History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 41

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

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siles of the river. The out-of-town directors could rarely attend its meetings, or only when very important questions demanded their presence. These two men gave very much of their time to the en- prise: Mr. Ogden receiving a small salary in stock, and the writer no compensation, except for legal services when required by the board. Dgden and Scammun traveled over the country together; visited Albany anıl Boston in the Interests of the road in company with the late Erastus Corning, then president of the New York t'entral Railroad and the controlling spirit in the Michigan Central, the only road then in operation west of Lake Erie. They hoped tu interest the Boston gentlemen who were stockholders in and en- gaged in extending the Michigan t'entral to aid in building the Galena. They called upon the Michigan Central directors, and ey- pecially upon William F. Well, an iron merchant in Boston, who had then the reputation idf being ' the Railroad King,' They were very kindly received and entertained by John M. Forbes, then a ilirector of the Michigan Central, and a wealthy East India mer- chant, and since long identihed with the Chicago, Iturlington & Quincy road, and one of its principal stockholders. Mr. Weld sail to us= 'tientlemen, I do not remember any enterprise of this kind we listan people have taken hold of upon statistics. You must go home, raise what money you can, expend it upon pour ruail, and when it breaks down, as it surely, or in all probability will; come and give it to us, and we will take hold of it and cum- plete it, as we are completing the Michigan C'entral. A resolution was then formed though not publicly expressed, that the Galena should not break down. We came home, sought and obtained sub- scriptions to the stock of the road upon the pledge that the stock should never be endangered until it rose to par. anıl the holders had an opportunity of selling their shares at that price. This pledge was kept.

"An opportunity occurred, as we were commencing the work, of buying The old strap rail which was being removed from the Rochester & Canandaigua road, to be replaced with T iron, to- gether with two little second-hand passenger cars and two like engines, for $150,000, on a credit of tive years, if the writer recol- lects correctly, provided two of the directors would endorse the bond. This would require each of the thirteen directors to make himself responsible for a little over one-sixth part of that sum as guarantee of the tialena company. There was one director who said " he never endorsed other people's paper,' and declined to do sa, though he was subsequently made presulent and claimedl credit for Imiltling the road, with what propriety and how justly, in com. parison with the endorsers, let others juilge. MI the others made the requisite endorsement, with the understanding that we were to stick together and re-elert the old board nntil these bonds should be paid. We went ahead with the road and had got out west nine or ten miles, across the wet prairie, to the samil ridge, where the teams from the cunntry met ns, and transferred their loads to the cars, making the road pay as soon as the first section was com- pleted. We were so encouraged that we thought there ought to be no doubt about raising money to push the work, Mr. Ogden, as president, had boldly made some contracts with Mel'agg, Reed & L'o., and others, lor ties and lumber, based upon expectations of raising money in New York or at the East. A committee, consist- ing perhaps of Messrs, Ogilen and Raymond, went to the East for that purpose. They returned unsuccesful. A meeting of the directors was called. It looked blue. Tn go ahead would endan- ger the stock. To stop entirely would be a fulfilment of the Kail- road King's prophecy. Mr. Ogden was embarrassed. He knew that many of the public had no faith in the railroad, and believed it to he, on his part, an undertaking to aid him in selling his town lots, they saying that he could well afford to love his stock if it would help him to sell his landl. Most of the other directors were fearful. Mr. Raymond was hopeful, and Walker, Collins and Scammon. courageous. The latter said he believed arrangements could be made to defer or extend the contracts, and to bridge over the time till the installments on the stock that would be paid after the harvest should be realized, when the work on the road could proceed slowly, yet successfully. Mr. Dyer, who then owned the Lake House in the North Division, and was very anxious that the work should go on and the road be extended to the lake, so as to benefit his property, kent faith. The writer called him " a doubting Thomas," He replied, ' If Mr. Scammon has so much faith in the road, 1 move that a committee of five be appointed, with full power to do anything which they deem expedient, in regard to the road, and that Mr. Scammon be chairman of that committee, and be anthorized to appoint his associates." This was agreed to, and n committee, consisting of Mr. Scammon, James 11. Collins, t'harles Walker. Thomas Dyer, and Mr. Raymond, appointed to have charge of the subject. This committee gave the writer carte-blanche. He immediately applied to George Smith, the only ban- ker in the place who could make such a loan, $20,000 for six months, to enable him to go on with the road. Mr. Smith declined, though director of the road, and desirous of seeing it completed. Ile was

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asked why; if he had not the money. fle replied, 'Ves, Intt I do not wish to love it. I have no confidence in the road." Mr. S. rejoined, 'Don't you think I can build the road to Elgin with the $363,000 stock subscriptions we have of farmers, which are good and sure to be paid ?' "He answered, 'Ves, but you are not the president of the road." Mr. Scammon rejoined, "Don't you think Mr. Ogden can ?' Mr. Smith said, ' Ile can, but he won't,' add- ing, "Mr. Scammon, I will lend you the money.' The writer replied, 'Make out your note, and let me have it.' He did so, and the money was taken and placed in the treasury of the company, no other person in the road, except those connected with the loan. knowing from whence it came, except the treasurer the late Frank Howe. This, with arrangements that were made for extending contracts, enabled the road 10 meet its engagements, and prevented any suspension of work thereon. The road was pushed and com- pleted to Elgin. It did not cost much money in these days to build a flat railroad on mostly level land. Vet to obtain the small amount necessary, required, at that time, more courage and per- severance than is now requisite to build a road across the continent. The careful economy exercised in the building of this forty miles was nevertheless very conspicuous. We had money enough only to build the track with very few accessories It was a single straight line-hardly mere. Station-houses, sidings, turn-outs and turn-tables had to be, for the most part, deferred to the future.

" An incident occurs to the writer which may be worth recall- ing. Upon the completion of the road to Elgin, a general invita. tion was given for an excursion over the forty miles between C'hi- cago and that place. Among the party was an Irish engineer, who had published, in Dublin, a work on railroad engineering, which he had with him in bright red binding. On alighting from the cars in Chicago, on our return, the writer asked him what he thought of our road. He replied : ' If it is the engineering you're asking about, I don't think anything of it. We would spend more in the old country, upon the engineering of a single mile, than you have spent upon your entire road.

"in the meantime rivalries between the west and north sides of the river had sprung up, and some of the North-Side directors became suspicious that Mr. Ogden did not want to extend the road across the North Branch Into the North Division, because his greater interest was on the West Side. The temporary ilepot was then there. Some of the directors proposed to the writer to accept the presidency of the road. Upon this being declined, it was pro- posed to make him treasurer and financial agent. This was also declined, for the reason that it would too much interfere with pro- fessional work, which the writer was unwilling to give up. Mean- while, certain officers of the road had been busy misrepresenting Mr. Ogden's actions and intentions to Mr. Scammon and Mr. Scummon's to Mr. Ogden, until the latter was led to believe that there was a conspiracy to turn him out of the presidency and elect the writer in his stead. . \ counter movement was therefore under- taken by Mr. Ogden and the few who were in his confidence, This movement was not discovered until a few days before the election. Nine of the directors were very much surprised to learn it, and all of these nine sided with the writer. What combinations had been made, and how many proxies were hell by the parties in this move. ment, were unknown. We started for Elgin, where the meeting was to be held. Mr. Ogden's party, with Mr. Arnold as their attorney, went in one car, the other Chicago directors in another. In the way out, the writer said to the directors who were in the car with him, that he had been thinking over the matter, and had come to the conclusion that inasmuch as we did not know how strong the other party were, and what they intended ultimately to do, the better way would be to propose to them that the writer would ilecline a re-election upon condition that all the other directors should be re-elected without opposition ; and he said he would name, as his successor, Mr. Knowlton, of Freeport. That the other party would be obliged to accept this, or lose Mr. Knowlton's and the other Freeport votes, which would certainly defeat them. That we conkl not afford to have an open quarrel, which might hurt our credit and embarrass the progress of the road. The directors with the writer replied, if Mr. Scammon is willing to make this proposition they thought it would succeed, but no one could ask it of him. tle replied, that he was more interested in the completion and success of the road than in any personal question; that he had worked solely in the interest of the road as a public improvement demanded by the country, and had no seltish axes 10 grind, and he would make that proposition, and trust to time for his justification. It was made, much to the surprise of the other party, and after some hesitation or consideration, as it ' broke their slate,' it was accepted. Mr. Ogden was re-elected president ; but no sooner was Mr. Scammon out of the directory than all the bat- teries of the conspirators were turned against Mr. Ogden, and his place was made so uncomfortable that at the end of the year he left the road. Immediately after the election, the nine directors called the conspirators to account ; and there was a confession that the

writer had been grossly misrepresented and improperly treated, and a promise made that a proper explanation should be made. 11 wax never done. But William B. Ogden acted otherwise. When he learned the facts, and that we had both been made the victims of ambitious and designing men, who wished to get rid of the writer, because he had nipped in the bud their first attempt at speculation in the location of the road, and prevented its repetition, and be- cause they knew that they were watched, and so long as he was in the board such movements were likely to be detected and defeated. Mr. Ogden came directly to the writer, and, on learning what state- ments these parties had made to the latter, relative to Mr. Ogden. at once frankly acknowledged that in his action he had been misled and imposed upon by those he trusted, and that the writer's con- duct, to which he had taken so grave exception that he felt jussi- fied in self-defense to enter into combination to defeat his re-clee- tin, was entirely in the path of right and duty, if the writer believed the representations made to him, as he was bound to do within the circumstances."

THE ILLINOIS CENTRA. RAN.ROAD COMPANY .- Judge Breese's stupendous project, which had been ly- ing dormant, but not dead, since the bursting of the internal improvement bubble in 1839, was taken up with renewed energy in 1848. John S. Wright, who had early taken a deep interest in public enterprises, and was a man of great foresight, energy and enthusiasm, was actively employed in circulating petitions and docu- ments in favor of a land grant from the General Govern- ment to assist in the construction of the road, while the father of the enterprise, Judge Breese, was giving his time and energies to it in the Senate of the United States. Mr. Wright flooded the country with documents laying the matter before every class of people. He is said to have tlistributed at his own expense six thousand copies of petitions to Congress for a grant of land in aid of a railroad from the Upper and Lower Mississippi to Chicago. Three different ones were prepared-for the South, Illinois and the East. Judge Douglas said they came to Washington by the hundreds, numerously signed and had much influence, being the carliest move- ment for this ahject outside of Congress, except by the Cairo company. Arrangements were then January, 1848 , being made to continue the Michigan Central Railroad from New Buffalo to Chicago, sixty miles, which, with the road then building across Canada, would connect the city with the East. The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad had been surveyed. The proposed Buffalo & Mississippi road via Chicago to the mouth of Rock River was to be extended, in time, to Council Bluffs. An ardent admirer of this project and a warm practical supporter, and a hard worker to make the en- terprise a success was Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. The Illinois Central from Cairo at the mouth of the Missis- sippi to the canal was designed to be a most important link in the great system of communication between the lakes and the Mississippi, as that river as far south as Cairo was open to the gulf at all seasons of the year.

The original bills, introducetl by Judge Breese, as he himself says in a letter to Senator Douglas, published in January, 1851, did not contemplate a connection with Chicagu. They confined the roads to the routes from Cairo, by Vandalia, Shelbyville, Decatur, Bloomington. Peru and Dixon, to Galena. In 1847 Senator Douglas made Chicago his home, and he, in connection with other large property owners, determined to establish a line binding the Northwest with the lakes. Thus many friends were secured for the measure in the northeastern and middle States, who did not favor a proposition hav- ing for its natural tendency the diversion of tratle from the Upper Mississippi toward New Orleans alone .* 'T'he bill was reported by Judge Breese, chairman

· See letter fram Senator Douglas 10 Judge Jireese, published in Weekly Democrat, March 1, 3851.

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of the committee on public lands, the same year. Init did not meet with further consideration.

On the 11th of December, 1848, in the United States Senate, Mr. Douglas gave notice that he would intro- duce a hill granting the right of way and making a grant of land to the States of Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama in aid of the construction of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile. The bill was introduced on the 1 &th of the same month, read twice, and referred to the committee on public land, of which Judge Breese was

chairman. On the igth of December Judge Breese re- ported back the bill without amendment and it was or- dered to be printed. On the 30th of January, 1849, Indge Breese moved that the prior orders be postponed for the purpose of taking up the bill. The Senate was in committee of the whole proceeded to its considera- tion. Mr. Breese submitted sundry amendments, but moved that the printing of them be dispensed with. Mr. Dodge, of lowa, suggested a further amendment so as to provide for terminating the road at Dubugne, on the Mississippi River. Mr. Breese then amended by inserting after the word " Galena " the words "to the Mississippi River opposite Dubuque." No further amendments heing submitted the bill was reported to the Senate, when the several amendments were con- curred in. The bill was then ordered! to be engrossed and read a third time, and was subsequently hy unani- mous consent taken up and passed in the Senate. In the House at this session it failed, but the matter hav- ing been so fully and fairly presented, ripened it for its subsequent passage in 1850.

General James Shields was sent to Congress as the the successor of Judge Breese. In December, 1849. Congressman Shieldls and Senator Douglas, supported hy the other Ilinois members, prepared the bill, which was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Douglas in Janu- ary, 1850. It passed the Senate May 2, and the House of Representatives September 20, 1850. Its triumph in that body was largely due to the energy and ability of Hon. John Wentworth, the Representative of this dis- trict, and the late Governor Bissell, then a member of the House. At the same time a strip of land hetween LaSalle and Cairo, two hundred feet wide, was granted to the State for the uses of road-hed, side-tracks, and stations of the Central Railroad. The main grant of which this was supplementary. was 2,595,000 acres in the heart of the State, or alternate sections designated hy even numbers for six sections deep on each side of the main line and its branches, and for lands sold or pre- empted within those sections, an equal quantity within fifteen miles on each side of the line, on condition that the grant would be controlled by Illinois, and when the road should be built would he free to the General Gov-

ernment. The minimum price was fixed at $2.50 per acre, but in 1852 $5.00 per acre was realized.

This was the precedent of railroad grants, refused to the roads then completed, viz .: Chicago & Galena

from Chicago to Elgin : a section of the Northern Cross Railroad, from Naples and Meredosia to Springfield, and six miles of Governor Reynolds's track from a point opposite St. Louis to the Bluff coal mines. What new hopes the great land grant huilt up may be learned from the repeal of the act canceling the Great Western Railroad Company's charter, and the regranting of the charter to the Cairo City & Canal Company, with addi- tional privileges. This transaction, known as the " Hol. brook Charter," became notorious; so much so that Douglas prevailed upon D. B. Holbrook, president of the C'airo company, to yield up to the State the charter, which surrender was made December 24, 1849.

During the previous month, November 5, 1849, the act to provide for "a general system of railroad incor- porations " went into effect. It provided that not less than twenty-five persons might form a railroad corpora- tion, and elect directors when $1,000 of stock per mile should be subscribed, and ten per cent paid in. Thir- teen directors were to be chosen, at least seven of whom must reside in the counties through which the road was to run. Rules were laid down for the conduct of the directors, making the stockholders individually liable to the creditors of the company to the amount of stock held by them. Every company before proceeding to construct their road through any county was to make a map of its route and file it in the County Clerk's office. The corporation was not to interfere with navigable streams, or obstruct roads and highways. The com- pensation for any passenger and his ordinary baggage was not to exceed " three cents per mile, unless by special act of the Legislature." Rules were also laid down for obtaining the right of way Each employe was to he appropriately " labeled "with his company's badge. Annual reports were required to be made to the Secretary of State, and the railroad property listed by the proper officer, the State having a lien upon ap- purtenances and stock, for penalties, dues and taxes. The act admitted the right of the Legislature to alter rates, if the profits were not reduced less than fifteen per cent per annum on the paid up capital. Three com- missioners, appointed by the Governor, were to fix the rates of transportation for the United States mail, in case the railroad could not agree with the General Gor- ernment. Should a passenger not pay his fare the con- ductor was authorized to " put him off." Under no circumstances were freight cars to be placed behind pas- senger coaches, and at least a thirty-two-pound bell or a steam whistle was to be placed on the locomotive, and worked at least eighty rods from a railroad crossing. Penalties were provided for a violation of these sections. " Warning boards " were to be erected, on which were to be painted, in capital letters of at least the size of nine inches-" Railroad Crossing-Look out for the cars while the bell rings, or the whistle sounds." This was not to apply to city streets.

By act of the General Assembly, approved February 17, 1851, an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Great Western Railway Company," approved March 6, 1843; " An act to amend an act entitled an act to incorporate the Great Western Railway Company," approved February 10, 1849, and "An act to incorporate the Illinois Central Railroad Company," approved January 16, 1836, were repealed. By section 3 of the same act the grant of Congress approved Sep- tember 20, 1850, was accepted.

Prior to the passage of this wholesale repealing act, a memorial was presented to the General Assembly, It is dlated December 28, 1850, and signed by Robert Schuy-

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fer, George Griswold, Gouverneur Morris, of Morrisania, Franklin Haven, David A. Neal, R. Rantoul, Jr., J. Sturges, Thomas W. Ludlow and John F. A. Sanford. The memorialists offer to huild a road from Cairo to Galena, with a branch to Chicago, on or before July 4, 1854,"as well and thoroughly built as the railroad running from Boston to Albany," agreeing furthermore, in con- sideration of the charter and the land grant to "pay annually - per cent of the gross earnings of the said road." The general reader may be glad to learn that this blank was filled with a "seven" antl that this agree- ment became one of the corner-stanes of the financial stability of the State of Illinois." On February 10, 1851, the Legislature, declaring that in its judgment the object of incorporating the Central Railroad Company coukl not be attained under general laws, passed an act incorporating the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The event was celebrated in Chicago by a popular det- onstration of favor. The corporators were the memor- ialists mentioned above, and Henry Grinnell, William HI. Aspinwall, Leroy Wiley and Joseph W. Alsup. These gentlemen, with the Governor of the State for the time being, were constituted the first board of directors,

To this company the congressional grant of right of way and public lands, together with "the right of way which the State of Illinois has heretofore obtained;" the lot of land obtained by the State within the city of Cairo for a depot; "all the grading, embankments, exca- vations, surveys, work, materials, personal property, profiles, plats and papers constructed, procured, fur- nished and done by or in behalf of the State of Illinois, for or an account of said road and hranches, and the right of way over and through land's owned by the State," were " ceded and granted," and the company were required to execute a decd of trust of all this prop- erty, together with "the railroad which may be built," to Morris Ketchum, John Moore and Samuel D. Lock- wood, trustees, to secure to the State the first lien on the property sa conveyed, the construction of the road, and the indemnification of the State against the claims of the United States, in case the road should not he completed within ten years as required hy the act of Congress of September 20, 1850. Thus the magnificent grant to the State was relinquished to a private corpora- tion, not without strong opposition, however, for there was a deep feeling against the measure. The magni- tude of the grant was so overpowering to the minds of many good citizens, that they argued earnestly that by proper management the State might not only huildi the seven hundred miles of railroad, hut from the proceeds of the lands pay off a burdensome State debt of many millions of dollars besides. Doubtless this might have been possible, but the opportunities for "steals" might not have heen easily resisted. John S. Wright published a pamphlet in which he insisted that the State would be "everlastingly tlishonored if the Legislature did not devise laws to buikl the road, and clisenthral the State of its enormous debt besides, out of the avails of this grant." The company negotiated a loan of $400,000, but the money could not be realized until there should be a conveyance of the lands from the General Government. In this there was some delay. Justin Butterfield, the commissioner of the general land office, at Washington, who was from Chicago, construed the grant as entitling the company to lands for the Chicago branch, on a straight line to Chicago, which would avoid the junction with the Michigan Central. After some vexatious delay this construction of the act was overruled by the President and Secretary of the

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 41

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