Cortland Standard, Wed., Nov. 1, 1876
The Elmira State Line and Tioga R.R.
This important narrow and broad gauge road, connecting Elmira city with the Blossburg coal fields of Tioga, Pa., was formally opened on the 24th ult., and the event was duly celebrated in a very enthusiastic manner by a large excursion party consisting of directors, officers, railroad men, editors, capitalists and other invited guests, who were more than pleased with the entertainment afforded, and, with the road and its equipments, and lastly the visit to the extensive coal regions of Pennsylvania. Too much credit cannot be awarded to Messrs. F.N. Drake, President and L.H. Shattuck, Supt., and other officers, for the most thorough and efficient manner in which the enterprise has been carried through to a successful completion.
The total distance, by this new route, from Elmira to the coal fields is about 50 miles, and, when we assert that the road bed, iron bridges, structures, equipment and rolling stock are remarkably excellent, we would also add we never saw better.
The traffic of this new road, banding the rich and populous commercial, manufacturing and agricultural region, of Southern New York, with the mountains of mineral fuel in Pennsylvania, must assuredly be immense. A glance at the map will lead the eye to the allied connection of this important route, the Utica, Ithaca and Elmira R.R., whose central position betokens a degree of prosperity, resulting from such connections that will more than meet the sanguine expectations of the most hopeful. This connection now being perfected, the long trains of black diamonds brought to Elmira daily over the State Line, will make their passage over the summit heights of the U., I.& E. thence to central, eastern and northern N.Y., the Great Lakes and the New England states where unequaled markets are for all time assured. Indeed the capacity of both the State Line and the U., I.& E. must in future be taxed to the fullest extent to accommodate the developed and growing wants which they will be required to meet.
If railroad success can be achieved in America, we know of no more inviting field upon which to base a prediction of success than the region of country with its varied resources, traversed by the Elmira & State Line and Tioga, and U., I. & E. Railroads.
For coal traffic they cannot be excelled, and we firmly believe our prophecy will be fully verified.
Map of railroads in Tioga County in 1890
Chenango Weekly Telegraph, Norwich, N.Y., Sat., July 14, 1877
THE COAL REGIONS
Tioga, Tioga Co., Pa., July 4.
Editors Telegraph: - Thinking that a brief description of this country by a resident of Chenango county might be of interest to the readers of the Telegraph, I take the liberty of addressing this communication to you. This is a town of about eight hundred inhabitants, and for a place the size has many public spirited men. the greatest feature of the place is Bush's Park, fitted up by Mr. A.C. Bush, formerly of Bainbridge, N.Y., and a brother of Hon. Joseph Bush of that place.
Mr. Bush has erected many buildings in the park, notably among which is a large dining hall and kitchen well stocked with dishes, &c., for the accommodation of picnic parties from abroad, and a dancing hall at least 30x100 feet. There is hardly a week passes but what there are parties from abroad here to enjoy the pleasures of this park.
There is a very large hotel called the Park House which cost $40,000. built by a stock company, also many fine brick blocks. The largest business interests of the place are the tanneries which are located here and give employment to many workmen; they consume large quantities of hemlock bark for which they pay five dollars per cord. There is a lively newspaper published here with a circulation of 1,000 copies weekly, edited and published by A.H. Bunnell, formerly of Bainbridge. There are many Chenango county people settled here.
Last Saturday we visited the coal mines at Arnot, twenty-two miles above here up the Tioga River, which we reached by the Tioga Railroad. This is where is mined the celebrated Blossburg coal, semi-bituminous it is called, such as our blacksmiths use. The Tioga R.R. was the third railroad in the U.S., and was built by the Blossburg Coal Company for transporting their coal, which at that time was found at Blossburg; but these mines have been abandoned and mines are now worked at Fall Brook, Morris Run and Arnot, the most extensively at the latter place, where we inspected them.
Arnot is a place of about 3,000 inhabitants, built on a hill or numerous knolls. There are 500 houses, all built by the company and rented by them to the miners. There is also the company's store and one other store, and we believe two or three churches. We understand the minders are mostly Welshmen and Protestants. We entered the principal mine which goes into the side of the hill, as the coal is in drifts or mines, being carried in by a mule drawing numerous small cars through a subterraneous passage about five or six feet high and about the same width for one-fourth to one-half a mile, and from which there are many passages leading to other mines or workings.
Arriving near the place where the men were at work, and where the motive power was left, (the mule) we walked along or nearly crawled through a small passage, and were surprised to find that the miners were getting out coal where the space was not over three feet high, and where they have to almost lay down to pick it down.
The coal is in thin layers or drifts of from 18 inches to four feet deep. Four tons is an average day's work for a man working 10 hours, and the price paid for mining is 55 cents per ton. The temperature of the atmosphere in the mines is about 45 degrees, and they are well ventilated, as there are openings clear through the hill.
The coal is drawn outside the mines by the mules, where the cars are taken by a small locomotive about a quarter of a mile to the dump house\par where they are wheeled in by hand, weighed and dumped, when part of the coal is passed through a sifter and the fine loaded into cars for blacksmiths' use and the coarser for locomotive and other uses.
It is four miles from Arnot down to Blossburg and the grade is about 85\par feet to the mile. We rode down in a coach without an engine at a rapid rate. The regular passenger trains, of the Tioga R.R., do not run farther than Blossburg, which is a town of about 1,500 inhabitants and as the company's shops are located here and the miners from the mining towns come down here to trade there is considerable business done.
Yours truly, K.E.B.
Pages 9-12 - An Outline History of Tioga and Bradford Counties in Pennsylvania, Chemung, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins and Schuyler in New York. The Gazette Company, Elmira, N.Y. 1885.
At the session of the Pennsylvania Legislature held in 1826, a “General Improvement Act” was passed. About this time action was taken by enterprising citizens of Tioga County for the formation of a navigation company. Prominent among these citizens was Hon. Samuel W. Morris of Wellsboro. A charter was obtained and by successive supplements the navigation company obtained the right to construct a railroad from Blossburg to the state line at Lawrenceville.
Pad and Pencil
Elmira Star Gazette
Monday, February 28, 1916
Judson Hadley, after a service for 42 years for the Erie Railroad, was retired on a pension some time ago, and lives on upper West Water street above the Cobbles. In Mr. Hadley’s career he has participated in one, at least, conspicuous event.
Mr. Hadley was born up Millerton way, on the Tioga division of the Erie, son of a devout and good Baptist preacher, who in his humble walk tried to keep his parishioners who abode in Tioga county, in the “straight and narrow” path that leads to the better land. When a young man Jud Hadley went to work as a track hand for the Tioga, and then was put on a locomotive to “fire” for the late Sanford Gaylord, who for many years ran the “limited” between Elmira and Blossburg, leaving Elmira in the forenoon. One morning just after Sant. Gaylord had arrived at the Elmira station to take out his train, he became suddenly ill, and died in a short time in the waiting room. Thirty minutes later, had he survived that much longer, he would have been at the throttle. That must have been nearly 25 years ago, and even since that day until is retirement, Mr. Hadley promoted to the right side of the cab, ran the train out of Elmira every morning with a clear record.
Early, after the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Hadley, then a young and very spruce looking chap, enlisted in the 107th Regiment, New York Volunteers, a noted organization recruited in Elmira, and not only served throughout the conflict, but was in some of the bloody and noted battles of the war.
In April, 1865, the young soldier was on detail duty in Washington, and was in that city when John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and Payne attempted to assassinate Secretary Seward. As a result of this great tragedy half a dozen men and one woman were placed on trial for murder before a military court, and four of them were sentenced to death, viz., Payne, Harold, Atzerod and Mrs. Surratt, and all four were hanged in the penitentiary yard in the District of Columbia. Mrs. Surratt kept a boarding house where the plot was hatched. Her son was afterwards capture and tried, but acquitted. During the trial, he tried to establish an alibi by proving he was in Elmira the night before the tragedy and stopped at the Rathbun House.
At the trial of the arch conspirators in the district prison, which lasted several weeks, a court martial in charge of General Hartranft, afterwards governor of Pennsylvania, Soldier Hadley was one of the detail who were charged with guarding prisoners. With other guards in uniform, with loaded rifles, Mr. Hadley was present at intervals, as his turn often came, and had full opportunity to observe the prisoners. He was also a guard over the notorious Wire, charged with the cruelties at Andersonville prison.
Late in the summer of 1865, after the trial, and following his discharge, or master out, Mr. Hadley came back to Elmira. He is a very intelligent and kindly man, as a locomotive engineer usually is and lives with two daughters, one at home, unmarried, and the other, Mrs. Minnie H. Ferguson, hair dresser, at 208 East Water street.
Pad and Pencil
Elmira Star Gazette
Monday, April 3, 1916
In this department a few weeks ago, there was a reference to Jud Hadley, retired baggage master of the Tioga Division of the Erie Railroad, who also had some interesting experiences, while a volunteer soldier during the Civil War. Mr. Hadley is a government as well as an Erie pensioner, and lives with his daughters on upper West Water street.
Out in Cincinnati, among other inhabitants, lives one John H. Webster, who is general agent of the passenger department of the Erie Railroad. Mr. Webster, years and years ago, used to be station agent and telegraph operator at Seeley Creek, about eight miles from Elmira “on the Tioga.”
Those who are familiar with Seeley Creek are aware that the place is some smaller than Cincinnati. After a year of faithful service, or because the people of Seeley Creek didn’t want hm to stay any longer, he was promoted to Millerton. Then Mansfield got him somehow or other Binghamton held him for awhile and then he came to Elmira where his real progress began. Then he went to Cincinnati, and it is some distance from a farmer’s boy from Job’s Corners and Webb Mills to the big city in Ohio.
Mr. Webster knows Jud Hadley, because he used to work with him, and when he read about his old comrade Pad and Pencil his reminiscent mood got busy, and he wrote a personal letter to the Editor in this fashion, and being too good to lose, it is here reproduced with apologies to the G. A.P. D.
“I could tell you a little story in connection with Jud Hadley,”writes Mr. Webster. “I have known Jud since I was a barefoot boy at Webb’s Mills, and carried the mail between the post office and Wells station. Several years after that, when I had become a regular telegraph operator and Erie station agent, and was located at Millerton, Pa., in February, 1896, you will recall that we had a very hard snow storm wit a high wind that drifted the snow very badly.
“On this particular day the snow and wind were so bad that the train on which Jud was the baggage master, left Elmira with the combined baggage, mail and express car and one coach, instead of two with was the regular train. Let Lounsberry was the engineer; Ed. Bambury, fireman; Jimmy Maher, conductor; Lou Rikeldifer, brakeman; Jud Hadley, baggageman; John Hyde, postal clerk, and Will Hilligas (now a policeman in Binghamton), express messenger. There were two or three passengers on the train beside Mr. Loomis, the division superintendent, now vice-president of the D.L.& W.
“I boarded the train at Millerton to make a trip to Mansfield. Just above the iron bridge at Trowbridge, we ran into a snow bank, half the train length, and stopped. We lost no time in getting to work. Rilkeldifer started back to Millerton, he first telegraph station, to get help to pull us out. We all shoveled fro 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. to get back half the train length, where the track was as clean as a city pavement after flushing. We then backed to Trowbridge station without further trouble. Help had not reached us, and it was thought expedient to get back to a telegraph station if possible.
“Jud Hadley was the next man in line to flag us back. He started out with instructions from Conductor Maher and Superintendent Loomis, that when he came to the Alder Run trestle, about a mile distant, to place his torpedoes on the bridge and g around the bridge, not try to cross it in any event. There was no wind gauge on the bridge, but at that time it was coming down Alder Run somewhere between 75 and 100 miles per hour. When Jud got there, he didn’t hear anything but the wind, she he’d placed his torpedoes on the track, and the distance being shorter to the other end of the bridge by crossing it, he started to crawl over on his hands and knees, hugging the ties mighty close to hang on.
“When he reached the center the bridge, which at that point is 75 feet high, he heard a click on the rail from the north end of the bridge, which immediately indicated to him that the help we had sent for was coming to pull us out. He was just opposite one of the little recesses where a barrel of water was located, and he rolled off into it, and as the engine passed he threw his flag, hoping to break the window and attract the attention of the engineer, who was Frank Hebe, who I believe now runs the train which he was trying to protect.
“He was not successful in his efforts, nor did the torpedoes attract attention, and as w were about a mile from the point where Hebe was expecting to find us, and the snow was blowing so that they could not see 50 feet ahead, he put is engine clear to the cab in our coach.c
“While at the Trowbridge station we had gotten some warm biscuits from Mrs. Woodford, who lived there, and whose son Fred was agent there, we had tapped some oysters in the express car, and were just having our lunch when we were hit. I had a nice fat one on a stick and just as I was about to get it, I landed over against the stem pipes. We didn’t eat any more for a couple of hours. Jud Hadley turned up in about an hour with his hands and feet badly frozen, and was obliged to remain off duty for nearly three months. We all slept on the floor of the Trowbridge station that night and took turns in bringing in coal to keep it warm. I guess no one except Jud ever suffered any serous effects from the experience.
“Now, my dear friend, I don’t want you to stop this part of your paper, but when you get up against anything that you don’t remember, just let me know, especially if it happened before your time, old I can ask Tut. Seely.”
November 30, 1919
Erie Engineer Dead
___
Corning, N.Y., Nov. 29. - Letson Lounsberry, aged 82 years,, for many years a resident of 92 Perry Ave., Corning, died Sunday at then home of his daughter, Mrs. E. L.Witters, at Mosey Glen, in the town of Corning. is death was due to the infirmities of age.
Letson Lounsberry was born at Canoe Camp, town of Richmond, Tioga county, Pa., October 8, 1836, a son of Mr., and Mrs. Letson Lounsberry, who were among the very first settlers of that section. In young manhood he became a trainman of the Corning, Tioga & Blossburg Railroad, and from1864 till 1888 was engineer on trains that hauled soft coal from the Blossburg mines via Corning and Horseheads to Watkins for transshipment by canal boars. From 1883 until he retired from active service in 1906, he continued as engineer on the Erie with passenger train runs. He was pensioned by the Erie Company.
Mr. Lounsberry was intelligent, trustworthy and industrious. Few men had so many close friends. He was of a cheerful disposition and his last days were cloudless.
Two sons and two daughters survive, Mrs. L. F. Van Wey, of Elmira; Horace Lounsberry, of Binghamton, Mrs. E. L.Witter, of Mosey Glen, and Harry Lounsberry of Syracuse.
The funeral was held at the home of Mrs. Witter on Tuesday at 3 p.m. The body was taken to Blossburg for burial Wednesday morning.
- Elmira Sunday Telegram, November 16, 1941
- Travel Thrill of Days of Long Ago:
- Blossburg-Elmira Ride on Tioga Division Is Unforgettable Memory to Woman Writer
- The following article, by Adeline Dartt Marvin of 48 Sherwood St., Mansfield, Pa. is referred to why Mrs. Marvin as “Travel Thrills at 10 - reminiscence of the Tioga Division of the Erie.” In view of the proposed abandonment of the Erie of the major part of the division trackage, including that from Elmira to Tioga Junction, Mrs. Marvin’s recollections of a childhood trip is timely and interesting. Perhaps some other readers have memories of the Division? Let’s hear about them. - The Editor.
By Adeline Dartt Marvin
Though you have travelled continents and sailed the seven seas, you have not known the thrill of travel unless you were once a small child in a small town located on a branch railroad with the nearest shopping center 40 miles away.
Were you ever put to bed early on a fall night with the chilly, creepy feeling up your spine and the breathless sensation in your middle that told you something unusual was going to happen? You tossed from one fretful dream to another to be awakened from a final exhausted sleep in a cold lamp lit dawn by your mother’s. "Six o'clock! You must get up if you want to go to Elmira with me."
[Mrs. Kimble G. Marvin, (1897-1980) writer of this Sunday Telegram article, was a graduate of Elmira College. Her husband is a member of the faculty of Mansfield State Teacher’s College, health education department. The Marvins resided at 48 Sherwood St., Mansfield.]
Did you want to go? You were out of bed, hair combed, face washed, best winter dress and shoes on before you could say Jack Robinson. Breakfast wasn't breakfast but a strange ceremonial meal with cereal and eggs under the lighted chandelier that ordinarily meant the sociable dinner hour.
There was a short cold walk to the station, that in one sense was no station at all but a dingy room in the corner of Blossburg's main hotel - The Seymour House. Your entrance into the small waiting room, with its red hot stove, was greeted with the aroma of coal smoke and the bananas of long-consumed lunches. Mother purchased two tickets for Elm ira, one full and one half fare and sat down on the iron armed bench, with a watchful eye on the door to see if a freight might arrive to provide conversational relief during the three hour train ride.
You needed no relief. The engine, spouting steam out on the track with its trailer of baggage car and two coaches, was glory enough. You could hardly wait for the trainman's signal to climb aboard and find the red plush seat that just suited you, whee you could view the Blossburg State Hospital and the Mansfield Normal School, two buildings whose size and beauty inspired you.
Mother nodded to the half dozen passengers who straggled in but there were no intimate friends this morning. You were glad, for it meant that mother settled to her crocheting, leaving you free to press your forehead tight to the cold window pane and live vicariously in every farm house and village you passed. You were going to Elmira to shop and I repeat, though you have sailed the seven seas, you have not tasted to the full, the joys of travel, if you have not gone from Blossburg to Elmira on the Tioga Division of the Erie.
The joys of travel, with speed and the multiplicity of tourists, has vanished from many once far-off places. So, too, the trip from Blossburg to Elmira has tone to be traversed no more. I have grown up and returned from far wanderings to Tioga County. The Tioga Division still makes its daily journey but I no longer use it. When, like my mother of old, I go to Elmira ti shop, I go by bus or in our own small car. I arrive in one hour against the old three of the Tioga Division. I ride more comfortably but the glory has departed. I am moved to meditate, if perhaps in this day of convenience and speed, when we started any old time and arrive anywhere, anyhow, with no goal nor purpose, have we not lost something of the romance of living?
There comes back to me the memory of the return trip from Elmira to Blossburg. Late afternoon and I am weary. In the last hour of standing by my mother's side at counter after counter, the joys of shopping have palled. To this day, I cannot look up upon figured silk or polka dotted foulard without a sense of nausea. Mother always chose the hour before train time to visit Sheehan and Dean's silk counter with one eye peeled for a bargain. I had eaten at my favorite chocolate shop; been not an unwilling model in Flanagan's Department Store for my fall coat and hat, been allowed to purchase a new book in Miss Adams' musty shop where books were piled on the floor and tables in dusty, angular masses. I had partaken of the glories of this day of days and my cup of fulfillment was running over in a dizzy whirl of spots and figures on dark, shimmering silk.
The noisy Erie depot was a relief. The bronze Indian that stood guard before its front entrance wore the air of an old friend. I was only to glad to see the two cars of the Tioga Division drawn up on the track behind the puffing engine. We climbed aboard. The dusty, plush seats seemed infinitely soft as my small bones sank gratefully into them while our accumulation of parcels spilled over the plush. Mother reversed the seat in front. I braced my feet on the supports and opened my new book. But there was still much to excite and distract me. The other passengers climbed in as weary and bundle laden as ourselves. The Tioga Division might easily been called the Shopping Special. Thee was much discussion of respective values at Sullivan's and Roesnbaum's, proud showing of bargains, the usual banter with the conductor, then his loud "All Aboard."
The train puffed slowly out of the little city. Once more, I pressed my face tight to the pane that I might register firmly in my mind the lights of Elmira, for well I knew it would be many weeks before I saw them again. Not a pawn shop or boarding house on its dirty Railroad Ave. escaped me and when through a street intersection, I caught glimpses of the two parallel business avenues with the street lamps pricking the dust. I almost dislocated my neck in an effort to carry a bit of the city with me. I saw the sun set over the river in its glow of rose and silver, watched the outskirts dwindle into open country and only then did I settle back to enjoy my sensation of fatigue for enjoy it I did. It was grown up to be tired from shopping.
But even yet, one could not settle down too completely. There were experiences ahead. I knew every one of them and none of them were to be missed. First, came the thrill of the high bridge at Jackson Summit, to hold one's breath as the train clattered slowly across to sigh with relief when you felt the last wheel pass on solid ground, the boys selling popcorn at Lawrenceville where the Erie connected with the New York Central, the weird ride to take in Tioga Junction when the train backed down; all the little towns priced mysteriously out of the dark; then suddenly like one of Hans Andersen's fairy palaces, the lighted buildings of the Mansfield State Normal School high on the hill above the puffing train. Now I was nearing home. The joy of fatigue had passed. I was just a tired little girl, fretful of the long delays but reviving to the last experience but one, the lights of the Blossburg State Hospital, gleaming awesomely at me from the hill as we rounded into Blossburg.
We were home, the last and nicest experience of all, the lights of the old Seymour House and depot, the crowd waiting for the train, father standing quietly waiting to relieve his wife and little girl of their bundles, joking them as to the number and content; the short walk home, the hired girl smiling with a late dinner piping hot on the table;l the final excitement of opening bundles, trying the new piece of music, reading somewhat distractedly a few pages from the new book, parading before father in the new coat and hat, watching his quiet pleasure at the purchases mother made for him, subsiding at last into utter weariness - it's good to be in bed again.
That is the memory vivid and poignant from out of my childhood. I cannot relive it nor would I if I could. A ride on the same Tioga Division in recent years brought only discomfort and cinders. Yet there was a thrill which is absent in today's hap hazard mode of travel. Will your children hold precious in their maturity, the memory of your casual Sunday journey of three times the length of the trip from Blossburg to Elmira? Are they thrilled at the sight of the family motor waiting at the curb? Do they sleep in restless dreaming over the anticipated 600 mile drive to grandmother's in Indiana? I doubt it. Will they, grown to an age of better sense, bore their contemporaries with reminiscences of filling stations, hot dogs and one dollar tourist rooms? I doubt it.
I am hearing you say, what does the woman want, stuffy local trains, isolated towns and bad roads back again? By all the heavens, No! But I do want tradition, sentiment and the magnifying of the simple things in the eyes of a child so that he may have subsequent background for dreams, moralizing or what you will. I repeat, in conclusion, though you have sailed the seven seas, if you have not known the glory of anticipation, the thrill of discomfort to achieve your journey - you have not travelled!*
Notes
*An Erie timetable dated April 27, 1924 shows one round trip daily between Elmira and Blossburg, and another between Elmira and Arnot. There was also service to Hoytville and Morris run at this time. At Tioga Junction, trains backed to Lawrenceville, where connection was made with the New York Central. Regular passenger service ended in December, 1931 and mixed train service in 1935.
In 1941, the Erie asked permission to abandon the line, through Pine City, Webb Mills, Millerton and Jackson Summit to Tioga Junction. This was granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The final train left Elmira at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 9, 1942. At 4:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 10, 1942, a 12-car freight train pulled into the Erie yard in Elmira, ending service. Seeley G. Powell was engineer and John W. Canfield was conductor on these final runs.
Elmira Telegram, Monday, Aug. 10, 1942
Erie Closing Tioga Line Tonight
The last train to serve residents of Pine City, Seeley Creek, Millerton, Trowbridge and Jackson Summit along the Tioga Division, Erie Railroad will leave the Erie freight station, Elmira, at 11:30 p.m. today. The Interstate Commerce Commission a few weeks ago directed that the line between Elmira and Tioga Junction be discontinued, effective today. No special observance of the last trip had been planned, it was stated at the office of the Division Superintendent in Hornell. The rolling stock will be continued in service, operating between Corning, over the New York Central Railroad, to Lawrenceville and Tioga Junction, then over Erie right of way to Tioga, Mansfield, Blossburg, Morris Run and Hoytville.
C. C. Mosher has been the agent at the Seeley Creek and Jackson Summit stations for several years, commuting by auto. Only two freight trains-one in each direction-have served patrons of the road several years. Agent Mosher will be given employment by the company elsewhere, it was said today.
Removal of the rails, bridges and trestles at Alder Run and Trowbridge will be started within a few days. The metal will be sold for scrap. The division once had excellent patronage. That was back in the horse and buggy days. The coming of the automobile and improved roads cut passenger patronage until this service was discontinued. The crews operating the two freight trains will be transferred. Some of the men may return to the Susquehanna Division.
[Freight from Elmira bond for Tioga Junction and other points south on the Tioga Division was then shipped to Corning, then south via Lawrenceville to its destination. The application to discontinue the line between Hoytville and Blossburg was not allowed by the I.C.C. That came about after Hurricane Agnes washed much of it out in 1972].
___________
Retiring Railroader Recalls Tioga Division’s Golden Age
By Genevieve Mase And Thomas E. Byrne
(From the Elmira Star-Gazette, December 12, 1955)
A man whose memories of the Tioga Division goes clear back to 1903 -Selah Powell of Blossburg - has retired after 53 years of service.
At his Blossburg home today, Mr. Powell recalled the golden age of Northern Pennsylvania’s coal mining. He mentioned Fallbrook, Hoytville, Arnot and Trowbridge - the old towns whose sons and daughters mostly are city folks today, living in Elmira and Corning.
He can remember the Fall Brook’s passenger train from Blossburg which wen up to Morris Run on the tail end of a string of empties, and came back down-hill to Blossburg by gravity. As the carload if passengers descended the single track toward Blossburg, the trainmen worked two hand brakes and sounded a bell, Mr. Powell recalls. The Fall Brook was a famous old division of the New York Central, just as the Tioga Division was a useful and well-loved section of the Erie.
Mr. Powell started with the Erie as a fireman in 1903, and became an engineer in 1907. He had both freight and passenger runs to Elmira. His passenger train would leave Blossburg at 7 a.m. and arrive in Elmira at 10 a.m. the crew would lay over until 4:45 for the trip back to Blossburg. “We used to hold up the afternoon trip until :30 for the benefit of the people who came to Elmira to see shows like ‘Ben Hur,’ he says in remembering the days when Elmira had her Lyceum and Mozart.”
The Elmira-to-Blossburg trains always back into Lawrenceville from Tioga Junction to make connections with the New York Central. Hoytville (now a ghost town on Route 84) was the end of the Tioga Division line. The Tioga Division had a turntable there, at the time, and the tannery there, at the time, was the largest in the world.
Morris had a big sawmill in Mr. Powell’s early railroading days. He recalls that Canoe Camp, Lamb’s Creek and Trowbridge were flag stops; that Millerton, Tioga and Jackson Summit always were very busy depots.
Two Old-Timers Left
“There are just two old-timers left,” said Mr. Powell. “Myself and Albert Bunn, an engineer, who now lives in Painted Post. The Tioga Division had eight crews in 1910. The Elmira-Blossburg train used to leave Elmira at 9:15 a.m. and return in the late afternoon. General the trains had one combination baggage-passenger coach, and four or five milk cars.” When Selah Powell stepped from his engine Saturday, December 3, 1955, he had completed 53 years of service.
In the early days of his service, Blossburg was a prominent railroad center. Several freight trains were operated carrying freight and coal from the mines to Elmira and Corning. Now only one freight train operates from Blossburg leaving Blossburg every other dat fir Corning and returning the following day. The train carries freight, coal and products from the foundries at Blossburg.
Mr. Powell resides on the corner of Granger and Taylor streets in Blossburg, where he plans to spend his retirement, His wife, Mrs. Ellen Powell, died several yeas ago. He has one son, Frederick G. Powell of 111 Chestnut St., Elmira, a conductor on the Erie Railroad. He also has two grandchildren. Mfr.Powell is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers in Elmira and Bloss Lodge F. & A.M. (Masons). He has been a member of Arbon Lodge, I.O.O.F. for 43 years.
(Note: The Tioga Division was abandoned from Elmira to Tioga Junction and the Hoytville branch in 1942; and from Blossburg to Corning in 1972).
Depot at Canoe Camp, Pa.
