History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 42

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 42

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* The amount thus paid over to the Stale has been over $),000,000,

Interior, and in March, 1852, the necessary patents were issued, contracts were awarded, work commenced and the road pushed forward to completion with little interruption.

In March, 1851, the board of directors had chosen Roswell B. Mason,* of Bridgeport, Conn., engineer in chief. It is entirely fitting that he should himself give an account of the survey and huilding of the line, as he was at the heatl of the work from its commencement .to its conclusion. The following letter to a personal friend explains itself:

"CHICAGO, October 12, 1883.

"C. C. P. HOLDEN,

" Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I give you very briefly a few facts and incidents connected with the carly operation of the engineer department of the Illinois Central Railroad.

" I received my appointment as chief engineer of the Illinois C'entral Railroad on the 22d of March, 1851, and entered at once upon the duty of selecting my assistants and making preparations for the journey to what was then considered this far off Western country. Leaving New York on the tath of May with a party of ten or twelve young gentlemen, we traveled by sicamer to Albany, by rail to Buffalo, by steamer 10 lletroit, by rail to New Buffalo, on the east side of lake Michigan, and thence by steamer to Chi- cago, arriving on the igth of May. My assistant engineers were appointed over the work as follows:

"X. B. Porter, from Chicago to Rantoul, headquarters Chicago; I., W. Ashley. Rantoul to Malioon, headquarters Urbana; C. Floyd Jones, Mattoon to main line Junction, and main line from Ramsay io Richview, headquarters Vandalia: Arthur S. Ormsby, Richview to Cairo, headquarters Jonesboro; H. It. Plant, Ramsay to Bloom- ington, headquarters Decatur; T. B. Blackstone, Bloomington to Eldena, headquarters LaSalle; B. B. Provoost, Eldena lo Dunleith, headquarters Freeport. Henry Bacon, after a few months, look the place of N. B. l'orter at Chicago, and L. W. Ashley took the place of Arthur S. Ormsby at Jonesboro. The solicitors of the company were W. II. Bissel and Mason Brayman of Springfield: the trustees, John Moore, S. D. Lockwood and Morris Ketchum.

** After seeing my assistants on their way to their several loca- tions, i went by packet-boat on the Illinois & Michigan Canal from Chicago to LaSalle, and then took a private conveyance 10 Cairo and back to Chicago. We traveled very nearly on the line of the road as now located south of Lasalle through Bloomington and Clinton 10 Decatur. From Decatur I went 10 Springfield to have a consultation with the solicitors, Messrs. Bissel & Brayman, and on iny return to Decatur I was joined by W. 11. Bissel, Esy., who went with me to Cairo and a part of the way back south of Ile. catur we traveled substantially on the present line of the road through Vandalia and near Richvlew and Jonesboro. Itut owing to high water we could not drive to Cairo and went to Mound City on the Ohio River, and thence by steamer to Cairo. Owing to cholera, which then prevailed there, and what appeared to me a very fair prospect of being drowned, I made a short visit, returning by steamer to Mound City: then followed back substantially on our route to near Decatur, thence to Urbana. The expectation at that time being to have the Chicago branch leave the main line at some point between Decatur and Vandalia.

" Going north from Urbana, we traveled over an unbroken prairie, almost the entire tlistance to Chicago, with no settlement in view on the whole one hundred and twenty-eight miles except al Spring Creek and Isaurhonia until you came near Chicago, where we arrived in about one month from the time I left there, traveling by private conveyance between seven hundred and eight hundred miles. During the journey I mel all my assistants except B. R. l'rovoost, and found them well equipped and entering very heartily into a vigorous prosecution of their work.

"After spending a few days at Chicago, I went again by packet- boat to LaSalle and thence by private conveyance to Dubuque. through Dixon, Freeport and Galena, meeting Mr. Provoost at Freeport, who had his work well in hand; returning to Chicago after about ten days, where I spent several weeks. But during the summer and fall I visited different portions of the line several times and was able to complete the location substantially and get my profiles and maps ready to take with me to New York late in the Fall.

" On the 2d of February, 1852, I went lo Washington to de- posit the map of our location with the Commissioner of the Land Department as required by law, and to get his approval of the se- lection and quantity of the land. This was not accomplished until

* Hon. Roswell B. Mason, che builder of the road and who located in Chi- cago during the construction of the same, was called by the people of this city lo the Mayor's chair in the fall of 1869, where he served the city for two years with the same fidelity that characterized all his acts in the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad in the years 1851-96.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

the tsth of March. While in Washington in the early part of March, 1 directed the work to be put under contract from 4 hicago In C'alumet, in utder to enable the Michigan C'entrat Railroad to teach the city. Spending a few days with my family in Con- tweetieut after leaving Washington, I started for t'hicago again on the t7th of March via Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and after a teilious journey of seven or eight days reached t hicago. Every effort was made to complete the work from Chicago to t'alumet as sawill as possible, and on the 21st of May. 1532, the first pas- senger train from Detroit entered thicage, nong the Illinois t'en- mal Railroad track fram Calumet to about Twenty-second Street, and from thence by a temporary track over the prairie almost in a alitect line to the east side of Michigan Avenue, immediately with of Thirteenth Street, where a temporary passenger depot was pro- vided and occupied for something more than a year, until the road was completed to the present depet at the foot of Lake Street.

" The only towns of importance on the main line were Galen.i. Freeport, Dixon. La Salle, Bloomingtim, t'linton. Deratur, Van. didia, Kichview, Jonesboro and t'aito. Richies and Jonesloro were not immediately um she line, Imt within alantt que mile. We did na gu through a single settlement on the branch, but passed near l'elxma aud Bourlwnnais. With the exception id more or low tinder in the immediate vicinity of the towns mentumed alunr. wc passeil nver prairie- from Galena to Big Muddy River within alain sixty miles of Caire This sixty miles was quite hravity timbered almost the entire distance. In going wurth on the I 'hi- dago Branch from the main line we passed over patches of timber and prairie ta a point a little south of Mattoon, mul from there to Chicago it was entirely prairie, except for a short distance at Spring Creek aud Kankakee. In going south from La Salle we soon came on to a prairie and traveled iony miles without seeing a luemise of any kind, and generally there was scarcely any settlement between the towns mentioned alnie, which are frum twenty -five lu fifty or sixty miles apart. On the branch I think there was no settlement immediately on the line of the road from where it leaves The main line until you came within about twenty miles of Chicago, There were quite a number of plaer- from twenty to fony miles without a settlement. The only railroads in Hlinos in the spring af tigt were the t'hicago & Galena, extemling from Chicago to Elgin, almat forty miles, laid with strap-rail : amil a road from Jaksonville to the Illinois Rover, ako laid with strap-mail, and pretty much abandoned, I think, at that time.

" The land utiers in ast were Chicago, Dixon, Danville. Vandalia and Ka-kaskia.

"Chiengn was estimated to contain about 20,ovo inhabitants in t8st.

" In June, 1352, the contract was let for grailing the road from La Salle in Bloomington, But owing to the high elevation in browsing the Illinois River and the expensive grading on each side of the river for several wiles, a temporary track was laid from the main live a few miles south of La Salle to the top of the bluff immediately opposite to La Salle, and an inclined plane was rumstructed from the top of the Huff down to the Illinois River, so that irun and other material for the construction of the rua could be loaded on cars at the foot of the jdaue and drawn up by stationary power at the head of the plane and then distrib. uted with an engine and cars that had previously been taken up the plane. This road was emupleted to Bloomington in the early part of 1853, amil on the completion of the Rock Islaud road to Lasalle a temporary bridge was constructed over the Illinois River and a track laid from the foot of the plane to connect with the Rock Island Railroad, making a contimuni- railroad track from ('hi- cago in Bloomington.

" During tiga the entire line was put under contract and was completed on the 27th of September, 1856, but owing to the few settlements it was very difficult to get men and teams and sunnydies for them. Agents were sent to New York and New Orleans to get men, and in some cases their fare was paid, with the promise of refunding it out of their work, But these promises were frequent. ly entirely disregardled. Some men would not even go on to the work a few miles only from the steamboat landing ; others would come on perhaps at evening and get their supper, lodging and breakfast and start off the next morning for other quarters, but untwithstanding these drawbacks many men were procured in this way. In the early construction of the road, large supplies for men and teams came from St. Louis for the main line south of Decatur. and from Indiana for the Chicagu Hranch. In many cases flour and other supplies were hauled rearly on quier une hundred miles. The iron for the road from Labai to Hommington was sent from New York by Hulson River, Erie Canal and the lakes to Chi- rugo and by flinois & Michigan Canal to LaSalle. On the 5th of March, 1853, 1 was advised that frum twelve to fifteen thousand tons of railroad iron would soon arrive in New Orleans, subject to my order. This iron was distributed to all pointy where the line id the road could be reached by water, for instance tu Caire; to

the mouth of the C'ash River, a few miles north of Cairo; to the mouth of the Big Muddy Kiver, frum whence it was taken by dat bat up to the line of the road, to Galena and Duntieth, and track laying was commenced at all of these points as soon as the grading was completed, and on the completion of the Ohio & Mi- sissippi Railroad from St. Louis to the main line, rails were sent buth north and south from that point; and when in 1853 the Great Western Railroad was completed frum Springfield to Decatur, and the t'hicago, lturlington & Quincy from Chicago to Mendota, and the Tialena Railroad from Chicago to Freeport, iron was sent over those roads to each une of those connecting points, enabling us tu lay track each way from each puint. Track laying was continued wuth from Itluomington with iron sent from LaSalle. and south of Chicago as fast as the grading was ready. On the completion of the t'hirago. Burlington & Quincy to Menduta the track was laid on the Illinois C'entral south to the top of the bluff north of La. Salle, and thence a temporary track into LaSalle making a continu- ou- railroad track from t'hicago to Lasalle, which was operated by the Chicago, Burlington & tQuincy Railroad for a year or more,

" Several engines were sent from the East to Buffalo, thence by the Lake to Detroit and by Michigan C'entral Railroad to ('hi- cago, And for the southern portion of the line an engine was win to Cincinnati and taken down the Ohio River on a tiat-boat to the mouth of Cash Kiver, and thence up that to the line of the real. Some cars were sent from the East, but the greater part were built here in Illinois, The road was completed in detached pieres, that part of it from Freeport to Dunlieth being operated for some time In the Galena Kailroad.

' To give you some idea of the pleasure of traveling in Ili- nois at that early day. I will describe'a trip made with David A Neal, Jr., vice-president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. in the fall of 1552. Leaving Chicago November to, tesz. we went by packet-lwat un the Illinois & Michigan C'anal tu LaSalle, thence by steamer on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to Cairo, arriving at St. Louis on the 14th and C'airo on the 17th of Novem- ber, a very comfortable journey. But our plan was to return by private conveyance near the line of the railroad to Chicago. Leav. ing t'airo on the 18th, we reached Vandalia on the 23d, and Decatur the 25th with inte team nearly exhausted, and unable to go any funher. The roads were so bad it was thought nearly impossible lu ger through and it was determined to go to Springfield and then by railroad, which had just been completed to Alton, and then by the Illinois River and Illinois & Michigan Canal to Chicago. We found it difficult to get a team to take us to Springfield, but an affer of 815 induced a livery-man in agree to take us through to springfield. almont forty miles, in a day. Leaving Decatur Friday morning. November 26, we tailed through the mud, water and ice te a small town within twelve miley uf Springtich, arriving there about dark with our team tired out and entirely unable to go any further. The train left Springfield Saturday morning at right o'clock and an offer of $15 more induced a man who had a good team to agree to take us there in time for the train, or else forfeit the $15. We agreeing to goat once or let him fix the time of starting: he named two o'clock in the morning as the time tu start. So getting a little rest we were under way at two o'clock. It was then very coll, aml ice of considerable thickness formed on the water cutting the horses legs quite badly to go through it. And in some raves the driver will go through on foot and break the ice before driv. ing through it. We arrived at Springfield about twenty minutes before the train left. Ile earned his 815 and wehad a comfortable journey from there to St. Lamis, where we staid over Sunday and took a steamer Monday morning for Lasalle, thence by packet- luxKl to Chicago, where we arrived December 4, 1852.

"It was some considerable time after the work was commenced liefure a local treasurer was appointed to be stationed at Chicago And in the mean time all the funds for the payment of the engin- vers and contractors passed through my hands, so that I carried large amounts of money to all parts of the road in my carpet-bag. In going into the extreme southern part of the State I went to St. Louis with my funds ur sometimes procured them there by drafts on New York and then secured a reliable police officer to go with me until I hail disbursed them. Itut after a time I was very much re- lieved by having John B. Calhoun sent out to Chicago as local treasurer. Ile was a competent, faithful, reliable man, and 1 am not aware that one dollar was ever lost or misappropriated during the construction of the finnd.

" There were important reasons for completing the main line of the romit by January t, 1856, and some months previous to that I was authorized to use every possible effurt to complete it hy that lime, regardless of expense. On consultation with the grading contractors a time was fixed for the completion of their work, re- serving only time enough to lay the track, and a bonus was offered them for every day it was completed before the time. The wirek was completed within the time, but the contractors did not secure a

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very large bonus. Exima track layers were engaged and teams employed to cart iron a few miles in advance of the regular party. When the extra party would commence and when the regular party reached that point they would go on a few miles in advance of the extra party and commence again. So by this and various other methods the track was completed on the 25th of December, 1855, and a telegram was sent to New York announcing the completion of the main line of the Illinois C'entral Railroad on that day.

Engine No. 42, with four cars, was the first to run over the high bridge at LaSalle on the 2tst of August, 1854, at 5:30 P. M.

Engine No. 5 was the first to run into Cairo on the 26th of August, 1854. Yours Truly,

Hascome B. llesson

The successive steps by which the Illinois Central has obtained a property foothold in Chicago commenced with the payment of $45,000 to the General Govern- ment, in October, 1850, in consideration for which the company obtained possession of the unoccupied portion of the Fort Dearborn reservation. The railroad com- pany paid the sum under protest, claiming that this tract was included in the Congressional grant. Suit was brought in the Court of Claims for the recovery of the money, but the decision went against the company. In 1852 the Legislature empowered the company to build a branch from the terminus at Twelfth Street to the south pier of the inner harbor, and the City Council supplemented the action of the Legislature in June of the same year by an ordinance admitting the company to lay tracks parallel with the lake shore, the condition being that the road should enter the city at or near the intersection of the southern limits and the lake, and pursue a course along the shore to the southern limit of Lake Park, in front of Canal Section No. 15, and con- tinue due north to the proposed site within the Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago, between the line of Ran- dolph Street and the main river. This actually handed over to the company the right to use a strip of shore three hundred feet wide, cast of a line drawn parallel with Michigan Avenue, four hundred distant from the west line of that thoroughfare.

In September, t852, the Illinois Central commenced work on the lake-shore protection, or breakwater, which was completed in two years, under the superintendency of Colonel R. B. Mason, chief engineer. Mr. Bross, in speaking of the great work, says :

" This great work commences at the south pier, four hundred feet inside of its extreme east end and extends south one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven feet into the lake ; thence west six hundred and seventy-five feet on the north line of Randolph Street ; thence, southwest one hundred and fifty feet ; thence to a point opposite the American Car Factory, making fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy-seven-in all sixteen thousand four hundred and fifty-nine feet. From the pier to the engine-house the breakwater is twelve feet wide ; Thence down to the car com- pany's works half that width. The upper portion of the crib work is bullt of square timber twelve by twelve, locked together every ten feet, aml the intermediate space filled by stone, piles being driven on the outside to keep it in place. The first piece of crib work sunk, in building the breakwater, has a very stout plank bottom. The water line of the crib work, south of Randolph Street, is six hundred feet cast of the east side of Michigan Avenue, and the outer line of the crib work, between Randolph Street and the river, is one thousand three hundred and seventy-five feet. The area thus inclosed, and rescued from the dominion of the lake is about thirty-three acres,"

In 1855 the Common Council gave the company per- mission to use a triangular piece of land, which lay north of Randolph and a short distance west of the land granted in 1852. In 1856 the city granted a right to use the space between the breakwater, from a point seven hundred feet south of the north line of Randolph

Street, branching out and running thence to the south- east corner of the company's breakwater as then cstab- lished, and thence to the river. In February of this year, passenger trains over the Illinois Central, the Mich- .igan Central and the Chicago & St. Louis roads, com- menced to run into the new depot of the first named com- pany. After that year the company continued to improve and possess submerged and other lands east of the cast line of the two hundred feet granted in the original or- dinance.

This company was the first to take action in the matter of suburban trains. A time table was issued June 1, 1856, and three trains placed on the line between the city and Hyde Park.

The gross earnings of the Illinois Central Railroad from March 24 to October 31, 1855, were $595,633.86 ; the amount of State tax paid into the State treasury, $29,75t.59, the rate levied being five per cent. For the six months ending April 30, 1856, the gross earnings were $630,580.02 and the tax $31,529. The earnings for the half year ending October 31, 1856, aggregated $922,053.30 and the taxes paid $46,102.66. For the six months ending April 30, 1857, the total earnings were $935,386.69 ; the rate of tax varied from five to seven per cent, yielding to the State a revenue of $59,196,82. During the half year ending October 31, 1857, the gross earnings amounted to $1,234,986, and the tax, levied at the rate of seven per cent, to 886,449.02.

LAND SALES .- C. C. P. Holden furnishes the follow- ing interesting facts in regard to the early sales of Illinois Central Railroad lands, and their marked effect upon the prosperity of the State :

"The foundation upon which rested the corner stone of the Illinois Central Railroad was the grant of lands from the General Government to the State of Illinois-under the act of Congress of September 20, 1850, and from the State of Illinois to the company, by act approved February 10, 1851. This grant consisted of 2,595,000 acres of land selected from the public domain and lying on each side of their road, within fifteen miles thereof. The grant of this large body of land gave the company a credit which other- wise it might not have been able to obtain. With these lands as a foundation upon which to guarantee the payment of their bonds at maturity and the interest on the same as it became due, their credit took immediate shape and they readily placed their bonds, of which there were ten thousand of $1,000 each, and fourteen thousand of $500, cach, in all for $17,000,000. The payment of these bonds was secured by a mortgage pledging 2,000,000 acres of the com- pany's lands therefor. The residue of 595,000 acres of said lands were at the disposal of John Moore, S. D. Lockwood, and Morris Ketchum, trustees named in the hill, the proceeds to be used in pay- ing the interest on the above bonds, and 10 . meel such demands as the exigencies of the company may demand." With this advantage secured, the company took immediate shape and went forward to carry out the object of the grant, under the act of Congress and of our own State Legislature.

"The writer hereof having been for a long period of years connected with the sale and managemem of these lands, it may not be amiss to briefly review some of the results accruing to the rail- roud company, to the State of Illinois, and finally to the great Northwest Through the sale and settlement of the lands of this corporation. The State of Illinois at the time the grant was made had a population of 851,470 ; and the counties through which the road was located-to-wit, Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Ogle, Lee, La- Salle, Marshall, Woodford, McLean, Dewit, Macon, Christian, Shelby. Fayette. Marion, Washington, Perry, Jackson, Union, Alexander, Pulaski, Clay, Effingham, Cumberland, Coles, Cham- paign. Vermillion, Iroquois, Will and Cook-had a population of 255.264. The State debt at that time was $15,000,000. In the early spring of 1851, the company fully organized, when its officers and board of directors took immediate steps for the construction of the road and the branches thereof, a task that would have ap- palled the most of men ; but the directors were fully equal to the occasion, and one of their first acts was to select Colonel Roswell B. Mason, to locale and build the road.

"In 1852, 1853 and 1854 the company's lands were selected and planed, under the supervision of John C. Dodge, of Chicago, with local agencies at Freeport, Dixon, LaSalle, Bloomington. Clinton, Richview, Jonesboro, Urbana and Kankakee, Those

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who were living upon the lands prior to September 20, 1850, had the right to prove up their claim, pay $2.50 per acre and take deeds therefor. The agents at the above points were John A. Clark, Freeport ; Silas Noble, Dixon ; S. B. Carter, LaSalle : A. Gridley, Bloomington ; C. 11. Moore, Clinton ; B. G. Roots, Richview ; D. L. Phillips, Jonesboro ; John Campbell, U'rbana, and A. Chester, Kankakee. They also made sales of other lands belonging to the company in their respective districts.

"Early in t855, under the administration of J. N. A. Gris. wold, president of the road, the Land Department was thoroughly organized under the immediate supervision of Charles M. Dupuy. The lands of the entire grant were divided into districts where engineering parties examined each and every tract, reporting the result of their labors to the Chicago office. These examinations were made for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of the soil, whether timber or prairie, its nearness to any settlement, proximity to water, with any other information bearing upon the value of the same. When these examinations had been completed and copied in books furnished for that purpose at the Chicago office, prices were attached to each tract, and then the land was thrown into market. Mr. Dupuy thoroughly systematized the work, and by a judicious system of advertising both at home and abroad, the de- mands for the lands of this company soon commenced to increase. People came from all parts of the country-from the North and from the South, from the East and from Europe-seeking homes for themselves and their families along the line of the Illinois Central.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 42

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