History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 40

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

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the board of directors, and $to,ooo 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 system. 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 hewin. 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 l'a- cific Ocean, and heartily concur in the sentiments and ideas therein set forth.

" Resolve, Further, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress, be, and they are hereby, requested and instructed lo use their influence in sustaining the propositions of Mr. Whitney. which have been submitted 10 the Congress of the United States for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the l'acific Ocean.

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

Subscription hooks 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 couldl 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 np 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 huilt 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 years ago, was one of the oldest civil engineers in the United States, and assisted in laying out many of the principal railroads in the Union. He made the experimental survey of the Ga lena Air Line road, the first railway emanating Irom Chicagu, At the time of his death he was over ninety-two years of age.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

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. U'pon this your directors proceeded at once to announce their intention of opening books of subscription to stock ; for the extension of this continuous line of milroad from Chicago westward to Galena. Books were accordingly opened at Chicago and Galena, and at the towns intermediate, on The toth day of August last and about $250,000 of stock were tlen sul- 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 10 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- lon 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 os 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 Inans 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 $10,000 of stock subscriptions have since been added) and the work was commenced in earnest. A corps of engineers was Then (September last) immediately employed lo 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 tin thirty-two miles finclusive of the seven miles let last fall) was put under contract, and on very favorabile terms, as will appear by reference to the report of the Chief Engineer."

Under the provisions of the amended charter of February, 1847, the owners of stock met April 5, 1848, and elected the following-named directors : William B. Ogden, president : Walter L. Newberry, Charles Wal- ker, James H. Collins, J. Young Scammon, William H. Brown, John B. Turner, Thomas Dyer, Benjamin W. Raymond, George Smith, all of Chicago : Charles S. Hempstead and Thomas Drummond, of Galena ; Allen Robbins, of New York. Francis Howe was chosen sec- retary and treasurer. Thomas D. Robertson, of Rock- ford was elected director vice Allen Robbins, resigned, in April, 1849 ; Dexter A. Knowlton, of Freeport, vice J. Young Scammon, resigned in 1850.

The early canvassing along the proposed line of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad for subscriptions toward building the road was made by Messrs. Ogden and Scammon, who traveled the whole distance from Chicago to Galena for this purpose, holding meetings and obtaining subscriptions at all considerable places on The route. Subsequently Charles Walker, Isaac N. Ar- nold, John Locke Scripps, John B. Turner and others canvassed at points on the line of the road. B. W. Ray- mond and John B. Turner visited the East in 1848, with the object of securing subscriptions to the stock. Their efforts resulted in the sale of $15,000 of stock, and a

loan of 87,000. This money completed the road across the marsh to the foot of Cottage Hili. Again they pur- chased two locomotives from the Baldwin Works. In the meantime, Mr. Ogden, then a member of the Com- inon Council, had introduced an ordinance into that body, which was voted down, proposing to grant the right of way to the road from the west into the city on a line with Kinzie Street, with the necessary privileges for constructing tracks, drawbridges and deputs. Not- withstanding which, the contract for the first thirty-two miles of road from Chicago was let March 1, 1848, the first sixteen miles to be finished by August t, and the balance by October 1, 1848. John Van Nortwick had

been appointed engineer. George W. Waite, assistant engineer, drove the first grade-peg, near the corner of Kinzie and Halsted streets, in June, 1848, then a point outside the city limits. The Council had refused the entrance of the road into the city : but granted leave to build a temporary track cast to the river so that one of the two engines could be brought to the head of the road.

In September the management purchased a locomo- tive of the Tonawanda N. Y.) Company, and also one of the Auburn & Syracuse Company. These were fitted up with new gearing and boilers, and the first one was placed on the section between Chicago and the Des- plaines River, in November. The " Pioneer" arrived on the brig " Buffalo," October 10, 1848. The engine was taken off the boat on Sunday by Redmond Prindi- ville, Wells Lake, George W. Waite, George C. Morgan and John Ebert, the engineer. This engine was sold by the Baldwin Company on commission for the Roch- ester & Tonawanda Railroad Company. It served its purpose well and is in existence to-day, as if waiting some signal act of public approbation.

When the Desplaines River division was in working order, the rolling stock consisted of six old freight cars and the " Pioneer." By November 21 the engine was running daily on the ten miles of completed road, west of Chicago, conveying materials and laborers to carry on the work. The day previous Chicago received the first wheat ever transported by rail. Upon the invitation of the board of directors, a number of stockhoklers and editors of the city, took a "flying trip " over Chicago's system of railways, then extending ten miles west to the Desplaines River! A couple of baggage wagons had been provided with seats, and at about four o'clock r. M., the train bearing away about one hundred persons, moved from the foot of North Dearborn Street, where a crowd had collected to witness the novel spectacle. On the return trip a load of wheat was transferred from a farmer's wagon to one of the cars, and this was the first grain transported by rail to Chicago. This fact soon became known to the farmers living west of the city, and the company made arrangements to accommodate the expected increase of their business. They at once placed covered cars upon the track, and about a week after the line was open to travel, the business men of Chicago were electrified by the an- nouncement that over thirty loads of wheat were at the Desplaines River waiting to be transported to the city. The expected receipts of the road would amount to

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THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

$15 per day for the winter, and wheat-buyers were in- formed partly with a view of increasing the passenger traffic) that they must ttow take their stations at the Desplaines River instead of at Randolph-street bridge. Facts and statistics were pouring in from Galena also, showing the benefits that would accrue when the line should reach that flourishing city. For instance, in January, 1849, the public were informed that the arrivals in Galena from March 17 to December 6, 1848, were: Keel-boats, 158; flat-boats, 107; that the revenue was $1.950, and the value of the exports for 1848 was $1,602,050.40. Furthermore that "a large portion of these will seek an Eastern market by railroad." The citizens of Galena were shoulder to shoulder with Chi- cago in the building of this road, but rumors were soon afloat that there was a disposition in certain quarters to cut off that thriving town from the benefits of the road which she was doing so much to build. 'To allay these suspicions, at the annual meeting held April 5, 1849, the stockholders resolved that Galena was the true terminus of the road and that "any diversion would be a violation of good faith, a fraud on the stockholders and an illegal perversion of the charter." Of the $150,000 loan, authorized in May, 1848, to be nego- tiated, $71,700 had then been expended.

Henry W. Clarke, DeWitt Lane, now of Lane's Island, and Major James Mulford, were the commis- sioners appointed to procure the right-of-way for the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, and to assess dam- ages within Cook County. This work was undertaken in March, 1849. The commissioners were accompanied by William B. Ogden, John B. Turner, John Van Nort- wick. engineer, James H. Rees, "Ogden's own sur- veyor," and a few others. When the party reached Harlem, then called Oak Ridge, the commissioners agreed that the assessment of damages for right-of-way should be merely nominal, and from this agreement re- sulted the offer of six cents to each land-owner along the route. This offer was accepted without dissent, quit-claim deeds were made to the company, and the roadway was secured.

The total earnings of the road from the commence- ment of business in January, 1849. to December 1, 1849, were $23,763.74; from December t. 1849, to December 1, 1850, $104,359.62. By January, 1850,* the main line had been extended to Elgin, forty miles west of Chi- cago, and Galena was still cut off from railroad com- munication; her ambition, finally, was not to be realized through the instrumentality of the road which she was helping to build. Another rival for popular favor was reaching out its giant arms to embrace, at least, the territory of a great State.

The superstructure of the road was completed to Elgin, January 22, 1850, the length of the main track from the North Branch of the Chicago River to the westerit terminus being 42.44 miles, which, with side track 1.88 miles, gave it roadway of 44.32 miles. The amount expended on this superstructure was $164, 131.87. The stock of locomotives and cars May 1, 1850, was as follows: One ten-ton locomotive (second hand, six- wheeled, two drivers ; three fifteen-ton locomotives (new Norris's) eight-wheeled, four drivers; thirteen double covered freight cars ; sixteen double platform freight cars ; three single covered freight cars ; six single plat- form freight cars ; eleven gravel repairing cars ; four hand cars ; two passenger cars (new,, one of fifty-six and one of sixty seats ; two passenger cars (old) forty seats each; two baggage and accommodation cars of eight wheels each.

" See Bross's History, page 131.

The progress of the road from June, 1848, to April 31, 1850, is shown in the following table ;

1849.

MILES.

TOTAL RE- CEIPTS.

June.

$ 913 35

July .. ...

1.602 52

August.

2.743 13

September

4,207 43

October

7,104 $23

November.

5.899 48

December

4.887 79

1850.

January

5.195 48

February

42 /2

5.029 47

March

42 1/2

4,803 75

April ...

42%

5.794 63

Total

.310% $48.331 96

Expenses of operating.

18.519 82

Net earnings.

$29.812 14

The number of passengers carried over the road from June 1, 1849, to April 30, 1850, was 37.524.

The inner history of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad is most valuable, for the reason that it goes into such details as are not generally given in annual reports. Such facts, as a reminiscence could only con- tain, have been fortunately noted down by one who was himself a most important pillar of Chicago enterprise. In J. Young Scamnton's biography of William B. Ogden this history appears to be well and impartially treated ; and, therefore, in justice to the inen named, is here given so much of that sketch as relates to this road and its builders .*

"* In the winter of 1846 a convention was held at Rockford, the half-way house between Chicago and Galena, to favor the work. There was a large meeting, altended by persons from Ga- lena to Chicago. Thomas Drummond, then residing at Galena, presided over the assembly. The late William 1I. Brown, always a director and subsequently a president of the Galena Company and of the Chicago Historical Society : with Benjamin W. Ray- mond, our ever public-spirited citizen, and more than once Mayor of the city, and a director of the road till it merged in the North- western, and who still remains among us to witness and rejoice with others over the success of his faithful public efforts, was among the active men there. Isaac N. Arnold, so long and favor- ably known in the politics of Illinois, and as a Representative in the late War Congress of the United States, and long a leader at the Chicago Bar, now P'resident of the Chicago Historical Society. and devoting the calm of mature years to literary work, with Gen eral Hart 1 .. Stewart, one of Chicago's oldest citizens, whose whole life has been spent in building public works west of Lake Erie, in Michigan, upon the Illinois & Michigan Canal and elsewere-and in the public councils of the State or official positions under the Government-rode in the same carriage with the writer, and were active participants in the work of the convention, as was Thomas D. Robertson, of Rockford, for many years a director of the road. We were two days on our journey each way, spending the night at Elgin, then a little hamlet. The landlord there told us that he was against railroads. They were bad things for farmers and ho- tel-keepers, but good for ' big fellows at the ends of the road.' Hle 'intended to make money while the road was building and then sell out and go beyond them." Hle declared that Elgin would cease to be a place of business as soon as the railroad went beyond it.

" The meeting was harmonious and quite unanimous in its ac- lion ; the only exception being a tavern-keeper at Marengo, who, fearing that his business would be injured by the road, appeared with his friends in the convention and denounced railroads as 'un- democratie aristocratie institutions that would ride rough- shod over the people and grind them to powder. The only roads,' said he, " that the people want are good common or plank roads, upon which everybody can travel.'

" la the fall of 1847, Mr. Ogden and the writer traveled the entire distance from Chicago to Galena together, stopping at all the principal intermediate places, making speeches for the road, and going into the highways to compel men to come in and help the enterprise, even if they could not take more than a single share of stock. Many farmers and other persons, be it said to their credit, did come forward and subscribe, though they had to borrow the first installment of two dollars and fifty cents on a share

· Fergus's Series, Biography of William B. Ogden.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

aml get trusted 'till after harvest,' for the same. Mr. Ogden was in his element in such enterprises. Ilis go-a-hemilativeness here gave full play to his imagination, and filled not only himself, but his hearer» with high hopes and generous courage. When it is re- membered that it cost five Inishels of wheat, and often from four days' to a week's journey to Chicago with a load of grain to get the first installment of a single or few shares of stock, none can doubt the public interest in the enterprise.

". At Galena, business men and bankers were fearful of the effect of the railroad upon their town. Among its chief advocates there were Judge Drummond, t. M. Hempstead, Elihu B. Washimrne, and Thomas Hoyne. tialena had lung been a very prosperous town at the heall of naviganin on Fever River, and the great lead-mining center and mercantile distriluner for northwest Illinois and southwest Wix- consid, and the country north in the mines, The great obstacles we met there were two ; une the local effect upon the town, and the other the fear that before the road shonhl be completed the en- terprise would break down, the small stockholders sacrificed, and the road pass into the hands of the large capitalists. We had to meet these objections by the promise to respect and protect the local in- terest of tialena, to whose capital we were much indebted in start- ing the work, and a pledge that until the stork rose to par, and was saleable at that price, we would never allow the work to proceed faster than its ready means would justifywithout endangering the capital in- vester. This promise was faithfully kept so long as these two persons remained in the directory. It has been said in justitication of the abandoning of the west end of the line to the Hlinujs Central Kail- road, that tialena was chimumed, and a different course could not have saved it. The writer dissent from this proposition, and be- lieves that if the pledges Mr. tigden and he made at tialena had been faithfully, energetically, and courageously carried out, Galena wonkl have been greatly benetited, and its importance and Insiness permanently advanced. lint whether this opinion be correct or not. Galena was a pioneer in the work, and the company had no right to sell her birthright to the Illinois t'entral Company. It would not have been done had the two most active ilirectors, who were among the largest subscribers to the stock, when the company was re-organized in the writer's office, on the southeast corner of Lake and t'lark streets, in the old Saloon Building. in the city of Chicago, in 1$47, remained in their positions in its management.

" In a paper remil before the Chicago Historical Society, by Mr. Arnold, December 20, 1851, on the occasion of the presenta- tion, by Mr. Dlgden, of a portrait of her late husband, it is said ' the officers of the road, after he | Mr. Ogden] had been compelled to retire, had received a public dinner (1 think at Elgin) in which they drank toasts to each other and everylukly except Mr. Ogden. The omission uf his name, the man who everyone knew had built the mad, only made him the more prominent.""If such an occasion took place, the occasion must have been more marked by the absence of the original and most efficient projectors of the road than their presence. There were otticers of the road that were en- gagud in speculating along its line, as was confesseil some years later, when one of them was made a scapegoat. Public allusion having been thus made to these personal troubles in the board of directors, it becomes proper to explain the same somewhat, as in doing so a trait in Mr. Ogden's character and conduct presents him in very bold and advantageous relief, when compared with that of some of his associates, Chicago at that time was a comparatively small and very ambitious city. It had three divisions, occasioned by the river and its North ami South branches, which run almost at right angles with the main river, leaving cast of them the North and South divisions, and west of them the West Division, extend- ing the whole length of the city, Such divisions always create local jealousies, and the selfish interests excited are often ilifficult to manage or control. Mr. t)gden resided on the north side of the river, as did three other directors, Walter 1 .. Newberry, Thomas Dyer, and Juhn B. Turner. Two, Thomas Hirummomil amit Charles M. Hempstead, lived in Galena, and one. Thomas D. Robertwm, in Rockford, while the five others, Benjamin W. Raymond, George Smith, Charles Walker, James 11. Collins, and J. Young Scammon, lived in the South Division, which was then, as now, the principal bus- iness and commercial portion of the town. Mr. Ugden being especial- ly identified with the North Side could not exercise as much influence in obtaining subscriptions to stock in the business portion of the town as some of the South Siile directors, as he was accused, by those who never suppose other than sidely sellish motives can influence action, of 'wanting to build a railroad that would never pay, to help him sell his lots,' The gentlemen on the North Side naturally desired the road to cross the North Branch, and Incute its depots or Mations in the North Division; while the West Sillers could see no necessity of expending money to cross the river, because the West Side was the largest division of the city and the nearest to the country. In the railroad work, either because Ogden and Scammon had more time to devote to it, or for some other reason, they became the specially active representatives of the road on their respective

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 40

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