Reminiscences of Mrs. E.J. Richmond, 1907

Reminiscences

Chenango Union, January 10, 1907

One of the pleasures of growing old, is noting the great changes and improvements constantly going on in this wonderful land of our.

There are few living who can recall the days when, in Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], Dr. Mitchell was the leading physician, Benjamin Chapman the foremost merchant and David Griffin a prominent business man; when the Chenango canal was a main artery of commerce and people opened their eyes at the news of carriages propelled by steam, actually running through the state.

 

One of the vivid pictures in the memory gallery is of a journey from Utica to Pittsfield, Mass., in these wonderful steam carriages.  On the drive to Utica, my father, Dr. J. Guernsey remarked "It is not possible during the next fifty years to make as wonderful improvements as the fifty years past have witnessed.  If it weren't for the Rocky mountains steam cars might reach the Pacific coast."

 

In 1893 I crossed the Rocky mountains to the Pacific coast in tourist and Pullman cars, not at all like the stage coach bodies on trucks which we boarded at Utica.  The trip of 1893 to and from the Pacific coast, by the Northern Pacific and Canadian Pacific railways, gave grand and majestic views which will never fade from memory.

 

Neither will that first railway trip from Utica to Pittsfield.  "I hope we won't have any snakesheads" said a passenger.  "Sometimes the rails get loose, pierce the coaches, and kill passengers" he explained.  Even this was not as dreadful as the wholesale slaughters of today.  At Schenectady, the train was lifted to a higher grade by large ropes and a stationary engine.  At Albany, the train was drawn into the city by large horses, as no engine was allowed to enter the city.  Crossing the river to Greenbush we entered a long car which would seat 50 or 60 persons.  This was pronounced a great improvement.

 

Childhood memories of high rails of lumber floating down the Unadilla river to Chesapeake bay, are vivid.  So also is the later Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia.  Could anything on earth exceed that in glory and beauty?

 

The "White City" on the shore of Lake Michigan and the "Pan American" at Buffalo, afford brilliant pictures in answer.

 

Pleasant as are reminiscences of the past the outlook for the future is brighter still.

 

Mrs. E.J. Richmond, Mt. Upton [Chenango Co., NY]