The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-02
tFrom the Albany Evening Journal
Delaware and Hudson Canal Com
pany,

PehJs
CHERRY VALLEY, Oct. "a, 1876.
Some months ago made partial pro.
mise to write out for you a brief historical
sketch Of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
company. AS this company will shortly
open its new road on the western side of
Lake Champlain from Whitehall and make
direct communication with Montreal, per.
haps now is suitable time to fulfil my
promise. If your readers have as imper-
feet knowledge of the history and opera
tons of this great coal transportation com
pany as l. had only two or three years ago,
they will perhaps be interested in the per-
usal of the brief record which give you.
This company has now direct railroad
communication from the mines in Pennsyl-
vsna, by way of its own road in that state
and of the Albany and Susquchanna, and
branches, and by the Rensselaer, and Sara
toga in this state, which roads they oper-
ate, to the head of Lake Champlain. The
new road, while il will carry TO Canada
the coal and take back to Pennsylvania
the rich magnetic ores of Essex, will also
meet the Grand Trunk road of Canada at
Montreal, and may, as can clearly be seen
prepare the way for increased trade be-
tween Canada and New York While the
Central railroad controls and uses the most
advantageous line, having the best grades,
and extending to the lakes on the west, the
Delaware and Hudson, 10y equally good
grades, will reach the ST. Lawrence on the
north. But there will be no rivalry and no
competition. TO certain extent there is
a common interest.
/ As early.as 1912 there might have been
seen, week after week, and month after
month, young man wandering up and
down the valleys of the Lackawaxen and
Lackawanna, sleeping when night over
took him ia the forest, and subsisting on
provisions brought him in his knapsack by
one whom he found hunter in the will
derness. He was himself neither hunter
or trapper. He had not fled to escape q
draft, nor was he fugitive from Justice.
lie was not professional geOlogist, and
yet he was making as far as possible with
the eye, geological survey, picking up
and examining the black stones. marking.
where they cropped out, and thus tracing
out the lines of the northern and
eastern anthracite coal fields of Penn
sylvania: This young man was Will
liam Wurtz a merchant of Phiadel-
phia, and the real originator and founder
of the Delaware and Hudson canal com
pany. 1t would seem rs if the curtain
Seeildjppsg futuriiy had been drawn away
were distinctly presented to his vision. He
| possessed great energy and determined
| will His brother, Maurice Wurtz, was
early associated with him. Together they
struggled on, contending against adverse
circumstances, often defeated, but never
| giving up. Their frail RATS upon which a
| few tons of coal were embarked, were
driven by the currents against projecting
rocks and sunk, and when few tons
| finally reached Philadelphia, the article
was condemned as of little or no value.
| But lands were also of little value in this
| then almost inaccessible wilderness, where
the deposits of coal were found. Exten-
sive purchases were made by the brothers
at prices from so cents to SO per acre, of
lands which afterward rose to hundreds
and thousands.
After more than ten years of struggle
and embarrassment Il successful end was
reached, or rather, perhaps, it should be
said the day of succe IS dawned upon them.
1t was ascertained that while the colleres
of the Lehlgh and Schuylkill co lid readily
supply Philadelphia and the south with the
coal which those regions also furnished,
that the coal fields of the Lackawanna
reached out east of the Susquehanna, and
terminated only within a hundred miles of
the Hudson. Canals were then in the as
cendant the Erie canal was approaching
completion A canal east from the coal
fields to the Hudson would afford means of
transport not only to the city and eastern
i portion of New York, but also to New
England. In 1928, the legislature of New
York spoke into existence the great coal
and navigation company, of which we are
now writing. In that year she chartered
the Delaware and Hudson canal company.
But it was not till 1926 that work on the
canal was commenced and ground broken
in presence of large assemblage, by Phil
lip Hone, of New York, the first president.
In the meantime amendments were made
), to the charter, banking privileges were
granted, which, for some years thereafter
the corporation availed itself of. The
state of New York also loanedits credit fol
$500, 900. The canal, reaching from Ron
dout on the Hudson to HOnesdale II
Pennsylvania, distance of 1903 miles, wa
completed in 1928. There was no stealing
by contractors or employees, and the cana
was completed within the estimates and a
less cost than reported by the engineers
, Twice the canal has been enarged-firs
enlargement in 1874 and second in 1862
the first boats carrying twenty five tons
. under second enlargement forty tons, anC
last enlargement, 1876 TO $50 tons, the
present capacity of the canal with II
equipments being In ordinary boating sea
sons twenty-five hundred thousand ton
per annum.
: The first effective mining by the com
pany was on the banks Of the Lackawan
near the northern and eastern terminus o
the coal fields, and within the limits of tn
present city of Carbonate. But this wa
some fifteen or twenty miles from Homes
dale, the western terminus of the canal
} and coal was at first carried over the inter
., vening highlands on wagons and sleighs
' But this mode of transport was of shor
continuance The celebrated gravity roa
: from Carbondale to Honesdale, over whic
= millions of tons are now carried, was CON
. menced by the company in 1897 and con
!, pleted in 1929. 1t may be mentioned rs a
: interesting fact IN this connection that tn
: first locomotive engine ever placed on
road on this continent was imported fror
England by the Delaware and Hudso
= canal company and made its first trip Q
= their road ID August, 1890. From tb
;, time of the completion of ito canal and roa
! the company has had almost unequalle
!. SUGGEST. Under the continued managemeI
= of able and prudent men 1t has literal
! heightened its cords and strengthened \
stakes, always making ample returns 10 I
stockholders, serving we'll the public an
d gradually growing up to its vast propo
!. lions. H. ~ b,f.fIn. tla.
In 1880. the year of the completion {
the gravity railroad, the coal tonnage {
x the company had reached tho amount !
l. 1000 tons. .n,.,
l. Tons.
"a | Tn 1880 the followinv wear 40 IN