A History of Maine Railroads

Major Bill Kenny USAF (Ret.)

• Editorial: The History Press
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781439669709
• Categoría: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Categoría: Transporte ferroviario

Maine is populated with intriguing characters who set in motion a fascinating, compelling story of railroads and the unique communities they helped to build. One of the first states to build railroads and trolleys in the United States, Maine at one point had more than ninety communities with trolleys. Standard-gauge and "two-footers" crossed the state, including the St. Lawrence & Atlantic and the Bangor & Aroostook. From an international electric trolley to the attempted World War I dynamiting of a railroad bridge between the United States and Canada, the state is home to a rich rail heritage. Join Bill Kenny as he takes you on a journey from the first tracks made of wood to today's high-speed Downeaster Amtrak train.

Chapter 1

KEY PLAYERS

JOHN ELIAS BALDACCI, SEVENTY-THIRD GOVERNOR OF MAINE

John Elias Baldacci, who served as the seventy-third governor of Maine from 2003 to 2011, was born on January 30, 1955. He also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.

In the House of Representatives, Baldacci served on the Transportation Committee and the Subcommittee on Railroads, where he focused on keeping the country’s railroads—especially those in Maine and other New England states—operating fully and effectively and increasing passenger service by rail. He was a huge advocate for Amtrak and, specifically, bringing more Amtrak passenger travel to Maine.

As governor, Baldacci initiated many reforms on a wide range of issues including healthcare, energy development and public education. He also focused on keeping the railroads in Maine operational. He felt keeping railroads fully operated and updated was not only important to the railroads but also to the farmers and other businesses in Maine, especially in Aroostook County, the northernmost county in Maine. This was a difficult challenge, as railroads weren’t very profitable and were allowing the infrastructure, especially the railbeds and tracks, to deteriorate to the point that the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, the railroad serving northern Maine, petitioned to abandon tracks that were no longer profitable. It was here that Governor Baldacci took great initiatives to save this vital rail link to northern Maine. He proposed and got voter approval for the state to issue bonds for the state to buy this trackage, and he appealed successfully to President Barack Obama to get a $10.5 million grant to repair and maintain the railroad. He also focused on purchasing the International Marine Terminal in Portland and the port terminals at Searsport and Eastport. The updating of the International Marine Terminal was instrumental in his successor luring a major international container shipping company to expand operations in Portland. This had an enormous positive economic effect on the railroads as well, as containers shipped via rail throughout the state. Finally, Baldacci’s vision to have Amtrak service expanded to Maine came to fruition beginning with service in 2001 in Maine.

BENJAMIN EDWARD BATES IV, RAIL INDUSTRIALIST AND TEXTILE TYCOON

Benjamin Edward Bates IV was born on July 12, 1808, in Mansfield, Massachusetts. He attended various private schools and enrolled at Wrentham Academy, where he studied from 1823 to 1825. John G. Davis met Benjamin Bates in the early 1830s, and the two later became business partners. They met while Bates was a clerk for Barnabas T. Loring at the B.T. Loring Company on Washington Street in Boston. Taking what he learned about the dry good business, Bates partnered with Davis and another partner, John N. Turner, to start the Davis, Bates & Turner craft goods and services company in the early 1830s. After the closing of that firm, he served for a short while as president of the Union Pacific Railroad from August 1, 1849, to May 3, 1850, at which point Alexander DeWitt, an acquaintance and textile mill owner in Oxford, Massachusetts, talked with him about opportunities in Lewiston, Maine. This convinced Bates to move to Lewiston and enter the mill business, opening the Bates Mill in 1852. He quickly expanded to build the Bates Manufacturing Company in Lewiston. He was a very successful businessman and the richest person in Maine from 1850 to 1878. The Bates Manufacturing Company was the largest employer in Lewiston and one of the largest in the state of Maine. He also founded the Lewiston Power Company to build a dam to provide power to the mills and to create a canal system in Lewiston.

Bates had great foresight. He anticipated that the talk of secession by the southern states prior to the Civil War indicated that there would be a shortage of cotton. He purchased an enormous amount of cotton prior to the Battle of Fort Sumter—so much that he cornered the cotton market. The shortage of cotton resulted in Bates having a monopoly, which drove prices skyrocketing and caused dozens of New England businesses to go out of business.

Bates’s canal system and mills were modeled after the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. While Biddeford, Saco, Augusta, Waterville and Brunswick also had textile mills, the Bates Mill in Lewiston was by far the largest. The Bates Mill began the transformation of Lewiston from a small farming community into a textile manufacturing center.

Bates needed more workers than he could find to work in his mills in the early 1860s, so he sent “recruiters” to find workers in nearby Quebec, which had high unemployment and poverty levels. These Canadien workers were enticed by the job opportunities since they could travel by train in less than one day from Montreal to arrive at the Grand Trunk Station in Lewiston to find temporary work in the mills and return home by train. But many of the Canadiens stayed permanently in Lewiston, settling in an area within walking distance from the mills that became known as “Little Canada.” Lewiston has remained Franco-American since this migration. By 1890, the population of Lewiston had risen to over 21,000, up from 1,800 in 1840. So many Canadiens migrated through Lewiston that it became known as the “Ellis Island of Maine.”

Getting the needed workers for his mills was only one way for Bates to use railroads effectively. He was president and on the board of several railroad companies in Maine. In addition to having served as president of the Union Pacific Railroad, the largest railroad presence in Maine at the time, he used his wealth to help finance the construction of railroads throughout Maine. He benefited by receiving materials and shipping finished cotton and other textile products via rail. Bates also coordinated the movement of war materials for use in the Civil War by railroads throughout Maine.

Bates was a very religious person and a huge contributor to the Maine State Seminary in Lewiston. His contributions were so significant that it was renamed Bates College.

Benjamin Bates died on January 14, 1878, at age sixty-nine, in Boston, Massachusetts.

JOSHUA CHAMBERLAIN, CIVIL WAR GENERAL AND THIRTY-SECOND GOVERNOR OF MAINE

Joshua Chamberlain was the first of two Maine governors who were instrumental in the growth and survival of railroads in Maine. He was one of three Civil War Union generals to serve as governor of Maine. He was born in Brewer in 1828. He attended the Bangor Theological Seminary for three years but dropped out and accepted a teaching position at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. It was at Bowdoin that he met Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frances “Fanny” Adams, the latter a daughter of a minister and Chamberlain’s future wife.

When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Chamberlain resigned from Bowdoin and enlisted and accepted a commission from Maine governor Israel Washburn as a lieutenant colonel in the Twentieth Maine Infantry Regiment. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Chamberlain fought back the Fifteenth Alabama at Little Round Top, which was on the far flank of the Union forces. Holding that line was essential to prevent the advancing Confederate army from breaching the line and getting behind the Union army. He had 386 men in his regiment, including two of his brothers. The fighting was intense, and the Twentieth Maine suffered 120 casualties. His regiment was running low on ammunition and couldn’t hold the defensive for much longer, so he made a risky but heroic decision: he ordered the attack downhill toward the larger opposing force. The move was successful, with the Twentieth Maine capturing more than 300 Confederate soldiers of the Fifteenth Alabama. Chamberlain protected the flank, all while suffering two wounds himself. General Ulysses Grant later stated that the battle at Little Round Top saved the Union army from being surrounded by Confederate troops. Chamberlain was promoted to brigadier general following the Battle of Gettysburg. President Abraham Lincoln later brevetted (promoted) him to major general. Chamberlain was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery.

A little-known fact about Chamberlain relates to a significant battle at the Union army railroad junction in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This was a major railroad junction where more than half of all the supplies from the North were shipped South toward the fighting. Chamberlain warded off the attack by the advancing Confederate army led by General Robert E. Lee, thus keeping the critical supply lines open.

Major General Joshua Chamberlain was also selected by General Ulysses S. Grant to review the parade of the Confederate infantry as part of the formal surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. As the Confederate infantry marched by, Chamberlain ordered the Union army standing in review to salute the passing Confederate soldiers. The Confederate general leading the passing army ordered his troops to return the salute. It is tradition for a surrendering army to lay down its weapons. But Major General Chamberlain ordered that the Confederate soldiers could keep and return home with their weapons.

Following the Civil War, Chamberlain went back to teaching at Bowdoin College, now as a full professor. But he wanted to serve in other ways, so in 1866, he ran for and was elected governor of Maine. At that time, governors stood for election every year, unlike in present days. He was elected by 62 percent of the vote in 1866, a record-winning percentage at the time, and in 1867 he won by 72 percent of the vote, setting another record, one that hasn’t been equaled in Maine history. He served for four consecutive terms as Maine’s governor. During his tenure in office, he was instrumental in persuading President Lincoln to grant Maine a “Land Grant College.” That college is now the University of Maine.

But Chamberlain also made history in Maine railroading. Prior to 1867, railroads in Maine could not issue public bonds to fund the building of railroads. Governor Chamberlain was successful in getting legislation passed, and he signed a bill into law allowing investors in railroads to use public bond funding. This was significant in the building and expanding of railroads in Maine. You can read more about this in chapter 2 under the section “Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad & Canal Company.”

In 1871, Chamberlain left the governorship and became president of Bowdoin. He was in ill health as a result of the wounds he received fighting in the Civil War and, as a result, retired from Bowdoin in 1873. Chamberlain spent the remaining years of his life writing and speaking about the war. He wrote his memoir of the Appomattox Campaign, The Passing of the Armies, but it was not published until after his death. He died on February 14, 1914.

JOHN R. GRAHAM, INNOVATIVE BUSINESS AND RAILWAY ENTREPRENEUR

John R. Graham was born of Scotch-Irish parents in Enniskillen, County of Fermanagh, Ireland, on December 19, 1847. He moved to Boston with his parents a year after his birth. Times were tough for the Graham family, as his father had extreme difficulties supporting a growing family. So, at ten years old, Graham not only attended school but also worked for one dollar a week and board. He left school at thirteen to enter business life. He served with the Union army in the Fourth Massachusetts in the Civil War. Graham’s older brother suggested he take up shoe manufacturing, so for thirty years that is what he did; he organized and managed a shoe factory in Quincy, Massachusetts. Graham Shoe was extremely successful and known up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. Using the profits from his shoe company, Graham started looking at acquiring and developing real estate. He bought many dilapidated buildings, rehabilitated them and sold them at a profit.

In the early 1890s, Graham took on the challenge to use his business skills to reorganize the Quincy and Boston Street Railway Company, which was in receivership at the time. Few thought the railway company could be saved, but Graham did it and did it quickly Within a few short months, the railway company was once again profitable. He oversaw the merging of the Quincy and Boston Street Railway with the larger Bay State Company. At the same time, Graham served as general manager of the Brockton Street Railway system from 1898 to 1902. He was often sought out for advice and recommendations for railways across New England.

In May 1902, Charles A. Coffin, co-founder and president of the General Electric Company, contacted Graham because of his abilities to turn failing businesses around and asked him to travel to Bangor, Maine, to investigate the general condition of the Public Works Company in Bangor, for which General Electric had a major financial interest. This company was not profitable, and General Electric wanted to know what could be done to turn the company around to make it profitable again like Graham had done with the Quincy and Boston Street Railway and the Brockton Street Railway. This is the trip that brought Graham to Maine.

John R. Graham was impressed with the Bangor of 1902. He saw the potential for Bangor, being at the head of Maine’s largest river, the Penobscot, to become the gateway to central and northern Maine, particularly to be the shipping port for the vast agricultural and lumber riches of Maine. He also saw the prospect of making Bangor a resort area for tourists. Graham was so impressed with Bangor’s possibilities that he submitted a favorable report to the General Electric Company. He accepted the position of general manager and treasurer for the Public Works Company and served in that position from 1902 to 1905. He led the way to raise enough capital to purchase the entire holdings of the company, and he formed the Bangor Railway and Electric Company, the immediate predecessor of the Bangor Hydro-Electric Company. This new company consolidated all the properties of the street railway, electric lighting and water departments of the old company and remained profitable from that point on. Utilizing the assets and profits from this company, Graham started building his trolley lines throughout the Bangor region.

Graham was one of the promoters of the Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Railway and was also instrumental in the success of the Portland Street Railway and Cumberland County Power and Light Company. He served as director on many public utilities, banks and industrial manufacturing companies throughout Maine. Graham had a love for horse racing, owning Constantine, a renowned racehorse of his day. He was also fond of quoting Shakespeare. He led a full and active life traveling the world in his later years. John R. Graham died in Intervale, New Hampshire, on August 24, 1915.

W.S. LIBBEY: “FINEST ELECTRIC RAILROAD IN ALL NEW ENGLAND”

W.S. Libbey was born in Avon, Maine. Avon borders Phillips and Strong near Farmington in Franklin County. As a young boy, Libbey moved with his family to West Waterville. He farmed his land, studied medicine and taught school. He studied law for a short while in Waterville and taught himself telegraphy, the skill to operate a telegraph, by watching the telegraph operator at the train depot. He was enamored of this new means of communication, and within a year, he was hired to be a telegrapher in Auburn by the Western Union Telegraph Company. He served Western Union in its Newburyport, Massachusetts office and in West Waterville, Maine, as well. But Libbey wanted to pursue business interests rather than continue as a telegraph operator. And he felt Lewiston gave him the best opportunities.

In Lewiston, Libbey began a small business supplying sawmills and bobbin manufacturers with timber. Taking the advice of his father-in-law, he learned all he could about textile manufacturing and bought a small cotton mill in North Auburn. Taking the profits he earned from that small mill, he restored a run-down woolen mill in Vassalboro, making it a successful operation within two years of his purchase. He did all this while continuing his work as a telegrapher for the Western Union. He traveled by train to Vassalboro after work on Saturday to run the mill in Vassalboro all day on Sunday and then took the two-hour trip back on Sunday evening to be at work in the telegraph office first thing Monday morning.

Libbey then took over the managing of a mill in East Dover that was losing money by getting financing from the Deering-Milliken textile firm in New York. Deering-Milliken was always looking for new sources of woven goods to sell, and it was the perfect source for Libbey to get financing. In return, Libbey gave Deering-Milliken the best products the mill produced. He also became friendly with Harry Dingley, the son of Congressman Nelson Dingley. The Dingley family was worth millions from their publishing business, a catalogue business that eventually become the publisher of the L.L. Bean and other advertising catalogues. Harry worked in the same building in Lewiston where the Western Union office was located. This building was where the Journal was published, and they depended on the telegraph for all news outside the Lewiston-Auburn area. The Journal is still an active newspaper, called the Lewiston-Sun Journal today.

In 1888, Libbey was successful enough that he could leave his job as a telegraph operator at Western Union, and with money borrowed from the Dingley family, he purchased the Cumberland Woolen Mill in Lewiston. Business was so good that he bought the idle Lincoln Mills that had been built beside the Androscoggin Falls in 1845 to manufacture cotton goods. The mill was renamed the W.S. Libbey Company at that time. He updated this mill with all new machinery, making his mill one of the most productive in the New England states.

Libbey then purchased the American Light and Power Company and the Lewiston and Auburn Electric Light Company. This was a significant move. Now that his electric companies were producing all this power, they needed customers. This is what led Libbey to think of building an electric railroad to use this cheap power. So he set forth to build not just an electric railroad in Lewiston and Auburn but what became known as the “Finest Electric Railroad in All New England.” He built the Portland-Lewiston Interurban (PLI) electric railroad, connecting Portland, Maine’s largest city, to the south to Auburn and Lewiston. It took four years to build this railroad, and it began daily trips to and from Portland in 1914. The PLI operated from 1914 to 1933, the longest-running electr...