The Butler Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad

 
The Butler & Pittsburgh Plank Road Company was organized in 1851 through the joint endeavors of citizens of Butler and Allegheny Counties, and work upon the road was commenced at once. It was not completed until 1853. Samuel M. LANE was the first President of the company, but resigned a few months after election, and John N. PURVIANCE, who was elected to the position, superintended the affairs of the company until the road was finished. This was the first plank road in Butler County. Its cost was $116,000.
 
As far back in the history of the county as the year 1836, steps were taken which were the forerunners of the Butler Branch Railroad. In the year mentioned, there was made by State authority a survey of a route for a railroad from Freeport via Butler to New Castle, designed to make a short cut between the Pennsylvania and Erie canals. The surveyor, Charles T. WHIPPO, and his adviser and assistant, William PURVIANCE, made a report to the State authorities, and there the matter ended, and the project came to be regarded as a broad farce and humbug. Yet that survey was the foundation of the first railroad in Butler County. In 1852, Gov. TOD, of Ohio, and Mr. Perkins, President of the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad, visited Harrisburg, asking such legislation as would lead to a connection with the Pennsylvania Central at Pittsburgh, but they returned discouraged and with nothing accomplished.
 
Soon after, however, Thomas S. FERNON, Senator from Philadelphia, and a practical railroad man, suggested to William HASLETT, then in the State Senate as the representative of Butler County which was a feasible route for the connection proposed by the Ohioans. He suggested that if Gov. TOD would adopt that line, with an extension connecting east of Pittsburgh at Blairsville Junction, he would be likely to secure the end that he desired, and also that the long-cherished hopes of the Butler County people might be realized.
 
Gov. TOD was shown Mr. WHIPPO's report, and said that the route was what he and his associates wanted. As a result, followed the procurement, during the session of the Legislature for 1853, of the charter for the Northwestern Railroad Company. This organization finally went into bankruptcy, and its property and franchises passed into the possession of a new company, chartered under the name of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad Company, but controlled by the Central.
 
Col. Thomas A. SCOTT came to William HASLETT and John H. NEGLEY, members of the General Assembly from Butler County, in 1864, to consult them regarding legislation which would concern the interests of their constituents. He desired to have passed a bill authorizing the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to abandon the canal from Freeport to Allegheny, which, under the conditions of purchase, they were bound to keep in perpetual repair, and to authorize the Western Pennsylvania Company to extend their road on the canal bed to Allegheny, besides granting various other franchises.
 
HASLETT and NEGLEY replied that their people had been so often disappointed that they were distrustful; that the Western Pennsylvania Railroad, by means of Butler enterprise, money, credit and influence, had been graded from Blairsville to Freeport, and that Butler citizens were paying a heavy railroad tax without having a foot of railroad in their county. They then proposed the following proviso, as an addition to Col. SCOTT's bill, which he accepted and incorporated, viz.:
 
Provided, That the additional franchises herein granted shall not be enjoyed or exercised until an extension of the road shall be made from Freeport to the town of Butler; the same to be placed under contract for construction, to responsible parties, within two years after the passage of this act.
 
When the bill was called for consideration, Mr. GLASS, of Allegheny, who had it in consideration, moved to strike out the "proviso," making the remark that "if the people of Butler wanted a railroad, they might build it themselves." A lengthened and animated discussion took place, in which Mr. NEGLEY had an active and leading part. Hon. Arthur G. OLMSTEAD, of Porter; Hon. William D. BROWN, of Warren; Hon. John W. GUERNSEY, of Tioga, and Hon. Thomas J. BINGHAM, of Allegheny, by speech and action materially aided in the retention of the proviso, with a modification made at their suggestion, extending the time for completing the road from two to five years.
 
There was not so warm a contest over the passage of the bill in the Senate, but it met with some opposition. The able and judicious management of Senator MCCANDLESS was a great power in carrying through the Upper House the proviso, by the conditions of which Butler County finally obtained a railroad.
 
The railroad of whose early history we have given such an extended account was completed by the Pennsylvania Company after many difficulties and delays by the opening of the year 1871, and formally delivered into the hands of the company by the engineer, Antes SNYDER, upon the 1st of March.
It was, however, opened to travel upon January 12, 1871, and that was a memorable day in the history of Butler. An excursion was organized from Butler to Pittsburgh to celebrate the long-hoped-for and finally consummated connection of Butler with Pittsburgh and the outer world by rail.
 
Some three hundred invitations were sent out to people to be present and engage in this excursion. The train left Butler at 7 o'clock A. M., passed over the branch to Freeport, and thence to Pittsburgh. At the union depot in that city, a splendid repast was served and a number of speeches made in response to toasts.
 
Hon. Ebenezer MCJUNKIN responded to the toast, "Railways; the bonds of civilization;" Gen. John N. PURVIANCE to "Old Butler awakened to new life, and made a citizen of the world;" W. M. STEWART to "The Pennsylvania Central Railroad, the pride of our Commonwealth;" Thomas M. MARSHAL to "The old stage coach - it could not long survive Arthur MCGILL;" Samuel A. PURVIANCE to "The old Circuit Court (Butler, Clarion and Armstrong). The Court now travels by rail, but justice prefers the mud road;" Eugene FERREO to "The Butler Branch;" Lewis Z. MITCHELL to "Antes SNYDER (the engineer)-- by his skill he overcame the mountains of our county, and organized successfully the excursion in hand and the dinner just discussed."
 
In the afternoon, the excursionists, joined by a number of Pittsburghers, returned to Butler. At the various stations along the new line, the people turned out en masse to greet them, and at Saxon Station a cannon was fired in honor of the event.
 
Butler had been filled with people the night before the excursion, and a great throng greeted the incoming train. Here again a substantial repast was served. Afterward, speeches were made, as at Pittsburgh. Eugene FERREO spoke upon the "Butler Branch," as did also Mayor CALLOW, of Allegheny. Charles MCCANDLESS, Esq., spoke in response to the toast, "The Engineers of the Pennsylvania Railroad." Others who addressed the assemblage were John M. THOMPSON, Esq., of Pittsburgh, and Col. Thomas M. BAYNE.
 
In the evening occurred the "funeral" of the old stage coach which had been superseded by the iron horse. The huge vehicle was draped in black, and hauled by horses decorated with crape, up the hill to the cemetery. It was not actually buried, although its days of usefulness (in this field) were practically over, but a travesty of the funeral service was gone through with, and then the jovial throng who had attended the "funeral," a number of Pittsburghers and citizens of Butler, among them the stage proprietor, D. S. WALKER, returned to the village, and marched through the streets blowing tin whistles and penny trumpets.
 
Brief notes are appended upon the other and newer railroads which traverse portions of Butler County territory.
 
The Parker & Karns City Railroad Company was organized August 1, 1873, and commenced building a road between the terminals points named upon October 1, 1873. When the severe financial panic of that year swept over the country, many of the stockholders were obliged to forfeit their stock, and the company would have been obliged to succumb to the pressure had not four of the citizens of Parker - Mr. Fullerton PARKER, Mr. S. D. KARNS, MR. W. C. MOBLEY and Mr. H. R. FULLERTON - come to the rescue, throwing their private means and their energies into the enterprise. They carried it to a successful completion, and the road was formally opened for business on April 8, 1874. It started with a good patronage, paid its projectors a handsome profit upon their investments, and demonstrated the practicability of narrow-gauge railroads in the oil regions.
 
In April 1876, the Karns City & Butler Railroad Company was organized by the same parties interested in the above, the citizens of Millerstown and Butler also subscribing liberally for its bonds. It was opened for business in November 1876, and continued in successful operation upon the plan of original organization until June 10, 1881, when, with the Parker & Karns City Railroad, it was consolidated with the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad.
 
The last-mentioned railroad company was originally organized September 7, 1877, under the name of the Pittsburgh, New Castle & Lake Erie Railroad. The early projectors of this road were Austin PIERCE, of Harmony, and Gen. James S. NEGLEY, of Pittsburgh. The road was opened between Etna and Zelienople in December 1878. During the summer of 1879, the company became financially embarrassed owing to the general want of confidence in railroad enterprises, and their inability to market their bonds and meet their obligations. The road was sold at Sheriff's sale August 27, 1879, and purchased by Maj. A. M. BROWN, who organized the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad Company, of which Mr. James CALLERY was President. Under the new management, and with his energy and good financiering the road was completed through Allegheny City, and from Zelienople to Wurtemberg in the summer of 1880.
 
In June, 1881, the Parker & Karns City, Karns City & Butler, Red Bank & Youngstown and the Pittsburgh East and West Railroads were consolidated with the Pittsburgh & Western. Mr. James CALLERY is President of this company; Mr. Solon HUMPHREYS, Vice President; Mr. A. J. THOMAS, Treasurer; Mr. E. K. HYNDMAN, General Manager, and Mr. W. C. MOBLEY, General Agent. The extension of the road has been commenced from Wurtemberg to Youngstown; from Hiawatha to Butler, and from Parker to Foxburg, and these additions, as well as the change of gauge between Allegheny and Youngstown, are now about completed.
 
The Shenango & Allegheny Railroad was built through Butler County in ---------. (Its officers have neglected to furnish data from which its history could be written).
 
A telegraph line was carried through Butler County in 1861, just ten years before the first railroad was completed within its limits. It extended from Pittsburgh to Franklin, and was called the Oil Valley Telegraph line, and was the first line of telegraphic communication to the oil regions. It was put through by Codstream [sic] BARRY, an Englishman by birth. There being no office between Pittsburgh and Franklin, a box was fixed on one of the poles in Butler, and a repair man, Henry ZIMMERMAN, tested the current daily. In 1862, an office was opened in the LOWRY House, Butler, by A. B. GILDERSLEEVE, then of Franklin, and the pioneer operator of the oil regions. This was the first telegraph office in Butler County, and David POTTS, of Butler Borough was placed in charge of it as operator.