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428 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
Orange Hotel. After the days of Gould and Fisk, the glory
of the famous dining-place began to wane, and it was rapidly
becoming a spot of solitude amid splendor, when, on the
night of December 26, 1873, 'l was completely destroyed by
fire. The building and its furnishings had cost $350,000.
For years its charred ruins disfigured the landscape thereabout,
and, during [ewett's time, were at last cleared away.
To-day the spot is covered with railroad tracks, and not a
thing remains to remind this generation of the splendor and
folly that once ruled there.
The second dining-saloon on the Erie was at the Port
The general passenger agents were not much in evidence
Jervis station. It was started soon after the railroad reached as factors in the management of the Company's business
there. Its first proprietors were J. W. Meginnes and James until the time of Barr. There had been several serious rate
Lytle. Lytle retired from the firm, and Meginnes ran it wars since the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, but the
until 185 7, when he died. His widow conducted it a short general passenger agent's name never appeared to indicate
time, when S. O. Dimmick took it and ran it until Port Jervis that the head of that department even so much as made a
was abandoned as a regular dining-place in 1869.
suggestion. The president, the secretary, the general
Narrowsburg became a dining-place when the railroad superintendent, or frequently some prominent director,
was opened to Binghamton. It was conducted by Major usually figured as the one in charge of the business of fixing
Fields, and acquired much fame by the fact that the grand rates or originating methods of conducting the passenger
excursion over the railroad, May 14, 1851, on the occasion department. The general passenger agent's name had never
of the opening to Dunkirk, dined there en route, on that appeared on an official time-table until the Barr incumbency
day. At that dinner, President Fillmore and members of his of the office. Under Barr the individuality of the passenger
cabinet, Daniel Webster among them, and scores of other
notable men of that day, sat down, and made the wayside
department was brought out so that it stood publicly in
stronger contrast to the operating department, with an indication
dining-hall echo with their after-dinner eloquence. Narrowsburg
that it was not subordinate to that department.
became a famous Erie dining-place, and was conducted
later by Commodore C. Murray and afterward by his sons,
C. H. and H. C. Murray, for many years, when the Company
abandoned Narrowsburg as a regular dining-station.
It was not, however, until Mr. Barr's successor, John
N. Abbott, had been appointed, that reform principles and
methods of conducting the immigrant business were introduced
and made effective in improving the revenues of the
Later, Deposit became a dining-station, and Owego, Erie Company, safeguarding the immigrants and commercially
Elmira, Hornellsville, Olean, and Dunkirk had large depot
protecting the interests of the port of New York against
dining-saloons for many years after 1851. Susquehanna was unfair competition through other ports for this valuable
made a leading and regular dining-place early in the 60s, traffic. This was accomplished by a master stroke on the
and the Company erected the immense and costly station part of Mr. Abbott in negotiating contracts with the leading
building there. This dining-saloon was one of the notable transatlantic steamship lines, in 1S73, under which immigrants
ones of the country for more than a quarter of a century.
The Erie dining-saloon at Hornellsville also became famous,
and is remembered to this day.by travellers for its delicious
should be carried from their old homes in Europe to
their new homes in America upon as favorable fares and
conditions via the port of New York as should exist from
waffles.
time to time through any other Atlantic seaport, and
The coming of the dining and hotel cars on the road were consigned to and placed under the protecting care
destroyed the general usefulness of the station dining-saloons. of the Erie Company in Castle Garden, where they were
They became unprofitable, and the greatest of them now shielded from the wiles and solicitations of runners and
depend chiefly on their lunch counters.
sharpers, and, when ready to start for the West, instead of
EVOLUTION IN THE PASSENGER SERVICE.
In May, 1S52, Henry Fitch resigned as general ticket
agent of the Erie. He was succeeded by George L. Dunlap.
In 1857 Mr. Dunlap retired from the railroad business and
went to Chicago, where he made a fortune in real estate, and
where he still lives. He was succeeded by C. B. Greenough.
In 1S62 Mr. Greenough left the Erie, and went to Brazil, from
the government of which country he had obtained liberal concessions
for constructing street railways. He made a fortune
there, but died in Rio Janeiro. Following Mr. Greenough
came William K. Pair. When he came to the Erie, Mr.
llarr was and had been for several years general agent at
Buffalo of the Buffalo and Erie, the Cleveland, Painesville
and Ashtabula, the Cleveland antl Toledo, and the Michigan
Southern anil Northern Indiana railways, the independent
lines that were subsequently consolidated as the Lake Shore
and Michigan Southern. He remained at the head of the
Erie passenger department until June, 1S72, when he was
succeeded by John N. Abbott, who had been assistant general
passenger agent since 1S69.
being loaded upon baggage wagons or compelled to find
their own way to the railway station, were carried in a commodious
emigrant barge direct from Castle Garden -to the
Erie immigrant station and trains at Jersey City.
The Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New
York adopted resolutions commendatory of this new, humane,
and protective system after it had been successfully
inaugurated.
The details of these arrangements were efficiently administered
by Nicholas Muller, who was appointed emigrant
agent of the Erie in 1S73. This alliance between the Erie
and the steamship lines continued until the emigrant busi-