The New Railroad Superintendent.
St. Lawrence Plain Dealer, Canton, Jan. 21, 1869

J. W. Moak, whom we mentioned in our last has having been appointed General Superintendent of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad, has accepted the position and entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office. It is stated in the Ogdensburg Journal that a few days before receiving his appointment, Mr. Moak had received and accepted the appointment of Superintendent of the Eastern Division of the Union Pacific Railroad, but upon the earnest solicitation of the other employees of the R., W.& O. Road, he reconsidered that acceptance to remain with them.

Mr. Moak came to the employ of the company along with Addison Day, late Superintendent, twelve years ago, and has ever since held the position of track master, which he has filled with so much satisfaction to the company, that they have come to regard his further services as entirely essential to the prosperity of the road. C. C. Case, late acting Superintendent, still holds the position of General Freight Agent, which he has so long and well filled.

Rome Sentinel
Tuesday, July 20, 1880 pg. 1 col.6 through 9

(Also from Oneida County Historical Society Year Book,
Vol.1 1881 pages 144 through 155.

Local Railroad History.
--------------------
How the Syracuse & Utica Railroad was Built.


The following paper on the organization and construction of the Syracuse & Utica Railroad Company was read before the Oneida County Historical Society, in Utica, last Tuesday, by D.E. Wager, Esq. of this city. While suited to the general reader, it is of special local interest, as it narrates the details of the struggle that occurred to bring the road to Rome.

The contemplated movement for the construction via Utica, of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, with a view of adding another link in the chain of railroad connections between the Atlantic and the great west, can hardly fail to recall the events of 40 and 50 years ago, relative to the efforts then made to construct the first railroad through Central New York; and it may also serve as a reminder to old residents of Oneida, Madison and Onondaga counties of the struggle and sharp contest which took place, regarding the location through Oneida county of the Syracuse & Utica Railroad.

Prior to 1826, there was not a railroad in America. In that year a railroad four miles in length, called the "Quincy Railroad," was built in Massachusetts, used to transport granite from the quarries. The motive power was horses; the use of steam was an after- thought, and not dreamed of when railroads were first projected. In April of the year that the Quincy Railroad was built the Legislature of New York chartered the "Mohawk & Hudson Railroad Company" to construct a railroad between Albany and Schenectady. This was the first chartered railroad company in the union authorized to carry on a general transportation business of freight and passengers.

It was the year the Erie canal was brought fully into use, and the public had seen and felt the beneficial results arising from internal improvements of this kind. the capital of the company was $300,000, with liberty to increase it to $500,000. If the road was not completed in six years, the charter was forfeited; no restriction was imposed as to the charges to be made for carrying passengers; nor was the company prohibited from carrying freight, nor required to pay tolls thereon, nor restricted as to the charges to be made for carrying freight, except that such charges were not to exceed the amount of the tolls and duties, (together with the charges for carrying freight) which property was then subjected, as the cost of transportation on the Erie Canal.

The state reserved the right to become the owner of the road at any time within five years after its completion, by providing for the repayment to the railroad company the cost of construction and interest thereon, first deducting the tolls the company had received for carrying passengers and freight.

In the meantime, and before work on this road was begun, railroads in other states were commenced, completed and brought into use, and locomotives propelled by steam placed thereon. In August 1830, and about twenty months before the six years were up within which the road was to be built, the works of construction was commenced, and it was pushed forward with so much vigor and energy that in October, 183l, it was fully completed and carrying about 400 passengers daily on an average.

This was the first railroad built in the state; it was, of course, crude in its plan, imperfect in its construction, and expensive both in its construction and operation. The road-bed was mostly of solid stone, and with such a firm and unyielding foundation, it acted the purpose of an anvil and the rolling stock as hammers, to batter up and wear out in a short time the timbers, cross ties and rails of the track. Its cost was $68,000 per mile, and the inclined plane and stationery engine thereat near Schenectady, (so well remembered by older travelers) and which skill and railroad experience had not then learned to dispense with or obviate, were an additional expense of $1,000 per month.

But imperfect and expensive as the construction and operation of that railroad were, they had their advantages, for they served as lessons in the construction of subsequent roads; and besides, that mode of carrying passengers and freight was such a vast improvement on all former or other modes of transportation, it very naturally stimulated similar enterprises, and served to whet the appetite of the public for the chartering and construction of more railroads.

Schenectady and Utica.

Each year for the then next ten years subsequent to the incorporation of that railroad company, the legislature of New York granted many charters for the construction of railroads in various parts of the state; but nothing, however, was done under any of them (except the one granted in 1831, and the road finished in 1833 to construct the road in 1831, and the road finished in 1833 to construct the road between Schenectady and Saratoga) until after the charter in 1833, to construct a railroad between Schenectady and Utica; the last named road to run from Schenectady on the north side of the Mohawk River to the village of Herkimer, thence to Utica, at a point to be designated by the Common Council of the last named place; the point so designated was east of and at the foot of Genesee Street. The capital stock of the company was $2,000,000, and the work on the road was to be commenced and $100,000 expended within two years and the road to be completed within ten years after the passage of the act, or the company to forfeit its charter. property was not allowed to be transported over the road, except the ordinary baggage of passengers, and the company was limited to four cents per mile for transporting passengers; and before commencing to carry persons, the company was required to pay, or tender to the Mohawk Turnpike Company $22.50 on each share of the stock of said turnpike company. That turnpike was chartered in 1800 to construct a dirt road between Schenectady and Utica. the state reserved the right to become the owner of the railroad within ten years after its completion, the same as provided in the act incorporating the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad Company.

The work on this new link of railroads was begun in the fall of 1834, and was fully completed at a cost of $20,000 per mile in the summer of 1836, so that it was in running order and regular trips commenced August 2, of that year. The opening of the road was duly celebrated, and the newspapers all through the state announced the completion of that additional link with a grand flourish, and boasted in a magnificent strain that the company had six locomotives, 50 cars, and 50 emigrant wagons, and that "each car would carry 24 passengers!!" The next year, after the Utica & Schenectady Railroad Company was chartered, the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad Company was organized, and the construction of the road between those two places was at once put under way, rapidly pushed forward, and completed in the summer of 1837, that it might be the means of attracting by that route other connecting links in the great railroad thoroughfare, which then seemed must be inevitably and soon constructed through the entire state.

The fact that there were to be railroad connections between Albany and Utica, and between Auburn and Syracuse, very naturally stirred up the people along the line, through Central New York, to fill up the gaps and supply the needed links that should make a completed railroad chain from the waters of the Hudson to those of Lake Erie. These considerations, and the fact that railroads were not only paying investments, but were of incalculable benefit in developing the resources of the country, made it pretty apparent in the year 1835 that the legislature to assemble in January, 1836, would be besieged for charters for railroad companies; and in many localities at the fall election in 1835, members of the Legislature were selected in reference to their power, influence and usefulness in procuring charters for such purposes.

In the fall of 1835, David Wager, of Utica, was chosen State Senator from this county. To the assembly were chosen on a general county ticket John Stryker, of Rome; Henry Graves, of Boonville; John W. Hale, of Clinton; William Knight, of Paris, and Jared C. Pettibone, of Lee. It will be assumed that these men are sufficiently well known in Oneida county, even by younger residents and new comers, as to need no introduction or further mention.

In the Assembly from Madison County were William J. Hough, of Cazenovia; John B. Yates, of Chittenango, and Ephraim Gray, of Lebanon. Mr. Hough was a leading lawyer and prominent citizen of that county, and a few years later was elected to Congress. Mr. Yates was a wealthy and influential citizen, highly respected, and so closely connected with other public enterprises as to make him a power in the state. He had been in Congress in 1814 from Schenectady, and about 1816 was practicing law in Utica, and about 1818 he made Chittenango his home, was in 1835 First Judge of Madison County, and by his liberal endowment of, and munificent donations to "Yates Polytechnic School" of his village, made himself popular and influential. He was a brother of Joseph C. Yates, Judge of the Supreme Court of the State in 1814, and Governor in 1823. He will also be remembered as one of the managers of the lotteries in this state sixty years ago. Mr. Gray was an early and old resident of his county and a farmer of influence. With persons of such position and influence Madison county was ably represented and her interest well protected. Their geographical location would naturally lead them to favor the route of a railroad that would run as far south as the hills of Madison County would permit. In the Assembly from Onondaga County, were John Wilkinson, of Syracuse; David Munro, of the town of Camillus; Sanford C. Parker, of Marcellus, and Daniel Dennison, of Manlius.

Mr. Wilkinson was a lawyer of tact, and of busy, bustling habits; he was short in stature and small in size, but he made up for these in enterprise and in physical and mental activity. He was the first postmaster of Syracuse, and it was he who in 1820 gave that place its present name, it having been theretofore known successively as "Bogardus Corners," "Milan," "South Salina," "Cossit's Corners," "Corinth," and lastly Syracuse. Mr. Wilkinson was elected to the Assembly in 1834 and re-elected in 1835. He was among the foremost and strongest advocates of the route on which the road was subsequently located. Mr. Munro was a farmer of large wealth and of considerable influence, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Wilkinson in the advocacy of the present route; but he did not stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Wilkinson in stature or size, for Mr. Munro was tall in height and was large in size as well as in wealth, for he weighed between 300 and 400 pounds. Mr. Parker was a person of prominence and engaged in the milling business; for some reason or other he cast his influence in favor of the more southern route. Mr. Dennison favored the present route. He was member of Assembly not only in 1836 but again in 1837.

When the legislature convened in January, 1836, it was besieged with petitions and applications for the granting of charters to construct railroads in almost every part of the state. At that session some 58 railroad charters were granted or old ones renewed, and among the list was one granted to build a railroad from Johnstown to Fonda, one to build a railroad from Herkimer village to Trenton, one to build a railroad from Carthage, Jefferson County, to the St. Lawrence River, one to build from Utica to Oswego, one from Attica to Buffalo, one from Auburn to Rochester, and one from Utica to Syracuse. It is with this last named road that this article has mainly to do.

At the commencement of the session the friends of the last-named road and of the two routes were on hand in force, and at once began the maneuvering, marching and counter-marching of the two hostile forces. One party insisted that the road should be constructed wholly on the south side of the Erie canal, starting at a point in Utica near the present site of the city hall, thence through New Hartford, Westmoreland, Vernon, and as near Oneida Castle and the Madison county hills as the grades would permit.

This was the shorter distance, and brought the road nearer the southern and more cultivated portions of Madison county and the little hamlets or county villages of Cazenovia, Chittenango, "Quality Hill," &c., and hence was strongly favored and strenuously urged by the assemblymen from that section and by about the whole of Madison county. Most of the Utica influence favored that route, too, for that would insure a break in the railroad chain in Utica, and make that locality what the site of Rome had been near a hundred years before, a "carrying place."

It was argued by Uticans that if there was no break and there should be a continuous chain of railroads, Utica in due time would become but little better than a way station upon the great thoroughfare, and its growth and business facilities greatly crippled and dwarfed. the other party favored a route that would take the projected railroad along or near the sixty-mile level of the Erie canal, and it was urged that although the distance by this route might be a few miles further, yet it was more than compensated by the more favorable grades, and by the cheapness of construction and the small amount that would have to be paid for land damages.

The Romans and the northern portion of Oneida county, of course, favored this route, as did the greater part of onondaga county, as well as capitalists in other parts of the state who wished to invest their money in roads that could be constructed and kept in repair the cheapest, and, as a consequence, yield the quickest and largest dividends. A road built strictly on the Erie Canal level would make the road eight miles longer than it now is, and might take it westward from Rome via Higginsville, Durhamville, and into Onondaga county through the "Cicero Swamp," much further to the north through Madison county than it now runs; and although the friends of this route promised or conceded to the Madison county people that the road, after it reached rome going west, should be constructed on or near its present location, yet the friends of the southern route were suspicious and unwilling to yield, except by compulsion.

It must not be forgotten that at that time that, with the exception of about fifteen miles, the whole route between Utica and Syracuse, now traversed by this road, was a swamp, and much of the way a wild and unbroken forest. The site of the present flourishing village of Oneida was a wilderness. there was a saw-mill but then recently built, a log house for the sawyer, and one erected by Mr. Sands Higginbotham, who had previously purchased a large tract of wild land in that locality. the village of Canastota was but a hamlet, brought into existence and notice by the construction of the canal.

In the early history of railroad charters in this state, the legislature named the commissioners whose duty it was to open the books for subscription to stock, and when the stock was subscribed, to distribute it among the subscribers. The owners of the stock elected the directors of the railroad company and the latter located the road, unless the location was designated in the charter itself. It was, of course, important that the right railroad commissioners should be named, as upon them might depend the destiny of the road. It seemed to be conceded that there were to be 25 railroad commissioners, of which Oneida county was to have seven, Madison county four, Onondaga county seven, and the other seven to be selected from the state at large; and it also seemed to be understood and agreed that the senator and assemblymen were to name the commissioners from their county, and each was to name one. Mr. Stryker, from this county, was the principal champion and wire-puller for the rome route, and Pomeroy Jones, of Westmoreland, for the southern location. From this county, David Wager, as senator, named his choice for commissioner Julius A. Spencer, of Utica, then a director of and for a long time connected with the Utica & Schenectady Railroad. Mr. Stryker named Henry A. Foster; Mr. Graves named David Moulton, of Floyd; Mr. Pettibone named Timothy Jenkins, of Oneida Castle. (Mr. Pettibone had a brother living in Vernon, and hence was half inclined to favor that route;) Mr. Hale named Pomeroy Jones; Mr. Knight named Israel S. Parker; the seventh commissioner from this county was Riley Shepard, of Augusta.

Five of the above commissioners were positively in favor of the Rome route, and although Mr. Jenkins lived at Oneida Castle and along the southern location, yet he was not hostile to, and in case of a pinch would not act against the Rome location. The commissioners from Madison county were John Knowles, of Chittenango; Ichabod S. Spencer, of Canastota; John Williams, of Cazenovia, and Benjamin Enos, of DeRuyter. From Onondaga County were Vivus W. Smith, Miles W. Bennett, Horace Wheaton, Thomas J. Gilbert, E.L. Phillips, Aaron Burt and James Beardsley - most, if not all of them friendly to the canal location. the commissioners in the state at large (named by a select committee of the legislature, to which the charter was referred for amendments and perfection) were Henry Seymour, of Utica, father of Gov. Seymour; (Mr. Seymour was among the first canal commissioners of the state, one of its warmest and most active friends, and formerly state senator; he warmly favored the rome route, and having been so long a friend of the canal, His influence was great.) James Hooker, of Poughkeepsie; Holmes Hutchinson, of Livingston county; James M. Allen, Frederick Whitlesey, or Rochester, Rufus H. King, of Albany, and Charley Oakley, of New York City.

The Rome route had a decided majority of the railroad commissioners as thus constituted, and hence the friends of the southern route were obliged resort to other tactics to carry their measure. John B. Yates was chairman of the railroad committee in the Assembly, and hence in that respect the southern route had an important advantage. that committee reported the fore part of the session a bill chartering the company, but required the road to be constructed wholly on the south side of the erie canal! This was a death blow to the Rome route, but the friends of the canal line succeeded in having the bill referred to a select committee consisting of Charles A. Floyd, of Suffolk County; C. T. Chamberlain, of Allegany, and G. W. Patterson, of Livingston, to amend and report the bill complete. This move was ominous, and petitious and remonstrances poured into the legislature from Madison county and portions of the southern part of Oneida county against locating any part of the road on the north side of the canal.

On the 3d of May, 1836, that select committee reported the bill as amended, authorizing the directors of the company to locate the road. This was, of course, just what the rome friends desired, and was perhaps more than they could reasonably expect, considering the strong influence and persistent effort in favor of the southern location. The bill, as thus reported, was vigorously assailed by Mr. Yates and others. Mr. Yates moved to refer the bill back with instructions to the select committee to report the bill as it had been first reported by the railroad committee, (locating the road on the south side of the canal). Mr. Wilkinson opposed this motion, claiming that it was impracticable if not impossible to so locate the road, especially in portions of Onondaga county. Mr. Stryker urged that the Rome or canal route was almost a dead level the entire length of the road, and although the distance was a few miles greater, yet the grades were enough better to compensate for the difference in length. The motion of Mr. Yates was defeated. Mr. Parker, of Onondaga, to get rid of the commissioners named in the bill, moved that the governor appoint them. this was voted down. Orville Robinson, of Oswego, struck the popular feeling in the assembly when he moved that the majority of the directors should locate the road "on the most direct and eligible route." This was carried, and the contest was ended in the assembly, and the rome route practically adopted, for although it might not be the most "direct," yet it was the "most eligible," and it was supposed that the directors to be selected would so determine. On the 11th of May, 1836, the bill was made a law and the above persons named as railroad commissioners. the capital stock of the company was $800,000, and if the road was not commenced in two years, and at least $25,000 expended, and was not finished four years after the passage of the act, the charter was forfeited. the railroad commissioners organized by the election of Henry A. Foster as president of the board, and I. S. Spencer, of Canastota, (brother of the late Joshua A. Spencer) as secretary. the president named as a committee from this county to prepare and report a plan for receiving subscriptions and distributing stock, David Moulton, Israel S. Parker and Pomeroy Jones.

Books of subscription were opened July 19, 20 and 21, 1836, at the Syracuse House, in Syracuse; at J.C. Spencer's Coffee House, in Canastota; at T.H. Pratt's Canal Coffee House in Utica; at the Mansion House in Albany, and at the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company's office in New York City. Although the capital stock of the company was but $800,000, yet nearly two and a half millions of dollars were subscribed outside of the city of New York viz: in Syracuse, $643,000; in Canastota, $447,000; Utica, $1,066,000; Albany, $250,000. It was then a delicate task to distribute the stock, and give no real ground of complaint; but it was done.

On September 22, 1836, the first election of directors of the railroad company was held at the Syracuse House in Syracuse, at which the following were elected directors, viz: Henry Seymour, David Wager, Henry A. Foster, David Moulton, Samuel French, John Wilkinson, Oliver Teall, James Beardslee, James Hooker, Isaiah Townsend, Miles W. Bennett and Charles Stebbins. Henry Seymour was elected president of the road, H. A. Foster, vice president; Vivus W. Smith, secretary; M.S. Marsh, treasurer, and Aaron Burt, superintendent. John Stryker was selected as attorney for Oneida county to perfect the land titles, John Wilkinson, attorney for Onondaga County, and S. T. Fairchild for Madison county.

Oliver H. Lee, formerly engineer on the Utica & Schenectady road, was made chief engineer, with J. P. Munro and C. B. Stuart, (the later of Vernon, and in 1847, state engineer) as assistants. Surveys of the different routes were at once commenced. At the election held in July, 1837, the same officers were re-elected, but as President Van Buren had called an extra session of Congress to convene in September of that year, which necessitated Mr. Foster's absence, (Mr. Foster had been elected to Congress in 1836) he resigned as vice presidency and directorship, and John wilkinson was made vice president, and John Stryker director in the places thus vacated. In August, 1837, Mr. Seymour died, and Mr. Wilkinson was made president of the road, which position he held for sixteen years, and until the consolidation of the several links into the New York Central and Hudson River railroad company in 1853. Mr. W. was in his day as great a railroad man and had as great a reputation as have since Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond or the Vanderbilts.

In December, 1837, the company advertised for proposals to furnish 7,000,000 feet of timber, board measure, of white and yellow pine, cedar and hemlock for rail, sills and ties; and march, 1838, proposals were invited to grade 33 miles of track in sections of one mile each, and to be completed January 1, 1839. the whole contract for grading was made may 1, 1838, and in September of that year, proposals were invited for 255,000 feet of white oak for "ribbon pieces," and to be 1 1/2 by 3 inches in size, 10 to 15 feet in length, and to be free from wane, sap and knots, and to be delivered along the line of the road as soon as the canal opened in 1839; also for 50,000 cast iron knees.

Within 14 months after the road was put under contract, it was fully completed - most of the way upon piles, a system then for the first time brought into practice use. The pile system was mainly the invention of E. P. Williams of Utica, who was formerly engaged in the construction of the first railroad in this state, and who subsequently went south and perfected his system.

The piles were first thoroughly soaked in salt to add to their preservative qualities, and provision made for resalting as it became necessary. they were driven, by steam power, to a depth of 25 to 30 feet in the marshy ground, by splicing. On the top of the piles were placed long timbers of pine, on which rested the "ribbon pieces" of oak, and on these ribbon pieces, were spiked the flat iron rail. The long timbers of the track were kept from spreading by cross ties. Not infrequently the spikes and the flat rail worked loose, and in such cases the latter paid an unwelcome visit to the inside of the coach, by protruding through the floor, to the imminent peril of the lives of the passengers. A passenger coach in those days seated 24 persons, they facing each other, after the style of an omnibus or street car, with no stove inside, or other means to warm the travelers in the winter, then those vehicles have, or as provided in meeting houses in olden times.

The road was fully completed the last of June, 1839. Its cost was $700,000 - $100,000 less than its capital stock. On Thursday, June 27, the first train of cars reached Rome from Utica, and the editor of the 'Rome Democratic Sentinel' boasted in its issue of July 2 1839, that on the Thursday previous he had shaken hands in the streets of Rome with persons who had left Utica 45 minutes before. the arrival of that train in Rome was the occasion of great excitement and of unusual rejoicing; it was welcomed by the firing of cannon and the cheers of assembled thousands. In the afternoon the train proceeded to Syracuse, and among the number was one who went on the first canal boat west.

The rest of the week the cars ran free over the road. On Wednesday, July 3, the company commenced taking pay and the average receipts for many successive days were over $600 per day. Thursday, July 4, there was a great excursion over the road, and the day and the scene will not be soon forgotten by those who took part in the celebration. The road most of the way ran through a dense forest, and the road was upon piles, not filled in with earth between and the train seemingly run in the air. Everything was new and rural. the heavy forest all around, with fresh openings for the track, piles of brush, new stumps, white logs stripped of their bark, the green foliage, the broken earth, the thousands of empty salt barrels scattered along the track, the great, excited and curious crowd, all made the day and the scene of thrilling interest.

The 'Democratic Sentinel' of July 9th, 1839, boasted that its editor, in company with a party of ladies and gentlemen, left Rome at 4 p.m. for Syracuse, and after staying there an hour and a half, reached Rome at 11 p.m.; that among the number was a gentleman (ex-Judge Foster) who went on the first canal boat.

In the spring of 1839, the primeval forest was cleared away to make room for the "Railroad House, at Oneida Depot." That building yet remains, as does the "Railroad Hotel" at Rome, erected the next year.

On Wednesday, July 10, 1839, the completion of the road was duly celebrated. Two carloads of prominent citizens came July 9, from Albany as far as Utica, where they were welcomed by John Wilkinson, and there they remained over night. Among the number were Solomon Van Rensselaer, a solder of the Revolution; Charles E. Dudley, John Townsend and Francis Bloodgood, three ex-mayors of Albany, David Wood, president of the Mohawk and Hudson railroad; Gideon Hawley, Lewis Benedict. At 5 a.m. Wednesday, July 10, 1839, two extra trains left Utica for Syracuse, with two locomotives to each train, and with banners flying streamers flaunting, bands of music playing, and accompanied by the Utica Citizens' Corps, and prominent citizens.

All along the route large crowds of people gathered to welcome and cheer on the passing trains. The party reached Syracuse at 8 1/2 a.m., and was received at the depot with military honors by a corps of artillery and escorted around the village amid the roaring of guns, the ringing of bells and the huzzas of the multitude. Dinner was served, at which between 400 and 500 persons sat down. E. W. Leavenworth, president of the village, presided, assisted by ex-Mayor Townsend, of Albany. Toasts and speeches occupied the principal part of the afternoon. At 4 p.m. the party started to return, and the editor of the Albany Journal, who accompanied the excursionists, gave a brief but glowing account of the trip and seemed to think the acme of rapid traveling was reached.

The same week the road was completed, its stock was sold at 10 per cent advance, and the Utica and Schenectady road declared its sixth semi-annual dividend of $5 per share. In that same month this portion of the state was excited and complimented by a visit from the illustrious Henry Clay, who visited Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and thence to Oswego and down the St. Lawrence.

He spoke in the Syracuse Depot to a large crowd. a few weeks thereafter, President Van Buren went eastward from buffalo over the whole length of the then completed railroad in the state, staying over Sunday at Geneva, speaking at the depot at Syracuse, and staying at Utica on the night of September 10, 1839.

Such in brief are some of the incidents in the organization, location and construction of the above road. But a few are now living who took an active and prominent part in the matters above referred to, and to some of them am I mainly indebted for the principal facts above narrated. The local newspapers of the day furnished but little from which to gather material.

The Roman (and he is yet alive) had no more vague idea of what railroads and railroad traveling were to be, who required for a right of way over his land, the privilege to peddle milk on each passenger train, than they who required each passenger train to stop 10 minutes at each station.

It is extremely doubtful whether the grades in the southern part of this county could be effectually used now as an argument to induce a railroad to make the curve at rome the present one does; but that argument, added to the tact, shrewd management and strenuous efforts of ex-Judge Foster and Hon. John Stryker, were the means of preventing Rome being let eight or ten miles out in the cold; and yet, subsequent experience in history of railroads and of railroad connections, has demonstrated that it would have been an unwise measure and a short- sighted policy, both for Utica and railroads, to have a break in the link in that city, and thereby necessitated a transshipment of freight and passengers from one depot to the other. Far better and wiser as it is.

(accompanied by a portrait of Mr. Sloan)

Samuel Sloan (Dec. 25, 1817-Sept. 22, 1907), was a well known 19th century railroad executive. He was a son of William and Elizabeth (Simpson) Sloan of Lisburn, County Down, Ireland. When he was a year old he was brought by his parents to New York. At age 14, the death of his father compelled Samuel to withdraw from the Columbia College Preparatory School, and he found employment at an importing house on Cedar Street in New York, where he remained connected for 25 years, becoming head of the firm.

On April 8, 1844, he was married, in New Brunswick, N.J., to Margaret Elmendorf, and took up his residence in Brooklyn. He was chosen a supervisor of Kings County in 1852, and served as president of the Long Island College Hospital. In 1857, having retired from the importing business, he was elected as a Democrat to the New York State Senate, of which he was a member for two years. Sloan at 40 was recognized in New York as a successful businessman who had weathered two major financial panics, but it couldhardly have been predicted that 20 years of modest achievement as a commission merchant would be followed by more than forty years in constructive and profitable effort in a wholly different field - that of transportation.

As early as 1855 he had been a director of the Hudson River railroad (not yet part of the New York Central system). Election to the presidency of the road quickly followed, and in the nine years that he guided its destinies (including the Civil War period), the market value of the company's shares rose from $17 to $140.

Resigning from the Hudson River, he was elected Samuel Sloan, in 1864, a director, and in 1867, president, of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, then and long after known as one of the small group of "coal roads" that divided the Pennsylvania anthracite territory. Beginning in the reconstruction and expansion era following the Civil War, Sloan's administration of thirty-two years covered the period of shipping rebates, "cut-throat" competition, and hostile state legislation, culminating in federal regulation through the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Sloan's immediate job, as he saw it, was to make the Lackawanna more than a "coal road," serving a limited region. Extensions north and west, and, finally, entrance into Buffalo, made it a factor in general freight handling. Readjustments had to be made. It was imperative, for example, that the old gauge of six feet be shifted to the standard 4'8 1/2". This feat was finally achieved on May 25, 1876, with a delay of traffic of only 24 hours - in some cases less. The Scranton Republican of May 31, 1876 noted:

"It is really astonishing in what a brief space of time the herculean task of changing this great highway has been accomplished, and to the uninitiated it will seem impossible that so many hundred miles of road could undergo the necessary alternation in a few hours; yet such is the case. "What to some would seem a work of weeks, or even months, has been effected in a single day, owing to the thorough and efficient minds that had the matter in charge, and thus is wrought a feat that gives to the D.L.& W. Railroad Company, facilities for sending its trains over every great highway in the United States - the Erie excepted - before the traveling public has time to think of it."

The total cost of the improvement was $1,250,000. Great changes in the road's traffic ensued. In the decade 1881-1890, (P.214) while coal shipments increased thirty-two percent, general freight gained 160 per cent, and passenger traffic, 88 per cent. Dividends of seven percent were paid yearly from 1885 to 1905.

The D.L. & W. controlled the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad from 1878 to 1882, which at the time seemed an obvious merger as the railroads connected at Syracuse, Utica, and at Rome (through its lease of the Rome & Clinton Railroad). Acquisition of the RW&O was seen as a new market outlet for anthracite coal. The road's locomotives were also converted to anthracite coal burners.

By the early 1880s, the D.L. & W. mainline was being extended from Binghamton to Buffalo. It is said Sloan "borrowed" the good steel rails from the R.W.& O, and substituted them with discarded iron rails, so that by 1883, less than 60 of its 417 miles of mainline track were steel rails. The R.W.& O. was allowed to deteriorate by deferred maintenance. It barely escaped receivership. But the road still had great potential. "Look out," Sloan was once warned, "some one will get that old heap of junk from you yet." Sloan laughed it off. But eventually he lost control of the road and it went under the new ownership of Charles Parsons of New York, who had carefully had Samuel Sloan for purchasing R.W. & O. stock at from 10 to 15 cents on the dollar.

Gustavus Myers, in his classic work, "History of the Great American Fortunes" (1909), described Sam Sloan as one of "the monarchs of the land ... the actual rulers of the United States; the men who had the power in the final say of ordering what should be done."

Sloan was an ally of J. P. Morgan, and one of the founders of what is now Citibank and his name is engraved in stone on the wall in the former Citibank headquarters at 55 Wall Street. There is a statute of Sam Sloan one block from the former Lackawanna Railroad station in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Sam Sloan had little patience with the likes of Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, and the other 19th-century "robber barons." In his book, "Reminiscences of a Stock Broker," Edwin Lefere, wrote: "The newspapers never had to beat about the bush with old Sam Sloan."

Although Sloan resigned the presidency in 1899, he continued for the remaining eight years of his life as chairman of the board of directors. At his death, in 1907, at the age of 90 years, he had been continuously employed in railroad administration for more than half a century and had actually been the president of seventeen corporations. He died in Garrison, N.Y., survived by his wife and six children.

Sam Sloan at the time of his death was director or officer of 33 corporations including Citibank, Farmers Loan and Trust Company, United States Trust Company, Consolidated Gas Company, and Western Union Telegraph Company.

*Note: This man should not be confused with another Samuel Sloan who was a noted Philadelphia architect. He wrote a book in 1852 which is still in print under the name "Sloan's Victorian Houses". This book was a best seller when it first came out. It essentially contained the blueprints and designs which were used in the construction of almost every house during that era.

Sources:

Dictionary of American ? Samuel Sloan Biography, PP 213-214, Vol. XVII
Evening Post (N.Y.), and N.Y. Tribune, Sept. 23, 1907;
Railroad Gazette, Oct. 11, 1907;
J. I. Bogen, The Anthracite Railroads (1927)
Annual reports of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company
Information as to certain facts from a son, Benson Bennett Sloan.

(Statue of Sam Sloan at Hoboken. President of the D.L.& W. Railroad 32 years.   During that time, trains were not operated on Sunday.)

Rome Sentinel

Tuesday, July 27, 1839

The cars on this road commenced running their regular trips on Wednesday last. On Monday and Tuesday of last week the company gave those citizens in the vicinity of the road who wished it, an opportunity to pass over it. Great numbers accepted the invitation and were highly gratified at the improved communication between Utica and Syracuse. the distance which has heretofore separated these two places seems now almost annibilated.

On Monday afternoon at 4 o'clock, in company with a small party of ladies and gentlemen of this village, we took seats in the cars, visited Syracuse, where we remained an hour and a half, affording ample time to partake of an excellent supper at the well known Syracuse House, and reached home again at eleven the same evening.

Twenty years ago no one would have dreamed that such a journey would ever be performed. The completion of the Erie Canal through this section of country was deemed, and certainly was, a great event. But what a contrast between that period and the present! One of our party was also one of several gentlemen who made an excursion on the first canal boat which passed west of Rome. As we flew over a country now covered with verdant fields and luxuriant crops, but then mostly a wilderness, he could not help remarking the wonderful changes which a few years had wrought. Then the completion of the Erie Canal was regarded as the acme of human enterprise; now we are driven through the country as it were on the wings of the hurricane, and have no idea of holding up until we can vie with the lightning in the rapidity of our traveling.

The name "Hojack" was the name given in derision at one time to the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Division of the New York Central. It was applied in the yards at Suspension Bridge. When the Oswego train over the R.W. & O. road was about to leave each day one of the employees would stand on the platform and call out to the man in the roundhouse whose name was Jack Donohue, "hojack," and the Oswego crew made its appearance simultaneously and the road was thus christened, "Hojack."

And it was a sure enough hojack road in those days, too. The power was light and the cars small. One of the old type of engines if seen today would make a railroad man feel like putting it in a shawl strap and carrying it off. There have been many improvements since the line was first known ad the Hojack, but thee are many more necessary, including a better roadbed and two tracks the entire length of the pike.

Snowplows Over Northern Roads
Ogdensburg News, Wed., Feb. 24, 1904

Snowplows Over Northern Roads

____

Employees Must Refrain From Referring to R.W.& O. as the "Hojack"

___

Syracuse - Feb. 23 - While the railroad officials were feeling so warm yesterday at the New York Central station that they were obliged to open their office window, two snow plows were running at full steam northwards on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg to a place called "Sour Apple Cut," near Richland to help out two trains which had become stalled there. A severe snowstorm prevailed all along the northern road yesterday and No. 8, the train which made the R., W.& O. famous, due here at 9:25 o'clock, did not come in until nearly midnight.

At "Sour Apple Cut" the snow was so dense and deep that the snowplows were still plugging away at 10 o'clock last night and would continue working today, it was said by railroad men last night. It has been rumored in railroad circles for the past few days that an order has been issued to all New York Central Employees to refrain from using the name "Hojack" in speaking of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad. It is said that the only real reason for the objection to the word is that it conveys a sort of phonetic reflection of the road. It is an unusual combination of letters, but how it originated nobody connected with the road seems to be able to tell.

One railroad man said yesterday: "It sounds so like a word of Norway, where they have perpetual winter, and we have been up against it so hard this winter that it sounds like rubbing it in to call the road the "Hojack," so I hope they will cut it out. It is to be known hereafter as the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg branch of the New York Central railroad, and if that is good enough for Chauncey M. Depew it ought to be good enough for the public."

Get Ready for Hard Winter

_____

Central Officers Prepare for Coming Battle with the Snow.

______

"YS" on the Hojack

______

Operating officials of the Rome & Watertown division of the New York Central are already preparing for the rigors of winter. Efforts to keep this division open last winter cost of the New York Central several hundred thousand dollars and the company is not desirous of repeating the experience if it can be avoided.

Last winter snow plows were run oftener than trains and when it became necessary to turn one of the plows it had to be taken to a turntable in this city, Oswego or Watertown.

To meet this difficulty two "Ys" are being constructed, one at Pulaski and one at Woodard, near Syracuse. it is believed that this work will greatly expedite the operation of plows when necessary and it will aid not a little in keeping things moving. Railroad men do not believe, however, that the coming winter will be anywhere near so severe as the last one.

The Central is well equipped for fighting snow. New plows have been placed on the R., W. & O. and there is an abundant supply of apparatus in the yards in this city. The equipment here includes four sweepers, six different sized plows for use on different divisions, one rotary for cleaning out cuts and a Russell plow for use on the West Shore and Auburn roads.

The Auburn & Syracuse electric road suffered more than any of the other trolley lines in this vicinity last winter. To prevent a repetition of their experiences a series of snow fences several miles in length will be erected along the more exposed sections of the road. These fences have already been built and the work of setting them up will take only a few days.

The Rapid Transit company has purchased some additional apparatus during the summer and will now have no trouble in operating its cars unless there are some phenomenal storms.

In another month the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg division of the New York Central will no longer officially be known as such. The main line, running from Suspension Bridge on the west, along the shore of Lake Ontario to Massena Springs on the north, with its numerous branches, will then be known as the Ontario division and the St. Lawrence division: the point of bisection being at the west end of the Watertown yards.

It will, however, be many a day before the public will forget the road as the "R., W. & O." That is an euphonious name and, while it does not fittingly locate the line, there being other and larger cities touched by it than those enumerated in its corporate title, people will be prone to hang on to it.

In the old days, when railroads were sometimes given nom-de-plumes, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad was referred to throughout its serpentine length as "Rotten Wood and Old Rusty Rails." That was in a time when the appellation was most fitting. The past decade or two, however, has seen much improvement in conditions on the line, and the rather unpleasant (to officials) reference has not been heard in that time to any extent.

Then, too, there is the "Hojack," a name given to the line by some one, no one knows who. Where the name originated no one knows either. Even the "stovepipe committee" says it has no knowledge of its origin and what the "stovepipe committee" does not know is hardly worth while. One old railroader, however, says "Hojack" is a western word and means "two streaks of rust and the right of way." Be this as it may, one thing is certain, the officials of the R., W. & O. hate the word "Hojack," and wax warm and sore whenever they hear it used.

It would seem that in the selection of names for the new divisions, the selector has exercised pretty fair judgment. At least no better name for that portion of the road from the Bridge to Watertown could be chosen. "Ontario" division at once suggests the lake and it is along the lake's south shore that the road runs.

So, too, in the other name, St. Lawrence, a fitting title was selected. the portion of the line to carry that name is the road that leads to the big river and its Thousand Islands and, too, much of it within the county of St. Lawrence.

But, as we said in the first place, the people will be a long time forgetting to call the line the "R., W. & O."

"The Wabash Flyer"
Oswego Palladium Times, March 26, 1946

(Note: This train was later shifted to the Chenango Branch at Earlville and then to the West Shore to Buffalo)

DO YOU REMEMBER
By JAY KNOX

The 'Wabash Flyer'

Sometimes during our strolls through the city streets and in places of business as well, we often have to pause long enough to to listen to all sorts of queries for this corner. Maybe we have been harping too much on the same subject. Monday, however, we accidentally came upon a couple of railroad men who were reminiscing of the years when the Wabash Flyer passed through Oswego every morning over the R., W. & O. to Niagara Falls.

And let us say right at the start, many years have rolled along since that train was in action, as far as railroading in Oswego is concerned.

We are no authority on the matter, not by a long shop, but the Wabash Flyer to us, was nothing more than the immigrant train that arrived in this city from New York between 10 and 12 o'clock each night. That train was always greeted by large groups of local people.

The old Midland depot was a busy scene soon after the arrival of the flyer, though why it was called that, we never knew. The emigrants, from foreign climes, with their queer looking costumes, would gather on the old station platform, which at one time was covered by a roof, and would strike out for Bulger's restaurant, for a cup of coffee, doughnuts and other eatables, and they would be followed by many of the spectators, on account of the strangeness of their garb and language, and could be heard a block away. They used to leave quite a little money with the eating houses around the station and the fellow who carried the coffee pot and the "red hots." They were a happy lot.

The Wabash would lay over for three or four hours, while it was being shifted from the New York, Ontario & Western to the R., W. & O. tracks, and would leave over the Hojack the next morning around 4 o'clock and often later. Well do we recall the time when we stayed up all night in order to take the train at 4 o'clock, or to learn that it was three hours late. And probably that is where we get our reputation for being a "night-hawk."

Those immigrants were a happy lot and many of them would be bound for states as far west as Idaho, Nevada and California. Most of them were Germans; and a majority of them were seeking homes in Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis - and other cities. After a period of years the N.Y.O. & W. re-routed the flyer and sent it in another direction, and the "Wabash Flyer" has become almost forgotten as far as Oswegonians are concerned.

Railroads were of more importance in those immigrant years, at least in the passenger way, than it has been in these modern years, and it wasn't because of the immigrants either.

Typist's Note: The following articles were written several years preceding the above article - there are several:

Rumored That Wabash Flyer Cuts Out Oswego
Syracuse Herald, Dec. 9, 1912

_____

In That Case Crews Would Have to Move to Syracuse

____

EARLVILLE COMPLAINED

____

It is Said, Because of Insufficiency of Trains in Chenango

____

Oswego, Dec. 3. - There is a report in railroad circles that after Jan.1, the train known as the "Wabash Flyer," which flies between New York and Chicago via Oswego, will be changed as to route aand that it will no longer pass through Oswego.

It is claimed that people living between Earlville (Chenango County)and Syracuse have complained to the Public Service Commission of the alleged insufficiency of trains between those two points and that the New York Central has promised them two trains a day after Jan. 1. These are the trains, so railroad men say, that are to be cut off on a "y" at Earlville and run between that place and Syracuse.

This train was established a number of years ago and is a sort of fixed institution here. The change will mean that train crews cannot live in Oswego as at present, but will be obliged to live in Syracuse, where crews will change.

O & W Train Will Run to Buffalo Via Syracuse
Syracuse Journal, Dec. 12, 1912

____

Comes Over Chenango Valley Railroad From Earlville

An important change in the running plans of the Wabash Flyer running between New York City and Chicago, will go into effect Dec. 29. Instead of going up to Oswego and following the R. W. & O. to Buffalo, the roundabout way it is using at present. it will cut off in the northern part of the state and come to Syracuse via the Chenango road from Earlville.

The New York Central line from here to Buffalo will be used and the same route from Buffalo to Chicago that has always been traversed. The same route will be in effect coming back.

"This change is of great importance to both travelers and railroad people alike," said F. W. Everett, superintendent of the New York Central, "because a much faster schedule will result, and it will save a lot of transferring that was necessary in the past, if the traveller wished to reach a point between Earlville and Buffalo."

At the same time the train now leaving Cazenovia at 8 a.m. will start from Earlville to connect with the New York, Ontario & Western from Norwich.

Mr. Everett and O.E. Jenkins the general agent here, have just returned from New York, where these changes were made at a meeting of the Wabash and the Ontario & Western people.

WABASH FLYER CHANGES ROUTE
Oswego Daily Times, Friday, Dec. 13, 1912

WABASH FLYER CHANGES ROUTE

Will Go Through Earlville and Syracuse Hereafter.

Official announcement has been made that after December 29, the Wabash Flyer, east and west bound, will run over the New York Central lines from Earlville to Buffalo, instead of the Ontario Division of the Central. The reason has been the loss of time on the division during the winter months, for generally the main line is open, while the Ontario is occasionally held up on account of excessive snow.

The flyer will be delivered to the Chenango Branch at Earlville at 1:45 a.m., westbound, and will pass through Syracuse at 3:20 a.m., about three quarters of an hour earlier than the train passes through here at the present time. The eastbound train will go into Syracuse over the main line at 9:05 a.m. as a part of the West Shore Continental Limited and there the O.& W. train will be made up, leaving at 9:20 and arriving in Earlville at 11:05.

(From "Do You Remember" column by Jay Knox)
Oswego Palladium Times, Jan. 10, 1941

(From "Do You Remember" column by Jay Knox)

An old railroader speaks. - "Mr. Knox, maybe you haven't forgotten when Oswego was a great railroad center. You don't have to go back such a long time either. I can easily recall the years when hundreds of cars loaded with farm produce for the eastern market rolled over the old Hojack rails through Oswego.

"How we used to gather every night just to watch those trains move along: an the passenger trains running in and out on all three roads: busses meeting all trains upon arrival with hotel porters yelling free bus to the Doolittle House, the Hamilton House, also. Dozens of baggage men ready to 'smash' your baggage to anywhere in the city.

"Sometimes I can still hear a faint echo of those old voices. Remember the Wabash Flyer as she entered the city over the Midland and went west over the R.W. & O. at 4 a.m. every day. She set the pace toward the land of the setting sun with her coaches filled with immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Jerusalem, France and other countries from the across the creek, as we called the ocean then.

"They were a happy lot, too: no sign of war or any trouble to spoil their journey. They were contented brothers and sisters and parents from different climes, and all anxious to secure new homes in the far west. Remember the vender with the coffee can and 'hots' that met the same train.

An old railroader speaks. - "Mr. Knox, maybe you haven't forgotten when Oswego was a great railroad center. You don't have to go back such a long time either. I can easily recall the years when hundreds of cars loaded with farm produce for the eastern market rolled over the old Hojack rails through Oswego.

"How we used to gather every night just to watch those trains move along: an the passenger trains running in and out on all three roads: busses meeting all trains upon arrival with hotel porters yelling free bus to the Doolittle House, the Hamilton House, also. Dozens of baggage men ready to 'smash' your baggage to anywhere in the city.

"Sometimes I can still hear a faint echo of those old voices. Remember the Wabash Flyer as she entered the city over the Midland and went west over the R.W. & O. at 4 a.m. every day. She set the pace toward the land of the setting sun with her coaches filled with immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Jerusalem, France and other countries from the across the creek, as we called the ocean then.

"They were a happy lot, too: no sign of war or any trouble to spoil their journey. They were contented brothers and sisters and parents from different climes, and all anxious to secure new homes in the far west. Remember the vender with the coffee can and 'hots' that met the same train.

Oswego Palladium Times, March 26, 1946
(From "Do You Remember" column" by Jay Knox)

Typist's note: This appears to be a duplicate; however, the article was presented to me with a missing paragraph.

Sometimes during our strolls through the city streets and in places of business as well, we often have to pause long enough to listen to all sorts of queries for this corner. Maybe we have been harping too much on the same subject. Monday, however, we accidently came upon a couple of railroad men who were reminiscing of the years when the Wabash Flyer passed through Oswego every morning over the R.W.& O. to Niagara Falls.

And let us say right at the start, many years have rolled along, since that train was in action, as far as railroading in Oswego is concerned.

We are no authority on the matter, not by a long shot, but the Wabash Flyer to us was nothing more than the immigrant train that arrived in this city from New York between 10 and 12 o'clock each night. That train was always greeted by large groups of local people.

The old Midland depot was a busy scene soon after the arrival of the flyer, though why it was called that, we never knew. The immigrants, from foreign climes, with their queer looking costumes, would gather on the old station platform, which at one time was covered by a roof, and would strike out for Bulger's restaurant, for a cup of coffee, doughnuts and other eatables, and they would be followed by many of the spectators, on account of the strangeness of their garb and language.

The Wabash Flyer would lay over for three or four hours, while it was being shifted to the R.W. & O. tracks, and would leave over the Hojack the next morning around 4 o'clock and often later. Those immigrants were a happy lot and many of them would be bound for States as far west as Idaho, Nevada and California. Most of them were Germans; and a majority of them were seeking homes in Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis - and other cities.

Railroads were of more importance in those immigrant years, at least in the passenger way, then it has been in these modern years, and it wasn't because of the immigrants either.

Important Work Being Rushed to Completion
______

A Thousand Men at Work Between Syracuse and Massena Springs - Cuts
Widened, Trestles Filled and Snow Fences Built - Ready for Winter

*originally Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad and finally the Rutland Railroad.

Capital is about to reopen the Clifton iron mines In Northern New
York, and to destroy the famous wooden railroad which used to bring
out the ore.

"Steel rails cost money," said the chairman.

"Sure, an' why not make wooden rails then?" said Jim Sheridan, the “King of Clifton," "they's wood enough up them hills to break a man's heart."

"Can you build a wooden railroad fit to run a little dummy engine on and a train of tip-cars?"

"I can do that!"

And Sheridan did. The rails were spruce poles, squared in the little "one-man" saw mill of the place, while log ties, half buried in the earth and staked down at either end were notched to receive them. Into these notches the rails were wedged firmly by two oaken keys sawed out in the saw mill.

These keys had a way of shrinking during a dry spell, and working loose, when it became the duty of the engineer to keep a sharp watch for them and of the brakemen to dismount upon hearing three short whistles and a long one, and with a supply of keys from a keg which was carried on the conductor's flat car at the rear to haul the rail tight again with a wooden beetle.

The engine used to run off the track into the bushes, when, it was the pleasant duty of the trainmen to get off and pry it back into place again. Just as the railroad was becoming famous the iron works burned up. The railroad didn't burn. It's there yet much of it, rotted into the ground, but it will have to come up to make way for a steel successor, not half so interesting.

      The Public Service Commission will hold a hearing in the Monroe County courthouse December 10 at 10 o’clock, on passenger service between Oswego and Rochester, and between Suspension Bridge and Rochester, on the understanding it is the desire of Central operating officials to halt all passenger service between the points involved in the hearing.

      Trains 24 and 29 operate daily between Rochester and Oswego, one daily each way, and Trains 52 and 53 between Suspension Bridge and Rochester, one train daily each way. These trains are mixed passenger and freight, mostly freight, with one passenger car on the end of each train. They make all stops and sometimes remain considerable time at stations while freight is being loaded and unloaded, or while shifts are being made. As a result the operating time between Oswego and Rochester is about 10 hours, and about the same between Suspension Bridge and Rochester. There has been little or no passenger business, the company reports, and in the interests of economy it is desired to cease all passenger service.

     This will leave the section, west of Oswego, without public service for passenger transportation. There are no bus lines operating on a through schedule, and mail is carried by automobile along the route by government contract.

Stuck Fast in Snow Drifts

Passenger Trains Stalled Since Saturday

Six of them Between South Richland and Charlotte -
One Contained Members of the Fifteenth Infantry
Bound for the Philippines - Thirty-six Hours from Watertown

Six passenger trains were stalled in snowdrifts yesterday on the R., W. & O. division of the New York Central railroad, operated from this city, and an army of nearly a thousand men were engaged in shoveling them out.

At Fernwood, the first station south of Pulaski on the Northern division, a special train with about 200 soldiers of the Fifteenth Infantry, from Madison Barracks, bound for the Philippines, was stalled in the snow and remained there up to last evening. The men were supplied with rations, and upon the steampipes they had an arrangement for heating coffee. Passenger Agents Gridley and Hartigan were aboard.

The train due here from Watertown and Utica Saturday at 4:45 p.m. did not arrive until about nine o'clock last night. Conductor Brumfield was in charge. The train had been stalled between Mexico and Sand Hill. The snow there was reported to be fifteen feet deep. Among the passengers on the train was John Hoffman, of Watertown, who came to this city to attend the funeral of his sister, Mrs. Louis Brosener, which occurred today. He had been thirty-six hours on the road and being a man advanced in years had suffered for want of something to eat. A rotary plow from the main line of the New York Central cut the way through the drifts and followed.

The Wabash Flyer, conductor John T. O'Brien, due to arrive here Saturday morning at eleven o'clock, was stalled in the drifts near Red Creek from Saturday afternoon and had not been released at 10 A.M. today.

The passenger train from Rochester, Conductor George Donovan, due to arrive here at 12:45 P.M. Saturday, was stalled behind the flyer and the train that should have reached here Saturday evening at 6:15 o'clock in charge of Conductor Stewart was some place between Wallington and Charlotte.

Conductor Thomas D. Clooney who left here Saturday at 1:05 P.M. with a train made up here bound for Rochester, spent Saturday night, Sunday and part of today at least among the snow drifts of Hannibal. Railroad men said this morning that unless there was a let up in the storm along the western division that the four trains stalled there would not be released before nightfall, if then.

There was no train into this city over the Phoenix line after 2:30 A.M. Sunday. Conductor Daniel R. Ryan left Syracuse Saturday night at eleven o'clock with his train and after a hard run arrived here at the hour above stated.

The D.L.& W. road had two trains in yesterday. The first arrived about 12:30 12:30 o'clock, four hours late. The next train arrived in the evening two hours late. Saturday night Conductor John H. Roche got his train, due to arrive here from Binghamton at 10:15 P.M. as far as the Kingsford farm. The snow in the long cut was solid and deep. Gathering the passengers into the baggage car the train was cut and the locomotives started with the baggage car for this city while trainmen were left behind to guard the front and rear end of the passenger coaches, Roche's forethought the passengers would probably remained in the snow all night. After the way was broken the passenger coaches came easy behind a shifting engine and were put away in the yard.

There was no Wabash train from New York over the O.& W. yesterday. Because of the storm the train was shifted to the Central tracks at Oneida and sent to Suspension Bridge by the main line. The train east took the same route.

The old wedge-shaped snowplows were of little use in the attempt to get through the drifts of packed snow in the cuts during the past few days. With two or three engines behind one a flying start would be picked up and the plow would be buried in the drifts at the rate of fifty miles an hour and there they would stick, with the chance of jumping and landing crosswise of the tracks. The rotaries or centrifugals do the only effective work in the succession of storms such as we have had during the past ten days, but as there is only on rotary plow on the R.W. & O. division it has been impossible to keep it working on the various divisions of the road. About five such plows for the R.W.& O. system would probably be able to do more effective work.

Persons who have not traveled over the line of the R.W.& O. in winter have no conception of the snowdrifts. At Kane's bridge, just west of the city, the snow in the cut is even with the bridge, which is twenty-six feet above the tracks. The cut was blown full of fine snow and when the plows came along they kept throwing up banks on either side until they were high above the stacks of the locomotives. Wednesday noon last as the westbound passenger train was going between these walls of snow the vibration loosened some at the top and it fell between the train and the wall breaking our four of five windows in the cars.

At Red House cut it is reported that there were drifts twenty feet deep and that the entire cut was filled with packed snow. Some of the men who were taken out Wednesday last to work in the snow complained bitterly. No provision had been made for feeding them and they were kept at work steadily for twenty-six hours. They received regular pay for the number of hours they worked.

Roadmaster Burke was no satisfied the way the men were provided for and he notified Superintendent Moore. The result was that yesterday morning the men went out in cabooses fitted up with stoves and carrying a quantity of provisions, provided by the men themselves. David Marlo had charge of the gag sent east yesterday morning and Roadmaster Burke took charge of the gangs sent west.

The rotary plow, with Supervisor of Track Burke in charge, went west last night about 9:30 o'clock and at 8:30 o'clock this morning had just reached Hannibal, a distance of twelve miles. There were fifty shovelers in the party and the train was composed of the rotary plow, two cabooses and four engines. Almost from the start trouble was encountered from the great drifts that filled he cuts.

After several hours of continuous work the Kane cut was cleared and the train proceeded. At other points on the drifts were encountered.

Before leaving the city Supervisor Burke had a stock of coffee, bread, bologna and sandwiches put in so that the men might have something with which to regale themselves after their battle with the snow.

From Hannibal, Supervisor Burke and his force will push on to Crockett's and dig out a snowplow crew which has been buried at Hunter;s cut since Saturday night. The plow was sent out with two engines Saturday afternoon, Conductor Bloomingdale being in charge of the train and Engineers Finn and Van Auken at the throttle.

As many another snow-fighting crew has done, the plow pushed into the cut at Crockett's came to grief. At last reports the plow and engine were buried in twenty-five feet of snow and there was no possible chance of getting them until a shoveling party arrived. The plow is stalled about an eighth of a mile from Crockett's station and from reports received this morning the crew was not suffering from cold or lack of food.

Hunter's cut is or of the most treacherous on the western division. It is about 3,000 feet long and the snow is packed almost solid to a height of twenty to twenty-five feet.

This morning Trainmaster Halleran said that he would have the western division open late this afternoon. He was thus sanguine, he said, because there is not a great quantity of snow west of Crockett's. Supervisor Burke would, said in digging out the plow at Crocketts, have the assistance of seventy-five shovelers, as he would pick up twenty at Hannibal and he same number at Crockett's. Mr. Halleran said that passenger trains are now running between Charlotte and Suspension Bridge.

The train from the east into Oswego last night was preceded by the rotary, with Supervisor Philip Kelly and forty and forty shovelers. The men were sent back to Watertown at midnight on a special train.

Besides the rotary there are four other plows at work on the R.W. & O. Each of the trains is drawn by two engines. Mr. Halleran says that the Phoenix line the storm is most felt between Fulton and Woodard. Unless the storm breaks out afresh the company expects to have all trains running by tomorrow.

The trains on the Lackawanna railroad were about on time today. The New York train, due at 8:35 A.M. , was only eleven minutes late, and all the out-going trains left on time. At 12:30 o'clock yesterday, the Lackawanna got the first train into Oswego. Up to that time there was no railroad communication between Oswego and elsewhere. The New York train left at 9:15 last, on time. Very little trouble is being experienced on the Oswego and Syracuse division of the road, and snow being found on the Syracuse and Binghamton division. Freight Agent Taylor said today that he would have all freight trains in and cut of this city moving today.

The noon train from Richland arrived about an hour late. Passengers brought news that the main line from Richland to Rome and north to Ogdensburg is open with trains running from thirty minutes to an hour late. The Syracuse Northern road is also open. The special train with the soldiers on board was hauled back from Fernwood to Pulaski yesterday afternoon and last evening a start was again made for Syracuse. The Phoenix and Lackawanna roads are running trains.

There was no train from the west up to 1:30 P.M. today, but it was said that the line would be open by evening and that all passenger trains, due to arrive here Saturday last, will get through by nightfall.

All roads leading to this city from the country are badly drifted and only those who found it absolutely necessary were able to get to town. Nothing was done in the city yesterday towards clearing off crosswalks by officials who look after that work. The city snow plow, however, made the usual trips about the parks and citizens generally cleared off their sidewalks, so that by afternoon there was no difficulty for ladies to get about, excepting at crosswalks, where drifts had formed.

By hard work the street railway company kept its tracks open Saturday night. The snow plow was kept moving over them constantly. Today Manager Arnold has a gang of men engaged in opening up the Minetto branch of the street car line.

Passenger Train Discontinuances

St. Lawrence Division, New York Central Railroad

Train No. Route Date Off

51-54 Rochester-Suspension Bridge 4-1-1932

27-28 Rochester - Oswego 4-1-1932

52-53 Rochester - Suspension Bridge 2-2-1935

24-29 Rochester - Oswego 2-2-1935

804-805 Watertown-Cape Vincent 3-14-1936

472-483 Pulaski - Oswego 9-25-1947

81-84 Carthage - Newton Falls 6-7-1942 (1)

49-50 Rivergate-Clayton 4-29- 1951 (2)

991-997 G&O Junction - Edwards 6-26-1932 (3)

403-404 Watertown - Sackets Harbor 9-30-1934 (4)

336-337 Syracuse - Oswego 4-29-1951 (5)

90-91, DeKalb Jct. - Ogdensburg 4-29-1949 (6)

92-93, " " "

96-97 " " "

61-62 Massena - Ottawa - via Canadian Pacific 9-27-1953 (7)

2-3 Syracuse - Watertown 4-24-1938

70-71 Philadelphia-Utica (via Richland) 10-28-1956

98-99 DeKalb Jct. - Ogdensburg 10-28-1956

64-65 Utica-Watertown (via Boonville) 10-28-1956

185-186 Utica-Watertown (Beeliner) 11-3-1958 (except Sun.)

190 Ogdensburg - Utica (via Boonville w/sleeper) 11-8-1958 (Sat.)

187 Utica - Ogdensburg (via Boonville) Beeliner 5-20-1961 (Sun.)

186 Massena - Utica 5-21-1961 (Sun.)

189 Massena - Utica 5-21-1961 (except Sun.)

182 Massena - Syracuse 5-21-1961 (except Sun.)

176 Syracuse - Massena (Beeliner) 5-21-1961 (Sat.)

181 Syracuse - Massena 5-21-1961

179 Syracuse - Massena 5-21-1961

198 Syracuse -Ogdensburg 5-21-1961 (except Sat.)

175 Syracuse - Massena (Beeliner) 2-15-1964 (last service)

Notes 1 to 7. These dates based on timetables and newspaper articles.

Predecessor
Name
Mileage

Watertown & Rome Rome to Watertown
72.4 9-1851

Watertown & Rome Watertown to Cape Vincent
24.20 6-1852

Potsdam & Watertown Watertown to Norwood
74.89 6-1857

Norwood & Montreal Norwood to Massena
13.00 9-1886

Lake Ontario Shore Oswego to Ontario Center
52.00 9-1874

Lake Ontario Shore Ontario Center to Charlotte 18.06 1875

Lake Ontario Shore Charlotte -Suspension Bridge 81.23 1876

Syracuse Northern Syracuse to Lacona 45 11-1871

Syracuse, Phoenix & Oswego Woodard to near Fulton 15.60 9-1885

Fulton & Oswego SP&O Jct. - Fulton 1.50 1-1886

Rochester & Ontario Belt Rochester to Windsor Beach 4.87 7-1883

Black River & Utica Utica to Trenton 15.90 12-1854

Black River & Utica Trenton to Boonville 18.80 12-1855

Utica & Black River Boonville to Lyons Falls 9.86 12-1867

Utica & Black River Lyons Falls to Lowville 13.88 11-1868

Utica & Black River Lowville to Carthage 15.77 9-1871

Utica & Black River Carthage to Philadelphia 12.70 2-1873

Black River & Morristown Philadelphia - Theresa Jct. 5.40 10-1873

Black River & Morristown Theresa Jct. - Redwood 8.56 9-1874

Black River & Morristown Redwood to Morristown 22.41 11-1875

Clayton & Theresa Theresa Jct. to Clayton 15.9 10-1873

Sanford's Corners Branch Watertown to Roots 5.20 4-1911

Gouverneur & Oswegatchie Gouverneur to Edwards 14.2 8-1893

Carthage & Adirondack Carthage to Jayville 29.10 1-1887

Carthage & Adirondack Jayville to Benson Mines 13.90 1889

Carthage & Adirondack Benson Mines to Newton Falls 3.10 1895

Carthage & Adirondack Newton Falls to Clifton Mines 12.00 12-1941

DeKalb Branch DeKalb Jct. to Ogdensburg 19.00 8-1862

Carthage, Watertown Carthage to Watertown 17.40 2-1872

& Sackets Harbor Watertown - Sackets Harbor 12.19 10-1874

Oswego & Rome Richland to Oswego 26.62 1-1866