USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 12
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Work was begun in 1850 and the whole road was completed by July 1, 1853. Ex-Senator O. H. Smith was president of the road while it was being built. This was the state's first connection by rail with the east. Over the short Bellefontaine branch it made connections with the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincin- nati; with the Lakeshore; New York & Erie; and with the New York Central. At Hamilton, Ohio, it connected with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton for Cincinnati, the first direct connection between Indianapolis and Cincinnati.
The road unfortunately was laid down on the In-
12 Indianapolis Sentinel, Aug. 2, 1869.
13 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1847, ch. XCIV.
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diana gauge, four feet, eight and one half inches, but was soon changed to the Ohio gauge of four feet ten inches. As soon as the Vandalia was extended to St. Louis this road became the main route from St. Louis to New York and as such enjoyed an enormous trade. In 1868 the total earnings were $2,962,613, nearly one million of which was net profit. The line was 138 miles long, of which 127 are without curve. The total cost of road and equipment up to 1864 was $5,679,312, a trifle over $40,000 per mile.14
The success of the Madison road from 1846 to 1850 caused excited interest in railroad building in all parts of Indiana. People began to feel and see the results of the new improvement. Companies were organized in all parts of the state to build roads from and to almost every town. Few of their plans were carefully studied out. The first thought was to rush to the General Assembly and get a charter. Many of these charters required an immediate be- ginning of the road, after which a liberal period, sometimes as much as thirty years, was allowed to complete it. Work was accordingly begun as soon as a few thousand dollars worth of stock could be sold. For a great many years, as late as 1870, aban- doned work of this character could be seen in many parts of the state. There was no thought of termi- nals or connections. Through traffic was never men- tioned.
The Junction road from Rushville to the Indiana state line in the direction of Hamilton, Ohio, was chartered, February, 1848. The charter was drawn by Samuel W. Parker and the company organized by Caleb B. Smith in 1850. The meeting at College Cor- ner of the citizens along the route for the purpose of organizing the company was presided over by Dr. E.
14 Indianapolis Sentinel, Aug. 25, 1869.
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D. McMaster, president of Miami College, and the father of Gen. A. E. Burnside was secretary. The capital stock was $250,000. Col. H. C. Moore, later superintendent of the Missouri Pacific, surveyed the route. In 1853 it was decided that if the road ever became valuable it would have to be extended to In- dianapolis, so a new company, the Ohio & Indianapo- lis company, was organized and merged into the Junction company. Thus organized, ground was broken in Union county in January, 1852, and con- struction pushed vigorously for a few years, but the money on the stock, subscribed as usual in lands and labor, came in slowly. The road reached Conners- ville in 1860; a branch connected it with the Indiana Central at Cambridge City in 1864; in 1866 it reached Rushville and in 1868 it reached Indianapolis. The work of construction thus extended over a period of twenty years, a large part of the $5,000,000 capital having been subscribed in Cincinnati. The branch to Cambridge City was extended to Newcastle in 1866 and thence on to Muncie and Fort Wayne, trains reaching these points in 1869. The completion and success of the road was due in a large measure to the work of J. M. Ridenour, its president after 1860.
The Monon, most distinctively Hoosier of all the railroads, was first known as the New Albany & Salem. What the ambition of its early promoters was is not disclosed, for it had one of the most mod- est charters of the time.15 James Brooks seems to
15 This charter was originally a general grant to any com- pany agreeing to finish one of the State works of 1836. Laws of Indiana, 1842, ch. I. An act entitled "An Act to change that part of the New Albany and Crawfordsville McAdamized road, which lies between Salem and New Albany, to a railroad, to be con- structed by a private company." Laws of Indiana, Local, 1846, ch. CCCLXXIX. The company was forbidden to use scrip and each man was made personally liable for all the debts of the company incurred in making the road. Governor Whitcomb re-
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have been the active manager of the enterprise, assisted by the secretary, George Lyman. Ground was broken in 1848, the contract being let in April. The line followed the old stage route and the early trains ran in connection with the stages. The road at first reached only to Borden, then called Provi- dence, where it met the daily stage from the north. January 15, 1851, the first train reached Salem. The track was laid on stringers of oak about one foot square and from fifteen to thirty feet long, supported by cross or mud sills of equal size, at intervals of about four feet. On the stringers were nailed strips of bar iron on which the car wheels rolled. The route lay through the hilliest portion of the state and in attempting to miss all the hills the engineers laid down a road noted above all others in Indiana for its numerous and graceful curves. Near New Albany the road skirts the base of the Knobs, in view of the most picturesque scenery of the state.
The original intention of the company, it seems, was to build only to Salem, but by 1852 the line had reached Juliet, a small station on the south side of White river near Bedford. At this time a deal was made with the Michigan Central, which ran from Detroit west to Lake Michigan and wanted connec- tion with Chicago. The Indiana General Assembly refused a charter to the latter company so it ar- ranged with the New Albany & Salem company to extend its line north to Michigan City and join the Michigan Central at the state line, intending to run a branch west to the state line to join an Illinois road to Chicago.16 Whatever the plans, the road was con-
fused to sign the bill. but held it till it became a law. It seems doubtful if the act created a corporation at all.
16 The New Albany and Salem secured an amendment to this charter, Jan. 12, 1849, authorizing it to extend its road "to such other point or points as said company deem expedient."
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structed south from Michigan City almost to Gos- port and north from Bedford to the same point. On Saturday, June 24, the last nail was driven seven miles south of Greencastle. The long run of 288 miles was made July 3, and on July 4 a celebration was held in New Albany.17 In 1859 it became the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago. In the eighties the Monon built and bought a road from Indianapolis to Chicago by way of Hammond, entering Indian- apolis, March 24, 1883, over the Lake Erie & Western tracks. Its official name is now the Chicago, Indian- apolis & Louisville, but its popular and better known title is the Monon, from the station in White county where the two branches cross.
One of the greatest early lines of traffic and travel in the United States extended from the Chesapeake country up the Potomac, across to the Ohio, by Cin- cinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, continuing on west as the country expanded. This is the route of the National road. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad early paralleled this road, but the state of Virginia, for several years, refused to permit it to extend to the Ohio unless it came through Wheeling. Arrange- ments, however, were at length made and it crossed the Ohio at Parkersburg or Marietta and thence built on to Cincinnati. From the latter point it was planned to extend it directly to St. Louis. This would cut across Indiana from Lawrenceburg to Vincennes.
A charter for this company received the sanction of the legislature of Indiana, February 14, 1848.18
17 Washington Democrat, June 30, 1854. For excellent articles on this road see John Poucher, Indiana Magazine of History, XII, 326, and Geo. Carter Perring, "The New Albany and Salem Rall- road," Indiana Magazine of History, XV, 342-363.
18 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1847, ch. CCCCLXIX. The gov- ernor did not sign the bill.
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Among the charter members were John Law, David S. Bonner, Samuel Judah, Abner T. Ellis and Thomas J. Brooks. The capital stock was $5,000,000. Voters of counties were allowed to vote on the ques- tion of stock subscription by the counties. The cor- poration had full power to decide what kind of car- riages should run on the road, whether propelled by horse or steam power. As in the case of many other Indiana charters of this period, a certain maximum income, eighteen per cent., was fixed and all earnings above reverted to the state. The road was built be- tween 1849 and 1857 from Cincinnati to St. Louis, Ohio and Illinois both accrediting the Indiana com- pany. It was of six feet gauge, the other Indiana roads being of the Pennsylvania gauge, four feet eight and one-half inches.19 As soon as it was com- pleted a party of governors, United States senators and newspaper editors were taken as the guests of the road from St. Louis to Washington.
The pioneer railroad of the "Pocket" is the Evansville & Illinois, chartered January 2, 1849, to connect Evansville and Princeton with the Ohio & Mississippi at Olney, Illinois. Among the charter members was Judge Samuel Hall, of Princeton, its first president and the builder of the road.20 The road was built very largely from subscriptions by the cities and counties along the way. The company was permitted by its charter to build its tracks and bridges so that it could be used as a public highway on which it might collect toll. One year later, Janu- ary 21, 1849, the charter was amended so that the
19 Indianapolis Journal, Feb. 5, 1853. "The time was when the ordinary gauge was entirely satisfactory-but in these mod- ern times the wide six-foot track is all the rage, and the public are ready to catch at the Idea as of the utmost importance."
20 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1848, ch. CLXXXIX.
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road might intersect the Ohio & Mississippi at Vin- cennes, the name being changed to that of its two termini.21 The company was organized in Evansville, August 16, 1849; the road was completed to Prince- ton in 1852, at which time and place all the people gathered to see the first locomotive most of them had ever seen. The road was eventually extended to Rockville and Crawfordsville by a company formed of Vincennes men and known as the Wabash Rail- road company.22 This last charter bore date Febru- ary 6, 1851, and the route was by Sullivan, Terre Haute and Rockville to Crawfordsville.
The first railroad to tap the Wabash at Logans- port was the Newcastle & Richmond, although con- siderable effort had been made to realize a road from Cincinnati to Chicago by way of Logansport as early as 1848. The charter of the Newcastle & Richmond was amended, January 24, 1851, so that the company might extend its line to intersect the Peru & Indian- apolis, or the Lafayette & Indiana, as the directors might elect.23 The road was built rapidly. January 22, 1853, there were twenty-two miles of the Logans- port end ready for rails, of which enough for forty- five miles was on hands. From Kokomo to Anderson it was under contract. May 30, 1853, the first loco- motive was put on the road at Richmond. The com- pany then intended to push the road through from Cincinnati to Chicago. It was opened from Cincin- nati to Logansport in 1855 and to Chicago in 1861.
The Wabash railroad, chartered as the Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis, was organized at Logansport and Lafayette in 1852 by Albert S. White.24 Its cap-
21 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1849, ch. CCXXXI.
22 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1850, ch. LXII.
23 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1850, ch. XTVTII.
24 Logansport Journal, July 17, 24, and Aug. 14. 1852.
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ital stock was $4,000,000. The first train ran into Logansport, March 20, 1856. It was this road that helped more than any other to kill the Wabash and Erie canal. Its opening was hailed with great delight by the merchants of Logansport because it gave them direct and year-round connection with Philadelphia and New York.25 An all-day celebration marked the event. Many of the noted men along the road be- tween Toledo and Logansport joined in a banquet at the Barnett House and a ball at Partridge Hall.26 For many years the Wabash was one of the busiest roads in Indiana. In the eighties and nineties it ran the most gorgeous trains in the world.
The Ohio, Indiana & Lake Michigan railroad was chartered, January 17, 1849, by Allen Hamilton,
25 Logansport Journal, Feb. 23, 1856. "The opening will form a continuous railroad line between here and New York and Philadelphia, and will render us entirely independent of the canal, and enable our merchants and produce men to ship produce and import goods at all seasons of the year. The connections to New York are by the Wabash Valley to Toledo, the Lake Shore to Dunkirk or Buffalo, and the New York roads east. To Phila delphia, by the Valley road to Fort Wayne, the Ohio and Indiana to Crestline, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This road greatly in- creases the facilities of travelers to Philadelphia, and merchants buying goods there. It will shorten by about twelve hours the time of the passenger and the period usually occupied in receiving freights, indefinitely. It gives the choice of a number of lines, and substitutes certainty for the very irregular means heretofore possessed of eastern communication."
26 Logansport Journal, March 22, 1856. The speech by Mayor Thomas Bringhurst shows the spirit of the people: "It may not be improper that I should refer to the fact that in this city this work was first projected. Here was held the first meeting that considered the propriety and practicability of building a railroad through the Wabash valley to the lake. Here, on the 23d of June, 1852, was held the convention that has realized our hopes and expectations by laying down the iron link that joins us with Toledo."
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Hugh McCulloch, T. P. Randall, Samuel Hanna, Pliny Hoagland and Jesse L. Williams of Allen county and others from Laporte, including A. L. Osborne. It was the most distinguished list of men found on any of the early charters.27 The road as laid down by the charter was from the state line, east of Fort Wayne where it connected with an Ohio road to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, to Laporte where it connected with a road, whose charter was issued, February 6, 1836, and amended February 8, 1848, to connect Laporte with the Michigan Southern for Chi- cago.28 The road was constructed by Samuel Hanna, who took the contract at one time for grading 136 miles of it for $740,000. Jesse L. Williams, famous as an engineer of Indiana canals and pikes, laid down the road, while Hamilton and McCulloch financed it. The road was built to Fort Wayne in 1855 and by the close of 1858 had reached the west side of the state.
The St. Joseph valley was early in seeking an out- let by rail. The charter for the Buffalo & Missis- sippi railroad, a ghost that lived in railroad circles for twenty-five years, laid it through the valley. In 1838 Gen. Joseph Orr, of Laporte, organized a com- pany under the charter, but raised no funds. In 1847 a meeting was held at Mishawaka in which Judge Thomas Stanfield took the business in hand and to him the community is indebted for the present Lake Shore road. It was chartered as the Northern Indi- ana in 1837. February 11, 1843, a company organ- ized at Laporte undertook a charter to build a road from Laporte to Michigan City. This organization, provided for by the act of January 28, 1842, which
27 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1848, ch. CCLXXV.
28 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1847, ch. CCCXXVI.
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broke up the old internal improvements system of 1836, was to co-operate with the older Buffalo and Mississippi corporation.29 Citizens of Laporte in 1848 secured a charter to build a division of the Buf- falo & Mississippi from Laporte to connect with the Michigan Central at the most convenient point.30 A subsidiary company was chartered, February 15, 1849, to build a branch of the Buffalo & Mississippi from Elkhart to the state line of Michigan,31 The citizens of Goshen organized a company in 1850 to build the section between Elkhart and Goshen.32 This company was empowered to extend its line east- ward through Lagrange and Steuben counties to the state line and, with the permission of Ohio, to Toledo.
The Ohio and Indiana companies were consoli- dated in 1853; in 1854 the Laporte company of 1843 was taken in; April 25, 1855, this company, the Northern Indiana, consolidated with the Michigan Southern, chartered in Michigan in 1846, the result- ing company taking the name of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern; recently it has passed under the control of the New York Central. These details have been given to show how our great systems of rail- roads have grown. This road was built into Elk- hart and Goshen in 1851. The first through train from the east arrived in South Bend, October 4, 1851, an event announced by bonfires and a salute of forty- eight guns.
These are the more important but not all the rail- roads built in Indiana during this wonderful period. The era began with the settlement of the internal im-
29 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1842, ch. XLII.
30 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1847, ch. CCCCXXVI. A. L. Os- borne and A. P. Andrews were prominent men on the charter.
31 Lairs of Indiana, Local, 1848, ch. I.
32 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1850, ch. CXXI.
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provement projects by the Butler bill and began to close with the financial stringency of 1857, ending with the Civil war. The Crimean war stopped the flow of capital from the east. The contrast between the work done during this period by private capital and initiative and that done during the preceding period by the state is significant. The individual re- sourcefulness of the people was boundless, but their capacity for socialized industry was small. There are other considerations, however, that must not be overlooked. The state in 1836 undertook a system doomed by its nature to failure. Canals could never have been made to answer the purpose on account of their immobility and the climatic conditions. On the other hand, railroads suited the genius and energy of the people. There was little commerce to be car- ried in Indiana in 1836, while in 1860 Indiana was a granary full of produce needed in the Crimean and Civil wars. There is another consideration not so self-evident as these, but just as certain. The citi- zens of Indiana lost more money on their railroads than on their canals. In the former case each indi- vidual farmer lost his small amount, from one hun- dred up to one thousand dollars, and pocketed the loss as due to his own lack of foresight. In the latter the state, as he thought through no fault of his own, lost a lump sum of $10,000,000 or more, and he con- tributed his small amount in taxes with a feeling that he had been swindled.
ยง 128 THE BUILDERS
It is easy to trace the legal, documentary history of our early railroads, but to get beneath the veil and see these men at their work is far more difficult. There were no newspaper reporters, with long pen- cils and magazine cameras. The people of those days
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evidently did not care to read of the prosaic work on the roads or else the editors did not have the energy to go out and visit the construction camps. We have numerous accounts of meetings where railroad com- panies were organized, we have the verbose resolu- tions drawn up and voted at these meetings, we have accounts of the wondering people gathering to see the first train come in, of splendid formal banquets, salutes, and illuminations in commemoration of these events ; but of the workers at work we have more de- tailed pictures of the Israelites working in Egypt than of our great-grandfathers building the rail- roads of Indiana.
It was realized even in 1850 that Indianapolis would be the principal railroad center in the state. Of the twenty-one roads operating in the state in 1857, eight had terminals in the capital. The inter- change of freight and passengers became a great problem. Under the leadership of O. H. Smith of the Bellefontaine road, the presidents of the roads centering in Indianapolis organized the Union Rail- way company in 1849. It was engineered by Gen. Thomas A. Morris, the most distinguished railroad engineer of the state at this time. Union tracks were laid in 1850 connecting all the roads, and in 1853 a union depot was built 420 feet long and 100 feet wide, with five tracks inside, lighted with gas. It was esti- mated that 4,000 passengers changed trains daily at the Union Station.33
The attention of the people was almost monopo- lized by railroad building. Interest was not limited
33 O. H. Smith, Early Indiana Trials and Sketches, 424: "All the passenger trains of all the roads receive, discharge, and interchange passengers in this central building. The time each train leaves is shown by a stationary director. Tickets for all the roads are sold at the office by a single person, who expresses
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by the boundaries of Indiana. A meeting was held at Indianapolis, November 20, 1846, at which Asa Whitney spoke on the subject of a railroad to Ore- gon. Long articles appeared in the papers, favoring the construction of this road by the national govern- ment.3+ The meeting at Indianapolis resolved in favor of the road and made Governor Whitcomb chairman of a committee to circulate petitions to Congress favoring it. October 17, 1849, a convention of delegates from all parts of the country met at St. Louis to discuss ways and means to build a Pacific railroad. R. W. Thompson and O. H. Smith, of Indi- ana, both addressed the convention in favor of the road. O. H. Smith spent several years trying to per- fect an organization for a road from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico. He succeeded in getting the road as far as Indianapolis and had the surveys completed between Indianapolis and Evansville when the strin- gency of 1857 stopped him. The Civil war postponed the realization of this plan a half century. These builders had in mind a direct exchange of the prod- ucts of Indiana for the cotton of the South which would be manufactured in Indiana to supply the northwestern markets. A list of cotton mills char- tered in Indiana during the period shows the sub- stantial basis of this dream.
The work of the builders was, however, not all a dream. The heavy forest trees had to be grubbed from the right of way. The grading was done with pick, shovel, scraper and wheelbarrow. The farmers
no preference for any particular route over another. The enter- ing and leaving of the trains are regulated by the superintendent of the station, and they move in and out with the regularity of clockwork at the precise time. The freight depots of the several roads are located on their own tracks, and the trains switch on and off the Union track as required."
34 Indianapolis Journal, Nov. 24, 25, and Dec. 1, 1846.
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along the way, assisted by immigrant Irish, did most of the work. Thousands of farmers along the way took stock in the company, paying for the same in labor and land. On one occasion in 1853 when the contractors on the Indiana Central were bending every effort to complete the work by a certain day some one distributed liquor among the laborers at Jackson Hill, five miles west of Centerville and a riot followed.35
Many of the roads, necessarily, were poorly built and the rolling stock was, on most of them, of the flimsiest character. It was possible to build the road- bed ready for the iron without much outside capital, but the purchase of iron and rolling stock required cash. This had to be borrowed and was usually se- cured by a mortgage on the road. As it was difficult to get the cash, it was used sparingly, often resulting in a poor equipment. There was just the same mania for speed then as now. Wrecks were frequent, re- sulting in the loss of much property and many lives. In 1855 Governor Wright called attention to this in his biennial message to the Assembly, asking for a general railroad commission with power not only to regulate the operation of roads, but also their build- ing and promoting. The Civil war broke into this
35 "There was a general row among the laborers at the deep cut at Jackson Hill on the Indiana Central railroad, five miles west of Centerville, last Sunday. Some person, contrary to rules, took whisky to the grounds Saturday night, and the consequence was that all hands and the cook got drunk and fell to fighting. The sheriff of Wayne county, with a corps of deputies, went out and arrested one of the ringleaders. He was rescued by his friends. The sheriff then went back to Centerville, raised an armed posse, went to the scene of the disturbance, arrested and marched into town 107 of the rioters. Some were fined and some were imprisoned."
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