The probable reason why that ancient vehicle never fretted the surface of a road within the limits of this county, was that the condition of the roads was such that they could not sustain so great a weight; and even now it is only a small portion of the year that a stage-coach could be drawn over most of the roads.

FIRST RAILROAD ENTERPRISE.

The importance of the opening of a railroad was early impressed upon the minds of the enterprising citizens of the county, and about 1846–47, a project, originating with the late Judge Ebenezer Lane and others, was undertaken to build a road from Cleveland or Norwalk, running westward, and crossing the Maumee River at the foot of the rapids, and from thence making its way on a west line to Chicago. It was known as the Junction Railroad, and a considerable amount of work was performed on it, including massive stone abutments for the bridge which was to cross the river to the northern bank at Maumee City. The corporation, in order to facilitate operations west of this point, solicited aid of stock subscriptions by individuals, towns, townships and counties, and succeeded in gathering an amount which aggregated a considerable sum. Regarding this first railroad enterprise, and in response to the request for stock subscription by Williams County, the Commissioners, at their session, held March 15, 1852, ordered "That public notice be given the qualified electors of Williams County to meet at their several places of holding elections in their respective townships on Monday, the 5th day of April, next, between the hours of 10 o'clock A. M., and 4 o'clock P. M., of said day, and then and there cast their ballots for subscription' or 'against subscription' of $100,000 stock for the location and completion of the Junction Railroad in said county, conditioned that said road shall pass from Maumee City westward through the said county of Williams to the Indiana State line, within two years from this date, and touching the following points, to wit: West Unity, Montpelier, La Fayette (now Pulaski), Bryan and Centre in said county, and that there shall be a junction of its branches at one of the above-named towns in said county of Williams, and that said $100,000 be equally distributed on the several branches on said road in said county of Williams."

THE RIVAL RAILROAD SCHEME.

The Southern Michigan & Northern Indiana Railroad Company, realizing the damage it would be to their interests if the Junction enterprise should be successful, resolved upon the construction of an air line westward from Toledo to connect with their main line at Elkhart, Ind. In 1852, the same year that the Commissioners of Williams County took ✦

action above quoted, the S. M. & N. I. (its corporate name now being the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern), appeared quietly in the field with its corps of engineers, surveyed the route, asking no aid of stock subscriptions, and only right of way and donation of sufficient ground for passenger and freight conveniences. The company were very undemonstrative in their movements, and February 18, 1853, J. H. Sargeant, Acting Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the air-line road, called upon Hon. E. Foster, and passed into his hands a sum of money, with a request that he proceed without delay and receive donations or purchase the necessary right of way and depot grounds for that part of the road that would pass through Williams County. Many of the lands being owned by non-residents, the labor was protracted, and some resident owners acting stubbornly, Mr. Foster met with embarrassments and dalays in the prosecution of his work. Messrs. Edgerton and Trevitt, however, in addition to the very liberal donation of nearly sixteen acres of ground in the town for passenger and warehouse purposes, also generously donated the right of way through all their Williams County lands, of which they held large tracts. March 5, 1855, Mr. Foster closed his business with the company and their contractors, and on the 25th of the October following received the last payment for his services.

The first conductor on the road after passenger trains commenced running was Edward Moore. Mr. William D. Billings, now resident of Bryan (and who is part authority for the statements which follow), was the second agent at the station after trains had reached Bryan from the east ―his predecessor, Mr. Johnson, who had opened the office, only remaining in the employ of the company a few months. Previous to this, Mr. Billings had had charge of the Middlebury (now Vistula) Station, on the old-line road. The first printed through "time table, No. 1," took effect "on Monday, June 8, 1857, at 5 o'clock A. M." The stations named on the table are Toledo, Springfield, Centreville, Delta, Wauseon, Archbold, Stryker, Bryan, Edgerton, Butler, Waterloo, Corunna, Kendallville, Rome, Wawaka, Ligonier, Millersburg, Goshen and Elkhart. Going West, the train left Toledo at 9:50 A. M., and reached Elkhart at 7:10 P. M., making the distance between the two points in nine hours, when no accident would occur. The same train moved from Elkhart on its eastward trip at 9:40 A. M., and would be due at Toledo at 6:40. Trains passed each other at Edgerton, that station being 64.3 miles west of Toledo, and 68.5 miles east of Elkhart. The trains then ran were decidedly, if not badly, "mixed "-consisting of a locomotive, tender, one passenger and one freight car, and two trains, thus formed, made up the entire rolling stock of the road. Now, one of the least powerful of the many locomohourly pass over the Air-Line road, would be enabled

tives which almost

with ease to draw a train consisting of at least three times the tonnage of all the rolling stock in use on the road in 1857. Six passenger trains, each drawing six coaches since the opening of 1882, have passed over the road daily; and sixteen through and local freights, averaging thirty cars each, and having a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 tons per car. The transition almost confuses the mind to contemplate, when viewed in all its length and breadth. What marvelous changes in the means of transmitting intelligence have been produced in a period of less than half a century! To-day, at any railroad station in Williams County, connected with which is a telegraph office, one may transmit a message 2,000 miles distant, or even to Europe or the Orient, and receive to it an answer in less space of time than, a half century ago, would be consumed by the speediest mode of travel then known to make the distance from Pioneer to Stryker and return, and, during the January and June floods that then appeared as regularly as the seasons, to communicate with a neighbor ten miles distant. Imagine Imagine a pioneer who, about three months after the Presidential election of 1832, had received an Eastern letter or newspaper conveying intelligence that Andrew Jackson had been re-elected President of the United States in the preceding November. If the settler is a Jackson man, he dons his hunting shirt and coon-skin cap and sallies forth in search of neighbors of his political faith to communicate the glad tidings, and mingle rejoicings. News of the result of a Presidential election would now be known in every considerable city and town in the United States and Europe within twenty-four hours after the close of the polls.

OTHER RAILWAY PROJECTS.

Several north-and-south railway lines, crossing the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern at Bryan, have long been contemplated and discussed They are all embryo projects, and it is no legitimate field of a historian to hazard statements when he has no solid data upon which to base them. In these utilitarian times capitalists are governed altogether by their interests, and when they become assured of good investments, they do not hesitate. The most probable route to be completed is the one which, in 1852-53, was known as the Cincinnati & Mackinaw road. This road, from Cincinnati, according to the terms of its original charter, was to pass, after leaving Cincinnati and Hamilton County, through all the county seats of the western range of counties in Ohio, until it struck the Michigan line on the north-the route embracing the several seats of jus tice of Hamilton, Preble, Butler, Darke, Mercer, Van Wert, Paulding, Defiance and Williams. After the expenditure of a large amount in grading and making the road-bed ready for the ties, thousands of which ties were made and delivered on the line, and rotted upon the ground, the