2 5 8
��HON. ONSLOW STEARNS.
��peake and Ohio canal. Subsequently he became interested with his brother in contracts for the construction of vari- ous railroads in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, upon which he was engaged until the summer of 1837, when he returned to Massachusetts and engaged in contracts upon the Charles- town Branch and Wilmington & Haver- hill Railroads, now respectively portions of the Fitchburg and Boston & Maine roads. ■ Soon after he engaged in the work of completing the Nashua & Low- ell Railroad, then in process of con- struction from Lowell to Nashua. This road was completed in the fall of 1838, when Mr. Stearns was made its super- intendent, holding the position until July, 1845, when he -resigned to become agent of the Northern Railroad Com- pany of New Hampshire for the purpose of constructing its road from Concord to White River Junction. His first efforts in the interest of this road were directed toward obtaining the necessary legislation for securing a right of way for the road over the land where it was to pass, the law of 1 840 having rendered it impossible. This legislation was se- cured in 1844, by which the state was empowered to take the land of the own- ers, making them compensation for damages, and leasing the same to rail- road corporations, they repaying to the state the amount paid for damages.
Under the personal supervision of Mr. Stearns, the road was located, and the work of construction vigorously car- ried forward and completed, the Bristol branch included. After its completion he became manager of the road, which position he held till May, 1852, when he was chosen President of the Northern Railroad Company, continuing in that office until the time of his death. He was also general superintendent of the Vermont Central Railroad from 1852 till 1855, a director in the Ogdensburgh Railroad for some time, and for nearly twenty years up to 1875, a director in the Nashua & Lowell Railroad Corpo- ration.
While president of the Northern
oad Company, Mr. Stearns was
president of the Sullivan, the Con-
��toocook Valley, and the Concord & Claremont Railroad Companies, which were connected in interest with the Northern Railroad, and under his direc- tion the Concord & Claremont Railroad was extended from Bradford to Clare- mont, being completed in 1872. The success of Mr. Stearns in the manage- ment of these various railroad enter- prises caused his services to be sought by those interested in other railroads, and he was frequently solicited to take charge of railroad interests in Massachu- setts and other states. These offers he uniformly declined till July, 1866, when he was induced to take the presi- dency of the Old Colony & Newport Railway Company, in Massachusetts, which position he held till November, 1877, when he resigned on account of failing health. During this time the Old Colony & Newport Railway Com- pany and the Cape Cod Railroad Com- pany were consolidated under the name of the Old Colony Railroad Company, and the South Shore and Duxbury & Cohasset Railroads, with others, were added to it. The Old Colony Steam- boat Company was also formed, and purchased the boats of the Narragansett Steamship Company, thus forming, with the Old Colony Railroad, the present Fall River Line between Boston and New York. In 1874, Mr. Stearns was elected president of the Concord Rail- road, and continued to manage the affairs of this corporation till his death. The eleven years during which Mr. Stearns was president of the Old Colony Railroad were years of the most in- tense and constant labor on his part. For two years of the time he was gov- ernor of New Hampshire. He was president of the Northern Railroad and the other roads connected with it dur- ing all that time, and for three years he was also president of the Concord Rail- road and of the Old Colony Steamboat Company, besides being a director and interested in the management of various other corporations. Mr. Stearns gave an active, personal supervision to all the corporate interests under his charge, embracing not only their general rela- tions with other corporations and inter-
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