“… At the age of twelve years, owing to the financial crash of 1837, which caught his father among the victims, John Barden began his career in the employ of the Nashua Railroad Company which he continued till 1848 when he followed his brother, William W. Barden, and P. W. Jones of Nashua, N.H., to Ithaca to finish the latter’s contract of building the railroad between Ithaca and Owego. The two brothers, William and John, became foremen of the rail and tie laying gangs. This road replaced the horse railroad that had been in operation for a number of years.
In December, 1849, the Bardens had completed their work and John Barden went to Scranton, Pa., in the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, his work covering the territory between Scranton and Binghamton. Two years later he returned to Ithaca and superintended the gang of laborers during the filling of the Seager trestle that forms the curve on the Lackawanna railroad near Buttermilk Falls. When this work was completed Mr. Barden acted as agent of the company’s wholesale and shipping yard near the steamboat landing at the Inlet for nine years, after which he served as a conductor between Ithaca and Owego until 1886 when he retired after 36 years in the service of the Company.”