Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad Part 6

[C] Hon. ALVAH CROCKER has not acted on the Committee since his appointment upon the commission.

APPENDIX.

[A.]

_Sketch of the Proceedings of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Corporation, from its organization to the surrender of the Road under the mortgage, and the adoption of the work by the Commonwealth._

The charter of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, was granted in 1848, and authorized the construction of a railroad with one or more tracks, from a point on the Vermont and Ma.s.sachusetts Railroad, at or near Greenfield, to some point on the line of New York or Vermont, convenient to meet or connect with any railroad that may be constructed from any point at or near the city of Troy, on the Hudson River in the State of New York. Its capital stock was limited at $3,500,000.

The corporation was authorized to contract with the owners of any contiguous railroad leading into or from either of the States of Vermont or New York, for the use of the whole or any part thereof, or for the running and operating the two railroads conjointly, or for the leasing of such contiguous road, or for any other road, or for the letting or hiring of their own road to the owners of such contiguous road, or of any other road which composes a part of the railroad line between the cities of Boston and Troy, of which the Troy and Greenfield Railroad shall be a part.

The first meeting under the charter was held June I, 1848, at which subscription papers were voted to be issued and circulated, in order to organize the corporation. In 1849, March 16, the subscribers to the stock held their first meeting, and organized under the charter.

At the annual meeting, February 6, 1850, the stock was apportioned among the neighboring towns as follows:-

Ashfield, 60 shares.

Charlemont, 400 "

Colrain, 150 "

Conway, 50 "

Greenfield, 700 "

Hawley, 120 "

Heath, 120 "

Leyden, 30 "

Monroe, 50 "

Rowe, 100 "

Shelburne, 400 "

Buckland, 150 "

Florida, 120 "

Adams, 1,000 "

Williamstown, 800 "

Clarksburg, 40 "

Hanc.o.c.k, 50 "

Deerfield, 150 "

Bernardston, 40 "

Gill, 80 "

Whitingham, 00 "

Reedsborough, 00 "

Stansford, 00 "

0,000 shares.

It was also voted to apportion the directors among the towns in the following manner, to wit:--

North Adams, 3; Florida, Rowe, Heath and Monroe, 1; Colrain, Buckland and Hawley, 1; Shelburne, 1; Greenfield, Deerfield and Conway, 3; Williamstown and Whitingham, 2; Charlemont, 1; and one director at large.

Before the annual meeting in 1850, the directors had voted to a.s.sess three per cent. upon each share of the capital stock. This vote was pa.s.sed April 11, 1849, and on the first day of October in the same year, they voted that the construction of the road from the State line at Pownal, Vermont, to Adams, and from Greenfield to Shelburne Falls, be put under contract as soon as sufficient subscription shall have been obtained therefore, and that the two ends aforesaid shall be constructed simultaneously.

1850, January 28, the treasurer had received the sum of $2,203.94, and had paid out on bills approved by the president, $2,203.57, leaving a balance in the treasury of $0.37.

Sundry a.s.sessments amounting in all to 75 per cent. upon the subscriptions, were afterwards voted, the last on the 6th of May, 1852.

These a.s.sessments were rescinded by a vote pa.s.sed July 23, 1858, and it also voted that the several amounts heretofore paid by individual stockholders, except on a.s.sessment laid April 11, 1849, be credited to their several accounts on a.s.sessments now or hereafter to be made.

1850, October 28, the contract with Messrs. Gilman and Carpenter, was ratified, and on the 29th, the president was authorized to execute it.

The Committee have not found this contract nor any record stating its provisions.

December 27, 1850, a committee reported that the whole amount of stock subscribed, was $250,800, of which $7,200 was payable in land damages and materials for the road; and that Messrs. Gilmore and Carpenter had subscribed for 500 shares of stock, to wit, $50,000.

On the 7th day of January, 1851, the directors voted to break ground the next day, and on the 27th of May in the same year, they voted to expend a sum not exceeding $25,000, in experiments upon the east side of the mountain, at or near the mouth of the proposed tunnel.

In 1851, the corporation pet.i.tioned the legislature for a loan of the State credit for two million dollars; but the application was unsuccessful.

The failure to secure the aid of the Commonwealth, appears not to have discouraged the corporation, for on the 7th of August, 1851, the directors voted that they would proceed forthwith from Adams to the New York line, and simultaneously incur all the necessary expenses to make thorough experiments with such machines as promise to facilitate the construction of the tunnel, and when the road is begun from Greenfield, it shall be after an arrangement is made to construct it to the foot of the mountain in Florida and connect in some way with the road at North Adams.

The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Corporation having directed its attention to a connection with the Troy and Boston Railroad Company through a portion of the State of Vermont, and a charter having been obtained from the legislature of Vermont, incorporating the Southern Vermont Railroad Company, whereby such connection could be made, a committee of the directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company and of the Southern Vermont Railroad Company made an agreement, subject to the modification or ratification of the stockholders of each company, "that the stock of both of said companies and their franchises from said Greenfield to the west line of Pownal, in the State of Vermont, shall become and be one joint, consolidated stock and interest, with equal and common rights and privileges to the stockholders of both companies;" it being understood that an application shall be made to the legislature of Vermont for a change of the name and style of the joint corporation mentioned in the said Act of the Vermont legislature. This report was made to the board of directors, and it was voted that the same "be accepted and adopted, recorded and placed on file." Subsequently the Southern Vermont Railroad was leased to the Troy and Greenfield Corporation on a perpetual lease for $12,000 per year; and the 21st of April, 1860, it was purchased by the Troy and Greenfield Corporation for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, with money advanced to the last named corporation by the Commonwealth. In the report of the commissioners on the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel, the Southern Vermont Railroad is estimated to have cost from $110,000 to to $125,000 only.

In 1858, another application was made to the legislature for a loan, but with the same result as in 1851. In both instances, committees reported in favor of the application.

In 1854, the application was renewed, and was successful. The Act was pa.s.sed on the fifth day of April, 1854. By the first section, the treasurer was authorized to issue scrip, as certificates of debt, for the sum of two million dollars, to be expressed in the currency of Great Britain or in federal currency, as the directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad should elect, to bear an interest of five per cent., payable semi-annually, and redeemable in thirty years, for the purpose of enabling the Troy and Greenfield Company to construct a tunnel and railroad under and through the Hoosac Mountain, in some place between the "Great Bend" in Deerfield River, in the town of Florida, at the base of Hoosac Mountain, on the east, and the base of the western side of the mountain, near the east end of the village of North Adams, on the west.

The scrip was to be delivered to the treasurer of said Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company in the manner and upon the conditions following:--$100,000, when it should appear to the satisfaction of the governor and council that said company had obtained subscriptions to their capital stock in the sum of $600,000, and twenty per cent. upon each and every share of said six: hundred thousand dollars should have actually been paid in, and seven miles of their railroad and one thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel under the Hoosac, in one or more sections, of size sufficient for one or more railroad tracks, should have been completed.

$100,000, when ten miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and ten thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.

$100,000, when fifteen miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and three thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.

$100,000, when twenty miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and four thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections should be completed.

$100,000, when twenty-five miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and five thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.

$100,000, when thirty miles of their railroad, in one or two sections, and six thousand lineal feet of their tunnel, should be completed.

$100,000, when thirty-two miles of their railroad, in one or two sections, including all the line east of Florida, and seven thousand lineal feet of their tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed; and for each additional portion or portions of said tunnel of fifteen hundred feet, in one or more sections, completed by said company, $100,000, subject to the condition that the last $200,000 should be reserved until said company, or their successors, should open their railroad for use from Greenfield to the line of the State in Williamstown; and subject also to the condition, that, prior to the second delivery of scrip, thirty per cent. of the same shall have been paid in cash to the treasurer of the company by the stockholders thereof, in addition to the $120,000 to be paid prior to the delivery of any scrip; and that upon each application for scrip, in pursuance of the law, and prior to the delivery thereof, thirty per cent. of the scrip then applied for shall have been paid by the stockholders to the treasurer of the company until the $600,000 subscribed for has been paid by the stockholders.

The Act further provided, that the treasurer of the company, within three months from the receipt of any scrip, should pay to the commissioners of the sinking fund created by the Act, ten per cent. on the amount of scrip so taken as a sinking fund; and after the road should be opened for use, twenty-five thousand dollars should be annually paid to said commissioners for the same purpose.

The Act further provided, that the said company should execute an a.s.signment, as a pledge or mortgage on the railroad, with its franchise property and income, conditioned to pay the princ.i.p.al sum of said scrip, or so much thereof as the sinking fund should be insufficient to pay, and the interest, as the same became due; and that said company should a.s.sign all the interest it then had, or might afterwards obtain, in the Southern Vermont Railroad Company.

In 1855, the legislature authorized certain towns on the line,--to wit: Ashfield, Buckland, Conway, Colrain, Charlemont, Deerfield, Greenfield, Hawley, Heath, Rowe, Shelburne, Adams, Florida, and Williamstown,--to subscribe three per cent. on their valuation, respectively, to the capital stock. This Act was not fully complied with on the part of the towns, and $125,000 only is reported to have been realized from that source.

In 1855 a contract with E. W. Serrell to construct the work was reported to and accepted by the directors. This contract does not appear among the papers of the corporation, and its terms cannot be stated.

At the same time the capital stock of the corporation was by a vote increased to $1,500,000, and a location designated as the east line on the railroad near Cheapside was adopted. This singular resolution was also pa.s.sed:--