While working on “Rivers, Roads and Rails” (an exhibit for the Bethlehem Historical Association’s Cedar Hill Schoolhouse Museum) I’ve been delving into the history of the West Shore Railroad and keep coming across the story of the Commodore’s White Elephant.
I have questions. Like who is this Commodore? And why do we
use the phrase “white elephant” anyway? And is there a Bethlehem connection in
there somewhere?
Here’s the story:
The Commodore is Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), shipping
magnet, railroad tycoon, wily businessman, self-made billionaire. Husband of
Sophia for 55years, and then Frank for 8. Father of 12 (including William, who
met cute with his future wife Maria Louisa Kissam near her home in Bethlehem in
1841). The Commodore made his initial millions with water transportation. By
the 1840s, his fleet of steamships served routes in the waterways around and
between New York City, Long Island, and Albany, including areas of New Jersey,
Connecticut and Rhode Island. During the gold rush of 1849, he expanded his steamship
service to San Francisco.
In the 1860s, sensing that the future of transportation was on
land, he began buying up controlling interests in existing railroads like the Long
Island Railroad, the New York and Harlen Railroad, and the Hudson River
Railroad, eventually merging his holdings into the New York Central. It’s said
that he made $25 million in the first five years of his railroad ventures.
Of note for our story is the Hudson River Railroad. In the
early 1860s, the Hudson River Railroad did not have a bridge connection to
Albany from its terminal across the river in Rensselaer. In 1864, the Commodore
and investor Daniel Drew conceived the Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad, a 27-mile
line that bypassed Albany. Westbound passengers and freight disembarked at the
City of Hudson and then crossed the river via ferry and barge to arrive at
Athens where they connected with the new line. The line connected with the New
York Central near Schenectady passing through South Bethlehem and Feura Bush.
In 1867, the Saratoga and Hudson was leased by the New York
Central and merged into their system as the Athens Branch. The busy junction at
Athens met a spectacular end in June 1876 when it was destroyed by a huge fire.
The steamboat John Taylor, the barge Hercules, the canal boat Stephen
Van Warren, the entire depot with its sheds and office buildings, hundreds
of cars in the yard, and all the freight (sugar, corn, oats, tobacco) in these
various stages of transport, went up in flames.
Not too long after the fire, the Athens Branch became known
as a white elephant because it had outlived its usefulness, plus it was never
very profitable. It didn’t help that a RR bridge across the Hudson at Albany
was opened in 1866. In 1881, the line was purchased by the New York, West Shore
and Buffalo, and the section from Coxsackie to Schenectady became part of the
mainline. The part between Coxsackie and Athens limped along for a few years
before the rails were completely removed in 1888.
The Commodore’s white elephant was really only a white
elephant for a short time. Then it passed into legend. Several secondary
sources say Vanderbilt long regretted the investment and said it was “the most
foolish thing of my life.”
And what exactly is a white elephant? Dictionary.com says it
is a “possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or
value to its owner” and that the phrase was first recorded in the early 1850s. The
story is said to go back to Siam (modern day Thailand) where a literal white
elephant was a highly prized, sacred animal. Let me just quote historyextra.com
– they tell it so well:
“The term “white elephant” denotes any burdensome, expensive
and useless possession that is much more trouble than it is worth. White or
very pale elephants were so highly prized that when one was discovered, it
immediately became the possession of the King. White elephants, however, were
practically useless. As they were deemed to be sacred, they weren’t allowed to
be worked and required special, expensive food and housing – making them
particularly pricey pachyderms.
So the cunning kings of Siam, as the story goes, used to
give white elephants away to anyone who displeased them or had fallen out of
favour so that they would be forced to spend a fortune keeping the precious
animals. The unfortunate recipient of a white elephant would be unable to get
rid of it so the upkeep could ruin them financially.”
There you have it, the white elephant line that used to run
through Bethlehem. The section in Bethlehem merged with the West Shore and
provided passenger and freight service in the hamlet of South Bethlehem until
about 1959.
Flashes and Dashes
CORRECTION: In June’s article, Cemetery Walks and
Veterans Stories, I mistakenly referred to the Piers as a Gold Star Family.
That is incorrect. Gold Star families are those who have had a family member
die in service to our country. All of the Pier children survived their service.
If you haven’t heard already, the Bethlehem Public Library is collecting your stories about the current pandemic. Please visit their website for more info: http://www.bethlehempubliclibrary.org/quarantine-memories-archive/
The Bethlehem Historical Association hopes to open their museum as soon as it is safe to do so. Visit their website for details: https://bethlehemhistorical.org/
And finally, visit my blog for the Kissam-Vanderbilt meet cute story:
https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2017/01/maria-louisa-kissam-and-william-henry.html
and
https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2018/03/maria-louisa-kissam-vanderbilt-revisited.html
Both of the above pictures are the South Bethlehem station during the West Shore Railroad era. I was unable to determine whether there was a station here on the White Elephant line. (Town of Bethlehem)
The Commodore, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in an image taken by Mathew Brady sometime between 1844 and 1860. (Library of Congress)
No comments:
Post a Comment