pany, that remain to be liquidated, which are almost exclusively due to members of the corporation. All which is respectfully submitted. January 19, 1837. AND'W ROBESON, M. H. RUGGLES, BRISTOL SS. JAN. 19, 1837. Then Micah H. Ruggles appeared, and made oath that the annexed statement was true, according to the best of his knowledge and belief; and Andrew Robeson and Harvey Chace each affirmed to the same thing. Before me, JAMES FORD, Justice of the Peace. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court assembled, in January, 1837: The Directors of the Norwich and Worcester Rail-road Company, submit the following Report. Under the authority of an act of the Legislature of Connecticut, passed in 1832, a company was organized, with a capital of one million of dollars for the purpose of constructing a rail-road from the city of Norwich through that state in a direction towards the city of Boston. To give effect to the object of opening a channel of communication through an important section of Connecticut to Boston, the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1833 incorporated a company with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars, with authority to construct a railroad from the termination of the Boston and Worcester Rail-road at Worcester to meet the road from Norwich at the dividing line between the two states. By a joint act of the Legislatures of both states, passed at their sessions in January and May last, the two companies were united, and now constitute one corporation. In presenting their first report to your honorable body, the directors ask leave to make some general statements in regard to the important work committed to their charge. The route selected for the road is from Norwich by the bank of the Shetucket river three miles to its junction with the Quinebaug-thence by the bank of the Quinebaug river through the towns of Lisbon, Griswold, Plainfield, Brooklyn, Killingly and Thompson in Connecticut, and thence through Dudley, Webster and Oxford, in the valley of the French river, to the summit in Ward. At this point the route follows a branch of the Blackstone river which empties at Worcester. The very direct course of these streams, and the known favorable features of the country, have, from time to time, for years past, awakened public attention to the facility and importance of constructing a canal or rail-road from the waters of Long Island Sound at Norwich, to the extensive and flourishing county of Worcester. Three surveys have been made of this region for different purposes. The first was in the year 1824, with the view of procuring the repeal of the laws of Connecticut in relation to the fisheries on these rivers, which prohibited the erection of dams for manufacturing purposes, and of bringing into use this immense unemployed water power. This survey ascertained two facts:-1. That the county was in every respect favorable for the construction of a canal or rail-road-and 2. That there was an amount of waterpower on the Shetucket and Quinebaug rivers alone, sufficient to carry at least 500,000 spindles. The second of these surveys was made by Col. James F. Baldwin, an engineer of experience and reputation, with great minuteness and care. By his report, it appears that the average elevation from Norwich to the Massachusetts line was but 7 74-100 feet per mile, and no difficult elevations to overcome. A favorable charter was granted to a company for the construction of this canal, but before any measures were adopted to avail themselves of these facilities, the superior advantages of rail-roads became known, and led the friends of the canal to prefer that mode of communication. |