OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 31B

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
April 11, 2005
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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
Tid Bits - Part 31 B.
notes by 
S. Kelly

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tid Bits part 31 B.
(Steam on Wheels)

The same year which launched the fatuous Ohio Railroad brought forth
other and more practical projects which suceeded when the business
depression passed away. The first to assume definate form was the
Cleveland, Warren and Pittsburgh Railroad, chartered in 1836 to extend
from Cleveland to the Pennsylvania line, in the hope of reaching
Pittsburgh and ultimately Philadelphia. Local interest was so strong
that early in 1839 the city council voted in favor of financial aid to
the extent of $200,000. The advantages were obvious. The road would
provide rail and steam communication with the populous east by a natural
route much of which had been used from the beginning as a foot path   
and wagon road. Steam was a way of following old trails in this fashion.
The work was delayed by lack of funds. Contracts were not let until
1847. In that year a public meeting asked the city council to hold a
popular referendum on the question of subscribing $100,000 to the
project, and it carried by an overwhelming majority. In November, 1851,
the road was completed from Cleveland through Hudson and Ravenna to
Hanover, 95 miles distant. City officials and invited guests rode to
Welsville on the first train, holding a three days' celebration. The
stockholders resolved, in their joy, " that the directors be requested
to give a free ticket to each stockholder and his lady, to ride over the
road from Cleveland to Hanover and return at any time within 30 days,
and that landholders
through whose land the road passes shall be entitled to a free ticket
for themselves and wives from 20 days from the opening of the road, and
that same privilege be extended over the other portions of the road when
completed."

Various branches were built. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad
Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania to connect with the Ohio
company. After many vicissitudes, this line was leased in 1871 by the
Pennsylvania Railroad for 999 years. If the Cleveland incorporators had
forseen such an outcome, they would have felt that they were surely
building for eternity.

A still more important undertaking was the Cleveland, Columbus and
Cincinnati Railroad. Rail connections to the south and southwest were
needed even more than to the southeast, to tap the rich interior of the
state and form a new economic link between Lake Eie and the Ohio River.
This enterprise offered better prospects than either of the big state
waterways, because its termini would be the metropolis of the north and
the metropolis of the south, dominating respectively the Ohio Canal and
the Miami and Erie Canal. The charter granted the year before the panic
was unused until 1845, when it was revised to specify a more modest
plan, a line from Cleveland to Columbus with optional extensions beyond.
The work was undertaken by a new company. The city, despite the doubts
of some business men who feared that railroads wuld ruin business by
rendering wagon traffic obsolete, voted a credit of $ 200, 000. Capital
was still scarce. Only $25,000 could be raised by Cleveland
subscription.
Efforts to enlist the aid of eastern capitalists were not very
sucessful. It was hard to sell the bonds voted by the city. New York and
Philadelphia were obviously afraid of a railroad collapse matching that
of the land boom. Finally in 1847 two loyal and confident citizens,
Richard Hilliard and Henry B. Payne, took hold of a selling job with
such zeal that in three months they raised $40,000 more, and on those
slender resources the work was started. Alfred Kelley was chosen
president of the company, and the contract was given to Frederick
Harbach, Amasa Stone and Stillman Witt, who agreed to take part of their
pay in stock.

The honor of the presidency was well merited. In fact, the C.,C. and C.
might almost be called a one-man railroad, that man beng the same Alfred
Kelley who bore the brunt ofso many enlightened pioneer movements. His
single handed labors for this transportation line, as described by
George F. Marshall,  fellow pioneer, in the Early Settlers Association,
make an entertaining document.

In order to save the charter during the idle years, he writes, it was
throught well to make a show of work on the line already surveyed.
Accordingly;

" One bright autumn forenoon about a dozen men got themselves together
near the ground now occupied by the A.& G. W. Railway depot with the
noble purpose of inaugurating the work of building the Cleveland,
Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. Among the number were Alfred Kelley,
the president, T.P. Handy the treasurer, J.H. Sargent the engineer,
James A. Briggs the attorney and H.B. Payne, Oliver Perry, John A. Foote
and others besides your humble servant. On that memorable spot one could
look upon those vast fields of bottom land and nothing could be seen but
unbroken wide meadows; the brick residence of Joel Scranton on the
north, and the ruins of an old mill in the ravine of Walworth Run on the
south, were the only show of buildings in all that region round about.

" These gentlemen had assembled to inaugurate the work in the railway;
yet there was a sadness about them that could be felt, there was
something that told them that it would be difficult to make much of a
railroad without money and labor.

" Alfred took a shovel, and with his foot pressed it well into the soft
and willing earth, placing a good chunk on the tranquil wheelbarrow
close at hand, repeating the operation until a load was attained and
dumping it a rod or so to the
south. We all shouted a good-sized shout that the road was really
inaugurated. Then Mr. Handy did a little of the same work, as well as
Sargent and riggs, while I sat on the nearest log rejoicing to see the
work going on so lively and in such able hands. The fact demonstrated
that the pick and the wheelbarrow moving livly according to this
beginning.

" All that fall and winter one man was kept at work on the great
enterprise, simply to hold the charter, with a hope that something would
turn up to enable the directors to push things with a greater show for
ultimate success.  During the winter that followed, anyone passing up
Pittsburgh Street ( Broadway ) near the bluff could see day by day the
progress this one-man-power was making in his work. Foot by foot the
brown earth could be seen gaining on the white snow in the direction of
Columbus, and hope remained lively inthe breast of everyone
that saw the progress, that if the physical powers of that solitary
laborer held ou long enough, he would some day be able to go to the
state's prison by rail."

The rate of progress was discouraging, for it was 140 miles to Columbus.
The workman developed rheumatism and lay off a few days to recuperate,
and the next snowfall obliterated all trace of his accomplishment. But
his efforts were not in vain. A meeting was called at Empire Hall and
the building was jammed. Alfred Kelley made an eloquent appeal,
declaring that if the undertaking were not carried to completion, "
Cleveland would only be known in the gazetteers as a small town on Lake
Erie about six miles from Newburgh where steamers sometimes stopped for
wood and water." The doors were locked and the audience was harangued
until it pledged itself to support the work with men and money. In
November, 1849, the gangs working with pick and shovel were reinforced
by a string of wooden flat cars pulled by the first locomotive ever seen
in Cleveland, and a local product. Its first load was small boys.
Popular interest was immensely stimulated by this sign of progress. The
Cleveland Herald observed that " The whistle of the locomotive will be
familiar to the ears of the Clevelander as the sound of church bells."
Soon the first coaches arrived from Massachusetts, grand equipages "
elegantly finished inside with crimson plush." The last rails were laid
in Febuary, 1851, ad the first through locomotive was welcomed with an
artillery salute. On the 21st a trainload of state officers, legislators
amd municipal dignitaries arrived from Columbus and Cincinnati and they
were greeted with cannon and brass bands. On the following day the
railroad's birthday was celebrated along with George Washington's, with
much oratory and a great banquet in the Weddell House, followed by a
torchlight procession. The next day, Sunday, " the churches were crowded
with listeners from abroad," Dr. Aiken at the old Stone church preached
an eloquent sermon on railroads which the officers of the road liked ao
well that they subsequently published and distributed it far and wide.

The next issue of the Cleveland Herald commented as follows:  " As we
saw the Buckeyes from the banks of the Ohio and the rich valleys of the
Miami and the Scioto mingling their congratulations with those of the
Yankee Reserve, upon the completion of the improvement which served to
bring them into business and social connection, and to break down the
barriers which distance, prejudice and ignorance of each other had built
up, we felt that the completion of the Cleveland, Columbus and
Cincinnati Railroad would be instrumental in accomplishing a good work
for Ohio, the value of which no figures could compute."

When the ceremonies came to an end, everybody rode down to Columbus and
celebrated all over again, with the effective aid of a boat transported
on a flat car and borne in the parade, representing " Lake Commerce."
Cleveland began to feel itself of metropolitan stature. But ideas of
speed were revised slowly. The first ordinance regulating the speed of
locomotives within the city limits limited it to five miles an hour.

Patronage was prompt and gratifying. In the first three months of
operation the road earned $25,939 from freight service and $ 56,625 from
passenger service, carrying 31,679 passengers. Extensions were soon
built. Other lines were consolidated with it. 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tid Bits to be continued in Part 32.