The Story of the Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg Railroad
By Richard F. Palmer
Photos by Russ Nelson
During the first half of the 19th century Sackets Harbor was acknowledged as having one of the best harbors on Lake Ontario for safe and easy of access. It was sheltered from storms and was a busy port of call for commercial vessels. The first American steamboat on Lake Ontario, the Ontario, was launched there in 1817.
In the 1830s several proposals were put forth to connect the east coast and the Great Lakes by rail. The first such effort was incorporation of the Trenton and Sackets Harbor Railroad on May 15, 1837 with a capital of $500,000 between the villages of Trenton and Sackets Harbor. If necessary, the company had the option of increasing it to $600,000 to cover construction costs. This would have been about 85 miles long. Why Trenton was chosen as the eastern terminus is unknown.
The stock was divided into shares of $100 each. Its board of directors included Heman Terry of Remsen, Doctors Luther Guiteau and Samuel Allen of Trenton, Elisha Camp, Thomas S. Hall and Marcellus K. Stow of Sackets Harbor; Chester Buck, Ashley Davenport and Noah W. Harger and James Hough of Lewis County; Jason Fairbanks of Watertown and Arphaxed Loomis of Little Falls. Nothing ever came of this.
A more ambitious plan was the Sackets Harbor and Saratoga Railroad, chartered on April 10, 1848. Directors from Sackets Harbor were Elisha Camp, Jesse C. Dann, Augustus Ford, Samuel T. Hooker, Thomas S. Hall and Dyer N. Burnham. It was not completed except about 60 miles between Saratoga and North Creek which eventually became a branch of the Delaware & Hudson. Portions of the unfinished roadbed may still be found by a keen observer in Lewis and Warren counties.
Sackets Harbor entrepreneur Elisha Camp was one of the chief promoters of the railroad.
[Photo courtesy Sackets Harbor Battle Field Historic Site]
These efforts having failed, Sackets Harbor and neighboring communities envisioned their own line or “bridge route” from Lake Ontario to the eastern seaboard. This moved closer to reality during the fall of 1848 when several public meetings were held locally. It was planned to connect with the Watertown & Rome either at Adams or Pierrepont Manor. Eventually the latter place was decided upon.
It was thought the Watertown & Rome would purchase it and make Sackets Harbor its lake-head terminus. Although this would have been 20 miles shorter, the Watertown & Rome had long since decided upon Cape Vincent as its western terminus. It was completed in the spring of 1852.
The local effort pushed forward anyway. A survey was made by Bryant P. Tilden Jr. , a civil engineer of Boston, Massachusetts, who had laid out the Sackets Harbor & Saratoga. The Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg passed through a predominantly agricultural region that could not support a railroad.
At a meeting at Sackets Harbor on March 8, 1849 the Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg Railroad Company was organized. An “act to declare public use of a railroad from Sackets Harbor, in the county of Jefferson, to Adams or Ellisburg” was passed by the New York State Legislature on April 9, 1849 formally declaring the feasibility of the line.
The Albany Evening Journal on April 15, 1850 reported:
Railroad From Sackets Harbor to Ellisburg. - Lieutenant Bryant P. Tilden, and Mr. Stetson, of Boston, one the engineer and the other the contractor on the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg railroad, are expected to commence operations soon. They will probably come up in the course of a week.
This railroad, about eighteen miles in length, is intended to connect with the Watertown and Rome road at Pierrepont Manor, thereby giving to the harbor a direct line in communication by a railroad to Albany. The value of such road will be apparent to any one who reflects on the great facility it will give for transportation from Lake Ontario.
On May 23, 1850, the Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg Railroad Company was formally incorporated by the New York State Legislature. The capital stock of the company was $175,000. Officers and directors were local community leaders and businessmen. The president was William T. Searles, a prominent merchant and businessman of Belleville. (1)
Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg depot at Sackets Harbor, built in 1888.
Lewis A. Remington was treasurer. Directors included Samuel T. Hooker, Royal S. Robbins, Dyer N. Burnham, Marcellus R. Patrick, Elisha B. Camp and Charles C. Symonds of Sackets Harbor, Abram Kromer of Smithville, Charles W. Bishop of Henderson, Green Packer of Ellisburg; and Cyrenus Converse and Samuel Hackley of Belleville. Lewis A. Remington was treasurer and J. S. Doane, engineer.
It was estimated it would cost about $224,700 to complete the road. The company spent $34,700 for land acquisition including the right of way.
The railroad company’s annual report dated December 24, 1852 stated more than $201,000 had already been expended, even though only three quarters of a mile of track laid.
The company had constant problems with contractors. Thomas Stetson, of Boston was initially awarded the contract to build the road for $150,000-one-third in cash, one-third in stock, as the road progressed, and another one-third in cash when the work was done. The road was re-surveyed by Calvin Brown, and work was begun. But the contractor failed to complete his agreement, and the work was let to Barker and Hoes, railroad contractors of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, who also failed.
To raise more funds the directors on August 20, 1850 voted to issue an additional $150,000 in bonds. After spending several thousand dollars in small jobs of grading, subsequently let the work to railroad contractors Phelps, Mattoon and Barnes of Springfield, Massachusetts, builders of the Watertown & Rome Railroad, who eventually completed the work.
By a resolution of the board of directors, passed August 20, 1850, bonds, to the extent of $150,000, were directed to be issued, redeemable in 1862, with semi-annual interest of seven percent. Construction moved rapidly.
The Watertown & Rome Railroad was completed to Pierrepont Manor on May 29, 1851 which allowed construction materials to be brought in. Pierrepont Manor was the home of William C. Pierrepont, President of the Watertown & Rome.
Rails were laid quickly once the grading and bridging were completed. By October, 1852, work was completed as far as Belleville. Six carloads of ties and rails were laid daily and by the end of November, almost to the village of Sackets Harbor. The railroad passed through the towns of Hounsfield, Henderson and Ellisburg. Station buildings were erected at Sackets Harbor, Smithville, and Bishop Street (Henderson). A ticket office and waiting room were located in the north end of the Watertown & Rome freight house at Pierrepont Manor.
Turntables to turn engines were located at Sackets Harbor and Pierrepont Manor. The engine house was at Sackets Harbor. The seven and a half-foot ties, laid at 1,757 to the mile, were of hemlock and cedar. There were two water stations. The railroad employed about 20 men to maintain the tracks and 10 others to look after the locomotives and cars.
Stone abutments of bridge over Stony Creek in Smithville withstood the test of time.
There were three bridges with stone abutments. One over Stony Creek at Smithville was 40 feet long, the abutments of cut stone still remain. The second over south branch of Sandy Creek at Wardwell Settlement was single span of 40 feet. The longest one was two spans of 60 feet each over the north branch of Sandy Creek at Belleville.
There were six switches for sidings. The railroad was laid with 58-pound (per yard) iron rail.
One locomotive, purchased new, was named the Sackets Harbor. Since no further information can be found about it, it was probably second hand. The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg usually furnished the locomotives. Among these were two - both of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. They were:
Chicopee Springfield Locomotive Works 1853 Cylinders 14” x 22”, driving wheels, 60”. Built for Connecticut River Railroad, later sold to Potsdam & Watertown R.R. and renamed Potsdam. It became R.W. & O. #20. Retired by 1888.
Montreal ex-Connecticut River Montreal R. W. & O. #22 Newcastle Locomotive Works. Latter sold to the Potsdam & Montreal R.R. it became R.W. & O. #22.
Norris M. Woodruff Built by Taunton Locomotive Works (Shop No. 94) 2-1852. Became R.W. & O. #7. Cylinders 14”x 20” Drivers 60” Retired by 1885.
In those days locomotives burned wood since it was plentiful and cheap. It was purchased from local farmers who cut it up into four-foot slabs and stacked it at certain points along the railroad. When the train stopped the train crew got off and piled the wood on the tender.
Devices called spark arresters were fitted to the smokestacks to prevent sparks from setting fire to forests, dry grasslands and most of all buildings adjacent to the tracks.
Other rolling stock included a passenger car, a mail and express car and 30 freight cars. The average speed of passenger trains while in motion was 25 miles per hour and freight, 15 miles per hour. The engine house was located just outside the village of Sackets Harbor.
Construction Progress
Elisha Camp wrote to his son, Elisha Jr. on January 1, 1853:
Our railroad has the iron laid down upon it as my stock farm. From there to the docks, a distance of about a half a mile there is much cutting in the rock to be done which will occupy until spring when I trust our Road will be put into operation.”
Two deep cuts required considerable excavation. One was in the village of Sackets Harbor. Camp noted:
It will take until spring to dig out the rock, in some places 13 feet deep, to make a gradual descent to the water in front of my Manor where the depot is to be. As yet the railroad has very little effect upon this village. We anticipate much from it next year.
The other deep cut was located just east of the crossing of what is now Route 3. The old railroad grade is still discernible here and there.
Camp felt William T. Searles, first president of the railroad, was incompetent and brought on its financial ruin through his finagling. As president, Searles, a merchant in Belleville, gave the contractors $150,000 in bonds as well as $110,000 in preferred stock as an incentive to complete the work. If that wasn’t enough, the railroad took on another heavy debt with the issuance of $150,000 in mortgage bonds in 1853. The modest income generated would never justify such debt and the railroad died prematurely.
On January 7, 1853 the Thirty-Second U.S. Congress granted the railroad a right of way to U.S. Army post at Madison Barracks, but there is no indication this extension was ever built.
The road was finally completed and opened for the regular passage of trains on June 1, 1853. The Jefferson Farmer, a local newspaper, reported in its issue of June 3:
The boys took it into their heads to celebrate this advent a little by firing a few guns. The arrival of the steamers Ontario and Cataract, at the same time, with the screech of the "steam animal," the ringing of the bells, &c., made quite an animated scene for Old Sackets.
One of the first excursion trains consisted of the engine pulling a flat car with benches; placed lengthwise. The sides had been removed and evergreen trees placed in the stake holes around the car. When approaching Sackets Harbor the woodburning engine was unable to make the grade. The men aboard jumped off and pushed the train along until the engine gained enough traction to proceed.
One of the chief railroad promoters of his day was William C. Pierrepont of Pierrepont Manor. He was first president of the Watertown & Rome Railroad.
The first conductor was Edward Coon. Other railroad employees included Appleton Mayo, Enoch C. Quimby, John D. Olney, Charles T. Sturdevant, Nicholas Connor, Kirnan Delano and Richard Burns. Station agents were Floria McNiel at Smithville, Charles W. Bishop at Bishop Street (station for Henderson) and H. A.Hatch at at Belleville. Another well-remembered conductor was James Tousley of Taylor Settlement in the town of Ellisburg. After the railroad closed he became a conductor on the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad.
The Watertown Reformer reported on June 17, 1853:
It was a novel sight to see an excursion train pass over the line on June 11, 1853 consisting of a locomotive pulling a flatcar with a fire engine aboard decorated with flags and flowers. The special train was chartered by the Watertown Fire Department. Upon at Pierrepont Manor the firemen in full uniform marched to the nearby Pierrepont Manor House for dinner. Afterward they returned to Watertown.
Further details of initial operation were disclosed by the Jefferson Farmer on June 10, 1853:
The Cars on the Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg Rail Road are now making their regular trips between Sackets Harbor and Pierrepont Manor, connecting at the latter place with the trains on the Watertown and Rome Road, and with the Lake Steamers, at this place.
They have but just got under way, and as yet, very little public notice has been given of their running, still they are doing a business that equals the expectations of the friends of the Road, and leads them to expect a good business both in freight and passengers. Arrangements abroad are yet to be made, and until such is the case, no great amount of business can be expected, but no one despairs of business as fast as the company are prepared for it.
They are getting ready their extensive dock and buildings, and will have every facility for doing business soon. The new Locomotive "Sackets Harbor," has arrived together with one splendid new passenger car, built at Springfield for this road. In consequence of the road not being thoroughly graveled and settled, the new Engine, which is a heavy one weighing 22 tons, will not be used for the passenger train for some days, the passenger train in the mean time being drawn by the "Chicopee," a lighter but very good engine. The trips thus far are made with commendable promptness, and the time for a new road is good. We notice a general disposition on the part of our citizens to patronize the road, and already several excursion trips are being talked of to come off soon.
Since writing the above, we have passed over the road, and find the track much better than we expected. The time made was good, and everything seemed to operate admirably, much better we think, than most new roads, before arrangements are perfected.
We spent the day very pleasantly in connection with a few friends from our village, enjoying an excellent dinner at the Pierrepont Manor House, kept by Mr. Mason. We would suggest to our citizens, that they may have a very pleasant trip over this road, and what is better, a good dinner at the Manor, returning in time for their evening recreation or business, as duty or pleasure leads them. Try it, patronize the road, form new acquaintances, and make new friends, since they are brought within an hour's ride of you or less.
The editor of the St. Lawrence Republican of Ogdensburg on July 12, 1853 wrote enthusiastically: The attention of the traveling public is directed to the advertisement of a new route to New York, by way of Sackets Harbor and Ellisburgh railroad. The means of pleasant, safe and rapid travel are multiplying so fast around us, that the traveller should read the programs of all the routes before he starts, and then jump aboard
The first timetable, dated June 20, 1853 shows two daily round trips. Steamboat connections were also established.
Trains connected with the Watertown and Rome Railroad at Pierrepont Manor.
GOING SOUTH
Leave Sackets Harbor 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Arrive at Pierrepont Manor 12:08 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
GOING NORTH
Leave Pierrepont Manor at 9:40 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Arrive at Sackets Harbor at 10:45 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Arrive at Pierrepont Manor 12:08 A.M. 8:30 p.m.
The Rome Daily Sentinel on July 23, 1853 spoke glowingly of the effect of the railroad on Sackets Harbor.
At Sackets Harbor last week we learned that the business on the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg Railroad is constantly increasing, and that the prospects are good for all the business the road will be able to do. The cars received a goodly number of passengers from the boats, and lumber was being unloaded from schooners and piled upon the docks.
The road runs through a beautiful and rich country, which will furnish quite amount of business. Arrangements are being made to procure stores of lumber and other articled to take off during the winter. The Oswego railroad does not come near enough to the landing to make it of much avail in transporting lumber or freight from the lake; and the CapeVincent and Sackets Harbor roads, furnishing as they do excellent facilities for winter as well as summer transportation, will enjoy a monopoly of the freighting business from Canada while the canals are closed.
Messrs. Searles and Hooker, the President and Superintendent of the Sackets road, are experienced, competent and successful business men. Their interests and reputation are alike involved in the success of the road, and under their management it will succeed. Mr. Wright, one of the valuable and popular men in the service of the Watertown and Rome Company, has been secured to take charge of the business at the Sackets Harbor Station, acting as Secretary and Treasurer.
People from long distances came by train to attend the Ellisburg, Adams and Henderson Cattle Show on September 9 and 10, 1853 sponsored by the Jefferson County Agricultural Society. The four-acre field enclosed by a high fence was provided free of charge by President Searles.
During its first fiscal year of operation the railroad carried 9,932 passengers and 25,525 tons of freight that consisted of cattle, lumber, agricultural products, 342 tons of vegetables, 156 tons of manufactured goods, 80 tons of merchandise and 20 tons of other articles. Earnings totaled $2,388.10 from passengers and $1,134.48 from freight. Operating expenses totaled $1,897.07.
The Pulaski Democrat reported on Thursday, January 19, 1854:
Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg R.R. - The engine (the Woodruff,) injured by the accident of last week, has been sent to Rome for repairs. We understand that the damage is estimated at $800 to $1,000. The regular trips were resumed on Monday.
Trains continued to operate twice daily. This timetable is dated May 8, 1854:
Going North
Pierrepont Manor 9 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
Belleville 10:15 a.m. 5:50 p.m.
Henderson 10:30 a.m. 6:05 p.m.
Smithville 10:50 a.m. 6:25 p.m.
Sackets Harbor 11:20 a.m. 6:50 p.m.
Going South
Sackets Harbor 6:30 a.m. 11 p.m.
Smithville 7 a.m. 11:20 p.m.
Henderson 7:29 a.m. 11:40 p.m.
Belleville 7:40 a.m. 12:00 p.m.
Pierrepont Manor 8:00 a.m. 12:20 p.m.
Connection with U. S. Mail Steamers to and from Kingston, Ogdensburg, Oswego and Lewiston. Job Collamer was superintendent at that time. He was there for at least a year.
At a meeting of the stockholders held at Sackets Harbor on June 12, 1855, the following were elected directors for the ensuing year:
James Barnes of Springfield, Mass.; C. W. Bishop and W. P. Davis of Henderson; E. B. And W. B. Camp, R. S. Robbins, James L. Hooker and Chester C. Symonds of Sackets Harbor; William T. Searles, Green Packer, Cyrenus Converse and Callius Brown of Ellisburg; and Cyrus Brigham of Smithville.
At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Directors re-elected Barnes as President, C. W. Bishop, Vice President; and Dickson B. Kellogg, Secretary and Treasurer.
Then several noticeable changes in management in a comparatively short period of time. also was a chance in management. For a brief period Job Collamer, superintendent of the Watertown & Rome Railroad, was interim superintendent of the Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg. Kellogg also eventually became superintendent. Collamer and Kellogg later became high-ranking operating officials on the New York Central. During his long career Collamer also served as assistant superintendent of the Hudson River Railroad, and superintendent of the Western Division of the New York Central.
Railroad operations were not without occasional incidents. Job Searles , a young man from Belleville, was convicted in Circuit Court in Watertown in February, 1855 for placing six fence rails on the tracks in an alleged attempt to obstruct a train in the town of Henderson in November, 1854. He was sentenced to two years and six months in Auburn Prison.
Very little effort was made to try to keep the railroad open during the winter months. Records show it was closed completely between October, 1855 and March, 1856, except for an occasional freight train. The heaviest passenger traffic was during the summer months.
The Sandy Creek News of March 5, 1885 noted:
The recent blockades have been called severe - but they do not compare with the one in 1862-63. The Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg railroad was then in operation, and running between Pierrepont Manor and the Harbor. On the 27th of December, 1862 a train ran through from Pierrepont Manor and was expected back in the evening but did not return return, on account of the snow blockaded until sometime in May, 1863 - So say “The oldest inhabitants.” The cars soon ceased to run at all and have not run since.
The Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg railroad was reaching the end of the line. From the beginning it had failed to make adequate returns. The Watertown & Rome Railroad favored its original lake head terminal at Cape Vincent. Financial troubles deepened.The earnings for the fiscal year of 1855-56, totaling $12,000, barely paid for expenses and nothing was applied to the bonded indebtedness of $278,400. No attempt was made to pay dividends on the stock or interest on the mortgages.
Belleville Union Academy students were encouraged to patronize the railroad.
Operation was sporadic. It would shut down for awhile and then resume. This notice appeared in the Jefferson County Journal of Adams on July 25, 1858:
Railroad Sale
The Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg Railroad is advertised by order of the court to be sold at public auction at Watertown on Wednesday, July 21st, after which day it will be closed for business, the company dissolved, and he present corporation no longer operate the road.
In accordance with the wishes and suggestions of the stockholders and citizens on the line of the road, the superintendent announces that excursion trains will be run over the road on Tuesday and Wednesday, 20th and 21st of July, leaving Pierrepont Manor at 10:10 a..m.
But the New York Reformer of Watertown reported on September 9, 1858:
Trains on the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg Railroad are again running, and connect both ways with the Rome road.
Exactly when the railroad was discontinued has not been determined as no annual reports exist for 1857, 1858 or 1859. On December 15, 1858 the first mortgage bondholders foreclosed and the railroad was struck off to John McKisson and others of New York for $19,600. The amount due to the bond-holders was $150,000; thus it was a total loss.
The New York Reformer of December 22, 1858 said:
It will be remembered that the road never had an independent, solvent company to operate it. It was so managed to be made simply as a tributary of the Rome road.
A new company called the Sackets Harbor, Rome and New York Railroad Company was organized March 30, 1860 with a capital stock of $100,000 and and the plan was to resume operations once necessary repairs were made. The stipulation by the stockholders was if it didn’t succeed it would be abandoned.
Early in May, 1860, sufficient repairs had been made allowing operation to resume of freight and passenger trains on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Several excursions were operated successfully without incident that summer. On one occasion, a 17-car excursion train ran over the line, using cars borrowed from the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg.
The Sackets Harbor, Rome and New York issued annual reports in 1860 and 1861. Some of the interesting statistics were:
Passengers carried 1860* 1861
1,241 6,795
Freight tonnage 1,448 2,167
Maintenance expenses $2,560.05 $5,949.89
Operating expenses $470 $5,516.98
Earnings $633.77 $4,731.62
Floating debt $61,213.46 $57,262.60 (7% annual interest)
*In operation only part of the year.
The Jefferson County News of July 12, 1860 published this news item regarding an excursion to a large Sunday School picnic at Sackets Harbor on July 4th.
The Excursion. - at 2 1/2 o'clock the warning note was given that the train was ready for Sackets Harbor. In a short time fourteen cars were loaded with as many hundred happy children and their friends. To help break up the celebration, reports had been circulated that "the Road was unsafe;" "that we would get our bones broken," &c. Now we were about to try it, and the multitude that went showed that these reports had little effect upon them.
All ready with banners flying, and music playing - by two Bands, and that of Belleville now added, we started in fine style. we reached the Harbor, stated there awhile, and returned more heavily loaded than we went, without the least mishap.
The Railroad is in good preparation. The Trussle (sic) work is as firm as any part of it. Seventeen cars, with as many hundred persons on, beside the engine and tender, were all on it at once, and no jar! All fear about the Sackets Harbor Railroad may henceforth vanish.
A timetable published in August, 1860 showed the train leaving Sackets Harbor at 7:15 a.m. and arriving at Pierrepont Manor at 8 a.m. Going north it left Pierrepont Manor at 6:45 p.m. and arrived at Sackets Harbor at 8 p.m. Trains continued to operate until at least November, 1861. William T. Searles was again superintendent.
Traces of the abandoned railroad can still be seen in the form of farm trails.
Evidence the line was still in operation until at least until early 1862 is found in this brief news item in the Jefferson County News on February 6th:
Clearing the Road by Persevering Energy
The Sackets Harbor, Rome and New York Railroad Company have, by persevering energy, succeeded in clearing the road from the accumulation of snow, which ad temporarily blockaded this road. The trains now connect with all the trains North and South, on the R.W.& O. at Pierrepont Manor, as heretofore.
In his reminiscences as a stagecoach driver published in the Watertown Daily Times on February 8, 1919, Manuel Jeffrey, an old stagecoach driver, recalled:
One company of the 7th Regiment was sent here. They had been prisoners and could not be used again in battle, so they were sent here for a rest. They came into Sackets Harbor one Sunday morning over the old Sackets Harbor & Ellisburg railroad, one of the last things that road was used for, and they camped in the square.
Amasa Hungerford of Belleville, 89, in 1933, recalled the railroad’s woodburning locomotives. He said a single engine could pull no more than 10 small freight cars at a time. He recalled school children were occasionally given a picnic rides on the train. The railroad also offered free transportation at the beginning and end of semesters to Union Academy scholars who stayed in the dormitory or lived with families around town.
R.W. & O. station at Pierrepont Manor.
At the annual election of the stockholders held at Smithville Hotel, on June 16th, 1863, the following persons were elected Directors for the ensuing year: John Butterfield, and John Thorn, Utica; George B. Phelps, Watertown; Alden Adams, Sackets Harbor; W. P. Davis, Smithville and Samuel Griggs of Smithville; Charles W. Bishop, John D. Gillett Jr. and Chester Barrett of Henderson; Green Packer of Belleville; and Daniel C. Robbins of New York. The board elected Adams as president and Davis as treasurer. Alecander (cq) Dickinson of Belleville soon replaced Adams as president.
But losses continued to mount. It was also found that 1,200 feet of trestle work was largely decayed and unsafe. It was estimated it would cost $7,000 to repair them of $5,000 to replace them with earthen fills. Some 20,000 rotten ties needed to be replaced at a cost of $8,000.
The line had never been ballasted and would have cost about $10,000 to do it properly. Repair work to the engines and cars to put them in running order was estimated at $5,000. The total cost of putting the line in safe operating condition was estimated at $45,000.
A committee then approached the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg about purchasing it. An examination was made of the road after which R.W. & O. officials said they would not take the line as a gift, and come under obligation to run it.
The petition to abandon the line states:
The road cannot be maintained as an independent organization, however economically managed. The inhabitants on the line of the road are mostly farmers, and men of moderate capital. They have done so much already, so many times over, to "save the road," that it would be impossible to induce them to "try again." Many claim that the road is not needed, as the Watertown road accommodates them more, to their advantage, than the Harbor road has ever done.
Who would be benefited should the petition be denied? On the contrary, those persons represented by the petition would evidently be injured to a large amount by one year's delay. If sold now it would pay back something to those who have suffered the greatest loss; while the delay would endanger an entire loss of the whole, as there are about $10,000 of debts pressing for liquidation, and the company no means to pay them.
In August, 1863 the directors took it upon themselves to commence scrapping the line. About a mile had been taken up when the objecting stockholders obtained a court injunction or order of restraint on the grounds that the directors had no right to do so. The affair was taken to court and a settlement was reached by being guaranteed they would be paid the par value for their shares of stock. Not everyone agreed with this but the tracks were torn up anyway.
This house in the hamlet of Smithville was built as the Red Brick Tavern in 1828. The depot was a short distance to the left, or south of this building.
Boyd Gilbert, historian of the Town of Adams, wrote in 1949:
I have been told that the only man who made any money out of that railroad was he who bought the rails for old iron. I cannot, of course, vouch for that statement. As I boy I was curious about the railroad, and my curiosity has never been satisfied. That it was well engineered and well constructed I am sure.
Some of the ties on which the rails were laid were sawed from the finest red cedar, grown on the limestone land a short distance west of the right of way. One of the tied was used as a cedar post barnyard fence on the Adelbert Mather farm in the Town of Henderson, now owned by Mrs. Grace Mather. When I knew it in 1925 the post was weather-worn but otherwise as sound as the day it was cut from a red cedar log 18 inches in diameter. It has been in use more than 70 years.
Adelbert Scott, whose farm was situated at Scott’s Corners in the Town of Henderson, told me that farms thereabout grew barley for malt, and ships it by way of the railroad to malt houses farther south.
While preparations were being made to build Syracuse Northern Railroad between Syracuse and Sandy Creek in 1871 serious consideration was given to to extend it to Sackets Harbor utilizing portions of the old roadbed of the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg.
This report, written by the Belleville correspondent, appeared in the Watertown Re-Union on August 10, 1871:
A few days since a party of gentlemen from Syracuse, of which General John A. Green was one, passed through the town. Their business was to fix the future terminus of the Syracuse Northern Railroad, with has been surveyed from Sandy Creek, its present terminus, to Henderson Harbor. The route is from Sandy Creek to Ellis Village and Woodville, leaving Rural Hill on the east. Those gentlemen visited both Henderson and Sackets Harbor, and were highly pleased with the feasibility of the route, especially to the latter place.
Efforts are making to have a survey made from Ellis Village through to Belleville, Bishop Street, and Smithville to Sackets Harbor.
At Belleville the grade of the old Sackets Harbor railroad can be tapped. And as most of the grading, especially the heavy part of it, remains perfect, the cost of preparing the road bed for the iron from this point to Sackets Harbor will be small, compared to that of a new route.
Sackets Harbor being the terminus of the road now being built from Carthage, it is desirable to form a junction at that point with the Syracuse Northern, so that from Syracuse to Utica, the northern route will be unbroken. We hope the day is not far distant when the sound of the locomotive whistle will again be heard in Belleville, as in “ye ancient days.”
Civil engineer George Williams was hired to survey the line. Nothing further was done. The towns of of Ellisburg, Henderson and Hounsfield were reluctant to encumber themselves with bonded indebtedness. The Ellisburg correspondent for the Adams Journal said “the people feel they are now taxed almost beyond endurance.”
House on Bishop Street is believed to have been the station building for Henderson
As a side note the seven mile portion of the Syracuse Northern between Pulaski and Sandy Creek was only operated from November 9, 1871 until September 5, 1877 when it was discontinued. Since the Syracuse Northern had been merged into the R.W.& O. in 1875, there was no further need for this line as it paralleled the R. W. & O. from Richland to Sandy Creek. But residents living in Pulaski and Sandy Creek were enraged. Years of litigation over this ensued. In the end the line was torn up in 1884.
Sackets Harbor was more fortunate. The Carthage, Watertown and Sackets Harbor Railroad, an extension of the Utica & Black River Railroad, was incorporated February 5, 1869 and opened in 1875. It utilized the original right of way of the never-completed Sackets Harbor and Saratoga and entered the village on the roadbed of the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg. It was leased to the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg on April 14, 1886.
The R.W. & O. passed to the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad on March 14, 1891. It was formally merged into the New York Central on April 16, 1913. The 11.4 mile line between Watertown and Sackets Harbor was abandoned in 1949. Passenger service ceased on September 30, 1934.
When a proposed extension of the Elmira, Cortland & Northern Railroad from Camden to Watertown was made in 1890 one of the routes surveyed began at Watertown, running southwest to Smithville. From there it ran over the abandoned grade of the Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg to Bellville; then to Sandy Creek, paralleling the R. W. & O. to Camden. .
(1) William Thurston Searles was born March 27, 1808 in Bennington, Vermont, son of James and Abigail (Thurston) Searles. He died in Belleville, May 12, 1864 and is buried in Ellisburg Cemetery. He married Lucinda B. White March 12, 1846 at Mentz, N.Y., near Port Byron. She died January 17, 1901 at Adams, N.Y. They had five daughters and four sons.
