The Iron Horse Snorts – But Akron Lags

AKRON & SUMMIT COUNTY

Karl H. Grismer,

Summit County Historical Society,

Akron, Ohio c. 1950 Chapter 5 p 151-157

INDEPENDENCE DAY was celebrated in a truly grand and glorious manner in Akron in 1852. The community had good reasons for kicking up its heels and cutting loose—the wondrous Iron Horse, the marvel of the age, had finally come snorting into town, belching huge clouds of smoke and making a fearful noise.

At long last, Akron had railroad connections with the outside world!

The battle to get a railroad had started twenty years before and had been marked by repeated setbacks and bitter disappointments.

As early as 1832 a committee had been appointed to solicit funds to help pay for surveying a right-of-way for a proposed Great Western Railway from the Hudson River to Portage Summit. But the railroad had died a'borning.

Later came rosy talk about building the Akron & Perrysburg Rail­road, the Akron & Richmond Railroad and the Akron & Canton Rail­road. But the talk was only talk—not one of the dream roads was ever built. It seemed as though Akron would have to depend forever upon canal boats, stagecoaches and Conestoga wagons for transportation.

The first railroad that entered Summit County, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh, missed Akron by nearly fifteen miles. It passed through Macedonia and Hudson, then swung eastward to Ravenna and went on to Wellsville on the Ohio River. Trains began running between Cleveland and Wellsville on February 26, 1852.

While the railroad was being built, Hudson, the oldest town in Summit County, experienced the greatest boom in its history. Specu­lators went wild. Real estate prices soared to unbelievable heights. Several new factories and scores of new homes were built. Henry N. Day, well-to-do professor at Western Reserve College, spent $18,000 to construct a giant Pentagon building, designed to house business establishments attracted to the new-born railroad town.

Long before the C. & P. was finished, Akron people realized that they too must have a railroad to keep pace, not only with Hudson but with scores of other towns and cities in Ohio which were getting rail connections with the East. Business leaders of Cuyahoga Falls also were alarmed.

Deciding that something must be done and done quickly to pre­vent business disaster, both towns appointed committees to lobby in Columbus for an amendment to the C. & P. charter which would permit construction of a branch railroad south from Hudson, pass through Cuyahoga Falls and Akron and connect with some railroad, some place, running to Columbus.

The Akron delegation of lobbyists was headed by Col. Simon Perkins, who had served both as state senator and state representative. He had friends in Columbus and on February 19, 1851, the sought-for charter amendment was secured. Less than a month later, on March 11th, the Akron Branch of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad was formed as a separate company. The directors were Perkins, Milton W. Henry and John W. McMillen, of. Akron; Horace A. Miller, of Cuya­hoga Falls; James Butler and Henry N. Day, of Hudson, and John Carey, of Millersburg. Perkins was elected president, Day, secretary, and McMillen, treasurer.

Officials of the proposed railroad estimated it would cost $1,000,­000. Almost every person of means along the proposed route took a block of stock. Nevertheless, the officials soon learned they would have to have additional support if the road was to become a reality. So they induced the State Legislature to pass an act requiring Summit County to take $100,000 worth of the stock, provided the subscription was approved by the voters.

The all-important election was set for June 21, 1851. An intensive campaign was waged to win public support—but the opposition was strong. Many tax payers indignantly declared that the county should not be saddled with such a backbreaking debt just to bring in a rail­road—the canals and stagecoaches had taken care of transportation needs in the past and would do so in the future. Feeling against the sub­scription ran especially high in sections of the county through which the proposed railroad would not pass.

But when the ballots were finally counted it was learned that the subscription advocates had won, 2,432 to 1,605, thanks to landslide votes in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, the former approving 737 to 3 and the latter 275 to 12. Eight townships voted against the subscription and even Middlebury turned it down, 72 to 56.

Immediately after the subscription was authorized, the county issued $100,000 worth of bonds, bearing 7 per cent interest, and the railroad officials awarded the contract for the road's construction to the firm of Becker & Rust, of Pittsburgh. Construction work started at once.

Between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron the railroad closely followed the P. & 0. Canal.

Leaving the canal about a quarter mile west of Old Forge, the railroad ran southwestward to Summit Street which it followed to the southern boundary of the town,-a right-of-way in the street having been granted by the town council. To take that route, a deep cut had to be made, necessitating the immediate construction of a bridge over the tracks at E. Market Street.

A combined freight and passenger depot, rectangular and very plain, was built a few rods south of Mill Street. Across the track, at the western end of Forge Street, repair shops and a turn-table were constructed.

The road was completed to Cuyahoga Falls on June 1, 1852, and during the following month Becker & Rust worked their crews over­time to get the tracks laid to the depot by Independence Day, always the day for Akron's biggest celebrations.

On Saturday, July 3rd, large squads of Akron volunteers turned out to give the tired construction crew a hand. All day long and into the night they worked and, disregarding laws prohibiting labor on the Sabbath, drove in the last spike one hour after midnight.

As soon as the last rail was laid a work train locomotive steamed into town from Old Forge with its whistle opened wide. Then more Sabbath laws were flouted. Cannon boomed and the town bell in the Baptist Church was rung loud and long. Everyone got out of bed and soon the streets were filled with people. Old timers related that nearly all the grog shops in town opened wide their doors, just to help the merrymakers become a little merrier.

The main celebration was deferred until Monday, the 5th. And a big celebration it was. Reported the Beacon: "The town was crowded from morning till evening by visitors from all sections of the county, anxious to receive their first introduction to a locomotive. The boys exploded firecrackers, boys and girls of an older group ogled each other satisfactorily, the thirsty guzzled, according to appetite, villainous liquor and indifferent drinks of a less inspired nature, and thus the effervescent mass spent the day, going home at night in their various vehicles, inconceivably happy and in some cases more than a little uproarious."

The Beacon reported that more than 2,000 persons "rode the cars" that day for the first time, a train of two passenger coaches and a string of flat cars making five trips back and forth to Hudson, no charge being made for the ride. On one of the flat cars a brass field piece was mounted and it was fired so often that the barrel became sizzling hot.

The engine which pulled the train on those historic maiden trips, at the amazing speed of 25 miles an hour, was named the Vulcan. It was a woodburner with a potbellied smokestack, and in the eyes of Akron boys it was the most wondrous mechanical contrivance ever designed by man. They got the thrill of their lives that day loading it with wood and helping turn it around on the turntable.

The Vulcan was piloted by Engineer J. W. Rice who remained with the railroad for many years thereafter. The conductor was Isaac Lewis, a former canal boat captain who had seen the handwriting on the wall, deserted the inland waterway and turned to railroading for a living.

Late in the afternoon the local and visiting dignitaries went to the Empire Hotel to attend a celebration dinner given by Becker & Rust. Colonel Perkins, who was in fine speech making fettle, predicted the new railroad would prove to be a magic strand of steel which would assure everlasting prosperity for his beloved Akron. He christened the railroad the Cleveland, Akron & Zanesville.

During the summer of 1852 the road was extended to Millersburg where it tied in with the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, thereby con­necting Akron with Columbus and Cincinnati. In March, 1853, its name was officially changed to the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati. Later it was changed to the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Delaware and in 1880 to the Cleveland, Akron Columbus.

With the road to Hudson completed and in operation, Akron
dreamed fine dreams of future greatness. But the town did not pin all
its hopes on the little branch connection with the C. & P. That was
just a starter. Another railroad was in sight, a far more important
railroad—a grand trunk line from New York to St. Louis, the Atlantic
& Great Western Railroad, which would pass straight through Akron.
Possibly because local historians often are prone to adulate home‑
town celebrities, credit for conceiving the idea of the trunk line has
been given to Marvin Kent, energetic and astute business man of
Franklin Mills, which later changed its name to Kent to honor him.
According to the ancient, oft-told story, Kent was so irked when
the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad ignored Franklin Mills and passed
the village by, two miles to the north, that he devised the plan for the
New York-St. Louis railroad which of course would pass through the
village where his family had large property interests. Thereafter, said the tale tellers, Kent dedicated his life to making the railroad a reality. All that is most romantic and quite interesting, but it doesn't jibe exactly with the facts.

The truth is that the Atlantic & Great Western was conceived and backed from its inception by eastern railroad barons who were heavy stockholders in the Erie Railroad. And they in turn were backed by British financiers who were never loath to making a few million quick dollars through American railroad promotion schemes.

The grand strategy provided for building a railroad which would connect with the Erie at Salamanca, N. Y., and with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, at Dayton, 0., thereby forming the 1200-mile trunk line which the promoters wanted.

The real backers of the project kept in the background. They did not want rival railroad barons to learn what they were planning and, above all they did not want members of state legislatures to get an ink­ling of their designs—legislators in those days looked upon railroad promoters, especially Easterners, with a jaundiced eye.

It was essential, however, that the promoters should deal with state governments—separate charters had to be obtained in New York, Penn­sylvania and Ohio. To do this, and not show their hand, the promoters got the secret support of prominent men in each community through which the proposed road was to pass. Thereafter, these very important persons carried the ball, securing charters for ostensibly local projects, promoted by local men who had no ulterior motives.

Two citizens of Portage County who rallied to the promoters' cause were Marvin Kent and his father Zenas Kent. The order of those names should be reversed—Zenas' name undoubtedly should have been given first. He was truly a sagacious man and knew full well how to protect his interests in dealing with high-powered promoters. His son Marvin was just learning—but learning fast.

In Summit County the influential men who agreed to lend a hand were Colonel Simon Perkins, Gen. Lucius V. Bierce and Harvey P. Spelman, of Akron, and Dr. Daniel Upson, of Tallmadge.

In Columbus, these men, aided by another potent group from Trumbull County, began lobbying for a seemingly local road with the modest title of Coal Hill Railroad. The charter they sought—they got. Before it was granted, on March 10, 1851, the name of the road was changed to the still modest Franklin & Warren Railroad.

The charter was anything but modest. It authorized the incorpo­rators to issue up to two million dollars worth of stock and build almost any kind of a railroad they wanted to build. Having been written by the promoters' own attorneys it quite naturally was an all-embracing instrument.

Some idea regarding the value of this charter can be obtained from the experience of the promoters in Pennsylvania. There the legis­lators could not be persuaded to cooperate and in the end the railroad men had to buy the existing charter of the Pittsburgh & Eric. For it they paid $400,000.

In New York, the solons were more accommodating and granted a charter as graciously as did the legislators of Ohio.

The pretense of fostering purely local projects was continued by the separate groups in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York until all the needed charters were obtained. Then, early in 1854, the mask was dropped and the name Atlantic & Great Western was adopted by all three. Each one, however, retained its own corporate identity for more than a decade thereafter, the Franklin & Warren outfit being known as the A. & G. W. Company of Ohio, of which Marvin Kent was president.

With the charters secured, the promoters early in 1854 began selling stock, mainly in England and in the East. To permit the invest­ing public to take full advantage of this unparalleled opportunity to obtain riches they increased the capitalization of the Ohio company alone from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000. Millions of dollars worth of bonds also were offered for sale.

In the beginning, stock and bond sales came up to expectations and late in June, 1854, a contract for laying the 240 miles of track between the Pennsylvania state line and Dayton was awarded to Henry Doolittle. It amounted to nearly $7,000,000 and was said to have been the largest contract taken by one man up to that time in the United States.

Then, on July 4th, President Marvin Kent of the Ohio company broke ground for the new road at Franklin Mills by removing a shovel­ful of earth for the right-of-way.

For a year or so construction work was carried on steadily but then it was gradually curtailed. Stock and bond sales had steadily diminished and the company's coffers were becoming empty. And after the Demo­cratic victory in the national election of 1856, sales practically ended and work on the road was halted.

Blue days followed, not only for the A. & G. W. Company of Ohio but for the entire country. And, of course, for Akron as well.

Nowhere in the nation was there real prosperity. In the industrial centers, wages were lowered to a starvation level. Manufacturing heads said they were unable to pay more because the Democrats had cut pro­tective tariffs and thereby let down the bars to ruinous competition from abroad. Democrats charged Wall Street with causing a depression so it could regain control of the nation's money.

Everywhere there was dissension and strife. A growing army of Socialists demanded free homesteads. The Whigs demanded higher tariffs, internal improvements and banking and currency reforms. The planter aristocracy of the South demanded stricter enforcement of fugitive slave laws and drastic cuts in federal expenditures.

With each passing month the national depression worsened, and the North and the South drifted farther apart as their widely divergent interests clashed more and more. Daily it became more apparent that a great national conflict was inevitable.

Venture capital went into hiding. Business stagnated. Manu­factories closed. Unemployment increased steadily. The A. G. W. railroad was just one of countless projects which were blocked by lack of money.

The depression and the threat of war which hung like a pall over the nation had a dire effect in Akron, just as it did everywhere. They served to intensify to a great degree the economic troubles which had beset the town since the 1850s hewn.