Station at Harford was called 'North Harford'
Historians Tell Tales of Harford's Railroad
By Heidi Marks (Written in 2016)
For years residents of Harford, especially children, could look forward to the sound of the train coming through town as it blew its whistle. Kids ran to it to watch it rumble by and maybe put pennies on the tracks and watch them get flattened and save them as souvenirs. Many people used the tracks as walking trails with many different natural areas to stop and explore along the way.
Three years ago that welcome sound was silenced. The train stopped running through Harford, and the tracks were removed from the side of the road where the old train depot once stood. The tracks remain on the other side, but they are not used except for the diesel engines that now sit there at the end of the tracks. Even though the train is gone, Harford residents George Chevalier and Jim Doss don’t want those memories to die out as well.
Chevalier, the Harford Town Historian, and Jim Doss, a railroad enthusiast, gave a talk at the Harford Town Hall last week. They spoke about the history of Harford’s railroads, and Doss showed pieces from his collection of railroad memorabilia.
The railroad first came to Harford in 1869. It took the efforts of some local farmers to get it there. That group of farmers paid a total of $21,290 to get it to come to their town. Harford Town Chevalier said that for all of the farmers and business men, “the world was at their doorsteps.”
“It was a quantum leap when they came to Harford.”
The railroads in Harford did fairly well, until cars and trucks were made well enough to handle the dirt roads. When the Great Depression hit, “things were pretty bad for everyone, especially the railroads, they knew things were getting bad and the Harford and Harford Mills Stations had to combine,” Chevalier said.
The Southern Central Hotel was built not long after the railroad arrived. It was built in 1870, and had mixed reviews by residents. Many residents of Harford helped with the raising of the hotel and were excited about it coming into town. But many other residents did not want the hotel built because it was a temperance institution, meaning that people could not drink there. It was built right across the street from the train depot, and was a convenient place for passengers to visit. The hotel didn’t do much business, and it eventually became a feed mill.
None of the hotels in Harford or Harford Mills, and there were several, did much business at all. The only time they did business was when dances were held in their ballrooms. Hotels primarily catered to traveling salesmen. Most of the hotels, even the Harford Town Hall, had ballrooms. The Town Hall ballroom was very popular, and it was often used as a roller skating rink. The roads in town were bad, so there was nowhere else to skate.
The railroads served many purposes, one being transportation to and from school for students in the area. George Chevalier showed a ticket that his Aunt Mary had with punches in it from 1929. His mother and aunt went to Dryden School and rode the train from Harford to Dryden everyday, until school busses came around.
Doss said a cheese factory once stood on Creamery Road, in the old Four County Creamery building. More than two tons of cheese was shipped out of Harford to New York City weekly. week.
Dairying was big business for the railroads and passenger service just was not bringing in any money. “Everybody thought that the railroads were prosperous and made a lot of money, so the towns taxed them, and that’s part of the demise of the railroads,” Doss said.
At the time, the main business for the railroads was coal, milk, and ice. Passenger trains were still bringing in a little business. The ice came from Dryden Lake, where they cut it out with saws.
“The thing that kept the railroad prosperous though, was less-than-carload freight,” Doss said. “When you wanted chickens or stuff delivered to your house, they were the UPS of their day.”
The main business of this railroad was originally hauling coal, delivering the mail, less than carload freight, and express packages. “That’s what carried the railroad,” Doss said.
At one point in the talk, the old story about a train being in the bottom of Dryden Lake was brought up. Dryden Town Historian Harry Weldon just happened to be there to clear things up. “There is no record of any engine being in the bottom of the lake,” he said. “Then why do they say they can still hear the whistle from up there?” Chevalier joked.
Weldon said that there was an engine that fell into the lake, but there are photos showing it being pulled from the lake. “The lake at its deepest point is only ten feet deep, with an average depth of seven-and-a-half feet," he said.
After more than 80 years of being in service, the Lehigh Valley Station in Harford closed on October 31, 1951. During most of its existence, Henry R. Hawley was the agent there. He was origin ally employed by the Southern Central Railroad.
Hotel accommodations at Harford were sparse until the Southern Central Railroad was built through here in 1869. About that time a group of 22 local citizens organized a company and built the Southern Central House at Harford. This was a three-story structure built in Harford village at a cost of more than $12,000. The Southern Central was later absorbed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
For a short time this hotel was very busy under the direction of Charles B. Ellis. But by 1900 business had fallen off. At that time only a small portion of the building was being used as a barber shop and an occasional traveler. Later it was converted into a feed mill and store. The third story was later removed. The structure burned on October 29, 1932.
Another hotel called the Owego Valley House was built at Harford Mills in 1870. It included a ball room, pool room and cigar store. It was a popular place for dances. It was demolished in 1920.
