From the Chenango Telegraph of Norwich, NY
Wednesday, June 30, 1869

   A correspondent of the Cazenovia Republican in giving an account of the opening of the Auburn Branch at Crumb Hill, of which we had full particulars last week, says that among those present were "several aged men, remnants of the pioneers and settlers of the country in an early day.

   "Among them were Mr. Elijah C. Benjamin, aged 81, first white child born in DeRuyter; Col. E.D. Jencks, aged 79; Mr. George Hull, aged 82; Capt. Ira C. Burdick and Deacon A. Fairbank, respectively aged 70 years. These were in attendance to witness the changes which a half century had wrought, and to them was awarded the honor, in connection with the local director and several enthusiastic ladies, of casting the first shovels full of dirt, when the plow had broken the ground.

   "The work on this important arm of the Midland is now being vigorously proscecuted at various points under contracts which guarantee its completion to DeRuyter within eighteen months. The survey thence to Auburn is nearly finished, and follows an unexpectedly easy grade and feasible route."