| President, George B. Phelps, Watertown | ||
| Secretary and Treasurer, Lotus Ingalls, Watertown | ||
| Engineer, F. A. Hinds, Watertown | ||
| Directors | ||
| George P. Phelps, Watertown | George A. Bagley, Watertown | |
| Lotus Ingalls, Watertown | Hiram Converse, Watertown | |
| Norris Winslow, Watertown | Theodore Canfield, Sackett’s Harbor | |
| Pearson Mundy, Watertown | Walter B. Camp, Sackett’s Harbor | |
| L. D. Doolittle, Watertown | David Dexter, Black River | |
| George H. Sherman, Watertown | William N. Coburn, Carthage | |
| Alexander Brown, Carthage | ||
A little later Mr. Hinds was succeeded as the road’s Engineer, by L. B. Cook also of Watertown. And eventually Mr. Bagley succeeded Mr. Phelps, as its President, George W. Knowlton, becoming its Vice-President.
To encourage the new line, which it prepared itself to operate, the Utica & Black River made quite a remarkable contract. Shorn of its verbiage it agreed to give the C. W. & S. H. forty per cent of the gross revenue that should arise upon the line. This contract in a very few years arose to bedevil the railroad situation in the North Country. As the paper industry began to expand there, and huge mills to multiply along the lower reaches of the Black River, this contract grew irksome indeed to the U. & B. R. R. Finally it sought to modify its terms, very greatly. The Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor, quite naturally refused. “After all,” it said, through its President, the late George A. Bagley, “what is a contract but—a contract?”
The Utica road pressed its point. It finally went down to New York and gained a promise from Roswell P. Flower that the agreement would be greatly mollified, if not abrogated. It did seem absurd that a carload of paper moving eighteen miles from Watertown to Carthage and seventy-five from Carthage to Utica should pay forty per cent of its charges to the road upon which it had moved but eighteen miles. Yet, a contract is a contract.
Governor Flower went up to Watertown and put the matter before the officers and directors of the C. W. & S. H. But, led by the stout-hearted Bagley, they refused to move, a single inch.
“I’ve given my promise,” stormed Roswell P. Flower, “that you would do the right thing in this matter. And in New York I am known as a man who always keeps his word.”
Bagley said nothing. The meeting ended abruptly—in all the bitterness of disagreement. The Utica & Black River decided upon a master stroke; it would terminate paying its rental, based chiefly on this forty per cent division to its leased road. That would cause trouble. The Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor was, itself, liable to its bondholders, for the mortgage that they held against it. It would have to pay their interest. Without receiving its rental money from the Black River road it would be hard pressed indeed to meet these coupons. It looked as if it might have to go into receivership, even though at that moment its stock had reached well above par.
The situation was saved for it by a New York banking house, Vermilye & Company, who sent a lawyer up to Watertown who examined the famous contract and pronounced it perfectly valid. The Vermilye’s then announced their willingness to advance the C. W. & S. H. the money to meet its interest charges—for an indefinite period. After which the Black River people came down a peg or two and bought the stock and bonds of their leased road, at par. While the city of Watertown and some of its adjoining communities possessed of a sudden and unexpected wealth refunded a portion of their taxes for a year or two.
Mr. Bagley had won his point. He had the reward of a good deed well performed. He had another reward. His salary as President of the Carthage, Watertown & Sackett’s Harbor had remained unpaid; for a number of years. He collected back pay from the Black River settlement; for several years at the rate of $15,000 a year.