Vincent Francis Seyfried

“ When a passenger who stepped out on the platform of a way station for a moment was adjudged to have broken his trip and liable for an additional ticket, the papers dryly suggested that the conductor was merely aping the manners of his master. ”

“ That day the 4 P.M. train made the scheduled trip and found several passengers huddled in one of the coaches at Hunter's Point who had spent the night in the car. Once again the ferry boats were out of service; the East River, for the first time in many years, had frozen over solid from shore to shore and venturesome persons were crossing on the ice. When the train attempted to return to Flushing, it became wedged in a drift at West Flushing and had to be dug out by a rescue train. ”

“ The editor primly concluded his account with the acid comment that "those who elect to go to the devil should not be allowed to distract pious people."
There was much discussion during these early years as to what fare should be charged to earn a fair return on the investment. The through fare was set at 20¢ from Flushing to New York. Passengers from West Flushing and Newtown paid 15¢, Winfield 121⁄2¢, Maspeth and Penny Bridge 10¢. Several of the stockholders strongly objected to permitting the way passengers to pay a lower fare than the through passengers. ”

“ From these fragmentary statistics, it seems obvious that by far the largest proportion of the company's income came from single trip riders, who patronized the road largely during the summer months. We lack figures on winter riding, unfortunately, but the small proportion of income from commutation holders leads us to suspect that the number of regular daily riders was small. Even the income from freight appears negligible. ”

“ Subscriptions to the stock had been made on the express condition that "no cars or car should be allowed to run upon said road on the Sabbath, or at least no passengers or freight shall be carried over or upon the road on that day." For the first five years this pledge was solemnly kept and not a wheel turned on the road on Sunday. On one occasion the workmen took out an engine on Sunday to touch up the pile work near Penny Bridge and suddenly came upon a group of children swinging and playing on the trestlework. ”

“ Regular statistics for passenger operation for this early period are long since lost, but from chance remarks scattered in the newspapers, we can glean a few interesting figures. In the summer of 1855 patronage was as follows:
In the second week of July 1854 when the road first opened, the average daily receipts were $35.34; the same week in 1855 netted $151.26 per diem, quite an increase in travel in one year. In 1856 the July total of passengers was 26,535, or roughly 1000 persons a day; the 1856 season, as a whole, reflected, we are told, an increase of 121⁄2% over that of 1855. ”

“ Abraham S. Hewitt took over financial management of the road for Messrs. Cooper, Brush and Bowne, and arranged for the appointment of Oliver Charlick as president of the road. Charlick was manager of the Eighth Avenue R.R. Co. in New York (a horse car line) and a man of wealth and formidable business acumen. It is possible that Hewitt may have offered some financial inducement to Charlick to run the Flushing R.R. On March 22, 1859 Hewitt reincorporated the old road under the new name of New York & Flushing R.R. Co. ”