In recurring to the early history of this work, we find that the original charter for the Erie Railroad was granted by the New York legislature, in 1832, upon the application of ELEAZER LORD, and others, with a capital of $10,000,000. This sum comprises the highest estimate ever made for the construction of the work, including a double track. The first survey of the route took place as early as 1825, under the direction of the State, and subsequent surveys were ordered to be made at the expense of the United States government, which were but partially carried out. The survey of 1825 began at a point upon Lake Erie, and terminated upon the Hudson in Rockland county; but the unfavorable profile exhibited in the survey, the jealousy and rivalry occasioned by proposing a variety of branches and terminations, and, above all, the growing indisposition upon the route of the Erie Canal to favor the opening of a thoroughfare through the southern counties of the State, produced many discordant views and interests, and resulted, for the time, in the abandonment of the project. The subject, however, did not cease to occupy the attention of many of its early friends. The benefits which arose from the opening of the Erie Canal led many to believe that a work of similar utility could be constructed through the southern tier of counties. The subject of railways had begun to attract attention, and the information concerning them tended to confirm the public mind for a work of that description upon the route in question, which resulted in the application of Mr. Lord for a charter, which passed the legislature in 1832. A new survey of the route being considered indispensable before subscriptions to any amount could be obtained, Mr. Lord, as chairman of the commissioners named in the charter, applied to Congress for a re-survey at the expense of the general government. In this application, about forty senators and representatives from different States, united; which resulted in an appropriation to defray the expense of a survey by the topographical corps, under chief engineer, De Witt Clinton, Jr. Mr. Clinton made his report to the topographical bureau at Washington, where maps were executed, and forwarded to the company in 1833, which had previously been organized, and Mr. Lord chosen president. Meetings of the citizens of the southern counties continued to be held upon the subject, and at a convention of delegates from thirteen counties, which met at New York, in November, 1833, a memorial was prepared and presented to the legislature, asking aid to the company. The result was the passage of an act appropriating $15,000 to complete the survey of the road, in aid of which Orange and Rockland, it deserves to be mentioned, had contributed liberally. Under this act, Benjamin Wright, Esq., was appointed chief engineer, and the favorable results which attended this survey, encouraged others to subscribe to the stock, which, at the outset, was $1,000,000, divided among a few individuals. In February, 1835, Mr. Lord resigned as president, and Mr. James G. King was elected to that office, in which he' continued to serve with much ability for nearly five years, or until September, 1839. At the legislative session of 1836, authority was granted by the New York legislature to loan the credit of the State to the company for $3,000,000 in aid of their undertaking. Up to this period, the collections which had been made upon the stock of the company, amounted to $346,237, against which three issues of $100,000 each, of state stock, were received and sold, prior to September, 1839; but, owing to the state of the times, $245,225 were only received as the proceeds of the three instalments. In the crippled state of the stockholders, and the continued embarrassment of commercial affairs, to avoid another suspension of the work, propositions were tendered to the inhabitants of the counties upon the route of the road to the effect that subscriptions and payments made by them should be expended in the counties respectively, together with a like ratio of the proceeds of the state stock. Mr. Lord was appointed a commissioner to carry this plan into effect in the counties of Orange and Rockland, and, at the close of 1839, forty-six miles of the road were completed to Goshen. Similar measures for the extension of the work were also adopted on the Susquehanna division of the route, and work equal to one hundred and seventeen miles in extent contracted for. We should not omit to mention, in this connection, the valuable services rendered at this difficult period of the company's affairs, by the citizens of Orange county. Through a committee, chosen by the citizens of that county, composed of the Hon. John B. Booth, Jesse Edsall, Esq., and Henry Merriam, Esq., they proposed to raise $50,000 in aid of the work, if thereby a like sum were expended by the company in that county, and for which they pledged their personal obligations for a portion of the amount; a circumstance which, at that time, contributed greatly in determining the eastern termination of the road at Piermont, which had, up to this period, remained an open question. General Wickham, and other citizens of that county, were also distinguished at subsequent periods for their efforts in behalf of the work. In September, 1839, Mr. King resigned the office of president, and Mr. Lord was again elected to that office, which he continued to fill till May, 1841. At the legislative session of 1840, the loan bill was further amended, so as to authorize issues of $100,000 of state stocks against every $50,000 which had been, or thereafter should be collected on the stock of the company, until the original amount of the $3,000,000 should be issued. Upon the sale of the $3,000,000 of state stock, bearing an interest vary. ing from 4 to 5 and 6 per cent, and sold prior to January, 1842, an ag gregate loss was sustained of over $400,000, or 131 per cent. The sacrifice of so large a sum rendered the company unable to pay the quarterly interest due on the state loans, and in April, 1842, the company was com pelled to place its affairs in the hands of assignees, who were, thereby, enabled to keep the eastern division of the road in successful operation, although all operations upon other portions of the work ceased entirely. On the 28th of May, 1841, Mr. Lord resigned the office of president, and Mr. James Bowen was elected in his place, which he continued to fill till October, 1842. In October, 1843, an entire new list of directors were chosen; but no further progress was made in the work during that year. In April of that year, the bill known as the "Faulkner bill," was passed by the legislature, by which it was intended that the State Hen should be released upon certain conditions, and that the bonds of the company should be issued as a first lien upon the road. Those bonds, however, were found to be unsaleable, as they would not become a lien upon the road prior to that of the State, except in the event of the work being finished within the term prescribed by the law. At the annual election of directors in October, 1844, Mr. Lord was again appointed president of the company. An address was issued, expressing the views of the undertaking, and proposing a subscription to the stock as necessary to a resumption of the work prior to the expiration of the time limited for its completion by the terms of the Faulkner bill. A subscription was accordingly opened, and proposals made for grading twenty miles of the road beyond Middletown, upon which the work was resumed in February, 1845. Further action was suspended, awaiting the action of the legislature with reference to the State loan upon the road. In May, 1845, a law was passed releasing the road from all claims by the State, as well as providing for consolidating two shares of the old stock into one of new. Up to this period, the payments upon the stock of the company, including all payments upon existing shares, were as follows:By subscribers in New York,.. on the eastern division of the road,.. $356,932 00 476,076 00 52,600 00 228,151 00 383.325 00 20,050 00 from elsewhere in this and other States,...... Total,..... This statement embraces settlements up to May 1st, 1845. Total expenditures prior to the assignment,. $1,517,134 00 $4,736,950 00 4,734,872 00 This was the condition of the affairs of the company up to August, 1845, when Mr. Lord resigned as president, and was succeeded by James Harper, Esq., of New York, as president pro tem. At the annual meeting of the stockholders, in November, the vacancy was filled by the election of Benjamin Loder, Esq., of New York, as president. The removal of the State lien, the necessity of which had been felt in order to complete the work, was the occasion of renewed efforts in its behalf. Accordingly, in August, 1845, the books were again opened, and under such favorable circumstances, that the $3,000,000 of stock required to complete it, was promptly subscribed. This sum will, doubtless, enable the company to complete the road without issuing their bonds but for a limited amount. The length of the Erie Railroad, when completed, will be four hundred and eighty miles. Of this, fifty miles, embracing the eastern division, is already in full operation; and six miles more, to Otisville, in Orange county, will be completed in the course of a few weeks. Ten miles of the road is also completed at Dunkirk, while miles of the road is graded, and a portion of the superstructure laid down between. The route traversed by the Erie Railroad lies through one of the best agricultural districts in the United States. This fact is of the greatest importance to the success of this, as well as of all great railway enterprises; for railways, like cities, never attain to great magnitude, or become tho. roughly prosperous and productive, only as they are contiguous to well settled agricultural regions, and city and country are made to contribute alternately to the advantage of each other, while the intercourse which it thus begets, becomes a permanent source of revenue to our public works. New York owes her importance as the first commercial city on the Atlantic seaboard, principally to this fact; while older cities, unsupported to the same extent with a large agricultural back country, are far behind her in wealth, population, and resources. This feature of prosperity the New York and Erie Railroad has united with it, perhaps, to a greater degree than any other improvement which has ever been projected in the United States. By the terms of the charter, the route of the road is confined to the "southern tier of counties of New York," which comprises Chatauque, Cattaraugus, Alleghany, Steuben, Broome, Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, Rockland, and Westchester, together comprising a population of nearly 350,000, and possessing an aggregate real estate valuation equal to $40,000,000. These counties possess about the same amount of wealth and population as the eleven counties upon the line of the Erie Canal, at the period of its completion; and must, therefore, supply as great a local trade as did that work in 1824, when it yielded $600,000 of tolls. In addition to this trade, however, the road will command nine counties in Pennsylvania, which border upon the New York line, the assessed real estate valuation of which amounts to $15,608,676, and containing a population of 142,146; so that, in fact, the Erie Railroad will pass through an aggregate population upon its line, of near 500,000 souls, possessing nearly $50,000,000 of taxable property to contribute to its business, independent of the western trade. If the Erie Canal, at a cost of $7,000,000, running through a population of 394,631, gave $600,000 of toll in 1824, what must the Erie Railroad derive from carrying passengers as well as freight, through a population of 500,000, with the additional advantage of lateral canals and railroads, which will intersect with it upon the route through to the lakes? The annual amount of revenue derived from these sources, may safely be set down at $1,000,000; while the cost of the road to the new subscribers will be but $7,350,000; and should the road give no more income to be divided upon its capital than the canal did twenty years ago, it will amount to 9 per cent upon its cost. But it must be remembered that the Erie Railroad will combine the double advantage of the Erie Canal and northern line of railways. The canal and railways together, produced an income to the State, for 1845, of nearly $3,000,000, upon a cost of about $14,000,000. The length of the canal and railroads combined, is six hundred and forty-nine miles; while the Erie road will be but four hundred and eighty miles long, and its capacity equal for transit. Assuming the statement of the productiveness of the northern railroads and canals to be correct, we find the railroads to yield 9 per cent of their cost, and declare dividends of from 6 to 8 per cent. The Erie Railroad, being but four hundred and eighty miles, will cost but about half what the six hundred and forty-nine miles of northern canals and railroads cost; if it yields but one-fifth of what they yield from their combined advantages, it will be a 10 per cent stock. This, however, is but one view of the subject. There are many other important advantages united in this work, both from its position, and resources of the country through which it will pass, which deserve consideration. The period at which we have made the comparison between the Erie Railroad and the Erie Canal, the latter work had not derived any advantage from having connected with it any of the lateral canals and other public works which have since been constructed, and which contribute to render it so productive. In this particular, the railroad will vastly surpass the canal, by connecting with many important public works already constructed. Besides terminating upon Lake Erie at a point where the lake navigation usually opens from four to six weeks earlier, and remaining open for the same period later than at Buffalo, it will intersect, at Port Jarvis, in Orange county, with the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and with the Delaware River one hundred miles from Philadelphia; at the mouth of the Lackawana it may be made to connect with the coal fields in Pennsylvania, at trifling expense, and the company to avail itself of advantages in the transit of coal, which it has cost the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company $2,000,000, and upwards, to construct their works into that region. The railway route being eighty miles nearer to New York than the route traversed by the canal, besides being open at all seasons of the year, should the interests of the two companies in the coal fields be consolidated, it may be safely estimated that the coal transit alone upon the Erie road may be made equal to one-third of the earnings of the road, as the transportation of Orange county milk has already become upon the eastern division; neither of which items originally entered into the esti mate of the productiveness of the road. At the mouth of the Lackawana, it will also intersect with the Honesdale and Carbondale Railroad, thence twenty-five miles to the Wyoming valley; at Nineveh, on the Susquehanna, with Unadilla, in Otsego county, and New Berlin, Sherman, Norwich, Oxford, and intermediate places; yet these do not compare with the great collateral avenues that will be brought to bear upon the road at, and west of Binghampton. At the latter place, it will connect with the Chenango Canal, ninety miles in length, to Utica, running through one of the best agricultural districts in the State, including the southern half of Courtlandt county. Extended to Owego, twenty-two miles, and it will intersect with the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, forty miles; at Elmira, with the Chemung Canal, twenty miles in length, to the Seneca Lake, which remains open during the winter; and thence westwardly, as it progresses from Binghampton, commanding the trade and travel of large districts north and south of the road, now dependent upon the several railroads and lateral canals connected with the Erie Canal and the public works of Pennsylvania. As it approaches Dunkirk, it is intersected by the Buffalo and Attica railroad on the north, and the railroad to Erie, forty miles south of Dunkirk, on the lake. Some idea of the great magnitude of the business of this road, when completed, may be gathered from the amount of revenue and tonnage at present derived from the eastern division of the road, the receipts of which, during the past four years, have been as follows: In the years 1842 and 1843, only forty-six miles were in use, and in 1844 and 1845, fifty-seven miles. The length of the road in operation from the Hudson at Piermont to Middletown, is fifty-three miles, and cost $1,540,000, or $29,000 per mile; the track of six feet T rail, fifty-six pounds to the yard. The pier is one mile long, and cost $220,000. This gives a most extraordinary increase; the nett weight of produce delivered on the Hudson, having nearly doubled in two years. We have not the detail for the year just closed, but from freight received, it appears the increase is 5 per cent. The results are very wonderful, showing the development of Orange county, and the great increase of supplies furnished to New York city by only fifty-three miles of the road. If we assume that the business of 1842 was no more than previously came |