From the Cortland Standard of Cortland, NY
Thursday, November 17, 1927

Early Days of Railroad In Cortland and
Chenango Are Recalled by Survivors

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Building, Operation and Abandonment of the Old Midland
Described by John C. Kelley, Brakeman in 1872 and '73

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   Days when "railroading was railroad", on the old Midland Railroad between DeRuyter and Norwich, now but a memory, and of the building of the Cincinnatus branch of the Lackawanna, have been brought to light through a small news item which recently appeared in different papers.

   The little item which stirred up the tales of the old wood burning and hand brake days referred to the sale which was held in DeRuyter, June 11, of bonds amounting to $21,000 to refund outstanding bonds issued to aid in the construction of the old Oswego Midland Railroad, defunct for a half century.

   Few people are to be found who remember much of the history of the road, but here and there may be found a gray haired individual who recalls incidents of interest. In this group is John C. Kelley, 4 Maple Ave., who worked for several years on the old Midland, and recalls several dramatic incidents of the old days.

   Kelley took part in the building of the road in the years 1868-69 and later worked as a brakeman in '72 and '73. The section between Norwich and DeRuyter was abandoned in 1879 due to the high cost of keeping the road bed in repair and the lack of business, other lines having come into the territory and taken the traffic.


DeRuyter Bonded for $150,000
   DeRuyter was at that time bonded for $150,000 and when the road went defunct bonds were issued for an additional sum of $10,000 to fight the payment of the first figure. Otselic, Plymouth, Pitcher were among the towns to issue bonds to promote the road and Lincklaen, although not on the route, got in on the proposition to aid in the construction of the road.

   The whole thing started when the late D.C. Littlejohn, then of Oswego, said that he could build a railroad from Oswego to New York without a dollar of capital. And he did. The New York, Ontario & Western railroad is the monument to the enterprise of the people of Central New York who wanted to develop their section through the building of a railroad.

   But the plan grew. In the early dream for a gigantic network of railroads, it was planned to run a road from Norwich to Auburn and the Auburn branch of the New York and Oswego Midland was started. The branch never got any farther than Cortland, and then what is now the Lehigh Valley, built a line from Freeville to Auburn and the plan was abandoned. In 1906 the idea of a Cortland-Auburn railroad was again revived, but after the route had been surveyed, the plan was given up.

   But to get back to the early history of the Midland. J.W. Merchant, then of DeRuyter, was the man who had the most to do with the laying out of the route. Merchant was interested in the road and he was also interested in a large tract of timber on Crumb Hill, east of DeRuyter. Wood was burned in those days in the locomotives, and Merchant saw a market for his timber. It was largely through his influence that after surveying several different routes, the road was finally laid out through the towns of Norwich, Plymouth, Otselic and DeRuyter, with stations at Norwich, Plymouth, Ireland Mills, Lower Beaver Meadow, Otselic Center, Crumb Hill (a flag station), and DeRuyter.


Wooden Trestles
   The construction over this route required many long trestles, and all of these, in those days, were of wood construction. Mr. Kelley tells of the old Lyon Brook bridge near Oxford Summit on the main line, which was 165 feet high. Trains had orders not to cross that bridge faster than a man could walk, and to conform with this rule, a brakeman was always sent across on foot in front of the locomotive.

   Needless to say, these trestles soon began to wear out and this was one of the features which brought about the abandonment of the road after 10 years of operation. From DeRuyter, the road, which has since been taken over by the Lehigh Valley, came to Cortland. Homer was the only town along the route that would not bond for the construction, but despite this fact the road was put through the eastern end of the township.

   "I can remember the first train that was run this side of DeRuyter", said Mr. Kelley, in recounting some of the incidents of the early days of railroading. "They were laying the roadbed down past the old Countryman place, later known as the John Boyce farm. Mrs. Countryman had never seen a train and came out on the knoll to watch the locomotive which was following the iron down as fast as it was laid. The engineer blew a sharp blast on the whistle and Mrs. Countryman dropped dead. Tom Lynch, who is now a conductor on the Lehigh, was a brakeman on the work train."

   "I worked as a brakeman back in '72 and '73 and we used to have to take the trip over from Norwich to Cortland. Wages weren't very high then and we used to have to stay over night here, at 50 cents and 50 cents for each meal, including putting up of a lunch, because it would take all day to get back to Norwich."


Wood Burning Engines
   "We used to wood the engine here and again at DeRuyter so that we would be able to get through to Norwich. In those days a brakeman couldn't sit in the caboose all the time. Most of the time he had to be up by his brakes because there was no air then and when one of those old coupling pins would snap, the brakes had to be put on by hand or the cars would run away. I saw three carloads of wood get away on Crumb Hill one time and run the seven miles down into DeRuyter and then they pretty nearly made the grade and came over to Cortland. No, the brakeman didn't get hurt but he had a wild ride.

   "I saw 10,000 cords of four foot wood, which had been stacked beside the tracks, burn one time. It was set afire by a locomotive. They used to stack the wood on Crumb Hill beside the tracks and then we would load it into cars and take it to the stations where the engines took on wood. I'd like to see some of these firemen now keep an engine going with wood on those grades", he added reminiscently.

   "Things are a lot different now", he concluded. "They have a tunnel through the mountain at Hancock instead of going over the top of it. The old Chenango canal swing bridge in Norwich is gone and the wooden trestles are replaced by steel so that the trains don't have to to slow down for anything any more. But if you want to see where the old Midland railroad was", he added, "just drive over to DeRuyter some time and then follow the state road down through Otselic Center and over toward Norwich. You can see the old roadbed but all the iron is gone and the trestles have gone down."