The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I./Chapter 5
CHAPTER V
The Hempstead Branch
The Tangled Affairs of the New York & Hempstead
WHEN the South Side RR successfully opened its line to Babylon in October 1867, there were many towns on Long Island that rejoiced to see the Long Island Railroad's monopoly on travel at last broken. Oliver Charlick, though a capable administrator and an able man in finance, was almost completely devoid of a sense of tact and finesse in handling people and as the years passed, few men on Long Island were more disliked or more pilloried in the press than he.
Hempstead, one of the largest villages along the line, had been served since 1839 by a shuttle train which carried passengers north to the main line at Mineola. Over a period of years the single coach had been drawn by horses and later a very small steam engine. Dissatisfied with these primitive accommodations, the residents of Hempstead resolved to secure for themselves an outlet to the much newer and more liberal South Side RR.
The first step was the legal one of incorporating the Hempstead and Rockaway Railroad, to run from Valley Stream to Hempstead. In April 1868 a campaign was started and $30,000 was raised to insure the connection; surveyors were put to work immediately to lay out a.route to Valley Stream. By June 1 a contract for building the branch was awarded to Vandewater Smith of Hempstead, the completion date being set at July 1. Because of financial difficulties the work soon came to a standstill and the Long Island RR increased the difficulties by securing an injunction on August 29 enjoining Smith's crew from crossing a portion of their terminal property at Hempstead.
A whole year passed by without action of any kind; then, in September 1869, several public meetings were again held to revive the project, and a renewed effort was made to raise money through stock sales. In the first week of January 1870 it was reported that the stock was being rapidly marketed. So well was the money coming in that ground was broken for the new branch on January 22, 1870 despite the frost and ice of winter.
In March the backers of the new project appear to have gone far beyond the idea of building a mere branch line to Valley Stream, for they incorporated themselves at Albany under the pretentious title of the New York & Hempstead Plains R.R. and mapped a route from Hempstead through Valley Stream, thence south of Jamaica through Flatbush and New Utrecht to a point on the East River at Sixty-fifth Street, Bay Ridge. It was hoped to complete the road to Valley Stream over the summer of 1870 and the remainder the following year. Grading for the line began on March 21, 1870.
In April 1870 the contract for building the new railroad was again awarded to Vandewater Smith, who made arrangements with Robert White to do theactual physical work. On April 26 ground was broken and the target date was again set for July 1. The Hempstead Brass Band turned out and put on a grand street concert on the evening that the contract was signed. All during July the work moved on briskly and in August "two new and beautiful coaches" were secured and one tank saddle engine from the Grant Locomotive works, named the William L. Wood. Both were stored in the South Side Railroad's engine house at Jamaica.
By September 1, 1870 the grading and the laying of the rails through what is now Malverne and Lakeview was progressing satisfactorily. On August 31, 1870 a special excursion train, consisting of friends and guests of the road, ran over the finished portion of the railroad. The grading had been completed the entire distance and the track was laid to within a mile and a quarter of Hempstead. Everyone was well pleased and complimented Mr. Smith on his work. On September 12, 1870 the first train ran all the way through to Hempstead village and for two weeks thereafter occasional trains operated back and forth. On September 28, 1870 the road was publicly opened and trains ran on a regular schedule for the first time.
Operation was entrusted to the South Side RR Co. who were to operate the line as their Hempstead Branch pending the completion of the rest of the road to Bay Ridge. The fare was set at a trip to Brooklyn or New York or $75 a year. The new road left the South Side Valley Stream station at Fifth Street and struck out northeastward. It crossed Franklin Avenue, Malverne, close to the present little stream between Wheeler Avenue and Cornwell Avenue; here was situated the little hamlet and station of Bridgeport. The track then paralleled Cornwell Avenue exactly, crossing Hempstead Avenue, where was located the tiny settlement and station of Norwood. The Pine Brook was crossed on a little bridge only a foot or two above water level. At Woodfield Avenue and Oak Place was Woodfield depot. Immediately to the east the track crossed the Schodack Brook on an embankment and culvert about five or six feet above the stream bed. As the track approached Hempstead village, it crossed the Horse Brook or Rockaway Brook on a small bridge and then paralleled the brook a few blocks, terminating at a little station on the west side of Greenwich Street midway between Front Street and Prospect Street. Here there was a short stretch of double track but no turntable. Service was maintained with about six trains a day in each direction.
The local residents of both Hempstead and Valley Stream turned out en masse to ride the new facility, reaching a peak of 1028 in one day. The company hoped to build a handsome depot in Hempstead and covered platforms as soon as practicable. By mid-November the ticket office and waiting room were fitted up and most of the travel to New York patronized the new road in preference to the Long Island RR.
With the Valley Stream-Hempstead link completed and in operation, the New York & Hempstead Plains RR turned its attention to the west end of its route. In August the N. J. Bergen farm at Sixty-fifth Street, Bay Ridge, with a waterfront of 800 feet had been secured. The directors also voted to alter slightly northward the projected route, so as to pass through East New York, Woodhaven and Springfield. At least part of the reason for this was the urging of several committees of East New York civic officials who hoped the new road would help boom the town. In Woodhaven some of the right of way was donated, and Florian Grosjean, president of the Lalance and Grosjean Agate Works, the biggest industry in Woodhaven, offered to give any other land needed. Broadway, the present 101st Avenue, was considered the ideal east-west route for the company to take through Woodhaven to Jamaica. At Bay Ridge it was pointed out that the company's docks faced the great coal depot at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and that the company could develop a vast business in ferrying loaded freight cars across the bay and directly onto Long Island without breaking bulk.
In the effort of construction and land acquisition the company have over-extended itself, for, pressed by creditors, the road was foreclosed and sold at sheriff's sale to Electus B. Litchfield, the developer of Valley Stream on December 17, 1870. Just the day before, the lone engine and two cars had been seized and attached for debt by creditors. The trouble was not caused by any fault on the part of the company but by the shortcomings of the contractors who were for the time being running the road. As a by-product of the reorganization of the road the two original companies were merged on July 7, 1871 to form the New York and Hempstead Railroad. The new organization contained some powerful and wealthy men and completion of the road seemed assured.
The brief trouble was not permitted to disrupt the ambitious plans of the promoters. In December 1870 surveyors mapped out a continuation of the line eastward from Hempstead across the Hempstead Plains to Breslau. In February 1871 another change of route was made on the western end of the railroad, the track being now scheduled to pass through Jamaica and terminate in Garden City. In East New York several farmers donated a right of way to the railroad, and by March the contract was let for grading and constructing the road to one Patrick Shields of Jamaica who immediately put a large force to work at three points, Flatbush, New Lots and Woodhaven. By mid-June the grading gangs had progressed as far as Woodhaven Boulevard and by mid-August to Dunton.
In the midst of all this negotiating the directors of the road were startled to receive word that their one and only locomotive, the W. L. Wood, had blown up in Hempstead station on July 18, 1871. Investigation disclosed that the boiler had burst, scattering fragments in all directions. The afternoon train was just about to start when the explosion took place. The engine was immediately brought to Brooklyn for repairs which were expected to cost about $3000, and in the meantime such South Side engines as could be spared gave service on the branch.
The financial and administrative condition of the road meanwhile was getting more complicated daily. A Mr. Pusey, the must agent who had furnished the iron to build the road, had taken in payment the company's notes, and some of the bonds to the extent of $46,000, double the amount of the notes, as collateral security. When the notes became due, the company paid a small portion and by way of settlement, Pusey promised to do certain things for the railroad, provided he became the next president. The company agreed to elect him, but it was soon discovered that his promises were not only not being fulfilled, but that he was secretly plotting to secure possession of the whole road. The directors then unseated him and elected another in his place.
Pusey, in anger, had the bonds sold and bought them in himself at on the dollar. As this paid only half of what was due him, he commenced an action for foreclosure against the company. The directors offered to pay Pusey all the debt with interest, if he would surrender the bonds lodged with him as collateral. Pusey refused and demanded $5000 as a bonus for such action. This the directors declined to pay and served an injunction on him restraining him from pressing his foreclosure suit. The contest then remained deadlocked for seven months (June 1871–December 1871).
Late in December 1871, the court which had sat on the injunction dispute, gave a verdict dissolving the injunction. The Brooklyn Trust Co., holders of the mortgage bonds, appointed on its own a receiver without seeking a court order, or even more surprising, notifying the railroad. The receiver appointed was Seaman Snediker of Hempstead, the road's first president, who immediately made arrangements to take over and notified the one and only train crew to take orders from him. The conductor at first agreed, but later made his returns as usual to Mr. Goetchius, the treasurer of the road.
On the evening of January 8, 1872 Mr. Snediker and Mr. Pusey went to Hempstead and seized the road as agents of the trust company on the advice of the bank's counsel. As the last train came into Hempstead that night, Snediker and Pusey impounded it and had the conductor arrested for embezzlement. The hapless conductor was arraigned in court and agreed to hand over three days' receipts to Snediker as agent of the bank.
Late that night, Snediker and Pusey went to sleep in one of the two coaches. Very early the next morning, E. B. Litchfield, representing the owners, and Mr. Goetchius, the treasurer, arrived in Hempstead and found Snediker and Pusey and a constable with a few hired men asleep in their car. Mettler, the lone engineer, was on his engine, readying it. Very quietly Litchfield and Goetchius, with some employees loyal to them, detached the engine and proceeded with it some distance down the tracks so that it could not be secured. The noise awakened Snediker and Pusey, who rushed out and threw sticks and stumps on the track to stop the engine but in vain. Pusey ordered Mettler to return and attach his engine to the coach but instead of doing so, he ran up and down the tracks several times and refused to heed Pusey's orders.
Litchfield then advised Mettler to back into the station to pick up the passengers for the first trip out; the usual number were waiting and wondering what was going on. As the engine approached the platform, Pusey suddenly produced a pistol and fired two shots, one of which dented the dome in front of the engineer. Pusey was excited and claimed that he was aiming at the engine and not the crew. The passengers were upset by the unexpected gunplay and the cry arose to lynch Pusey. Calmer heads cooled the fight and the dispute was settled by the passengers who brought the train to Valley Stream themselves.
Pusey stayed behind and returned on a later train to New York but a warrant was issued for his arrest and a constable took the next train in pursuit. Things had reached such a point of confusion that a conference was arranged of all interested parties. The trust company was taken to task for appointing a receiver without court approval; when Snediker realized his false position, he turned over moneys and tickets in his possession to Goetchius, the treasurer. This ended the "war" and trains again ran peacefully and regularly.
In February 1872 Electus B. Litchfield resigned the strenuous presidency of the road and was succeeded by Henry M. Onderdonk, editor of the Hempstead Inquirer. Onderdonk was succeeded in turn by Abraham Wakeman in September 1872.
In the spring of 1872 the contractor for the west end of the road, Mr. Louis Broad, died, and for some months thereafter work was suspended. On August 15, 1872 work was again resumed on the Bay Ridge end, and on the eastern extremity of the road surveyors Cornelius and Seaman completed the line of the road from Jerusalem School House (presently the junction of Wantagh Avenue and the Southern State Parkway) to the Hempstead depot. As winter closed in mid-November the contract for the west end was re-awarded to Walker, Fairchild & Clarke, and the east end to Shields & Rattin.
Nothing could be done over the winter months but with the end of March, the whole project sprang to life and fresh details were released to the press. The estimated cost of the road from Bay Ridge to Valley Stream was $600,000 including right of way and dockage. The Bay Ridge dock was to be 850 feet long, extending into the water 500 feet on one side and 800 feet on the other, with a minimum depth of water of fifteen feet. The Bergen farm of seven acres provided abundant land for freight and passenger facilities. A short distance inland was the most expensive grading on the whole road, one item being a tunnel 1780 feet long with an opening 24 × 16½ feet from the ridge to Sixth Avenue. Beyond that point and for the next five miles, the road was planned to pass under the major Brooklyn highways midway between Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth Streets.
The deepest cut was forty-three feet at the Ridge itself; the average for a mile or so being about thirty feet with a width of thirty-two feet. Most of the sand and gravel being removed was used to fill in the hollows and bring up to grade Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth Streets. From Fifth Avenue to the shore there were in June 1873 a force of about ninety men with forty horses and carts. The cut passed right through the old apple orchard of the Bergen farm, and the old mansion commanding a fine view of the bay degenerated into a bunkhouse for the shelter of the workmen. Between the shore and Third Avenue ties had already been laid on the graded area and all was in readiness for the iron. All New Utrecht seemed to be booming as a result of the influx of men and machinery and optimists fondly looked forward to broad vistas of new streets and suburbs in every direction. The entire project reminds us startlingly of the present-day Bay Ridge Division of the Long Island Railroad, built only a short time afterward and to a very similar pattern, and utilizing this same roadbed.
At Bay Ridge a dock crib and dredging machine were anchored and set to work to dig out the required depth, while at Hempstead the contractor was building an embankment across the low lands between Greenwich and Henry Streets, and further grading was being done through the east end of the village towards Uniondale.
Great things were hoped from the new road. A large backward area of Kings County and an empty area south of Jamaica were to be developed and opened to commerce and settlement. The Bay Ridge docks were so favorably situated with reference to the Jersey Central and Lackawanna docks that the lion's share of bulk freight would pass over the new road. In March 1873 the directors of the road opened conversations with Oliver Charlick for permission to use the Long Island RR rails between East New York and Dunton, and with President Fox of the South Side for the use of the tracks between Dunton and Valley Stream.
To the surprise of all, the New York & Hempstead Plains RR in June 1873 announced that it had leased its entire road and project to the South Side RR for a period of 999 years. The New York & Hempstead was to retain its identity as a separate organization for a while yet, but once the Bay Ridge project was completed, it was likely to be merged in the South Side organization.
In the fall of 1873 when the New York & Hempstead project was at its peak and as certain of completion as any other commercial venture in the city, a completely unforeseen disaster struck a mortal blow to the whole project. In October 1873 a financial panic struck the market, and within a week the banking house of Jacob R. Shipherd & Co., owners of the South Side RR, collapsed in the general ruin. All work on the New York & Hempstead RR came to a halt, and the grandiose project of a great new system collapsed never to be revived. The short stretch of road that had been operating between Hempstead and Valley Stream, instead of being a major portion of a new railroad network, sank to the status of an unimportant branch, and its subsequent history dependent on the changing fortunes of the South Side RR.