Fulton Chain Steamers II: Crosby Transportation Company Years

1896–1901: Part Three

Millionaires such as J. P. Morgan and Collis Huntington owned great camps in the Raquette Lake region, and they needed access to Dr. Webb’s railroad for ready transit to New York City offices.

Morgan was tired of driving stages from Camp Uncas at breakneck speed to Big Moose Station and/or waiting for steamers to reach the Fulton Chain station.

Huntington used the series of carries and steamers from Inlet to Brown’s Tract Inlet to reach Pine Knot.

No direct highway then existed from Inlet to Raquette Lake.

During 1898 and 1899, Huntington built a railroad using the initial line of John Dix’s lumber road to Rondaxe Lake and obtained legislative and regulatory approvals for a public line that removed the necessity for the public to suffer from the inefficiencies of the lines owned by the Old Forge Company.

The state railroad commission’s approval stated that public convenience and necessity required its construction.

After failing to prevent the railroad’s enabling legislation from being passed, the Old Forge Company recognized that travelers could stay one station further north on the Mohawk & Malone, disembark at Clearwater Station and use this new line to reach Fourth Lake camps, Eagle Bay, Inlet or Raquette Lake without using any of the Company’s services.

To survive, the Old Forge and the Crosby Transportation Companies, the primary opposition to the railroad legislation, had no choice but to file for an injunction to prevent its opening to the public.

At the end of 1899, they sued the railroad and its individual directors for damages and sought to stop the railroad for the following reasons:The railroad was built on a highway from Clearwater to Raquette Lake that did not exist; The railroad was built on state land between Eagle Bay and Raquette Lake; By defrauding the state on these two premises the owners created a “public nuisance”; And the railroad interfered with the public highway between Old Forge and Eagle Bay.

But the Company’s suit claimed private damages from the “public nuisance” premises.

The court case attracted extensive coverage by upstate New York newspapers because the defendants were the nation’s most prominent railroad and business magnates.

In its April 1900 decision, the court suggested that the premises may be true, but could the Company claim personal damages different from the public nuisance asserted from these supposed infractions?

Since the railroad’s operation did not force the Company to modify or change their railroad line, move a steamboat dock or require a longer steamboat route, the “public nuisances” did not warrant “private damages.”

A competing line diverting passengers was not a nuisance.

The “public nuisance” did not prevent the public from using the Company’s lines.

The Company’s monopoly was broken permanently.

When the court defeat was reported, the Crosby Transportation Company reacted publicly that the new railroad would benefit the Company by increasing traffic to the region, that travelers may want to go in by one route and out the other and that they intended to reduce rates to remain competitive.

The news also revealed that the Raquette Lake Railway intended to run a steamer line from Eagle Bay to Old Forge. The first boat would be the “Clearwater.”

The 1900 season saw the launching of two major steamboats on the Fulton Chain.

The Raquette Lake Railroad finished building its new steamer in a large shed near Alonzo Wood’s Cohassett Hotel during June, received its boiler via the new railroad at the end of the month and the “Clearwater” made a trial run at the beginning of August.

Also, John Sprague and Henry Slack launched the “Adirondack” at the end of June.

John Sprague intended to run the “Adirondack” as an excursion boat.

James L. Connell from Scranton, Pa., and his family lodged all summer at the Forge House.

At the beginning of August 1900, the Company finished refurbishing the “W. S Webb” and named it “J. L. Connell” in his honor.

The “J. L. Connell” would provide direct local service at Fourth Lake and come to Old Forge once a day. It would directly compete with the “Clearwater.”

An event that affected both John Sprague’s and Parsons’ boat business was the state asserting its ownership of the state dam lands.

Both Sprague and Parson removed their buildings, as did George Deis with his mill, and the dam area was no longer used for private use.

The Crosby Transportation Company also broke down and removed an “old boat.”

Could this have been the “Beulah,” “Old Forge” or “Minnie H.”?

With the devastating court defeat and mounting business debts, the Old Forge Company reorganized and the new directors offered a purchase option to Dr. Webb in April 1901 that he accepted.

At the end of April, the Crosby Transportation Company ceased to exist when the “C.L. Stowell,” “Zip,” “J. L. Connell,” and “Fulton” were sold to the Raquette Lake Railway owners.

A few weeks later, the railroad interests established the Fulton Navigation Company.

Sources: “The Story of a Wilderness” by Joseph Grady, “Memories of Inlet” by Letty Kirch Haynes, “The River Rolls On” by Thomas O’Donnell, “Guide Boat Days and Ways” gathered and edited by Kenneth Durant, and the following newspapers from fultonhistory.com and the Northern New York Library Network: Watertown Daily Times, Utica Morning Herald, Utica Weekly Herald, Richfield Springs Mercury, Utica Daily Press, Lowville Journal & Republican, Utica Sunday Tribune, Utica Observer, Boonville Herald, Utica Daily Union, Roman Citizen, St. Lawrence Herald, Utica Herald Dispatch, Utica Sunday Journal and Canton Commercial Advertiser.