History of Pennsylvania Railroad Begins with Organization of Company March 31, 1847

Prior to 1809, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, urged repeatedly in public addresses the construction of a passenger railroad from Philadelphia to New York, and in that year attempted to form a company for this purpose.

In 1829 a railroad, sixteen miles long, from Honesdale to Carbondale, to carry coal, was completed.

In 1827 the Mauch Chunk railroad, nine miles long, was built to connect coal mines with the Lehigh River; the gauge was three feet seven inches, and wooden rails were faced with iron.

The Baltimore and Ohio finished, in 1829, the first six miles of track upon which passengers were carried.

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company was incorporated by special act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved April 4, 1833.

The charter granted to the company, December 5, 1833, authorized it to construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. At Reading it was proposed to connect with the Little Schuylkill Navigation and Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1827, to build a railroad from Tamaqua to Reading.

Then followed the development of the rails in this country, and the first T-rails made in America were rolled at the Montour Mill, in Danville, Pa., in 1845. This was also an American invention. The first rails, thirty feet in length, were made at the Cambria Iron Works, at Johnstown, Pa., in 1856.

The greatest development of the locomotive was made by the great Baldwin plant in Philadelphia.

Among the several great railroad groups of America is that of the Pennsylvania system, and this corporation enjoys the distinction of having the greatest number of individual stock holders.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the most important carrier in Pennsylvania and in the Eastern United States, and one of the greatest and most extensive railroad systems in the entire world, was brought into existence by an act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, approved by Governor 233Francis R. Shunk, April 13, 1846. Letters patent were issued February 15, 1847, and the company organized March 20, but the election of officers was held and the actual beginning of this great corporation dates from March 31, 1847.

Under the articles of incorporation this company was authorized to construct, equip, and operate a line of steam railroad to connect with the then known Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad, and to run to Pittsburgh or to any point in Allegheny County, or to Erie, in Erie County, as its management might deem expedient.

This charter was not obtained without opposition, as it was understood that the operation of this new railroad would draw from the revenues upon which the State system of public works largely depended for support. This was undoubtedly true, but the charter was granted and the work of construction was carried forward with such vigor that in 1850 portions of the line were completed and ready for operation.

The Erie Canal, devised by DeWitt Clinton, and constructed by David Thomas, a Pennsylvanian, had deflected the trade of the Great Lakes and the West from Philadelphia to New York, and made the latter the leading city of the nation. It was expected that a railroad over the mountains would bring this trade back to Philadelphia and restore the supremacy of that city.

In order to make sure that no outside influence should get control, the charter provided that all of the directors “shall be citizens and residents of this Commonwealth.” This part of the plan failed, but the leading capitalists of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere in the State, subscribed liberally to the stock of the company and from the beginning the enterprise was well backed with ample funds and equally valuable influence.

Hardly had the original road been opened for traffic before the company began to extend its lines and enlarge the field of its operations.

The movement which proved of the greatest benefit to the public, and to the company itself, was in 1857, when the Legislature passed an act, May 16, directing the line of public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to be sold, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company became the purchaser.

The purchase price was seven and one-half millions, and ownership was obtained for the combined State canal and railroad. The State was relieved of a burdensome property, and at the same time these public works were placed under the control of a corporation whose methods of management must result in great benefit to the people of the State.

Governor James Pollock caused the sale to be made, June 25, and on July 31 following the actual transfer was consummated.

This transaction fixes the date from which the progressive history of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company begins.

The canals on the Susquehanna and its branches above the mouth 234of the Juniata, together with the Delaware division, were sold the following year to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company, now a part of the great Pennsylvania system, and the work of extension did not cease.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in 1861, leased for 999 years the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster road and brought it under the Pennsylvania’s management.

The work of extension has ever kept pace with the opportunity to develop this great railroad system until it includes, in whole, or in part, more than one hundred lesser lines of road, with its main line, branches and spurs.

The great terminal station in Philadelphia, recently damaged by fire, will soon be replaced by one of the finest railroad stations in the world, even comparable with the great Pennsylvania Station in New York City.

The greatest corporation in Pennsylvania is the railroad system which so gloriously carries the name of the Keystone State into every part of the Western Hemisphere.

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