Men and History of Bucyrus Railroads

CHAPTER ONE – BUCYRUS EAGER TO INVEST IN RAILROADS Bucyrus and Crawford County dug deep into their pockets to build railroads through the budding county. Not only was Bucyrus interested in industry and agriculture, but it was also interested in minerals and moving passengers without the struggle of the roads of that time. By the year 1850 railroads were being built in Ohio and the first one to cross the county would be the C.C.C. road running diagonally through Crestline and Galion. Galion was a struggling village of 500 to 600 people, but the C.C.C. and B. & I. were built and the population “trebled” to 1,967. Ten years later the Atlantic and Lake Erie came, and in 10 years another increase to 3,523. In 25 years Galion became one of the most thriving in the state with a population of over 5,000. Bucyrus, the county seat had good reason for concern. In 1850 Crestline was a forest that Col. Crawford’s and the Continental armies had blazed through. Three railroads came in quick succession and the population in 1860 numbered 1,487. Bucyrus, on the other hand, had an 1850 population of 1,365, and concerned investors worked hard to secure a railroad, The Atlantic & Lake Erie which, would become the Pennsylvania Railroad in time. By 1860 Bucyrus’ population increased 60 percent to 2,180, and by 1880 her population was 3,380, still playing tag with Galion. Then came the T&OC and by 1890 her population had jumped to 5,974, an increase of 76 percent. Crestline became the pivotal point of all the railroads. The Ohio and Pennsylvania RR decided to go no further than Crestline,providing the Ohio and Indiana RR would begin their railroad at that point, and provided the Bellefontaine and Ohio would commence at the same place. The proposition was accepted and for several years Crestline was the starting and ending point of several railroads. There were other railroads building in the county including the 6ft. guage Atlantic & Great Western that reached Galion in 1863 and would be completed to Dayton in 1864. In 1880 it was sold to the Pennnsylvania and Ohio RR and the new owners would change the railroad to standard guage in just one day with work crews all up and down the line, missing only one train and delaying a couple of others. This would become the Erie RR, with Galion being its only station in the county. Galion would also become a big railroad town with the Erie building big shops and a division point. The “Big Four, C.C.C.&C.” also, a division point on the Atlantic and Great Western (Bert line) that connected there. Galion became the metropolis of Crawford County. The Bucyrus people engineered a plan and in 1850 a charter was granted for building a railroad from Bucyrus to Toledo. The eastern part of the county had an outlet with the railroads in Crestline nearing completion. The western part needed an outlet to the lake and with the Ohio and Pennsylvania reaching Bucyrus, the town could look forward to becoming a great business center. Even before the project got started the Ohio and Pennsylvania had decided to end its track at Crestline. This was a severe blow to the hopes of Bucyrus as the east and west road was more important than anything else, so all consideration was reluctantly abandoned, and the people of Bucyrus took upon themselves the herculean task of building the road from Crestline to Ft. Wayne. On March 20, 1850, charter was granted to build 131 miles of railroad; Robert Lee and John Frantz of Leesville, John Anderson, George Lauck, Willis Merriman, Josiah S. Plants, John J. Bowman, George Quinby, John Sims, John A. Gormly, Zoloman Rowse, Aaron Carey and C. Widman of Bucyrus. Also, David Ayres, Robert McKelly, Henry Peters of Upper Sandusky joined in the work. In just four years the railroad was built. Fifteen years passed. A necessity of a railroad from the coalfields in southeastern Ohio to Lake Erie at Toledo was apparent and the Atlantic and Lake Erie RR was incorporated. The Ohio Central was to start at Pomeroy on the Ohio River, through the mineral rich counties of Athens and Perry up to Bucyrus and on to Toledo. From Bucyrus it was the original railroad proposed in 1850 and Bucyrus took an active interest in it from the start, Daniel W. Swigart being President of the new road and James B. Gormly, treasurer, both Bucyrus men. Meetings were held in various towns along the line, and in 1869 the preliminary survey was made. In February, 1872, a contract was dealt to Michael Moran, and W. V. and A. M. McCracken, of Bucyrus, to grade the road from Bucyrus to Toledo. In July another contract was made with B. B. McDonald & Co., of Bucyrus to lay the rails on two sections from Bucyrus north. The same year, the contract was made for the bridge over the Sandusky River at Bucyrus, together with the long trestle of nearly half-a-mile necessary to cross the stream. In 1873 the panic came on, and it was impossible to get capital interested in any investment, but the projectors of the road through Bucyrus persevered. Bucyrus had invested over $100,000 in the road; other sections had given freely. In September 1875, the condition of the road was at its worst, and a meeting was held at Bucyrus to devise ways and mans to save what had already been invested and to complete the road. The president made a report at that meeting stating that a proposition had been made to sell a portion of it, which would be detrimental to the interests of Crawford and Wyandot, and other counties. This proposition had been temporarily defeated by the influence of the friends of Bucyrus on the board of directors. But, the road was in debt so heavily that unless something was done immediately the Atlantic & Lake Erie must be abandoned. The proposition was that if $450,000 could be raised, the more pressing obligations could be met and the road completed. This sum was divided along the line, and $50,000 assigned to Crawford County. On top of the sum already subscribed, the task was a difficult one, but the hardy men raised the amount. Construction went ahead slowly, every attempt was made to reduce expenses to the minumum. The Bucyrus Foundry and Machine Co. went into the railroad car business. They built cars to be used in the construction work; second-hand locomotives were purchased and put to use in the building of the road and little by little the work progressed, and finally in the summer of 1880 the first train came to Bucyrus. It was less than a generation since Bucyrus had built the Ohio and Indiana Railroad, and now descendants of the men who had built that first road had overcome all difficulties, and secured another railroad for Bucyrus. The president of the Atlantic & Lake Erie was Daniel W. Swigart, a son-in-law of George W. Sweney, one of the active workers for the Ohio and Indiana. The active workers for the Oho and Indiana; the secretary and treasurer was James B. Gormly, whose father John A. Gormly was treasurer of the original Ohio and Indiana. Among others connected with the enterprise are Col. W. C. Lemert, a grandson by marriage of Samuel Norton, one of the heavy subscribers to the Ohio and Indiana. Horace and William Rowse, sons of Zalmon Rowse, a director of the Ohio and Indiana; W. V., A. M. and Charles McCraken, sons of James McCracken, another active supporter of the O&K (McCracken Road namesake). Thomas C. Hall, who had been one of the builders of the O & I and now with his son Joseph E. Hall. The Halls were the maternal grandparents of the Blicke’s. They built the railroad west from Vernon Junction east of Crestline to Bucyrus and beyond. The Hall family built the (Blicke) house that David Pirnstill resides in (2002) at that time.

CHAPTER 2 – BUCYRUS IN A FAVORABLE POSITION After the road was completed, the influence of Bucyrus, and the work the people of that town had done for the railroad, secured a favorable proposition for the location of the shops at Bucyrus. But, Bucyrus capital was already in the road up to its limit. A friendly legislature was appealed to, and D. W. Swigart, James B. Gormly, W. C. Lemert, Dr. C. Fulton, S. R. Harris and George W. Teel secured the passage of an act allowing the town by a vote of the people to bond itself for $50,000 to build railroad shops. The proposition carried almost unanimously and the shops were secured. For more than 30 years they gave employment to hundreds of men with a large monthly pay roll that added materially to the prosperity of Bucyrus, which had taken its position as one of the important cities of Ohio with a population of 5,974, up 78 percent 10 years. When the railroad was reorganized in 1878 the name was changed to the Ohio Central, and it was sold at that time for $106,668. Later a western division was added from Columbus to Toledo to take care of the increasing traffic from the coal-fields to the Lake. The railroad operated for almost 100 years and was melted into the New York Central, then Penn-Central, later, Conrail and today (2002) is part of the CSX system. Several changes happened along the way. In 1911 the bustling railroad required additional room for its shops and trackage. The only way to secure it was from the County fair ground, which adjoined the railroad property on the south. The fair ground could not spare the land. The citizens promptly formed a company. They bought the entire 30 acres belonging to the fair association, at $1,000 per acre, and sold the Lake Shore system (NYC) the eight acres they wanted at $400 an acre, and the remainder of the grounds was to be laid out as an addition to Bucyrus. The Fair Association immediately purchased a new site across the road of 60 acres at $300 an acre, still hefty prices in those days. Other railroads would be built across the northern and eastern parts of the county through Chatfield, New Washington, and Tiro. One, the Northern Ohio was to be the fastest and most direct route between Pittsburgh and Chicago but the grand plans never materialized, and it would become “The Pumpkin Vine,” the Akron, Canton, and Youngstown, passing only through Barberton where it had yards. The other line would go from Vernon Junction west of Mansfield to Toledo and hosted the “Red Arrow” a crack passenger train that would wreck in Tiro in 1947. On Feb. 8, 1832, a young Ohio legislature passed an act incorporating the Delaware, Marion and Sandusky Railroad, and among the incorporators again were E. B. Merriman, Zalmon Rowse and Henry St. John. It was a time when there was a craze for railroad building all over the state, and, like dozens of other railroads incorporated at that time, nothing came of it. Nearly 60 years passed and all the original projectors had long since moldered into dust when on April 12, 1889, practically the same road was again incorporated as the Columbus, Shawnee and Hocking. By the close of the year 12 miles of the road had been built from Sandusky to Bellevue. And, 50 years previous, the Mad River railroad had run its cars on scrap iron rails on this very same roadbed. The C. S. and H. (the short line) is the railroad where first ran the first cars on the first real railroad in the state of Ohio (which had been abandoned 50 years earlier for a new route from Sandusky to Clyde). The work on the C. S. and H. was pushed rapidly from both ends of the line, and it was on Sunday, Dec., 4, 1892, at 12:15 noon, that the last connecting rail was laid that joined the lines. This rail was at the north end of the trestle in Bucyrus. Although the railroad was completed as far as track laying was concerned, there was still much to be done in the way of preparing the roadbed, and securing the rolling stock. On Monday, April 17, 1893, the first regular trains began running on the road, and the people turned out all long the line with demonstrations and rejoicing.

CHAPTER THREE – THE JOHN BULL WENT THROUGH BUCYRUS This was the last railroad built in Crawford County, with its “well ballasted track, heavy steel rails, monster locomotives, and handsomely finished, easily riding cars.” Everything was new and modern and presented the strongest contrast to the track and equipment of the pioneer days of railroading. It was on that April Monday the train went through, representative of the highest type of railroad development. Then, three days later, on April 20th, the contrast came. A great exposition was to be opened at Chicago (a year late) to commemorate the discovery of America by Columbus, 401 years previous. The first locomotive ever brought to America was to pass through Bucyrus. Over 1,000 school children and double that number of citizens were at the station when the little locomotive, the “John Bull” hardly larger than a steam traction engine, pulling its two small cars, came round the bend, puffing and blowing as if it appreciated the full measure of its responsibility. It came up to the station very slowly, through two dense ranks of people, who crowded both sides of the track, leaving only room for it to pass. It looked small and it looked old, and even the veteran pioneers present had become so accustomed to the modern trains that they too were astonished at the smallness and crudeness of the engine and coaches. In their early day they had regarded the John Bull as a wonder and a marvel of science of transportation. “When the train stopped, men and boys and women and girls crowded around the little cars, and went inside, finding them so low that a tall man must stoop. Common wooden seats ran along the sides; there were little windows, placed there only to give light, so high that one must stand up or kneel upon the seat to look out. These windows could not be opened; there were no lights for after dark, so when the shades of evening fell, the passengers rode in darkness. The engine weighed 10 tons, as was the same as when it was first ran in America, except that it had been changed from wood to coal burning fuel. The tender had a capacity of about a ton of coal, and the water-tank about 1,500 gallons of water. The water was sufficient for 30 miles the coal about three times that,” Hopley writes. Following the little train was one of modern construction. The locomotive, weighing 80 tons, easily drew its long line of parlor cars and sleepers, and diner, and all fitted with every modern improvement and filled with the officers and guests of the Pennsylvania RR Company. From Philadelphia to Chicago this finest locomotive of modern construction restrained its power, followed its wheezing ancestor, decrepit with age, as if it were exercising a fatherly and protecting care over him which it no doubt was,” Hopley ended. The speed of both trains was of course governed by the motive power of the John Bull and it took nine hours to go from Bucyrus to Ft. Wayne, a bit over 14 miles per hour. The county quickly found that taxing railroads was fun and profitable. The appraisal for the county in 1912 was $8,758,680 nearly one fifth of the $52, 453,120 of all property on the tax duplicate of Crawford. Streets in Bucyrus were named after Swigart, who got only two blocks, and Plants who only got one block. The others who laid their fortunes on the line for Bucyrus didn’t fare as well. Lemert got a hamlet on the T. & O. C. north west of town, Donnenwirth had a tavern and brewery.

Quinby built a ten store-room block on Bucyrus’ Washington square that would last until the end of the 20th Century then fall to a Federalist style bank. The Halls and Blicke’s went into the building and banking business. The founder of the Julliard School of Music in New York City was one of those. His portrait hung in the Bucyrus City Bank until Mr. Blicke died in 2001, and the bank was sold. Biddle and McCracken got roads named after them, and Zalmon Rowse, Sweney and the Gormlys remain on headstones. Sam Norton, Merriman and others rest in the Union Cemetery, “near stacks of headstones that the county doesn’t take very good care of “ says a former county employee. As for the railroads; what’s left of the T&OC is in pieces with Bucyrus shops and industrial track still intact as Transco Railroad car repair shops extending from Rensselaer Street to just south of Southern Ave. A diverted industrial branch uses the T&OC trestled embankment over the “party bridge” eight miles out to Spore Quarry, where as many as 60 cars of stone still make their way to market behind behemoth diesel locomotives too heavy for the aging track. The little white wooden station at Plymouth Street waits patiently for the Bucyrus Preservation Society to locate it near the High Victorian Gothic passenger station at 700 E. Rensselaer Street. The station will hold memorabilia of the Bucyrus Railroads and Industry when returned to its original regalia. It will open as a operating station-museum and community center after funds are raised, hopefully in 2004. The Atlantic and Lake Erie became the Pennsylvania Railroad and hosted as many as 50 trains an hour during the war years. Crack passenger trains like the Broadway Limited, Pennsylvanian, Manhattan Limited, Liberty Limited, and more would flash through Bucyrus at speeds over 70 miles-an-hour with the last passenger train, the Capitol Limited, eastbound on Nov., 12, 1992. The railroad was acquired by merger into the Penn-Central in 1965 and into Conrail in 1977, later acquired by the CSX Corporation in 1999, with trackage rights to the Norfolk-Southern Corporation. Although signs along the right-of- way boast “Increased Train Traffic,” the road, which was home to the “nations railroad,” is now single-tracked and only sees a few trains a day. In contrast, the last railroad through Bucyrus is the busiest. The old Hocking Valley, Columbus to Sandusky line was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad to move Norfolk and Western coal trains to Sandusky, Ohio coal docks in the 20’s. Over the years it has stayed continuously busy with 30 or more coal trains a day pulled by the famous J-1 Pennsylvania steam engines, Big Santa Fe’s and all manner of diesels into ownership by the Norfolk-Southern Corporation, successor to Norfolk &Western. Today the railroad is still heavily ballasted with heaviest 155 lb. rails, and being double-tracked from Columbus to Bellevue, with Bucyrus the only single track remaining. Much of the railroad's coal now goes to power plants, but the Sandusky docks and the oldest 12 miles of railroad roadbed in Ohio still operate.

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