Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/73

44 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES but those at Danville and Berwick arc covered up under tons of earth. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company has placed metal signs along the line of the canal, warning the public against trespassing. Many persons object to this prohibition, but in a way it is a blessing to the people. It prevents adjacent landowners from shutting off the river from the public use and has permitted the growth of trees to continue unrestricted, thus converting many parts of the canal towpath into a veritable “lovers' lane," embowered with foliage and affording a shady walk for miles along the beautiful Susquehanna. The canal could be easily converted into a level and permanent highway at but moderate expense, if the railroad could be induced to turn it over to the State Highway Commission.

RAILROADS

The honor of being the first to promote and construct a railroad in this section of Pennsylvania belongs to citizens of Catawissa, the head of the project, and for a time time only advocate of the plan, being Christian Brobst. The story of the building of this road is an interesting and romantic one, and has been compiled in the following accurate narrative by Charles E. Randall, editor of the Catawissa News Item and vice president of the Columbia County Historical Society.

In the issue of Jan. 20, 1825, Danville Watchman , appeared a letter from Christian Brobst, Catawissa, dated Jan. 15th. At that time water transportation was considered the solution of the problem of communication between the great manufacturing centers, the State canal being partially completed. A route for water communication was sought between the Schuylkill river and the North Branch of the Susquehanna.

In his letter to the Watchman Mr. Brobst, who was one of Catawissa's "live wires." a merchant miller, owning the upper mill at that place, the farm now owned by Harman Breisch, and a number of other properties in this section. advocated a route between the two rivers by way of the Little Schuylkill river and Catawissa creek. He claimed the route was practical and that he was acquainted with every foot of the way. His plan was to come up the Schuylkill river, then up the Little Schuylkill to its headwaters; cross over to the headwaters of Catawissa creek, "a distance of three miles" part of the way through a small mountain”: then down Catawissa creek to the North Branch of the Susquehanna; "the levels showing that every foot of the waterways could be made navigable."

"This could be made a part of a route from Philadelphia to the lakes," he stated, “by going down the North Branch and up the West Branch to Sinnemahoning creek, 100 miles; up the Sinnemahoning to Toby's (or Sandy) creek, 40 miles; down Toby's creek to Allegheny river, (10 miles; up the Allegheny to French creek, 25 miles; up French creek to Waterfurd, 28 miles; then by canal 14 miles across country to Erie.” This route, he claimed, would necessitate the construction of but thirty miles of canals. His idea was that the streams could all be made navigable by a series of dams. Nothing ever came of this project, and it was not until 1829 that the transportation question came up again. This time it was the railroad project. Mr. Brobst had been elected to the legislature from Columbia county, and kept hammering at the State authorities for transportation between the Schuylkill and the North Branch. Fortified by the survey he had made on the waterway project, he succeeded in getting the Legislature, in 1828. to pass an act authorizing the Pennsylvania Canal Commission to "employ a competent engineer to make surveys and examinations between a point on the Schuylkill canal near Pottsville, and a point on the Susquehanna river between the towns of Catawissa and Sunbury," as to the feasibility of building a railroad between those points.

The waterway levels taken by Mr. Brobst were by means of a "Jacob's staff" and a homemade water level, made by himself, and they were so accurate that in surveys in later years by professional engineers the levels varied only about six feet in the entire distance between Catawissa and what is now Lofty. An engineer named Robinson was employed by the canal board lo make the surveys, three terminal points on the North Branch of the Susquehanna river being considered—Catawissa, Danville and Sunbury. The engineer climated Danville on account of "insurmountable natural obstacles," and after a lengthy survey report to the commissioners in favor of a route through the Quakake and Catawissa vallews with Catawissa as the terminal, saying that this route was "adapted to locomotive engines," while the route with Sunbury as a terminus was "adapted to horse power only for the greater part of the route." Besides, "the Catawissa route would have three distributive live points—Pottsville, Little Schuylkill, and the Lehigh."