Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1903-05-22
n,rth of . Great Anericnn nnl1rona.

May II, 1908, marked the Fiftieth Anni-
yersary OF the Incorporation of the New
York Central Railroad; fact interesting
in the history of the State of New York,
fer the consolidation of the ten separate
small roads into one line, that formed
continuous route from Albany on the east
to Buffalo on the west, was the beginning
that made possible the enormous in
dustrial and commercial development in
the country contiguous to it.
Articles of agreement were filed May
IL, 1858, the first Board of Directors was
elected July 9Th, and the whole line de-
hvered TO the new company August LIST,
1858; insuring better service, more com
plete connections between all points and
a more general stimulus to development
than was possible under separate and
rival corporations. This also opened the
way for the consolidation of the New
York Central Company with the Hudson
River Railroad in 1869, which event
presaged that era of wonderful progress
in the undeveloped west, for it created a
direct line from the ocean to the inland
seas, known as the great lakes, and
brought distant territories into close con.
nection with the seaboard.
1t is a picturesque fact that this line
traverses the one break in the whole Ap-
palachian chain between the Gulf of Mex
leo and the st. Lawrence River, and it
would seem as if Nature meant this to
be a roadway for travel Certainly the
Indian found it so, for the Mohawk trail
the, pathway of the confederated Iroquois
tribes, is almost identical with the New
York Central Railroad of to-day. This
trail was also the pathway of war during
the French and Indian and the Revolu-
tionary Wars, and later, in its Offering of
easy travel, it lured the pioneers of the
West to the Mohawk Valley, which is so
tural industry, on to the broad and fallow
fields of the Genesee, to build up and
develop the traffic of the west upon the
great lakes.
1t is far cry indeed from that primi-
tive little line of the New York Central
of fifty years ago to the great Railroad
of to-day with its Twentieth Century lin
tied, speeding like the wind, carrying its
| passengers on luxurious palace cars over
smooth roadbeds, with scarcely percepti-
BILE jar. and fifty years of progress could
not find better illustration than is re-
niscences written by Mr.. Joshua WILDER,
of Lockport New York, describing rail-
road aS travel in New York in 1880,
The writer says: ''We took the caru
on State Street in Albany; these cars
were drawn to the city line by horses,
the city. The cars were of the ancient
pattern, entered by doors on the side
with seats across the car. the passengers
facing each other, as in the old-fashioned
stage coaches.
THE speed was tremendous-about
twelve miles an hour. Arrived on the
ridge opposite Schenectady, our cars
were let down an incline plane. secured
to large rope cable, the other end being
attached to fiat cars weighted with stone
which were drawn up on a parallel track
as we went down. At Schenectady we
changed cars and travelled west to Utica
reaching there in the afternoon. That
was then the end of railroad travel
"a canal packet was boarded which
landed us in Syracuse next morning
There another packet was taken fo1
Rochester, which we reached early the
following day. A third packet brought
us from Rochester to Lockport in six
teen hours.
The time consumed in coming from
New York City to Locllport was nearly
four days, being on the move all the
time. except the night spent at Albany.
Not long after the roads built from
Albany westward, and from Buffalo east
ward met, and a continuous line wa.
formed; but with many changes of car!
and other inconvenience.
Then the Hudson River road wa,
opened, and Buffalo and New Yorl
became neighbors."