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American Railroad Portrait, An People Places and Pultney by Daniel L Frizzi Jr
An American Railroad Portrait: People Places and Pultney by Daniel L Frizzi Jr
A history of the development of railroads in Pultney Township of Belmont County, Ohio
Soft Cover
272 pages
Copyright 1993
CONTENTS
FOREWORD2
Personal Remembrances at Klee Crossing 5
OUR CHESAPEAKE CONNECTION 9
WHEELING IS REACHED 11
PULTNEY PLACE 15
Early History and Establishment of Belmont County 15
Early History and Establishment of Pultney Township 16
The McMahon Creek Watershed 19
Bell Air 21
Natural Resources 23
Life Atop Methodist Ridge 27
THE CENTRAL OHIO RAILROAD, AND ITS SUCCESSOR THE BALTIMORE & OHIO 33
THE CITY RENAMED 41
A Civic Leader of the Community 42
CROSSING THE OHIO RIVER 47
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE RAILROAD 55
Living Along the Tracks 63
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS 69
THE GREAT STONE VIADUCT AND RIVER BRIDGE 79
A Dapper Gentleman Named Johnny 92
THE PASSENGER DEPOT 100
THE CLEVELAND & PITTSBURGH RAILROAD, AND ITS SUCCESSOR, THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD 104
THE CLEVELAND, LORAIN & WHEELING RAILROAD, AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH THE BALTIMORE & OHIO 115
THE ST. CLAIRSVILLE & BELLAIRE RAILROAD 125
THE WHEELING & LAKE ERIE RAILROAD 129
THE BELLAIRE & SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD: OHIO'S LAST NARROW GAUGE 135
THE BELLAIRE STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 143
A NEW CENTURY BEGINS 149
The Son of an Italian Immigrant 167
THE EFFECT OF THE RAILS ON A SMALL TOWN SOCIETY .... 173
The Mail 175
The Telegraph 176
The Social Life 177
The Famous Visitors 181
The Adventure of Travel 186
The Window to the Nation 189
The Faithful and True-Hearted 191
THE END OF THE PASSENGER TRAIN 199
A Passenger Who Rode into History 213
THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN RAILROAD219
A Life Behind the Firebox 231
REMNANTS THAT REMAIN 241
BIBLIOGRAPHY248
ENDNOTES254
INDEX 266
FOREWORD
The study of history has often been characterized by students as dull and irrelevant to the present. Tedious lists of dates, places, and names have caused many youngsters to tune out the much broader message, and the important story, that history has to tell us. Although one should not live in the past, nor should one live without a knowledge and appreciation of that which has occurred before them. For it was by those events, and the men and women who caused them, that our own lives, as well as all that we see around us today, have been shaped.
If we ignore the past, we are doomed to an ignorance that causes us to little appreciate how we, and our communities, have become what they are today. What appears today as a city park will only be grass and trees to those who have never learned about the struggle to save it from early developers. An abandoned railroad bridge will remain only sandstone arches unless one knows that it was once the "Great Short Line" between Chicago and Baltimore for all westward movement. A muddy creek will be nothing more than that to one who has never heard about the daring escape of a young pioneer boy from the clutches of his Indian captors as he was led along its banks. Even the name of a community, and why it was selected, is a story all its own. An understanding of the past is essential if we are to meaningfully explore the future. History, and local history in particular, helps us to locate ourselves in the much broader picture made up of everything that surrounds us.
An often overlooked tool for teaching history is our own local heritage, and the people who live in our communities. The Ohio Valley has a history of its own that coincides with the growth and development of our American Nation. The scenes for so many important events in American History were set in our own backyard. More important, however, are the fascinating facts about our local history, which give meaning and insight to the study of American History. Even the smallest of communities is a treasure trove of stories and facts that should not be overlooked by those attempting to instruct youngsters about their American heritage. Unfortunately, in an attempt to present a broad historical picture of our American nation, we have not emphasized local history, and thereby lost the details that give meaning to the whole.
The study of our own local history has intrinsic value because it gives us a knowledge about the community in which we live, and an understanding of all that surrounds us. Pride in a community begins with the people who are its residents. If we expect our young people to have a sense of pride in their communities, then we must teach them about its past. Local history provides a student with the opportunity to stand in the very location where a former President of the United States delivered a fiery campaign speech in a bid for re-election, or where soldiers of the Union Army crossed the Ohio River by pontoon bridge during the Civil War. A vacant field can come alive in the imagination of a young person when they are shown a photograph of an ancient railroad locomotive that once traveled that field. An abandoned baseball diamond, where no batter will ever again step to the plate, lives on in the minds of youngsters who know that men like Casey Stengel once rounded the bases. Field trips and reenactments of important local historical events are just several ways in which the study of history can be made more interesting to a young student.
This book is an attempt to capture but a small part of the local heritage of one small community and its surrounding area. It has been written with the hope that a glimpse of the past will spark an enthusiasm for the future, just as the building of the railroads sparked the history which is set forth in this text. The recorded history of Belmont County, and in particular that of Pultney Township and the City of Bellaire, was ignited by the building of railroads.
In 1854, the first railroad established in Belmont County terminated in Bellaire for the purpose of establishing a connection with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Benwood, Virginia. The Central Ohio Railroad immediately began exchanging freight and passengers with the Baltimore & Ohio by ferryboat. Three years later, in 1857, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad found its way to Bellaire where it also terminated. The Bellaire & Southwestern Railroad, The Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railroad, The St. Clairsville & Bellaire Railroad, and later their successors, the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroads, would all leave a mark on the City of Bellaire. At Neffs, in rural Pultney Township, The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad would terminate to provide even greater railroad connections for the local inhabitants. The Great Stone Viaduct and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge spanning the Ohio River at Bellaire would be completed in 1871, and at the turn of the twentieth century, a northern approach to the River Bridge would also be constructed. Today these landmarks remain, although the railroad traffic has diminished, and the names of the railroads using them have changed.
The author has attempted to separate fact from fiction by documenting all that appears in the following pages. Thousands of pages of written source material were examined. Hundreds of photographs, many of which appear in the following pages, have provided valuable information which could not have been verified in any other way. In addition to these sources, the author has spoken to hundreds of residents of the county to gain information to verify local tradition and history that is not recorded. Some of the more interesting interviews appear throughout the text to help the reader better understand some of the historical fact, and capture the feeling and emotion of the storytellers. These personal views of the past, when combined with historical fact, help each of us relive a part of our local heritage that has sadly disappeared. To some, the disappearance and decline of the American Railroad is viewed as simply a change in the way we travel and engage in commerce. But for others, it has changed a way of living from which there is no retreat. The author hopes that the personal accounts of those who still remember will give meaning and an understanding of our local heritage where pure historical fact would fail.
The first of these personal accounts comes from the author's remembrances of his early youth. It is these experiences that inspired the writer's interest in railroads, and which eventually produced this book.
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