New Jersey's First Railroad
Charter
Railway WorldFebruary 18, 1899
NOT by reason of any brilliant military achievement within
the limits of the State, but rather by reason of the material
furtherance of ideas concerning transportation, did the War of
1812 make a permanent impress upon New Jersey. The narrow strip
of land separating the head of tidewater in the Delaware from
the practical head of tide in the Raritan had long been a hindrance
to travel across the State. Until the second war with England
the colonial routes between Philadelphia and New York City were
still used, being by boat to Burlington or Bordentown, or by stage
to New Brunswick or Amboy, and thence by water or stage, via Paulus
Hook, to New York City, using the road across Hackensack Meadows
as early as 1765 and the turnpike and bridges about 1795. It was
not until 1804 that the Trenton-Morrisville bridge was constructed
across the Delaware, so insignificant had been the volume of travel
by the land route on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.
The movement of Jersey troops to the defense of the harbors
of New York City and Philadelphia, the more or less effectual
blockading of the seacoast by the enemy's ships of war, the needs
of inland communication between Washington and New England, the
establishment of a base of military supplies at Trenton and Newark,
all necessitated speedy communication across the State of New
Jersey. The turnpike between Trenton and New Brunswick, chartered
in 1804, was used for this purpose, but to the minds of men who
saw the possibilities of railroad communication there was yet
a new and untried method of transporting freight and passengers.
This end would be served by the construction of a railroad over
the "waist" of New Jersey.
To New Jersey the treaty of peace brought relief. The signatures
placed upon the document at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814,
meant a renewal of industrial activity, for England tacitly abandoned
forever her policy of impressment and commercial interference.
For the first time since the Revolution the commercial freedom
of the United States had been secured. It was indeed a day of
hope for a State whose navigable waters were ever whitened with
the sails of her ships, and whose highways were crowded with travellers
and freight.
Two days before the ratification of the treaty of peace by
a federal Senate, voting unanimously, the Legislature of New Jersey,
upon the 6th day of February, 1815, passed an act creating a company
"to erect a Rail-Road from the river Delaware, near Trenton,
to the river Raritan, at or near New Brunswick," and gave
to the world what was probably the first railroad charter ever
granted within the limits of the United States.
The personal influence that lay behind the measure was that
of John Stevens, whose experiments with steam navigation on the
Hudson gave him not only technical skill, but a wide and comprehensive
grasp of the possibilities of any form of rapid transit.
The charter itself, as the basis of subsequent railroad legislation
of a special character, possesses a permanent interest. In form
the charter is evolutionary, bearing many of the characteristics
of contemporaneous acts, similar in form, and from which turnpike
companies derived their powers. Thus at the very outset a commission
was created authorized to receive subscriptions. For the construction
of the railroad, "not more than four rods wide," the
three commissioners, James Ewing, Pearson Hunt, and Abner Reeder,
were required to give security to the governor to insure to the
treasurer of the company the payment of all subscriptions received
by them.
The subscriptions were limited to five thousand shares at one
hundred dollars per share, five dollars to be paid in at time
of subscribing. As soon as two thousand shares were subscribed
the commissioners or a majority of them were directed to call
a meeting of the subscribers to choose a president and eight directors,
"five of whom shall constitute a board and a treasurer."
This temporary organization was to give place on the first Wednesday
in November then next ensuing to a stockholders' election, which
should afterward be held each and every year. "The said president
and directors so to be chosen shall be called the New Jersey Railroad
Company," says the act, with all corporate powers to be in
full force and effect for fifty years.
In case the corporation did not carry into effect the objects
of its charter within ten years, or allowed its works to go to
decay for two years, then the charter became null and void.
All elections were required to be by ballot, in person or by
proxy, at the rate of one vote for every share not exceeding twenty,
and one vote for every five shares between twenty and fifty, and
one vote for every ten shares above fifty. Temporary vacancies
in the board of directors were to be filled by the remainder of
the board. The president and directors were empowered to fix the
time and place of meeting, appoint necessary agents and servants,
make by-laws and ordinances and fill vacancies of an official
nature.
To lay out the road the Legislature fell back upon the expedient
of a further commission consisting of John Rutherfurd, Mahlon
Dickerson, and Richard Allison, who in the discharge of their
duty were to have "due regard to the situation and nature
of the ground and the buildings thereon, the public convenience
and the interest of the stockholders and so as to do the least
damage to private property." The road could not be laid out
through any burying ground, place of public worship, dwelling
house nor outbuilding of the value of three hundred dollars without
the owner's consent. The commissioners were required to file their
report, survey map and plot in the office of the secretary of
state of New Jersey. The commissioners and corporation were granted
the right to enter upon land necessary for laying out the road
and also for the purpose of searching for "stone, sand, or
gravel for the use of the said road," but no stone, sand,
or gravel was to be taken away without compensation made to the
owner.
As to the character of motive power to be used upon the railroad
the statute is silent, the only allusion being collateral, where
it is enacted that the wagons or carriages employed on the road
shall be constructed and run thereon in conformity to such rules
as the company shall make from time to time.
That animals, either horses or mules, were to be employed is
suggested by the provision of the act empowering the corporation
to "make, erect, and establish a railroad, passing and repassing,
and which road is to be composed of either iron or wood for the
running of the wheels, and which running part is to be fixed on
a solid foundation, impervious to frost, not liable easily to
be removed." It was further provided that the middle path
of said road was to be composed of some hard substance, of either
stone, gravel or wood, so as to be good at all seasons of the
year. The plan of a "middle path," and the further proviso
that in no part of its progress should the road rise above an
angle of two degrees above the plane of the horizon, would not
directly indicate the employment of steam as an agency of transportation.
Further in the matter of construction the act provided that
the company should not obstruct the free use and passage of any
public road. Causeways were directed to be constructed by the
railroad over all public roads, under a penalty of ten dollars
for every day of neglect. The company was also required to furnish
private causeways for the use of owners of land. Any injury to
company property rendered the tortfeasor liable to forfeit to
the company three times the actual damage sustained.
In the exercise of the right of domain the company was authorized
to "erect, make, and establish all works, edifices, and devices"
as might be necessary, as well as purchase lands and tenements.
In case of non-agreement between the corporation and an owner
as to the valuation of private land necessary for the corporation's
purposes, the statute provided that each should choose a disinterested
freeholder. The two were empowered to determine compensation,
but in case they failed they could choose an umpire. In case this
method was not employed, a struck jury, after survey and estimation,
made inquisition and returned the same to a justice of the Supreme
Court.
In the statute is to be found the germ of the present State
railroad commissions. It was enacted that whenever the railroad
company completed not less than ten miles of its road the governor
of the State should appoint three disinterested persons who "shall
have power to fix, ascertain and determine the rates and charges
which the said company may demand and receive for the transportation
of merchandise and for every article of country produce, lumber,
and fire wood transported on the said railroad, and also to fix,
ascertain and determine on such tolls and rates as the said company
shall and may demand and receive from all persons using or traveling
said road." The rates of toll were directed to be placed
on file as evidence in any court. If within ten years after the
completion of the railroad the corporation should consider a revision
necessary the governor was directed to appoint a new commission
for that purpose.
Ten years after the completion of the road, and at the end
of every ten years thereafter, the company was directed to lay
before the Legislature a statement as to its financial condition.
At such time the governor was to appoint a new commission of three
to revise the freight and passenger rates, but it was provided
that the commissioners should not reduce the tolls to a less sum
than would insure to the company twelve per cent. per annum on
its capital stock.
This first effort to construct a railroad across the State
of New Jersey reached no further development than the passage
of the act. The time was not yet ripe for so chimerical a project;
more than another decade must elapse ere the public mind was ready
to fully appreciate the benefits that lay within so great a plan
of improvement. But the charter remains as the crystallization
of the best thought upon the subject of what was proper legislative
control over a railroad, what rights the corporation should have,
and, in brief, what constituted so novel a scheme for transporting
men and their goods between two centers of population.
New Jersey
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This page originally appeared on Thomas Ehrenreich's Railroad Extra Website