Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1864-02-10
How a Railroad is Built.
THE ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN.
tFFom the New York TribuneI

] a N.
From the New York TribuHeI
The noble enterprise Of connecting
New York with St. Louis by line oi
railroad Of Uniform siz-fset gauge is now
so nearly completed that we may fairly
speak of it as an achievement That line
consists of the Erie Road from jersey
City to Salamanca on the Allegheny (414
niles; thence nearly due west by the
Atlantic and Great Western proper thro'
Chautauqua county, New York aid parts
of Warren, Erie, and directly across Cra#-
ford county, PennsylvaDia, into Trum-
bull county, Ohio, and SO to Its crossing
of the Cincinnati and Cleveland road al
Galion-to which point trains now run
regularly. The work is being vigorous
| ly pushed from this point through Ur-
bana to Dayton, whence it runs over the
Hamilton road to Cincinnati (438 miles
from Salamanca, 852 from New York;,
where it meets the Ohio and Mississippi,
Wherein It's passengers are rapidly borne
to the Mississippi, opposite St. Louis
(34O miles fdtther). By next summer
they will take the broad, roomy ears 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 (214
miles from Salamanca, 528 from New
York }, whence trains start regularly over
a uniform siz-foOt guage for this city.
The oil region Of Pennsylvania and Ohio
lies very near the line of the Atlantic
and Grea: Western, and is tapped by
branches running from Cory to Titus
vile (the Oil Creek, and from Mead
vile to Franklin, Yenango county, Penn
/ sylvania, The oil of itself furnishes to
the main line mere freight than it can
move, though large addition to its roll
ing stock has been contracted for, and
will soon be forthcoming. The Atlantic
and Great Western, though not yet com
pletgd, Is already 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 yitalizing connee.
ton. And it has been constructed in
defiance of such formidable difficulties.
and under circumstances so trying to
the faith and energy Of It's projectors
that we propose to give a brief history Of
its origin and progress, as All encourage
ment to those who are still struggling
with unsolved difficulties and unfriendly
! fortune.
Some thirteen years ago, Mr.. Marvin
Kent of Franklin, modest village in
Portage county, Ohio, conceived the idea
of connecting the then nearly or quite
constructed Erie with the embryo Ohio
and Mississippi Railroad by one direct
six-feet road. He was running glass,
works, wooden factory, a Touring mill
&C., at Franklin, and was then construct
ing a cotton factory The Cleveland and
Pittsburg road ran within three miles o.
his village, but would come no nearer
leaving him under a heavy cost for wag.
oning. He consulted his attorney
young lawyer named J. W. Tyler-and
opened to him his project, having very
nearly the present line of road traced out
on map, and requested Mr., T. to fur.
nish him copies of railroad charters as
guides in framing his own. A few days
thereafter, his draft was transmitted tc
the Hon. Milton Sutliff, State Senator
from that District, and Chairman of the
Railroad Committee. Mr.. S. took warn
interest in the matter, and the charter
was perfected March 10, 1851. Wher
introduced, the name of the proposed
work was The Coal Hill Road "a rust
to repel the lobby sharks, whom a reye
lation- of the real nature and extent o
the enterprise might have summoned tt
impede or blacLlmail the undertaking
Nobody cared about or thought of Tht
Coal Hill Road but On its third reading
and just before its passage5 the name wa
quietly changed to the Franklin anc
Warren This was one of the very las
charters granted under the old Constitu
ton of Ohio-the new containing per
sonal liability and other vezatious clad
ses, which have preoluded the construc
ton of railroads chartered under it.
To save the charter, meeting Of tn
corporators was speedily called, and tn
company organized a paid subscription
of 500, 900 was required. Mr.. Kent him
self took that amount. Several other
subscribed one share each, so as to ren
der them eligible to serve as Directors.
The next step was to obtain permissio
to cross Pennsylvania. To go to Harris
burg and ask it directly of the Legisla
ture was an undertaking entirely beyon
the means of the infant company-th
Pennsylvania Legislature being then on
| of the rottenest and the surrounding lot