A 1911 photograph of roadbed grading for the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad, which was to operate through the Lykens Valley from Millersburg and Killinger to Berrysburg and Gratz in Dauphin County, to Sacramento, Valley View, and Hegins in Schuylkill County, to an terminus in Ashland, Schuylkill County. The railroad was never completed.
In 1957, Lloyd M. Bellis wrote a piece entitled “We Almost Had a Railroad.” Here is the second part of his account of that railroad as written by Lloyd M. Bellis and as published in the souvenir book, Gratz Sesquicentennial, July 2-4, 1955:
We Almost Had a Railroad
It turned out, however, that dead was not the right word. Suspended animation would have been more fitting. In the ensuing years rumor was piled upon rumor. Among all the rumors there was one fact, and it was a sad one. On 12 February 1913, Finley Acker, one of the vice presidents of the railway company, died in Philadelphia. The Midland had been largely his dream, and without exception the people of the valley felt that they had lost a friend and benefactor.
The years 1914 and 1915 passed without any developments. And 1916 did not begin auspiciously, because in March of that year, Joseph F. Romberger, of Berrysburg, the other vice president, also died. Prior to Mr. Romberger’s death President Walter E. Harrington had resigned, so that now the organization was without a directing head.
During the summer of 1916 the management was reorganized and work was resumed on 14 August. After five years’ disuse much cleaning up and repairing of equipment were required. This work progressed rapidly. By 1 September 1916 there were seventy men employed laying track and grading. A new locomotive was purchased, and the passenger and freight car, weather-beaten for five years, were scraped, repainted and repaired.
Track laying was completed beyond Killinger in a short time, and on 24 October 1916 the Midland ran two excursions from Millersburg to Killinger, carrying 324 round-trip passengers and fourteen one way, Some of them went to be able to say, “I rode on the first train.” Some went to enjoy a delicious chicken-corn soup supper served by Pleasant Hill Grange. Most of them went for both reasons.
The laying of track proceeded apace. On Sunday, 5 November 1916, an excursion train was run to a point above Curtin, and again a week later. The Berrysburg Band had to postpone an ox-roast scheduled for 18 November because they had become over-optimistic on the abilities of the track-laying crew. However, excursions were operated to a point near Berrysburg on Sundays during December, Daily train service was also being operated between Millersburg and this point near Berrysburg, and considerable freight was hauled each way, including mine timber and flour. Boyer and Weaver had established a coal yard at Killinger which was also served by the Midland. This service continued during most of the winter.
Again disaster struck. For the second time the Midland and their contractor clashed. The contractor filed suit against the company for failure to release certain bonds to him which caused him to suspend payments to his employees, whereupon the men quit work at the end of the year.
In April 1917, work was supposed to be resumed on further construction, after the outstanding bills had been paid. Rails, switches, spikes and other paraphernalia kept arriving and a turntable was built at Millersburg.
But construction did not resume. That month the United States became involved in World War I, which, with the usual wartime shortages, no doubt had something to do with the suspension of further construction work.
For about eighteen months, there were no developments. Then a group of New York financiers acquired the franchise and holdings of the Midland. Wagons, carts, scoops and tools were collected and salvaged, Some of the construction equipment had resale value, but the elements had taken so much toll of many items that they were burned for he scrap iron.
About New Year’s Day, 1919, the task of dismantling the track was undertaken. This had been sold to firms in Lebanon and Baltimore. All the railroad stock, consisting of a locomotive, combination passenger and express car, three flat cars and five box cars became the property of Leo Stern of New York,
That sprint the offices on North Market Street, Millersburg, were converted into a double dwelling, The engine house and warehouse were remodeled and became the headquarters of the Acme Social Club. The American Legion building now occupies the site of these Midland properties.
Two years later a Philadelphia bank foreclosed on a mortgage held on the Midland, and all the railroad’s stock, right of way, material, etc., were purchased by a committee of bond holders for the sum of $33,000.
The rails and ties, which had been taken up several years before, had been stored in Millersburg, and were now being sold to other railroads, The rolling stock was sent to the car shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Northumberland for repairs, and was then sold to other railroads. The railroad bridge east of Berrysburg was purchased by a Texas millionaire for use on the private railroad of his huge ranch. Guy L. Heckert moved the span in one section to Millersburg and placed it on flat cars for shipment to Texas.
Only the disposition of the right of way remained. Benjamin F. Moore, of Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, was the agent for the bondholders in the salvaging of the assets. He engaged James D. Bowman of Millersburg, as his agent for selling the right of way back to the original owners. This arrangement continued for several years. During this period most of the farmers and others over whose property the road passed redeemed their land. The ten-acre plot purchased for the station, round-house, and repair shops in Gratz is now in part the Gratz ball park. When about sixty of these tracts still remained unredeemed, Mr. Bowman bought these from Mr. Moore. Some of these were redeemed during the years since, but Mr. Bowman is still the owner of the right of way over approximately thirty farms whose owners have failed to clear their titles.
And so the big dream came to an end. In retrospect we can see what some shrewd investor sensed from the beginning; namely, that the steady increase in registrations of automobiles and trucks was bound to make the small railroads something for the history books in the same manner as the railroads a hundred years earlier had made the canals merely an interesting stretch of scenery at some places and the route of a modern concrete highway in others.
For the needed comic relied after this length article here is a story of local interest. About 1932, Lester Forney, the man in Millersburg who places greetings under your windshield wiper if you overpark, was stationed in Greensburg as a member of the Pennsylvania State Police. One day one of his buddies picked up a man who was claimed to be a stock swindler. And he was. He was selling stock of the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad which was supposed to be in successful operation between Millersburg and Ashland! Les straightened him out on that one. And in colorful language.
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Continued from Part 1.
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