Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/74

 58 Elizur B. Hinsdale was born upstate in 1831 and studied law college. In 1862 he came to New York from Buffalo to practice law. Hinsdale lived in a house on the north side of Northern Boulevard east of Parsons Avenue; with his law background and his youth he doubtless made a good secretary for the new organization. Neither Poppenhusen nor Locke were represented on the board of directors, but were the main backers of the project nevertheless.

One of the first acts of the newly reorganized Woodside & Flushing R.R. was to change the name of the corporation. On April 3, 1868, the road was re-incorporated as The Flushing & North Side Railroad Company and its charter authorized a line of road from Hunter's Point to Roslyn and from Flushing to Whitestone. The Legislature also authorized a new drawbridge over Flushing Creek to replace the creaky old New York & Flushing bridge. The company also petitioned to absorb all the rights and privileges of the original Woodside & Flushing R.R. This latter petition was not passed by the State Senate until February 1869.

Sometime in May 1868 Orange Judd bought some valuable dock property on the East River for a future depot. Early in June land was bought on Lawrence Street for a right-of-way; negotiations were on foot for the future site of Bridge Street depot on the north side of Northern Boulevard. By mid-June the contractor to build the road had been selected: Gaynor, Lord and Carroll, who built the Morris & Essex R.R. in New Jersey and others. The completion date for construction of the road from Hunter's Point through Woodside to Flushing was set at October 15 and the contractor agreed to a forfeit of $100 a day for failure to meet the agreed-upon date for completion.

By the end of June, 100 laborers were already at work in the vicinity of Sunnyside, and 200 to 300 more were to be put on the following week. In July the contract to build the pile work on the Newtown side of the Flushing meadows was awarded to Zachariah Roe, a well-known Flushing contractor. On July 15 an enthusiastic public meeting was held at College Point and liberal subscriptions were made toward the road. Ten acres of the colonial Lawrence estate were purchased by Conrad Poppenhusen or a track yard and depot.

The one and only recorded instance of an injunction being