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THE STORY OF ERIE 217
outside persons, among them James Fisk, Jr.
Early
in 1870 Fisk sent word to Kilgour that he would liketo
see him at the Erie offices in New York.
Kilgour
called, and Fisk went straight to business.
I want an interest in those bluestone quarries,"
said Fisk.
Kilgour told Fisk that there was no possible way
for him to obtain an interest in the business.
Fisk.
'Then we must freeze somebody out!" said
Kilgour replied that such a thing was out of the
question.
' You can't get in the business any way that I can
see," said Kilgour.
"Then you can have no further switch or track
privileges on the Erie!" exclaimed Fisk. "I'll
tear your sidings out to-morrow! "
Without switching privileges at Pond
Eddy the
bluestone quarries would be practically worthless,
but Kilgour, who was a bluff and emphatic individual,
put on his hat, and shaking his fistat the Prince
of Erie, thundered :
' You and your railroad can both go to hell, Mr.
Fisk! You can't get your finger in my business! "
Kilgour strode out of
straight to his home in Passaic.
that Fisk had ruined him.
pleased Fisk.
Fisk's office, and went
He told his wife
Kilgour's manner had
He sent one of his henchmen, a man
named George E. Rust, to follow the irate quarry
owner, and to beg of him to return and have further
talk with Fisk.
The bluestone operator refused to
listen to any overtures, until his wife begged him to
do so, and not be ruined without a struggle.
He
went to Fisk's office again next da}', and the result
of the interview was that the Pennsylvania Bluestone
Company ceased to exist, and a new company
under the name of the New York and Pennsylvania
Bluestone Company was formed, with a capital of
$1,000,000. John F. Kilgour was made President,
and miles of switches were built along the railroad
at the Erie Company's expense, to accommodate
the business of the new concern.
Gould, Fisk, and William M. Tweed, with Kilgour,
were the principal stockholders in the company.
Individual operators in bluestone had gone into the
business by the score along the Erie, as it had been
discovered that the country on both sides of the
river for miles was one vast bluestone quarry.
These
small operators were " frozen out," for no railroad
privileges were given to them.
got control of the whole region.
The big company
Soon after the
new company began operations, contracts of the kind
so plentiful in the days of Tweed were made with the
bluestone company by Tweed, in his official capacity,
for supplying New York City with stone from
the F"isk-Tweed-Kilgour quarries.
Before the schemes of the combination were well
afoot, however, the downfall of the Tweed
came.
Ring
That was the first great blow to the Bluestone
Company, for its contracts would have resulted
in the payment of millions to it by the city.
Quickly
following the fall of Tweed and the Ring, came the
death of Fisk.
With this came the end of the New
York and Pennsylvania Bluestone Company. At
the time of the Gould-Watson agreement the Bluestone
Company was practically insolvent, if not
already in the hands of a receiver, which
could
readily have been ascertained by the Committee of
Directors making
inquiry at Port Jervis, N. Y.,
on the line of the railroad, where the facts were
notorious.
Glenwood Coal Company: Shares, $1,000,000; bonds, $624,000.
—Gould bought the coal lands with Erie funds, then organized
the company, to whom he transferred the lands, receiving in
payment the capital stock. The Erie Treasury was reimbursed
with Glenwood Coal Company's bonds, so that no money was
ever paid for the stock. The $624,000 in bonds which Gould
turned over at this time were bonds which Gould had in his
possession as an officer of the Coal Company. They were not
in his individual possession, as they had never been issued by
the Coal Company.
Suspension Bridge Company: Stock, $80,000.—The Suspension
Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad Company was organized
to construct a road between the points indicated by its title.
Mortimer Smith contracted to build the road for $1,000,000 in
bonds, and $500,000 in stock. Smith was merely the agent of
Erie officials, who purchased the bonds at 65 per cent, of par
value, and divided the stock around pro rata. The road was
built on the proceeds of the bonds. Gould undoubtedly sold
his bonds, which were guaranteed by the Erie Company, at a
large advance.
Allegany Transportation Company: Stock, $450,000.—This was
a pipe line company in the Pennsylvania oil regions. Henry
Harley firstsold Gould an interest in his pipe line in 1868 for
$100,000. On the purchase of another line, Gould paid as his
share $12,500, and then he afterward purchased the interest of
Gen. Robert B. Potter, Receiver of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railroad, in the same lines for $40,000—total payment
by Gould $152,500. On the formation of the Allegany Transportation
Company, which was the corporate life of Harley's