admin CHAPTER XIII.
THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPENING OF RAILROADS IN WYOMING COUNTY.
UP to the year 1843 the regular mode of public conveyance in this county was the stage coach, but with the completion of the Tonawanda and Rochester Railroad to Attica, and the Buffalo and Attica Railroad, other roads were projected. No others, however, were built until the year 1852, since which time the county of Wyoming will compare favorably with its sister counties in this respect.
On the 5th of May, 1834, an act of the Legislature was passed incorporating the Warsaw and Le Roy Railroad Company, and empowering it to build a road from Warsaw through the valley of the Oakta creek to Le Roy, with a capital of not less than $100,000.
The stock was readily subscribed, and a report of the survey and estimate of the cost of the work prepared, which report was submitted to the board of directors on the 12th day of November, 1835. Some delay was occasioned by an endeavor to procure an extension of the route from Le Roy to Bergen, where it would intersect the Tonawanda Railroad from Rochester. This latter line was found to be too expensive and the project was not carried out In the meantime the directors found they were unable to proceed with the construction of the Warsaw railroad according to the terms of the charter, and, the Legislature refusing to grant them an extension of time, they paid back to the stockholders the amounts of their subscriptions, less the expense, and the company was disbanded.
What constitutes the Buffalo division of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad was originally built as the “Attica and Hornellsville Railroad,” and extends south easterly through the towns of Attica, Middlebury, Warsaw. Gainesville, Castile and Genesee Falls, in this county, crossing the Genesee river near the celebrated falls at Portage, and connecting with the main line at Hornellsville.
In the summer of 1850 this branch of the Erie Railway was projected, and public meetings held at different points along the line to arouse the desired enthusiasm. Surveys of the route were made by William Wallace, C. E., of Buffalo, the same year, and the required amount of stock was subscribed by persons along the route and at Buffalo. In September an organization was perfected and the following gentlemen were chosen directors: Russell H. Heywood (president), A, D. Patchin, Samuel Swain, jr., H. O. Brown, B. R. Folsom, C. Bronson, Hiram Cooley and George B. Chace.
The maps were filed February 27th, 1851, and soon after a contract for building the road was made with Messrs. Lanman, Rockafellow & Moore, who were to furnish all the materials except the iron, and to complete it by the first of May, 1852. Before the road was completed the New York Central Railroad, having built a new line from Batavia to Buffalo, sold to the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad that portion of their road from Attica to Buffalo, and the corporate name of the road was changed to the ” Buffalo and New York City Railroad,” running from Buffalo to Hornellsville, a distance of ninety-one miles.
On the 26th day of July, 1852, the first train of passenger cars passed over the road, and on the completion of the famous Portage bridge, August 25th, 1852, the entire line was opened for traffic. Portage bridge is said to have been the largest wooden bridge in the world – was eight hundred feet in length, two hundred and thirty-four feet high and contained one million, six hundred thousand feet of timber, one hundred and six thousand, two hundred and eighty pounds of iron and cost $175,000. On the 6th day of May, 1875, this structure was burned. Steps were immediately taken to rebuild the bridge of iron, and the Watson Manufacturing Company, of Patterson, took the contract for $90,000, to be finished on the first of August, 1875. It was completed within the time allotted by the contract, and is eight hundred and twenty feet long by two hundred and thirty-five feet in height. For the past twenty years this road has been owned by the Erie Railway Company; and it is an important factor in the great line of travel between New York and the West
Prior to the completion of the above named road steps were taken to construct a railroad from Attica to Arcade, passing through the towns of Attica, Bennington, Sheldon, Java and Arcade, in this county. The required stock was subscribed along the route, and the line was located in the early part of the year 1852. Work was commenced immediately, and the roadbeds, culverts and superstructure finished in the spring of 1853. Part of the track was laid, but financial embarrassments overtook the project and the work was abandoned. In the year 1870 efforts were made to finish the road, and some work was done, but at the present time it remains unfinished, although a comparatively small sum of money would put it in running order, and its operation would be a great benefit to the localities which it traverses.
The citizens of the town of Perry, feeling the want of railroad communication, began in the summer of 1869 to agitate the feasibility of a road from East Gainesville, on the Erie Railway, to the village of Perry. A survey of a route was made in the early autumn of that year by Colonel James O. McClure, C. E., and his report was presented at a public meeting held in the village of Perry, October 22nd, 1869. At that meeting great enthusiasm prevailed, and the project grew rapidly in public favor. The town of Perry promptly bonded itself for the sum of $100,000 in aid of the road, and on the 10th of August, 1870, R. C. Moredoff, R. W. Brigham and L. G. Morgan were appointed railroad commissioners.
On the 15th of December, 1870, the contract for the grading and masonry between Perry and East Gainesville, a distance of six and one-quarter miles, was let, to be completed August 1st, 1871. The work was commenced immediately, and the locomotive announced its first arrival in Perry October 20th, 1871. The first regular train left Perry for East Gainesville on the 14th of February, 1872, since which time trains have run regularly, and the road has ac cumulated a fair surplus.
The first meeting held in the interest of this popular thoroughfare was at Wiscoy on the 5th of March, 1869, and was attended by prominent citizens of Rochester and the towns along the proposed route. This meeting was adjourned to convene at Castile on the 17th of March, when a report as lo its feasibility was presented. Another meeting in aid of the project was called at Caledonia, March 31st, and subsequently at Rochester on the 8th day of April, 1869, at which time the “Rochester and State Line Railway Company” was duly organized.
The route at first contemplated passed through the towns of Caledonia, Perry and Castile, up the Genesee river into Pennsylvania. Surveys were made on this route by William Wallace, C. E. and subsequently another route was located through Mumford, Le Roy, Pavilion, Warsaw, Gainesville, Pike, Eagle, and thence to Salamanca, at which place it would connect with the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western Railways; thereby forming a trunk line to the Southwest. In aid of this route the town of Wheatland, Monroe county, bonded itself for $70,000; Le Roy, Genesee county, $100,000; Pavilion, $40,000; Covington, Wyoming county, $45,000; Middlebury, $50,000; Warsaw, $120,000; Gainesville, $50,000, and Eagle, $30,000. The city of Rochester was bonded for $600,000. The commissioners appointed by the county judge to issue bonds for the towns in Wyoming were: Warsaw, Augustus Frank, Linus W. Thayer, Simeon D. Lewis; Middlebury, Isaac G. Hammond, Ethel V. Sherman, Thomas G. Cushing; Covington, Duncan Cameron, Jedediah S. Walker, Hawley Daniels; Gainesville, Benjamin F. Bristol, Charles S. Farman, Robert F. Shearman; Eagle, Freeman S. Marchant, Beckley Howes, Ira Eastman.
The total amount of town and city bonds reached the sum of $1,105,000, and the directors adopted the Warsaw route, as it was called, on the 17th of January, 1870. On the first day of May, 1872, a corps of engineers under the direction of Charles S. Masters, C. E., began the location of the road, and in the spring of 1873 the grading, masonry and superstructure were let to A. M. Slocum & Co. for the whole road. The work progressed rapidly till the latter part of 1873, when this road, in common with many others, succumbed to the panic of that year. The eastern portion of the road, from Rochester to Le Roy, was, however, completed and put into operation on the 15th day of September, 1874. After a series of delays the work was resumed by the contractors, and the road opened to Warsaw August 6th, 1877, and to Salamanca May 16th, 1878.
From its completion the road has been successful, and it is now transporting more petroleum than any other road in the country. The regular and special trains running (in 1879) over this road daily number twenty; comprising one hundred oil tank cars, each of one hundred barrels capacity, and the business is rapidly increasing.
SOURCE: History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents; F. W. Beers & Co.; 1880