Aberdeen's Broken Rail Promise
The city takes legal action against local investors after a transit company fails to deliver its promised electric railway.
The suit of the city of Aberdeen vs. Honey, Hamilton, Bridges, and Oumette has been commenced, and the papers have been served on the defendants. The action is brought upon a bond for the sum of $2,500 given by the defendants to the city in April 1891. The condition of the bond was that the Pacific Wheeless Electric Railway Company would have completed and in operation a system of street railway in Aberdeen within one year from that date, or in case of its failure to do so, the parties named above would pay the city $2,500. In consideration of this bond, a franchise was given to the company.
“The condition of the bond was that the Pacific Wheeless Electric Railway company would have completed and in operation a system of street railway in Aberdeen within one year.”
Public-private partnerships and the frustration of stalled infrastructure projects are as much a part of Aberdeen's history as they are its modern reality. The legal battle highlights the early era's aggressive pursuit of transit growth through speculative bonds.
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