EFFORTS OF LEBANON TO OBTAIN A RAILROAD from Beers History of Warren County, Ohio

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The History of Warren County, Ohio

EFFORTS OF LEBANON TO OBTAIN A RAILROAD

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Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 22 December 2004

Sources:
The History of Warren County Ohio
Part IV Township Histories
Turtle Creek Township
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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Page
508

The first survey for the Little Miami Railroad, the first railroad built to Cincinnati, was made by Gen. O. M. Mitchell, who had lived in Lebanon until he received his appointment as cadet at West Point. He was anxious for the road to pass through Lebanon and made his survey up the Turtle Creek Valley, diverging from the present line of the Little Miami road at a point above Foster's. The elevations east of Lebanon were then supposed to be too great for a locomotive. In addition to this impediment, the road, it is said, received no encouragement from some of the leading business men of Lebanon at that time. Soon after the completion of the Little Miami road, some of the enterprising citizens of Lebanon had a conference with the President of that road with a view of inducing the company to straighten and thereby shorten their line by adopting the route through Lebanon. This route would shorten the line five miles. The railroad company required a subscription of $40,000 to the capital stock of the road, from the people of Lebanon, before making the proposed change. After three or four weeks spent in canvassing Lebanon and vicinity, $46,000, in good subscriptions, were obtained and presented to the directors of the railroad company. The company declined to make the alteration at that time.

A few years later, an effort was made to secure a road from the Little Miami through Lebanon to Dayton. The survey was made and assistance was expected from the Little Miami Company in its construction. This movement failed and the people of Lebanon paid the expenses of the surveys.

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509
In 1850, a proposition was made to build a branch road from the Little Miami, at Gainesboro, to Lebanon, in which the citizens of the latter place were to give the right of way and to pay one-half the cost of construction. After a year's negotiation, the project was abandoned, the citizens of Lebanon alleging that the Little Miami Company had failed to comply with its promises.

The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Xenia Railroad Company was organized about 1852. The citizens of Lebanon and vicinity subscribed liberally to the stock of the company, the right of way was secured and a considerable amount of work performed on the line, when the contractor for the construction went into bankruptcy, leaving Lebanon again without a railroad and with a loss of $100,000.

In 1866, a proposition was received from the Little Miami Company that they would construct a branch from Gainesboro to Lebanon if the citizens would donate one-half of its cost, or $60,000. The people of Lebanon raised $64,000 and proffered it to the company, but the company again failed to comply with the proposition.

In 1870, the Cincinnati & Springfield Railroad was projected. A written agreement was entered into at Cincinnati by which the projectors bound themselves to locate the road through Lebanon, on condition that $250,000 was raised and donated to the road. Large as was the amount which was to be subscribed and paid, not for stock, but as a gift, more than the required amount was raised; $265,000 in good subscriptions were raised, chiefly by the people of Lebanon and vicinity; but the road was built through Dayton and Franklin, the company claiming that the agreement had been signed before the organization of the company was effected.

In 1874, efforts were commenced to secure a railway through Lebanon by the construction of a three-feet gauge road. The Miami Valley Narrow-Gauge Railway Company was organized and books for subscriptions to its capital stock were opened at Lebanon, December 14, 1874 The history of the troubles and misfortunes of this company cannot here be detailed. Liberal subscriptions to the stock of the company were made; work on the road was commenced; the company became involved in litigation with the contractor; its property passed into the hands of a receiver, leaving the stockholders with an incompleted roadbed and a heavy debt The road was completed from Cincinnati to Utica Station by the Cincinnati Railway Company, and, after unsuccessful efforts extending over more than a third of a century, the year 1882 finds Lebanon an important point on a railway extending from Cincinnati to Toledo.

Long as has been the delay in obtaining railway communication, it is not too much to say that no town in the Ohio Valley has made more efforts or been more liberal in the subscription of stock and money, and offers of donations and right of way, for the purpose of securing a railroad, than Lebanon.


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