The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-09
THE PENNsYLvANIA RAILROAD.
The Won derful Changes Wrought in the
Space of Forty Years.


The Won derful Changes Wrought in the
Space Of Forty Years.
Philadelphia Times
In reading the reports of the Pennsylvania
railroad, with its 1000 miles of road and its hun
dred millions of annual revenue, it is hard to
realize that this whole vast system is the growth
of no more than forty years and that there are
men yet in active life who saw and bore part in
its beginning. Travelling now in the swift-hying
! trains across the Alleghenies, these men recall
the time when the'same journey was a matter
of many days and when the very possibility OF
successful railroad from Philadelphia to Pitts
burg was matter of speculation.
Major John III. Pomeroy, the veteran politician
and retired editor of Chambersburg, was elected
to the Legislature in 1845, when just of age Re-
ferring to recent paragraph In the Times, stat,
ing that Colonel John A Wright. of this city, is
now the sole survivor of the first board of Direc-
tors Of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and
that all its early officers and most of those who
passed the charter are dead, the Chambersburg
Repository, published by Major Pomeroys sons
says that there are a number of the members or
the House of S46still living who voted for the act
of Incorporation Of the now great Pennsylvania
railway corporation 1t adds that John NJ
PomerOy, who represented Franklin county, was
by several years the Youngest member OF that
body, and voted for the bill Then we recall
among the survivors Fernon. and perhaps Enue
of Philadelphia, Edie of Somerset, Picllot Of
Bradford, Lawrence, present member of Con
gress from Washington county, who was there
In 1874, and again in I847; Power Of Crawford,
Galloway of Fayette, and probably we could
name others if list Of the members was before
US. But as most of the members of that House
had then passed middle life, and thirty nine
years has since elapsed, the number OF SURVIVORS
Is not numerous
1t is probably now known to few, if any, of
those connected with the Pennsylvania railroad
corporation that its first conception in any tangl
BILE snaps is due to a man whose name is un-
known about Fourth and Vikings alley. Sam
uel d. Harms was the hospitable host and COM
mander of packet boat during the summer sea-
son, ard was well known and unusually liked by
the travelling public between Pittsburg and
Columbia, and in the winter season, when the
ice laid up his little water palace he lived in
jolly way at Harrisburg, and did odd jobs about
the Legislature. 1t was before the days of the
regular lobby, but small crumbs fell around the
legislative halls as the reward of kind offices
rather than as the price of debauchery. The
Baltimore e. Ohio railway asked for the right of
way through Pennsylvania westward via the
Cumberland valley and bitter fight followed,
resulting in the defeat of the Baltimore corpora
ton. The late Charles Gibbons, of this city,
was then senator young, able and full of
promise, but be espoused the cause of Baltimore
and blighted what might have been a most con-
spicuous and useful public life. 1t was in this
battle that Captain Harms conceived the idea OF
q charter for Pennsylvania line to PittSburg,
and he proposed it, doubtless, to intensity the
battle against Baltimore, never dreaming that
such line would be seriously entertained as
possible. What the genial lobbyist proposed
took shape In year or two thereafter. The bill
was passed IN sober earnestneSS, and the great
est railway monument OF the world is the result
Major Pomeroy who was in the Legislature of
1916, speaks of the entire want of faith in the
practicabilitySofsthe scheme when the charter for
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was passed
1t was generally regarded as dream Of some
wild enthusiasts. Faith in the successful com
pletion of the road was by no means general,
while many of the members regarded the pas
sage of the bill as huge joke. 1t was not con
sidered possible to scale the Alleghenies with a
fiast-class railroad. the scheme was in fact
garded by many engineers as chimerical and
impracticabe. The struggles which the pro-
Jectors had IN procuring the first small sub
scription to the capital stock and the difficulty
they had IL procuring municipal subscriptions
will still be remembered by the participants in
the work of that day. The original company
aimed only at building a road from Harrisburg
to Pittsburg, and that was believed to be work
of giant proportions. the president of the com
pany, the late Colonel Patterson, first conducted
the entire business of the corporation in this
city in two rooms, with two clerks, and he was
defeated for reelection mainly to save So 600 a
year, by making j. Edgar Thompson, then chief
engineer, president, and consolidating the du
ties and pay of the two offices.
Apropos of the belief of that day that the Allie
ghenies could not be crossed without inclined
planes and stationary engines, the late James
Burns, of Lewistown, loved to tell a good story
Of his first meeting with Chief Engineer J. Ed
gar Thomson. Burns was president of the
Canal Board that then operated the Columbia
and the Portage railroads, and he believed him
self to be thoroughly versed in all relating to
transportation. When Thomson reached Lewis
town in locating the Pennsylvania line, Burns
called upon him with all the self importance of
the master transportationist of the State.
Thomson received him with the quiet and rather
chilling dignity his modesty always made him
exhibit to strangers, but Burns did the talking
and thus prevented embarrassment. After some
time in general conversation, Burns inquired of
Thomson how he expected to get across the
Alleghenies, to which Mr.. Thomson quietly
answered that there would be no difficulty in
crossing the mountains at grade. Burns, as he
loves to tell the story was at once satisfied that
Mr.. Thomson was a wild visionary dreamer who
knew nothing about practical engineering in the
mountains, but he restrained his contempt for
Thomson's ignorance until, in answer to direct
question as to the time the new line expected to
take between Philadelphia and Pittsburg.
Thomson said they would go through in fifteen
hours when the patience Of Burns was ex-
hausted. He was at once convinced that it was
worse than waste of time to talk to so hopeless
idiot, and he CURLY and contemptuously babe
the engineer goodd But the mountains were
crossed all the same grade many times with
Burns as passenger, and the trip from Phila-
delphia to Pittsburg made in ten hours instead
of fifteen before the two memorable disputants
of Lewistown had PASSED away