The Greatest Highway in the World Part 6

On its first trip this train, now preserved on the right balcony of the Grand Central Terminal, attained a speed of nine miles an hour. The route between Albany and Schenectady was practically identical with that of the present New York Central lines.]

The Capitol occupies a commanding position in Capitol Square. It is built of white Maine granite, and cost about $25,000,000.

Millions were spent in alteration and reconstruction, due to the use of inferior materials and to mistakes in engineering design.

The cornerstone was laid 1871, and the building was completed, with the exception of the central tower, in 1904. The legislature first met here in 1879. The original designs were by Thomas Fuller, who also designed the parliamentary building at Ottawa, but they were considerably altered. The beautiful Western staircase of red sandstone (from plans by Isaac Gale Perry) and the senate chamber (designed by H. H. Richardson) are the most striking features of the building. The present capitol suffered a heavy loss in the burning of its library in 1911, by which many unreplaceable books and original doc.u.ments were destroyed.

The city has 11 parks, comprising 402 acres; the most notable is Washington Park, which contains two well known statues--one of Robert Burns, by Charles Caverley, and the bronze and rock fountain, "Moses at the Rock of h.o.r.eb," by J. Ma.s.sey Rhind. The city's filtration system is of special interest to engineers; it occupies 20 acres, has eight filter beds, and filters 15,000,000 gallons of water daily.

Albany's key position with respect to New York, Boston and Buffalo ensured its commercial development. The first pa.s.senger railroad in America was operated between Albany and Schenectady.

The first train in the state, consisting of the locomotive "De Witt Clinton," named for the seventh governor, and three coaches (resembling early stage coaches), was built for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Co., the original unit of the present New York Central Lines, and was chartered in 1826 to run from Albany to Schenectady--a distance of 16 M. The locomotive was constructed at the West Point foundry and taken to Albany by boat. It had its first trial on rails, July 30, 1831, burning anthracite coal and attaining a speed of 7 M. an hour. After remodeling, it made the trip from Albany to Schenectady in one hour and 45 minutes, using pine wood for fuel. On Aug. 9, 1831, two trips were made, during which a speed of 30 M. an hour was reached. The train ran on iron "straps" nailed to wooden "stringers." As originally built the locomotive weighed 6,758 pounds, which, in remodeling, was increased to 9,420 pounds--less than the weight of one pair of wheels of a modern locomotive. At a banquet on the occasion of the formal opening of the line (Aug. 13, 1831), President Camberling of the railroad gave the following toast: "The Buffalo Railroad! May we soon breakfast at Utica, dine at Rochester, and sup with our friends on Lake Erie." The original train is still preserved and may be seen in the right balcony of the Grand Central Station, N.Y.C.

The first steamboat in the United States made its initial trips between N.Y. and Albany, and the first ca.n.a.l connected Albany with Buffalo.

The original Erie Ca.n.a.l was one of the greatest of early engineering projects in America, and its importance in the development of N.Y. State, and of the country to the west, can hardly be overestimated. Construction was begun in 1817, under a commission including Gouverneur Morris, De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Robert R. Livingston, and in 1825 the main channel, 363 miles in length, was opened between Albany and Buffalo, the total cost being $7,143,790. Three branches were added later. At the close of 1882, when tolls were abolished, the total revenues derived from the ca.n.a.l had been $121,461,871, while expenditures had amounted to $78,862,154. Various factors, including the compet.i.tion of the railroads, caused a considerable decline in ca.n.a.l traffic in the last quarter of a century. The old ca.n.a.l was a ditch following the line of the Mohawk and other rivers and creeks. The new barge ca.n.a.l system has four branches, the Erie, from Albany to Buffalo; the Champlain, from Albany to Lake Champlain the Oswego, which starts north midway on the line of the Erie Ca.n.a.l and reaches Lake Ontario, and the Cayuga and Seneca, which leaves the Erie ca.n.a.l a little to the west of the Oswego junction and extends south, first to Cayuga Lake and then to Seneca Lake. The new ca.n.a.l system was first intended for 1,000 ton barges, but its capacity has been made much larger. Various sections of the improved ca.n.a.l were completed between 1916 and 1918, and the total cost has been about $150,000,000.

Within 35 years Albany has increased fivefold in size, and is today the intersecting point of the princ.i.p.al water routes of the Eastern States, for besides being near the head of navigation for large steamers on the Hudson, it is virtually the terminus of the N.Y. State barge ca.n.a.l. It is also the key point in the transportation system of the state, for here the B. & A. and the D. & H. railroads meet the New York Central, so that one can take train for Buffalo and Chicago, the Thousand Islands, the Adirondacks, Saratoga, Lakes George and Champlain, Montreal, Vermont and the Green Mts., the Berkshires, and Boston. It is the second largest express and third largest mail transfer point in the United States. The forests of the Adirondacks and of Canada have made it a great lumber post. Its manufactures have an annual value of $30,000,000 or more; they include iron goods, stoves, wood and bra.s.s products, carriages and wagons, brick and tile, shirts, collars and cuffs, clothing and knit goods, shoes, flour, tobacco, cigars, billiard b.a.l.l.s, dominoes and checkers.

Leaving Albany, we follow closely the path of the old Iroquois Trail, which was in early days, as now, the chief highway to the Great Lakes.

The Indian trail began at Albany and led directly across the country to Schenectady; from this point to Rome there were two trails, one on either side of the Mohawk. That on the south side had the most travel as it led through three Mohawk "castles" or villages, one at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, one at Canajoharie, and the third at the town of Danube, opposite the mouth of East Canada Creek. Farther on, the trail pa.s.sed through the present towns of Fort Plain, Utica and Whitesboro. The trail on the north bank led through Tribes Hill, Johnstown, Fonda and Little Falls, where it united with the main traveled route.

At West Albany are extensive shops of the New York Central Lines.

When working full capacity about 1,400 men are employed here. The machines are all of modern design and electrically driven. There are large freight yards having a trackage of nearly 100 M. The pa.s.senger car shops include two great buildings which are used for making general repairs and one for construction of steel equipment. One of the repair buildings is 42 ft. by 200 ft. and has a track capacity of 100 cars, and the other, 400 ft. by 80 ft., a capacity of 180 cars. There are two enormous paint shops, a blacksmith shop, where numerous forgings are made for other departments, a woodmill, a machine-shop with a floor s.p.a.ce of 13,000 sq. ft., and cabinet, upholstering, bra.s.s and plating shops. The truck shop covers 1,800 sq. ft., and is used for building and general repairs of trucks of wood, built-up steel, and cast-iron. From the tin and pipe shop is supplied all the light metal ware needed by the railroad.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 1831-1921

Showing the dimensions of the first equipment of the present New York Central Lines--the DeWitt Clinton and three coaches--in comparison with the modern locomotive used to draw the Twentieth Century and other fast trains.]

159 M. SCHENECTADY, Pop. 88,723. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 11:57a; No. 3, 12:47p; No. 41, 4:57p; No. 25, 6:12p; No. 19, 9:32p. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 5:24a; No. 26, 5:56a; No. 16, 11:35a; No. 22, 1:24p.)

At this point we first enter the historic Mohawk Valley, and on this site, according to tradition, once stood the chief village of the Mohawk Indians.

The Mohawk River rises in Lewis County (northwestern N.Y.), flows south to Rome, then east to the Hudson River which it enters at Cohoes. It is 160 miles long. There are rapids and falls at Little Falls and Oriskany which have been utilized to develop electric power. The Mohawk valley is noted for its beauty and the fertility of its soil. The name Mohawk is probably derived from an Indian word meaning "man-eaters"; but the Mohawks' own name for their tribe was Kaniengehaga, "people of the flint." They lived in the region bounded on the north by the Lake of Corlear, on the east by the Falls of Cohoes, on the south by the sources of the Susquehanna, and on the west by the country of the Oneidas. The dividing line between the Mohawk and Oneida tribes pa.s.sed through the present town of Utica. The Mohawks had the reputation of being the bravest of the Iroquois; they furnished the war chief for the Six Nations and exercised the right to collect tribute in the form of wampum from the Long Island tribes and to extend their conquests along the sea coast. The tribes, along both banks of the Hudson River, it is said, shrank before their war cry. In the War of Independence they fought with the English, and finally took refuge in Canada, where most of them have remained.

The first settlement at Schenectady was made in 1642 by Arendt Van Corlear and a band of immigrants who had become dissatisfied with conditions on the Manor of Rennselaerwyck where Corlear was manager of the estates of his cousin, Killiaen van Rennselaer.

Van Corlear had emigrated to America about 1630 and while manager of Rennselaerwyck he earned the confidence of the Indians, among whom "Corlear" became a generic term for the English governors and especially the governors of N.Y. The name Kora, derived from the same source, is said to be used even today by surviving Iroquois in Canada to designate the English king.

To each of the 15 original proprietors, except Van Corlear who was to receive a double portion, was a.s.signed a village lot of 200 sq. ft., a tract of bottom land for farming purposes, a strip of woodland, and common pasture rights. Many of the early settlers were well-to-do and brought their slaves with them, and for many years the settlement, originally known as Dorp, was reputed the richest in the colony.

Schenectady was spelled in a great variety of ways in the early records.

Its Indian equivalent signified "Back Door" of the Long House--the territory occupied by the Six Nations.

In an early map (1655) the name appears as Scanacthade. As late as 1700 the spelling was still uncertain, as the following minutes from the record of the common council of September 3, of that year show: "The Church wardens of Shinnechtady doe make application that two persons be appointed to go around among the inhabitants of the City to see if they can obtain any Contributions to make up ye Sellary due their minister." Other ways of spelling the name were Schanechtade and Schoneghterdie.

In 1690 the young village received a setback which very nearly brought its early history to an end; on Feb. 9 of that year, the French and Indians surprised and burned the village, ma.s.sacred 60 of the inhabitants and carried 30 into captivity.

An old tradition says that an Indian squaw had been sent to warn the inhabitants, under cover of selling brooms. In the afternoon of Feb. 8, 1690, Dominic Ta.s.somacher was being entertained with chocolate at the home of a charming widow of his parish when the squaw entered to deliver her message. The widow became indignant at the sight of snow on her newly scrubbed floor, and rebuked her unexpected guest. The Indian woman replied angrily, "It shall be soiled enough before to-morrow," and left the house. The ma.s.sacre occurred that night.

Schenectady was rebuilt in the following years, but an outlying settlement was again the scene of a murderous French and Indian attack in 1748. In the land along the river, the old part of the town, Indian skulls and arrow heads are still found.

English settlers arrived in considerable numbers about 1700. About 1774 a number of Shaker settlements were made in the lower Mohawk valley.

The Shakers, a celibate and communistic sect--officially the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance--received their common name from the fact that originally they writhed and trembled in seeking to free "the soul from the power of sin and a worldly life." They had trances and visions, and there was much jumping and dancing. The founder of the sect was Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) of Manchester, England, who came to N.Y. with a number of relatives in 1774 and bought land in the lower Mohawk Valley. The first Shaker settlement was at Watervliet, not far from Troy. The settlers established a communistic organization with branches in Ma.s.s., and Conn. As a matter of practice they do not forbid marriage, but refuse to recognize it; they consider there are four virtues: virgin purity, Christian communism, confession of sin, and separation from the world. The women wear uniform costumes and the men have long hair. The sect is diminishing. There are now less than 1,000 members in 17 societies in Ma.s.s., N.H., Maine, Conn., and Ohio, though at its most flourishing period it had nearly 5,000.

Schenectady was chartered as a borough in 1765 and as a city in 1798, and from that period date many quaint examples of colonial architecture.

In Scotia, a suburb to the northwest of the city, still stands the Glen-Sanders mansion (built 1713) described as "a veritable museum of antiquity, furnished from cellar to garret with strongly built, elegant furniture, two centuries old." Descendants of the original owners are still living there. A fine specimen of Dutch architecture is the so-called Abraham Yates house (1710) at No. 109 Union Street. The Christopher Yates house at No. 26 Front Street was the birth place of Joseph C. Yates, first mayor of Utica (1788) and governor of the state in 1823. Governor Yates afterwards lived, until his death, in the large colonial house at No. 17 Front Street. The old "depot" of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, the first steam pa.s.senger railway in America now incorporated with the New York Central, is still standing in Crane Street.

Schenectady is the seat of Union College, which grew out of the Schenectady Academy (established in 1784) and many of the buildings dating back to the early 19th century are still in excellent preservation. They were designed by a French architect, Jacques Rame, and the original plans are still in the Louvre, in Paris. At one of the entrances to the college on Union Street is the Payne Gate, built as a memorial to John Howard Payne (1791-1852), author of "Home, Sweet Home," who was at one time a student at Union College The college comprises the academic and engineering departments of Union University.

The other departments of the university--medicine, law, and pharmacy, as well as the Dudley observatory--are at Albany.

Up to the time of the building of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, Schenectady had been an important depot of the Mohawk River boat trade to the westward, but after the completion of the ca.n.a.l it suffered a decline. The modern manufacturing era, beginning about 1880, brought Schenectady growth and prosperity. To-day the city can boast that its products "light and haul the world." As we enter the town we pa.s.s on the left the main establishment of the General Electric Co., the largest electrical manufacturing plant in the world, with 200 buildings and 26,000 employees.

In the years before 1886 Schenectady had been suffering from a long period of stagnation. In that year an official of the Edison Machine Works of N.Y.C. happened to pa.s.s through Schenectady and noticed two empty factories, the former Jones Car Works. The Edison Company had been established in N.Y.C. about 1882 by Thomas A. Edison, and it was now looking for an opportunity to remove elsewhere. Accordingly Schenectady was chosen, and in 1892 the Edison Co.--which had been renamed the Edison General Electric Co.--and the Thompson Houston Electric Co. of Lynn, Ma.s.s., were consolidated and formed the General Electric Co. The main plant was at Schenectady, but other plants were retained at Lynn, Ma.s.s., and Harrison, N.J. The early electrical apparatus was crude and the output of the factory was small, but this consolidation marked the beginning of a world-wide business. In 1893, the book value of the General Electric Co. factory was less than $4,000,000. Since then the company has spent more than $150,000,000 improving and enlarging its plant. Branch factories are now maintained at Lynn, Pittsville, and East Boston, Ma.s.s.; Harrison and Newark, N.J.; Erie, Pa.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio. At Schenectady one may see the latest development in practically every variety of electrical apparatus.

There are in the General Electric plant individual factories devoted to generators, motors, turbines, transformers, switchboards, rheostats, wire and cable, and searchlights, as well as pattern shops, machine shops, bra.s.s and iron foundries, and testing, shipping and power stations. The company pays considerable attention to welfare work among its employees and free instruction in electrical engineering is given on a large scale.

The American Locomotive Co., which likewise has a factory here, with 5,000 employees, turns out some of the largest and fastest locomotives produced in America or abroad. During the last 35 years Schenectady has become one of the greatest industrial centers in the United States; its total annual output has a value of nearly $100,000,000, the output of the General Electric Co, alone being about $75,000,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Dr. Watson's Electrical Machine"

In 1768, when this picture, reproduced here from the First Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, was published, only the most elementary principles of electricity had been discovered. Benjamin Franklin's discovery, made with the aid of a kite, that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, was the greatest advance in electrical science up to that time. "Electrical machines," such as that shown, were, designed to produce frictional or "static"

electricity, of which the quant.i.ty is usually small, and is therefore now produced chiefly for laboratory experiments. When the wheel at the left was turned sufficient electricity was generated to cause a spark to jump between the two hands at the right. This machine paved the way for the invention of the dynamo electric machines for which Schenectady is world famous.]

We now cross the Mohawk River, and Erie Ca.n.a.l, and our route ascends the valley of the Mohawk as far as Rome. To the south the Catskill Mts. are visible in the distance, and the outline of the Adirondack Mts. can be faintly seen to the north.

This beautiful group of mountains was once covered, all but the highest peaks, by the Laurentian glacier, whose erosion, while perhaps having little effect on the large features of the region, has greatly modified it in detail, producing lakes and ponds to the number of more than 1,300 and causing many falls and rapids in the streams. In the Adirondacks are some of the best hunting and fishing grounds in the United States, which are so carefully preserved that there are quant.i.ties of deer and small game in the woods, and black ba.s.s and trout in the lakes. Some 3,000,000 acres are preserved. The scenery is wonderfully fine and the air so clear that many sanatoriums have been established for tuberculosis patients.

175 M. AMSTERDAM, Pop. 33,524. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 12:15p; No. 3, 1:12p; No. 41, 5:20p; No. 25, 6:30p; No. 19, 9:52p. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 5:07a; No. 26, 5:39a; No. 16, 11:10a; No. 22, 1:03p.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sir William Johnson (1715-1774)

Sir William was a remarkable figure in early N.Y. history. He is said to have been the father of 100 children, chiefly by native mothers, either young squaws or wives of Indians who thought it an honor to surrender them to the king's agent. According to an early historian, the Indians of the Six Nations "carried their hospitality so far as to allow distinguished strangers the choice of a young squaw from among the prettiest of the neighborhood, as a companion during his sojourn with them."]

Amsterdam was settled about 1775 and was called Veedersburg until 1804 when its present name was adopted. It was for some time the home of Elisha Arnold, father of Benedict Arnold, but the latter was born in Norwich, Conn. (Jan. 14, 1741.) The so-called Guy Park Mansion built in 1763, by Guy Johnson, nephew of Sir William Johnson is still used as a private residence. Today Amsterdam ranks as the first city in the United States in the manufacture of carpets and second in the manufacturing of hosiery and knit goods. It has one of the largest pearl b.u.t.ton factories in the country; other products are brushes, brooms, silk gloves, paper boxes, electrical supplies, dyeing machines, cigars, wagon and automobile springs; the total value of the output being about $30,000,000 annually.

178 M. FORT JOHNSON, Pop. 680. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 12:18p; No. 3, 1:15p; No. 41, 5:23p; No. 25, 6:33p; No. 19, 9:56p. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 5:03a; No. 26, 5:36a; No. 16, 11:03a; No. 22, 12:59p.)

This village is named for the house* and fort erected here in 1742, by Sir William Johnson, one of the most remarkable of the early pioneers.

Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) distinguished himself not only for the prosperous settlements which he built up along the valley of the Mohawk, but also for his military ability and his remarkable influence with the Iroquois Indians. Born in Ireland, he came to America in 1738 for the purpose of managing a tract of land in this valley belonging to his uncle, Admiral Sir Peter Warren. The fort which he built on the site of the present village bearing his name soon became the center of trade with the Indians, and likewise a strategic point for Johnson's military ventures. The Mohawks adopted him and elected him a sachem. He was at various times superintendent of the affairs of the Six Nations, commissary of the province for Indian affairs, and major-general in the British army. As a commanding officer he directed the expedition against Crown Point (1755) and in September of that year defeated the French and Indians, at the battle of Lake George. For his success he received the thanks of parliament and was created a baronet. He took part in a number of other expeditions against the French and Indians, and as a reward for his services the king granted him a tract of 100,000 acres of land north of the Mohawk River. It was in a great measure due to his influence that the Iroquois remained faithful to the cause of the colonies up to the time of the Revolutionary War. In 1739 Johnson married Catherine Wisenberg, by whom he had three children. After her death he had various mistresses, including a niece of the Indian chief Hendrick, and Molly Brant, a sister of the famous chief, Joseph Brant. It is said that he was the father of 100 children in all. After the French and Indian War he retired to the present Johnstown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Joseph Brant, "Thayendanegea" (1742-1807)

(_From original painting by Romney in collection of Earl of Warwick_)

Chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) of the Mohawk tribe was an unusual character, combining the savage traits of an Indian Warrior and the more civilized qualities of a politician and diplomat. Born on the banks of the Ohio River, he was sent to an Indian charity school (now Dartmouth College) at Lebanon, Conn., by Sir William Johnson. He fought with the English in the French and Indian War and with the Iroquois against Pontiac in 1763.