Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1909-01-21
HISTORY OF THE w. 8 N. B.
RAILROAD.
WilliamSport Sun Prints Interesting Story
OF This Important Short Line.

In connection with the published
reports that the Williamsport an(
North Branch rail road may ente
Wiliiamsport directly within the
Coming year, The Sun of that city
prints the following interesting his.
tory of the road:
Some time in the late fOrties o
the century there came to the north
eastern part of Lycoming icouuty
that portion which was afterwards
set off to form the country of Sui
livan, a man named Michae
Meylert. He had considerable
money of his own and represented
vast land interests. He acquired
for himself and others tens of thous
ands of acres of the wilderness, was
instrumental lin getting the new
country erected, laid out the town OF
Laporte. erected and presented to
the new county its first Country
house and entered upon scheme
OF development with an energy
that proved him to be at least fifty
years ahead of his generation. He
early learned of the vast coal de-
poslts in the mountains of Sullivan
county, and in the fall of 1851 en-
gagged with prominent Towanda
capitalists and business men in a
scheme to construct railroad for
the purpose tapping the black dia-
mond treasury. The scheme was an
ambitious one no less than to build a
railroad from Towanda on the
north through the Sullivan county
coal.fields, and reaching Catawissa
on the south. AT that time the Read
ing railroad was constructed as far
north as the Catawissa and the I,e-
high Valley had not yet been con
ceived. of, so that Michael Meylert's
scheme was really an extension of
the Reading railroad. The title of
this proposed road was to be the
Towanda and Catawissa railroad. In
November he caused a survey to be
made by William "a Mason and
by Major Elias Mcneil, and during
the session OF the legislature of 1852,
of which he was member, he Sc
cured passage of an act authoriz-
ing the building of the Towanda
aid Catawissa railroad, and the
company was empowered to make
such connections with other roads
and have as fall authority over any
part as though they had completed
the whole road This subsequent
~ became the basis of other legis-
lation, by which the State line and
Sullivan Railroad company and the
Muncy Creek company were charter
ed.
The peculiar wording of the en-
abling act, which phraseology was
afterwards engrafted into the charter,
is virtually authority to the old
Muncy Creek railroad to build rail-
road wherever they may happen to
want to for all time to come. Compe-
tent legal authority has declared that
not even the Pennsylvania railroad
charter confers upon the road such
uubounded authority as is possessed
by this little Muncy Creek its heirs
and assigns. In this the fine hand
of Michael Meylert was made evil
dent. Interesting Philadelphia capi-
taliSts, he obtained from them a
promise of sufficient money to build
the road if the if the coal veins were
all to be claimed for them. A ge-
Ologist by the name of Shaffer was
engaged to examine the field, but he
failed to find the coal that Meylert
knew was there, and reported adj
versely. In 1859 the rich vein of |
near what is now the thrilling min
ing town of Bernice was accidently |
uncovered, and it was clearly demon
that there was coal enough
to pay for the road. Before arrange
ments could be made to build, the
Civil War came on and paralyz- !
ed business all over the county, but
as soon as the war was over the plans
were again laid to construct the long
talked of railroad through the Sui
livan coal fields. In 1867 work was
begun at Monroeton, four miles
south and east of Towanda, on the
State line and Sullivan road and by