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354 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
contractor made a large fortune out of the arrangement with
the Company. The locomotive "Orange" did duty in the
work of construction on that part of the railroad. J. S. T.
Stranahan, Joseph White, and Horace G. Phelps did much
of the work as sub-contractors on the road between Elmira
and Corning.
The railroad was so far complete between Binghamton and
Owego on lune i, 1S49, that an excursion train from New
York, bearing distinguished guests, was run as far as Binghamton
on May 31st, and on to Owego the next morning.
This first passenger train arrived at Owego at ten o'clock
a.m., June 1, 1849. Church bells were rung and cannon
were fired. Considerable preparation had been made to
celebrate the occasion so long waited for. Hon. Thomas
Farrington was President of the day ; Hon. John M. Parker,
E. S. Sweet, Esq., Hon. John J. Taylor, and Franklin Slosson,
Vice-Presidents; Col. N. W. Davis, Marshal. A dinner for
the invited guests was spread in the big dining-room of the
depot (Owego having been designated as a dining station),
and a public feast on platforms outside, by S. B. 1 )ennis,
There was no general jollification made over the opening
of the railroad to Elmira, the firsttrain from New York on
which occasion arrived at Elmira on the morning of October
2, 1849. It was welcomed suitably and joyously by the Elmira
people.
As the railroad approached Corning, the people of the
Canisteo Valley, in Steuben County, through which the original
route of the railroad was surveyed, became greatly
alarmed over rumors that the people of the Cohocton Valley,
especially at Bath, where the influential Magees and Cooks
dwelt, had brought such arguments to bear upon the Company
that it was considering the propriety of diverting the railroad
between Corning and Hornellsville from the Canisteo Valley
to a route that would follow the Cohocton Valley instead, by
the way of Bath.
To protest against this, and to show the Company how
unwise it would be to make such a change as that, a great
meeting of all that excited country was held at Mrs.
Jones' Tavern, Cameron, Steuben County, July 28, 1S49.
Jeremiah Baker was chairman; John K. Hale, secretary.
William M. Hawley, Nathaniel Finch, Thomas J. Reynolds,
William R. Smith, and F. C. Denninny drafted, as the sense
of the meeting, a memorial, which was printed in a pamphlet.
'Phe committee reported to a meeting of people held at
Buck's Hotel, Addison, August 24th, following. Gen. Ransom
Rathbone was chairman of the meeting and Nathaniel
Finch read the memorial, and William R. Smith, Gen. Ransom
Rathbone, and James Alley were appointed a committee
" to go to New York, and present to the President and Chief
Engineer, and each of the Directors, and to such others as
they may deem expedient, a copy of the same." Eloquent
speakers, representing the Company's interest, chief among
them being Asher Tyler, of Elmira, addressed the meeting,
assuring the people that the Company would take its railroad
to that route that gave it the most encouragement, and thus
secured many a Canisteo Valley farmer's hard-earned dollars,
grants of land, and rights of way in behalf of a railroad that
was bound to go that way, anyhow, for the light of subsequent
events showed that there had at no time been any probability
of the route being diverted from the Canisteo Valley.
The Hon. Asher Tyler was a man of much consequence
in the Southern Tier of New York, as well as elsewhere, in
his day. He was born at Bridgewater, Oneida County,
N. Y., May 10, 1798, and was graduated from Hamilton
College, in that county, in the class of 1817. He studied
law, not for the purpose of a general practice, but that he
might apply it as agent of the Devereux Land Company, that
had considerable real estate in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua
proprietor of the Tioga House. President Farrington delivered
a speech of welcome to the distinguished guests that
arrived on the train, ft was responded to by William E. counties. He was a member of Congress from the Cattaraugus
Dodge, President Loder not being present. After dinner,
district in 1S43-45, and was contemporary there with
speeches were made by Shepherd Knapp; William E. Robinson,
of the New York Tribune; Hon. James Brooks, of the
New York Express, and E. S. Sweet, and Hon. S. B. Leonard,
some of the most distinguished men of the country. He
became friends with them and retained their friendship as
long as he lived, corresponding with many, and being visited
of Owego.
by them at his Elmira home. He conducted the purchase of
the land for the Erie in all of the counties east of Broome,
examining titles and getting clear rights. His judgment was
of the best, and there is no record of its ever having gone
astray. During this period of his life he lived at Ellicottville,
Cattaraugus County. In 1848 he went to Elmira to
live, and spent the remainder of his days there. He died at
the age of more than eighty years. His wife was the daughter
of John Youle, an ironmaster of the city of New York.
The Youles were of English origin, and the family, in the
early part of the century, was one of the highest in social
standing in the city. The rare Tyler homestead in Elmira is
occupied by his daughters, ladies of high culture and accomplishment.
Nathaniel Finch, of Hornellsville, succeeded Asher Tyler as
General Land Agent, and was made a General Attorney of the
Company. He was a native of Greenwich, Conn., and settled
at Hornellsville in 1837. He was a lawyer, and was employed
by the Erie as early as 1841, to secure rightof way for the
railroad through the Canisteo Valley and along the Western
Division. He subsequently became the Erie's attorney
and claim agent for that section. He remained in that
service until his death in 1866. He was succeeded by his
son, John M. Finch, who had been his father's assistant since
the age of eighteen, and who held the place until 1869, when
he retired.
Much of the route of the old piled roadway of 1841, in the
Canisteo Valley, was abandoned for a more feasible one, and