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/75

46 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES and was authorized to extend the road to Williamsport. This company surveyed a new route from the head of the old inclined plane, abandoning that route, going to Tamanend, where it connected with the Little Schuylkill Navigation & Railroad Company, which was built from Port Clinton to meet them.

The contractors from Catawissa to Tamanend were Alexander Christy and a man named Malcolm, both Scotchmen. They tore down the old lattice-work bridges and erected trestles, except at Mainville, Fisher’s, Mine Gap and Long Hollow, where Burr arch bridges were erected. The old bed graded by the original company was repaired and used. The road was completed to Rupert in 1854.

Beyond Rupert to Milton, where it joined the P. & E. railroad, Thomas Emmet was chief engineer and contractor, and he was permitted to make out his own estimates. He must have been an honest man, as no charges of graft were ever made against him. The road was completed to Milton in the fail of 1854.

The first locomotive used on the line, the one used in track-laying and ballasting, was the "Massachusetts." It was built in that State by Hinkly & Drury, and was delivered at Columbia, Pa., from where it was brought to Catawissa on a canal fiat in 1853. It was unloaded at a point opposite the head of the "cove" below town, run over a cobbled track to the river bank, where it was loaded upon a large fiat and ferried across the river to a point near the dwelling house that used to stand just below the Pennsylvania junction. From that point it was hauled up a temporary track to an engine house that had been erected near the old Nick Fisher home, the end of the jading then. The rails used were made at Danville, weighed 56 pounds to the yard, and were delivered across the river and hauled over the bridge by teams, being stored at the engine house and at the paper mill crossing.

The “Massachusetts,” afterwards known as No. 2, weighed about twenty-five tons, was a wood-burner. and had Samuel Carpenter as engineer and Frank Wright as fireman, both from Columbia. Joseph Shuman, of Beaver Valley, was night watchman at the enginehouse and engine wiper.

In 1853 a line was run from the old grading at the Fortner line down the river to Danville, crossing the river at Boyd’s. Colonel Paxton, one of the promoters of the company, owned the farm at the mouth of Fishing creek (now the Boody farm) and wanted the railroad to go to Danville by way of his farm. He succeeded in getting passed a supplement to the act of the Legislature incorporating the Catawissa, Williamsport & Erie Railroad Co., extending the line to Williamsport, "Provided that any road located under authority of this section shall not diverge more than one mile distant from the mouth of Fishing creek." The road was built by way of Fishing creek and the town of Rupert resulted.

Another line was run from Rupert through Millville and Muncy to Williamsport, but nothing was ever done with this route.

The Caiawissa-Tamanend end of the road was completed first and mixed trains were run between Port Clinton and Catawissa, the first one on the i6th or 17th of July, 1854, the C. W. & E. having trackage rights over the Little Schuylkill to Port Clinton, where they connected with the Reading main line. The creek bridge had been completed and the Catawissa station was located on the present site. The yard comprised the home of Isaac S. Monroe, who sold to the company and purchased the home built by Chief Engineer Miller at (be corner of Second and South streets. The old Monroe homestead was moved down opposite the station and was for many years used as offices, being tom down a few years ago.

The first through train from Port Clinton to Milton (with connections through from Philadelphia) was run in September or October, 1854. The first scheduled train started from Catawissa to Port Clinton on Monday in July. It came up from Tamaqua on Sunday, the i6th or 17th, to be here ready for Monday’s start. There were two trains running from opposite ends of the line. The engineer of the first regular train out of Catawissa was John Johnson, afterwards a machinist in the shops here, and the fireman was his brother-in-law, a man named Coe. The conductor's name was DuBois. That Sunday was a gala day in Catawissa. thousands of people coming from all over this section to see the train come in. W. G. Yetter, then sixteen years of age, saw the train arrive that afternoon. The first station agent at Catawissa was George Hughes, father of Mrs. Sarah Vastine. The first at Rupert was George S. Gilbert, a member of the engineer corps.

The locomotive was turned at this place by means of a Y, that extended out to the river bank from the old station and back to Roberts’ run (now Corn run).

The C. W. & E. was built at a uniform grade of 33 feet to the mile from Catawissa to Lofty. The maximum curvature was 12 degrees, except at "Nigger Hollow," where it was 12 1/2.