The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-16
A CONTRACT FOR T RAILS.
1t Saved the Erie, Started a Great
Industry and Founded a City.

Scranton Letter in New York Sun.
The recent sale by the Lackawanna
Iron and Steel company of it's extern
sive coal properties in this region
makes of present interest the story Of
the incident that brought that corpor-
alton and the city of Scranton into ex-
istence, and saved from collapse and
ruin the New York and Erie Railroad
company.
In 1S41 George w. Scranton, of OK
ford, N. j., attracted by the presence
of anthracite coal and iron in the
Lackawanna valley, purchased a tract
of land at Slocum Hollow and estab-
lished there iron works on q small scale.
Selden T. Scranton, a brother of George
W., subsequently became q partner in
the undertaking. Owing to the isola-
tion of their works. the Scrantons had
a serious struggle for existence during
the first years Of their business career
in the LackaWanna valley, and in 1915
were in straits that threatened ruin.
In 1841 the Erie railroad had, with the
aid of New York state, been construct
ed and opened as far as Goshen, N. Y.
The company then owed the state $3,-
100000, and, failing to pay the interest
that became due in April, 1912, it made
an assignment. The comptroller of the
state advertised the railroad to be sold
under foreclosure, but the sale was
| postponed by order of the legislature,
on condition that the railroad should
| he completed to Dunkirk by May IA,
1851. In 1886 the railroad had been
| constructed as far as Otisville, N. Y,
| less than twenty miles of extension
| since 1S41.
The rails which the company was
| laying We're of English manufacture,
| and, besides being expensive, their de-
! livery TO the company was subject to
| great delay and uncertainty. This en-
| dangered the prospects Of the rail-
| roads being completed within the pre-
| scribed time. and the company would
| probably have failed in its obligation
to the state of New York if it had not
| been for the Scrantons.
! The late William Z. Dodge, of New
! York, was then a member of the Erie
board of directors and knew the Scran-
| tions. Although the T rail was an
American invention, having been de-
signed by Robert Stevens, of New Jer-
| sey, in 1880, the manufacture of T rails
up to 1886 was almost unknown in this
country. The rails were made in Eng
land. The Scrantons believed that, If
they could obtain the necessary ma
| chinery, they could manufacture these
rails at their Slocum Hollow works,
| and, at a cost not much than half that
of English rails.
They made proposition to the rail-
road company to manufacture rails in
condition that the company should ad-
vance them 100000, so that they could
! equip their works with the necessary
machinery. The company was unable
to advance the money, but Mr.. Dodge
visited Slocum Hollow. with the result
that the company closed a contract
with the Scrantons for 10000 tons of T
| rails at SAG ton, the price of English
rails being $50 a ton. The money to
| equip the iron works was advenced by
Mr.. Dodge and others, and rails were
ready for delivery in the spring of 1S47.
The first of these rails were used
from Otisyille down to the Shawan-
| gunk Mountains to Port JerVis, and to
get them there they were transported
by teams through the then almost un-
| broken wilderness between the iron
works and the Delaware and Hudson
| Canal company's railroad at Archibald,
ten miles, whence they were taken by
the Gravity railroad to the canal at
Honesdale. thirty miles There they
were loaded on canal boats and taken
20 Cuddlebock, N, Y, fifty miles, and
from there hauled over the Shawan-
| gunk mountains by team to the rail-
| road, three miles.
For months scores of four-hors
and mule teams were kept busy haul
ing the iron to the railroad as the work
advanced, some of it being hauled TO
Susquehanna, Pa, a distance of
seventy miles, for a great part of which
a road had to be chopped through the
wilderness. The Scrantons fulfilled
their contract and the railroad was
finished to Binghamton three days be-
fore the prescribed time. And on that
contract the fortunes of the Scranton
family were built. 1t was the begin
ming of the great industry of 7 rail
manufacturing the United States. The
prestige and profit of 1t led TO the for
nation OF the great Lackawanna Iron
and Coal company. Of Scranton !(now