Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 20

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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been acquired by purchase or lease, the most important in the State being the line from Bloomington to St. Louis by way of Jacksonville. This was chartered in 1851 under the name of the St. Louis, Jacksonville & Chicago Railroad, was opened for business in January, 1868, and having been diverted from the route upon which it was originally projected, was completed to Blooming- ton and leased to the Chicago & Alton in 1868. In 1884 this branch was absorbed by the main line. Other important branches are the Kansas City Branch from Roodhouse, crossing the Mis- sissippi at Louisiana, Mo .; the Washington Branch from Dwight to Washington and Lacon, and the Chicago & Peoria, by which entrance is obtained into the city of Peoria over the tracks of the Toledo, Peoria & Western. The whole number of miles operated (1898) is 843.54, of which 580.73 lie in Illinois. Including double tracks and sidings, the Company has a total trackage of 1,186 miles. The total capitalization, in 1898, was $32, 793,972, of which $22,230,600 was in stock, and $6,694,850 in bonds. The total earnings and income for the year, in Illinois, were $5,022,315, and the operating and other expenses, $4,272,207. This road, under its management as it existed up to 1898, has been one of the most uni- formly successful in the country. Dividends have been paid semiannually from 1863 to 1884, and quarterly from 1884 to 1896. For a number of years previous to 1897, the dividends, had amounted to eight per cent per annum on both preferred and common stock, but later had been reduced to seven per cent on account of short crops along the line. The taxes paid in 1898 were $341,040. The surplus, June 30, 1895, exceeded two and three-quarter million dollars. The Chicago & Alton was the first line in the world to put into service sleeping and dining cars of the Pullman model, which have since been so widely adopted, as well as the first to run free reclining chair-cars for the convenience and comfort of its passengers. At the time the matter embraced in this volume is undergoing final revision (1899), negotiations are in progress for the purchase of this historic line by a syndi- cate representing the Baltimore & Ohio, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas systems, in whose interest it will hereafter be operated.

CHICAGO & AURORA RAILROAD. (See Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.)

CHICAGO & EASTERN ILLINOIS RAIL- ROAD. This company operates a line 516.3 miles in length, of which 278 miles are within Illinois.

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The main line in this State extends southerly from Dolton Junction (17 miles south of Chicago) to Danville. Entrance to the Polk Street Depot in Chicago is secured over the tracks of the Western Indiana Railroad. The company owns several important branch lines, as follows: From Momence Junction to the Indiana State Line; from Cissna Junction to Cissna Park; from Dan- ville Junction to Shelbyville, and from Sidell to Rossville. The system in Illinois is of standard gauge, about 108 miles being double track. The right of way is 100 feet wide and well fenced. The grades are light, and the construction (including rails, ties, ballast and bridges), is generally excellent. The capital stock outstand- ing (1895) is $13,594, 400; funded debt, $18,018,000; floating debt, $916,381; total capital invested, $32,570,781; total earnings in Illinois, $2,592,072; expenditures in the State, $2,595,631. The com- pany paid the same year a dividend of six per cent on its common stock ($286,914), and reported a surplus of $1,484, 762. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois was originally chartered in 1865 as the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad, its main line being completed in 1872. In 1873, it defaulted on interest, was sold under foreclosure in 1877, and reorganized as the Chicago & Nashville, but later in same year took its present name. In 1894 it was consolidated with the Chicago & Indiana Coal Railway. Two spurs (5.27 miles in length) were added to the line in 1895. Early in 1897 this line obtained control of the Chicago, Paducah & Memphis Railroad, which is now operated to Marion, in Williamson County. (See Chicago, Paducah & Memphis Railroad.)

CHICAGO & GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. Of the 335.27 miles of the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railroad, only 30.65 are in Illinois, and of the latter 9.7 miles are operated under lease. That portion of the line within the State extends from Chicago easterly to the Indiana State line. The Company is also lessee of the Grand Junction Railroad, four miles in length. The Road is capitalized at $6,600,000, has a bonded debt of $12.000,000 and a floating debt (1895) of $2.271, 425, making the total capital invested, $20,871,425. The total earnings in Illinois for 1895 amounted to 8660,393; disbursements within the State for the same period, 8345.233. The Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway, as now constituted, is a consoli- dation of various lines between Port Huron, Mich., and Chicago, operated in the interest of the Grand Truuk Railway of Canada. The Illi- nois section was built under a charter granted in 1878 to the Chicago & State Line Railway Com-

pany, to form a connection with Valparaiso, Ind. This corporation acquired the Chicago & South- ern Railroad (from Chicago to Dolton), and the Chicago & State Line Extension in Indiana, all being consolidated under the name of the North- western Grand Trunk Railroad. In 1880, a final consolidation of these lines with the eastward connections took place under the present name- the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway.

CHICAGO & GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY. (See Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway.)

CHICAGO & GREAT SOUTHERN RAILROAD. (See Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway.)

CHICAGO & ILLINOIS SOUTHERN RAIL- WAY. (See Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Rail- way.)

CHICAGO & MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD. (See Chicago & Alton Railroad. )

CHICAGO & NASHVILLE RAILROAD. (See Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.)

CHICAGO & NORTHERN PACIFIC RAIL- ROAD. (See Chicago Terminal Transfer Rail- road.)

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY, one of the great trunk lines of the country, pene- trating the States of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michi- gan, Iowa, Minnesota and North and Southi Dakota. The total length of its main line, branches, proprietary and operated lines, on May 1. 1899, was 5,076.89 miles, of which 594 miles are operated in Illinois, all owned by the company. Second and side tracks increase the mileage to a total of 7,217.91 miles. The Chicago & Northwestern Railway (proper) is operated in nine separate divisions, as follows: The Wis- consin, Galena, Iowa, Northern Iowa, Madison, Peninsula. Winona and St. Peter, Dakota and Ashland Divisions The principal or main lines of the "Northwestern System," in its entirety, are those which have Chicago, Omaha, St. Paul and Minneapolis for their termini, though their branches reach numerous important points within the States already named. from the shore of Lake Michigan on the east to Wyoming on the west, and from Kansas on the south to Lake Superior on the north .- (HISTORY. ) The Chi- cago & Northwestern Railway Company was organized in 1859 under charters granted by the Legislatures of Illinois and Wisconsin during that year, under which the new company came into possession of the rights and franchises of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad Com- pany. The latter road was the outgrowth of various railway enterprises which had been pro-

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

jected, chartered and partly constructed in Wis- consin and Illinois, between 1848 and 1855, including the Madison & Beloit Railroad, the Rock River Valley Union Railroad, and the Illi- nois & Wisconsin Railroad-the last named com- pany being chartered by the Illinois Legislature in 1851, and authorized to build a railroad from Chicago to the Wisconsin line. The Wisconsin Legislature of 1855 authorized the consolidation of the Rock River Valley Union Railroad with the Illinois enterprise, and, in March, 1855, the con- solidation of these lines was perfected under the name of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad. During the first four years of its exist- ence this company built 176 miles of the road, of which seventy miles were between Chicago and the Wisconsin State line, with the sections con- structed in Wisconsin completing the connection between Chicago and Fond du Lac. As the result of the financial revulsion of 1857, the corporation became financially embarrassed, and the sale of its property and franchises under the foreclosure of 1859, already alluded to, followed. This marked the beginning of the present corporation, and, in the next few years, by the construction of new lines and the purchase of others in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, it added largely to the extent of its lines, both constructed and projected. The most important of these was the union effected with the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which was formally consolidated with the Chi- cago & Northwestern in 1864. The history of the Galena & Chicago Union is interesting in view of the fact that it was one of the earliest railroads incorporated in Illinois, having been chartered by special act of the Legislature during the "internal improvement" excitement of 1836. Besides, its charter was the only one of that period under which an organization was effected, and although construction was not begun under it until 1847 (eleven years afterward), it was the second railroad constructed in the State and the first leading from the city of Chicago. In the forty years of its history the growth of the Chi- cago & Northwestern has been steady, and its success almost phenomenal. In that time it has not only added largely to its mileage by the con- struction of new lines, but has absorbed more lines than almost any other road in the country, until it now reaches almost every important city in the Northwest. Among the lines in Northern Illinois now constituting a part of it, were several which had become a part of the Galena & Chicago Union before the consolidation. These included a line from Belvidere to Beloit, Wis .; the Fox

River Valley Railroad, and the St. Charles & Mississippi Air Line Railroad-all Illinois enter- prises, and more or less closely connected with the development of the State. The total capi- talization of the line, on June 30, 1898, was $200,968,108, of which $66,408,821 was capi- tal stock and $101,603,000 in the form of bonds. The earnings in the State of Illinois, for the same period, aggregated $4,374,923, and the expenditures $3,712,593. At the present time (1899) the Chicago & Northwestern is build- ing eight or ten branch lines in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. The Northwestern System, as such, comprises nearly 3,000 miles of road not included in the preceding statements of mileage and financial condition. Although owned by the Chicago & Northwestern Company, they are managed by different officers and under other names. The mileage of the whole system covers nearly 8,000 miles of main line.

CHICAGO & SPRINGFIELD RAILROAD. (See Illinois Central Railroad.)

CHICAGO & TEXAS RAILROAD, a line seventy-three miles in length, extending from Johnston City by way of Carbondale westerly to the Mississippi, thence southerly to Cape Girar- deau. The line was originally operated by two companies, under the names of the Grand Tower & Carbondale and the Grand Tower & Cape Girar- deau Railroad Companies. The former was chartered in 1882, and the road built in 1885; the latter, chartered in 1889 and the line opened the same year. They were consolidated in 1893, and operated under the name of the Chicago & Texas Railroad Company. In October, 1897, the last named line was transferred, under a twenty-five year lease, to the Illinois Central Railroad Com- pany, by whom it is operated as its St. Louis & Cape Girardeau division.

CHICAGO & WESTERN INDIANA RAIL- ROAD. The main line of this road extends from Chicago to Dolton, IlI. (17 miles), and affords ter- minal facilities for all lines entering the Polk St. Depot at Chicago. It has branches to Hammond, Ind. (10.28 miles); to Cragin (15.9 miles), and to South Chicago (5.41 miles); making the direct mileage of its branches 48.59 miles. In addition, its second, third and fourth tracks and sidings increase the mileage to 204.79 miles. The com- pany was organized June 9, 1879; the road opened in 1880, and, on Jan. 26, 1882, consolidated with the South Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Company, and the Chicago & Western Indiana Belt Railway. It also owns some 850 acres in fee in Chicago, including wharf property on the

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Chicago River, right of way, switch and transfer yards, depots, the Indiana grain elevator, etc. The elevator and the Belt Division are leased to the Belt Railway Company of Chicago, and the rest of the property is leased conjointly hy the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Chicago & Grand Trunk, the Chicago & Erie, the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, and the Wabash Railways (each of which owns $1,000,000 of the capital stock), and by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. These companies pay the expense of operation and maintenance on a mileage basis.

CHICAGO & WISCONSIN RAILROAD. (See Wisconsin Central Lines.)

CHILDS, Robert A., was born at Malone, Franklin County, N. Y., March 22, 1845, the son of an itinerant Methodist preacher, who settled near Belvidere, Boone County, Ill., in 1852. His home having been broken up by the death of his mother, in 1854, he went to live upon a farm. In April, 1861, at the age of 16 years, he enlisted in the company of Captain (afterwards General) Stephen A. Hurlbut, which was later attached to the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteers. After being mustered out at the close of the war, he entered school, and graduated from the Illinois State Normal University in 1870. For the following three years he was Principal and Superintendent of public schools at Amboy, Lee County, meanwhile studying law, and being admitted to the bar. In 1873, he began the practice of his profession at Chicago, making his home at Hinsdale. After filling various local offices, in 1884 he was chosen Presidential Elector on the Republican ticket, and, in 1892, was elected by the narrow majority of thirty-seven votes to represent the Eighth Illinois District in the Fifty-third Con- gress, as a Republican.

CHILLICOTHE, a city in Peoria County, situ- ated on the Illinois River, at the head of Peoria Lake; is 19 miles north-northeast of Peoria, on the Peoria Branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. It is an important shipping point for grain, which is extensively raised in the surrounding region. Flour and carriages are the principal manufactures. It has a bank, three churches, a high school and two weekly news- papers. Population (1880), 836; (1890), 1,632.

CHINIQUY, (Rev.) Charles, clergyman and reformer, was born in Canada, July 30, 1809, of mixed French and Spanish blood, and educated for the Romish priesthood at the Seminary of St. Nicholet, where he remained ten years, gaining a reputation among his fellow students for extraor- dinary zeal and piety. Having been ordained

to the priesthood in 1833, he labored in various churches in Canada uutil 1851, when he accepted an invitation to Illinois with a view to building up the church in the Mississippi Valley. Locat- ing at the junction of the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers, in Kankakee County, he was the means of bringing to that vicinity a colony of some 5,000 French Canadians, followed by colonists from France, Belgium and other European countries. It has been estimated that over 50,000 of this class of emigrants were settled in Illinois within a few years. The colony em- braced a territory of some 40 square miles, with the village of St. Ann's as the center. Here Father Chiniquy began his labors by erecting churches and schools for the colonists. He soon became dissatisfied with what he believed to be the exercise of arbitrary authority by the ruling Bishop, then began to have doubts on the question of papal infallibility, the final result being a determination to separate himself from the Mother Church. In this step he appears to have been followed by a large proportion of the colo- nists who had accompanied him from Canada, but the result was a feeling of intense bitterness between the opposing factions, leading to much litigation and many criminal prosecutions, of which Father Chiniquy was the subject, though never convicted. In one of these suits, in which the Father was accused of an infamous crime, Abraham Lincoln was counsel for the defense, the charge heing proven to be the outgrowth of a conspiracy. Having finally determined to espouse the cause of Protestantism, Father Chiniquy allied himself with the Canadian Pres- bytery, and for many years of his active clerical life, divided his time between Canada and the United States, having supervision of churches in Montreal and Ottawa, as well as in this country. He also more than once visited Europe by special invitation to address important religious bodies in that country. He died at Montreal, Canada, Jan. 16, 1899, in the 90th year of his age.

CHOUART, Medard, (known also as Sieur des Groseilliers), an early French explorer, supposed to have been born at Touraine, France, about 1621. Coming to New France in early youth, he made a voyage of discovery with his brother-in- law, Radisson, westward from Quebec, about 1654-56, these two being believed to have been the first white men to reach Lake Superior. After spending the winter of 1658-59 at La Pointe, near where Ashland, Wis., now stands, they are believed by some to have discovered the Upper Mississippi and to have descended that

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stream a long distance towards its mouth, as they claimed to have reached a much milder climate and heard of Spanish ships on the salt water (Gulf of Mexico). Some antiquarians credit them, about this time (1659), with having visited the present site of the city of Chicago. They were the first explorers of Northwestern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and are also credited with having been the first to discover an inland route to Hudson's Bay, and with being the founders of the original Hudson's Bay Company. Groseillier's later history is unknown, but he ranks among the most intrepid explorers of the "New World" about the middle of the seventh century.

CHRISMAN, a village of Edgar County, at the intersection of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chi- cago & St. Louis and the Indiana, Decatur & Western Railways, 24 miles south of Danville. It has flour and saw mills. Population (1880), 541; (1890), 820.

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, a rich agricultural county, lying in the "central belt," and organized in 1839 from parts of Macon, Montgomery, Sangamon and Shelby Counties. The name first given to it was Dane, in honor of Nathan Dane, one of the framers of the Ordinance of 1787, but a political prejudice led to a change. A pre- ponderance of early settlers having come from Christian County, Ky., this name was finally adopted. The surface is level and the soil fertile, the northern half of the county being best adapted to corn and the southern to wheat. Its area is about 710 square miles, and its population (1890) was 30,531. The life of the early settlers was exceedingly primitive. Game was abun- dant; wild honey was used as a substitute for sugar; wolves were troublesome; prairie fires were frequent; the first mill (on Bear Creek) could not grind more than ten bushels of grain per day, by horse-power. The people hauled their corn to St. Louis to exchange for groceries. The first store was opened at Robertson's Point, but the county-seat was established at Taylorville. A great change was wrought in local conditions by the advent of the Illinois Central Railway, which passes through the eastern part of the county. Two other railroads now pass centrally through the county-the "Wabash" and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern. The principal towns are Taylorville (a railroad center and thriving town of 2,829 inhabitants), Pana, Morrisonville, Edin- burg, and Assumption.

CHURCH, Lawrence S., lawyer and legislator, was born at Nunda, N. Y., in 1820; passed his

youth on a farm, but having a fondness for study, at an early age began teaching in winter with a view to earning means to prosecute his studies in law. In 1843 he arrived at McHenry, then the county-seat of McHenry County, Ill., having walked a part of the way from New York, paying a portion of his expenses by the delivery of lec- tures. He soon after visited Springfield, and having been examined before Judge S. H. Treat, was admitted to the bar. On the removal of the county-seat from McHenry to Woodstock, he removed to the latter place, where he continued to reside to the end of his life. A member of the Whig party up to 1856, he was that year elected as a Republican Representative in the Twentieth General Assembly, serving by re-election in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second; in 1860, was supported for the nomination for Congress in the Northwestern District, but was defeated by Hon. E. B. Washburne; in 1862, aided in the organiza- tion of the Ninety-fifth Illinois Volunteers, and was commissioned its Colonel, but was compelled to resign before reaching the field on account of failing health. In 1866 he was elected County Judge of McHenry County, to fill a vacancy, and, in 1869 to the Constitutional Convention of 1869-70. Died, July 23, 1870. Judge Church was a man of high principle and a speaker of decided ability.

CHURCH, Selden Marvin, capitalist, was born at East Haddam, Conn., March 4, 1804; taken by his father to Monroe County, N. Y., in boyhood, and grew up on a farm there, but at the age of 21, went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in teaching; being one of the earliest teachers in the public schools of that city. Then, having spent some time in mercantile pursuits in Roches- ter, N. Y., in 1835 he removed to Illinois, first locating at Geneva, but the following year removed to Rockford, where he continued to reside for the remainder of his life. In 1841, he was appointed Postmaster of the city of Rock- ford by the first President Harrison, remaining in office three years. Other offices held by him were those of County Clerk (1843-47), Delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention (1847), Judge of Probate (1849-57), Representative in the Twenty-third General Assembly (1863-65), and member of the first Board of Public Charities by appointment of Governor Palmer, in 1869, being re-appointed by Governor Beveridge, in 1873, and, for a part of the time, serving as Presi- dent of the Board. He also served, by appoint- ment of the Secretary of War, as one of the Commissioners to assess damages for the Govern- ment improvements at Rock Island and to locate

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

the Government bridge between Rock Island and Davenport. During the latter years of his life he was President for some time of the Rockford Insurance Company ; was also one of the origina- tors, and, for many years, Managing Director of the Rockford Water Power Company, which has done so much to promote the prosperity of that city, and, at the time of his death, was one of the Directors of the Winnebago National Bank. Died at Rockford, June 23, 1892.

CHURCHILL, George, early printer and legis- lator, was born at Hubhardtown, Rutland County, Vt., Oct. 11, 1789; received a good edu- cation in his youth, thus imbibing a taste for literature which led to his learning the printer's trade. In 1806 he became an apprentice in the office of the Albany (N. Y.) "Sentinel," and, after serving his time, worked as a journeyman printer, thereby accumulating means to purchase a half-interest in a small printing office. Selling this out at a loss, a year or two later, he went to New York, and, after working at the case some five months, started for the West, stopping en route at Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Louisville. In the latter place he worked for a time in the office of "The Courier," and still later in that of "The Correspondent," then owned by Col. Elijah C. Berry, who subsequently came to Illinois and served as Auditor of Public Accounts. In 1817 he arrived in St. Louis, but, attracted by the fer- tile soil of Illinois, determined to engage in agri- cultural pursuits, finally purchasing land some six miles southeast of Edwardsville, in Madison County, where he continued to reside the re- mainder of his life. In order to raise means to improve his farm, in the spring of 1819 he worked as a compositor in the office of "The Missouri Gazette"-the predecessor of "The St. Louis Republic." While there he wrote a series of articles over the signature of "A Farmer of St. Charles County," advocating the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union without slavery, which caused considerable excitement among the friends of that institution. During the same year he aided Hooper Warren in establishing his paper, "The Spectator," at Edwardsville, and, still later, became a frequent contributor to its columns, especially during the campaign of 1822-24, which resulted, in the latter year, in the defeat of the attempt to plant slavery in Illinois. In 1822 he was elected Represent- ative in the Third General Assembly, serving in that body hy successive re-elections until 1832. His re-election for a second term, in 1824, demon- strated that his vote at the preceding session, in

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 20

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388