CHAPTER XXVI
 

^ T WAS not characteristic of the people of
M Washington County to remain inactive un-
^ der misfortune and the war was no sooner
ended than they turned their faces to the
future and endeavored to mend their condition.
Some of their public eft'orts were crowned with
abundant success and some turned out badly. In
the latter class were a number of manufacturing
enterprises which caused great loss and ended in
disaster. One of the first works of a public nature
which were undertaken about this time was the
improvement of the facilities of transportation.
Hagerstown as has been said before had been
greatly isolated since the end of the turnpike and
staging days and she was cut off from her natural
market at Baltimore. The canal carried a large
quantity of wheat and flour to Georgetown and for
a time there had been considerable freight carried
by wagons to Frederick and shipped from that city
by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. But after the re¬
habilitation of the old Franklin Railroad and its
incorporation with the Cumberland Valley road the
trade of Washington County had been largely di¬
verted to Philadelphia. This did not suit the
Hagerstown people. Philadelphia was twice as
far as Baltimore and the freight rates on wheat
and other farm products was high. There was
therefore a general desire for direct communication
with Baltimore by rail. This could be had by
the construction of a road 24 miles in length from
Hagersto"wn to intersect the main line of the Bal¬
timore and Ohio at Wevertou, three miles east
from Harper's Ferry. Such a road would bring
Hagerstown by this route within 103 miles of
Baltimore, whereas the distance by the Cumber¬
 

land Valley and Northern Central was about 170
miles.

The road to Wevertou, it was also ppinted
out, would provide transportation for a large and
fertile section of the County which at that time
had no access to the markets except by wagons
and mostly over extremely bad roads. As early
as 1857 the movement for the construction of
this branch road began and a meeting was held to
promote it. The great difficulty was in providing
the money. The road would cost a million dollars
and to get that sum subscribed in Washington
County, where there were no men of great wealth,
was out of the question. The meeting adopted
resolutions asking the legislature to authorize
Washington County to subscribe to $250,000 of
the stock and to issue bonds to pay for it. A com¬
mittee composed of Dr. Thomas Maddox, J. Dixon
Roman, T. G. Robertson, William Dodge and
James AVason, was sent to Baltimore to enlist the
aid of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
But their mission was not successful and the un¬
settled political conditions and finally the Civil
War caused the scheme to be abandoned for the
time. But before the war ended it was revived
and on March 10, 1864 the legislature passed the
act of incorporation. . The incorporators and flrst
board of directors were Isaac Nesbitt, George S.
Kennedy, Jacob A. Miller, Johns Hopkins, Gallo¬
way Cheston, Peter B. Small and Robert Powder.
The capital stock was $1,000,000 the shares $20
each. There the matter rested for a year and a
half longer. In September 1865, three of the
County Commissioners, William Roulette, Elias
E. Rohrer,and John Reichard, accompanied by Dr.