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Eleazar Lord (September 9, 1788 - June 3, 1871) was an American author, educator, deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church and first president of the Erie Railroad, also known from his literal interpretations of the creation–evolution controversy.

Quotes about Eleazar Lord[edit]

Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. (1899)[edit]

Source: Edward Harold Mott Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. Collins, 1899

Participation in Ohio and Erie Canal[edit]

Eleazar Lord... was among the conspicuous capitalists and financiers of New York three-quarters of a century ago...
- p. 3

Eleazar Lord had enlisted friends of his in the Ohio Canal project, and with them invested largely in the State securities, on condition that the balance of the loan, $1,000,000, should be placed by the State within one year...
- p. 3

In 1825 DeWitt Clinton was at the zenith of his power and influence in New York State, and none among his contemporaries in the whole country was more illustrious than he... Eleazar Lord knew Clinton intimately, and all his ambition.
John Jacob Astor, at that time, had a claim of $600,000 against the State of New York for escheated lands in Putnam County. He was anxious to effect a settlement favorable to himself, and he depended on Governor Clinton to further such a consummation, the claim being in his mind just. This fact was also well known to Eleazar Lord, and it occurred to him that Clinton and his ambition and Astor and his financial interests might be formed into a combination that could be brought into service for the assuring of the success of the Ohio Canal...
- p. 3

Original efforts toward a railroad[edit]

It is a curious fact that it was the South Carolina Railroad that hastened the beginning of the New York and Erie Railroad, and made it the second railroad in the world projected and designed for the use of locomotive power. This motive power on railroads had become a comparatively old and universal thing when the Erie was ready to place its first locomotive in service, but when the notice of application for a charter for the New York and Erie Railroad was published in 1831, there were only four locomotives in use in this country, and only one railroad then in operation had been built with the original intention of having locomotives as its motive and it was attached to the first train-load of passengers ever drawn by a locomotive in this country, January 15, 1831.
Among those present on the memorable occasion was Hon. Henry E. Pierson of Ramapo, New York. Mr. Pierson was on his wedding tour, and chanced to be in Charleston on the day the railroad was opened. He and his bride were passengers on the train - thus giving them the distinction, doubtless, of being the very first bridal couple to enjoy a railroad trip. Mr. Pierson shared with his brother-in-law, Eleazar Lord, the belief in the importance of some avenue of communication through the southern portion of New York. The success of the trial trip of the locomotive on the pioneer South Carolina Railroad satisfied him that a similar road would be feasible between New York and Lake Erie. He returned home in 1831, enthusiastic over the subject, bringing the first news of the wonderful railroad opening at Charleston. His representations aroused Eleazar Lord to enthusiasm on the subject of a railroad from the Hudson to the Lakes, and he became an earnest advocate of such an undertaking.
- p. 7

More general

At the beginning of 1832 there were forty-four miles of railroad in operation in New York State - the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, 15 miles long, between Albany and Schenectady, and the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, 29 miles long, between the two places named. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company was chartered April 17, 1826, and was the first railroad in the United States designed for passenger traffic...
The construction of these railroads brought to New York State the first serious visitation of railroad fever in this country. There had been thirteen railroad companies chartered in the State since 1826, but, with the exception of the New York and Harlem, the Saratoga and Schenectady, the Rochester Railroad and Canal, and the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, nothing had been done on them beyond obtaining the charters. But a sudden craze for railroads came in the summer of 1831, and the Legislature of 1832 found no less than twelve applications for charters for railroads before it.
- p. 9

About three months later than the Monticello meeting (on September 20), a meeting was held at Jones's Tavern, Jamestown, Chautauqua County, to discuss the question of a railroad through the Southern Tier of counties, between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. This meeting was called chiefly though the effort of Richard P. Marvin, then a young and unknown lawyer, but who became a man of eminence, and, as Judge Marvin, had a reputation second to none in the State. Young Marvin had thought deeply on the question of better means of communication between tidewater and the Western part of the State, and was one of the first to foresee the superiority of a railroad for that purpose. Of this Jamestown meeting Hon. Elial T. Foote, who was the first judge of Chautauqua County, was the chairman. The result of the meeting was the drafting of the following notice by Mr. Marvin, which was published in the Albany Argus, then the " State Paper," and in the newspapers of the Southern Tier, such publication being a necessary legal procedure in those days:

Railroad. - Application will be made to the Legislature of this Slate at its next session for the passage of an act to incorporate a company to construct a Railroad from the city of New York through the Southern Tiers of counties and the Village of Jamestown to Lake Erie, with a capital of six millions of dollars, or such other sum as may be deemed necessary.

September 20, 1831.

This notice to the Legislature was practically the first positive step toward the project of building a railroad between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.

p. 10

First Administrations of Eleazar Lord, 1832-35[edit]

An Unsatisfactory Charter

The original draft of the charter for a company to build the proposed railroad was made by the Hon. John Duer of New York. In this the capital of the company was placed at $10,000,000, and it was provided that after the subscribing of $500,000 of that amount the company should have authority to organize.

The old opposition to the construction of any means of transportation through the State of New York that might divert business from and lessen the commercial and political influence of the canal counties at once showed itself among the representatives of those counties, and the proposed charter for such a thoroughfare was so amended during the session that when a charter was at last granted by the Legislature, April 24, 1832, it was by no means a document calculated to further the interests of a great public improvement, for the completion of which a large portion of the population of New York State was appealing, and on which the enhancement of the material interests of a wide extent of the country at large depended. (Page 295, " Fighting Its Way.")

As finally adopted, the charter fixed the capital of the company at $10,000,000, but provided that it should all be subscribed and 5 per cent, of the subscriptions ($500,000) paid in before a company should be organize; named as incorporators Samuel Swartwout, Stephen Whitney, Peter White, Cornelius Harsen, Eleazar Lord, Daniel LeRoy, William C. Redfield, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, Jeremiah H. Pierson, William Townsend, Egbert Jansen, Charles Borland, Abram M. Smith, Alpheus Dimmick, Randall S. Street, John P. Jones, George D. Wickham, Joseph Curtis, John L. Gorham, Joshua Whitney, Christopher Eldridge, James McKinney, James Pumpelly, Charles Pumpelly, John R. Drake, Jonathan Piatt, Luther Gere, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jeremiah S. Beebe, Ebenezer Mack, Ansel St. John, Andrew DeWitt Bruyn, Stephen Tuttle, Lyman Covell, Robert Covell, John Arnot, John Magee, William McCoy, William S. Hubbell, William Bauman, Arthur H. Erwin, Henry Brother, Philip Church, Samuel King, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, Jr., Henry I. Wyckoff, Richard M. Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, Hubert Van Wagenen, David Rogers, John Hone, John G. Coster, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Thomas R. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Benjamin L. Swan, Grant B. Baldwin, William Maxwell, and Darius Bentley — representative men of the city of New York. and of each county - interested in the building of the railroad; provided for the construction of a double, single, or treble track railroad from New York, or some point near New York, through the Southern Tier, by way of Owego, to Lake Erie, the railroad to be begun within four years, and $200,000 expended in construction within one year thereafter, one-quarter of the railroad to be completed and in operation within ten years from the date of the charter, one-half within fifteen years, the whole within twenty years, or the charter to be null and void ; named a subscription committee of eighty persons, a majority of them living at a distance from New York City, where the headquarters of the company were to be established, and provided that work should not be begun on a double track until the first one was completed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, and passengers and freight had been carried over.

p. 15-16

Resignation as president, and installation as vice-President and treasurer

The survey of the route for the great railroad had been made, but it was not claimed to be one on which the entire route was to be located. There was still much to be done before the final location and beginning of the working of construction could be accomplished. The result of Eleazar Lord's management of the preliminary construction affairs of the Company had not met with the entire approval of some members of the Board of Directors and certain friends of the contemplated railroad in New York City and interior counties, and being unable to restore harmony, he resigned the office in January, 1835. At a meeting of the Board of Directors February 4 following, James Gore King was elected to succeed him, and the thanks of the Board and of the stockholders were voted to the retiring President for "the great ability and disinterested zeal with which he has discharged the duties of that office." It was also resolved by the Board that "the funds of the Company, in the hands of Messrs. Prime, Ward & King, consisting of the full amount of the first instalment of 10.000 shares of the stock, subscribed July, 1833, be deposited until otherwise ordered with the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, subject of the joint order of the President and Vice-President."
... On the resignation of Mr. Lord as President, Goold Hoyt retired from the Vice-Presidency. Mr. Lord was unanimously elected to succeed him, and was also elected Treasurer in place of William G. Buckner, who resigned office and from the Directory. Three others of the old Board retired, and Peter G. Stuyvesant, John G. Coster, John Rathbone, Jr., all of New York, and Jeremiah H. Pierson of Ramapo, were elected to their places...
- p. 32

From register[edit]

Lord, Eleazar, biographical, 45S-460

-- original efforts of, toward a railroad, 7-13

-- participation of, in organization of the company, 13-19

-- selection of, as President, 19, 47, 72

-- policy of, criticised and suspected, 21, 50, 85

-- resignation of, from presidency, 32, 50, 85

-- investigation demanded by, 50, 446, 447

-- management of, exonerated, 50, 447

-- plan of, to expedite work, 43, 44, 46

-- insistence of, on six-foot gauge, 44, 45, 46

-- road-bed of wooden piles favored and fostered by, 4S, 323

-- permanent retirement of, from Erie affairs, 85