In 1865, the NJ state legislature authorized The Passaic Valley and Peapack Railroad Company to build a railroad from Essex or Union counties westward along the Passaic River to Basking Ridge and on to Peapack. A later amendment authorized an extension to the Delaware River between Milford and Frenchtown. John H. Anderson (1813-1875) of Bernards Township was President and Morris P. Crater (1800-1876) of Bedminster Township served as Treasurer. Local landowners like Abraham Dunn (1807-1874) of Passaic Township, whose lands the railroad crossed, and David R. Runyon (1796-1886) became stockholders. The certificate above was issued in 1866 to Runyon.
The railroad’s ambitions were never fully realized. In 1870, the name was changed to the New Jersey West Line Rail Road and the tracks were completed to Bernardsville in 1872. It was 1890 before a successor company under control of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western extended the line to Peapack and Gladstone where NJ Transit’s Gladstone Branch ends to this day.
See other Passaic Valley and West Line railroad documents in the THSSH Online Collections.
