The Railroads

Extracted from the History of Greene County, pages 48-51
By J. G. Beers, published in 1884

Transcribed by Arlene Goodwin

GREENE COUNTY abounds in railroads that have been built on paper, but fifty miles will probably cover the length of all lines that have reaches actual construction.

The Catskill and Ithaca Rail Road was the first of these enterprises. It was incorporated April 21^st 1828, for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Catskill to Ithaca "to transport, take and carry property and person upon the same, by the power and force of steam, of animals, or any mechanical or other power, or of any combination of them which the said corporation may choose to apply." The capital stock was fixed at $1,500,000 in fifty dollar shares, and the State reserved the right to subscribe for one thousand shares. In case this right was exercised, the controller was to become ex-officio a director. Jacob Haight, Thomas B. Cook, Francis A. Bloodgood, Ebenezer Mack and associates were named in the act, and Jacob Haight, Thomas B. Cook and Orrin Day were appointed commissioners to open subscription books at Catskill. The corporation was authorized to allow persons to use the railroad with "suitable and proper carriages" by paying tolls at the gate which the company might erect as soon as ten miles of the road were completed. An act of Mach 21^st 1829, extended the time for opening subscription books to the following year. With this beginning the first attempt at railroad building failed.

The Canajoharie And Catskill Rail Road: The scheme of constructing a railroad from Catskill to the West, which gave birth to the Catskill and Ithaca project found another expression in this enterprise. The act of incorporation was passed April 19^th 1830, naming as incorporators, William Deitz, Thomas B. Cook, George Spencer, Israel Foote, John Adams, Herman J. Ehle, Harmon J. Quackenboss and George Spraker. The capital stock was to consist of $600.000 in fifty dollar shares. Thomas B. Cook, Orrin Day, Henry Leiber, John Gebhard, John Mason, Isaac Bronson and Taddeus B. Wakeman were appointed commissioners to open books and receive subscriptions to the stock. The commencement of the work was celebrated with great eclat as may be seen by the following programme:

This company was organized and ready for business early in the summer of 1835, but nothing was done on the road except surveying, until the fall of that year, when the ground was broken near the creek at Catskill. In 1836, contracts were given out through the whole length of the line, and it was expected that the road would be completed by the close of 1837. The charter was amended April 10^th 1837, so as to increase the capital stock to $1,000,000, and authorized the directors to borrow money to the amount of $400,000, for the completion of the road, and to secure the loan by a mortgage upon the property and stock of the company.

The management of the affairs of the railroad was severely criticised, some of the papers charging that the management was a scheme operated for purposes of speculation, founded on false pretenses, and the managers had no honest intention of completing the road for legitimate purposes. Whatever foundation there may have been for these charges is not known, but the Senate in 1839, appointed a committee of which Samuel L. Edwards, was chairman, to investigate the affairs of the railroad.

By an act of April 18^th 1838 the controller was authorized to issue special certificates of stock to the extent of $300,000, in installments, upon evidence that specified sums had been paid into the treasury on the capital stock, and the same expended in constructing the road. These certificates were pledged by the State, and were to be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. They were to be reimbursable at the pleasure of the Legislature, at any time after twenty years from the date of their issue. In case of the failure of the company to meet the interest or principal when due, the controller had power to sell the road and its appurtenances to the highest bidder.

The road was completed from Catskill to Cooksburgh, a distance of twenty-six miles. The stringer which rested on the cross-ties were of Norway pine, five by six inches in size. An iron strap about five-eighths of an inch in thickness and two or three inches wide nailed upon each stringer formed the rail.

The railroad was not successful. It was used mainly for transportation of freight in connection with the great tannery interest. It had one small engine, which upon one occasion became disabled. There was no machine shop nearer than Paterson, N. J., where the engine could be repaired. It was taken on board of a steamboat to Jersey City, whence it was trundled across the country, drawn by horse power over the common roads to Paterson. After being repaired it was returned and placed in position upon the road. Fire and water were applied, and steam generated, and the engine hissed and sputtered but would not go. A discover was made of some point in the mechanism, the adjustment of which would correct the evil. The engine was forthwith sent back to the machine shop, and the adjustment being made, was returned and placed again upon the track. But in vain did the force of steam act upon its parts. The engine was a failure; it was abandoned, and the old stage horse placed upon the line to do its work. The road, not meeting its liabilities, was sold by the controller. The State had pledged its credit to the amount of $200,000. The road was bought by the Catskill Bank for $11,000. After passing through the hands of different speculative skirmishers, several attempts being made meanwhile to resuscitate the enterprise, it was given up in hopeless despair, and Mr. Hiram Van Steenburgh took up the iron under a contract with the parties who had bought it, and bought and took up the timber on his own account.

The Coxsackie and Schenectady Railroad Company was incorporated May 15^th 1837 for a term of fifty years. It contemplated a line, starting at a point in Coxsackie between the ship-yard of William Mahew and Cuyler’s Point, and running to Schenectady. The capital stock was to consist of $500,000. The charter was renewed April 16^th 1838, and the time for completing the road extended, but nothing more was done.

The Schenectady and Catskill Railroad Company was incorporated May 13^th 1846, with a proposed capital of $1,000,000. Its proposed route was from Catskill to Schenectady. The commissioners named for Catskill were Sherwood Day and James Powers. March 3d 1848 the charter was amended so as to allow two years longer time in which to begin work, also to increase the stock by $300,000, and to lay the tract with iron of not less than fifty-six pounds weight to the linear yard. Another extension of time for commencing the road was allowed by act of March 2d 1855. April 21^st 1864, a map of this route was filed, showing its starting point to be at the landing at Catskill Point, and the route thence along near the river till it strikes Murderer’s Creek, then following up that creek through the hills, and north ward along the valley till it crosses the county line about one and a quarter miles west of Hudson River. The road was never built.

The Schoharie and Otsego Railroad Company was organized April 25^th 1832, with a capital stock of $300,000. It was proposed to make a connection of the New York Central Railroad with Catskill and the Susquehanna, but nothing more was done.

The Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad: This enterprise was headed by Daniel Drew. In accordance with the requirements of the general railroad act of April 2d 1850, a map of the proposed route was filed in the county clerk’s office, June 23d 1864. The directors at that time were A. Boody, John Ross, William Colburn, M. Courtright, Henry Keep, John P. Acker and William Williams. The route began at the mouth of Murderer’s Creek, and ran along the Hudson River northward, diverging from the river inland as it proceeded. It was sold by Daniel Drew, May 2d 1867, to the Central Railroad Company, who used the road for a few years as a summer connection. Its advent was hailed by the inhabitants of Athens as the harbinger of an era of great prosperity to that village. But the expectations thus aroused were never realized.

The New York and Albany Railroad: A map of this route was made February 26^th 1868. J. H. Ramsey appears as its president. The route of this proposed railroad crossed the northern county line upon the shore of the river, and following near the shore it crossed Katskill Creek at its mouth, and crossed the Ulster line on Wanton Island. This railroad had no real existence.

The Catskill and Schoharie Railroad Company was organized in 1879, and went so far as to make ready its surveys and engineers; working specifications, but the enterprise was afterward given up. The map, which was filed June 17^th 1871, shows the proposed route starting at Katskill Creek and running westerly and northwesterly across the towns of Cairo and Durham and through East Durham and Oak Hill, and crossing the line into Albany county.

The New York West Shore and Chicago Railroad Company: The articles of association of this company were filed in the office of the Secretary of State, July 13^th 1870. The survey was made and the map showing the route and profile of the proposed line was made May 8^th 1873. This follows the course of the river, at some points crossing bends in it, and at others running more inland, and makes a distance of twenty-four and one-twentieth miles between the northern and southern county lines.

The Stoney Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad: The map of this road was filed January 18^th 1881. Thomas Cornell was its president. Coming from Phoenicia in Ulster county, the road enters this county on or near the land of Edward Lane, in the town of Hunter. Its course is along the valley of the Stony Clove Creek. The elevation at the county line is 1,196 ½ feet, and the road at this point ascends by a grade of about 187 ½ feet to the mile, which is continued about two-fifths of a mile. For the next five miles it rises by varying grades of 168 96-199, 163 68-100, 158 40-100, 108 24-100 and 153 12-100. At this point the road has reached an elevation of 2,071 feet, being just above the head of Stoney Clove Creek on the land of Burgis and Douglass. It then descends by grades 184 8-10 feet to a point on the land of William Blair, and then by easier grades along the valley of the Schoharie Creek two and three-fifths miles to its terminus. Here it has descended to an elevation of 1,605 feet.

The Catskill Mountain Railroad: The map of this route was filed December 20^th 1880. It is a narrow guage road and runs from Catskill to South Cairo on the bed of the old Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad. The road, beginning at the steamboat landing at the Point, ends at Palenville, making a length of sixteen miles. It was built for the accommodation of travel to the mountains, and is operated only during the summer season. It was opened in 1882. The profile of the road shows an average rise from and elevation of 13 feet at Catskill to that of 535 feet on the land of Mrs. Frederick Martin near the western terminus. The elevation at Kiskatom Creek is 378 feet and at the depot at Palenville, 513 feet. The elevation at the Mountain House station is 520 feet. The steepest grade is one of seventy-eight feet to the mile which occurs a short distance below South Cairo.

The Kaaterskill Railroad Company was organized in 1882, and has its office at Rondout. The map was completed and certified to, November 23d 1882. This is a narrow guage road and runs from a junction with Stony Clove Railroad on the land of Mrs. Lydia Blair, about three miles from the terminus of the latter road to South Lake on the mountain. The length of this road is about seven miles, and it rises by a grade of 675 5-10 feet for a part of the distance, near the eastern terminus increasing to 124 6-10 feet to a mile. At the foot of South Lake it reaches an elevation of 2,135 feet. It is proposed to extend it to a point near the old Mountain House. The road was completed thus far and put in operation in June 1883. By an act of February 27^th 1883, it is allowed to collect a fare of ten cents per mile.

The West Shore Hudson River Railroad was a projected scheme, the date of which we have not learned. It was to begin at the Athens and Schenectady depot and run southerly along the shore of the river, crossing Katskill Creek below the village, just at the foot of the hill, passing the edge of the Great Imboght, and crossing the county line on Wanton Island.

The South Cairo and East Durham Railroad was projected in 1881, a map of the proposed route being filed August 15^th. The projectors were John H. Bagley jr., William Donahue, Isaac Pruyn, Omar V. Sage, Manly B. Mattice, A. P. Jones, John Avery, H. Van Steenburgh, and H. A. Pierson. The road has been surveyed from a junction with the Catskill Mountain Railroad at South Cairo to East Durham, built the work of construction has not yet begun.

The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, one of the most substantially built and elegantly equipped railroads in the country, runs along the river shore of this county, making a length of twenty-four and five one hundredths miles within its limits. It enters the county at Smith’s Landing about one hundred rods from the river and crosses Imboght Bay in a straight line about 1,000 feet long from the Hopkins brick-yard property to the land of Abram Post. Crossing the Katskill at the upper end of the village, it follows the rich flats lying between the ridges of hills, from one to two miles from the river, until it crosses the northern line of the county. The grades nowhere exceed thirty feet to the mile and the line has few short curves. The elevations of the road at different points are: at Charles Anderson’s, 145 13-100 feet; at Catskill depot, 133 16-100 feet; at the Schoharie Turnpike crossing, 154 feet; at the crossing of Murderer’s Creek, 145 feet; at Coxsackie 135 feet; at Sickles’ Creek 112 feet; at Haunacroix Creek, 183 2-10 feet; and at Albany line, 198 feet. Surveys of this route were filed in February, 1880, April 2d 1880, October 20^th 1881 and January 16^th 1882. The line is laid with a double track of 67 pound steel rails. It is ballasted with stone, the road bed make of extra width and the bridges, which are of iron, are proportioned to carry locomotive of 85 tons weight. The Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad has been absorbed by it. This line was opened for traffic through this county, Monday, 9^th 1883, and to Buffalo, December 15^th .

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