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THE STORY OE ERIE n
NOTICE OF INCORPORATION.
Notice is hereby given that an application will be made to
the Legislature at its next session for the passage of an act
incorporating a company with a capital of ten millions of
dollars for the construction of a railroad from the city or
county of New York to that part of Lake Erie lying between
the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek and the Pennsylvania line,
together with a branch of the Alleghany River, and also for
the establishment of a ferry across such part of the North
River as the route of the main line of the railroad may pass
over.
November 2, 1831.
To further the interests of such a railroad, citizens
of Owego issued a call for a convention at that place,
as being a central one and convenient for the purpose,
to discuss the matter by delegates from all the
counties interested.
This was approved by all, and
the date of the convention was fixed for December
20, 1831. The Ptimpellys and Drakes of Owego,
prominent citizens and large landowners, were the
prime movers in the jDroposed railroad at Owego,
and at Binghamton the Whitneys and other leading
people brought their influence to bear in favor of
it, although that community believed more in the
value and importance of the Chenango Canal than
they did in the efficacy of a railroad to enhance their
interests.
The publication of the applications for a railroad
charter had an effect on the people of the southern
tier and interior counties of New York that was by
no means assuring to the sponsors of the proposed
company in the western counties. The railroad
was to be nearly five hundred miles long, and that a
work of such magnitude could be carried to a successful
issue by one corporation these people doubted.
The State itself, with all the strength of its government
and the resources of its treasury, they argued,
had been ten years in constructing the Erie Canal,
and here was a work, seemingly as formidable, to be
boldly undertaken by a private corporation.
They
affected to see only utter failure as the outcome of
such an unheard-of project, and insisted that there
should be at least two separate companies chartered.
Conventions were held at various places in these and
the adjoining counties, the delegates being composed
of the representative men of those portions of the
State, and strong protests were made
against the
single charter project. At a convention held at
Binghamton, December 15, 1831, at which the counties
of Seneca, Tompkins, Tioga (which
then included
Chemung County), Broome, and Orange, in
New York State, and the Pennsylvania counties of
Wayne, Susquehanna, and Luzerne were represented,
the plan of two charters instead of one was
discussed and approved—that is, the convention advocated
the application to the Legislature for a charter
for a railroad from Owego to New York City,
and
approved of the project for a railroad from
Owego to Lake Erie. At this convention, as at
all the county conventions that had been held, delegates
were appointed to attend the general convention
of people along the line of the proposed railroads
at Owego on December 20, 1831.
As it was
from the result of the action of this gathering of the
representative men of the counties then interested
in the undertaking that the New York and Erie Railroad
Company and the railroad from the tidewater
to Lake Erie were born, the proceedings of the
Owego Convention, although only the cold, formal,
official report of them is possible at this late day,
are an important part of the history of Erie, and
are reproduced here as they were published in the
Owego Gazette of December 22, 1831, together with
the comment of that newspaper on the gathering and
its work:
RAILROAD
CONVENTION.
One of the most numerous and respectable conventions.
we venture to say, that has been convened in this State, for
objects of Internal Improvement, was held in this village on
the 20th and 21st inst., on the subject of a railroad from Lake
Erie to the Hudson. It was composed of delegates from
some fifteenor sixteen counties, besides many gentlemen
from various sections interested in the proposed object, not
members of the convention. It is but justice to say, and we
allude to the fact with much pleasure, as evincing the high
estimation in which the proposed improvement is held by an
intelligent public, that the convention embraced much of the
wealth, talent, and enterprise of this enterprising State. We
have only time to remark, that a cordiality of sentiment prevailed,
in relation to the measures to be pursued for the
attainment of the grand object in view, to a degree that
reflects the highest credit on the convention, and furnishes
the most satisfactory evidence that the object will be persevered
in until finallyaccomplished. The proceedings will
be found below.
THE PROCEEDINGS.
At a meeting of delegates from the counties of Chautauqua,
Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Tioga. Broome. Chenango,
Delaware, Otsego, Greene, Sullivan, Tompkins, and Seneca
convened at the village of Owego, on the 20th day of Decern-