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"A Family Tradition for 131 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, September 16, 1997 - 19 ls" ET le a---- ot Lee AE \ 5 No AE LGR a bic CLS er ---------------------- tee rete e rrr ---------- LCR. a An " BE ---- LBS oh RTSVERONE NG Nees ts ------------------------------------------------ A ST RN 0 odes A wha Last month's article gave details of the desperate antics of members of the Whitby Council as they tried to deal with matters of the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway. It had been revealed that the Contractor, J.H. Dumble had received $113,000 in payments and deben- tures and yet the company's own engineer could find evidence of only $42,000 worth of work and material. In addition Dumble had demanded back interest on deben- ures which Whitby had withheld because of incomplete work. The lead editorial of the Ontario Observer of Oct. 6, 1870, specified Dumble's status. "So far as the contrac- tor is concerned, he is responsible to the directors for the complete fulfillment of the contract, and the direc- tors are responsible to the public, both for the terms of the contract and for their complete fulfillment." mid ASS . | o ides Map of 1856 of proposed railroads in Ontario County was drawn by John Shier in 1856. Shier later became the PW&PPR engineer mentioned in this article. This map shows the first section of Peter Perry's 1848 proposal for a railway from Whitby to Lake Huron. All proposed railways are shown as solid . lines and roadways as broken lines. It shows the Whitby to Beaverton section with a branch line to Port Perry. Also shown is a proposed railway from Port Perry to Uxbridge, just off the left side of the map. -A roadway is shown from Port Perry to Lindsay with bridges from Port Perry to Scugog Island and from the north end of Scugog Island to Port Hoover in Victoria County. The roadway then continues on to Lindsay. Simcoe Street on this map follows the route of the present Oid Simcoe Road through Monticello and then on to Cannington. Monticello is now Manilla. The editor, James Baird continued by revealing another problem: "...the directors presented the contrac- tor with a gratuity of $30,000 worth of stock, and that he in return agreed to allow the president of the compa- ny to furnish the fencing stuff at a price which would allow the president to pocket a pretty handsome amount." The president of the railway, Joseph Bigelow, was accused of many discrepancies, many of them false. However, Bigelow never denied this particular accusa- tion. He always argued that the arrangement was a per- sonal one between Dumble and himself, not the compa- ny. The editorial then continued at length to chastise the directors for not ensuring that Dumble's quality of work was satisfactory. The Oshawa Vindicator of Oct. 12 stated with 'apparent glee: "This company promises to be the best litigated corporation in existence." The article then went on to list some of the pending Chester Draper replaces Bigelow as President of the PP & PPWR cases. 1. The company was suing the town of Whitby for back interest. 2. Certain shareholders were charging the board with an over-issue of bonds. 3. Dumble was suing for $10,000 due to him according to contract. He was to receive debentures and company bonds and cash in payment, but he had received no cash. The issue of new bonds was limited to the amount actually expended on the road. They had issued $65,000 worth but he had spent only $42,000 worth. 4. The PW&PPR was suing Whitby for $20,000 which it refused to pay. Dumble was hired in September, 1969 and had never responded in public to the many accusations against him. It was not until Nov. 17, 1870 that he final- ly did respond through a letter to the editor which he wrote to the Whitby Chronicle. In this let- ter he assured the public that "The earthwork and grading is all but com- pleted: in less than a fortnight the road will be ready for the rails; more than two thirds of fencing is complete and the material for the remainder is on the ground. The culverts are, with one or two exceptions constructed and nearly 40,000 ties, all that is necessary to lay the rail, have been delivered on the line. The iron rail for the whole line has been purchased in England ready for shipment. All that remains to be done to complete the contract is to lay iron, ballast the road and erect buildings." He went on to assert that he had paid for the rail"...nearly $100,000 worth Joseph of iron on my own credit in England." Bigelow Ironically, in the same issue of the Whitby news- paper, a statement of John Shier, the engineer of the - PW&PPR was printed. In it he stated: "That about the 20th day of July last...I made an examination of the work done." Dumble had done work ...upon said rail- way to the value of $28,300, and no more; and I value the fence, posts, lumber, ties, and square timber...at about the sum of $11,800 and no more." This amounted to a total value of just over $40,000. Shier then went on to say that he had inspected the line again in November and that the total value of the work and materials to that point did not exceed $50,000. Further he stated that neither the levels of the embankments, nor the cuttings met the required specifications. Many culverts were constructed and only five or so of the necessary 60 cattle guards were in § place. No ballast was on the line, and Dumble, "...has not made any turn tables, station buildings, freight or passenger station, engine house, tank house or machine shop or erected any of them, as required by the said specifications. And there are not any materials upon or near the said line for the purpose of building the same." In an accompanying article, the editor stated that "We have the sworn testimony of Mr. Bigelow, the presi- dent, and of directors of the company, ...that Mr. Dumble told the board on the 19th of October that he had not ordered the iron and that he did not intend ordering it until spring." Apparently, a new contract must have been agreed upon because a new date for the completion of the line had been set at Feb, 15, 1871. Nevertheless, it was obvi- ous to all that the rails could not be delivered from England by that date because of the problems of getting the rails to Whitby over the winter months. Mr. Dumble then applied for an extension to August 1871 for the completion. All of which again brought into question Mr. Dumble's assertion that he had ordered the rails at all, let alone "using his own credit." ' Dumble then sued the company for $24,000 which he allegedly was owed to him. The company then served a notice on Mr. Dumble that his claims for the money, and, his assertions that work was completed, were incorrect. This notice incidentally contained an opening statement, or preamble which, because of its clauses and subcauses was one complete sentence of almost 500 words in length! Bh The notice stated that the company wanted to call on a judge-appointed arbitrator to settle the matter and called on Mr. Dumble to appoint an arbitrator for him- self so that the two arbitrators could come to some com- promise over the issue. In the Ontario Observer's review of the year's events in the Dec. 8, 1870, issue, the editor stated that in the coming year, "...An equal amounted of vigilance will be required from the council of the coming year as from that of the present and the past. This notorious railway still hangs over us like an incubus, and demands may be made which no judicious council acting in the interests of the whole township, would accede to." He affirmed that the township had handed over $20,000 to the railway for completed work and that $10,000 still remains to be handed over when conditions are met. "This is the last legal demand which can be made on the corporation," he stated. He continued by referring to sworn statements of leading members of the board of directors declaring that ...the main road is in an almost hopeless condition..." He also stated that the board was trying to shift § \ the blame for the bungling on to the contractor. "If . \ the company, on the strength of certain casual S\ advantages gave the contractor a little too much \\ latitude the fault is their own." He went on to predict that if the railroad's board of directors & 1 is not changed, "...the snow of another winter, § | at least, will lie undisturbed on the track." | The Oshawa Vindicator of January 25, hb | 1871 reported that the company had made a | survey of the completed work on the railway and had found that at the ridges there were some grades of 100 feet to the mile. "A locomo- tive that can climb them will have to be built like a goat." That same day, the PW&PPR held its annual general meeting and election of officers. Chester Draper was elected president and Joseph Bigelow, for- merly the president, was elected as vice president. The other directors were: James Dryden, Nelson G. Reynolds, James Holden, A. Ross, Thomas Paxton MPP, K.F. Lockhart and Edward Major. Chester Draper owned the gravel road (today's 'Highway 12) which he operated as a toll road. The Observer commented on Draper's election as president, "If he manages the railway the way he manages his cel- ebrated gravel road, then God pity the travellers. It is bad enough to have to flounder through mire and mud up to the hubs as was done on the gravel road during the greater part of last year and paying at the same time the highest figure of toll which the law would allow, but the chance of drowning in mud is nothing compared to the chances of breaking one's neck in descending a ladder on a railway car." Fa Te 3h Sah Sas INTE, One of Draper's toll booths on the Gravel road, now Highway 12. In February, director Thomas Paxton, as the Ontario County representative in the Ontario Legislature, pro- posed a bill as an amendment to the Railway Act which would enable Railway Corporations to obtain all bonuses and debentures allotted to them before the prerequisite work was completed. It was protested wildly by the various local councils who quickly wrote to the legislature appearing the pro- posed bill. Eventually the bill was defeated. In an editorial accompanying the Ontario Observer's Feb. 2, 1871, protest against the bill it was revealed that Dumble was receiving ...$1,200 per month, work or no work, rain or shine." This would be worth approximately $24,000 a month in 1997 money! The arbitration between Dumble and the company, ruled in favor of the railway. The company then sought legal means to ensure that Dumble received no more debentures or bonuses. Dumble could now see that his opportunities to extort money from the company were limited at best. Next month: Another contractor, more comedy.