Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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The consolidation was effected, and the new company organized on the first
of September, A. D. 1853, under the specific provisions of the twelfth
section of the amendment to the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad
charter, passed on the first of March, 1850. Under its charter, the
Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company constructed a road from the
east bank of the Maumee river, opposite the city of Toledo, to Grafton,
where it connects with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad,
twenty-five miles south-west from the city of Cleveland, being a distance
of eighty-seven and one-half miles, all of which was finished and put into
operation in January, 1853. This became known as the Southern Division of
the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad.

The Northern Division, or Junction Railroad, was originally intended to
run from Cleveland, west side, via Berea and Sandusky, westward to a point
on the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad some twenty miles
west of Toledo, and crossing the track of the Toledo, Norwalk and
Cleveland Railroad at a point about eight miles east of the same city. The
road was opened between Cleveland and Sandusky and operations commenced
upon it in the Fall of 1858, immediately after the consolidation. The
original project of a separate line to the west was carried out by the
consolidated corporation so far as to construct the road to its
intersection with the old Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland track, from which
point both lines approached Toledo over the same right of way. This line
was operated over its whole length until the 31st day of December, 1858,
on which day the use for regular business of that portion lying west of
Sandusky was discontinued, and all the through travel and traffic turned
upon the Southern Division. On the 30th of July, 1856, a contract was
entered into with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company
by which the Cleveland and Toledo Company acquired the right to use the
track of the first named company from Grafton to Cleveland, for the
Southern Division trains, and from Berea to Cleveland for the Northern
Division, and thence forward all trains were run into, and departed from,
the Union Depot in Cleveland--a change which soon resulted in the
practical abandonment, for the time, of that portion of the Northern
Division lying between Berea and Cleveland on the west side of Cuyahoga
river. This arrangement, together with the completion, in 1855, of a
bridge over the Maumee river at Toledo, enabled the company to receive and
discharge its passengers in union depots at each end of its line. During
the years 1865 and 1866, about eight miles of new road were constructed
between Elyria on the Northern Division, and Oberlin on the Southern
Division, for the purpose of allowing all trains to leave and come upon
the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Road at Berea, thirteen miles,
instead of Grafton, twenty-five miles from Cleveland. This new piece of
road was opened for business on the 10th of September, 1866, and the road
between Oberlin and Grafton immediately abandoned, The construction of a
bridge near the mouth of the Cuyahoga river at Cleveland, brought the
Northern Division line between Cleveland and Berea once more into use, and
over it the freight trains of the line are now run. In 1869, the company
was made part of the Consolidated line between Buffalo and Chicago.

The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, by its lease of the Cleveland and
Mahoning Railroad, has become an important part of the Cleveland railroad
System. The company was organized in 1851, as the Franklin and Warren
Railroad Company, to build a road from Franklin Mills (now Kent) in
Portage County, to Warren, in Trumbull county, with power to extend to a
point in the eastern line of the State, northeast of Warren and
southwesterly to Dayton, Ohio. In July, 1853, operations were actively
commenced along the whole line, but were soon seriously retarded by
financial embarrassments. In 1854, the Franklin and Warren Railroad
Company, under authority of an Act of the General Assembly of 1853,
changed its name to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. Two
years before, a project had been started to extend the broad gauge of the
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad through Ohio, northeastern Pennsylvania and
southwestern New York, to connect with the New York and Erie Railroad.
This route would run through Meadville, Pennsylvania, Warren, Kent, Akron
and Galion to Dayton, Ohio. In 1858, the Meadville Railroad Company
changed their name to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of
Pennsylvania. In 1859, a company was organized in the State of New York,
under the name of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in New York, and
purchased in 1860 of the New York and Erie Railroad Company thirty eight
miles of their road, from Salamanca to near Ashville. These thirty eight
miles with eleven miles of new line, make up the entire length of line of
this road in the State of New York. Each of the above companies made
contracts for the building of their respective roads.

In the Fall of 1858, negotiations were commenced in London with James
McHenry, for the means to carry on the work. T. W. Kennard, a civil
engineer, came over as the attorney of Mr. McHenry, and engineer in chief
of the whole work. In 1862, the road was opened from Corry to Meadville,
Pennsylvania. In 1863, it was extended to Warren, and in the next year to
Ravenna and Akron--202 miles from Salamanca.

In October, 1863, the three companies above named, leased for ninety-nine
years, the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, extending from Cleveland
southerly to Youngstown, Ohio, sixty-seven miles. This road has a narrow
gauge track crossing the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad at
Leavittsburgh, Ohio, fifty miles south of Cleveland. The Atlantic and
Great Western Company laid a rail on either side of the narrow track, thus
carrying the broad gauge into Cleveland, and a broad gauge train from the
city of New York entered Cleveland on the evening of November 3rd, 1863.
Subsequently the several companies forming the Atlantic and Great Western
line were consolidated into one line, and this again was, in 1869,
consolidated with the Erie Railway.

Besides opening a new and important thoroughfare to the East, this line
has opened up to Cleveland the resources of north-western Pennsylvania,
and in the oil product has added an immense and highly profitable trade to
the business of the city.

Several lines have been built, connecting with and adding business to the
railroads leading to Cleveland, but of these it is not the province of
this work to speak. A large number of new railroads have been from time to
time projected in various directions. Some of these "paper railroads" have
intrinsic merit, and these, or lines aiming at the same objects, will
eventually be built.

[Illustration: Yours truly, Jacob Perkins]

Jacob Perkins.

Jacob Perkins was born at Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, September 1st,
1822, being next to the youngest of the children of Gen. Simon Perkins,
one of the earliest and most prominent, business men of norther Ohio, a
land agent of large business, and the owner of extensive tracts of land.
In his early years Jacob Perkins developed a strong inclination for study,
acquiring knowledge with unusual facility, and gratifying his intense
passion for reading useful works by every means within his power.

He commenced fitting himself for college at the Burton Academy, then under
the direction of Mr. H. L. Hitchcock, now president of Western Reserve
College, and completed his preparation at Middletown, Connecticut, in the
school of Isaac Webb. He entered Yale College in 1837.

While in college he was distinguished for the elegance of his style and
the wide range of his literary acquirements. He delivered the philosophic
oration at his junior exhibition, and was chosen second editor of "Yale
Literary Magazine," a position in which he took great interest, and filled
to the satisfaction and pride of his class. His college course was,
however, interrupted by a long and severe illness before the close of his
junior year, which compelled him to leave his studies and (to his
permanent regret) prevented him from graduating with his own class. He
returned the following year and was graduated with the class of 1842.

He entered his father's office at Warren, and was occupied with its
business until, upon the death of his father, some two years afterwards,
he became one of his executors.

During his residence at Warren he appeared occasionally before home
audiences as a public speaker, and always with great acceptance.

In politics, he early adopted strong anti-slavery principles, then not the
popular doctrine, and they were always freely and openly advocated. Of an
address delivered in 1848, which was published and attracted very
considerable local attention, the editor of the Chronicle remarked, "We
have listened to the best orators of the land, from the Connecticut to
the Mississippi, and can truly say, by none have we been so thoroughly
delighted in every particular as by this effort of our distinguished
townsman." The oration discussed the true theory of human rights and the
legitimate powers of human government--and the following extract gives the
spirit of his political principles on the subject of slavery:

The object of law is not to make rights, but to define and maintain them;
man possesses them before the existence of law, the same as he does
afterwards. No matter what government may extend its control over him; no
matter how miserable or how sinful the mother in whose arms his eyes
opened to the day; no matter in what hovel his infancy is nursed; no
matter what complexion--an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon
him, this may decide the privileges which he is able to assert, but can
not affect the existence of his rights. His self-mastery is the gift of
his creator, and oppression, only, can take it away.

Without solicitation he was nominated and elected a member of the
Convention that framed the present Constitution of Ohio. His associates
from the district were Judges Peter Hitchcock and R. P. Ranney, and
although "he was the youngest member but one of the Convention--and in the
minority, his influence and position were excelled by few."

He was one of the Senatorial Presidential Electors for Ohio on the Fremont
ticket in 1856.

In the intellectual progress of the young about him, and the building up
of schools and colleges, he took especial interest. He first suggested and
urged upon President Pierce to adopt the conditions of the present
"Permanent Fund of Western Reserve College," rather than to solicit
unconditional contributions, which experience had proved were so easily
absorbed by present necessities, and left the future as poor as the past.
In connection with his brothers, he made the first subscription to that
fund. The embarrassment arising from his railroad enterprise prevented him
from increasing that contribution. The wisdom of his suggestions was
subsequently shown, when, during the rupture and consequent embarrassment
under which the college labored, the income of this fund had a very
important, if not vital share in saving it from abandonment, and
afterwards proved the nucleus of its present endowment.

He was always efficient in favoring improvements. He was associated with
Hon. F. Kinsman and his brother in founding the beautiful Woodland
Cemetery at Warren. The land was purchased and the ground laid out by
them, and then transferred to the present corporation.

Soon after his return from the Constitutional Convention, he became
interested in the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. He was most
influential in obtaining the charter and organizing the company, of
which he was elected president, and became the principal, almost sole
financial manager.

Owing to prior and conflicting railroad interests, little aid could be
obtained for his project in either of the terminal cities, Cleveland and
Pittsburgh, and the work was commenced in 1853 with a comparatively small
stock subscription. A tightening money market prevented any considerable
increase of the stock list, or a favorable disposition of the bonds of the
road, and the financial crisis a few years afterwards so reduced the value
of the securities of this, as of all unfinished railroads, as practically
to shut them out of the market. In this emergency the alternative
presented itself to Mr. Perkins and his resident directors, either to
abandon the enterprise and bankrupt the company, with the entire loss of
the amount expended, or to push it forward to completion by the pledge,
and at the risk of their private fortunes, credit, and reputations.

In this, the darkest day of the enterprise, Mr. Perkins manifested his
confidence in its ultimate success, and his generous willingness to meet
fully his share of the hazard to be incurred, by proposing to them,
jointly with him, to assume that risk; and agreeing that in case of
disaster, he would himself pay the first $100,000 of loss, and thereafter
share it equally with them.

With a devotion to the interests entrusted to them, a determination rarely
equalled in the history of our railroad enterprises, they unanimously
accepted this proposition, and determined to complete the road, at least
to a remunerative point in the coal fields of the Mahoning Valley.

The financial storm was so much more severe and longer continued than the
wisest had calculated upon, that for years the result was regarded by them
and the friends of the enterprise with painful suspense. In the interest
of the road Mr. Perkins spent the Spring of 1854 in England, without
achieving any important financial results.

At length, in 1856, the road was opened to Youngstown, and its receipts,
carefully husbanded, began slowly to lessen the floating debt, by that
time grown to frightful proportions, and carried solely by the pledge of
the private property and credit of the president and Ohio directors. These
directors, consisting of Hon. Frederick Kinsman and Charles Smith, of
Warren, Governor David Tod, of Briar Hill, Judge Reuben Hitchcock, of
Painesville, and Dudley Baldwin, of Cleveland, by the free use of their
widely known and high business credit, without distrust or dissension,
sustained the president through that long and severe trial, a trial which
can never be realized except by those who shared its burdens. The
president and these directors should ever be held in honor by the
stockholders of the company, whose investment they saved from utter loss,
and by the business men of the entire Mahoning Valley, and not less by the
city of Cleveland; for the mining and manufacturing interests developed by
their exertions and sacrifices, lie at the very foundation of the present
prosperity of both.

Before, however, the road was enabled to free itself from financial
embarrassment, so to as commence making a satisfactory return to the
stockholders, which Mr. Perkins was exceedingly anxious to see
accomplished under his own presidency--his failing health compelled him to
leave its active management, and he died before the bright day dawned upon
the enterprise.

He said to a friend during his last illness, with characteristic
distinctness: "If I die, you may inscribe on my tomb stone, Died of the
Mahoning Railroad;" so great had been his devotion to the interests of the
road, and so severe the personal exposures which its supervision had
required of him, who was characteristically more thoughtful of every
interest confided to his care, than of his own health.

He was married October 24th, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth O. Tod, daughter of
Dr. J. I. Tod, of Milton, Trumbull county, Ohio, and removed his family to
Cleveland in 1856. Of three children, only one, Jacob Bishop, survives
him. Mrs. Perkins died of rapid consumption, June 4th, 1857, and his
devoted attention at the sick bed of his wife greatly facilitated the
development of the same insidious disease, which was gradually to
undermine his own naturally vigorous constitution.

The business necessities of his road, embarrassed and pressing as they
were, united with his uniform self-forgetfulness, prevented his giving
attention to his personal comfort and health, long after his friends saw
the shadow of the destroyer falling upon his path. He was finally, in
great prostration of health and strength, compelled to leave the active
duties of the road and spent the latter part of the Winter of 1857-8 in
the Southern States, but returned in the Spring with little or no
improvement. He continued to fail; during the Summer and in the Fall of
1858 he again went South in the vain hope of at least physical relief, and
died in Havana, Cuba, January 12th, 1859. His remains were embalmed and
brought home by his physician who had accompanied him--and were interred
at Warren, in Woodland Cemetery, where so many of his family repose around
him. A special train from either end of the Cleveland and Mahoning
Railroad brought the board of directors and an unusually large number of
business and personal friends to join the long procession which followed
"the last of earth" to its resting place.

One of the editorial notices of his death, at the time, very justly
remarks of him:

He was a man of mark, and through strength of talent, moral firmness and
urbanity of manner, wielded an influence seldom possessed by a man of
his years. In addition to his remarkable business capacity, Mr. Perkins
was a man of high literary taste, which was constantly improving and
enriching his mind. He continued, even amid his pressing-business
engagements, his habits of study and general reading. Mr. Perkins
belonged to that exceptional class of cases in which great wealth,
inherited, does not injure the recipient.

An editorial of a Warren paper, mentioning his death, says:

He was born in this town in 1821, and from his boyhood exhibited a
mental capacity and energy which was only the promise of the brilliancy
of his manhood. To his exertion, his personal influence and liberal
investment of capital the country is indebted for the Cleveland and
Mahoning Railroad. To his unremitting labor in this enterprise he has
sacrificed personal comfort and convenience, and we fear, shortened his
days by his labors and exposure in bringing the work to completion.
Known widely as Mr. Perkins has been by his active part in public
enterprises, his loss will be felt throughout the State, but we who have
known him both as boy and man, have a deeper interest in him, and the
sympathies of the people of Warren, with his relatives, will have much
of the nature of personal grief for one directly connected with them.

Said a classmate in the class meeting of 1862:

Although his name on the catalogue ranks with the class of 1842, his
affections were with us, and he always regarded himself of our number.
He visited New Haven frequently during the latter part of his life, in
connection with a railway enterprise, in which he was interested, and
exhibited the same large-heartedness and intellectual superiority which
won for him universal respect during his college course.

A gentleman who knew Mr. Perkins intimately, and as a director was
associated with him in the construction of the Cleveland and Mahoning
Railroad, and in carrying its debt, wrote of him as follows:

The management and construction of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad
by Mr. Perkins, under circumstances the most difficult and trying, were
well calculated to test his powers, and, in that work he proved himself
possessed of business capacity rarely equalled, sustained by
unquestioned integrity, and remarkable energy. These qualifications,
united with his large wealth, gave him the requisite influence with
business men and capitalists. His devotion to the interests of the road,
his abiding confidence in a favorable result, and his clear and just
appreciation of its value, and importance to the community, called forth
his best efforts, and were essential conditions of success. To him more
than to any other individual are the projection, inauguration, and
accomplishment of this enterprise attributable. From its earliest
projection, he had a most comprehensive and clear view of its importance
to the city of Cleveland and the Mahoning Valley, and confidently
anticipated for them, in the event of its completion, a rapidity and
extent of development and prosperity, which were then regarded as
visionary, but which the result has fully demonstrated.

His life was spared to witness only the commencement of this prosperity,
nor can it be doubted, that his close application, and unremitting
efforts to forward the work shortened his life materially. His deep and
absorbing interest in it, prevented the precautionary measures and
relaxations, which in all probability would have prolonged his life for
years. His associates in the board saw the danger and urged him to
earlier and more decided measures for relief. He too was aware of their
importance. But the constant demand upon his time and strength, and the
continually recurring necessities of the enterprise, which he had so
much at heart, were urgent, and so absorbed his thoughts and energies,
that he delayed until it was obvious that relaxation could afford merely
temporary relief.

In his intercourse with the board, Mr. Perkins was uniformly courteous
and gentlemanly, always giving respectful attention to the suggestions
of his associates, but ever proving himself thoroughly posted; readily
comprehending the most judicious measures, and clearly demonstrating
their wisdom. Entire harmony in the action of the directors was the
result, and all had the fullest confidence in him. While his business
capacity and integrity commanded their highest admiration, his urbanity,
kindness and marked social qualities secured their strong personal
attachment, and by them his decease was regarded as a severe personal
affliction, as well as a great public loss.

Thus is briefly noticed, one who dying comparatively early, had given
evidence of great business capacity, as well as the promise of unusual
power and popularity with the people of his own State, and nation.

William Case.

A work professing to give sketches, however brief and incomplete, of the
representative men of Cleveland, would be manifestly defective did it omit
notice of the late William Case, a gentleman of sterling worth and great
popularity, who was identified with much of the material progress of the
city, who had a host of deeply attached friends while living, and whose
memory is cherished with affectionate esteem.

[Illustration: William Case]

William Case was born to prosperity, but this, which to very many has
proved the greatest misfortune of their lives, was to him no evil, but, on
the contrary, a good, inasmuch as it gave him opportunity for gratifying
his liberal tastes, and his desire to advance the general welfare. From
his father, Leonard Case, he inherited an extraordinary business capacity,
indomitable energy, and strong common sense, with correct habits. To these
inherited traits he added an extensive knowledge, acquired both from books
and men, and made practical by keen observation, and liberal ideas, which
he carried into his business and social affairs. In all relations of life
he was ever a gentleman, in the true meaning of the word, courteous to
all, the rich and the poor alike, and with an instinctive repugnance to
everything mean, oppressive or hypocritical. With regard to himself, he
was modest to a fault, shrinking from everything that might by any
possibility be construed into ostentation or self-glorification. This
tribute the writer of these lines,--who owed him nothing but friendship,
and who was in no way a recipient of any favor from him, other than his
good will,--is glad of an opportunity to pay, and this testimony to his
good qualities, falls short of the facts.

William Case takes his place in this department of our work by virtue of
the fact that he was an early friend to the railroad enterprises of
Cleveland. He contributed largely to the Cleveland, Painesville and
Ashtabula Railroad, and for four years and a half, until August, 1858, was
president of that company. Under his management the railroad prospered and
paid large dividends, and when he left that position it was with the
regret of all his subordinates, whose esteem had been won by his kindness
and courtesy.

But it was not alone as a railroad man that Mr. Case won for himself the
title to a place among the leading representative men of the city. He grew
up with Cleveland, and was alive to the interests of the growing city. No
scheme of real improvement but found a friend in him. He was energetic in
forwarding movements for bettering the condition of the streets; he took a
leading part in the location and establishment of the Water Works. Anxious
to effect an improvement in the business architecture of the city, in
which Cleveland was so far behind cities of less pretension, he projected
and carried on far towards completion the Case Block, which stands to-day
the largest and most noticeable business building in the city, and which
contains one of the finest public halls in the West. Mr. Case died before
completion of the building, which unforeseen difficulties made of great
cost, but his plans so far as known--including some of great generosity,
such as the donation of a fine suite of rooms to the Cleveland Library
Association--have been faithfully carried out.