By: Jerry Sayles
I would bet most people in Chenango County would not have ever thought that a railroad, let alone possibly three or more, would have ever crossed the hills and valleys of Pharsalia.
During the railroad building boom between the 1860s and 1920s, railroad companies would survey routes through and close to Pharsalia. The reason was that there would be many small villages that they could connect to along the way. They were also trying to take advantage of the natural resources in stone quarries and lumber mills and what the farms produced in butter and cheese, grains, potatoes and fruits. These railroad companies were also trying to connect the larger cities like Binghamton to the Utica/ Rome area and Deposit to Syracuse with rails that connected to Pennsylvania, New York City and cities farther to the north and west. In this time period all the small towns had to take what they produced, by horse and wagon over muddy and rough, dirt roads or toll roads made of planks to a railhead to get the best prices. So, the closer you were to the rails the better.
Towns would put up money at the behest of the free railways and coal mines, by raising bonds to pay off the debt for buying right of way and for grading embankments and the ties and rails. One of the companies that made plans to come through the towns of Greene, Smithville, McDonough, Pharsalia, Otselic and beyond started around July 1870; it built about nine miles of railroad, it was called the Central Valley and ran for almost three years. In 1871, the Central Valley Railroad started what some called the first three-foot-wide narrow-gauge railroad in the United States. The plan was that the railroad would start about four miles south of Greene, NY at a junction with the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad. Then go north, turning up the Genegantslet Valley, to Smithville Flats, with a pair of alternate routes, one up past Long Pond to Willet and then on to Cortland through Cincinnatus with an extension up the Otselic Valley. The other one was proposed in 1874 to extend the line to McDonough by going all the way up the Genegantslet Valley past McDonough Springs, McDonough and East Pharsalia to the headwaters of the Genegantslet, cutting over towards Pharsalia Center to the summit. The grade to this point would not exceed 45 feet to the mile. Then, from there it would go north and cross the Midland Branch to Auburn, continuing on to Smith’s Valley, a railroad junction between Earlville and Eaton, to connect the rails to Rome on the Clinton Line. This way the company could move coal from Pennsylvania’s small free mines through Binghamton. These free mines were not affiliated with the coal and railroad monopolies, this would give them access to the bigger cities, so the railroad and the coal companies could make a profit.[1] There is a book and some short stories that have been written about the Central Valley, its ill-fated road, its money problems, its eventual sale to another company with the engine and cars being sold off along with the rails in April of 1875, which ended that rail line possibility for western Chenango County and Pharsalia.[2]
The next chance for a railroad into western Chenango County was to come about on October 17, 1868, when a meeting was held in Cincinnatus to survey a proposed railroad route from the Midland Railroad near South Plymouth west to Cortland. One of the routes would have been up the Canasawacta Valley possibly through North Pharsalia or following the Center Road to summit at Pharsalia Center then down the Brackel Valley to Cincinnatus. Pharsalia was proposed to put up two hundred dollars, Plymouth one hundred dollars, Pitcher two hundred and fifty dollars and the other towns various sums of money for the survey. They also talked of an extension from Cincinnatus through McDonough to Oxford, but those towns would have to pay for that survey.[3]
Chenango Union Norwich, NY Wednesday, December 16, 1868
Cortland to Norwich – The engineers on the proposed railroad route reached this village on Saturday evening last, having completed their survey between the two points. They report an easy grade, the heaviest – 70 feet to the mile – being met with near the Deer Pond, in Pharsalia. It is claimed that by this route the distance between Norwich and Auburn, on the proposed Midland Branch, will be eight miles less than by the DeRuyter route.[4]
This line never materialized and in the intervening years the Midland Branch to Auburn through Plymouth closed. Then the idea was revived thirty years later, as we see in this newspaper story.
Morning Sun Norwich, NY Tuesday, February 15, 1898
North Pharsalia, Feb. 14, if the railroad from Cortland to Cincinnatus should go to Norwich, the best route would be up the Brackle Creek to Pharsalia and down the Canasawacta to North Pharsalia, Kirk, and South Plymouth to Norwich.[5]
Apparently, this plan never got any traction and was never carried out either.
Then, a third railroad line had a meeting in Oxford in January of 1883 which proposed the construction of a narrow-gauge line connecting the New York, Erie and Western at Deposit NY with Syracuse NY. Starting in the Town of Sanford, passing through Afton, Coventry, Oxford, Preston, Pharsalia, Otselic, Lincklaen and on to Syracuse, a distance of about 90 miles. It was said to be an easy grade with the cost estimated at $10,000 a mile, with the money being raised by stock sale. Mr. Nathan A. Bundy, railroad construction engineer of Oxford, was a moving factor in this line.[6]
In the Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, Thursday, April 19, 1883, we read: A party went through town Monday and Tuesday taking observations for the proposed Syracuse and Deposit Railroad. They commenced on the east side of the town near Silas R. Berry’s and passed near Calvin Frink’s, John Brooks’, Carlos Atkyn’s, thence on to South Otselic. [7]
Another mention a month later spoke of the progress:
Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, Thursday, May 24, 1883
Engineer Barnes and nine assistants are surveying the proposed Syracuse and Deposit Railroad through this town. They approached this town on the west at Pharsalia Hook and passed the Deer Pond, Carlos Atkyns’, the Center schoolhouse, and now are near Isaac Swartz’s. The nearest point to this village is two miles distant.
A satirical comment from the Quill and Press shows some insight into what people may have thought at the time. “In the direction the railroad is now being surveyed. A very high and long viaduct must be built. Suspension or East River bridges cannot hold a candle to it.”[8]
More news from the Deposit Courier says: “The engineers finished the work of the preliminary survey of the Deposit, Oxford and Syracuse railroad last Friday night. They report finding the grade much better than they anticipated. The survey was made only to the old Erie survey near Vallonia Springs; from there the old route is intended to be used. The surveyors claim that the building of the road is almost a positive thing, from the fact that if the present company, do not build it, there are other parties standing ready to put the road through.”
Another quote on the same day stated: “The Chief Engineer of the Erie railroad has passed over the line from Deposit to Syracuse to see if it will pay them to build the road. Their report has not yet been given.”[9]
The line was up in the air, so to speak, with this reference from the Quill and Press.
“S.O. & D. Railroad. – We saw in the Gleaner and inquiry as to the whereabouts of the Syracuse, Oxford and Deposit narrow gauge railroad. We would say for the benefit of the Gleaner readers, that the last heard from either the survey corps or the construction train, can’t tell which, was stuck over just east of here on the Pharsalia hills, some six hundred or eight hundred feet above the Otselic Valley, with only about 1 ¼ miles in which to make the descent. – So. Otselic,corr. That’s so, she’s over here.”[10]
The people in town were anxious for news about the railroad but there was only silence, another piece in the papers had this question. “Will someone please come to the front and give full particulars of what has been done so far, and what is to be done to build the proposed D.O. & S. railroad? After people have paid for the survey, they wish to hear once in a while what is being done. Everything concerning the railroad has lately been deader that a door nail.”[11]
Two months later they heard just a rumor that was printed in the Quill and Press.
“THE S. & D. RAILROAD. Now and then one hears an inquiry concerning the nearly forgotten Syracuse & Deposit railway. We were assured some time ago by one of the engineers conducting the preliminary survey, that after the appropriation of $2,500 for their work was exhausted the scheme might drop. – Ex.”[12]
The last we hear of this railroad in the Quill and Press is taken from the Syracuse Journal.
“The Syracuse and Deposit railroad scheme seems to be as dead as a door nail. At least, it hasn’t life enough to tell any tails. – Syracuse Journal.” [13]
Finally, two different railroad lines proposed a line from Cortland to Cincinnatus, then for it to extend a railroad up the Otselic Valley from Cincinnatus through Pitcher and North Pitcher to South Otselic and farther to connect with the Midland at Otselic Center and down to Norwich over the old Midland Line. In July of 1882, the Ithaca, Auburn & Western railroad with the right to use the track of the U.I. and E. line from Freeville to Cortland proposed and wanted to rapidly push forward on building it, but it did not materialize. Then, in December of 1903 the Erie & Central New York railroad was sold to S. J. Bull and almost immediately sold to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western with the same plans to connect to Norwich by going up the Otselic Valley. This would have opened the western part of Chenango County to do some business with Norwich instead of all of it with Cortland and Syracuse. These lines would have just touched Pharsalia at Waldron’s Corners in the northwest part of town but close enough for that part of town to utilize the rails.[14]
The town of Pharsalia opted out of paying for many of the bonds for the surveys as none of the rails ever came near the town. It seems the closest Pharsalia ever got to a railroad after bonding several thousands of dollars for it, was having a locomotive on the Midland line to DeRuyter, Engine #42, named the “Pharsalia”.
These proposed railroads could have made a tremendous difference at the time in some of our smaller towns. They might not have lasted very long, but we can dream about trains traveling up and down the beautiful Otselic and Canasawacta valleys blowing their steam whistles and fading off into the distance, and wondering, “What Might Have Been.”