From the Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph
of Norwich, NY - Wednesday, February 8, 1882

The Auburn Branch

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   Editor Telegraph : The subject of greatest present interest with people along the Canaswacta and Otselic valleys is the railroad. The question is, Will the branch be re-opened? If so, when?

   All arrangement which, would be most satisfactory to the people in the northwestern part of our county, and which, all things considered, would seem to possess many advantages over the present line, would be to turn down the valley at Otselic and consolidate with the Cortland road. This road was originally designed to constitute part of the Utica, Ithaca and Elmira Railroad, and is already graded from Cortland to Cincinnatus, on the Otselic river.

   Much of the stone work is already built and some bridges erected, leaving a distance of about twelve miles along the Otselic valley to a junction with the branch at or near the trestle, to be filled in, and the entire line is ready for the ties and rails. Such an arrangement would cut out the Crumb Hill section, with its heavy grades, numerous trestles, and snow blockades, for nearly half the year.

Will it pay?
   It would control the transportation of freight from a large and productive section of country - a business now divided among five different roads - and must be a valuable feeder for the mainline.

   It is but just to say that the branch never had a fair test of what it's business would be under favorable circumstances. It should be borne in mind that it was operated during a period of the most distressing business depression that has existed within the remembrance of the present generation - a time when every industry, and all the productive energies of the country were paralyzed and panic stricken, and stood helpless and despondent, gazing into the darkness and uncertainty of the future.

   In the midst of this financial ruin the year 1879 dawned upon us, and with it came resumption, and resumption brought deliverance and prosperity to the people. The relighted fires in a thousand furnaces quickly dispelled the darkness, and the giant enterprise of our Yankee civilization is again marching onward, constantly opening new avenues for labor and capital, and bringing additional blessings to the people.

   The line suggested would be a little more than fifty miles in length, being the old road from Norwich to Otselic and Pitcher to Cincinnatus, where a large business is done in the manufacture of cutters, thence to Solon and McGrawville, where a corset factory furnishes employment for several hundred hands, and from this point to Cortland. It would be a road with light grades, free from trestles, and a route where snow blockades would be seldom or never known. It would have for a part of its business the transportation of the dairy product, and farm produce generally, from a belt of country varying from ten to twenty miles in width, all of which finds a market at the seaboard, and is thee mostly exchanged for general merchandise, to be returned over the same route, and distributed along the line - a business not spasmodic and uncertain, but constant and enduring, - a business which will never be less, but will constantly increase.

   The rapidly increasing business of the country, the improving condition of the people, the increasing demand for fresh butter, and the immense export trade in cheese during the summer months, call loudly for better facilities for transportation and travel.

   Farmers, merchants, manufactures and businessmen along the line, we must have a railroad. We cannot afford to do without it. Then, let us agitate this question, and continue to agitate till we get it. The company or capital that takes hold of this enterprise, and carries it into effect cannot fail to be satisfied with the results.

C.H. Stanton
Ireland's Mills, Feb. 6th, 1882.

Note : In that year, 1882, the Auburn branch was torn up and never replaced. A railroad called the Utica, Chenango & Cortland was eventually built from Cortland to Cincinnatus, but this was only partially graded. Later a company called the Erie & Central New York completed the line and opened on April 21, 1898. For years an extension to Otselic wad discussed but was never built. The line, nicknamed the 'Gee Whiz', was taken over by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western on Dec. 1, 1903 and operated until Dec. 29, 1961 when it was abandoned.