History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 72

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

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time > Part 72

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According to the Herald of October 21, 1855, the

depot of the two roads then known as the Michigan Southern and the Rock Island Railroad, was projected with frontage on Van Buren Street. The Herald's de- scription of the building was substantially as follows : " It will be three hundred and fifty-five feet in length exclusive of offices at the end of the building. The span of the roof from the side walls is one hundred and · sixteen feet. It will have but a single support in the entire building, as it will be constructed on the principle of Howe's patent truss. The ventilators will be in the roof ._ The height of the walls will be twenty-two feet, while from the floor to the center of the arch will be forty-two feet. The roof alone will cost $23,000. This building was used as the depot for the two lines of rail- road named above, until October, 1871.

The collision of April 25, 1853, at the Michigan Southern and Central Crossing, gave rise to much argu- ment concerning the right of the railroads here. About the first of June, the Michigan Southern Railroad Company applied to Judge Morris for an injunction to restrain the Illinois Central Railroad from running their cars across the track of the Southern road. This case was decided in June, 1853. The presidents of the road from the date of its incorporation to 1855, were : Robert Stewart, 1837 ; Joseph Orr, 1837-41 ; Jonathan Burr, 1841 ; (eight years unorganized) ; W. B. Ogden, 1847 ; (two years unorganized) ; E. W. Chamberlain, 1850 ; James H. Barnes, 1851 ; John Stryker, 1851 ; George Bliss, 1852 ; John B. Jervis, 1852-55 ; John B. Niles, H. P. Andrew, Jr., Ezekiel Morrison, W. J. Walker, W. C. Hannah, Havilah Beardsley, John H. Defrees and T. S. Stanfield. Schuyler Colfax was a di- rector in 1858-59 and Philo Morehouse, 1860-69.

The Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Com- - pany did not rest satisfied with this progress. The Air Line, the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad, and the building of the great lake vessels-" Western Metrop- olis " and "City of Buffalo"-marked the progress of the corporation. The panic of 1857 came to destroy all this enterprise. No less than one hundred and fifty- five heavy claims were pressed against the company by creditors, the board of directors resigned, the road went to protest and the affairs of the Michigan South- ern & Northern Indiana Railroad seemed dark indeed. A new directory was elected ; but so poor in worldly goods was the company that when the directors assem- bled to hold their first meeting, October 1, 1857, a few chairs were borrowed from offices convenient, to replace those carried off by the Sheriff.

The Erie & Northeastern was opened January 19, 1852, and operated as a six-foot gauge road until De- cember 7, 1853, when the Erie war took place. The company was, however, successful, and the standard gauge completed February 1, 1854, between Buffalo and Erie. The other railroads forming the Michigan South- ern & Northern Indiana Railroad in 1857 named above were all consolidated or leased by the company previous to that year.

THE MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD, 1831-57 .- The Michigan Central road may be said to have its ori- gin in the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, chartered in 1831, with a nominal capital stock of $1,500,000. The good intentions of this corporation were borne testimony to, by the fact that, previous to 1837, a sum approximating to $117,000 was expended on the roads. The Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad Company, bowed down under the reverses of 1837, sold their interest in the road to the State of Michigan. The State expended $400,000 on permanent-way and rolling-stock during 1837-38, and completed and opened the road to God-

261

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

frey's (now Ypsilanti), February 5, 1838. The receipts for the first four months, ending June 5, 1838, reached $23,963.56. During the months of June, July and August, no less than ten thousand passengers were car- ried over the road. The extension of Ann Arbor was completed in October, 1839, and work on the extension to Jackson was in progress. The track at this time was carried forward on a wooden stringer of sawn timber. This rail stringer was fitted into sawed ties held to the tie in a trapezoidal groove by wooden wedges. On the top of this continuous stringer was spiked the old iron strap-rail when the directors had it, and when they did not have the iron, a one and a half by three inch oak ribbon nailed to the tie, did duty in its place. The pas- senger car of that day resembled an omnibus, placed at right angles to the track, moving sidewise on four wheels. The conductor walked a platform in front and along the end of the omnibus, and collected his fares, hanging by his arm to the window.

During the first nine months of the year 1844, the road was in operation to Jackson, a distance of seventy- seven miles, and during the last three months was in operation to Marshall, a distance of one hundred and nine miles. The receipts from freight and passenger business of the Michigan Central Railroad in 1844 were $206,867.48, exclusive of payments made by the United States Postal Department.

An act of the Michigan Legislature, approved April 30, 1839, provided for the appointment of a committee or commission to consider the expediency of discon- tinuing certain public works. A policy of retrench- ment followed. One improvement after another was cast off, until the Central and Southern railroads alone re- mained persistent beggars for aid and from an exhausted treasury. The board of internal improvements in their last report to the Legislature, December 7, 1846, say that from December 1, 1845, to September 4, 1846, the gross receipts of the Central Railroad were $239,663 .- 75. During the eight months preceding the sale of this road to the Michigan Central Railroad Company the State was compelled to expend upon it no less a sum than $143,314.59. A very intelligent committee of the Senate reported in January, 1846, that the sum to- tal of the expenditures upon the different works of internal improvements was about $4,500,000, and three hundred and five thousand of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted by Congress to the State in 1841. When the Legislature began to agitate the question of the sale of the public works, parties were numerous who desired to lease the Central and Southern rail- roads ; but it was decided that the whole system of in- ternal improvements by the State for the purpose of revenue, was, at any rate, a fallacy, and that the sale of the two railroads was dictated by sound political econ- omy and the exigencies of the State. Finally the Michigan Central Railroad Company bought the line for $2,000,000, and not long after the Michigan South- ern Railroad Company bought the Southern road for $500,000. After this transaction Eastern capitalists looked to what they termed the insolvent West as the reservation for their investments. Stephen F. Gale, during a visit to Boston, was asked by President Wil- kins, of a Boston bank, regarding Western investments. The former advised him to invest in Michigan bonds at seventy cents per dollar, and gain control of the Michigan roads. This was effected, and gave rise to the boast of the Boston capitalists that "when the Western States and their people fail to complete a rail- road, Boston steps in with her capital and assumes con- trol." The road was completed to Chicago, and opened

May 21, 1852. At that time a temporary depot was erected on the lake shore, south of Twelfth Street, which was used until the ordinance was passed admitting the Illinois Central Company to construct their road to the Chicago River. In April, 1856, the Illinois Central depot, at the foot of Lake Street, was completed, when, under an arrangement with that company, the Michigan Central trains ran north to that point. This track along the lake front, in the building of which the Mich- igan Central Company participated indirectly, was two and a half miles long, one and a half miles running par- allel with Michigan Avenue. The track running parallel with Michigan Avenue was double, while the remainder was single. The northern or double track rested on four lines of piles, driven into the sand, immediately in- side of the breakwater, securely fastened together. The single track was built on two lines of piles con- tinued along the southern portion of the breakwater.

A charter for the New Albany & Salem Railroad was granted by the Indiana Legislature for a road thirty- five miles in length from the Ohio River. This was extended to Michigan City, and thence, under a charter from Illinois, to the Union Railroad Company. The total length of the road operated by the Michigan Cen- tral Railroad Company in 1857 was two hundred and eighty-eight miles.

The conspiracy cases growing out of the disaffec- tion of the farmers of Leoni Township, Jackson Co., Mich., whose property bordered on the unfenced road, formed the sensational history of the company during this period. Several farmers were ruined in their efforts to defend themselves from charges which the most subtle lawyers, connected with the road, arranged and placed before the Judges of the Wayne County Circuit.

The history of the road up to 1857 is one which shows what indomitable energy and perseverance may accomplish. Its principal projector, James F. Joy, is a resident of Detroit. John W. Brooks, who died a few years ago at Boston, was also an active spirit in building up the interests of the road.

THE PITTSBURGH, FORT WAYNE & CHICAGO RAILROAD, 1852-57 .- The organization of the Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company was effected October 14, 1852, the engineers completing their survey in November. In 1853 contracts were granted for one hundred and forty-five miles of track. In 1855 twenty miles were built, and in 1856 three hundred and sixty- three miles were added, owing to the consolidation with the Pittsburgh division on November 10, bringing the total mileage up to three hundred and eighty-three in 1857. During the year 1856 the road was infested by a pack of ruffians, who made it a practice to plunder express and baggage cars. Their mode of operating was less sensational than that of modern train-robbers. 'They would enter the train at way stations, hurl pack- ages out of the baggage or express cars. at points where their accomplices were stationed, and ultimately burl themselves out. Trainmen were never able to succeed in capturing one of them ; but on February 26. 1857, Allen Pinkerton succeeded in arresting eighteen of the criminals. The disclosures made before the court implicated many persons holding good positions, and the whole proceedings were so entertaining as to engage the attention of all residents along the road, if not the stockholders themselves. So far was this car- ried that the company awoke from a dream of train- robbers to learn that a great financial crisis had swept over the country and to realize that their road escaped the evils of the period of depression only to bear them subsequently.

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262

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

CHICAGO'S RAILROAD SYSTEM IN 1857 .- In 1857 Chicago had nearly four thousand miles of railroad tributary to herself, and the joint earnings of the com- panies amounted to over eighteen and a half millions of dollars ! When the railroad spirit of the State, which had been crushed by the failure of the "internal im- provement " act of 1837, revived in the Rockford Con- vention of 1847, Chicago had not a mile of road. In 1848 she operated ten miles of railroad to the Desplaines River. In 1850 the ten had been increased to nearly forty-five. Then the Illinois Central entered the field, and trunk lines from all parts of the State and the country commenced to stretch their giant arms toward Chicago ; and with a readiness which astonished the world, floods of capital from the East poured into the Garden City and enabled her to meet all advances more than half-way ; so that by 1855 the forty-five miles of iron road had been extended to almost three thousand, while, within a period of two years more, another thousand was added to the three. The world never before saw such a stride made toward commercial supremacy. At that time the resources of the West were limited, and the fact that Eastern capital, with the exception, perhaps, of the Galena & Chicago Union road, covered the State with this net-work of arteries, making Chicago their great heart, only sustained her citizens in their unbounded confidence, and in what had sometimes seemed the wildest visions of a glorious future. Twenty years had converted into substantial facts the "impossibilities " of 1837. Then they were impossi- bilities, but two decades had demonstrated to the world that the members of the Vandalia Convention and the originators of the act of 1837 were prophets instead of madmen.

The conditions of the case, in 1857, were these : . The first grand trunk line into the city, the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad, was in fine running order-W. S. Gurnee, president ; M. L. Sykes, superintendent ; A. S. Downs, secretary ; H. A. Tucker, secretary. There were two roads connecting with each other at the Wis- consin : State-line, mainly under the same management. For the first ten months of the year the total receipts of the Illinois end of the line (forty-five miles) amounted to $282,731.92. The total number of through passen- gers over the line for November, 1856, to November, 1857, was about one hundred and eighty thousand. The first branch of this road from the west was the Ken- osha & Rockford Railroad-Josiah Bond, president ; Levi Burnell, secretary ; Charles H. Sholes, treasurer ; C. L. Prescott, superintendent ; W. H. Noble, chief engineer, all of Kenosha. This road was to connect at Rockford with a projected line to Rock Island. Eleven miles of the proposed eighty miles of road were com- pleted and in operation.

The second trunk leaving the city was the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, Hon. William B. Ogden, president ; S. F. Johnson, superintendent and chief engineer ; J. W. Currier, secretary ; Charles But- ler, treasurer. The southern division of the road was operated from Chicago to Janesville, ninety-one miles. The northern division from the junction of the LaCrosse & Milwaukee road to Fond du Lac, thirty miles, made one hundred and twenty-one miles in operation by the latter part of 1857. The road was then completed to Van Dyne, ten miles north of Fond du Lac, giving a total of one hundred and thirty-one miles. Thirty-six miles of additional grading was ready for the iron, when opera- tions should again be commenced in the spring. As yet the directors had received no benefit from their mu- nificent land grant of two million acres. According to

the provisions of the act the directors were not to come into possession of the land until the road should be completed to Oshkosh. For the year the receipts of this line amounted to $429,305-39. Nearly 170,000 pas- sengers were carried without the least accident to any one.

The Milwaukee & Mississippi and the Milwaukee & LaCrosse roads formed, with the Fond du Lac, a direct line to Chicago. There was a daily train running between Chicago and Prairie du Chien over the former road. A branch of the Milwaukee & LaCrosse road (Hudson & Superior Railroad; was already projected from Hudson, on Lake St. Croix, where it was to con- nect with the LaCrosse road to Superior, at the head of the lake of that name. The company had obtained a grant of lands to aid in its construction.

Galena & Chicago Union Railroad. the origin of Chicago's magnificent system, extended from Chicago to Freeport, forming with the Illinois Central a direct route between Chicago and Dubuque. The officers of this road were : John B. Turner, president ; William H. Brown, vice-president ; William J. McAlpine, assist- ant president and chief engineer ; Philip A. Hall, super- intendent ; William M. Larrabee, secretary ; Henry Tucker, treasurer ; George M. Wheeler, auditor. The receipts for the year amounted to $2, 117,904.97. Over this line two hundred and fifty-five thousand passengers went westward and two hundred and sixteen thousand eastward. In 1856 the number of persons taken west on this road exceeded those returning by sixty thousand, thus proving that the tide westward had fairly set in.

The first branch road west of the city and north of the main line was the Fox River Valley Railroad, run- ning from Elgin up that beautiful valley to Richmond, and from thence the Wisconsin was completed to Gen- eva, in that State. Its officers were : B. W. Raymond, Chicago, president ; G. H. Merriil, Elgin, superintend- ent ; A. J. Waldron, Elgin, secretary and treasurer. At Geneva, Wis., it connected with the projected Wis- consin Central. The Beloit Branch of the Galena Rail- road connected at Belvidere seventy-eight miles west of Chicago, with the Beloit & Wisconsin ; officers the same as those of the Galena road.

The Beloit & Madison road was in operation to Footville, seventeen miles, and was designed to connect with the Milwaukee & Mississippi road running to Prairie du Chien. The Mineral Point Railroad connected with the Galena & Freeport, running to Mineral Point, Wis. An important extension of the Galena road was the Dubuque & Pacific line, opened for business to Not- tingham, thirty-seven miles from Dubuque, on January 1, 1858. The entire length of the projected line from Dubuque to Sioux City, on the Missouri, was one hun- dred and thirty-one miles. The company had been aided with a land grant of over one and a quarter mil- lion acres. The Galena ( Fulton) Air Line was the direct route from Chicago to Fulton, on the Mississippi, one hundred and thirty-six miles. In May, 1857, the Chi- cago, Iowa & Nebraska line was completed from Clinton to De Witt, twenty miles. It was supposed that the road could be completed to Cedar Rapids and equipped for $20,000 per mile. From thence it was expected to bend north, up the valley of the C'edar, and form, with a north- and-south road in Minnesota, a direct line to St. Paul. The Sterling & Rock Island road was a proposed line running down the Valley of the Rock River.

The fifth grand trunk line in 1857 was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Its officers were: John Van Nortwick. Batavia, Illinois, president and chief en- gineer ; Charles G. Hammond, superintendent ; Amos

263

TELEGRAPH AND EXPRESS.

T. Hall, secretary and treasurer. No finer portion of the Mississippi Valley can be found than the " Military Tract," through the center of which this road passed. During the year 1857, the receipts amounted to $1,899,- 586.49, and four hundred and twelve thousand passengers were transported. As an extension across lowa, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was to connect with the Burlington & Missouri. The Quincy & Chicago line connected with the Burlington road at Galesburg, one hundred and sixty-eight miles, and extended thence to Quincy. This was formerly the "Northern Cross." The Hannibal & St. Joe road had been built sixty-five miles west, by November, 1857.

The sixth grand trunk from Chicago was the Chicago & Rock Island. Its officers were : Henry Farnum, Chicago, president ; John F. Tracy, Chicago, superin- tendent ; F. H. Tows, New York, secretary ; A. C. Flagg, New York, treasurer. The earnings for the year amounted to $1,681,101.57. Over three hundred and ninety thousand passengers were carried on its lines. The road stretched down the Valley of the Illinois to Peru, where it swept across the " Military Tract," and at Rock Island, one hundred and eighty-one miles from Chicago, crossed the Mississippi by a splendid bridge, the only railway structure that had, as yet, been thrown across the "Father of Waters," and the only one of any kind below St. Anthony. The Peoria & Bureau Valley Railroad was leased to the Rock Island Company at an annual rental of $125,000. The Peoria & Oquawka line ran nearly east and west and connected with all the north and south lines leading into the city. A branch of the Bureau Valley road, the Illinois River line, was being pushed forward from Jacksonville to LaSalle, about ninety miles.

The Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad, the sev- enth grand trunk line connecting Chicago with the country in 1857, was officered as follows : Hon J. A. Matteson, Springfield, president ; A. H. Moore, Bloom- ington, superintendent ; J. K. Alexander, Bloomington, secretary ; R. E. Goodell, Joliet, treasurer ; J. C. Smith, Bloomington, auditor ; L. Darling, Chicago, general - agent. The total receipts for the year amounted to $998,309.47.

The eighth grand western trunk line was the Illinois Central. Its officers were : W. H. Osborn, New York,

president ; G. B. McClellan, vice-president and chief engineer ; James C. Clark, master of transportation ; W. K. Ackerman, New York, secretary : I. N. Perkins, New York, treasurer ; John Wilson, land commissioner. At this time (1857 the Illinois Central was the longest road owned by one company in America. Its total receipts for the year were $2,293.964.57, and nearly seven hundred and fifteen thousand passengers were transported over its lines. Up to January I, 1858, nearly one-half of the two and a half million acres comprising its land grant had been sold for $15,311,- 440.40. The sales for the year amounted to $4,598,- 211.99. Of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago road all except eighty-two miles was completed by the latter part of 1857. It had been operated during the year by using the line of the Michigan Southern road as far

east as LaPorte and thence connected by the Cincin- nati & Peru road. The Michigan Southern and North- ern Indiana connecting with the roads south of Lake

Be, Clark

Erie ; The Michigan Central, connecting with the Can- ada, Great Western, New York Central and the Erie railroads, and with the Grand Trunk to Montreal, Quebec and Portland were the most important trunk lines to the East.

TELEGRAPH AND EXPRESS.

The first telegram received in Chicago was upon January 15, 1848, from Milwaukee; the succeeding day complimentary and flamboyant telegrams passed be- tween the bachelors and ladies of the two cities. The first through telegram from the East was received April 6, 1848 .* The Chicago office was Colonel J. J. Speed's telegraph office at the Saloon Building, corner of Lake and Clark.

On April 3, 1843, Miller & Company started a tri- weekly express between Chicago and the East; in 1845 the service was augmented to daily and A. H. Burley, of S. F. Gale & Co., 106 Lake, was the agent.

The following are the first greetings which passed between the cities of Detroit and Chicago:

" To Milwaukee, Racine, Southport and Chicago .- We hail you by lightning as fair sisters-as bright stars of West. Time has been annihilated. Let no element of discord divide us. May your prosperity as heretofore be onward. What Morse has devised and Speed joined let no man put asunder."

To which the following was sent in reply:

" We return the greetings of our sister of the Straits, and trust that lightning may never prove an element of discord between us. As sisters, may we be joined by bonds as holy as those which unite maidens to the nbject of their love, but unlike that love may our course always run smoothly."

The charge appears to have been: Twenty-five cents for ten words; two cents for every additional word; and two for the delivery at the residence of the person to whom the message was sent.

On January 1, 1851, the American Express Company, S. D. Lockwood agent, advertises as follows: Messen- gers will leave the office Tremont Buildings, Dearborn Street, for New York and intermediate places, via Michigan Central Railroad, Tuesday and Friday morn- ings at 8 o'clock.

For Milwaukee, Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 o'clock P. M.

For St. Louis, Wednesday mornings at 8 o'clock.

Packages for the East should be left at the office on Monday and Thursday evenings. This appears to be the first introduction of the American Express Company.

The companies increased, however, and in 1857 were represented as follows: American Express Company. J. C. Fargo, agent, 20 Dearborn Street; City Express Post, postage two cents per letter, an avant-courier of the city delivery, Bronson and Forbes, Masonic Temple; Ilinois & Wisconsin Express, (J. H. Durfee, proprietor,) daily between Woodstock, McHenry Co., and Chicago, office 18 Dearborn Street; Merchant's Despatch, Hall & Co., agents, 96 and 98 South Water Street; Union Express Company, T. F. Craig, agent, 14 South Water Street; United States Express Company, H. D. Colvin, agent, 14 Dearborn Street.

*See Journal article, History of the Press.

EARLY MILITARY HISTORY.

It is tlie purpose in what follows to put in order and preserve in history all that can be gathered from records, early publications and the memories of men still living, concerning the citizen-soldiery of Chicago and Cook County; to make therefrom as complete a record as is possible of the various military organiza- tions; to note their exploits and parades, in times of peace ; and to record their arduous and patriotic serv- ice in times of war, when, putting off the war-like appearance they became invested with the full armor of the warrior, and, soldiers in deed as well as in name, won the imperishable renown accorded in the war an- nals of the centuries to those only who have fallen un- conquered or returned victorious.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 72

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