USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 24
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interest, and later for the principal, from the purchasers of the Wabash & Erie Canal lands. The scrip was printed on white paper and soon received the name of "white dog" money, in comparison with the cer- tificates of 1839.
At the close of the year 1841 over eight million dollars had been ex- pended on the public works authorized by the act of 1836, and it was estimated that at least twenty millions of dollars more would be necessary to complete the system according to the original plan. Public sentiment was adverse to any further issue of bonds, or any increase in the state debt, to carry on the work and the whole scheme collapsed.
The Wabash & Erie Canal was commenced, however, before the enactment of the internal improvement law of 1836 and was built under a different act. Work on the canal was slow for a time, but after a start had been made it progressed more rapidly, and on July 3, 1835, the water from the head of the canal at Fort Wayne reached Huntington. That was a red letter day in Huntington's calendar. Late in the after- noon the packet boat Indiana, Captain Fairfield, master, arrived at Huntington and tied up at the upper lock, then known as Burk's lock. On board was a large and enthusiastic party of Fort Wayne citizens, who were met by an equally enthusiastic throng of Huntington people. In anticipation of the arrival of the first canal boat, Dr. George A. Fate had brought a small cannon from Dayton, Ohio, and the little gun now boomed out its noisy welcome. The next day the Indiana returned to Fort Wayne, taking the cannon along.
When the state system of internal improvements collapsed in 1841 the Wabash & Erie Canal was partly completed and the finished portion was bringing in a substantial revenue. It was finished through Hunt- ington County in 1836. This portion of the improvement system was therefore not abandoned, and, as part of the lands granted by the gen- eral Government to the state was still unsold, it was hoped that enough revenue could be realized from the sale of the remaining portion to complete the canal according to the original design. The act of 1836 contemplated 1,289 miles of canal, railroad and public highway. When only 281 miles of this system had been completed the state was heavily in debt and the state officials experienced great difficulty in raising funds to pay even the interest upon the indebtedness. Trans- portation channels were still needed by the people of the state, but there were no funds available with which to build them. The Wabash & Erie Canal, with its unsold lands and tolls, was taken in part pay- ment of claims by the state's bondholders, who promised to complete the canal. The Ohio portion was finished and placed in operation in 1843, and the entire canal from Toledo, Ohio, to Evansville, Indiana,
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was completed in 1851. Its total length was 460 miles, of which 379 miles were in Indiana.
Some years ago Elbert J. Benton prepared a history of this great waterway, which was published by the Indiana Historical Society. Says he : "Before the opening of the canal, in 1844, the zone of the Maumee and Upper Wabash valleys had sent towards Toledo only 5,622 bushels of corn. Five years later the exports from the same region, sent to that port, reached 2,755,149 bushels. For home consumption, the large number of laborers added to the population increased the demand for produce and much more money than ever before came into circulation. "When the canal was begun, the Upper Wabash valley was a wilder- ness. There were only 12,000 scattered population in all that district, but people began to flock in by wagon-loads, so that the number had increased to 270,000 by 1840. In 1846 over thirty families every day settled in the state. Five new counties were organized in three years following the opening of the first section of the canal from Fort Wayne to Huntington. Thirty per cent of the emigrants entering the port ยท of New York passed into the group of states where the Erie canal and its connections were being constructed. The boats that took grain up the canal brought back emigrants and homesteaders from the East. Thirty-eight counties in Indiana and nine in southeastern Illinois were directly affected by the new waterway. Long wagon trains of produce wended their way to the towns on the shores of the canal. In the year 1844 four hundred wagons in a day were waiting to unload at points like Lafayette and Wabash."
It is worth while to bear in mind that a number of towns in the Wabash Valley owe their origin and early prosperity to the Wabash & Erie Canal. Some of these towns grew into cities of considerable size. All along the Wabash industry was stimulated by the prospect of having a reliable outlet to the markets. Sawmills, flour mills, paper and oil mills were established in these towns and every boat that went up the canal carried their products to the eastern states. Between the years 1840 and 1850 the increase in population in the counties adjacent to the canal was nearly 400 per cent, or more than twice the increase ,in other parts of the state. Such an influence did the canal wield in the development of the country through which it passed that Mr. Benton calls it the "Indiana Appian Way."
About the time the canal was finished through the state, the build- ing of railroads became an all-important subject in Indiana. Charters were liberally granted by the Legislature to companies to construct rail- ways, and as these lines came into active operation the income of the canal was visibly affected. The legality of the canal company was also
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called into question, which added further to its distress, and after a few years the once famous Wabash & Erie Canal ceased to be a paying institution. In this emergency the state was asked to pay one-half of the debt for which the canal had been taken, the creditors claiming that the state, by granting franchises to the railroad companies, had acted in bad faith and diverted from the canal company large sums of money that would otherwise have been received in tolls.
In 1873 the people of Indiana adopted an amendment to the state constitution enjoining the state from ever obligating itself for the pay- ment of any portion of canal bonds. The next year the canal was vir- tually abandoned, because the receipts from tolls were not sufficient to keep it in repair, though a few boats remained in commission for about
ABANDONED CANAL BOAT
a year later. Early in the summer of 1875 a flood caused a washout of the canal near the City of Peru. After the waters subsided the canal was left practically dry and no longer fit for commercial purposes. Boats were left stranded at infrequent intervals along its bed, where they gradually sank into ruin and decay. In 1876 the great waterway was sold under foreclosure proceedings to William Fleming, of Fort Wayne. Some Peru capitalists bought from Mr. Fleming that portion of the canal between Lagro and Lafayette, and most of the entire route has since been disposed of by piecemeal, either by purchase or condem- nation proceedings, to electric railway lines and other interests. Such was the ignoble end of the great waterway that was once the hope and pride of thousands of people living in the Wabash Valley. During its
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existence, perhaps no one agency was of such potent influence in devel- oping that great valley as the Wabash & Erie Canal.
Since the decline of the old Wabash & Erie Canal at least two well- organized efforts have been made to secure water transportation through Northern Indiana. In 1880 Congress appropriated $15,000 for a survey of a canal from Toledo to Lafayette. The survey was made, but owing to a change in the national administration and other causes nothing further was ever done in the matter.
About 1908 or 1909 Perry A. Randall and a few other Fort Wayne men began agitating the subject of a barge canal to connect the waters of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. In March, 1914, the Erie and Michi- gan Deep Waterways Association was organized at Fort Wayne, a number of representatives from other cities in the northern part of the state being present. J. W. Caswell, of Huntington, was elected one of the vice presidents of the association. The subject was presented to Congress, and on May 4, 1914, a survey was commenced under the direc- tion of P. M. Churchill and Malcolm R. Sutherland, United States engineers.
That same evening a meeting was held at the rooms of the Hunting- ton Commercial Association to organize a branch of the Deep Water- ways Association. At this meeting citizens of Andrews, Roanoke, Wabash and Lagro were present. Commenting upon the activity of the people of Huntington, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette said: "Over at Huntington the Commercial club expects to get 500 members for the association. If every city in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania had as many enthusiastic boosters for the canal as Huntington has with her 15,000 population, there would be no question about its construction. You cannot convince the people of Huntington that the canal will not be built."
Two routes are under contemplation-one running from Fort Wayne through Elkhart and South Bend, and the other farther south, through Huntington, Rochester and Valparaiso. The selection of the route depends largely upon the available water supply for purposes of navigation and the activity of the people living along the proposed canal. In this respect Huntington is one of the most active cities in the state, and if the canal is built the Commercial Association of that city hopes to be once more connected with the outside world by means of a waterway. What the ultimate result will be remains to be seen.
The first railroad in the United States was a line about nine miles long, running from the Town of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to some coal mines. Compared with the railroads of the present day it was a crude affair, but it proved to be a successful undertaking, and thought-
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ful men saw in it the beginning of the nation's most reliable system of transportation. While a number of states were devoting their attention and energies to the construction of canals as a means of developing their natural resources a few miles more of railroad were built in the East, though many people were skeptical as to the ultimate success of such roads, and many others were strenuously opposed to this method of traffic and transportation. About 1830, or perhaps a year or two later, some young men of Lancaster, Ohio, formed a debating club and asked the school board of the town to grant them the use of the schoolhouse in which to hold their meetings. When the board learned that it was the intention of the young men to discuss the railroad ques- tion it returned the following reply :
"You are welcome to the use of the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossi- bilities and rank infidelity. There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed that his intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, by steam, he would clearly have foretold it through his holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."
In spite of such sentiment and opposition, the railroad gradually found advocates among the more progressive element of the people. In the light of modern progress and development, the arguments and objections of the Lancaster School Board, eighty years ago, appear almost silly. Although the holy prophets failed to foretell a "frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour," it is not unusual for the fast passenger trains of the present day to attain a rate of speed four times that great. In fact, a railroad whose trains did not make greater speed than fifteen miles an hour would soon perish for want of patronage.
As early as 1845 some, of the citizens of Huntington County became interested in the construction of a railroad through the county. When the road was first proposed, as in the case of nearly all early railroads, the terminals were not clearly determined, the general proposition being to connect Lake Erie and the Mississippi River, "at suitable points." After some delay the line was selected from Toledo, Ohio, up the Maumee Valley to Fort Wayne. From that point two routes westward were proposed-one via Liberty Mills and down the Eel River Valley to Logansport, and the other down the Little and Wabash rivers, via Hunt- ington, Wabash and Peru, to the same destination. From Logansport, it was proposed to follow the Wabash Valley to Lafayette. The advo- cates of the northern route between Fort Wayne and Logansport claimed that it was the shorter and ran through a better improved country. They pointed out, with some force, that the swamps along
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the Little River would be a serious obstacle in the way of constructing a railroad on the proposed southern line. John Comstock, of Liberty Mills, and several Logansport men were particularly active in their efforts to secure the adoption of the Eel River route.
On June 23, 1852, a meeting was held at Logansport to consider the matter and decide upon a route. Representatives from Toledo and Lafayette, and a number of intermediate towns and cities were present. The delegates from the Town of Huntington were John Roche, David L. Shearer, Lambdin P. Milligan, Jesse Davies, Samuel Moore and John Ziegler. The Town of Roanoke was represented by George W. Chap- man. It is said that when Daniel D. Pratt, a prominent attorney of Logansport, was called upon for some expression as to the advisability of building the road, he walked over to the secretary's table and signed his name for a substantial stock subscription, remarking as he did so: "There is my speech." His example was contagious and before the meeting adjourned a large part of the money necessary for the con- struction of the road had been subscribed.
When the question of selecting a route came up for consideration, Mr. Milligan offered a motion that the road follow the Little and Wabash rivers. This motion was supported by all the delegates from Hunting- ton, Wabash and Peru, and was finally carried. Among the papers of the late John Roche was found a copy of the original articles of asso ciation adopted at the Logansport meeting, to wit :
"Article 1. The name and style of the corporation shall be 'The Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis Railroad Company.'
"Article 2. The eastern terminus of the road shall be at a point on the east line of Allen or De Kalb county in said state of Indiana, thence running down the valleys of the Little and Wabash rivers and passing through the counties of De Kalb, Whitley, Huntington, Wabash, Miami, Cass, Carroll, Tippecanoe, Fountain, Warren and Vermillion, or as many of them as necessary, all in the State of Indiana, on the most eligible route, and terminating at some point on the west line of said State of Indiana in the general direction of Danville, Illinois.
"Article 3. The number of directors to manage the affairs of the company shall be thirteen."
The adoption of the Little River route was not satisfactory to those who favored the Eel River Valley, and they immediately began taking steps to bring about a reorganization of the company, with a view to effecting a change in the line of the road. There is little question that the City of Huntington owes its location upon the line of the Wabash Railroad to John Roche. Fearful that the advocates of the Eel River route might succeed in their reorganization scheme, and appreciating
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the truth of the old saying that "money talks," Mr. Roche went to work with his characteristic energy to obtain subscriptions to aid in the building of the road. In this effort he enlisted the cooperation of Lamb- din P. Milligan, Samuel H. Purviance and other leading citizens, and when another meeting was held at Logansport he was able to show that the people of Huntington had subscribed $22,000-a large sum of money for that day-on condition that the road should pass through that town. This was the largest amount subscribed by any of the towns along the proposed railroad. It seemed so incredible that Azariah Boody, the representative of the eastern capitalists who had agreed to finance the project, asked Allen Hamilton, of Fort Wayne, if the people of Hunt- ington could be relied on to pay that sum. Mr. Hamilton replied that he knew but little about some of the subscribers, but if John Roche said they were good his word would be accepted. That settled the question and the route as fixed by the original articles of association was not altered.
Pursuant to Article 3 of the articles of association, the following board of directors was elected on August 18, 1852: Samuel Hanna, of Allen County ; John Roche, of Huntington; Hugh Hanna, of Wabash ; John W. Wright and George Cecil, of Cass; Reed Case, Hiram Allen and A. R. Bowen, of Carroll; James Spears, of Tippecanoe; M. M. Milford and Joseph Ristine, of Fountain, and William Kent, of Warren County. Soon after the election the board met and organized by elect- ing Albert S. White president of the company; John Little, secretary; William L. Brown, treasurer; William Durbin, chief engineer, and Stearns Fisher, superintendent of surveys and construction.
Work on the road was commenced in the fall of 1853. Owing to the cholera epidemic of 1854, progress was slow for a time, and the first train did not reach Huntington until November 13, 1855. Huntington was then a village of about four hundred inhabitants and the entire popu- lation turned out to witness the arrival of the first railroad train. The scenes that accompanied the arrival of the first canal boat, more than twenty years before, were reenacted and the people congratulated each other upon the fact that the railroad was a reality. With the first day of January, 1856, a regular passenger schedule was adopted and since that time Huntington has had continuous railway service. The first telegraph office was established at the railroad station in the fall of 1856. After a time the name of the railroad was changed to the Toledo, Wabash & Western, and still later to the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, under which it was operated until the name was shortened to the single word "Wabash," by which it is now widely known as one of the great trunk lines of the country.
Vol. 1-15
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The Chicago & Erie Railroad is the outgrowth of a project which had its inception as early as 1836, when a company known as the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company was organized to build a railroad from New York to some point in Ohio.
On December 1, 1871, the Chicago, Continental & Baltimore Railroad Company was organized, with a capital stock of $2,000,000, to build a road from the northwest corner of Indiana through the counties of Lake, Porter, Laporte, Starke, Marshall, Fulton, Kosciusko, Wabash, Huntington, Wells and Adams, or such of them as might be finally decided upon as offering the most feasible route, to connect with the Baltimore, Pittsburgh & Continental at the state line. A little more than a year later the name of the Chicago, Continental & Baltimore was changed to the Chicago & Atlantic.
On March 15, 1873, the Chicago & Atlantic Extension Railway Com- pany was organized for the purpose of constructing a road from the Indiana state line to Chicago. The capital stock of this company was fixed at $1,000,000.
In the meantime the Atlantic & Great Western had become known as the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio and had completed a line west- ward from New York to Marion, Ohio. On July 15, 1873, the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad companies of Indiana and Illinois were consolidated with the Baltimore, Pittsburgh & Continental Railroad Company of Ohio, under the name of the Chicago & Atlantic, to build a road from Chicago to Marion, Ohio, to connect with the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio, or from Chicago via Pittsburgh to New York, as might be deter- mined after surveys had been made. Articles of association were filed with the secretary of state of Ohio on August 6, 1873, but nothing in the way of building the road was done until several years later. In 1878 the officers of the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad Company were : H. R. Low, of New York, president; J. S. Robinson, of Ohio, vice president; L. P. Milligan, of Huntington, secretary and attorney ; George J. Bippus, of Huntington, treasurer. Mr. Bippus and J. W. Purviance, of Huntington, were on the board of directors, and Col. C. E. Briant, also a Huntington man, was active in his efforts to secure the early completion of the road.
In the latter '70s a narrow gauge railroad was completed between Huntington and Markle, on the right of way now occupied by the Chi- cago & Erie. On April 12, 1879, President Low issued the announcement that the company was ready to proceed with the work eastward from Huntington, and predicted that within ninety days connection would be made with the Delphos, Bluffton & Frankfort Road at Decatur. A meeting was held at Kenton, Ohio, June 6, 1879, to consider the question
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of selling bonds to complete the road. But again there was hitch in the proceedings and the work was once more delayed.
In June, 1880, the capital stock of the company was increased from $7,000,000 to $10,000,000 and the stockholders expressed themselves in favor of issuing bonds to the amount of $6,500,000. No immediate action was taken, however, on account of certain legal requirements to be complied with before the bonds could be issued. In September, 1880, the obstacles having been removed, the directors called a meeting of the stockholders for October 29, 1880, "to vote on the proposition to author- ize the directors of said company to create and issue bonds in the name of said company, to the amount of $6,500,000, for the purpose of con- structing and equipping its line of road from the town of Marion, Ohio, to the city of Chicago," etc.
At the October meeting representatives of New York capitalists were present with a proposition to negotiate the sale of the bonds, and a new board of directors was chosen. The Huntington Herald of Novem- ber 10, 1880, said : "We are happy to announce this week, and on good authority, that the completion of the C. & A. railroad is now an assured fact. . New parties have been taken into the organization, and the work will be pushed through to completion as soon as possible. The road will be changed to a standard gauge."
In January, 1881, four corps of engineers were engaged on the survey, and the road was completed through Huntington County in 1882. On January 17, 1882, a special election was held in the City and Township of Huntington, by order of the county commissioners, to vote on the proposition of granting a subsidy of $12,000 to secure the location of the railroad shops at Huntington, and out of 1,006 votes cast only 176 were in the negative. About the time the road was completed the Erie Railroad Company obtained full ownership of the Chicago & Atlantic and the name was changed to the Chicago & Erie.
About 1875 the citizens, of Warren and Bluffton began to work in unison for some better methods of communication with outside cities. The result of their efforts was the incorporation of the Delphos, Bluff- ton & Frankfort Railroad Company. At that time Warren numbered but about five hundred inhabitants, but among the citizens were several men who were enthusiastic over the railroad proposition. Foremost of these were George H. Thompson, Sr., George H. Thompson, Jr., and S. L. Good, each of whom pledged himself to pay $500 to the railroad company as soon as the first train reached Warren. The promise was kept and the same men worked systematically for the extension of the road.
As the name indicates, the road was first designed to run from Delphos, Ohio, to Frankfort, Indiana. The first track was a narrow
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gauge and the first train arrived at Warren on October 11, 1878. About this time subsidiary companies were organized to extend the road to Toledo on the east and St. Louis on the west. The road was completed from Delphos to Frankfort late in the year 1879, after which work was pushed on the extensions and the road was in operation between Toledo and St. Louis about three years later, making it the longest narrow gauge road in the country. The subsidiary companies were then consolidated and a project set on foot to continue the line westward to Kansas City. The name "Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad Company" was adopted, but the line between St. Louis and Kansas City was never built. After a few years the traffic on the road increased to such an extent that it was made a standard gauge road, known as the Toledo, St. Louis & Western. It is now a part of the "Clover Leaf" system.
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