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which was reached September 1, 1847. The next November it was carried to Lebanon Center, and in June, 1848, its trains crossed the Connecticut. The first rails laid upon it cost $85 per ton, but before it was finished the price had fallen to $70.

The original capital stock was $1,500,000, which was increased $500,000 November 18, 1846, $400,000 more October 7, 1847, and $200,000 more April 22, 1848. To place the last two issues cost in expenses and discounts. $51,094.13. Subsequently there was another increase, making a total of $2,768,400 May 1, 1851, and since that time another, so that the whole is now $3,068,400, of which $70,000 are owned by the corporation.

The Bristol branch was chartered as an independent road in 1846 under the name of the Franklin & Bristol Railroad, and its construction was begun the next year. But in 1848 it was leased for 100 years to the Northern, and the same year the Legislature merged it in the larger corporation, which completed it. Its cost to April 30, 1851, was $236,544.44. In the year ending May 1, 1849, the consolidated roads carried 128,544 passengers and 73,442 tons of freight, and earned net $167,280.96. The directors in their report that year put the entire cost of the 82 miles of road and its equipment at $2,766,500. The policy inaugurated in dealing with the Bristol branch has been followed elsewhere to secure feeders for the Northern and prevent the control of other routes from passing into rival corporations. The Concord & Claremont and Contoocook Valley roads, Sugar River and Peterborough & Hillsborough roads are, to all intents, branches of the Northern, and the two latter are the results of Northern encouragement and financial support.

Early in its history the Northern became the owner of the securities of the Concord & Claremont, Contoocook and Sullivan roads, and afterward foreclosed the mortgages upon the two first named, and having obtained the

necessary legislation, in 1866 furnished what money was needed to build the Sugar River extension, and then consolidated the whole line. It also created the Peterborough & Hillsborough by guaranteeing the bonds issued by that corporation.

In 1854 it made a contract with the Sullivan, Vermont Central & Ogdensburg Railroad by which it secured the through business of the two last named, and in return accepted, as part payment for carrying freight received from them, bonds of the nominal value of $225,000. The Sullivan County road became its property by virtue of its ownership of the stock in the new corporation, organized to purchase that road under the act of July 3, 1866.

In 1884 the Northern and its subsidiary roads were leased to the Boston & Lowell for ninety-nine years at 5 per cent upon its capital stock and the fixed charges. Out of this grew the litigation which involved the validity of this and other leases, and to which is chargeable the postponement of many needed improvements upon. this road and the Boston, Concord & Montreal and their branches. The lessors, having parted with the control of their roads, have been in no condition to make permanent betterments, and the lessees have pleaded the reasonable excuse for delay that until it was settled that they were to hold and enjoy the property they could not be fairly expected to make large outlays upon it beyond what was necessary to render it safe for the immediate present. On the 11th of March, 1887, the court declared the lease invalid, and the Northern reverted to the hands of its stockholders.

The road-bed and track of the Northern's main line will compare with any single-track road in the State. The ballast, ties, and rails are of first-class material and fashioning and in perfect repair. The drainage is good, the roadway tidy, and the fences unbroken. Most of the stations are old, not very attractive, and destitute

of a water supply, but clean and passably commodious. Some of the bridges require early attention, though every precaution appears to be taken to make them as safe as structures of their age and original strength can be.

In 1886 the stations at South Danbury, Andover Center, East Andover, Franklin, and Bristol, the enginehouses at Concord and West Lebanon, the water-houses at Danbury, Potter Place, East Andover, and North Boscawen, the bridges at West Lebanon, Cox's Mill in Enfield, Campbell's Mill in Canaan, Kimball's, Brayle's, and Smith's in Grafton, and Hill's on the Bristol branch, were repaired. The Hubbard, Welch's Mills, and Straw's passes were rebuilt. The Hog-back deck bridge has been entirely renewed, including the abutments, at a cost of $5,300. The Chandler bridge, 112 feet long, across the Mascoma in Lebanon is also new, at a cost of $3,000. Canaan pile bridge received new ties, and Pennacook bridge was strengthened by adding two heavy arches running into the abutments, with suspension rods attached to the timbers underneath. A large portion of the trestle in Franklin was renewed with Southern pine, and the twenty-two through and deck bridges between East Andover and Lebanon received general repairs. Thirteen miles of steel were taken from the track and its place supplied with that much heavier, while it was transferred to the line between Contoocook and Peterborough where it displaced iron rails.

CONCORD & CLAREMONT RAILROAD.

Main Line. From Concord to Claremont, 56 miles. Branch: From Contoocook to Hillsborough Bridge, 14.9 miles.

History and Condition. What is known as the Concord & Claremont Railroad includes the salvage from several

wrecks. The first road with this name was chartered June 24, 1848, and it was the purpose of the grantees to build it through to the Connecticut River at Claremont. They succeeded in reaching Bradford, July 10, 1850, when they were obliged to suspend operations for want of funds. May 1, 1851, the total expenditures had been $560,624.43, and of this more than $250,000 were unpaid and unprovided for. The expense account included one cash dividend, which is the only one ever paid on the stock, from the sale of which the corporation had received $266,031.75. Soon after this, Boston capitalists, who had advanced large sums of money to the managers of this road and the New Hampshire Central, concluded that they could only realize upon their investment by uniting the two and extending the Concord & Claremont to Claremont to form a junction with the Sullivan County, and secure a through line. In attempting to carry out this plan they induced the Legislature to consolidate the Concord & Claremont, Contoocook Valley and Central, making the Merrimack & Connecticut Rivers Corporation, which was done in July, 1856, when the life of the original Concord & Claremont road ended. The same year the Sugar River road from Bradford to Claremont was chartered, but later on the Northern obtained the securities which represented the through line as far as it was built, and the extension was not begun until 1870. It was opened to Newport in 1871, and Claremont in 1872, and October 31, 1873, was consolidated with the Merrimack & Connecticut Rivers road under the name Concord & Claremont (New Hampshire) Railroad. The Sugar River was built with gratuities by the towns along its line and the proceeds of bonds guaranteed by the Northern. The Contoocook Valley Railroad was chartered June 24, 1848, the grantees being authorized to construct a road from any point on the Concord or Northern roads in Concord to Peterborough, provided a portion of

the route was not built by the Concord & Claremont. As this corporation did build to Contoocookville, on its way to Bradford, the Valley road was begun at that place. It was opened to Hillsborough Bridge December 13, 1849, but as it owned no rolling stock its directors contracted with the Concord & Claremont to operate it, and November 1, 1850, it was leased to that road for two years, the rent depending on its earnings. The cost of the road to May 1, 1851, was $219,450.27, of which a large share was represented by bonds and other evidences of indebtedness. In the report for 1852 the directors confess their inability to deal with its numerous creditors, and complain that, owing to unfair competition by the Wilton road, backed by the Nashua & Lowell, they have done business at a loss, but add that they are happy to be able to state that quite a number of stockholders who agreed to buy bonds have been sued, and that "the future of the road cannot be worse than the past." In 1854 they say, "The lease of the Wilton road to the Nashua & Lowell was literally the ruin of the Contoocook Valley, and the sale of the Merrimack & Connecticut Rivers Railroad places us completely at the mercy of the Northern." September 1, 1854, the road was surrendered to the trustees of the first-mortgage bondholders. The bonds owned in New York were purchased by Joseph A. Gilmore and Robert N. Corning for $33,000, or about half their face value, who thus became the virtual owners of the road. These bonds were afterwards traded to the Northern road, in exchange for those of the New Hampshire Central, and in 1856 the corporation was merged in the Merrimack & Connecticut Rivers. The Concord & Claremont is well graded and the track is serviceable, but we hope to see it improved in both respects the coming year, as the business of the road is growing to the proportions which demand more than the degree of excellence that satisfies on a branch road. The bridges

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