Switching off Our Trade
New York Daily Reformer, Watertown, N.Y. Aug. 21, 1869

On a brief visit to Carthage the other day, we walked out to the Tram railroad now in process of construction from Carthage to Harrisville, in Lewis county. George Gilbert, Esq., the author and finisher of the project was with us. He is building a very substantial road - in all things like any other railroad, except that the rails are of rock maple, instead of iron. The road is well grade, and the ties are large and thick enough for an iron rail. This road will tap the lumber, shingle, bark and fuel region of Wilna, Diana and Pitcairn. It is not expected the road will stop at Harrisville, but will be projected on to Edwards, then to Hermon, and finally to the St. Lawrence river; nor is it expected that it will be given up when the first set of wooden rails give out, whether by wear, or decay, but that they will give place to iron rails in a brief time. In short the projector of this road, and those acting with him, regard this as the beginning of a through route from the St. Lawrence River to New York - a small beginning it may be, but they are wise in not despising the day of small things.

What bearing has this road on the interests and destiny of Watertown? This city is now the financial and business center for the towns of Wilna, Diana and Pitcairn. Their head men and largest dealers come here for their grain, flour, feed, pork, iron, money, legal advice, and a large part of their retail purchases. In grain, flour, feed, iron and machinery, the same is true of the towns of Denmark, Pinckney, Harrisburg and Croghan, embracing all the western section of Lewis county. Where will this trade go when this tram road is completed to Harrisville and Edwards, and the Utica link supplied between Lowville and Carthage and railroad connection thus made complete from Edwards to Utica, should Watertown be left as now, with only a common road to Carthage?

We are not a profit (sic), nor the son of a profit (sic), nor does it need a profit (sic) to see that the business connections between these towns and Watertown would be gradually be surely cut asunder. The east with which Utica could be reached by rail with its larger capabilities for money lending and wholesale trade, would at once attract dealers in lumber, bark, leather, fuel, and wanting money to carry on their operations; while Watertown, to be visited from that quarter by sixteen miles of stage road, would be disregarded. The very valuable trade and business intercourse now enjoyed by Watertown, with that opening section of country, would be switched off and turned away from us.

We can hold it all however, and augment it very materially by putting ourselves in connection with them by a railroad to Carthage. We are so much nearer (to) them than Utica, that with equal facilities for travel and freighting, we can hold our own, and vastly improve our trade from that section; while at the same time we open a through competing route to the great metropolis. It does not seem reasonable that our businessmen will let the opportunity slip to make sure of holding the trade they now have, and of augmenting it as much as they may at so cheap a rate as by the construction of sixteen miles of railroad, aided as they will be by the adjoining towns, from here to Carthage.