A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

by Barlow Cumberland

In 1885 we were at last in sole possession, having won the established connection with both the railways, at Niagara with the Michigan Central, which had absorbed the Canada Southern, and at Lewiston with the New York Central.

It had been eight long years of anxious and intense application of wits, energy and expense. One year in bringing the steamer down, and seven in constant competition, in wearing out competitors and winning the route.

We were now able to turn all our energies to the more pleasant work of development. The officials of the railways had learned to have confidence in us and appreciated that we were not only ready to give good service, but to add to it, and to improve as the traffic needs of the route showed to be requisite.

When we entered upon the route, Mr. C. B. Meeker was General Passenger Agent of the New York Central—a man patterned after the old Commodore's taste, namely, that there was only one railroad in the world and that was the New York Central. This faith permeated not a few of the minor officials, so that in their opinions, to be permitted to travel on the N.Y.C., was to be considered by a passenger as a high privilege, and the utmost courtesy was to be used toward the immaculate and superior conductor, who honored him by taking up his ticket. Yet there was some reason for it. It was the beginning of great things in railway enterprise and service, for out of a series of small separated local roads it had been from between 1853-55, gathered together under a master hand and thereafter was continuing to be built up into a great and united system, giving the travelling public facilities they had never dreamed of, advantages which would have been impossible without the combination.

In the earlier days of steam railroad enterprize, there was little thought of the possibility of creating communication between far distant centres, as was afterwards found practicable, when the working of the steam engine became better understood. Building short local railroads by local subscriptions joining neighboring towns, appears to have been the method most prevalent. These railroads were in fact only improved stage routes. Some idea of the then conditions is afforded by the list of railroads opened or under construction in 1836 in the State of New York, given in Tanner's American Traveller, 1836:—"Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, 14 miles; Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, from Albany to Schnectady, 16 miles; Schnectady & Sartoga Railroad, 20 miles; Ithaca & Oswego Railroad, 20 miles; Rochester Railroad (now in progress) from Rochester to a point below the Falls of Geneva; Schnectady and Utica Railroad (now in progress), 80 miles: Rochester & Batavia Railroad (in progress), 28 miles; Troy & Ballston Railroad (now in progress), 22 miles. Several other railroads are proposed."

These and others were gradually brought into combination, in the one Central System for their mutual advantage and the convenience of the public.[3]

It seems strange to think that in the sixties there had been no sleeping cars and no through trains between Buffalo and New York. The trains stopped and started at Albany, where the passengers either laid over at an hotel for the night, or leaving the cars walked along the station platforms to the decks of a large ferry steamer, on which they were taken across the river to join the connecting trains on the other side. On reaching the outskirts of New York the railway cars were uncoupled, and then each drawn separately by six horse teams some miles down Sixth Avenue on the horse car tracks to the terminus at Twenty-Second street, then only a simple two-storey brick building. With the construction of the railway bridge at Albany in 1870, the railway had sprung up at once into a great through route, the only one landing its passengers in the City of New York, and thus over-passing and over-topping all its competitors. It is not surprising, therefore that there was some pride and self esteem in those employed upon it.

When sleeping cars were first introduced on the New York Central it was in the most primitive fashion. The cars were the same coaches in which the passengers rode during the day. The whole of one corner was occupied by a great pile of mattresses and blankets and a number of posts and cross bars. When sleeping time came the posts were brought out, the berths built up and bolted together before the eyes of the passengers. It can be well understood how these improvised constructions creaked and groaned during the night. They supplied a need, but were soon supplanted by the Pullman inventions.

With Mr. Meeker we had the most personally pleasant relations, but when we had made our application to him for a connection, he was staunch to the old steamboat connections of his company and would only deal with us through them, even if he did think we had been hardly treated, but when we had won and deserved our way into an official connection he was equally staunch toward us; recognizing the continuous interest which the steamboat lines have in the mutual business which they have aided the rail in building up. To him succeeded in May, 1883, Mr. E. J. Richards, his highly efficient and much younger assistant, whose knowledge of the passenger business of his railway was unsurpassed by any. From this time began an association with the principal officers of the New York Central, which has widened and deepened with years.

This year, 1885, Capt. McCorquodale was appointed to the Chicora, succeeded Capt. T. Leach, whose business engagements rendered it necessary for him to return to Halifax.