THE REASON FOR IT

iii

6

I.

IN EMBRYO - 1779 TO 1831.

A Great Wagon Road between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, over the Route now Covered by the Erie Railroad, Suggested more than 100 Years Ago by Gen. James Clinton - Thirty Years later a State Road to Connect the Great Lakes with Tidewater, Through the Same Part of the State, Demanded - First Suggestion for a Railroad Over the Route - The Redfield Pamphlet and its Wonderful Prophecies and Projects - A Government Survey of a Railroad Route that this Pamphlet Outlined in 1829 - How the Project of a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie was Influenced by a Railroad in South Carolina - the Project Abandoned, and a Canal Advocated.

1

16

II.

TAKING FORM - 1831 TO 1832.

New York Railroad Fever of 1831-32 - First Public Meeting Advocating a Railroad from the Hudson River to the Southern Tier held at Monticello, Sullivan County, N. Y. - The Marvin Notice of Application for a Charter for a Company to Build a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie - The Church Notice of Application - The General Convention at Owego to Discuss the Railroad Project - Birth of the New York and Erie Railroad.

9

24

III.

ORGANIZING ERIE - 1832 TO 1833.

An Unsatisfactory Charter- A Government Survey Ordered and Discontinued - Charter Amended - The New York and Erie Railroad Organized - Eleazar Lord the First President - First Board of Directors.

IV.

FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD - 1833 TO 1835.

Bidding for Contributions and Donations - Opposition in the Western Counties - Philip Church's Protest - Demanding a. Survey State Aid Asked and. Engineers Appointed - The Survey - The Light it Throws on the Knowledge of the Science of Railroad Construction Sixty Years Ago - Inc1ined Planes, Tunnels, and Careful Consideration of the Interests of the Canals.

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35

V.

ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES GORE KING - 1835 TO 1839.

State Aid Asked for and Refused - Subscription Books Opened and $2,382,100 Subscribed - Ground Broken at Deposit and Contracts Let - First Annual Report of the Company - President King's Efforts to Construct the Railroad - Eleazar Lord Appears with a Plan which President King Does Not Approve - He Wants the State to Take the Work off the Company's Hands -.A Bill to that Effect Almost Becomes a Law - President King Resigns.

32

49

VI.

SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD - 1839 TO 1841.

Building a Railroad on Stilts - How 150 Miles of Piles Came to be Driven, at a Cost of Upwards of $1,000,000, to Prove Utterly Useless - Another Effort to Have the State Assume Charge of the Work Fails - The First Erie Legislative Investigation – Lord Retires.

48

67

VII.

ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BOWEN - 1841 TO 1842.

How all the Present Great Terminal Possessions of the Vanderbilt System at Forty-second Street, New York, Might Have Been the Erie's at an Outlay of Less than $90,000 - The First Train on the Erie - The Company's. Treasury Again Empty and in Debt $3,000,000 to the State - The Company Makes an Assignment, and the Railroad is Advertised For Sale - The Sale Postponed.

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71

VIII.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF WILLIAM MAXWELL AND HORATIO ALLEN - 1842 TO 1844.

The Southern Tier and Western Counties Demand a Release of the Company from Wall Street Influences - William Maxwell, of Elmira, Succeeds Bowen as President - Maxwell Retires, and Horatio Allen Succeeds to the Place - His Plans Result in Dismal Failure - Eleazar Lord Again President.

67

92

IX.

THIRD ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD - 1844 AND 1845.

Work Resumed in Time to Save the Road from Sale -Asking the Legislature for Relief, which is Held up Until the Company Agrees to Build a Branch to Newburgh - Trouble in the Management Over Changes in Route - Eleazar Lord Resigns.

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99

X.

ADMINISTRATION OF BENJAMIN LODER - 1845 TO 1853.

$3,000,000 Loan Asked for and Subscribed in a Few Weeks - Opening of the Road to Port Jervis - The Change of Route into Pennsylvania and Trouble that Came from It - The Fortunate Circumstance of the Scranton T Rail - Railroad Opened to Binghamton - The Treasury Empty Once More - Dark Outlook for the Railroad to get any Farther on its Way - The Difficulty Overcome - Triumph, 1851 - Final Link in the Chain - The Last Spike Driven - Opening of the Road from Piermont to Dunkirk, May, 1851 - The First Through Excursion Train and its Distinguished Passengers - The Ocean United with the Lakes - Insufficiency of the Piermont Terminus Apparent - The Coming of the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad into the Field - The Ultimate Terminus at Jersey City Inevitable - The New Jersey Railroads Pass to the Control of the Erie - The First Dividend.

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117

XI.

ADMINISTRATION OF HOMER RAMSDELL - 1853 TO 1857.

Homer Ramsdell Succeeds Benjamin Loder - Charles Minot Retires, and D. C. McCallum Comes in as General Superintendent and Precipitates a Serious Strike on the Railroad - Ramsdell's Master Stroke in the Matter of the Long Dock Franchises and Land for Terminal Facilities - Another Disastrous Strike - The Erie in a Crisis - Ramsdell Retires

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145

XII.

ADMINISTRATION OF CHARLES MORAN - 1857 TO 1859.

A President Whose Salary Was $25,000 a Year - Resignation of .Daniel Drew as Treasurer - President Moran Assumes the Duties of the Whole Executive Force - Fruitless Efforts to Raise Money - The Company Goes into the Hands of a Receiver.

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158

XIII.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF SAMUEL MARSH, PRESIDENT, AND NATHANIEL MARSH, RECEIVER AND PRESIDENT - 1859 TO 1864.

Wages Months in Arrears, and More than a Million of Other Overdue Claims - The New York and Erie Vanishes Forever, and the Erie Railway is Born - Bergen Tunnel Finished, Pavonia Ferry Established, and Piermont Ceases to be the Terminus of the Erie, Except in Legal Fiction - Erie During the Early Years of the Civil War - Death of Nathaniel Marsh

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165

XIV.

ADMINISTRATION OF ROBERT H. BERDELL - 1864 TO 1867.

The Hand of Vanderbilt - Robert H. Berdell Elected President - Daniel Drew Becomes the Controlling Influence - The Drew-Erie Loan, and How it Helped Drew Worst Vanderbilt in a Wall Street Operation - Eldridge and the Boston, Hartford and Erie Scheme - Election of John S. Eldridge as President - The Coming of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr.

139

180

XV.

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN S. ELDRIDGE - 1867 AND 1868.

Vanderbilt Undertakes to Capture Erie by Buying up its Stock, and Runs Against Daniel Drew and the Erie Printing Press – The Famous Conversion of Millions of Bonds into Stock - The Long Series of Suits, Cross Suits, Injunctions, and Counter Injunctions – Flight of President Eldridge, Drew, Gould, Fisk, and the Erie Treasury to New Jersey - The Erie Scandal Reaches the Legislature - The Surrender of Drew, and His $5,000,000 Settlement with Vanderbilt.

147

190

XVI.

ADMINISTRATION OF JAY GOULD - 1868 TO 1872.

Jay Gould Made President - He Amazes Wall Street- Drew Enters into a Bold Coalition with Him, Plays Him False, and Joins an Opposing Clique - Gould Pushes Them to the Wall - Wall Street Wild - Daniel Drew on His Knees to Gould and Fisk, but They Spurn Him - Gould Surprises and Alarms the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by His Moves Toward Making Erie the Nucleus of a Great Through 'Line' – The "Classification Bill" and its Story' - Foreign Shareholders Have Experience with the Methods of Gould and Fisk - Gould's Plan to Change the Management of Erie and Why It Failed - The Shadow of the Fisk Tragedy - The Influence of James McHenry Brought to Bear Against Gould - Gen. Daniel E. Sickles Moves Against Gould in the Interest of McHenry - The Incident of Lord Gordon-Gordon - The So-Called "Sickles Coup" - Betrayed by His Friends, Jay Gould is Overthrown - The Inner History of It All

161

206

XVII.

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN A. DIX - 1872.

McHenry, Barlow, and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company the Power Behind the Throne - The Erie's Floating Debt - $5,000,000, and no Money in the Treasury - Barlow Appeals to Bischoffscheim for Aid and Gets It - The Extraordinary Contract with the London Bankers to Place the $30,000,000 Loan - Dix Retires.

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248

XVIII.

ADMINISTRATION OF PETER H. WATSON - 1872 TO 1874

Dividend Declared - The Gould "Restitution" - How Gould Brought it About, and Plucked Victory from the Jaws of Defeat – Story of the "Restitution" - Again Under Legislative Investigation - Watson Declares that the Erie Must Spend $40,000,000 at Once in Improving the Road - The Directors Order an Issue of $40,000,000 Consolidated Mortgage Bonds, and Send Watson to Europe to Borrow Money on Them - Barlow Antagonizes Dunan, General Auditor of the Company - Dunan Resigns, and Declares Publicly that all the Watson Dividends Were False - McHenry Secures a Lease of the Atlantic and Great Western to the Erie on His Own Terms, and the Seed of Much Future Trouble is Sown - Beginning of the Angell Suit by Attorney-General Pratt - Melancholy End of the Watson Administration.

208

255

XIX.

ADMINISTRATION OF HUGH J. JEWETT - 1874 TO 1884.

Engaged at a Salary of $40,000 a Year, $15,000 of It Each Year for Ten Years to be Paid in Advance in One Sum of $150,000, Mr. Jewett Takes Hold to Rescue Erie - The Rising Clouds of the McHenry-Atlantic and Great Western Entailment – Something Rare in the History of Erie Occurs: The Truth is Told - The Company Utterly Bankrupt, and the Jewett Management Saved by the Lawsuit that Was Begun to Destroy It - President Jewett Made Receiver of the Erie Railway Company – Receiver Jewett Early Recognizes the Fact that Even Complacent English Shareholders may be Aroused to Action, and Moves Toward Their Conciliation and Cooperation - The Erie Railway Company Succeeded by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company - Ten Years of the Jewett Management - Failure of the Marine National Bank and the Firm of Grant & Ward Complicates Erie Affairs and Embarrasses the Management - Passing of the June Interest, 1884 - John king Elected Assistant President - Mr. Jewett Retires.

230

279

XX.

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN KING (PRESIDENT) AND J. G. McCULLOUGH, RECEIVERS - 1884 TO 1895.

A Stubborn Floating Debt - Ex-President Jewett Resents His Snubbing by Worrying the New Management in the Matter of Western Connections - The Trouble Settled - A Dividend, and the Last - Erie Again Tottering Under Its Burden - The Floating Debt Asserts Itself - Interest Money Used to Quiet It Compels Default - Receivers Appointed - The Drexel-Morgan Plan to Rescue the Company from Its Dilemma - The Efficacy of a $100,000,000 Blanket Mortgage - Sale of the Road - The Erie Railroad Company Rises from the Ruins.

270

321

XXI.

ADMINISTRATION OF EBEN B. THOMAS - 1895 (IN OFFICE, 1899).

The New Erie Strengthened by Consolidation - End of the Atlantic and Great Western-New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Corporation, the Long-time Disturber of the Erie's Peace and Prosperity - For the First Time in Its History the Erie Pays as It Goes - What the Rehabilitated Erie Owes After all Its Years of Tribulation - Over $300,000,000 of Debt Represented by Its Stocks and Bonds - A Study in the Growth of Erie.

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335

FIGHTING ITS WAY. - 1832 TO 1850.

Story of Erie's Long Struggle in the Legislature for Corporate Existence and Power to Complete the Work it Had Undertaken – The Erie Charter and its Amendments - The First Relief Bill - Details of All the Legislation in New York and Pennsylvania that the Erie had to Fight for Almost a Score of Years to Get.

295

352

THE BUILDING OF IT. - 1832 TO 1851.

Early Talk About the Best Way to Build the Railroad - Work Begun in 1835 - Suspended in 1837 - The Resumption of 1838-40 , and the First Contractors - Driving the First Spike at Piermont - Manipulating the Stock to Raise Money - How Contractors Enforced Settlements - How the First Rails Were Bought in England - Opening of the First Section of Railroad in 1841 - Bankruptcy - Work Resumed in 1846 - The Shin Hollow War - Pioneer Trains and Incidents - Tragedy and Comedy - Getting the First Train Through the Delaware Valley and to Binghamton - The Cascade Bridge and Starucca Viaduct - Bloody and Fatal Riots - Drivil1g the Last Spike - The Newburgh Branch - The Long Dock and Bergen Tunnel - Getting to Buffalo and Rochester - Jefferson Branch - War of the Gauges - Nypano - Bradford Branch

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367

THE TURNING OF ITS WHEELS. - 1841 TO 1898.

The Story of the Time-tables - Some Rare Old Time-tables in Facsimile - Development of Traffic - Henry Fitch, First General Passenger Agent - Beginning of Milk Transportation - Original Locomotives - The Strange Career of "The Orange" – Joe Meginnes and Other First Erie Engineers - Story of the "Diamond Cars," Sleeping Cars Built for the Erie Nearly Sixty Years Ago - Worden, the First Conductor - " Poppy" Ayres and " Hank" Stewart - First Superintendents - Erie's First Tragedy of the Rail and Its Sequences - Amusing Incidents, Strange Accidents - Story of How the Erie Brought the Telegraph into Service for the Running of Trains - Original Railroad Telegraph Operators - Notable Strikes on the Erie, and Historic Accidents - The Side-tracking of Piermont and Dunkirk.

373

430

UNDER THE LEGISLATIVE PROBE.

Insinuations and Charges against the Management inquired into as Long Ago as 1841 - The Search for the Truth in the Days of Daniel Drew - How the Action of a Senator Who Had Helped Investigate Erie Led to an Investigation of Himself – After the Classification Bill in 1870, 1871, and 1872 - Seeking Truth About the Watson Dividend of 1873 - Erie Secrets Come to Light- The Hepburn Investigation of 1879 Throws Light on Various Things .

FATHERS IN ERIE

(Biographical).

458

515

PRESIDENTS OF ERIE

(Biographical).

459

516

RULERS OF ERIE:

Boards of Management from 1832 to 1898 - Treasurers - General Passenger Agents - General Freight Agents - General and Division Superintendents, from 1841 to 1899.

473

530

TABLES.

Mileage, Showing Growth of Erie, etc.

483

540

Earnings, Expenses, etc., Since 1841.

484

541

Quotations of Erie Stock, Common, since 1848.

Quotations of Erie Stock, Preferred, since 1861.

FAMOUS CHARACTERS IN ERIE:

Daniel Drew - James Fisk, Jr. - S. L. M. Barlow.

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544

ERIE GRADUATES OF NOTE:

Hugh Riddle - John N. Abbott - Benjamin Thomas - Edgar Van Etten - Frank S. Gannon - W. J. Murphy - J. H. Rutter - J. B. Morford - G. P. Morosini - A. S. Whiton .

493

550

GAZETTEER OF CITIES AND TOWNS.

500

559

ADDENDA.

ADMINISTRATION OF E. B. THOMAS (Continued).

515

574

PRESIDENTS OF ERIE (Continued).

518

577

OFFICIAL ROSTER.

518

577

INDEX.

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578