Vincent Francis Seyfried

“ On Monday, June 24, 1872, a construction train made the first through trip from Flushing to Garden City, testing the rails and bridges. All the communities along the line and indeed over the island eagerly looked forward to the opening of the new road with its superb roadbed, brand new equipment and shining promise. On Saturday, July 13, 1872, the crossing of the L.I.R.R. was made at Garden City without unpleasant incident, and the construction train was able to make the maiden trip the next day over the Central as far as Farmingdale. ”

“ With his characteristic energy Stewart undertook immediately the development of this colossal tract, which extended from the New Hyde Park Road on the west to the borders of the Village of Farmingdale on the east; and from the Old Country Road on the north to the Hempstead village border on the south, measuring roughly ten miles in length by two miles in width. Stewart immediately contracted for 500 miles of wagon roads and appointed an engineer, John Kellum, to superintend the armies of workmen, who were grading roads, laying out parks and planting miles of shade trees. ”

“ In July the first steam shovel went to work and the second followed in August.
The operations at Rocky Hill were so spectacular that people came from miles around just to watch. One hundred men were constantly at work and locomotives with trains of cars moved up and down on each side of the summit. Two miles of trestle work were built, one mile on each side, to create a grade of precisely fifty feet to the mile. The cost of the machinery on the Rocky Hill section alone was $50,000 and the expense of furnishing the water needed for men and locomotives ran to $30 a day. ”

“ Once the Central R.R. of L.I. reached Babylon, all construction work on the road would be finished and the railroad would be complete as planned. To that end the directors now bent all their eports. In the last days of March 1873 Conrad Poppenhusen, in company with other railroad and real estate men, visited Babylon for the purpose of locating a depot there and settling other matters connected with the Babylon extension. The meadows along the east creek between the upper and lower docks were all bought up at $125 an acre for railroad purposes. ”

“ Both parties to the agreement set to work immediately to let contracts for building. John Kellum, Stewart's engineer, sent an order to the Prussian steel factories in Westphalia for 3,000 tons of steel rails, and gave to Mr. John C. Wright of Freeport the contract to grade the railroad right-of-way through the plains from Hyde Park to Farmingdale. The first ground was turned over in the Meadowbrook area east of Hempstead. A second group began work in the Hempstead Town cemetery grounds east of Franklin Avenue and along the present right-of-way in Garden City. ”

“ While the heavy work of excavation was progressing at Rocky Hill, materials for track laying, etc., were beginning to arrive. In the third week of April, railroad ties by the schooner load began arriving at Hunter's Point. In June, the steamboat Artisan began unloading both ties and rails, the latter wrought iron with steel facing. By the end of June thousands of ties and thousands of steel rails lay stacked on the piers with more cargo constantly arriving. ”

“ The handsome coaches elicited universal praise in every quarter.
Efforts were now made to finish the Bethpage Branch from the main line at Farmingdale to the brick works in the Bethpage Hills. In May 1872 the Bethpage Branch was surveyed to cross the L.I.R.R. main line a mile west of Farmingdale village. By July the brickworks had advanced so far as to deliver bricks to Stewart's main line in the vicinity of Jerusalem. These were hauled by team from the works, loaded onto freight cars, and carted to Garden City for the buildings going up on the plains there. ”

“ Three new engines, the Farmingdale, the Babylon and the Garden City, arrived during 1872 and sixteen new and elegant passenger coaches were delivered for service. Similarly, work on the stations made progress. In June the Hinsdale and Creedmoor stations went up; in October the engine house at Hempstead was finished and work on the brick depot began. ”

“ A. T. Stewart agreed to finance a steel double track road within the boundaries of his purchase from Hyde Part to Farmingdale and would use the finest materials available. The date for completion was to be July 4, 1872. The Poppenhusens, for their part, agreed to build a steel double track road from Flushing to Hyde Park, and to double track their existing line to Hunter's Point. The contract also bound them to issue to every newcomer who intended to make his home in Garden City or Hempstead a free ticket over the road for one year. ”

“ Just after the boy's sixteenth birthday his grandfather died, and he decided to come to America. For several years he lived an easy, scholarly life, reading for the most part and living on the income from his patrimony. ”

“ This gave the inhabitants of Farmingdal seven trains a day, which contrasted noticeably with the two on the Long Island R.R. The people naturally patronized Stewart's road in preference to Charlick's, because of the fine appointments of the cars and the fact that Stewart charged only 65¢ compared with Charlick's 80¢. Even the village benefited, for, with railroad accommodation assured, every available house in Farmingdale was rented for the summer. ”

“ Grading all along the route was the first task facing the directors and the contract for this job was given to a Mr. Ryan in the first week of May 1873. The contract called for progress of at least one mile per week, and 200 men were to be put to work. By mid-July all the grading was complete and the iron laid to within two miles of Babylon. In the last week of July the grading gang was in sight of the terminus, and the iron had reached Mintern's Brook. On July 26 the track layers reached the South Side R.R., ready to install the crossing frogs. ”

“ All these were scheduled for use in the erection of blocks of houses at Garden City. In November a very large brick stable and wagon house went up, and a shed for sheltering brick 462 × 60 also completed. An eighty-five horsepower steam engine powered the works, giving employment to thirty laborers.
During the winter of 1871–72 A. T. Stewart and Conrad Poppenhusen decided to enlarge the Central R.R. of L.I. beyond its original function of serving the Stewart purchase only; it was decided to extend southeast from Farmingdale to Babylon and the then fashionable watering place of Fire Island. ”