RAILWAYS - 275 other line by thirtytwo miles. Mr. Greene, it was said, had already obtained by private grant the right of way for most of the road; but this was premature, for the right of way finally cost, as reported in 1877, the sum of $95,373.60. The cost of the road was estimated at from one and a half to two million dollars. Investigation was made as to the amount of coal, iron and salt annually shipped from the region to be penetrated. Stock to the amount of $830,000 having been subscribed, the subscribers met at Columbus on December 19, 1866, and elected the following directors: P. Hayden, George M. Parsons, William Dennison, B. E. Smith, William G. Deshler, Theodore Comstock, Isaac Eberly, D. Talmadge, W. B. Brooks, J. C. Garrett, William P. Cutler, E. H. Moore and M. M. Greene. P. Hayden was chosen president, M. M. Greene vice president, and John J. Janney secretary and treasurer. Mr. Greene was authorized to act as chief engineer, and r under his direction W. W. Graves, who had made the preliminary survey, again surveyed and located the line from its connection with the Cleveland, Columbus & Indiana Railway at Columbus, to its connection with the Marietta & Cincinnati Railway at Athens, seventyfive and a quarter miles.9 This survey was completed by the first of the following May, on the second of which month the name of the corporation was changed to that of Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad Company. On November 18, 1866, the directors owned $360,000 of the company's stock the whole amount of which was at that time $800,000, of which Columbus had subscribed $480,000, Athens & Nelsonville $100,000, Lancaster $75,000, Logan $75,000, Winchester $30,000 and Groveport $25,000. The Columbus & Xenia Company proposed that the Little Miami should join it in a subscription of $50,000, but the Little Miami company declined. The Columbus subscribers thereupon increased their subscription $50,000. At a meeting of the directors held August 17, 1866, an issue of $1,500,000 of bonds of the company was ordered for the construction and equipment of the line. A sinking fund of $15,000 per year was provided for, said fund to be invested in outstanding bonds of the company, provided they could be had at not more than five per cent. premium ; otherwise, said fund to be invested in bonds of the United .States or the State of Ohio. This proviso has been carefully complied with, and in order that the bonds thus redeemed might not be reissued, the signature of the secretary has been cut out of them after redemption. The road takes its course from Columbus via Groveport, Winchester, Carroll, Lancaster (where it crosses the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville), Sugar Grove, Logan, Nelsonville and Salina to Athens, where it intersects the Marietta & Cincinnati Railway. In a statement published by the directors they declared that the principal object of the road would be to bring the coal, salt and iron districts of Southern Ohio into connection with the central, northern and western portions of the State and the States of Indiana and Illinois. The directors proceeded to say : The route of this road passes through the largest coalfield west of the Alleghany Moun- tains, at a point fifty-five miles from Columbus, extending twelve miles ; where a vein of coal six feet in thickness exists above the surface on both sides of the road. . . . From this vein there have been taken and can continue to be, 200,000 bushels, of eighty pounds to the bushel, of coal to the acre. . . . The quality of the coal is equal to any known west of the 276 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. mountains for steam and grate purposes. . . . In addition to coal the Hocking Valley, together with the counties lying south of it on the line of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, .. are rich in iron ore of superior quality. . . . Two furnaces are now in operation on the line of this road and an almost unlimited supply of ore, coal and limestone in immediate contact will lead to the speedy erection of others. On the line of this road in Athens County, there are now in operation seven salt furnaces with an unlimited supply of saltwater and coal. . . . With the means of transportation which this road will furnish to Central and Northwestern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the production of salt will be largely increased. The verification of this prophesy has been sadly interfered with by the Michigan and New York saltwells, the competition of which has totally destroyed the manufacture of salt in the Hocking Valley. On April 6, 1867, the City Council of Columbus by ordinance authorized the Mineral Railway Company "to maintain and operate its railroad across and along any street or streets, alley or alleys in this city, situate west of the Columbus Feeder of the Ohio Canal and south of a line drawn through the centre of Kossuth Street and prolonged to said feeder canal," with a proviso that should the road be constructed so much above or below any street or alley as to obstruct travel thereon, the company should erect " substantial bridges" or " sufficient culverts or passways." On May 22, 1867, a favorable contract was made with Dodge, Case & Co., to construct the road complete and ready for its rolling stock within eighteen months for eight hundred thousand dollars cash and $865,000 in the bonds of the company. Under this contract the track was graded from Columbus to Lancaster and tracklaying began in November. In April, 1868, the track was graded from its connection with the Columbus & Xenia to the lower bridge over the Scioto River, and on July 16, an engine and cur were run over the road nearly to Winchester, fourteen miles. The persons making this trip were M. M. Greene, B. E. Smith, G. W. Manypenny, W. B. Brooks, Theodore Comstock, John Graham, John J. Janney and W. C. Faxon. As a matter of amusement, it was proposed that every man present should drive a spike. The efforts to do this excited the ridicule of the tracklayers until Messrs. Graham and Janney took the spike maul which, owing to their early training in railsplitting, they used in a manner commanding the respect of the workmen. In a report to the stockholders made by Mr. Greene in January, 1868, he said : " the entire right of way through Fairfield County. . . and through Hocking, except one case," also through Athens County, " except three eases," had been settled without recourse to legal proceedings, the citizens of Groveport and vicinity furnishing the right of way from Walnut Creek to Winchester at a cost to them of $7,500, and the citizens of Lancaster furnishing the necessary grounds tor tracks and depots in their city at a cost to them of $20,000. The president reported the entire cost of the right of way from the station of the Columbus, Chicago & Indiana Railway at Columbus to Athens as $70,000 in cash and $12,000 in stock—an underestimate, as the event proved, of nearly fifteen per cent. This estimate included about twentyfive miles of fencing which the parties granting the right of way had agreed to build on both sides of the track, thereby, perhaps unwittingly relieving the company very materially of responsibility for injury to farm stock. RAILWAYS - 277 At the company's second annual meeting, held January 24, 1871, the vice president reported the road complete from Columbus to Athens, with a branch of thirteen miles from Logan to New Straitsville. The report contained the following particulars : Maximum grade of 26.40 feet per mile, four miles ; level, thirty miles; from level to twenty feet grade, thirtyfour miles; from 20 to 26.40, five miles; total rise going south, 245.43 feet; total fall going south, 324.16 feet ; no continuous grade one mile in length of over 15 feet ; miles of straight line, 51 and 90 feet; miles of curved line, 24 and 1,328 feet ; total length, 75 miles and 1,418 feet. On January 13,1869, the members of the General Assembly, the state officers and citizens journeyed over the road from Columbus to Lancaster and back by invitation of the president and directors of the company. The train, George R. Carr conductor, and Charles Wiggens engineer, comprised twelve coaches and carried 720 passengers. The General Assembly was received by the City Council of Lancaster, headed by Mayor John P. Slough. William P. Creed spoke in behalf of the council and was responded to by Doctor Fielding for the General Assembly and Samuel Galloway for the citizens. The members of the legislature were entertained as guests of the City Council at the Talmadge House and the Mithoff House. On the next day, January 14, 1869, a free ride from Lancaster to Columbus and return was offered to the public, and according to estimate the invitation was accepted by eighteen hundred passengers, filling eighteen coaches. Going north from Lancaster the party was met at Winchester by the members of the Columbus City Council, by whose invitation the City Council of Lancaster and the directors and officers of the railway company were entertained at the Neil House. The officers of the company were of one mind as to any further offer of a free ride to the general public. At every way station the platform and adjacent space were crowded with a waiting mass of men, women and children, and by the time the train reached Columbus the seats, aisles, platforms and steps of the coaches were packed with people. The road was opened for through business July 23, 1870, and on November 6, 1868, the first passenger train was run from Columbus to Lancaster and carried the following excursionists: W. H. Clements, J. N. Kinney, Charles Reemelin, of Cincinnati ; E. Gest, president of the Cincinnati & Zanesville Railway Company, and M. M. Greene, vice president, J. W. Doherty superintendent, and B. E. Smith, William G. Deshler, Isaac Eberly and W. B. Brooks, directors of the Columbus & Hocking Valley company. At Lancaster this party took the Cincinnati & Zanesville road to Zanesville, during the journey over which they stopped to examine the coal mines of the Miami Coal Company. On January 18, 1869, notice was given that from the twentieth of that month daily trains, both passenger and freight, would run over the road between Columbus and Lancaster. The first freight train from Nelsonville arrived at Columbus August 17, 1869. This train came from the mines of Brooks & Houston and comprised fifteen cars laden with coal. It had on board a small cannon, the discharge of which gave notice of .the approach of the train at all points along the line. The first regular passenger train from Columbus to Athens was run July 25, 1870, and thus was opened a 278 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. new route to Baltimore and Washington via the Marietta & Cincinnati Railway and the Parkersburgh Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio. The Straitsville Branch was opened for general business on January 2,1871. Large deposits of iron ore had been found on the line of this branch at Gore, and three coal companies were in operation at New Straitsville, two more were nearly ready for work, and it was believed that by the following spring the capacity of these mines would reach one hundred cars per day. On the main line five mines were in operation, with a capacity of 250 cars per day. On December 31, 1871, the superintendent reported that notwithstanding the greatest flood known in the Hocking River for many years, and a two months strike of miners, the net income of the road during the year then ended was sufficient to pay the interest on all the bonds and ten per cent. on the stock of the company. At the election of January 24, 1871, W. B. Brooks, C. P. L. Butler, Theodore Comstock, William Dennison, William G. Deshler, Isaac Eberly, John L. Gill, M. M. Greene, John Greenleaf and B. E. Smith, of Columbus ; John D. Martin, of Lancaster, C. H. Rippey, of Logan, and S. W. Pickering, of Athens, were chosen directors. B. E. Smith was elected president in lieu of P. Hayden. The report of the company for 1870 stated that the labor strikes of the two years preceding had caused it a loss of not less than fifty thousand dollars. Eightysix subscribers to the company's stock, most of whose engagements were for small amounts, failed to pay the instalments as they became due. Some had paid five or ten per cent. As the law provides that in such cases the delinquent stock may be sold at public auction, fiftyeight shares were thus disposed of at from seventy-one to seventyfour and a half dollars per share, in other words at a premium of from fortytwo to fortynine per cent., so that to those who had paid only five or ten per cent. on their subscriptions there was something due after charging them with all the due instalments and interest. In 1872 a new roundhouse and new shops were constructed and a new freight yard arranged for the company at Columbus. In order to test the value of steel rails as compared with those of iron, fifty tons thereof were purchased and laid in sidings at the south yards where the heaviest wear took place. In April, 1872, by previous consent of the stockholders, the company issued a second mortgage of $1,000,000, from which the sum of $300,000 was to be used in redeeming a like amount of the Straitsville Branch bonds. Four hundred and twenty tons of steel rails were laid during the year 1872, and twentyeight and a half acres of ground were purchased for a roundhouse, shops and sidetracks at the station in the southern part of Columbus. For the greater part of this ground the sum of $1,000 per acre was paid. The Monday Creek Branch was located in 1873 but its construction was delayed on account of the financial stress of that year. On August 17, 1874, Henry C. Noble was chosen director vice William Dennison, resigned. Owing to the suspension of manufacturing during that year the tonnage of the road. declined from 890,396 to 526,022 tons. On March 17, 1874, an agreement was made by which the use of the tracks of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis company was obtained by the Hocking Valley from the intersection of the two roads at or near Dennison Avenue at a rental of $2,700 per year in RAILWAYS - 279 monthly instalments, the Hocking Valley company agreeing not to discriminate in favor of any road of the Panhandle organization and making further engagements as to division of receipts. At the annual meeting of the stockholders held in April, 1874, a report was made showing a decrease of earnings for the preceding.year. John G. Deshler, a stockholder, presented a memorial sharply criticising the management, but this criticism did not affect the result of the election. On September 1, 1874, John W. Doherty resigned the office of superintendent and was succeeded by George R. Carr. At the same time B. S. Brown, P. W. Huntington and H. W. Jaeger were elected directors vice Theodore Comstock, John Greenleaf and B. E. Smith. On May 20, 1876, a few of the company's employes organized the Hocking .Valley Mutual Life Insurance Company, each member of which was required to pay a small membership fee and an assessment of one dollar for each death. The first assessment, made March 26, 1878, amounted to $230. The report of the secretary at the last annual meeting showed that the total assessments had amounted to $39,540, and that the largest single assessment had been $771. The membership now includes employes of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Company. Joint operation of the Columbus & Hocking Valley and the Columbus & Toledo railways under the name of Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo, was agreed upon in 1876, Orland Smith being appointed general superintendent of the united lines. A continuous track of steel from Columbus to Nelsonville and Straitsville was reported at the annual meeting in 1877, and in July of that year construction of the Monday Creek and Snow Fork branches was begun. The first accident to a passenger occurred in 1877. Owing to damage to the track done by high water near Millville an engine was thrown into the river and some cars were derailed. Colonel James Kilbourn, of Columbus, had a leg broken and four other persons were slightly injured. At the annual meeting in 1878, the president reported that the entire road from Columbus to Athens and the Straitsville Branch from Logan to New Straitsville had been laid with steel rails. An increase of 150,000 tons in freight had produced an increase of only $35,575.05 in receipts, the average rate of freight per ton per mile being only one and nineteen hundredths cents. In 1879, William Dennison was again elected director, taking the place of W. B. Brooks. Eight iron furnaces were reported in blast on the line of the road in that year. The earnings of the road for the year 1879, showed an increase of $161,019.47 over those of the year before. During this year a contract was made for completion of the Ohio & West Virginia road from Logan to Pomeroy via McArthur, eighty-five miles. On January 2, 1879, the Columbus City Council authorized the company to construct, maintain and operate two tracks from its premises on the north side of Maple Street to and across Maple and Spring streets, to which arrangement the owners of abutting property had given their consent. The Monday Creek Branch from Greendale to New Straitsville, five miles, and the Sand River Branch, two and a half miles, were completed this year, at the end of which the paid up stock amounted to $2,400,000 and $300,000 of the Straitsville Branch bonds, with a like amount of second mortgage bonds, had been 280 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. redeemed. The president earnestly recommended that a double track should be laid from Columbus to Logan to accommodate the rapidly increasing business. On August 20, 1881, an agreement was made for consolidation of the Hocking Valley, Columbus & Toledo and Ohio & West Virginia lines as the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo „Railway, embracing the main line from Toledo to Pomeroy, the Athens Branch from Logan to Athens, the Straitsville Branch from Logan to New Straitsville, the Monday Creek Branch from New Straitsville to to Nelsonville, the Snowfork Branch from Monday Creek Junction to Orbiston, making with other branches and sidings a total trackage of 402 miles. About June 20, 1881, a rumor gained circulation that President M. M. Greene had made arrangement for the sale of the stock of the company. This rumor caused great excitement among the stockholders, but it soon became apparent that some of the largest; holders of the stock had assented to the sale and that the probabilities therefore were that the control of the corporation would pass away from those who then held it. At that time the stock and bonds were both commanding a liberal premium in the market. A very large proportion of them was owned by citizens of Columbus and used as a permanent investment by individuals, executors, administrators and other trustees. The first official notice of the proposed sale that came to the directors was received at a meeting of the executive committee on July 5, 1881. A stock dividend had been declared but not yet issued ; the issue was suspended " owing to pending negotiations," and on July 15, after the sale and transfer had been completed, the record of the directors contained the first reference to it. Such influences were brought to bear on the stockholders that they all, with one exception, agreed to and did assign their stock in accordance with the agreement made by the President. The board of directors was as much surprised at this agreement as any of the other stockholders. All the stock of the three companies, except seven shares of the Columbus & Hocking Valley, was sold and transferred. Few persons knew at the time to whom the sale was made. The money was paid to the stockholders by the Deshler Bank on the floor below the office of the railway companies, and all the certificates of stock taken up during the day were consolidated into one in the name of M. M. Greene, trustee, and forwarded at once to Winslow, Lanier & Co., New York. The purchasers were only known at the time as a Cleveland party, but subsequent developments showed them to be Stevenson Burke, Charles Hickox, William J. McKinnie, Chauncey Andrews, W. C. Andrews, Charles G. Hickox, N. P. Payne and Payne, Newton & Co. These parties were not known to the accounting officers of the companies nor to the stockholders, with very few exceptions. For the Columbus & Hocking Valley stock, the par value of which was fifty dollars per share, the price paid was seventyfive dollars per share; for the Columbus & Toledo $62.50, and for the Ohio & West Virginia forty dollars per share. According to the president's testimony this was at least twenty five per cent. higher than the stock had been know to be sold for, and this was certainly true so tar as the Ohio & West Virginia was concerned, that stock never before having been sold, according to testimony, for more than five dollars per share. 10 RAILWAYS - 281 What was the inducement which caused this party to pay what was deemed so much above the market price for the stock of these roads ? First, the capital stock of the three roads outstanding in 1880 was of the par value of $3,975,000. At the time of the purchase the stock was increased to $20,000,000, of which $10,305,000 was issued, making a net increase of $6,330,000. An issue of $14,500,000 of bonds was agreed to and made, being an increase of $9,677,374 over the amount at the time of the purchase, making an increase in stock and bonds of $16,007,374. The further statement should be made that the parties who offered to purchase the stock of the roads constituted the Hocking, Coal & Railroad Company, which they had incorporated June 8, and which was the ostensible owner of ten thousand acres of coal land in the Straitsville coal field. This land the railway company was to purchase for $8,000,000 of its own stock. That is, after the purchase, the owners of the railway and the owners of the coal land would be identical, and the railway company was to purchase of itself ten thousand acres of coal land for $8,000,000 of its own bonds, which put a value of eight hundred dollars per acre on lands deemed by experts to be worth in the market not more than eighty dollars per acre." The evidence does not show the precise sum realized by Burke and associates, but it can be approximated. They received par value for the $8,000,000 of bonds and sold their stock at say forty-two and one-half per cent., which would produce $4,970,927, the stock issued at the time of the sale being $11,696,300. These two items amount to $12,970,927. Add to this sum the value of three-fourths of the stock of the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway Company ($3,525,000), received in exchange of stock of the two companies, as hereafter explained, which according to the last quotation was rated at forty-four per cent., and we have $14,521,927. To this add $2,000,000 of bonds issued which were worth about ninety per cent., and we have $16,321,921. From this deduct the amount paid for the stock of the three companies, which was about $7,500,000, and we have a residue of $8,821,921, as the probable cash return on the operation. As there seem to have been ten persons or firms interested in the purchase, the net profit to each one would appear to have been about three quarters of a million dollars without having invested a dollar of his own. From a contract brought forward in a suit now pending in the courts of New York it appears that Mr. Greene was to receive $100,000 of the bonds to be issued, $2,000,000 of the new stock, and $15,000 per year as president of the new company for five years. His stock was sold at about thirty per cent. and his bonds were worth about par at that time. Commenting on the sale the Ohio State Journal of June 20 said : Nothing has created such a stir in this city for many years as the gobbling up of the Columbus & Hocking Valley, Columbus & Toledo and the Ohio & West Virginia railroads by a Cleveland syndicate. . .. The stock of the Hocking Valley road in particular has been the pet stock for Columbus investors and so reliable has it been in its dividends that it becatne a favorite wedding present, or for those of small means who looked rather to revenue than an investment for speculative purposes. 282 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. The same paper of June 21 thus resumed the subject : It has been many a day since anything has created more agitation in this city than the transfer [above mentioned]. The matter was the subject of comment everywhere yesterday and the city had much of the appearance of a money centre. Deshler Block, High and Broad streets, seemed to be a regular stock exchange with all the highflying and speculating of New York or Chicago. Same paper, July 15: It is mentioned as a matter of peculiar interest that at the meeting of the Hocking Valley & Toledo directors this week, for the first time in the history of the roads, being over ten years, the question of dividends was not considered, or even mentioned. It is said to have passed out of sight. Same, July 21 : There is now considerable comment on the change, since the consolidation of the three roads under the name of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway Company, and the increase of the capital stock to $20.000,000. This large capital stock, of course, is only authorized. . . . The stock has been watered to a fourfold increase. . . . The only dividends paid were the regular semiannual dividends of four per cent. on the two million five hundred thousand of Hocking Valley stock, or just half the total amount, so that the stock is now watered eightfold on that heretofore paying a dividend. As a matter of fact the syndicate running the consolidated roads has not paid out a cent of money from their own pocket for their great purchase. They . . . arranged with their financial agents, Messrs. Winslow, Lanier & Co., for $15,000,000 of bonds on the road. . . . It was from the proceeds of this sale that all the stock of the three roads was paid for. . .. Of course there is much random speculating as to what this stock will be worth. It is not likely that it will be grabbed up very lively. . . . The amount the syndicate will make out of the transaction is estimated all the way from five to fifteen millions of dollars. The following is an abridged history of the transaction gleaned from the records of the company, the correspondence and the evidence in a suit brought by the later owners of the railway : On February 14, 1881, Stevenson Burke, of Cleveland, wrote to M. M. Greene, president of the three railway companies, calling his atten lion to " various schemes proposed for getting to the Perry and Hocking coalfields," and stating that " there has been for some little time a disposition among some of the parties holding land in that quarter to unite in the building of another road to Columbus, and at this time, when railroads can be built by the issuing of bonds, it is difficult to estimate in advance what may or may not be .done by energetic men when they set about it." Mr. Burke continued : "I want to suggest to you whether it is not better for your company to possess itself of eight or ten or twelve thousand acres of that land most available to you while it is at a comparatively low price. . . . I do not care to have you speak of this matter except to those interested in your property, but if you are willing to look at the proposition in a business light, I am sure that so far as the owners of your property are concerned they would prefer to deal with you." The first interview between the parties of which we have any record took place on June 9. On June 11, Burke wrote to Greene as follows : Referring to our talk on Thursday [June 9] and the plan of our party purchasing all the stock of your three roads at about the price we named, I have submitted it to three or four RAILWAYS - 283 of our parties, to wit : Messrs. Payne, Wade, C. H. Andrews and W. H. McKinnie, and they all seem to think well of [it] and express their willingness to help carry it out. . . . Hickox and myself, however, control twothirds of the nine thousand acres of coal land we all hold now, and it is possible [possible !!] we might be willing to exchange for stock on a fair basis, say, 125 of each stock, $250 in all, of C., H. V. & T. and C. & T. stock for each acre of land —$1,125,000 each road — each road to own onehalf of the land. On June 13 Burke wrote again from Cleveland : I can meet you here Wednesday, fifteenth, if agreeable. If it would excite less attention I can meet you at Columbus Thursday, sixteenth, and devote all day if necessary to it, and if you desire, Mr. Deshler could meet with us [Mr. Deshler was not consulted]. Since I saw you I have been considering the mode of raising the money to refund the cash put into the purchase of the stock of your three companies. It may or may not be best to sell five per cent. bonds ; probably it would be best to do so if such bonds, being first mortgage on the land and secured on the road, could be floated at par ; otherwise it might be best to issue no more mortgages, but to make it all stock, roads and land, and then sell enough of the new stock to refund the money. There is no doubt, if the properties are all consolidated or held in one interest, being worth from five to ten millions more than now, and we may as well have some of that benefit as give it all to others. On June 16 Mr. Burke made a written proposition to Mr. Greene, and on July 1 the two met in New York and a written agreement was entered into with Winslow, Lanier & Co., for a loan of six millions of dollars, not to the railroad companies, but to Burke and associates to enable them to purchase the stock of the three companies. This agreement provided in substance: 1. That Drexel, Morgan & Co. should loan to Burke and associates six million dollars for four months from July 1, 1881, on their joint and several notes. 2. That the money thus borrowed should be used solely for the purchase of the stock of the three companies at prices agreed upon. 3. That the stock of the companies when purchased should be transferred to M. M. Greene as trustee, indorsed by him in blank and transmitted daily to Winslow, Lanier & Co., and by them handed over to Drexel, Morgan & Co., as part security for the loan. 4. That as soon as practicable the three companies should be consolidated into one and the stock of the three purchased under the agreement should be exchanged and merged into the stock of the new company, and this stock to the amount of ten million dollars, or the total thereof, should be held by Drexel, Morgan & Co. as security for the loan. 5. As soon as practicable after its formation the new company should issue 14,500 bonds of $1,000 each, secured by mortgage on its property and upon ten thousand acres of coal land, which was at the time the land of Burke and associates ; $6,500,000 of which bonds should be used to pay off the outstanding bonds of the three corn panics, and the remaining eight millions of the bonds should, as soon after the formation of the new company as possible, be issued and delivered to Drexel, Morgan & Co., as additional security for the loan. 6. If the new company could not lawfully own and mortgage the coal lands (which it plainly could not do), then Burke and associates should organize a coal company, cause the lands to be deeded to it, and cause that company to legally secure the bonds by the coal lands. 284 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. As part of this agreement, Burke and associates assigned to Drexel, Morgan & Co. the $8,000,000 of bonds, and gave them full power to sell and apply the proceeds to the payment of their loan; and they further gave Winslow, Lanier & Co. an option for ninety days to purchase $6,000,000 of these bonds at par and accrued interest, with the condition that if they exercised that option they should apply the proceeds of the bonds so purchased to the payment of the notes in the hands of Drexel, Morgan & Co. And all this was done before Burke and associates had any interest whatever in any of the bonds or stock they were thus dealing in or with, and before the company was incorporated by which they were to be issued, for this was not completed until September 10. At a meeting of the executive committee held July 5, 1881, Mr. Greene made known the existence of the negotiations. He reported that on or about June 8, 1881, certain gentlemen of Cleveland, interested in certain coal lands in the Hocking Valley near the line of this road and its branches, had filed a certificate of incorporation to construct the new railway from Columbus to their coal lands and other points. As soon as this was made public the president, after consulting with some of the directors, communicated with the incorporators of the new road and it was ascertained that these parties intended to build such a road unless they could buy the whole or a controlling amount of the stock of the Columbus & Hocking Valley, or unless that company would purchase their coal lands; wherefore the president submitted a form of option to Burke and associates containing the following, to be signed by the stockholders: WHEREAS, it is the opinion of our president, M. M. Greene, and others largely interested, that said corporation will become a formidable competitor to our railroad if constructed ; and WHEREAS, to obviate such competition negotiations are now pending between M. M. Greene, president, and said Cleveland parties to sell the stock of the said C. & H. V. Railroad Company to said Cleveland parties, now to promote said negotiations on our part, we, the stockholders . . . hereby agree to such sale, . . . A few discrepancies between this recital and the history of the transaction as shown in the correspondence will readily suggest themselves to the mind of the reader. The transfer of the stock was begun July 8, just one week after the contract was signed in New York and two days after the proposition was made known to the executive committee. The proposition was not brought before the board of directors until July 15, and that was after the stock had been nearly all transferred. The next move was the consolidation of the three companies, which was effected on September 10, by the election of Burke and associates, with M. M. Greene as president, at a salary of $15,000, and John W. Ellis, of the firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., of New York, as a director, the choice of Ellis being made at the suggestion of Mr. Burke." At the first meeting of the board a resolution was adopted authorizing Burke and Hickox to unite " in the purchase of the stock of the Snowfork & Cleveland Coal Company to the amount of $267,500, and to issue the notes of the company therefor, said Hickox and Burke agreeing to pay for said stock and allowing the company to hold the amount in bonds due them until they paid for the stock." Why the bonds were " due them " does not appear, but RAILWAYS - 285 they seem to have perceived that the law did not allow the company to deal in coal lands, for on the sixteenth, just six days after the consolidation, the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company was organized at Cleveland with a capital stock of $3,000,000. This was in accordance with the agreement in New York, that if it should be found that the railroad company could not .own the coal lands a company would be formed for that purpose. On September 19 the corporators of this company met and opened books for subscription, limiting the amount to $1,500,000, which was promptly taken by the following parties: The Continental Coal Company by W. J. McKinnie, president; W. J. McKinnie, Charles J. Hickox, William B. Sanders and others. No amounts were subscribed by the parties, the whole being taken in bulk. Nothing was paid then or at any time afterwards. At a meeting on September 28 the directors of the consolidated company adopted a resolution increasing the capital stock to $20,000,000 and the bonded indebtedness to $14,500,000; $6,500,000 of the bonds to be set apart for redemption of the outstanding bonds of the constituent companies and the remaining $8,000,000 to be used for equipment, doubletracking and other improvements of the road. At the same meeting it was directed that the $8,000,000 of bonds just mentioned should be placed in the hands of Messrs. Greene and Burke, by whom they were handed over to Winslow, Lanier & Co., their proceeds being applied to payment of the notes of Burke and associates in accordance with the contract of July 1. At a subsequent meeting held November 2 a resolution was adopted at the suggestion of Winslow, Lanier & Co., directing President Greene to hand over to Stevenson Burke, chairman of the executive committee, $6,400,000 (evidently a mistake for $6,411,000) of the consolidated mortgage bonds of the company, while at the same time Winslow, Lanier & Co. had reported on July 18 that they had purchased and turned over to Drexel, Morgan & Co., $6,000,030 of the stock of the companies with the proceeds of these same bonds turned over to them in pursuance of the contract of July 1. On November 16, Messrs. Burke and Greene reported that Mr. Burke had " sold " to Winslow, Lanier & Co., $6,411,000 of the bonds at par, less commission, and that the bonds had been delivered and " paid for in full," but they omitted to report that the proceeds had been used to pay the individual notes of Burke and associates. The directors approved the sale and ordered the president to deliver to the executive committee the remainder of the $8,000,000 ($1,589,000) and take a receipt from the executive committee for the whole amount. On September 19, 1881, Stevenson Burke, Charles Hickox and associates filed a certificate of incorporation of the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company, and ten days thereafter, on September 29, the Snowfork & Cleveland Coal Company sold to it 5,619.86 acres of coal land at $150 per acre; Burke and Hickox sold to it 1,380.14 acres ; and the Continental Coal Company sold to it 3,000 acres at the same price, making 10,000 acres in all, just the amount involved in and required by the contract of July I. No money was paid, the company giving its notes for the land. On August 14, 1882, the directors of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway Company adopted the following resolution : " That the President be and is hereby directed to purchase the whole of the stock of the Hocking 286 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. Coal & Railroad Company, which covers and represents 10,000 acres of coal lands in Hocking, Perry and Athens counties, amounting to 15,000 shares at and for the price of $8,000,000, payable in the consolidated bonds of this company, dated September 1, 1881, at their par value; that the title be taken in the name of the president as trustee of this company." Thereupon the president reported that he had purchased "said 15,000 shares of the capital stock of said Hocking Coal & Railroad Company at and for the price of $8,000,000 and paid therefor in the bonds of this company at the price above mentioned." The hoard immediately adopted a resolution approving and ratifying the transaction, and on the same day the stockholders, all present, did "unanimously resolve" that the proceeding " is hereby approved, ratified and confirmed " and " that said $8,000,000 mentioned in said resolution of said directors and stockholders included and was intended to include as part and parcel thereof said $6,411,000 sold by said Burke for himself and associates to said Winslow, Lanier & Co. ;" that is, they did not intend that Burke and associates should understand that it was agreed to pay them, $8,000,000 in addition to the $6,411,000 already paid in New York. Let the reader now remember that the coal lands sold by Burke and associates were purchased by them at about seventy-five to one hundred dollars per acre, some of the very best of them, as the writer personally knows, at the lesser price ; and that in the organization of the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company they were valued at $150 per acre. Besides this it should be stated that the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company was a paper road with no treasury, no treasurer, nothing but 10,000 acres of coal land for which it had received $8,000,000. Nevertheless, at a meeting of this company held at Cleveland October 18, 1886, they adopted a resolution to offer to its creditors the joint six per cent. bonds at par for its indebtedness ($764,000) dollar for dollar. William M. Greene, son of President Greene, and secretary and vice president of both companies, thought there was something wrong in that proposition, and on the next day, October 19, wrote from Columbus to Charles Hickox enclosing copies of the resolutions directing purchase of the coal company's stock by the railroad company, and adding: "In view to the contents of the above resolution I am unable to reconcile the action of our meeting of the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company yesterday at which time they passed a resolution to divide among themselves the joint six per cent. bonds of the railroad company to the amount of $764,000; specially so when the resolution which I have quoted shows that the coal lands were fully paid for by the eight millions five per cent. bonds of this company. Because of the fact that this does not seem right I have thought best to call your attention to it and ask you to explain to me how it can be done." To this Mr Hickox answered : " I know nothing about it. All I know or ever knew is that Burke planned the whole thing. .. We followed his lead in everything and I fear in some things to our misfortune." On the same day Mr. Greene wrote to Mr. Burke the same letter which he had written to Mr. Hickox, and two days later Burke replied: "There is nothing wrong in the record about the coal stock and lands." It was not the record, however, of which Mr. Greene complained, but the fact stated in the record. RAILWAYS - 287 In the suit subsequently commenced the plaintiff, the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Company, asserted that the stock of the Hocking Coal & Railroad Company was entirely unpaid and amounted to a stock subscription, and that said coal company still owed the sum of $754,000 for a portion of the 10,000 acres of land ; that is to say, neither the land owned by the company nor the stock of the company had been paid for. To this the astonishing reply was made : "These defendants expressly deny that they have ever asserted that the stock of said Hocking Coal & Railroad Company . .. is entirely unpaid for, or that they have not been paid for said stock, but upon the contrary they aver and charge the fact to be that said stock was paid for in full by the sale and delivery to the owners of said stock of said $8,000,00 of bonds." The contract of July 1 was fulfilled. Reduced to its simplest terms, it stipulated, that Burke and his associates would purchase the stock of the three railroad companies provided the companies would advance them the necessary funds; $14,500,000 of bonds were issued and disposed of as follows : $6,500,000 were reserved to meet a like amount of the bonds of the three companies outstanding ; $6,411,000 were used to pay the individual notes of Burke and associates; the remainder, $1,589,000, was handed over to the executive committee and disposed of as follows: $100,000 to Mr. Greene; $515,000 to Burke arid Hickox; $221,000 to Andrews, Hitchcock & Co.; $548,000 to the Cleveland syndicate, and $205,000 were sold as the bonds of the company for Burke and associates. The $10,000,000 of stock was divided as follows: To Burke and Hickox, fifty-six per cent.; to McKinnie and associates, twentyfour per cent. ; to M. M. Greene, twenty per cent. On July 7, 1882, just one year after the purchase of the three roads, Mr. Greene wrote to Mr. Burke: "It will require $100,000 to carry us through this month and provide for interest, and at least $150,000 for August. . . . The strain on me of so much to pay and not knowing where it is to come from is too much. . . I come to my office in the morning not kming how 1 ap,m to meet the obligations of the day." An illustration of the freedom with which. Burke and associates dealt with the stock and bonds of the railroad company is furnished by the history of the Toledo & Ohio Central. This company was bankrupt before its completion. It was constructed as a competitor to the Columbus & Hocking Valley and proved to be a very troublesome One, as bankrupt roads always are, since the managers of such roads have no stockholders or bonds to take care of and care little for a surplus. In 1885, a plan was brought forward by which the competition of the Toledo & Ohio Central could be avoided. Mr. Greene, as president of the Columbus & Toledo Road, had purchased early in the history of the company, about eighty acres of land at Toledo for terminal and dock purposes, which the company had never been able to utilize. The president and vice president of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo, Messrs. Greene and Burke, were authorized to " lease or sell any of the lands of the consolidated company at Toledo not needed by it for its own use " to the Toledo & Ohio Central Company, and as part of the agreement they were authorized to endorse $3,000,000 of the bonds of the Toledo & Ohio Central. The endorsement was to be done on condition that the man- 288 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. agement of the two roads would be under practically the same parties, and a "competition between the parties be done away with." Two points would have been gained by this arrangement ; an annoying competitor and an unprofitable investment would both have been disposed of. But the scheme was finally completed by an arrangement to exchange one share of Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo stock for two shares of that of the Toledo & Ohio Central to an amount equal to threequarters of the whole stock of the Toledo & Ohio Central Company, thus giving control of both roads to the same party, in evasion of the statute prohibiting the consolidation of competing lines. On January 12, preceding this transaction, the directors of the C. H. V. & T. company declared a dividend of thirteen and three eights per cent., which produced about the sum needed to carry out the trade, and when Burke and associates sold their interest in the C. H. V. & T. they reserved the Toledo & Ohio Central and now control it without the payment of a dollar. The party that had come into possession of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway, John W. Shaw being president, seeing $8,000,000 of bonds included in the statement, made a effort to trace the amount into the treasury of the company, and in so doing found the letters of Messrs Burke and Greene. Suit was begun February 9, 1887, against Burke and associates to secure an accounting for the $8,000,000, but before the case was tried on its merits an arbitration was agreed to, and the arbitrators decided the case against the company. The reasons given for this conclusion form an interesting chapter in the history of this road but are too voluminous for repetition here. On April 1, 1882, after the road had changed ownership, the following directors were elected : M. M. Greene, Columbus ; S. Burke, Charles Hickox, W. J. McKinnie and Charles G. Hickox, Cleveland ; C. H. Andrews, Youngstown, and J. W. Ellis, New York. M. M. Greene was retained as president, S. Burke as vice president and William M. Greene as secretary. F. H. Medary was elected treasurer. John J. Janney, who had served as secretary and treasurer of the company since its organization, retired. George R. Carr was elected general superintendent and J. D. Lott as auditor, the latter in place of T. J. Janney, who had served since the organization. W. A. Mills was appointed general freight agent and W. H. Harrison general ticket agent. Both the ownership and the control of the road passed into the hands of nonresidents. At the annual meeting in 1887, W. P. Shaw appears as a director in place of M. M. Greene. The annual report for 1888 shows further changes. Charles Foster, P. W. Huntington, James Kilbourne, C. C. Waite, Charles B. Alexander, George W. McCook, Samuel D. Davis, Thomas F. Ryan and Charles B. VanNostrand appear as directors. C. C. Waite was president, Samuel D. Davis first vice president, Charles B. Alexander second vice president, William M. Cott secretary and treasurer, James T. Boothroyd assistant secretary, John J. McCook of New York, General Counsel, Charles H. Rockwell general superintendent, T. B. Everett auditor, W. A. Mills general freight agent, H. J. Falkenbach general passenger and ticket agent, and F. B. Sheldon chief engineer. The report for the year 1888, states that, " as compared with the previous year there was a decrease of $379,314.48 in the gross RAILWAYS - 289 earnings, and of $166,177.38 in the operating expenses, notwithstanding the abnormal charge of $42,856 to legal expenses on account of litigation incurred in previous years." The report for 1889, shows a profit on business of $599.82, but there were " additional extraordinary charges of $366,214.24." At the time of the payment of the first dividend on August 1, 1872, there were exactly four hundred stockholders. Those resident in Columbus owned $842,650, or 74.26 per cent. of the whole amount, and the stockholders living immediately on the line owned $183,400, or 16.16 per cent., making $1,026,050, or over 90.42 per cent. of the whole amount of stock owned by those immediately interested in the management and prosperity of the road. At the time of payment of the last dividend, July 11, 1881, the number of stockholders had increased to 495; the stock had increased from $1,134,600 to $2,387,950. Of this sum citizens of Columbus owned $1,700,350, or 71.23 per cent. of the whole amount, and those living on the line owned $161,800, or 6.79 per cent., making $1,862,150, or over seventyeight per cent. still in possession of the original owners. In the meantime the company had paid seventeen semiannual cash' dividends, the first four of five and the rest of four per cent. It had also paid four stock dividends, two of four, one of ten and one pf twenty per cent. In 1890 there were but thirteen stockholders resident in Ohio, and these, held but a nominal amount of stock. The bonds and stock instead of being at a liberal premium as formerly are now quoted at eightysix for the one and twentyseven to twentyeight per cent. for the other. At the time of the sale of the property to Burke and his associates the stock and funded debts.of the three constituent roads outstanding amounted to $11,269,500, and the construction account, " road and fixtures," to $9,182,451. The sale was made in July, 1881. According to the report for the year ended June 30, 1882, being the first full year under the management of Burke and associates, these items were : Funded debt outstanding, including stock, $24,974,500 ; road and equipment, $15,105,042. At the time of the sale by Burke and associates, these items, according to their report, were: Funded debt, including stock, $27,112,300; road and equipments, $20,327,164. Ohio & West Virgina.— On March 3, 1870, the Gallipolis, McArthur & Columbus Railroad Company was incorporated. Under the presidency of Mr. Langley, considerable money was expended in grading the track between Gallipolis and the intersection with the Marietta and Cincinnati line at or near Vinton Station, but the panic of 1873 brought the enterprise into great embarrassment and the work was entirely suspended. On June 27, 1876, the Columbus & Gallipolis Railroad Company was organized and became owner of all the property and franchises of the company just mentioned. The new company resumed the work of constructing the line, but in May, 1878, it also became embarrassed, and in July the property was sold to the Ohio & West Virginia Railway Company which had by that time been incorporated. On June 12, 1879, a contract was made with Miller, Thomas & Co. to build and equip the road. The members of this company were Henry Miller, Samuel Thomas, Orland Smith, Charles Parrott, D. S. Gray, C. C. Walcutt, James A. Wilcox, G. C. Hoover of Columbus; Henry Stearns of 19* 290 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. Cincinnati, George C. Benham of Louisiana, E. Delatomb of Gallipolis, Royal! Hill of Chicago and George W. Norris of Boston. On June 27, 1879, the stock of the company was increased from $250,000 to $2,500,000 and an issue of bonds to the amount of $1,584,000 was authorized. The road was completed from Logan to Gallipolis October 15, 1880. It was constructed in the cheapest manner, cuts and fills being as steep and ties as far apart as circumstances would allow and bridges and trestles very light. On July 19, 1881, the company was consolidated with the Columbus & Hocking and Columbus & Toledo, as heretofore stated. By the terms of consolidation the holder of stock in the Ohio & West Virginia received one and a half shares in the new company for each share held in the old one, while the stockholders in the other two companies exchanged stock at par. Columbus & Toledo.—This company was incorporated May 28, 1872, by M. M. Greene, P. W. Huntington, B. E. Smith, W. G. Deshler, J. A. Wilcox and John L. Gill, with a capital stock of $2,504,000. Its subscription books were opened July 1, 1872, and on November 13, same year, William Dennison, B. E. Smith, W. G. Deshler, H. J. Jewett and D. S. Gray of Columbus ; Abner L. Backus, Samuel M. Young and H. S. Walbridge of Toledo, were elected directors. M. M. Greene was chosen president, J. A. Wilcox secretary and treasurer, and Philip D. Fisher chief engineer. At the annual meeting on April 15, 1874, H. C. Noble of Columbus, J. D. Vandeman of Delaware, J. J. Kane of Marion, and McD. M. Carey of Carey, were added to the board. On May 22, 1874, an issue of $2,500,000 of thirtyyear seven per cent. bonds was authorized, S. M. Young and W. G. Deshler being named as trustees. The line as proposed extended from Columbus to Toledo via Delaware, Marion, Upper Sandusky, Carey and Fostoria. Its alignment was remarkable, one hundred fourteen and seventy-three one hundredth miles being straight and only six and ninety-two hundredths curved. The estimated cost of construction and equipments was $3,300,000. On May 3, 1873, an election was held in Columbus on a proposition for the city to subscribe $300,000 to the Columbus & Toledo Railway Company, west line, and resulted in 2,393 yeas to 1,053 nays, but the Boesel Law under which the vote was taken, was set aside by the Supreme Court. Two lines were surveyed by Philip D. Fisher, engineer, one via Delaware, Marion, Upper Sandusky, Carey and Fostoria ; the other via Marysville, Kenton, Findlay and Bowling Green. The necessary action was taken to secure aid for building the road by the issue of bonds by the townships along each line under the provisions of the Boesel Railroad Law, and a tract of about seventy-five acres of land in Toledo was purchased for dock and other purposes at a cost of $80,700, but on May 13, 1873, the Supreme Court pronounced the Boesel Law unconstitutional, and on October 8 the board ordered all proceedings suspended on account of the commercial derangement then existing. About eighty miles of the right of way had been secured at a cost of $808.30 per mile. In 1876 the directors were M. M. Greene, W. G. Deshler, D. S. Gray, E. L. Hinman, John Greenleaf, P. W. Huntington and Isaac Eberly of Columbus; J. G. Vandeman of Delaware ; A. H. Kling of Marion ; McD. M. Carey, of Carey; S. M. Young, A. L. Backus and H. S. Walbridge of Toledo. At a meeting of the directors and stockholders held RAILWAYS - 291 May 31, 1876, it was found that valid and collectable subscriptions to the amount of $1,023,000 had been made; accordingly, on July 14, the president was authorized to advertise for bids for the construction of the road and to prepare for issue $2,500,000 of the company's bonds. On August 14, a contract for the construction was made with Miller, Smith & Co., the members of which company were Henry Miller, B. E. Smith, Theodore Comstock, Samuel Thomas, Orland Smith, Henry Stearns, G. W. Norris, G. T. Gould, W. G. Case and others, the consideration being $1,900,000, of which $825,000 was to be paid in cash, and $1,075,000 in the bonds of the company at par. The work was commenced August 17. B. E. Smith being one of the contractors, he resigned his membership of the board. On October 13, 1875, P. D. Fisher, engineer, reported that the right of way had been settled "except seven and ninety-sixth hundredths miles," and added : " While the oldest companies in the State are still contesting unsettled claims for right of way, you are to be congratulated on the nearly complete adjustment of the entire line." On April 29, 1876, the first rail was laid and the first spike driven at Delaware, in the presence of a large number of citizens of that city and of Columbus. At a meeting of the directors in May, 1877, Orland Smith was appointed, general superintendent ; M. T. Seymour trainmaster, T. J. Janney auditor, W. A. Mills general freight agent and D. H. Gard superintendent of telegraph. In January, 1877, the road was sufficiently complete to commence business, and trains from Columbus to Toledo were put on it under an arrangement with the contractors allowing the company to use the road before formal acceptance thereof; a contract having been made with the Toledo & Woodville Railroad Company for the use of its track from Walbridge to Toledo, and a like contract with the Columbus & Hocking Valley for terminal facilities at Columbus. The road was opened for traffic from Columbus to Marion in November, 1876 An account of an excursion over the road on November 2, 1876, appeared in the contemporary newspapers. The cost of the road was reported as $3,338,507.74, being $28,244 per mile; but from this the president deducted the cost of "certain real estate in Toledo and elsewhere on the line " not necessary for present use of the road, amounting to $328,397.65, making the actual cost of the road more than $200,000 less than the estimate. At the annual meeting in 1878 the president reported the earnings sufficient to Pay all interest, rentals, taxes and running expenses, and to carry $28,051.69 to the credit of the contingent account. On October 13, 1875, the directors adopted resolutions providing that interest should be charged at six per cent. on all stock subscriptions due and unpaid after a certain date, and interest at the rate of eight per cent. allowed on all subscriptions paid before that date. This arrangement was found to be so unsatisfactory that on January 16, 1879, the operation of the resolutions was limited to February 1, and at a meeting on September 8, 1880, the directors in order " to provide funds to pay said [interest] scrip" and for other purposes, determined to issue a second mortgage of $600,000. At another meeting held October 13, 1880, it was ordered that the outstanding scrip and all unadjusted claims for interest on payments of 292 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. stock subscriptions should be declared due and payable on November 30, interest to cease from that date. The highest point on the road, fortythree miles from Columbus and two and a half miles south of Marion, is 265 feet above the Columbus bridge over the Whetstone and 410 feet above Lake Erie. The road has no grade over twenty-six feet to the mile ; forty-three and a half miles of it are level. The track was laid with three thousand ties per mile and sixty-pound steel rails, from Columbus to Upper Sandusky, sixty-four miles ; and with iron rails of the same weight thence to Walbridge, fifty-four miles. The bridges were all of iron except one. In March, 1877, a permanent dock was build at Toledo to accommodate the coal and iron business of the road. Scioto Valley.—On January 4, 1836, a convention of delegates and.prominent citizens representing the Scioto Valley counties from Portsmouth to Columbus and thence to Sandusky, met in Columbus to take measures for securing continuous railway or canal communication on that route. Chandler Rogers was chairman and William Doherty secretary of this meeting. James Kilbourne, of Worthington, J. G. Camp, of Sandusky, and N. V. Peck, of Portsmouth, were appointed as a committee to report at a future meeting. At an adjourned meeting of January 6, Joseph Ridgway chairman and Moses H. Kirby secretary of this committee, made a long report, accompanied by resolutions unanimously adopted, that application be made to the General Assembly for the construction of a railway or canal from Columbus to Sandusky City, and that a committee be appointed to prepare a memorial to that effect, which was accordingly done. At a special election held March 5, 1849, Portsmouth voted a subscription of $75,000 to the stock of the Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad Company, and in April, same year, Lancaster voted to subscribe to the stock of the same company the sum of $25,000. On May 9, 1849, the company was organized at Chillicothe with J. V. Robinson as president, and a survey of the route was ordered. Proposals for grading twenty miles from Portsmouth to Bloomfield were invited on November 25, 1850, by the president and the chief engineer, J. W. Webb. On August 19, 1854, forty miles of the road were reported to be complete and yielding ten per cent. interest. At a meeting held in Chillicothe April 19, 1869, a resolution was adopted that a committee of five from each of the counties there represented be appointed to take measures for organiz- ing a company to construct a railway on the most eligible route from Columbus to Portsmouth, either by procuring a new charter or by using that of the Columbus, Chillicothe & Portsmouth Railroad Company, which had been procured some years before. The committee was also authorized to raise means to execute the work. At a meeting held in Columbus, March 7, 1871, Wayne Griswold of Pickaway County, chairman, and B. F. Stage, of Franklin, secretary, Messrs. A. Clover of Scioto, James Emmett of Pike, John Woodbridge of Ross, Wayne Griswold of Pickaway and R. C. Hoffman of Franklin, were appointed a committee to procure a charter and it was decided to adopt the name of Scioto Valley Railroad Company, and Columbus and Portsmouth as termini of the line, with Chillicothe, Circleville and Waverly as intermediate points. On February 23, 1875, another RAILWAYS - 293 organization was completed with William Monypeny, E. T. Mithoff, John G. Mitchell, T. E. Miller, W. B. Hayden, John C. English and John Joyce as incorporators, with a capital stock of $2,000,000, and on September 13, 1875, the company was granted by ordinance of the Columbus City Council a right of way across Broad and Friend streets through a portion of Centre Street east of the County Fair Grounds and through " such other streets and alleys as may be necessary to construct and maintain its track." A construction contract was made in May, 1875, and on August 12 of that year the work was begun. The road was completed from Columbus to Chillicothe in July, 1876, and to Portsmouth in January, 1878, and was extended from Portsmouth to Petersburg in May, 1881, there making connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio. The first train from Columbus to Chillicothe was run June 1, 1876. The first excursion train over the whole road arrived at Columbus December 27, 1877. The road has no grade over twentysix feet to the mile except a short one at its junction with the Central Ohio. No curvature exceeds three degrees. The total length of the road is one hundred arid twenty-eight and threefourths miles. On January 1, 1885, the company defaulted on its interest and a receiver was appointed May 30. On January 22, 1890, the property was sold for the benefit of the bondholders and a reorganization was effected. The foreclosure was made chiefly at the instance and for the benefit of Mr. Huntington of New York, who had gathered up through his brokers a sufficient quantity of the company's bonds and interest coupons for that purpose, and the small bondholders, consisting to a large extent of widows and other helpless persons, were subjected to great loss. An issue of $5,000,000 of stock and a like amount of firstmortgage four per cent. one-hundred-year gold bonds was authorized. On February 1, 1890, the road was reorganized as the Scioto Valley and New England Railway Company. Four and a halt miles of additional track extending from Portsmouth to Sciotoville had been built in 1889. In 1890, the road was leased to the Norfolk & Western system, embracing lines of an aggregate length of 1,437 miles. Columbus, Shawnee & Hocking.—This company was incorporated October 6, 1889, by D. S. Gray, P. W. Huntington, H. D. Turney, W. E. Guerin, and F. J. Picard. Its present capital comprises $2,000,000 of common and a like amount of preferred stock. On October 28, 1889, it purchased the Columbus & Eastern Railway which extended from Columbus to Moxahala with authorized branches to Redfield and Cannelville. The Columbus & Eastern was chartered February 1, 1882, and organized the ensuing November by J. E. Redfield, James Taylor, Allen Miller, John F. McFadden, F. A. Kelley, G. G. Collins, F. Siegel, C. D. Firestone, W. E. Guerin, J. C. Donaldson, B. E. Orr and R. W. Reynolds. G. G. Collins was president and F. Siegel secretary ; capital $2,500,000. The purpose of this corporation was to build a railway from Columbus to Moxahala, with branches to Redfield and Cannelville. The road was begun in November, 1882, and completed from Hadley Junction to Moxahala January 16, 1884. On March 6, 1885, W. E. Guerin was appointed receiver and at the same time Augustine Converse was appointed receiver of the Buckeye Coal & Iron Company, an organization comprised within that of the railway. The first spike was driven with due cere- 294 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. mony at Glenford August 16, 1883. On October 28, 1889, the company purchased the Shawnee & Muskingum River Railway extending from Shawnee Junction to Shawnee, chartered March 13, 1887, and opened June 1, 1889. In the spring of 1890, the company began the construction, completed in October, of eleven and one tenth miles of track from Saltillo on the Columbus & Eastern division to Sayre on the Shawnee and Muskingum. On January 1, 1890, fiftyyear five per cent bonds to the amount of $5,000,000 were ordered to be issued. The company now operates one hundred and fiftytwo miles of road and penetrates a region of abundant coal and fireclay deposits. Toledo & Ohio Central. —On June 7, 1867, a meeting of which J. S. Robinson, of Kenton, was chairman, was held in Columbus in the interest of a railway from Columbus to Toledo. It was addressed by M. M. Greene, William Dennison and C. A. King. A subsequent meeting held July 13, J. R. Osborn chairman, adopted resolutions favoring the organization of a company and a survey of the route. At a third meeting held in Toledo, Charles A. King chairman and D. R. Locke secretary, sixteen incorporators were appointed, viz : For Columbus, W. B. Brooks, Samuel Galloway, William A. Platt, Theodore Comstock, William Dennison, William E. Ide and D. W. H. Day ; for Toledo, Charles A. King, H. S. Walbridge, James C. Hall, Morris A. Scott, Perry Crabbs, E. V. McMakin, Charles Kent, J. R. Osborn and A. D. Pelton. This organization seems to have done nothing further than to appoint C. E. Waite engineer. Assistance from Columbus was expected, but was not given because of the claims laid upon the city by the road to the Hocking Valley. A meeting in behalf of the enterprise was held at Toledo December 24, 1872, at which John C. Lee was chairman and various interested counties, including Franklin, were represented but no definite action was reported. On June 12,1889, the Atlantic & Lake Erie Railroad Company was incorporated for the purpose of constructing a railway from Toledo to the Hocking coal field, and on August 22, 1871, the Columbus, Ferrara & Mineral Railroad was incorporated with authority to build a road from Columbus to Ferrara. A meeting in behalf of this enterprise was held at Columbus November 10, 1871. A contract for construction of this road was reported and referred in the Columbus City Council November 23, 1872, and on December 16 the following resolution was adopted : That the Mayor be and he is hereby requested to prepare a contract with the Columbus, Ferrara & Mineral Railway Company on the basis of the bid of said company dated November 21, 1872, for the completion of a railway mentioned in an advertisement of the said Mayor dated September 25, 1872, and to report such contract to this council for its concurrence. Owing to the unconstitutionality of the law under which the bonds of the city were to be issued nothing was done in pursuance of this resolution. At a joint meeting of stockholders of the Atlantic & Lake Erie and the Columbus, Ferrara & Mineral companies held at Columbus December 17, 1872, a report was made of assets and progress. Grading had then been completed on one hundred and ten miles of the line and ties for fifty miles of it had been delivered. The directors were instructed to collect the available subscriptions and prosecute the RAILWAYS - 295 work. A vote taken in Columbus on August 31, 1872, on a proposition to issue the bonds of the city to the amount of $200,000 in the aid of the Scioto Valley and the Columbus, Ferrara & Mineral rail ways resulted in favor of the proposition, 4,239 to 462, but a judical decision nullifying the law under which this vote was taken rendered it useless. On April 20, 1876, the name Atlantic & Lake Erie was exchanged for that of Ohio Central Railway Company, and on December 20, 1879, that company was consolidated with the Columbus, Ferrara & Mineral, which then bore the name of' Columbus & Sunday Creek Valley Railroad Company. In April, 1880, a construction contract was made with Brown, Howard & Co., of Chicago, and the work was begun at Fostoria and Bush's Station. The road was completed in November, 1880, but in 1883 it passed into the hands of John S. Martin, of Toledo, as receiver, and on April 15, 1885, it was sold on forclosure to C. J. Canda for $1,000,000. The company has made running arrangements with the P. C. & St. L. and B. & O., companies from Columbus to Alum Creek ; with the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley from Bremen to New Lexington ; with the Kanawha & Ohio from Corning to Jacksonville; and with the Columbus & Eastern from Thurston to Alum Creek. The subscribed stock, when last reported, amounted to $4,700,000. The company now owns or operates lines having an aggregate trackage of 248 miles. Atlantic & Great Western.—On February 17, 1849, the Pennsylvania legislature adopted a joint resolution approving the repeal of the charter of the Olean & Erie Railway, which was intended to connect the New York lines with those of Ohio. In the same month and year a public meeting was held at Massillon, at which William Neil of Columbus was chairman, to consider the construction of a railway of six feet gauge from Columbus to the Pennsylvania line in the direction of Olean, New York, and a survey was ordered. On Septenber 7, 1853, the stockholders of the Atlantic & Ohio Broad Gauge Railway Company met at the Neil House and elected William Neil, Jacob Perkins, D. K. Cartter, William Dennison, John Miller, Joseph' Ridgway and J. F. Bartlit as directors. An immediate survey was ordered, the intention being to connect with the northern system of Pennsylvania and with New York via the New York Central. On October 19, 1871, General George B. McClellan and others filed with the Secretary of State a deed transferring that part of the Atlantic & Great Western which lies in the State of Ohio to General George B. Wright and others. At the same time was tiled a certificate of reorganization of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway Company of Ohio, which elected a board of directors with General Wright as president, he having previously resigned his office of Commissioner of railroads and telegraphs. The road never reached Columbus. Michigan & Ohio.—A meeting was held in the City Hall, Columbus, January 14, 1875, in the interest of this proposed road which had been projected three years previously by citizens of Grand Haven, Michigan. The meeting was addressed by its chairman, T. E. Miller, by Governor Allen, by James S. Gibbs, president of the proposed road, and by others, and a committee of ten was appointed to promote the enterprise. On February 3 another meeting was held 296 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. and a committee was appointed to obtain subscriptions to the amount of $125,000 in Franklin County, but with this action the enterprise ended. Columbus & Ironton.—This company was incorporated in January, 1870, by Ralph Leete, R. E. Neil, B. S. Brown, Luther Donaldson and others, and on March 3, same year, a large meeting in behalf of the enterprise was held at the Opera House in Columbus, S. S. Rickly chairman and E. C. Cloud and J. J. Janney secretaries. Addresses were made by William Dennison, George B. Wright and others, and a committee to open subscription books was appointed. The project was carried no further. Columbus & Maysville.—This company was incorporated November 30, 1849, and its subscription books were opened in Franklin, Pickaway and Ross counties March 16, 1853. A part of the line was built south of Hillsborough but nothing was done north of that point. The Union Depot Company.—The railway station at Columbus was first established by the Columbus & Xenia and the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati companies in 1850, and a frame station house admitting three tracks was then built. Shortly thereafter an alliance of a rather exclusive character was formed between the Little Miami, the Columbus & Xenia and the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati companies, one of its conditions being that no one of these roads should form a connection with any other without the consent of its associates. Out of this grew a controversy when the Columbus & Xenia asked the Bee Line company that the trains of another road be admitted into the station, a request to which the Bee Line objected. On September 9, 1859, a dining hall was opened on the north side of the station and placed under the care of S. E. Ogden. In pursuance of a law authorizing the formation of railway depot companies a certificate was filed April 3, 1868, incorporating the Union Depot Company of Columbus, but not until more than four years thereafter was anything done towards the construction of a building. On July 17, the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis companies formed the Union Depot Company at Columbus with a capital stock of $500,000, and six directors, a condition being that each of the two stockholders, its successors or assigns, should appoint three of the directors and have power to fill vacancies. On February 15,1873, an agreement was formed between the C. C. C. & I., the P. C. & St. L., the L. M. and the C. & X. companies and the Union Depot Company, by which the latter agreed to issue $500,000 fifty year seven per cent. bonds, the P. C. & St. L. and the C. C. C. & I. companies agreeing " each to take an equal and in the aggregate a sufficient amount of said bonds to construct a passenger depot complete for use." The agreement provides " that all lines of railroad now or hereafter constructed, terminating at or passing through the city of Columbus, shall be entitled, on request, to a perpetual lease and to the use of said depot " and " the depot grounds " upon the same terms as the original parties. The stock bears interest at the rate of eight per cent. with a sinking fund of $675 per annum, the current expenses of operating and managing the depot, together with the taxes and assessments, to constitute the charges to be assessed on the roads using it " in proportion to the business done by each in and upon it .. . roads running RAILWAYS - 297 two lines or passing through to count twice, roads not passing through to count but once." The grounds contain seventeen and eighty-six one thousandths acres, valued in an agreement between the corporations February 15, 1873, at $92,697.51. The " undivided half owned and conveyed by the Columbus & Xenia Railroad Company" is valued at $55,398.75. At the time of the original location of the station it was just, outside of the city, Naghten Street, or as it was then called, North Public Lane, being the corporation line. In addition to the passenger station, freight depots and yards were located at the same point, and not only passenger but freight trains were made up in the yards east of and adjoining High Street. This caused frequent blockades of the street and loud and angry complaints soon became common. The Ohio State Journal of March 31, 1855, said : Within the past week we have received no less than ten communications relative to the careless manner in which the railroad companies allow their locomotives to cross High Street. We have not published them knowing that it would do no good. It was only yester day afternoon that one of our most prominent citizens came near losing his life owing to the reckless conduct of those employed on the William Penn. That something should be done to abate this nuisance is very evident, for already there is a petition in circulation praying that the railroad companies may be compelled to keep a flagman at the depot to warn people of the danger to which they are now subjected. The same paper of April 14, next following, contained similar observations, and we find in one of its issues in 1863, the following : The almost fatal accident at the depot yesterday proves what we have long thought but have abstained from expressing, that the presOnt structure is a standing disgrace and shame to the wealthy corporations centering at Columbus. Frequently three trains come in at once blocking up the whole space and leaving barely room to walk between them. This was while the original frame house was yet standing. One of the causes of public complaint arose from the fact that during more than twenty years after the station was established no care was taken by the companies to enable passengers to reach it from the street, only a narrow gravel or cinder walk having ever been provided for their accommodation, the pretext for this being, that should the companies pave the walk they would thereby relinquish it to the public. In October, 1869, a proposition was made to tear out the south side of the station building and extend it southward so as admit another track. The controversy between the city and the railway companies as to the street interference of their tracks has increased with the growth of the city. Accidents, became more and more frequent with the steady increase of street travel. On December 16, 1872, the City Council had before it an ordinance to prevent the improper use of High Street for railway purposes, but upon assurances from the railway authorities that such use would be discontinued the ordinance was not acted on. On April 29, 1873, the City Council adopted a resolution declaring that the only way of overcoming the difficulty was to either tunnel under or bridge over the railway tracks, and directing its standing committee on railways, together with the City Engineer, to ascertain which, in their judgment, would be the better of these two expedients, and to report with plans and estimates both for 298 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. tunneling and for bridging. The cost of the tunnel was estimated in the report thus called for and submitted October 14, 1873, at $61,394.05, and on March 23, 1874, the acceptance by the railway authorities of the tunnel ordinance passed by the council was announced. On May 9, 1874, a contract was made with John Stothart for construction of the tunnel and its necessary sewers for $45,050. It was soon found that the tunnel did not furnish a proper remedy. The street railway company laid its tracks through it but the public would not use it. At a meeting held August 16, 1871, for consultation between the railways and the City Council, Governor Dennison suggested such a change of the Columbus & Xenia track that it should come into the city by way of the " Piqua Shops " along side of that of the Columbus & Indiana Central. This would have reduced the space occupied on High Street about twothirds, and would now reduce it about onehalf. Messrs. H. J. Jewett, W. C. Quincy, B. E. Smith, Thomas A. Scott, Oscar Townsend, William Dennison and Rush R. Sloane, were appointed by the railways to confer with the City Council, and engineers representing both the railways and the city were chosen to prepare plans for submission to a future meeting. On September 19, 1871, it was agreed at a meeting attended by many prominent representatives of the railways and of the city to locate a new station building 350 feet east of High Street, and to shift the tracks of the Columbus & Xenia road a little further north so as to bring all the tracks on the street within a space of 300 feet, the switching and making up of trains to be done at the eastern end of the station. Messrs. Ford, Quincy and Becker were appointed a committee to prepare plans in accordance with the agreement. Plans and estimates reported by this committee were adopted at a meeting held December 15, 1871, but in March, 1872, the newspapers of the city very impatiently stated that the construction of the new building was likely to be postponed for another year. Not until April 22, 1873, was a contract closed for construction of the building. In pursuance of this contract, Hershiser & Adams of Columbus proceeded to erect it for the sum of $177,940, making with the cost of connections and tracks and the value of the grounds an aggregate of $320,000. The first regular passenger train was run into the building on February 14, 1875. It was the Panhandle train Number 2 in charge of Edwin Morrell, conductor, and Morris Littell, engineer. William Thornburgh, one of the oldest conductors on the Bee Line, ran the last train into the old station, and the first of his road out of the new one. B. McCabe was appointed depot master January 29, 1875, and still serves in that position. On November 4, 1878, George H. Wright, who had been baggage master at the Union Station for twenty years, resigned and was succeeded by his first assistant E. C. Wentworth. The newspaper comments on the destruction of the shabby old frame building which had served as a passenger station for twenty-four years, and on the presumable grandeur of its successor, were very effusive. Appreciable progress had undoubtedly been made, but the nuisance of street obstruction continued and still continues to the present writing. Its extent in the year 1890 was indicated by the following report of a count made on December 15 of that year and filed with the City Board of Public Works: Trains in twenty-four hours crossing High Street, 245; cars in twenty-four hours, 2,021; engines in RAILWAYS - 299 twenty-four hours, 349; number of times the street was obstructed, 350; total duration of obstructions, seven hours and eleven minutes; persons crossing tracks on foot 15,641 ; persons crossing tracks in vehicles 10,726; total number of persons crossing tracks 26,367; number of vehicles 5,363; number of vehicles detained 1,450; pedestrians detained 1,289; persons in vehicles detained 2,900; total number of persons detained 4,189. Another count taken August 29, 1891, made the following showing : Trains crossing in twentyfour hours, 233; cars, 2,180; engines, 211 ; duration of obstruction, seven hours and twentyfive minutes ; pedestrians crossing the tracks, 40,035; pedestrians detained by trains 15,040; persons in vehicles, 14,600; total number of persons crossing the tracks, 54,636; number of vehicles, 7,310; vehicles detained by trains, 3,500. In 1849, before completion of the first railways, the total number of passengers carried through the city on the National Road averaged about sixty daily. During the year 1890, 38,381 trains entered and left the Union Station, and now, July, 1891, 116 regular passenger trains enter and leave the station daily, not including the double or triple sections, nor the extras and special excursion trains, of which as many as twelve have entered the station in a single day. Fast Freight Lines.—The early history of railways shows that it was deemed absolutely necessary that a transfer of passengers and freight should be made at the end of each separate line, and to insure this a change of gauge was often resorted to so that the cars of one road could not pass upon the rails of another "nor go beyond its own termini in either direction lest they never get back." To illustrate, it may be stated that what is now so well known as the Lake Shore & Michigan Railway, a line which now extends under one management from Buffalo to Chicago, was thirty-five years ago composed of several corporations with a full set of officers and agents and a full equipment of rolling stock for each. Oldtimers will remember the "Erie War," when the good people of the ambitious and enterprising little city of Erie, Pennsylvania, actually tool up arms and fought the proposed change of gauge, because, as they thought, such a change would ruin their market for pie, peanuts and popcorn which the transfer of passengers afforded -them, and that this change would also dispense with the services of a large force of men employed in the shifting of freight from one road to the other. But in spite of this determined opposition a uniform gauge between Buffalo and Cleveland became an accomplished fact. Merchants and shippers who have begun business within the last twenty-five years have but slight conception of the tribulations incident to the old time method of conducting railway transportation. Through freight then meant freight which passed through half a dozen sets of hands and was transferred, carted and coopered at every break of gauge. Fast freight as we now understand it did not exist; in fact the freight business was about the slowest thing in American life. Nor was slowness its chief fault; it was also unsafe. Packages were accidentally or purposely broken open during their frequent transfer and in part pilfered of their contents. The annoyances of this kind were extremely harassing and apparently unavoidable. Besides his actual losses of goods the consignee was subjected to absurd extra charges for cooperage, cartage and cleri-