Businesses Past...

Gettysburg Electric Railway

The “embattled” Gettysburg Electric Railway Company (GERC), a railway streetcar operation, became “official” in 1891, when, according to the July 29, 1891, issue of The Philadelphia Times newspaper, “A charter was issued today (July 28) to the Gettysburg Electric Railway Company.”

 The newspaper noted that the “route lies from the central part of the village near the (railroad) depot to battlefield,” and that the company held a capital stock of $100,000.

Some claim (as published in Wikipedia) that the railroad was subsequently incorporated in 1892, but an article published on August 8, 1891, in the Adam County Independent, had reported, “On July 28th (1891), letters of incorporation were granted in Harrisburg to an (Gettysburg) Electric Railway Company…”  Letters of incorporation being granted denote that the railroad was, then and there, officially incorporated.

It would appear that the charter and the letters of incorporation had been granted on the same day, both of them, in Harrisburg. The (Shippensburg) News-Chronicle reported on May 27, 1892, that future plans included extending the trackage, in order to provide passenger service “to the battlefield direct to the High-Water Monument,” and running “a loop” around the battlefield. The newspaper further reported that extended trackage would also be used for carrying freight cars.

At a meeting of the GERC stockholders held on April 14, 1893, the capital stock was increased to $200,000, to finance the building of the railway, with July 1 intended as being the line’s operational start date, and that the site of a future electric power plant had already been purchased near the train station, according to the April 14, 1893 issue of the Harrisburg Telegraph. 

The power plant was constructed to power the trolley line, as well as to provide power to the community, and was leased from the trolley company by the Electric Light, Heat, and Power Company of Gettysburg.

According to an article published in the April 27, 1893, issue of The Oxford Press, 4,000 tons of rail had been secured by the GERC, and the railroad planned to run “twelve double-decker (trolley) cars with trailers, intended to carry as many as 2,000 people per hour to the battlefield.

Federal (not to mention other interested parties) objections to the plans proposed by the GERC had arisen as early as June 1893 when, according to a June 22, 1893, article published in the Gloucester County Democrat, John B. Bachelder (whose name was incorrectly spelled in the newspaper), was a member of the newly formed Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, engaged in “appeals for government aid to prevent desecration of the battlefield,” resulting in the GERC abandoning plans to run a portion of the tourist-line along the extent of the High-Water Mark.

The GERC opened for business on July 13, 1893, under a cloud of lingering, potential lawsuits. The (Harrisburg) Patriot News described the progress that had been made on the rail-line in their July 27, 1893, edition: “The road is now being operated as far as the Wheatfield and the ground occupied by Brook’s brigade near Devil’s Den.”

The newspaper had also mentioned that the GERC was also considering running a line into Emmitsburg.

But 1893 also seemed to have represented the GERC’s “high-water mark.” A merger with another rail-line proposed in 1897, the Washington, Westminster and Gettysburg Railway, was canceled, following the destruction (by fire) of the power plant that the GERC had built in Gettysburg.

In 1898, the assets of the GERC were sold to a new company, the Gettysburg Transit Company, according to a January 18, 1898, article published in the Gettysburg Compiler, thereby marking an end to the GERC (not in 1916 as some have stated).

The Gettysburg Transit Company was subsequently bought out by the Gettysburg Railway Company in 1910. Apparently, trolley service to the battlefield was concluded in 1916 under the auspices of the Gettysburg Railway Company (not the GERC), and whose assets (including the land holdings) were subsequently sold in 1917.  The land was purchased for $30,000 by the Gettysburg National Military Park.