History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 39

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 39

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

of an hour. Then the engines began to "slow up " and the voyage took ahout ten hours. Every effort was made to keep up the supply of steam to the two large engines, but the result was the same as experienced dur- ing the outward trip. To use the expression of her commander, she would run the first thirty minutes "like a skeered dog," then her speed would gradually slacken to about seven miles an hour, and nothing could coax her to do any better. For two seasons, notwithstanding the utmost exertions taken, there was no improvement in the "Allen's " average rate of speed, and she was then soll and taken to the lower lakes.

The " George W. Dole " was also built hy Captain C'ase, soon after the completion of the "James Allen, " and the two run together over the St. Joseph and Michigan ('ity route. The former was sunk at Buffalo, in 1856, having been previously changed into a sailing vessel. These were the first and only steamers built in Chicago previous to 1842. Captain Case afterward went to St. Lonis.

Among the early ship chandlers were Hugunin & Pierce, Foster & Robb and Dodge & Tucker. George F. Foster came to Chicago in July, 1837, and with his nephew, George A. Robb, opened a sail loft in the attic of a two-and-a-half-story building on North Water Street. In the spring of 1839 they bought out the old firm of Hugunin & Pierce, ship chandlers and grocers, and established the first sail-making house in the West. His sons still continue in the same business.

William Avery, who built the steamboat "Chicago," arrived at Chicago February 25, 1837. He was a prom. inent steamboat builder from 1837 up to the time of his death in 1840.

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

It took many years for the people of Illinois to decide that the proper highway over which the wealth of the Northwest was to pass, should be a combination of lake and railroad, rather than of lake, canal and river. The river towns had, since the first settlement, enjoyed a monopoly of the public favor, and even for some time after a few railroads had been chartered, these proposed highways seemed to push towards the river. St. Louis, especially, which had for many years enjoyed a large river trade, was looking for still greater commer- cial supremacy, whether the rich State to the east should decide to throw its energies into the improvement of the Illinois & Michigan Canal or into the development of a grand railway system. The handiwork of this wealthy Missouri town is carly seen in the legisla- tive proceedings of Illinois. The first movement in this State looking toward the construction of a rail- way was an act passed in January, 1831, authorizing a survey from the bluffs of St. Clair County, along the American bottom, to the Mississippi River, near St. Louis. Commissioners were appointed for this pur- pose. At the same session the commissioners of the Illinois & Michigan Canal were to ascertain whether a railroad or a canal would be preferable between the Chicago and Desplaines rivers. A canal was deemed more desirable. Even the plank roads through Illinois

seemed to be naturally tending toward the great river town. Already a State road had been built from Vin- cennes, Ind., to St. Louis, and was much traveled. In 1832 the Springfield & Alton Turnpike road was incor- porated, its river terminus to be in St. Clair County, opposite St. Louis. Chicago was, however, early alive to the necessity of constructing a system of railways which should cut the many ties then binding her own legitimate territory to her old rival. There was yet another candidate for commercial supremacy in the field, and the State was, for some time, undetermined as to whether the harbor and the canal of Chicago would tend to develop this city into a greater business center than the lead mines would the village of Galena. As previously remarked, the friends of Chicago saw the necessity of doing something to bring her naturally triubutary territory into close communication with her- self, and, also, by some system which should not pour a food of advantages into the rich city which sat by the river, waiting to be made wealthier. The agitation of a great central railroad through the State therefore commenced, which was to be operated in connection with the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and to strike the southern border of Illinois, at or near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, there to connect with the railway system of the South. The Illinois Central

Digiized by Google

167

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.

"JOUN T. SAWVER, EsQ.,

"Dear Sir :- Having some leisure from the labors of my circuit, I am indneed 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 uf tireenville), 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 10 inquire if my motives may not be assalled, and myself subjected to unkind remarks, believing, as 1 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 inny 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 must prominent portions of our State, and would create a anity uf effort and concert of action that would overcome every obstacle. The General Government also would grant some of The muappropriated land on the contemplated ruad throughout its whale 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. 11 will make the southern and in- lerior 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 su 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. l'osterity will have no cause of complaint if we du leave them a debt to pay, when at the same time we leave them the most ample means for discharging il. These things have not been regarded in the proper light. No objection should ever be made to incurring such detits 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 8200,000. By a united, zealous effort at the next session, an artih- 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 amil 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 Wallash 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- Ller County. Pursuing nearly a direct line, it would pass through Bloomington. Decatur, and Vandalia, where it would intersect the National Road, Carlyle, New Nashville, Pickneyville, Brownsville,

Jonesboro, all seats of justice of the counties in which they are situate. Along the whole route, especially on the southern partion 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 lo 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 Vlton & Springheld 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- shler the immense benefits to ourselves and to posterity that must How 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 conting session, let the loan be authorized, and let ts 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 sume 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, magnificem, and feasible project. It can, it will, be accomplished.

" I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, " SIDNEY BRELSE."

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 hills and notices of bills to provide for railroad and canal construction. Many opposed the enterprise in the central part of the State, hecanse 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 cast to west. Some localities were pledged to the support of the Wabash & Mississippi. The line of road as traced in Judge Breese's letter tlid 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 C'anal feared that its construction woukl 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 ery 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 he henefited.

The first railroad chartered out of Chicago, upun 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 l'eck and T. W.

Digiized by Google

168

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

Smith, with the object of increasing the value of real estate at both points ; hut 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 in begin wurk. E. D. Taylor, Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., J. C. Gundhuc. Peter Temple, William Bennett, Thomas Drummond and J.

Gelir 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 uf North Dearborn Street, and run due west to the Desplaines River. In June, 1837, surveyors and laborers were discharged. In 1838 wurk 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 meags, 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 & Chicagu 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 Ohiu and Mississippi rivers, and thence to the Gulf of Mex- ico. But the charter and the fifty-eight incorporaturs 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 uf hund- reds of other would-be railroad builders, who made more ambitious 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 ranal 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 duomed 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 lo south could experience the greatest happiness in their consciousness of the impartiality and wisdom of their Legislature.

The act appropriated $250.000 10 the Great Western Railroad from Vincennes to St. Louis; $3.500,000 for a road from l'airo 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 Springfieldl 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 C'entral; $150,000 for a railroad from Belleville to intersect the Alton & Mount C'armel line: 8350,000 for a railroad from Bloomington to Mackinaw, and a branch through Tremont to Pekin. The total amount appropriated for railroad building was $9,650,000. William K, Ackerman, in a paper read be- fure the Chicago Historical Society, February 20, 1883. gives the following extract from the report of Murray MeConnel, commissioner, to the fund commissioners, which is dated Angust 11, 1837:

** * The kind of iron wanted is of the width and thickness that requires twenty-two tone 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. yon may contract for the delivery of thirty miles, say six hundred and sixty toos ar thereabouts, as we may not want to use more than that quantity in this district through the next season. + . You will alse contract for the building of one locomotive of the most improved plan, and a suitable number of passenger and his- then car- to be shipped via New Orleans to the house of Mel'onnel, Ormalwee & Co., Naples, III."

"The commissioners' repurt In Governor Carlin of December 26. 1938, gives the estimated cost of this four hundred and fifty- seven miles of road (which covers only a portion of the present line vị the Illinois C'entral) to be $3,800, 145, an average cost per mile of 84.32b. 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. nres; and the board has no doubt but that the works may be con- Structed upin the most approved plans at the cust 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-lay $23.950,456, or an average of $52,408 per milc. . .

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- lemiled. In locating 1,300 miles of road amil performing other duties equally difficult, it could not well be otherwise than that errors of judgment should occur, and that we should be brought imto contact with private interests and become the unwilling (though Necessary al unavoidable) cause of 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- cluiles as fulbis -:

" Believing, conscientiously, that the future prosperity and happiness of the people will be greatly promoted by carrying out the system In its full'and cutire completion, I am bound 10 advo- cate it to the extent of my abilities. So far from its being too large and estendeil. I believe that it might be enlarged with great propriety and decided advantage to the general welfare of the whuh

169

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

Stale ( if. suitable appropriations were made in addition to those already granted by the legislature), not only lo improve the naviga- tion of our rivers, but in connection with the same lo 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 al 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 Febrn- 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 8300,000. 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,

of Cook, and S. P. Hyde, of McHenry, A resolution was adopted that the members of the convention oh- 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

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 39

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875