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Hawks, James Dudley (compiler); H[orace] L. Bliss (photog.), et al.

[New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway Mammoth Plate Photos and Scrapbook.]

Montgomery County, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and other locales: ca. 1863–1889. Folio scrapbook (45.5 x 29 cm), cloth spine, marbled boards. Label at front cover reading “Lake Shore + Michigan Southern R.R.” 163 pasted-in railroad construction broadsides, notices, advertising circulars, specifications, etc. on 229 pp., 48 blank pp. [with] 17 mammoth plate photographs (approx. 26.5 x 32.5 cm to 32.5 x 32.5 cm, plus margins) and 1 composite photograph (29 x 37.5, plus margins).

A substantive archive assembled by a prominent railroad engineer, including fifteen mammoth plate photographs documenting the construction of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, and also a large scrapbook with content relating to various railroad construction projects from the 1860s to 1880s, much of it the NYWS&B and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern.

Compiled by James Dudley Hawks (1847–1921), a noted railway engineer and president, this scrapbook and lot of mammoth plate photos reflect the various railroad construction projects he undertook in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. Fifteen of the seventeen photos document the construction of the notorious New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, which Hawks supervised from 1881 to 1883. Completed in 1884, it ran between Weehawken, NJ and Buffalo. Perceived as a ‘blackmail line’ by William Vanderbilt, the railway was created to compete with Vanderbilt’s own New York Central & Hudson River Railroad and ran parallel to the New York Central most of the way to Buffalo. Along with the Pennsylvania R.R. Company, Gen. Horace Porter and George M. Pullman were among the notables who supported the West Shore line. (Pullman was apparently incensed at Vanderbilt for using the sleeping cars of the Wagner Palace Car Co. instead of his own—and thus perceived the West Shore as an opportunity to both make money and have revenge.) The West Shore line was built to the highest engineering standards but would suffer from a lack of venture capital. This prompted a ferocious rate war with New York Central, which would begin breaking ground on a South Pennsylvania road to compete with the Pennsylvania R.R. Co. However, by 1885, the West Shore Railway went bankrupt. In turn, “[a] secret deal was worked out aboard J. P. Morgan’s yacht, the Corsair, whereby William Vanderbilt would stop construction of the South Pennsylvania Railroad and acquire the West Shore line for a nominal amount.” It was said that Morgan earned a commission of some $3,000,000 for brokering the compromise.

Most of the photos included here were taken in Montgomery County, New York, from the fall of 1882 to winter of 1883. The subjects include snowy scenes of the North River Construction Company at work; cuts into hills; the building of double-track road-beds; widening railroad cuts for stone; construction of retaining walls; quarrying stone, and the widening of the Erie Canal. Laborers are shown working and standing at ease next to a range of equipment: pulley systems, makeshift buildings, horses, ropes, horse-drawn carriages full of stone, wheelbarrows, picks, and so on. Image titles identify the work pictured and the location, e.g.: “Widening Erie Canal and Building Double Track Road-bed, Flint Hill, Montgomery Co., NY.” Other construction sites include Big Nose, Fort Plain, Little Falls, Diefendorf Hill and Yankee Hill. In one lovely shot entitled “Gibraltar Hill Cut in Little Falls, NY,” various workers are shown standing on makeshift bridges that span two blasted rock formations. The names of officers and contractors are listed in the lower right and left margins, Hawks among them. One composite English photo is included, which documents “A visit of our Cousins, The American Engineers, to Crewe Works, June 7th 1889.” Also included is a shot taken in Ashtabula, Ohio, showing a Double Track Iron Bridge over Ashtabula Creek, built in 1877.

The scrapbook, whose contents are detailed below, is unusually ample and reflects not only the complex business of railroad construction, but also the breadth of Hawks career, containing material relating to a variety of railroads and projects.

James D. Hawks was born in Buffalo, New York and studied at the University of Michigan. He was employed as Assistant Engineer of the Buffalo division of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway (L.S.M.S.R.) (1870–75); Assistant Engineer of the Erie division of L.S.M.S.R. (1875–78); Assistant Engineer of the Lake Shore Division of L.S.M.S.R. (1878–81); Superintendent of Construction for the New York, West Shore & Buffalo R.R. (1881–83); Chief Engineer of the Michigan Central Railway (1884–92); Manager of the Detroit Citizens’ Street Railway Co., (1892–93); and Manager of the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railway Co. (1893–95). Later he served as President and Manager of the Detroit & Mackinac Railway Co., and President of the Detroit, Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor & Jackson (Electric) Railway Co., and the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Electric Railway Co.

Photographer Horace L. Bliss (b. 1823) moved to Buffalo around 1854 where he entered the photographic business. He established a photograph gallery in 1859 and found success in both outdoor and commercial photography until 1886, when he retired.

CONTENTS OF SCRAPBOOK:

40 circulars, contract, agreements, detailed statement, general orders, reports, etc. ca. 1882–1889. 163 pp. Published by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forestry Division; New Jersey Junction R.R. Co.; American Society of Civil Engineers; Patent Railway Tracklayer; Adam’s Track Layer Co.; Wallkill Valley R.R.; Denver & Rio Grande Railway Co.; St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Co.; New York, Ontario & Western Railway; Cincinnati & Eastern Railway; Syracuse, Ontario & New York Railway Co.; Buffalo Electric Works; Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit R.R. Co. Some publications include: E. L. Corthell’s Career. Sketch of the North Sider Spoken of for Drainage Trustee; Annual Report of the Board of Water Commissioners to the Common Council of the City of Detroit for the year 1887; Sixth Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Co. to the Stock.; Report Showing Condition of Water Stations of Erie Division of Lake Shore & Michigan Southern R.Y.; Report to the “West Shore Syndicate”, etc.

[with]

31 specifications and conditions. ca. 1863–1888. 74 pp. Specifications concern retaining walls in the Erie Canal; cross ties, wood, fence poles, switch and frog ties, etc. Published by the North River Construction Co.; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co.; Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati R.R.; Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway; Keystone Bridge Co.; Pencoyd Iron Works; Michigan Central R.R. Co., etc.

[with]

25 advertising circulars (some illus.). 113 pp. Published by New York, West Shore & Buffalo R.R.; Cummings Rock Drill Co.; Pittsburgh Steel Casting Co.; etc. Publications include: Steel Barb Wire Railroad Fence; Improved Halladay Valve, Outlet Pip, Spout & Fixtures; The Barbed Wire Herald; Price List for Josiah M. Clark, Manufacturer of Hand Cars, Trucks, Baggage Burrows, Grain Wagons, etc.; The “Standard” Wrought Iron Track Jack; Thacher’s Calculating Instrument; Pike’s Hotel in Mullett Lake, Michigan; Offset Angle Splice for Connecting Rails of Different Heights; Price list for Worthington Steam Pumping Engines and Boilers; The Champion Continuous Rail Railroad Crossing; Price List of Steam Pumps and Boilers; Price List for U.S. Wind Eng. & Pump Co.; Emerson’s Rail-Bending Machine; Gates & Scoville Iron Works for “The Greatest Rock Breaker and Ore Crusher”; Improved Pivoted Standpipe for Railroad Water Stations; Improved Halladay Standard Wind Mill; Grand Rapids Water Works’ Water Rates and Rules and Regulations, etc.

[with]

20 tables, time tables, and charts. ca. 1869–1885. 106 pp. Published by Scioto Valley Railway Co.; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway; New York Central and Hudson River R.R.; Sault Ste. Marie Canal; Pennsylvania R.R. Co., etc. One large plan “showing manner in which two hole steel rail breaks.”

[with]

17 broadsides and notices. ca. 1870–1889. 17 pp. Published by the Wallkill Valley R.R.; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway; The New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway Co.; The North River Construction Co., etc. Broadsides include: Notice to Wood Choppers; Wanted Wood; Through Passenger Train Service Resumed; The Buffalo Courier Semi-Centennial Souvenir, etc.

[with]

11 manuscript letters and papers (several on letterheads). 12 pp.; 2 copy specifications by the notable Col. Walter Katte (1830–1917) a British-born American civil engineer who served as Chief Engineer of the New York Central Railroad company. 3 pp.; 2 invitations addressed to Hawks for the Third & Fourth Annual West Veterans Shore Fishing Excursions. 1887; 1888. 2 pp. The invitation for the Third Annual Excursion reads: “The A1, copper-bottom, clipper-ship Ivanhoe will sail from the Jersey shore at Weehawken station at exactly seven o’clock, A.M. (eastern time), manned and fully equipped with bait, tackle and grub for the voyage. Full dress: Top boots; Winter overcoats”; 2 diagrams. 2 pp. Published by Boston and Albany R.R. Co. (1882); Adam’s Track Layer Co.; 1 pamphlet, Michigan Central The Niagara Falls Route (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1888); 1 profile of South Main Track L. S. & M. S. Ry. 1871. Just East of Silver Creek (May 1879); 2 patents, 2 pp. For fail pipes and railroad frogs and crossings; 52 pp. of tipped-in newspaper. 1 laid in newspaper; 2 railway passes of Hawks’ from 1876 for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry. Co.; 2 blueprints. 2 pp.; 1 map, Matthews, Northrup & Co.’s New Map of the City of Buffalo (Buffalo, New York: 1888). 1 p.; 3 typescript letters. 1881–88. 3 pp.; 6 pp. of misc.: sketches, papers, bills, and 1 frontispiece; 1 model structure illus. of the Union Passenger Station, to be jointly constructed in Buffalo, New York by the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia and the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railways. 1 p.; 1 tipped-in clipping on front paste-down offers a biographical sketch of Hawks.

All in all, a rich archive compiled by a noted railroad construction engineer and executive.

REFERENCES: Adams, Arthur G. The Hudson Through the Years, Third Edition (New York, Fordham University Press, 1996), pp. 211-215; Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan : an American banking dynasty and the rise of modern finance (New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990), pp. 52-55; Successful American, An Illustrated Magazine, Vol. VII, No. 1 (New York, January 1903), p. 27.

CONDITION: Fading to some photos, but tonality generally good; some foxing and other discolorations to a few images, but most clean and attractive; two nickel size areas of loss to emulsion in sky of one photo; scrapbook contents generally good, with occasional items detached from mounted portion.