History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 67

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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245

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

Railroad may be called the first great "St. Louis cut- off," and as such placed Chicago firmly upon her throne as the magnificent Queen of the West. The preface to this triumphant undertaking was the introduction of a bill in the State Senate, in 1832, by Lieutenant-Governor A. M. Jenkins, for the survey of a central railroad from Cairo to Peru. But public opinion had not yet been molded to see its necessity, and there the project rested. In 1834 the Chicago and Vincennes Railroad was incor- porated, but the work was not commenced for many years thereafter. Interest in the Central road was revived by an enthusiastic letter, which appeared in the public prints, written by Sidney Breese, Circuit Judge, afterward Judge of the State Supreme Court, and United States Senator. It is as follows :

" VANDALIA, October 16, 1835.

"JOHN T. SAWYER, ESQ.,

"Dear Sir :- Having some leisure from the labors of my circuit, I am induced to devote a portion of it in giving to the public a plan, the outline of which was suggested to me by an intelligent friend in Bond County a few days since (Mr. Waite of Greenville), by which the North may get their long-wished-for canal, and the southern and interior counties a channel of communication quite as essential to their prosperity. In doing so, I have not stopped to inquire if my motives may not be assailed, and myself subjected to unkind remarks, believing, as I do, that the subject is of so much importance as to throw all personal considerations into the shade. The plan then is this : At the junction of the canal with the Illinois River let a railroad be constructed, to extend to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, following, as near as may be, the third principal meridian, and let the credit of the State be pledged for the funds necessary to complete both works. This would be doing equal and impartial justice to three of the most prominent portions of our State, and would create a unity of effort and concert of action that would overcome every obstacle, The General Government also would grant some of the noappropriated land on the contemplated road throughout its whole extent in aid of the undertaking, and that it can be accomplished with the means we can raise there can be no manner of doubt. When made its benefits will be incalculable. It will make the southern and in- terior counties, cause them to settle, raise the value of their lands (which are intrinsically as good as any), and furnish the means of transportation for their products either to a Northern or Southern market, of which they are now destitute. It is a stupendous pro- ject, but one so easy of accomplishment, so just, so equal, and so well calculated to revive the drooping energies of the South and of the interior, that no doubt can be entertained. if our effort is made at the approaching session of the Legislature, but that the canal and the road will be under contract in less than six months after the loan is authorized

" No sectional objections can operate successfully against the project, nor will the people complain of a loan the benefits of which are to be so general and so important. Posterity will have no canse of complaint if we do leave them a debt to pay, when at the same time we leave them the most ample means for discharging it. These things have not been regarded in the proper light. No objectinn should ever be made to incurring such debts when the fund is left out of which to pay them. As well might the heir object to taking his estate of half a million because encumbered by a mortgage of $200,000. By a united, zealous effort at the next session, an artifi- cial artery through the heart of our State, the fairest and richest in the Union, can be made, which will not be surpassed by the stu- pendous achievements of a similar kind in the other and older States. To avoid jealousies and heart-burnings, let the expenditures on both works commence at the same time and be prosecuted with equal energy, and when this main artery is finished it will not be long before smaller ones branching off to the Wabash and Upper Mississippi will be constructed. Then Illinois will rival any other State of our vast confederacy, not excepting even that which is so proudly, yet so justly styled the ' Empire State.'

" To ascertain the interests that can be brought to bear in its favor take a map of the State and trace upon it the proposed route, and notice the many important and flourishing counties and towns it will pass through and which it will benefit.

" Assuming Utica or Ottawa as the point at which the canal will terminate, the mouth of the Ohio bears from it some few miles west. To reach it, the road would pass through LaSalle, McLean, Macon, a part of Shelby, Fayette, a part of Bond, Clinton, Wash- ington, Perry, Jackson, Union, and terminate as above in Alexan- der County. Pursuing nearly a direct line, it would pass through Bloomington, Decatur, and Vandalia, where it would intersect the National Road, Carlyle, New Nashville, l'ickneyville, Brownsville,

Jonesboro, all seats of justice of the counties in which they are situate. Along the whole route, especially on the southern portion of it, abundant materials of the best kind can be had to construct the work. The distance from one extreme to the other, on a straight line, is only three hundred miles, and the necessary devi- ations from that course will not make it more than three hundred and fifty miles. Three-fourths of it, that is to say, from Utica or Ottawa to Pinckneyville, in Perry County, the surface of the country, so far as you can determine by the eye, is level or undulating ; the remainder is hilly, but by no means mountainous. Taking the estimated cost of the Alton & Springfield road as data (which is on an average a fraction over $7,000 per mile), the cost of this will not exceed $2,500,000, a sum insignificant indeed, when we con- sider the immense benefits to ourselves and to posterity that must flow from its expenditure for such an object. Allowing fifteen miles an hour as the maximum of speed upon it, a locomotive with its train of cars can kindle its fire at Ottawa in the morning and on the next rekindle it at the junction of the Ohio. From this point an uninterrupted communication exists at all seasons with every part of the world, and when the canal and the lakes of the North are locked up by ice the markets of the South can be reached with certainty and speed by the railway and the Mississippi. Let then the South, the interior, and the North unite-let the project be sub- mitted at the coming session, let the loan be authorized, and let us all enter upon it with that determined spirit which should character- ize all great undertakings, and success is certain. They who shall be instrumental in its commencement and completion will have erected for themselves a monument more durable than marble, and throughout all future time will receive, as they well deserve, the grateful thanks of a generous people. I hope some gentlemen may feel sufficient interest in this matter to consider it maturely and give the result of their deliberations to the public through the newspapers. It is a great, magnificent, and feasible project. It can, it will, be accomplished.

" I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, " SIDNEY BREESE,"

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

This able letter renewed the waning interest in rail- road matters. Meetings were held throughout the State, conventions pronounced in favor of railroad and canal building, and as a result the files of the Legislature were literally weighed down with bills and notices of bills to provide for railroad and canal construction. Many opposed the enterprise in the central part of the State, because it was seen that such a north-and-south line would divert much of the traffic which that section might derive from a road crossing Illinois from east to west. Some localities were pledged to the support of the Wabash & Mississippi. The line of road as traced . in Judge Breese's letter did not touch Springfield, and therefore was not looked upon with great favor by the citizens of that place. Those also who were most ardent in their support of the Illinois & Michigan Canal feared that its construction would be delayed by the prosecution of this "stupendous project." But Judge Breese never tired in his efforts to acquaint the people living along the proposed route of the road with the advantages of this central artery. He was the prime agent in obtaining the support of Senator Douglas. Chicago also was stretching her arms out toward the South and the West. " Internal improvement " was the cry of every one. With the meeting of the Legislature at Vandalia, in 1836, came also the convention which proposed wilder schemes 'for those times, than the " internal improvement " act, which became a law the next year. And the people and the Press were with the convention, for under the plans proposed there was not a "cross-road " in the State which would not in some way be benefited.

The first railroad chartered out of Chicago, upon which work was immediately commenced, and which afterward became an important section of her great transportation system, was the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which was chartered January 16, 1836. The document was prepared by Ebenezer Peck and T. W.

246

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

Smith, with the object of increasing the value of real estate at both points ; but Galena being then the leading village of the West, obtained precedence in the naming of the road. The capital stock was placed at $100,000, but could be increased to $1,000,000, and the incor- porators were given the choice of operating the road by animal or steam power. They were allowed three years from January 16, 1836, in which to begin work. E. D. Taylor, Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., J. C. Goodhne, Peter Temple, William Bennett, Thomas Drummond and J.

Petto Imple

W. Turner were named as commissioners to receive subscriptions. The survey of the road was begun in February, 1837, by Engineer James Seymour, with his assistants, from the foot of North Dearborn Street, and run due west to the Desplaines River. In June, 1837, surveyors and laborers were discharged. In 1838 work was resumed, piles being driven along the line of Mad- ison Street and stringers placed upon them. These operations were continued, under the direction of E. K. Hubbard, until the collapse of the enterprise during the same year. The ambition of Chicago was evidently a little ahead of her means, and the Galena & Chicago Union had to wait ten years before it was fairly placed upon a successful basis.

On January 18, 1836 (two days after the incorpora- tion of the Galena & Chicago Union), the Illinois Cen- tral was incorporated. The incorporators numbered fifty-eight and they were empowered to construct a railroad from a point on the Ohio to a point on the Illinois, near LaSalle, with the object of forming a con- nection between the canal, then projected, and the Ohio . and Mississippi rivers, and thence to the Gulf of Mex- ico. But the charter and the fifty-eight incorporators failed to accomplish anything in the way of railroad building and the "stupendous project " collapsed, re- maining in that lamentable condition until revived by its immense land grant, in September, 1850.

Up to the latter part of 1837 the only road in the State which had been made a success was the "Coal Mine Bluff Railroad," built by ex-Governor Reynolds and friends, and extending from his coal-fields six miles from the. Mississippi River, to East St. Louis. Among other difficulties overcome by the energetic young men was the bridging of a lake over two thousand feet across. The road was worked without iron, and with horse-power ; was regulary chartered in 1841, and long afterward became known as the " Illinois & St. Louis Railroad." Governor Reynolds' railroad is claimed to be the first one actually constructed in the Mississippi Valley, and within the circumstances, he appropriately asserts "that it was the greatest work or enterprise ever performed in Illinois. But," he adds, "it well nigh broke us all." And the experience of these pioneers with that little six-mile section of road was the experience of hund- reds of other would-be railroad builders, who made more ambitions attempts within the next dozen of years.

But the enthusiasm and the sentiment most prevalent during 1836-37 are all incorporated in the " Internal Improvement Act" of February 27, 1837. The canal was progressing ; thirteen hundred and forty miles of railroad were to be built ; rivers and creeks were to be rendered navigable, and no less than $200,000 were to be distributed throughout the townships of the State,

which were doomed to exist far away from the line of canals, railroads or navigable streams. To prove the magnificence of this legislative dream, the railroads were to be begun at both ends at the same moment ; so that the Illinoisians from east and west and from north to south could experience the greatest happiness in their consciousness of the impartiality and wisdom of their Legislature.

The act appropriated $250,000 to the Great Western Railroad from Vincennes to St. Louis; $3.500,000 for a road from Cairo to the southern terminus of the canal and to Galena; $1,600,000 for a "southern cross rail- road" from Alton to Mount Carmel and to Shawnee- town; $1,850,000 for a "northern cross railroad" from Quincy to Springfield and thence to the Indiana line, in the direction of LaFayette; $650,000 for a branch of the Central road, in the direction of Terre Haute; $700,000 for a railroad from Peoria to Warsaw, on the Mississippi; $600,000 from Lower Alton to the Central; $150,000 for a railroad from Belleville to intersect the Alton & Mount Carmel line; $350,000 for a railroad from Bloomington to Mackinaw, and a branch through Tremont to l'ekin. The total amount appropriated for railroad building was $9,650,000. William K. Ackerman, in a paper read be- fore the Chicago Historical Society, February 20, 1883, gives the following extract from the report of Murray McConnel, commissioner, to the fund commissioners, which is dated August 11, 1837 :.

"'The kind of iron wanted is of the width and thickness that requires twenty-two tons to the mile, including plates, bolts, etc. * *

* If you should believe that iron will decline in price so that the same may be bought next year for less than at present. you may contract for the delivery of thirty miles, say six hundred and sixty tons or thereabouts, as we may not want to use more than that quantity in this district through the next season.

= You will also contract for the building of one locomotive of the most improved plan, and a suitable number of passenger and bur- then cars to be shipped via New Orleans to the house of McConnel, Ormsbee & Co., Naples, Ill.'

"The commissioners' report to Governor Carlin of December 26, 1838, gives the estimated cost of this four hundred and fifty- seven miles of road (which covers only a portion of the present line of the Illinois Central) to be $3,809, 145, an average cost per mile of $8,326. . The commissioners, in their report to the Governor, say: ' In making these estimates the board has included all the expend- itures for superintendence, engineering, and all other incidental ex- penses. Easy grades have in general been adopted, and in all cases calculations have been made for the most useful and durable struct- ures; and the board has no doubt but that the works may be con- structed upon the most approved plans at the cost estimated upon each work. It is believed that in every instance the lines may be improved, locations changed, and improvements made in the con- struction that may lessen the cost far below these prices.' The same piece of road has cost properly built and equipped as it stands to-day $23,950,456, or an average of $52,408 per mile. * *

* If slight defects have been found in the law organizing the system, or if errors shall have been committed in carrying it into execution, it is what might reasonably have been expected in a system so ex- tended. In locating 1,300 miles of road and performing other duties equally difficult, it could not well be otherwise than that errors of judgment should occur, and that we should be brought into contact with private interests and become the unwilling (though necessary and unavoidable) cause nf disappointment to some, and the prostration of splendid but visionary schemes of speculation in others."

Engineer T .. B. Ransom, in his report of December 3. 1838, after noticing the progress of work upon the only section of the great system ever completed by the State ' a portion of the Northern Cross Railroad , con- cludes as follows:

" Believing, conscientiously, that the future prosperity and happiness of the people will be greatly promoted by carrying out the system to its full and entire completion. I am bound to advo- cate it to the extent of my abilities. So far from its being too large and extended, I believe that it might be enlarged with great propriety and decided advantage to the general welfare of the whole

247

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

State ( if suitable appropriations were made in addition to those already granted by the Legislature), not only to improve the naviga- tion of our rivers, but in connection with the same to drain the ponds and lakes, which can be accomplished with an inconsiderable expense in comparison to the general utility, health and pecuniary prosperity of the whole State. * * * And it appears to me that even at a period when steamboats are in full operation, the time and risk of life which could be saved by traveling on our roads would en- able them effectually to compete with the river communication."

The Northern Cross road from Meredosia, on the Illinois River, to Springfield, was completed in Febru- ary, 1842, the survey having been commenced in May, 1837. The road cost the State for actual construction $1,000,000, was operated for five years at a loss, and in 1847 realized $21,100 in State indebtedness. The at- tempt to allay local jealousies by starting the different roads simultaneously from each terminus, was one cause of the collapse of the stupendous scheme; as, to do this, immediate and large appropriations were required. The result was that in two years from the passage of the act, the State was checkered with patches of road and had virtually nothing to show for the $6,000,000 of indebtedness, except a solitary locomotive running over a few miles of the Northern Cross road from Meredosia eastward. The act which had caused all this mischief was repealed in 1839. Far from lifting every commu- nity into an unexampled condition of prosperity, the operations of the law laid the basis of the present debt of the State, and the formal abandonment of the im- provements undoubtedly retarded its growth.

Upon the suspension of operations on the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, the people of the Rock River country made several attempts to avail themselves of Chicago's increasing commercial importance. First a plank road was urged to be built from Chicago to the Rock River, at a cost of over $300,000. Next, in 1843, a survey was made between Joliet and Aurora for a canal to connect the Fox River with the Illinois & Michi- gan Canal ; and the suggestion was favorably received that it would be a plausible undertaking to extend the improvements to Rockford. But these schemes were abandoned, and in 1846, the Chicago & Galena Union was revived by the convention held at Rockford, in January of that year. Delegates, to the number of three hundred and nineteen, attended from all the counties on the proposed line between Galena and Chi- cago. The officers selected were : President, Thomas Drummond, of Jo Daviess ; vice-presidents, William H. Brown, of Cook, Joel Walker, of Boone, Spooner Ruggles, of Ogle, and Elijah Wilcox, of Kane ; secre- taries, T. D. Robertson, of Winnebago, J. B. F. Russell,

VA FITudado

of Cook, and S. P. Hyde, of McHenry. A resolution was adopted that the members of the convention ob- tain subscriptions to the stock of the company, if satis- factory arrangements could be made with its holders ; and resolutions were also passed, presented by J. Young Scammon, showing the necessity of a general subscrip- tion to the stock by the farmers along the proposed route. Galena and Chicago vied with each other in the renewed enthusiasm with which the enterprise was taken up. But about this time Messrs. Townsend and Mather offered the improvements, land and charter of the road to Chicago citizens for $20,000. The offer was accepted under the following conditions : The pay- ment of the entire sum in full-paid stock of the com- pany-$10,000 immediately after the organization of

the board of directors, and $10,000 on the completion of the road to Rock River, or as soon as a dividend of six per cent would be earned. On December 15, 1846, the persons named above subscribed toward the ex- penses of a survey, and had one made during the suc- ceeding year, by Richard P. Morgan .*

The Alton & Springfield road had been commenced the previous year, and on February 27, 1847. a charter was granted to the Alton & Sangamon Company, now a portion of the Chicago & Alton systein. On the same day the Rock Island and LaSalle line was chartered, the nucleus of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company. The " Pacific " termination of the name was early foreshadowed, by the hopeful, public- spirited and, as it seemed to the more conservative, the " crazy " sentiment of the times. During the legisla- tive session of 1847 the following joint resolution was adopted :

" Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Illi- nois, the Senate concurring herein, That we have seen and read with pleasure the very interesting report of our worthy and intelligent Senator Breese, upon the proposition of Mr. Whitney. of New York, on the subject of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pa- cific Ocean, and heartily concur in the sentiments and ideas therein set forth.

" Resolved, Further, That our Senators and Representatives in .Congress, be, and they are hereby, requested and instructed to use their influence in sustaining the propositions of Mr. Whitney, which have been submitted to the Congress of the United States for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean.

" Resolved, That a copy of the above resolutions be trans- mitted by the Governor of this State to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress."

Subscription books were opened at settlements along the proposed line of the Galena & Chicago Union. August 10, 1847, William B. Ogden and J. Young Scammon solicited subscriptions in the city, but could only obtain promises for $20,000 from all the real estate men or others particularly interested. Some mer- chants opposed the scheme, fearing it would take the sale of goods from Chicago to points on the line of the road. Up to April 1, 1848, twelve hundred and six subscribers guaranteed $351,800, on which sum pay- ments amounting to $20,817.68 were made up to that date. Outside the city there was scarcely any money, and the payment for subscriptions beyond the first in- stallment of two and one-half per cent had to depend upon future crops. The people subscribed as liberally as their limited means would permit, and succeeded in raising a fair amount. Railroad meetings were not fre- quent in those days, the settlers residing so far apart that they could not assemble on short notice, and those interested in placing the stock were obliged to travel the county to secure its taking. In many settlements the residents were found willing to co-operate, the ladies vieing with the men in their readiness to render assistance. They appreciated how necessary it was to have the road built, and were prepared to make any personal sacrifice to further the undertaking. Many of them helped to pay for the stock subscribed for at their solicitation from the profits derived from the sale of butter, cheese and other household productions, even depriving themselves of the means required to educate their children, that a railroad might be built for the good of that and future generations.

In the first annual report of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, dated April 5, 1848, William B. Ogden, the president, said :

" The Michigan Central Railroad Company decided to ter-

* Richard P. Morgan, who died about two vrars ago, was one of the oldest civil engineers in the United States, and assisted in laying out many of the principal railroads in the I'nion. He made the experim-n'a: survey of the (a lena Air Line road, the first railway emanating from Chicago. At the time of his death he was over ninety-two years of age.

248

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

minate their road at New Buffalo in July last, and steps were taken preparing the way for an extension of their road to Chicago about the same time. Upon this your directors proceeded at once to announce their intention of opening bonks of subscription to stock : for the extension of this continuous line of railroad from Chicago westward to Galena. Books were accordingly opened at Chicago and Galena, and at the towns intermediate, on the 10th day of August last and about $250,000 of stock were then sub- scribed The first expectation of the board was to obtain a gen- eral subscription from the citizens of northern Illinois and south- ern Wisconsin residing along the line of the contemplated road, and in its vicinity, as indicative of their faith in the profitable character of the roads when constructed, and of the general inter- est of the people in its construction; and with the aid of this sub- scription, to open negotiations with and solicit other subscriptions or loans from Eastern capitalists, sufficient in amount to justify the commencement of the work. The amount subscribed. how- ever, on the opening of the books, was so liberal, and the feeling manifested along the line. so ardent and so universal, that it was quite apparent the country and the people immediately interested in the construction of the road, were able to, and would increase their subscriptions to an amount sufficient, in connection with the credits on iron and engines then offered us, to build the road from Chicago to Elgin at once, and own it ourselves. Experienced par- ties at the East largely interested in railroad stock, and decidedly friendly to the success of the Galena & Chicago road, were con- sulted, and made acquainted with the particulars of our position at this juncture, and with the proposed plan of obtaining the addi- tional means at the East necessary to secure the completion of the road to Fox River. They were clearly and decidedly of the opin- ion that the wisest and surest way to accomplish the speedy exten- sion and completion of the entire route to Galena was for the inhabitants along the line of the road to raise means themselves for its commencement and completion to the Fox River and Elgin, forty-one miles, when there was everything to assure us that the comparatively small cost of construction and extreme productive- ness of the country tributary to the road would secure such large returns as would enable us to command capital from any quarter, or loans or increased subscriptions to stock for the extension of the road to Rock Island, and to Galena, without delay. This course was adopted, the object explained and approved by subscribers, and further subscriptions solicited and obtained on this basis of operation, to an extent exceeding altogether the sum of $350,000 (about $to,coo of stock subscriptions have since been added) and the work was commenced in earnest. A corps of engineers was then (September last) immediately employed to survey and locate the line from Chicago to the Fox River, and prepare it for letting. The time occupied in doing so, has somewhat exceeded what was at first supposed to be necessary, and the road, except the first seven miles, was not prepared for letting until the first of March last, when the grading and bridging of the first thirty-two miles (inclusive of the seven miles let last fall) was put under contract, and on very favorable terms, as will appear by reference to the report of the Chief Engineer."

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 67

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340