SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 315 



from York," if he had told the quiet villagers that after 

 twenty-five years he should visit them again; that he 

 would then take his breakfast in New-York City, and his 

 supper in Binghamton? That the might and power of 

 man; that the persevering energy of the Yankee, would 

 say to the granite hills — give way, and to the iron-bound 

 points of rocks, a hundred feet high along the Delaware, 

 we must pass; and that the hills should sink down, and 

 rocks of ages, grown grey in their strength, should yield 

 to the iron will of man, to make an iron road through 

 these hitherto impassable mountain fortresses. 



No one would have believed the wild dreamer. But all 

 this has been done. Who can realise it? The New- 

 Yorker reads of the New- York and Erie Railroad ; little 

 he knows of what its projectors and builders have ac- 

 complished. The city lady rejoices that now she can sip 

 pure milk, fresh from the mountain pastures of Orange 

 county; but how little she realises what a mountain- 

 moving power has been exerted to make a path to bring 

 this sweet luxury daily to her door. Let them go with 

 me along this mountain route, and be gladdened at the 

 sight of its beauties, and filled with surprise at its won- 

 ders, while they equally admire the works of nature and 

 art. 



Through the politeness of Mr. Loder,^ president of the 

 company, I received a free pass to enable me to go over 

 and examine the agricultural capabilities of the region 

 through which the road has been made. How can I de- 

 scribe and journey through a region, and along such a 

 road as this, and not have it appear tame and uninterest- 



' Benjamin Loder, born 1801 at South Salem, Westchester County, 

 New York; died 1876. After accumulating a fortune in the dry- 

 goods business in New York City, retired at the age of forty-three, 

 and transferred his activities to the New York and Erie Railroad 

 Company. As its president, 1845-1853, he guided it successfully 

 through a difficult financial situation. This feat accomplished, he 

 again retired from business and lived quietly until his death. Letter 

 from the Public Records Section, Archives and History Division, 

 University of the State of New York, Albany, to Herbert A. Kellar, 

 May 11, 1936. 



