From the Cortland Standard of Cortland, NY
Tuesday, August 27, 1872

   On Thursday forenoon last several railroad men, of Auburn, visited our village to look over the lay of the land, preparatory to deciding whether or not the Midland from Cortland to Freeville and the old Murdock line, is the most feasible route to unite that city with our village. They had been to our village overland on the Homer and Auburn line as now under discussion. Hon. J.W. Merchant, the resident Midland director, invited some of our leading citizens and the press to make a little excursion with them on the Midland.

   The party were accompanied by Engineer Gilbert of the Midland, and Engineer Knight. The car was run up the valley to East Homer, and here Engineer Gilbert explained the easy grade of the line through this village as adopted by the Midland, and the heavy grade and costly construction of the line necessary to get over into the Homer valley in order to build the line on the proposed route across to Auburn.

   Then the party was carried west to Freeville, and over the Ithaca & Cortland track, and thence over the Midland road to the Murdock line * (see below) as far as the rails are laid. We do not know precisely what action the Auburn gentlemen will be likely to adopt after this investigation, but it looks very much as though the Midland over the Murdock route. The company was a jolly one. The morning as fine and invigorating after the storm of the day previous. There was a noted surgeon of the party in case of an accident. An undertaker, if the patients fell under the surgeon; a Sheriff to arrest the careless directors; eminent lawyers to prosecute the case before the court; and ye reporter of the press to give a full and impartial account of all that occurred - if not more.

   * This is the nickname of the Lake Ontario, Auburn & New York, a line graded from near Ithaca to Auburn in the 1850s but never completed. It was nicknamed for Lyman Murdock of Venice Center, its chief promoter.