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 MOHAWK AND HUDSON RAIL ROAD 
 
 THE ITBST EXCUESION ON IT. 
 
 By J. MUN'SELL. 
 
 EEAD BEFOKB THE ALBANY INSTIT0TB, APRIL 20, 1875. 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y. : 
 J. MUNSELL, 82 STATE STREET. 
 1875. 
 
WIS 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022790640 
 
THE 
 
 0bMtt mA Mnhm IKml WimL 
 
 The tradition of an extraordinary excursion upon the 
 rail road between Albany and Schenectady, at an early 
 day in the history of that road, being a subject of much 
 discussion at this time, and not generally well understood , 
 I have endeavored to investigate thoroughly the facts con- 
 cerning the event. Although it occurred within the 
 memory of persons who may now be present, and who 
 witnessed or may have been cognizant of it, there is still 
 no little doubt and controversy about it, especially as to 
 when it took place, and who occupied places on the train. 
 The lithographed representations of it that are frequently 
 met with serve to perpetuate the memory of the mysteri- 
 ous trip, and to excite curiosity respecting it. 
 
 Observing that Knickerbocker began the history of New 
 York with an account of the creation, and that a more 
 recent chronicler has commenced the annals of a neigh- 
 boring inland county with the discovery of America by 
 Columbus, I am disposed to make a starting point at that 
 era in the history of artificial locomotion, when the trans- 
 portation of coals for fuel in England had become so 
 great a strain upon physical exertion, as to stimulate 
 invention in aid of the efforts of man and beast to over- 
 come obstacles in the pursuit of that enterprise. 
 
 Accordingly we find that in 1676, two centuries ago, a 
 rude contrivance was brought into use, % which coals 
 were moved in cars running upon wooden rails ; and it 
 
6 The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Road. 
 
 was not until a century later, that iron rails were intro- 
 duced. Indeed, although a rail road was constructed in 
 France, in 1783, the principal use made of rail roads until 
 near the end of the first quarter of the present century, 
 was'the transportation of coals in England. They were 
 mostly short roads or tram ways among the collieries, and 
 the trains were taken up and down inclined planes, by 
 stationary engines. The era of successful operations for 
 the transportation of passengers upon rail roads by loco- 
 motives propelled by steam power, dawned but half a 
 century ago ; and the plateau familiarly known to us as 
 the pine plain, between Albany and Schenectady, was 
 the theatre of a genuine passenger rail road almost as 
 early as any in the world. 
 
 Overlooking the theories and experiments of Oliver 
 Evans in the last century, we find that in 1812, a pamphlet 
 was published for the purpose of explaining the superior 
 advantage of rail ways and steam carriages over canal 
 navigation, particularly on the peculiarly favorable route 
 from Lake Erie to Hudson's liver, which had been the 
 ancient trail of the Indians, and which will undoubtedly ever 
 remain the natural and most feasible land passage between 
 the two waters. Mr. Stevens of New Jersey endeavored 
 to persuade all who were engaged in public improvements, 
 that rail roads were cheaper and more effective, as well as 
 far more rapid in transit, than was possible to be attained 
 by water. Mr. Featherstonhaugh of Schenectady also 
 put in a plea for rail roads. 
 
 But the great enterprise of constructing the canals, in 
 which the energies of the state were at that time involved, 
 overshadowed all other schemes. Yet no sooner were they 
 completed, and in successful operation, than the project of 
 a system of rail roads parallel to the Erie canal began at 
 once to be persistently agitated. A writer in the Argus 
 of 1825, urged upon capitalists the absolute necessity of their 
 entering upon the construction of a rail road to Schenectady 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Road. 7 
 
 to prevent the city from going to decay through the rivalry 
 of Troy ! And as if that danger was really felt to be immi- 
 nent, we find that in November of that year it was an- 
 nounced agreeably to statute, that an application would be 
 made to the next legislature for an act to incorporate a 
 company to construct a rail road from Schenectady to the 
 Hudson river at Albany or Troy, as should be deemed 
 most advisable. 
 
 The project was brought before the legisliature early in 
 the session of 1826, and a bill to incorporate the Mohawk 
 and Hudson rail road company introduced. On the 10th 
 of March the bill was discussed in the assembly. It is 
 amusing to note the tenor of the arguments advanced by 
 some of the legislators on that occasion. 
 
 Mr. Lush, the Albany member, moved to strike out that 
 part of the bill which gave the company permission to locate 
 the termination of their road at any point of the river lying 
 within the distance of three miles above or below the city 
 of Albany. He hoped the house would not consent to a 
 measure which might have a tendency to divert trade from 
 this city, and carry it to a place below, 'jwhere speculat- 
 ors might purchase land and build up a town which might 
 rival and seriously affect the interests of Albany. The 
 Albany and Schenectady turnpike company had spent 
 much money, he said, in improving a road between the two 
 cities, and had never realized more than two per cent on 
 their investment. 
 
 Mr. Hoffman had yet to learn that the interests of Albany 
 were to be looked to as paramount to those of the state. 
 If the company found it advantageous to terminate the 
 road here, they would no doubt do it ; but if it should be 
 inconvenient from the nature of the ground to do so, they 
 should certainly have elbow room enough to terminate it 
 at any other place. 
 
 ■ Mr. Sill did not know as it was important that the pro- 
 posed road should come out jqst where the old Dutch 
 
8 Th Mohawk and Hudson Mail Road. 
 
 church had stood. The ancient burgers of Albany thought 
 that nothing could be an improvement which went beyond 
 its limits. The City of Hudson owed its origin to such 
 narrow views. Many years ago a number of persons frond 
 the eastern states wished to purchase the ground at the 
 Bouthern extremity of this city, called the pasture ; but the 
 . Albany dons would not sell it, because they did not think 
 it right that population and business should go beyond the 
 old bounds. The consequence was that the immigrants 
 went and settled at the place now called Hudson. Some 
 years ago the Albanians wanted a bridge, but the project 
 was defeated by their quarrelling among themselves, 
 whether it should be opposite one wharf or the other. Some- 
 thing of that sort appears to be going on now. 
 
 The speaker of the house, Clarkson Crolius, thought 
 that passengers and light freight might be easily conveyed 
 upon the road, but he conceived that heavy articles would 
 be transported on the canals, and the revenue of the 
 state derived from that source would not be dimin- 
 ished. It had been said that rail roads in England, had 
 almost superseded the use of canals. The reason might 
 be that the boats were small and the supply of water scant ; 
 the boats in England could, by the aid of machinery, be 
 placed with all their freight upon the railway carriages, 
 but he doubted if our heavy boats would ever be conveyed 
 in that manner. He would like to see the experiment of 
 a rail road tried in this country, and hoped the bill would 
 pass, and that the applicants would be permitted to make 
 the experiment at their own expense. 
 
 G. "W. Featherstonhaugh, in a letter to the mayor, said 
 that transportation of property from Albany to Schenectady 
 was seldom effected in less than two, and sometimes three 
 days. By rail road the communication between the same 
 points would be safely made, in winter and summer, in 
 three hours, at no greater cost than by canal, paying for 
 sixteen instead of twenty-eight miles. He regarded this 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Road. 9 
 
 experiment as a test whether this economical mode of 
 transportation would succeed in this country. At this 
 time the most available and rapid inland travel was by 
 stages, and more capital was invested in them than in any 
 other enterprise carried on in this city. 
 
 The bill passed the assenibly on the 27th of March, 1826, 
 incorporating the company with a capital of $300,000, with 
 liberty to increase it to $500,000, and a duration of fifty 
 years, limiting the time for construction to six years. 
 Stephen Van Kensselaer, known as the old patroon, and 
 G-. W. Feather8,tonhaugh were the only persons named as 
 directors in the charter. 
 
 This seems, therefore, to have been the first charter of 
 what became a successful passenger rail road in this 
 .country. !N'o rail road had been constructed on the 
 American continent, for the conveyance of passengers . by 
 steam power, previous to this date. The South Carolina 
 road was chartered nearly two years later, and its construc- 
 tion begun in 1828. The Delaware and Hudson, and Bal- 
 timore and Ohio roads were also begun in 1828. The first 
 two practical locomotives built in this country, were 
 constructed at the "West Point Foundery, in the city of 
 K'ew York, for the South Carolina road, and the trial trip 
 was made in K"ovember, 1830. The third was the De 
 "Witt Clinton, built at the same foundery, for the Mohawk 
 and Hudson road, and put in operation nearly a year later. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1826, books were opened for sub- 
 scriptions to the stock of the Mohawk and Hudson rail 
 road, and we have the authority of two daily journals, 
 the Albany Daily Advertiser and the Albany Argus, that 
 the stock was eagerly taken by capitalists. But the 
 company seems to have moved with the safest haste from 
 this time forward, for more than four years elapsed before 
 the construction of the road was begun. 
 
 It may be remarked here that the Quincy Mass. road, 
 which is often mentioned as the first rail road in this country, 
 2 
 
10 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 
 
 was built for the purpose of transporting granite from the 
 quarry to tide water, a distance of three miles, was not a 
 passenger road, and was operated by gravitation and horse 
 power, in 1827 ; and that the first substantial and eflfect- 
 ive locomotive put upon an American rail road was the 
 Stourbridge Lion, built in England, and run out of Hones- 
 dale on the Delaware and Hudson road in 1829; but it 
 was abandoned and never brought into practical use, 
 horse power being adopted instead — for the reason that 
 the structure of the road would not admit of the use of a 
 locomotive of so great weight. 
 
 On the 29th of July, 1830, the ceremony of breaking 
 ground for the Mohawk and Hudson road took place near 
 Schenectady, " with a silver spade," by Stephen Van Rens- 
 selaer, then known as the old patroon in contradistinction to 
 his son Stephen, the young patroon. In September it was 
 announced that' the stock of the road had risen to ten per 
 cent above par, and the editor of the Daily Advertiser, 
 always enthusiastic about such enterprises, predicted that 
 trains would make trips between the two cities in three 
 quarters of an hour, and reach Utica from Albany in four 
 hours. The latter was a somewhat, startling prediction, 
 when we consider that the utmost exertion of the stages 
 barely overcame the distance in twelve hours. 
 
 The officers of the company had decided to use steam 
 power, and had ordered two locomotives, one from Stephen- 
 son of England, similar to those that were in use upon the 
 Liverpool and Manchester road, and another from the' 
 "West Point Foundery in the City of New York. On the 
 23d of July, 1831, neither of them had arrived. 
 
 The construction of the road was described by the editor 
 of the Argus, Mr. Croswell, as supported upon square 
 beds of rubble, in which a heavy stone block was imbed- 
 €d, each pier containing eleven cubic feet of block and 
 rubble stone, the piers as being placed three feet from 
 centre to centre, and forming almost a continuous stone 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Hail Head. 11 
 
 ■wall. It was claimed that the construction of the road 
 was superior to any other in the world ! and that the stone 
 filling alone cost as much per mile as the whole of the Balti- 
 more road ; and that it had an important advantage over 
 other roads in being perfectly straight, and consequently 
 less liable to lateral pressure. A force of about 2,000 persons 
 had been employed in its construction. The highest 
 ground on the line was 335 feet above the level of the Hud- 
 son river. 
 
 The locomotive De Witt Clinton arrived by tow boat on 
 the 25th July, 1831, and was put upon the road on the 27th, 
 twelve months from the time when the ceremony of break- 
 ing ground was performed. On the 30th of July an ex- 
 periment was made with the locomotive, but owing to 
 some defect or inexperience in burning Lackawanna coal, 
 the speed did not exceed seven miles an hour, and it was 
 determined to substitute coke. Meantime the road, which 
 was completed and iu use from the junction of the West- 
 ern turnpike and Lydius street, about twelve and a half 
 miles to the brow of the hill at Schenectady, was operated 
 by horse power. Besides platform cars used in the con- 
 struction of the road, .a number of stage coach bodies were 
 placed upon trucks for temporary use, affording seats for fif- 
 teen or eighteen passengers each. On the 3d of August 
 the De Witt Clinton made the trip in one hour and forty-five 
 minutes, and on the 10th they ran two trains each way 
 with coke, making a part of the trip at the rate of thirty 
 miles an hour ! 
 
 Aug. 13, a large company assembled to take a trip on 
 the rail road. The locomotive De Witt Clinton had been 
 found defective in the capacity of the boiler, and portions 
 thereof were returned to the foundery for improvement. 
 The train was moved by horse power, consisting of five 
 ears, each containing from fifteen to eighteen persons, 
 most of whom were notabilities and interested persons, ac- 
 
12 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 
 
 companied by Mr, Cambreling, the president of the com- 
 pany. These vehicles were usually drawn by two horses, 
 driven tandem. 
 
 On the 8th of September, the De Witt Clinton was 
 again upon the rail, but there was now difficulty with the 
 feed pipe, and the train did not return. On the following 
 day the train came over the road in forty-five minutes, but 
 there was still trouble with the feed pipe.r They had 
 gone back to first principles and adopted wood for fuel. 
 
 On the 17th of September, the English locomotive was 
 on the road. Its power and weight being double that of 
 the American engine (12,742 lbs.), great expectations were 
 entertained of its efficiency. A delegation from New 
 York arrived, for the purpose of examining the road pre- 
 paratory to a decision upon the application of the Harlem 
 company, to lay their rails on the Fourth avenue of that 
 city. 
 
 Active measures were also in progress to begin the 
 Schenectady and Saratoga road, and a survey was being 
 made by the Troy and Vermont company. The trustees 
 of the Schenectady turnpike also had got an inkling that 
 something new had turned up, which they had been slow 
 to perceive. A survey was begun by Mr. Cushman with a 
 view to laying down rails, it being claimed that they were 
 invested with rail road privileges; The project was 
 quashed, I am told, by a division of |100,000 of Mohawk 
 and Hudson stock, at par, among the stockholders of the 
 turnpike. 
 
 Although the locomotive De Witt Clinton had been 
 placed on the road in July, and the city officials and other 
 dignitaries had passed over it both by horse and steam 
 power early in August, it was so late as the 22d of Septem-. 
 ber, when the locomotive was advertised to take pas- 
 senger trains. The road was still uncompleted, and used 
 only from the junction, as it was called, two miles 
 from the foot of State street, from whence passengers 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Boad. 13 
 
 were taken to the train by stage coaches. The other 
 terminus of the road was still at the bluff overlooking 
 Schenectady, where passengers were again transferred to 
 stages. The distance traversed was less than thirteen 
 miles. Prom this small beginning, however, it has been 
 claimed, ignoring the South Carolina and the Baltimore 
 and Ohio roads, that this was the first passenger rail 
 road on the American continent operated by a locomotive, 
 entitled to consideration as a success. It was undis- 
 putably the first in the state of New York. 
 
 The precise time when the directors of the road felt 
 prepared to crown the complete success of their labors by 
 a grand excursion, to which were invited the state and 
 city officials, and a number of eminent citizens of New 
 York, was the 24th of September, 1831. There are so 
 many different accounts of this affair, and it is involved in 
 so much doubt and uncertainty that it has been suggested 
 whether, after all, it was not an imaginary event. But 
 we have the truthful portraiture of a portion of the train, 
 the handiwork of Mr. Wm. H. Brown, a remarkable 
 artist, who wrought with a pair of scissors, after the style 
 of the Silhouettes, graphic representations of persons, and 
 of things occurring at that time. This train was so vividly 
 represented by Mr. Brown, that many persons have been 
 led to imagine that they can identify the passengers from 
 his cutting, as we may term it. A lithographic copy of 
 this picture has been made, and extensively circulated, in 
 which certain figures of persons in the cars are designated 
 by numbers and names. 
 
 More inquiry has been made than the importance of the 
 subject demands to verify the names of the persons claimed 
 to have been present; but as five new cars, or coaches, had 
 been put on the road for this occasion, there were not less 
 than eighty passengers in all, and a crowd that could not 
 obtain seats ; therefore the efforts that have been made by 
 several ardent antiquaries through personal inquiry and by 
 
14 The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Road. 
 
 correspondence, to make up an accurate and complete list of 
 the passengers on this train has failed, as might be expected. 
 
 In this picture but two of the coaches are brought into 
 view, which are represented as carrying eight passengers 
 each, while their real capacity was fifteen at least. These 
 vehicles were built by Mr. James Goold at his manufactory 
 in' Union street, and were mere stage coach bodies, placed 
 upon trucks and supported upon thoroughbraces in the 
 manner of stages. They were ordered by Asa Whitney, 
 who had charge of the construction and equipment of the 
 road. The tender was a. platform upon a truck, on which 
 fuel was placed, the supply of water for half the route 
 being taken in at the start, with provision of a tank at the 
 halfway house for water to carry the train through. The 
 trucks were built in Schenectady. 
 
 It is doubtful whether the names collected after so much 
 research, traditional and authentic, really belong to a single 
 trip, or should not rather be distributed among two or 
 three of the early excursions. The chief engineer, John 
 B. Jervis, and the resident engineer, John T. Clark, who 
 acted as conductor before the appointment of such an 
 official ; David Mathews, the engineer and builder of the 
 locomotive, and John Hampson, the fireman, were there. 
 Then follow the names of such invited guests as have sur- 
 vived the lapse of time and memory. 
 
 Churchill C. Cambreling, president of the road. 
 
 Enos T. Throop, governor of the state. 
 
 Charles E. Dudley, senator in congress. 
 
 Azariah C. Plagg, state comptroller. 
 
 Edward P. Livingston, lieatenant governor. 
 
 Joseph Yates of Schenectady, late governor. 
 
 Stephen Van Rensselaer, patroon. 
 
 Francis Bloodgood, mayor of Albany. 
 
 John I. De Graff, mayor of Schenectady. 
 
 Eeuben H. Walworth, chancellor. 
 
 Joseph Alexander, president of the Commercial Bank. 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Bead. 15 
 
 Samuel Swartwout, aud Philip Hone, of New York. 
 
 Edwin Croswell, editor of the Albany Argus. 
 
 Jacob Hays, high constable of ISew York city. 
 
 John Meigs, high constable of Albany. 
 
 Erastus Corning, Lewis Benedict and John Townsend, 
 hardware merchants. 
 
 Jesse Buel Jr., * of the engineer department, who was on 
 the road from the first survey until it was in opera- 
 tion. 
 
 John I. Boyd, merchant. 
 
 William Bay, physician. 
 
 Simeon De Witt Bloodgood, counselor. 
 
 L. H. Tupper, * steam boat captain. 
 
 Thurlow Weed, * editor of Evening Journal. It is re- 
 markable that no noticie of these excursions, nor anything 
 relating to the enterprise, is to be found in the files of the 
 Evening Journal. 
 
 William B. Winne, the ancient penny post. 
 
 Of course others must have been present and joined in 
 the excursion. It may be thought that I give importance 
 to trivial matters in this connection. Erroneous dates and 
 statements have been published concerning these events 
 by persons writing from memory many years after they 
 occurred. Happening as they did within my own mem- 
 ory, I have endeavored to corroborate my statements by 
 cotemporary authorities. 
 
 It was intended that the English engine, which had 
 been designated the Robert Fulton, should move an im- 
 posing train. But the old diflSculty attributed to the feed 
 pipe again interposed, and that machine was withdrawn, 
 and the party, which had been delayed till twelve o'clock, 
 was started off with a train of three cars drawn by the Be 
 Witt Clinton, and the others followed by horse power. A 
 dinner was given to the party at Schenectady, whereat the 
 
 * SorviTorB in May, 1875. 
 
16 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 
 
 president of the road, Mr. Cambreling, gave the following 
 memorable todst : 
 
 The Buffalo Rail Road — May we soon breakfast at Utica, 
 dine at Eochester, and sup with our friends on Lake Erie. 
 
 It occupied seventy-two continuous hours of wearing 
 travel by stage to reach Buffalo at this time. 
 
 The locomotive returned with five cars, making the trip 
 in thirty-five minutes. It was now dubbed jocosely 
 Brother Jonathan, and the English engine John Bull; 
 although the true John Bull did not come on till the next 
 year. 
 
 It is remarked that this trip removed the doubts of the 
 gentlemen from New York, with regard to the practicability 
 and utility of the Harlem enterprise. 
 
 Such was the increase of travel over the road, thatiyhile 
 the daily average of passengers was 180 in August, in the 
 month following it was 322. 
 
 The notice of an application to the legislature for a 
 through road to Buffalo was soon after published, and a 
 new medium for speculation arose, and grew in magnitude 
 daily before the vision of capitalists. 
 
 In January, 1832, the company reported to the legisla- 
 ture, that the amount actually paid and disbursed in the 
 construction of the road was |483,215 ; that by the 
 estimates $156,693 would be required to complete it. 
 
 In the spring of 1832, the road was completed through- 
 out its whole line, and the inclined planes being in working 
 order, another grand excursion was given on the 14th of 
 May, extending from the foot of Gansevoort street into the 
 heart of Schenectady. The event was witnessed by a large 
 assemblage, and attended by the firing of cannon. The 
 cars were drawn up the inclined plane by means of a long 
 rope attached to them, and to a stationary engine at the 
 top, the whole steadied and balanced by a car loaded with 
 stone descending on the opposite track. The same cere- 
 mony was observed at the Schenectady terminus, occupy- 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Bail Road, 17 
 
 ing much time, and becoming somewhat tedious when the 
 novelty wore away. The same style of rail road coaches 
 was still used. In the fall of this year a new pattern of 
 car was built in Schenectady, more nearly like those now 
 in use, the architecture of which was modeled from Dr. 
 Nott's parlor stove, and was called the gothic car, Wo 
 shop was yet prepared to turn out these vehicles with 
 dispatch. Mr. Jesse Buel has furnished me with a repre- 
 sentation of the new car, the drawing made by himself 
 in 1832. 
 
 In January 1833, the company having erected in State 
 street for a hotel, the building now occupied by the Free 
 Academy, the cars were run by horse power from State 
 street to the junction, where they were coupled to the loco- 
 motive. The stock at this time was selling at $1.25, and 
 matters were in a prosperous and satisfactory state with 
 the directors, when an unexpected episode occurred to 
 disturb the even tenor of their way. 
 
 At a meeting of the common council in July, the mayor, 
 Francis Bloodgood, made a long speech concerning the 
 tearing up the pavement of State street, for the purpose of 
 laying a track to the river, and concluded by recommending 
 the prosecution of the company for an unlawful proceed- 
 ing. It resulted in the company being fined ten dollars, 
 by Justice John O. Cole. It is understood that the charter 
 of the company required them to lay down a track to the 
 river. It was never used, although the company completed 
 it this year, notwithstanding the common council sought 
 to relieve them of this unnecessary expense by an enact- 
 ment. But the stock was largely owned in Few York, 
 and it was found that the act of the legislature could not 
 be annulled by the city board, and the directors were ap- 
 prehensive that a failure to comply strictly with the terms 
 of their charter, would reinvest the turnpike company with 
 the rail road privileges, which they formerly claimed to hold. 
 3 
 
18 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 
 
 Aug. 5, 1833, a communicatioa was presented to the 
 common council in respect to the rail road entering the 
 city through State street. It was submitted to a committee 
 who reported that they thought the company might safely 
 be allowed to approach the basin from Qansevoorfc street 
 under proper restrictions. 
 
 1886. An effort was made before the common council 
 to permit the laying of rails from Gausevoort street to 
 Perry street, to admit trains to reach the Greenbush ferry. 
 The property holders held this project some time in abey- 
 ance, being opposed to the passage of trains through their 
 streets. It was finally accomplished in 1839, and a depot 
 improvised where the Taylor Brewery now stands. 
 
 The terminus at the head of State street was then aban- 
 doned, and the State street portion of the road having been 
 indicted as ar nuisance, the authorities proceeded to take 
 up the track from the dock westward through State street 
 to the junction with Lydius street, and horses were used 
 only to draw the coaches to the foot of the inclined plane 
 at Pearl street. Having fought a campaign with the city 
 in laying the track down State street to fulfil the require- 
 ments of their charter, so greatly to their disadvantage, a 
 new war arose when they proceeded to take up the track. 
 A meeting of citizens was called by the Board of Trade to 
 condemn the change of terminus and the abandonment of 
 the depot at the head of State street. On the following 
 day another meeting was held by another class of citizens, 
 who deprecated the proceedings of the Board of Trade, and 
 sanctioned the change made by the rail road company. 
 The opposition, unable to change the action of the direct- 
 ors of the road, organized a line of stages to compete with 
 them, and pitted horse power against the power of steam ; 
 and the last of the stagers,' Joseph Webster, who had wit- 
 nessed the entire decadence of a great enterprise, found 
 himself quite suddenly reinstated in his old occupation. 
 Active in this opposition was John L. Schoolcraft. A lively 
 
The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Boad. 19 
 
 business sprang up again in staging. The old coaches 
 that had been laid aside were hauled out and brushed up, and 
 State street saw the revival of a business that was supposed 
 to have passed away forever. On the 22d of September a 
 h^indred passengers had been sent over the turnpike be- 
 fore ten o'clock in the forenoon. The fare was fifty cents, 
 and such was the energy of the opposition, and the eager- 
 ness to save twenty-five cents so great, that in seven days 
 1,697 passengers were carried over by the stages, twenty 
 stage loads going over in one day without taking all pas- 
 sengers that offered. Nothing like this had been known 
 to the turnpike in the palmiest days of that ancient 
 thoroughfare. Steam finally triumphed however, and the 
 strife ceased. 
 
 In November, 1841, a special meeting of the common 
 council was called to deliberate upon a proposition of the 
 directors of the rail road, offering to the city their State 
 street property and |150,000 of the bonds of the company, 
 if the city would undertake the expense of doing away 
 with the inclined planes, at both ends of the road," and 
 bring the eastern terminus as near the centre of the city 
 as possiblej locomotives to be used. The change was made, 
 the shares which had declined to less than fifty cents on 
 the dollar, again rose in the market and attained a respect- 
 able position among the stocks. 
 
 This may be as far as a didactic discourse on a pilgrim- 
 age to Schenectady in 1831, can with consistency be 
 carried. A retrospect of the rude but novel appliances 
 which we viewed with so much wonder and admiration 
 less than half a century ago, will awaken for the moment 
 by its contrast a more vivid realization of the progress of 
 the age in which we have been placed. The simple and 
 feeble locomotive with an imperfect feed pipe — the fra- 
 gile tender, provided with two baskets of faggots and an 
 armful of wood — the cramped coach bodies used as cars, 
 having three inside seats capable of seating three persons 
 
20' T!he MohawK^dpd Hudson Bail Bbad.^ 
 
 eaeh: — tfae vehicles coupM by three links, and the train ^' 
 thought to at^n terrific speed at twenty miles an hour — '< 
 have been, superseded by ponderous locomotives whirling 
 immense trains through the country with a speed, attimes ' 
 of sixty miles an hour -^ the tracl? elongated-' to New 
 York in one direction, and to Buffalo in another — -indeedit 
 may be claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific — this 
 line alone having withi| the state of N"ewTork 1300 i 
 miles, of , steel rails, and ;700 locomotives dfag^ng with 
 irresistible force 2,000 paigenger and freight cars through * 
 twenty-five counties and seventy cities and incorporated - 
 tatla.ges — ' .. . > 
 
 "^ " Whizzing through the mountains, 
 Battling oyer ridges, ^ 
 Shooting under arches, 
 
 Eumbling over bridges, 
 Singing through the forest. 
 
 Buzzing o'er the vale. 
 Bless us ! " Tiow amazing ! 
 The wonSers of the rail.