Collection: Canajoharie and Catskill Railway Collection

Scope and Contents

Materials within the collection deal primarily with legal issues that plagued the last years of the Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad (C and C RR) and later concerned John T. Mann as receiver of the company when it ceased to exist. Of particular note are State legislative reports concerning the C and C, and several legal cases concerning the recovery of funds by stockholders with interest in the defunct railroad.

Dates

Majority of material found in 1830-1970

Biographical / Historical

The Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad (C and C RR) was an early railway formed in 1830 for the purpose of directing freight traffic from Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley southeast towards the Village of Catskill. Prominent among the early proponents of the C and C were Jacob Haight and Thomas B. Cooke of Catskill, the latter serving as president of the Railroad for much of its existence. Encountering engineering and financial difficulties of various sorts, construction of the C and C did not commence until at least 1836, the rail line making its way to the vicinity of Cooksburg in Schoharie County by 1840. Financial troubles and an accident doomed the Railroad to a short existence, and the company ceased operations by 1842, at which point it went into receivership with John T. Mann of Catskill. For further information on the C and C RR please refer to chapters two, three, and four of "Rip Van Winkle Railroads" by William F. Helmer, first published 1970.

This artificial collection was assembled over the course of roughly fifty years by the staff and volunteers of the Greene County Historical Society and contains materials contributed by Mabel Parker Smith and Barbara Rivette, Charles Dornbusch, and Raymond Beecher that are either original documents concerning the C and C or various writings and correspondence on the subject of the C and C by themselves and others.