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CHAPTER THREE: TRANSPORTATION
THE ERIE
During military action against Indians in 1779, General James Clinton realized the importance of connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic. After the Revolution, Generals Clinton and Sullivan petitioned congress to construct a road from the Hudson River through the valleys of the Delaware, Susquehanna and Allegheny to Lake Erie. Congress, lacking authority, took no action.
When DeWitt Clinton, son of the general, became governor of New York, he soon announced construction of the Erie Canal. It is interesting to note that John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey, proposed a railroad in place of the canal, but this radical idea was ridiculed. People of the Southern Tier were alarmed at the Canal project, fearing it would impede further development of the area. Clinton promised a state-funded transportation project upon completion of the canal, which opened in 1825. Politicians of the canal counties were unwilling to surrender their advantage, so when Clinton proposed a state road through the Southern Tier, the route surveyed was impossible to build.
The governor, disgusted with the underhanded politics, turned to the public sector to forward the project. He spoke with Eleazar Lord, a wealthy, influential financier who became interested in such a project. This led to a convention at Newburgh on October 19 and 20, 1826. Recommendations were sent to Gov. Clinton, but he died before action could be taken. In 1829, William Redfield published a pamphlet proposing a great railroad system throughout the country. Years later, many of Redfield's proposed routes would be followed, including his rail line through New York State which was approximately followed by the Erie.
With the success of the Erie Canal, there were many who advocated building a canal, instead of a road, between the Hudson and Lake Erie. Benjamin Wright, who had been chief engineer of the Erie Canal, did not feel this was practical, but that a railroad between those points might be built. As a result of Redfield's pamphlet, the federal government had Col. Dewitt Clinton, son of the late governor, examine the routes. Clinton reported such a project was possible, although the line through New York State would present difficulties due to topographical features.
A meeting held in Monticello, July 29, 1831, called for a railroad from the Hudson to Elmira. In Jamestown, a meeting was held September 20, 1831, which resolved to make application to the Legislature to build a railroad from New York City to Lake
| notice of incorporation was published after meetings held in Angelica (about 20 miles west of Hornell)