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RR History of Fayette Co, 1882
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The Fayette County Railroad Company was incorporated by act of General Assembly, passed May 1, 1857, "with power and authority to construct a single or double railroad track from any point at or near the borough of Uniontown to any point at or near the borough of Connellsville, in Fayette County, and across the Youghiogheny River, with the right to connect with the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad at or near the borough of Connellsville." The persons invested by the act with authority to open books for subscriptions to the stock of the company were Samuel A. Gilmore, Nathaniel Ewing, John Huston, Andrew Stewart, Joshua B. Howell, Alfred Patterson, Daniel Kaine, Henry Yeagley, John Dawson, H. W. Beeson, Isaac Beeson, Smith Fuller, Ewing Brownsfield, James Veech, William Thorndell, Eleazer Robinson, Alpheus E. Willson, William Beeson, Jacob Murphy, William Bryson, John K. Ewing, Samuel W. Boyd, William C. McKean, John Chaney, John Freeman, George Paull, Samuel Nixon, Thomas B. Searight, Samuel D. Oliphant, Edmund Beeson, John Bierer, Ellis B. Dawson, Armstrong Hadden, George McClean, Isaac Winn, Robert Patterson, Thomas Sturgis, Jesse B. Gardner, and Alfred McClelland.
The authorized capital of th e company was $750,000 in shares of $100 each. The first president of the company was Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, to whom more than to any other person was due the credit of completing the road and putting it in operation. It was finished in its entire length in the last part of the year 1859, and was formally opened for travel and traffic between Uniontown and Connellsville on the 1st of January, 1860.
After the completion and opening of the line, the company met with financial embarrassments, which resulted in the sale of the road and equipment by the sheriff on the 2d of September, 1862, it being then purchased by the stockholders, and the company reorganized. On the 1st of November, 1864, the road was leased by the company to the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Company for ninety-nine years. In December, 1875, it was leased by the latter company (together with the main line from Pittsburgh to Cumberland) to the Baltimore and Ohio Company, by which corporation it is at present operated.
The Southwest Pennsylvania Railway Company was incorporated March 16, 1871. The corporators named were Israel Painter, Alpheus E. Willson, James E. Logan, Samuel Dellinger, and Christopher Sherrick. The company were authorized to construct a railroad, with one or more tracks, from the Pennsylvania Railroad at or near Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Pa., by way of Connellsville, to Uniontown, Fayette Co., and thence to the boundary line of West Virginia. The capital stock was $500,000. An organization of the company was effected at Greensburg, and Thomas A. Scott elected president. The route was located, and work on the line commenced without unnecessary delay. In 1875 the completed road extended from Connellsville as far south as Mount Braddock, and in the fall of 1876 was opened to Uniontown.
In August, 1877, the company purchased the rights and franchises of the Uniontown and West Virginia Railroad Company, and the road was continued about seven miles southward from Uniontown to Fairchance. The line is now operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
The Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway was first projected by a company which was incorporated by an act of Assembly approved April 8,1867, as the Monongahela Valley Railroad Company. By a supplemental act, approved March 31, 1868, the company was "authorized to construct its railroad with single or double tracks from a point at or near the city of Pittsburgh, by such route as the board of directors may determine, to a point at or near Monongahela City, in Washington County, and thence up either bank of the Monongahela River to a point at or near Rice's Landing, with power to construct such branches as the directors may deem necessary." February 1, 1870, an act was passed changing the corporate name of the company to that of Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway Company.
The delays which are usual in the building of railways, except such as are undertaken by old and powerful companies, were encountered in the construction of this, and it was not until the spring of 1881 that the line was completed and opened from Pittsburgh to West Brownsville, thus giving to the boroughs of Bridgeport and Brownsville the first railroad communication they ever enjoyed, though no part of the road in operation is within the county of Fayette.
A railroad to run from Brownsville to Uniontown was projected by the "Brownsville Railway Company." Work on the line was commenced by this company, and some grading was done between the two termini; but financial difficulties intervened, and the road was sold at sheriff's sale, Feb. 5, 1878, to Charles E. Spear, and was afterwards merged with the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad. The last-named road and its franchises passed in May, 1879, to the control and management of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, by which it is now operated as the "Monongahela Division" of its lines.
The Redstone extension or branch of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad is now in process of construction, having been commenced by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in January, 1881. Starting from the completed road west of the Monongahela, it crosses that river by a bridge at the mouth of Redstone Creek, below Brownsville, and runs from that point to Hogsett's Cut, about one mile north of Uniontown, where it joins the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. It is now being pushed rapidly to completion, and is expected to be opened about the 1st of June, 1882, thus giving a third line of railway communication between Uniontown and Pittsburgh, and from both these places to Brownsville by a short branch extending to that borough from the main line near Redstone Creek. As this Redstone branch road has an easy and unbroken descending grade in its entire length, it is expected that it will take all the immense amount of coke and other freight which now finds an outlet over the Southwest Pennsylvania road from stations south and west of Mount Braddock. It will also open in the Redstone Valley an immense area of coal lands which are now inaccessible.
The Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad Company was incorporated April 6, 1870, with a capital stock of $200,000, the corporators named being Daniel Shupe, C. S. Overholt, J. B. Jordan, William J. Hitchman, Joseph R. Stouffer, A. O. Tinstman, Israel Painter, C. P. Markle, and James Neel. The road was commenced immediately after the organization of the company, and was pushed with so much energy that the line was completed and opened on Saturday, Feb. 18,1871. On the 2d of January next preceding the opening of the road it was leased to the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company, and afterwards by that lessee to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, by which latter corporation it is now operated in conjunction with the main line of road from Pittsburgh to Cumberland.
The Uniontown and West Virginia Railroad Company was incorporated April 2,1868, with an authorized capital of $250,000, and with power to construct a railroad from Uniontown to West Virginia State line. The persons designated to open books, receive subscriptions to the capital stock, and organize the company were John K. Ewing, Armstrong Hadden, Andrew Stewart, A. E. Willson, Smith Fuller, E. B. Dawson, Robert Hogsett, Daniel Kaine, Samuel A. Gilmore, Charles E. Boyle, F. H. Oliphant, William James, Ayres Nixon, James Hughes, John Brownfield, Robert Britt, Jacob Kyle, William A. Custer, James Robinson, Thomas Seman, Samuel Shipley, Tobias Sutton, Samuel Hatfield, William H. Bailey, William S. Morgan, A. B. Hall, Jacob Crow, Dr. James Thompson, J. G. Williams, John L. Dawson, John Schnatterly, Martin Dickson, Michael W. Franks, John Morgan, Lewis Hunter, John Oliphant, and William Sweeny.
Surveys for the location of the route of the road were made by N. Bailie, engineer. A considerable amount of work was done in the construction of culverts, building of bridges, and completion of most of the grading between Uniontown and Fairchance. But the financial difficulties and embarrassments usually encountered in the construction of new lines of railway were experienced by this company, and finally, in March, 1874, the road was sold by the sheriff on three judgements, which had been obtained against the company by John Snider, the contractor. Snider became the purchaser, and on the 28th of August, 1877, he sold the property to the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who completed the road from Uniontown to Fairchance. This part of the line, as well as the Southwest Company's road from Uniontown to Greensburg, is now operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
The Uniontown and Dunkard Creek Railroad Company was incorporated March 23,1865, with a capital of $500,000. Corporators, Edward G. Roddy, John K. Ewing, Charles S. Seaton, Thomas B. Searight, William James, Daniel Kaine, Alpheus E. Willson, Charles E. Boyle, Isaac P. Kendall, John Brownfield, William McCleary, Ewing Brownfield, Jacob Crow, William Parshall, and Michael W. Franks, of Fayette County, and John P. Williams, Cephas Wylie, and Freeman Lucas, of Greene County. The road has not been built, and the early completion of the line between the termini is not yet assured.
The Brownsville and New Haven Railroad Company was chartered Feb. 23,1876, under the general law. This company had authority to construct a road from a point at or near New Haven to a point at or near Vance's Mill on Redstone Creek; also to connect with any other railroad. The company organized and prosecuted the work of construction until the grading was nearly completed over the entire length. The usual result followed, -- financial difficulties and the sale of the road by the sheriff (Aug. 30, 1877). Abraham 0. Tinstman and A. L. McFarland became the purchaser, and it was afterwards sold by them to the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company. The road will undoubtedly be completed in the near future.
Several other railroads are in contemplation to run through this county, one of which, known as the "Vanderbilt Road," is now being constructed with remarkable rapidity. Its route is up the Youghiogheny, along the left bank of the river, to the vicinity of Connellsville and New Haven, and thence southward through the rich coal-fields of the central part of Fayette County to the West Virginia line. Neither its route south of the State line nor its contemplated southern terminus have been ascertained. Its northwestern connection is to be with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad.
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14-Oct-2001
Source document: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885. "History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men" edited by Franklin Ellis. p. 272-278. Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co., 1882
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