RAILROADS
MEETING IN 1867 - LAMENTATION RAILROAD - PENNSYLYANIA PETROLEUM RAILROAD COMPANY – FOXBURG & ST. PETERSBURG RAILROAD COMPANY - FOXBURG, KANE &; BRADFORD RAILROAD COMPANY - TIONESTA VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY - PITTSBURGH, BRADFORD & BUFFALO NARROW GAUGE - MISCELLANEOUS.
THE railroad meeting of April 9, 1867, was presided over by 001. John F. Gaul, with P. O. Conver, secretary; H. H. May, John A. Dale and Erastus Barnes vice-presidents. Resolutions favoring the Tionesta Valley Railroad were adopted. In May, Doane & Wilson surveyed the proposed route. The old Pittsburgh, Titusville & Buffalo Railroad of 1881, the Buffalo New York & Philadelphia Railroad of 1884, and Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad of 1889 are synonymous terms for the river valley road.
The Lamentation Railroad was completed in May, 1868, at a cost of $10,000.
The Pennsylvania Petroleum Railroad Company took steps to build their railroad in January, 1872. A. H. Steele was president, and J. G. Dale a director. In March Mr. Steele moved to Titusville, and in 1889 he was still hammering away at the project, but the road has not yet been built. In February, 1879, the Foxburg & St. Petersburg Railroad Company purchased the Emlenton, Shippensville and Clarion roads. At this time $50,000 of the $100,000 required, were subscribed by Mrs. Mary Fox, for extending the road through Forest and McKean counties.
The Foxburg, Kane & Bradford Railroad Company was chartered in March, 1879, with A. W. Smiley, F. H. Ball, James Blakeslee, E. M. Grant, J. V. Ritts and H. M. McCray, directors.
The Tionesta Valley Railroad Company was organized in 1880, to build a road down the creek; fifteen miles from Sheffield. T. P. Camp was engineer in charge until April, 1882, when F. F. Whittekin was appointed. In the summer of 1881 the road was located in Foxburg, but owing to the extension of the Philadelphia & Erie down the creek, the original line was abandoned and construction commenced toward Brookston on the South Fork. In February, 1882, the "Wild Pigeon" locomotive made its first trip to Donaldsons. On September 19, 1882, the road was opened to the junction of the Pittsburgh, Bradford & Buffalo Railroad, now the Pittsburgh & Western. In 1884 the Tionesta Valley Company obtained control of the Garfield & Cherry Grove Railroad and the same year built six miles of road down Spring creek from Sheffield junction, and by May 6, 1885, operated thirty-seven miles. In the fall the extension of the road to a point near Kane was completed. This was known as the James City Branch.
The Pittsburgh, Bradford & Buffalo Narrow Gauge, running through Jenks and Howe townships, converted the wilderness of 1879-80 into a manufacturing center by the close of 1882, when it may be said to be open to Beechwood junction of the Tionesta Valley Narrow Gauge. This last named road is due to the enterprise of Horton, Crary & Co., of Sheffield, who built over thirteen miles, through the wilderness, forming the link in the short line with the Bradford Air line, building in 1882-83 to a point near Kinzua village.
The Collins & Kreitler Railroad, running from their Nebraska mills five miles into the forest, recorded its first accident in July, 1888, when W. J. Hunter was killed.
The Warren & Farnsworth Valley Railroad was extended from Garfield to East Hickory in 1883-84, T. J. Bowman being the leader in the enterprise.
John Polen's logging road at East Hickory was supplied with a locomotive in September, 1885.
In May, 1883, the Ridgway & Oil City Railroad Company was chartered to build a road sixty miles long, between the towns named, running through Forest county. In the summer of that year the B. & O. R.R. Co. proposed to build their Lake Branch or Erie Southern, from Erie county to Somerset county, via Forest county.
Source: Page(s) 885-886, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania.
Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed November 2005 by Nathan Zipfel for the Forest County Genealogy Project
Published 2005 by the Forest County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project"
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