Railroads
Once in Cleveland and removed from the practice of medicine, Streator embarked on his second career in developing railroads. With his partner, Henry Doolittle, their firm built the Greenville and Medina Railroad. In 1853 they contracted for the construction of the 244 miles (393 km) Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in Ohio. Work continued on this and other ancillary lines of the railroad until completion in 1861, when he sold his unfinished contracts upon the death of Doolittle.
In 1862 he began plans for the Oil Creek Railroad, which would bring newly discovered oil from the Oil Creek fields in western Pennsylvania to the town of Corry, Pennsylvania. This highly coveted railroad was a great financial success for Streator. The public's interest in the oil fields was so great that crowds gathered to view the oil being loaded onto the railcars. By 1866, Streator sold his interest in the Oil Creek line to the New York Central Railroad. He then began construction of a new line from Corry to New York Central's Buffalo and Erie Railroad line in Brocton, New York.
Read more about this topic: Worthy S. Streator
Famous quotes containing the word railroads:
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade, that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“We noticed several other sandy tracts in our voyage; and the course of the Merrimack can be traced from the nearest mountain by its yellow sand-banks, though the river itself is for the most part invisible. Lawsuits, as we hear, have in some cases grown out of these causes. Railroads have been made through certain irritable districts, breaking their sod, and so have set the sand to blowing, till it has converted fertile farms into deserts, and the company has had to pay the damages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)