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''United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co.'' was a case to prevent trolley operations on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The dispute began in August 1891 when the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association's board approved attorney (Samuel Swope's ) motion to deny trolley right-of-way along GBMA roads.〔 (cited by Unrau p. 64) NOTE: In 1894 during the trolley suit, Swope became a judge.〕 Despite the 1896 US Supreme Court ruling that the railway could be seized for historic preservation,〔 as well as earlier legislative efforts to appropriate federal acquisition funds, create a War Department commission, and form the Gettysburg National Military Park; the trolley continued operations until obsolete in 1916. ==Background== Near the end of the 19th century, tourists to the 1863 Gettysburg Battlefield typically arrived at the borough by train and paid fees for horse-drawn jitney taxis to travel over the battlefield on primitive wagon roads of the private Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. The GBMA owned less than of the battlefield's much larger area,() and nearly all military engagement areas were privately owned and had 12 small GBMA-owned monument plots of .〔 Some owners rented land for camping, sold souvenirs/refreshments, and by 1894 required top dollar prices for real estate purchases.〔 Similarly, the original battlefield roads had fallen into disrepair after the GBMA funds had become nearly exhausted by late 1882. Despite the preceding 1884 Round Top Branch steamtrain railroad that operated across the field of Pickett's Charge and Hancock Avenue to Round Top Station, an 1892 meeting next-door at the Round Top School formed an opposition committee of Cumberland Township voters (William H. Tipton was the only attendee favoring the trolley,〔 also attended ((1892 Gettysburg Compiler, ) (1942 Out of the Past articles) )〕 and the township subsequently granted road right-of-way.)〔 ;Gettysburg Park Commission: The Gettysburg Park Commission (GPC) was established by the United States Department of War on March 3, 1893,〔 ((NPS webpage for monument MN508) )〕 for "ascertaining the extent of…the trolley" (trolley track construction began April 1893).〔 The Appropriations Act of 1893 on March 3 had funded $25,000,〔 a June 9 supplemental act directed "acquisition and designation by tablets of the lines of battle", and the battlefield survey "was at once commenced" after topographer Emmor Cope was selected at the 1st commission meeting on July 1.〔 Federal acquisition of land that would become the 1895 Gettysburg National Military Park began on June 2, 1893, with a tract of from John H. Miller & wife. By July 1893, GPC commissioner John B. Bachelder reported to the Secretary of War〔 ((local article, ) (New York Times article) )〕 about battlefield railbed construction (notably planned along the west of The Angle's historic stone wall), and acting secretary Lewis A. Grant referred the complaint to the acting Judge Advocate General.〔 Trolley right-of-way over the private 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument tract at The Angle was denied by June 13, 1893;〔 and the route was changed to instead use the Emmitsburg Road. During the July 2–3, 1893, New York Monuments Commission visit for dedicating the 44th New York monument with observation deck on Little Round Top, two altercations against photographer Tipton resulted in a writ by local Judge McClean against General Daniel Sickles, General Daniel Butterfield, and 2 civil war colonels.() The writ was followed by an August 2, 1893, trolley complaint to the commonwealth by the GBMA, Edward McPherson, & 39 other citizens; and a counter petition by 268 Gettysburg & 58 Cumberland township citizens favoring the trolley.〔 The PA Attorney General denied action after the subsequent hearing: "''the right of owners of private property--whatever public interest may attach to it--to dispose of it to passenger railway corporations, cannot be disputed. …the line itself…has been chosen with a view of affording tourists the best possible means of visiting and viewing this great battlefield and doing the least possible injury to its natural conditions''".〔 (published in Gettysburg Times, August 15)〕 Despite a lack of funds that halted construction in August 1893,() the railway began operations as early as September 1893 () and was completed to Tipton Park and Round Top Park in 1894. Also despite the lawsuit, a new trolley powerhouse was built to replace the original in the borough that had burnt down by January 22, 1895,〔 and by October 1895 total trackage was .〔 The trolley system had been sold to a new owner in the month prior to passage of the February 11, 1895, "Sickles Gettysburg Park Bill" that authorized federal land acquisition to form the Gettysburg National Military Park. Also during the federal suit, the railway company became insolvent and Judge Dallas had placed it into receivership by September 1895. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Co.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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