Bob Holbrook relates that his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. McDuffy, lived on South Hill, Otto, and that in 1864 his grandfather helped to build shanties to house the Irish immigrants who worked on the railroad. Bob claims that before the timber was cut the almost finished right-of-way through the woods was a delightful place for hiking.
Floyd Finch of Little Valley tells an interesting incident that took place in the winter of 1864-1865 when the Buffalo Extension of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad was being built through the town of Otto. His grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Finch, lived on the Swamp Road and boarded a crew of woodcutters who were clearing an opening 100 feet wide through the tall timber for the right-of-way. Once on a pay day the contractor failed to pay his men. When it became evident that he would not or could not pay, the men decided to pay themselves. They went at night to the office in Waverly, now Otto, forced the door open, put the safe into a wagon and drove into the country. They opened the safe and … it was empty!
Everett Potter, 94, of Collins Center says that his grandfather, Sylvester Bates, supplied fresh meat to a railroad construction labor camp in 1864-65. This camp was located on Foster road near the farm home of Wendell Watkins where there is now a thicket of young evergreen trees. There is a tradition that in a brawl an Irishman was struck by another with a shillelagh and now lies buried in the thicket.
Lumber for bridges was sawed by water powered mills of the up and down type. When railroad work stopped some of the sawed bridge lumber was left at the mills. Earl Hemstreet tells of his grandfather’s experiences in hauling some extra long timbers to Otto for the construction of the new woolen mill.
Luther Borden, formerly of South Hill, reports this tradition. A field of ripe grain belonging to Sam Harvey was flattened to the ground by a windstorm. The Irish immigrant laborers, employed by the railroad contractor, saved the crop by harvesting it with sickles which they were accustomed to use in the old country.
The Erie Railroad had been built through the town of Cattaraugus in 1851. In 1860 the road from Salamanca (formerly called Great Valley Station) to Jamestown was completed by the Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company. Not until 1872 was the railroad from Jamestown to Buffalo built by Buffalo and Southwestern.
The History of Cattaraugus County 1879, page 62, quotes the old Randolph Whig as follows:
During the year 1864 the Buffalo Extension of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, then under the management of Sir Morton Peto and James McHenry, organized this branch to get an outlet independent of the Erie Railway from Randolph to Buffalo through the towns of Napoli, New Albion, and Otto. During the winter and spring of 1864-65 considerable work was done in grading and preparing for extensive work. About this time satisfactory arrangements were made with the Erie Company and work was suspended.
This is the only contemporary record found giving an explanation as to why the idea of the railroad and bridge was abandoned.
Source: Undated newspaper article, probably from Cattaraugus, NY, about 1961.