The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-02-25
HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF CHARTERING OF B. & 0.
Will Occur One Year From Next
Sunday, February rs, 1927.
Work on Road Begun July 4

A year from next Sunday, February
%, 1927, will mark the hundreth an
niversary of the issuance of charter
to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company by the State Of Maryland
This grant, the representatives of
the railroad company say, was the be-
ginning of railroading on the Western
Hemisphere and "of a new era in civ
ilization, the like of which has never
been witnessed in the history of the
world"
Cumberland was the first western
terminus and looms big in any his
tory of the road.
Steam railroad transportation, it is
noted, has contributed more to the
growth of the United States and its
solidity than any other agency.
"The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
was to transportation" says S state
ment issued by the company, "what
the Declaration of independence was
to the forefathers of it's founders. The
spirit that imbued them was much the
same. Although they had no battles
to fight, theirs was great conflict,
to compete with the unknown, the I'M
tried, the unsolved. Their was the
daring and courage of the true pio-
neer to venture, to risk and to
achieve"
One of the actuating forces of a
small group of Baltimoreans who had
the courage to start the road was the
fact that Baltimore was losing its
grip as trade center. Baltimore had
held its own with other centers of
population until the canals were built
to the north of it, and the citizens re-
allied that they must do something or
permit their city to fall to the rear as
a market.
The first general meeting of the cit
liens to confer upon the subject of
building a railroad was held in Bal
timore on February 2, 1927. Ten
days later a call was issued for the
business men interested in the pro-
ject to meet at the residence of Geo.
Brown and to take "into consideration
the best means of restoring the City
of Baltimore to that position of the
Western trade which had been divert
ed from it by the introduction of
steam navigation and other causes"
At the second meeting William Pat
terson was made chairman and David
Winchester, secretary, and commit
tee was appointed to meet the follow
ing week. The committee included
Philip E. Thomas, Benjamin c. How
ard, George Brown, Talbot Jones, JOS
eph w. Patterson, Evan Thomas and
John V. L. Mahon.
At the third meeting, on February
10, of the same year, the committee
made its report and recommended
that measures be taken to construct
a double railroad between the City of
Baltimore and some suitable point on
the Ohio River, by the most eligible
and direct route; that charter to in-
corporate the company to execute
that work be obtained as early as
practicable.
Referring to this activity of the
citizens of Baltimore in starting the
railroad, the Baltimore Gazette of
February IS, 1927, said: "To the cit
liens of Baltimore belongs the credit
of being the first in the Union to or
ganize an association for the purpose
of building a railroad for general
trade and transportation"
On February %, the capital stock of
the company was authorized at 49,
100000, and by March 8, the Virginia
State Legislature had confirmed the
Baltimore & Ohio's charter Subscrip-
ton books were open for stock in the
new company, closing on March 81,
when 4S,7S1 shares had been taken,
including 5000 allotted to the City of
Baltimore. Total subscriptions in the
city was s4,17S,000, which was alb
sorbed by $4,000 subscribers.
On the Fourth of July, 1928. con-
struction work on the Baltimore and
Ohio was actually begun when Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, last surviving
signer of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, cast the first spadeful of earth.
The first stone laid still marks the
spot in West Baltimore, where the
railroad got it's start.
1t stands where it was originally
placed, situated on the Mount Clare
branch of the Baltimore and Ohio be-