Lake Shore & Southern Railway System

AND

REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES

A HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY, FROM ITS INCEPTION, TOGETHER WITH INTRODUCTORY AND SUPPLEMENTARY CHAP- TERS, TRACING THE PROGRESS OF STEAM RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION FROM THE EARLIEST STAGES, IN AMERICA AND ABROAD.

RECORDS OF MANY MEN WHO HAVE WORTHILY UPHELD THE INTERESTS

OF THE L. S. & M. S. RY. COMPANY.

ILLUSTRATED.

BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, GEORGE RICHMOND, Pres.; S. HARMER NEFF, Sec'y.; C. R. ARNOLD, Treas. BUFFALO, N. Y., , ILL. 1900. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year ]900, by BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. HE preparation of a niinute and authentic history of a great railway system is a task fraught with grave responsibility. Especially is this true when such a narrative involves many processes of accretion, traces the inception and growth, at wide intervals, of separate enterprises—all destined to become integral parts of a grand whole and holds up the mirror of faithful portraiture to a succession of personages and events, spanning more than two generations. Into less than a century of railroad progress has been crowded so much of creative thought, of fervid purpose, of vehement endeavor, of inventive research and production, and of intense devotion of vital forces to the accom- plishment of great results—that no historic pen has kept pace with the wondrous unfolding. No comprehensive and coherent record is available, of the formative growth of any of the principal railway systems in this country Of railway archives, replete with historic data and prolific in personal and material information, there are none. The sole sources of primitive railway history are meager memoranda from departed pioneers in organization and construction, and the reminiscent experience of other veterans who survive. The leading men of our chief railway systems originate substantial matter for historic use. Their busy lives, however, afford no opportune leisure to formulate this valuable material into shape for enduring preservation. So rapidly has our country bounded forward since 1830, in the multiplication and extension of her railroads, that the foundation for accurate and specific narration has been left unlaid. The publishers hereof have diligently striven to make this a volume worthy of its subject, and deserving of an honored niche in the home of every subscriber. They have zealously endeavored to perpetuate within these chapters all vital and essential particulars, excluding whatever was deemed extraneous or irrelevant. Having aimed to make the work a clear, concise, comprehensive and veracious history, they now submit it to the judgment of those interested therein, with unfeigned gratitude to all who have contributed to its compilation. Much of the artistic embellishment is due to the courtesy of the Brooks Works, of Dunkirk, N. Y., in supplying photographs of , and to the Field Columbian Museum for similar accommodation. The personal sketches in Part II, and the vivid portraits which speak from its pages, are elements of the book which greatly enhance its interest and value. Especial prominence has been given to the latter feature. The brief biographies—in essence, autobiographies—depict the individual careers of men who have worked their way up through toilsome and perilous years of endeavor. "Representative Employees" is, indeed, their rightful designation. No men are worthy of more respectful consideration than they whose lives impress a significant lesson in this biographical array. Their attainment is indicative of those manly traits that uplift and adorn our common nature—promptitude, constancy, courage, self-control and unwavering fidelity. May others, who study their lives, find therein a high incentive, and emulate the virtues conspicuous in each ! THE PUBLISHERS. CHICAGO, III., April, 1900. NOTE

All the biographical sketches published in this volume were sub- mitted to their respective subjects, or to the subscribers, from whom the facts were primarily obtained, for their approval or correction before going to press; and a reasonable time was allowed in each case for the return of the typewritten copies. Most of them were returned to us within the time allotted, or before the work was printed, after being corrected or revised; and these may therefore be regarded as reasonably accurate. A few, however, were not returned to us; and, as we have no means of knowing whether they contain errors or not, we cannot vouch for their accuracy. In justice to our readers, and to render this work more valuable for reference purposes, we have indicated these uncorrected sketches by a small asterisk (*), placed immediately after the name of the subject. They will all be found on the last pages of the book. BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING CO. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Facts and Comments Bearing on the Inception and Evolution of the Idea of Steam Railroad Locomotion.

CHAPTER II. Original Components of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System.

CHAPTER III. The Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad.

CHAPTER IV. The Michigan Southern Railroad.

CHAPTER V. The Northern Railroad.

CHAPTER VI. The Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad.

CHAPTER VII. The Toledo, Norwalk & Railroad.

CHAPTER VIII. The Junction Railroad.

CHAPTER IX. The Cleveland & Toledo Railroad.

CHAPTER X. The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad.

CHAPTER XI. The Erie & North East Railroad.

CHAPTER XII. The Buffalo & State Line and Buffalo & Erie Railroads.

CHAPTER XIII. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway.

CHAPTER XIV. The Rise and Fall of the Railroad Company.

CHAPTER XV. Railroads and Railroading; Past and Present.

CHAPTER XVI. Old-Time Newspaper Items Concerning Railroads.

CHAPTER XVII. The Fastest Long Distance Railroad Run on Record.

CHAPTER XVIII. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Mail Service.

APPENDIX.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

LAKE SHORE &

MICHIGAN SOUTHERN

RAILWAY SYSTEM. a a CHAPTER I.

FACTS AND COMMENTS BEARING ON THE INCEPTION AND EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF STEAM RAILROAD LOCOMOTION.

N THE stately rhetoric of Macaulay's historic pages, appears an impressive conception of the importance of steam transportation as a civilizing and developing influence in I the progress of mankind. The words of that illustrious author were happily chosen as a fitting inscription to spread over the elaborate archway forming the principal entrance of the "Transportation Building" in the World's Columbian Exposition. There, for half a year, the historian's eloquent periods fixed the attention of eager throngs gathered from many lands to witness an unparalleled display of the productions of human industry and skill. They are herein introduced as prefatory to this work, and apposite to its purpose. "The chief cause which made the fusion of the different elements of society so imperfect, was the extreme difficulty which our ancestors found in passing from place to place. Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inven- tions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the great human family." To what extent the railroad and locomotive have been factors in the marvelous advancement of our race during the nineteenth century, is beyond the possibility of calcu- lation. Since the era of universal activity ushered in by them, electricity has been rendered obedient to man's behests in varied forms of service. These two prime agencies of progress, together with that other marvel of our times, the modern printing press, have kept even pace in promoting the growth of nations, and have added more than the inventions of all pre- ceding generations to the general sum of happiness, wealth and knowledge. It is an interesting study to follow the successive stages in the development of the theory of applying steam power as a means of propulsion on rails. The idea first took shape in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and for the succeeding hundred years, in changing phases, occupied the attention of many ingenious thinkers in different coun- tries. At intervals of greater or less duration crude plans were devised for practical tests, and after long and intense experimentation, the dimness of the first conceptions of such a

9 10 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM method of conveyance was lost in the clearer light of partial successes through the con- struction of improved designs. From these, in turn, were gradually evolved the admirable mechanisms of modern days. The earliest idea of steam locomotion on land of which any narrative is afforded was conceived by Isaac Newton, in the year 1680. His was a rude and awkward device, con- sisting of a carriage, surmounted by a spherical , from the rear of which a steam pipe projected straight backward, the reactionary force of the steam issuing therefrom upon the atmosphere pushing the carriage ahead. The driver from his seat in front controlled the steam by a handle and cock. For nearly a century afterward no appreciable prog- ress was manifest in this sphere of inven- tion. At that period the sole pretense of a railway was an idea carried out by Beaumont, and was composed of narrow pieces of timber of one width. It was styled the " single way." There was no rim, and the road merely lessened the difficulty of hauling coal by reason of its even surface. The public roads of Eng- land were then graveled, and made smooth and solid by the wearing of teams and vehicles of various sorts. The next contrivance worthy of mention was that of an officer in the French artillery service named Nicholas Cugnot, the model of which is yet observ- able in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris, dated 1769. It was a The Newton. Engraved from a photograph of the model in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. common-road device, intended to move artillery in times of emergency, and was constructed through an appropriation made by the French war department. The engine was of the high pressure description, with cylinders and calculated for rotary force. A few experiments were made with this machine, when it was upset in the Madeleine district and summarily disposed of by being locked up in the government arsenal. In the year 1790, Nathan Read, of Salem, , produced a machine for propulsion by steam, which he called the "Read," and which was the earliest experiment of the kind made in America. In Read's invention, a ratchet, on the racks connecting the AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 11 rods, acted upon pinions on the hubs of the rear wheels, and a wheel attached to chains and ropes furnished the means of steering the machine. Steam issuing from exhaust pipes reaching backward applied a reactionary force. For this multitubular fire-box and boiler device, the only one then in existence, Mr. Read obtained, in 1791, the first patent issued on such a design in the world. Although to him indubitably belongs the honor of contriving the vertical boiler and fire box of many tubes, which aroused the energies of kindred minds across the sea, the fame attaching to the genius of discovery was diverted to others possessing more persistence, and endowed with faculties of timely adaptation. Read failed to follow up his experiments in this direction, and, after his initial success, devoted his thought to steam appliances for marine uses. But, nevertheless, the Read invention of 1790 reappeared in the French "Seguin" of 1827, which was essentially manifest in the Booth design of 1829, in , and had its culmination in the crowning work of Stephenson. In the meantime, however, other ingenious minds were intent upon like investigation and experi- ment. , of Lon- don, England, constructed a road engine of his own conception in the year 1800, upon which he bestowed his name, and eight years afterward built the "," the first locomotive used on rails in the The Read. Engraved from a photograph of the model in the Field city of London. Square wooden Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. blocks were the basis of the track. In the latter machine the fly wheels and a portion of the gearing which entered into the "Trevithick," were omitted, and the drivers and carrying wheels were increased in size, the former being made six feet and six inches in diameter, dimensions surprising for that day. The weight of the engine was eight tons. It was exhibited on a circular track laid in a quarter of London, later known as Euston Square; but the track being imperfect and the machine too ponderous, the "Catch Me Who Can" was derailed and abandoned, and stationary engines and afterward occupied the mind of its builder. The "Trevithick," mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, the design and specifica- tions of which are contained in the records of the patent office in London, was put into 12 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

service, between the years 1802 and 1804, on the Penydawan Tramway, in South Wales, which was constructed about 18oo, and had become somewhat defective, during the first years of its use, through the wear of coal wagons hauled by horses. Notwithstanding this hind- rance, the "Trevithick" sometimes attained a speed of from between four and five miles per hour, while working at its best on a level surface. This was the earliest practical use on record of a locomotive on any railroad in the world. When used at first on the public highways, much opposition was excited by its heavy and noisy movement. Trevithick claimed for it the credit of being the earliest high-pressure engine, no condensation of steam being-required, a simpler being used, with no masonry in connection with the boiler or flues. It weighed with a full boiler, about five tons, and climbed the tramway, inclining two inches per yard, at the rate of nine feet per piston , with forty strokes each minute. A consumption of two hundred pounds of coal propelled the machine, drawing five loaded "wagons," nine miles, in four hours and five minutes. The " Trevithick" was the result of a wager made by its inventor and builder that he could construct a locomotive of suficient tractive power to convey passengers and material. The model of this machine is now in the South Kensington Museum, London, and bears the date of 1802. The Trevithick. Engraved from a photograph of the model Two of the first four cars ever drawn in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. by steam power are still in existence, stand- ing on a section of the identical rails on which they were then operated, which rest on the stones originally used as a foundation. These four freight cars (flat iron frames) were run on the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad, thirteen miles in length, which was built to haul lime- stone from the Morlais Castle quarries to the furnaces of the Plymouth Company, and to carry the iron there produced to a point of shipment by water. The cars, loaded with ten tons of iron bars and about seventy men, were drawn by one of the two locomotives just mentioned. This line was in use up to 1875, and the plates and rails remained in place, as first laid, until 1890. and John Blenkensop, of England, were the designers and builders AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 13

of the next locomotive known to have been used. It was completed in 1811, and was called the " Blen- kensop. " Its constructors aimed to settle the question of adhesion, by cog wheels turned by the engine, and fitting into teeth on the rail. This machine mounted inclines which the "T r e v i thick " failed to ascend. On the different engines construct- ed by Blenkensop and his co-worker, cogs of various sizes were used to suit the speed to be attained. Two double-acting steam cylinders, at- tached to cranks operating at right angles, were added by Murray, which

Two of the first four flat freight ears used on a steam railroad in the world- was a decided improvement. The Engraved from a photograph of the originals in the Field Columbian Museum, showing also the original rails and foundation stones. "Blenkensop" weighed five tons, and on a level surface drew a load of more than ninety tons at the rate of three and one- half miles an hour. Ascending a grade of one in fifteen feet, its pulling capacity was fifteen tons. This was succeeded, as is indicated by the records of that period, by a machine named the "Puffing Billy," which was the work of , of England, and made its appearance in 1813. This machine, the design of which is among the archives of the South Kensington Museum, London, had the distinguishing features of a return flue boiler and a stack of reduced diameter. The former increased the heating surface and im- parted more effect to the passage of the flame along a given space. The chimney, which was about a foot in diameter, induced a more lively draft than the broader stacks before used; it was placed directly above the fire The Blenkensop. Engraved from a photograph of a picture in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. As the pic- ture was not very accessible, our artist was forced to take a position that distorts the view. 14 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

box. The boiler was of wrought iron. The "Puffing Billy" had two vertical cylinders, with piston rods connected to beams centered at each end—a contrivance which was styled the "grasshopper." The four wheels were of the same size, and to them the impetus of the pistons, communicated by tooth gearing, was applied. The wheels of the old engine were made with flanges, but as used on the colliery track, this feature was omitted, the rails themselves having an outer flange. In 1813, also, the locomotive " Brunton" was built by William Brunton, of Eng- land. It was named the "Mechanical Traveler," and was styled in familiar parlance the '' horse- leg locomotive." The boiler was of wrought iron, with dimensions of five by three feet, a step twenty-six inches in length, and a piston stroke of twenty-four inches. A fuel tube ran through the boil- er, and on one side of the latter was lo- cated the , The legs or propellers were somewhat like the legs of a man or horse, being care- fully constructed so as to avoid harm to the road-bed wh ile securing a solid foot- ing and assuring lo- comotion indepen- dently of any adher- ence of wheels to the rails, the idea being to obviate such lack of adhesion and to push the cars for- ward by rear force, The , at- tached to the leg and to the reciprocating lever, projected The Puffing Billy. Engraved from a photograph of the model in straight behind, the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. The extremities of the legs were shaped to correspond with broad feet, having spikes to keep a hold of the roadway and to prevent jerking with the return stroke. The total weight was forty-five hundred pounds, and, with eighty-four pounds of steam, the engine attained a speed of four miles an hour. , in 1814, designed, made and placed in service on the Killing- worth colliery roads, in England, where it remained in use for more than a year, a locomo- tive which is said to have been called the "Blutcher," although described by some as nameless. It had two cylinders, each eight inches in diameter, and a stroke of two feet. The boiler was cylindrical, eight feet in length, and thirty-four inches in diameter. The tube that passed through the boiler had a diameter of twenty inches. At the outset grooved AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 15 pulley wheels were arranged to assure retention of hold upon the track, but the engine was soon found to be heavy enough for adhesion. The imparting of the piston pressure to the drivers by means of cog wheels made a great noise and sharp jerks. This was especially true when the teeth became worn, and Stephenson shortly after patented a design for applying the steam force directly to the drivers. The cranks were made to work at right angles, and for every revolution of the drivers the pistons made two double-strokes. The machine drew thirty, tons four miles per hour. The second engine of Stephenson's make was turned out in 1815, and was followed by a third, in 1816, which was furnished with steel springs, and axles connected by an endless chain. The boiler had a single flue, and the chimney was provided with a blast furnace, the earliest .device of the kind similarly used. The Stephenson firm, which founded locomotive building as a commer- cial enterprise, also produced five other ma- chines of the same description for the use of the Hettan colliery. The "Seguin," to which allusion has already been made, was one of Stephen- son's machines, and was remodeled by Marc Seguin, of Paris, France, in 1828-1829, and changed into a multitubular-boiler locomo- tive—the first of the description in use. Until this date, locomotive boilers had been mostly of the cylindrical shape, with a sin- gle tube running lengthwise through them, The Brunton. Engraved from a photograph of the model iu an idea generally credited to Oliver Evans, the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111. of Philadelphia, , whose patents covered this principle in 1786; he also made use of the double-flue boiler, with two tubes running lengthwise. Two of Stephenson's engines had been taken to France for the St. Etienne Railway, of which Seguin was engi- neer. Both were single-flue boilers, and both were changed by the latter. He improved the draft by using a fan, attached to apparatus in the tender, connected with the firebox by flexible tubes. Seguin demonstrated the fact that small tubes running from the furnace to the chimney enhanced the power of evaporation by the engine. This was a signal step in advance. Seguin's device was manifestly evolved from the idea embodied in the invention of 16 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Nathan Read, of Salem, Massachusetts, which was patented in 1791. Thus Read's work, followed at intervals during forty years by many crude and slightly differing designs for the same purpose, tested with varying degrees of success, was the source of mechanical con- trivances abroad which mark the beginning of the era of modern railroad locomotion. It is a singular reflection that while the public travel of our mother country crept along with antique modes of conveyance, entailing a heavy cost on the carriage of people and goods from point to point, there was germinating in the New World a seed of invent- ive design (involved in Read's idea), which was to fructify, less than half a century later, in the significant triumphs of Stephenson. However nota- ble were the strides made by England, as a result of his la- bors, in improving the public facilities of steam locomotion on land, her people had lagged sluggishly in the old ruts of highway conveyance by ani- mals until stimulated into a new zeal by influences emanating from her former colonies on these shores. During the reign of Charles II, travelers from city to city within his realm were often as completely lost for a time as if astray in the Desert of Sahara. The The Seguin. Eugraved from a photograph of the model in the Field Colum- expense, moreover, of such bian Museum, Chicago, 111. journeying, and of the carriage of freight, was a serious burden. From London to Bir- mingham by highway stage, the freight charges were seven pounds sterling per ton, and twelve pounds sterling per ton from Exeter to London, which amounted to fifteen pence per ton for each mile. It was the common understanding that "the fruits of the earth were sometimes suffered to rot in one place, while in another, distant only a few miles, the supply fell far short of the demand."

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was- neither railroad nor telegraph throughout the world. But the impetus imparted by the production of Read's genius, in AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 17

1790, to the investigations of French and English inventors of steam appliances for propul- sion on land, in the four succeeding decades, led to the signal success of Stephenson. George Stephenson had been the principal engineer for the Stockton and Darling- ton Railway, the first public line in Great Britain, which was completed for business in September, 1825. For this concern the firm of Stephenson & Co. constructed, during the same year, the first engine used by them, styled "Locomotion." This machine had four drivers, each four feel in diameter, coupledon either side, a single-flue boiler, two vertical cylinders, ten by twenty-four inches each, located partly within the boiler and an exhaust pipe from either cylinder to the chimney. The boiler was ten feet long, four feet in diameter, and contained a heating surface of sixty feet. It carried twenty-five pounds of steam, and was supplied with two hundred and forty gallons of water. The tender had four wheels. The weight of the engine was six and one-half tons. From the achieve- ment of Stephenson is commonly dated the dawning of modern railroading. After five years of tireless effort, Stephenson, in 1829, completed the "Rocket," a multitubular-boiler ma- chine, weighing, with full boiler, five tons, which was pronounced by mechan- ical experts the most perfect locomotive in existence. The only locomotive Works in the World, of any importance Or Stephenson's RocKet of 1829. Eagrayed from a Photograph of the ' J f model in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 111., pretensions, were under the control of showing also a section of English track of 1829. George Stephenson. A larger product of locomotives had emanated from his hands than from all other sources combined. Booth, who co-operated with Stephenson, was the secre- tary of the Manchester and Railway. He radically altered much of Stephenson's boiler construction, and, for his share in the work, received half the prize awarded to the " Rocket," as noted below. In an exciting competition at Rainhill, England, in which Ericsson (later the inventor of the "Monitor") participated, Stephenson's invention was awarded the chief prize. The length of the trial track was but one and one-half miles on an even surface. A distance of 18 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

one-quarter mile was allowed for reaching full speed and the same amount for slowing to a full stop. Each competitor made forty trips, and the speed was reckoned between the posts indicating the mile stretch. The "Rocket " surpassed its rivals in every particular, showing no signs of strain, and enduring successfully every test. The rails were laid in sections of fifteen feet, again divided into bearing lengths three feet apart, resting on stones; and both rails and stones were in part taken up and forwarded to this country, where they now underlie the model from which the accompanying illustration was copied. The weight of these rails was thirty-five pounds to the yard. The specifications of this competition were as follows: i. Each engine must effectually consume its own smoke, according to the provisions of Railway Act 7, George IV. 2. The engine, if of six tons weight, must be able to draw after it, day by day, on a well-constructed railway, on a level plane, a train of carriages of the gross weight of twenty tons, including the tender and water tank, at the rate of ten miles an hour, with a pressure of steam upon the boiler not exceed- ing fifty pounds to the square inch. 3. The boiler must have two safety , neither of which must be fastened down, and one of them completely out of the control of the engineer. 4. The engine and boiler must be supported upon springs and rest upon six wheels, the height of the whole not exceed- Stephenson's Rocket. A reproduction of an old-time wood engraving. ing fifteen feet to the top of the chimney. 5. The engine, with water, must not weigh more than six tons, but an engine of less weight would be preferred, although drawing a proportionately less load behind it, if only four and one-half tons of it might be placed on four wheels. 6. A mercurial gauge must be affixed to the machine, showing a steam pressure of about forty-five pounds to the square inch. 7. Each engine must be delivered complete and ready for trial at the Liverpool end of the railway not later than October 1, 1829. Price of engine not to exceed £550. Engine to be ready at 10 o'clock Tuesday morning. Running ground will be on the Man- chester side of Rainhill. Load attached to each engine will be three times the weight of the engine. Nobody will be allowed on the track but the directors and engineers. The date of the contest was afterward changed to October 6, to accommodate tardy competitors, AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 19 and even then some of the engines entered failed to arrive. Two or three which were in waiting were withdrawn from the trial for various reasons, so that finally the test was narrowed down to three participants. The first pretentious steam railway, with regular passenger equipment, had just been completed in spite of intense opposition from a large class who were interested in the canal then recently opened for traffic between the same points. The road extended from Manchester to Liverpool, thirty-one miles, and was put into operation on September 15, 1830. Momentous results have followed the practical demonstrations of the value of Stephenson's masterly conception. Railway construction for the use of steam power began in the at abffut the same period. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, also turned the first shovel of earth on July 4, 1828, in connection with the laying of tracks for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This act of the venerable patriot antedated by about one year the successful performance of Stephenson's "Rocket," at Manchester, England. Great strides in inventive progress had been made since the day, fifty-two years before, when Carroll affixed his signature to the immortal instrument by which the colonies severed their thralldom to Great Britain. When, however, at the age of ninety-four, as sole survivor of its signers, he took the initial part in the ceremony, attending the beginning of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, he, in common with all witnesses of the act, contemplated only animal power as the traction force to be used thereon. The first national legislation in this country pertaining to the matter of railroads, of which there is any authentic record, originated in the Uni ted States Senate, April 23, 1828. A bill was then intro- duced, and after con- siderable debate, was subsequently passed, authorizing the Balti- more & Ohio Rail- road Company to import iron for the purpose of building their projected line, In this connection, it may be properly noted, although somewhat out of the strict chronological order, that the first T rails made in the United States were rolled at the Mon- "Train forcattle and goods," reproduced from cut in Lacey's Bail- tOUr Rolling Mills at way Companion, and Liverpool and Manchester Guide to Busi- Danville, Pennsylva- ness and Pleasure, published in Liverpool, England, in 1834. nj^ jn October I 84 K The Bessemer steel process had its origin ten years later, although the manufacture was not fully established until August, 1867. The Company imported from England the first steel used in the country for railroad construction. Twenty-five hundred and fifty tons of steel rails were made here in 1867; the price was $120 per ton. 20 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

In 1889, the home product amounted to 2,396,377 tons, and the price per ton was $30. The first patent granted in the United States for a locomotive engine was issued to Dr. Howard, of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1828. The Howard model was characterized by two single-acting, vertical cylinders placed near either end of the boiler. The cross-heads were connected by an oval king-beam, which was supported by standards resting on the frame. To each end of the cross-heads was attached a , which communi- cated the motion to a loose ratchet wheel mounted upon the axle of the drivers. A large pawl on the drivers engaged with the teeth of the ratchets. Thus arranged, the engine was capable of propulsion in one direction only. The valves were controlled by tappet rods from the cross-heads. The boiler had a single flue, with cylindrical sheath. Although Dr. Howard's design was never realized in construction, the invention is significant as being the initial effort of its kind on this side of the Atlantic. The earliest railroad built in this country was a tramway constructed in 1826, from the immediate vicinity of the Bunker Hill Monument to a convenient point at tide-water, for the purpose of hauling by horse-power the material used in rearing that historic shaft. It is probable that the earliest use of a locomotive on this continent was at Hones- dale, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1829, on the tracks of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Com- pany. The few locomotives in earliest use in the United States were purchased in Eng- land. One of these, imported by the Camden & Amboy Railroad, was casually and briefly examined by Matthias William Baldwin, in 1830. Mr. Baldwin thereupon constructed, with four months' labor, a locomotive of similar pattern, which drew two cars and eight passengers. In 1832, he also made for the Philadelphia & Germantown Railroad a loco- motive used by that road, November 23, of the same year. Its weight was five tons and it hauled thirty tons at a speed of fifteen miles per hour. This is said to have been the first of the kind made here and placed in regular service. The first corporation to apply locomotive traction to the operation of its line was the South Carolina Railroad Company, in September, 1829. On this road, also, was made the first continuous run of one hundred miles. There was at this period a general public awakening in regard to the importance of promoting railroad facilities throughout the more thickly settled portions of the country, and Congress was the arena of much interesting debate on the subject. A member of the House of Representatives, from Maryland (Mr. Howard), secured, March 15, 1832, the pass- age of a resolution by that body, giving the committee on manufactures instructions to investigate the expediency of suspending the duty on importations of iron for use in the construction of railroads. In accordance with the provisions of this resolution, any State or company, thereby incorporated in accordance therewith, became entitled to immunity AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 21 from such tax on the fact being certified to the Secretary of the Treasury that said State or company had used such iron in permanent railroad construction. On Saturday, September 20, 1834, the & Worcester Railroad was opened for business, from the former city to West Hopkinson, a distance of twenty-four miles. Thirteen miles of the line were in operation at an earlier period. The opening of the Portsmouth & Roanoke Railroad, between Portsmouth and Suffolk, Virginia, occured September 23, 1834. On November 1, of the same year, the Philadelphia & Trenton Railroad, twenty-eight miles in length, commenced operation from the former to the latter city. Two trains daily were placed in service on this line, of which one was provided with locomotive traction power, and the other was drawn by horses. Washington and Baltimore were formally connected by railway on Tuesday, August 25, 1835, although cars had been running from the District line to Baltimore since Monday, July 20, of that year. A local contemporary newspaper reported the speed made as "occasionally twenty miles an hour," and commented upon the sensational events thus: " By applying our modern mode of computing distances by hours instead of days and miles,' the distance between the two cities is henceforth to be two hours; that from Washington to , twenty-six hours; and to Boston, forty hours. Are we in a dream ? " The Mayor of Washington added his voice to the general jubilation in an address containing the following paragraph: "But a few years have passed since the weary traveler, leaving Washington with the rising sun, was still found toiling his way to Baltimore as that sun set. Now the man of business may make his arrangements for the day in the morning, visit and purchase his goods in Baltimore at noon, and long before the evening return to Washington, and unpack his wares for sale on the ensuing morning. May we not then reasonably hope that this is but a span in a great line of communication which even in our day shall almost dissipate distance, and bring as near to Boston as that city now is to our own." The Wilmington & Susquehanna Railroad was regularly opened to the public on June 27, 1835. The Boston & Providence Railroad which had been completed from Boston to Can- ton, fifteen miles, in September, 1834, was finished throughout in the following year, and the first train passed over the entire line on Tuesday, July 27, 1835. These important events a close relation to the antecedent work of George Stephenson. Through plain sequences of evolution, the revelation made by him gradually led to the amazing improvements in this direction which mark the closing of this 19th century. In the middle of that century, across all maps of the United States appeared the staring legend "Great American Desert," where stretched the vast region now constitut- ing the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and other fertile States, from which issues forth a bountiful and ever increasing supply of the staples of nutriment and the material for manu- 22 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

factures. The almost limitless area, which knew no railroads early in the century, now. furnishes the restless scene of some of the chief railroad enterprises of the Union. In 1893, the comparative extent of railway mileage and transportation facilities was computed in the following order: , first; Pennsylvania, second; Texas, third; Kansas, fourth; , fifth; Ohio, sixth; New York, seventh. The amazing development of this centennial period is indicated by the fact that the pork grown from the feed corn of the then western- most States is carried from their teeming, packing centers to the Liverpool marts, from four to five thousand miles distance, for four mills per pound. For the sum of eighty-nine cents, the barrel of flour in the emporium of Minnesota is likewise expeditiously borne by tireless forces to the same port. The aggregate value of almost innumerable American farms, where these products originate, has been multiplied a hundred fold in the course of this marvelous evolution of steam railroad transportation. It was recently estimated by expert calculators that those industries which furnish the crude and the finished materials which enter into the construction, equipment and operation of railroads in the United States, employ the labor (skilled and unskilled) of at least one-tenth of the adult population of our country. Among these spheres of work may be mentioned, ore and coal mining, lumbering, the process of steel-rail making, of loco- motive and car manufacture, the production of railroad supplies, and the manual labor essen- tial to the building and operating of more than half the railways of the world. The making of railroad ties alone has grown to be a widely active industry, and furnishes winter employment on countless thriving farms, and in many busy lumber camps. It seems also, in notable accordance with Nature's law of compensation, that we of the new world, who, in the beginning of our era of railroad expansion, utilized the superior quality of European invention, should now be foremost among the nations in contributing from the great results achieved by the inventive energy of America, to the needs of railway mechanism in remote countries of the older hemisphere. These improvements have completely changed the condition of the globe as to the conveyance of men and material from one part to another. They have assured a speedy and convenient interchange of the products of all climes, have brought widely separated peoples into quick contact of mind and heart, and have cheaply distributed, throughout the utmost regions, without impairment, the things most essential to the different races of men. By means of these inventions, the current wants of mankind are mutually and uni- versally satisfied. By their aid, commerce, with one hand outstretched, delivers the export needed in distant lands, while with the other she receives in return, by simultaneous act, the import desired instead. In our time, the genius of marine and railroad locomotion has made it possible for nations far apart to stand face to face at will, and, let us hope, to join hands, with each rising and setting of the sun, in token of amity and peace. CHAPTER II.

ORIGINAL, COMPONENTS OF THE LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM,

HE great system of railroad transportation known to all Americans and to intelligent travelers of all countries, as the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, had its inception in the year 1869, through the consolidation of four important lines. These were: the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad (including branches), extending from Chicago, Illinois, to Toledo, Ohio; the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, extending from Toledo to Cleveland, Ohio; the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, extending from Cleveland, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania; and the Buffalo & extending from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Buffalo, New York. The unifying of these powerful factors in the early progress of the regions severally traversed by them, and the subsequent development of the consolidated system into its present vast proportions and approximate perfection, constitute an indispensable chapter in our country's history. They involve a record of strenuous and absorbing endeavor, main- tained through crucial ordeals and straits of adverse conditions. They lift, moreover, into lasting remembrance the careers of some of the most resolute, sagacious and forceful per- sonages in a galaxy of public characters who have contributed greatly toward the material prosperity of the United States. Suitable and separate mention will be made of the individual traits and services of these remarkable men in the course of this volume. Had , who was styled the father, and Horace F. Clark, who was called the soul, of this great railway system, devoted their extraordinary mentality to civic policies and matters of statecraft, the manifest energies they brought to bear in the affairs of this road would, doubtless, have enrolled their names high on the list of honored upholders of the Republic. Each of the four railroad corporations, before named as the basis of the consolida- tion of 1869, previously comprehended two constituent lines, making eight original com- ponents of the present line from Buffalo to Chicago. Thus the Buffalo & Erie Railroad was composed of the Buffalo & State Line and the Erie & North East, both of which had been conducted under a single direction for nearly fourteen years preceding May 15, 1867, at which date they were merged into one. 23 24 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company obtained possession in 1854, by purchase of its stock, of a line 25 miles in length, constructed by the Franklin Canal Company, and extending from the eastern line of Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania. The Cleveland & Toledo Railroad was formed in September, 1853, from the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad combined with the Junction Railroad, both of which organizations receive specific attention herein,'in their proper order. The Michigan Southern & North- ern Indiana Railroad Company was organized May 1, 1855, by a consolidation of the two then separate lines whose names, joined together, formed its new designation. The Michi- gan Southern Railroad had previously absorbed the Erie & Kalamazoo road, which ante- dated all the others. Besides the main line of 540.04 miles, between Buffalo and Chicago, the constituent companies before named represented a portion of the branch mileage of the present sys- tem, which, with that added since the consolidation, is as follows: ' Mites. Sandusky Division—Elyria Junction to Millbury Junction, Ohio, via Sandusky 73.24 Air Line Division—Air Line Junction, Ohio, to Elkhart, Ind 131.10 Air Line Junction to Ohio-Michigan State Line 7.61 Jackson Branch—Lenawee J unction to Jackson, Mich 42.16 Monroe Branch—Lenawee Junction to Monroe, Mich 29.45 Ashtabula Branch—Ashtabula, Ohio, to Pennsylvania State Line 30.72 Other Branches—Sandusky Pier, 3.88 miles; Ashtabula Harbor, 2.33 miles; Dun- kirk, 1.62 miles 7.83 322 11 Main Line 540.04 Total, Main Line and Branches 862.15 In addition to these are the proprietary roads, absolutely owned and operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, but retaining their own respective organizations. These lines are located and designated as follows: Miles. Central Trunk Railroad—Ohio State Line to Jamestown, Pa 5.26 , Monroe & Toledo Railroad—Ohio-Michigan State Line to Detroit, Mich 54.76 Kalamazoo & White Pigeon Railroad—White Pigeon to Kalamazoo, Mich 36.54 Northern Central Michigan Railroad—Jonesville to North Lansing, Mich 61.36 Detroit & Chicago Railroad—Grosvenor, Ohio, to Fayette, Mich 25.56 Sturgis, Goshen & St. Louis Railroad—Goshen, Indiana, to Findley, Ohio 36.13 Elkhart & Western Railroad—Elkhart to Mishawaka, Ind 11.72 231.33 Operated under lease by this company are the following lines, namely: Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railroad—Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, Mich... 58.45 Jamestown & Franklin Railroad—Jamestown, N. Y., to Oil City, Pa 50.91 —Andover to Youngstown, Ohio, and Doughton, Ohio, to Sharon, Pa 48.01 Detroit, Hillsdale & South Western Railroad—Ypsilanti to Bankers, Mich 64.76 Fort Wayne & Jackson Railroad—Jackson, Mich., to Fort Wayne, Ind 97.83 319.96 Total Mileage of road operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company 1413.44 In addition to the foregoing, the company has 490.57 miles of second track, 9.63 miles of third track, and 763.55 miles of sidings, making an aggregate extent of 2,677.19 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 25 miles of rail. 7.84 miles of the old main line track, and an equal extent of second track, are leased to the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, for use as their main line between Silver Creek and Dunkirk, New York. All the lines constructed by the origi- nal corporations previously mentioned, and those built by the consolidated company since the date of its inception in 1869, are included in the above statement. A controlling interest in the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, and in the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad, is also owned by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. In the service of the company, December 31, 1899, was the following equipment, viz:

LOCOMOTIVES 544

PASSENGER TRAIN CARS. Passenger cars 226 Smoking cars 36 Combination cars 43 Emigrant cars 9 Baggage cars 69 Postal cars 30 Dining and buffet cars 17 430 FREIGHT CARS. Box cars 10,272 Stock cars 799 Flat cars 2 262 Gondola cars 6,058 Gondola cars, hopper bottom, steel 500 19,891 WORK CARS. Officers' and pay cars 6 Caboose cars 274 Tool cars 65 Gravel dump cars 35 Derrick cars 15 Snow plows 15 Other work cars 175 585 Total number of cars owned, all classes , 20,906

FLOATING EQUIPMENT. 1 tug, 1 dredge, 2 scows Total CHAPTER III.

THE ERIE & KALAMAZOO RAILROAD.

F THE original components of the present Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way System, the first in existence was the Erie & Kalatnazoo Railroad. In the year 1833 the legislature of the Territory of Michigan, which then contained about thirty-five thousand people, granted a charter to a corporation under the above designation to build a railroad from Toledo (then known as Port Lawrence) to the source of the Kala- mazoo River. This road, about one-third of whose length was discovered, on the final settlement of the boundary contention between the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory, to lie within the limits of the former, extended from Toledo, Ohio, to Adrian, Michigan, a distance of thirty-three miles, and was completed and formally opened for business in 1837. It was at first intended by the projectors of the line to draw the cars by horse power over oak rails four inches square. Such power was used at the outset, but the original plan for the track was changed so that its superstructure consisted of stringers of oak over- laid with "a thin iron ribbon" two and one-half inches wide and five-eighths of an inch in thickness. The stringers were imbedded in the cross-ties and fastened by keys, as shown by a cut appearing in a subsequent chapter, the cross-ties being spiked to mud sills, which at points of meeting rested on joint planks. The strap-rail was likewise spiked to the stringers. This rail, when accidentally loosened by the passage of a train, as was some- times the case, was called a "snakehead," from its suggestive shape in springing from its fastenings. It is the main feature of an anecdote in the chapter of this volume devoted to old time railroading. The first engine used by the company was placed on the road in August, 1837. An accurate representation of the primitive machine, together with the unique car attached, appears on the following page. It was number 80 in order of construction by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, an enterprise established in 1831. During the next fifty years this concern produced more than six thousand locomotives, number 6118 having been finished April 1, 1882. The E. & K. R. R. locomotive was called the "Adrian, No. 1' (Baldwin, No. 80), and was shipped in a sailing vessel to Toledo, the late A. W. Fair- banks, then publisher of the ''Toledo Weekly Blade," helping to unload it at the Toledo 26 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 27

landing. The car was the second placed in service on the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad. It disappeared from sight about sixty years ago. But one other locomotive, the Baldwin, No. 90, served the patrons of the line. There was no time schedule for the running of trains, but the fare from Toledo to Adrian in the "Pleasure Car," which resembled the old-time stage coaches, and had a pro- nounced tendency to "jump the track," was fixed by the board of directors, in 1836, at twelve shillings, with fifty pounds of baggage per passenger, free of charge. The regular freight rate adopted for the full distance was four shillings per hundred pounds, with the exception of salt, for which one dollar per barrel was charged. In the portion of this volume pertaining in general to the primitive period of rail- roading in this country is reproduced a "notice" from the "Toledo Weekly Blade," bear- ing date of January 20, 1837, heralding the arrival at To- ledo, by boat, of the "Adrian, No. 1" (Baldwin, No. 80), which was a. memorable event in the annals of that re- gion, as being the first loco- motive seen in the broad peninsular area which is now a center of boundless ac- tivity. An advertisement of Passenger train on the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad in 1837, showing the engine, the Erie & Kalamazoo Rail- "'Adrian, No. 1," and the " Pleasure Car." This is a repro- road Company, relative to the duction of an old-time wood engraving. matter, is also reprinted in that connection, together with a representation of the unique machine and its suggestive attachment, the first passenger car in service on the road. The "Gothic Car," or, as officially styled, the "Pleasure Car," was, according to the best records obtainable, confirmed by personal recollection of the surviving few who were familiar with its appearance, a facsimile of the cut herewith given. The preservation of this likeness, as well as the compilation of much important historical and statistical matter in this regard, is due to the conscientious labor and research of the lamented C. P. Leland, for many years auditor of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. Before the "Pleasure Car" was placed upon the line, in 1837, but one other pas- senger coach, as before noted, had been in use by the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company. The second, as just shown, was a compartment car, in three sections, about equal in dimensions to those used in the street railway service of an early period, and some- L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

what shorter than the similar conveyances in vogue on the first railroads constructed in the State of New York. Each compartment was designed to accommodate about eight pas- sengers, and the lower portion of the center compartment furnished space for baggage. The car wheels ran in grooves on the rails, and, by a provision of the charter of the corporation, stockholders whose places of residence were located along the railroad route were privileged to use wagons with wheels fitted to these grooves, for travel on the track. Their wagons, thus running at ordinary speed, proved no obstruction to the daily train each way, which, indeed, seldom moved faster than the average speed of spirited horses. In 1849 and 1850, the late Fred Avery, for a long time an engineer, and afterward a conductor, on the Michigan Southern Railroad, was in charge of one of the engines of the Erie & Kalamazoo line. On a certain occasion he made the run of thirty-three miles between Toledo and Adrian in the unusual time of three hours. For such hazardous velocity he was sharply rebuked by Superintendent Bradbury, and warned that a repetition of the offense would result in the loss of his position. The cost of constructing the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad was $257,659, making an expense per mile of $7,808. The gross earnings, in 1837, were $55,821, and the expenses approximated twenty-five percent, of that amount, or $14,181, leaving a net income of $41,640 for that year. So limited were the financial resources of the corporation, when the road bed was approaching completion that the two Baldwin engines ordered were neces- sarily purchased on credit, as was, also, the iron for the track. The parties from whom these supplies were bought ultimately sold their claims therefor, and realized about twenty per cent, of the face value of the obligations. The charter of the company, as in the case of the Ohio Railroad Company, else- where detailed in this volume, invested the corporation with banking privileges. In accordance with this prerogative, the directors proceeded to have executed and issued a considerable volume of neatly engraved "promises to pay," which were about equal in value to Confederate bills of the same denomination which circulated in the South during the Civil War. Many of these railroad bank notes, having been preserved as souvenirs were taken to the Southern States by the Michigan "boys in blue" in the course of that great conflict, and passed to credulous bargainers in exchange for choice poultry and other tempting edibles. Although specimens of this issue are very rare, a few are in the pos- session of some of the present officials of the road. From 1837 until 1848, which was the period of its active operation under a distinct- ive corporate title, the fortunes of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad were marred by odd vicissitudes. Its management varied from that of a commissioner, representing the board of directors, to a trusteeship under the jurisdiction of the court, and from that form to a receivership composed of two officials—one at each terminus of the road. Its dividends AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 29

were equally variable, the first year yielding thirty per cent., the second year fifteen per cent., and the third year eight per cent. Bankruptcy confronted it at a later stage. Judgment after judgment had issued against its assets, and under such decrees it was finally bought, in 1848, by private individuals for $60,00. The purchasers, George Bliss, of Mas- sachusetts, and Washington Hunt, of New York, executed a perpetual lease of the property, in 1849, to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, which had competing interests. The latter, a State enterprise, had been begun by the State authorities in 1839, completed from Monroe to Hillsdale in 1843, and sold to individuals in 1846. Until sold it was known as the "Southern Road." Under the terms of the lease of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, the annual payment to that company was fixed at $30,000. Although the road is a portion of the main line of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System, it still retains its corporate organi- zation, the sole functions of its officials being, however, to receive the yearly rental and disburse the net income among the holders of its stock. The instrument was drawn to secure a revenue of ten per cent, per annum on a stock valuation of $300,000, the pur- chasers having restocked their investment to that amount. The rates on freight had been materially reduced since the first schedule was arranged in 1836, between Toledo and Adrian. For a considerable period previous to the change in management the charges were as follows : On general merchandise, twenty-five cents per hundred pounds ; wheat, six cents ; oats, four cents ; salt, forty-five cents per barrel; flour, twenty-five cents ; whiskey, fifty cents ; pork, fifty cents; plaster, three dol- lars per ton ; lumber, three dollars per thousand, etc. Other rates were adopted in July, 1845, through a compact between the Erie & Kalamazoo and the Michigan Southern com- panies, then competing, and the schedule of that date represented the first joint agreement of the kind in this country for uniform freight charges. The United States government, in the beginning of the year 1839, made with the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company tb.3 first contract in fores west of the Alleghany Mountains for a railway mail service. The carriage of the mails of that period lacked something of the expedition and convenience attending it in our time, there being but one passenger train daily, each way, and the distance of thirty-three miles consuming three hours (as already mentioned) with the utmost speed possible. In 1837 there were but three or four locomotives in use west of the Alleghanies, and along the shores of the lake-chain States the "Adrian, No. 1," (Baldwin, No. 80,) on the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, was the earliest put into service. The Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad, later styled the "Jackson Branch," was started by the owners of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, and opened to Tecumseh, ten miles, in August, 1838. This point was its terminus for a number of years. 30 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM.

The officers of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company are : David P. Barhydt, president; Alfred L. Millard, of Adrian, Michigan, secretary; and Benjamin Knower, of , treasurer.

TYPES OF LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY ENGINES.

No. 400. Type, Mogul. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Cylinders, 19 by 24 inches; diameter of driving wheels, 56 inches; diameter of boiler, 59 inches; fire box, 96 inches long by 42 inches wide; 250 flues, 2 inches in diameter, 12 feet 1 inch long; boiler pressure, 150 pounds; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 14 feet; wheel base, driving, 14 feet; wheel base, engine, 21 feet 4 inches; total wheel base, 45 feet 6 inches; weight of ten- der, 70,000 pounds; weight on drivers, 101,000 pounds; total weight of engine, 119,000 pounds. CHAPTER IV.

THE MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILROAD.

/ IT -' O I HE Territory of Michigan having emerged into Statehood in the year 1837, its first a J_ legislative body took prompt action in the matter of internal improvements. It authorized a loan of $5,000,000, to be expended on railroads, rivers, canals, a university, collegiate institutions, etc., under the direction of a State board of commis- sioners. Included in the plan were a Northern, Central and Southern railroad, extending east and west, the latter being projected from Monroe, on Lake Erie, to New Buffalo, on Lake Michigan. Of this the State of Michigan constructed sixty-six miles during the period intervening between 1839 and 1843, completing the road from Monroe to Hillsdale. The first train passed over the road to Adrian in November, 1840. This established a competition with the Erie & Kalamazoo line, which gave rise to a great deal of counter advertising between the rival companies and insinuating appeals for public patronage. Eventually it also sealed the doom of the latter as an independent road. As a sample of these advertisements, a circular from the superintendent of the Southern Road, couched in pungent phraseology, has floated down to the present time, and is elsewhere reproduced herein. No further work was done on the line under the legislative act of 1837. The rail used in this construction was of iron, two and one-half inches wide, three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and was of the flat, or " strap," description. The present Jackson Branch (as before noted), then called the Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad, was finished as far as Tecumseh—ten miles—by the owners of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, in 1838. The company owning the latter line met with reverses, and these ten miles of railroad became the property of the State, which had loaned the means for its construction, and which included it with the Southern Railroad as the "Tecumseh Branch." About ten years afterward this branch was extended to Jackson. In 1846 Edwin C. Litchfield organized a company with a capital of $500,000, under the title of the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, which bought the Southern Rail- road, sixty-six miles in length—from Monroe to Hillsdale—with its Tecumseh Branch, extending ten miles. The consideration, $500,000, was payable in twenty semi-annual installments of $25,000 each. It had cost the State of Michigan, in addition to its net 31 L. S & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM.

earnings during six years of State control, more than $700,000. Nearly all of this period had been marked by extreme financial stringency. The payments stipulated by the terms of sale were punctually made, largely from the income of the road under its new owner- ship, and were met with the scrip of the State, obtained by the purchasers at about one- half of its par value. The board of directors of the newly organized Michigan Southern Railroad Company FOR 1844. held its first session at Monroe, (Rood owned 4nd operated by the State of Michigan.) Michigan, on December 25, 1846. FROM MONROE TO ADRIAN, HUDSON AND HILLSDALE. But slight progress was made in This Road ie now in operation from Monroe to Hillsdale, a distance of (18 miles, and being well provided with Locomotives, Freight and Passenger Cars, is prepard to transport further construction until 1851, on account of the financial ob- Freight & Passengers stacles encountered by the man- Expeditious]}- and at low rates. This Road is the cheapest and most direct for Passenger3 going to Indiana, Illinois, , Iowa, South and Western parts of Michigan. agement. Four miles only had Stages leave Hillsdale for Jonesville, Coldwater, Marshall, Kalamazoo, White Pigeon, Constantine, Niles, Mishawaukie, South Bend, been added to the line, extending Mouth of St. Joseph River, and all the important Western Villages and Cities. Passengers it to Jonesville. We present, in will find it for their interest to leave the Lake at Monroe, to avoid delay, as the Cars on this Road pass Adrian for the West before they can reach Adrian from Toledo: and also to avoid the expense and trouble of Transhipment. this connection, on the following THE TBAIN FOE PASSENGERS LEAVES MONROE DAILY, page a time-table, with date of gUraiDATrS'IESiDEFffra), AT SHK O'CLOCK, &> M. AND ADRIAN AT NINE O'CLOCK, A. M. AND ARRIVE AT HILLSOALE AT Sept. 15, 1850, showing Jonesville Half past Eleven ©.'Clock, A. H. Leaves Hillsdale at half past 12 o'clock, P. M. and Adrian at 3 o'clock, P. M, and arrive as the western terminus of the at Monroe at 6 o'clock P. M. FARE TIIKOUGH, $2. To intermediate places, in proportion. road. During the two years fol- lowing, however, the road was Monroe to Adrian, 34 miles. Sturges to White Pigeon, 12 miles, Adrian to Hudson, 17 Mottville to EdwardsburgbEdwdbb, 21 " pushed with considerable vigor, Hudson to Hillsdale, • 17 Edwardsburgh to Niles, 11 " Hillsdale to Jonesville, 5 Niles to Michigan City, reaching Cold water, in 18 50, South Jonesville to Coldwater, 18 Mich. City to Chicago* (steamboat) 60 Coldwater to BroDson Prairie, 13 Boat runs through daily. Bronson to Sturges' Prairie, 14 Niles to mouth St. Joseph River, 25 Bend, Indiana, in 1851, and, in Boat leaves St. Joseph daily for Chicago. 1852, terminating at Chicago, a J. H. CLEVELAND, Sup't. May C, 1844. distance of 243 miles from Toledo. Printed at the Adrian Watefi-Tower Office, Adrian, Michigan, At the first meeting of the A facsimile (one-half reduction) of the " Spring Arrangements " of the directors of the new company it Michigan Southern Railroad for 1844. was "resolved that no credit be given for freight or passage, and that the board appoint two conductors or captains of trains to perform the duties of collecting freight and passenger money, at forty dollars per month.' > Timothy Baker became one of these appointees, and a Mr. Disbrow,who had served for some years as conductor during the period of State control, was temporarily assigned to the other position. At the outset the trains were run without regular conductors, baggagemen or brakemen. The entire work was performed by the engineer and fireman, the fares being AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES 33 collected by the former and the freight and baggage being partly cared for by the latter. The fireman, with the assistance of the trackmen, furnished the fuel, and also the water, which was often "scooped" up in vessels from the ditches along the track. Mr. Disbrow, above alluded to as one of the first two conductors of the new company, told the following story to the late C. P. Leland, in the year 1887, as suggestive of the peculiar experiences of train employees on the Michigan Southern Railroad in 1847 : "Jim Kingsland, engineer, and I, the conductor, were jogging along, going west late one afternoon in the 'forties,' when the train stopped. I got out with the maul, supposing of TIME TABLE course we were stopped by a "snakehead." Jim pointed to a new sign on a tree which read: SEPTEMBEa 15TU, 1850. 'Entertainment for Man and Beast,' and sug- gested we go and find it, to which I readily Putt, trains Eatt West East West East ff>.< A. M. P. M. A. M. T. iff. A. M\ P. M. agreed. I did not send back a brakeman, for jotieSviiie 6.00ar.T,oo Adrian 9,00 ar. 3,5 \drian 9,00 ar. 3.50 two reasons: first, because we had no brake- unisdaie 6,is 6,45 Palmyra 9,30 " 3,2 re.jiinct 9,40 •• 3.3" man in those days, and, second, ours was the <)!sw> 6-33 " "•» Bliss(IeId 9-M " 3'w Palmvra 9'40 " 3'"1 , , rilfeford 7,00" 5.55 Knight's 10.05 "2.tt Deerfl'd 10,05 "•>. 45 only west bound train on the road. So, leav- J ' Hudson 7,35 '• 5,2001 Lake 10,33 " '2,15 Pet'rsl>'{f 10,25 2.3) ing the train in charge of the passengers, we went <1ayton 8i0S « 4,«syrvania ti.oo » \j& j

" In taking a drink, I espied a fiddle sus- . ™ c^ Regulations of April 18th, must be strictly ob- pended from the ceiling, and, .as the landlord's wife and daughter were present, suggested a served. L. W. ASHLEY. Time table, actual size, issued by Michigan Southern dance. No sooner said than done. We formed Railroad. This engraving is reproduced from one of the originals, the ink on which on and danced Money Musk, Virginia Reel, etc., is very much faded. then took another drink from the old decanter, paid our bills, twelve and one-half cents (a Spanish shilling), said we had ' a perfectly lovely time ' and would come again, then returned to our train and went on." Mr. Disbrow was asked how long this delayed the train, to which he replied, "about three quarters of an hour." He was then asked if there was much objection on the part of the passengers. "Oh ! no," said he, "such delays were so common, that they were cheer- fully accepted." Mr. Leland, who listened to this reminiscence of the old conductor, lived to see the 34 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

wonders of the World's Columbian Exposition, when the famous run of the "Exposition Flyer" reflected such signal credit on the management of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. He happily witnessed the striking contrast between the days of Mr. Disbrow's early service, when the boiler was occasionally resplenished by dipping water from ditches where the engine stopped for the purpose, and the World's Fair period, when between the double tracks plentiful tanks of water, stretching along fourteen hundred feet, were suitably located, where the colossal engine might plunge its thirsting tongue in instan- taneous quaffing, as it sped onward, and gulp Leviathan swallows, without a sign of pause. About the year 18 51 began the replacement of the "strap" rails, then in vogue, by the new "T" rail on cross-ties, a change which involved nine thousand miles of railroad constructed in this country during the preceding twenty-two years. Such a substitution necessitated a heavy issue of railroad mortgage bonds, which was an innovation in railroad financiering. These securities were readily received in the centers of investment, both here and abroad, and actually proved the salvation of the railway enterprises of the United States. While the Michigan Southern Railroad Company was rapidly extending its line toward Chicago, the Michigan Central Railroad Company was making swift strides in the same direction. The last one hundred and seventy-two miles (between Jonesville and Chicago), were constructed by the former, with the co-operation of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, in a little more than a year and one-half. There was a difference of but three days in finishing the competing lines, the Michigan Southern Railroad being in advance. On May 22, 1852, the first train from the East made its welcome advent within the environs of Chicago, a place which had developed in fifteen years, from a mere nucleus of pioneer settlers, occupied mainly in barter with Indian tribes, into a civic corporation, robust, pretentious and aspiring. The late John H. Sargent, assistant chief engineer, under Chief Engineer John B. Jervis, bore a very prominent and efficient part in locating this line and forwarding its construction.

DIRECTORS. James J. Godfrey, November, 1846 to June, 1847 John Stryker May, 1849 to April, 1855 Samuel J. Holley.... " 1846" 1849 Charles Butler " 1849 " " 1855 Charles Noble " 1846 " 1852 Hugh White " 1849" •• 1855 George W. Strong... " 1846" 1847 Joel Rathbun June, 1849 " June, 1850 Henry Waldron " 1846 May, 1849 Charles Seymour " 1849 " " 1850 Stillman Blanchard.. " 1846 June, 1847 ElishaG.Litchfield .. " 1846 April, 1855 John B. Jervis " 1850 " April, 1855 William A. Richmond " 1846 June, 1849 William L. Marcy ... " 1850" " 1853 Francis B. Van Brunt " 1846 1849 Henry Dwight, Jr " 1851" " 1852 Daniel S.Bacon June, 1847 1849 John S. Barry April, 1852" " 1855 Jacob Ten Eyck " 1847 1849 Robert B. Doxtater... " 1853 " May, 1853 N. B. Kidder " 1847 April, 1848 (Death.) David A. Noble April, 1848 Dec, 1848 James Archbald December, 1853 " April, 1855 Edwin C. Litchfield. .December, 1848 April, 1855 Irad Hawley September, 1854 " " 1855 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 35

PRESIDENTS. James J. Godfroy November, 1846 to June, 1847 John B. Jervis 1852 to March, 1853 Francis B. Van Brunt. June, 1847" Dec, 1848 Robert B. Doxtater... April, 1853 " May, 1853 Charles Noble December, 1848 " August, 1849 (Death.) George Bliss August, 1849" July, 1852 John B. Jervis June, 1853 " April, 1855

SUPERINTENDENTS. Joseph H. Cleveland (under State operation),1840, 1846 E. P.Williams . .April, 1851 to March, 1852 Thomas G. Cole December, 1846 to Jan., 1850 Joseph H. Moore... . .March, 1852 " May, 1854 Lewis W. Ashley January, 1850 " April, 1851 James Moore . . .. May, 1854 " April, 1855 It is incidentally worthy of note, in closing this chapter, that of all the original lines comprehended in the present system, the Michigan Southern Railroad is the only one whose name is retained in the title of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway.

TYPES OF LAKE SHORE"* MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY ENGINES.

No. 316. Type, Consolidation. photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Cylinders, 20% by 24 inches outside; diameter of driving wheels, 56 inches; diameter of boiler, 64 inches; firebox, 114 inches long by42 inches wide; 286 flues , 2inches in diameter, 13 feet3 inches long; boiler pressure, 180 pounds: fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 15 feet, 3 inches; wheel base, driving, 15 feet, 3 inches; wheel base, engine, 23 feet, 3 inches; total wheel base, 51 feet, 6 inches; weight of tender, 98,000 pounds; weight on drivers, 138,500 pounds; total weight of engine, 156,500 pounds. CHAPTER V.

THE NORTHERN INDIANA RAILROAD.

HE Northern Indiana Railroad Company came into -existence under the corporate designation of the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad Company. The act of incorpora- tion, which was submitted to the legislature of Indiana in 1835, gave to the projected line the title ''Atlantic & Pacific Railroad." The members of that body, how- ever, deemed such a name somewhat too pretentious for a railroad planned to extend but • twelve miles, and persuaded the author of the measure, John B. Chapman, of Warsaw, Indiana, to bestow upon it a less sonorous appellation. The termini of the road were fixed by the charter as Michigan City and LaPorte, Indiana. Mr. Chapman and other promoters of the enterprise had, evidently, ulterior views as to the scope of their action, as the United States Senate had, a short time previously, passed a resolution authorizing a survey of a railroad route from Maumee Bay to the Mis- sissippi River. At the first meeting of the incorporators of the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad Company, the Secretary of War was formally asked to advise the corporation whether any action had been taken by the United States government in accordance with the resolution of the Senate. The meeting was held in Elkhart, Indiana, at the residence of Colonel Stephen Downing, May 25, 1835. An organization was effected under the charter in February, 1837. The spring of that year was the beginning of the first, and possibly the worst, financial revulsion in the United States, and that and the following year are mournfully memorable for the ravages of inveterate forms of sickness. At the session held at the Downing dwelling, John Brown, John B. Niles, Aaron Streeter, William Barber and Robert Stewart were elected directors, and Robert Stewart was made president of the board. In this connection, an issue of the ''Toledo Weekly Blade," in 1837, has the following insertion : "TO CONTRACTORS. "Notice is hereby given that the grading of the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad for a double track between Michigan City and LaPorte, a distance of twelve miles, will be let at public outcry to the lowest bidder, at LaPorte, on Monday, the 14th day of June next. "The maps, profiles and estimates of the route will be ready for examination at the engineer's office in LaPorte after the 1st of June. "R. STEWART, President. "MICHIGAN CITY, April 28, 1837." 36 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 37

No track was ever laid on the line under the original charter. The work was placed under contract on the date fixed by the advertisement, and some labor was performed at intervals along the route by way of preparation. A small extent of grading was done in the forest just out of Michigan City, and a limited amount of excavating was accomplished on the eminence a few miles northwest of LaPorte. Evidences of this labor were still visible at a recent period. A clearance was also made through the dense woodland some- what farther from Michigan City. The high grades along the route surveyed necessitated long and arduous work, and made the selection of such a location an unwise act. Thus discouragement hovered over the first stages of construction. The project was confronted, moreover, by a financial pressure which then began to prevail and threatened to cause the abandonment of all effort. Disease had also invaded the region and permeated the ranks of the construction force. This, with the panic, proved an insurmountable barrier to further progress, and the records of the board of directors, in 1838, oddly express the con- clusion at which they had arrived : "Resolved, that all operations on the road east of Goshen be suspended until the corps under the direction of Mr. Hardenberg be sufficiently recruited in health to again enter the field, and that they then proceed to locate that part of the road from Goshen to -the eastern line of the State." So thoroughly had adverse sanitary conditions and the general monetary derangement impaired the vitality of the enterprise that no annual elections were held by the stock- holders for the period intervening between 1839 and 1847. Whatever preliminary labor had been let by the company and performed in 1837 had been paid for with scrip, which was subject to a large discount. The outlook seemed almost hopeless, but the friends of the enterprise determined to exert themselves once more to revive it. Another meeting was held in October, 1847, and a last attempt was then made to place the organization on a sound basis. A new directorate was chosen, consisting of John W. Brooks, J. Young Scammon, Chauncey B. Blair, William B. Ogden, A. L. Osborn, John B. Niles and E. D. Taylor. All of these directors were men of high public standing, and some of them were conspicuously identified with the most important industries of the region likely to be developed by the Buffalo & Mississippi scheme. William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago, and one of the most notable of the vigorous group of pioneers who left their impress on that period, was made president of the new board. The stockholders, how- ever, failed to respond when formally called upon to furnish the means required to prosecute the work. One of them only, representing but two shares, was ready to "settle up." This was the "last straw." The corporation had been in existence for twelve years with no practical results, and it was determined, in October, 1849, to abandon the old corporate designation, "Buffalo & Mississippi," and reorganize the enterprise as the Northern Indiana 38 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Railroad Company. This conclusion was reached in the expectation that, by adopting a new and more appropriate title, they might perhaps stimulate a renewed interest in the furtherance of their undertaking. At this time the Litchfield brothers, Edwin C. and Elisha C, who were among the most energetic and sagacious railroad promoters and constructors of that day, were busily urging the Michigan Southern Railroad toward Chicago. As an adjunct to their enterprise, they secured, in 1849, the control of the interests of the Northern Indiana Railroad, which was organized on November 20 of that year. The lines were speedily completed under the forceful direction of these gentlemen, and, two and one-half years subsequent to the change of name—and precisely seventeen years after the organization of the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad Company, the first passenger train passed over their track from Toledo to Chicago. This event occurred on May 22, 1852, and preceded by about three years another important event in railroad annals, namely, the consolidation of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railroads into one system. Thus terminated a period of twenty years of endeavor, through widely changing con- ditions, to "abridge distance" and to bind together with commercial and social ties the older centers of trade and new settlements of adventurous pioneers beyond. These bold and rugged groups were ever westward advancing along the auspicious pathway of historical development, over which the "star of empire" gleams his beckoning light. Farther and yet farther on, the early settlers plodded their persistent way toward the western horizon. Ever and anon some paused and established household altars in local habitation, the germ of communities yet to be when the railroad, surely following the line of settlement, should span the spaces wearily trodden and bring the rude frontier abode again in palpable touch with the homesteads of civilization. During the separate existence of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, a number of the most substantial and influential residents of the section of the State which it tra- versed participated in its management as directors. Among these were John H. Defrees, W. C. Hannah, John B. Niles, T. S. Stanfield, A. P. Andrew, Jr., W. J. Walker, Havilah Beardsley and Ezekiel Morrison. The consolidation of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company with the Michigan Southern Railroad Company was effected in April, 1855, thereby closing the record of the former and that of its predecessor, the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad Company. The presidents of the road, including the period of the Buffalo & Mississippi Rail- road Company, which it absorbed, were Robert Stewart, who served until 1837; General Joseph Orr, from 1837 to 1841; Jonathan Burr, 1841; (there was no incumbent of the office from the last named year until 1847); William B. Ogden, 1847; (here occured another interval of two years' vacancy); E. W. Chamberlain, 1850; James H. Barnes, 1851; John AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 39

Stryker, 1851; George Bliss, 1852; John B. Jervis, July, 1852, to March, 1853; Robert B. Doxtater, April, 1853, to May, 1853; .and John B. Jervis, June 1853, to April, 1855. Of these ten officials two only, John B. Jervis and John Stryker, were still living on the pub- lication of the annual report of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, for the year 1877. A full list of the names and terms of service of the company's directorate from its organization, November 20, 1849, to the date of consolidation with the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, April 26, 1855, is as follows:

A. P. Andrew, Jr .November, 1849 to April, 1851 William L. Marcy... .November, 1849 to Oct., 1853 W. C. Hannah 1849 it it 1855 Thomas S. Stanfield.. " 1849 " " 1«53 James Bradley ft 1849 ft June, 1851 Havilah Beardsley... June, 1850 " April, 1855 Oliver P. Ludlow... 1849 it 1851 John B. Niles April, 1851 " Oct., 1853 Ezekiel Morrison ... " 1849 " April, 1855 Hugh White June, 1851 " April, 1855 John B. Fravel tt 1849 it June, 1850 Elisha C. Litchfield.. " 1851 " " 1855 George Bliss n 1849 (( April, 1855 Charles K. Hamilton.February, 1852 " Oct., 1853 John Stryker ft 1849 tf it 1855 Calvin Burr January 1853 " " 1853 Edwin C. Litchfield. (f 1849 (< a 1855 Walter S. Gurnee 1853 " " 1853 Charles Butler It 1849 tl tt 1855 Robert B. Doxtater.. April, 1853 " May, 1853 John B. Jervis It 1849 (1 Feb., 1852 (Death). James Archbald October, John B. Jervis .January, 1853 It April, 1855 1853 " April, 1855 The following were the superintendents who officiated on this road: Thomas G. Cole November, 1849 to Jan., 1850 Joseph H. Moore March, 1852 to May, 1854 Lewis W. Ashley....January, 1850 " April, 1851 James Moore May, 1854 " April, 1855 E. P. Williams April, 1851 " March, 1852 CHAPTER VI.

MICHIGAN SOUTHERN & NORTHERN INDIANA RAILROAD.

SOR the first two years after consolidation, the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad extending from the city of Chicago, Illinois, to the city of Toledo, Ohio, a distance of 2^3 miles, was a very profitable enterprise. It paid ten per cent, dividends in 1855 and 1856, and branched out to various points. During this period its progressive activity included the construction of the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad, the Air Line Railroad, and the extension from Tecumseh to Jackson of the old Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad, which the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company had, in 1838, completed as far as Tecumseh. Besides improvements of this magnitude, the "City of Buffalo" and the "Western Metropolis," two of the most superb passenger steam- ers which then rode the surface of I the lake, the cost of which was $600,000, were also the product of the new company's energy. These floating palaces, it may be noted in passing, proved a failure as sources Reproduction, actual size, of a second class ticket from White Pigeon to BUIT Q£ additional revenue to the StOck- Oak, issued by the Michigan Southern Railroad some time between 1852 and 1854, during tee superintendence of Joseph H. Moore. holders of the Corporation. Although but recently the popularity of such a mode of transit east and west had deterred many from enlisting in railroad enterprises directly competing with steamboat lines, the public favor seemed to have been suddenly withdrawn from lake travel in this region. The "City of Buffalo" and the ''Western Metropolis," having never returned to the company the cost of their construction and maintenance, were sold for $50,000 after a considerable period of disuse. The patronage of the road indicated, at the outset, a strong public preference, and investors and speculators handled its securities with avidity. But the impetus of its activi ties had been too great, and the reaction came abruptly, aggravated in severity by the 40 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 41

memorable "panic" of 1857. In August of that year, the paper of the company was pro- tested, the interest of its bonds was in default, and its management was mainly occupied in compromising obligations and avoiding executions. The Litchfield brothers withdrew from the control and direction of the road on the day preceding the collapse of the first organ- ization. The resignation of the directors, in 1857, necessitated the election of a new board, and when the gentlemen composing this body con- vened in New York, on the first day of October in that year, they were compelled to depend on the courtesy of the tenants of neighboring offices for chairs needed dur- ing the session. The cus- tomary seats had been re- moved, with other office ap- purtenances, under process of law. In five different Reproduction, actual size, of a pass issued in 1869 by the Excelsior Line Sleeping Coaches, Michigan Southern Railway- States of the Union, aCCOrd- ing to the advices of President Bliss, one hundred and fifty-five suits against the corporation were matters of record. To cap the climax of adversity, in June, 1859, the ele- ments of nature seemed to have decreed a ghastly culmination of the woes of the company, in the memorable disaster at Mishawaka, Indiana. A heavy and continuous storm of rain had filled with water a ravine, ordinarily dry in summer. The volume of water burst against a stone arch culvert of nine feet span under an embankment twenty feet in height and swept it away. A night train of seven cars crowded with passengers, 3284 speeding onward in inky gloom, shot into the chasm left yawn- ing by the sudden flood. Forty-three lives were destroyed, including that of the road master, who was on the locomotive, and scores of people were maimed. On the following day the was in use on the Michigan Southern & Northern fatal gorge was thoroughly dry, and could be crossed "on foot." Indiana Railroad. In i860 the stock of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company was rated at 5. Four years before the quotation had been 145. 42 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

The outbreak of the War of the Rebellion saved the company from probable bank- ruptcy. The stimulating influence exercised by the great struggle for the preservation of the Union on all the industries of the Nation, and particularly on all mediums of rail- road transportation, quickened the interests of the company into immediate resuscitation. Its stock rose in 1863 to 109, a change of 240 points in seven years, than which no greater fluctuation in similar securities had been noted in railroad annals. Remarkable prosper- ity attended the manage- ment and operation of the road from the period of re- cuperation, in 1861, until 1869, when it was merged with the Lake Shore Rail- Reproduction, actual size, of a pass, issued in 1869 by the Michigan Southern &, Northern Indiana Railroad. way. Within this interval were built the company's

' extensive works at Elkhart, Indiana, and its spacious de- pot at Chicago. The pur- chase by the company of the Kalamazoo & White Pigeon Railroad also marked this

CONDITION'S. period, as well as the acqui- Th< person occepllnx thlf- Free Ticket, tbofQbj uud in coinidffnition thereof, assumes all risk of accidents and express!; agrees that tlic Company is not a eotuuiou carrier .in sition, by lease, of the Kala- respect to him, nod shall not tie Uahlfi under an> circumstances, whether of negligence by llx Agenti, or otherwise, for injury to the person, or for lots or injury to tin. properi) ot nha passenger U*IUK tliis Ticket. mazoo, Allegan & Grand tt presented bi *uv other than tiie Individual uamed the-reon, the GoudUOtor will tut., ; up Ikh Tirkel Rapids Railroad, of both of 1STOT TBANSFEKABLE. which events further men- tion is made herein. Reverse side of the pass, showing a map of the system. In this connection ap- pears a facsimile of one of the baggage checks in common use forty-five years ago on the road which forms the subject of this chapter. It will commend itself to trainmen among the readers of this volume as a practical curiosity worthy of preservation. On this page will be found engravings showing the obverse and reverse sides of a pass issued in 1869 by the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. The reverse side of the pass shows the aptness of the railroad's name. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 43

The following is a list of the leading officials (with their terms of office) of the Mich- igan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company from the date of organization, April '26, 1855, to its consolidation with the Lake Shore Railway Company, May 8, 1869.

DIRECTORS. John B. Jervis April, 1855. to January. 1857 John Wilkinson April, 1855, to September, 1857 Thomas Barron " 1855, " 1857 Charles Butler " 1855, 44 u 1857 Hugh White " 1855, " April, 1857 John Stryker " 1855, 4 4 4 4 1857 Hamilton White .. . " 1855, " " 1857 William B. Welles.January, 1857, 11 44 1857 Edwin D. Morgan.. " 1855. " 4 < 1857 William B. Welles..April, 1858, " July, 1859 Daniel B. St. John.. " 1855, " 44 1857 Moreau Delano. .. .January, 1857, " April, 1857 John S. Barry " 1855, " September 1857 John A. C. Gray.. . .April, 1857, " September, 1857 Ezekiel Morrison... " 1855, " 1857 Jonathan H. Ransom " 1857. 14 44 1857 Ezekiel Morrison... " 1858, " April, 1860 William H.Vermilye " 1857, 1857 Edwin C. Litchfield. " 1855, " September, 1857 Herman J. Redfield 1857, n ;; 1857 Edwin C. Litchfield. " 1858, " April, 1860 " 1857, U Si 1857 Elisha C. Litchfield. " 1855, " September, 1857 Charles Minot August, 1857, t. 1 c 1857 At this period, as previously narrated, occurred the revulsion of 1857, the protesting of the company's paper, the resignation of the whole board of directors, the special meet- ing of stockholders at Adrian, September 25, 1857, and the election of a new board as follows: John B. Jervis September, 1857 to April, 1858 Roswell S. Burrows..September, 1857 to April, 1860 Joseph K. Riggs " 1857" " 1858 (Died March 30, 1879.) Robert M. Oliphant.. " 1857" " 1858 Nelson Beardsley " 1857 to April, 1860 Schuyler Colfax " 1857" " 1858 JohnL.S. Prouty " 1857" " 1860 Clarkson N. Potter... " 1857" " 1860 Ransom Gardner .... " 1857" " 1860 George Bliss " 1857 " " 1860 Hiram Sibley " 1857" " 1860 John C. Wright " 1857" " 1860 William Walcott " 1857 " October, 1859 (Died Januai-y 24. 1862.) (Death.) Henry Keep, and other acute and progressive organizers among his friends, pur- chased a controlling interest in the road, in i860, obtaining a majority of the shares at a very small cost, and proceeding by vigorous measures to strengthen its conditions and establish for it a sounder financial basis. Under his direction, the company was officered as follows.

KEEP-LOCKWOOD ADMINISTRATION. 1860-1869. Henry Keep April, 1860 to May, 1869 Martin L. Sykes, Jr.. April, 1860 to August, 1865 (Died July 30, 1869). Jonathan H. Ransom. 1860 " Sept., 1860 Elisha M. Gilbert... April, 1860 to April, 1864 William Keep 1861 " August, 1865 Albert Havemeyer.. . " 1860 " May, 1869 (Death). Allan Campbell " 1860 " March, 1863 Le Grand Lockwood. 1863 to May, 1869 (Died February 24, 1872.) Milton Courtright 1860 " April, 1865 Danford N. Barney.. 1864 to May, 1869 Hamilton White 1860 " Sept.22,1865 (Died March 8, 187J.) (Death) John P. Acker Nelson Beardsley.... " 1864 to May, 1869 1860 to May, 1869 James H. Banker ... " 1865 " April, 1867 William Williams.... 1860 " " 1869 Elijah B. Phillips... .September, 1865 " May, 1869 StillmanWitt 1860 " April, 1864 Albert Keep " 1865 " " 1869 John S. Barry 1860 " May, 1869 Jesse Hoyt April, 1866" " 1869 Philo Morehouse (Died January 14,1870.) Truman H. Hoag... ' 1867" " 1869 1860 to May, 1869 (Died February 7,1870.) 44 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

PRESIDENTS. John Wilkinson April, 1855 to April, 1857 George Bliss April, 1858 to April, 1860 (Died September 19, 1862.) (Died April 19, 1873.) Edwin C. Litchfield.. " 1857 to August, 1&57 Elisha M. Gilbert.... " I860 to June, 1863 Jonathan H. Ransom, August, 1857 " Sept., 1857 Martin L. Sykes, Jr... " 1864 " August, 1865 John B. Jervis September, 1857 " April, 1858 Elijah B. Phillips... .October, 1865 " May, 1869 GENERAL SUPERINTENDENTS. James Moore April, 1855 to May, 1856 Henry H. Porter .. .November, 1863 to Oct., 1865 Samuel Brown May, 1856 " July, 1858 Charles F. Hatch. ..October, 1665 " May, 1869 John D. Campbell... .August, 1858 " August, 1863 (Death.) On August i, 1863, six years before the termination of its fourteen years of strangely varying history, the first dividend was paid to the owners of the guaranteed stock of the road. This dividend (No. i), had been promised on the issuance of the shares in 1857.

TYPES OF LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY ENGINES.

No. 165. Type, Six-Wheeled switching-. Photograph furnished by the Brooks Locomotive Works Dunkirk, N. Y.

Cylinders, 19 by 26 inches; outside diameter of driving wheels, 52 Inches; diameter of boiler, front end, 64 inches; fire box, 80 inches long by 34^j inches wide; 246 flues, 2inches in diameter, and 14 feet, 7^4 inches long; boiler pressure, 170 pounds; fuel bituminous coal; wheel base, driving, 11 feet, 3 inches; wheel base, engine, 11 feet, 3 inches; wheel base, engine and tender, 42 feet] 9 inches; weight on drivers, 122,700 ponnds; weight, engine and tender, 192,700 pounds; weight, engine, 122,700 pounds. CHAPTER VII.

THE TOLEDO, NORWALK & CLEVELAND RAILROAD.

N its incipient stages, process of construction and distinctive operation, the record of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad reveals a sound and satisfactory condition of I affairs, but furnishes the material for only a brief narrative. Norwalk, Ohio, was the scene where the enterprise originated. However short its existence, it was an opportune and potent factor in the perfection of the great system which now embodies it. The question of the practicability of such a project, of a possibility of a prosperous railway line along a route to be surveyed, almost parallel with the course of the numerous, elegant and attractive steamers then thoroughly established in popular favor as mediums of travel between the points on which the competing line would depend for much of its patronage; this was the puzzling problem of the hour, when the idea of the Toledo, Nor- walk & Cleveland Railroad was first broached. To most men ordinarily disposed to respond to the requisitions of an important and essential public work, a railroad, running through the towns along the border of the lake, seemed to be under a manifest disadvan- tage in thus challenging a dangerous rivalry from the gorgeous, floating palaces then accommodating and delighting the traveling public, in voyages to and fro between the extremes of Lake Erie. The matter of passenger conveyance by rail west of Toledo presented a simpler and less doubtful aspect, as, by traversing the base of the Michigan peninsula, instead of plough- ing through the circuitous water route, a saving of more than 450 miles of distance, and proportionate time, was assured to those bound for points due west. Another favorable feature of the railroad mode of travel west of Toledo, was securely felt by tourists, com- mercial agents and pleasure seekers, in an avoidance of the grave hazards, and even dire perils, incidental to lake navigation in seasons of storm and rigorous cold. Many there were, in fact the number so inclined constituted a major proportion of citizens financially responsible, who decried the idea of direct railroad competition with the favorite steamboats between Toledo and Erie as unmitigated folly. A few strong willed and self-reliant men, however, men, who having thoroughly considered the subject had deep rooted convictions, and who rigidly believed in the essential superiority of the railroad (especially in prospective) and a mode of long-distance convey- ance, were sufficient to set the ball in motion. Of this class were the promoters of the 45 46 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

several roads farther east of Toledo, which, as in the case of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleve- land Railroad, were ultimately conjoined in the system to which this volume is devoted. The judgment and prescience of these unshrinking representatives of advanced thought were more than vindicated by events but a little beyond the scope of their action, for, on the completion of the earliest railway lines, lake steamers dwindled into an insignificant feature of transit between points involved therein. In later times, and purely as a medium of pleasure, steamboat travel from place to place connected by railroad, regained some- thing of its wonted popularity, not, however, as a business alternative of the latter mode. The incorporation of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad Company was per- fected in 1850. Although actually the final link in the chain of railroads, which brought into easy and unhindered communication the western prairies and the marts of the Atlantic coast, its record is given in the present order of succession, by reason of its being in topo- graphical contact with the original line described in the chapter last preceding. Chrono- logically its history would naturally meet with later attention herein, but in accordance with geographical propriety it is properly inserted here. The road was designed to run from Grafton to Toledo, Ohio, a distance of 87 miles. It was pushed forward under good management and close supervision, and was very economically built. The cost of construction, equipment, etc., was $2, 500 per mile less than careful engineering estimates had predicted. January 24, 1853, was the date on which it was opened for business to Monroeville. That event was at once followed by a liberal and profitable patronage. A dividend of five per cent, was declared within six months from the time when the operation of the line began. A little more than seven months after the completion of the road, it was consoli- dated with a competing line called the Junction Railroad, whose organization dated back but three and one-half years, and whose history is unfolded in the chapter next succeeding this. The Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad and the Junction Railroad were merged into one, September 1, 1853. The directors of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, together with their respective terms of service, were as follows:

Charles L. Boalt September, 1850, to Sept., 1853 Alvin Coles September, 1850 to [an 1852

Ti™,,,, Baker •• 'STC^ Geore« G. Bake, •• ^

Fr.denck Chapman.. - ,850 ;• Sep.. 1853 WITL^, ^ Ma,,hew Johnson •• S.TQIL J-«• ™.*«r •• ,858,«, Sept, ,863 (Died October 30, 1861.) The executive officers of the company were: Charles L. Boalt, president; Timothy Baker, vice-president; and E. B. Phillips, superintendent. CHAPTER VIII.

THE JUNCTION RAILROAD.

S a competitor of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, citizens of Elyria and Sandusky, in 1850, incorporated a new enterprise under the title of the Junction Railroad, of which Judge Ebenezer Lane, of Sandusky, was the most able and active promoter. It was designed to extend from Cleveland (then called Ohio City) through Elyria and Sandusky to Millbury, branching to Toledo, nine miles northwest of Millbury. The ultimate project was to extend the road through Perrysburg and Maumee and to connect with the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad at Swanton, Ohio, on its Air Line Division. Of the stretch of 134 miles contemplated in this scheme but 99 miles were con- structed, and this portion was built mainly after the absorption of the Junction Railroad by the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company. Much preparatory work, however, was done on the remainder, including the at Perrysburg over the Maumee River. Like that of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland organization, the existence of the Junction Railroad Company was of short duration. Its stock was first offered for subscrip- tion at the Beebe House in Elyria, Ohio, May 25, 1850, Judge Ebenezer Lane, of Sandusky, having charge of the stock book as originator and chief manager of the enterprise. Its identity was soon lost by its consolidation, together with its rival, into the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company. Its first board of directors, chosen June 7, 1850, was composed as follows : Ebenezer Lane, S. W. Baldwin. Artemas Beebe, Orrin Cowles, A. M. Porter, H. B. Ely. Herman Ely, Jr., R. McEachron, John A. Foot, N. B. Gates, Daniel Hamilton, R. Starr, E. Dewitt. Judge Ebenezer Lane was president of the board, to which were added, for the term intervening between June, 1851, and the date of consolidation, September, 1853, the fol- lowing members : C. L.Russell, Willard V. Way, W. J. Gordon, J. H. Magruder, E. B. Litchfield, John W. Sprague, J. C. Parker, F. T. Barney, R. H. Gibson, I). P. Rhodes, George W. Reynolds, Ahira Cobb, C. C. Keech, E. C. Litchfield, Earl Bill, R. B. Dennis. Under the consolidated direction, the building of the Junction Railroad, or Northern 47 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Division, was rapidly urged forward, and the line reached Sandusky, October 24, 1853, and was completed to Millbury, April 24, 1855. Some time subsequent to the consolida- tion, the financial revulsion of 1857 having made retrenchment an imperative necessity, the part of the Northern Division west of Sandusky was abandoned, the superstructure was removed, and the Maumee bridge was sold in 1866.

TYPES OF LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY ENGINES.

No. 220. Type, Eight-Wheeled American. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Cylinders, 18 by 24 inches; outside diameter of driving wheels, 69 inches; diameter of boiler, front end, 55 inches; fire box, 78 inches long by 37 inches wide; 236 flues, 2 inches in diameter and 12 feet 1 inch long; boiler pressure, 180 pounds; fuel, bitumin- ous coal; wheel base, rigid, 9 feet; wheel base, driving, 9 feet; wheel base, engine, 23 feet 10 inches; wheel base, engine and tender, 45 feet, 5% inches; weight of tender, 32,700 pounds; weight on drivers, 75,200 pounds; total weight of engine, 110,150 pounds. CHAPTER IX.

THE CLEVELAND & TOLEDO RAILROAD.

S previously outlined, the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company was organized September i, 1853, on the basis of a consolidation of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland and Junction railroads. The new company finished the construction of the latter line with much expedition, in view of the facilities for such work enjoyed at that period, which were extremely meager in contrast with those of the present time, wh.n it is not uncommon for a single year to mark the building of sufficient railroad mileage to span the continent from ocean to ocean. It completed the Northern Division to Sandusky in October, 1853, and to Millbury, in the vicinity of Toledo, in April, 1855. About two years and one-half later (in 1858), the financial crash, which for a time had paralyzed all important undertakings, caused a suspension of operations on that portion of the line west of Sandusky, and the removal of the tracks. The replacement of the super- structure and the resumption of business thus interrupted did not occur until fourteen years afterward—in 1872. In the main, however, the history of the corporation, during the fifteen and one-half years which measure its existence, unfolds a record of flourishing conditions. Although the years 1858, 1859, i860, 1861 and 1862 yielded but one dividend of three per cent during the entire period, yet the owners of the stock had no cause to regret their holdings in view of the favorable change which shortly ensued. Prosperity smiled so benignly on the oper- ation of the road during the remainder of its distinctive history, as to raise the average of dividends for the whole record to nine per cent per annum. The management accomplished much in the way of enlarging the capacity and increasing the attractive features of the line. Among the improvements which mark the period of its control was the construction of the iron bridge at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, in co-operation with the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad Company, and with the sanction of the city of Cleveland, the State of Ohio and the United States government. It may be noted as an indication of the usefulness of the Cuyahoga bridge and of the increased facilities of railroad transportation under the eventual consolidation, which forms the principal theme of this volume, that structure, necessarily remaining open for purposes of navigation, required daily to be swung upon an average reckoning during a recent period 49 50 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

of eight months 108 times. Another beneficial alteration was the making of Elyria, instead of Grafton, the eastern terminus of the Southern Division in 1866. The Cleveland & Toledo Railroad was leased in 1867 to the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company for ninety-nine years. The separate history of the road was terminated March 19, 1869, through process of consolidation with the lessee line, which in 1868 had changed its name to that of the Lake Shore Railway. The directors of the road, together with their respective terms of office, were as follows:

Samuel F. Vinton.... Sept., 1853, to Sept., 1854 Amasa Stone June, 1863, to June, 1864 Ebenezer Lane " 1853, " July, 1856 1867, " 1868 C. L. Boalt 1853, " " 1856 William Durbin.. . 1859, " 1860 Edwin C Litchfield... 1853, •' Nov., 1853 Samuel M. Young. 1859, ' March, 1869 JohnStryker 1853, " Oct., 1853. Warren Colburn... 1859, '• June, 1860 William Jarvis " 1853, August, 1857 William Williams.. 1859, " 1860 E. B. Litchfield 1853, 1857 Dean Richmond... 1859, " 1860 D. B. Fearing Oct., 1853, " Sept., 1854 Henry Keep 1859, " 1860 W. H. Russell Nov., 1853, " Nov., 1854 1864, " 1867 J. L. Hewitt July, 1854, " July, 1855 William M. Vermilye 1859, " 1864 J. P. Waring 1854, " Nov., 1860 A. N. Ramsdell 1859, " 1864 (Died November 10, 1860) John W. Sprague.. .. 1860, " 1862 Henry Martin Sept , 1854, to July, 1856 Joseph Benjamin 1860, " 1862 Charles Butler Nov., 1854, " July, 1855 James Mason 1861, " March, 1869 July, 1856, " August, 1857 John P. Howard 1862, " June, 1863 E. B. Phillips 1855, " July, 1856 H. P. Hurlbut 1862, " 1864 W. F. Kittridge .... 1855, " " 1856 A. G. Jerome 1863, " 1864 (Died May 12, 1877.) 1867 Daniel P. Rhodes.... 1856, to June, 1859 A. H. Barney 1864, " E. T. H. Gibson 1864, " 1865 (Died August 5, 1875.) 1867 Joseph Lyman " 1856, to June, 1859 Truman H. Hoag.... 1864, " June, 1860, ' " 1864 (Died February 7, 1870.) F. T. Barney July, D. N. Barney 1864, to June, 1867 1856, " " 1864 (Died March 8, 1874.) John Gardiner •' 1856, " March, 1869 John Newell ElishaC. Litchfield... July, 1865, to June, 1868 1856, " June, 1857 J. H. Wade Calvin Burr June, 1867, " March, 1869 1857, " " 1859 H. C. Stinson 1867, " June, 1868 Henry Chauncey Aug., 1857, " " 1859 William H. Vanderbilt George Talbot Oliphant " 1867, " March, 1869 1857, ' " 1863 James H. Banker .... 1867, " 1869 Edwin Bartlett 1857, " '• 1859 George B. Ely T. P. Handy June, 1868, " 1869 1859, " '• 1860 H. B. Payne 1868, " 1869 1864 " " 1867 J. H. Devereux 1868, " 1869 Amasa Stone 1859, ' " 1860 The names and official periods of the presidents of the company were as follows: Samuel F. Vinton.... Sept., 1853, to Sept., 1854 John Gardiner Nov., 1860, to June, 1865 Henry Martin " 1854," April, 1856 John Newell June, 1865, " January, 1868 John B. Waring April, 1856, " Nov. 10, 1860 Amasa Stone Jan., 1868," June, 1868 (Death.) George B. Ely June, 1868, " March, 1869 SUPERINTENDENTS. E. B. Phillips Sept., 1853, to Sept., 1858 Henry Nottingham... Oct., 1867, to Dec, 1868 L. D. Rucker May, 1859," April, 1867 Charles Collins Dec, 1868," May, 1869 CHAPTER X.

THE CLEVELAND, PAINESVILLE & ASHTABULA RAILROAD.

HE first meeting of subscribers to the stock of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad was held in Cleveland, Ohio, August i, 1849, for the purpose of organizing the company. General Abel Kimball presided, and H. B. Ely acted as secretary. Stock subscription books had been opened at the Weddell House in that city on the 4th of July last preceding this meeting. The road was designed to extend from the city of Cleveland to the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, a distance of 95 miles, with a gauge of four feet ten inches. Cleveland was credited by the last census then taken with 6,071 people, and the same authority gave to Erie a population of 3,500. As indicating the progress of railroad construction at that period, it may be stated in this connection that the opening of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad, from Cleveland to Columbus, was elaborately celebrated February 22, 1851, and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad was completed in 1852. The new corporation entered into a contract, July 26, 1850, with a firm of railroad builders—Harbach, Stone & Witt—to construct that portion of the line between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania State Line, 70 miles in length. The citizens of Cleveland were extremely backward in affording any encouragement to this enterprise. Their wharves were daily crowded with the passengers and freight of numerous splendid steamers, and their skepticism as to the feasibility of railroad competi- tion with this gorgeous fleet was deep seated. They took little practical interest in the projected line until awakened by the urgency of Ashtabula, Geneva and Painesville. In the matter of comprehending the importance of the enterprise and the ultimate prosperity and benefit resulting from its development, Detroit, Toledo and Sandusky were years in advance of Cleveland. The people of Cleveland, however, were not alone in their misgiv- ings. Even the active promoters of the line manifested no excessive enthusiasm in their endeavors, as is obvious from the minutes of the board of directors, which show the follow- ing action taken January 18, 185 1 : ''Alfred Kelly and H. B. Ely were appointed a committee to make a strenuous 51 52 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM effort to get the stock subscriptions increased to $500,000, including the $75,000 to be paid to contractors, and, if necessary, they be authorized to go to New York, but to make no extra arrangements with either the New York & Erie or the New York Central unless pos- itively necessary to obtain the subscriptions desired." The part of the road extending from the State line of Pennsylvania to Erie, 25 miles long, was built by the Franklin Canal Company CLEVELAND & ERIE RAIL ROAD, in 1851 and 1852. The entire line was com- TIME pleted in 1852, and opened for business on For Special Train, Friday, April 88th, 1865, November 20 of that year. Most prominent in promoting and organizing the company which forms the subject of this chapter, and in for- H warding the work of construction, were Amasa Stone and Henry B. Payne. In 1854 the Cleve- I land, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company mm1 bought the stock and assumed the liabilities of n the Franklin Canal Company, thereby absorbing m the latter concern. The officers of the Frank- CONVEYING REMAINS OF , lin Canal Company were: John Galbraith, LATE PRESID ENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND ESCORT. president; W. S. Lane, secretary and treasurer, • Miles . Miles . Pilot Cortege STATIONS. Engine. Train. and Frederick Harbach, chief engineer. Its

Erie 2.15 >.«. 2 25V,E M directors were as follows : John Galbraith, W. Swanville — 81 2.42 2.52 . 1 1'.' i r.-- s LC. n.;t l^.n Fairview— -•-..-. 11 2.49 2.59 . Girard — 15 + 3.05 3.15 A. Galbraith, W. S. Lane, H. B. Ely and Fred- Springfield . - - — 3.17 3.27 Conneaut 27} 7J 3.39 3.4S Kingsville - 7* 3.59 4.09 erick Harbach. Ashtabula - 41 5-j 4.17 4.27 Saybrook 454 44 4.30 4.40 Geneva .-.. ... --. 50[ 4J 4.42 4.52 Unionville 53* •M 4.51 5.01 The stockholders of the Cleveland, Paines- Madison 55 -i 4.59 5.09 Perry - 83 H 5.13 5.23 Painesville 664 5* 5.31 5.41 ville & Ashtabula Railroad Company passed a Mentor--- 72-} Hi 5.47 5.57 wiuoughby.... 77 4i 5.58 6.08 Wickliffe - - 81 + 4i 6.10 6.20 resolution on June 10, I863, to the effect that a Euclid --- 86 4J 6.22 6.32 Cleveland - - - 95J 9i 6.5Oi.« 7.00.M branch of the road be surveyed and built, begin-

Tmin and Pilot Engine n nfll b« Irictly lo card Ume as possible. ning at or near the village of Ashtabula (on the

and this Train is due. main line) and running through the village of 5. H. SOTTIMCH.1M, Srtp'l. Jefferson to the point of intersection of the Time card (one-half reduction) of the funeral train that bore the remains of President Lincoln from Jamestown & Franklin Railroad with the east- Erie to Cleveland. ern boundary of Ohio. The condition upon which the prosecution of this work depended was that the people interested should furnish a right of way 100 feet in width, and should gratuitously provide convenient space for depots and water stations. Many of the residents of Jefferson and other towns to be tra- versed by the new line—prominent among them being H. B. and E. B. Woodbury—met with the officials of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, and gave satisfactory AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 58 assurances that the needed ground would be donated. After this matter was adjusted, Worthington & Company secured the contract and began operations in 1864. The work of construction, having progressed to a considerable extent, was unaccountably suspended. It was not resumed until 1871. The line from Ashtabula to Jamestown was finished and put into operation August 4, 1872. It was 36 miles long. That portion of the road between the Pennsylvania State Line and Ashtabula, 31 miles in length, was constructed under the charter of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashta- bula Railroad Company. In building the five miles between the Ohio State Line and James-

The "William Case;" afterward rebuilt and numbered " 188." as shown in the engraving. town the franchise of the Central Trunk Railroad was used. The latter road was originally designed to connect, at its western terminus, with the Clinton Air Line Railroad, an enter- prise projected at Hudson, Ohio. Its promoters, aiter grading a considerable extent of their right of way, had been compelled, through the exhaustion of their financial resources, to relinquish the task. The Cleveland, Painesville, & Ashtabula Railroad Company, in connection with the Buffalo & Erie Railroad Company and William Gibson, of Jamestown, Pennsylvania, who held the charter of the old Erie & Pittsburg Railroad (an abandoned enterprise), began the 54 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

construction of the Jamestown & Franklin Railroad in 1864. It was designed to run from Jamestown to Oil City, Pennsylvania, a distance of 51 miles. The road was finished to the mines of the Mercer Iron & Coal Company, at Stoneboro, Pennsylvania, a distance of 21 miles, and went into operation to that extent in August, 1865, under lease to the Cleve- land, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company. In the present connection, as incident to the mention of railway events between Cleveland and Erie in 1865, and as a means of forming an enduring record herein of one of the most memorable, and impressive railway functions of the period covered by this his- tory, a slight digression from the strict line of historic narration is permissible. On April 28, 1865, the mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln were borne by sombre cortege train from Erie to Cleveland to be laid, at the end of the journey, in the bosom of the earth near the old home of the martyred President in Springfield, Illinois. The special "time card" arranged for the occasion is repro- Lake. Shore Railway Company,. ;' reproduced on a preceding page in facsimile, as issued by Superinten- dent Nottingham. But few copies, doubtless, are still extant of the doleful souvenir thus shown. A representation of the "William Case," the locomotive which headed the funeral train, but was afterward remodeled and known as " 188," appears also in this Reproduction (actual size) of a pass issued by the Lake Shore Railway Company in 1869. connection. The same engine drew the train which bore the living Lincoln on toward his inauguration in the turbulent spring days of 1861. The company completed the line to Franklin, a further distance of 20 miles, on June 24, 1867, and operated it to that point three days later. Its first printed time card was issued in Cleveland, going into effect June 24, 1867. In the same year the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company leased the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad for ninety-nine years, and in 1868 the name of the corporation became the Lake Shore Rail- way Company. In the following year the obligations of the lease were canceled by the consolidation of the two roads bound thereby. The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, although at its inception appar- ently of little promise by reason of the alluring competition of a superb fleet of lake steam- ers, was a very prosperous enterprise from the period of opening, in December, 1852. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 55

Seven months from that time a five per cent, dividend was declared. A similar one fol- lowed six months later. Daring the term of its actual operation under different forms and titles, comprising nearly twenty years, the dividends were never less than the figures forego- ing and occasionally reached eight and ten per cent. The profits of its business enriched all the first holders of the stock. The very moderate interest held at the start by the city of Cleveland was the main source of the large sinking fund accumulated by that civic cor- poration. From the date of organization, August i, 1849, to the period of consolidation into the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, in May, 1869, the administrative and executive officers of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company were as follows : DIRECTORS. Alfred Kelly August, 1849, to December, 1853 Samuel J. Randall.August, 1855, to June, 1864 Alfred Kelly . " 1854, " " 1859 Samuel J. Randall.June, 1868, " May, 1869 H. B. Ely " 1849, " August^* r851 J— Miles August, 1855, " March 27. ^1868 Geo. G. Gillett.... " 1849," - 1852 H.B.Payne " 1855, " May, 1869 David R Paige .. " 1849. " " 1858 Hamilton White... " 1858, " " 1865 (Died July 7, 1877.) ' (Death.) Peleg B. Sanford. " 1849, " August, 1851 E.M.Gilbert '• 1858," " 1868 (De vt ) E.B Woodbury.. February, 1851, " " 1851 Cvrus C. Dennis.. " 1858, " May 31 ' jg 66 William Case March, 1851, •' April, 1862 ' (Death) (Death.) William Collins... " 1860," " 1869 Charles Hickox... August. 1851, " August, 1858 (Died June 18, 1878 ) Thomas M. Kelly. ' 1851, " May, 1869 Henry E. Parsons. " 861, to May, 869 (Died June 1-2,1878.) J. W. Wetmore...March, 1863," " 1869 W. D. Beattie. .. " 1851, to August, 1861 William Gibson. ..June, 1864, " June, 1868 " 1852, " May, 1869 J. H. Wade Dec, 1865, " December, 1866 Amasa Stone " 1853, " " 1869 J. H. Wade ... June, 1868, •• May, 1869 George B. Ely .... " 1853, " August, 1855 Charles P Wood. " 1866," " 1869 George B. Ely .... May, 1862, " May, 1869 (Died Oct, 7, 1878 ) Erastus Case. ....August, 1854, " August. 1855 M. L. Sykes, Jr. .Dec 866, » September, 867 (Died Oet 21, 1857.) John Newell October, 1867, " March, 1868 T. P. Case " 1855, " August, 1858 j H. Devereux. .May, 1868, " May, 18R9 J. B. Johnson ' 1855," " 1863 Henry Rawle. ..." 1868," " 1869

PRESIDENTS. H.B.Ely August, 1849, to March, 1851" Amasa Stone. .. .August, 1858, to March, 1869 Alfred Kelly March, 1851, " December, 1853 J. H. Devereux..March, 1869, " May, 1869 William Case December, 1853, " August, 1858 VICE-PRESIDENTS. William Case.... March, 1851, to December 1853 M. L. Sykes, Jr. .December, 1866, to September, 1867 Charles Hickox.. September, 1854. " August, 1858 John Newell.. . October, 1867, " March, 1868 Stillman Witt....December, 1858, " December, 1866 George B. Ely. ..March, 1868, " May, 1868 Stillman Witt... March, 1869, " May, 1869 J. H. Devereux. .May, 1868. " March, 1869 SUPERINTENDENTS. Amasa Stone... December, 1852, to July, 1853 H. Nottingham. .May, 1856, to December, 1868 L. Tilton July, 1853, '^cemher^ Charles Collins. .December, 1868,^ May^ CHAPTER XI.

THE ERIE & NORTH EAST RAILROAD.

HE promoters of the Erie & North East Railroad Company organized a line in 1846, to extend from the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, where the organization was effected, 20 miles eastward to the New York State Line. It was designed as a link to another short road which the Dunkirk & State Line Railroad Company proposed to build for the purpose of connecting at Dunkirk, 28 miles east of the State Line, with the New York & Erie Erie Railroad, which reached Dunkirk, May 15, 1851, after dragging along for fifteen years. Much jubilation attended the opening of the last named road to Dunkirk, and President Fillmore, with Daniel Webster and other cabinet members, was at the head of the body of prominent publicists who participated in a memorable excursion over the line. In order to conform to the gauge of the New York & Erie Railroad, that of the Erie & North East Railroad and the Dunkirk & State Line Railroad was made six feet. The Erie & North East Railroad Company had been incorporated April 12, 1842. The capital stock of the company as reduced, March 11, 1846, by act of the legislature of the State of Pennsylvania, was $600,000. The stock books were open for subscription, October 19, 1846, and the organization was completed January 22, 1847, Charles M. Reed being elected president. No further progress was made in 1847 or 1848. In 1849 the survey was finished and the work placed under contract. The actual traffic of the railroad commenced January 19, 1852, under the superintendence of John F. Tracy, the equipment consisting of six passenger cars and two locomotives. The Buffalo & State Line Railroad, organized in Fredonia, New York, in 1848, had been opened eighteen days previously, from Dunkirk to the Pennsylvania border. This road was opened from Buffalo to the State Line, 68 miles, February 22, 1852. Buffalo was thus linked with Erie, but without uniformity of gauge. About midway along the contin- uous stretch of 183 miles of track between Buffalo and Cleveland was an interval of hind- rance to traffic, on account of the change in construction. Within a reach of but 20 miles of track two transfers of passengers and freight were inevitable, a vexatious and expensive condition of affairs which continued about a year. By a contract made November 16, 1853, between the Buffalo & State Line Rail- road, and the Erie & North East Railroad companies, it was agreed that the gauge of the operation of the line should be placed under the direction of the former company. The 56 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 57 latter should be changed from six feet to four feet eight and one-half inches, and that the absorption of the Dunkirk & State Line Railroad by the Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company followed this agreement, and the latter changed its location from Fredonia to Dunkirk. The stipulated change of gauge aroused a feeling of resentment on the part of the people of Erie and Harbor Creek (a point about midway between Erie and the village of North East). This resulted in a conflict known as the "Erie War," during which the tracks of the Erie & North East Railroad were torn up, and traffic was suspended for nearly two months (from December 7, 1853, to February 1, 1854). During the interruption of trains, passengers were compelled to walk, or ride in sleighs, between Erie and Harbor Creek, a distance of seven miles, exposed to frigid blasts. An adjustment of these difficul- ties was reached February 1, 1854, which was the date of the passage of the first train from Buffalo to Erie, without a break of gauge. In pursuance of the contract entered into, November 16, 1853, the business of the Erie & North East Railroad was continued under the direction of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company until May 15, 1867, when by a legislative act passed March 24, 1865, the consolidation of these companies was effected. The Erie & North East Railroad Company earned, in its first year's operation, $62,380, and during the second year, $126,600. The officials of the Erie & North East Railroad Company, from 1847 to 1867, with their periods of service, are indicated in the following statement: DIRECTORS. Charles M. Reed Jan. 22, 1847, to Nov. 22, 1853 Dean Richmond Nov. 25, 1852,toAug. 27, 1866 (Died December 14, 1871.) (Death.) William Kelly " 22, 1847, to Jan. 18, 1853 John H. Walker Jan. 18, 1853, " May 15, 1867 Henry Cadwell " 22, 1847, " July 25,1849 Prescott Metcalf " 18,1853," '• 15,1867 Smith Jackson " 22, 1847, " Nov. 22, 1853 Andrew Scott Nov. 26, 1853, " Jan. 14, 1862 Alexander W.Brewster" 22, 1847, " May 26,1851 John Brawley Dec. 8,1853," " 16,1859 (Death.) (Death.) Milton Courtwright... " 22, 1847, " Jan. 14, 1862 William L. Scott Feb. 19, 1859, " May 15, 1867 James Williams " 22,1847," " 21,1850 George Palmer Jan. 14, 1862, " Sept. ( 9,186a 4 Giles Sanford " 22,1847," " 21,1850 « ?M7 „,., ... T , .,. ,„.„ ,. VT o into Charles H. Lee " 14, 1862, " May, 15, 1867 Wi son King JJuly J, 25, 1849, '• Nov. 3,1852 . ' 1Q _' •" 1Q ,oeQ T , „ ., T O1 ,„,.„ ,, T ia 1WCQ John vV. Walker ' 14, 1862, " Jan. 13, 1863 ohn Scouller an. 21, 85'Jan. 8, 853 William S. Brown.... " 13, 1863, "May, 15, 1867 udahC. Spencer.... Jan. 21, 1850, " 4, 862 ^.^ „ „ „ ^ John A.Tracy Aug. 8, 1851, " May 15, 18b7 PRESIDENTS. Charles M. Reed Jan. 22, 1847, to Nov. 22, 1853 John A. Tracy Nov. 26, 1853, to May 15, 1867 SUPERINTENDENT. John F. Tracy, April 1, 1852, to April 1,1854. Died February 13, 1878 Mr. Tracy's supervision was terminated when the Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company assumed control. CHAPTER XII.

THE BUFFALO & STATE LINE AND BUFFALO & ERIE RAILROADS.

|ANY details of the incipiency of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad are involved in the history of the Erie & North East Railroad, and were recorded in the fore- going chapter. Numerous other features, however, give it a distinctive charac- ter, and entitle it to a prominent mention among the original links of the system to which this volume is devoted. On May 24, and December 30, 1848, the residents of various places in the neighborhood of Fredonia, New York, met with citizens of that town for the purpose of advancing the interests of the enterprise, the New York legislature having passed an act April 12, 1848, declaring the "public use of a railroad from Buffalo to State Line." March 14, 1849, a meeting was held in Buffalo having the same object in view. The construction of the road was designed to conform to the gauge—four feet eight and one-half inches—of the New York Central Railroad, which, in 1853, became the standard for the railroads operated in that State. The Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company was incorporated October 12, 1849, the subscribers to its stock having effected an organization on June 6, of that year, by electing a board of directors with George Palmer as president. The effort to make up the amount necessary to secure its incorporation was extremely difficult, and consumed a year of argument and solicitation. The sum, $68,000, or $1,000 per mile, was deemed by the majority of investors a hazardous risk, in view of the attractions of travel on the competing steamers. To show the distrust prevailing on this subject, the forecast of William Wallace, the chief engineer of the road, is herewith given. It will be observed that this gentleman, although sanguine as to the future of the line in regard to its triumph over stage coach rivalry, ventures no prediction as to any patronage likely to be wrested from the steamboat lines. He placed himself on record March 31, 1850, in the following expression: "When the road (the Buffalo & State Line) is completed and connected with the great lines which extend from the lake shore through Ohio and other Western states, the business will increase beyond all calculation, particularly during winter. It is not unusual at that season to see five stage coaches a day going west, at two to four miles per hour, loaded with pas- sengers. With all this in view, who can estimate with any degree of certainty the increase of 58 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 59 business that would result from the substitution of the car and iron track for the stage coach." As indicated by its title, the route was surveyed (in 1849) from Buffalo southwest- ward along Lake Erie to the dividing line between New York and Pennsylvania, and con- tracts for the work were awarded in 1850. The original aim of the projectors was to build the road by way of Fredonia, but the course was changed via Dunkirk on the absorption by this company in 1851, of the Dunkirk & State Line Railroad, of which mention was made in the chapter last preceding this. On January 1, 1852, the Buffalo & State Line Railroad was completed from Dunkirk to State Line, and on February 22 next following, the road was opened from the latter point to Buffalo, the entire length being 68 miles. About eight months previously, in its progress toward Lake Erie, the New York & Erie Railroad had been opened to Dunkirk, this point having been reached only by degrees after a long and feeble struggle. Time card "number nine" was issued June 20, 1852, arranging four passenger trains each day and one tri-weekly freight train. The Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company on November 16, 1853, entered into a contract with the Erie Buffalo & €rk Kail & North East Railroad Com- pany, to change the gauge of the latter line from six feet to four feet eight and one- half inches, and to assume control of the operation of that road for a stipulated period. This event was im- mediately followed by vio- Reproduction, actual'size, of a pass issued by the Buffalo & Erie lent action of the citizens of Railroad in 1869. Erie and Harbor Creek, Pennsylvania, who, desiring to perfect a connection with the New York & Erie Railroad at Dunkirk, resisted the change of gauge, tore up the tracks of the Erie & North East Railroad, and stopped its operation from December 7, 1853, to February 1, 1854. An adjustment of these difficulties was then effected, the new track was com- pleted on the latter date, and the first train passed over a uniform gauge from Buffalo to Erie. The settlement of the trouble was accomplished largely through the action of the city of Erie, in imposing an obligation on the two railroad companies operating eastward from that point, to construct a line from Erie to Pittsburg, and binding the city of Cleveland to purchase stock to the extent of half a million dollars in what was then known as the Sunbury & Erie, but is now the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad. 60 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

As incidental to these events, and as part of the railroad record of that period, it is here worthy of note that June 29, 1864, was the date for the opening to New Castle, of the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad. George Palmer, the first president of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad, died September 19, 1864, and his successor, Dean Richmond, passed away August 28, 1866. On May, 15, 1867, took place the consolidation of the Buffalo & State Line Rail- road and the Erie & North East Railroad into the Buffalo & Erie Railroad. It is a matter of record that the 68 miles operated by the former company yielded as large a profit as any equal extent of railroad ever built. The Buffalo & Erie Railroad Company, thus organized and composed, was of very brief duration (a little less than two and one-quarter years), its identity being merged August 10, 1869, in the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. The administrative and executive officials of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad Company, during the eighteen years of its existence, are shown in the following list:

DIRECTORS. George Palmer June, 1849, to Sept. 19, 1864 Benjamin Loder June, 1851, to June, 1853 (Death.) Hanson A. Risley " 1851, " " 1853 George W. Patterson. 1849, " June, 1851 Homer Ramsdell .... " 1851, " " 1858 1854, " May, 1867 Horace White " 1851, " " 1856 Dean Richmond 1849, " August 28, 1866 (Died September 5, 1860.) ( t Roselle Green " 1849, (Death.) William J. McAlpine. 1853, to June, 1854 " June, 1851 Nelson Robinson i l Ezekiel B. Gurnsey.. '• 1849, 1853, " " 1854 " March, 1850 Alanson Robinson.... i i (Death.) 1854, " May, 1867 it Ambrose P. Yaw 1849, " June, 1850 Constant Cook 1855, " June, 1858 George W. Tifft 1849, 1851 Hamilton White •' 1856, " Sept. 22, 1865 Daniel W. Tomlinson 1849, (Death.) " February, 1851 i i Frederick Whittlesey 1849, Charles Moran 1858, " June, 1859 1851 William Keep 11 Joseph Field 1849, 1858, " 1866 " May, 1867 t t 1858, " 1863 James S. Wadsworth. 1849, " June, 1862 (General James S. Wadsworth was Nathaniel Marsh - 1860, " .i 1863 the battle of the Wilderness.) slain May 6, 1864, in (' , Milton Courtright 1862, " a 1866 Henry C. Frisbie ... .June, 1849, to June, 1851 i 4 i, John A. Tracy 1863, " 1866 Jeremiah Mann " 1849, " " 1850 i i Addison G. Jerome... 1863, " i i 1864 Charles H. Lee " 1850, " May, 1867 i i James C. Harrison ... 1863, " May, 1867 William Williams ... " 1850, " December, 1857 Edwin Smith u 1865, " a 1867 1864, " May, 1867 11 William S. Brown.... 1866, " 11 1867 Isaac Sherman " 1850, " February, 1851 u Charles M. Reed 1866, " 1867 Henry L. Lansing Feb., 1851, " May, 1867 U John H. Chedell 1866, " 1867 John Wilkinson " 1851, " June, 1863 (Died January 19,1875.) Asa Sprague " 1851, " " 1855 John M. Hutchinson... " 1866, to May, 1867 PRESIDENTS.

George Palmer.... June, 1849, to Sept. 19, 1864 Dean Richmond June, 1865, to August 28, 1866 (Death.) (Death.) VICE-PRESIDENTS. Dean Richmond.... .June, 1849, to June, 1865 Charles H. Lee. .June, 1865, to May, 1867 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 61

SUPERINTENDENTS.

C. C. Dennis October, 1851, to October, 1856 J. Lewis Grant April, 1864, to October, 1866 Robert N. Brown " 1856, " April, 1864 Robert N. Brown October, 1866, ' May, 1867 The officers of the Buffalo & Erie Railroad Company were as follows: DIRECTORS. William Williams....May 15, 1867, to August, 1869 John M. Hutchinson..May 15, 1867, to August, 1869 Charles H. Lee " 15,1867," " 1869 Edwin Smith " 15,1867," " 1869 Alanson Robinson ..." 15,1867," " 1869 o^ ^ ^^iLa -._,,,, ioor, „ T iocw William G. Fargo " 15Icl, 1867, " February u , 1868 John H. Chedell . ... LL" 115,1867,C " June, 1868 ° ' ' , • ,„. i , ~ ,, ~ , ,, o James C. Harrison... " 15, 1867, " August, 1869 Joseph TField c 115,1867,C 1OC " 1QClobe J ° J (Died January-iT, 1879) Horace F. Clark Feb. 28, 1868, " 1869 George W. Patterson. " 15, 1867, to June, 1868 June, 1868," " 1869 Milton Courtright.... " 15, 1867, " August, 1869 William L. Scott " 1868," " 1869 (Death.) Gibson T. Williams.. " 1868," " 1869 Charles M. Reed " 15,1867," " 1869 Henry L. Lansing...." 1868," " 1869 JohnA. Tracy " 15,1867," June, 1868 George H. Chase " 1869," « PRESIDENT. William Williams, May, 1867, to August, 1869 VICE PRESIDENT. Charles H. Lee, May, 1867, to August, 1869 SUPERINTENDENT. Robert N. Brown, May, 1867, to August, 1869 CHAPTER XIII.

THE LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY.

N entering upon this chapter, it is proper to re-mention in concise form the constitu- ent lines which have figured in the development of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System, and which have constituted not the least important feature in an epoch in American history covering sixty-seven years. The main line from Buffalo to Chicago represents the work of eight original com- panies, namely : The Buffalo & State Line Railroad and the Erie & North East Railroad. These were under a single management from November 16, 1853, to May 15, 1867, and were then consolidated into the Buffalo & Erie Railroad. The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, which, by purchase of its stock, absorbed the Franklin Canal Com- pany, a corporation which, in 1854, built 25 miles of the main line, beginning at Erie and running westward. The Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad and the Junction Rail- road, consolidated September 1, 1853, into the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad. The Michigan Southern Railroad, into which the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad was merged, and the Northern Indiana Railroad, consolidated, May 1, 1855, into the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. Thus, from the eight foregoing companies (or nine, including the Franklin Canal Company), were evolved the four great links extending from Buffalo to Erie, Erie to Cleve- land, Cleveland to Toledo, and Toledo to Chicago (with branch lines), as narrated in the preceding chapters of this volume. This history of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, as at present devel- oped, is measured by a period of a little less than thirty-one years. The first election of officers was held June 3, 1869. The final event in the process of unification, namely, the absorption into the new organization of the Buffalo & Erie Railroad Company, took place August 10, 1869. The preliminary measures which resulted in the final consolidation were mainly accredited to Amasa Stone, Henry B. Payne, Henry Keep, LeGrand Lockwood, Albert Havemeyer and Elijah B. Phillips. A period of notable activity in the affairs of the consolidated system then ensued. The company bought the Kalamazoo & White Pigeon Railroad, 38 miles in length, and, 62 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES' 63 by lease, obtained possession, September 21, 1869, of the Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railroad, extending from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, a distance of 58 miles. The term of the lease was nine hundred and ninety-nine years, with a consideration of $78,600. These lines compose the Kalamazoo Division, 96 miles long, and at White Pigeon, Michigan, form a most valuable tributary of the main line. Their construction was the work of Ransom Gardner, then a noted railroad builder, who also constructed the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad and the Jackson Branch. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company built, in 1872 and 1873, a line from Lansing to Jonesville, Michigan, extending 61 miles, under the title of the North- ern Central Michigan Railroad. Several branches were made and many miles of second track were laid during the four years next succeed- ing the final consolidation. The Jamestown & Franklin Railroad, com- menced in 1864 and com- pleted in 1867, from Jamestown to Franklin, Pennsylvania, was ex- tended to Oil City, Penn- sylvania, a total length of 51 miles. The James- town & Franklin Railroad was mainly the project of Reproduction, actual size, of a pass issued by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern the Buffalo & Erie Rail- Sleeping Car Company. road Company, the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company, and William Gibson, who held the charter of the old Erie & Pittsburg Railroad, designed to run from Pittsburg to Erie, via Meadville. Mr. Gibson disposed of a part of the right of way under his charter between Jamestown and Sugar Grove to the Jamestown & Franklin Railroad Company for a consideration of stock in that corporation. The first passenger train passed over the Jamestown & Franklin Railroad June 27, 1867. The first printed card (number four) took effect June 24, 1867. About that date George H. Mclntire was appointed assistant superintendent, his headquarters being at Franklin. He performed the duties, also, of road master and agent. The collections for the first round trip between Jamestown and Franklin were: Cash receipts, $27.55; tick- ets, $9.20; total, $36.75. A passenger train was run from Franklin to Jamestown "and return," 84 miles, each day. Freight trains made the round trips between Mondays and 64 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Wednesdays, and Wednesdays and Fridays, their time being lengthened largely by the labor of leaving cars to be loaded at the Stoneboro mines. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were the running days on the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad, between Jamestown and Girard. The officers of the Jamestown & Franklin Railroad were the same as those of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, the lessee of the former line, namely: Amasa Stone, president; H. Nottingham, superin- Tie Late Shore & I. S. Railway Co. tendent ; Charles Collins, chief engineer ; George B. Ely, secretary and treasurer; OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. N. Bartlett, auditor ; J. W. Cary, general ticket agent; Addison Hills, general freight J7ew York, Oct.jjd, agent ; A. Congdon, superintendent of mo- tive power, and N. Marsh, master car builder. Among the principal employees of the com- General Order. pany were: George H. Mclntire, assist- ant superintendent; J. S. Spaulding, agent

To the OFFICERS and EMPLOYEES of at Polk ; E. A. Wilson, agent at Raymil- The Lake Shore & HI. S. Railway Co. ton ; J. W. Peck, agent at Sandy Lake ; A. B. Atwater, agent at Stoneboro ; Wil- An advance of five per cent, upon the compensation of liam Hadley, agent at Hadley, and E. P. all Employees of this Company affected by the reduction Foster, agent at Jamestown. The track foremen were : Thomas Hill, section No. of ten per cent, in July last, and whose pay amounts to I, Jamestown ; D. O'Brien, section No. 2, less than two thousand dollars per annum, will be made Salem; Cornelius Shea, section No. 3, on and after November 1st, Clark ; John Henderson, section No. 4, Stoneboro ; Thomas Julian, section No. 5, WM. H. VANDERBILT, Raymilton ; Cornelius Madden, section No. PRESIDENT. 6, Summit; James Cleary, section No. 7, Facsimile, one-fourth reduction, of a general order, issued by President William H. Vanderbilt. Franklin. The passenger trainmen were : Thomas Adams, conductor ; C. E. Belnap, baggage master ; John L. Cook, brakeman ; Hugh Shimmons, engineer (engine "Massachusetts"); Henry Clark, fireman. The freight trainmen were: A. D. Belnap, conductor; J. A. Belnap, brakeman; Charles Hotchkiss, brakeman; A. Kenney, brakeman; H. M. Jones, engineer (engine "Lion"); A. Chapman, fireman. The building of the Ashtabula Branch of the old Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad, which had been commenced in 1863 but discontinued in 1864, was another task completed by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company within the first four years of its existence. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 65 The company at this time also constructed the Mahoning Coal Railroad, extending from Andover, on the branch above mentioned, to Youngstown, thereby reaching the iron and coal industries in that section. During the same period the line between Sandusky and Millbury (called the Sandusky Division), projected by the old Junction Railroad Com- pany, and partially constructed by the old Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad Company, but abandoned in 1858, after the consolidation of these two companies, was rebuilt and operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. The company also laid a second track, and doubled the equipment, on the main line between Buffalo and Elyria. Purchases of locomo- tives, cars, etc., were made on an extensive scale. The improvements thus briefly outlined, together with .various minor works of con- struction and equipment, caused an expenditure, from 1870 to 1874, of nearly twenty and one-half million dollars. The condition of pros- perity and activity which pre- vailed in the affairs of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company for the first few years Of its history Under- Interior of Day Coach, No. 294, on the Lake Shore Limited. went a material alteration when the commercial interests of the country were stricken by the financial revulsion of 1873. All projects for the enlargement and betterment of the system were, for the time, held in abeyance, and strict conservatism dominated its policy until the storm blew over. Rigid economy and retrenchment became the watchword of its management. The reversion to cautious methods was timely, and saved the company from impending disaster. Soon the rigors of general business stringency began to relax, and the holders of the stock felt the relief of moderate dividends. While the financial outlook for the corporation was still dim, although slowly becoming clearer under the wise guidance of the elder Vanderbilt, a tremendous calamity overtook it. On December 29, 1876, the valley of Ashtabula Creek, a little east of Ashtabula, was swept by a hurricane rushing onward sixty miles an hour. The iron bridge across the creek succumbed to the fearful blast. At that moment, 7:28 P.M., amid the intense dark- ness and cold, the Pacific Express train, west bound, reached the smitten structure and was 66 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM hurled into the chasm below. Outbursting flames wrought utter havoc with the partly- engulfed wreck of the doomed train, leaving quickly naught but bent and blackened metal behind, mingled with the ghastly remnants of 88 passengers. Two others lingered a little while in agony, and 63 maimed ones were snatched from a horrible fate. Eight only out of 159 on board the fated train escaped uninjured. The superintendent of , George M. Reed, was among the victims of the catastrophe, which ultimately demanded the lives of Charles Collins, chief engineer of the road, and Amasa Stone, its president. The train was composed of the locomotive "Socra- tes," Daniel McGuire, engineer, and the locomotive "Columbia," with I. D.» Folsom in charge; two express cars, two day coaches, the drawing room coach « ''Yokohama," and the sleepers "Palatina," "City of Buffalo" and "Osceola." The night coaches were in the care of Henry Wagoner, and B. Henn was the conductor of the train. By this fiat of Doom, the great line was dissevered for eleven days, at the end of which time, on January 10, 1877, at 11:30 A. M., the Atlantic Express sped eastward Rear end of Observation Car, "Adriana," on the Lake Shore Limited. Over the new bridge acrOSS Ashta- bula Creek. The awful velocity of the wind which hurled the train to destruction is mani- fest from the fact that the last car, weighing 35 tons, in plunging 70 feet down to the icy surface of the stream, was swept in the air 75 feet up the valley. Aside from the indirect losses sustained by the company through the Ashtabula dis- aster, resulting from a suspension of through traffic and other hindrances and difficulties, the direct loss was three-quarters of a million dollars. Since that memorable night, seven years after its organization, and now nearly a quarter of a century ago,the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company has been happily favored by a singular immunity from notable fatalities. The record of the first entire year of the operation of this great medium of transpor- tation (1870), as compared with that indicated by official statements contained in its annual report of recent years, affords a suggestive idea of the colossal strides made in this event- ful period, not only by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, but by the vast region whose multiform industries its transactions subserve. In 1870 the road earned AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 67

$!3.5O9,236. In 1892 the gross earnings were $22,415,382. Going back to the beginning of the component lines, the gross income was, in 1837, $52,821 ; in 1840, $35,544; in 1850, $162,235 ; and in i860, $4,945,843. To emphasize this prodigious increase, freight rates were two and one-half times greater in 1870 than in 1892, when the average charge per mile on 100 tons of freight, load- ing six large cars, was but 60c. per ton. The difference in income resulted from the immense increase of material carried during 1892, which is represented in figures by 10,765,022 tons. But for the reduction in rates, the tonnage of 1892 would have yielded this company $21,772,123 more than the actual returns. Using a like basis of calculation in connection with all railroad freight transportation throughout the United States in the same interval, the shippers of the country have saved four hundred million dollars from lessening rates. The tonnage carried in 1898 by this road was 17,439,032 and the freight earnings were Interior of Observation Car " Adriana," on the Lake Shore Limited. $14,022,756. In 1870 the number of passengers carried by the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railway was 2,065,440, and in 1898, 4,292,573, from which traffic the net earnings of the road were $4,281,422. As an illustration of the celerity and convenience of modern passenger travel on this route, which is generally conceded to be the preferable one eastward and westward, the following brief narrative is taken from an interesting paper prepared by the late C. P. Leland, of Cleveland, Ohio, to whom grateful reference has already been made herein. This incident occurred in 1893. "A lady journalist, in Chicago, took the "Exposition Flyer" at 3:00 P. M., arrived in New York at 10 A. M., took the "elevated" down to the "Battery," where she embarked on a tug, went down the baj', out on the broad Atlantic, saw considerable of the yacht race between the "Vigilant" and "Valkyrie," returned to the Grand Central Station in time to board the "Exposition Flyer" at 3:00 P. M., arriving in Chicago the next day at 10:00 A. M., 68 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM with no more fatigue than if she had remained in Chicago, attending to her journalistic work. Yet she had, in forty hours, traveled 2,000 miles on railroad laid in six States." On this road alone would such an experience haye been possible, as, with the New York Central, it affords the only double track route between Chicago and New York, and also between Chicago and Boston, through the Boston & Albany connection. The satisfaction of this rapid transit is only equaled by the peculiar pleasure afforded by the physical environments of the road. Had Nature herself selected a topographical course for an ideal railway she would surely have planted the divining rod of auspicious augury along the route of this system. For she could hardly have led it through more wholesome and engag- ing scenery, nor could she have enriched its treasury by contact with more promis- ing industries and more stirring centers of destined population. When the ways of the several compon- ent lines were located, these industries were latent and the now thriving communi- ties were in their infancy. The development of the Interior of Boston Sleeping Car, " Manila," on the Lake Shore Limited. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway and of the region through which it passes has been a mutual growth. From small beginnings each has been tributary to the other, and they have kept even pace in reciprocal enhancement. At the outset all the bridges on the line were wooden. In 1892 but 51 of that kind were left, and these were on branches without heavy traffic. Of the remaining 172 150 were built of iron and 22 of stone. These 223 structures measure 20,505 feet in lineal extent. The enormous expenditure of money requisite to effect the substitution of steel rails, construction of bridges, rectification of curves and grades, and improved equipment has been largely a public gain, as the owners of the stock in the corporation received an average of four per cent, less per annum for the twenty-four years, ending in 1892, than the stockholders of the years preceding the event of consolidation. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 69

Despite all the immense outlay, moreover, in lifting the line to its present status, there has been no increase of its stock or funded debt, but rather a diminution in the vol- ume of bonded obligations through the yearly purchase and cancelation of $250,000 of seven per cent, securities, making the interest indebtedness annually less by $17,500. The amount of such bonds canceled from 1869 to 1893 was nearly six million dollars, cutting off more than one thousand dollars per day in interest payments. The capital stock of the company has undergone no variation for the the last twenty- eight years. The amount, $50,000,000, stands as follows:

Guaranteed (ten per cent.) 5,335 shares $533,500 Ordinary 494,665 " 100 49,466,500 Total, 500,000 $100 $50,000,000 At no period of its existence has the company been in better material and financial form than on the publication of this record. The annual reports of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company contain this "standing mat- ter," which is a rare feature in documents of such a char- acter: "Nothing has been charged to construction or equipment since 1883." The current earnings of the system have been the basis Interior of Boston Sleeping Car, " Manila," on the Lake Shore Limited, of outlay for the extensive showing suite of rooms. improvements which have brought it so near a perfect condition. In this connection it is proper to present a brief narrative pertaining to the con- struction of branch lines (other than those already described), projected since the final consolidation which created the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. The building of the Mahoning Coal Railroad, extending from Andover to Youngs- town, Ohio, was beguri in June, 1872, and the road was first operated in August, 1874. Its length was 38 miles, with a branch to the Tyrrell Hill coal mines, near Vienna, Ohio, 70 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM about four miles long, and another (Coalburg to New York, Ohio), one mile in length, con- necting with the tracks of the Andrews & Hitchcock furnace and coal bank. When the Sharon Branch was finished, in 1887, the latter track was removed. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, July 1, 1884, leased the Mahoning Coal Railroad for a consideration of forty per cent, of the gross earnings of the latter, and included it with the Franklin Division. The track from Vienna to the Tyrrell Hill mines was taken up and a portion of it (2.85 miles) relaid on the Liberty switch of the Mahoning Coal Railroad. A branch, .73 miles long, was built in 1882 to reach the Keel Ridge coal banks. The Mahoning Valley and Shenango Valley railroads were subse- quently absorbed by the Mahoning Coal Railroad, and are also included in the Franklin Division. The Sharon Branch, designed to extend from Doughton Junction to the Pennsyl- vania StateLine, was begun in 1886 and completed to a point of intersection with the Sharon Railroad, near the northern limit of Sharon borough, a distance of 1.17 miles. It was opened for business December, 1, 1887. The Sharon Railroad, being under lease to the New York & Erie Railroad Company, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Com- pany, by arrangement with the former, used the tracks of the Sharon Railroad to run its trains to Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. The Harbor Branch, 2. 5 1 miles long, and running from the main line to Ashtabula Harbor, was finished in 1872. Until July, 1879, it was a part of the Erie Division. Since that period it has been included in the Franklin Division. The firm of Strong & Manning in 1873 built a dock at Ashtabula Harbor, and loaded the first vessels with coal received by rail. About the same time Andrews & Hitchcock, previously mentioned herein, con- structed what is now known as dock "No. 3" at that point, and handled the coal and ore from their mines with two Lockport hoisting machines. Another dock was made in 1874-1875, which was provided with chutes and pockets for loading coal vessels. Then followed Hunt's automatic hoisting machine, an invention for taking ore from vessels to the dock. This was soon replaced by the Brown hoists, which have continued in use. The coal chutes were defective in that the coal, dropping out of the pockets into the hold of the vessel, was broken. In 1876 the first ore was received on docks owned by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. In 1873, 7,000 tons of coal were handled on these docks. In 1897 the receipts of ore amounted to 1,873,956 net tons, and the coal receipts were 637,523 tons, making a total of 2,511,479 tons. The aggregate of coal and ore handled on the company's docks between 1873 and 1898 was 6,099,196 tons of the former and 15,185,528 net tons of the latter, making in all 21,284,724 tons. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 7l

In 1897 the company had, at the lake terminus of the Harbor Branch, 9,068 feet of dockage and possessed 42 Brown hoisting machines, six hoists of other descriptions, 14 McMeter machines, one steam dredge, one steam tug and two mud scows, besides using two, rentedcoal-dumping machines. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, in conjunction with the Jackson Coal Railroad Company, constructed the Jackson Railroad in 1883. This extends from the south end of Coal Branch track to the Mercer Iron & Coal Company's mine at Stoneboro, and to the Filer and Westerman coal mines, near Jackson Center. The length of the line and switches is 5.19 miles. The former company furnished the necessary rails, joints, bolts, frogs, switches and spikes, and laid and ballasted the track. The latter com- pany provided the right of way, and the grading, ties and fencing, and mortgaged its property rights and franchises to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company for an amount covering the cost of laying and ballasting the track. The mortgage was payable in five years, with the interest of six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually. The instrument obligated the Jackson Coal Railroad Company to furnish not less than 7,000 tons of freight monthly, and to pay the mortgagee one-third of its income from the tonnage carried, the rate to be not less than five cents per ton. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, by a lease executed November 1, 1882, gave the Buffalo, Pittsburg & Western Railroad Company (now the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad Company) the right to run trains over the road between Stoneboro and Oil City. The consideration was a yearly rental and a cer- tain amount for the payment of way agents and operators, based on the wheelage distance of 30 miles. This lease was annulled by the last named company November 1, 1889, but was renewed June 1, 1892, at a modified rental and for other considerations specified in the former lease. The mileage of road operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Sys- tem is shown in the statement subjoined :

Miles. Owned by the company 862.15 Seven proprietary roads 231.33 Five leased roads 319.96 Total length of road operated 1,413.44 Second track - 490.57 Third track 9-63 Side track 763.55

Total miles of track, all steel except 5.08 miles 2.677.19 72 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

This mileage is divided as follows among the States traversed by the road :

TRACKS. STATE.

NEW PENNSYL- MICHI- ILLI- OHIO. INDIANA. TOTAL. YORK. VANIA. GAN. NOIS.

SINGLE TRACK. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles.

Main line 69.50 44.06 194.47 101.92 116.07 14.02 540.04 Branches . . 1.62 58.43 233.33 156.57 423.45 873.40 TOTAL LENGTH OF ROAD OPERATED 71.12 102.49 427.80 258.49 539.52 14.02 1,413.44 Second track 69.50 44.06 232.74 136.63 7.64 490.57 Third track 9.63 9.63 Sidings.. 84.85 54.09 341.50 116.09 102.40 64.62 763.55

TOTAL MILES OF SINGLE TRACK 225.47 200.64 1,011.67 511.21 641.92 86.28 2,677.19

RECAPITULATION.

MILES OPERATED. MILES OF SINGLE TRACK. STATE. Main Branch- Second Third Line. es. Total. Track. Track. Sidings- Total

New York .. 69.50 1.62 71.12 69.50 84.85 225.47 Pennsylvania 44.06 58.43 102.49 44.06 54.09 200.64 Ohio 194.47 233.33 427.80 232.74 9.63 341.50 1,011.67 Indiana 101.92 156.57 258.49 136.63 116.09 511.21 Michigan 116.07 423.45 539.52 102.40 641.92 Illinois 14." 2 14.02 7.64 64.62 86.28

RECAPITULATION OF GRAND DIVISIONS (EAST AND WEST OF TOLEDO).

MAIN BRANCH- SECOND THIRD LINE. SIDINGS. TOTAL. DIVISIONS. ES. TRACK. TRACK. Miles. Miles. Miles.. Miles. Miles. Miles.

Lake Shore 294.67 215.97 289.01 9.63 408.99 1,218.27 Michigan Southern 245.37 657.43 201.56 354.56 1,458.92

Total 540.04 873.40 490.57 9.63 763.55 2,677.19

An important distinction attaches to that portion of the Illinois track which is located within the limits of Chicago. The elevation of this track constitutes one of the most important local undertakings in the history of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, and one for which the great metropolis, which forms its western termi- AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. nus, accords it, without dissent, a due meed of praise. It was promptly begun in deference to the needs of the people, was prosecuted in a public-spirited manner, and was recently accomplished in conjunction with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company. By this stupendous task, two of the most perilous centers of street and steam-road inter- section in- Chicago have been rendered safe to public use. From these points extended in all directions a veritable network of railway trackage, which had become the dread of street-car passengers and of pedestrians. The obviating of these vexatious hindrances of local traffic, and menaces to human life, without seriously impairing the terminal operating

View of elevated and depressed tracks at Sixteenth street, Chicago, 111., looking northeast. On the elevated tracks run the trains of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry., Chicago, Bock Island & Pacific Ry., and New York, Chicago & 3t. Louis R. R. On the depressed tracks run the trains of the Atchison, Topeka

Southern Railway Company covers 49.36 miles, consisting of 20.48 miles of main track, 25.88 miles of yard track, and 3 miles of other track. The task involved a long succes- sion of broad and durable embankments, with solid masonry, at short intervals, supporting strong and handsome bridges. The time consumed in this undertaking was about four years, and the expense to the company reached into the millions.

^•K , • / - • • View of elevated tracks and Englewood depot at Sixty-third street, Chicago, 111. The designation, location and extent of the mileage operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company is as follows : Miles. Main- Line—Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois 540.04

Sandusky Division—Elyria Junction to Millbury Junction, Ohio, via Sandusky 73.24 Air Line Division—Air Line Junction, Ohio, to Elkhart, Ind 131.10 Air Line Junction to Ohio-Michigan State Line 7,61 Jackson Branch—Lenawee Junction to Jackson, Mich 42.16 Monroe Branch—Lenawee Junction to Monroe, Mich 29.45 Ashtabula Branch—Ashtabula, Ohio, to Pennsylvania State Line 30.72 Other Branches—Sandusky Pier, 3.88 miles; Ashtabula Harbor, 2.33 miles; Dun- kirk, 1.62 miles 7.83

322.11 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 75

PROPRIETARY ROADS. Miles. Central Trunk Railroad—Ohio State Line to Jamestown, Pa 5.26 Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad—Ohio-Michigan State Line to Detroit, Mich 54.76 Kalamazoo & White Pigeon Railroad—White Pigeon to Kalamazoo, Mich 36.54 Northern Central Michigan Railroad—Jonesville to North Lansing, Mich 61.36 Detroit & Chicago Railroad—Grosvenor, Ohio, to Fayette, Mich 25.56 Sturgis, Goshen & St. Louis Railroad—Goshen, Indiana, to Findley, Ohio 36.13 Elkhart & Western Railroad—Elkhart to Mishawaka, Ind 11.72 231.33 LEASED ROADS. Miles. Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railroad—Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, Mich... 58.45 *Jamestown & Franklin Railroad—Jamestown to Oil City, Pa 50.91 Mahoning Coal Railroad—Andover to Youngstown, Ohio, and Doughton, Ohio, to Sharon, Pa 48.01 §Detroit, Hillsdale & South Western Railroad—Ypsilanti to Bankers, Mich 64.76 JFort Wayne & Jackson Railroad—Jackson, Mich., to Fort Wayne, Ind 97.83 319.96 Total Mileage of road operated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company 1413.44 The following is a list of the administrative and executive officers of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company from the date of final consolidation, 1869, together with their respective periods of service. Appended to this, also, is a detailed mention of all other persons discharging important functions relating to the operation of this great medium of transportation, from the beginning of its history. A few of the first minor employees have already been mentioned, as a matter of local interest, in connection with one of the earliest branches of the road.

DIRECTORS.

Horace F. Clark June 2, 1869, to June 19,1873 Jeptha H. Wade June 2, 1869, to Jan. 13,1870 (Death.) jeptha H. Wade May 2, 1883, " Aug. 9, 1890 James H. Banker ...." 2, 1869, " May 6,1874 JF 5 (Death.) (Died February 10,1835.) William L. Scott. .. June 2, 1869, " Sept. 19,1891 LeGrand Lockwood.. " 2,1869, to Oct. 5,1869 (Death.) (Died February 24,1872.) Milton Courtright...." 2, 1869, "May 1,1872 William Williams.... '• 2, 1869, to May 5,1875 (Died April 25,1883.) (Died September 10,1876.) Jerome W. Wetmore. " 2, 1869, to Oct. 14,1869 Elijah B. Phillips.... " 2, 1869, to May 4,1870 Albert Keep '• 2, 1869, " May 2,1883 John H. Devereux.... " 2,1869," " 4,1870 Amasa Stone Aug. 1«, 1869, " Nov. 29,1882 (Died March 17,1886.) (Died May 11, 1883.) Henry B.Payne " 2,1869, to Nov. 29.1882 Alanson Robinson. ...Oct. 5, 1869, to May 4,1870 (Died September 9, 1896.) (Died May 27, 1870.) George B. Ely " 2,1869, to Aug. 18,1869 Augustus Schell " 14, 1869, to Mar,ch27, 1884 (Died May 18, 1877.) (Dejth.)

* The Jamestown & Franklin Railroad was leased to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, for a con- sideration of thirty per cent, per annum of its yearly gross earnings. § The Detroit, Hillsdale & South Western Railroad was leased in perpetuity, July 1, 1881, to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, at a i-ental of four per cent, per annum on its stock. i The Fort Wayne & Jackson Railroad was leased in perpetuity in September, 1882, to the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railway Company, for an annual rental of five per cent, on the preferred stock and a further sum of two per cent, on the com- mon stock, in case the net earnings, any year, exceed eight per cent, on the preferred stock. 76 (L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Stillman Witt Jan. 13, 1870, '• April 29. 1875 Andrew D. White.... " 3, 1876, " May 1, 1878 (Death.) . " 2, 1877. John A.Tracy May 4, 1870, " Feb. 27, 1875 William K.Vanderbilt " 2, 1877. (Death. Azariah Boody " Rasselas Brown " 1, 1878, to Aug. 23, 1895 4, 1870, " May 6, 1874 (Death.) William D. Bishop... " (Died November 18, 1885 ) Darius O. Mills June 19, 1879. 3, 1871, to July 1, 1873 John Newell April 13, Charles M. Reed " 1, 1872. 1883, to Aug. 26, 1894 CommodoreVanderbilt.July 4, 1877 Edwin D. Worcester. " 13, (Death.) 1, 1873, to Jan.(Death.) 1883. William H.Vanderbilt " 1, 1873, Dec. 8, 1885 Fred. W. Vanderbilt. May 7, 1884. (Death.) John DeKoven " 5, Samuel F. Barger.... May 6, 1874. 1886, to April 30, 1898 H. McK. Twombly..Sept. 24, (Death.) Eugene N. Robinson.. " 6, 1874, to May 5. 1875 1890. (Died June 15, 1889.) James H. Reed May 4, 1892, to May 17, 1898 Robert L. Crawford.. •' 5, 1875, to May 2, 1877 Chauncey M. Depew. " 2, 1894. Judah C. Spencer...." 5, 1875, " " 3, 1876 Daniel W. Caldwell..Oct. 30, 1894, to July 21,1897 (Died September 1, 1885.) J. Condit Smith " James M.Schoonmaker.May 6, (Death.) 5, 1875, to May 3. 1876 Samuel R Callaway..Aug. 18, 1896. John E. Burrill " (Died November 9. 1883.) William H. Newman..May 4, 1897. 5, 1875 to Sept. 23, 1893 J Pierpont Morgan... " 17, 1898. Francis P. Freeman.. •' (Death.) 1898. 3, 1876, " June 19, 1879 PRESIDENTS. Elijah B. Phillips... June 2, 1869, to May 4, 1870 John Newell May 4, 1883, to Aug. 26,1894 (Resigned.) (Death.) Horace F. Clark May 4, 1870, " June 19, 1873 "Daniel W. Caldwell. .Oct. 30, 1894, " July 21, 1897 (Death.) (Death.) Samuel R. Callaway. .Aug. 18, 1897, :' April 27, 1898 Cornelius Vanderbilt.July 1, 1873, " Jan. 4, 1877 (Resigned.) (Death.) WilliamH. Newman..May 17. 1898. Wm. H. Vanderbilt. .May 2, 1877, " May 4, 1883 (Died December 8, 1885.) VICE-PRESIDENTS. John H. Devereux. 1st.. June 2, 1869, to May 4. 1870 Wm. H. Vanderbilt, 1st..May 6, 1874, to May 2, 1877 William Williams, 2nd.. " 2,1869," " 4,1870 Edwin D. Worcester.... " 4,1883. Augustus Schell May 4, 1870, " " 5,1883 Mr. Schell was 2nd vice-president for three years from May, 1874.

GENERAL MANAGERS. John H. Devereux....May 4, 1870, to June 1, 1873 John Newell ...July 1, 1875, to May, 1877 Amasa Stone July 1,1873," " 30,1875 W. H. Canniff ...... Mar. 1, 1896, " " 1, 1898

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENTS.

Charles F. Hatch... June 2, 1869, to Mar. 31, 1872 W. H. Canniff Jan.% 1, 1892, to March 1, 1896 Charles Paine April 1, 1872, " Aug. 16, 1881 P. S. Blodgett Mar. 2, 1896. P. P. Wrright Oct. 11, 1881, " Jan. 1. 1892

ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGERS. E.Gallup Dec. 1, 1886, to 1888 Addison Hills Sept. 1, 1881, to Jan. 1,1892 J. T. Harrahan Jan. 12, 1888, " April, 1889 P.P.Wright Jan. 1,1892. J. E. Childs April 8,1889. "June 22,1890

Mr. Hills officiated as assistant to the president of the company, from 1892 until 1898. He died May 7, 1898, aged ninety-one years. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 77

CHIEF ENGINEERS. Charles Paine, Michigan Southern Division, L. H. Clark April 10, 1877, to May 30, 1887 June, 1869, to April 1,1872 George R. Handy... June 1, 1887, •' Dec. 26,1887 Charles Collins, Lake Shore Division, J. O. Osgood Dec. 26, 1887, '• Feb. 19, 1889 June, 1869, to April 1, 1872 George H. Kimball ..April 8, 1889, " June 27, 1891 Charles Collins, whole line, E. A. Handy June 27, 1891. April 1, 1872, " Jan. 14, 1877 GENERAL FREIGHT AGENTS. AddisonfHills March, 1875, to Sept., 1881 G. J. Grammer : .Sept.29, 1894, to March 1,1896 George H. Vaillant. .Sept. 1, 1881, " April 28, 1885 H. E. Felton June 15, 1897, " May 14, 1898 J. T. R. McKay Apr. 28, 1885, " 1893 GENERAL TRAFFIC MANAGER. G. J. Grammer, March 1, 1896. GENERAL PASSENGER AND TICKET AGENTS. J. W. Gary 1869 to January 1,1886 A. J. Smith February 7, 1887 E. C. Luce* 1886 " February 7, 1887 '"'On February 7, 1887, E. C. Luce was made assistant to the general passenger agent and general ticket agent combined. The first directors and officers of the consolidated lines, from May 8, 1869 to May, 1870, were as follows: DIRECTORS. LeGrand Lockwood, Norwalk, . John H. Devereux, Cleveland, Ohio. Horace F. Clark, New York City. Henry B. Payne, Cleveland, Ohio. James H. Banker, New York City. Jeptha H. Wade, Cleveland, Ohio. William Williams, Buffalo, New York. Jerome W. Wetmore, Erie, Pennsylvania. Elijah B. Phillips, Chicago, Illinois William L. Scott, Erie, Pennsylvania. Albert Keep, Chicago, Illinois. Milton Courtright, Erie, Pennsylvania. OFFICERS. Elijah B. Phillips, President Charles Collins, Chief Engineer, Lake Shore Division John H. Devereux, 1st Vice-President. James Sedgeley, Superintendent of Motive Power. William Williams, 2nd Vice-President. John Kirby, Master Car Builder. LeGrand Lockwood, Treasurer. William Kline, Superintendent of Telegraph. George B.Ely, Assistant Treasurer. J. E. Curtis, Superintendent, Michigan Division. George B. Ely, Assistant Secretary. C. H. Harris, Superintendent, Western Division. C. P. Leland, Auditor. P. D. Cooper, Superintendent, Detroit Division. A. C. Armstrong, Purchasing Agent. H. M. Wright, Superintendent, Air Line Division. J. W. Cary, General Ticket Agent. T. S. Lindsey, Superintendent, Toledo Division. John L Freeman, General Baggage Agent. William Robinson, Superintendent, Erie Division. Addison Hills, General Freight Agent. George H. Mclntire, Superintendent, Franklin Charles F. Hatch, General Superintendent. Division, Charles Paine, Chief Engineer, Michigan Southern John Desmond, Superintendent, Buffalo Division. Division. Although less than thirty-one years have elapsed since the election of the first presi- dent of. the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, and although seven succes- sors have in turn followed his incumbency, no other ex-president of the road survives, save 78 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

Samuel R. Callaway, now president of the New York Central & Railroad. Elijah B. Phillips, whose term began in June, 1869, relinquished the position, eleven months after assuming its duties, to become president of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and is now living in retirement in Boston, Massachusetts. Brief as was his official tenure, the part borne by him in the or- ganization of the new system was most important, he having previously been at the head of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. Since the resignation of Mr. Phillips, in May, 1870, a sombre shadow has ever overhung the line of succession. Horace F. Clark, the next president, whose vigorous direction of the company's affairs left an ineffaceable impress on its subsequent record, was relieved by death from the strain of ambitious endeavor, in June, 1873. The vacancy thus cre-

Elijah B. Phillips. ated was filled by sturdy, acute Elected President June, 1869. (From the " Cleveland World.") and careful Commodore Cor- nelius Vanderbilt, only to fall before the scythe of the " Grim Reaper "four years from the date of his accession. Wil- liam H. Vanderbilt, his son and successor in this office, varied somewhat the fatal precedent, but trod the way of the two dead presidents, in Decem- ber, 1885. Longer than any of his predecessors served John Newell, masterly in dominant Horace F. Clark, traits and in the potency of re- Elected President May, 1870. sourceful energy, to whom is (From the "Cleveland World.") chiefly accredited the unexcelled structural condition and material appointments of the road. But he, too, bowed to the inexorable decree from realms beyond, in August, 1894. Three years afterward death terminated the official period of Daniel W. Caldwell, who succeeded Mr. Newell. In this S. R. Callaway. dire category might also be included Amasa Stone, manag- Elected President August, 1897. (From the " Cleveland World.") ing director during the incumbency of the elder Vanderbilt, whose personal representative he was, and whose official functions he largely discharged. He, too, fell a victim to the onerous burden imposed, and died a year after his retire- ment. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 79

At the first annual election held at Cleveland, Ohio, on the first Wednesday in May, 1872, new directors and officers were chosen, as follows:

DIRECTORS. Augustus Schell, New York City. John A. Tracy, Erie, Pennsylvania. Amasa Stone, Cleveland, Ohio. W. D. Bishop, Bridgeport, Connecticut. Still man Witt, Cleveland, Ohio. The officers elected were, Horace F. Clark, president; August Schell, vice-president; James H. Banker, treasurer; George B. Ely, secretary and assistant treasurer; John H. Devereux, general manager; and Charles M. Gray, assistant general freight agent. The other offices were mainly filled by the incumbents of the term from May, 1869, to May, 1870. The directors and officers chosen at the last annual election, held twenty-seven years after that above mentioned, May 3, 1899, consist of:

Chauncey M. Depew, New York City. Frederick W. Vanderbilt, New York City. chairman of the Board. Darius O. Mills, New York City. William K. Vanderbilt, New York City. William H. Newman, Cleveland, Ohio. Samuel R. Callaway, " " " James M. Schoonmaker, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Edwin D. Worcester, " " " H. McK. Twombly, New York City. Cornelius Vanderbilt, " " " Charles M. Reed, Erie, Pennsylvania. Samuel F. Barger, " " - J. Pierpont Morgan, New York City. William H. Newman, President, Cleveland, Ohio. Edwin D. Worcester, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, New York City. Dwight W. Pardee, Assistant Treasurer, New YorkCity. N. Bartlett, Local Treasurer and Assistant Secretary, Cleveland, Ohio. E. C. Sheldon, Assistant Local Treasurer, Cleveland Ohio. The officials of the accounting, operating and traffic departments, together with their principal subordinates, are as follows:

ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT.

R. H. Hill, Auditor, Cleveland, Ohio. J. E. Slater, Chief Traveling Auditor, Cleveland, Ohio. M. C. Tully, Auditor of Freight Receipts, Cleveland, F. B. Hull, Traveling Auditor, Adrian, Michigan. Ohio. C. H. Whitmore, Traveling Auditor/Toledo, Ohio. F. A. Wyman, Auditor of Passenger Receipts, Cleve- Neil Bethune, Traveling Auditor, Cleveland, Ohio. land Ohio. W. T. Smith, Freight Claim Agent, Cleveland, Ohio.

OPERATING DEPARTMENT.

P. S. Blodgett, General Superintendent, Cleveland, D. T. Murray, Superintendent, Franklin Division, Q, • Youngstown, Ohio. Tracy W Niles, Superintendent, Eastern Division, H. A. Worcester, Superintendent, Detroit Division, Buffalo, New York. Detroit> Michigan. J. K. Russell, Superintendent, Toledo Division, Cleve- ^muSl^Michi&n™*" g land, Ohio. William Kline, Superintendent of Telegraph, Toledo, A. H. Smith, Superintendent, Michigan Division, Oi Toledo, Ohio. E. A. Handy, Chief Engineer, Cleveland, Ohio. A. B. Newell, Superintendent, Western Division, s Rockwell, Principal Assistant Engineer, Cleve- Chicago, Illinois. land, Ohio. 80 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

M. T. Jones, Superintendent, Dining Cars, Chicago, C. B Couch, Purchasing Agent, Cleveland, Ohio. Illinois. H. J. Merrick, Car Accountant, Cleveland, Ohio. W. H. Marshall, Superintendent of Motive Power, H. F. Ball, Mechanical Engineer, Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland, Ohio. R. A. Bury, Lumber Agent, Adrian, Michigan. A. A. Bradeen, Master Mechanic, Cleveland, Ohio. T. J. Charlesworth, General Agent, Cleveland, , Master Mechanic, Norwalk, Ohio. Ohio. J. O. Bradeen, Master Mechanic, Elkhart, Indiana. George H. Mclntire, General Agent, Youngstown; George N. Dow, Master Car Builder, Cleveland Ohio. Ohio. S. S. Hand, General Agent, Detroit, Michigan. C. R. Tunks, Master Car Builder, Adrian, Michigan. F. V. Whiting, Chief Claim Ag-ent, Cleveland, Ohio. LeGrand Parish, Master Car Builder, Chicago, P. P. Wright, Assistant General Manager, Cleveland, Illinois. Ohio.

TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT. G. J. Grammer, General Traffic Manager, Cleveland, J. C. McNamara, Traveling Passenger Agent, Youngs- Ohio. town, Ohio. A. J. Smith, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, C. H. Chevee, Traveling Passenger Agent, Buffalo Cleveland, Ohio. New York. E. C. Luce, Assistant General Passenger and Ticket C. S. Rogers, General Agent Passenger Department, Agent, Cleveland Ohio. Detroit, Michigan. J. L. Clark, General Western Freight Agent, Chicago, J. E. Gunckel, Passenger Agent, Cleveland, Ohio. Illinois. M. E. Gaul, Passenger Agent, Toledo, Ohio. M. S. Chase, Assistant General Freight Agent, Chi- W. W. Howard, Soliciting Agent, Jackson, Michigan. cago, Illinois. A. E. Billings, Division Freight Agent, Toledo, Ohio. T. S. Timpson, General Eastern Agent, Buffalo, New George U. Wheeler, Division Freight Agent, Cleve- York. land Ohio. J. L. Freeman, General Baggage Agent, Cleveland, H. Bromley, Division Freight Agent, Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio. W. H. Smith, Chief Tariff Bureau, Cleveland, Ohio. F. M. Byron, General Western Agent, Chicago, W. T. Andrews, Commercial Agent, Pittsburg, Penn- Illinois. sylvania. C. C. Crane, Pacific Coast Agent, San Francisco, Cal- S. B. Giddings, Traveling Freight Agent, Chicago, ifornia. Illinois. Amos Burr, Passenger Agent, San Francisco. Cal- G. C. Knoche, Northwestern Freight Agent, St. Paul, ifornia. Minnesota. F. W. Blanch, Passenger Agent, San Francisco, Cal- R. J. Nicoud, Freight Agent, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ifornia. J. J. Ford, Western Freight Agent, Denver, Colorado. William BeDell, Passenger Agent, San Francisco, John A. Gill, Pacific Coast Freight Agent, San Fran- California. cisco, California. George F. Heusner, Passenger Agent, Portland, D. F. Hurd, Agent, Kansas City, Missouri. Oregon. G. M. Kridler, Contracting Agent, Cleveland, Ohio. M. S. Giles, Traveling Passenger Agent, Chicago, A. W. French, Traveling Freight Agent, Cleveland, Ohio. Illinois. L. G. Merrill, Traveling Freight Agent, Cleveland, J. R. Hurley, Traveling Passenger Agent, Milwaukee, Ohio. Wisconsin. J. E. McGrath, Traveling Freight Agent, Cleveland, W. B. Hutter, Northwestern Passenger Agent, St. Ohio. Paul, Minnesota. W. J. Keller, Traveling Freight Agent, Toledo, Ohio. B. P. Humphrey, Traveling Passenger Agent, Kan- H. C. Jewett, Traveling Freight Agent, Toledo, Ohio. sas City, Missouri. Lewis Grant, Traveling Freight Agent, Buffalo, New W. S. Brown, Traveling Passenger Agent, Hillsdale, York. Michigan. F. L. Talcott, Commercial Agent, Buffalo, New York.

Some of these gentlemen have devoted themselves to the interests of the company for many years. Among them is R. H. Hill, the auditor, who succeeded C. P. Leland. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 81

Mr. Hill's connection with the road began with employment in the old Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company, and antedates the consolidation. J. L. Freeman, general baggage agent, also dates his connection with the road from a time prior to the con- solidation, when he held the position of general baggage agent of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company. In the subordinate grades, the service of some of the employees, notably among the trainmen, dates back more than a generation. Napoleon Adams, who had charge of the first engine sent over the newly completed Junction Rail- road (the record of which appears in Chapter VIII of this volume), was retired on account of the age limit only a short time ago. The engine in his charge at the date of retirement was four times greater in weight than the one he manipulated in the early days. The old- est engineer of the road in active service is Gideon Hawley, whose portrait appears, in connection with a sketch of his life, in Part II of this volume.

TYPES OF LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY ENGINES.

No. 342. Type, Ten-Wheeled Freight. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works Dunkirk, N. Y. Cylinders, 19H by 30 inches; outside diameter of driving wheels, 62 inches; diameter of boiler, front end, 64 inches; fire box, 114 inches long by 42 inches wide; 286 flues, 2 inches in diameter and 13 feet, 3 inches long; boiler pressure, 180 pounds; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 15 feet; wheel base, driving, 15 feet; wheel base, engine, 25 feet, 5 inches; wheel base, engine and tender, 52 feet, 4 inches; weight of tender, 102,000 pounds; weight on drivers, 120,000 pounds; total weight of engine, 154,000 pounds. CHAPTER XIV.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY.

(s^Y PROJECT was broached in the year 1829, by Colonel Clinton, a civil engineer, for M=l a line styled by him the Great Western Railway, to traverse a distance of ' ^ V - ten hundred and fifty miles, between New York and the Mississippi River. The outlay necessary for this route was estimated at fifteen million dollars. This scheme came to naught, and another was devised about the year 1835, which embodied the same topographical course as that fixed by the projectors of the original lines between Cleveland and Toledo, and thus possibly led to the action of the organizers of those enterprises. Bearing, therefore, a quasi relation to the early history of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System, the record of the rise and fall of the Ohio Railroad Company seems to merit a place in this historic narrative. A dwelling in Painesville, Ohio, was the scene of the company's formation, in April, 1846, and its purpose was to build a line from the western limit of the State of Penn- sylvania, through Northern Ohio, to the nominal city of (on the Maumee river), whose site was afterward included within the corporate limits of Toledo. Its plan of con- struction involved no iron tracks, but instead, a succession of piles, two feet apart, with planks set on edge, nine inches wide by three inches thick. The cost of this railroad, ten hundred and fifty miles long, was calculated to be $906,950, in detail, as follows: Right of way $532,800 Lease of mills to saw planks 1,850 Getting out posts 31,400 Bolts and nuts 211,200 Leveling posts and laying plank rails 62,800 Setting posts and piles 31,400 Sawing 35,500 Total $906,950 Subsequently a light strap-iron rail was included in the plan, estimated to weigh, per mile of double track, 25 tons. The act of incorporation creating the Ohio Railroad Company was especially favor- able to the organization, endowing it with banking functions, and obligating the State of Ohio to assume a partnership interest in the company, amounting to the equivalent of 82 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 83 fifty per cent of the stock bought and paid for by the promoters of the enterprise. The measure was commonly known as the "Ohio plunder law," and in the matter of imposing a burden of virtual subsidy on the State, its application was general in connection with any projected "railroad, turnpike or canal company." Under its provisions, the owner of realty was enabled to make an arbitrary appraisal of his property, and on his own basis of valuation transfer it to the company, in considera- tion of certain shares to him issued. Assets of this kind were certified by the company's management to the State auditor, and State bonds equal to fifty per cent, of the amount thus certified were issued to the railroad corporation. The Ohio Railroad Company availed itself of the banking franchise granted by its charter, by issuing bills aggregating be- tween three and four hun- dred thousand dollars. Under the inviting opportunities afforded by this act, State bonds were obtained by various newly organized enterprises to the extent of $2,697,000. Turn- pike companies received $1,637,500, canal com- View of interior of Dining Car No. 199, on the Lake Shore Limited. panies, 377,500; and rail- road companies, $682,000. The raid on the treasury of the State of Ohio resulted in a speedy repeal of the statute, under cover of which many merely nominal ventures were temporarily nurtured at the expense of the people at large. The Ohio Railroad Company was not dilatory in securing its quantum of state cooperation. $219,000 in State securities were turned over to its directorate, in the before mentioned ratio of percentage on the alleged paid-up stock. These State securities and the bank issues of the new corporation formed (nearly) the sole dependence of its organizers, as a means of construction. Other schemes were devised, however, to procure additional funds for the prosecution of the preliminary work, the discussion of which by the directors caused much dissension in that body. 84 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

The portion of the roadway eastward from Cleveland was surveyed and located, in 1836. Differences of opinion as to the proper course of construction resulted finally in the com- mencement of the work on a route surveyed between Fremont, Ohio, and the Maumee River. In accordance,there- with, on June 19, 1839, the driving of the first pile took place in the vicinity of the View of the interior of Buffet Car No. 191, on the Lake Shore Limited. site, at Fremont, where the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway station was subsequently built. The substructure of this road was composed of piles having a diameter of from twelve to sixteen inches, and a length varying (in order to assure a uniform level), from seven to twenty-eight feet. Of these 2112 were used, per mile. They were set in four rows, at intervals of ten feet. Planks of chest- nut wood were laid along the tops, and across the latter were placed the ties, six feet apart. 1760 ties, per mile, were necessary for the double track. The superstructure was then completed by fastening upon the ties, stringers View of the end of Baggage Car No. 2502, on the Lake Shore Limited showing the measuring eight by eight electric dynamo that supplies the electric light for the train. inches, which in turn were overlaid with light strap-iron rails. Many of the piles thus AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 85 driven remained standing, as originally set, for a period of more than fifty years. The iron used in the work of construction was estimated to cost $80.00 per ton; the spikes, nine cents per pound; the ties, of white oak, twenty cents apiece; and the lum- ber, about $7.50 per thousand feet. On this basis, the expense of building the 177 miles of double track road, then in process of construction, was computed by Cyrus Williams, the chief engineer, at $16,000 per mile, making a total of $2,653,676. When the frantic speculative tendencies, prevailing about the year 1836, had reached their climax in the memorable financial revulsion which followed, one-third of the line between Toledo and Cleveland was ready for the attachment of the iron ribbon. The monetary crash, however, overwhelmed the company, and stopped the work in 1843, before any cars had run on the road. The Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, opened in 1853, and successful from the outset, was destined to reap the harvest anticipated by the impracticable promoters of the enter- prise abandoned ten years before. If the organizers of the defunct scheme, whose record has been thus briefly traced, had put their bonds on a basis for negotiation, by completing and operating a considerable portion of their road, the Ohio Railroad Company's line would, doubtless, have become a component part of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way System. The facts embodied in the foregoing review of the Ohio Railroad Company were gathered by the late Clark Waggoner, of Toledo, and compiled by the lamented C. P. Leland. CHAPTER XV.

RAILROADS AND RAILROADING; PAST AND PRESENT.

COMPARISON of the railroad transportation facilities of seventy years ago with those of the present time, both as to their extent and quality, reveals a develop- ment, the full grasp of which subjects the mind to unwonted tension. As indi- cated by the opening chapter of this volume, the period 1829-1830 was the dawn of practi- cal steam railroading in the world. Edward Pease and George Stephenson had, however, built the Stockton & Railroad, a short line for general traffic, in 1825. For the use of animal power, moreover, a line two miles in extent (the earliest in the United States) had been constructed in 1826, by Colonel J. H. Perkins and Gridley Bryant, to haul granite from the quarries near Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1827, also, the Mauch Chunk Rail- road, designed to carry coal, was finished to the Lehigh River, a distance of thirteen miles. The scene of the most important event of the wonderful epoch then begun was the stretch of country between Liverpool and Manchester, England. For the purposes of contrast, however, we take as an initial period the date of the earliest, steam railroad operation in America. The United States, containing then about one-sixth of its present population, responded with alacrity to the industrial stimulus of Stephenson's demonstration, and the State of South Carolina furnished the first example of a steam railroad in use on this conti- nent. A claim of precedence is put forth, however, for the running of a locomotive at Hones- dale, Pennsylvania, on the railroad of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company (finished in 1828, to the terminus of the canal), in August, 1829, one month earlier than the use of steam as a railroad tractive power by the South Carolina Railroad Company. Be this as it may, the latter was the first corporation in this country to run a locomotive train for regular traffic and on a line of one hundred continuous miles, The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad was chartered in 1826, and opened for business September 12, 1831, but there is no available record of the motive power in use at the outset. The commencement of steam railroad locomotion in the States was on the Boston & Providence Railroad, between Boston and Canton, a distance of fifteen AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 87 miles. This event took place in September, 1834. On July 27, 1835, the first train passed over the entire line, from Boston to Providence. The railroad from Washington to Balti- more was regularly opened for business, on August 25, 1835. This event is especially sig- nificant in its connection with the inception of the Railway Mail Service, which will be appropriately treated in a distinct chapter of this volume. The weight of the first locomotive successfully used, Stephenson's Rocket, was about five tons. That primitive machine has been minutely portrayed and fittingly illus- trated in a preceding chapter. Similar in weight were the earliest engines used in this

No. 602. Type, Ten-Wheeled Passenger. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Dimensions: Cylinders 20 by 28 inches; outside diameter of driving wheels, 80 inches; diameter of boiler, front end 66 inches; lire box, 121 inches long by 41 inches wide; 345 flues, 2 inches in diameter and .15 feet % inches long; boiler pressure, 200 lbs.; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 16 feet 6 inches; wheel base, driving, 16 feet 6 inches; wheel base, engine, 27 feet 4 inches; wheel base, engine and tender, 55 feet 1 inch; weight on drivers, 133,000 lbs.; total weight, engine, 171,600 lbs.; total weight, engine and tender, 283,800 lbs.

country. In contrast therewith, the reader will observe with interest the figures in regard to the weight, dimensions and important features, that accompany the engravings of var- ious types of locomotives, built by the Brooks Locomotive Works for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, which appear at intervals throughout this history. Especial attention is called to the engraving and dimensions of engine No. 602, the heaviest ten-wheeled passenger engine in the world. Another type worthy of notice, is that depicted by the engraving of engine No. 712, a consolidation freight engine. These are among the recent products of the Brooks Locomotive Works. Another comparison broadens the contrast between then and now. The total extent of railroad track used in the United States in 1842 and 1843, was 4,200 miles. In 1851 the number of miles had increased to 8,754. At the close of 1893, 177,853 miles of track L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM were in operation, representing a valuation of $11,000,000,000, $6,000,000,000 thereof being indebtedness, and $5,000,000,000 being stock. The entire world had, at the latter period, about 378,000 miles of railroad, which would suffice to encircle the globe fifteen times. At the end of 1898, this country had 184,894 miles of railroad, 1,915 miles of which were constructed during that year. There were, besides, 60,344 miles of second track, third track and sidings—in all, 245,238 miles. Of this trackage but 24,435 miles were of iron, the rest being of steel. 36,746 locomotives were used on these tracks, in 1898, with 2 5,844 passenger cars, and 1,284,807 freight cars. A very large proportion of the aggregate of coaches and cars has been recently equipped with contrivances insuring a greater degree of to passengers and trainmen. Aside from those improvements of various kinds, which during the past thirty-five years have incalculably enhanced the rapidity and comfort of railway travel, any inventions, that

No. 712. Type, Consolidation Freight. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Dimensions: Cylinders, 21 by 30 inches; outside diameter of driving wheels, 62 inches; diameter of boiler, front end 64% inches; fire box, 121 inches long by 41 inches wide; 315 flues, 2 inches in diameter, and 15 feet lyj inches long; boiler pressure 200 lbs.; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 17 feet 4 inches; wheel base, driving, 17 feet 4 inches; wheel base, engine, 25 feet 6 inches; wheel base, engine and tender, 55 feet A\i inches; weight on drivers, 150,000 lbs.; total weight.engine, 168,000lbs.; total weight, engine and tender, 288,000lbs. tend to assure almost certain exemption from its hazards, are matters of supreme moment. Thus one of the most salient features of modern railroad operation, and one in which the wonderful development of railroad science is most impressively manifest, consists of the safety appliances introduced into general use within a comparatively recent period. The necessities of our time had increased the size, frequency and speed of trains to such an extent as to urgently stimulate the energy of American inventors to the devising of means by which the dangers of rapid transit by rail should be averted. They proved equal to the AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES.

occasion, and nobly maintained their leadership in the mechanical advancement of the century. The Westinghouse air brake and the M. C. B. automatic coupler, although not yet affording absolute immunity from the casualties incident to train manipulation and travel, have happily minimized the liability formerly incurred. Especially has the individual pro- tection, assured by the latter invention, made it henceforth impossible that seven thousand persons should yearly be victims of injury or death in handling trains on American rail- roads. Nearly a million automatic couplers are now in use throughout this country. In this respect, the Lake Shore & Michigan SoutherBn Railway Company was among mr\\\ iL 'Fii* 3 iw^glSWBE^Wi. Hi ,lJ.i. FITS' ai 'i-,-'1- Bttli^lnM " --I.I-H, ;,-__ "• • " -*-.-— -:=sr*r!«--i3fe5J--1L^--1 y

View of the exterior of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's foundry at Elkhart, Indiana. the first to comply in a thorough manner, at great expense, with the requirements of the Inter-State Commerce act. The engines of the road have the American brake on all drivers, and the Westinghouse brake is attached to the tenders and trains. It is essen- tial to the security of passengers that the brakes shall be susceptible of quick and simultan- eous operation on all the car wheels, and subject to the instant control of the engineer. In the Westinghouse invention, the brakes are operated by pressure of air through the cylinder against a piston rod which moves the brake-lever, as in the case of the dis- carded hand brake. An air pump on the locomotive furnishes the air pressure to a car 90 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM reservoir, which communicates it through pipes with flexible connections, between the cars. The application of the brakes involves a reduction of the pressure in the pipes, which opens an automatic through which air issues from the reservoir to the brake-cylinder. Thus, in case of a parting of the train, or a leakage in the pipe, the brakes automatically act. The more abrupt the lessening of the pipe pressure, the more sudden the stoppage of the train. Recent experimentation with these air brakes on a train consisting of 50 cars, going at a speed of 40 miles per hour, disclosed an average space of 581 feet passed over between the moment of applying the brake and the stopping of the train. This distance was about one-third of the train length, and no jerking or shock accompanied the cessation of motion. The importance of the safety contrivances introduced on our railroads during the last four years is of infinite moment, in view of the fact that, during the year ending June 30, 1896, 1861 railroad employees were killed in service in this country, and 29,969 were injured. Within the same period, 181 passengers were killed and 2,873 were injured. Of other persons, the number killed on railroads in the United States, in the year ending June 30, 1896, was 4,406, and the number injured was 5,845. The aggregate assets of the railroad companies of the United States, in 1898, were $12,285,367,702, with a total indebtedness of $11,968,751,204. In the above mentioned year, 514,982,238 passengers were conveyed on these lines, and the transportation of freight amounted to 912,973,853 tons. The roads earned from their passenger traffic, in the same year, $272,589,591, and from the freight carriage, $868,924,526. The net amount earned was $389,666,474. These computations, extracted from "Poor's Manual," seem stupendous; but when the twentieth century shall have waxed to its meridian, the railroad statistics of that time will, perhaps, cause them to appear as insignificant, as do those of seventy years ago in comparison with ours of today. In the United States, there were no railroads between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast, in 1851. Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska had never heard the bell or whistle of a locomotive. Illinois had two railroads, one being the Galena & Chicago Union line, running from Chicago to Elgin, a distance of 42 miles. Of this, William B. Ogden was president, and John B. Turner, superintendent. The other was the Sangamon & Morgan Railroad, extending from Springfield to Naples, 54 miles. Its president was Robert Schuyler. These two lines had 96 miles of road. Thirty-one years later, the State of Illinois boasted 8,541 miles of track, and led all the other states in this respect. Looking eastward, a half century ago, trains were running from New York to Pough- keepsie, 75 miles, on the Hudson River Railroad. At the latter point, passengers desiring AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 91 to proceed to Albany were directed to the steamboat, "Armenia." The ''Albany & Buffalo Railroad Line," at that time, had its eastern terminus-at Albany. This line included five distinct railroads, namely: The Albany & Schenectady Railroad, J. T. Norton, president; the Utica & Schenectady Railroad, , president, C. Vibbard, superinten- dent; The Syracuse & Utica Railroad, John Wilkinson, president and superintendent; the Rochester & Syracuse Railroad, H. B. Gibson president, and Charles Dutton, superinten- dent; and the Buffalo & Rochester Railroad, Joseph Field, president, and Henry Martin,

View of the exterior of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's machine shop at Elkhart, Indiana. superintendent. The length of the line was 328 miles, and the fare from Albany to Buffalo was $9. Fourteen hours were required for the day express to make this distance, leaving Albany at 2:30 A. M. and reaching Buffalo at 9:30 P. M. Sixteen hours were consumed by the night train, between the two points. In 1843, however, just after the whole line was finished by the addition of the fifth link of the chain, the trip was a much slower one, as is indicated by the following extract from a newspaper of that day. "At a railroad meeting held recently in Albany, all the companies between Albany and Buffalo were represented 92 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

by delegates. They resolved to run one daily train each way, stopping over night at Auburn. After March 15, two daily trains to run through in twenty-five hours. Fare, $10. " Dinsmore's American Railway Guide," published in the spring of 1851, from which, rescued from oblivion by the faithful hand of the late C. P. Leland, much of the foregoing detail of this chapter is taken, represents, also, the Michigan Southern Railroad Company as running one train daily each way, from Monroe, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, to Coldwater, Michigan, a distance of 90 miles. Seven railroad companies were then urging the work of construction at different points between Chicago and Buffalo. The Michigan Southern and Michigan Central rail- road companies, under the presidency of George Bliss and John M. Forbes, respectively, were especially competing to reach the former city, both succeeding in May, 1852. The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati, and Little Miami, railroads, formed a complete line between Cleveland and Cincinnati, February 22, 1851. Alfred Kelly was president of the former, and Jacob Strader, of the latter. The Pennsylvania Railroad, under the presidency of William C. Patterson, appears in Dinsmore's Guide as being then in operation from Dillersville to Hollisdaysburg, 174 miles. Two pages of the Guide are devoted to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, its main line running 179 miles, from Baltimore to Cumberland, with a branch to Washington. Between the early and late periods of railroading, the comparison is reversed, in regard to the rates of freight and passenger conveyance. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway carried, in 1892, for an average distance of 178 miles, nearly 14,000,000 tons of freight. The cost of transportation averaged 60 cents per mile, for 100 tons, a rate which furnishes a suggestive contrast with the freight charges on the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, in 1839, as noted on Page 29, Chapter III, of this work. As to the volume of freight transportation then and now, who would have dreamed, on the organization of the Michigan Southern Railroad, in 1837, of the mighty industries until then dormant in the "upper peninsula," which were, within the lifetime of men then active in business affairs, to pour their vast treasures into the channels of inland commerce? As to facilities for furnishing the equipment to haul the yearly increasing freight tonnage of this country, who would have believed that before the close of the century, a single con- cern in a suburb of Chicago would manufacture 100 complete freight cars in a day of eight hours? During a period of fifteen recent years, the transportation of ore from the Lake Superior region was 134,105,467 tons. At an average of 50 cars to each ore train (the ordinary number), and of 20 tons of ore per car, or 1,000 tons per train, the amount of ore transported from the great mines of that region would load 27 trains of cars, standing end AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 93 to end, each train extending 11,260 miles, or twelve times girdling the globe at the equator. A very interesting feature of the only Railway Guide, extant in America in 1851, is the view therein afforded of resourceful men, then leading the van of railroad enterprises, or destined to make their names familiar as household words, in the railway annals of a t later period. A brief individual mention of this array of pioneers in the development of

View of the interior of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's machine shop at Elkhart, Indiana, showing the tank department. railroading in the United States is not only appropriate in this narrative, but will con- stitute an enduring record, in concise form, of their early spheres of endeavor. Allusion has already been made to some of these men in connection with their respective com- panies. Others appear on the pages of the Guide, in the business relations then borne by them. The New Jersey Railroad had for its president, J. Phillips Phoenix, with John P. Jackson, as vice-president. Robert L. Stevens was president, and Edwin A. Stevens, superintendent, of the Camden & Amboy Railroad. Of the Philadelphia & Reading Rail- road, John Tucker was president, and G. A. Nicholls, superintendent. S. M. Felton 94 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

was president, and I. R. Trimble, superintendent, of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Balti- more Railroad. The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was presided over by Albert H. Tracy. The chief engineer and superintendent of the Michigan Central Railroad was John W. Brooks, who was subsequently its president. Alexander Mitchell was prominent in the banking business, but his financial resources and mental acumen were largely exercised in propping up the Milwaukee & Mis- sissippi Railroad, the affairs of which were seriously involved. H. H. Porter, then at home

View of the interior of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's machine shop at Elkhart. Indiana, showing the machine department in Maine, not out of his "teens," was about leaving for Chicago, to work under Superin- tendent John B. Turner, of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad. S. S. Morrill was foreman of construction on the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, with a yearning ambition to become a passenger train conductor on the completion of the road to Waukesha, a dis- tance of 20 miles. John F. Tracy was the young superintendent of the Erie & North East Railroad, the history of which, herein embodied, forms part of the record of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System. Thomas A. Scott and J. N. McCullough were subordinates in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad, respectively. J. H. Devereux AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 95 was engaged in railroad surveying between Erie and Cleveland. Charles Paine and John Newell were surveyors on a line in Vermont. M. L. Sykes, Jr., was established as a clerk in the offiice of Charles F. Pond, then president of'the New Haven, Hartford & Springfield Railroad. In this office he was after- ward succeeded by A. F. Smith, who was also superintendent, in 1851, of the Cumberland Valley Rairload. At this period, L. Tilton was superintendent of the Cheshire Railroad, and R. B. Mason, of the New York & New Haven Railroad. , then sixteen years old, was employed on a farm at Roxbury, Delaware county, New York. Charles Paine, whose nephew, also Charles Paine, grew to prominence in the Lake Shore & Michi- gan Southern Railway System, was president of the Vermont Central Railroad, of which James Moore was superintendent. A general store in Whitewater, Wisconsin, had for its proprietor at that time, Albert Keep. William H. Vanderbilt was then farming on Staten Island, New York, and first loomed up as a railroad magnate, at the time of his election as vice-president of the Harlem Railroad, in 1865. William P. Burrall was at that period president of the Housatonic Railroad; E. Ferris Bishop, of the Naugatuck Railroad; Thomas Whittemore, of the Ver- mont & Massachusetts Railroad; J. Follet, of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad; Jacob Foster, of the Fitchburg Railroad; Charles H. Warren, of the Boston & Providence Rail- road; D. A. Neal, of the Eastern Railroad; and John Howe, of the Boston & Maine Rail- road. Washington Hunt was president, and Hiram Walbridge, superintendent, of the Lockport & Niagara Railroad, 24 miles long. The Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad was, at that day, under the superin- tendence of Edward H. Broadhead, who was shortly called to the same position in con- nection with the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, afterward absorbed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. Herman Haupt, who attained later prominence in rail- road affairs, is among those mentioued in Dinsmore's booklet. Chester W. Chapman appears therein as president of the Railroad. The only receiver, men- tioned by Mr. Dinsmore, is Moses Maynard, Jr., who was acting in that capacity for the Long Island Railroad. Three railroads were under the presidency of Robert Schuyler, namely: the Sangamon & Morgan, the Harlem, and the New York & New Haven lines. The Boston & Worcester Railroad was officered by Thomas Hopkinson, president, and G. Twitchell, superintendent; William H. Swift was president, and Henry Gray, superin- tendent, of the Western Railroad, and the Madison & Indiana Railroad had for its presi- dent and superintendent, . The following table of yearly earnings, for a period of forty-one years, shows the development of the several original constituents of the L. S. & M. S. Ry. Company. L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

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£-00050*—iC^ 00 00 00 00 00 X) 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 X) 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50 00 00 0000 So AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 97

In connection with the foregoing tabulation, the following supplementary notes are herewith grouped together, as forming a synopsis of important events in relation to the development of the consolidated system.

a. Animal power used up to June, 1837. On the 20th of that month the first locomotive on the road, the "Adrian, No. 1" (Baldwin, No. 80), was unloaded from a sailing vessel, at Toledo. b. The only receivership in the records of any of the original companies composing the present L. S. & M. S. Ry. System was instituted, in the person of Willard J. Daniels, of Lockport, New York. e. Strap-rails in use until 1851. Leased in perpetuity, August 1, 1849, to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company. d. Constructed by the State of Michigan and under State management until November 30, 1846. e. Completed to Chicago, May 22, 1852. /. Open through January 24, 1853. Absorbed by Cleveland & Toledo R. R., September 1, 1853. Junction R. R. (Northern Division), opened October 24, 1853, from West Cleveland to Sandusky; and April 24, 1855, to Toledo. ST. Four months, September 1, to December 31,1853. h. Ten months, up to October 31, 1867. Leased then to the C. P. & A. R. R., afterward consolidated, March 19,1869. i. Opened from Cleveland to Erie, November 20, 1852. •j. November and December earnings of Cleveland & Toledo R. R. included. k. Lake Shore Railway, composed of C. P. & A. R. R. and C. & T. R. R. I. Five months, to May 31, 1869. m. Opened January 19, 1852, six feet gauge until December 7, 1853. Traffic interrupted by "Erie War," until February 1, 1854, when the first continuous train was run from Buffalo to Erie. n. Opened February 22, 1852, from Buffalo to State Line. o. Contract covering period from November 19, 1853, to May 15, 1867, to operate as one line, the Erie & Northeast, and the Buffalo & State Line railroads. Both consolidated on latter date, into Buffalo & Erie R. R. p. Up to August 1, 1869, seven months. Absorbed by L. S. & M S. Ry. q. Chicago to Erie, June 1; Chicago to Buffalo, August 1. r. Five months, consolidated with Lake Shore Railway, May 31, 1869. s. Maximum annual earnings of first twenty years followed by panic of 1857. t. Maximum annual earnings of the second twenty years. The development of transportation facilities by our railroads since the year 1837, when as heretofore narrated in this volume, the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company issued its first freight schedule, is in no particular more notable than in the steady decline in the rates of carriage. The reduction is especially manifest since Bessemer's invention afforded the railroad companies the advantage of the modern steel rails. The average rate on 100 tons, per mile, was in 1854, $3.51; in i860, $2.16; in 1865, $2.90; in 1870 (when the economical effect of the Bessemer process was in palpable evidence), $1.50; in 1875, $1.18; in 1880, $0.75, and in 1885, $0.55. This chapter may be appropriately closed by a letter copied from an issue of the "Toledo Blade," of 1882, which shows in realistic style the crude and somewhat comical modes of primitive railway travel. The communication is as follows: "To the editor of the Toledo Blade: "During most of the year 1841, I was employed as repairing agent of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, then in operation between Toledo and Adrian. According to schedule time, a passenger train with one coach 98 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM would leave Toledo in the morning, make the run to Adrian, and return to Toledo in the afternoon, arriving about 6:00 p. m. The passenger car then used was about the size now in use upon our city street railroads, and was divided into three compartments, each having a front and rear seat, facing each other and running from side to side of the car, with a side entrance to each com- partment. The track was <$cc*Ze 7" 2' ironed with the flat bar "strap rail," as it was called. As my home was in Toledo, I found it necessary to go on each Monday morning over the road, spending the week in making such repairs as were necessary, and re- 777777777777777777777777777777 turning home on Saturday evening "In December, 1841, one Saturday, the train left Toledo on time for Adrian. Engraving of a cross-section of old-style, strap-rail track at tie, showing the general plan of construction. 1 was then at Palmyra, in- tending to take the train for Adrian and return to Toledo that evening. Owing to a severe storm of rain, freezing as it fell, the track became covered with ice. "The train reached Palmyra about 4:00 p. m. I entered the middle compartment of the car, as the train started for Adrian, and met in the car J. Baron Davis and wife, of Toledo, sitting in the forward seat. Being acquainted with them I thought I would take a seat with them, but seeing the cushion upon the seat out of place, I took the rear seat, facing the one I had rejected. We had not gone more than half a mile from Palmyra, when a "snake-head," as they were called (the end of a loosened bar), came crashing through the floor of the car, passing diagonally through the seat I had left vacant, the end of the bar striking me in my neck under the chin, and pushing me backward with such force as to break through the panel work partition which divides the compartments of the car. Just at the moment, the other end of the bar was torn from the track and carried along with the car. Recovering my J'loor of Car consciousness a little, I found myself with head and shoulders protrud- ing through the broken partition, while I held the assaulting ''snake- head" firmly grasped in both my hands. " Being a stormy day, I had an extra amount of clothing about my neck, which the bar did not penetrate, so that my injuries were not serious. The train was stopped. Frederick Bis- 1 sell, the conductor, was Illustration of a "snake-head. much frightened. Before leaving the spot, the guilty "sn^ke-head" was once more spiked down, and we moved on, reaching Adrian at 6:00 p. m., having made the run of 33 miles in ten hours. The train left Adrian for Toledo at 7:00 p. m., and worked its wa.y along the ice-covered track until we got out of wood and water, when we picked up sticks in the woods and replenished the fire, and with pails dipped up water from the ditches and fed the boiler, and made another run toward Toledo. Passing Sylvania we got the train to a point four miles from Toledo, when, being again out of steam, wood, and water, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier to foot it the rest of the way, than to AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 99 try to get the train along any farther. So we left the locomotive and cars standing upon the track and walked into the city, reaching here about 2:30 a. m. I was rather lame and sore from contact with the "snake-head," but gratified that we were enjoying the "modern improvement, railway travel." " M BRIGHAM. "Toledo, January 13, 1882." Illustrations of the "strap-rail" and "snake-head," mentioned in this contribution, and also of the stringers, cross- ties, etc., used in the railroad construction of the period referred to, appear in the course of this chapter. While the dimensions, that form a part of the illustrations, appearing herewith, do not follow exactly those of the strap-rail tracks, laid by any of the early railroads^ whose histories are presented in this volume, yet the discrepancies are so slight as to interfere very little with the illustrative value of any of these three cuts. The strap-rail track, which might be termed a makeshift, served its pur- pose, in a period when railroad construction, in order to be had at all, had to be low in price.

scP.ca.Ze

J2" Engraving of a cross-section of old-style strap-rail track at tie showing the details of construction. CHAPTER XVI.

OLD-TIHE NEWSPAPER ITEMS CONCERNING RAILROADS.

HE extant files of weekly publications issued fifty-eight years ago, as compared with

QJ the weekly and daily papers of today, show on the part of the former a notable dearth of comment and report in relation to the business of railroading. This paucity of matter pertaining to a subject, so interesting to the general reader, is mainly attributable to the fact that in 1842, the period of our present reference, but 4,200 miles of railroad were in operation in the United States. The number and size of the newspaper publications of that date were also corre- spondingly small, and the telegraph was unknown. Few and brief as were these items, however, their reproduction in the pages of this volume furnishes a suggestive idea of the of our primitive railroad work and the quaint method of its treatment by the jour- nalists of the olden time. We quote the following paragraphs from Eastern and Western papers published in 1842 and 1843 : " A few years since, fifteen days and $116 were required to go from Boston to Baltimore ; now, three days and $3? suffices "—Park Benjamin's " New World," December 30, 1843. '• WHOLESALE MAIL STAGE CONTRACTORS.—The 'Cincinnati Gazette,' Dec, 1843, states that the firm of Neil, Moore & Co. are very large mail contractors, and with the branch, under the management of D. Talmage, cover over 620,000 miles of service per annum in the States of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan, operating 290 teams and 100 coaches, and employing 25 agents and 290 drivers. The capital employed by the company in their stage business is estimated at about $250,000, and their annual expenses at about $300,000."— "New World," 1843. "ACCIDENT ON THE UTICA & SCHENECTADY RAILROAD.—On Friday, March 31, 1843, about five miles west of Schenectady, in consequence of some mismanagement not divulged, two trains upon the same track, going in opposite directions, came in sight of each other; the engine-men instantly shut off steam, reversed action, and with the firemen all leaped from their engines, when the trains struck with awful violence; but owing to the distance between the trains when the engines were reversed, the collision, though tremendous, did not injure any person. The engine, tender and passenger cars going west were utterly demolished as also were the engine, tender, baggage and post office cars of the train coming east. Providentially, none of the passenger cars in this last train were injured in the least. Two hundred and fifty passengers were in these cars, and their escape can only be regarded as miraculous. There were no passengers in the train going west.''—" New World," 1843. " SUCCESSFUL STAGE OPPOSITION TO THE ALBANY & SCHENECTADY R. R.—The stage company car- ried 30,356 passengers between Albany and Schenectady, from April 1 to Nov. 1, 1842, and declared a semi- annual dividend of ten per cent."—"New World," 1843. 100 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 101

" NEW YORK & ERIE RAILROAD.—The income of the road from the time of its completion toGoshen up to the first of February, 1843, was $146,453.68, being a daily average of $326.17, and making a yearly income of $112,171.07. The whole expenses incurred for five and one-half months, previous to the 20th of October last, were, for the railroad and steamboat to Piermont, $33,121.30. The expenses of the year, at the same rate, would be $72,264.84, leaving surplus of receipts over expenses amounting to $39,906.23."—" New World," 1843.

View of the exterior of .the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's "T" rail shop at Elkhart, Indiana. " NEW YORK & ERIE RAILROAD.—We congratulate the public on the election of an entirely new Board of Directors of this important work. The affairs of the company are to undergo a rigid examination, and the assignment, if possible, will be removed. The Directors have issued the following card : " 'TO THE PUBLIC. " ' NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 1843. '"The undersigned, at the earnest solicitation of their fellow citizens, having consented to be elected Directors of the New York & Erie Railroad Company, feel it to be their duty to state tQ the public distinctly the. 102 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM conditions upon which they have undertaken this trust. They have been informed that the affairs of the com- pany are in an embarrassed state, and, unless a very great change takes place, its existence will, in all proba- bility, terminate with the present year. " 'The new Board of Directors intend immediately to examine into its condition, and report to the public the result of their labors. Should they find it impracticable to continue the work, they will make known their views and retire from the direction. On the other hand, should they find its embarrassments not so formidable but that, with proper assistance, they can be surmounted, they will call upon the public to aid them in its com- pletion. " ' If this call is responded to, the undersigned will continue their connection with the company; if not, the responsibility of a failure must rest with them. " ' David Austin, James Brown, D. A. Cushman, C. M. Leupp, Francis W. Edmonds, Silas Brown, Anson G. Phelps, Horatio Allen, Theodore Dehon, Matthew Morgan, Paul Spofford, William Maxwell. Several other members of the Board being absent from the city, their names could not be affixed to this document.' "—" New World," 1843. The following item and advertisement appeared in the "Toledo Weekly Blade " of January 20, 1837 : ' It affords us pleasure to announce the arrival of the long expected locomotive (Adrian, Baldwin No. 80) for the Erie & Kalamazoo R. R. The business of our place has been embarrassed for want of it; goods have accumulated at our wharves faster than we could transport them to the interior on cars drawn by horses, and as a natural consequence several of our warehouses are now crowded to their utmost capacity. It is expected that the engine will be in operation in a few days, and then, we trust, goods and merchandise will be forwarded as fast as they arrive. A little allowance, however, must be made for the time necessary to disencumber our ware- houses of the large stock already on hand."

TO EMIGRANTS AND TRAVELERS. The Erie and Kalamazoo Raiload is now in full operation between TOLEDO AND ADRIAN! During the ensuing season trains of cars will nin daily to Adrian, tbere connecting with aline of Stages for the West, Michigan City, Chicago and Wisconsin Territory. Emigrants and others destined for Indiana. Illi- nois and the Western part of Michigan I^TWill Save Two Daysjj^ and the corresponding expense, by taking this route in preference to the more lengthened, tedious and expensive route heretofore traveled. All baggage at the risk of the owners. EDWARD BISSELL, I Commissioners W. P. DANIELS. -E. & K. R R GEORGE CRANE, ( Co. A. HUGHES, Superintendent Western Stage Company.

"ON TO TUCKAHOE. "HARLEM RAILROAD.—The condition and affairs of this road have been, and will continue to be, the subject of considerable discussion, as well among individuals as in the columns of the daily press. We have hitherto refrained from the expression of an opinion, either pro or con, in regard to it, not because we have not AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 103 felt an interest, but because a press of other matter has occupied our time and space. Nor should we have broached upon it had we not listened to the tirades of malicious abuse which have assailed our ears from a writer in one of the morning papers until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. " In a recent article he has the following: ' We learn that this concern is making a desperate effort to construct their railroad up to Tuckahoe factory, mainly by loans from Westchester, with the promise of extend, ing to White Plains, and thus to bubble up the stock. * * If we are correctly informed, they have applied to self interest, and to local feeling, to induce the owner of another large marble quarry to extend the road to Tuck- ahoe, mainly on its subscriptions ; but the road to be built in a "make-shift manner," and not in conformity to the advice of engineers of intelligence and capacity that have been consulted on this subject.' "An effort has been made to extend the road to Tuckahoe factory; and as an evidence of the probability of its success, we would state that the contractors, whom the company have employed, ' broke ground' for the

View of the exterior of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company's roundhouse at Elkhart, Indiana. extension on Monday morning, the 30th ult.; and further, that the company are now in possession of ample means and resources to finish, without delay, the contemplated improvement, and this, too, not 'mainly by loans in Westchester,' but from the voluntary contributions of a great number of stockholders, both in this city and in Westchester. "That there was anything ' desperate' in the character of the effort is most unqualifiedly false. So much was it of an opposite nature that the 'bulls' and 'bears.' as they are denominated, who have speculated on the stock of the company were totally unaware of its having been made until the arrangements had all been com- pleted, and operations had actually been commenced. " So far as an appeal to ' self interest' and local feeling is concerned, our contemporary has been 'cor- rectly informed,' for it is for no other motives that the parties, either in Westchester or in New York, have been desired to act. But they have required no appeal, no urging, to participate in an undertaking which was so clearly designed for the interest and advantage of all concerned. 104 L.rS. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

" So far as any one individual having been the prin- cipal contributor toward the present extension, a degree of 1842. rivalry has been manifested by the residents in the vicin- SEASON ARRANGEMENTS. ity in the assistance which they have afforded."—"New MICHIGAN World," Nov. 4, 1843. " THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE FROM BOSTON.—About 3 half past three o'clock yesterday afternoon, two locomotive SOUTHERN RAILROAD, engines, the Hampton and the Norfolk, with their tenders, arrived at Greenbush from Chatham. They came over the FROM MONROE TO ADRIAN. road without encountering any other obstacle than that The most direct, expeditious and safest Route. presented by a foot of snow. Thus the railroad chain between Albany and Boston is at length complete. The public are respectfully nolified ihiE the SOUTHERN RAILROAD is now in complete operation from Monroe " It will be seen by an advertisement that the first to Adrian ; nnd, being well furnished with Locomotives, Passenger and Frieght Cars, will transport Freight and train of cars will start from the city for the east on Tues- Passengers safer, cheaper, and more erpediliously than day morning. The 'Clermont Eagle,' speaking of this im- any other road in competition. portant work, says: This road was built by the State of Michigan, at an " ' The road runs to the depot of the , expense of and the manufacturers, fishermen and importers of Massa- Four hundred thousand Dollars! chusetts will pour over it the treasures from fifteen tribu- and in its construction is not surpassed by any in the tary railroads into the lap of the boundless West, and United States. receive, in return, the products of 25,000 miles of canals, PASSENGERS railroads, lakes and rivers.' "—"Albany Daily Advertiser," Going to Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin. Iowa, and Dec. 27,1841. Western, Southern, or Cenirul parts oV Michigan, will perceive, by referring to the Map, that no Public thoroughfare is so direct for them as the SOUTHERN RAILROAD. We present on this page a facsimile, re- \TT Great care is taken in keeping this Road in good repair, duced in size, of a handbill, issued by the South- thereby atoiding accident* simitar to those occurring vpon other roads almost daily, jeopardizing "life and limb." ern (afterward Michigan Southern) Railroad, in STEAMBOATS 1842, giving the "season arrangements" for that Are running FROM MOMIOE TO BUFFALO, in connection year, and presenting, in alluring terms, the ad- with the Cars upon this E:>ad. STAGES, CARRIAGES, WAGONS, ETC. vantages of its service over that of its compet- Are always in atlendance to convey Goods and Passen- gers to any direction from Adrian. itors, then represented by but two companies, (jc^a Passengers passing over this Road will be met at the-boats by Railroad Cars, and conveyed to-the Depot, the Central (aferward Michigan Central) and and from the Depot to the Boats, without charge. Cars leave Monroe daily for Adrian, Sundays excepted, Erie & Kalamazoo railroads. Therefore this at 8 o'clock A. M. and leave Adrian for Monros at 'Z o'clock P. M. Running lime, 2i hours. warning about the ' 'accidents * * * occur- The public may rely upon statement here made, and their patronage is respectfully solicited. ing upon other roads almost daily, jeopardizing J. H. CLEVELAND, July, 1842. Superintendant S. R. R. 'life and limb,'" could not have referred more Rob'l. D. Foy, Printer, 159 Main si. Buffalo. directly to these last-mentioned roads, had their names appeared in full. The italicized portions of the handbill indicate a very lively competition between these roads. The time required to traverse the 33 miles between Monroe and Adrian was two and one-half hours, which was at the rate of 13 1-5 miles per hour CHAPTER XVII.

THE FASTEST LONG DISTANCE RAILROAD RUN ON RECORD.

NE of the most reputable authorities on railroad mechanism, in its issue of Novem- ber, 1895, contained the following mention: "The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway has probably the finest track in the world for making a long distance fast run." Another periodical devoted to railway affairs, of equally high standing, in its November number of the same year, commented thus : "There is no road in this country on which high speeds can be made with more comfort to the traveler than on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway." These tributes were based on the memorable exploit by which, on October 24, 1895, all past records of celerity in long distance travel were excelled by this road. The details of such a wonderful and daring locomotive race against time attest the solidity and thorough finish of its structural pathway and the completeness of its mechanical appointments. The narrative of such an accomplishment furnishes, moreover, the material for a peculiarly interesting chapter in the present historical review of this road. On August 22, 1895, the London & Northwestern Railway and the Caledonian Rail- way, which constitute the West Coast Route from London, England, to Aberdeen, Scotland, ran a train between these cities, a distance of 539.75 miles, at the running rate of 63.93 miles per hour. On the eleventh day of September following the making of the English record, before unequaled, it was surpassed in this country by the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, with a train more than twice as heavy as that used in the English achieve- ment, though over a somewhat shorter route. The latter company covered the distance between New York City and East Buffalo, 436.32 miles, at an average running rate of 64.22 miles per hour. Six weeks later came the world-vanquishing performance of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company in rushing a train (October 24, 1895), less heavy than that of its American relative, though more than double the weight of the English train, from the outskirts of Chicago to the yards at Buffalo, an interval of 510.1 miles, 105 106 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

in an actual running time of 470 minutes and 20 seconds, or an average of 65.07 miles per hour. The utmost velocity for a single mile attained during the decisive run was at the rate of 92.32 miles an hour. Eight consecutive miles were made at the rate of 85.44 miles per hour; 33 consecutive miles were made at the rate of 80.6 miles per hour ; and the speed for 86 consecutive miles of the entire distance averaged 72.91 miles per hour. Other spaces were passed over at the following rates : 289.3 consecutive miles at the rate of 66.68 miles per hour, deducting stops.

(t it it Iit i (i it ti ( t i i i i 181.5 69. 67 71 ; i i i 75-06 i i i 1 l i without stops. V it ii it t ( u i ( 59 76. 08 52 t 1 i i 78 i t it 1 i (i i i 42 i i it 79',04 i i t 1 1 i it i i

No. ! Type, Eight-Wheeled Passenger. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Dimensions: Cylinders, 17 by 24 inches; diameter of driving wheels, 72 inches; diameter of boiler, 52 inches; fire box, 78 inches long by 34inches wide; 202 flues, 2 inches in diameter, 12 feet long; boiler pressure 180 lbs.; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 9 feet; wheel base, driving, 9 feet; wheel base, engine, 23 feet 9 inches; total wheel base, 45 feet 8 inches; weight of tender, 70,000 lbs.; weight on drivers, 65,100 lbs.; total weight of engine, 104,600 lbs. Four different eight-wheeled locomotives were used for this run on the respective divisions west of Erie, and a ten-wheeled locomotive on the 86-mile stretch from Erie to Buffalo. A picture of one of the first mentioned engines appears herewith, No. 599, which ran between Elkhart and Toledo. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 107

A ten-wheeled locomotive was coupled to the train at Erie, and, by a terrific dash of 86 miles in 70 minutes and 46 seconds, increased the total average to 65.07 miles per hour. The average running time on the last division was 72.91 miles per hour, a velocity which raised the total distance average, until then below the standard, up to a record- breaking climax. Two minutes and 18 seconds were consumed at Erie, in the change of engines.; 1 minute and 45 seconds had been likewise used at Cleveland; 2 minutes and 28 seconds were required for this purpose at Toledo; and 2 minutes and 11 seconds sufficed to make the Elkhart change. The running time from Chicago to Elkhart had been 85 minutes and 26 seconds for 87.4 miles, or an average of 61.38 miles per hour. From Elkhart to Toledo the run of 133.4 miles had occupied 124 minutes and 35 seconds, averaging 64.24 miles an hour.

No. 564. Type, Ten-Wheeled Passenger Engine. Photograph furnished by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, N. Y. Dimensions: Cylinders, 17 by 24 inches; diameter of driving wheels, 68 inches; diameter of boiler, 52 inches; firebox, 96 r inches long by 42 inches wide; 202 flues, 2 inches in diameter, 13 feet 10j s inches long; boiler pressure, 180 lbs.; fuel, bituminous coal; wheel base, rigid, 8 feet 6 inches; wheel base, driving, 15 feet; wheel base, engine, 25 feet 2 inches; total wheel base, 48 feet 8 inches; weight of tender, 78,000 lbs. weight on drivers, 96,000 lbs.: total weight of engine, 118,000 lbs.; maximum revolutions of driving wheel3 per minute, 469; average revolutions of driving wheels per minute, 371; maximum piston speed, in feet per minute. 1,878; average piston speed, in feet per minute, 1,484; total amount of coal used, 3,250 lbs.; water evaporated, 3,700 gallons; water evaporated per pound of coal, 9.48 lbs. The 107.8 miles between Toledo and Cleveland had required 106 minutes and 6 seconds, making an average of over 62 miles an hour for the 328.6 miles thus far traveled. The distance from Cleveland to Erie, 95.5 miles, was traversed in 85 minutes and 32 seconds, an average of 66.99 miles per hour, which increased the general average for the 424.1 miles already run to over 63 miles an hour. The maximum general average, which surpassed all other records, was achieved by Engineer William Tunkey, with locomotive No. 564, the "Record Breaker," as it is admir- ingly designated, a good representation of which is herewith given. 108 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

In the great feat accomplished by the English train on the "West Coast Route," August 22, 1895, the engines in service were (with a single exception) of the 19 by 24 inch pattern, with larger drivers, as were those used a little later in the time race on the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. The first locomotives which subserved the purpose of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company in this spectacular and sensational venture were designed by George W. Stevens, the company's superintendent of motive power at that time, and were manufactured at the Brooks Locomotive Works, of Dunkirk, New York. The four engines which accomplished the task in the respective divisions west of Erie had previously done good service in connection with the train known as the "Exposi- tion Flyer," which became famous during the period of the ''World's Fair" at Chicago. Without the dining car, the "Exposition Flyer" weighed about 191 tons, and its maximum speed, between Buffalo and Chicago, attained August 29, 1893, was 51.6 miles per hour. The train which these magnificent machines seized, each at its waiting point, and whirled through space, annihilating time and distance, was composed of : Wagner drawing room car '• Madagascar," weighing : 92,500 pounds. " " "Esmeralda," " 92,500 " Dr. Webb's private car, "Ellsmere," " 119,500 " Total weight of cars 304,500 " Weight of engine and tender on divisions west of Erie 184,000 •' Total weight of train west of Erie 488,500 " Weight of engine and tender east of Erie 202,000 "

Total weight of train east of Erie 506,500 W. H. Canniff, general superintendent of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way, had personal supervision of the train. Among the other gentlemen who shared the anomalous experience of that occasion were H. P. Robinson, editor of the "Railway Age;" Willard A. Smith, chief of the Transportation Department of the World's Colum- bian Exposition (both of whom had been invited to be present in the capacity of official time-keepers); Dr. W. Seward Webb, president of the Wagner Palace Car Company and also of the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railway Company; P. S. Blodgett, general superin- tendent; G. W. Stevens, superintendent of motive power; E. A. Handy, chief engineer; an official recorder, delegated by the Wagner Palace Car Company, and two representatives of the press. The division officials also participated in the event to the extent of the dis- tance included in their respective departments. The engineers selected for this duty in their respective divisions were: Mark Floyd, Chicago to Elkhart; D. M. Luce, Elkhart to Toledo; James A. Lathrop, Toledo to Cleve- land; J. R. Garner, Cleveland to Erie, and, as before stated, William Tunkey, Erie to Buffalo. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 109

SCHEDULE.

N. Y. CENTRAL. WEST COAST. L. S. & M. S. New York to East Buffalo. London to Aberdeen. Chicago to Buffalo. Date Sept. 11. 1895. Aug. 22-23,1895. Oct. 24, 1895 Weight of cars 361,000 lbs. 150,080 lbs. 304,500 lbs. Distance through, miles... 436.32 539.75 510.1 FIRST STAGE. Length, miles 142.88 158 87.4 Departed 5 :40 :30 a. m. 8:00 p. m. 3 :29 :27 a. m. Arrived at terminus 7 :54 :55 a. m. 10 :27 :30 p. m. 4 :54 :53 a. m. Time 2 h. 14 min. 25 sec. 2 h. 27 min. 30 sec. 1 h. 25 min. 26 sec. Speed, miles per hour 63.79 64.27 61.38 Engine No. 870 No. 1309, compound No. 597 Two 14x30 in. —cylinders 19x24 in. One 24x30 in. 17x24 in. —drivers 84 in. 84 in. Four 72 in. SECOND STAGE. Length, miles 147.84 141.25 133.4 Departed 7 :56 :45 a. m. 10 :30 p. m. 4 :57 :04 a. m. Arrived at terminus 10 :17 :10 a. m. 12 :35 :30 a. m. 7 :01 :39 a. m. Time 2 h. 20 min. 25 sec. 2 h. 5. min. 30 sec. 2 h. 4 min. 35 sec. Speed, miles per hour 63.17 67.5 64.24 Engine No. 999 No. 904 No. 599 —cylinders <.. 19x24 in. 17x24 in. 17x24 in. —drivers <••• 86 in. 78 in. Four 72 in. THIRD STA6E. Length, miles 145.6 150 107.8 Departed 10 :19 :35 a. m. 12 :38 a. m. 7 :04 :07 a. m. Arrived at terminirt 12 :32 :26 p. m. 3 :07 :03 a. m. 8 :50 :13 a. m. Time 2 h. 12 min. 51 sec. 2 h. 29 min. 30 sec. 1 h. 46 min. 6 sec. Speed, miles pet hour 65.75 60.2 60.96 Engine No. 903 No. 90 No. 160 —cylinders 19x24 in. 18x26 in. 17x24 in. —-drivers 86 in. 78 in. Four 72 in. FOURTH STAGE. Length, miles 90.5 95.5 Departed 3 :09 :30 a. m. 8 :51 :58 a. m. Arrived at terminus 4 :32 a. m. 10 :17 :30 a. m. Time 1 h. 22 min. 30 sec. 1 h. 25 min. 32 sec. Speed, miles per hour 66 66.99 Engine No. 598 —cylinders 17x24 in. —drivers Four 72 in. FIFTH STAGE. Length, miles Departed 10 :19 :48 a. m. Arrived at terminus 11 :30 :34 a. m. Time...* 1 h. 10 min. 46 sec. Speed, miles per hour 72.91 Engine No. 564 —cylinders 17x24 in. —drivers Six 68 in. THROUGH. Distance, miles 436.32 539.75 510.1 Time elapsed 6 h. 51 min. 56 sec 8 h. 32 min. 8 h. 1 min. 7 sec. Average speed 63.54 63.24 63.61 Time in motion 6 h. 47 min. 41 sec. 8 h. 25 min. *7 h. 50 min. 20 sec. Average speed 64.22 63.93 65.07

*Two minutes and five seconds deducted in third stage, actual stop by flag. 110 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

The schedule of the last division of the great run is as Tollows : TIME OF LEAVING. Distance. Hour. Minute. Second. Erie (leave), 10 19 48 Harbor Creek, 8 miles 10 28 37 Moorhead, 3 " 10 31 06 North East, 4 " 10 34 22 State Line, 5 " 10 38 15 Ripley, 3 " 10 40 22 Westfield, 8 " 10 45 56 Brocton, 8 " 10 52 06 VanBuren, 5 " 10 55 39 Dunkirk, 4 " 10 58 54 Silver Creek, 9 " 11 06 05 Farnham, 5 " 11 10 33 Angola, 5 " 11 14 14 Lake View, 7 " 11 20 11 Athol Springs, 4 " 11 24 39 Buffalo Creek, 8 " 11 30 34 Total distance Erie to Buffalo Creek, 86 miles. Total time for the 86 miles 1 10 46 Average speed over division, 72.91 miles per hour. Up the grade of 15 feet per mile between Erie and Harbor Creek, 7.5 miles, the rate of speed was 55 miles an hour. The velocitj of the train for one mile west of Broc- ton was at the maximum rate of 92. 32 miles. After this unprecedented strain, No. 564 made the usual trip from Buffalo west, and returned the next day (September 25) in regular form, needing no overhauling or caulking of flues. It is deemed appropriate to embody in the closing portion of this chapter the follow- ing extracts from an article which appeared in a popular magazine of February, 1896, from the pen of H. P. Robinson, editor of the "Railway Age," and one of the official time- keepers of this marvelous run.

" The last important condition to be taken into consideration is the number of stops made. It should be explained that when speed is reckoned " when running " or " exclusive of stops " (the phrases mean the same thing), the time consumed in stops is deducted—the time, that is, when the wheels are actually at rest. No deduction, however, is made for the loss of time in slowing up to a stop or in getting under way again. "On the run of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, for instance, an irregular or unexpected stop was made when the train was running at a speed of about seventy-one miles per hour. The train was actually at rest for two minutes and five seconds. That allowance, therefore, was made for the stop. It is unnecessary to say that the secondary loss of time, in bringing the train to a standstill and in regaining speed, was much greater, but for these (aggregating probably five or six minutes) there was no allowance. It is evident, therefore, that the number of times that a train has to slow down and get under way again is an important factor in the average speed of a long run. In the English run, two stops were made. The schedule for the Lake Shore run provided for four stops. A fifth stop, as has already been stated, was made which was not on the programme. " Through all the running of these wonderful speeds, the train moved with singular smoothness. Moments there were of some anxiety, when the cars swung round a curve or dashed through the streets of a town. At such times there were those among the passengers who would perhaps gladly have sacrificed a few seconds of the record. "Except for those occasions, however, there was nothing to tell of the extraordinary speed nothing unless one stood on the rear platform of the last car and saw the swirling cloud of dust and leaves and bits of AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. Ill

paper, even of sticks and stones, that were sucked up into the vacuum behind, and almost shut out the view of the rapidly receding track. It may be (it certainly will be) that the average of sixty-five and 7-100 miles an hour for a distance of 510 miles will be beaten before long. " It is almost certain that the same engines on the same road could beat it in another trial—taking a slightly lighter train, running by daylight and over a dry rail. It will be long, however, before such another run is made as that over the last eighty-six miles by the ten-wheeler, with William Tunkey in charge. Railway men alone, perhaps, understand the qualities which are necessary in an engineer to enable him to make such a run; and the name of Tunkey is one (however unheroic it may sound) which railway men will remember for many years to come. " An analysis of the figures given above will show that it was not until within twenty miles of the end of the run that there was any confidence that the record was broken; and not until the run was actually finished and the watches stopped for the last time, at 34 seconds after half-past eleven, that confidence was changed to certainty.

View of a stretch of track of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway near 100th street, Chicago, 111., near where the start for the fast run was made.

"Trains have been timed for individual miles at a speed of over 90 miles before. There is even said to be on record an instance of a single mile run at 112 miles an hour. But never before has an engine done what the ten-wheeler did that day, when it reached eighty miles an hour and held the speed for half an hour; reached 85 miles an hour and held that for nearly ten minutes; reached 90 miles an hour and held that for three or four consecutive miles. A speed of 75 miles an hour (a mile and a quarter a minute) was maintained for the whole hour, and the 75 miles were actually covered in the 60 minutes. The entire 86 miles were done in 70 minutes 46 seconds—an average speed of 72.91 miles an hour. In the English run, a speed of 68.40 miles was maintained for an even hour, 69 miles being done in 60.5 minutes ; and 141 miles were run at an average speed of 67.20 miles an hour. 112 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

" To word it otherwise, the American train covered 7 miles more in its fastest hour than did the English train. The speed which the English engines held for 141 miles the American engines held for over 200—181 being made at 69.67 miles an hour. "It was at two o'clock on the morning of October 24 that the train, which had been waiting since early in the evening on a side track in the Lake Shore station at Chicago, slipped unostentatiously away behind a switch engine which was to haul it as far as One Hundredth Street, where the start was to be made. Here there was a wait of nearly an hour until the time fixed for starting—half-past three. There was plenty to be done at the last moment to occupy the time of waiting, however. There were last messages to be sent back to Chicago ; last orders to be sent on ahead ; telegrams containing weather bulletins, which promised fair weather all the way to Buffalo, to be read; and, finally, the preparations to be made for time-taking. "One of the time-keepers, taking two stop-watches in his hand, started the split, second hand of both with one movement of his muscles, exactly together. To one or other of these timepieces all the watches on the train were set. " In one of the parlor cars, as nearly as might be, in the middle of the length of the train, two tables were set, one on either side of the aisle. The time-keepers had agreed to relieve each other, at each stop at the end of a division, one being always on duty and the other close at hand to verify any record on which a question might arise. The time-keeper on duty sat at one of the tables, watch in hand. Opposite to him was a repre- sentative of the railway company, with no power to originate a record, but to check each stop in case an error should occur. Across the aisle, sat the official recorder, a representative of the Wagner Palace Car Company, and opposite to him a representative of the daily press. For two minutes before the time for starting, silence settled down upon the car. The shades were pulled down over every window. Inside, the car was brilliantly lighted with Pintsch gas ; and the eyes of every man were on the face of the watch which each held in his hand and his finger was ready to press the stop which splits the second hand. The two minutes passed slowly, and the silence was almost painful as the watches showed that the moment was close at hand. Suddenly the small- est perceptible jerk told that the wheels had moved, and on the instant the split hand of every watch in the car had recorded the fact. " 'Three—twenty-nine—twenty-seven!' announced the time-keeper. '"Three—twenty-nine—twenty-seven!' echoed the representative of the railway company. "'Three—twenty-nine—twenty-seven!'called the recorder, as he entered the figures on the sheet be- fore him. " ' Three—twenty-nine—twenty-seven!' said the member of the press. " The start had been made 33 seconds ahead of time, and each member of the party settled himself down to the work ahead. " Over each division of the road, the superintendent of that division rode as 'caller-off ' of the stations as they were passed. It was necessary, during the first hours of darkness, especially, that some one should do this who was familiar with every foot of the track—some one who would not have to rely on eyesight alone, but to whose accustomed senses every sway of the car as a curve was passed, and every sound of the wheels, on bridge or culvert, would be familiar. "The first station, Whiting, is only three and one-half miles from the starting point. The night outside was intensely black, and it was doubtful whether even the practiced eye and ear of Superintendent Newell would be able to catch the little station as it went by. With one eye on our watches, therefore, we all had also one anxiously on him where he sat with his head hidden under the shade that was drawn behind him, a blanket held over the crevices to shut out every ray of light, and his face pressed close against the glass. The minutes passed slowly—one, two, three, four, five ! Whiting must be very near, and—but just as we began to fear that he had missed the station, the word came : " ' Ready for Whiting!' and the response. "'Ready for Whiting!' "A few short seconds of silence, and then : '" Now!' "Instantly the muscles of the waiting fingers throbbed on the split-stop, but no quicker than the roar told that the car was already passing the station. " 'Three—thirty-four—forty-five!' called the time-keeper. " ' Three—thirty-four—forty-five!' " ' Three—thirty-four—forty-five!' " ' Three—thirty-four—forty-five!' AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 113

" It was an immense relief to find that the system ' worked.' "When the warning, 'Ready for Pine!'—the next station, six miles further on—came from behind the envelope of window shade and blanket, we were at our ease, and the record, ' Three—forty-one—three!' was called and echoed and tossed across the car with confidence. "To those inside the cars nothing but their watches told them of the rate of speed. Of the party on board every man was familiar with railway affairs; but there was not one who was not surprised at the smoothness of the track and the complete absence of uncomfortable motion. Only by lifting a window shade and straining the eyes into the blackness of the night, to see the red sparks streaming by, or the dim outlines of house and tree loom up and disappear, was it possible to appreciate the velocity at which the train was moving. " It was now after 10 o'clock in the morning, and, at Erie, crowds had assembled at the station to see the train go out, for news of what was being done had by this time gone abroad. The platforms, too, at every sta- tion from Erie to Buffalo were thronged with people as we went roaring by. In Dunkirk (through which we burst at 75 miles an hour) crowds stood on the sidewalks and at every corner. To describe the run for those 86 miles in detail would be impossible, or to put into words the tension of the suppressed excitement among those on board the train as miles flew by, and we knew we were traveling as man had never traveled before."

A view of the Port of Buffalo, on Lake Erie, in 1815. (Reproduced from an olil-time engraving.) CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY HAIL SERVICE.

T is in connection with the faithful and satisfactory service rendered to the government and people of this country in the conveyance of mails, 'that the Lake Shore & Michi- I gan Southern Railway Company sustains a peculiar and important relation to the general public. In such a capacity, it ministers to the pleasure and profit of multitudes who seldom travel by rail. Reaching out widely across the breadth of its ramifications, and still flying onward, with little pause, to its farthest destination, it performs the functions of an official messenger to countless business places and domestic abodes, throughout a vast and popu- lous region. In the transmission of public and private intelligence, it stands forth in bold prominence as the chief pioneer agent, under national sanction, for the swift and certain deposit in city, town, village and hamlet, dotting its lengthened course, of the tidings of current events, the advices of commerce, the missives of social communication and the emanations of friendship and love. This beneficent mission, entrusted to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company by the discriminating preference of the national government, has been nobly fulfilled for more than a quarter of a century. A partial use of railroads for the carriage of mail matter was virtually coincident with the application of steam as a motive power on such roads. The policy of the govern- ment in this respect, based on the needs and desires of the people, began to be gradually exercised about the year 1834. Previously, the mails had long been conveyed by stage coach, on horseback, and in some instances, by pedestrian effort. A divergence from the direct course of the present narrative seems pardonable at this point, for the purpose of tracing the development of postal facilities from their earliest recorded beginning. Henry VIII established by royal edict the office of ''master of postes." Nothing suggestive of the present functions of incumbents of a like position was observable in their official routine until the time of James I. Inland letters were not comprehended in the earliest postal system instituted. In 1635, Charles I issued a proclamation, directing his 114 AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 115

' 'postmaster of England for foreign parts to settle a running post or two to run night and day between London and Edinburgh, to go thither and come back in six days, and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post town in or near that road." In 1639, appears the earliest record concerning postal matters in the American colo- nies. The Essex County (Massachusetts) court ordered that "all letters from the seas" should be deposited with Richard Fairbanks, of Boston. The emoluments pertaining to the task of this pioneer appointee for the care and distribution of such letters have not been certified to us from the archives of that period.

View of "The Fast Mail." The first inland public post in this country was instituted in response to a petition from merchants in Boston, Massachusetts. The court selected Mr. John Hayward, scrive- ner, in May, 1677, "to take in and convey letters according to their directions," The compensation of Mr. Hayward for such service was fixed at one penny for the handling and delivery of each letter thus placed in his charge. In the "Annuals of Philadelphia," it is noted that, in the month'of July, 1683, William Penn issued an order instituting a post office at Philadelphia, and investing Henry Waldy, of "Tekonay," to supply horses for a postal route from Philadelphia to New Castle, Delaware. The mail of this route was dispatched weekly, the rule of the service 116 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

requiring all mail thus sent to be carefully published on the doors of the meeting house and at other public points. In the year 1700, when the population of the American colonies numbered 260,000, a post office was established at Philadelphia in pursuance of an enactment of the Colonial government. This was the first legislative action on this subject, of which there is any record. The first colonial newspaper made its appearance in Boston in 1704. The pub- lisher was a Scotch bookseller named John Campbell. In its initial issue the following notification was a prominent feature: "All persons in town and country may have said Newsletter weekly, upon reasonable terms, agreeing with John Campbell, postmaster, for the same." Legislative action was taken by the British Parliament, in 1710, under the designa- tion of "An act for establishing a general post office for all Her Majesty's dominions, and for settling a weekly sum out of the revenue thereof, for the service of the war, and other of Her Majesty's occasions." This legislation provided for a general letter and post office in London, and also for principal offices in Ireland, Scotland, and the West Indies, and North America. It gave the postmaster general authority to maintain a main letter office in New York, and others at suitable points in the American colonies and provinces. At this period, letters and packages, between New York and points within a distance of 60 miles, were subject to a charge of four pence, single; eight pence, double; one shil- ling, treble; and one shilling and four pence per ounce. In December, 1717, the facilities for postal transmission were such that mails from Boston were received at Williamsburg, Virginia, in four weeks during the summer months, and eight weeks during the winter season, respectively. The connection of Benjamin Franklin with our colonial postal service began in 1737. His autobiography contains the following narrative of his official incumbency: "In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, and then postmaster general, being dissatisfied with the conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia, respecting some negligence in rendering and want of exactness in framing his accounts, took from him the commission and offered it to me. I accepted it readily and found it of great advantage; for though the salary was small, it facilitated the correspondence that improved my newspaper, increased the number demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to afford me a considerable income." Henry Pratt received the appointment in 1738, of riding postmaster for all points between Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia, being required to start on the first of every month and to return in twenty-four days. He executed a bond of security to the postmas- ter general, and bore a certificate to that effect; and senders of mail matter were publicly notified that they might "confide letters and other business" to him. AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 117

The earliest penny post, or letter carrier delivery of mail, began in 1753. This sys- tem included the advertisement of letters for which no recipients were found. Benjamin Franklin received his commission as postmaster general for the American colonies, in 1753, on the demise of the former incumbent of that position. Under Frank- lin's supervision, the colonial postal office became involved in debt during the first four years to the extent of more than £900 sterling, through expenses incurred in making many improvements, which he deemed imperative. Its income soon grew, however, by reason of the better system introduced by this resourceful statesman and sage, and in 1774, the financial receipts of his department were thrice the amount yielded by the post office system of Ireland. Previous to his administration of the colonial mail service, no revenue had been received by Great Britain from this source. On Franklin's acceptance of the trust tendered him by the Crown, it was stipulated that the sum of £600 sterling should be the compensation attached to the post, provided he could save that amount from the profits of his work. In 1755, the public was officially notified that the winter mail from Philadelphia to the New England colonies would be transmitted once a week, instead of once in two weeks, so that answers to letters might be expected in three weeks, which under the former method required double that time. In the above mentioned year there were but 1,532 miles of postal roads within the colonial area. The first stage coach in the colonies making a regular trip was started in 1756. Its route was from New York to Philadelphia, and it required three days for the journey. The few newspapers published at that period were, at the outset, forwarded by mail without charge. In 1758, however, the postage on these was fixed at the yearly rate of nine pence for a distance of 50 miles, and eighteen pence for 100 miles. The latter was considered the maximum distance for a stage coach to cover in twenty-four hours. In November, 1789, Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts, the first postmaster general of the United States, made an official report to "George Washington, Esq.," in which he stated that the gross receipts of his department for the year then closing had been $25,000. An interesting and somewhat amusing episode in the postal business of that period appears in a memorial submitted in November, 1776, to the Continental Congress, by Ebenezer Hazard, postmaster for the district of New York. Postmaster Hazard had served as deputy postmaster under Franklin (then engaged in a diplomatic mission to France), and, six years later, himself filled the office of postmaster general, under the confirmation of that Congress. In his memorial to that body, Mr. Hazard mentions a total revenue from the office under his charge, of less than $5,000. On the volume of post office business the postmaster was allowed, by way of compensation, twenty per cent, of the first $1,000, and ten per cent, of all in excess of this amount. He therefore received for the fiscal year, 118 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM from October, 1775, to October, 1776, a salary of about $550. Very naturally, Mr. Hazard urged Congress to grant him a higher remuneration. He complained of his financial inability to secure an assistant. He said that the duties of his office compelled him to leave his post in New York City in order to be within reach of the army, ' 'who are almost the only persons for whom letters now come by post." He reminded Congress that the emergencies of the conflict, then in progress, imposed upon him unusual burdens of labor and expense; that he had "paid an exorbitant price for every necessary of life, and had been obliged for want of a horse, which could not be purchased, to follow the army from place to place on foot."

View of Mail Car, "Cornelius N. Bliss."

On the date borne by this memorial to Congress, Mr. Hazard wrote to Rev. John Witherspoon, saying that he was at an expense of nine shillings per diem ' 'for my own and my servant's victuals only;" that he was not treated with dignity in being denied a horse; "although it was not my business as a postmaster to follow the army like a sutler." The crude modes of procedure in postal affairs then in vogue are shown in a report made by Mr. Thatcher, a member of the House of Representatives committee on postal ANt> REPRESENlATIVE EMPLOYEES. 119

offices, April 4, 1796, from which we make the following quotation: "All the papers and packages directed to distant customers and to be left at different offices and places, are put •loose into the portmanteau with others, for subscribers less distant, and, as often as the mail is opened, the newspapers are all thrown together out of the portmanteaus, in order to find the individual paper or package to be left at such office or place. At such times there is good reason to suppose papers and small packages are taken away by persons present at opening the portmanteau, to whom they are not directed, but without the knowledge or privity of the postmasters or carriers of the mail. Sometimes also, it may be presumed, single papers and small bundles are unintentionally omitted to be put into the portmanteau again, after they had been turned out, for the purpose of selecting such as are to be left at that particular place." The method of accounting in the postmaster general's office seems to have been equally peculiar. In his first annual report, Postmaster General Osgood states that he has kept "the accounts in a manner that the treasury shall not be able to charge him with any more money than he chooses to be charged with, which has in fact been the case, I believe, ever since the Revolution." The business of the general office of the first postmaster gen- eral of the United States (as above mentioned), was conducted by the head of the depart- ment, his assistant and one clerk. In 1798, the work of the same office was performed by Postmaster General Habersham, a deputy and four competent clerks. The paucity of the working force and the meagerness of the business done in postal affairs at the end of the eighteenth century, constituted an amazing contrast with the tremendous vigor of this branch of the government, as revealed in the railway mail service of the present day. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, th.3 post offices in the United States numbered less than one thousand, and the extent of postal roads was less than 20,000 miles. The business of the postmaster general's office was transacted by himself and five assistants. In 1826, a newspaper published in Cincinnati furnished its readers with the interesting information, that "there are ten stages and twenty-one mails that leave Cincin- nati weekly." In a speech delivered before the United States Senate in 1832, a member of that body took a roseate view of existing postal conditions. He said: "This morning, I find on my table letters and newspapers brought from New York, a distance of 250 miles, in thirty-six hours, and from Boston, 500 miles, in three days. We have the mail expedited from New Orleans to Washington in one-half of its former time; from Baltimore to Pitts- burg within the last few days, there is a new arrangement by which one or more days are gained. There is scarcely a week or even a day in which some new improvement is not made, facilitating the transport of the mails. The department has kept even pace with the country in its march of improvement. These great improvements involve great expenses and though the department in some cases has gained more than it has expended in making them, it could not be expected such would be the general result," 120 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

A like sanguine expression pervades a paragraph in the ''National Intelligencer" in its issue of November n, 1834: "But a few years since" (says that publication),''it required as long a time to go from Boston to Ohio as to make a voyage to Europe, and keel boats from New Orleans could not reach St. Louis in less than from ninety to one hundred days. But by the invention of steamboats, the construction of canals and railroads, and the use of the locomotive, the journey from Boston to St. Louis, 1,900 miles, may be performed next summer, in from fourteen to fif- teen days, and at an expense of not more than fifty dollars." But a little while before this, however, much complaint was noticeable, both public and private, as to the tardiness of the mail service in various direc- tions. The publishers of several New York newspapers combined in 1832, for the purpose of run- ning an express from New York to Philadelphia, which accom- plished the distance in consider- ably less time than the regular mail. In order to save the gov- ernment mail service from dis- credit, the authorities induced the contractor to forward the mail from Washington to Phila- delphia in twenty hours. At a George Buchanan Armstrong subsequent period in the competition, the mail was conveyed by relay from New York to Philadelphia, 90 miles, at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. A daily publication in the former city protests, in 1833, against delay of the Washington papers, which were a full day overdue. The Washington newspaper matter, when reproduced in the New York prints, was a week behind the time of its first appearance. During this controversy over AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 121 dilatory mail arrivals, the government on a certain occasion sent an express from Wash- ington to Charleston, South Carolina, in forty-eight hours, whereupon the hypercritical Philadelphia editor commented thus disdainfully: "Washington City is, we believe, about 140 miles from Philadelphia, and the mail is about forty-eight hours in its progress between the two cities." Many there were, on the other hand, who arraigned the newspapers as the cause of retarding the proper dispatch of the mails. Among these was Senator Hill, of New Hamp- shire, who in opposing a bill introduced in the United States Senate, which contained a clause abolishing the postage on newspapers, spoke as follows: "I have made it an object to inquire at the post office in this city (Washington) what is the relative weight and bulk of newspapers and letters passing through the mail. The chief clerk in that office did not hesitate to say that they were as twenty to one. The mail service, passing from North to South through this place daily, contains generally from twenty to thirty—never less than ten bags, weighing some 1 50 to 200 pounds each. One of these bags will contain all the letters. On Monday morning I saw the Southern mail as it was dispatched. There were twenty-one bags of newspapers; all the letters did not fill as much as one bag. * * * Another consequence of this proposition will be the over-burdening of the mails on all the principal roads so as to increase the expense of transport and retard them in their progress." The speed accomplished on railroads, in 1835, hardly excelled, nor did it always equal that made in stage or horseback travel. Many of the public, and most of the postal, con- tracts stipulated that the time made by stage or horse should be from nine to fifteen miles an hour. Occasionally, the bidders for this kind of mail conveyance were successful over the railroad competitors by agreeing to a faster schedule, and in other instances on record the railroads seeking contracts asked to be granted more time than the rate fixed in the proposals, eleven miles per hour. In some cases the mails were dispatched on routes where a part of the distance was traversed by means of steam propulsion on rails, and the remain- der, by horse power 'On ordinary roads. Sometimes, in order to expedite the trip when the mail matter was unusually heavy, it became a question of leaving passengers or mail for the next conveyance. This problem was solved in one instance, to the hindrance of the latter, by the passengers uniting in a deposit of $50 with the driver, to protect him against the penalty imposed for delaying the mails by affording the clamorous passengers an amount of space which the government contract reserved for letters and papers. The question of procedure between travelers and mail matter in the same vehicle, was obviated in subsequent contracts, by the insertion of a clause stipulating that, on lines which carried an extraordinary bulk of postal matter, four- horse coaches must be provided, constructed under the supervision of the post office authorities, and devoted exclusively to the carrying of the mail. 122 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

This was the initial exercise of a governmental policy which was developed from time to time in every direction, and became a permanent feature in the elaborate railway mail contracts of a later period, involving a tremendous tonnage, and extending the provi- dent care of the government over the sealed communications of the people, to the utter- most bounds of a vast republic. An official report made in August, 1835, indicated the construction, up to that period, of 1,000 miles of railroad. On one half of this extent a regular mail was conveyed. In December of the same year, a contract was authorized by the post office department for an additional daily mail on the railroad between Boston and Lowell. On the various postal routes operated in 1835, the transportation of mail averaged in cost about five cents per mile in using horse and sulky, and about thirteen cents by stage. The carriage of mail for the year 1835, is indicated by the following figures: con- veyance in post coaches covered 16,847,050 miles; on sulkies and on horseback 7,817,973 miles; in steamboats 906,959 miles; and in railroad cars 270,504 miles. An official communication from the post office department, as below given, indicates the nature of an important act in the transition period between the old and the new.

"Post Office Department, Northern Div. "September 16, 1835. "Sir:—Arrangements have been made by the contractors and assented to by the postmaster general for the conveyance of the great mail from Washington to Baltimore, and from Baltimore to Washington, by the railroad cars for the remainder of the current year, commencing this day. The cars will leave the city at half- past four p. m., and Baltimore at four p. m.; they will take from Baltimore the mail from the East, and whatever may be in your office at the time of departure. The night coach line will be continued leaving Baltimore at eight p. m., with the mails from Harrisburg, etc., and the way mail. It will leave the city with the newspaper and way mail. In case of non-arrival of the mail from the South at this city, and from the East at Baltimore, in time for the cars, it is to be conveyed by coaches, so as to save the connection. The postmaster general has agreed to the conveyance of the mail between Baltimore and Frederick by the railroad. "Amos Kendall. "J. S. Skinner, Esq., postmaster at Baltimore, Md. "William Jones, Esq., postmaster at Washington, D. C."

In accordance with a resolution of Congress passed in 1836, the postmaster general furnished a list of contracts then in force for the carriage of mails, showing that but one railroad line, under formal agreement with the government, constituted an entire postal route. This was "Route 1,036," from Philadelphia to Mauch Chunk, 117 miles. The contract was for four years, at $3,000 per year. A proposition was ordered by the post- master general to be made March 3, 1837, to the presidents of the Albany & Schenectady Railroad and the Utica Railroad, to carry two daily mails at one-half cent per pound for each ten miles, up to two hundred pounds weight, and one-fifth of a cent per pound on mail weighing over two hundred pounds. The postmaster at Detroit was instructed April AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 123 23, 1838, to offer a contract for a postal route on the railroad between that city and Niles, Michigan, "at present prices by the mile," $30.50 per annum. The same official was directed August 16, 1838, to make arrangements for railway mail service between Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan, at $25 per mile, yearly. For mail already carried in the six months preceding, the South Carolina Railroad was paid July 1, 1839, $13,800, or $100 per mile for 138 miles (from Hamburg to Charles- ton). The time consumed was thirteen hours, making the rate of speed eleven miles an hour. In 1846 the weight of mails (for one week) leaving New York, was 60,000 pounds; Philadelphia, 48,000; Baltimore, 20,000. Within less than forty years,from that date, a single rail- road carried daily, six times as much mail matter as all the lines combined, in 1846. On July 7, 1838, an enactment of Congress made every railroad in the United States a postal route. In 1842 the extent of railway mail routes had increased to 10,000 miles, and in 1856 to 20,000 miles; and the governmental expense had decreased from $125 to $101 per mile. Until 1843 the rates of post- age had steadily grown, but the compe- tition of private mails had, nevertheless, caused a decrease in postal receipts. In order to obviate this tendency and keep the system near a basis of self mainte- nance, the letter postage was soon re- Facsimile, one-half reduction, of an original draft of a mail crane, duced to two cents. the first of the kind used, although there had been other contrivances used before this date (1874). For some years previous to 1862, there had been a certain amount of mail distribution on the postal cars, but in that year was made the earliest thorough experiment of a complete railway post office in the United States, in which through mail was completely handled without the aid of district post offices. In 1864 the work of the postal trains began to assume a certain system, although no permanent record was kept until the organization proper, in 1869. 124 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

In 1869, Ward's mail-bag catcher added an indispensable feature to the efficiency of the service, being first utilized on the line between Baltimore and Washington. In 1869, George B. Armstrong, who had been the most forceful and tireless pro- moter of the system (and was virtually conceded to be its practical founder), submitted to the postmaster general a plan to con- solidate the railway post offices with all other railroad mail opera- tions, under the designation of the "Railway Mail Service." The plan was approved and adopted, and went into effect July 1, 1869. Mr. Armstrong was placed in sole charge of this branch of the postal service. Two years be- fore, this gentleman had, at the request of the third assistant postmaster general, formulated his views as to the organization of the service. Among the most important of these was the sub- stitution suggested for wrappers on letters, or bunches of letters. Instead of wrappers, Mr. Arm- strong arranged a plan of bind- ing letters together so that one, plainly superscribed, should face outward. This saved the time, labor and material, necessary for wrapping and addressing the packages, prevented the mistakes

View of pedestal and bust surmounting same, erected, in 1881, to the memory of SO Commonly made in directing George Buchanan Armstrong, founder of the Railway Mail service. them, and furnished a means of instant discovery and rectification of errors in bagging, while, with the use of wrappers, the opening of which was prohibited except at the place addressed, mistakes passed from hand to hand with no chance of correction, and letters were hindered or went astray. This was but one of the many vital improvements through which Mr. Armstrong impressed his personality upon the formative processes of the system. While assistant AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 125 postmaster of Chicago, he also secured the promise of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Galena & Chicago Union, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads to make alterations in their mail cars, increase their size, and otherwise adapt them to the purposes of the traveling post office. On the preceding page, appears a likeness of the bust of George B. Armstrong, surmounting its pedestal within the outer environs of the old post office building in Chicago, before that edifice was demolished to prepare the site for its suc- cessor. Another and more complete likeness of Mr. Armstrong is also embodied in this chapter. The first "Fast Mail" train was run on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way, September 16, 1875. Charles Paine, general superintendent, C. P. Leland, auditor, and Charles Collins, chief engineer, participated in the event. Four postal cars and one dining car constituted the train. The latter contained the newspapers. The postal cars were packed to the roofs. Forty-seven lock bags, 663 canvas bags and 50,000 newspa- pers were taken from the New York post office, making 33 tons of matter. There were seven clerks as far as Syracuse. At Albany the train took on 150 sacks from Boston and the New England States. This run was made under the strictest precautions, the '' Fast Mail" having absolute right of way, and being equipped with every essential to speed and safety. The first printed scheme for railway post office use was promulgated in September, 1868. January 23, 1871, marked the first operation of such offices (a night service^ from Toledo to Chicago. Their first through passage over the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railway occurred June 18, 1871. In an issue of the Chicago Postal Record of March, 1872, appeared the earliest printed schedule of connections. The first crew in service from Cleveland to Chicago consisted of S. G. Harvey, chief clerk; F. K. Jones, J. H. Baker, W. A. Stevenson, J. H. Dix, William M. Oliver, W. C. Farnum and George E. Fox. The first crew working from Chicago, eastward, was composed of C. C. S. Keech, J. J. Kessler, C. U. Story, J. J. Worcester, W. E. Stevens, L. H. Rudissell, J. W. Flinn and Ogden Pierce. N. G. Summerfield was the first chief clerk. Under the management of the superintendent of postal car facilities, at the out- set, ten railway post office cars were constructed at the shops of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. An exact representation of the interior of one of the finest railway post offices in the United States, in regular service on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, is herewith given. These cars were of two kinds—one for the distribu- tion of letters and the other for the handling of newspapers and periodicals. The former were 50 feet long, and the latter 60. Their width was 9 feet 8 inches, with a clear height of 6 feet 9 inches, and in exterior, finish and general appearance they were nearly alike. The most valuable patents were utilized in the construction and running appoint- ments of these cars. Except as to superior length (60 feet) and steam heating appliances, 126 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM the postal cars of more modern build are, in the main, similar to those of an earlier date. To protect from accident or disturbing elements, the trucking of mail matter from the tenders to the distributing cars, swinging doors inclose the platforms, adjustable to suit convenience or necessity. The elegant vestibule inclosures which constitute so admirable a feature of the finest passenger coaches of the road had their origin in similar devices for the equipment of the fast mail cars. The most approved air-brakes and spring-brakes are in use on these flying post offices. An inclosed platform protects ingress and egress at either end. For snatching the mail along their speeding course, two opposite doors on the

Interior view of a mail ear. sides of each car are furnished with patent mail-bag catchers. Six-wheel trucks form the substructure of the newspaper cars, the letter cars being mounted on trucks of four wheels. A collection of mechanical appliances for use in case of emergency, including brake-lever rods, brake-beams, patent car replacers, etc., is carried in a suitable receptacle between the cars. The arrangement of the interior of a car for letter distribution accords with perfect convenience, accuracy and celerity in the expert task therein accomplished. On the side of one end of it is located the superintendent's office. It is an apartment with two win- AND REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYEES. 127 dows, and is provided with the most approved sleeping accommodations consistent with space. The furnishings consist of a sleeping berth and bedding similar to those of model passenger cars, and made to fold up when not in use, a lounge, desk, book shelves, paper racks, clothes closets and student lamps. Opposite this apartment is another room which contains, in most compact order, the lavatory essentials, looking-glasses, a water-cooler, water-heaters, washstands, and small closets for general use. At the end of a narrow passageway, beyond the last named room, is located the office for distributing letters, wherein are set counters, environed by tiers of boxes labeled with names of localities. Safes for packages of especial value are also features of this part of the post office. Daylight is supplied, partially, by the coping windows, and six student lamps illuminate the compartment in aid of the deft toilers of the night. Leading on from this bustling inclosure, along the sides toward the other extreme of the car, are frequent hooks for mail bags, the interval being used for the disposition of miscellaneous newspapers which may have been placed in the letter bags. For such distribution, large boxes are arranged in the end of the letter distributing office, with outward shoots, having hooks at the extremities on which the mail bags are hung. A drop sash in the elevated roof, protected with wire gauze, affords side ventilation. Seven double-windows, with dropping upper sashes, supply added light. Each of the four doors on the sides of the car has also four window panes, giving a glazed surface for each door of twelve by thirty-two inches. The newspaper cars are in like manner provided with all suitable appliances for expeditious assortment, and a portion of each is reserved for the keeping of trucks and other conveniences for transferring, easily and safely, cumbersome bulks of postal matter, when necessary, from one extreme of the train to the other. The earlier railway letter offices cost about $4,200 each, while those for newspaper distribution represent an outlay, for construction, of $3,300. There are at present in operation on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, between Chicago and Buffalo, post office trains composed as follows : Train No. 3 has one letter car, two newspaper cars and one storage car, with a crew of fourteen clerks. No. 1 5 is made up of one letter car and two newspaper cars, with a postal force of eleven men. Train No. 32 contains one letter car, three newspaper cars and one storage car, and the task of assorting, distribution, etc., is performed by nineteen expert workers. No. 35 consists of one letter car, two newspaper cars and two storage cars, with a crew of twelve manipulators of its precious burden. Numbers 3, 32 and 35 constitute the "Fast Mail " service of the road. Their average speed, including stops, is 40.33 miles per hour. Attached to the last two trains are superb passenger coaches (the last having also an ele- gant sleeper), affording, to those desiring, it the advantage of extraordinary celerity of transit. 128 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

A total of 63 postal cars is comprehended in the United States Mail Service on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. The railway post office trains carry a daily average weight of 183,805 pounds of mail. By quick transfer these swift messengers daily deposit a portion of their invaluable store of advices (on which depends the commercial and domestic weal of an innumerable host of waiting men and women, through distances afar), to the fleet railway post offices of other great railroads, with schedules timed in close con- nection. These, in turn, rush on and on, hurrying the momentous tidings in their charge to the remotest limits of the national domain. Then expectant steamships, grasping with impatient haste each its share of mail treasure, speed away over the great deep to lands across the seas. Prodigious beyond calculation, and beneficent without measure, is the work of this potent factor in the progress of our times. In steadfast fulfilment thereof, has the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, for more than twenty-five annual periods, faithfully devoted its mighty energies to the trust committed to it by supreme civic author- ity, as a medium for safe and expeditious communication between individuals, communities, States and nations. APPENDIX.

The number of locomotives in the service of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, as given on Page 25, Chapter II, of this work, is 544. From information re- ceived, too late to be used in that connection, we are now enabled to classify them as follows: Passenger engines 96 Freight engines 283 Switching engines 165 Total 544 Since the tabulated statement on Page 25 was printed, there has occurred a slight change in the number of flat cars, now 2,263, as compared to 2,262, thus increasing the number of freight cars to 19,892. Although there has been no change in the number of work cars, we herewith present a more complete statement, the difference in the two statements being in the mode of classification of the work and tool cars. Officers' and pay cars 6 Caboose cars 274 Gravel dump cars 35 Derrick cars 15 Snow plows 15 Steam shovels 8 Pile drivers 4 Tool and other work cars 228 Total 585

Omitted from its suitable connection in the historical narration of this volume, and herewith appended by reason of its constituting a most important feature in the operation of the various divisions and branches, is a precise statement of the location, extent and working force of the several locomotive and car repair shops of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Upon these shops, aglow with the quick thought, scientific energy, and busy application of many of the foremost artisans in the world, the great system daily depends for the mechanical aids which enable it to minister so successfully to the require- ments of the traveling public, and to the needs of the thousands of shippers of freight. Of the works here tabulated, those located at Elkhart, Indiana, are represented by views appearing in Chapter XV. 129 130 L. S. & M. S. RAILWAY SYSTEM

CHICAGO (ENGLEWOOD), ILLINOIS. CAR REPAIR SHOP containing 25,566 square feet, ground space.

ELKHART, INDIANA. LOCOMOTIVE REPAIR SHOP, four departments. Machine shop containing 102,536 square feet, ground space. Carpenter shop " 9,424 " PaintShop " 1,740 '• Foundry shop " 15,000 " " "

ADRIAN, MICHIGAN. CAR REPAIR SHOP, four departments. Freight car repair shop containing 18,282 square feet, ground space. Machine shop " 15,012 " Carpenter shop '• 9,545 " •' " " Coach repair shop " 16,779 " " "

CLEVELAND, OHIO. LOCOMOTIVE REPAIR SHOP, three departments. Locomotive machine shop containing 20,408 square feet, ground space. Locomotive boiler shop " 4.120 " " " " Blacksmith shop " 4,531 " " " " CAR REPAIR SHOP, three departments. Carpenter shop containing 18,452 square feet, ground space. Blacksmith shop " 4,533 " " " " Repair shop " 14,400 " " " "

NORWALK, OHIO. LOCOMOTIVE REPAIR SHOP, two departments. Machine shop containing 24,450 square feet, ground space. Boiler shop " 4,000 " " " "

BUFFALO, NEW YORK. PASSENGER CAR REPAIR SHOP containing 44,133 square feet, ground space. The number of men employed, January 31, 1900, in the shops of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company was, as follows: Englewood 231

Elkhart 541 Adrian jgtj Cleveland car ggg Cleveland locomotive -jog Norwalk ion

In perusing the figures, pertaining to the dimensions, etc., of any of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway locomotives, shown in Part I, of this work it should be borne in mind that these details, furnished by the builders, the Brooks Locomotive Works, represent the engines as they were at the time of construction.