Whetstone Township (part 4 of 4)

Fifteen years passed and the necessity of a railroad from the coal fields in southeastern Ohio to the Lake at Toledo was apparent, and the Atlantic and Lake Erie was incorporated to start at Pomeroy on the Ohio river, through the coal fields of Athens and Perry counties, then up to Bucyrus and Toledo. From Bucyrus to Toledo it was the original road proposed in 1850, and Bucyrus took an active interest in the road from the start, Daniel W. Swigart being president of the new road and James B. Gormly, treasurer, both Bucyrus men. Meetings were held in various towns along the line, and in 1869 the preliminary survey was made. In February, 1872, a contract was made with Michael Moran aijd W. V. and A. M. McCracken of Bucyrus, to - grade the road from Bucyrus to Toledo, and in July another contract was made with B. B. Mc- Donald & Co., of Bucyrus, to lay the rails on two sections from Bucyrus north. The same year, 1872, the contract was made for the bridge over the Sandusky at Bucyrus, together with the long trestle of nearly half a mile, necessary to cross the stream. In 1873 the panic came on, and it was impossible to get capital interested in any investment, but the projectors of the road at Bucyrus persevered. Bucyrus had invested over $100,000 in the road; other sections had given freely. In September, 1875, the condition of the road was at its worst, and a meeting was held at Bucyrus to devise ways and means to save what had already been invested and to complete the road. The president made a report at that meeting stating that a proposition had been made to sell a portion of it, which would be detrimental to the interests of Crawford, Wyandot and other counties. This proposition had been temporarily defeated by the influence of the friends of Bucyrus on the board of directors. But the road was in debt so heavily that unless something was done immediately the Atlantic & Lake Erie must be abandoned. The proposition was that if $450,000 could be raised, the more pressing obHgations could be met and the road completed. This sum was divided along the line, and $50,000 assigned to Crawford county. On top of the sum already subscribed, the task was a difficult one, but the amount was raised. Construction went ahead slowly, and every attempt made to reduce expenses to the minimum. The Bucyrus Foundry and Machine Company went into the car business, and built fifteen cars to be used in the construction work; second-hand locomotives were purchased and put to use in the building of the road, and little by little the work progressed, and finally in the summer of 1880 the first train came to Bucyrus. It was less than a generation since Bucyrus had built the Ohio and Indiana road, and now the descendants of the men who had built that first road, had overcome all difficulties, and secured another road for Bucyrus. The president of the Atlantic & Lake Erie was Daniel W. Swigart, a son-in-law of George W. Sweney, one of the active workers for the Ohio and Indiana; the secretary and treasurer was James B. Gormly, whose father John A. Gormly, was treasurer of the Ohio and Indiana. Among others connected with the road were Col. W. C. Lemert, a grandson by marriage of Samuel Norton, one of the heavy subscribers to the Ohio and Indiana. Horace and William Rowse, sons of Zalmon Rowse, a director of the Ohio and Indiana; W. V., A. M. and Charles Mc- Cracken, sons of James McCracken, another active supporter of the Ohio and Indiana; Joseph N. Biddle, a son-in-law of Robert W. Musgrave, another of the men active in securing the Ohio and Indiana ; Thomas C. Hall, who had been one of the builders of the Ohio and Indiana, and now with his son Joseph E. Hall, had similar contracts for construction work on the Atlantic and Lake Erie.

After the road was completed, the influence of Bucyrus, and the work the people of that town had done for the road, secured a favorable proposition for the location of the shops at Bucyrus, but Bucyrus capital was already in the road up to its limit, so a friendly legislature was appealed to and D. W. Swigart, James B. Gormly, W. C. Lemert, Dr. C. Fulton, S. R. Harris and George W. Teel secured the passage of an act allowing the town by a vote of the people to bond itself for $50,000 to build railroad shops. The proposition carried almost unanimously and the shops were secured, and for more than thirty years they have given employment to hundreds of men with a large monthly pay roll that has added materially to the prosperity of Bucyrus, and that village which in 1880 had a population of 3,348, by the census of 1890 had taken its position as one of the cities of the state with a population of 5,974, an increase of 78 per cent in ten years. When the road was reorganized in 1878 the name was changed to the Ohio Central, and it was sold at that time for $106,668. Later a western division was built to take care of the increasing traffic from the coal fields to the Lake. The road is today a part of the Lake Shore system, and in 191 1 required additional room for its shops and trackage, and the only way to secure it was from the Fair Ground which adjoined the railroad property on the south. The Fair Ground could not spare the land, so the citizens promptly formed a company, bought the entire thirty acres belonging to the Fair Association at $1,000 an acre, and sold the Lake Shore the eight acres they wanted at $400 an acre and the remainder of the grounds will be laid out as an addition to Bucyrus. The Fair Association immediately purchased a new site just across the road of sixty acres at $300 an acre.

In 1867 the Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan railroad was projected, to start at Toledo, then run to Tiffin, and through Lykins and Sulphur Springs to Crestline and Mansfield. The people in the central and northeastern part of the county took active measures to secure the road. Both New Washington and Sulphur Springs subscribed liberally, and so enthusiastic were the people in and around Sulphur Springs -that their subscriptions amounted to $35,000. A preliminary survey was made, which located the road about half a mile east of Sulphur Springs, and an eastern suburb of that village was laid out where the station was to be, on land owned by George W. Teel, and several houses were built. The people of Crestline, however, took very little interest in the road, which was fatal to the Sulphur Springs route. New Washing- ton then took up the matter with the Toledo and Mansfield people, and a new survey was made farther north, from Tiffin through Bloomville to New Washington and Mansfield. The citizens of New Washington and southern Auburn subscribed $30,000 for the new road and so great was the interest in that section, that these subscriptions were practically all made in sums ranging from $50 to $250, the stock being in $50 shares. There were two hundred men in the two townships of Cranberry and Auburn who took stock in the road. Work was commenced in the spring of 1872, and by October the road was in operation from Toledo to New Washington, and on May i, 1873, regular trains were running over the line. In Auburn township the road passed about half a mile north of the village of DeKalb, and the same distance south of a little settlement called Mechanicsburg, and at this point a station was placed called DeKalb, and in 1874 a town was laid out around the station which was called Tiro, after the postofifice two miles north, which was transferred to the station, and in 1882 the DeKalb postoffice, which had been in existence half a century, was discontinued, being consolidated with the Tiro ofifice, and the railroad dropped the name of DeKalb and called the station Tiro.

About the time of the building of the Mansfield & Coldwater road the people of Delphos and Carey had constructed a narrow gauge road between those two towns. It was a purely local affair, built by the people of Putnam and Hancock counties residing in the little towns along the line and gave them an outlet to the markets. Later it was taken over by some capitalists, among them W. V. Mc- Cracken of Bucyrus, and was changed to a standard gauge road, and extended eastward from Carey to Akron, passing through Crawford in the center of the northern tier of townships, Texas, Lykins, Chatfield, Cranberry and Auburn, and when completed it was almost an air line, 165 miles in length, known as the Pittsburg, Akron and Western. In the construction of . the road no attention was paid to the little towns. From the time it entered the county in Texas township it followed a half section line due east for fourteen miles to New Washington, passing half a mile south of the village of Lykins, and a quarter of a mile north of Chatfield. At New Washington it took an air line northwest, goingnorth of the little village of Waynesburg. Eastern capitalists had secured the road with the intention of making it the most direct and quickest route between Pittsburg and Chicago, but the grand plans never materialized and it is today a purely local road, but a great convenience to the people along the route. It established a station in Texas township, which was named Plankton, and another in Northern Auburn, which is named North Auburn after the township. The road is now the Northern Ohio.

It was Feb. 8, 1832, that the legislature of Ohio passed an act incorporating the Delaware, Marion and Sandusky Railroad, and among the incorporators were E. B. Merriman, Zalmon Rowse and Henry St. John. It was a time when there was a craze for railroad building all over the state, and, like dozens of other roads incorporated at that time, nothing came of it. Nearly sixty years passed and all the original projectors had long since moldered into dust when on April 12, 1889, practically the same road was again incorporated as the Columbus, Shawnee and Hocking. By the close of the year twelve miles of the road had been built from Sandusky to Bellevue, and this twelve miles on the right of way where fifty years previous the Mad River road had run its cars on scrap iron rails. The route had been abandoned by the Mad River road in the fifties for a new route from Sandusky to Clyde. But the northern twelve miles of the C. S. and H. (the Short Line) is the roadbed where first ran the first cars on the first real railroad in the state of Ohio.

The work on the C. S. and H. was pushed rapidly from both ends of the line, and it was on Sunday, Dec. 4, 1892, at 12:15 noon, that the last connecting rail was laid that joined the lines. This rail was at the north end of the trestle in Bucyrus. Although the road was completed as far as track-laying was concerned, there was still much to be done in the way of preparing the road bed, and securing the rolling stock, and it was on Monday, April 17, 1893, that the first regular trains began

This was the last railroad built in Crawford county, with its well ballasted track, heavy steel rails, monster locomotives, and handsomely furnished, easily riding cars. Everything was new and modern and presented the strongest contrast to the track and equipment of the pioneer days of railroading. It was Monday, April 17, the train went through, representative of the highest type of railroad development, and three days later, on April 20th, the contrast came. A great exposition was to be opened at Chicago (one year late) to commemorate the discovery of America by Columbus, 401 years previous, and the first locomotive ever brought to America was to pass through Bucyrus. Over a thousand school children and double that number of citizens were at the station, when the little locomotive, the "John Bull," hardly larger than a traction engine, pulling its two small cars, came round the bend, puffing and blowing as if it appreciated the full measure of its responsibility. It came up to the station very slowly, through two dense ranks of people, who crowded both sides of the track, leaving only room for it to pass. It looked small and it looked old, and even the veteran pioneers present had become so accustomed to the modern trains that they too were astonished at the smallness and crudeness of the engine and coaches, that in their early day they had regarded as a wonder and a marvel in the science of transportation.*

*In 1876, this little engine, the "John Bull," was discovered among the old junk in the Pennsylvania shops; it was repaired and exhibited at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and later presented to the United States government. Prior to 1830 experiments had been made in England with more or less success with locomotives to be propelled by steam. In 1830, Robert L. Stevens, the founder of the Camden & Amboy road, saw the "Rocket" in England, the invention of George Stevenson, and he ordered one built for shipment to this country. The engine was built, shipped to America, and named the "John Bull." It arrived in Philadelphia in August, 183 1. When it was finally put together it was placed on a track, specially built for its trial; the boiler was filled with water from a hogshead ; a fire of pine wood was lighted in the furnace, and at the mdication of thirty pounds of steam pressure, the young engineer named Dripps, nervous- with excitement, opened the throttle, and the first locomotive in America moved over the rails. One of the little old cars had been purchased in 1868 bv a farmer living near South

When the train stopped, men and boys and women and girls crowded around the little cars, -and went inside, finding them so low that a tall man must stoop. Common wooden seats ran along the sides; there were little windows, placed there only to give light, so high that one must stand up or kneel upon the seat to look out. These windows could not be opened; there were no lights for after night, so when the shades of evening fell, the passengers rode in darkness. The engine weighed ten tons, and was the same as when it first ran in America, except that it had been changed from wood to coal fuel. The tender had a capacity of about a ton of coal, and the water tank about 1500 gallons of water. The water was sufficient for thirty miles, but the coal would last for ninety miles. The boiler was 13 feet long, and 3 feet 6 inches in diameter. The cylinders were 9 by 20 inches. There were two drive wheels on each side, 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter, with cast iron hubs and wooden felloes. On top of the tender at the rear was a contrivance resembling a poke bonnet; it was called the "gig top," and here sat the forward brakeman on the lookout for approaching trains, and also to signal the rear brakeman should occasion require. He worked the brakes on the locomotive and tender by means of a lever which extended up between his knees. There was no bell cord or gong to the locomotive and all communication between the brakeman and engineer was by word of mouth. He kept by him a few soft clods which carefully aimed, attracted the attention of the engineer if hasty communication was necessary.

Amboy, the Camden and Amboy road having thrown it into discard. The farmer removed it to his place and used it as a chicken-coop. It housed the chickens until a representative of the Pennsylvania road looking for curiosities, ran across it, and entered into negotiations for its purchase. The thrifty farmer discovered that lapse of time had endowed his hen-coop with an unexpected value, and he demanded and received a price which represented more than compound interest on his original purchase, and although the hens were left homeless, the farmer looked out for himself by building a new residence with all modern improvements from the proceeds of his sale. The second car had not so romantic a history. It was found years previously in a lumber yard in a New Jersey town, and a farsighted Pennsylvania official had secured it as a relic, believing the day might come when it would have a value as a curiosity.

160,000 pounds, easily drew its long line of parlor cars and sleepers, and diner, all fitted with every modern improvement and filled with the officers and guests of the Pennsylvania company. From Philadelphia to Chicago this finest locomotive of modern construction restrained its power, followed its wheezing ancestor, decrepit with age, as if it were exercising a fatherly and protecting care over him which it no doubt was.

At Bucyrus, the train was joined by representatives of the Journal and Telegraph, the Forum and the Courier. The Journal sent their veteran editor, John Hopley, who in 1842, had come as far west as Pittsburg on just such a train, and with him the youngest member of the firm, J. W. Hopley, as representatives of the past and the present. They rode in one of the- ancient coaches as far as Upper Sandusky, jarred and jolted in the springless car, kneeling on the seat occasionally to glance from the window, and when Upper Sandusky was reached both youth and age preferred comfort to novelty, and as far as they were concerned the little train, once the pride of the road, and once the acme of perfection in traveling, was left to jog on its slow way alone, while they-found all the comforts of travel in the palatial cars of the modern train. The speed of both trains was of course governed by the motive power of the John Bull and it took nine hours to go from Bucyrus to Ft. Wayne, being a trifle over 14 miles an hour.

On Nov. 12, 1891, the commissioners of the county granted a franchise for the building of an electric road from Galion to Bucyrus, to be known as the Suburban Electric Railway Company. The financial depression of 1893 put a stop to all improvement investments, but later the matter was again taken up, and the work of building commenced at Gabon, and gradually extending to Bucyrus. On Aug. 26, 1899, a regular train service was started from Galion as far as the T. & O. C. tracks at Bucyrus, and on September ir, the track had been completed to the Public Square, and there was a half-hourly service between the county seat and the metropolis of the county. Although the two cities had a combined population of about 14,000 the business did not justify so frequent a service and it was soon reduced to hourly trains. Later the road was extended to Crestline, and the following year to Mansfield, and it became the Cleveland, Southwestern and Columbus Railway Company, with through trains from Cleveland to Bucyrus. The headquarters of the motive power and the car barns are at Galion.

In 1894 an electric road was projected from Columbus to Cleveland, by way of Delaware, Marion and Galion. The latter city took little interest in the road so Bucyrus took the matter up, and Frank L. Hopley had the builder of the road, John G. Webb, of Springfield, visit Bucyrus, and after a consultation with J. B. Gormly, W. C. Lemert, George Dennenwirth and others, the road was incorporated as the Columbus, Marion and Bucyrus Electric Railway, and on Aug. 5, 1905, James B. Gormly was elected one of the directors of the new road. Owing to the high prices at which land was held much time was consumed in securing a right of way, but the Marion road was finally decided upon, and the work of construction commenced. On Monday, Aug. 10, 1908, regular trains started from the south end of Poplar street, and the first through passenger to Columbus was County Treasurer George W. Miller, who took the first car to make his settlement with the state treasurer. There was difficulty over the route through Bucyrus, but the matter was finally settled, and on Oct. 27, the track laying reached the Public Square, E. B. Monnett and Charles Roberts driving the last spikes which made the connecting link at Bucyrus of an electric line from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

The following table shows the amount of trackage in the various townships in the county, and their value as placed on the tax duplicate. Also the appraised value of the various roads in the county. The total valuation of all property on tax duplicate in the county is $52,453,120, and of this $8,758,680 is rail- roads. Jefferson township fares best, as its entire valuation on the tax duplicate is $2,190,- 840, and of this nearly half, $981,770 is railroad property.