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History

Branchline Articles

Mar. 2010

Branchline - March 2010, Volume 49, Number 3

The Mysterious Last Spike

Every rail line in existence today more than likely had their “last spike” ceremony with company officials, their families, a few notable workers, select politicians and the media.  The first thing that comes to a person’s mind about last spikes is the Canadian Pacific Railway ceremony.  No one really gives a thought that the smaller companies also had such celebrations.  Several books that are in circulation have documented such events.  Little did I know that my favourite rail route also had such an occasion.

I did believe that the Ottawa & New York Railway (O&NY) had a last spiking, but I had figured that since there was no mention of it, the opening day of July 29, 1898 was when it likely occurred.  I have learned with my research that I need to stop assume anything at all because most times what I had thought was truth turned out to not be the facts.  So it seems with O&NY’s last spike.

I have a web site on the history of the O&NY (www.nyc-ottawadivision.com) and the rest of the Ottawa line into the United States.  It was through that avenue that I received an e-mail from a gentleman named Terence Cottrell of Kingston, Ontario, whom had the site and read through it.  I do not exactly remember the date, but it was late Spring of 2005 when he had contacted me and Colin Churcher about an item he had found in his home while doing some odd house repairs.  I read through his letter and I initially thought that I received another question in relation to the railway.  As my eyes went side to side through his sentences I never expected to see a question and revelation about an O&NY last spike.

The entire line was built in sections while under four different company names (five if you count a minor name change of the O&NY), which were in two countries.  Throughout my research, I have not found any documentation or media reports covering a last spike ceremony for any of the completed sections for either side of our border.  It would have been like finding Solomon’s Temple for me if there was something written about John Hurd driving the last spike into the Northern Adirondack Railroad or Charles Hibbard doing so on the northern section that became the New York & Ottawa Railroad.  At least I had the report of the first sod being turned of the O&NY in Cornwall and in Ottawa which was just as valuable.  Terence’s e-mail was filled with something even better than an article or photograph, he had found in his home THE Last Spike of the O&NY!

I had to do a double take, a gasp of breath escaped from my lungs and my heart jumped.  Was what Terence telling me a fact or was the item that he had found just some souvenir of the event?  I was totally in shock and after an exchange of e-mails with Colin, I contacted Terence to get details.  He had wanted to donate the item to a local museum in Cornwall, which was a very good idea except for a few problems that had existed at that time.  Terence then asked if I would be interested in it since I had a few New York Central items.  I jumped at the chance and we arranged for a handover in Kingston.  When the day came, I was hyped up and as I drove along Highway 401, I tried to contemplate about if the spike was real and if so how did it get to Kingston?

Just to go ahead several weeks after that fateful drive, it was research time.  Terence had said that the date on the spike was December 9, 1897.  Immediately, Colin and I knew that the date did not correspond to the official opening of the O&NY line from Cornwall to Ottawa.  The first revenue train did operated between Crysler and Finch on October 21, 1897 so we easily eliminated that area as the location of the Last Spike ceremony.  We both went to our respected data files for the NYC Ottawa Division history and we were stumped.

In my records, an account in the Friday, December 3, 1897 issue of the Cornwall Standard stated:

     “Balch & Peppard laid six miles of track this week, which left them within eight miles of the Canada Atlantic this morning.  They expect to make a connection with that road at Hawthorne on Monday or Friday, if there is not a snow storm meanwhile.  They will then lay toward Cornwall, there still remaining about 11 miles to finish in this direction.”

This would have put the north end of rails at a point in or near Edwards while the south end was likely just south of the O&NY quarry between Northfield Station and Harrisons Corners.  Then the same newspaper of December 24th said that the south end was now at the Post Road cut, between Black River and Cornwall Centre.

Colin’s collection of data echoes what I had found with detail centred on the Ottawa area.  The difference between his accounts and mine are the details of work towards the Nation’s Capital.  The various newspaper sources he quoted did say that the tracks reached Hawthorne by the end of December and that work was almost done to Cornwall.  That is where I have my biggest problem at my end of the research.  All Cornwall newspapers from both publishers for the entire year of 1898 are missing, destroyed by a flood prior to the transfer to microfilm.  My research had to come from alternate sources while Colin continued his Ottawa end search.  We turned up not one single thing of a Last Spike Ceremony.

The Spike itself was indeed genuine.  I had taken it to a jeweller who use to be on the Heritage Cornwall committee with me and he said that it was a normal railway spike of that period plated with silver-chrome.  In his expert opinion, unless the railway company or a philanthropist connected to the company was in a very generous mood, this spike was used in a ceremony to drive the last one into the line.  Upon examination, you can see that the head of the spike was struck several times, about eleven good strong strikes and a few other careful blows by a hammer.  The very tip lost its plate covering from being pushed into something and all along the shaft you can see scratches left by whatever the spike was driven into, showing signs of rust now.  It is perfectly straight and stamped with “Ottawa & New York Ry. Dec 9th 97"

Colin and I had also conferred with Tony Burges and Douglas Smith, whom are also involved with the O&NY research, and nothing new was discovered.  So here we are today scratching our heads about this Last Spike.  When was the ceremony?  Who attended it?  Where was the Spike driven exactly?  Who came into possession of it?  How did it get into a heritage home in Kingston?  It is like this Spike had just dropped out of the sky and accidentally landed in a home in the wrong city in the St. Lawrence River Valley.  Of the questions above, we have agreed that it is in all likelihood that the Last Spike was driven in Cornwall but without that all important documentation, it is just a supposition of the event.  There was one option that only recently came across my desk.  What if this Spike was suppose to be “the Last Spike” and the date was assigned, but due to construction overrun there was no official ceremony and the Spike was finally driven without fanfare save for members of the railway company to just say, “The work is finally done.”  The newspapers of the time did quote Charles Hibbard, company owner, that trains would be running by the end of 1897.

So now back to my ride to Kingston.  When I arrived at the former Kingston & Pembroke Railway station in downtown Kingston, Terence was already there with Mark Bergin, a photographer for the Kingston Whig-Standard.  Thankfully I was dressed in my new suit so I was presentable.  He took a moment to tell me exactly how he had discovered the Spike on a shelf in a room of a home he had only bought a short time before.  Out of a spare eyeglasses case, he had the Spike wrapped in tissue paper and handed it to me to look at.  I was no expert on judging authenticity but the moment I saw it, I knew it was O&NY’s Last Spike.  Terence and I posed for a few pictures and due to time restrictions, he had to return to work.  I had skipped lunch to get to Kingston on time so I headed for Division Street to the Arby’s restaurant.

I sat in a booth with my wife, examining my new acquisition that would join my other NYC items at home.  I had tried to visualize what this Spike had seen and gone through since it was first made to be the last driven part of the Ottawa to Cornwall route.  Down the street, I saw a Canadian National Railway train slowly drive from under the Division Street bridge going westwards.  Then a thought came to me, this Spike had outlived the line that it symbolized as being completed over a hundred years ago.

Months later, when Colin and I were exasperated from searching for a ceremony account, Terence sent me the newspaper article that feature his handing over of the Spike to me from the Kingston Whig-Standard (November 17, 2005, page 7).  He had written an article about last spikes and gave a history of the O&NY and that I was presented with that line’s last spike.  I felt very honoured that he thought to pass it along to me.  At the Heritage Fair in February 2006, I proudly displayed that Spike for everyone to see.

Unfortunately, to this very day Colin and I have not been successful in finding the O&NY’s last spike ceremony date or if there was one held.  If anyone has a clue or knows of where we can solve this mystery of the Last Spike of the O&NY, please contact us.