The Committee have not found this contract nor any record stating its provisions.
December 27, 1850, a committee reported that the whole amount of stock subscribed, was $250,800, of which $7,200 was payable in land damages and materials for the road; and that Messrs. Gilmore and Carpenter had subscribed for 500 shares of stock, to wit, $50,000.
On the 7th day of January, 1851, the directors voted to break ground the next day, and on the 27th of May in the same year, they voted to expend a sum not exceeding $25,000, in experiments upon the east side of the mountain, at or near the mouth of the proposed tunnel.
In 1851, the corporation petitioned the legislature for a loan of the State credit for two million dollars; but the application was unsuccessful.
The failure to secure the aid of the Commonwealth, appears not to have discouraged the corporation, for on the 7th of August, 1851, the directors voted that they would proceed forthwith from Adams to the New York line, and simultaneously incur all the necessary expenses to make thorough experiments with such machines as promise to facilitate the construction of the tunnel, and when the road is begun from Greenfield, it shall be after an arrangement is made to construct it to the foot of the mountain in Florida and connect in some way with the road at North Adams.
The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Corporation having directed its attention to a connection with the Troy and Boston Railroad Company through a portion of the State of Vermont, and a charter having been obtained from the legislature of Vermont, incorporating the Southern Vermont Railroad Company, whereby such connection could be made, a committee of the directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company and of the Southern Vermont Railroad Company made an agreement, subject to the modification or ratification of the stockholders of each company, "that the stock of both of said companies and their franchises from said Greenfield to the west line of Pownal, in the State of Vermont, shall become and be one joint, consolidated stock and interest, with equal and common rights and privileges to the stockholders of both companies;" it being understood that an application shall be made to the legislature of Vermont for a change of the name and style of the joint corporation mentioned in the said Act of the Vermont legislature. This report was made to the board of directors, and it was voted that the same "be accepted and adopted, recorded and placed on file." Subsequently the Southern Vermont Railroad was leased to the Troy and Greenfield Corporation on a perpetual lease for $12,000 per year; and the 21st of April, 1860, it was purchased by the Troy and Greenfield Corporation for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, with money advanced to the last named corporation by the Commonwealth. In the report of the commissioners on the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel, the Southern Vermont Railroad is estimated to have cost from $110,000 to to $125,000 only.
In 1858, another application was made to the legislature for a loan, but with the same result as in 1851. In both instances, committees reported in favor of the application.
In 1854, the application was renewed, and was successful. The Act was passed on the fifth day of April, 1854. By the first section, the treasurer was authorized to issue scrip, as certificates of debt, for the sum of two million dollars, to be expressed in the currency of Great Britain or in federal currency, as the directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad should elect, to bear an interest of five per cent., payable semi-annually, and redeemable in thirty years, for the purpose of enabling the Troy and Greenfield Company to construct a tunnel and railroad under and through the Hoosac Mountain, in some place between the "Great Bend" in Deerfield River, in the town of Florida, at the base of Hoosac Mountain, on the east, and the base of the western side of the mountain, near the east end of the village of North Adams, on the west. The scrip was to be delivered to the treasurer of said Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company in the manner and upon the conditions following:—$100,000, when it should appear to the satisfaction of the governor and council that said company had obtained subscriptions to their capital stock in the sum of $600,000, and twenty per cent. upon each and every share of said six: hundred thousand dollars should have actually been paid in, and seven miles of their railroad and one thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel under the Hoosac, in one or more sections, of size sufficient for one or more railroad tracks, should have been completed.
$100,000, when ten miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and ten thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.