CHAPTER III. ORGANIZING ERIE-1832 TO 1833. An Unsatisfactory Charter — The Subscription Committee Thinks the United States Government Should Make a Survey for the RailroadThe Government Survey, the Erie Canal, and New York State Politics President Andrew Jackson's Reason for Ordering the Government Survey Discontinued It Would Interfere with the Management of the Politics of New York State" — Redfield's Indignant Letter The Survey through Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan Counties - The Original Subscribers to the StockThe Charter Amended, and the New York and Erie Railroad Company Organized — Eleazar Lord the First President - The Original Board of Directors, which Comprised the Most Prominent of New York City's Business Men and Capitalists of that DayThe First Vice-President, Treasurer, and Counsel. L. Gorham, Joshua Whitney, Christopher Eldridge, James McKinney, James Pumpelly, Charles Pumpelly, John R. Drake, Jonathan Platt, Luther Gere, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jeremiah S. Beebe, Ebenezer Mack, Ansel St. John, Andrew DeWitt Bruyn, Stephen Tuttle, Lyman Covell, Robert Covell, John Arnot, John Magee, William McCoy, William S. Hubbell, William Bauman, Arthur H. Erwin, Henry Brother, Philip Church, Samuel King, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, Jr., Henry I. Wyckoff, Richard M. Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, Hubert Van Wagenen, David Rogers, John Hone, John G. Coster, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Thomas R. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Benjamin L. Swan, Grant B. Baldwin, William Maxwell, and Darius Bentley-representative men of the city of New York and of each county interested in the building of the railroad; provided for the construction of a double, single, or treble track railroad from New York, or some point near New York, through the Southern Tier, by way of Owego, to Lake Erie, the railroad to be begun within four years, and $200,000 expended in construction within one year thereafter, one-quarter of the railroad to be completed and in operation within ten years from the date of the charter, one-half within fifteen years, the whole within twenty years, or the charter to be null and void; named a subscription committee of eighty persons, a majority of them living at a distance from New York City, where the headquarters THE original draft of the charter for a company to build the proposed railroad was made by the Hon. John Duer of New York. In this the capital of the company was placed at $10,000,000, and it was provided that after the subscribing of $500,000 of that amount the company should have authority to organize. The old opposition to the construction of any means of transportation through the State of New York that might divert business from and lessen the commercial and political influence of the canal counties at once showed itself among the representatives of those counties, and the proposed charter for such a thoroughfare was so amended during the session that when a charter was at last granted by the Legislature, April 24, 1832, it was by no means a document calculated to further the interests of a great public improvement, for the completion of which a large portion of the population of New York State was appealing, and on which the enhancement of the material interests of a wide extent of the country at large depended. (Page 295, Fighting Its Way.") As finally adopted, the charter fixed the capital of the company at $10,000,000, but provided that it should all be subscribed and 5 per cent. of the subscriptions ($500,000) paid in before a company should be organized; named as incorporators Samuel Swartwout, Stephen Whitney, Peter White, Cornelius Harsen, Eleazar Lord, Daniel LeRoy, William C. Redfield, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, Jeremiah H. Pierson, William Townsend, Egbert Jansen, Charles Borland, Abram M. Smith, Alpheus Dimmick, Randall S. Street, John P. Jones, George D. Wickham, Joseph Curtis, John of the company were to be established, and provided that work should not be begun on a double track until the first one was completed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, and passengers and freight had been carried over it. The route of the road was not otherwise defined than that it is to begin at the city of New York, or at such point in its vicinity as shall be most eligible and convenient therefor, and continue through the Southern Tier of counties, by way of Owego in Tioga County, to the shore of Lake Erie, at some eligible point between the Cattaraugus Creek and the Pennsylvania line." The company was restrained from making any connection with railroads in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, without the special permission of the Legislature. At a meeting of the incorporators held at the Merchants' Exchange in New York, May 9, 1832, at which Philip Church presided, William C. Redfield being secretary, a committee consisting of Eleazar Lord, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Stephen Whitney, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, William C. Redfield, Samuel Swartwout, and Richard M. Lawrence, was appointed to adopt the necessary measures for effecting a survey of the route "during the present season. It was the sense of the meeting that it would be useless to solicit money to build a railroad the survey for the route of which had not even been made. It was also the opinion of many of the incorporators that, even if they procured money to pay for making a survey, it would be impossible to obtain the $10,000,000 subscriptions and the amount of cash necessary to organize a company to act on the survey. But, on the ground that the proposed railroad would be a grand avenue for the quicker opening up of the public lands, a link in the chain of communication between the East and the West, and thus an undertaking tending to national benefit, it was resolved by the meeting that the General Government be appealed to and solicited to make the survey for the railroad. To arouse interest in this proposition in the interior counties, the committee issued a call to all who were friendly to the proposed New York and Erie Railroad to convene at Owego on June 4, 1832, and there take the subject under advisement. The assemblage was large and enthusiastic. Philip Church was chairman and J. R. Drake secretary. A committee consisting of J. R. Drake, J. H. Avery, and S. B. Leonard was appointed to correspond with the proper officers of the General Government in relation to the survey of the railroad route, and to solicit subscriptions for the object, and to create a fund to be appropriated in premiums for useful information respecting railroads and railroad machinery; that subject having also been brought before the convention—a circumstance in itself eloquent of the meagre practical knowledge pertaining to the matters in hand that the founders of the Erie possessed, and of the crude ideas of railroad construction that then prevailed. The effort to raise money by subscription to pay for the survey failed, and it was at last resolved by the committee to ask that it be made at the public expense. This proposition was placed before the authorities at Washington. The subject of internal improvements at that time being a paramount one, President Jackson approved of the proposition, and in the latter part of June, 1832, an order was issued from the War Department for the making of the survey at the expense of the Government, the work to be in charge of Col. DeWitt Clinton, who had made the reconnoissance for the proposed Redfield railroad survey in the autumn of 1831. Colonel Clinton arrived at New York with four assistants soon afterward, and began preparations for carrying out his orders. On July 4, before he had completed his arrangements for beginning the survey, an order was issued from the War Department suspending the work unless its cost should be paid for by the New York and Erie Railroad Company or by private funds. This sudden change in the attitude of the Government was the first serious blow of the many the railroad project was to receive before the coming of the time when it should unite the ocean with the lakes. It was announced that the work had been ordered discontinued because President Jackson's advisers had declared that there was no constitutional warrant for it; but, according to Eleazar Lord's reminis town I have just time to inform the you My on four. Railroad has just been suspended My order of the President of the United Hats. thus me find that every thing which is For the next we must wait with rengnation Youn FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM WILLIAM C. REDFIELD TO THE HON. SAMUEL PRESTON. PRESTON, MIDDLETOWN, N. Y. ORIGINAL LOANED BY MISS ANN NEW YORK, July 25, 1832. RESPECTED FRIEND: Being on the point of leaving town I have just time to inform you that the survey of our Railroad has just been suspended by order of the President of the United States. Thus we find that every thing which is calculated to promote the growth and prosperity of the Northern, Middle and Western States is vetoed by the Executive authority. If the citizens of Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York understand this fact as they ought they will express their indignation to our Sovereign despot at the next election. For the rest we must wait with resignation the progress of events more in favor of the Railroad. Yours in haste, cences, it was learned that politics and partisan influences had again conspired to obstruct the progress of the contemplated railroad through the Southern Tier of New York State. The President frankly said to a committee of the Erie incorporators that Colonel Clinton had been ordered not to proceed with the survey at the public expense, at the request and on the representations of a then prominent Democratic politician of New York. "This gentleman tells me," said the President, "that the building of this railroad would make a thoroughfare that would be a rival of the Erie Canal, the effect of whose political patronage would be likely to be neutralized by the patronage of the railroad, the latter not being under State control, thus making it impossible to manage the politics of the State, so well as they are managed now; and, surely, as the gentleman says, that is of far more importance than the railroad to a State already amply provided with means of commercial transportation by its own canal." (William C. Redfield, who, as we have seen, first brought the subject of such a railroad forward, and who had its interests greatly at heart, voiced the bitter disappointment that this act of the President brought to all friends of the infant project in the letter to the Hon. Samuel Preston on page 17.) This unexpected darkening of the prospects of the New York and Erie Railroad at the very start was discouraging to the advocates of the enterprise. The New York and Erie Railroad Company could not defray the expenses for the survey for the proposed route for the very excellent reason that there was as yet no New York and Erie Railroad Company, nor could there be one until $10,000,000 had been subscribed as its capital and $500,000 of it paid in. That event was, under the circumstances, a great distance in the future. But the friends of the railroad did not lose heart. The counties to be benefited by the work were appealed to and asked to make up the necessary fund for the expenses of the survey through their respective territory by public subscription. The only counties that responded to the call were Rockland, Sullivan, and Orange. The following letter will throw some light on the subject of this now long-forgotten Erie survey: MONTICELLO, N. Y., September 28, 1832. D. K. MINOR, 35 Wall St., New York. Sir: It may be gratifying to the friends of the New York and Erie Railroad to learn that the survey of the route near this place was commenced last week under the direction of Col. DeWitt Clinton, and that it is proposed to continue the survey to the Hudson this fall. The first ten miles of the route proves very feasible. The surface is comparatively even, and a gradual descent towards the Delaware and Hudson Canal of from twenty to twenty-five feet per mile. Respectfully yours, J. P. JONES. D. K. Minor was editor of the New York American and the American Railroad Journal. J. P. Jones was State Senator John P. Jones, a power in Southern New York in those days. To aid in paying the expenses of the survey, the United States Government furnishing the engineer corps, which was in charge of Colonel Clinton, the first subscriptions to Erie stock were made, October 18, 1832, as follows: Eleazar Lord, merchant, New York, 201 shares; Rufus L. Lord, merchant, New York, 420 shares; Michael Burnham, printer, New York, 101 shares; Richard M. Lawrence, merchant, New York, three shares; Jeremiah H. Pierson, manufacturer, Ramapo, N. Y., 151 shares; Josiah G. Pierson, manufacturer, Ramapo, N. Y., one share; Cornelius Goetchings, one share; Solomon Humphrey, one share; Daniel C. Heuring, one share; Thomas Ward, clerk, New York, one share. With the exception of the Goetchings, Humphrey, Heuring, and Ward subscriptions, on which 5 per cent. was paid, the subscribers paid in 10 per cent. on their subscriptions, the total cash received being $9,880. The survey through Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan counties was completed in the fall of 1832, and a report of it made to the Government and the company, which was the last ever heard of it, that being, however, a matter of no particular consequence, as it was of no use whatever to the furthering of the advancement of work on the New York and Erie Railroad. The experiences of the Subscription Committee thus far in its efforts to get the great work in some tangible shape left no doubt in its mind that unless the Legislature could be induced to modify the charter in important particulars, and to grant other concessions, there would be no possible use of spending further time or labor in efforts toward forwarding the undertaking, even so far as the organizing of a company. To these ends, such modifications and concessions were asked for at the session of the New York Legislature for 1833. In the face of much opposition from the canal counties the charter was at last so changed that a subscription of only $1,000,000 to the capital stock, instead of the entire $10,000,000, was made obligatory before the company could or ganize, of which 10 per cent. must be paid in. The quorum of the Subscription Committee was also re duced to a number that could be readily obtained at any time. With this amended charter, the committee went to work. Subscription books were opened pursuant to the following notice: NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Notice: The Books for subscription to the capital stock of this company will be opened at the Merchants' Exchange in this city on the 9th, 10th and 11th days of July next, between the hours of twelve and two o'clock. One million dollars of the stock is required to be subscribed before the commencement of the work, in shares of one hundred dollars each, five dollars on each share to be paid at the time of subscription. Dated New York, 24th June, 1833. NOTICE OF ELECTION.-NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. One million dollars of the capital stock of this Company having been subscribed in conformity with the charter, the stockholders are hereby notified that an election for the choice of seventeen Directors of the said company will be held at the Merchants' Exchange on Friday, the 9th day of August next, under the inspection of the Commissioners as directed in the charter. The poll will open from 10 to 12 o'clock A. M. By order of the Commissioners. NEW YORK, July 19, 1833. The men selected as this original Board of Erie Directors were: Stephen Whitney, Peter Harmony, John Duer, Goold Hoyt, James Boorman, William G. Buckner, Elihu Townsend, Michael Burnham, Eleazar Lord, Samuel B. Ruggles, Benjamin Wright, D. N. Lord, of New York; Jeremiah H. Pierson, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, of Rockland County; George D. Wickham, of Orange County; Joshua Whitney, of Broome County; James Pumpelly, of Tioga County. Eleazar Lord was elected the first President of Erie; Goold Hoyt, Vice-President; William G. Buckner, Treasurer; and John Duer, Counsel. The organization of the New York and Erie Railroad Company thus became a fact on August 9, 1833, although but 5 per cent. of the required subscriptions had been paid in, instead of 10 per cent., as the charter specified. |