Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/143

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��some two years old then, situated near the mouth of Maumee River. The road extends westward in- to Michigan and is some thirty miles in length. There is a road about to be made from Cincinnati to kSpringfield. This road follows the Ohio River up to the Little Miami River, and there turns northwardly up its valley to Xenia, and, passing the Yellow Sjjrings, reaches Springfield. Its length must be about ninety miles. The State will own one-half of the road, individuals and the city of Cincinnati the other half. This road will, no doubt, be extended to Lake Erie, at Sandusky City, within a few short years."

" There is a railroad." continues Mr. Atwater, "about to be made from Painesville to the Ohio River. There are many charters for other roads, which will never be made."

Mr. Atwater notes also, the various turnpikes as well as the famous National road from Baltimore westward, then completed only to the mountains. This latter did as much as any enterprise ever en- acted in building up and populating the West. It gave a national thoroughfare, which, for many years, was the principal wagon-way from the At- lantic to the Mississippi Valley.

The railroad to which Mr. Atwater refers as about to be built from Cincinnati to Springfield, was what was known as the Mad River Railroad. It is commonly conceded to be the first one built in Ohio.* Its history shows that it was chartered March II, 1836, that work began in 1837; that it was completed and opened for business from Cincinnati to Milford, in December, 1842; to Xe- nia, in August, 1845, and to Springfield, in Au- gust, 1846. It was laid with strap rails until about 1848, when the present form of rail was adopted.

One of the earliest roads in Ohio was what was known as the Sandusky, M ansfield & Newark Rail- road. It was chartered at first as the Monroeville & Sandusky City Railroad, March 9, 1835. March 12, 1836, the Mansfield & New Haven road was chartered; the Columbus & Lake Erie, March 12,

1845, and the Huron & Oxford, February 27,

1846. At first it ran only from Sandusky to Monroeville, then from Mansfield to Huron. These

��* Hon. E D. Mansfield states, in 1873, that the " first actual piece of railroad laid in Ohio, was made on the Cincinnati & Sandusky Railroad; hut, about the same time we have the Little Miami Rail- road, which was surveyed in 1836 and 1837. If this, the generally accepted opinion, is correct, then Mr. Atwater's statement as given, is wrong. His history is, however, generally conceded to be correct. Written in 1838, he surely ought to know whereof he was writing, as the railroads were then only in construction ; but few, if any, in operation.

��two were connected and consolidated, and then ex- tended to Newark, and finally, by connections, to Columbus.

It is unnecessary to follow closely the history of these improvements through the years succeeding their introduction. At first the State owned a share in nearly all railroads and canals, but finally finding itself in debt about $15,000,000 for such improvements, and learning by its own and neigh- bors' experiences, that such policy was detrimental to the best interests of the people, abandoned the plan, and allowed private parties entire control of all such works. After the close of the Mexican war, and the return to solid values in 1 854 or there- abouts, the increase of railroads in all parts of Ohio, as well as all parts of the West, was simply marvel- ous. At this date there are more than ten thou- sand miles of railroads in Ohio, alongside of which stretch innumerable lines of telegraph, a system of swift messages invented by Prof. Morse, and adopted in the United States about 1851.

About the time railroad building began to as- sume a tangible shape, in 1840, occurred the cele- brated political campaign known in history as the " Hard Cider Campaign." The gradual encroach- ments of the slave power in the West, its arrogant attitude in the Congress of the United States and in several State legislatures : its forcible seizure of slaves in the free States, and the enactment and attempted enforcement of the "fugitive slave" law all tended to awaken in the minds of the Northern people an antagonism, terminating only in the late war and the abolishment of that hideous system in the United States.

The " Whig Party" strenuously urged the abridgment or confinement of slavery in the Southern States, and in the contest the party took a most active part, and elected William Henry Harrison President of the United States. As he had been one of the foremost leaders in the war of 1812, a resident of Ohio, and one of its most pop- ular citizens, a log cabin and a barrel of cider were adopted as his exponents of popular opinion, as expressive of the rule of the common people repre- sented in the cabin and cider, in turn representing their primitive and simple habits of life. Though a rugged man when elected, he lived but thirty days after his inauguration, dying April 9, 1841. John Tyler, the Vice President, succeeded him in the oSice.

The building of railroads ; the extension of com- merce ; the settlement of all parts of the State ; its growth in commerce, education, religion and

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