Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad

Railroad in Ohio, United States

The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C) was a railroad that ran from Cleveland to Columbus in the U. S. state of Ohio in the United States. Chartered in 1836, it was moribund for the first 10 years of its existence. Its charter was revived and amended in 1845, and construction on the line began in November 1847. Construction was completed and the line opened for regular business in February 1851. The CC&C absorbed a small bankrupt railroad in 1861, and in May 1868 merged with the Bellefontaine Railway to form the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway.

The first railroad from Lake Erie to Columbus was proposed in 1831. Intended to run from Sandusky on the lake south to Dayton, with a branch to Columbus, no action was taken on this project. On February 8, 1832, the Ohio General Assembly granted a charter to the Columbus, Marion, and Sandusky Railroad. This line was authorized to have its terminus in Columbus and run through the towns of Delaware, Marion, and Upper Sandusky before connecting with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. No construction ever began on this railroad, either.

The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C) was chartered by the state of Ohio on March 14, 1836, and authorized to construct a railroad from Cleveland to Cincinnati, passing through the cities of Columbus and Wilmington. The charter required that construction begin within three years, and that the road be completed no later than 10 years after the start of construction. The incorporators of the new CC&C included John A. Bryan and others from Franklin County, as well as investors from Clark, Clinton, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Greene, Hamilton, Holmes, Knox, Lorain, Madison, Medina, Richland, and Wayne counties, met to plan the railroad. Fundraising failed, no construction occurred, and the charter lapsed.

In 1844, John W. Allen, Philo Scoville, and five other Cleveland business and civic leaders sought to revive the CC&C charter. They succeeded in persuading the Ohio General Assembly to do so on March 12, 1845. The new charter specified that the railroad must construct a line between Cleveland and Columbus, and was permitted (but not required) to build a line from Columbus to Cincinnati. The railroad also had the right to connect to any other railroad in the state. A group of railroad investors met in Columbus on May 1, 1845, to discuss the organization of the railroad. Shares worth more than $25,000 ($ in dollars) were sold, allowing the company to be organized under the terms of its charter. The board determined that, with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad soon to begin construction from Columbus to Cincinnati, the CC&C should not attempt to build a line from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Constructing the line from Cleveland only to Columbus was considered more feasible. An early estimate pegged the cost of construction at $1.5 million ($ in dollars). The first permanent board of directors of the CC&C was elected on October 11, 1845. The board consisted of Samuel Medary, Robert E. Neil, William Neil, and William Starling Sullivant of Columbus and John W. Allen, Richard Hilliard, Henry B. Payne, Peter M. Waddell, and John M. Woolsey of Cleveland. Allen was elected president by the board, and William Neil the treasurer. Albert G. Lawrence, a non board member, was elected secretary. Clevelanders predominated on the board because it was assumed that construction would begin in that city. The remainder of the board was from Columbus. By not picking board members from points between the two cities, the board hoped to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest in choosing the route.

A survey party began examining possible routes for the railroad at the end of October 1845, and by November 15 a second survey group was in the field as well. The board of directors settled on a route in August 1846, although it admitted that there were no funds to begin construction. President Allen then claimed in November 1846 that the company not only had enough money to begin construction on the first 40 mile (64 km) of track but that work would also begin on December 1, 1846. The CC&C attempted to sell stock to raise the necessary funds to begin construction. Shares worth $50,000 ($ in dollars) were sold by January 1847, far below expectations. The officers of the railroad told the board on April 3 that they could not raise funds anywhere in the state. The railroad and its backers publicly admitted the project was likely dead. The board put any further expenditures on indefinite hold in May.

Financier Edmund Dwight, representing the wealthy Dwight family of Massachusetts and New York, visited the city in August 1847. The Dwights and Kelleys had invested in a bank in Cleveland, and the Dwights were strongly interested in Ohio railroads. Edmund Dwight told the board that improved investor confidence was needed to raise funds, and this required that the board seek a new leader who could ensure the efficient and timely construction of a well built railroad. Kelley was appointed president on August 13. Kelly was well known throughout the state as the "father of the Ohio and Erie Canal", and was one of the most dominant commercial, financial, and political people in Ohio in the first half of the 1800s. He was also one of the ablest bankers and financiers in the state. Kelley immediately began speaking with his colleagues in the banking and finance fields, and by early September 1847 indicated to the board that a favorable response had been found among investors in New York City. Kelley ordered 10 mile (16 km) of the line, beginning at Cleveland, to begin construction as a test of new construction methods and railroad technology. To ensure that the new charter did not lapse, on September 30, 1847, Kelley and other members of the board of directors went to Cleveland's Scranton Flats and ceremoniously filled a wheelbarrow with earth to symbolize the start of construction. The company hired an old man to work five days a week, continuously digging this trench, in order to prove to the state that construction was "ongoing". The railroad announced in late November 1847 that 12 mile (19 km) of line from Cleveland to Berea would be built. This contract was let to J. A. Ackley and Leander Ransom on December 1, although it is unclear how much (if any) of this track was constructed. Kelley also began to raise substantial funds. He began his tenure as president by urging the board of directors (composed of wealthy Ohioans) to show faith in the business by purchasing company bonds. By September 15, 1847, the board had invested $100,000 ($ in dollars) in the CC&C. Board member Leonard Case later invested an additional $500,000 ($ in dollars). Kelley was a former resident of Cleveland, and promoted the railroad heavily in that city. By April 15, 1848, investors in Cleveland had purchased $100,000 ($ in dollars) in company bonds, with pledges to purchase another $100,000 when the company asked. Kelley delivered a rousing one hour speech in Cleveland in early August 1848, after which another $73,000 ($ in dollars) in stock was sold.

Kelley, who had extensive experience with route surveying and knew the topography of the state extremely well, ordered the routes resurveyed again, a process which began in October 1847 and ended about the end of January 1848. Engineers Frederick Harbach and John Childe issued a new report to the board of directors on August 19, 1848. They confirmed that the two most favored routes in 1846 were still the best, although several changes were identified which greatly improved them both. The engineers' preferred route (known as the Western Route), began in Cleveland and was 135 mile (217 km) long, with a ruling gradient of just 0.28 percent. The proposed temporary southern terminus of the line would be in Columbus, where the CC&C would connect with the Columbus & Xenia Railroad. The estimated cost of construction and equipment was $2.567 million ($ in dollars). These costs included the construction of 13 fuel and water way stations, the construction of a passenger and freight depot in Cleveland, the construction of a roundhouse with locomotive and rolling stock repair shops in Cleveland, the construction of a roundhouse in Columbus, and enough equipment to run two passenger trains and one to three freight trains a day between Cleveland and Columbus. The track gauge was set to .

On September 29, 1848, The contract for construction was awarded to the firm of Stone, Harbach, and Witt on November 1. Harbach was one of the two engineers who had resurveyed the line in late 1847 and early 1848. Amasa Stone had worked with Harbach and another railroad engineer, Stillman Witt, while building railroad bridges in New England. Kelley knew Stone well from his visits selling bonds back east. Kelley reached out to Stone, Harbach, and Witt, and asked them to build the railroad. Stone, Harbach, and Witt formed a company in late 1848 to do so, and agreed to take a portion of their pay in the form of railroad stock. Kelley personally traveled to the United Kingdom in 1848 where he contracted with Sir John Guest & Co. of Wales for T rails The third was a wooden bridge carrying a spur of the main line over the Cuyahoga River. The bridge had a length of 125 feet (38 m) from abutment to abutment that created a 110 feet (34 m) wide shipping channel in the river. During June 1849, work also began on a large engine house on the south end of the Columbus Peninsula, near the Columbus Road Bridge. This facility was constructed by the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company, which had entered into an agreement with the CC&C to build and operate a locomotive repair shop for the railroad. The railroad also erected a temporary depot adjacent to the New England Hotel at corner of Superior and Merwin Streets. It purchased the Bethel Church building adjacent to the hotel (on the square bordered by Superior, Vineyard, and James Streets) for use as an engine house. Some 3,000 to 4,000 men were at work on the line at the end of July, completing the grading, constructing the track bed, and beginning to lay rail. With the cost of the main line appearing to hold steady at $2.5 million ($ in dollars), Kelley personally went to New York City and sold another $400,000 ($ in dollars) in bonds to keep the work going. He sold another $100,000 ($ in dollars) in bonds to Ohio investors the same month.

The first 35 mile (56 km) of CC&C track, between Cleveland and Wellington, Ohio, opened about September 1, 1849. The locomotive repair shops were located at the south end of Columbus Road on the Columbus Peninsula. The line traveled south through the flats, and ascended the heights by following the valley of Walworth Run. the railroad leased from the city of Cleveland land on the shore of Lake Erie. On November 1, Clevelanders welcomed the first locomotive ever to visit the city. Built by the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company of Cleveland, the , $7,000 ($ in dollars) locomotive pulled a work train of several flatcars for use in building the line. The roundhouse in Cleveland at the foot of Water Street (now W. 9th Street). and another 6 mile (10 km) of track opened in November 1849.

Alfred Kelley was reelected president of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad in January 1850. By this time, the company had graded two thirds of the line between Wellington and Columbus, and all grading was expected to be finished by December 1. The company anticipated laying track on the line beginning in the spring, after track bed construction was finished. A train carrying Kelley and several board members toured the completed 15 mile (24 km) of track in mid March 1850, and another 10 mile (16 km) of track were laid by the end of April. Another of rail arrived in the first week of May. The railroad began operations between Cleveland and Wellington on May 16, 1850. The first train carried three freight cars. Passenger service to Wellington opened on May 27. With the company in need of more rail, Kelley traveled to New York City in late May, where he sold enough bonds to pay for the necessary iron. By the end of May, three quarters of the line was graded and half the line's bridges erected. Track was laid on about 45 mile (72 km) of the road, Kelley traveled to the United Kingdom, returning in mid June having purchased another of rail. By late August, the railroad was 10 mile (16 km) south of Wellington. The CC&C reached Shelby, Ohio, on November 12, 1850, about 10 days later than expected. Freight and passenger service began the following day. Shelby gave the CC&C connections to the Mansfield and Sandusky City Railroad (which opened in 1846) and the Mansfield and Newark Railroad. Efn|The Mansfield & Sandusky City Railroad not only connected Shelby to the Lake Erie port town of Sandusky, Ohio, some 53 mile (85 km) to the north but also Mansfield, Ohio, about 6 mile (10 km) to the southeast. The line between Mt. Vernon and Newark, Ohio, was already complete, but an inoperative locomotive delayed operation on the line until December 1. Although winter weather was hindering work, the road had just 35 mile (56 km) of track left to lay by the end of the year, and work crews were laying of track each day. The railroad received another of rail in 1851. and the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace works had delivered its sixth locomotive to the CC&C. Bad weather delayed additional work, and only 2 mile (3 km) of track were laid by January 31. An additional 1 mile (2 km) to 2.5 mile (4 km) of track were laid by February 12,

The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad was completed on February 18, 1851. At 7 A. M. on February 18, Alfred Kelley and a party consisting of the railroad's directors, Columbus mayor Lorenzo English, and a number of other business and civic leaders departed on a special northbound train from Columbus. Kelley and Mayor English each laid a final rail on the line. Kelley drove the last spike at noon. The party then reboarded the train and, after a salutary cannonade, proceeded to Cleveland. To celebrate the event, Kelley invited Ohio Governor Reuben Wood, the entire Ohio General Assembly, the mayors and city councils of Cincinnati and Columbus, and numerous other local politicians and business leaders to travel at the railroad's expense on a four day excursion trip from Columbus to Cleveland and back. The excursion train and its 425 passengers left Columbus on February 21 shortly after 8 A. M., its departure announced by a single cannon shot. The train stopped for lunch in Shelby, where officials of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad and the Mansfield and Sandusky City Railroad as well as elected leaders of towns and villages along these railroads boarded the train. The train reached Cleveland at dusk, welcomed by a cannon shot. three companies of Cleveland militia and the entire city fire department paraded in front of the excursionists, who were seated on a grandstand erected on Cleveland's Public Square. Governor Wood, Cleveland mayor William Case, Cincinnati politician George E. Pugh, Cleveland politician Samuel Starkweather, Ohio state senator Henry B. Payne, and Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad (C&P) president Cyrus Prentiss all spoke. Alfred Kelley was introduced, but did not speak. After the event, the excursionists boarded a C&P train and traveled to Hudson, Ohio, where they were served dinner. after which the officials of Mad River and Lake Erie and the Mansfield and Sandusky City railroads, as well as elected leaders of towns and villages along these lines, left the train. The excursionists were treated to yet another dinner after the train reached Columbus. and connect the line with the Springfield, Mt. Vernon, and Pittsburg Railroad. known as the "Delaware Curves", was completed in 1853. Amasa Stone was appointed superintendent of the road on April 7, 1851, and initiated thrice daily express train passenger service on April 16. In August 1851, the railroad began building a pier which extended into Lake Erie and a warehouse erected on the pier. By this time, the CC&C had 11 locomotives in freight and passenger operation on the line each day. On December 1, 1852, the CC&C entered into a contract with the CP&A under which the CC&C would operate both railroads as a single line. This contract was superseded by a new agreement on April 1, 1855, which merely gave each railroad trackage rights on the other's line.

Collaboration between the CC&C and CP&A extended to more than just a depot. The CP&A's line initially did not extend west of E. 33rd Street in Cleveland. That railroad relied on the CC&C for repair facilities for its locomotives and cars. In the summer of 1853, the CP&A extended its Cleveland tracks to the Bath Street station. That year the two railroads jointly erected and operated a car repair shop northwest of the intersection of Lake Street (now Lakeside Avenue) and Alba Street (later known as Depot Street, now E. 26th Street). The construction of passenger rolling stock began at these shops in late 1853. Business "boomed", with the company making two locomotives a month there. Having extensively filled in some of the lake east of its facilities, the railroad began grading this area in October 1855 in order to begin construction of a new engine house and machine shop. On July 1, 1853, the CC&C signed an agreement with the C&X and Little Miami Railroad (which connected Cincinnati to Springfield), which gave the CC&C trackage rights on both lines as well as through service. and in early November the railroad agreed to change its fixed span bridges into draw span bridges. Conversion of the CC&C freight bridge was complete by November 15, and work on the main line bridge commenced shortly thereafter.

By 1861, the CC&C had added 80 mile (129 km) miles of double track to its main line, leaving just 55 mile (89 km) of single track. The railroad had also added 20 mile (32 km) of siding, and owned 22 locomotives, 74 flatcars, 297 freight cars, 93 livestock cars, and 31 passenger cars. Two months later, it opened a new engine house and machine shop on Merwin Street. These latter improvements cost $80,000 ($ in dollars). On April 29, 1865, the locomotive CC&C Nashville pulled Abraham Lincoln's funeral train from Cleveland to Columbus. The CC&C had also provided one of the nine cars that made up the train. The train had left Erie, Pennsylvania, pulled by the locomotive William Case, owned by the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad. The CP&A locomotive Idaho traveled 10 minutes ahead, acting as a "pilot train" to ensure there were no problems on the track. The William Case arrived in Cleveland on April 28 at precisely 7 A. M. The CC&C's Nashville departed for Columbus just after midnight on April 29. also traveling 10 minutes ahead. The Nashville arrived in Columbus at 7:30 AM. The funeral train left Columbus at 8 P. M. on April 29, pulled by a locomotive from the Columbus and Indianapolis Central Railroad. A merger in 1864 intertwined the CC&C with the Bellefontaine railroads. The CC&C had invested heavily in Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad (B&I) bonds. but was removed to the U. S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The federal court held in the city's favor. The Circuit Court of Cuyahoga County heard the case again, and ruled against the city in 1909. The railroad appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which in
found no grounds for federal jurisdiction. The city of Cleveland, in possession of the land, now sought to prevent the CC&C and other railroads from continuing to reclaim land in Lake Erie. The state of Ohio successfully intervened, taking the lead in the case in order to protect its rights. The Circuit Court of Cuyahoga County found in the railroads' favor, however. The city appealed to the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County, which affirmed the judgment of the circuit court. The city appealed to the Supreme Court of Ohio. In February 1916, the high court held in
that state law was silent on the matter of a leaseholder improving their riparian property by reclaiming land, and therefore upheld the judgment of the circuit court. In response to the ruling in State of Ohio v. Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railway Company, the Ohio General Assembly enacted the Fleming Act in 1917.

The headquarters of the CC&C were in Cleveland, Ohio. There were only nine bridges on the main line. Seven of these were originally constructed of wood, and the other two of iron. The total cost of original construction of the main line was about $3 million ($ in dollars). The 1862 purchase of a portion of the Springfield, Mt. Vernon, and Pittsburgh Railroad added a 50 mile (80 km) single track branch to the CC&C. This track ran southwest from the town of Delaware to Springfield, a town then located about 10 mile (16 km) northwest of Dayton.