COLUMBUS AND THE RAILROADS OF CENTRAL OHIO BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University WAITER RDMSET MARVIN, B.A. The Ohio State University 1953 Approved Adviser PREFACE What began as a routine dissertation has ended by becoming some­ thing a great deal more — a labor of enthusiasm. There are several names for people who fall in love with railroads and railroad history — one of them is "railfan," another is "ferroequinologist." I doubt if by this time I can escape from wearing one of those labels, although I trust I have succeeded in avoiding the all-too-easy descent to the Avemus of "ferroequinolatry," One consequence of such enthusiasm is that a student teixis to ask almost as many questions as he answers. That has certainly been the case in the present study in which a number of topics that invite further research have been pointed out, in the selfish hope that other seekers after the truth may be recruited. li. ^ ?der to present a well-rounded view of early railroading in Ohio an effort has been made to include as many aspects of the subject as aossible. Inevitable space and time limitations have consequently forbidden a repetition of the same aspects for all the four major roads. Generally speaking, the story of each individual road has tried to stress different elements of the whole picture, with a minimum of over­ lapping, As a result no one railroad is described completely and there is very little comparative data. A student who ventures to write about a cause dear to fans, antiquarians, hobbyists, collectors, affieionados. and people of that 11 A Qî,'8U9 ill sort works under both a curse and a blessing. He can hardly mention a detail without stirring up passionate feelings in the breast of some devoted amateur of the subject who will lose no time in telling the student just how wrong he is. Happy, in one way, is the writer who works in a field where the fan and the hobbyist don't play. This handicap is offset, however, by the equally enthusiastic help and encouragement from every right-miiKied practitioner of the same cult. In the present case I have been overwhelmed with kindness from so many people, fanciers of the early iron horse and others, that to name them all would be impossible. As an example, I have received large quantities of helpful printed matter about railroads past and present from people all over the country, most of them strangers to me. Some persons whose time and attention I have not been backward in claiming deserve particular thanks: James H, Rodabaugh, editor, and Henry J . Caren, associate editor, of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, who have be«i more than generous with their help; the library staff of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society (my "home aw*y from home"); the staffs of the Columbus Public Library (I am especially indebted to Miss Jean Lewis), of the Ohio State University Library and of the Ohio State Library, all in Columbus; the staffs of the Newberry Library and the Crerar Library in Chicago, of the Baker Library of the Harvard Business School in Boston, of the New York Public Library, and of that gold-mine of railroad material, the library of the Bureau of Railwegr Economics in Washington, where Miss Elizabeth Cullen oresides. tv To the officials of the New York Central, the Baltimore and Ohio and esneoially the Pennsylvania Railroad I am most grateful for their kindness in giving me untrammelled access to the records of their onetime subsidiaries. Miss Elva Ferguson, librarian for the Pennsyl­ vania, was oarticularly helpful. T am indebted to the editors of the railroad labor publications and the numerous Ohio newspapers who printed my letter asking for source material; to the officials of the local historical societies and the librarians in the libraries scattered over the state who went to considerable trouble in answering n%y inquiries on the same subject. In particular I thank Watt P. Marchroan, director of research of the Hayes Memorial Library and Museum, and Russell H. Anderson, director of the Western Reserve Historical, for their generous and informative letters, and Charles E. Fisher,president of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc., for his help and encouragement. Professor Francis P. Weisenburger of the Ohio State University and Professor William T, Utter of Denison University read several chapters of this study in its early form and made enlightening comments, for which I am grateful. Most of all I am grateful to Professor Eugene H. Roseboom of the Ohio State University, my adviser, for his advice and help, and especially for his patience with my endless questions. W.R.M. Columbus, Ohio, May, 1953 CONTENTS Preface........................ 11 Contents ................. v List of Maps .......... vl List of Tables .................................... vit Introduction.................................... viii Chapter 1. The Lay of the Land ............ 1 2. False Dawn: 1830-1835 ..... .............. 10 3. Annus Mirabilis: 1836 38 4. A Depressing Decade: 1837-1846................. 50 5. Railroad Fevers and Chills: 1 8 4 7 - 1 8 6 1 .......... 87 6. The Columbus and Xenia Railroad: First Into Columbus 119 7. The Cleveland, Columbus ard Cincinnati Railroad : Greatest into Columbus . ....... l68 8. The Central Ohio Railroad: Difficulties Under­ estimated .......... ...... 230 9 . The Columbus, Plqua and Indiana Railroad: Victim of the Gauges ............ 271 10. The Roundhouse: Conclusions........ 313 Appendices : A. Charters and Inoorporatojrs .................. 327 B. graetffiti? ........................................... 3 3 1 Bibliography................... 335 Autobiography.................................. 349 LIST OF MAPS Page 1. The Columbus and Xenia and Nearby Railroads ....... U 8A 2. The C.C.& C.R.R. and Certain Connecting Railroads.... l6 ?A 3. The Central Ohio R.R, aixi Connections..... 229A 4. The C.P. & I.R.R. and Its Territory..... ......... 270A 5. Gauges of Certain Railroads . ............ 279 Vi LIST OF TABLES 1. Approximate Chronology of Earliest Railroads in Ohio , , , 35 2. Number of Ohio Railroad Charters Authorized......... 324 3. Railroads Related to Columbus - Organized 1830-1860 . 325 4. Railroad Commissioners and Incorporators frcan Franklin C o u n t y ..................................... 326 vii INTRODUCTION A little more than one hundred years ago Columbus was a quiet provincial capital of broad regularly laid out streets, wide brick sidewalks sheltered in many places by store arcades, and giant syca­ mores. A covered wooden bridge spanned the Scioto, carrying the National Road on its east-and-west way across the state. Brick was the material used in most of the principal buildings among which state institutions took first place: the penitentiary, the schools for the blind and the deaf and dumb, an asylum for lunatics and the new state capitol, of limestone, under construction an a ten-acre square in the heart of the city. Travellers found the place clean and pretty, with a southern flavor. The people were probably more interested in politics than in business. Often they were upbraided in the press of nearby places for choosing the fare to be found in the political trough in preference to biread earned by the sweat of their industry and commerce. As the capital of a fast-growing state, Columbus most of the time (but, as will be shown, not always) grew along with it while unearned increment was probably producing more fortunes than any other single cause. The city was in the center of Ohio and easy to reach, by the standards of the day. In addition to the National Road there was the branch or "feeder" waterway connecting Columbus to the Ohio and Erie V Ü 1 ix Canal, and a network of roads and turnpikes on which stage coach lines operated with great regularity. Less isolated by far than many of its sister communities, the capital entertained numerous distinguished visitors, foreign and domestic, and was fairly receptive to outside influences. The frequent reform movements of the times met with some response although the degree of fervor is hard to estimate. In one period of ten months Columbus sympathizers with Cuban, Hiingarian ard Irish "revolutionists" each held a public meeting for their cause. It was reasonable that the new attractive idea of railroads should be vbH received there. It was equally in keeping with the city's relative deficiency in business enterprise that the inhabitants failed to follow with any literalness the editorial writers' frequent injunc­ tions to "put their shoulders to the wheel" on behalf of the new mode of transportation. In short, the people seem to have started many rail ventures and to have completed almost none of them. They cannot be charged, however, with not supporting the main transportation arteries of earlier years, for the National Road and the canal were built by the federal and state governments respectively. In local roads the city seems to have done well enough,^ The most numerous and far-reaching changes in transportation up to then ever witnessed in Ohio took place in the period covered by this study, roughly from 1830 to 1861. The canal system was launched The varied facts in the foregoing mosaic of Columbus need hardly be pinpointed by specific references. The sources are enconç>assed in the Bibliography. X in 1825» reached its apogee not long thereafter, and hy 1856 was showing the first of the deficits which led to its end. The National Road entered Columbus, the mid-point in the state, during 1833; its use was declining rapidly by the end of the Civil War. The great stage coach lines were bom, flourished and died during the same period. The first turnpike company had begun somewhat earlier but by 1853 an act was needed to deal with abandoned 'pikes.