Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-02-03
From the New York Tribune. Jan. 10.
How a Railroad is Built-Atlantic &
Great Western.

I Inc nODle enterprise OF COuHSCIllls
New York with St. Louis by line Rail
road of uniform six-feet guage is now 81
nearly completed that we may fairly
speak OF it as an achievement. THAI
line consists of the Erie Road from Jer
sey city to Salamanca on the Allegheny
| t4l4); thence nearly due West by the
Atlantic and Great Western proper thro
| Chatauqua County, New York, and parts
| Warren, Erie and Crawford County, Pa,
into Trumbull County, Ohio, and so to it:
crossing of the Cincinnati and Cleveland
Road at Galion-to which point trains
now run regularly. The work is being
vigorously pushed from this point through
| Springfield to Dayton, whence it runs oV,
er the Hamilton Road to Cincinnati (43e
miles from Salamanca, $50 from New
York J, where it meets the Ohio and Mis-
| sissippi, whereon its passengers are rap
| idly borne to the Mississippi opposite st,
Louis $40 miles furtherl By next Sum
mer, they will take the broad, roomy cars
at jersey City. and be conveyed in them,
without change, to the. Mississippi
distance OF nearly twelve hundred miles.
A branch of this road formerly the Ma
| honing) already reaches Cleveland t2l4
miles from Salamanca, 62S from New
/ York }, whence trains start regularly over
uniform six-feet gusge for this City
The Oil region of Pennsylvania and Ohio
lies very near the line of the Atlantic &
| Great Western, and is tapped by branch
es running from Cory to Titusville (Oil
| Creek, and from Meadyille TO Franklin,
Venango County, Pennsylvania. The
| Oil of itself furnishes to the main line
more freight than it can move, though a
large addition to its rolling stock has
| been contracted for, and will soon be
forthcoming. The Atlantic and Great
Western, though not yet completed, is al
ready one of the grand trunk lines OF
our country, and may yet give its name
to the entire line of which it forms the
essential link-the vitalizing connection.
And it has been constructed in defiance
of such formidable difficulties, and under
circumstances so trying to the faith and
energy of its projectors, that we propose
to give brief history of its origin and
progress, as an encouragement TO those
who are still struggling with unsolyed
difficulties and unfriendly fortune.
Some thirteen years ago, Mr.. Marvin
Kent, of Franklin, a modest village in
Trumbull County; Ohio, conceived the
idea of connecting the then nearly or
quite constructed Erie with the embryo
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad by one di-
rect six-feet Road. He was running glass
works, q woolen factory, Touring mill,
&C., at that place; and was then construc-
ting a cotton factory. The Cleveland and
Pittsburg Road run within three miles OF
his village, but would come no nearer,
hi,,, 60.
oning. He consulted his attorney, a
young lawyer named J. W. Tyler-and
opened to him his project. having nearly
the present line OF the Road traced out
on a map, and requested Mr.. T. to fur
nish him copies of railroad charters as
guides for framing his own. A few days
thereafter, his draft was transmitted to
the honorable Milton SutlIa, State Sena-
tor from that District, and Chairman of
the Railroad Committee. Mr.. S. took 4
warm interest in the matter, and the
charter was perfected, March 10, 1851
When introduced, the name of the pro-
posed work was The Coal Hill Road =
rliss to repel the lobby sharks whom a
revelation of the real nature and extent
of the enterprise might have summoned
10 impede or blackmail the undertaking.
Nobody thought of or cared about the
Coal Hill Road but on its third reading
and Just before its passage, the name
was quietly changed to the Franklin and
Warren. This was one of the very last
charters granted under the old Constitu-
ton of 0hio-the new containing per-
sonal liability and other vexstious claus
es, which have precluded the construc-
ton of those chartered under it.
To save the charter, meeting of the
corporation was speedily called, and the
Company organized. 4 paid subscription
of sc. 900 was required. Mr.. Kent took
that amount Several others subscribed
one share each, so as to render them elli-
gible to serve as Directors.
The next step was to obtain permission
to cross into Pennsylvania. To 60 to
Harrisburg and ask il directly of the
Legislature was an undertaking entirely
beyond the means OF the infant Compa-
ny-the Legislature being then one of
the rotteHest and the surrounding lobby
the most rapacious and shameless on
earth. There has, we would gladly be-
lieve, been great improvement since.
Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that the
branching power conceded in the existing
charter of the Pittsburg and Erie Road
could be made to furnish the needed IA
cilities. Mr.. Kent associated with him
self several apitalists-among them his
brother, Henry A. Kent. of this City
and bought the Pittsburg and Erie Com
pany for 100000. From the east line of
PENNSYLVANIA, the needed facilities could
be obtained through the charter Of the
dead-aliye Erie and New York This
having been secured, desperate effort
10 obtain subscriptions was made, and
about 81, 600, 900 obtained before the close
of 1852.
The contract for constructing the road
was taken by Mr.. Henry Doolittle, of
DAYTON, Ohio-probably the first expe-
rienced railroad man who had any faith
in the enterprise. He had made for
tune by similar undertakings, and was
willing to risk it on this. Tie made
three voyages to Europe to negotiate the
securities Of the Company, which could
not be done until agents had been sent
over to examine the line and report upon
its merits. The reports returned were
for a time unfavorable, so that money
could not be obtained. At last Mr.. D.
was enabled to close a provisional CON
tract for the sale of his securities with
Mr.. James McHenry, heavy capitalist
the condition being that Mr.. I. W. Ken
nard. an eminent railroad engineer con-
nected with the house of MeHenry,
should upon examination, approve the
enterprise. Mr.. K. came over on this
business in the Fall of 1858, and at once
perceived and reported upon thesignal adj
yantages of the line. No adverse TepTesen-
tions could shake his confidence; and on
his report, the contract was closed, and
the company provided with the money
requisite to a vigorous prosecution OF
their work.
By this time it was 1860. Mr.. Doolittle
who had associated with himself in the
contract DIR. W. s. Streator, of Cleveland
had kept the work going under the su-