48
COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES
E L E C T R I C R A I L W A Y S — L IC iH T lN C w ay w as secured through the efforts o f Capt. H . J . Conner and S ilas M cH enry. Jo h n Bush F o r the follow ing concise and correct his (G iovanni B u cci), o f Bloomsburg. was the contractor. T h e road is twenty-nine miles tory of the development o f gas and electricity lung, its route being through the beautiful and in the counties o f Columbia and Montour wc historic Fishingereek valley, where at many arc indebted to A . W . D uy, a prominent attor points are located the camps and cottages of ney o f Uloomsbuig, who is personally associ the summer residents from Bloumsburg. Cata ated with these companies. w issa. Berw ick and the adjoining towns in the O'ar L igfitittg county. There arc many highly productive farm s along the line, which pa.sscs through 'I'he first gas company to be incorporated and Light Street, O rangeville, F orks. Stillw ater. bcginopcrationsin Bloomsburg w as the Blooms Benton, Coles C rcck, Central and Jam ison City. Connection is ma<lc at Bloom sburg with the burg G as Company, which corporation received Lackaw anna and the Reading, and at Paper its charter from the court o f Common Heas M ill with the Susquehanna, Bloom sburg & o f Columbia county on M ay 9, 1874. The au Berw ick roads. T he road operates six pas thorized capitalization w as $30,000 (Deed Book 27, page 4 3 3 ), and the promoters of this senger trains each day, and several freights, enterprise were as follow s: H . J . Clark, John although the trade ha.s fallen o ff since the re L a W all, F reas Brow n, D . A . Uccklcy, Samuel moval of the sawm ills at Jam ison C ity. A n K n o rr, If. H . Grotz, K. K. Ikeler, Enos Jacoby, extension was projected northward to connect A . L. T u rn er, J . C . Brow n, J . K . Grotz, A . C with the Lehigh V alley road, and a route was Sm ith, C . Bittcnbcndcr, C. F . Knapp, J . H. once survcyetl, but nothing further has cul Maize, Ed . M . W arden, Jaco b Schuyler, C. G. minated. Barkley, D. J . W aller, W illiam Peacock, J . J . T he present officers of the road a r c : Samuel B row er, I. W. H artm an, Robert F . Clark, W igfall. president: H . T . Dcchcrt, vice presi John A . Funslon, C . W. N eal, Joshu a Felierd en t; V. C . Snyder, superintendent and treas man, W. M . R cbcr, D . I-owcnbcrg, M. C. u rer; George A . Ritter, secretary and auditor; W oodw ard, J . S . Sterner, E . H . Little, Louis W. C. Fortune, supervisor. About fifty men Bernhard, W m . B . K oons, Isaiah Hagenbueh, W. F . Sloan, H . L . Dicffenbach, C W. Miller. arc employed by the company. These gentlemen a fte r receiving their char The W ilkes-B arre & W estern railroad was ter purchased the tract o f land at the intersec commenced in 1885, ran the first train from tion o f Seventh and M arket streets in the town W atsontown to M illville in 1887, and in 1891 o f Bloomsburg, there constructed a g a s plant w as completed to O rangeville. .Subsequently and laid mains throughout the main portion the management changed hands, the name w as of the town, and con<lucted a very prosperous changed to the Susquehanna. Bloom sburg & business until Sept. 2 .18 9 9, when the company Berw ick R ailroad Company, the line lo O range leased its property, rights and franchises for ville abandoned, the route made through Light a period o f nine hundred and ninety-nine years Street and the line completed to Berw ick in (M isc. Book 6, page 454) to the Am erican Gas 1903. O ver this road most of the cars manu Light Company o f Bloomsburg, a corporation factured by the Am erican C ar & Foundrj- Com formed under the act o f 1874. for the purpose pany, o f Bcnvick, are forw arded to their o f taking over the property, rights and fran chises of the old Bloomsburg G as Company. owners. T he Am erican G as Ligh t Com pany of T he line traverses a picturesque region o f Bloom sburg received its charter A u g. 2 5, 1899 hills and deep valleys, passing through Light Street, Paper M ill, Jerseytow n, E y c r ’s Grove (M isc. Book 8. page 6 6 5 ). its authorized capi and M ordansvilic. with a branch to M illville. talization l>cing $40,000, together ivith an issue T he terminus of the road is at W atsontown, on o f bonds o f equal amount, and the incorpora tors of the company w e re : W illiam D . Boyer, the west branch of the Susquehanna. Samuel Jo h n B . Russel. Grant Pciton. George W . R ey B. Haupt. president of the road, died in Sep nolds. P. R . B cvan, all o f W ilkes-B arre, Pa. tember, 19 13, from injuries received when his It continued in business until N ov. 16, 1906, private car was struck by a switch engine in when by virtue o f an agreement o f m erger and the Berw ick yards. Since his death the ro-id consolidation between it and the American has come into the control of the Pennsylvania Electric Light Company, the property, rights system. and franchises of the company b ^ m e vested
