Newspaper items regarding the Railroad 1851-1857

Researched by Sharon M. Kouns

_IR Jan. 2, 1851 - S. & H. V. Railroad. - This is the week for letting the contract for the work of the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad, according to previous notice. The friends of this road are very sanguine, and say that no obstacle prevents their going ahead with energy to a speedy completion of the road to the town of Jackson, the stock being nearly all taken and the funds at hand. Operations will without doubt be commenced in a very short time upon the first twenty-five miles from Portsmouth, and also upon five miles next to the town of Jackson. Right! The wad is much needed to the full development of the resources of the iron and coal region, and especially of Jackson county. It is a commendable enterprise and will be pushed with vigor and the work done ere long - all that we could wish is that the track may be made of the width required by the general law of the State, viz: 4 feet 10 inches.

_IR Jan. 23, 1851- NOTICE IN PARTITION
John Campbell, Hiram Campbell, William Ellison, David T. Woodrow, Mary Steece, James Steece, Archibald Steece, Geo. Steece, Jr., Josiah D. Cotton, Ann Cotton, Mary Jane Steece and Eliza W. Steece, will take notice that a petition was filed against them on the 22nd day of Jan. 1851  by William Steece and is now pending, wherein the said Wm. STEECE demands partition of the following Real Estate situated in the county of Lawrence, Scioto and Hamilton in the State of Ohio.

_NOTICE IN PARTITION - Mary STEECE, widow of the late Geo. STEECE, dec’d, James STEECE, Josiah D. COTTON and Anna COTTON, his wife, Archibald STEECE and Ellen STEECE, his wife, William STEECE, and the following named minors to wit: Geo. Steece, Mary Jane Steece, and Eliza Steece also John Campbell, and David T. Woodrow, will take notice that a petition was filed against them on the 22nd day of Jan. A. D. 1851 in the Court of Common Pleas of Lawrence Co. by Hiram Campbell, demanding petition of the following Real Estate .

_IR Nov. 13, 1851 - The people of Lawrence County remove the county seat from Burlington to Ironton. Population of Ironton 1200.

_IR Apr. 8, 1852 - Ironton Railroad Co. - Annual Meeting. John Campbell, Jno. Peters, Jno. Ellison, J. O. Willard, H. Campbell, R. B. Hamilton and J. W. Dempsey were chosen as directors for the ensuing year. The president of the board is J. O. Willard; Sec. J. A. Richey, Treasurer, Sam’l M. Connell.

• Ohio Iron & Coal Co. - Copy

•IR Sept. 23, 1852 - S. H. & V. Railroad. - The Tribune and Clipper states that the meeting of the stockholders of this road, on the 15th inst., in Portsmouth, was well attended, at which time a subscription of $25,000 was made to the Maysville and Big Sandy Railroad, of which road there is now fair prospect for early completion to Springville, opposite Portsmouth; also, it was determined to locate the route of the S. & H. V. Railroad from Logan to Newark through Somerset, instead of Lancaster, and thereby a larger portion of the mineral region is spanned. Perry county has raised nearly $100,000 for the road reliable citizens having given ample security for that amount.

•IR Sept. 23, 1852 - Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. - This road is under contract as far east as Marietta, including the branch to Belpre. The portion from the end of the previous contract in Vinton county, was let a few days since to Walter Finch & Co., of Lowell, Mass., who contract to complete the road to the Ohio river, both at Marietta and Belpre, within two years.

1853

_IR Feb. 24, 1853 - Tobacco. - It is estimated that the money spent annually for tobacco amounts to a sum sufficient to build the Pacific Railroad in two years. By the census of 1850 it appears that 200,000,000 lbs., were raised in the U.S. in the year preceding; and by the census of 1840 our people consumed 2 lbs. 1 oz. per head, while in 1850 the amount was 3 lbs, 8 oz. Per head - an increase of 70 per cent in ten years.

_IR Apr. 7, 1853 - The Iron Railroad is now doing a fine business, the number of passengers carried over the road during the month of March amounted to over 1300 - more than 50 per day.

_IR June 02, 1853 - It is stated that the reports of the earnings of fourteen railroads, taken indiscriminately from Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Indiana and Georgia, show a universal increase in March, ranging from 11 to 100 per cent., and in one or two instances to about 150 per cent. This indicates not only a flourishing condition of the country, but in the state of the people ______________ in the iron tracks.

1854

_IR Apr. 13, 1854 - WEBSTER
This new town on the S. & H. V. Railroad is thriving finely, as we learn from Co. Walton, who has just been into our office. The town is about a year old, has a health location, is pleasantly situated 18 miles from Portsmouth and about 20 from Ironton, has no intoxicating liquor, the lots (do not have end of article yet)

1855

1856

1857

_IR Jan. 6, 1857 - The Court of Appeals have affirmed the decision of the Fayette Circuit Court, in the case of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad Company vs. the City of Lexington. By this decision the City of Lexington is required to issue its bonds to the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad Company, to the amount of $150,000, as stock in said company.

_IR July 9, 1857 - DISASTROUS RAILROAD ACCIDENT
The Cincinnati night train on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, met with a terrible accident, on the 1st inst., at 5 o'clock in the morning, 12 miles west of Marietta, killing three persons and wounding twenty. At the point where the accident occurred there is a trestle some three hundred feet long and fifty-three feet high. The regular track at the west end of it is not finished and the trestle is reached by a reverse curve on a temporary track. The train had just entered upon the trestle, when the passenger car, from some unknown cause, ran off upon the northern side, became uncoupled from the baggage car, plunged forward and fell to the ground bottom upward and was broken into fragments. There were in the car between twenty and thirty persons. The wonder is that every one of them was not instantly killed. Three were taken out of the car dead, and all the others more or less wounded. Two have since died, and several others were badly injured; one on Monday was but just alive.
Thirty passengers were in the car. The wife of Wm. Brigham of Marietta, William G. Richardson of Boston, Mass., and Mr. Connelly, Founder at Pioneer Furnace, Lawrence county, were killed instantly.
Two sons of Dr. Bullard of Indianapolis, Wm. Brigham of Marietta, Elias M. Str___berry of Morgan county, Ohio, W. W. ____ock conductor of the train, Edward Plum__y of Big Run, Ohio, Rollin Vincent of Vincent's Station, and L. G. McGuffey of Columbus, O., were badly injured.
Chas. Talbot, a river man; William Williams, of Harper's Ferry, Va.; Samey Hays of New Matamoras, Ohio; Wm. H. Crawford, of Harmar, Ohio; Rev. D. C. Perry and son, of Barlow, Ohio; Jacob Rosner, of Wheeling, Va.; Edgar Blunden, of Malta, Ohio; B. __everson, of Baltimore, and E. W. Plum___r, of Marietta were slightly injured. Some others were injured slightly; the names not ascertained.
The wounded persons were taken to Marietta, and every attention paid them.