, I believe, with its 643 miles of route +mileage, the longest single railroad division in the United States at that +time. To run that division was a man’s job, and only a real man could +survive it.</p> + +<p>Yet into that grimy old station at Watertown there came, one by one, a +succession of as brilliant railroaders as this country has ever known—Van +Etten, Russell, Moon, Hustis, Christie. These were men tested and tried +before they were sent up into the North Country—it was no place for +novices up there. Once there they made good, by both their wits and their +energies. Success on that division called for almost superhuman energy. +And when once it had been won; when down in the Grand Central they could +say that “X—had been to Watertown and made good there,” it meant that +X—had taken, successfully, the thirty-third degree in modern railroading.</p> + +<p>There were a few men between these five, who did not make good—but +somehow that was never charged against them. Other jobs were found for +them; headquarters felt that perhaps the mistake in some way should +rightly be charged against it.</p> + +<p>After seventeen years of operation of the R. W. & O. as a single division +it was recognized at headquarters that the test was not a fair one; and +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> famous old road was divided into two divisions, with Watertown +Junction as the dividing point and the divisions named, the St. Lawrence +and Ontario, with Watertown and Oswego as their respective division +headquarters. Just why the system was divided in that way no one seems to +know. It would have been more logical to have made the former Rome road, +east of Oswego, a single division with headquarters at Watertown, and have +split the old Lake Ontario Shore into the main line divisions of the +western part of the state. Yet this is history, and not a criticism. The +men who have run the New York Central have generally known their business +pretty well.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Edgar Van Etten came to the railroad game by way of the historic Erie. He +is a native of Port Jervis, New York, a famous old Erie town, and it was +just as natural as buttering bread for him to go to work upon that road, +rising in quick successive steps, freight conductor, to-day, trainmaster +to-morrow—oddly enough there was a little time when he was Superintendent +of the Ontario division of the R. W. & O., in the days of the Parsons’ +control. Then we see him as Superintendent of the Erie at Buffalo, finally +General Manager of the Western New York Car Association, in that same busy +railroad center. From<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> that task the Vanderbilts picked him for an even +greater one—taking that newly merged, single-track 643-mile-division of +the R. W. & O., and putting it upon their operating methods and +discipline.</p> + +<p>Only an Edgar Van Etten could have done the trick. A lion of a man he was +in those Watertown days, relentless, indomitable, fearless—yet possessing +in his varied nature keen qualities of humor and of human understanding +that were tremendous factors in the winning of his success. It was but +natural that so keen a talent should have been recognized in his promotion +from Watertown to the vastly responsible post of General Superintendent of +the New York Central at the Grand Central Station. In those days the +position of Operating Vice-President of the property had not been created. +Nor was there even a General Manager. The General Superintendent was the +big boss who moved the trains and moved them well. If he could not, the +Vanderbilts discovered it before they ever made him a big boss.</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Etten’s final promotion came in his advancement to the post of +Vice-President and General Manager of their important Boston & Albany +property; a position on that road corresponding to the presidency of +almost any other one. Here he remained until 1907, when ill-health<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> caused +his retirement from railroading. He moved across the continent to +California, where he is to-day an enthusiastic resident of Los Angeles.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>E. G. Russell was cast in a somewhat gentler mold than Van Etten. Thorough +railroader he was at that, a man of large vision and seeking every +opportunity for the advancement of the property that he headed. For +remember that in all these years at Watertown these men were virtual +General Managers of a goodly property, in everything but actual title. +Upon their initiative, upon their ability to make quick decisions—and +accurate—in crises, to handle even matters of a goodly size the huge +division rose or fell. Theirs was no job for the weakling or the hesitant.</p> + +<p>Mr. Russell was neither a weakling nor hesitant. On the contrary he risked +much—even the friendship of the organized labor of the road—when he felt +that he was right and must go ahead upon the right path. Eventually his +policies in regard to labor forced his retirement from the R. W. & O. +division. He went, capable railroader that he always was, to Scranton +where he became General Superintendent of the Lackawanna. From there he +went to one of the roads in lower Canada, and finally to Michigan, where +he met his tragic death<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> late at night on a lonely railroad pier in the +dead of winter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>After Russell, Dewitt C. Moon; a man with an unusual genius for placating +labor and getting the very best results out of it. Mr. Moon succeeded Mr. +Russell as Superintendent at Watertown, April 1, 1899, leaving that post +September 1, 1902, to become General Manager of the Lake Erie & Western, a +Vanderbilt property of the mid-West. He had been schooled in that family +of railroads, starting in as telegraph operator on the old Dunkirk, +Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh, which was gradually merged, first into the +Lake Shore and then into the parent reorganized New York Central of +to-day. Before that reorganization, he had become General Manager of the +former Lake Shore in some respects the very finest of the old Vanderbilt +properties—at Cleveland. At Cleveland he still remains, as Assistant to +the Vice-President of the New York Central in that important city. He is a +railroader of the old school, trained in exquisite thoroughness and with a +capacity for detail, not less than marvelous.</p> + +<p>Moon’s great forte, however, was and still is, coöperation. Men like him. +He likes men. A big and genial nature, a quick sympathy and understanding +have proved great assets to a railroad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> executive. These assets Moon has +possessed from the beginning. Upon them he had builded—and upgrown.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Still another of this famous quintette to whom the running of a 650 mile +railroad division was as but part of a day’s work—James H. Hustis. More +than any of the three who preceded him Hustis is in every sense a thorough +graduate of the Vanderbilt school of railroading. He was born to it. His +father, too, was a veteran New York Central man. “Jim” Hustis entered that +school in 1878, as office-boy to the late John M. Toucey, then General +Superintendent of the New York Central in the old Grand Central depot. He +rose rapidly in the ranks, filling several superintendencies in the old +parent property before he went to Watertown, in the late summer of 1902.</p> + +<p>He left there on October 1, 1906, to assume executive charge of the Boston +& Albany. And it was soon after he left that the old division was broken +into two parts and the R. W. & O. ceased to exist, even as a division +name. Mr. Hustis is to-day President of the Boston & Maine Railroad. He +holds the unique distinction of having headed the three most important +railroads of New England. After leaving the office of Vice-President and +General Manager of the Boston & Albany—as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> we have already seen the +ranking position of that property—he was for a time President of the New +York, New Haven & Hartford, before going to his present post with the +Boston & Maine. That he is a thorough railroader, hardly needs to be said +here—if nothing else said that, the fact that he spent four successful +years in full control at Watertown, of itself would tell it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>After Hustis, Cornelius Christie, the last of the executive +Superintendents that were to supervise the operation of the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh as a single unit—why the folks down in the Grand +Central did not create a general superintendency at Watertown, I never +could understand. Christie, a huge six-foot-three man, big both physically +and mentally, also was trained in the wondrous Vanderbilt school of +railroading. Long service both upon the main line of the Central and the +West Shore, equipped him most adequately for the arduous task at +Watertown.</p> + +<p>It was in Christie’s day—in the summer of 1908—that the famous old +division was divided into two large parts, as we have already seen; the +Ontario and the St. Lawrence. For three years more, Mr. Christie remained +at Watertown, as Superintendent of the St. Lawrence, being promoted from +that post to a similar one on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> busy Hudson River division between +Albany and New York. He was succeeded at Watertown by F. E. Williamson, +the present General Superintendent of the New York Central at Albany.</p> + +<p>At the time Christie became Superintendent of the St. Lawrence Division at +Watertown, Frank E. McCormack was set up in a similar job, heading the +Ontario Division at Oswego. The genial Frank was R. W. & O. trained and +bred. As far back as April 1, 1885, he was working for the property as +night operator and pumper, at a salary of $25 a month. Some one must have +recognized the real railroader in him, however, for but a year later his +“salary” was raised to $30 and the following year he was transferred to +the Superintendent’s office at Watertown as confidential clerk and +operator. From that time on his progress was steady and uninterrupted; +despatcher, chief despatcher, trainmaster, and with one or two more +intermediate steps, Superintendent.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>To attempt even a listing of the able railroad crowd that hovered around +the old Watertown depot, in the years that measured the beginnings of the +Vanderbilt operation of the old Rome road again, would be quite beyond the +province of this little book. H. D. Carter, Frank E. Wilson,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> George C. +Gridley, W. H. Northrop, Clare Hartigan, how the names come trippingly to +mind! And how many, many more there are of them.</p> + +<p>Yet I cannot close these paragraphs without singling out two of +them—Wilgus and Crowley. Here are two more graduates of its hard, hard +school, in which the Rome road may hold exceeding pride. Colonel W. J. +Wilgus was with the old division for but four years—from 1893 to +1897—but they were years of exceeding activity in the rebuilding of the +property; particularly its “double-tracking” and the extremely important +job of raising the track-levels for many miles north of Richland so that +the eternal enemy of the road—snow—would have a much harder time +henceforth in endeavoring to fight it. From that job he went to far bigger +ones; such as building the new Grand Central Terminal and installing +electric operation on the lines that entered it, digging the Michigan +Central tunnel under the river at Detroit and building the new station in +that city. These and others. But none more interesting to him, I dare say, +than the task that he laid out overseas in the Great War, building and +arranging the rail lines of communication for the American Army in France. +A job to which he brought all his experience, his great energy and his +rare tact.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>And finally, Patrick E. Crowley. Mr. Crowley’s connection with the Rome +road goes back to the Parsons’ régime—even though before that day he had +had eleven hard years of experience with the old Erie; in about every +conceivable job from station agent to train despatcher. He was with the R. +W. & O., however, almost an even year before its acquisition by the New +York Central—as train despatcher at Oswego. In May, 1891, he was +transferred to Watertown as chief train despatcher and later as train +master. His stepping upward has been continuous and earned. To-day as +Vice-President, in charge of operation, of the entire New York Central +system he is recognized as one of the king-pins of railroad operators of +all creation and is the same simple and unassuming gentleman that one +found him in the old days at Oswego and Watertown.</p> + +<p>That seems to be the mark of the real railroader, always. Ostentation does +not get a man very far in the game. In the North Country it got him +nowhere, whatsoever. In our land of the great snows and the hard years a +very real and simple democracy plus energy and some real knowledge of the +problems in hand were the only qualities that put a big boss ahead. +Forever—no matter what the name or how long the division—the job up +there was the survival of the fittest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> The fit man might be here, there, +anywhere. He might be a greaser in the round-house, a news-butcher upon +the train, an office boy upstairs in the depot headquarters, an operator +in a lonely country station. If he was fit he got ahead and got ahead +quickly. Merit won its own promotion and generally won it pretty quickly.</p> + +<p>Not that everything was always plain sailing. There is one pretty keen +railroad executive in the land who remembers his joy at being promoted to +Despatcher on the old Rome road. The pay was eighty dollars a month, which +was good in those days. He walked into the new job with a plenty of +cocksure enthusiasm. The “super” did not like young men with cocksure +enthusiasms. He said so, frankly. And in order to drive his ideas home +paid the young man the Despatcher’s rate for thirty days; then, for the +next five or six months at the old-time operator’s rate. The young man +caught on. He understood. A job’s a job and a boss is a boss. And all the +jobs in the world are not worth the paper that they are written on, unless +the boss wants to make them so. Which may be put down as an unscientific +maxim; yet a very true one nevertheless.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Back of these men who sought with all their energy and vigor, of mind and +of body alike,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> steadily to upbuild the old Rome road, was the great +wealth, organization and <i>esprit de corps</i> of one of the leading railroad +organizations of the world. The Vanderbilts were always thorough +sportsmen. They showed it in their reincarnation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Parsons had been handicapped, forever and a day, by the +constant lack of ready cash—there have been few times when the New York +Central has been so handicapped. I bear no brief for the Vanderbilts. They +have made their mistakes and they have been grievous ones. But they have +not often made the mistake of being miserly with their properties. That +mistake was not made in Northern New York.</p> + +<p>Into the R. W. & O., once they had clinched their title to it, they poured +money like water—whenever they could be shown the necessity of such a +procedure. New track went down and then new bridges went up—superb +structures every one of them—until there no longer were any limitations +upon the motive-power for the North Country’s rail transport system. A +locomotive that could run upon the main line could run practically +anywhere upon the Rome road divisions. And when Watertown complained that +the traffic was rising to a volume that no longer could be handled upon a +single-track basis, the Vanderbilts <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>double-tracked the road—in all of +its essential stretches, many, many miles of it all told. They built and +rebuilt the round-houses and the shops. “Property improvement” became +their slogan.</p> + +<p>In such property improvement Watertown has always shared, most liberally. +The double-tracking of the old main-stem of the R. W. & O. brought with it +as a corollary the construction of a much needed freight cut-off outside +the crowded heart of that city. That done the local freight facilities +were removed from the old stone freight-house opposite the +passenger-station and that staunch old landmark torn down. To replace it a +huge freight terminal of the most modern type and worthy of a city of +sixty thousand population was erected on a convenient site upon the North +side of the river. As a final step in this program of progress the old +depot was torn away—without many expressions of regret on the part of the +townsfolk—and the present magnificent passenger terminal erected, at a +cost of close to a quarter of a million dollars. The management of what +Watertown will always know as the “old Rome road” has not been niggardly +with its chief town.</p> + +<p>Nor has it been niggardly with any other parts of Northern New York +territory. Oswego has rejoiced in a new station—the blessed old Lake +Shore Hotel, which for many years housed tavern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> and railroad offices and +passenger depot, combined, is now a thing of memory. Ogdensburgh has a +fine new station, and so has Massena Springs. Norwood still worries along +with its old depot, but Richland rejoices in a neat but excellent +structure, in which the Wright brothers still serve the coffee, the rolls, +the sausage and the buckwheat cakes that cannot be excelled. The North +Country has never taken to the dining-car habit; perhaps, because it never +has had the chance. But it actually likes its old-fashioned way of living; +the innate democracy of the American plan hotel and +dinner-in-the-middle-of-the-day.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Never can I ride up through it in these fine basking days of peace and of +prosperity over its well-maintained railroad without thinking of the days +when journeying into the North Country was not a comfortable matter of +Pullman cars and swift trains by day and by night; of the days when one +came to Utica by stage or by canal and immediately reëmbarked upon another +stage for an even hundred miles of rackingly hard riding over an uneven +plank-road into Watertown. If one went further toward the North, travel +conditions became still worse. Such expeditions were not for tender folk.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>And sometimes to-day when I ride north from Watertown upon the +railroad—and the cars toil laboriously through Factory Street, as they +have been toiling for sixty-five long years past—I press my face against +the window and look for a little house upon that Appian Way; the little, +old, stone house in which Clarke Rice and William Smith were wont, so long +ago, to operate their toy train upon the table and so try to induce the +folk of the village to invest their money in a scheme which then seemed so +utter chimerical. A house in which a real idea was born forever fascinates +me. For it I hold naught by sympathy—and understanding. So many of us are +dreamers.... And so few of us may ever live to see the full fruition of +our dreams.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX A</h2> + +<p class="center">(Being taken bodily from a poster issued at Watertown in the Summer of 1847.)</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">WATERTOWN,<br /> +ROME, AND CAPE-VINCENT<br /> +RAIL-ROAD</p> + +<p>ACCORDING TO NOTICE IN THE JEFFERSON COUNTY PAPERS, the inhabitants of +this Town will be speedily called on to complete subscriptions towards the +above named Road, sufficient to warrant a commencement.</p> + +<p>BY THE CHARTER WE HAVE TILL THE 14TH OF MAY, 1848, to complete +subscriptions, and make an expenditure towards the Road.</p> + +<p>THE TIME IS SHORT IN WHICH TO DO THIS BUSINESS; therefore it is highly +important that every citizen, from the St. Lawrence on the North to the +Erie canal on the South—from the highlands on the East to the lake on the +West, come forward and spread himself to his full extent for the Road.</p> + +<p>TO STIMULATE US TO ACTION LET IT BE BORNE IN MIND that the sun never shone +on so glorious a land as lies within the bounds above described. To one +who for the first time visits our towns, the scene is enchanting in the +extreme. Our climate is bland and salubrious; winters more mild than in +any part of New England or southern New York—the atmosphere being +softened by the prevalence of southwesterly winds coursing up the Valley +of the Mississippi and along the waters of Erie and Ontario, to such +degree that for salubrity and comfort we stand almost unrivalled.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>WHEAT, CORN, BARLEY, OATS, PEASE, BEANS, BUCKWHEAT, fruit, butter, cheese, +pork, beef, horses, sheep, cattle, minerals, lumber, etc., are produced +here with a facility that warrants the hand of labor a bountiful return.</p> + +<p>WE HAVE WATER POWER ENOUGH TO TURN EVERY SPINDLE in Great Britain and +America. In fact we have every thing man could desire on this globe, +except a cheap and expeditious method of getting rid of our surplus +products and holding communication with the exterior world.</p> + +<p>THE WANT OF THIS, PLACES US <i>THIRTY YEARS</i> BEHIND almost every other +portion of the State. When we might be <i>first</i>, we suffer ourselves to be +last.</p> + +<p>CITIZENS! HOW LONG IS THIS STATE OF THINGS TO ENDURE? After having lain +dormant until we have acquired the dimensions of a young giant, will we, +like the brute beast, ignorant of his powers, be still led captive in the +train of our country’s prosperity—affording, by our supineness, a foil to +set off the triumphs of our more enterprising brethren of the East, the +South, and the West?</p> + +<p>NO,—FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, LET US RESOLVE to cut a passage to the +marts of the New World, and, by the abundance of our resources, strike +their “Merchant Princes” with admiration and astonishment.</p> + +<p>THIS CAN EASILY BE DONE IF UNANIMITY, PERSEVERANCE, and, above all, +LIBERALITY, be exhibited. If every farmer owning 100 acres of land, and he +not much in debt, will take five shares in the Road, <i>and others in +proportion</i>, the decree will go forth that the work is done. <i>Without +this</i>, it is feared the whole must be a failure.</p> + +<p>VIEWED IN AN ENLIGHTENED MANNER, THERE NEED BE NO hesitation on the part +of the owners of the soil. They are the ones to be most essentially +benefited. There is no reason why their lands, from having a market and +increased price<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> of products, would not be worth fifty to eighty dollars +per acre, as is the case in less favored sections, where Rail Roads have +been constructed. The very fact that a Road was to be made would add +<i>half</i> to the value of land—its completion would more than <i>double</i> the +present prices.</p> + +<p>A TAX ON THE LAND TEN MILES EACH SIDE OF THE ROAD, to build it, would in +three years repay itself, and leave to the present population and their +posterity an enduring source of wealth and importance. We lose one hundred +thousand dollars annually in the price of butter and cheese alone, when +compared with the prices obtained by Lewis and the northerly part of +Oneida, simply because they are nearer the Canal and the Rail Road.</p> + +<p>BUT TAKING STOCK IS <i>NOT A TAX</i>, IN ANY SENSE OF THE phrase. It is only +resolving to purchase a certain amount of property in the Road, which, +taking similar investments elsewhere as a sample, will pay interest, or +can be at all times sold at par, or at an advance, like other property or +evidence of value. The owner of shares can at any time sell out, and have +the satisfaction of knowing that he has greatly added to his wealth merely +by affording countenance to the project while in embryo.</p> + +<p>THE DIRECTORS ARE POWERLESS UNLESS THE PEOPLE RALLY to their aid. They +have made efforts abroad for capital to build the Road, by adding to the +subscriptions on hand at the time they were chosen. Owing to causes not +prejudicial to the character of our enterprise, they have not for the +present succeeded. Aid they have been promised, but they are enjoined +first to show a larger figure at home. The ability and disposition of our +population must be more thoroughly evinced than has yet been the case.</p> + +<p>AGENTS ARE AT WORK, OR SPEEDILY WILL BE, ON THE whole length and breadth +of the line from Cape Vincent to Rome. A searching operation is to be had. +If the Road is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> failure, the Directors are determined that it shall not +be laid at their door. Let this be remembered, and every one hereafter +hold his peace.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">CLARKE RICE,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Secretary W. & R. R. R. Co.</span></p> + +<p>Watertown, Aug. 27, 1847.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX B</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">A List of the Officers and Agents<br /> +of the<br /> +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad</span><br /> +(March 22, 1886)</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>President</i>, <span class="smcap">Charles Parsons</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Vice-President</i>, <span class="smcap">Clarence S. Day</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Secretary and Treasurer</i>, <span class="smcap">J. A. Lawyer</span>, New York</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>General Manager</i>, <span class="smcap">H. M. Britton</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. of Transportation</i>, <span class="smcap">W. W. Currier</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen’l Freight Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">E. M. Moore</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen’l Pass. Agt.</i> (Acting), <span class="smcap">G. C. Gridley</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen’l Baggage Agent</i>, <span class="smcap">T. M. Petty</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Gen’l Road Master</i>, <span class="smcap">H. A. Smith</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Supt. of Motive Power</i>, <span class="smcap">Geo. H. Haselton</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Assistant Superintendents</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>W. H. Chauncey, Oswego</td> + <td> </td> + <td>J. D. Remington, Watertown</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">W. S. Jones, DeKalb Junction</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Agents</i></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Suspension Bridge, G. G. Chauncey<br /> +River View, J. B. S. Colt<br /> +Lewiston, Samuel Barton<br /> +Ransonville, D. C. Hitchcock<br /> +Wilson, G. Wadsworth<br /> +Newfane, F. S. Coates<br /> +Hess Road, C. Sheehan<br /> +Somerset, Thomas Malloy<br /> +County Line, G. Resseguie<br /> +Lyndonville, B. A. Barry<br /> +Carlyon, T. A. Newnham<br /> +Waterport, A. J. Joslin<br /> +Carlton, O. Wiltse<br /> +East Carlton, J. C. Wilson<br /> +Kendall, J. W. Simkins<br /> +East Kendall, George L. Lovejoy<br /> +Hamlin, C. S. Snook<br /> +East Hamlin, D. W. Dorgan<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>Parma, L. V. Byer<br /> +Greece, W. E. Vrooman<br /> +Charlotte, H. N. Woods<br /> +Pierces, Chas. Ten Broeck<br /> +Webster, F. E. Sadler<br /> +Union Hill, C. B. Hart<br /> +Lakeside, I. H. Middleton<br /> +Ontario, George M. Sabin<br /> +Williamson, J. E. Tufts<br /> +Sodus, J. P. Canfield<br /> +Wallington, E. T. Boyd<br /> +Alton, H. S. McIntyre<br /> +Rose, A. A. Stearns<br /> +Wolcott, W. V. Bidwell<br /> +Red Creek, S. G. Murray<br /> +Sterling, W. A. Spear<br /> +Sterling Valley, W. R. Crockett<br /> +Hannibal, A. D. Cowles<br /> +Furniss, G. Hollenbeck<br /> +Oswego, F. W. Parsons<br /> +Oswego, Ticket Agent, T. M. Petty<br /> +East Oswego, F. W. Parsons<br /> +Scriba, R. M. Russell<br /> +New Haven, E. W. Robinson<br /> +Mexico, R. E. Barron<br /> +Sand Hill, W. K. Mathewson<br /> +Pulaski, W. H. Austin<br /> +Richland, T. Higham<br /> +Holmesville, C. L. Goodrich<br /> +Union Square, F. A. Nicholson<br /> +Parish, C. J. Lawton<br /> +Mallory, R. E. Brown<br /> +Central Square, J. P. Tracey<br /> +Brewerton, C. R. Rogers<br /> +Clay, Wilber Hatch<br /> +Woodard, A. J. Eaton<br /> +Liverpool, F. Wyker<br /> +Syracuse, M. Breen<br /> +Syracuse, Ticket Agent, Jennie Kellar<br /> +Fulton, F. E. Sutherland<br /> +Phoenix, O. C. Breed<br /> +Rome, J. Graves<br /> +Rome, Ticket Agent, A. G. Roof<br /> +Taberg, S. A. Cutler<br /> +McConnellsville, G. Gibbons<br /> +Camden, H. A. Case<br /> +West Camden, D. D. Spear<br /> +Williamstown, E. B. Acker<br /> +Kasoag, J. A. Frost<br /> +Albion, J. Buckley<br /> +Sandy Creek, W. J. Stevens<br /> +Mannsville, J. G. Clark<br /> +Pierrepont Manor, L. V. Evans, Jr.<br /> +Adams, D. Fish<br /> +Adams Centre, W. H. McIntyre<br /> +Rices, Miss L. A. Ayers<br /> +Watertown, R. E. Smiley<br /> +Watertown, Ticket Agent, Pitt Adams<br /> +Sanfords Corners, M. H. Matty<br /> +Evans Mills, F. E. Croissant<br /> +Philadelphia, C. T. Barr<br /> +Antwerp, Geo. H. Haywood<br /> +Keenes, W. E. Giffin<br /> +Gouverneur, A. F. Coates<br /> +Richville, W. D. Hurley<br /> +DeKalb Junction, E. G. Webb<br /> +Canton, J. H. Bixby<br /> +Potsdam, J. O’Sullivan<br /> +Norwood, M. R. Stanton<br /> +Rensselaer Falls, A. Walker<br /> +Heuvelton, H. B. Whittemore<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>Ogdensburgh, E. Dillingham<br /> +Brownville, G. C. Whittemore<br /> +Limerick, F. E. Rundell<br /> +Chaumont, W. A. Casler<br /> +Three Mile Bay, A. H. Dewey<br /> +Rosiere, Joseph Burgess<br /> +Cape Vincent, I. A. Whittemore</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"><i>Superintendent of Motive Power</i>, <span class="smcap">Geo. H. Haselton</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>In Charge of Repairs</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Syracuse, John Knapp</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Watertown, B. F. Batchelder</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">Rome, W. D. Watson</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"><i>General Road Master</i>, <span class="smcap">H. A. Smith</span>, Oswego</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Division Road Masters</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>Suspension Bridge, Geo. Keith</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Syracuse, S. Littlefield</td></tr> +<tr><td>Oswego, S. Bishop</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Rome, A. M. Hollenbeck</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">E. Dennison, DeKalb Junction</td></tr></table> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and +Ogdensburg RailRoad, by Edward Hungerford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 39021-h.htm or 39021-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/2/39021/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailRoad + +Author: Edward Hungerford + +Release Date: March 1, 2012 [EBook #39021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +THE STORY OF THE ROME, WATERTOWN AND OGDENSBURGH RAILROAD + + + + +[Illustration: THE FLEET LOCOMOTIVE ANTWERP When She Dug Her Red Heels +into the Track the Railroad Men Reached for Their Watches.] + + + + + THE STORY + of the + Rome, Watertown and + Ogdensburgh Railroad + + + _By_ + EDWARD HUNGERFORD + + AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN RAILROAD," "OUR + RAILROADS--TOMORROW," ETC., ETC. + + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + + NEW YORK + ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY + 1922 + + + + + Copyright, 1922, by + EDWARD HUNGERFORD + + _Printed in the + United States of America_ + + Published, 1922 + + + + + TO THOSE PIONEERS + OF OUR + NORTH COUNTRY + WHO + _Labored Hard and Labored Well In + Order That It Might Enjoy the + Blessings of the Railroad, This + Book Is Dedicated by Its Author_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 1 + + II LOOKING TOWARD A RAILROAD 5 + + III THE COMING OF THE WATERTOWN & ROME 24 + + IV THE POTSDAM & WATERTOWN RAILROAD 59 + + V THE FORMATION OF THE R. W. & O. 79 + + VI THE R. W. & O. PROSPERS--AND EXPANDS 102 + + VII INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 128 + + VIII THE UTICA & BLACK RIVER 143 + + IX THE BRISK PARSONS' REGIME 171 + + X IN WHICH RAILROADS MULTIPLY 203 + + XI THE COMING OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL 227 + + XII THE END OF THE STORY 246 + + APPENDIX A 263 + + APPENDIX B 267 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The Fleet Locomotive _Antwerp_ _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + Orville Hungerford 31 + + The Cape Vincent Station 51 + + Early Railroad Tickets 71 + + Watertown in 1865 81 + + The Birth of the U. & B. R. 148 + + Hiram M. Britton 186 + + Snow Fighters 231 + + + + +PREFACE + + +Some railroads, like some men, experience many of the ups and downs of +life. They have their seasons of high prosperity, as well as those of deep +depression. Such a road was the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. In its +forty years of life it ran a full gamut of railroad existence. Alternately +it was one of the best railroads in creation; and one of the worst. + +The author within these pages has endeavored to put plain fact plainly. He +has written without malice--if anything, he still feels within his heart a +burst of warm sentiment for the old R. W. & O.--and with every effort +toward absolute impartiality in setting down these events that now are +History. He bespeaks for his little book, kindness, consideration, even +forbearance. And looks forward to the day when again he may take up his +pen in the scribbling of another narrative such as this. It has been a +task. But it has been a task of real fascination. + +E. H. + + + + +A LIST OF THOSE WHO HAVE ASSISTED MATERIALLY IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS +BOOK + + + RICHARD C. ELLSWORTH Canton + HAROLD B. JOHNSON Watertown + CORNELIUS CHRISTIE Syracuse + RICHARD HOLDEN Watertown + J. F. MAYNARD Utica + DR. CHARLES H. LEETE Potsdam + W. D. HANCHETTE Watertown + RICHARD T. STARSMEARE Kane, Pa. + W. D. CARNES Watertown + ARTHUR G. LEONARD Chicago + ROBERT WARD DAVIS Rochester + GEORGE W. KNOWLTON Watertown + L. S. HUNGERFORD Chicago + HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW New York + ELISHA B. POWELL Oswego + P. E. CROWLEY New York + IRA A. PLACE New York + F. E. MCCORMACK Corning + EDGAR VAN ETTEN Los Angeles + D. C. MOON Cleveland + JAMES H. HUSTIS Boston + F. W. THOMPSON San Francisco + HENRY N. ROCKWELL Albany + CHAS. H. HUNGERFORD Arlington, Vt. + CHARLES HOLCOMBE Biloxi, Miss. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION + + +In the late summer of 1836 the locomotive first reached Utica and a new +era in the development of Central and Northern New York was begun. + +For forty years before that time, however--in fact ever since the close of +the War of the Revolution--there had been a steady and increasing trek of +settlers into the heart of what was soon destined to become the richest as +well as the most populous state of the Union. But its development was +constantly retarded by the lack of proper transportation facilities. For +while the valley of the Mohawk, the gradual portage just west of Rome and +the way down to Oswego and Lake Ontario through Oneida Lake and its +emptying waterways, formed the one natural passage in the whole United +States of that day from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes and the +little-known country beyond, it was by no means an easy pathway. Not even +after the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company had builded its first +crude masonry locks in the narrow natural _impasse_ at Little Falls, so +that the _bateaux_ of the early settlers, which made the rest of the route +in comparative ease, might pass through its one very difficult +bottle-neck. + +It was not until the coming of the Erie Canal, there in the second decade +of the nineteenth century, that the route into the heart of New York from +tidewater at Albany, was rendered a reasonably safe and (for that day) +comfortable affair. With the completion of the Erie Canal, in 1827, there +was immediately inaugurated a fleet of packet-boats; extremely swift in +their day and generation and famed for many a day thereafter for their +comfortable cabins and the excellence of their meals. + +But the comfort of these ancient craft should not be overrated. At the +best they were but slow affairs indeed, taking three days to come from +Albany, where they connected with the early steamboats upon the Hudson, up +to Utica. And at the best they might operate but seven or eight months out +of the year. The rest of the twelvemonth, the unlucky wight of a traveler +must needs have recourse to a horse-drawn coach. + +These selfsame coaches were not to be scoffed at, however. Across the +central portion of New York; by relays all the way from Albany to Black +Rock or Buffalo, they made a swift passage of it. And up into the great +and little known North Country they sometimes made exceeding speed. That +country had received its first artificial pathways at the time of the +coming of the Second War with England, when it was thrust into a sudden +and great strategic importance. With the direct result that important +permanent highroads were at once constructed; from Utica north to the +Black River country, down the water-shed of that stream, and through +Watertown to Sackett's Harbor; and from Sackett's Harbor through +Brownville--the county seat and for a time the military headquarters of +General Jacob Brown--north to Ogdensburgh, thence east along the Canada +line to Plattsburgh upon Lake Champlain. + +These military roads still remain. And beside them traces of their +erstwhile glory. Usually these last in the form of ancient taverns--most +often built of limestone, the stone whitened to a marblelike color by the +passing of a hundred years, save where loving vines and ivy have clambered +over their surfaces. You may see them to-day all the way from Utica to +Sackett's Harbor; and, in turn, from Sackett's Harbor north and east to +Plattsburgh once again. But none more sad nor more melancholy than at +Martinsburgh; once in her pride the shire-town of the county of Lewis, +but now a mere hamlet of a few fine old homes and crumbling warehouses. A +great fire in the early fifties ended the ambitions of Martinsburgh--in a +single short hour destroyed it almost totally. And made its hated rival +Lowville, two miles to its north, the county seat and chief village of the +vicinage. + +There was much in this North Road to remind one of its prototype, the +Great North Road, which ran and still runs from London to York, far +overseas. A something in its relative importance that helps to make the +parallel. Whilst even the famous four-in-hands of its English predecessor +might hardly hope to do better than was done on this early road of our own +North Country. It is a matter of record that on February 19, 1829, and +with a level fall of thirty inches of snow upon the road, the mailstage +went from Utica to Sackett's Harbor, ninety-three miles, in nine hours and +forty-five minutes, including thirty-nine minutes for stops, horse relays +and the like. Which would not be bad time with a motor car this day. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LOOKING TOWARD A RAILROAD + + +The locomotive having reached Utica--upon the completion of the Utica & +Schenectady Railroad, August 2, 1836--was not to be long content to make +that his western stopping point. The fever of railroad building was upon +Central New York. Railroads it must have; railroads it would have. But +railroad building was not the quick and comparatively simple thing then +that it is to-day. And it was not until nearly four years after he had +first poked his head into Utica that the iron horse first thrust his nose +into Syracuse, fifty-three miles further west. In fact the railroad from +this last point to Auburn already had been completed more than a +twelvemonth and but fifteen months later trains would be running all the +way from Syracuse to Rochester; with but a single change of cars, at +Auburn. + +Upon the heels of this pioneer chain of railroads--a little later to +achieve distinction as the New York Central--came the building of a +railroad to the highly prosperous Lake Ontario port of Oswego--the +earliest of all white settlements upon the Great Lakes. + +At first it was planned that this railroad to the shores of Ontario should +deflect from the Utica & Syracuse Railroad--whose completion had followed +so closely upon the heels of the line between Schenectady and Utica--near +Rome, and after crossing Wood Creek and Fish Creek, should follow the +north shore of Oneida Lake and then down the valley of the Oswego River. +Oswego is but 185 miles from Lewiston by water and it was then estimated +that it could be reached in twenty-four or twenty-five hours from New York +by this combined rail and water route. + +Eventually however the pioneer line to Oswego was built out of Syracuse, +known at first as the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad; it afterwards became a +part of the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York and as a part of that line +eventually was merged, in 1872, into the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western +Railroad, which continues to operate it. This line of road led from the +original Syracuse station, between Salina and Warren Streets straight to +the waterside at Oswego harbor. There it made several boat connections; +the most important of these, the fleet of mail and passenger craft +operated by the one-time Ontario & St. Lawrence Steamboat Company. + +The steamers of this once famous line played no small part in the +development of the North Country. They operated through six or seven +months of the year, as a direct service between Lewiston which had at that +time highway and then later rail connection with Niagara Falls and +Buffalo, through Ogdensburgh, toward which, as we shall see in good time, +the Northern Railroad was being builded, close to the Canada line from +Lake Champlain and the Central Vermont Railroad at St. Albans as an outlet +between Northern New England and the water-borne traffic of the Great +Lakes. The steamers of this line, whose names, as well as the names of +their captains, were once household words in the North Country were: + + _Northerner_ Captain R. F. Child + _Ontario_ " H. N. Throop + _Bay State_ " J. Van Cleve + _New York_ " -------- + _Cataract_ " R. B. Chapman + _British Queen_ " Laflamme + _British Empire_ " Moody + +The first four of these steamers, each flying the American flag, were +deservedly the best known of the fleet. The _Ontario_, the _Bay State_ and +the _New York_ were built at French Creek upon the St Lawrence (now +Clayton) by John Oakes; the _Northerner_ was Oswego-built. They burned +wood in the beginning, and averaged about 230 feet in length and about 900 +tons burthen. There were in the fleet one or two other less consequential +boats, among them the _Rochester_, which plied between Lewiston and +Hamilton, in the then Canada West, as a connecting steamer with the main +line. The steamer _Niagara_, Captain A. D. Kilby, left Oswego each Monday, +Wednesday and Friday evening at eight, passing Rochester the next morning +and arriving at Toronto at four p. m. Returning she would leave Toronto on +the alternating days at 8:00 p. m., pass Rochester at 5:30 a. m. and +arrive at Oswego at 10:00 a. m., in full time to connect with the Oswego & +Syracuse R. R. train for Syracuse, and by connection, to Albany and the +Hudson River steamers for New York. A little later Captain John S. Warner, +of Henderson Harbor, was the Master of the _Niagara_. + +The "line boats," as the larger craft were known, also connected with +these through trains. In the morning they did not depart until after the +arrival of the train from Syracuse. In detail their schedule by 1850 was +as follows: + + Lv. Lewiston 4 p.m. + " Rochester 10 p.m. + " Oswego 9 a.m. + " Sackett's Harbor 12 m. + " Ogdensburgh 7 a.m. + Ar. Montreal 6 p.m. + + Lv. Montreal 9 a.m. + " Ogdensburgh 8 a.m. + " Kingston 4 p.m. + " Sackett's Harbor 9 p.m. + " Oswego 10 a.m. + " Rochester 6 p.m. + Ar. Lewiston 4 a.m. + +Here for many years, before the coming of the railroad, was an agreeable +way of travel into Northern New York. These steamers, even with thirty +foot paddle-wheels, were not fast; on the contrary they were extremely +slow. Neither were they gaudy craft, as one might find in other parts of +the land. But their rates of fare were very low and their meals, which +like the berths, were included in the cost of the passage ticket, had a +wide reputation for excellence. Until the coming of the railroad into +Northern New York, the line prospered exceedingly. Indeed, for a +considerable time thereafter it endeavored to compete against the +railroad--but with a sense of growing hopelessness. And eventually these +once famous steamers having grown both old and obsolete, the line was +abandoned. + +A rival line upon the north edge of Lake Ontario, the Richelieu & Ontario, +continued to prosper for many years, however, after the coming of the +railroad. Its steamers--the _Corsican_, the _Caspian_, the _Algerian_, +the _Spartan_, the _Corinthian_ and the _Passport_ best known, perhaps, +amongst them--ran from Hamilton, touching at Toronto, Kingston, Clayton, +Alexandria Bay, Prescott and Cornwall, through to Montreal, where +connections were made in turn for lower river ports. The last of these +boats continued in operation upon the St. Lawrence until within twenty +years or thereabouts ago. + +It is worthy of note that the completion in 1829 of the first Welland +Canal began to turn a really huge tide of traffic from Lake Erie into Lake +Ontario, and for two decades this steadily increased. In 1850 Ontario bore +some 400,000 tons of freight upon its bosom, yet in the following year +this had increased to nearly 700,000 tons, valued at more than thirty +millions of dollars. In 1853 a tonnage mark of more than a million was +passed and the Lake then achieved an activity that it has not known since. +In that year the Watertown & Rome Railroad began its really active +operations and the traffic of Ontario to dwindle in consequence. Whilst +the cross-St. Lawrence ferry at Cape Vincent, the first northern terminal +of the Rome road, began to assume an importance that it was not to lose +for nearly forty years. + + * * * * * + +Steamboat travel was hardly to be relied upon in a country which suffers +so rigorous a winter climate as that of Northern New York. And highway +travel in the bitter months between November and April was hardly better. +A railroad was the thing; and a railroad the North Country must have. The +agitation grew for a direct line at least between Watertown, already +coming into importance as a manufacturing center of much diversity of +product, to the Erie Canal and the chain of separate growing railroads, +that by the end of 1844, stretched as a continuous line of rails all the +way from Albany--and by way of the Western and the Boston & Worcester +Railroads (to-day the Boston and Albany) all the way from Boston +itself--to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Prosperity already was upon the +North Country. It was laying the foundations of its future wealth. It was +ordained that a railroad should be given it. The problem was just how and +where that railroad should be built. After a brief but bitter fight +between Rome and Utica for the honor of being the chief terminal of this +railroad up into the North Country, Rome was chosen; as far back as 1832. +Yet it was not until sixteen years later that the construction of the +Watertown & Rome Railroad, the pioneer road of Northern New York, was +actually begun. And had been preceded by a mighty and almost continuous +legislative battle in the old Capitol at Albany ... of which more in +another chapter. + +In the meantime other railroads had been projected into the North Country. +The real pioneer among all of these was the Northern Railroad, which was +projected to run due west from Rouse's Point to Ogdensburgh, just above +the head of the highest of the rapids of the St. Lawrence and so at that +time at the foot of the easy navigation of Ontario, and, by way of the +Welland Canal, of the entire chain of Great Lakes. + +The preliminary discussions which finally led to the construction of this +important early line also went as far back as 1829. Finally a meeting was +called (at Montpelier, Vt., on February 17, 1830) to seriously consider +the building of a railroad across the Northern Tier of New York counties, +from Rouse's Point, upon Lake Champlain, to Ogdensburgh, upon the St. +Lawrence. The promoters of the plan averred that trains might be operated +over the proposed line at fifteen miles an hour, that the entire journey +from Boston to Ogdensburgh might be accomplished in thirty-five hours. +There were, of course, many wise men who shook their heads at the rashness +of such prediction. But the idea fascinated them none the less; and +twenty-eight days later a similar meeting to that at Montpelier was held +at Ogdensburgh, to be followed a year later by one at Malone. + +So was the idea born. It grew, although very slowly. Communication itself +in the North Country was slow in those days, even though the fine military +road from Sackett's Harbor through Ogdensburgh to Plattsburgh was a +tolerable artery of travel most of the year. Money also was slow. And men, +over enterprises so extremely new and so untried as railroads, most +diffident. For it must be remembered that when the promoters of the +Northern Railroad first made that outrageous promise of going from Boston +to Ogdensburgh in thirty-five hours, at fifteen miles an hour, the +railroad in the United States was barely born. The first locomotive--the +_Stourbridge Lion_, at Honesdale, Penn.--had been operated less than a +twelvemonth before. In the entire United States there were less than +twenty-three miles of railroad in operation. So wonder it not that the +plan for the Northern Railroad grew very slowly indeed; that it did not +reach incorporation until fourteen long years afterward, when the +Legislature of New York authorized David C. Judson and Joseph Barnes, of +St. Lawrence County, S. C. Wead, of Franklin County and others as +commissioners to receive and distribute stock of the Northern Railroad; +$2,000,000 all told, divided into shares of $50 each. The date of the +formal incorporation of the road was May 14, 1845. Its organization was +not accomplished, however, until June, 1845, when the first meeting was +held in the then village of Ogdensburgh, and the following officers +elected: + + _President_, GEORGE PARISH, Ogdensburgh + _Treasurer_, S. S. WALLEY + _Secretary_, JAMES G. HOPKINS + _Chief Engineer_, COL. CHARLES L. SCHLATTER + + _Directors_ + + J. Leslie Russell, Canton + Charles Paine, Northfield, Vt. + Hiram Horton, Malone + S. F. Belknap, Windsor, Vt. + J. Wiley Edmonds, Boston + Benjamin Reed, Boston + Anthony C. Brown, Ogdensburgh + Isaac Spalding, Nashua, N. H. + Lawrence Myers, Plattsburgh + Abbot Lawrence, Boston + T. P. Chandler, Boston + S. S. Lewis, Boston + +Soon after the organization of the company, T. P. Chandler succeeded Mr. +Parish (who was for many years easily the most prominent citizen of +Ogdensburgh) as President, and steps were taken toward the immediate +construction of the line. After the inevitable preliminary contentions as +to the exact route to be followed, James Hayward made the complete surveys +of the line as it exists at present, while Colonel Schlatter, its chief +engineer and for a number of years its superintendent as well, prepared to +build it. Actual construction was begun in March, 1848, in the deep +cutting just east of Ogdensburgh. At the same time grading and the laying +of rail began at the east end of the road--at Rouse's Point at the foot of +Lake Champlain--with the result that in the fall of 1848 trains were in +regular operation between Rouse's Point and Centreville. A year later the +road had been extended to Ellenburgh; in June, 1850, to Chateaugay. On +October 1, 1850, trains ran into Malone. A month later it was finished and +open for its entire length of 117 miles. Its cost, including its equipment +and fixtures, was then placed at $5,022,121.31. + + * * * * * + +It is not within the province of this little book to set down in detail +the somewhat checkered career of the Northern Railroad. It started with +large ambitions--even before its incorporation, James G. Hopkins, who +afterwards became its Secretary, traveled through the Northern Tier and +expatiated upon its future possibilities in a widely circulated little +pamphlet. It was a road builded for a large traffic. So sure were its +promoters of this forthcoming business that they placed its track upon the +side of the right-of-way, rather than in the middle of it, in order that +it would not have to be moved when it came time to double-track the road. + +The road was never double-tracked. For some years it prospered--very well. +It made a direct connection between the large lake steamers at the foot of +navigation at Ogdensburgh--it will be remembered that Ogdensburgh is just +above the swift-running and always dangerous rapids of the St. +Lawrence--and the important port of Boston. The completion of the line was +followed almost immediately by the construction of a long bridge across +the foot of Lake Champlain which brought it into direct connection with +the rails of the Central Vermont at St. Albans--and so in active touch +with all of the New England lines. + +The ambitious hopes of the promoters of the Northern took shape not only +in the construction of the stone shops and the large covered depot at +Malone (built in 1850 by W. A. Wheeler--afterwards not only President of +the property, but Vice-President of the United States--it still stands in +active service) but in the building of 4000 feet of wharfage and elaborate +warehouses and other terminal structures upon the river bank at +Ogdensburgh. The most of these also still stand--memorials of the large +scale upon which the road originally was designed. + +Gradually, however, its strength faded. Other rail routes, more direct and +otherwise more advantageous, came to combat it. Fewer and still fewer +steamers came to its Ogdensburgh docks--at the best it was a seasonal +business; the St. Lawrence is thoroughly frozen and out of use for about +five months out of each year. The steamers of the upper Lakes outgrew in +size the locks of the Welland Canal and so made for Buffalo--in increasing +numbers. The Northern Railroad entered upon difficulties, to put it +mildly. It was reorganized and reorganized; it became the Ogdensburgh +Railroad, then the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain, then a branch of the +Central Vermont and then upon the partial dismemberment of that historic +property, a branch of the Rutland Railroad. As such it still continues +with a moderate degree of success. In any narrative of the development of +transport in the North Country it must be forever regarded, however, as a +genuine pioneer among its railroads. + + * * * * * + +One other route was seriously projected from the eastern end of the state +into the North Country--the Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Co. +which was chartered April 10, 1848. After desperate efforts to build a +railroad through the vast fastnesses of the North Woods--then a _terra +incognito_, almost impenetrable--and the expenditure of very considerable +sums of money, both in surveys and in actual construction, this +enterprise was finally abandoned. Yet one to-day can still see traces of +it across the forest. In the neighborhood of Beaver Falls, they become +most definite; a long cutting and an embankment reaching from it, a +melancholy reminder of a mighty human endeavor of just seventy years ago. +If this route had ever been completed, Watertown to-day would enjoy direct +rail communication with Boston, although not reaching within a dozen miles +of Albany. The Fitchburg, which always sought, but vainly, to make itself +an effective competitor of the powerful Boston & Albany, built itself +through to Saratoga Springs, largely in hopes that some day the line +through the forest to Sackett's Harbor would be completed. It was a vain +hope. The faintest chance of that line ever being built was quite gone. A +quarter of a century later the Fitchburg thrust another branch off from +its Saratoga line to reach the ambitious new West Shore at Rotterdam +Junction. That hope also faded. And the Fitchburg, now an important +division of the Boston & Maine, despite its direct route and short mileage +through the Hoosac Tunnel, became forever a secondary route across the +state of Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + +The reports of the prospecting parties of the Sackett's Harbor & Saratoga +form a pleasing picture of the Northern New York at the beginning of the +fifties. The company had been definitely formed with its chief offices at +80 Wall Street, New York, and the following officers and directors: + + _President_, WILLIAM COVENTRY H. WADDELL, New York + _Supt. of Operations_, GEN. S. P. LYMAN, New York + _Treasurer_, HENRY STANTON, New York + _Secretary_, SAMUEL ELLIS, Boston + _Counsel_, SAMUEL BEARDSLEY, Utica + _Consulting Engineer_, JOHN B. MILLS, New York + + _Directors_ + + Charles E. Clarke, Great Bend + Lyman R. Lyon, Lyons Falls + Robert Speir, West Milton + John R. Thurman, Chester + Zadock Pratt, Prattsville + Wm. Coventry H. Waddell, New York + P. Somerville Stewart, Carthage + E. G. Merrick, French Creek + James M. Marvin, Saratoga + Anson Thomas, Utica + Otis Clapp, Boston + Gen. S. P. Lyman, Utica + Henry Stanton, New York + +Mr. A. F. Edwards received his appointment as Chief Engineer of the +company on March 10, 1852, and soon afterwards entered upon a detailed +reconnoissance of the territory embraced within its charter. He examined +closely into its mineral and timber resources and gave great attention to +its future agricultural and industrial possibilities. In the early part of +his report he says: + +"In the latter part of September, 1852, I left Saratoga for the Racket +(Racquette) Lake, via Utica. On my way I noticed on the Mohawk that there +had been frost, and as I rode along in the stage from Utica to Boonville, +I saw that the frost had bitten quite sharply the squash vines and the +potatoes, the leaves having become quite black; but judge my surprise, +when three days later on visiting the settlement of the Racket, I found +the beans, cucumber vines, potatoes, &c., as fresh as in midsummer." + +His examination of the territory completed, Mr. Edwards began the rough +location of the line of the new railroad. From Saratoga it passed westerly +to the valley of the Kayaderosseras, in the town of Greenfield, thence +north through Greenfield Center, South Corinth and through the "Antonio +Notch" in the town of Corinth to the Sacondaga valley, up which it +proceeded to the village of Conklingville, easterly through Huntsville and +Northville, through the town of Hope to "the Forks." From there it went up +the east branch of the Sacondaga, through Wells and Gilman to the isolated +town of Lake Pleasant. Spruce Lake and the headwaters of the Canada Creek +were threaded to the summit of the line at the Canada Lakes. The middle +and the western branches of the Moose River were passed near Old Forge and +the line descended the Otter Creek valley, crossing the Independence River +and down the Crystal Creek through and near Dayansville and Beaver Falls +to Carthage where for the first time it would touch the Black River. + +From Carthage to Watertown it was planned that it would closely follow the +Black River valley, crossing the river three times, and leaving it at +Watertown for a straight run across the flats to Sackett's Harbor; along +the route of the already abandoned canal which Elisha Camp and a group of +associates had builded in 1822 and had left to its fate in 1832; in fact +almost precisely upon the line of the present Sackett's Harbor branch of +the New York Central. At the Harbor great terminal developments were +planned; an inner harbor in the village and an outer one of considerable +magnitude at Horse Island. + +From Carthage a branch line was projected to French Creek, now the busy +summer village of Clayton. The route was to diverge from the main line +about one mile west of Great Bend thence running in a tangent to the +Indian River, about a mile and one-half east of Evan's Mills, where after +crossing that stream upon a bridge of two spans and at a height of sixty +feet would recross it two miles further on and then run in an almost +straight line to Clayton. Here a very elaborate harbor improvement was +planned, with a loop track and almost continuous docks to encircle the +compact peninsula upon which the village is built. + +"At French Creek on a clear day," says Mr. Edwards, "the roofs of the +buildings at Kingston, across the St. Lawrence, can be seen with the naked +eye. All the steamers and sail vessels, up and down the river and lake, +pass this place and when the Grand Trunk Railroad is completed, it will be +as convenient a point as can be found to connect with the same." + +All the while he waxes most enthusiastic about the future possibilities of +Northern New York, particularly the westerly counties of it. He calls +attention to the thriving villages of Turin, Martinsburgh, Lowville, +Denmark, Lyonsdale (I am leaving the older names as he gives them in his +report) and Dayansville, in the Black River valley. + +"In the wealthy county of Jefferson," he adds, "are the towns of Carthage, +Great Bend, Felt's Mills, Lockport (now Black River), Brownville and +Dexter, with Watertown, its county seat, well located for a manufacturing +city, having ample water power, at the same time surrounded by a country +rich in its soil and highly cultivated to meet the wants of the +operatives. Watertown contains about 10,000 inhabitants and is the most +modern, city-like built, inland town in the Union, containing about 100 +stores, five banks, cotton and woolen factories, six large flouring +mills, machine shops, furnaces, paper mills, and innumerable other +branches of business, with many first class hotels, among which the +'Woodruff House' may be justly called the Metropolitan of Western New +York." + +In that early day, more than $795,000 had been invested in manufacturing +enterprises along the Black River, at Watertown and below. The territory +was a fine traffic plum for any railroad project. It seems a pity that +after all the ambitious dreams of the Sackett's Harbor & Saratoga and the +very considerable expenditures that were made upon its right-of-way, that +it was to be doomed to die without ever having operated a single through +train. The nineteen or twenty miles of its line that were put down, north +and west from Saratoga Springs, long since lost their separate identity as +a branch of the Delaware & Hudson system. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE COMING OF THE WATERTOWN & ROME + + +The first successful transportation venture of the North Country was still +ahead of it. The efforts of these patient souls, who struggled so hard to +establish the Northern Railroad as an entrance to the six counties from +the east, were being echoed by those who strove to gain a rail entrance +into it from the south. Long ago in this narrative we saw how as far back +as 1836 the locomotive first entered Utica. Six or seven years later there +was a continuous chain of railroads from Albany to Buffalo--precursors of +the present New York Central--and ambitious plans for building feeder +lines to them from surrounding territory, both to the north and to the +south. The early Oswego & Syracuse Railroad was typical of these. + +Of all these plans none was more ambitious, however, than that which +sought to build a line from Rome into the heart of the rich county of +Jefferson, the lower valley of the Black River and the St. Lawrence River +at almost the very point where Lake Ontario debouches into it. The scheme +for this road, in actuality, antedated the coming of the locomotive into +Utica by four years, for it was in 1832--upon the 17th day of April in +that year--that the Watertown & Rome Railroad was first incorporated and +Henry H. Coffeen, Edmund Kirby, Orville Hungerford and William Smith of +Jefferson County, Hiram Hubbell, Caleb Carr, Benjamin H. Wright and Elisha +Hart, of Oswego, and Jesse Armstrong, Alvah Sheldon, Artemas Trowbridge +and Seth D. Roberts, of Oneida, named by the Legislature as commissioners +to promote the enterprise. Later George C. Sherman, of Watertown, was +added to these commissioners. The act provided that the road should be +begun within three years and completed within five. Its capital stock was +fixed at $1,000,000, divided into shares of $100 each. + +The commercial audacity, the business daring of these men of the North +Country in even seeking to establish so huge an enterprise in those early +days of its settlement is hard to realize in this day, when our transport +has come to be so facile and easily understood a thing. Their courage was +the courage of mental giants. The railroad was less than three years +established in the United States; in the entire world less than five. Yet +they sought to bring into Northern New York, there at the beginning of the +third decade of the nineteenth century, hardly emerged from primeval +forest, the highway of iron rail, that even so highly a developed +civilization as that of England was receiving with great caution and +uncertainty. + +These men of the North Country had not alone courage, but vision; not +alone vision, but perseverance. Their railroad once born, even though as a +trembling thing that for years existed upon paper only, was not permitted +to die. It could not die. And that it should live the pioneers of +Jefferson and Oswego rode long miles over unspeakably bad roads with +determination in their hearts. + + * * * * * + +The act that established the Watertown & Rome Railroad was never permitted +to expire. It was revived; again and again and again--in 1837, in 1845, +and again in 1847. It is related how night after night William Smith and +Clarke Rice used to sit in an upper room of a house on Factory Street in +Watertown--then as now, the shire-town of Jefferson--and exhibit to +callers a model of a tiny train running upon a little track. Factory +Street was then one of the most attractive residence streets of Watertown. +The irony of fate was yet to transfer it into a rather grimy artery of +commerce--by the single process of the building of the main line of the +Potsdam & Watertown Railroad throughout its entire length. + +These men, and others, kept the project alive. William Dewey was one of +its most enthusiastic proponents. As the result of a meeting held at +Pulaski on June 27, 1836, he had been chosen to survey a line from +Watertown to Rome--through Pulaski. With the aid of Robert F. Livingston +and James Roberts, this was accomplished in the fall of 1836. Soon after +Dewey issued two thousand copies of a small thirty-two page pamphlet, +entitled _Suggestions Urging the Construction of a Railroad from Rome to +Watertown_. It was a potent factor in advocating the new enterprise; so +potent, in fact, that Cape Vincent, alarmed at not being included in all +of these plans, held a mass-meeting which was followed by the +incorporation of the Watertown & Cape Vincent Railroad, with a modest +capitalization of but $50,000. Surveys followed, and the immediate result +of this step was to include the present Cape Vincent branch in all the +plans for the construction of the original Watertown & Rome Railroad. + +These plans, as we have just seen, did not move rapidly. It is possible +that the handicap of the great distances of the North Country might have +been overcome had it not been that 1837 was destined as the year of the +first great financial crash that the United States had ever known. The +northern counties of New York were by no means immune from the severe +effects of that disaster. Money was tight. The future looked dark. But the +two gentlemen of Watertown kept their little train going there in the +small room on Factory Street. Faith in any time or place is a superb +thing. In business it is a very real asset indeed. And the faith of Clarke +Rice and William Smith was reflected in the courage of Dewey, who would +not let the new road die. To keep it alive he rode up and down the +proposed route on horseback, summer and winter, urging its great +necessity. + + * * * * * + +Out of that faith came large action once again. Railroad meetings began to +multiply in the North Country; the success of similar enterprises, not +only in New York State, but elsewhere within the Union, was related to +them. Finally there came one big meeting, on a very cold 10th of February +in 1847, in the old Universalist Church at Watertown. All Watertown came +to it; out of it grew a definite railroad. + +Yet it grew very slowly. In the files of the old _Northern State Journal_, +of Watertown, and under the date of March 29, 1848, I find an irritated +editorial reference to the continual delays in the building of the road. +Under the heading "Our Railroad," the _Journal_ describes a railroad +meeting held in the Jefferson County Court House a few days before and +goes on to say: + +"... Seldom has any meeting been held in this county where more unanimity +and enthusiastic devotion to a great public object have been displayed, +than was evidenced in the character and conduct of the assemblage that +filled the Court House.... _Go ahead_, and that _immediately_, was the +ruling motto in the speeches and resolutions and the whole meeting +sympathized in the sentiment. And indeed, it is time to go _ahead_. It is +now about sixteen years since a charter was first obtained and yet the +first blow is not struck. No excuse for further delay will be received. +None will be needed. We understand that measures have already been taken +to expend in season the amount necessary to secure the charter--to call in +the first installment of five per cent--to organize and put upon the line +the requisite number of engineers and surveyors--and to hold an election +for a new Board of Directors. + +"We trust that none but efficient men, firm friends of the Railroad, will +be put in the Direction. The Stockholders should look to this and vote for +no man that they do not know to be warmly in favor of an active +prosecution of the work to an early completion. This subject has been so +long before the community that every man's sentiments are known, and it +would be folly to expose the road to defeat now by not being careful in +the selection. With a Board of Directors such as can be found, the autumn +of 1849 should be signalized by the opening of the entire road from the +Cape to Rome. It can be done and it should be done. The road being a great +good the sooner we enjoy it the better." + +So it was that upon the sixth day of the following April the actual +organization of the Watertown & Rome Railroad was accomplished at the +American Hotel, in Watertown, and an emissary despatched to Albany, who +succeeded on April 28th in having the original Act for the construction of +the line extended, for a final time. It also provided for the increase of +the capitalization from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000--in order that the new +road, once built, could be properly equipped with iron rail, weighing at +least fifty-six pounds to the yard. It was not difficult by that time to +sell the additional stock in the company. The missionary work--to-day we +would call it propaganda--of its first promoters really had been a most +thorough job. + +[Illustration: ORVILLE HUNGERFORD First President of the Watertown & Rome +Railroad.] + +The original officers of the Watertown & Rome Railroad were: + + _President_, ORVILLE HUNGERFORD, Watertown + _Secretary_, CLARKE RICE, Watertown + _Treasurer_, O. V. BRAINARD, Watertown + _Superintendent_, R. B. DOXTATER, Watertown + + _Directors_ + + S. N. Dexter, New York + William C. Pierrepont, Brooklyn + John H. Whipple, New York + Norris M. Woodruff, Watertown + Samuel Buckley, Watertown + Jerre Carrier, Cape Vincent + Clarke Rice, Watertown + Robert B. Doxtater, New York + Orville Hungerford, Watertown + William Smith, Watertown + Edmund Kirby, Brownville + Theophilus Peugnet, Cape Vincent + +The summer of 1847 was spent chiefly in perfecting the organization and +financial plans of the new road, in eliminating a certain opposition to it +within its own ranks and in strengthening its morale. At the initial +meeting of the Board of Directors, William Smith had been allowed two +dollars a day for soliciting subscriptions while Messrs. Hungerford, +Pierrepont, Doxtater and Dexter were appointed a committee to go to New +York and Boston for the same purpose. A campaign fund of $500 was allotted +for this entire purpose. + +The question of finances was always a delicate and a difficult one. In the +minutes of the Board for May 10, 1848, I find that the question of where +the road should bank its funds had been a vexed one, indeed. It was then +settled by dividing the amount into twentieths, of which the Jefferson +County Bank should have eight, the Black River, four, Hungerford's, three, +the Bank of Watertown, three, and Wooster Sherman's two. + +Gradually these funds accumulated. The subscriptions had been solicited +upon a partial payment basis and these initial payments of five and ten +percent were providing the money for the expenses of organization and +careful survey. This last was accomplished in the summer of 1848, by Isaac +W. Crane, who had been engaged as Chief Engineer of the property at $2500 +a year. Mr. Crane made careful resurveys of the route--omitting Pulaski +this time; to the very great distress of that village--and estimated the +complete cost of the road at about $1,250,000. It is interesting to note +that its actual cost, when completed, was $1,957,992. + + * * * * * + +In that same summer, Mr. Brainard retired as Treasurer of the company and +was succeeded by Daniel Lee, of Watertown, whose annual compensation was +fixed at $800. Later, Mr. Lee increased this, by taking upon his shoulders +the similar post of the Potsdam & Watertown. The infant Watertown & Rome +found need of offices for itself. It engaged quarters over Tubbs' Hat +Store, which modestly it named The Railroad Rooms and there it was burned +out in the great fire of Watertown, May 13, 1849. + +All of these were indeed busy months of preparation. There were +locomotives to be ordered. Four second-hand engines, as we shall see in a +moment, were bought at once in New England, but the old engine _Cayuga_, +which the Schenectady & Utica had offered the Rome road at a +bargain-counter price of $2500 finally was refused. Negotiations were then +begun with the Taunton Locomotive Works for the construction of engines +which would be quite the equal of any turned out in the land up to that +time; and which were to be delivered to the company, at its terminal at +Rome--at a cost of $7150 apiece. Horace W. Woodruff, of Watertown, was +given the contract for building the cars for the new line; he was to be +paid for them, one-third in the stock of the company and two-thirds in +cash. His car-works were upon the north bank of the Black River, upon the +site now occupied by the Wise Machine Company and it was necessary to haul +the cars by oxen to the rails of the new road, then in the vicinity of +Watertown Junction. Yet despite the fact that his works in Watertown never +had a railroad siding Woodruff later attained quite a fame as a builder +of sleeping-cars. His cars at one time were used almost universally upon +the railroads of the Southwest. + + * * * * * + +Construction began upon the new line at Rome, obviously chosen because of +the facility with which materials could be brought to that point, either +by rail or by canal--although no small part of the iron for the road was +finally brought across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence to Cape +Vincent. Nat Hazeltine is credited with having turned the first bit of sod +for the line. The gentle nature of the country to be traversed by the new +railroad--the greater part of it upon the easy slopes at the easterly end +of Lake Ontario--presented no large obstacles, either to the engineers or +the contractors, these last, Messrs. Phelps, Matoon and Barnes, of +Springfield, Massachusetts. The rails, as provided in the extension of the +road's charter, were fifty-six pounds to the yard (to-day they are for the +greater part in excess of 100) and came from the rolling-mills of Guest & +Company, in Wales. The excellence of their material and their workmanship +is evidenced by the fact that they continued in service for many years, +without a single instance of breakage. When they finally were removed it +was because they were worn out and quite unfit for further service. + + * * * * * + +Construction once begun, went ahead very slowly, but unceasingly. By the +fall of 1850 track was laid for about twenty-four miles north of Rome and +upon September 10th of that year, a passenger service was installed +between Rome and Camden. Fares were fixed at three cents a mile--later a +so-called second-class, at one and one-half cents a mile was added--and a +brisk business started at once. + +It was not until May of the following year that the iron horse first poked +his nose into the county of Jefferson. The (Watertown) _Reformer_ +announced in its issue of May 1 that year that the six miles of track +already laid that spring would come into use that very week, bringing the +completed line into the now forgotten hamlet of Washingtonville in the +north part of Oswego county. Two weeks later, it predicted it would be in +Jefferson. + +Its prediction was accurately fulfilled. On the twenty-eighth day of the +month, at Pierrepont Manor, this important event formally came to pass and +was attended by a good-sized conclave of prominent citizens, who +afterwards repaired to the home of Mr. William C. Pierrepont, not far +from the depot, where refreshments were served. The rest your historian +leaves to your imagination. + +At that day and hour it seemed as if Pierrepont Manor was destined to +become an important town. The land office of its great squire was still +doing a thriving business. For Pierrepont Manor then, and for ten years +afterwards, was a railroad junction, with a famous eating-house as one of +its appendages. It seems that Sackett's Harbor had decided that it was not +going to permit itself to be outdone in this railroad business by Cape +Vincent. If the Harbor could not realize its dream of a railroad to +Saratoga it might at least build one to the new Watertown & Rome road +there at Pierrepont Manor, and so gain for itself a direct route to both +New York and Boston. And as a fairly immediate extension, a line on to +Pulaski, which might eventually reach Syracuse, was suggested. + +At any rate, on May 23, 1850, the Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh Railroad +was incorporated. Funds were quickly raised for its construction, and it +was builded almost coincidently with the Watertown & Rome. Thomas Stetson, +of Boston, had the contract for building the line; being paid $150,000; +two-thirds in cash and one-third in its capital stock. It was completed +and opened for business by the first day of January, 1853. It was not +destined, however, for a long existence. From the beginning it failed to +bring adequate returns--the Watertown & Rome management quite naturally +favoring its own water terminal at Cape Vincent. By 1860 it was in a +fearful quagmire. In November of that year, W. T. Searle, of Belleville, +its President and Superintendent, wrote to the State Engineer and Surveyor +at Albany, saying that the road had reorganized itself as the Sackett's +Harbor, Rome & New York, and that it was going to take a new try at life. +But it was a hard outlook. + +"The engine used by the company," Mr. Searle wrote, "belongs to persons, +who purchased it for the purpose of the operation of the road when it was +known by the corporate name of the Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh, and has +cost the corporation nothing up to the end of this year for its use. All +the cars used on the road (there were only four) except the passenger-car, +are in litigation, but in the possession of individuals, principally +stockholders in this road, who have allowed the corporation the use of +them free of expense...." + +Yet despite this gloom, the little road was keeping up at least the +pretense of its service. It had two trains a day; leaving Pierrepont Manor +at 9:40 a. m. and 5:00 p. m. and after intermediate stops at Belleville, +Henderson and Smithville reaching Sackett's Harbor at 10:45 a. m. (a +connection with the down boat for Kingston and for Ogdensburgh) and at +6:30 p. m. The trains returned from the Harbor at 11:00 a. m. and 7:00 p. +m. + +Reorganization, the grace of a new name, failed to save this line. The +Civil War broke upon the country, with it times of surpassing hardness and +in 1862 it was abandoned; the following year its rails torn up forever. +Yet to this day one who is even fairly acquainted with the topography of +Jefferson County may trace its path quite clearly. + +Here ended then, rather ignominiously to be sure, a fairly ambitious +little railroad project. And while Sackett's Harbor was eventually to have +rail transport service restored to it, Belleville was henceforth to be +left nearly stranded--until the coming of the improved highway and the +motor-propelled vehicle upon it. Yet it was Belleville that had furnished +most of the inspiration and the capital for the Sackett's Harbor & +Ellisburgh. And even though in its old records I find Mr. M. Loomis, of +the Harbor, listed as its Treasurer, Secretary, General Freight Agent and +General Ticket Agent--a regular Pooh Bah sort of a job--W. T. Searle, of +Belleville, was its President and Superintendent; and A. Dickinson, of +the same village, its Vice-President; George Clarke and A. J. Barney among +the Directors. These men had dared much to bring the railroad to their +village and failing eventually must finally have conceded much to the +impotence of human endeavor. + + * * * * * + +In the summer of 1851 work upon the Watertown & Rome steadily went forward +and at a swifter pace than ever before. All the way through to Cape +Vincent the contractors were at work upon the new line. They were racing +against time itself almost to complete the road. There were valuable mail +contracts to be obtained and upon these hung much of the immediate +financial success of the road. + +In the spring of 1922, by a rare stroke of good fortune, the author of +this book was enabled to obtain firsthand the story of the construction of +the northern section of the line. At Kane, Pa., he found a venerable +gentleman, Mr. Richard T. Starsmeare, who at the extremely advanced age of +ninety-five years was able to tell with a marvelous clearness of the part +that he, himself, had played in the construction of the line between +Chaumont and Cape Vincent. With a single wave of his hand he rolled back +seventy long years and told in simple fashion the story of his connection +with the Watertown & Rome: + +Young Starsmeare, a native of London, at the age of twenty had run away to +sea. He crossed on a lumber-ship to Quebec and slowly made his way up the +valley of the St. Lawrence. The year, 1850, had scarce been born, before +he found himself in the stout, gray old city of Kingston in what was then +called Upper Canada. It was an extremely hard winter and the St. Lawrence +was solidly frozen. So that Starsmeare had no difficulty whatsoever in +crossing on the ice to Cape Vincent. That was on the sixteenth day of +January. Sleighing in the North Country was good. The English lad had +little difficulty in picking up a ride here and a ride there until he was +come to Henderson Harbor to the farm of a man named Leffingwell. Here he +found employment. + +But Starsmeare had not come to America to be a farmer. And so, a year +later, when the spring was well advanced, he borrowed a half-dollar from +his employer and rode in the stage to Sackett's Harbor. That ancient port +was a gay place there at the beginning of the fifties. Its piers were so +crowded that vessels lay in the offing, their white sails clearly outlined +against the blue of the harbor and the sky, awaiting an opportunity to +berth against them. But the vessels had no more than a passing interest +for the young Englishman who saw them in all the rush and bustle of the +Sackett's Harbor of 1850. For men in the lakeside village were whispering +of the coming of the railroad, of the magic presence of the locomotive +that so soon was to be visited upon them. + +At these rumors the pulse of young Richard Starsmeare quickened. He had +seen the railroad already--back home. He had seen it in his home city of +London, had seen it cutting in great slits through Camden Town and Somers +Town, riding across Lambeth upon seemingly unending brick viaducts. His +desire formed itself. He would go to work upon this railroad.... The +master of a small coasting ship sailing out from Sackett's Harbor that +very afternoon offered him a lift as far as Three Mile Bay. At Three Mile +Bay they were to have the railroad. Yet when he arrived there were no +signs whatsoever of the iron horse or his special pathway. + +"At Chaumont you will find it," they told him there. Off toward Chaumont +he trudged. And presently was awarded by the sight of bright yellow stakes +set in the fields. He followed these for a little way and found teams and +wagons at work. Here was the railroad. The railroad needed men. +Specifically it needed young Starsmeare. He found the boss contractor; and +went to work for him. He helped get stone out of a nearby quarry for +Chaumont bridge. That winter he assisted in the building of Chaumont +bridge; a rather pretentious enterprise for those days. + + * * * * * + +Steadily the Watertown & Rome went ahead. On the Fourth of July, 1851, it +was completed to Adams, which was made the occasion of a mighty +Independence Day celebration in that brisk village. Upon the arrival of +the first train at its depot, a huge parade was formed which marched up +into the center of the town, where Levi H. Brown, of Watertown, read the +Declaration of Independence, and William Dewey, who had made the building +of the Watertown & Rome his life work, delivered a smashing address. +Afterwards the procession reformed and returned to the depot where a big +dinner was served and the drinking of toasts was in order. There were +fireworks in the evening and the Adams Guards honored the occasion with a +torchlight parade. + +For some weeks the line halted there at Adams. A citizen of Watertown +wrote in his diary in August of that year that he had had a fearful time +getting home from New York "... The cars only ran to Adams, and I had to +have my horse sent down there from Watertown. I had a hard time for a +young man...." he complains naively. + +The railroad was, however, opened to Watertown, its headquarters, its +chief town, and the inspiration that had brought it into being, on the +evening of September 5, 1851. At eleven o'clock that evening, up to the +front of the passenger station, then located near the foot of Stone +Street, the first locomotive came into Watertown. I am not at all sure +which one of the road's small fleet it was. It had started building +operations with four tiny second-hand locomotives which it had garnered +chiefly from New England--the _Lion_, the _Roxbury_, the _Commodore_ and +the _Chicopee_. Of these the _Lion_ was probably the oldest, certainly the +smallest. It had been builded by none other than the redoubtable George +Stephenson, himself, in England, some ten or fifteen years before it first +came into Northern New York. It was an eight-wheeled engine, of but +fourteen tons in weight. So very small was it in fact that it was of very +little practical use, that Louis L. Grant, of Rome, who was one of the +road's first repair-shop foreman, finally took off the light side-rods +between the drivers--the _Lion_ was inside connected, after the inevitable +British fashion, and had a V-hook gear and a variable cut-off--and gained +an appreciable tractive power for the little engine. + +But, at the best, she was hardly a practical locomotive, even for 1851. +And soon after the completion of the road to Cape Vincent she was +relegated to the round-house there and stored against an emergency. That +emergency came three or four years after the opening of the line. A +horseman had ridden in great haste to the Cape from Rosiere--then known as +LaBranche's Crossing--with news of possible disaster. + +"The wood-pile's all afire at the Crossing," he shouted. "Ef the road is a +goin' to have any fuel this winter you'd better be hustling down there." + +Richard Starsmeare was on duty at the round-house. He hurriedly summoned +the renowned Casey Eldredge, then and for many years afterwards a famed +engineer of the Rome road and Peter Runk, the extra fireman there. +Together they got out the little _Lion_ and made her fast to a flat-car +upon which had been put four or five barrels filled with water to +extinguish the conflagration. It would have been a serious matter indeed +to the road to have had that wood-pile destroyed. It was one of the chief +sources of fuel supply of the new railroad. The _Lion_, with its tiny +fire-fighting crew, went post-haste to LaBranche's. But when it had +arrived the farmers roundabout already had managed to extinguish the +flames.... Casey Eldredge reached for his watch. + +"Gee," said he, "we shall have to be getting out of this. The Steamboat +Express will be upon our heels. Peter, get the fire up again." + +Peter got the fire up. He opened the old fire-box door and thrust an +armful of pine into it. The blaze started up with a roar. And then the men +who were on the engine found themselves lying on their backs on the grass +beside the railroad.... + +They plowed the _Lion_ out of the fields around LaBranche's for the next +two years. Her safety-valve was turned out of the ground by a farmer's boy +a good two miles from the railroad. Starsmeare got it and carried it in +his tool-box for years thereafter--he quickly rose to the post of engineer +and in the days of the Civil War ran a locomotive upon the United States +Military Railroad from Washington south through Alexandria to Orange Court +House. + +So perished the _Lion_. The little _Roxbury's_ fate was more prosaic. With +the flanges upon her driving-wheels ground down and her frame set upon +brick piers she became the first powerhouse of the Rome shops. The +_Commodore_ and the _Chicopee_ were larger engines. With their names +changed they entered the road's permanent engine fleet. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the Watertown & Rome was having its own new locomotives +builded for it in a shop in the United States. Four of the new engines +were completed and ready for service about the time that the road was +opened into Watertown. The fifth engine, the _Orville Hungerford_, built +like its four immediate predecessors, by William Fairbanks, at Taunton, +Mass., was not delivered until the 19th day of that same September, 1851. +The _Hungerford_ was quite the best bit of the road's motive-power, then +and for a number of years thereafter. She was inside connected--her +cylinders and driving-rods being placed inside of the wheels; always the +fashion of British locomotives--and it was not until a long time +afterwards that she was rebuilt in the Rome shops and the cylinders and +rods placed outside, after the present-day American fashion. She was but +twenty-one and a half tons in weight all-told, while her four +predecessors, the _Watertown_, the _Rome_, the _Adams_ and the _Kingston_, +each twenty-two tons and a half. + + * * * * * + +I have digressed. It still is the evening of the fifth of September, 1851. +A great crowd had congregated that evening in the neighborhood of that +first, small temporary station at Watertown. The iron horse was greeted +with many salvos of applause, the waving of a thousand torches and, it is +to be presumed, with the presence of a band. Yet the real celebration over +the arrival of the railroad was delayed for nineteen days, when there was +a genuine _fete_. It was first announced by the _Reformer_ on the 4th of +September, saying: + +"... We are informed by R. B. Doxtater, Esq., the gentlemanly and +efficient Superintendent of the Watertown & Rome Railroad, that the public +celebration in connection with the opening of this road will take place on +Wednesday, the 24th September. This will be a proud day for Jefferson +County and we trust that she may wear the honor conferred upon her in a +becoming manner. The known liberality of our citizens induces the belief +that nothing will be left undone on their part to contribute to the +general festivities and interest of the occasion...." + +Nothing was left undone. The morning of the 24th of September was ushered +in by a salute of guns; thirteen in all, one for each member of the Board +of Directors. At 10 o'clock a parade formed in the Public Square, under +the direction of General Abner Baker, Grand Marshal of the day, and in the +following formation: + + Music + Watertown Citizens' Corps + Order of The Sons of Temperance + Fire Companies of Watertown and Rome + Order of Odd Fellows + Committee of Arrangements + Corporate Authorities of Watertown, Kingston, Rome and Utica + Clergy and the Press + Officers, Directors, Engineers and Contractors + of the + Watertown & Rome Railroad + Specially Invited Guests + Strangers from Abroad and the Stockholders + Citizens + +The procession marched down Stone Street to the passenger depot of the new +railroad where the special train from Rome arrived at a little after +eleven o'clock and was greeted by a salvo of seventy-two guns--one for +each mile of completed line. There it reformed, with its accessions from +the train and returned to the Public Square where there was unbridled +oratory for nearly an hour. After which a return to the depot in which a +large collation was served, before the return to the special train for +Rome. + +So came the railroad to Watertown. By an odd coincidence, the Hudson River +Railroad from New York to Albany was finished in almost that same month. +It was with a good deal of pride that the resident of Watertown +contemplated the fact that he might leave his village by the morning +train at five o'clock and be in the metropolis of the New World by six +o'clock that same evening. Such speed! Such progress! + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the Watertown & Rome Railroad had sustained a real loss; +in the death, on the morning of Sunday, April 6, 1851, of its first +President, the Hon. Orville Hungerford. As the son of one of the earliest +pioneers of Watertown, Mr. Hungerford had played no small part in its +development. Merchant, banker, Congressman, he had been to it. And to the +struggling Watertown & Rome Railroad he was not merely its President, but +its financial adviser and friend. It was due to his personal endorsement +of the project, as well as that of his bank, that hope in it was finally +revived. Then it was that foreign capitalists had their doubts as to its +final success dispelled and gave evidence of their faith in the new road +by substantial purchases of its securities. + +Mr. Hungerford was succeeded as President of the Watertown & Rome by Mr. +W. C. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, who, while in one sense an alien to +Jefferson County, was in another and far larger one, not only one of her +chief residents but one of her most loyal sons. He, too, had been a +powerful friend and advocate of the new road, had worked tirelessly in +its behalf. It was his rare opportunity to stand as its President when the +locomotive first arrived at Pierrepont Manor, the center of his land +holdings, and a very few months later in the same enviable post at +Watertown. It was his patient habit to go down to the depot at the Manor +evening after evening and with a spy-glass in hand watch the track toward +Mannsville for the coming of the evening train. There was no telegraph in +those days, of course, and the locomotive's smoke was the only signal of +its pending arrival. Neither was there any standard time. Finally it was +Pierrepont, himself, who fixed the official time for the road, +ascertaining by a skillful use of his chronometer that the suntime at +Watertown was just seven minutes and forty-eight seconds slower than that +of the City Hall in New York. And so it was officially fixed for the +railroad. + +Under Mr. Pierrepont's oversight the Watertown & Rome Railroad was +finished; through to the village of Chaumont in the fall of 1851, and then +in April of the following year to Cape Vincent, its original northern +terminal. At this last point elaborate plans were made for a water +terminal. Even though the harbor there was not to be protected by a +breakwater for many, many years to come, the town was recognized as an +international gateway of a very considerable importance. A ferry steamer, +_The Lady of the Lake_, which had attained a distinction from the fact +that it was the first upon these northern waters to have staterooms upon +its upper decks, was engaged for service between the Cape and the city of +Kingston, in Upper Canada. Extensive piers and an elevator were builded +there upon the bank of the St. Lawrence, and the large covered passenger +station that was so long a familiar landmark of that port. + +[Illustration: THE CAPE VINCENT STATION A Real Landmark of the Old Rome +Road, Built in 1852 and Destroyed by a Great Storm in 1895.] + +For forty years this station stood, even though the span of life of the +large hotel that adjoined it was ended a decade earlier by a most +devastating fire. But, upon the evening of September 11, 1895, when +Conductor W. D. Carnes--best known as "Billy" Carnes--brought his train +into the shed to connect with the Kingston boat, a violent storm thrust +itself down upon the Cape. In the rainburst that accompanied it, the folk +upon the dock sought shelter in the trainshed, and there they were +trapped. The wind swept through the open end of that ancient structure and +lifted it clear from the ground, dropping it a moment later in a thousand +different pieces. It was a real catastrophe. Two persons were killed +outright and a number were seriously injured. The event went into the +annals of a quiet North Country village, along with the fearful disaster +of the steamer _Wisconsin_, off nearby Grenadier Island, many years +before. + + * * * * * + +With the Cape Vincent terminal completed, the regular operation of trains +upon the Watertown & Rome began; formally upon the first day of May, 1852. +Six days later the road suffered its first accident, a distressing affair +in the neighborhood of Pierrepont Manor. A party of young men in that +village had taken upon themselves to "borrow" a hand-car, left by the +contractor beside the track and were whirling a group of young women of +their acquaintance upon it when around the curve from Adams came a "light" +locomotive at high-speed, which crashed into them head-on and killed three +of the women almost instantly; and seriously wounded a fourth. + +The first employe to lose his life in the service was brakeman George +Post, who, on October 13th, of that year, was going forward to lighten the +brakes on the northbound freight, as it reached the long down-grade, north +of Adams Centre, when he was struck by an overhead bridge and died before +aid could reach him. + +These men of the North Country were learning that railroading is not all +prunes and preserves. They had their own troubles with their new +property. For one thing, the engines kept running off the track. There +were three locomotive derailments in a single day in 1853 and the +Directors asked the Superintendent if he could not be a little more +careful in the operation of the line. They also officially chided, quite +mildly, one of their number who had contributed twenty-five dollars to the +Fourth-of-July celebration in Watertown that summer without asking the +consent of the full Board. On the other hand, they quite genially voted +annual passes for an indefinite number of years to the widows of Orville +Hungerford and of Edmund Kirby as well as their daughters. + +It was only two years later than this that there was a change in the +Superintendent's office, Job Collamer, who had succeeded its original +holder Robert B. Doxtater, being succeeded by Carlos Dutton who was paid +the rather astonishing salary, for those days, of $4000 a year. A year +later R. E. Hungerford, of Watertown, succeeded Daniel Lee, who was +compelled to retire by serious illness as the company's Treasurer and was +paid $1500 a year, with an occasional five-hundred-dollar bond from the +sinking fund as special compensation at Christmas time. It was about this +time also, that John S. Coons, now of Watertown, became station-agent at +Brownville, a post which he held for four or five years. + +These events were, perhaps, to be reckoned as fairly casual things in the +life of a railroad which, to almost any community is life itself. From the +beginning the Watertown & Rome played a most important part in the life of +the steadily growing territory that it served. Northern New York was +finally beginning to come into its own. More than a hundred thousand folk +already were residing in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties. No +longer was it regarded as a vast wilderness somewhere north of the Erie +Canal. Horace Greeley had visited it in the fifties, had lectured in what +was afterwards Washington Hall, Watertown, and had been tremendously +impressed by Mr. Bradford's portable steam engine. And in 1859 the eyes of +the entire land were focused upon Watertown and its immediate +surroundings. + +That was the year of the big ballooning. John Wise, of Lancaster, +Pennsylvania, a well-famed aeronaut, together with three companions--John +La Mountain, of Troy, and William Hyde and O. A. Geager, both of +Bennington, Vermont--had set forth from St. Louis in the evening in the +mammoth balloon, _Atlantic_, with the expressed intention of sailing to +New York City in it. All night long they traveled and sometime before +dawn La Mountain fancied that they were over one of the Great +Lakes--probably Erie. He awakened his sleeping companions and pointing far +over the basket-edge told them that they were passing over the surface of +a large body of water. + +"You can see the stars below you now," he explained. + +And so they were, over Erie. They continued to sail between the stars +until dawn, and sometime just before noon they crossed the Niagara River, +well in sight of the Falls. Winging their flight at a rate that man had +never before made and would not make again for many and many a year to +come, the _Atlantic_ traveled the whole length of Ontario before four +o'clock in the afternoon and finally made a forced landing not far from +the village of Henderson. + +The fame that arose from so vast an exploit literally swept around the +world. Hyde and Geager had had enough of ballooning and returned to their +Vermont home. Wise went back to Lancaster, but La Mountain found an +intrepid and a fearless companion in John A. Haddock, at that time editor +of the _Watertown Reformer_, who once had been into the wilds of Labrador +and had returned safely from them. Together these men rescued the +_Atlantic_ from the tangle of tree-tops into which it had fallen. On +August 11th of that same year they announced an ascension from the Fair +Grounds in Watertown, accompanied by La Mountain's young cousin, Miss +Ellen Moss. And on the twenty-second of the following September the two +men made what was destined to be the final ascent of the great _Atlantic_. +The balloon rose high--from the Public Square, this time--and floated off +toward the north in a strong wind. In a little less than three hours it +traversed some four hundred miles. Then a quick landing was made, in the +vast and untrodden Canadian forest, some 150 miles due north of Ottawa, a +region even more desolate then than to-day. + +For four days the men were lost, hopelessly. Their airship was abandoned +in the trees and they made their way afoot as best they might until they +came into the path of a party of lumbermen bound for Ottawa. It was +another seven days before they had reached the Canadian capital and the +outposts of the telegraph--in all eleven endless days before Watertown +knew the final result of the foolhardy ascension, and prepared a mighty +welcome for them, whom they had given up as dead. + + * * * * * + +To these really tremendous events in the history of the North Country the +Watertown & Rome and the Potsdam & Watertown railroads--of this last, +much more in a moment--ran excursions from all Northern New York. Vast +throngs of people came upon them. The effect upon the passenger revenues +of the two railroads was appreciable upon the occasion of the balloon +ascension, just as it had been three summers before, when the first State +Fair had been held in Watertown--in a pleasant grove very close to the +site of the present Jefferson County Orphans Home. At that time the Rome +road had taken in nearly $11,000 in excursion receipts and the Potsdam +road, although at that time only completed from Watertown to Gouverneur, +more than $5,000. This was used as an argument by the promoters of the +second State Fair at Watertown--held on the present county fair grounds in +the fall of 1860, for a subscription of a thousand dollars from each of +the roads--which was promptly granted. + +Yet the Watertown & Rome Railroad needed no excursions for its prosperity. +It had prospered greatly; from the beginning. Its four passenger trains a +day--two up and two down--were well filled always. Its freight train which +ran over the entire length of the line from Rome to Cape Vincent each day +did an equally good business. Already it had the third largest freight-car +equipment of any railroad in the state. Its success was a tremendous +incentive to all other railroad projects in the North Country. From it +they all took hope. We have seen long ago the serious efforts that were +being made to build a road direct from Sackett's Harbor up the valley of +the Black River to Watertown and Carthage and thence across the +all-but-impenetrable North Woods to Saratoga. Yet nowhere was it more +obvious that a railroad should be builded than between Watertown and some +convenient point upon the Northern Railroad, which already was in complete +operation between Lake Champlain and Ogdensburgh. Such a railroad +presently was builded; taking upon itself the appellation of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad. And to the consideration of the beginnings of that +railroad, a most vital part of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, that was +as yet unborn, we are now fairly come. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE POTSDAM & WATERTOWN RAILROAD + + +A very early survey of the Northern Railroad which, as we have already +seen, was the pioneer line of the North Country, projected the road +between Malone and Ogdensburgh through the prosperous villages of Canton +and Potsdam. This survey was rejected. The sponsors of the +Northern--almost all of them Boston and New England men and having little +personal knowledge of Northern New York and certainly none at all of its +possibilities--thrust this preliminary survey away from them. They decided +that the road should run between its terminals with as small a deviation +from a straight line as possible. So, from Rouse's Point to Ogdensburgh, +through Malone, the Northern Railroad ran with long tangents and few +curves and both Canton and Potsdam were left aside. Through traffic from +the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River was all that the early +directors of the line could see. Their vision was indeed limited. + +Canton and Potsdam began to feel their isolation from these earliest +railroad enterprises. They were cut off apparently from railroad +communication, either with the East or with the West. The Watertown & Rome +Railroad, as planned from Cape Vincent to Rome, would, of course, pass +through Watertown, but no one seemed to think of building it east from +that village. + +So, practically all of St. Lawrence County and the northern end of +Jefferson was left without railroad hopes. Dissatisfaction arose, even +before the completion of the Watertown & Rome, that so large a territory +had been so completely slighted. Potsdam, in particular, felt the +indignity that had been heaped upon it. And so it was, that, as far back +as 1850, fifty-eight of the public-spirited citizens of that village +organized themselves into the Potsdam Railroad Company and proceeded to +name as their directors: Joseph H. Sanford, William W. Goulding, Samuel +Partridge, Henry L. Knowles, Augustus Fling, Theodore Clark, Charles T. +Boswell, Willard M. Hitchcock, William A. Dart, Hiram E. Peck, Aaron T. +Hopkins, Charles Cox and Nathan Parmeter. Among the stockholders of this +early railroad company were Horace Allen and Liberty Knowles, whose +advanced age debarred them from active participation in its work, but who +responded liberally to frequent calls for aid in its construction. + +Soon after the incorporation of the Potsdam Railroad, it was built, +primarily as a branch of some five and one-half miles connecting Potsdam +with the Northern Railroad at a point, which, for lack of an immediate +better name, was called Potsdam Junction. Afterwards it was renamed +Norwood. An attractive village sprang up about the junction, which finally +boasted one of the best of the small hotels of the whole North Country; +the famed Whitney House, with which the name and fame of the late "Sid" +Phelps was so closely connected for so many years. + + * * * * * + +The success of Potsdam with her railroad and the consequent prosperity +that it brought to her stirred the interest and the envy of the +neighboring village of Canton; the shire-town of St. Lawrence. Gouverneur +spruced up also. The St. Lawrence towns began to cooperate. To them came a +great community of interest from the northerly townships and villages of +Jefferson as well--Antwerp, Philadelphia and Evan's Mills in particular. +The demand for a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam began to take a +definite form. + +It was not an easy task to which the towns and men of St. Lawrence and of +Jefferson had set themselves. Its financial aspects were portentous, to +put it mildly. The money for the Northern Railroad had come from New +England. That for the Watertown & Rome also had come with a comparative +ease. Watertown even then was a rich and promising industrial center and +there seemed to be genuine financial opportunities for a railroad that +would connect it with the outer world. But St. Lawrence County, there at +the beginning of the fifties, was poor and undeveloped. Necessarily, the +money for its railroad would have to come from its own territory. +Nevertheless, undaunted by difficulties, these men of that territory set +about to build a railroad from Potsdam to Watertown. They dared much. +Theirs was the spirit of the true pioneer, the same spirit that was +building a college at Canton and had built academies at Gouverneur and at +Potsdam, and that was planning in every way for the future development of +the North Country. + +These men knew more than a little of the resources of their townships. +They whispered among themselves of the wealth of their minerals. Along the +county-line between St. Lawrence and Jefferson, in the neighborhood of +Keene's Station, there stand to-day unused iron mines of a considerable +magnitude. Flooded and for the moment deserted, these mines house some of +the greatest of the untouched treasures of Northern New York; vast +deposits of red hematite, exceeding in percentage value even the famous +fields of the Mesaba district of Lake Superior. In the course of this +narrative I shall refer again to these Keene mines. For the moment +consider them as a monument--a somewhat neglected monument to be sure--to +the vision and persistence of James Sterling. + +It was largely due to the enterprise of this pioneer of Jefferson County +that mines and blast furnaces sprang up, not only at Keene's but at +Sterlingville and Lewisburgh as well. He built many of the highways and +bridges both of Antwerp and of Rossie. Yet, in the closing days of the +fifties, he was doomed to bitter disappointments. The great panic of 1857 +and the inrush of cheap iron that followed in its wake were quite too much +for him, and the man who had been known through the entire state as the +"Iron King of Northern New York" died in 1863, from a general physical and +mental breakdown, due in no small part to the collapse of his fortunes. + + * * * * * + +I anticipate, we were talking of railroads, not of men. Yet, somehow, men +must forever weave themselves into the web of a narrative such as this. +And no fair understanding can ever be had of the difficulties under which +the railroads of the North Country were born without an understanding of +the difficulties under which the men who helped give them birth labored. +To return once again to the main thread of our story, the agitation for +the building of a railroad between Watertown and Potsdam followed closely +upon the heels of the completion of the Northern Railroad and the branch +Potsdam Railroad, from it to the fine village of that name. Stock in the +Northern Railroad had been sold both there and in Canton, even though the +road when completed had passed each by. The men who held that stock wanted +to come to the aid of the newer project. With their money tied up in the +elder of the two, they were quite helpless. Eventually their release was +brought about, and the money that came to them from the sale of their +securities of the Northern was reinvested in those of the Potsdam & +Watertown Railroad, just coming into being. + +A meeting was held in Watertown in July, 1851 (the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad) and E. N. Brodhead employed to make a +preliminary survey of the proposed line; which would be followed +immediately with maps and estimates. He went to his task without delay, +and rendered a full report on the possibilities of the road at a meeting +held at Gouverneur on January 9, 1852. There were no dissenting voices in +regard to the proposed line. So it was, that then and there, the Potsdam +& Watertown Railroad was organized permanently, with the following +directors: + + Edwin Dodge, Gouverneur + Zenas Clark, Potsdam + Samuel Partridge, Potsdam + E. Miner, Canton + A. M. Adsit, Colton + O. V. Brainard, Watertown + W. E. Sterling, Gouverneur + Joseph H. Sanford, Potsdam + William W. Goulding, Potsdam + Barzillai Hodskin, Canton + H. B. Keene, Antwerp + Howell Cooper, Watertown + Hiram Holcomb, Watertown + + * * * * * + +The old minute-book of the Directors of this early railroad has been +carefully preserved in the village of Potsdam. It is a narrative of a +really stupendous effort, of struggles against adversity, of undaunted +courage, of optimism and of faith. It relates unemotionally what the +Directors did, but between the lines one also reads of the grave +situations that confronted them; not once, but again and again. And there +lies the real drama of the founding of the Potsdam & Watertown. + +The first meeting of the Directors was held, as we have just seen, on +January 9, 1852. Most of the men, who were that day elected as Directors, +had gone on that day to Gouverneur--many others too. Watertown, +Gouverneur, Canton and Potsdam were present in their citizens, men of +worth and distinction in their home communities. Their families are yet +represented in Northern New York, and succeeding generations owe to them a +debt of gratitude for their unselfish work in that early day. For what +could there be of selfishness in a task which promised so much of worry +and responsibility, and so little of any immediate financial return? + +It was planned, that January day in Gouverneur, that work should be begun +at both ends of the line and carried forward simultaneously, until the +construction crews should meet; somewhere between Potsdam and Watertown. +At an adjourned meeting, held ten days later at the American Hotel in +Watertown, it was formally resolved that; "all persons who have subscribed +toward the expenses of the survey of the Potsdam & Watertown Railroad +Company ... shall be entitled to a credit on the stock account for the +amount so subscribed and paid." At the same meeting it was decided that a +committee consisting of Messrs. Farwell, Holcomb and Dodge be appointed to +confer with the officers of the Watertown & Rome in regard to the +construction of a branch into the village of Watertown. It will be +remembered that in that early day the railroad did not approach the +village nearer than what is now known as the junction, at the foot of +Stone Street. + + * * * * * + +Progress was beginning, in real earnest. A third meeting was held on +February 26--again at Gouverneur, at Van Buren's Hotel--and the following +officers chosen: + + _President_, EDWIN DODGE, Gouverneur + _Vice-President_, ZENAS CLARK, Potsdam + _Secretary_, HENRY L. KNOWLES, Potsdam + _Treasurer_, DANIEL LEE, Watertown + +Mr. Lee was also Treasurer of the Watertown & Rome. His Potsdam & +Watertown compensation was fixed a little later at $600 annually. Four +years later he was succeeded as Treasurer by William W. Goulding, of +Potsdam, who was engaged at a salary of a thousand dollars a year. + +At that same Gouverneur meeting a memorial was prepared for the Trustees +of the Village of Watertown. It asked, as an important link of the pathway +for the new railroad, the use of Factory Street for its entire length. +Factory Street, as we have already seen, was one of the most aristocratic, +as well as one of the prettiest streets of the town. So great was +Watertown's appreciation of the advantages that were to accrue to it by +the completion of the line steel highway to the north that the permission +was finally granted by the Trustees, not, however, without a considerable +opposition. + + * * * * * + +So was our Potsdam & Watertown fairly started upon its important career. A +fund of something over $750,000 having been raised for its construction, +offices were opened at 6 Washington Street, Watertown, and definite +preparations made toward the actual building of the road. The breaking of +ground was bound to be preceded by a stout financial campaign. Money was +tight. And remember all the while, if you will, the real paucity of it in +the North Country of those days. And yet early in 1853, it was found +necessary to increase the capital stock to $2,000,000, in itself, an act +requiring some courage; yet after all, it might have required more courage +not to take the step. For, of a truth, the company needed the money. + +Gradually committees were appointed, not only to look after this and other +vexing financial questions, but also to supervise the location of the line +as well as to provide suitable station grounds and buildings. There were +many meetings of the Board before the road was definitely located; there +must have been much bitterness of spirit and of discussion. Hermon wanted +the road, and so an alternative route between Canton and Gouverneur was +surveyed to include it. In 1853 the Chief Engineer was directed "to cause +the middle route (so designated in Mr. Brodhead's report) in the towns of +Canton and DeKalb to be sufficiently surveyed for location as soon as +practicable, unless upon examination, the Engineer shall believe the +railroad can be constructed upon the Hermon route, so called, as cheaply +and with as much advantage to the company, and that in such case he cause +that route to be surveyed, instead of the middle route." But stock +subscriptions were light in Hermon and engineering difficult on its route, +and finally the "middle" and present route by the way of DeKalb and +Richville was selected. Similarly local discouragements turned the line +sharply toward the North, after crossing the Racket River at Potsdam, +instead of toward the South, and, a more direct route originally surveyed, +toward Canton. + +The location of the station grounds was another source of fruitful +discussion. In this regard, Gouverneur seems to have given the greatest +concern. Many committees wrestled with the problem of its depot site. In +the old minute-book, rival locations appear and, upon one occasion, the +matter having simmered down to a choice between the present station +grounds and prospective ones on the other side of the river, the Chief +Engineer was directed to survey out both locations and set stakes, so that +the whole Board could visit the village and see the thing for itself. + + * * * * * + +By 1854 distinct progress had been made. At a meeting held on February 4th +of that year, Messrs. Cooper, Brainard and Holcomb, of the Directorate, +were authorized as a committee to enter into negotiations for the purchase +of iron rails for the road, and to complete the purchase of 2500 tons of +these, by sale of the bonds of the company, "or otherwise." The financial +end of the transaction was apt always to be the most difficult part of it. +Yet somehow these were almost always solved. The Watertown & Rome road +guaranteed some of the bonds of the Potsdam & Watertown and Erastus +Corning, of Albany, and John H. Wolfe, of New York, loaned it considerable +sums of money. Construction proceeded, and on May 4, 1854, the Directors +decided to send 650 tons of the new iron to the easterly terminus of the +road; the remainder to the westerly building forces. + +In the fall of that year, a considerable amount of track having been laid +down, the Directors looked toward the purchase of rolling stock. At +their November meeting they decided to buy the engine _Montreal_, and +its tender, from the Watertown & Rome, at a cost of $4,500; also two +baggage and "post-office" cars, at $750 each. Which provided for the +beginning of operation at the west end of the road. + +[Illustration: EARLY RAILROAD TICKETS Including an Annual Pass Issued by +President Marcellus Massey, of the R. W. & O.] + +But the east end needed rolling-stock as well--a considerable gap still +intervened between the rail-heads of each incomplete section. So toward +the East, the Directors of the Potsdam & Watertown turned their attention. +They found some rolling stock in the hands of a man in Plattsburgh; +"Vilas, of Plattsburgh" is his sole designation in their minutes. This +Vilas, it would appear, was a hard-headed Clinton County business man who +seemed to have but little confidence in the financial soundness of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Nothing of the gambler appears in Vilas. He did not +believe in taking chances. He had a locomotive and two cars that he would +sell--for cash. Eventually, he sold them--for cash. Some of the Directors +of the P. & W. bought them, themselves, paying out their own hard-earned +cash for them; and recouping themselves by accepting pay in installments +from the company. + +Yet the possible danger in a continuance of such practices was recognized +even in that early day, and in order to avoid similar situations arising +at some later time, I find in the old tome a resolution reading: "Whereas +in raising money and carrying on the operations of our company for the +completion of the road, the unanimous cooperation of its Directors is +necessary, particularly in matters involving personal pecuniary liability, +therefore: Resolved; That each Director now present pledge himself to +endorse and guaranty all notes and bills of exchange required by the +committee on finance to be used in accordance with the preceding +resolution ... and that we hold it to be the duty of all Directors of this +company to do the same." + + * * * * * + +From time to time a note of pathos creeps into these old minutes and one +catches a glimpse of the trials and struggles of the little company. For +instance: "Resolved: That in our struggles for the construction of the +road of this company, we have not failed to appreciate the liberal spirit +with which we have been met and the encouragement and aid often freely +afforded us by Hon. George V. Hoyle, Superintendent of the Northern +Railroad, and we avail ourselves of this occasion to express to him, +individually and as Superintendent, and through him to those associated +with him the management of that road, our sense of obligation, indulging +the hope that we shall yet be able in the same spirit to reciprocate all +his kindness, and that the interest of Mr. Hoyle and his road may be +abundantly promoted by our success." + + * * * * * + +And then, finally, success! In the faded minutes Secretary Knowles +triumphantly records that "On the morning of the fifth of February, 1857, +a passenger train left Watertown at about nine o'clock a. m., with many of +the officers of the company and invited friends, passed leisurely over the +entire road to its junction with the Northern Railroad, thence with the +Superintendent of that road to Ogdensburgh, arriving at Ogdensburgh at +about four o'clock and returned the next day to Watertown." + +This is not to be interpreted, however, as meaning that the Potsdam & +Watertown was immediately ready for business. There remained much work to +be done in completing the track and the roadbed, station buildings, +equipment, and the other appurtenances necessary for a going railroad. The +contractors, Phelps, Mattoon and Barnes, who also had builded the +Watertown & Rome, had unpaid balances still remaining. There had been +numerous and one or two rather serious disagreements between the company +and its contractors. Finally these were all settled by a final cash +payment of $100,000, in addition, of course, to what had been paid before. +In order to make this large payment--for that day, at least--it became +necessary to bond the property still again; this time by a second +mortgage--which was made around $200,000, so that the road might be made +completely ready for business. + +Details which indicate the rapidly approaching time of such completion +soon begin to appear in the minutes. A committee is appointed to procure a +Superintendent--George B. Phelps, of Watertown, was appointed to this +post. Freight agents are directed to turn over their receipts to the +Treasurer weekly, ticket agents daily. The Board took its business +seriously and several meetings about this time were called for seven, half +past seven and eight o'clock in the morning, although, of course, this +might mean that the railroad business was gotten out of the way early, +leaving the day free for regular occupations. The vexed question of the +station grounds at Gouverneur was settled definitely early in 1857, and +the executive committee was instructed to erect on the "station grounds at +Gouverneur a building similar to the one at Antwerp in the speediest and +most economical manner." To this day the Antwerp building survives, but +Gouverneur, like Potsdam, for more than a decade past has rejoiced in the +possession of a new and ornate passenger station. + +It was not until June, 1857, that a definite passenger service was +established upon the line from Watertown, where it connected with the +trains of the W. & R., and thus to the present village of Norwood, +seventy-five miles distant. It is worth noting here that a few years after +this was accomplished a branch line was constructed from a point two miles +distant from the old village of DeKalb, and destined to be known to future +fame as DeKalb Junction, straight through to Ogdensburgh, but eighteen +miles distant. DeKalb Junction also had a famous hotel which for many +years "fed" the trains and "fed" them well. In its earlier days this +tavern was known as the Goulding House; in more recent years, however, it +has been the Hurley House, so named from the late Daniel Hurley, one of +the most popular and successful hotelmen in all the North Country. + + * * * * * + +The passenger trains of the Potsdam road were operated out of the new +station in Watertown, just back of the Woodruff House--which we shall see +in another chapter. For a time there was no train service for travelers +between its station and that of the Rome road at the foot of Stone Street, +the transfer between them being made by stages. But soon this was +rectified and the one o'clock train, north from Watertown, allowed +considerably more than an hour for connection after the arrival of the +train from Rome, which gave abundant time for the consumption of one of +Proprietor Dorsey's fine meals at the Woodruff. It was a good meal and not +high-priced. The charge per day for three of them and a night's lodging +thrown in was fixed at but $1.50. + +The early train which left Watertown at sharp six o'clock in the +morning--afterwards it was fixed at a slightly later hour--made connection +at Potsdam Junction with the through train on the Northern for Rouse's +Point and, going by that roundabout way, a traveler might hope to reach +Montreal in the evening of the day that he had left Watertown--if he +enjoyed good fortune. Whilst upon the completion of the short line a few +years later between DeKalb Junction and Ogdensburgh, one could reach the +Canadian metropolis in an even more direct fashion, by the ferry steamer +_Transit_ to Prescott, and then over the Grand Trunk Railway, just coming +into the heyday of its fame. Watertown no longer was cut off from rail +communication with the North. + + * * * * * + +The Potsdam & Watertown though now fairly launched, operating trains, and, +from all external evidences at least, doing a fair business, nevertheless +was grievously burdened with its grave financial difficulties. On May 16, +1857, a special finance committee, consisting of Messrs. Phelps, Cooper +and Goulding, was appointed with power to carry along the company's +growing floating debt, and in October of that selfsame year the President +joined with them in their appeals to the creditors to have a little more +patience. In the following spring the Directors discussed the propriety of +asking the Legislature for an act exempting from taxation all railroads in +the state that were not paying their dividends. + +The Potsdam road certainly was not paying _its_ dividends. Not only this, +but, on May 26, 1859, interest on the second mortgage, being unpaid for +six months, the trustees under the mortgage took possession of the +property and the Directors in meeting approved of the action. Such a step +quite naturally agitated the first mortgage holders, who began to protest. +In August, 1859, the P. & W. Board disclaimed any purpose whatsoever to +repudiate the payment of principal or interest upon its first mortgage +bonds, or its contingent obligation to the Watertown & Rome Railroad. It +invited the Directors of that larger and more prosperous road to attend a +joint meeting wherein the earnings of the Potsdam & Watertown might be +applied to the payment of the coupons upon its first mortgage bonds. There +was a growing community of interest between the two roads, anyway. The one +was the natural complement to the other. Such a community of interest led, +quite naturally, to a merger of the properties. In June, 1860, it was +announced that the Watertown & Rome had gained financial control of the +Potsdam & Watertown. Soon after the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +officially born and a new chapter in the development of Northern New York +was begun. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FORMATION OF THE R. W. & O. + + +That the Watertown & Rome and the Potsdam & Watertown Railroads would have +merged in any event was, from the first, almost a foregone conclusion. +Their interests were too common to escape such inevitable consolidation. +The actual union of the two properties was accomplished in the very early +sixties (July 4, 1861) and for the merged properties--the new trunk-line +of the North Country, if you please--the rather euphonious and embracing +title of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad was chosen. It was at +that time that the branch was built from DeKalb to Ogdensburgh. A combined +directorate was chosen from the governing bodies of the two merged +roads--I shall not take the trouble to set it down here and now--and Mr. +Pierrepont was chosen as the President of the new property, with Marcellus +Massey, of Brooklyn, as its Vice-President, R. E. Hungerford as Secretary +and Treasurer, H. T. Frary as General Ticket Agent, C. C. Case as General +Freight Agent and Addison Day as General Superintendent. Whilst the +general offices of the company were in Watertown, its shops and general +operating offices, at that time, were in Rome. It was in this latter city +that Addison Day was first located. Day was a resident of Rochester. He +refused to remove his home from that city, but spent each week-end with +his family there. + +He was a conspicuous figure upon the property, coming as the successor to +a number of superintendents, each of whom had served a comparatively short +time in office--Robert B. Doxtater, Job Collamer and Carlos Dutton, were +Addison Day's predecessors as Superintendents upon the property. These men +had been local in their opportunity. To Day was given a real job; that of +successfully operating 189 miles of a pretty well-built and essential +railroad. Yet his annual salary was fixed at but $2500, as compared with +the $4000 paid to Dutton. Later however Day was raised to $3000 a year. + +The main shops of the company, as I have just said, were then situated in +Rome. They were well equipped for that day and employed about one hundred +men, under William H. Griggs, the road's first Master Mechanic. A smaller +shop, of approximately one-half the capacity and used chiefly for +engine repairs and freight-car construction, was located at Watertown, +just back of the old engine house on Coffeen Street. + +[Illustration: WATERTOWN IN 1865 Showing the First Passenger Station of +the Potsdam & Watertown. Taken from the Woodruff House Tower.] + +But Watertown's chief comfort was in its passenger station, which stood in +the rear of the well-famed Woodruff House. Norris M. Woodruff had +completed his hotel at about the same time that the railroad first reached +Watertown. It was a huge structure--reputed to be at that time the largest +hotel in the United States west of New York City; and even the far-famed +Astor House of that metropolis, had no dining-salon which in height and +beauty quite equalled the dining-room of the Woodruff House. Mr. Woodruff +had given the railroad the site for its passenger station in the rear of +his hotel, on condition that the chief passenger terminal of the company +should forever be maintained there, which has been done ever since. Yet +the chief passenger station of the R. W. & O. of 1861 was a simple affair +indeed. Builded in brick it afterwards became the wing of the larger +station that was torn down to be replaced by the present station a decade +ago. It was not until 1870 that the three story "addition" to the original +station was built and the first station restaurant at Watertown opened, in +charge of Col. A. T. Dunton, from Bellows Falls, Vt. After the fashion of +the time, its opening was signalized by a banquet. + + * * * * * + +In front of me there lies a very early time-table of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh Railroad. It bears the date, April 20, 1863, and apparently is +the twelfth to be issued in the history of the road. It is signed by +Addison Day, as Superintendent. + +On this sheet, the chief northbound train, No. 7, Express and Mail, left +Rome at four o'clock each afternoon, reaching Watertown at 7:05 p. m., and +leaving there twenty minutes later, arrived at Ogdensburgh at 10:30 p. m. +The return movement of this train, was as No. 2, leaving Ogdensburgh at +4:25 o'clock in the morning, passing Watertown at 7:10 o'clock and +reaching Rome at 10:35 a. m. In addition to this double movement each day, +there was a similar one of accommodation trains; No. 1, leaving Rome at +2:35 o'clock each morning, arriving and leaving Watertown at 6:20 and 6:40 +a. m., respectively, and reaching Ogdensburgh at 10:10 a. m. As No. 8, the +accommodation returned, leaving Ogdensburgh at 4:30 p. m., passing +Watertown at 8:20 p. m., and arriving at Rome at 12:20 a. m. Apparently +folk who traveled in those days cared little about inconvenient hours of +arrival or departure. + +There were connecting trains upon both the Cape Vincent and the Potsdam +Junction branches--the branch from Richland to Oswego was just under +construction--and a scheduled freight train over the entire line each day. +Yet there, still, was an almost entire absence of mid-day passenger +service. + +Gradually this condition of things must have improved; for in Hamilton +Child's _Jefferson County Gazetteer and Business Directory_, for 1866, I +find the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh advertising three fast passenger +trains a day in each direction over the entire main line, in addition to +connections, not only for Cape Vincent and for Potsdam Junction, but also +over the new branch from Richland through Pulaski to Oswego. Pulaski, +humiliated in the beginning by the refusal of the Watertown & Rome to lay +its rails within four miles of that county-seat village, finally had +received the direct rail connection, that she had so long coveted. + +In that same advertisement there first appears announcement of through +sleeping-cars, between Watertown and New York, an arrangement which +continued for a number of years thereafter, then was abandoned for many +years, but, under the bitter protests of the citizens of Watertown and +other Northern New York communities, was finally restored in 1891 as an +all-the-year service. + +Upon the ancient time table of 1863 there appear the names of the old +stations, the most of which have come down unchanged until to-day. One of +them has disappeared both in name and existence, Centreville, two miles +south of Richland, while the adjacent station of Albion long since became +Altmar. Potsdam Junction we have already seen as Norwood, while nice +dignified old Sanford's Corners long since suffered the unspeakable insult +of being renamed, by some latter-day railroad official, Calcium. A similar +indignity at that time was heaped upon Adams Centre, being known +officially for a time as Edison! + +The Centre rebelled. It had no quarrel with Mr. Edison. On the contrary, +it held the highest esteem for that distinguished inventor. But for the +life of it, it could not see why the name of a nice old-fashioned +Seventh-Day-Baptist town should be sacrificed for the mere convenience of +a telegrapher's code. It was quite bad enough when Union Square, over on +the Syracuse line, was forced, willy-nilly, to become Maple View, and +Holmesville, Fernwood. Neither were the marvels of the lexicographers of +the Postoffice Department, under which all manner of strange changes were +made in the spelling of old North Country names (think of Sackett's +Harbor, time-honored government military and naval station, reduced to a +miserable "Sacket!") germane to Adams Centre's problem. Adams Centre it +was christened in the beginning, and Adams Centre it proposed to remain. +And after a brief but brisk fight with railroad and postoffice officials, +it succeeded in regaining its birthright. + + * * * * * + +Early in June, 1872, William C. Pierrepont retired as President of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh and was succeeded by Marcellus Massey, the +third holder of that important post of honor in the North Country. Mr. +Massey, although for the greater part of his life also a resident of +Brooklyn, was of Jefferson County stock, a brother of Hart and of Solon +Massey. He gave his whole time and interest to the steady upbuilding of +the road. Gradually it was coming to a point where it was considered, +without exception, the best operated railroad in the State of New York, if +not in the entire land. Sometimes it was called the Nickel Plate, although +that name nowadays is generally reserved for the brisk trunk +line--officially the New York, Chicago & St. Louis--that operates from +Buffalo, through Cleveland to Chicago. + +The R. W. & O. was in fact at that time an extremely high-grade railroad +property; it was the pride of Watertown, of the entire North Country as +well. Mr. Massey used to say that as a dividend payer--its annual ten per +cent came as steadily as clock-striking--his road could not be beat; +particularly in a day when many railroad investments were regarded as very +shaky things indeed. The crash of the Oswego Midland, which was to come a +few years later, was to add nothing to the confidence of investors in this +form of investment. + +Steadily Mr. Massey and his co-workers sought to perfect the property. The +service was a very especial consideration in their minds. A moment ago we +saw the time table of 1863 in brief, now consider how it had steadily been +improved, in the course of another eight years. + +In 1871 the passenger service of the R. W. & O. consisted of two trains +through from Rome to Ogdensburgh without change. The first left Rome at +4:30 a. m., passed through Watertown at 7:38 a. m., and arrived at +Ogdensburgh at 11:15 a. m. The second left Rome at 1:00 p. m., passed +through Watertown at 4:17 p. m., and arrived at Ogdensburgh at 7:10 p. m. +Returning the first of these trains left Ogdensburgh at 6:08 a. m., passed +through Watertown at 9:20 a. m., and arrived at Rome at 12:10 p. m.: the +second left Ogdensburgh at 3:00 p. m., passed through Watertown at 6:35 +p. m., and reached Rome and the New York Central at 9:05 p. m. The +similarity between these trains and those upon the present time-card, the +long established Seven and One and Four and Eight, is astonishing. Put an +important train but once upon a time card, and seemingly it is hard to get +it off again. + +In addition to these four important through trains there were others: The +Watertown Express, leaving Rome at 5:30 p. m. and "dying" at Watertown at +9:05 p. m., was the precursor of the present Number Three. The return +movement of this train was as the New York Express, leaving Watertown at +8:10 a. m. and reaching Rome at 11:35 a. m. There were also three trains a +day in each direction on the Cape Vincent, and Oswego branches and two on +the one between DeKalb and Potsdam Junctions. + + * * * * * + +For a railroad to render real service it must have, not alone good +track--in those early days the Rome road, as it was known colloquially, +gave great and constant attention to its right of way--but good engines. +Up to about 1870 these were exclusively wood-burners, many of them +weighing not more than from twenty to twenty-five tons each. They were of +a fairly wide variety of type. While the output of the Rome Locomotive +Works was always favored, there were numbers of engines from the Rhode +Island, the Taunton and the Schenectady Works. + +Thirty-eight of these wood-burning engines formed the motive-power +equipment of the Rome road in the spring of 1869. Their names--locomotives +in those days invariably were named--were as follows: + + 1. _Watertown_ + 2. _Rome_ + 3. _Adams_ + 4. _Kingston_ + 5. _O. Hungerford_ + 6. _Col. Edwin Kirby_ + 7. _Norris Woodruff_ + 8. _Camden_ + 9. _J. L. Grant_ + 10. _Job Collamer_ + 11. _Jefferson_ + 12. _R. B. Doxtater_ + 13. _O. V. Brainard_ + 14. _North Star_ + 15. _T. H. Camp_ + 16. _Silas Wright_ + 17. _Antwerp_ + 18. _Wm. C. Pierrepont_ + 19. _St. Lawrence_ + 20. _Potsdam_ + 21. _Ontario_ + 22. _Montreal_ + 23. _New York_ + 24. _Ogdensburgh_ + 25. _Oswego_ + 26. _D. DeWitt_ + 27. _D. Utley_ + 28. _M. Massey_ + 29. _H. Moore_ + 30. _C. Comstock_ + 31. _S. F. Phelps_ + 32. _Col. Wm. Lord_ + 33. _H. Alexander, Jr._ + 34. _Roxbury_ + 35. _Com. Perry_ + 36. _C. E. Bill_ + 37. _Gen. S. D. Hungerford_ + 38. _Gardner Colby_ + +Of this considerable fleet the _Antwerp_ was perhaps the best known. Oddly +enough she was the engine that the directors of the Potsdam & Watertown +had purchased from "Vilas, of Plattsburgh." She was then called the +_Plattsburgh_, but upon her coming to the R. W. & O. she was already +renamed _Antwerp_. Inside connected, like the _O. Hungerford_, she also +was a product of the old Taunton works down in Eastern Massachusetts. Her +bright red driving wheels made her a conspicuous figure on the line. + +The _Camden_ was also an inside connected engine. The _Ontario_ and the +_Potsdam_ and the _Montreal_ were other acquisitions from the Potsdam & +Watertown. The _Potsdam_ had a picture of a lion painted upon her front +boiler door, the work of some gifted local artist, unknown to present +fame. She came to the North Country as the _Chicopee_ from the Springfield +Locomotive Works, and with her came, as engineer and fireman, +respectively, the famous Haynes brothers, Orville and Rhett. Henry +Batchelder, a brother of the renowned Ben, who comes later into this +narrative, and who is now a resident of Potsdam, well recalls the first +train that made the trip between that village and Canton. Made up of +flat-cars with temporary plank seats atop of them, and hauled by the +_Potsdam_, it brought excursionists into Canton to enjoy the St. Lawrence +County Fair. That was in the year of 1855, and the railroad was only +completed to a point some two miles east of Canton. From that point the +travelers walked into town. + +Mr. Batchelder also remembers that the engineers and firemen of that early +day invariably wore white shirts upon their locomotives. The old +wood-burners were never so hard as the coal-burners on the apparel of +their crews. They were wonderful little engines and, as we shall see in a +moment, had a remarkable ability for speed with their trains. The +_Antwerp_ in particular had rare speed. Those red drivers of hers were the +largest upon the line. And when Jeff Wells was at her throttle and those +red heels of hers were digging into the iron, men reached for their +watches. + + * * * * * + +No true history of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh might ever be written +without mention of Jefferson B. Wells. In truth he was the commodore of +the old locomotive fleet. For skill and daring and precision in the +handling of an engine he was never excelled. Although bearing a certain +uncanny reputation for being in accidents, he was blamed for none of them. +Whether at the lever of his two favorites, the _T. H. Camp_ and the +_Antwerp_, or in later years as captain of the "44" he was in his element +in the engine-cab. The "44" spent most of the later years of her life, +and of Wells', in service upon the Cape Vincent branch. I can remember it +standing at Watertown Junction, sending an occasional soft ring of grayish +smoke off into the blue skies above. And distinctly can I recall Jeff +Wells himself, a large-eyed, tallish man, fond of a good joke, or a good +story, a man with a keen zest in life itself. He was a good poker player. +It is related of him, that one night, while engaged in a pleasant game at +Cape Vincent, word came from Watertown ordering him to his engine for a +special run down to the county-seat and back. + +For a moment old Jeff hesitated. He liked poker. But then the trained soul +of the railroader triumphed. He threw his hand down upon the table--it was +a good hand, too--and turning toward the call-boy said: + +"Son, I'll be at the round house within ten minutes." + + * * * * * + +That was Wells; best at home in the engine-cab, and, I think no engine-cab +was ever quite the same to him as that of the speedy _Antwerp_, with John +Leasure on the fireman's side of the cab--Leasure was pretty sure to have +previously bedecked the _Antwerp_ with a vast variety of cedar boughs, +flags and the like--and the President's car on behind. This, in later +years, was sure to be the old parlor-car, _Watertown_, gayly furbished for +the occasion. This special was sure to be given the right-of-way over all +other trains on the line that day; all the switch-points being ordered +spiked, in order to avoid the possibility of accidents. Yet, on at least +one occasion--at DeKalb Junction--this practice nearly led to a serious +mishap. Mr. Massey's train had swept past the little depot there and +around the curve onto the Ogdensburgh branch at seventy miles an hour. For +once there had been a miscalculation. The little train veered terribly as +it struck the branch-line rails; the directors were thrown from their +comfortable seats in the parlor-car, and poor Billy Lanfear, of Cape +Vincent, the fireman, was nearly carromed from his place in the cab. At +the last fractional part of a second he succeeded in catching hold of the +engineer's window as he started to shoot out. + +The wood-burners were not supposed to be fast engines--a great many of +them in the early days of the R. W. & O. had small drivers and this was an +added handicap to their speed. But sixty miles an hour was not out of the +question for them. Mr. Richard Holden, of Watertown, who started his +railroad career in the eating-house of the old station in that city, still +recalls several trips that he made in the cab of the engines on the Cape +branch. It had a fairly close schedule at the best, connecting at +Watertown Junction with Number Three up from Rome in the afternoon, and +turning and coming back in time to make connections with Number Six down +the line. It frequently would happen that Three would be fifteen or twenty +minutes late, which would mean a good deal of hustling on the part of the +Cape train to make her fifty mile run and turn-around and still avoid +delaying Number Six. But both Casey Eldredge and Chris Delaney, the +engineers on the branch at that time, could do it: Jeff Wells was still on +the main line and unwilling then to accept the easier Cape branch run, +which afterwards he was very glad to take. + +"The air-brake was unknown at that time," says Mr. Holden, "all trains +being stopped by the brakeman, assisted by the fireman, a brake being upon +the tender of all the engines. When some of these fast trains were +running, I used to take a great delight in riding on the engine, and +remember the running-time of the trip was thirty-five minutes, which +included stops at Brownville, Limerick, Chaumont and Three Mile Bay, my +recollection being that the station at Rosiere was not open at that time. +Deducting the time used for stops the actual running time would average +sixty miles an hour. All engines used on passenger trains had small +driving-wheels and it will be remembered that all passenger trains, except +One and Six, consisted of but a baggage-car and two coaches, consequently +an engine could get a train under good headway much faster than engines +with the heavy equipment in use at the present time." + + * * * * * + +In all these statements in regard to the speed of the trains upon the +early R. W. & O. it should not be forgotten that for the first twelve or +thirteen years of the road's existence, it had to worry along without +telegraphic or any other form of rapid interstation communication. It was +not until 1863 or 1864 that its trains were despatched upon telegraphic +orders; and even these were of the crudest possible form. The "Nineteen" +had not yet been evolved. A slip of paper torn from the handiest writing +block and scribbled in fairly indecipherable hieroglyphics was the train +order of those beginnings of modern railroading. The telegraph order, +instead of being a real help to the locomotive engineer, was apt to be one +of the puzzles and the banes of his existence. + +It was in 1866 that a railroad telegraph office was first established at +Watertown Junction and D. N. Bosworth engaged as despatcher there. +According to the recollections of Mr. W. D. Hanchette, of that city, who +is the nestor of all things telegraphic in Northern New York, Bosworth was +soon followed by a Mr. Warner, who was not, himself, a telegraphic +operator, but who had to be assisted by one. A Canadian, named Monk, was +one of the first of these. Warner was finally succeeded as despatcher at +Watertown Junction by N. B. Hine, a brother of Omar A. Hine and of A. C. +Hine--all of them much identified with the history of the Rome road. N. B. +Hine remained with the road for a long season of years as its train +despatcher, eventually moving his office from the Junction to the enlarged +passenger station back of the Woodruff House in Watertown. + +He learned his trade in the summer before Fort Sumter was fired upon; +using a small, home-made, wooden key at his father's farm, somewhere back +of DeKalb. A year after he had obtained his railroad job, Omar Hine was +appointed operator at Richland, opening the first telegraph office at that +place, and becoming its station agent as well. From Richland he was +promoted to the more important, similar post at Norwood. When he left +Norwood, Mr. Hine became a conductor upon the main line. In that service +he remained until the comparatively recent year of 1887. + +About the time that he was assigned to Richland, his brother, A. C. Hine, +was appointed operator and helper at the neighboring station of Sandy +Creek. So from a single North Country farm sprang three expert +telegraphers and railroaders. When they began their career, but a single +wire stretched all the way from Watertown to Ogdensburgh; and the movement +of trains by telegraph was occasional, not regular nor standardized. A +second wire was strung the entire length of the line in the fall of 1866 +and in the following spring, Mr. Bosworth began the difficult task of +trying to work a systematic method of telegraphic despatching, and +gradually brought the engineers of the road into a real cooperation with +his plan, a thing much more difficult to accomplish than might be at first +imagined. Those old-time engineers of the road were good men; but some of +them were a trifle "sot" in their ways. Their habits were not things +easily changed. + + * * * * * + +The full list of these old-time engineers of the R. W. & O. would run to a +considerable length. Remember again Orve Haynes--something of an +engine-runner was he--who afterwards went down to St. Louis to become +Master Mechanic upon the Iron Mountain road. The _J. L. Grant_ was named +after a Master Mechanic of the R. W. & O., who eventually became an +assistant superintendent. The _Grant_ was in steady use upon the Cape +branch prior to the coming of the "44." A good engineer in those days was +a good mechanic--invariably. Repair facilities were few and far between. +The ingenuity and quick wit of the man in the engine-cab more than once +was called into play. Engine failures were no less frequent then than now. + +Ben. F. Batchelder first came to fame as a well-known engineer of that +early decade; John Skinner was another. There was D. L. Van Allen and +Louis Bouran and John Mortimer and Casey Eldredge and Asa Rowell and old +"Parse" Hines, and George Schell and Jim Cheney--that list does indeed run +to lengths. In a later generation came Nathaniel R. Peterson ("Than") and +Conrad Shaler and Frank W. Smith and George H. Hazleton, and Frank Taylor, +and Charles Vogel--but again I must desist. This is a history, not a +necrology. It is hardly fair to pick but a few names, out of so many +deserving ones. + +The most of the engineers of that day have gone. A very few remain. One of +these is Frank W. Smith, of Watertown, who to-day (1922) has retired from +his engine-cab, but remains one of the expert billiard players in the +Lincoln League of that city. + +Mr. Smith entered upon his railroad career on November 9, 1866, at the +rather tender age of seventeen, as a wiper in the old round house in +Coffeen Street, Watertown. In those days all the engines upon the line +still were wood-burners. The most conspicuous thing about DeKalb Junction +in those days, aside from the red brick Goulding House, was the huge +wood-shed and wood-pile beyond the small depot, which still stands there. +It was customary for an engine to "wood up" at Watertown--in those days as +in these again, all trains changed engines at Watertown--and again at +DeKalb Junction before finishing her run into Ogdensburgh. Similarly upon +the return trip, she would stop again at DeKalb to fill her tender; which, +in turn, would carry her back to Watertown once again. Wood went all too +quickly. I remember, sometime in the mid-eighties, riding from Prescott to +Ottawa, upon the old Ottawa and St. Lawrence Railroad, and the wood-burner +stopping somewhere between those towns to appease its seemingly insatiable +appetite. + +The wood-burners upon the R. W. & O. began to disappear sometime about the +beginnings of the seventies. Apparently the first engine to have her +fire-boxes changed to permit of the use of soft coal was the _C. +Comstock_, which was rapidly followed by the _Phelps_, the _Lord_ and the +_Alexander_. They then had the extension boilers and the straight +"diamond" stacks. A red band ran around the under flare of the diamond. +About that time the road began adding to its motive power; new engines, +among them the _Theodore Irwin_ and the _C. Zabriskie_, were being +purchased, and these were all coal burners, bituminous, of course. When, +as we shall see, in a following chapter, the Syracuse Northern was merged +into the R. W. & O., eight new locomotives were added to the growing fleet +of the parent road; four Hinckleys and four Bloods. + +Even at that time the road was beginning, although in a modest and +somewhat hesitant way, the construction of its own locomotives in its own +shops. William Jackson, the Master Mechanic there in 1873, built the _J. +W. Moak_ and the _J. S. Farlow_, both of them coal-burners for passenger +service. He was succeeded by Abraham Close who built the _Cataract_ and +the _Lewiston_, and the _Moses Taylor_, too, in 1877. The following year +the late George H. Hazleton was to become the road's Master Mechanic and +so to remain as long as it retained its corporate existence. + +In later years there were to come those famous Mogul twins, the _Samson_ +and the _Goliath_. There were, as I recall it, still two others of these +Moguls, the _Energy_ and the _Efficiency_. In a still later time the road, +robbed of its pleasant personal way of locomotive nomenclature and +adopting a strictly impersonal method of denoting its engines by serial +numbers alone, was to take another forward step and bring in still larger +Moguls; the "1," "2," "3," and "4." + +But I anticipate. I cannot close this chapter without one more reference +to my good friend, Frank W. Smith. He was an energetic little fellow; and +after some twenty months of engine wiping there at Coffeen Street, and all +the abuse and cuffing and chaffing that went with it, he won an honest +promotion to the job of a locomotive fireman. It was a real job, real +responsibility and real pay, thirty-nine dollars a month. Yet this job +faded when he became an engineer. Job envied of all other jobs. How the +boys would crowd around the _Norris Woodruff_ at Adams depot, at +Gouverneur, and all the rest of the way along the line and feast their +eyes upon Frank Smith up there in the neat cab, that so quickly came to +look like home to him! Fifty dollars a month pay! Overtime? Of course not. +Agreements? Once more, no. This was nearly fifteen years ahead of that day +when the engineers upon the Central Railroad of New Jersey were to +formulate the first of these perplexing things. + +But a good engine, a good job and good pay. They had the pleasant habit of +assigning a crew to a definite engine in those days, and that piece of +motive power invariably became their pet and pride. A good job was not +only an honest one, but one of a considerable distinction. And fifty +dollars a month was not bad pay, when cheese was eight cents a pound and +butter seven, and a kind friend apt to give you all the eggs that you +could take home in the top of your hat. Remuneration, in its last analysis +is forever a comparative thing--and nothing more. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE R. W. & O. PROSPERS--AND EXPANDS + + +In the mid-seventies the young city of Watertown was entering upon a rare +era in which culture and great prosperity were to be blended. The men who +walked its pleasant maple-shaded streets were real men, indeed: the Flower +brothers--George W., Anson R. and Roswell P.--George B. Phelps, Norris +Winslow, the Knowlton brothers--John C. and George W.--Talcott H. Camp, +George A. Bagley, these were the men who were the town's captains of +industry of that day. An earlier generation had passed away; Norris +Woodruff, O. V. Brainard, Orville Hungerford; these men had played their +large parts in the upbuilding of Watertown and were gone or else living in +advanced years. A new generation of equal energy and ability had come to +replace them. Roswell P. Flower was upon the threshold of that remarkable +career in Wall Street that was to make him for a time its leader and give +him the large political honor of becoming Governor of the State of New +York. His brother, George W., first Mayor of Watertown, was tremendously +interested in each of the city's undertakings. George B. Phelps had risen +from the post of Superintendent of the old Potsdam & Watertown to be one +of the town's richest men. He had a city house in New York--a handsome +"brownstone front" in one of the "forties"--and in his huge house in Stone +Street, Watertown, the luxury of a negro valet, John Fletcher, for many +years a familiar figure upon the streets of the town. + +From the pulpit of the dignified First Presbyterian Church in Washington +Street, the venerable Dr. Isaac Brayton had now retired; his place was +being filled by Dr. Porter, long to be remembered in the annals of that +society. Dr. Olin was about entering old Trinity, still in Court Street. +Into the ancient structure of the Watertown High School, in State Street, +the genial and accomplished William Kerr Wickes was coming as principal. +The Musical Union was preparing for its record run of _Pinafore_ in +Washington Hall. And in the old stone cotton factory on Beebee's Island, +Fred Eames was tinkering with his vacuum air brake, little dreaming of the +tragic fate that was to await him but a few years later; more likely, +perhaps, of the great air brake industry to which he was giving birth and +which, three decades later, was to take its proper place among the town's +chief industries. Paper manufacturing, as it is known to-day in the North +Country, was then a comparatively small thing; there were few important +mills outside of those of the Knowltons or the Taggarts--the clans of +Remington, of Herring, of Sherman and of Anderson were yet to make their +deep impress upon the community. + +Carriage making was then a more important business than that of paper +making. The very thought of the motor-car was as yet unborn and +Watertonians reckoned the completion of a new carriage in the town in +minutes rather than in hours. It made steam engines and sewing machines. +All in all it created a very considerable traffic for its railroad--in +reality for its railroads, for in 1872 a rival line had come to contest +the monopoly of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh; of which more in good +time. + + * * * * * + +As went Watertown, so went the rest of the North Country. It was a brisk, +prosperous land, where industry and culture shared their forces. There was +a plenitude of manufacturing even outside of Watertown, whilst the mines +at Keene and Rossie had reopened and were shipping a modest five or six +cars a day of really splendid red ore. People worked well, people thought +well. The excellent seminaries at Belleville, at Adams, at Antwerp and at +Gouverneur reflected a general demand for an education better than the +public schools of that day might offer. The young St. Lawrence University +up at Canton, after a hard beginning fight, was at last on its way to its +present day strength and influence. + +Northern New Yorkers traveled. They traveled both far and near. Even +distant Europe was no sealed book to them. There were dozens of fine +homes, even well outside of the towns and villages, which boasted their +Steinway pianos and whose young folk, graduated from Yale or Mount +Holyoke, spoke intelligently with their elders of Napoleon III or of the +charms of the boulevards of Paris. + + * * * * * + +In the upbuilding of this prosperous era the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +had played its own large part. By 1875 it was nearly a quarter of a +century old. It was indeed an extremely high grade and prosperous +property, the pride, not only of Watertown, which had been so largely +responsible for its construction, but indeed of the entire North Country. +It had, as we have already seen, as far back as 1866, succeeded in +thrusting a line into Oswego, thirty miles west of Richland. After which +it felt that it needed an entrance into Syracuse, then as now, a most +important railroad center. To accomplish this entrance it leased, in 1875, +the Syracuse Northern Railroad, and then gained at last a firm two-footed +stand upon the tremendous main line of the New York Central & Hudson River +Railroad. It continued to maintain, of course, its original connection at +Rome--its long stone depot there still stands to-day, although far removed +from the railroad tracks. Yet one, in memory at least, may see it as the +brisk business place of yore, with the four tracks of the Vanderbilt trail +curving upon the one side of it and the brightly painted yellow cars of +the R. W. & O. waiting upon the other. The Rome connection gave the road +direct access to Boston, New York, and to the East generally; that at +Syracuse made the journey from Northern New York to western points much +easier and more direct, than it had been through the Rome gateway. It was +logical and it was strategic. And it is possible that had the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh been content to remain satisfied with its system +as it then existed, a good deal of railroad history that followed after, +would have remained unwritten. + + * * * * * + +The railroad scheme that finally led to the building of the Syracuse +Northern had been under discussion since 1851, the year of the completion +of the Watertown & Rome Railroad. Yet, largely because of the paucity of +good sized intermediate towns upon the lines of the proposed route, the +plan for a long time had languished. In the late sixties it was +successfully revived, however, and the Syracuse Northern Railroad +incorporated, early in 1870, with a capital stock of $1,250,000 and the +following officers: + + _President_, ALLEN MUNROE + _Secretary_, PATRICK H. AGAN + _Treasurer_, E. B. JUDSON + _Engineer_, A. C. POWELL + + _Directors_ + + Allen Munroe, Syracuse + E. W. Leavenworth, Syracuse + E. B. Judson, Syracuse + Patrick Lynch, Syracuse + Frank H. Hiscock, Syracuse + John A. Green, Syracuse + Jacob S. Smith, Syracuse + Horace K. White, Syracuse + Elizur Clark, Syracuse + Garret Doyle, Syracuse + William H. Canter, Brewerton + James A. Clark, Pulaski + Orin R. Earl, Sandy Creek + +The road once organized found a lively demand for its shares. Its largest +investor was the city of Syracuse, which subscribed for $250,000 worth of +its bonds. The first depot of the new line in the city that gave it its +birth was in Saxon Street, up in the old town of Salina. From there it was +that Denison, Belden & Company began the construction of the railroad. It +was not a difficult road to build, easy grades and but three bridges--a +small one at Parish and two fairly sizable ones at Brewerton and at +Pulaski--to go up, so it was finished and opened for traffic in the fall +of 1871--which was precisely the same year that the New York Central +opened its wonderful Grand Central Depot down on Forty-second Street, New +York. The line ran through from Syracuse to Sandy Creek, now Lacona. It +started off in good style, operating two passenger express trains, an +accommodation and two freights each day in each direction. At the +beginning it made a brave showing for itself, and soon after it was open +it built for itself a one-storied brick passenger station across from the +New York Central's, then new, depot in Syracuse, and at right angles to +it. That station still stands but is now used as the Syracuse freight +station of the American Railway Express. + +E. H. Bancroft was the first superintendent of the Syracuse Northern, C. +C. Morse, the second, and J. W. Brown, the third. J. Dewitt Mann was the +accounting officer and paymaster. The road never attained to a long +official roster of its own, however. Within a twelvemonth after its +opening the prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, having already seen +the advantages of a two-footed connection with the New York Central, +planned its purchase. The Syracuse road, having failed to become the +financial success of which its promoters had hoped, this act was easily +accomplished. The Sheriff of Onondaga County assisted. In 1875 there was a +foreclosure sale and the Syracuse Northern ceased to live thereafter, save +as a branch to Pulaski. A few years later the six miles of track between +that town and Sandy Creek were torn up and abandoned. The old road-bed is +still in plain sight, however, for a considerable distance along the line +of the state highway to Watertown as it leads out of Pulaski, while the +abutments of the former high railroad bridge over the Salmon River still +show conspicuously in that village. + + * * * * * + +With its system fairly well rounded out, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +began the intensive perfection of its service. It built, in 1874, the +first section of the long stone freight-house opposite the passenger +station--so long a landmark of Watertown--from stone furnished by Lawrence +Gage, of Chaumont. Mr. Moak, the Superintendent of the road at that time, +was criticized for this expenditure. As a matter of fact it was necessary +not only to twice enlarge it quite radically, but to build a relief +transfer station at the Junction before the stone freight-house was +finally torn down to make room for the present passenger station at +Watertown. + +Between the old freight-shed and the old passenger station there ran for +many years but a single passenger track, curving all the way, and beside +it the long platform, which was protected from the elements by a canopy, +which in turn, had a canopied connection with the waiting-room; at that +time still in the wing or original portion of the station; the main or +newer portion, being occupied by the restaurant, which had passed from the +hands of Col. Dunton into those of Silas Snell, Watertown's most famous +cornet player of that generation. + +At Watertown the Cape Vincent train would lay in at the end of the +freight-house siding, and, because the Coffeen Street crossover had not +then been constructed, would back in and out between the passenger station +and the Watertown Junction, a little over a mile distant. Watertown +Junction was still a point of considerable passenger importance. Long +platforms were placed between the tracks there and passengers destined +through to the St. Lawrence never went up into the main passenger station +at all, but changed at that point to the Cape train. + +The Thousand Islands were beginning to be known as a summer resort of +surpassing excellence. The famous Crossmon House at Alexandria Bay was +already more than two decades old. O. G. Staples had just finished that +nine-days-wonder, the Thousand Island House, and plans were in the making +for the building of the Round Island Hotel (afterwards the Frontenac) and +other huge hostelries that were to make social history at the St. +Lawrence, even before the coming of the cottage and club-house era. + + * * * * * + +It will be recalled that from the first the R. W. & O. developed excellent +docking facilities at Cape Vincent. At the outset it had builded the large +covered passenger station upon the wharf there, whose tragic destruction +we have already witnessed. Beyond this were the freight-sheds and the +grain elevator. For Cape Vincent's importance in those days was by no +means limited to the passenger travel, which there debouched from the +trains to take the steamers to the lower river points, or even that which +all the year around made its tedious way across the broad river to +Kingston, twenty-two miles away. + +The _Lady of the Lake_ passed out of existence some six or seven years +after the inauguration of the Kingston ferry in connection with the trains +into the Cape. She was replaced by the steamer _Pierrepont_--the first of +this name--which was built on Wolfe Island in the summer of 1856 and went +into service in the following spring. In that same summer of 1857 the +canal was dug through the waistline girth of Wolfe Island, and a short and +convenient route established through it, between Cape Vincent and +Kingston--some twelve or thirteen miles all told, as against nearly twice +that distance around either the head or the foot of the island. + +It was a pleasant ride through the old Wolfe Island canal. I can easily +remember it, myself, the slow and steady progress of the steamboat through +the rich farmlands and truck-gardens, the neatly whitewashed highway +bridges, swinging leisurely open from time to time to permit of our +progress. It is a great pity that the ditch was ever abandoned. + +The first _Pierrepont_ was not a particularly successful craft and it was +supplemented in 1864 by the _Watertown_, which gradually took the brunt of +the steadily increasing traffic across the St. Lawrence at this point. The +ferry grew steadily to huge proportions and for many years a great volume +of both passengers and freight was handled upon it. It is a fact worth +noting here, perhaps, that the first through shipment of silk from the +Orient over the newly completed transcontinental route of the Canadian +Pacific Railway was made into New York, by way of the Cape Vincent ferry +and the R. W. & O. in the late fall of 1883. + + * * * * * + +With the business of this international crossing steadily increasing, it +became necessary to keep two efficient steamers upon the route and so the +second _Pierrepont_ was builded, going into service in 1874. At about that +time the _Watertown_ ceased her active days upon the river and the lake +and was succeeded by the staunch steamer _Maud_. Here was a staunch craft +indeed, built upon the Clyde somewhere in the late fifties or the early +sixties, and shipped in sections from Glasgow to Montreal, where she was +set up for St. Lawrence service, in which she still is engaged, under the +name of the _America_. Her engines for many years were of a peculiar +Scotch pattern, by no means usual in this part of the world, and +apparently understood by no one other than Billy Derry, for many years her +engineer. Occasionally Derry would quarrel with the owners of the _Maud_ +and quit his job. They always sent their apologies after him, however. No +one else could run the boat, and they were faced with the alternative of +bowing to his whims or laying up the steamer. + +Yet, as I have already intimated, the passenger traffic was but a small +part of Cape Vincent's importance through three or four great decades. The +ferry carried mail, freight and express as well--the place was ever an +important ferry crossing, a seat of a custom house of the first rank. In +summer the steamer acted as ferry, for many years crossing the Wolfe +Island barrier four times daily, through three or four miles of canal, +which some time along in the early nineties was suffered to fill up and +was abandoned in 1892. In midwinter mail and freight and passengers alike +crossed in speed and a real degree of fine comfort in great four-horse +sleighs upon a hard roadway of thick, thick ice. It was between seasons, +when the ice was either forming or breaking and sleighs as utter an +impossibility as steamboats that the real problem arose. In those times of +the year a strange craft, which was neither sled nor boat, but a +combination of both, was used. It went through the water and over the ice. +Yet the result was not as easy as it sounds. More than one passenger paid +his dollar to go from Cape Vincent to Kingston, for the privilege of +pushing the heavy hand sled-boat over the ice, getting his feet wet in the +bargain. + + * * * * * + +Into the many vagaries of North Country weather, I shall not enter at this +time. In a later chapter we shall give some brief attention to them. It +is enough here to say that a man who could fight a blizzard, coming in +from off Ontario, and keep the line open could run a railroad anywhere +else in the world. In after years I was to see, myself, some of these rare +old fights; Russell plows getting into the drifts over their necks +around-about Pulaski and Richland and Sandy Creek, seemingly half the +motive power off the track. Yet these were no more than the road has had +since almost the very day of its inception. + +Once, in the midwinter of 1873, we had a noble old wind--the North Country +has a way of having noble old winds, even to-day--and the huge spire of +the First Presbyterian Church in Washington Street, Watertown, came +tumbling down into the road, smashed into a thousand bits, and seemingly +with no more noise than the sharp slamming of a blind. + +That night--it was the evening of the fifteenth of January--the railroad +in and about Watertown nearly collapsed. Trains were hugely delayed and +many of them abandoned. The _Watertown Times_ of the next day, naIvely +announced: + +"Conductor Sandiforth didn't come home last night and missed a good deal +by not coming. He spent the evening with a party of shovelers working his +way from Richland to Pierrepont Manor. Conductor Aiken followed him up +with the night train but he couldn't pass him, and so both trains arrived +here at 9:30 this (Thursday) morning." + +Here Conductor Lew Sandiforth first comes into our picture and for a +moment I shall interrupt my narrative to give a bit of attention to him. +He is well worth the interruption of any narrative. We had many pretty +well-known conductors on the old R. W. & O.--but none half so well-known +as Lew Sandiforth. He was the wit of the old line, and its pet beau. It +was said of him, that if there was a good looking woman on the afternoon +train up to Watertown, Lew would quit taking tickets somewhere north of +Sandy Creek. The train then could go to the Old Harry for all he cared. He +had his social duties to perform. He was not one to shirk such +responsibilities. + +In those days a railroad conductor was something of an uncrowned king, +anyway. His pay was meager, but ofttimes his profits were large. One of +these famous old ticket punchers upon the Rome road lived at the Woodruff +House, in Watertown, throughout the seventies. His wage was seventy-five +dollars a month, but he paid ninety dollars a month board for his wife and +himself and kept a driver and a carriage in addition. No questions were +asked. The road, on the whole, was glad to get its freight and its ticket +office revenues. Even these last were nothing to brag about. It was a poor +sort of a public man in those days who could not have his wallet lined +with railroad annual passes. A large proportion of the passengers upon the +average train rode free of any charge. Sometimes this attained a +scandalous volume. Away back in 1858, I find the Directors of the Potsdam +& Watertown resolving that no officer of their company "shall give a free +pass for _more_ than one trip over the road to any one person, except +officers of other railroad companies; and that an account of all free +passes taken up shall be entered by the conductors in their daily returns +with the name of the person passed and the name of the person who gave the +pass, and the Superintendent shall submit statement thereof to each +meeting of the Board." Moreover, he was requested to notify the conductors +not to pass any persons without a pass except the Directors and Secretary +of the company, and their families, the roadmaster, paymaster, station +agents, and "persons who the conductors think are entitled to charity." + + * * * * * + +Despite obstacles to its full earning power such as this, the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh prospered ... and progressed. Forever it was +planning new frills to add to its operation. In 1865 it had placed a +through Wagner sleeping-car in service between Watertown and New York. In +1875 this was an established function, leaving Watertown on the 6:30 train +each evening and arriving in New York at 7:55 the next morning; returning +it left New York each evening at six, and Albany at 11:40, and was in +Watertown at 9:05 the next morning. A later management of the R. W. & O. +in a fit of economy discontinued this service, and for more than twenty +years the North Country stood in line for sleeping-car berths at Utica +station, while it fought for the restoration of its sleeping-cars. These +cars eventually came back, but not regularly until 1891, when the New York +Central took over the property and put its up-to-date traffic methods upon +it once again. + +The local management of the mid-seventies--composed almost entirely of +Watertown men--was not content to stop with the through sleeping cars +between their chief town and New York. They finally instructed H. H. +Sessions, their Master Mechanic, down in the old shops at Rome, to build +two wonderful new cars for their line, "the likes of which had never been +seen before." Mr. Sessions approached his new task with avidity. He was a +born car-builder, in after years destined to take charge of the motive +power department of the International & Great Northern Railway, at +Palestine, Texas, and then, in January, 1887, to become Manager of the +great Pullman car works at Pullman, Ill., just outside of Chicago. For six +years he held this position, afterwards resigning it to enter into +business for himself. The first vestibuled trains in which the platforms +were enclosed, were built under his supervision under what are known +to-day as the "Sessions Patents." He was indeed an inventive genius, and +also designed the first steel platforms and other very modern devices in +progressive car construction. + +Sessions produced two sleeping-cars for the old Rome road. The "likes of +them" had never been seen before, and never will be seen again. They were +named the _St. Lawrence_ and the _Ontario_, and, despite the fact that +they depended upon candle-light as their sole means of illumination, they +were wonderfully finished in the rarest of hard-woods. Alternately they +were sleeping-cars and parlor-cars. At the first they were distinguished +by the fact that they possessed no upper-berths, their mattresses, pillows +and linen being carried in closets at either end of the car. + + * * * * * + +These cars at one time were placed in service between Syracuse, Watertown +and Fabyan's, N. H., passing enroute through Norwood, Rouse's Point and +Montpelier. One of them was in charge of Ed. Frary, the son of the +General Ticket Agent of the R. W. & O. at that time, and the other in +charge of L. S. Hungerford, who originally came from Evan's Mills. This +was the Hungerford, who to-day is Vice-President and General Manager of +the Pullman Company, at Chicago. A third or "spare" car was afterwards +purchased from the Pullman Company and renamed the _DeKalb_. + +Because of the limited carrying capacity of these R. W. & O. sleeping-cars +they were never profitable. They did a little better when they were in day +service as parlor-cars. One of Mr. Richard Holden's most vivid memories is +of one of these cars coming into Watertown from the south on the afternoon +train, which would halt somewhere near the Pine Street cutting to slip it +off, preparatory to placing it on the Cape train at the Junction. + +"I remember," he says, "how proud the late Frank Cornish was in riding +down the straight on the first drawing-room car, with his hands on the +brakewheel. He was a brakeman at that time. Afterwards he was promoted to +baggageman and then to conductor, having the run on Number One and Number +Seven for many years, afterwards conducting a cigar-stand in the Yates +Hotel at Syracuse until he died." + +When hard times came upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh these cars +were laid up. Once in later years, under the Parsons management, they were +renamed the _Cataract_ and the _Niagara_, and operated in the Niagara +Falls night trains. But again, they proved too much of a financial drag, +and they were finally converted into day-coaches. There was another +parlor-car, the _Watertown_. Eventually this became the private-car of Mr. +H. M. Britton, General Manager of the R. W. & O., while the others +remained day coaches; still retaining, however, their wide plate-glass +windows and their general appearance of comfortable ease. + + * * * * * + +Here indeed was the golden age of the Rome road. Its bright, neat, yellow +cars, its smartly painted and trimmed engines all bespoke the existence of +a prosperous little rail carrier, that might have left well enough alone. +But, seemingly it could not. There is a man living in the western part of +this state, who recalls one fine day there in the mid-seventies, when Mr. +Massey--the President of the road, came walking out of the Watertown +station, talking all the time to Mr. Moak, its General +Superintendent--came over to him: + +"We're going to be a real railroad at last, John," said he. "We're going +through to Niagara Falls upon our own rails and get into the trunk-line +class." + +He was giving expression to a dream of years. A moment ago and we were +speaking of the operation through two or three summers of sleeping-cars +between Watertown and the White Mountains over the R. W. & O., the +Northern (at that time, already become the Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain), +the Central Vermont, the Montpelier and Wells River, and the Portland and +Ogdensburgh. The officers of the Rome road felt that, if they could bridge +the gap existing between the terminals of their line at Oswego, and go +through to Suspension Bridge or Buffalo, where there were plenty of +competing lines through to Chicago and the West, that they could both +enter upon the competitive business of carrying western freight to the +Atlantic seaboard, and at the same time stand independent of the New York +Central. Eventually their idea was to take a concrete form, but again I +anticipate. + + * * * * * + +In that brisk day there was, in the slow and laborious process of building +a railroad, leading due west from Oswego. It was called the Lake Ontario +Shore Railroad, and its construction was indeed a laborious process. For +many years it came to an end just eighteen miles beyond Oswego. Finally it +reached the little village of Ontario, fifty-one miles beyond. And there +stopped dead. If it had forever been halted there, it would have been a +good thing. Its promoters were both industrious and persistent, however. +They chose to overlook the fact that the narrow territory, that they +sought to thread, promised small local traffic returns for many years to +come; a thin strip it was between the main line of the New York Central +and the south shore of Lake Ontario, and although nearly 150 miles in +length, never more than twelve or fifteen in width, and without any +sizable communities. The prospect of a profitable traffic, originating in +so thin a strip, was small indeed. + +The prospectors of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad did not see it that +way. They stressed the fact that at Sterling they would intersect the +Southern Central (now the Lehigh Valley), at Sodus the Northern Central +(now the Pennsylvania), at Charlotte; the port of Rochester, the Rochester +& State Line (now the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) all in addition to +the many valuable connections to be made at the Niagara River. Yet for a +considerable time after the road had been pushed through Western New +York, it came to a dead stop at Lewiston. Its original terminal can still +be seen in that small village. + +It was then thought possible and feasible to build a railroad bridge +across the Niagara and the international boundary between Lewiston and +Queenstown, in competition with the Suspension Bridge, which from the very +moment of its opening in 1849 had been an overwhelming success. The +energetic group of Oswego men who had promoted the building of the Lake +Ontario Shore, hoped to duplicate the success of the Suspension Bridge +there at Lewiston. They saw that small frontier New York town transformed +into a real railroad metropolis. + +"And what a line we shall have, running right up to it!" they argued. +"Seventy-three out of our seventy-six miles, west of the Genesee River, as +straight as the proverbial ruler-edge; and a maximum gradient of but +twenty-six feet to the mile! What opportunities for fast--and efficient +operation!" + +They had capitalized their line at $4,000,000 and in October, 1870, when I +first find official mention of it, they had expended $54,300 upon it. Its +officers at that time were: + + _President_, GILBERT MOLLISON, Oswego + _Treasurer_, LUTHER WRIGHT, Oswego + _Secretary_, HENRY L. DAVIS, Oswego + _Engineer_, ISAAC S. DOANE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Luther Wright, Oswego + Alanson S. Page, Oswego + Fred'k T. Carrington, Oswego + Gilbert Mollison, Oswego + Reuben F. Wilson, Wilson + Joseph L. Fowler, Ransonville + Oliver P. Scovell, Lewiston + George I. Post, Fairhaven + William O. Wood, Red Creek + Burt Van Horne, Lockport + James Brackett, Rochester + D. F. Worcester, Rochester + + * * * * * + +It is needless to say that the railroad bridge was never thrust across the +Niagara at Lewiston. That project died "a'borning." And so, almost, did +the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. As I have just said, the building of the +road finally was halted at Ontario, fifty-one miles west of Oswego. +Finally, by tremendous effort and the injection of some capital from the +wealthy city of Rochester into the project it was brought through in 1875 +as far as Kendall, a miserable little railroad, wretched and woe-begone +with its sole rolling stock consisting of two second-hand locomotives, two +passenger-cars and some fifty or sixty freight-cars. + +In the long run, just as most folk had anticipated from the beginning, it +was the wealthy and prosperous Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh that took +over the Lake Ontario Shore and completed it; in 1876 as far as Lewiston, +and a year or two later up the face of the Niagara escarpment to +Suspension Bridge and the immensely valuable connections there. The +merger, itself, was consummated in the midsummer of 1875. To reach the +tracks of the new connecting link, from those of the old road, it was +necessary not only to build an exceedingly difficult little tunnel under +the hill, upon which the Oswego Court House stands, but to bridge the wide +expanse of the river just beyond, a tedious and expensive process, which +occupied considerably more than a twelvemonth. + +All of this was not done until 1876 and by that time disaster threatened. +The Rome road had gone quite too far. Times were growing very hard once +again. A tight money market threatened; the storm of '73 had been passed +but that of '77 was still ahead. It began to be a question whether the R. +W. & O. could weather the large obligations that it had assumed when it +had absorbed the Lake Ontario Shore. Traffic did not come off the new +line; not, at least, in any considerable or profitable quantities. It +defaulted on the interest payments of its bonds. + +There was the beginning of disaster. The Rome road management realized +this. They cut their dividends a little, and then to nothing. Watertown +was staggered. For a long term of years up to 1870 the road had paid its +ten per cent annual dividend with astonishing regularity. In that year it +dropped a little--to eight per cent--the next year, to seven, and then in +the panic year of 1873 to but three and one-half. The following year it +had returned, with increasing good times, to seven. In the fiscal year of +1874-75 the Directors of the property had voted six and one-half. That was +the end. The cancer of the Lake Ontario Shore was upon the parent +property. The strong old R. W. & O. had permitted the default of the +interest payments upon the bonds of their leased property. Confusion ruled +among the men in the depot at Watertown. They were dazed with impending +disaster. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND + + +The enthusiasm which Mr. Marcellus Massey showed over the extension of his +railroad into Suspension Bridge was surface enthusiasm, indeed. In his +heart he felt that it had taken a very dangerous step. His mind was full +of forebodings. Some of these he confessed to his intimates in Watertown. +He felt that a mistake--if you please, an irrevocable mistake--had been +made. And there was no turning back. + +These forebodings were realized. As we have just seen, the Lake Ontario +Shore defaulted upon its bonds in 1876 and again in 1877. The reflection +of this disastrous step came directly upon the R. W. & O. It ceased paying +dividends. The North Country folk, who had come to regard its securities +as something hardly inferior to government bonds, were depressed and then +alarmed. Yet worse was to come. On August 1, 1878, the R. W. & O. +defaulted in its interest on its great mass of consolidated bonds. + +The blow had fallen! Failure impended! And receivership! Yet, in the long +run, both were avoided. Into the directorate of the railroad, up to that +time a fairly close Northern New York affair, a new man had come. He was a +smallish man, with a reputation for keenness and sagacity in railroad +affairs, second only to that of Jay Gould or Daniel Drew. There were more +ways than one in which Samuel Sloan, known far and wide as plain "Sam +Sloan," resembled both of these men. + +His touch with the R. W. & O. came physically, by way of the contact of +the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western with it at three points; at Oswego, +at Syracuse, and at Rome--this last, at that time through its leased +operation of the Rome & Clinton Railroad, which ceased July 1, 1883. He +had looked upon the development and the despair of the Rome road with +increasing interest. His careful and conservative mind must have stood +aghast at the foolhardiness of the Lake Ontario Shore venture. Sam Sloan +would have done nothing of that sort. The railroad that he dominated so +forcefully for many years--Lackawanna--would have taken no step of that +sort. Trust Sam Sloan for that. + +And yet, despite his evident dislike for the property, the R. W. & O. had +its fascinations for him. He must have seen certain opportunities in it. +The fact that it touched his own road at so many points, and, therefore, +was capable of becoming so large a potential feeder for it--despite the +malign influence of those Vanderbilts with their important New York +Central--must have appealed to the old man's heart. At any rate he took +direct steps to gain control of the Rome road. + + * * * * * + +The precise motives that impelled Samuel Sloan to gain a control of the R. +W. & O., and having once gained a control of it, to conduct it in the +remarkable manner that he did, in all probability, never will be known. +One may only indulge in surmises. But just why he should seek, apparently +with deliberateness and carefully preconceived plan, to wreck what had +been so recently the finest of all railroads in the state of New York is +not clearly apparent even to-day. + +Sloan was a man of many moods. Receptive and interested to-day, he was +cold and bitter to-morrow. One might never count upon him. He flattered +Marcellus Massey, raised his salary as the President of the Rome road from +$7500 to $10,000 a year, and then induced him to purchase large holdings +of Lackawanna stock, putting up as collateral his large holdings of the +shares of the R. W. & O., just beginning their long drop towards a +pitifully low figure--all the time holding the bait to the old President +of the amazing property that he was about to upbuild in Northern New York. +So, eventually Sloan ruined Massey, financially and physically, and a +broken hearted man went out from the old President's office of the R. W. & +O. in Watertown. + +In 1877, the year before the Rome road all but created financial disaster +in Northern New York, Sloan had bought enough of its bargain-sale stock to +have himself elected as its President. The official roster of the road +then became: + + _President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York + _Vice-President_, MARCELLUS MASSEY, Watertown + _Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown + _General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Watertown + _General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown + _Supt. R. W. & O. Division_, J. W. MOAK, Watertown + _Supt. L. O. & S. N. Division_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Marcellus Massey, Watertown + Samuel Sloan, New York + William E. Dodge, New York + John S. Farlow, Boston + Percy R. Pyne, New York + Talcott H. Camp, Watertown + Moses Taylor, Scranton + C. Zabriskie, New York + John S. Barnes, New York + S. D. Hungerford, Adams + Gardner R. Colby, New York + William M. White, Utica + Theodore Irwin, Oswego + +The North Country complexion of the directorate had all but disappeared. +As far back as 1871, Addison Day had ceased to be Superintendent of the +road, and had become Superintendent of the Utica & Black River. He had +been succeeded by J. W. Moak, a former roadmaster of the Rome road. Moak +was not only equally as efficient as Day, but he was much more popular, +both with the road's employees and its patrons. Yet one of Sloan's first +acts was to relieve him of a portion of his territory and responsibility. +He made the point, and it was not without force, that it was all but +impossible for an operating officer at Watertown to supervise properly the +western end of the now far-flung system. So, he took the former Syracuse +Northern, the Lake Ontario Shore and the branch from Richland to +Oswego--all the lines west of Richland, in fact--and made them into a new +division, with headquarters at Oswego. For this division he brought one of +his few favored officers from the Lackawanna, E. A. Van Horne, who had +been a Superintendent upon that property. Van Horne was a forceful man, +who, as he went upward, made a distinct impress upon the railroad history +of the North Country. He was quick tempered, decisive, yet possessing +certain very likable qualities that were of tremendous help to him there. + +Another of Sloan's early acts--more easily understood than some +others--was to tear out the soft-coal grates of the fire boxes of the R. +W. & O. locomotives, and substitute for them hard-coal grates. Anthracite +then, as now, was a great specialty of the Lackawanna. And in the road to +the north of him Sloan possessed a customer of no mean dimensions. + + * * * * * + +For the next four or five years the R. W. & O. grubbed along--and barely +dodged receivership. Its service steadily went from bad to worse. It now +took the best passenger trains upon the line four hours to go from +Watertown to Rome, seventy-two miles (in the very beginnings of the road, +they had done it in an even three hours). No one knew when a freight car +would reach New York from Watertown. Confusion reigned. Chaos was at hand. +And when Watertown merchants and manufacturers would go to Oswego to +protest to Mr. Van Horne (Mr. Moak finally had been demoted, and Watertown +suffered the humiliation of having the operating headquarters of the +system moved away from it) they would hear from the General Superintendent +of the property his utter helplessness in the matter; the threats from +Sloan were that he might close down the road altogether, and Van Horne was +beside himself for explanations: + +"Gentlemen, I cannot do better," he said, over and over again, "our track +is in deplorable condition. I dare not send a train over the road without +sending a man afoot, station to station, ahead of it to make sure that the +rails will hold." + +So it was. The track inspectors' jobs were cut out for them these days. +They made some long-distance walking records. Yet, despite their +vigilance, train wrecks came with increasing frequency. Morale was gone. +The fine old R. W. & O. was at the bottom of the Slough of Despond. Added +to all this were the rigors of a North Country winter, which we are to see +in some detail in another chapter. According to the veracious diary of +Moses Eames, on January 2nd, 1879, the first train came into Watertown +since Christmas Day. The following day it snowed again, and fiercely and +the R. W. & O. went out of business for another ten days. That storm was +almost a record-breaker: more than a fortnight of continuous snow and +extreme low temperature. + + * * * * * + +In those days Samuel Sloan was busy occupying himself with an extension of +his beloved Lackawanna into Buffalo. That, in itself, was a real job. For +years the D. L. & W. had terminated at Great Bend, a few miles east of +Binghamton, and had used trackage rights upon the Erie from there West, +not only into the Buffalo gateway, but also to reach its branch-line +properties into Utica, Rome, Syracuse and Ithaca. Sloan finally had +quarreled with the Erie--it was a way he ofttimes had. And, for once at +least, had made a bold strategic move through to the far end of the Empire +State. + +To build so many miles of railroad one must have rail. And rail costs much +money, unless one may borrow it from a friendly property. So Sloan went up +into the North Country and "borrowed" rail. He "borrowed" so much that +travel upon the R. W. & O. became fraught with many real dangers--and the +life of his General Superintendent at Oswego, Van Horne, a nightmare. Some +of the rails were, in his own words, not more than six feet long. Finally +in desperation he appealed to his chief competitor in the North Country, +the Utica & Black River, which rapidly was substituting steel for iron +upon its main line. In sheer pity, J. F. Maynard, General Superintendent +of the Utica & Black River, sent his discarded iron to his paralyzed +competitor. + +There was little steel upon the Rome road in 1883--less than sixty miles +of its 417 miles of main line track was so equipped. Neither were there +sufficient locomotives; but fifty-two of them all-told, in addition to two +or three that the Lackawanna had had the extreme kindness to "loan" the +property--upon a perfectly adequate rental basis. Long since it had ceased +to operate such frills as sleeping-cars or parlor-cars. It had only +fifty-four passenger-coaches; not nearly enough to meet the needs of so +far-flung a line. And many of these were in extreme disrepair. An elderly +citizen of Ogdensburgh says that it was a nightly occasion for the R. W. & +O. train to come in from DeKalb with more than half of its journals +ablaze. + + * * * * * + +Yet, despite these bitter years, the road had managed to avoid +receivership and in 1882 it succeeded in effecting a reorganization; under +which it dropped the interest on its bonds to five per cent and assessed +its stockholders ten dollars a share for a cash working fund to keep it +alive. They were given income bonds for the amount so contributed by them. +There were a few grumbles at this arrangement, but not many. The huge +potential possibilities of the property--or rather of the rich and still +undeveloped territory that it served--were too generally recognized. + +It began to be rumored that new outside interests were buying into the +stock in Wall Street. These rumors were brought to Sloan's attention. + +"Look out," he was warned, "some one will get that old heap of junk away +from you yet." + +He laughed. At the best you could tell Samuel Sloan but little. Gradually, +he proceeded with his reorganization, and in 1883 we find the official +roster of the reorganized R. W. & O. reading in this fashion: + + _President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown + _General Superintendent_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego + _Master Mechanic_, G. H. HASELTON, Oswego + _General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown + _General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Oswego + + _Directors_ + + Talcott H. Camp, Watertown + S. D. Hungerford, Adams + William M. White, Utica + Theodore Irwin, Oswego + William E. Dodge, New York + Roswell G. Ralston, New York + Charles Parsons, New York + Clarence S. Day, New York + Percy R. Pyne, New York + John S. Barnes, New York + John S. Farlow, Boston + Gardner R. Colby, New York + +The rumor-mongers were not without fact to support them, for a new name +will be noticed upon this list; that of Charles Parsons, of New York, who +had been carefully garnering in R. W. & O. stock, at from ten to fifteen +cents on the dollar. Two names had disappeared, those of Marcellus Massey +and of J. W. Moak. But we focus our attention upon the name of Parsons, +and then step forward in our narrative until the sixth day of June, 1883, +when the Directors of the R. W. & O. held a meeting in the back room of +the Jefferson County Bank in Watertown. + +There was an unusually full attendance of the Board. Mr. Sloan, as was his +prerogative through his office as President of the road, sat at the head +of the long table. Near its foot sat Mr. Parsons, a cadaverous man, with +prematurely white hair, given to much thought but little speech. The +business of the meeting, the election of officers for the ensuing year, +was perfunctory and quickly accomplished. The Secretary arose and +announced that Mr. Parsons had been elected President of the R. W. & O. +Sloan flushed, and then prepared to spring a _coup d'etat_. He brought a +packet of papers from out of an inside pocket. + +"What do you propose to do with these?" he snarled. + +"What are they?" asked Parsons. + +"Notes of the road for $300,000 that I've advanced it, to keep it out of +bankruptcy," was the reply. + +"Let me see them," said its new President.... He glanced at the papers for +a moment, then reached for his check-book and wrote his check to Sloan for +a clean $300,000. He handed it across the table. The retiring President +scrutinized it sharply, placed it within his wallet and left the room. +His connection with the road was terminated. At the best it was a sinister +connection. There were few to regret his going. + + * * * * * + +With his hand firmly fixed upon its wheel, Parsons began the complete +reorganization of his newly acquired property. He had his long-time +associate, Clarence S. Day, elected as its Vice-President, and within a +very few weeks had brought to the operating headquarters in Oswego a fine +upstanding man, the late H. M. Britton, as General Manager of the road, a +newly created title and office. Mr. Britton at once chose two operating +lieutenants for himself; W. H. Chauncey, as Assistant Superintendent of +the Western Division (west of Richland) at Oswego, and the famous "Jud" +Remington, as Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern Division, at +Watertown. + +Watertown had hoped that with the new management of the road--that +railroad which it had been prone to call "its road"--would reestablish the +operating headquarters of the property there, also new and enlarged shops. +In these hopes it was to be doomed to great disappointment. For not only +was a Sloan policy to consolidate shop facilities at Oswego continued and +enlarged--the shops both at Rome and at Watertown were reduced to +facilities for emergency repairs only--but the corporate executive +offices were removed from it to New York City, while the chief operating +headquarters of the company remained at Oswego. + +Yet Watertown might easily enough take hope. The service upon the road was +improved--at once. In front of me I have a copy of the shortlived _Daily +Republican_, which once was printed there. It is dated, July 24, 1885, and +its rules are turned to black borders of mourning in tribute to General +Grant, who died upon the preceding day. In the lower corner of one of its +pages is an advertisement of the summer service upon the R. W. & O. It was +a real service, indeed--five trains a day over the main line in each +direction, and adequate schedules upon the branches. In that season of the +year there was through sleeping-car service between Watertown and New +York, upon the sleeping-cars that were operated in and out of Cape Vincent +to serve the steadily, increasing, tourist trade upon the St. Lawrence. +The Parsons' management, however, like the Sloan, steadfastly refused to +operate this sleeping-car service through the autumn, winter and spring +months of the year. There was a through sleeping-car service, also, to the +White Mountains, the car coming through from Niagara Falls, passing +Watertown at four o'clock in the morning and reaching Fabyan's, N. H., at +twenty-eight minutes after four in the afternoon; Portland, Me., by direct +connection, at 8:25 p. m. This advertisement is signed by W. F. Parsons, +as General Passenger Agent, and by Mr. Britton, as General Manager of the +line. + + * * * * * + +Britton was alert to suggestion and to complaint. To favored persons he +was apt to make an occasional suggestion upon the company's stock. + +"Buy it now," he urged. "Buy it--and hold it." + +Most folk shook their heads negatively at that suggestion. Watertown had +been burned once in a railroad experience. It now emulated the traditional +wise child. "Buy the stock," whispered Britton to a Watertown +manufacturer. It then was at twenty-five. The Watertownian demurred. A +year later it was forty. "Buy it now," Britton still whispered to him. And +still our cautious soul of the North Country hesitated. It touched fifty. +Britton still urged. Of course, the Watertown man would not buy it _then_. +He prided himself that he never bought anything at the top of the market. +Sixty, seventy, then R. W. & O. in the great market of Wall Street touched +seventy-five. + +"How about it now?" said Britton over the wire. + +The Watertown man laughed. He had made a mistake--one of the few financial +errors that he ever made--and he could afford to laugh at this one. Buy R. +W. & O. at seventy-five? Not he. Let the other man do it. Afterwards he +did not laugh as hard. He lived long enough to see R. W. & O. reach par +once again--and then cross it and keep upwards all the while. He saw it +reach 105, then 110 and then on a certain memorable March day in 1891, +123. + +But this anticipates. We are riding too rapidly with our narrative. If old +"Jud" Remington were traveling with us upon this special he would do, as +sometimes was his wont, reach up and pull the bell-cord to slow the train. +He took no risks, did "Jud"--bless his fine, old heart. + +We have anticipated--and perhaps we have neglected. All these years, of +which we have been writing, the R. W. & O. had a competitor--a very live +competitor, we must have you understand. So live, that to gain a permanent +position for itself, that competitor must needs be completely eliminated. +To that competitor--the Utica & Black River Railroad--we must now turn our +attention. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE UTICA & BLACK RIVER + + +The beginnings of the Utica & Black River Railroad go away back to +1852--the year of the real completion and opening of the Watertown & Rome. +The fact that not only could that line be built successfully, but that +there would come to it immediately a fine flow of traffic was not without +its effect upon the staunch old city of Utica, which had felt rather +bitterly about the loss, to its smaller neighbor, Rome, of the prestige of +being the gateway city to the North Country. From the beginning Utica had +been that gateway. Long ago we read of the fine records that were made on +the old post-road from Utica through Martinsburgh and Watertown to +Sackett's Harbor. The Black River valley was the logical pathway to the +Northern Tier. The people who dwelt there felt that God had made it so. +And now the infamy had come to pass that a new man-built highway had +ignored it completely; had passed far to the west of it. + +Spurred by such feelings, stung by a new-found feeling of isolation, the +people of Lewis County held a mass meeting on a December evening in 1852, +at Lowville, to which their county-seat had already been moved from +Martinsburgh, but two miles distant. They set the fire to a popular +feeling that already demanded a railroad through the natural easy +gradients of the valley of the Black River. The blaze of indignation +spread. Within a fortnight similar meetings were held at Boonville and at +Theresa. And within a few months the Black River Railroad Company was +organized at the first of these towns with a capital of $1,200,000 and +Herkimer, in the valley of the Mohawk, was designated as its probably +southern terminal. + +Once again Utica writhed in civic anguish. But in three days gave answer +to this proposed, second blow to her prestige by the organization of the +Black River & Utica Railroad, with a capital of $1,000,000--a tentative +figure of course. As an evidence of her good faith she raised a cash fund +for the employment of Daniel C. Jenney to survey a route for her own +railroad, north and straight through to French Creek (about to become the +present village of Clayton) one hundred miles distant. + +To this move Rome replied. Having acquired a new and exclusive prestige, +she was quite unwilling that it should be lost, or even dimmed. She +called attention to the fact that she was, in her own eyes, of course, the +logical gateway to the Black River country, as well as to the eastern +shore of Lake Ontario, to which the Watertown & Rome already led. There +was a natural pass that rested just behind her that led to Boonville and +the upper waters of the Black River. Had not this natural route been +recognized some years before by the builders of the Black River Canal, who +readily had chosen it for the waterway, which to this day remains in +operation through it? + +Rome felt that her argument was quite irrefutable. To support it, however, +she pledged herself to furnish terminal grounds for the new line at $250 +an acre, in addition to subscribing $450,000 to the stock and bonds of the +company. Money talks. Utica came back with an offer of terminal lands at +$200 an acre and proffered a subscription of $650,000 to the securities of +the Black River & Utica. A meeting was held. The mooted question of a +southern terminal was put to vote. Rome and Utica tied with twenty-two +votes each; Herkimer, despite her suggestion of the valley of Canada Creek +as a natural pathway for the new line north to the watershed of the Black +River, had but two votes. She promptly withdrew from the contest. + +Money does talk. Eventually Utica had the terminal of the Black River +road, even though the noble Romans, retiring to their camp in a blue funk +for a time threatened a rival line straight north from their town to +Boonville and beyond. They went so far as to incorporate this company; as +the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome. The promoters of the Black River & Utica +having planned to locate their line in the low levels of the flats of the +river, the Rome group said that they would build _their_ road upon the +higher level, rather closely paralleling the ancient state highway and so +making especial appeal to the towns along it, which felt miffed at the +indifference of the Utica group to them. + +In the long run, as we all know, the road was built along the low level of +the Black River valley, and many of the once thriving towns along the +State Road left stranded high and dry. The road from Rome became a memory. +From time to time the suggestion has been revived, however--in my boyhood +days we had the fine classical suggestion of the Rome & Carthage Railroad +all ready for incorporation--but there is little prospect now that such a +road will ever be built. The times are not propitious now for that sort of +enterprise. + + * * * * * + +Ground was broken at Utica for the new Black River line on August 27, +1853. There was a deal of ceremony to the occasion; no less a personage +than the distinguished Governor Horatio Seymour, being designated to make +remarks appropriate to it. And, as was the custom in those days for such +an event, there was a parade, music by the bands and other appropriate +festivities. Construction, in the hands of Contractor J. S. T. Stranahan, +of Brooklyn, went ahead with great briskness. Within two years the line +had been builded over the hard rolling country of the upper Canada +Creek--it included the crossing of a deep gully near Trenton Falls by a +high trestle (subsequently replaced by a huge embankment)--to Boonville, +thirty-five miles distant from Utica. + +This much done, the Black River & Utica subsided and became apparently a +semi-dormant enterprise--for a number of long years. The promises which +its promoters had made to have the line completed to Clayton by the first +of July, 1855, apparently were forgotten. These had been made at a mass +meeting of the enthusiastic proponents of the Ogdensburgh, Clayton & Rome, +held at Constableville on the evening of Monday, August 22, 1853. They +were definite, and the Rome crowd under them badly worsted. But promises +were as easily made in those days as in these. As easily accepted ... and +as easily broken. + + * * * * * + +In 1857, the Black River & Utica Railroad was operating a single passenger +train a day, between Utica and Boonville. It left Boonville at eight +o'clock in the morning and arrived at Utica at 10:20 a. m. The return run +left Utica at 4:00 p. m. and arrived at Boonville at 6:20 p. m. +Seventy-five cents was charged to ride from Utica to Trenton and $1.25 +from Utica to Boonville. The little road then had four locomotives, the +_T. S. Faxton_, the _J. Butterfield_, the _Boonville_ and the _D. C. +Jenney_. The _Faxton_ hauled the passenger train, and a young man from +Boonville, who also owned a coal-yard there, was its conductor. His name +was Richard Marcy and afterwards he was to come to prominent position, not +only as exclusive holder of its coal-selling franchise for a number of +years, but also as a politician of real parts. + +In 1858, the little road doubled its passenger service. Now there were two +passenger trains a day in each direction. And each was at least fairly +well-filled, for the Black River & Utica held as its supreme attraction +Trenton Falls. Indeed, if it had not been for the prominence of Trenton +Falls as a resort in those years, it is quite probable that a good many +folk in the State of New York would never have even heard of it. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF THE U. & B. R. The Boonville Passenger Train +Standing in the Utica Station, Away Back in 1865.] + +But Trenton Falls--Trenton Falls of the sixties, of the fifties--all the +way back to the late twenties, if you please--here was a place to be +reckoned! All the great travelers of the early half of the last +century--European as well as American--made a point of visiting it. The +most of them wrote of it in their memoirs. That indefatigable tourist, N. +P. Willis, could not miss this exquisitely beautiful place--alas, in these +late days, the exquisitely beautiful place has fallen under the vandal +hands of power engineers, and the exquisite beauty no longer is. Trenton +Falls is but a memory. Yet the record of its one-time magnificence still +remains. + +"... The company of strangers at Trenton is made somewhat select by the +expense and difficulty of access," wrote Willis, late in the fifties. The +Black River & Utica had then barely been opened through to the Falls. +"Most who come stay two or three days, but there are usually boarders here +who stay for a longer time.... Nothing could be more agreeable than the +footing upon which these chance-met residents and their daily accessions +of newcomers pass their evenings and take strolls up the ravine together; +and for those who love country air and romantic rambles without 'dressing +for dinner' or waltzing by a band, this is 'a place to stay.' These are +not the most numerous frequenters of Trenton, however. It is a very +popular place of resort from every village within thirty miles; and from +ten in the morning until four in the afternoon there is gay work with the +country girls and their beaux--swinging under trees, strolling about in +the woods near the house, bowling, singing, and dancing--at all of which +(owing, perhaps to a certain gypsy-ish promiscuosity of my nature that I +never could aristocrify by the keeping of better company) I am delighted +to be, at least, a looker-on. The average number of these visitors from +the neighborhood is forty or fifty a day, so that breakfast and tea are +the nearest approach to 'dress meals'--the dinner, though profuse and +dainty in its fare, being eaten in what is commonly thought to be rather +'mixed society.' I am inclined to think that, from French intermixture, or +some other cause, the inhabitants of this region are a little peculiar in +their manners. There is an unconsciousness or carelessness of others' +observation and presence that I have hitherto seen only abroad. We have +songs, duets and choruses, sung here by village girls, within the last few +days, in a style that drew all in the house to listen very admiringly; and +even the ladies all agree that there have been very pretty girls day +after day among them. I find they are Fourierites to the extent of common +hair-brush and other personal furniture--walking into anybody's room for +the temporary repairs which belles require on their travels, and availing +themselves of whatever was therein, with a simplicity, perhaps, a little +transcendental. I had obtained the extra privilege for myself of a small +dressing room apart, for which I presumed the various trousers and other +merely masculine belongings would be protective scarecrows sufficient to +keep out these daily female invaders, but, walking in yesterday, I found +my combs and brushes in active employ, and two very tidy looking girls +making themselves at home without shutting the door and no more disturbed +by my _entree_ than if I had been a large male fly. As friends were +waiting I apologized for intruding long enough to take a pair of boots +from under their protection, but my presence was evidently no +interruption. One of the girls (a tall figure, like a woman in two +syllables connected by a hyphen at the waist) continued to look at the +back of her dress in the glass, and the other went on threading her most +prodigal chevelure with my doubtless very embarrassed though unresisting +hair-brush, and so I abandoned the field, as of course I was expected to +do ... I do not know that they would go to the length of 'fraternizing' +one's tooth-brush, but with the exception of locking up that rather +confidential article, I give in to the customs of the country, and have +ever since left open door to the ladies...." + +We have drifted away for the moment from the railroad. I wanted to show, +through Mr. Willis's observant eyes, the Northern New York of the day that +the Black River & Utica was first being builded. One other excerpt has +observed the various sentiments, sacred and profane, penciled about the +place and its excellent hotel and concludes: + +"... Farther off ... a man records the arrival of himself 'and servant,' +below which is the following inscription: + +"'G. Squires, wife and two babies. No servant, owing to the hardness of +the times.' + +"And under this again; + +"'G. W. Douglas, and servant. No wife and babies, owing to the hardness of +the times.'" + + * * * * * + +The tremendous popularity of Trenton Falls in those early days was a vast +aid to the slender passenger possibilities of the early Black River & +Utica. There was not much else for it south of Boonville. True it was that +at that thriving village it tapped the fairly busy Black River Canal +which led down to the navigable upper waters of that river. Yet this was +hardly satisfactory to the progressive folk of the Black River valley. +They kept the project alive. And once when the old company's continued +existence became quite hopeless they helped effect a complete +reorganization of it, under the title of the Utica & Black River. This was +formally accomplished, March 31, 1860. As the Utica & Black River, the new +railroad came, upon its completion into the North Country, into a season +of continued prosperity. It did not share the vast reversals of fortune of +its larger competitor, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Through all the +years of its complete operation as a separate railroad it never missed its +six per cent dividends. It was a delight, both to its owners and to the +communities it served. + + * * * * * + +The Black River road thrust itself into Lowville in the fall of 1868. Four +years later it had reached Carthage. The next year it was at the bank of +the St. Lawrence, at Clayton. And before the end of the following year it +again touched with its rails the shore of that great river; at both +Morristown and Ogdensburgh. As railroads went, in those days, it was at +last a through-route; with important connections at both of its +terminals. At Utica it had fine shop and yard facilities adjoining the +tracks of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, whose venerable +passenger station it shared. And, when at one time, it sought a close +personal connection for itself with the Ontario & Western there, it +builded an expensive bridge connection over the New York Central tracks. +This bridge is now gone, but the piers remain. + +At both Clayton and Ogdensburgh the Black River road possessed fine +waterside terminals. Its station in the latter city still stands; for many +years it has been the local storage warehouse of Armour & Co., of Chicago. + + * * * * * + +In the busy months that the Utica & Black River was building its line up +through Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, a railroad was being builded +from it at Carthage down the lower valley of the Black River to Watertown +and to Sackett's Harbor. This was distinctly a local enterprise; the +Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, financed and built almost entirely +by Watertownians and retaining its separate corporate existence until but +a few years ago. It was inspired not only by the great success of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh at that time, but by the quite natural +desire of the one really industrial city of the North Country to have +competitive railroad service. There have been few times when there were +not in Watertown a generous plenty of men who stood ready to put their +hands deep into their pockets in order to promote an enterprise whose +value seemed so obvious and so genuinely important to the town. + +So it was then that the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor first came +into its existence, there at the extreme end of the sixties; in the very +year that Watertown itself was first becoming a city. Its officers and +directors as it was first organized were as follows: + + _President_, GEORGE B. PHELPS, Watertown + _Secretary and Treasurer_, LOTUS INGALLS, Watertown + _Engineer_, F. A. HINDS, Watertown + + _Directors_ + + George P. Phelps, Watertown + Lotus Ingalls, Watertown + Norris Winslow, Watertown + Pearson Mundy, Watertown + L. D. Doolittle, Watertown + George H. Sherman, Watertown + George A. Bagley, Watertown + Hiram Converse, Watertown + Theodore Canfield, Sackett's Harbor + Walter B. Camp, Sackett's Harbor + David Dexter, Black River + William N. Coburn, Carthage + Alexander Brown, Carthage + +A little later Mr. Hinds was succeeded as the road's Engineer, by L. B. +Cook also of Watertown. And eventually Mr. Bagley succeeded Mr. Phelps, +as its President, George W. Knowlton, becoming its Vice-President. + + * * * * * + +To encourage the new line, which it prepared itself to operate, the Utica +& Black River made quite a remarkable contract. Shorn of its verbiage it +agreed to give the C. W. & S. H. forty per cent of the gross revenue that +should arise upon the line. This contract in a very few years arose to +bedevil the railroad situation in the North Country. As the paper industry +began to expand there, and huge mills to multiply along the lower reaches +of the Black River, this contract grew irksome indeed to the U. & B. R. R. +Finally it sought to modify its terms, very greatly. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, quite naturally refused. "After all," it +said, through its President, the late George A. Bagley, "what is a +contract but--a contract?" + +The Utica road pressed its point. It finally went down to New York and +gained a promise from Roswell P. Flower that the agreement would be +greatly mollified, if not abrogated. It did seem absurd that a carload of +paper moving eighteen miles from Watertown to Carthage and seventy-five +from Carthage to Utica should pay forty per cent of its charges to the +road upon which it had moved but eighteen miles. Yet, a contract is a +contract. + +Governor Flower went up to Watertown and put the matter before the +officers and directors of the C. W. & S. H. But, led by the stout-hearted +Bagley, they refused to move, a single inch. + +"I've given my promise," stormed Roswell P. Flower, "that you would do the +right thing in this matter. And in New York I am known as a man who always +keeps his word." + +Bagley said nothing. The meeting ended abruptly--in all the bitterness of +disagreement. The Utica & Black River decided upon a master stroke; it +would terminate paying its rental, based chiefly on this forty per cent +division to its leased road. That would cause trouble. The Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor was, itself, liable to its bondholders, for +the mortgage that they held against it. It would have to pay their +interest. Without receiving its rental money from the Black River road it +would be hard pressed indeed to meet these coupons. It looked as if it +might have to go into receivership, even though at that moment its stock +had reached well above par. + +The situation was saved for it by a New York banking house, Vermilye & +Company, who sent a lawyer up to Watertown who examined the famous +contract and pronounced it perfectly valid. The Vermilye's then announced +their willingness to advance the C. W. & S. H. the money to meet its +interest charges--for an indefinite period. After which the Black River +people came down a peg or two and bought the stock and bonds of their +leased road, at par. While the city of Watertown and some of its adjoining +communities possessed of a sudden and unexpected wealth refunded a portion +of their taxes for a year or two. + +Mr. Bagley had won his point. He had the reward of a good deed well +performed. He had another reward. His salary as President of the Carthage, +Watertown & Sackett's Harbor had remained unpaid; for a number of years. +He collected back pay from the Black River settlement; for several years +at the rate of $15,000 a year. + + * * * * * + +I have anticipated. We are building the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's +Harbor, not, as yet, operating it. The construction of the line began late +in the year of 1870, westward from Carthage, its base of supplies. The +road from Watertown to the Harbor--eleven miles--was constructed in the +following summer. After a disagreeable fight with the R. W. & O., its main +line finally was crossed at grade at Mill Street, closely adjacent to the +passenger stations of the two rival roads and, after following the +embankment for a mile, once again at Watertown Junction. Its entrance +into the Harbor was accomplished over the right-of-way of the former +Sackett's Harbor & Ellisburgh, which had been abandoned a decade before. +It utilized the old depot there. + +George W. Flower, the first Mayor of Watertown, who we have already seen +in these pages, had the contract for the building of this section of the +line. He rented a locomotive from his competitor and obtained the loan of +engineer, Frank W. Smith. For himself, he kept oversight over the progress +from the saddle seat of a fine horse that he possessed. + +This section of the road was completed and ready for operation early in +'74. But because of certain legal complications the Utica & Black River +refused to accept it at once. A large celebration had been planned at the +Harbor for the Fourth of July that year and rather than disappoint the +folk who wanted to go down to it, Mr. Flower took his leased locomotive +and hitched behind it a long line of flat contractor's cars, equipped with +temporary wooden benches. His improvised excursion train did a good +business and he realized a comfortable sum from the haulage of both +passengers and freight before the line was turned over to the Utica & +Black River for operation. + +The first passenger station of that line in Watertown was in a former +brick residence in Factory Street, just beyond the junction with Mill. It +was small, not overclean and most inconvenient. But a few years later, the +U. & B. R. built the handsome passenger station at the Northeast corner of +Public Square which for many years now has been the office and +headquarters of the Marcy, Buck & Riley Company. Its original brick +freight-house nearby--afterwards relieved by the construction of a most +substantial stone freight-house at the foot of Court Street--still stands. +Back of it a block or so was the round-house. I remember that round-house +well. It was a favorite resort of mine through some extremely tender years +of youth. + + * * * * * + +I have not set down the earliest lists of officers of the Utica road. They +are not particularly germane to this record. It is, perhaps, enough for it +to know that, with the exception of the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's +Harbor--which, as we have just seen, was financed chiefly by the Flowers, +the Knowltons, George A. Bagley and George B. Phelps, of Watertown--the U. +& B. R. as reorganized, was constructed and managed almost exclusively by +Uticans--John Thorn, Isaac Maynard, Theodore Faxon and John +Butterfield--and New Yorkers--Robert Lenox Kennedy, John J. Kennedy (who +afterwards had a prominent role in the early financing of the Canadian +Pacific) and others. + +Charles Millar was the first Superintendent of the road. He was succeeded, +along about 1865, by Hugh Crocker, who a couple of years later was killed +while in the cab of a locomotive running between Lyons Falls and Glendale. +It was in the season of high water and the Black River was following its +usual springtime custom of overflowing the flats of the upper valley. The +railroad was fresh and green and young. The water undermined its +embankments and sent Crocker's locomotive tumbling over upon its side; and +Crocker to his death. J. D. Schultz, who still is residing in Glendale and +who is one of the best-known of the pioneers of the old R. W. & O. in his +own arms carried young Crocker's body out of the wreck. It was a most +pathetic incident. Yet it is a remarkable fact, and one well worth +recording here, that in its entire thirty-one years of operation not one +passenger was killed while riding upon the Utica & Black River. + +The unfortunate Crocker was succeeded by Addison Day, who we already have +seen upon the R. W. & O. as an early and distinguished Superintendent. A +little later Thomas W. Spencer, who had been the Construction Engineer of +the road, replaced Day, and in 1872, J. Fred Maynard, son of Isaac Maynard +of Utica, assumed the operating management of the road, first with the +title of Superintendent and eventually as its Vice-President and General +Manager. He remained in that post through the remainder of the operating +existence of the road. + + * * * * * + +Steadily the Black River sought to improve its service. As it succeeded in +so doing it became more and more of a thorn in the side of the R. W. & O. +It touched that system at three points only--but they were important +points. It was a slightly longer route into Watertown from the New York +Central's main stem, but considerably shorter to both Philadelphia--where +it crossed the R. W. & O. at a precise right-angle--and Ogdensburgh. At +the first of these two last towns it developed an irritating habit of +holding its trains until the Rome road train had come, in hopes of luring +Ogdensburgh passengers away from it and getting them in to their +destination at an earlier hour than they had hoped. Several times it was +suggested that the roads pool their interests and work in harmony. For one +reason or another this was accomplished but once--the R. W. & O. +management almost always opposed such plans. It apparently preferred to +play the lone hand. + +The Utica & Black River had a very considerable tourist advantage in +reaching the St. Lawrence River at Clayton, in the very heart of the +Thousand Island district, instead of at Cape Vincent, which was rather +remote from the large hotel and cottage sections. It established its own +boat connections with the _John Thorn_, as the flagship of its fleet. + +John Thorn's name and personality were again reflected in a fine +coal-burning, Schenectady-built locomotive, which also bore his name (the +U. & B. R. in those days had a decided penchant for the engines that the +Ellises were building at Schenectady). Its motive-power was almost always +in the pink of condition, brightly painted like its cars, which bore the +same shade of yellow upon their sides that had been borrowed from the Lake +Shore & Michigan Southern. Like the R. W. & O., the locomotives were all +named. In addition to the _John Thorn_, there were the _Isaac Maynard_, +the _DeWitt C. West_ (named after a resident of Lowville, who was an early +president of the road), the _Theodore Faxton_, the _Fred S. Easton_, the +_Charles Millar_, the _John Butterfield_, the _J. F. Maynard_, the _Ludlow +Patton_, the _A. G. Brower_, the _Lewis Lawrence_, the _D. B. Goodwin_, +and others too. The road at the end of the seventies had a fleet of about +twenty locomotives. + +There was one time, at least, when the upkeep of the motive power suffered +a real shock. I am referring to the noisy way in which the road entered +Watertown, by the explosion of the locomotive _Charles Millar_, No. 4, +near the Mill Street crossing there on May 9, 1872. It was one of the few +accidents, however, in the entire history of the Utica & Black River. +Augustus Unser, better known as "Gus" Unser, of Watertown was at that time +engineer of the _Millar_, which was one of the earliest wood-burners that +the road ever possessed--it did not begin the installation of coal grates +until 1874. Unser was standing in the cab at the moment of the explosion, +talking to Jacob H. Herman--better known as "Jake" Herman--who was at that +time conductor on the Rome road. + +Without the slightest warning came the explosion. There was a terrific +roar and a crash, followed by a rain of small engine parts over a goodly +portion of Watertown. Fortunately neither Unser nor Herman were seriously +injured. An investigation into the cause of the wreck, which tore the +_Millar_ into an unrecognizable mass of metal, failed to develop the cause +of the accident. It was generally supposed, however, that the engine-crew +had permitted the water in the boiler to fall below the level of the +crown-sheet. + + * * * * * + +Back of the highly developed and independent Utica & Black River of a +decade later there stood a pretty well developed human organization. John +Thorn was its President; the head and front of its aggressive and alert +policy. The full official roster was, in 1882: + + _President_, JOHN THORN, Utica + _Vice-Pres. and Gen'l Man'g'r_, J. F. MAYNARD, Utica + _Treasurer_, ISAAC MAYNARD, Utica + _Secretary_, W. E. HOPKINS, Utica + _Gen'l Supt._, E. A. VAN HORNE, Utica + _Asst. Supt._, H. W. HAMMOND, Utica + _Gen. Pass. and Fgt. Agent_, THEO. BUTTERFIELD, Utica + + _Directors_ + + Robt. L. Kennedy, New York + John Thorn, Utica + Abijah J. Williams, Utica + Isaac Maynard, Utica + Lewis Lawrence, Utica + William J. Bacon, Utica + Edmund A. Graham, Utica + Theodore S. Sayre, Utica + Abram G. Brower, Utica + Russell Wheeler, Utica + J. F. Maynard, Utica + Daniel B. Goodwin, Waterville + Fred S. Easton, Lowville + + * * * * * + +The final thrust of the Utica & Black River into the sides of its older +competitor, whilst that competitor was still in the anguish of the Sloan +administration of its affairs, came in the ferry row up at Ogdensburgh. By +1880 the once-brisk lake trade of that port had fallen to low levels. The +fourteen-foot locks of the Welland Canal, between Lakes Ontario and Erie +had failed utterly to keep pace with the development of carriers upon the +upper Lakes. The steamers that still came to the elaborate piers of the +old Northern Railroad at Ogdensburgh--for many years now, the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain--were comparatively small and infrequent. Buffalo was a +more popular and a more accessible port. And yet the time had been when +the Northern Railroad had had a daily service between Chicago and +Ogdensburgh; some fifteen staunch steamers in its fleet. + +One most important form of water-borne traffic has always remained at +Ogdensburgh, however; the ferry route across the St. Lawrence to Prescott +upon the Canadian shore just opposite. Prescott is not only upon the old +main line of the Grand Trunk Railway but also has a direct railroad +connection with Ottawa by a branch of the Canadian Pacific (formerly the +Ottawa and St. Lawrence). The original boat upon this route was a small +three-car craft, the _Transit_, which was owned in Prescott. In the +mid-seventies this steamer was supplanted by the staunch steam car-ferry, +_William Armstrong_, whose whistle was reputed to be the loudest and the +most awful thing ever heard on inland waters anywhere. The _Armstrong_ +speedily became one of the fixtures of Ogdensburgh. Twice she sank, under +excessive loading, and twice she was again raised and replaced in service. +In 1919 she was sold to a firm of contractors at Trenton, Ont., and she is +still in use as a drill-boat in the vicinity of that village. The +important ferry at Ogdensburgh still continues, however, under the +direction of Edward Dillingham, for many years the Rome road's agent in +that city. + +To compete with the service that the _Armstrong_ rendered the R. W. & O. +at Ogdensburgh, the Utica & Black River along about 1880 put a car-float +and tug into a hastily contrived ferry between its station grounds at +Morristown, eleven miles up the river from Ogdensburgh and the small +Canadian city of Brockville just opposite. Into Brockville came the +Canadian Pacific, beginning to feel its oats and pushing its rails rapidly +westward each month. That was a better connection than the somewhat longer +one of the St. Lawrence & Ottawa, and gradually freight began deserting +the old ferry for this new one; with the result that within a year the +_Armstrong_ was moved up the river to the Morristown-Brockville crossing, +and Ogdensburgh gnashed its teeth in its despair. It appealed to the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh for relief in the situation. + +That road was in its most important change of management--the succession +of the Parsons' administration to that of Samuel Sloan. Charles Parsons +had had his eye upon the Utica & Black River for some time. It was a +potential factor of danger within his territory. Suppose that the +Vanderbilts should come along and purchase it? That nearly happened twice +in the early eighties. There was strong New York Central sympathy and +interest in the U. & B. R. It showed itself in an increase of traffic +agreements and cooperative working arrangements. The Rome road tried to +offset this strengthening alliance of the Utica & Black River by making +closer working agreements with the New York, Ontario & Western, which it +touched at Rome, at Central Square and at Oswego. But the O. & W. with its +wobbly line down over the hills to New York was a far different +proposition than the straight main line and the easy grades of the New +York Central. It is possible that had the West Shore, which was completed +through from New York to Buffalo in the summer of 1883, been successful, +it might eventually have succeeded in absorbing the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh; in which case the New York Central certainly would have taken +the Utica & Black River, and the competitive system of railroading been +assured to the North Country for many years to come. But that possibility +was a slight one. The disastrous collapse of the West Shore soon ended it. + +Yet the Utica road was a constant menace to Charles Parsons. No one knew +it better than he. And because he knew, he reached out and absorbed it; +within three years of the day that he had first acquired the R. W. & O. He +not only guaranteed the $2,100,000 of outstanding U. & B. R. bonds and +seven per cent annually upon a $2,100,000 capitalization, but, in order to +make assurance doubly sure, he purchased a majority interest of $1,200,000 +of Utica & Black River shares and turned them into the steadily +strengthening treasury of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Utica +road formally passed into the hands of the Rome road on April 15, 1886. +The mere announcement of the transfer was a stunning blow to the North +Country. + +Now Parsons had a real railroad indeed; more than six hundred miles of +line--the Utica road had brought him 180 miles of main line track. Now he +had over eighty locomotives and an adequate supply of other rolling stock. +From the U. & B. R. he received twenty-four locomotives, of a size and +type excellent for that day, twenty-six passenger-cars, fourteen +baggage-cars and 361 freight cars. But, best of all, he was now kingpin +in Northern New York. There was none to dispute his authority, unless you +were to regard the tottering Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain as a real +competitor. He was king in a real kingdom. The only prospect that even +threatened his monopoly was that the Vanderbilts might sometime take it +into their heads to build North into the valleys of the Black River and +the St. Lawrence. But that was not likely--not for the moment at any rate. +They were too occupied just then in counting the costs of the terrific, +even though successful, battle in which they had smashed the West Shore +into pulp, to be ready for immediate further adventures. If they should +come to war seven or eight years later, Parsons would be ready for them. +In the meantime he set out to reorganize and perfect his merged property. +He wanted once again to make the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh the best +run railroad in the state of New York. And in this he all but completely +succeeded. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BRISK PARSONS' REGIME + + +With the Black River thoroughly merged into his Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh, Parsons began the extremely difficult job of the merging of +the personnel of the two lines. Britton, quite naturally, was not to be +disturbed. On the contrary, his authority was to be very greatly +increased. The U. & B. R. operating forces gave way to his domination. On +the other hand, Theodore Butterfield, who was recognized as a traffic man +of unusual astuteness and experience, was brought from Utica to Oswego and +made General Passenger Agent of the combined property. The shops were +merged. Most of the sixty-five workers of the Utica shop were also moved +to Oswego; it was retained only for the very lightest sort of repairs. + +As soon as the arrangements could be made, the U. & B. R. passenger trains +were brought into the R. W. & O. stations at both Watertown and +Ogdensburgh; while the time-tables of the combined road were readjusted +so as to make Philadelphia, where the two former competing, main lines +crossed one another at right angles, a general point of traffic +interchange, similar to Richland. Cape Vincent lost, almost in a single +hour, the large railroad prestige that it had held for thirty-three long +years. To bind it more closely with the Thousand Island resorts, the +swift, new steamer, _St. Lawrence_, had been built at Clayton in the +summer of 1883, and at once crowned Queen of the River. Now the _St. +Lawrence_ was used in the Clayton-Alexandria Bay service exclusively. For +a number of years service was maintained intermittently between the Cape +and Alexandria Bay by a small steamer--generally the _J. F. Maynard_--but +after a time even this was abandoned. Until the coming of the motor-car +and improved state highways, Cape Vincent was all but marooned from the +busier portions of the river. + +Clayton gradually was developed into a river gateway of importance. The +Golden Age of the Thousand Islands, during the season of huge summer +traffic--which lasted for nearly two decades--did not really begin until +about 1890. Yet by the mid-eighties it was beginning to blossom forth. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of that decade knew the value of +advertising. It adopted the four-leaved clover as its emblem--the long +stem served very well to carry the attenuated line that ran West from +Oswego to Rochester and to Niagara Falls--and made it a famous trade-mark +over the entire face of the land. It was emblazoned upon the sides of all +its freight-cars. Theodore E. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent, +devised this interesting emblem for it. It was he who also chose the +French word, _bonheur_, for the clover stem. It was, as subsequent events +proved, a most fortuitous choice. + + * * * * * + +Charles Parsons, having merged the two important railroads of Northern New +York, was now engaged in rounding out his system as a complete and +well-contained unit. For more than a decade the Lake Ontario Shore +extension of the R. W. & O. had passed close to the city of Rochester +through the then village of Charlotte (now a ward of an enlarged +Rochester), and had touched that city only through indifferent connections +from Charlotte. Parsons, at Britton's suggestion, decided that the road +must have a direct entrance into Rochester; which already was beginning +its abounding and wonderful growth. The two men found their opportunity in +a small and sickly suburban railroad which ran down the east bank of the +Genesee from the northern limits of the city and over which there ran from +time to time a small train, propelled by an extremely small locomotive. +They easily acquired that road and gradually pushed it well into the heart +of the city; to a passenger and freight terminal in State Street, not far +from the famed Four Corners. To reach this terminal--upon the West Side of +the town--it was necessary to build a very high and tenuous bridge over +the deep gorge of the Genesee. This took nearly a year to construct. +Injunction proceedings had been brought against the construction of the R. +W. & O. into the heart of the city of Rochester. Yet, under the laws of +that time, these were ineffective upon the Sabbath day. Parsons took +advantage of this technical defect in the statutes, and on a Sabbath day +he successfully brought his railroad into its largest city. + +In the meantime a fine, old-fashioned, brick residence in State Street had +been acquired for a Rochester passenger terminal. To make this building +serve as a passenger-station, and be in proper relation to the tracks, it +was necessary to change its position upon the tract of land that it +occupied. This was successfully done, and, I believe, was the record feat +at that time for the moving of a large, brick building. The bridge was +completed and the station opened for the regular use of passenger trains +in the fall of 1887. + + * * * * * + +At the same time that the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was slipping so +stealthily into Rochester, it was building two other extensions; neither +of them of great length, but each of them of a considerable importance. +Away back in 1872 it had leased the Syracuse, Phoenix & New York--a +proposed competing line against the Lackawanna between Oswego and +Syracuse, which had been organized two or three years before--but the +project had been permitted to lie dormant. First it lacked the necessary +funds and then Samuel Sloan, quite naturally, could have no enthusiasm +over it. Parsons had no compunctions of that sort. The more he could dig +into Sloan the better he seemed to like it. Moreover the Syracuse, Phoenix +& New York involved very little actual track construction; only some +seventeen miles of track from Woodward's to Fulton, which was very little +for a thirty-seven mile line. From Woodward's into Syracuse it would use +the R. W. & O.'s own rails, put in long before, as the Syracuse Northern, +whilst from Fulton into Oswego the Ontario & Western was most glad to sell +trackage rights. + +The seventeen-mile link was easily laid down; a sort of local summer +resort was created at Three River Point upon it, and five passenger trains +a day, in each direction, began service over it, between Syracuse and +Oswego in the early spring of 1886. In that same summer another extension +was also being builded; at the extreme northeastern corner of the +property. The Grand Trunk Railway had built a line with very direct and +short-distance Montreal connections, down across the international +boundary to Massena Springs, in St. Lawrence County--then a spa of +considerable repute, but destined to become a few years later, with the +development of the St. Lawrence water-power, an industrial community of +great standing in the North Country, second only to Watertown in size and +importance. To reach this new line, the R. W. & O. put down thirteen miles +of track from its long established terminus at Norwood, and moved that +terminal to Massena Springs. The right-of-way for the line was entirely +donated by the adjoining property-holders. For a time it was thought that +an important through route would be created through this new gateway, +which was opened in March, 1886, but somehow the traffic failed to +materialize. And to this day a rail journey from Watertown to Montreal +remains a portentous and a fearful thing. Yet the two cities are only +about 175 miles apart. + + * * * * * + +Parsons was, in heart and essence, a master of the strategy of railroad +traffic, as well as of railroad construction. Whilst he was making the +important link between Norwood and the Grand Trunk terminus at Massena +Springs, but thirteen miles distant, he was coquetting with the Central +Vermont--in one of its repeated stages of reorganization--for the better +development of its lines in connection with the Boston & Maine and the +Maine Central through to the Atlantic at Portland. In all of this he was +assisted by his two most capable assistants, E. M. Moore, General Freight +Agent, and Mr. Butterfield, the General Passenger Agent. Mr. Butterfield +we have already seen. He took very good care of the travel necessities of +the property. Mr. Moore had been with it for many years. He, too, was a +seasoned traffic man. More than this he was a maker of traffic men; from +his office came at least two experts in this specialty of railroad +salesmanship--H. D. Carter, who rose eventually to be Freight Traffic +Manager of the New York Central Lines, and Frank L. Wilson, who is to-day +their Division Freight and Passenger Agent at Watertown. Mr. Wilson bears +the distinction of being the only officer on the property in the North +Country who also was an officer of the old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +He started his service in Watertown as a messenger-boy for the Dominion +Telegraph Company when its office was located in the old Hanford store at +the entrance of the Paddock Arcade. Later he began his railroad service +with the R. W. & O. as operator at Limerick Station. From that time +forward his rise was steady and constant. + + * * * * * + +I have digressed once again. We left Parsons strengthening a through line +from Suspension Bridge to Portland, Maine, through Northern New York and +across the White Mountains. As an earnest of his interest in this route he +established, almost as soon as he had acquired control of the Rome road, +the once-famous White Mountain Express. In an earlier chapter we have seen +how the local Watertown management of the road had, some years before, set +up a through sleeping-car service in the summers between Watertown and +Fabyan's; using its fine old cars, the _Ontario_ and the _St. Lawrence_ +for this service. + +The White Mountain Express of the Parsons' regime was a far different +thing from a mere sleeping-car service. It was a genuine through-train, +with Wagner sleeping-cars all the way from Chicago to Portland. It passed +over the rails of the R. W. & O. almost entirely by night; and because of +the high speed set for it over so many miles of congested single-track, +the older engineers refused to run it. The younger men took the gambling +chance with it. And while they expected to run off the miserable track +that Samuel Sloan had left for Parsons, and which could not be rebuilded +in a day or a week or a month or a year, they managed fairly well, +although there were one or two times when the accidents to this train were +serious affairs indeed. + +There comes to my mind even now the dim memories of that nasty wreck at +the very beginning of the Parsons' overlordship, when the east-bound White +Mountain, traveling at fifty miles an hour, came a terrible cropper at +Carlyon (now known as Ashwood), thirty miles west of Charlotte. It was on +the evening of the 27th of July, 1883, barely six weeks after Parsons and +Britton had taken the management of the road into their hands. The White +Mountain, in charge of Conductor E. Garrison, had left Niagara Falls, very +heavily laden, and twenty minutes late, at 7:30 p. m., hauled by two of +the road's best locomotives. It consisted of a baggage-car, a day-coach +and nine sleepers; six of these Wagners, and the other three the company's +own cars, the _Ontario_, the _St. Lawrence_ and the _DeKalb_. + +A fearful wind blowing off the lake had dislodged a recreant box-car from +the facing-point siding there at Carlyon and had sent it trundling down +toward the oncoming express. In the driving rain the train thrust its nose +right into the clumsy thing. Derailment followed. The leading engine, upon +which Train Despatcher and Assistant Superintendent W. H. Chauncey was +riding, was thrown into the ditch at one side of the track, and the +trailing engine into the ditch at the other. Its engineer and fireman were +killed instantly. The wreckage piled high. It caught fire and it was with +extreme difficulty that the flames were extinguished. In that memorable +calamity seventeen lives were lost and forty persons seriously injured. +Yet out of it came a definite blessing. Up to that time the air-brake had +never been used upon the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. The Carlyon +accident forced its adoption. + + * * * * * + +I have no mind to linger on the details of disasters such as this; or of +the one at Forest Lawn a little later when a suburban passenger-train +bound into Rochester was in a fearful rear-end collision with the delayed +west-bound White Mountain and more lives were sacrificed. The Rome road, +as a rule, had a fairly clean record on wrecks, on disastrous ones at any +rate. There was in 1887 a wretched rear-end collision just opposite the +passenger depot at Canton, which cost two or three lives and made +Conductor Omar A. Hine decide that he had had quite enough of active +railroading. And shortly before this there had been a more fortunate, yet +decidedly embarrassing affair down on the old Black River near Glenfield; +the breaking of a side-rod upon a locomotive which killed the engineer and +seriously delayed a distinguished passenger on his way to the Thousand +Islands--Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States, was taking +his bride for a little outing upon the shores of the St. Lawrence River. A +few years later Theodore Roosevelt, in the same post, was to ride up over +that nice picturesque stretch of line. Yet was to see far less of it than +his predecessor had seen. At Utica he had accepted with avidity the +Superintendent's invitation to ride in the engine-cab of his special. He +swung himself quickly up into it. Then reached into his pocket, produced a +small leather-bound book and had a bully time--reading all the way to +Watertown. + +One more wreck invites our attention, and then we are done with this +forever grewsome side of railroading: This last a spectacular affair, if +you please, more so even than that dire business back to Carlyon. The +Barnum & Bailey circus was a pretty regular annual visitor to Northern New +York in those days. It began coming in 1873 and for more than a quarter of +a century thereafter it hardly missed a season--generally playing Oswego +(where once the tent blew down, during the afternoon performance, and +there was a genuine panic), Watertown and Ogdensburgh. In this particular +summer week, the show had gone from Watertown to Gouverneur, where it +violated its tradition and abandoned the evening performance in order that +it might promptly entrain for the long haul to Montreal where it was due +to play upon the morrow. + +Going down the steep grade at Clark's Crossing, two miles east of Potsdam, +the axle of one of the elephant cars, in one of the sections, broke and +the train piled up behind it--a fearful and a curious mass of wreckage. +Fortunately the sacrifice of human life was not a feature of this +accident. But the loss of animal life was very heavy. Valuable riding +horses, trained beasts and many rare and curious animals were killed. Into +the annals of Northern New York it all went as a wonderful night. In the +glare of great bonfires men and women from many climes and in curious +garb stalked solemnly around and whispered alarmedly in tongues strange +indeed to Potsdam and its vicinage. Giraffes and elephants and sacred cows +found refuge in Mr. Clark's barn. Outside long trenches were dug for the +burial of the wreck victims. John O'Sullivan, for forty years station +agent at Potsdam, and now resting honorably from his labors, says that it +was the worst day that he ever put in. + +It was at this wreck that Ben Batchelder, whose name brings many memories +to every old R. W. & O. man, finding that his wrecking equipment was +entirely inadequate for clearing the miniature mountain range of debris +that ran along the track, put the Barnum & Bailey elephants at work +clearing it. Under the charge of their keepers these alien animals pulled +on huge chains and long ropes and slowly cleared the iron. Yet it was not +until late in the afternoon of the following day that the track was fully +restored and usable. By that time the children of Montreal had been robbed +of that which was their right. And Charles Parsons, in New York, was +remarking to his son, that perhaps, a fleet of well-trained elephants +would make a good addition to a wrecking crew. + + * * * * * + +Once again I have digressed. Yet offer no apologies. Parsons did not let +the wrecks of the White Mountain discourage him in the operation of the +train. On the contrary, he ordered Mr. Britton to proceed with haste to +the complete installation of the air-brake--then still a considerable +novelty--upon every corner of the road. He steadily bettered the bridges +and the track, tore out the old, stub-switches and substituted for them +the newest, split-switches, with signal lights. The White Mountain +remained; all through his day, and many a day thereafter--even though in +the years after Mr. Britton and he were gone from the road, it was to be +operated between Buffalo and Syracuse over the main line of the New York +Central. And, inasmuch as he was steadily increasing his affiliations with +the Ontario & Western, he installed in connection with it and the Wabash, +a through train from Chicago to Weehawken (opposite New York); going over +the rails of the R. W. & O. from Suspension Bridge to Oswego. This train, +running the year round, and also put at a pretty swift schedule, had +little reputation for adhering to it. Upon one occasion a commercial +traveler bound to Charlotte approaching the old station at "the Bridge" to +find out how late "the O. & W." was reported, was astounded when the agent +replied "on time." Such a thing had not been known before that winter, or +for many winters. And the fact that for a week past it had stormed almost +continuously, only compounded the drummer's perplexity. + +"How is it--on time?" he stammered. + +"This is yesterday's train," was the prompt response. "She's just +twenty-four hours late." + +Eventually and in the close campaign for railroad economy that came across +the land a few years ago, this train, too, was sacrificed. For a time the +experiment was tried of sending its through sleeping-car over the main +line of the Central from Suspension Bridge to Syracuse on a through train; +passing it on from the latter town to the Ontario & Western by way of the +old Chenango Valley branch of the West Shore. The experiment lingered for +a time and then expired. It is not likely that it will ever be renewed. + + * * * * * + +By 1888 Parsons had begun to develop a very real railroad, indeed. The +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh once again was a power in the land. It had +ninety-one locomotives, ninety-one passenger-cars, forty-eight baggage, +mail and express cars, and 2302 freight-cars, of one type or another. +Parsons, as its President, was assisted by two Vice-Presidents, Clarence +S. Day, and his son, Charles Parsons, Jr. Mr. Lawyer still remained +Secretary and Treasurer of the road, even though his offices had been +moved two years before from Watertown to New York City. At Watertown, the +veteran local agent, R. R. Smiley, remained in charge of affairs, with the +title of Assistant Secretary of the company. And Mr. Britton was, of +course, still its General Manager, at Oswego. + +He was really a tremendous man, Hiram M. Britton, in appearance, a big +upstanding citizen, red of beard and clear of eye. I have not, as yet, +given anything like the proper amount of consideration to his dominating +personality. He made a position for himself in North Country railroading +that would fairly entitle him to a whole chapter in a book such as this. + +Mr. Britton was born in Concord, Mass., November 22, 1831. At that time +that little town was almost at the height of its high fame as a literary +center. As a boy he claimed Ralph Waldo Emerson as a friend. The influence +that Emerson had upon Britton remained with him all the years of his life. + +At seventeen, owing to financial reverses that his father had sustained, +young Britton was compelled to leave school and go to work. He found a job +on the old Fitchburg as fireman; from that he quickly rose to be engineer +and then Master Mechanic. He made his way down into New Jersey and became +Superintendent of the New Jersey and North Eastern Railway; after that +General Manager of the New Jersey Midland, the portion of the old +Oswego Midland to-day embraced by a considerable part of the New York, +Susquehanna & Western.... From that last post, in the summer of 1883 to +the management of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. That position he +retained until 1890, when increasing ill-health forced him to relinquish +it and travel throughout Europe in a vain effort to regain his strength. +The presidencies, both of the Rome road and of one of the Pennsylvania +System lines were offered him. He was compelled to refuse both. His +strength gradually failed, and in 1893 he died. + +[Illustration: HIRAM M. BRITTON The First General Manager of the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh and a Railroad Genius.] + +The old R. W. & O. was compelled in its day and generation to assume some +pretty hard, human handicaps. But Britton was a mighty asset to it. He +loved his work. It was a real and an eternal delight to him to achieve the +things that he had set out to do. He was always approachable, obliging and +ready to meet all reasonable requests that came within his power; he had +the faculty of making friends of those who came in contact with him, and +of retaining their friendship. A man's man was Hiram M. Britton, a +railroad captain of great alertness, and possessed not only of vast +enthusiasm, but also of a wondrous ability for hard work. The hard +problems of his job never feazed him. Even the winter snows--forever its +_bete noire_--did not discourage him, not for long, at any rate. He came, +as came so many men from outside the borders of the North Country, with +something like a contempt for its midwinter storms. Before Britton had +been long on the job, however, the line from Potsdam to Watertown was +completely blocked for four long days, and he learned that it was all in a +day's work when the ticking wires reported two engines and a plow derailed +at Pulaski, two more off at Kasoag, and not a train in or out of Watertown +for more than thirty hours. At all of which he would relight his pipe and +send a few telegrams of real encouragement up and down the line. That is, +he sent the telegrams when the wires remained up above the tops of the +snow-drifts and the men were using them to hang their coats upon as they +shoveled the heavy snow. Ofttimes the wires went down, and once in a while +they were deliberately cut--by some harassed and nerve-racked, +snow-fighting boss. + +That was before the days of the famous Dewey episode at Manila, but the +emergency at the moment must have seemed quite as great. At any rate the +Gordian knot, translated into a thin thread of copper wire, was cut--not +once, but frequently. I myself, in later years, have seen a Superintendent +go into our lower yard at Watertown late at night when congestion piled +upon congestion, when the zero wind whistled up through the flats from +down Sackett's Harbor way, and the evening train up the line nestled +somewhere near Massey Street crossing in a hopelessly inert and frozen +fashion, and clean up the mess there. Once one of these inbound trains +from down the line coming down the long grade into the yard crashed into a +snowbound freight there, and split the caboose asunder, as clean a job as +if it had been done with a sharp ax. There were six men asleep in the +caboose--to say nothing of two in the cab of the oncoming train, and yet +no lives were lost. Even though the Watertown Fire Department spent most +of the rest of the night putting out the fearful blaze that arose from the +wreckage. Corn meal was spread bountifully about atop of the snow, and no +one on the flats lacked for pudding the rest of that winter. + + * * * * * + +Once, in the Britton regime, there had been nearly a week when Watertown +was entirely cut off from Richland and the towns to the South of it. A +show-troupe, marooned at that junction for seven fearful days, had rigged +up a theater in the old depot and there had played _Ten Nights in a +Barroom_, in order to pay its hotel bill. At least so runs the tradition. + +The Rome road felt that it owed some obligation to its old, chief town and +all the while it kept steadily at its all but hopeless task, although +every night the fresh wind blowing down from Canada and across the icy +surface of Ontario filled the long miles of railroad cuts and completely +erased the sight of the rails. Parsons had bought plows for the road such +as it had never seen before--huge Russells and giant rotaries that would +cut the snow as with a giant gimlet, and then send it shooting a quarter +of a mile off over the country, so that it would not blow back at once +into the cuttings. There is a good deal of real technique in this +practical science of fighting snow--and a deal of variance as to the +proper technique. For instance, in the Rome road they used to place its +old-fashioned "wing-plows" ahead of its pushing locomotives, while the +Black River line invariably had its plows follow the engine. It claimed +for itself the proof of the pudding, in the fact that whereas in blizzard +weather the Rome road almost invariably was blocked, the Black River line +rarely was. It is but fair to add, however, that the original construction +of the R. W. & O. north of Richland was very bad for snow-fighting; there +were many miles of shallow cuttings into which the prevailing winds off +Lake Ontario could easily pack the soft wet snow. In after years and +under New York Central management this primary defect was corrected. And +the large expense of the track elevation was quite offset by the great +economies in snow-fighting costs that immediately ensued. + +Yet try as H. M. Britton might and did try he seemed fated there in the +eighties to buck against the worst storms that the North Country had known +in more than half a century. That same storm that tied up his main line +roundabout Richland--always a snow trouble center--completely paralyzed +the Cape Vincent branch. It came as the grand finale to a sequence of +particularly severe snowfalls and hard blows. The deficit upon the Cape +Vincent branch that winter--I think it was the spring of 1887--rose to an +appalling figure. Finally the R. W. & O. gave up the Cape branch as a +hopeless proposition and hired a liveryman to carry the mails between +Watertown and Cape Vincent, in order that it might not violate its +contract with the Postoffice Department. + +After the branch had been abandoned a full fortnight, a delegation of +citizens from the Cape drove to Watertown and there confronted Britton, +who had made an appointment to meet them. They made their little speeches +and they were pretty hot little speeches--hot enough to have melted away +more than one good-sized drift. + +"When are you going to cart that snow off our line?" finally demanded the +spokesman of the Cape Vincent folk. + +Britton looked at the delegation coolly, and lighted a fresh cigar. + +"I am going to let the man that put it there," he said slowly, "take it +away." + +And he did. It was thirty-two days before a railroad engine entered Cape +Vincent from the time that the last one had left it. + + * * * * * + +The days of that final decade of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh were, +most of them, however, good days indeed. Fondly do the men of that era, +getting, alas, fewer each year, speak of the time when the Rome road had +its corporate identity and, what meant far more to them, a corporate +personality. For the R. W. & O. did have in those last days those elusive +qualities, that even the so-called inanimate corporation can sometimes +have--a heart and a soul. Yet, in every case, attributes such as these +must come from above, from the men in real charge of a property. The +courtesy of the ticket-agent, the friendliness of the conductor are the +reflection of the courtesy and the friendliness of the men above him. It +is enough to say that H. M. Britton was at all times both courteous and +friendly. He was a tremendous inspiration to the men with, and below him. + +In the doleful days of the Sloan administration the R. W. & O. began to +deteriorate in its morale, with a tremendous rapidity. In the days after +the coming of Parsons and of Britton it began slowly, but very surely, to +regain this quality so precious and so essential to the successful +operation of any railroad. The property began to pick up amazingly. At +first it was, indeed, a heartbreaking task. As we have seen, at the end of +the Sloan regime little but a shell remained of a once proud and +prosperous railroad. The road needed ties and rails, bridges, shops, +power, rolling-stock--everything. More than these even it needed the +future confidence of its employes. It needed men with ideas and men with +vision. From its new owners gradually came all of these things. + +Yet, before the things material, came the things spiritual, if you will +let me put it that way. Britton gained the confidence of his men. He +played the game and he played it fairly. And no one knows better when it's +being played fairly by the big bosses at headquarters, than does your +keen-witted railroader of the rank and file. Perhaps, the best testimony +to the bigness of H. M. Britton came not long ago, from one of the men +who had worked under him--a veteran engineer, to-day retired and living at +his home in St. Lawrence County. + +"We didn't get much money, I'll grant you," says this man, "but somehow we +didn't seem to need much. And yet, I don't know but what we had as much to +live on as we do now. But that didn't make any difference. We were +interested in the road and we were all helping to put it in the position +that we felt it ought to be in. In those earliest days, you know, our +engines used to have a lot of brasswork. We used to spend hours over them, +keeping them in shape, polishing them and scrubbing them. And when we had +no polishing or scrubbing to do, we'd go down to the yard and just sit in +them. They belonged to us. The company may have paid for them, but we +owned them." + +So was it. "Charley" Vogel running the local freight from Watertown to +Norwood, down one day and back the next, in "opposition" to "Than" +Peterson used to boast that he could eat his lunch from the running-board +of his cleanly engine; which had started her career years before as the +_Moses Taylor_, No. 35. Ed. Geer, his fireman, was as hard a worker as the +skipper. This frame of mind was characteristic of all ranks and of all +classes. Indeed, the company may have paid for the road, but the men did +own it. And they owned it in a sense that cannot easily be understood +to-day--in the confusion of national agreements and decisions by the Labor +Board out at Chicago and a vast and pathetic multiplicity of red-tape +between the railroad worker and his boss. + +Take Ben Batchelder: We saw him a moment ago with John O'Sullivan working +a thirty-six hour day to clean up a circus wreck just outside of Potsdam. +That was Ben Batchelder's way always. Incidentally, it was just one of his +days. One time, in midwinter, during a fortnight of constant and heavy +snow, when Ben had become Master Mechanic at Watertown, the Despatcher +called him on the 'phone and asked for a locomotive to operate a +snow-plow. Ben replied that all the locomotives were frozen and that it +would be slow work thawing them out, and making them ready for service. + +"Then why don't you take them into the house and thaw them out?" shouted +the Despatcher. + +"There's no roof on the house, and I'm too busy to-day to put one on," was +the quick retort. + +Faith and loyalty--we did not call it morale in those days, but it was, +just the same. Here was Conductor William Schram with a brisk little job, +handling the way freight on the old Cape branch: He had just spent three +days bringing a big Russell plow through from the Cape to Watertown. On +getting into Watertown it was needed to open up the road between that city +and Philadelphia. Schram had been on duty three days without rest. Another +conductor was called to relieve him. William Schram protested. He said +that he did not feel that he could desert the road when it was in a fix. + +Three other conductors, well famed in the days of the Parsons' regime of +the Rome road, were Andrew Dixon, Tom Cooper and Daniel Eggleston--and a +fourth was the well-known Jacob Herman, of Watertown. Jake was a warm +personal friend of both Parsons and Britton. Finally, it came to a point +where the President would have no other man in charge of his train when he +made his inspection trips over the property, and he advanced and protected +him in every conceivable way. He insisted even upon Jake accompanying him +back and forth from New York on the occasion of his frequent visits into +the North Country. + +In an earlier chapter I referred to the easy traditions of the long-agos +in regard to the passenger receipts from the average American railroad. +The R. W. & O. had been no exception to this general rule. Along about +1888 or 1889 Parsons decided that he would make it an exception +henceforth. He violated the old traditions and sent "spotters" out upon +the passenger trains. As a direct result of their observations some +thirteen or fourteen of the oldest men on the line were dropped from its +service. Not only this, but several months' pay was withheld from the +envelopes of each of them as they were discharged. Just prior to this +volcano-like eruption on the part of "the old man" Parsons sent Herman up +to Watertown as station master--a position which he has continued to hold +until comparatively recent months. + +The "stove committees" "joshed" Jake pretty well over his boss's strategy, +knowing full well all the while, that if there was one honest conductor on +the whole line, it was that selfsame Jacob Herman. Not only honest, but +courageous. It was in a slightly earlier era that the road had a good deal +of trouble on the Rome branch with what they called "bark +peelers"--woodsmen, who would come down out of the forest and in their +boisterous fashion make a deal of trouble for the train-crew. + +Jake Herman was told off to end that nuisance. It was a regular +honest-to-goodness-carry-the-message-to-Garcia sort of a job. Well, Jake +got the message through to Garcia. He picked out six brakemen as +assistant messengers, any one of whom would have made a real Cornell +center-rush. They were the "flower of the flock." + +At Richland the gang boarded the evening train down from Watertown. +Somewhere between that station and Kasoag they detrained--as a military +man might put it. But not in a military fashion. Along the right-of-way +Captain Jake and his lieutenants distributed "bark-peelers," with a fair +degree of regularity of interval. Up to that time it had been no sinecure, +being a conductor or a trainman on the old Rome road. After that it became +as easy as running an infant class in a Sunday School. + +John D. Tapley was another well known conductor of those days, and so was +W. S. Hammond, who afterwards became division superintendent at Carthage. +These men were U. & B. R. graduates, and it was but logical that when +Hammond came to his promotion reward, it should be upon the corner of the +property on which he had been schooled and with which he was most +familiar. He was a man of tremendous popularity among his men. + + * * * * * + +Sometimes these men of the rank and file had their reward. More often they +did not. John O'Sullivan's came when in 1890, after a few years of +unsuccessful experimentation, General Passenger Agent Butterfield handed +him the annual Northern New York Sunday excursion to Ontario Beach (in the +outskirts of Rochester) and asked him what he could do with it. O'Sullivan +replied that he could make it go. He had watched the success of the road's +annual long-distance excursions; to Washington in the spring and to New +York in October--this last for a fixed fare of six dollars, for a six or +seven hundred mile journey. The excursions ran coaches, parlor-cars, +dining-cars and sleeping-cars, and did a land-office business. Northern +New York had acquired a taste for railroad travel. O'Sullivan knew this. + +"I'll take you on," said he to Mr. Butterfield. + +And so he did. For seventeen successive years thereafter he handled the +annual Ontario Beach excursion from Potsdam and all its adjoining +stations--all the way from Norwood to Watertown--on a one-day trip over +some four hundred miles of single-track railroad. The excursion had a vast +business--invariably running in several sections, each drawn by two +locomotives, and having from fifteen to sixteen cars each. It carried +passengers for $2.50 for the round trip. Few Northern New York folk along +the road went to bed until it returned, which was always well into the wee +small hours of Monday morning. And yet, it was withal, a reasonably +orderly crowd. O'Sullivan kept it so. On the handbills which announced it +each year appeared these conspicuous words: + +"Behave yourself. If you can't behave yourself, don't go." + + * * * * * + +Yet a practical reward such as this could in truth be handed to but a very +few of the road's workers indeed. Yet it continued until the end to +command their loyalty. Not even the cruel handling of the property by the +predecessors of Parsons could dampen that loyalty. To even attempt to make +a list of the hard-working and energetic workers of that day and +generation of the eighties would mean a catalogue far larger than this +little book. There comes to mind a brilliant list--names some of them +to-day still with us, and some of them but affectionate traditions: George +Snell, who began by running the _Doxtater_; Patsy Tobin, who had the old +_Gardner Colby_ on the day that she exploded on Harrison Hill, just +outside of Canton; Ed. McNiff; William Bavis; Butler (who had started his +career toward an engine-cab as blacksmith at DeKalb Junction, trimming for +relaying the old iron rails that the section-gangs brought to him); and +Superintendent W. S. (Billy) Jones. + +Jones was a much-loved officer of the old R. W. & O. He started his +railroad career at Sandy Creek, as an operator, receiving his messages +with one of the old-fashioned printing-telegraphs. One day Richard Holden, +of Watertown, dropped into the Sandy Creek depot and suggested to Jones +that he throw the old contraption out of the window--it was forever +getting out of order. Jones demurred for a time; then accepted the +suggestion. And in a few weeks was one of the best operators on the line, +which led presently to his appointment as agent at Ogdensburgh, where he +remained until the days of the Parsons' control. + +Both Britton and Parsons were constantly on the alert to discover the best +available material on their property and Jones was appointed in the +mid-eighties to be superintendent of the line east of Watertown, with +headquarters at DeKalb. Later he was moved to Watertown and there became +one of the fixtures of the town. + + * * * * * + +I cannot close this chapter of the second golden age of the Rome road +without a passing reference to George H. Haselton, who died but a year or +two ago. Mr. Haselton was the successor of Griggs of Jackson and of Close, +becoming Master Mechanic of the road in 1878, or at about the time its +shops were moved from Rome to Oswego. He builded in the latter city the +engines that were the precursors of the mighty power of to-day. He used +great facility in building and rebuilding the early locomotives of the R. +W. & O.--in keeping them in service, seemingly forever and a day. In the +North Country a locomotive goes in for long service and, in its difficult +climate, hard service, too. There still is, or was until very recently at +least, a locomotive in service at the plant of the Hannawa Pulp Company at +Potsdam, which although ordered by the Union Pacific Railroad from the +Taunton Locomotive Works was delivered to the Central Vermont in May, +1869. First named the _St. Albans_ and then the _Shelbourne_, she was +inherited by the Rutland Railroad and then, after many rebuildings turned +over by its Ogdensburgh branch (the former Northern Railroad) to the +Norwood & St. Lawrence Railroad. Fifty years of service through a stern +northland seemed to work little damage to this staunch old settler. She +was typical of her kind--old-fashioned built, and with old-fashioned +standards of the service to be rendered. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH RAILROADS MULTIPLY + + +The all but defunct Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, of 1880, was not a +property to attract any considerable amount of attention from the +financiers and big railroaders, who had located themselves in the city of +New York. A local and feeding line of but some four hundred miles of +trackage--and most of that in an utterly wretched and deplorable +condition--it commanded neither the attention nor the respect of the +metropolis. The Vanderbilts in their comfortable offices in the still-new +Grand Central Depot, snapped their fingers contemptuously at it. They +would have but little of it. They did not need it. It fed their prosperous +main line anyway. As we have already seen, William H. Vanderbilt had at +one time acquired a considerable interest in the Utica & Black River +Railroad. Twice he had actually moved toward securing control of that snug +little property. It seemed to be a far more logical feeder to the New York +Central than the Rome road might ever become. Yet, eventually Mr. +Vanderbilt sold his Black River stock. + +"I am not going to dissipate my energies in sundries," he then told one of +his cronies. "I am going to stick by the main line hereafter." + +As I have already intimated if he had succeeded in acquiring the Utica & +Black River, there at the beginning of the eighties the entire railroad +history of the North Country might have been changed, down to this very +day. It was in that uncertain hour that the elaborate but ill-fated West +Shore was being builded through from New York to Buffalo--a route ten +miles shorter than the main line of the New York Central. The West Shore +needed feeders, very greatly needed them, and it was having a hard time +getting them. Remember too, if you will, that if the Utica & Black River +had become the sole Northern New York feeding line of the New York +Central, it is entirely probable and consistent that the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh would have been an extremely valuable and essential factor of +the West Shore. The greater part of the state of New York would then have +been placed upon a competitive railroad basis. Instead of being, as it is +to-day, largely upon the monopolistic basis. + + * * * * * + +The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh of 1890 was an extremely different +railroad from the woe-begone and utterly wretched property that had borne +that name but a decade earlier. Reorganized, to a large extent rebuilded, +it was a reincarnation of the excellent rail highway which the citizens of +Watertown and other communities of the North Country had built for +themselves away back there at the beginning of the fifties. Charles +Parsons was never a popular figure in Northern New York. He made no +efforts toward popularity. Yet simple justice compels the recognition of +the fact, that in the rebuilding of the R. W. & O. he accomplished a very +large constructive work. He had relaid and reballasted hundreds of miles +of main line track and put down not only many miles of sidings but also a +considerable quantity of new main line; between Norwood and Massena +Springs, between Oswego and Syracuse, between Windsor Beach and Rochester, +chief among these extensions. He had built new bridges by the dozens; +purchased and rebuilded cars and locomotives by the hundreds. It was +almost as if he had built a brand new railroad. + +Now--in 1890--he had 643 main line miles of as good a railroad, generally +speaking, as one might find in the entire land. The Rome road owned an +even hundred locomotives, ninety-eight passenger-cars, thirty-five +baggage-cars, and 2609 freight-cars of one type or another. It was a +monopoly within its territory. Its busy main-stem stretched all the way +from Suspension Bridge (with excellent western connections) to Norwood and +Massena Springs (each with excellent eastern connections). It was in a +superb strategic position as a competitor for through freight from the +interior of the land to the Atlantic seaboard ports--either Boston, or +Portland, or Montreal. Parsons was unusually expert in his traffic +strategy. Frequently he went so far and dared so much that the line of the +four-leaved clover gradually became something of a thorn in the side of +some of its larger competitors. Parsons in competitive territory was a +rate-smasher. He did not hesitate to put the screws upon the territory +wherein his road was a purely monopolistic carrier. There are citizens +dwelling in the northern portions of Jefferson county who still +remember--and with bitterness in their memories--how he helped put the +Keene mines out of business. + +In an earlier chapter of this book I referred to the large part that James +Sterling had played in the upbuilding of this iron industry. After several +successive failures the mines had, sometime in the seventies, been put +upon a basis, seemingly permanent. Their ore was good--and popular. At the +time that Parsons first assumed control of the Rome road, the Keene mines +were shipping out from six to eight carloads of hematite daily--to +connecting lines at Syracuse, at Sterling and at Charlotte--at an average +rate of $1.25 a ton. Parsons advanced the rate to $1.50 a ton, and they +quit. They have remained idle ever since; their abandoned shaft-houses +melancholy reminders of a vanished enterprise. Yet the ore is still there, +in vast quantities; richer than the Messaba and in the opinion of many +experts, extending up to and under the St. Lawrence, and into the province +of Ontario. + + * * * * * + +Oddly enough, as Keene quit other mine districts of Northern New York +began to open up. It had been known for many years that in the +neighborhood of the small village of Harrisville in the north part of +Lewis county there were valuable deposits of black, magnetic iron ore. To +reach these beds, to open and to develop them had long been the dream of +certain North Country men, notably George Gilbert, of Carthage and Joseph +Pahud, of Harrisville. As far back as 1866, a line had been surveyed from +Carthage to Harrisville, twenty-one miles. Yet, it was not until twenty +years later that a standard railroad was put down between these two +villages. + +In the meantime--to be exact, in the summer of 1869--the so-called +"wooden railroad" was built for the ten miles between Carthage and Natural +Bridge. Literally this line--its corporate name was the Black River & St. +Lawrence Railway Company--had rails hewn and smoothed from maple. It was +so very crude that it was doomed to failure from the beginning. Yet its +right-of-way served a similar purpose for the Carthage & Adirondack +Railroad which was organized in 1883, and which opened its line through to +Jayville, thirty miles distant three years later; and on to Bensons Mines +in the fall of 1889. A little later it was completed to Newton Falls, its +present terminus. + +One other small railroad was built out from Carthage a few years later. It +deserves at least a paragraph of reference. The quiet old-fashioned North +Country village of Copenhagen, situated upon the historic State Road from +Utica to Sackett's Harbor, between Lowville and Watertown, had not ceased +to regret how the building of the Black River road--which quite naturally +had followed the water-level of the river valley--had completely passed it +by. Copenhagen also wanted a railroad. It waited for forty years after the +completion of the Utica & Black River before its desire was fulfilled. +Then, by almost superhuman effort on the part of its citizens, as well as +those of Carthage, it built its railroad to that village, eleven miles +distant. A former citizen of the town, one Jimmy March, who had won fame +and success as a contractor in New York City, bought a second-hand +passenger-coach from the Erie Railroad and presented it to the Carthage & +Copenhagen. A locomotive was purchased with a few work-cars and a brave +but almost hopeless transportation effort begun. + +The Carthage & Copenhagen already has ceased to exist. The recent +development of the state highways and with them, of the motor-truck and +the motor omnibus sealed its fate. In 1917 it was abandoned and its track +torn up, for its wartime value in scrap iron: Its little yellow depot at +Copenhagen still stands. And upon it, but two or three years ago, there +still was affixed the blue and white signs of the telegraph company and +the express company. Yet no longer a track led to it; only a half-hidden +and weed-grown row of rotting ties, stretching away off in the distance +toward Carthage. In truth it has become but a mere mockery of a railroad +depot. + +The day of the small railroad apparently is gone; its fate sealed. True it +is that the little railroad from Norwood to Waddington and the one that +the Lewis family built from Lowville to Croghan and Beaver Falls are both +still in operation, but these have large local industries to serve--they +are, in fact, hardly more than independently operating industrial sidings. +So, too, has continued the branch road from Gouverneur to Edwards, which +Engineer Bockus helped open in 1893 and upon which he has run ever since. + + * * * * * + +Charles Parsons had but little use for the small railroad. He thought of +railroads in large units indeed. His thought of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh was, forever and a day, as a trunk-line, nothing less. +Sometimes he talked, rather airily to be sure, of buying the Ogdensburgh & +Lake Champlain or even the Wabash. Yet, in reality, he would have had +nothing of either of these somewhat moribund properties. He did not need +them. They were not germane to a single one of his plans. For one, and the +most important thing, neither of them could stand alone. The R. W. & O. +could. In the largest sense, it was a self-contained property; with its +monopolistic control of a huge territory, rich in basic wealth and still +in a period of healthy and continued growth. + +Once, there at the beginning of the nineties, Grand Trunk made tentative +offers for the control of the rebuilded property. It hinted at a +willingness to pay par for such an interest. Parsons paid no attention to +the offer. Some people said that he was waiting for the Canadian Pacific +to come along and buy his road; there have always been plans for +international bridges across the St. Lawrence; all the way from Cape +Vincent to Morristown. + +But even Canadian Pacific was not the big thing in Parsons' mind. I think +it may be safely said that from the middle of the eighties he had realized +the necessity that would yet confront the Vanderbilts of owning the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh. At that earlier time they were having their hands +full with the aftermath of their victorious but terribly costly battle +with the West Shore. It would be some years before they would be in a +position to go further afield than their own main line territory. But +Parsons could wait--wait and upbuild his property. And show his constant +independence of the New York Central. + +In a hundred different ways he showed this. More than ever he became a +thorn in the side of the bigger road. He slashed more through rates--and +raised more of the local ones to make good the loss to his treasury. +Northern New York groaned, and yet was helpless. Parsons laughed at it. As +far as possible he kept out of it. He cut the wires. His right-hand man, +Hiram M. Britton, began breaking physically under the pressure and the +criticism, finally was forced to leave his desk altogether to seek, +vainly, the restoration of his health in Europe. + +Mr. E. S. Bowen succeeded Mr. Britton as General Manager of the road. A +quiet, gentle sort of a man--a native of Lock Haven, Pa., and a former +General Superintendent of the Erie--of far less dominant personality than +his predecessor. He came quite too late upon the property to make a large +personal impress upon it. The memories that he left of himself are mostly +negative. He was thorough, conscientious, apparently seeking to please, in +an all but impossible situation. He was the last General Manager of the +Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Railroad. + + * * * * * + +The steadily increasing clamor of the North Country against the road and +its management brought a man up from the South with a definite scheme for +building a competitive relief line into it. His name was Austin Corbin, +and while primarily he was always promoter rather than railroader, he did +have one or two railroad successes distinctly to his credit. In control of +the Long Island, his had been the vision that planned the creation of a +great ocean terminal at Fort Pond Bay, near Montauk Point. From here +Corbin saw four-day steamers plying that would connect America and Europe. +A day would be saved in not bringing these fast super-craft in and out of +the crowded harbor of New York. It was a fascinating plan and one which +still is revived every few years. + +Corbin did some distinctly creative work upon the Long Island; and yet +forever was promoter, rather than railroader. He had associated with +himself, A. A. McLeod, who a little later was to achieve a spectacular +notoriety by successfully uniting--for a short time--such conservative +properties as Reading, Lehigh Valley and Boston & Maine into a single, +sprawling, top-heavy railroad. Together these men had picked up for a song +an unhappy railroad, which stretched more than halfway across New York +State and which was known as the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira. Corbin acquired +this road in 1882. It was a wonder. It reached neither Utica nor Ithaca +nor Elmira. Starting at Horseheads, four or five miles north of Elmira, it +twisted and turned itself through the hills of the Southern Tier and of +Central New York, narrowly missing Ithaca--which steadily and consistently +refused to build itself up the hill to meet it--threading Cortland and +finally terminating at Canastota. + +This road came almost as a gift to Corbin and his associates. Its sole +value was that in its brief course it intersected nearly all of the +important railroads in New York state; the Pennsylvania, Erie, Lehigh +Valley, Lackawanna, and the New York Central. Corbin renamed the road, +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, and in 1887, extended it north from Canastota +to Camden, intersecting the Ontario & Western and the Rome road. He was +then within about fifty miles of Watertown. At about the same time he gave +his property its own entrance well within the heart of Elmira. + +Vainly Corbin tried to peddle this road either to the Pennsylvania or to +the Vanderbilts. He finally offered it to them at the assumption of its +mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. Even then it fell dead. As a last +resource he determined upon Watertown. Word of that small but growing +city's traffic plight had come to him. He jumped aboard a train and went +up to the rich county-seat of Jefferson, cultivated the friendship of its +men of affairs. Alluringly he spoke to them of the road he owned, of its +rare connections, its peculiar value as a coal-carrier, his ambition to +thrust it still further across the state. + +So there was formed, in May, 1890, the Camden, Watertown & Northern +Railroad to fill at least the fifty mile gap between Camden, which was +nothing as a railroad terminus, and Watertown, which even then had a heavy +originating traffic. Watertown even in 1890, was employing 2500 workers +in its factories which alone burned more than 33,000 tons of coal +annually. It was receiving 68,000 tons of freight a year and sending out +about 178,000. It was a fair fling under any conditions for a competing +railroad; under the peculiar conditions that then prevailed seemingly a +double opportunity. + +Corbin, himself, became President of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. As +its Secretary and Treasurer, James L. Newton was chosen. Around these men +a most representative directorate was grouped; S. F. Bagg, B. B. Taggart, +H. F. Inglehart, George W. Knowlton, George A. Bagley and A. D. Remington. +Whatever might have been Corbin's motive in the entire undertaking, there +was no mistaking the motives of the Watertown men, who had gathered about +him. They were determined to give their town a competing line; to undo, if +possible, the fiasco of a few years before when the Carthage, Watertown & +Sackett's Harbor had passed from their hands to hands unfriendly and +alien. + + * * * * * + +All these preparations Parsons watched with a great equanimity. He +realized the potential weaknesses of the connecting link of the proposed +new line; the terrific curves and the heavy grades of the E. C. & N. +Perhaps, he realized these fundamental weaknesses all the more because of +the steadily growing alliance between his road and the Ontario & Western. +The R. W. & O. sought to dig more deeply than ever into the sides of the +Vanderbilts by taking more and more traffic away from them; in the five +years from 1885 to 1890, the business delivered by the Rome road to the +New York Central at Utica, at Rome and at Syracuse had dwindled from two +million dollars a year to a little less than a million, and that of the +Ontario & Western had practically doubled. + +The Vanderbilts have never taken punishment easily. But they are good +waiters. And apparently they did not propose in this instance to be +hurried into reprisals. William H. Vanderbilt hated to do business with +Charles Parsons. He detested going down to the Rome road's offices in Wall +Street, and there facing his new rival, a tall, cadaverous man, whose hair +in his Rome road years had changed from part-white to snow-white, and who +persisted in an inordinate habit of sitting at his desk in his stocking +feet; sometimes Parsons flaunted his feet upon the radiator. If the pedal +extremities of the fastidious Vanderbilt ever hurt him, he succeeded at +least in keeping his shoes on. Decency compels many things. + +Across from Parsons sat his son, another Charles, who held the post of +Vice-President of the road of which his father was President. Together +they smoked cigarettes, incessantly. It was not usual for elderly men in +those days to smoke cigarettes and because the elder Parsons did it in his +office, Mr. Vanderbilt distrusted him all the more. + +And yet, there were about Parsons certain distinct qualities of charm and +interest. A State of Maine man--he came from Kennebunkport--he was a born +horse-trader, as his operations in the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +steadily showed. He was not a man to pay for that which he might possibly +get for nothing. On one memorable occasion he came to the office of +William Buchanan, the veteran Motive Power Superintendent of the New York +Central, who designed and built the famous No. 999, in order to get some +free advice on locomotive equipment. The Rome road then had a rather fair +supply of antiquated motive-power--it still was using some of the +converted wood-burners of its earliest days--and Parsons wanted to buy, +second-hand, some of the older engines of the N. Y. C. & H. R. He argued +that his bridges would not permit the purchase of heavy modern +locomotives. + +But the Central folk argued back that they had scrapped all their light +engines, save those that they still needed for certain local and +branch-line services. In the long run they drew up plans for locomotives +suited to the special necessities of the Rome road and presented Parsons +with them. From that time on he came frequently to consult the technical +authorities in the Grand Central Depot. + +"I have a first-class staff working for me and I don't have to pay it a +blessed cent," he would chuckle as he went out of its doors. + +The funny part of it all being that the Vanderbilts apparently were +perfectly willing that he should make such use of their staff. + + * * * * * + +Here was Charles Parsons steadily proposing the most disagreeable things +to the Vanderbilts. The Lehigh Valley which, like the Lackawanna of a +decade before, had begun to tire of the Erie as a sole entrance into the +Buffalo gateway, and was building its own line into that important city, +was making eyes at the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. Parsons, still +smoking his cigarettes, made eyes back at the Lehigh Valley and its +owners, the enormously wealthy Packer family of South Bethlehem, +Pennsylvania. Together they slipped into an alliance. For ten years +Charles Parsons had coveted an entrance of his own into Buffalo. The +Packers wanted to get from Buffalo into the traffic hub of Suspension +Bridge. On a competitive basis, neither the existing lines of the New +York Central nor of the Erie between those two places were open to them. + +The interests of the R. W. & O. and the Lehigh Valley in this situation +were identical. It was quite logical therefore that they should get +together and form the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland; quite a grand +sounding appellation for twenty-four miles of railroad, which was to run +from Buffalo to Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge. Once formed, there in +the eventful midsummer of 1890, no time was lost in acquiring the +right-of-way for this important railroad link. As a separate corporation +it expended something over a million dollars for land and for preliminary +grading. + +To complete its line it was necessary that it should cross the lines of +the then New York Central & Hudson River--not once, but several times. Up +to that time the New York Central had generally pursued a pretty +broad-gauge policy in permitting other railroads to cross its lines. Even +in this instance it granted the necessary permissions, but this time Mr. +Parsons went north to the Grand Central Depot and not Mr. Vanderbilt south +to Wall Street. Mr. Vanderbilt was quite willing that Mr. Parsons should +cross his tracks, when and where it was absolutely necessary, but, of +course, Mr. Parsons would reciprocate, if ever the occasion should arise +and permit the New York Central to cross the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh +tracks, if ever it should become necessary? What is sauce for the goose is +sauce for the gander. + +What could Mr. Parsons do? Mr. Parsons acceded. Of course. Reciprocal +contracts covering all future grade-crossing matters were signed; and +duplicate copies of the peace treaty, signed, sealed and delivered. After +which work on the Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland went ahead quite +merrily once more. + + * * * * * + +It was in December of that same year, 1890, hardly more than six months +after Mr. Austin Corbin had made the first of his Queen-of-Sheba visits to +Watertown that that brisk community found that it was to have a very +special gift in its Christmas stocking. Watertown was not only going to +have one new railroad. It was going to have two. Intimations reached +it--in that strange but sure way that big business always has of sending +out its intimations--that Watertown within the twelvemonth was to be upon +the lines of the New York Central. That seemed to be too good to be true. +But it was true. Telegraphic confirmation followed upon the heels of mere +rumor. The Vanderbilts, tired of shilly-shallying with Parsons and his +railroad and of playing second fiddle to Ontario & Western, were going to +build their own feeder line into Northern New York. Already, it was +organized and named--the Mohawk & St. Lawrence--preliminary surveying +parties were already struggling through the deep December drifts. + +All the oldtime rage and rivalry between Utica and Rome as to which should +be the recognized gateway broke out anew. The jealousies of thirty and +forty years before were renewed. Even Herkimer joined the squabble, +pushing forward the narrow-gauge line that had been built from her limits +north to the little village of Newport and Poland some years before. +Finally talk led to promises. Subscription papers were passed. Rome +trotted out the terminal grounds and the right-of-way for the Black River +& Utica Railroad that had passed her by there before the beginnings of the +sixties. Utica met her offers. Yet it seemed as if Rome was to be chosen. +The congestion of the New York Central yards in Utica--it was, of course, +well before the days of the Barge Canal and the straightening of the +Mohawk--made Rome the most practical terminal. + +Railroad meetings were again the order of the day throughout the North +Country. Carthage vied with Gouverneur and even Cape Vincent, stung to +the quick by the neglect of her port by the Parsons' management, joined in +the clamor. And Watertown? Watertown was beside herself with enthusiasm. +She saw herself as the future railroad capital of the state. Corbin and +his local backers were not slow to take advantage of the situation. +Adroitly they urged that while the Mohawk & St. Lawrence would approach +the city from the southeast and the upper Black River valley, the Camden, +Watertown & Northern would reach it from the southwest. They even hinted +at the possibilities of a union station. Perhaps, the union station would +be big enough to take in a recreant but reformed R. W. & O. And some one +hinted that the Canadian Pacific by a series of wondrous bridges was to +build into the town from Kingston and the northwest. In the union station +of Watertown of a decade hence one was to be able to go in through limited +trains-de-luxe to almost any quarter of the land. And this in a town which +up to that day, at least, had never seen a dining-car come into its +ancient station. + +All that winter Watertown ate railroads, slept railroads, dreamed +railroads. Surveyors went across back lots and put funny little yellow +wooden stakes in the snow drifts, where there had been potato rows the +previous summer and the next might see the beginnings of a great railroad +yard. Soft-voiced and persuasive young men went before the Common Council +and had all manner of permissive ordinances passed without a single word +of protest. Plans and routes by the dozen were filed with the County +Clerk. A local poetess burst into song in the _Times_ in commemoration of +the spirit of the hour. + + * * * * * + +As I look back upon the printed records of these proceedings, after thirty +years, quite dispassionately, it seems to me that there was, after all, an +extraordinary vagueness in the plans of these railroad promoters of that +strenuous time. The railroad lines ran here and there and everywhere upon +the map. But very little real money was expended, either in land or in +construction. The promoters, of both of the proposed new railroads, who +suddenly had become wondrously accessible to the dear public and its +advance agents, the newspaper reporters, were taking very few real steps +toward the real construction of a railroad. + +Mr. Parsons, stung to the quick apparently by the newfound energy of his +friend, Mr. Vanderbilt, retaliated at once by threats of building a line +from his southeastern terminal at Utica through the Mohawk valley--even +through the narrow _impasse_ of Little Falls--to Rotterdam Junction and +the Fitchburg some seventy miles distant. To link Utica with Rome and (by +a more direct line, than by the way of Richland), with Oswego and his +straight through route to Suspension Bridge would be the next and a +comparatively easy step. That done he would at least have a powerful, +competitive route, as against the New York Central's, east to Troy and +Boston--and for ten months of the year by water down the Hudson to New +York. Yet I cannot find any record of Mr. Parsons buying any real estate +in the Mohawk valley. + +Finally the Camden, Watertown & Northern did buy two plats of land +somewhere in the outskirts of Watertown, a fact which was promptly +recorded and spread to the four winds. It did more. It began laying track. +It laid nearly a hundred feet of unballasted track in the yards of Taggart +Brothers' Paper Mill and all Watertown went down in the chilly days at the +beginning of March and venerated that little piece of track. It was a +precious symbol. + +To offset land-buying and track-laying the Vanderbilts sent the flower of +their railroad flocks up to see Watertown, to see and be seen, to ask +questions and to be interviewed. More maps were filed. One only had to +squint one's eyes half closed and see the New York Central feeder +following the north side of the river through the town, and the Camden, +Watertown & Northern squeezing its way, somehow, along the south side of +it. The enthusiasm quickened. A despatch from Utica said that the +contractors, their men and their horses were setting up their quarters +upon the old Oneida County Fair Grounds. Actual construction of the Mohawk +& St. Lawrence was to begin within the fortnight. Watertown braced up and +finished the subscription for the purchase of the right-of-way and depot +site for the new road through its heart. + + * * * * * + +And then? + +Then-- + +On the fourteenth day of March, 1891, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a +quiet little telegraphic message--unemotional and uninspired, flashed its +monotonous way over the railroad wires into the gray old Watertown +passenger station back of the Woodruff House. It read, as follows: + + OSWEGO, March 14, 1891. + + _To all Division Superintendents_: + + The entire road and property of this company has been leased to the + New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and by direction of the + President, I have delivered possession to H. Walter Webb, Third + Vice-President of that company. Each Superintendent please acknowledge + and advise all agents on your division by wire. + + (Signed) E. S. BOWEN, + _General Manager_. + +And Watertown? + +Poor Watertown! + +It was as if a man had touched the tip of a lighted cigar to a tiny, but +much distended gas-balloon. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE COMING OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL + + +Out of the vast wreckage of great hopes and broken ambitions there slowly +arose the smoke of a great wrath. Watertown, in particular, smoldered in +her anger. Her position was a most uncomfortable one. Her pride had not +only been touched but sorely tried. She felt, and truly, that she had +helped to shake the bushes while the New York Central got all the plums. +It hurt. Her traditional rivals pointed their fingers of fine scorn toward +her. Ogdensburgh chuckled with glee. Oswego chortled. + +Yet out of her uncomfortable position she was yet to gain much. She was in +a position not only to demand but to receive. And because of the inherent +power of that position the ranking officers of the New York Central made +every effort to placate her. For one of the very few times, if not indeed +the only time in his life, Cornelius Vanderbilt--then the ranking head of +the family--made public appearance upon the stage of her Opera House, +before a great throng of her citizens, who crowded that ample place and +sat and stood there with anger in their hearts, but with justice in their +minds. They had not appreciated being made dupes. And yet they stood there +willing to give the newcomers the square deal. Which spoke whole volumes +for their upbringing. + +That was a memorable night in the history of Watertown; the evening of +March 24, 1891. The meeting at the City Opera House had been hastily +arranged. The telegraph wires only that morning had announced the coming +of Mr. Vanderbilt, accompanied by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, his personal +friend and adviser and at that time President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, as well as a small group of other railroad officers. The +party had left New York the preceding evening. All that day it held +meetings in the North Country--at Carthage, at Gouverneur, at Potsdam and +at Ogdensburgh. To a large extent these meetings were, however, somewhat +perfunctory. The real event of that memorable day was the evening meeting +at Watertown. In announcing the affair, but a few hours before, the editor +of the _Times_ (we suspect Mr. William D. McKinstry's own brilliant hand +in the penning of these paragraphs) had said: + +"Of course Mr. Depew will be the spokesman of the party. Having had his +dinner, which will be at his own expense, he will be in a good mood to +meet our citizens, and will, of course, have many pleasant things to say. +But we hope he will come no joke on our citizens. With us, this railroad +business is no joking matter. It affects us closely; it comes right into +our homes, affects our comfort of living and the prosperity of our +business enterprises. It puts more or less coal in our fires to warm our +homes, according to the price we have to pay for it, and it makes a +difference with how we are to be fed and clothed. This new railroad +monopoly has the power, if it chooses, to make us the most happy, +contented and prosperous people, or the most dejected and discontented.... +It is a great power to have and it calls for the utmost consideration in +its use...." + +So was laid the platform for the evening meeting; fairly and squarely. To +it the New York Central officers responded, fairly and squarely. Even the +genial Doctor Depew, to whom a speech without a funny story was as a +circus without an elephant, respected the real seriousness of the issue. +At the beginning he told some funny stories--of course. He alluded +playfully to the fact that the citizens of Watertown had met them without +a band--referring inferentially to the first official visit of Charles +Parsons as President of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, upon which +occasion the City Band had been engaged and the whole affair given the +appearance of a _fete_. Mr. Depew alluded half jestingly to the demise of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence and then turned seriously to the real kernel of +the situation--the inevitable tendency of American railroads toward +consolidation into larger single operating units. + +The merger of the Utica & Black River into the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh five years before had been in obedience to such a natural law. +The R. W. & O. system, reaching only Northern New York, disconnected and +not united to the great railroad properties of the country which spread +all over the face of the United States, had, partly by reason of its +isolation, failed to properly develop the territory that it had set out to +serve. It had been hedged in by barriers that it could not surmount. + +It was a good speech, filled not only with good intention, but with a deal +of economic hard sense. The crowded Opera House listened to it with +courtesy, with attention and with applause. But always with a feeling that +the deeds of the new management and not their mere words or promises would +be the atonement for the indignity that had been heaped upon the town. +And the next evening the _Times_ again said editorially: + +[Illustration: SNOW FIGHTERS A Scene in the Richland Yard on Almost Any +Zero Day in the Dead of a North Country Winter.] + +"... Mr. Depew appeared last evening and made the apology which is +reported in full in our local columns. He did it nicely. He called it +frescoing. Whitewashing is the common name for it when the job is done by +less artistic hands. But, by whatever name, it was pleasantly received by +an audience which packed the Opera House and a good feeling was created. +Mr. Depew ... did not go into any detailed statement of what the new +management of the R. W. & O. proposed to do except to make the general +statement that they had come to stay; that our interests were mutual; that +in building up the prosperity of this section they would be adding to +their own prosperity and that they would be one with us in every way. In +carrying out this assurance everything else must follow, and therefore it +is sufficient and satisfactory to our citizens. They will give the +management a good, fair chance to carry out this assurance and wait +confidently for acts to take the place of words ..." + + * * * * * + +That the new management had some real desire to assuage the extremely +irritated local situation became evident within the next few days. The +members of the Vanderbilt party had had many quiet consultations with the +leading men of Watertown and the North Country generally; had noted with +great patience and care the many, many transport grievances of the entire +territory. And proceeded wherever it was possible to remedy these, at +once. + +As a first earnest of its desires it tore down the high, unpainted, +hemlock fence around the Watertown passenger station. That high-board +fence had been an eyesore. It had been far worse than that however. It had +been a slap in the face to the average Watertownian who for years past had +regarded it as part of his inherent right and privilege to go down to the +depot whenever and as often as he pleased, not alone to greet friends or +to see them off, but also for the sheer joy of seeing the cars come in and +depart. Upon the occasion of the state firemen's convention in the +preceding August, the R. W. & O. management caused the ugly fence to be +builded--as a temporary measure. But the firemen's convention gone and a +matter of joyous memory, the fence remained. One might only enter within +upon showing one's ticket. + +Now, no matter how common and sensible a practice that might be elsewhere, +in this broad world, Watertown resented it, as an invasion of personal +privilege. It protested to the R. W. & O. management over at Oswego. Its +protests were laughed at. The fence remained. The New York Central tore it +down ... within a fortnight after it had acquired the road. + + * * * * * + +I have mentioned this episode in some detail because it is so typical of +the fashion that so many railroad managements, and with so much to gain, +go blindly ahead neglecting utterly the one great thing essential toward +the gaining of their larger ends--public sympathy and public support. +Charles Parsons, with everything to gain from Northern New York, scoffed +at these great aids, so easily purchased. Vastly bigger than Sloan in most +ways, he, nevertheless, shared the contempt of the old genius of the +Lackawanna for public opinion. The Vanderbilts rarely have made this +mistake with their railroads. I think that it can be put down as one of +the great open secrets of their success. + +Similarly Parsons had offended Watertown by his treatment of its newly +born street railway. It had been planned to extend in a single straight +line from the northeastern corner of the city, just beyond Sewall's Island +through High, and State, and Court, and Main Streets to the westerly +limits of the town, and thence down the populous valley of the Black +River through Brownville to the little manufacturing village of Dexter, +eight miles distant. In this course it needed to cross the steam railroad +tracks four times at grade--all of these within the city limits. + +The old R. W. & O had stoutly fought these crossings; using one specious +argument after another. The new management of the property said that the +crossings could go down as soon as the street railway company could have +them manufactured. It kept its word. The street railway went ahead--and +thrived; and the steam railroad lost little by its slight competition +between Watertown and Brownville. + +One other very popular form of grievance still remained--I shall take up +the question of the freight and passenger rates at another time--the +persistent refusal of the Parsons' administration to install through +all-the-year sleeping-car service between Watertown and New York. The +Vanderbilts installed that service, also one between Oswego and New York +within three weeks of their acquisition of the road. These have remained +ever since with the single exception of a short period during the Chicago +World's Fair, when the extreme shortage of sleeping-cars induced the +headquarters of the New York Central temporarily to withdraw the +Watertown cars. A protest from the Northern New York metropolis brought +them back--within seven days' time. + +The new management did more. It instituted Sunday trains upon the line; +also as an all-the-year feature, a travel necessity for which the North +Country had cried for years, vainly. It placed parlor-cars upon the +principal trains. It shortened the running-time of all of these. It showed +in almost every conceivable fashion a real desire to propitiate its +public. And for that desire much of the Mohawk & St. Lawrence fiasco was +eventually forgiven it. + + * * * * * + +One other problem--and a passing large one--confronted it; the question of +taking proper care of the official personnel of the Rome road. That is +always a difficult and delicate question in a merger of large +properties.... The Parsons family was taken care of--although in the +entire transaction it had taken pretty good care of itself. Arrangements +were made to carry its members upon the New York Central pay-rolls for a +season, even though they were quickly off and into new enterprises--the +New York & New England and South Carolina Railroad--but never again was +there to be such a killing as they had had in the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Such an opportunity does not arise once in a lifetime; not +once in a thousand lifetimes. + +The rest of the official roster was to be continued, for the next two or +three months at any rate. With great astuteness the Vanderbilts planned to +upset the operation of the road, to the least possible degree. It was to +keep its name and its individuality as far as was possible. As a matter of +operating convenience it was arranged to abolish the auditing offices at +Oswego and to have the R. W. & O. agents and conductors make their reports +direct to the New York Central headquarters in the Grand Central Station, +in New York City. Similarly orders went forth from those headquarters to +drop the old name, "Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh" from the locomotive +tenders and the sides of the passenger-cars. A rather bitter blow that +was. With all of its hatred against the property at one time and another, +the North Country cherished a real affection for the name. In deference, +to which sentiment, the Vanderbilts still clung to it for a number of +years; in their advertising and printed matter of every sort. It was +necessary, in their opinion, to emblazon "New York Central" upon their +newly acquired rolling-stock in order to permit a greater flexibility in +its interchange with that they already held. They had not owned the R. W. +& O. a fortnight before its eternal shortage of motive-power had been +relieved, by the assignment to it of engines No. 316 and No. 414 of the N. +Y. C. & H. R. R. And it should not be forgotten that one large reason for +all of these orders was the large affection of the Vanderbilt family for +the name and the fame of the New York Central. Both have loomed large in +their eyes. + + * * * * * + +The old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, quickly reorganized in that +March-time of 1891, had then as its chief officers the following men: + + _President_, CHARLES PARSONS, New York + _First Vice-President_, CLARENCE S. DAY, New York + _Second Vice-President_, CHARLES PARSONS, JR., New York + _Third Vice-President_, H. WALTER WEBB, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, New York + _Freight Traffic Manager_, L. A. EMERSON, New York + _Gen. Pass. Agent_, THEODORE E. BUTTERFIELD, Oswego + _General Manager_, E. S. BOWEN, Oswego + _Supt. of Transportation_, W. W. CURRIER, Oswego + _Master Mechanic_, GEORGE H. HASELTON, Oswego + + _Superintendents_ + + W. S. Jones, Watertown + H. W. Hammond, Carthage + I. H. McEwen, Oswego + +Mr. Webb, who also was the Third Vice-President of the New York Central & +Hudson River, was now, of course, the real guiding head of the property. +Well schooled in the Vanderbilt methods of railroad operation, it was his +task to begin their introduction into the newly acquired railroad. How +well he succeeded can easily be adjudged by the results that were +attained. They need no comment by the historian. + +To this group of men was given the operation of 643 miles of busy +single-track railroad. Prior to the acquisition of the R. W. & O., the New +York Central & Hudson River, itself, had only contained some 1420 miles of +line, including those which it held on leasehold. The Rome road then had +given it upwards of two thousand miles of route line--not to be confused +with mere miles of trackage, which would run to a far greater total. The +capital stock of the R. W. & O. as shown on its balance-sheet for the year +ending June 30, 1890, was $6,230,100, of which $238,243 was still in the +company's treasury. Its funded debt came to $12,672,090 (this latter +included income bonds, also in the company's treasury). In addition to +which there was a profit and loss account of $762,298. Parsons had builded +up a real railroad. Always himself short of ready cash he had acquired a +habit of dealing in millions--in a day when a million dollars still +represented a good deal of money. + + * * * * * + +The real problem of the new management of the Rome road lay, however, in +an immediate readjustment of its rates; particularly its freight rates. +The hemlock fence around the Watertown depot, the persecution of the +little street railway system of that community, the irritating defects of +the passenger service, were in the eyes of the commercial factors of the +North Country as nothing compared with the railroad freight tariffs that +it was called upon to pay. Charles Parsons, as I have said already, had +had no hesitation whatsoever in putting the burden of his income +necessities upon his non-competitive territory in order that he might be +in a position to slash rates right and left wherever and whenever he was +forced to compete. + +New York Central control promised a modification of this situation. To a +certain extent it accomplished it. Some of the rates were slashed from +twenty-five to fifty per cent, and Mr. Parsons lived long enough to see +more equitable systems of freight-carrying charges established on the old +line. It was only a short time after the New York Central had acquired the +Rome road before the huge Solvay Process Company had located themselves on +the western limits of Syracuse. Their location there was due primarily to +the salt-beds but they also needed great quantities of limestone daily for +their products. This the R. W. & O. furnished by means of an attractive +low rate. And, after a little time, there was a solid train each day from +Chaumont on the old Cape branch to Syracuse, laden exclusively with +limestone rock. At other times there would be solid trains of paper, and +in the season, of such rare specialties as strawberries from the Richland +section and turkeys from St. Lawrence county for the New York City +markets. And despite the well-famed superiority of the North Country in +cheese making, its rich dairy areas were invaded by the milk-supply +companies of the swift-growing metropolis. + +All made business--and lots of it--for the new owners of the North +Country's old road. They could afford to forget Parsons' dream of a +through route along the northerly border of the country--single-track and +filled with hard curvature and grades--to the seaboard docks of Portland, +Maine. The intensive development of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh was +their opportunity; and this opportunity they promptly seized. And +accomplished. Even the once despised Lake Ontario Shore Railroad came at +last into its own. Along its rails upgrew the greatest orchard industry in +the United States. And even as powerful and as resourceful a railroad as +the New York Central, at times, is hard put to find sufficient equipment +for the proper handling of the vast quantities of apples, pears and +peaches that to-day are grown upon the gentle south shore of Ontario. + +The Vanderbilts paid a high price for the R. W. & O. And then it was a +bargain. Not only was competition practically forestalled forever in one +of the richest industrial and agricultural areas in the entire United +States--by an odd coincidence the actual acquisition of the R. W. & O. was +followed a few months later by the enactment of a state law forbidding one +railroad acquiring a parallel or competing line--but the menace of the +powerful and strategic Canadian Pacific ever reaching the city of New York +was practically removed. A high price, and yet a low one. Which marks the +beginning and the end of railroad strategy. + + * * * * * + +For some time now we have lost track of Mr. Austin Corbin and his +ambitious plan of the Camden, Watertown & Northern. Upon the explosion of +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence bubble a good many keen Watertown men who were +bent, heart and soul, upon providing their community with competitive +railroad service turned earnestly toward the Corbin scheme. The most of +the $60,000 that had been hastily subscribed in the town toward providing +the Mohawk & St. Lawrence with a free right-of-way and depot grounds +through it, was turned over to Mr. Corbin. Edward M. Gates, who was very +active in the matter, went further. He wired Mr. H. Walter Webb, who, as +Third Vice-President of the New York Central, and personal representative +of the Vanderbilts, had made a personal subscription of $30,000 to the +Watertown fund, if he, too, would agree to turning his subscription to the +Camden, Watertown & Northern. There is no record of a reply from Mr. Webb +on this proposition. + +Gradually Corbin grew lukewarm upon his Camden, Watertown & Northern plan. +Truth to tell, he had lost his largest opportunity on the day that Charles +Parsons had landed the Vanderbilts with the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh. +They had needed that road. They had never thought that they needed the +Elmira, Cortland & Northern, not even at the time that Corbin offered it +to them at the assumption of its mortgage-bonds and its fixed charges. +Eventually he succeeded in getting the Lehigh Valley, which at just that +time was cherishing a fond idea that it might succeed in seriously cutting +into the New York Central's traffic between the seaboard and Central and +Northern New York, to buy the E. C. & N. Thereafter the Corbin project +disappeared. From time to time it has been revived, as a possible +extension of the Lehigh Valley, north from its present unsatisfactory +terminal at Camden to Watertown or even beyond. It is hardly likely now +that that extension will ever be builded. For one thing, the day of +building competing railroads is over, and for another, the E. C. & N. is +far too unsatisfactory a railroad dog to which to tie an efficient tail. +The Ontario & Western would have been a far more advantageous opportunity. + + * * * * * + +Out of all the tumult and excitement of that strenuous winter of 1890-91 +the net result then to Northern New York was no new railroads. No, permit +me to correct that statement. One new railroad was builded, and an +important enterprise it was. A brother of H. Walter Webb's, Dr. Seward +Webb, who had married into the Vanderbilt family, was instrumental in +acquiring from Henry S. Ives, of New York, and some of his associates, the +little narrow-gauge Herkimer, Newport & Poland Railroad, stretching some +twenty miles northward from Herkimer in the Mohawk valley and upon the +main line of the New York Central. With the road renamed, the Mohawk & +Malone, Dr. Webb conceived the idea of building it through the North Woods +to the Canada line. Where the long ago promoters of the Sackett's Harbor +& Saratoga had failed, he succeeded after a fashion. He moved the +contractors' duffle from the terminal of the nascent Mohawk & St. +Lawrence, at Utica, down to Herkimer, and began by first changing the H. +N. & P. into a standard-gauge railroad. This done he proceeded with its +extension, up the valley of the Canada Creek to Remsen, where it touched +the Utica line of the R. W. & O. (the main line of the former Utica & +Black River). + +This done, and arrangements made for handling the through trains of the +Mohawk & Malone over the R. W. & O. for the twenty-two miles between Utica +and Remsen, Dr. Webb struck his new road off through the depths of the +untrodden forests for nearly 150 miles. At first it was said that it was +his aim to meet and terminate his line at Tupper Lake, which had been +reached by the one-time Northern Adirondack from Moira, on the Ogdensburgh +& Lake Champlain. Dr. Webb did meet this line, also the tenuous branch of +the Delaware & Hudson, extending westward from Plattsburg, and then down +to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. But he passed by all of these. His scheme +was a far more ambitious one. He had determined to build a railroad from +Utica to Montreal, and build a railroad from Utica to Montreal he did. +Before he was done the New York Central had its own rails from its main +line almost into the very heart of the Canadian metropolis. And while this +route was a little longer in mileage between New York City and Montreal +than the direct routes along both shores of Lake Champlain, it possessed +large strategic value for the western end of the New York Central & Hudson +River. And it was entirely a Vanderbilt line. As such it probably was +worth all it cost; and it was not a cheap road to build. + +This line was then the one tangible result of the most agitated railroad +experience that the people of New York state ever faced--with the possible +exception of the West Shore fiasco. The other plans--you still can find +them by the dozens carefully filed in the clerk's office of the Northern +New York counties--all came to nought. The folk of the North Country +ceased their dreamings; settled down to the intensive development of their +rarely rich territory. And sought to make its existing transport +facilities equal to their every need. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE END OF THE STORY + + +For six or seven years after it had secured possession of the property, +the New York Central continued the operation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh as a separate railroad, to a very large degree, at least. +Gradually, however, the individual executive officers of the leased road +ceased to exist; in some cases berths with the parent road were found for +them; in others, they were glad to retire to a life of comfortable ease. +The separate corporate existence of the R. W. & O. as well as that of the +Utica & Black River and the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett's Harbor, was +continued, however, until 1914, when the Vanderbilts made a single +corporation under the title of the New York Central Railroad of some of +their most important properties; the New York Central & Hudson River, the +Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh, +chief amongst them. That step taken, the R. W. & O. had ceased to +exist--legally as well as technically. Yet the work that it had done in +the development of a huge community of communities could never die. It was +to live after it; for many years to come. + + * * * * * + +On the 20th of May, 1891, within three months after the leasing of the +Rome road, its headquarters were moved back to the place where originally +they had been located, and from which they never should have been +removed--Watertown. The entire property was then consolidated into a +single division, and Mr. McEwen brought over from Oswego to become its +Superintendent, with Mr. Jones his assistant at Oswego and Mr. Hammond in +a similar capacity at Watertown. Mr. P. E. Crowley was, also, promoted at +this time to the position of Chief Despatcher of the division. This +arrangement did not long continue, however. Charles Parsons already was +interesting himself in the New York & New England, and presently he called +to that property, as superintendents, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Jones, who +established their offices at Hartford, Conn. Soon afterwards Mr. Hammond +followed them. There had come a real change in _regime_. + +The R. W. & O. division of the New York Central & Hudson River, as the old +property then became known, stretched all the way from Suspension Bridge +to Massena Springs and was, I believe, with its 643 miles of route +mileage, the longest single railroad division in the United States at that +time. To run that division was a man's job, and only a real man could +survive it. + +Yet into that grimy old station at Watertown there came, one by one, a +succession of as brilliant railroaders as this country has ever known--Van +Etten, Russell, Moon, Hustis, Christie. These were men tested and tried +before they were sent up into the North Country--it was no place for +novices up there. Once there they made good, by both their wits and their +energies. Success on that division called for almost superhuman energy. +And when once it had been won; when down in the Grand Central they could +say that "X--had been to Watertown and made good there," it meant that +X--had taken, successfully, the thirty-third degree in modern railroading. + +There were a few men between these five, who did not make good--but +somehow that was never charged against them. Other jobs were found for +them; headquarters felt that perhaps the mistake in some way should +rightly be charged against it. + +After seventeen years of operation of the R. W. & O. as a single division +it was recognized at headquarters that the test was not a fair one; and +the famous old road was divided into two divisions, with Watertown +Junction as the dividing point and the divisions named, the St. Lawrence +and Ontario, with Watertown and Oswego as their respective division +headquarters. Just why the system was divided in that way no one seems to +know. It would have been more logical to have made the former Rome road, +east of Oswego, a single division with headquarters at Watertown, and have +split the old Lake Ontario Shore into the main line divisions of the +western part of the state. Yet this is history, and not a criticism. The +men who have run the New York Central have generally known their business +pretty well. + + * * * * * + +Edgar Van Etten came to the railroad game by way of the historic Erie. He +is a native of Port Jervis, New York, a famous old Erie town, and it was +just as natural as buttering bread for him to go to work upon that road, +rising in quick successive steps, freight conductor, to-day, trainmaster +to-morrow--oddly enough there was a little time when he was Superintendent +of the Ontario division of the R. W. & O., in the days of the Parsons' +control. Then we see him as Superintendent of the Erie at Buffalo, finally +General Manager of the Western New York Car Association, in that same busy +railroad center. From that task the Vanderbilts picked him for an even +greater one--taking that newly merged, single-track 643-mile-division of +the R. W. & O., and putting it upon their operating methods and +discipline. + +Only an Edgar Van Etten could have done the trick. A lion of a man he was +in those Watertown days, relentless, indomitable, fearless--yet possessing +in his varied nature keen qualities of humor and of human understanding +that were tremendous factors in the winning of his success. It was but +natural that so keen a talent should have been recognized in his promotion +from Watertown to the vastly responsible post of General Superintendent of +the New York Central at the Grand Central Station. In those days the +position of Operating Vice-President of the property had not been created. +Nor was there even a General Manager. The General Superintendent was the +big boss who moved the trains and moved them well. If he could not, the +Vanderbilts discovered it before they ever made him a big boss. + +Mr. Van Etten's final promotion came in his advancement to the post of +Vice-President and General Manager of their important Boston & Albany +property; a position on that road corresponding to the presidency of +almost any other one. Here he remained until 1907, when ill-health caused +his retirement from railroading. He moved across the continent to +California, where he is to-day an enthusiastic resident of Los Angeles. + + * * * * * + +E. G. Russell was cast in a somewhat gentler mold than Van Etten. Thorough +railroader he was at that, a man of large vision and seeking every +opportunity for the advancement of the property that he headed. For +remember that in all these years at Watertown these men were virtual +General Managers of a goodly property, in everything but actual title. +Upon their initiative, upon their ability to make quick decisions--and +accurate--in crises, to handle even matters of a goodly size the huge +division rose or fell. Theirs was no job for the weakling or the hesitant. + +Mr. Russell was neither a weakling nor hesitant. On the contrary he risked +much--even the friendship of the organized labor of the road--when he felt +that he was right and must go ahead upon the right path. Eventually his +policies in regard to labor forced his retirement from the R. W. & O. +division. He went, capable railroader that he always was, to Scranton +where he became General Superintendent of the Lackawanna. From there he +went to one of the roads in lower Canada, and finally to Michigan, where +he met his tragic death late at night on a lonely railroad pier in the +dead of winter. + + * * * * * + +After Russell, Dewitt C. Moon; a man with an unusual genius for placating +labor and getting the very best results out of it. Mr. Moon succeeded Mr. +Russell as Superintendent at Watertown, April 1, 1899, leaving that post +September 1, 1902, to become General Manager of the Lake Erie & Western, a +Vanderbilt property of the mid-West. He had been schooled in that family +of railroads, starting in as telegraph operator on the old Dunkirk, +Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh, which was gradually merged, first into the +Lake Shore and then into the parent reorganized New York Central of +to-day. Before that reorganization, he had become General Manager of the +former Lake Shore in some respects the very finest of the old Vanderbilt +properties--at Cleveland. At Cleveland he still remains, as Assistant to +the Vice-President of the New York Central in that important city. He is a +railroader of the old school, trained in exquisite thoroughness and with a +capacity for detail, not less than marvelous. + +Moon's great forte, however, was and still is, cooperation. Men like him. +He likes men. A big and genial nature, a quick sympathy and understanding +have proved great assets to a railroad executive. These assets Moon has +possessed from the beginning. Upon them he had builded--and upgrown. + + * * * * * + +Still another of this famous quintette to whom the running of a 650 mile +railroad division was as but part of a day's work--James H. Hustis. More +than any of the three who preceded him Hustis is in every sense a thorough +graduate of the Vanderbilt school of railroading. He was born to it. His +father, too, was a veteran New York Central man. "Jim" Hustis entered that +school in 1878, as office-boy to the late John M. Toucey, then General +Superintendent of the New York Central in the old Grand Central depot. He +rose rapidly in the ranks, filling several superintendencies in the old +parent property before he went to Watertown, in the late summer of 1902. + +He left there on October 1, 1906, to assume executive charge of the Boston +& Albany. And it was soon after he left that the old division was broken +into two parts and the R. W. & O. ceased to exist, even as a division +name. Mr. Hustis is to-day President of the Boston & Maine Railroad. He +holds the unique distinction of having headed the three most important +railroads of New England. After leaving the office of Vice-President and +General Manager of the Boston & Albany--as we have already seen the +ranking position of that property--he was for a time President of the New +York, New Haven & Hartford, before going to his present post with the +Boston & Maine. That he is a thorough railroader, hardly needs to be said +here--if nothing else said that, the fact that he spent four successful +years in full control at Watertown, of itself would tell it. + + * * * * * + +After Hustis, Cornelius Christie, the last of the executive +Superintendents that were to supervise the operation of the Rome, +Watertown & Ogdensburgh as a single unit--why the folks down in the Grand +Central did not create a general superintendency at Watertown, I never +could understand. Christie, a huge six-foot-three man, big both physically +and mentally, also was trained in the wondrous Vanderbilt school of +railroading. Long service both upon the main line of the Central and the +West Shore, equipped him most adequately for the arduous task at +Watertown. + +It was in Christie's day--in the summer of 1908--that the famous old +division was divided into two large parts, as we have already seen; the +Ontario and the St. Lawrence. For three years more, Mr. Christie remained +at Watertown, as Superintendent of the St. Lawrence, being promoted from +that post to a similar one on the busy Hudson River division between +Albany and New York. He was succeeded at Watertown by F. E. Williamson, +the present General Superintendent of the New York Central at Albany. + +At the time Christie became Superintendent of the St. Lawrence Division at +Watertown, Frank E. McCormack was set up in a similar job, heading the +Ontario Division at Oswego. The genial Frank was R. W. & O. trained and +bred. As far back as April 1, 1885, he was working for the property as +night operator and pumper, at a salary of $25 a month. Some one must have +recognized the real railroader in him, however, for but a year later his +"salary" was raised to $30 and the following year he was transferred to +the Superintendent's office at Watertown as confidential clerk and +operator. From that time on his progress was steady and uninterrupted; +despatcher, chief despatcher, trainmaster, and with one or two more +intermediate steps, Superintendent. + + * * * * * + +To attempt even a listing of the able railroad crowd that hovered around +the old Watertown depot, in the years that measured the beginnings of the +Vanderbilt operation of the old Rome road again, would be quite beyond the +province of this little book. H. D. Carter, Frank E. Wilson, George C. +Gridley, W. H. Northrop, Clare Hartigan, how the names come trippingly to +mind! And how many, many more there are of them. + +Yet I cannot close these paragraphs without singling out two of +them--Wilgus and Crowley. Here are two more graduates of its hard, hard +school, in which the Rome road may hold exceeding pride. Colonel W. J. +Wilgus was with the old division for but four years--from 1893 to +1897--but they were years of exceeding activity in the rebuilding of the +property; particularly its "double-tracking" and the extremely important +job of raising the track-levels for many miles north of Richland so that +the eternal enemy of the road--snow--would have a much harder time +henceforth in endeavoring to fight it. From that job he went to far bigger +ones; such as building the new Grand Central Terminal and installing +electric operation on the lines that entered it, digging the Michigan +Central tunnel under the river at Detroit and building the new station in +that city. These and others. But none more interesting to him, I dare say, +than the task that he laid out overseas in the Great War, building and +arranging the rail lines of communication for the American Army in France. +A job to which he brought all his experience, his great energy and his +rare tact. + +And finally, Patrick E. Crowley. Mr. Crowley's connection with the Rome +road goes back to the Parsons' regime--even though before that day he had +had eleven hard years of experience with the old Erie; in about every +conceivable job from station agent to train despatcher. He was with the R. +W. & O., however, almost an even year before its acquisition by the New +York Central--as train despatcher at Oswego. In May, 1891, he was +transferred to Watertown as chief train despatcher and later as train +master. His stepping upward has been continuous and earned. To-day as +Vice-President, in charge of operation, of the entire New York Central +system he is recognized as one of the king-pins of railroad operators of +all creation and is the same simple and unassuming gentleman that one +found him in the old days at Oswego and Watertown. + +That seems to be the mark of the real railroader, always. Ostentation does +not get a man very far in the game. In the North Country it got him +nowhere, whatsoever. In our land of the great snows and the hard years a +very real and simple democracy plus energy and some real knowledge of the +problems in hand were the only qualities that put a big boss ahead. +Forever--no matter what the name or how long the division--the job up +there was the survival of the fittest. The fit man might be here, there, +anywhere. He might be a greaser in the round-house, a news-butcher upon +the train, an office boy upstairs in the depot headquarters, an operator +in a lonely country station. If he was fit he got ahead and got ahead +quickly. Merit won its own promotion and generally won it pretty quickly. + +Not that everything was always plain sailing. There is one pretty keen +railroad executive in the land who remembers his joy at being promoted to +Despatcher on the old Rome road. The pay was eighty dollars a month, which +was good in those days. He walked into the new job with a plenty of +cocksure enthusiasm. The "super" did not like young men with cocksure +enthusiasms. He said so, frankly. And in order to drive his ideas home +paid the young man the Despatcher's rate for thirty days; then, for the +next five or six months at the old-time operator's rate. The young man +caught on. He understood. A job's a job and a boss is a boss. And all the +jobs in the world are not worth the paper that they are written on, unless +the boss wants to make them so. Which may be put down as an unscientific +maxim; yet a very true one nevertheless. + + * * * * * + +Back of these men who sought with all their energy and vigor, of mind and +of body alike, steadily to upbuild the old Rome road, was the great +wealth, organization and _esprit de corps_ of one of the leading railroad +organizations of the world. The Vanderbilts were always thorough +sportsmen. They showed it in their reincarnation of the Rome, Watertown & +Ogdensburgh. Parsons had been handicapped, forever and a day, by the +constant lack of ready cash--there have been few times when the New York +Central has been so handicapped. I bear no brief for the Vanderbilts. They +have made their mistakes and they have been grievous ones. But they have +not often made the mistake of being miserly with their properties. That +mistake was not made in Northern New York. + +Into the R. W. & O., once they had clinched their title to it, they poured +money like water--whenever they could be shown the necessity of such a +procedure. New track went down and then new bridges went up--superb +structures every one of them--until there no longer were any limitations +upon the motive-power for the North Country's rail transport system. A +locomotive that could run upon the main line could run practically +anywhere upon the Rome road divisions. And when Watertown complained that +the traffic was rising to a volume that no longer could be handled upon a +single-track basis, the Vanderbilts double-tracked the road--in all of +its essential stretches, many, many miles of it all told. They built and +rebuilt the round-houses and the shops. "Property improvement" became +their slogan. + +In such property improvement Watertown has always shared, most liberally. +The double-tracking of the old main-stem of the R. W. & O. brought with it +as a corollary the construction of a much needed freight cut-off outside +the crowded heart of that city. That done the local freight facilities +were removed from the old stone freight-house opposite the +passenger-station and that staunch old landmark torn down. To replace it a +huge freight terminal of the most modern type and worthy of a city of +sixty thousand population was erected on a convenient site upon the North +side of the river. As a final step in this program of progress the old +depot was torn away--without many expressions of regret on the part of the +townsfolk--and the present magnificent passenger terminal erected, at a +cost of close to a quarter of a million dollars. The management of what +Watertown will always know as the "old Rome road" has not been niggardly +with its chief town. + +Nor has it been niggardly with any other parts of Northern New York +territory. Oswego has rejoiced in a new station--the blessed old Lake +Shore Hotel, which for many years housed tavern and railroad offices and +passenger depot, combined, is now a thing of memory. Ogdensburgh has a +fine new station, and so has Massena Springs. Norwood still worries along +with its old depot, but Richland rejoices in a neat but excellent +structure, in which the Wright brothers still serve the coffee, the rolls, +the sausage and the buckwheat cakes that cannot be excelled. The North +Country has never taken to the dining-car habit; perhaps, because it never +has had the chance. But it actually likes its old-fashioned way of living; +the innate democracy of the American plan hotel and +dinner-in-the-middle-of-the-day. + + * * * * * + +Never can I ride up through it in these fine basking days of peace and of +prosperity over its well-maintained railroad without thinking of the days +when journeying into the North Country was not a comfortable matter of +Pullman cars and swift trains by day and by night; of the days when one +came to Utica by stage or by canal and immediately reembarked upon another +stage for an even hundred miles of rackingly hard riding over an uneven +plank-road into Watertown. If one went further toward the North, travel +conditions became still worse. Such expeditions were not for tender folk. + +And sometimes to-day when I ride north from Watertown upon the +railroad--and the cars toil laboriously through Factory Street, as they +have been toiling for sixty-five long years past--I press my face against +the window and look for a little house upon that Appian Way; the little, +old, stone house in which Clarke Rice and William Smith were wont, so long +ago, to operate their toy train upon the table and so try to induce the +folk of the village to invest their money in a scheme which then seemed so +utter chimerical. A house in which a real idea was born forever fascinates +me. For it I hold naught by sympathy--and understanding. So many of us are +dreamers.... And so few of us may ever live to see the full fruition of +our dreams. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +(Being taken bodily from a poster issued at Watertown in the Summer of +1847.) + + +WATERTOWN, ROME, AND CAPE-VINCENT RAIL-ROAD + +ACCORDING TO NOTICE IN THE JEFFERSON COUNTY PAPERS, the inhabitants of +this Town will be speedily called on to complete subscriptions towards the +above named Road, sufficient to warrant a commencement. + +BY THE CHARTER WE HAVE TILL THE 14TH OF MAY, 1848, to complete +subscriptions, and make an expenditure towards the Road. + +THE TIME IS SHORT IN WHICH TO DO THIS BUSINESS; therefore it is highly +important that every citizen, from the St. Lawrence on the North to the +Erie canal on the South--from the highlands on the East to the lake on the +West, come forward and spread himself to his full extent for the Road. + +TO STIMULATE US TO ACTION LET IT BE BORNE IN MIND that the sun never shone +on so glorious a land as lies within the bounds above described. To one +who for the first time visits our towns, the scene is enchanting in the +extreme. Our climate is bland and salubrious; winters more mild than in +any part of New England or southern New York--the atmosphere being +softened by the prevalence of southwesterly winds coursing up the Valley +of the Mississippi and along the waters of Erie and Ontario, to such +degree that for salubrity and comfort we stand almost unrivalled. + +WHEAT, CORN, BARLEY, OATS, PEASE, BEANS, BUCKWHEAT, fruit, butter, cheese, +pork, beef, horses, sheep, cattle, minerals, lumber, etc., are produced +here with a facility that warrants the hand of labor a bountiful return. + +WE HAVE WATER POWER ENOUGH TO TURN EVERY SPINDLE in Great Britain and +America. In fact we have every thing man could desire on this globe, +except a cheap and expeditious method of getting rid of our surplus +products and holding communication with the exterior world. + +THE WANT OF THIS, PLACES US _THIRTY YEARS_ BEHIND almost every other +portion of the State. When we might be _first_, we suffer ourselves to be +last. + +CITIZENS! HOW LONG IS THIS STATE OF THINGS TO ENDURE? After having lain +dormant until we have acquired the dimensions of a young giant, will we, +like the brute beast, ignorant of his powers, be still led captive in the +train of our country's prosperity--affording, by our supineness, a foil to +set off the triumphs of our more enterprising brethren of the East, the +South, and the West? + +NO,--FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, LET US RESOLVE to cut a passage to the +marts of the New World, and, by the abundance of our resources, strike +their "Merchant Princes" with admiration and astonishment. + +THIS CAN EASILY BE DONE IF UNANIMITY, PERSEVERANCE, and, above all, +LIBERALITY, be exhibited. If every farmer owning 100 acres of land, and he +not much in debt, will take five shares in the Road, _and others in +proportion_, the decree will go forth that the work is done. _Without +this_, it is feared the whole must be a failure. + +VIEWED IN AN ENLIGHTENED MANNER, THERE NEED BE NO hesitation on the part +of the owners of the soil. They are the ones to be most essentially +benefited. There is no reason why their lands, from having a market and +increased price of products, would not be worth fifty to eighty dollars +per acre, as is the case in less favored sections, where Rail Roads have +been constructed. The very fact that a Road was to be made would add +_half_ to the value of land--its completion would more than _double_ the +present prices. + +A TAX ON THE LAND TEN MILES EACH SIDE OF THE ROAD, to build it, would in +three years repay itself, and leave to the present population and their +posterity an enduring source of wealth and importance. We lose one hundred +thousand dollars annually in the price of butter and cheese alone, when +compared with the prices obtained by Lewis and the northerly part of +Oneida, simply because they are nearer the Canal and the Rail Road. + +BUT TAKING STOCK IS _NOT A TAX_, IN ANY SENSE OF THE phrase. It is only +resolving to purchase a certain amount of property in the Road, which, +taking similar investments elsewhere as a sample, will pay interest, or +can be at all times sold at par, or at an advance, like other property or +evidence of value. The owner of shares can at any time sell out, and have +the satisfaction of knowing that he has greatly added to his wealth merely +by affording countenance to the project while in embryo. + +THE DIRECTORS ARE POWERLESS UNLESS THE PEOPLE RALLY to their aid. They +have made efforts abroad for capital to build the Road, by adding to the +subscriptions on hand at the time they were chosen. Owing to causes not +prejudicial to the character of our enterprise, they have not for the +present succeeded. Aid they have been promised, but they are enjoined +first to show a larger figure at home. The ability and disposition of our +population must be more thoroughly evinced than has yet been the case. + +AGENTS ARE AT WORK, OR SPEEDILY WILL BE, ON THE whole length and breadth +of the line from Cape Vincent to Rome. A searching operation is to be had. +If the Road is a failure, the Directors are determined that it shall not +be laid at their door. Let this be remembered, and every one hereafter +hold his peace. + + CLARKE RICE, + Secretary W. & R. R. R. Co. + +Watertown, Aug. 27, 1847. + + + + +APPENDIX B + +A LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND AGENTS OF THE ROME, WATERTOWN & OGDENSBURGH +RAILROAD (March 22, 1886) + + + _President_, CHARLES PARSONS, New York + _Vice-President_, CLARENCE S. DAY, New York + _Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, New York + _General Manager_, H. M. BRITTON, Oswego + _Supt. of Transportation_, W. W. CURRIER, Oswego + _Gen'l Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Oswego + _Gen'l Pass. Agt._ (Acting), G. C. GRIDLEY, Oswego + _Gen'l Baggage Agent_, T. M. PETTY, Oswego + _Gen'l Road Master_, H. A. SMITH, Oswego + _Supt. of Motive Power_, GEO. H. HASELTON, Oswego + + + _Assistant Superintendents_ + + W. H. Chauncey, Oswego + J. D. Remington, Watertown + W. S. Jones, DeKalb Junction + + + _Agents_ + + Suspension Bridge, G. G. Chauncey + River View, J. B. S. Colt + Lewiston, Samuel Barton + Ransonville, D. C. Hitchcock + Wilson, G. Wadsworth + Newfane, F. S. Coates + Hess Road, C. Sheehan + Somerset, Thomas Malloy + County Line, G. Resseguie + Lyndonville, B. A. Barry + Carlyon, T. A. Newnham + Waterport, A. J. Joslin + Carlton, O. Wiltse + East Carlton, J. C. Wilson + Kendall, J. W. Simkins + East Kendall, George L. Lovejoy + Hamlin, C. S. Snook + East Hamlin, D. W. Dorgan + Parma, L. V. Byer + Greece, W. E. Vrooman + Charlotte, H. N. Woods + Pierces, Chas. Ten Broeck + Webster, F. E. Sadler + Union Hill, C. B. Hart + Lakeside, I. H. Middleton + Ontario, George M. Sabin + Williamson, J. E. Tufts + Sodus, J. P. Canfield + Wallington, E. T. Boyd + Alton, H. S. McIntyre + Rose, A. A. Stearns + Wolcott, W. V. Bidwell + Red Creek, S. G. Murray + Sterling, W. A. Spear + Sterling Valley, W. R. Crockett + Hannibal, A. D. Cowles + Furniss, G. Hollenbeck + Oswego, F. W. Parsons + " Ticket Agent, T. M. Petty + East Oswego, F. W. Parsons + Scriba, R. M. Russell + New Haven, E. W. Robinson + Mexico, R. E. Barron + Sand Hill, W. K. Mathewson + Pulaski, W. H. Austin + Richland, T. Higham + Holmesville, C. L. Goodrich + Union Square, F. A. Nicholson + Parish, C. J. Lawton + Mallory, R. E. Brown + Central Square, J. P. Tracey + Brewerton, C. R. Rogers + Clay, Wilber Hatch + Woodard, A. J. Eaton + Liverpool, F. Wyker + Syracuse, M. Breen + " Ticket Agent, Jennie Kellar + Fulton, F. E. Sutherland + Phoenix, O. C. Breed + Rome, J. Graves + " Ticket Agent, A. G. Roof + Taberg, S. A. Cutler + McConnellsville, G. Gibbons + Camden, H. A. Case + West Camden, D. D. Spear + Williamstown, E. B. Acker + Kasoag, J. A. Frost + Albion, J. Buckley + Sandy Creek, W. J. Stevens + Mannsville, J. G. Clark + Pierrepont Manor, L. V. Evans, Jr. + Adams, D. Fish + Adams Centre, W. H. McIntyre + Rices, Miss L. A. Ayers + Watertown, R. E. Smiley + " Ticket Agent, Pitt Adams + Sanfords Corners, M. H. Matty + Evans Mills, F. E. Croissant + Philadelphia, C. T. Barr + Antwerp, Geo. H. Haywood + Keenes, W. E. Giffin + Gouverneur, A. F. Coates + Richville, W. D. Hurley + DeKalb Junction, E. G. Webb + Canton, J. H. Bixby + Potsdam, J. O'Sullivan + Norwood, M. R. Stanton + Rensselaer Falls, A. Walker + Heuvelton, H. B. Whittemore + Ogdensburgh, E. Dillingham + Brownville, G. C. Whittemore + Limerick, F. E. Rundell + Chaumont, W. A. Casler + Three Mile Bay, A. H. Dewey + Rosiere, Joseph Burgess + Cape Vincent, I. A. Whittemore + + + _Superintendent of Motive Power_, GEO. H. HASELTON, Oswego + + + _In Charge of Repairs_ + + Syracuse, John Knapp + Watertown, B. F. Batchelder + Rome, W. D. Watson + + + _General Road Master_, H. A. SMITH, Oswego + + + _Division Road Masters_ + + Suspension Bridge, Geo. Keith + Oswego, S. Bishop + Syracuse, S. Littlefield + Rome, A. M. Hollenbeck + E. Dennison, DeKalb Junction + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and +Ogdensburg RailRoad, by Edward Hungerford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROME, WATERTOWN, OGDENSBURG RAILROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 39021.txt or 39021.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/2/39021/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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