USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Historical and biographical. Comprising a condensed history of the state, a careful history of Wyandotte County, and a comprehensive history of the growth of the cities, towns and villages > Part 22
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Early in 1866 a bill was passed in the Kansas Legislature, dividing about 120,000 acres of land, given the State for internal improvements, between several railroad corporations. Of this aggregate the Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad received 25,000 acres. In February a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, at Washington, granting certain lands in Kansas to the Kansas & Neosho Railroad Company, and granting a franchise through the Indian Territory. A bill grant- ing about 800,000 acres of land to the Fort Scott Railroad, became a law in July. At the session of the Kansas Legislature, early in 1866, the name of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Fort Gibson Railroad was
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changed to Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, and soon afterward, the Kansas & Neosho Valley road became known as the Missouri Riv- er, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad. On May 15 the first train was run from Leavenworth to Lawrence. In July, Congress chartered the Southern branch of the Union Pacific Railway, with the right to run from Fort Riley down the Neosho River to Fort Smith. About the same time the Senate confirmed the treaty with the Delaware Indians, by which their reservation in Kansas was sold for the benefit of the Missouri River Railroad Company-then just completed between Kan- sas City and Leavenworth. In July, a bill introduced in Congress by Hon. Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, became a law, allowing the Union Pa- cific Railroad to construct its line up the Smoky Hill Valley, instead of up the Republican Valley, the original bill having required the main line from Kansas City and the branch from Omaha to connect at the one hundredth meridian, between the Platte and Republican Riv- ers, in Nebraska. The new bill allowed each to adopt its own line, and locate the junction at any available point within 100 miles west of Denver. The main line had then reached Fort Riley, and during 1866 the western freighting and mails were received at that point instead of at Kansas City.
In May, Col. Charles E. Kearney became president of the Kansas City, Lake Superior & Galveston Railroad Company (formerly the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad). Little work had been done on account of deficiency of means. Kansas City men subscribed $52,000. Only $25,000 more was required to complete the road. The board of directors, through their former president, had been trying to secure a renewal of the old contract with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road Company, which had been made originally through J. T. K. Hayward, at the time superintendent of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road. While professing to be working in the interest of Kansas City, Mr. Hayward had made an agreement with the Leavenworth people to procure a contract between them and the Hannibal & St. Joseph Company, to build a road from Cameron to Leavenworth, a charter having been procured by Leavenworth during the war. Col. Kearney was not long in informing himself of the state of affairs, and took prompt measures to defeat the opposition. The board of di- rectors convened June 1, and agents were appointed to visit Boston, and make a contract with the Hannibal company. Col. Kearney immediately telegraphed Col. Coates, at Washington, in Kansas City's interest, to go to Boston, and, if possible, delay the closing of
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the Leavenworth contract until the arrival of the agents. Arriving in Boston, Col. Coates learned that the Leavenworth contract had been agreed on, and was to be executed the following Monday, but he obtained the desired stay of proceedings upon representation of the prior contract. The agents, one of whom was Gen. Jobn W. Reid, met several of the Boston directors in. the office of the rail- road company, and, with the aid of Col. Coates, resurrected the old contract, and when they presented their cause in its first light, they were referred to Hon. James F. Joy, of Detroit, the company's gen- eral manager. Mr. Joy agreed to the revival of the old contract, upon condition that Kansas City would obtain Congressional au- thority for a bridge across the river. As soon as the facts were before him, Col. Kearney wired Col. Van Horn, in Washington, and on the following morning Col. Van Horn went to the chairman of the committee on post-offices and post-roads, who was to report a bill on the following Monday, providing for the construction of bridges at Quincy, Clinton, and other places, and with some difficulty, induced him to admit an amendment, authorizing a bridge at Kansas City. The following day, as soon as the House opened, the bill was called up, and Col. Van Horn offered his amendment, and it was accepted. Then the chairman moved the previous question. At this juncture Hon. Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, entered, and in great haste drew up an amendment for a bridge at Leavenworth. But the previous ques- tion had been seconded, and this amendment could not be attached. The bill passed, and in a day from the time Mr. Joy's decision was reported in Kansas City, Kansas City had complied with all its con- ditions and secured a double triumph over her rival. This victory doubtless turned the scale in favor of Kansas City. Leavenworth was already virtually the terminus of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and had a branch of the Union Pacific, and had she secured the Hannibal & St. Joseph road. she would have become the railway center of the Missouri Valley. August 19 a party of engineers, under Col. O. Cha- nute, began a re-survey of the river for the bridge. November 10 Col. Kearney advertised for materials for the bridge, and December 1 he let contracts for its construction to Messrs. Vipont and Walker. These decisive measures caused the North Missouri Railroad Com- pany to terminate its western branch at Kansas City, instead of at Leavenworth, and in October the contract for the immediate construc- tion of that road was let to J. Condit Smith. Meantime the favorable situation in which the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad had
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been placed by the land grant and charter through the Indian Terri- tory, enabled it to begin the construction of the road, and the con- tract for the first hundred miles was let, August 23, to Messrs. A. H. Waterman & Co.
No sooner had Kansas City distanced the rivalry of Leavenworth than she found St. Louis assuming the attitude of an enemy. The rapid concentration of railroads at this point, which had alarmed St. Louis in 1865, and led her to fall so readily into Senator Lane's schemes, now influenced her to do all she could to foster the Pleasant Hill & Lawrence Railroad project as a means of diverting trade from Kansas City. St. Louis capital controlled the Missouri Pacific Rail- road, and it was now turned against Kansas City as an opposing in- fluence which it was difficult to combat. On a specious plea of wash- outs in the road between Kansas City and Lawrence, an arrangement was affected in the summer of 1866, whereby freight for points west of Lawrence was taken by way of Leavenworth instead of being transferred at Kansas City, and more favorable rates were afforded Leavenworth than were accorded to Kansas City. Passenger fares between Leavenworth and St. Louis exceeded those between Kansas City and St. Louis, by but 50 cents.
Early in 1867 the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad Company found itself still without funds to complete its line. President Kear- ney and others went to Chicago to sell $100,000 worth of Kansas City bonds, and they and Kansas City were made the subjects of violent and derisive attacks in the St. Louis newspapers. Soon afterward, under authority from the Legislature of Missouri, they mortgaged the road to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company. But it was yet necessary to raise $25,000 to $30,000. After a second futile at- tempt to have this amount voted by Jackson County, Mo., defeated by the voters outside of Kansas City, Mr. Joy, president of the Han- nibal & St. Joseph road, offered to take the road off the hands of the company, cancel the people's subscription of $60,000, and com- plete the road by December 1, on condition that the city and Clay County, Mo., would release to him their stock in the road. After some delay this proposition was accepted, and from that time forward the work of construction progressed rapidly. The corner-stone of the Kansas City bridge was laid August 21, and the last rail of the road was laid November 22, Col. Kearney, and William Gillis, the old- est resident of Kansas City, driving the last spike. Col. Kearney sent congratulations to the Chicago Board of Trade and the St. Louis
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Chamber of Commerce, the former returning a warm response, while the latter made no acknowledgment. February 21, 1870, the road was consolidated with the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and soon afterward became the main line of that road. Early in 1867 Leavenworth at- tempted to secure legislation in Missouri that would make the termi- nus of both the Platte Country and North Missouri Railroads at that place, and to get through the Kansas Legislature an appropriation of $500,000 for the construction of a bridge there; but both these proj- ects were defeated. In March the Atchison & Weston, and Atchison & St. Joseph, and St. Joseph & Savannah Railroads were consolidated by an act of the Legislature of Missouri, under the name of the Platte Country Railroad, and the company controlling them was authorized to build a railroad from Kansas City, via St. Joseph, to the Iowa line, in the direction of Council Bluffs, and a branch from St. Joseph, via Savannah, to the Iowa line in the direction of Des Moines. In January, 1868, it was learned that a company had procured a charter for a railroad from Louisiana, Mo., to Kansas City, and in March a committee arrived in Kansas City to ask the people to take an interest in it. In June the electors voted $200,000 in its aid. Late in the year the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company became interested in the project, and the roadway was soon built from Louisiana to Mexico, where it connected with the North Missouri Railroad, but, owing to difficulties about issuing bonds in some counties traversed by the line, the balance of the road was not built at that time. The Chicago & Alton Company built a bridge across the Mississippi at Louisiana, and operated from Kansas City to Chicago, over the track of the North Missouri, until 1878, when its own line was completed to Kansas City.
In 1868 the Kansas Legislature granted a charter for a railroad from Kansas City to Santa Fe, and in March the company was organ- ized at Olathe, and June 6 the books were opened for subscription. When the Cherokee Neutral Grounds were obtained by treaty and or- dered sold for the benefit of the Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, James F. Joy became interested in the road and bought the land. Early in 1868 the American Immigrant Company, of Connecticut, set up a claim to the lands under a previous sale made by Secretary Harlan, but the difficulty was soon harmonized by assignment of the company's claims to Mr. Joy, and the negotiation of a new treaty, which was ap- proved by the Senate in June, 1868. On the 15th of that month the city council of Kansas City, Mo., relinquished to Mr. Joy its interest
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in the road, and by December 12 it was finished to Olathe, and a year later to Fort Scott. The Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad had been finished to Ottawa, by January 1, 1868. In Novem- ber, 1868, the Neosha Valley Railroad Company put 175 miles of their line from Junction City under a contract. The North Missouri Rail- road progressed rapidly through 1868, and December 1 the last rail was laid at its junction with the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad, thus adding a fifth road to Kansas City. This road was soon merged in fact and in name with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. At the close of 1868 we find completed the Missouri Pacific, the Hanni- bal & St. Joseph and the North Missouri from the east; the Missouri River road to the west was completed to Leavenworth; the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf road was in operation to Olathe, and the eastern division of the Union Pacific to Sheridan, 405 miles west of Kansas City, and but 220 miles from Denver.
In March, 1869, the Paola & Fall River Railroad Company was organized. It had not a very stable existence for several years, and graded part of the road between Paola and Garnett. This line was built from Paola to Le Roy, in 1880, as a branch of the Missouri Pa- cific, and the Holden & Paola branch of that road extended fromn Pa- ola to Ottawa. The Missouri Valley Railroad was completed February 27, and opened March 1, making Kansas City's seventh railroad. In March, 1869, the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company took an interest in the Pleasant Hill & Lawrence Railroad, and in June it was under contract. In the first-named month the city council of Kansas City, Mo., submitted to the people an ordinance to aid the Kansas City & Santa Fe Railroad, to the extent of $100,000, to be expended between Kansas City and Ottawa, but it was voted down because it was erro- neously understood that Mr. Joy was interested in the scheme and would build the road without such aid. In April contracts were let for building the Leavenworth & Atchison, and the Atchison & Nebras- ka Railroad. On the 6th the masonry of the Kansas City bridge was completed. The superstructure was speedily built and the bridge was opened with great rejoicing, July 3. This was the first bridge span- ning the Missouri River, and its successful construction was deemed a wonderful engineering feat. In May a project for the Missouri, Kan- sas & Albuquerque Railroad began to assume form. When built from Holden to Ottawa, it was operated by the Missouri Pacific. May 31, the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad was completed to Paola. In June, Mr. Joy identified himself with the Leavenworth,
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Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, and the company was reorganized and the construction of the road hastened. The Missouri Pacific Rail- road, originally a "broad gange" road, was changed to "standard gauge " on July 18. August 7 the Kansas City, Mo., council again submitted a proposition to the people to vote $100,000 to the Kansas City & Santa Fe Railroad, $75,000 of which was to be expended between Olathe and Ottawa, and $25,000 in building a switch in the southern part of the city. The vote was favorable, and the line was surveyed in October. Early in 1869 the building of a railroad to Memphis, Tenn., was discussed, and a convention was held at Spring- field, Mo., August 26, looking to this end, and a temporary organiza- tion was effected. October 19 a meeting was held at Kansas City, at which all interested localities were represented, and an organization was effected under the charter of the Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior Railroad (under which the Kansas City & Cameron Rail- road was built), procured in 1857. In September, 1869, several com- panies in Missouri and Iowa were consolidated, under the name of the Chicago & Southwestern Railroad Company, with a view to building a railroad from Davenport, Iowa, to the Missouri River, which has since been constructed by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Com- pany, with a branch terminating at Atchison and another at Leav- enworth, and connecting with Kansas City via the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad from Cameron.
In December the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was sur- veyed from Atchison to Topeka; the Neosho Valley Railroad, later part of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, was finished between Junction City and Emporia; and the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad reached Fort Scott, beyond which point its progress was retarded, and its workmen were driven off by a league of the settlers on the Cherokee Neutral Lands opposed to its construction. The name of the eastern division of the Union Pacific, as the Pacific road from Kansas City had been known, was changed in March, 1869, to the "Kansas Pacific." Its bond subsidy was applicable only as far as Sheridan, Kas., and work ceased for many a year after the line had been constructed to that place; but late in the year construction was resumed, and the line was graded to Denver. At that date Kansas City had seven railroads in operation, three of them being unfinished, but progressing rapidly. These were the Missouri Pacific, the North Missouri, the Platte County and the Missouri River, completed; and the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf, completed to Fort Scott; the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Gal-
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veston, nearly to Garnett, and the Kansas Pacific to Sheridan. The Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad was completed to Baxter Springs, and opened for business in May, 1870. The Kansas City & Santa Fe Railroad was finished between Olathe and Ottawa, and put in operation August 22, as a portion of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, which reached Thayer, Kas., by the close of the year, and was completed and opened to Coffeyville, September 4, 1871. The Denver Pacific, from Denver to Cheyenne, had already been completed, and the completion of the Kansas Pacific to Denver, August 15, effected a connection with the Union Pacific.
The charters for the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad, later known as the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, and the southern branch of the Union Pacific Railroad, to extend from Fort Riley, Kas., southeasterly through the Indian Territory to Fort Smith, Ark., were almost co existent. The latter charter was procured by prominent southern gentlemen, at a time when the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Fort Gibson Railroad was in progress from Lawrence southward. This latter road, as previously stated, was projected by Senator Lane, of Kansas, to run through the Indian Territory, to con- nect with the Texas Southern for Galveston. Hence the charter for the Fort Scott road was so amended upon its passage, at the instance of southern gentlemen and Senator Lane, as to provide that, if either of these latter roads should be constructed to the boundary of the Indian Territory before the completion of the Fort Scott road to the same line, it should have the sole right of way through the Territory secured by treaty, and by its charter granted to the Fort Scott road. The Fort Scott road reached the boundary a month in advance of the Neosho Valley line, which was constructed on the charter of the south- ern branch of the Pacific, and afterward became known as the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. Notwithstanding the priority of comple- tion to the specified boundary, the Neosho Valley Company raised the question of the claim of the Fort Scott Company to the right of way, upon the ground that the charter provided that the State line should be crossed within the valley of the Neosho River, holding that the terminus of the Fort Scott Railroad at Baxter Springs was not in that valley; but, although the map of the route had been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, when the question was presented to that official, he now decided it adversely to the interests of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad.
The Kansas City & Memphis Railroad was agitated in 1870. A
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survey of the line was begun in February, and such an interest was excited that the counties it traversed voted to aid it, and its pros- pects seemed bright until early in the summer, when another enter- prise assumed form, the Clinton, Kansas City & Memphis branch of the Tebo & Neosho Railroad Company, proposing to construct a line from Kansas City to Memphis, by way of Clinton, Mo., instead of through Springfield. The charter of the Tebo & Neosho Road was an old one granted by the Missouri Legislature, under which the Kan- sas Land & Trust Company had already built a road from Sedalia through Fort Scott to Parsons, where it formed a junction with the Neosho Valley Railroad from Junction City. This latter road, as the reader has been advised, was built under a charter for the southern branch of the Union Pacific Railroad, from Fort Riley to Fort Smith, by the builders of the road from Sedalia to Parsons. When these two lines were united under one management they became known as the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. The Clinton, Kansas City and Memphis branch of the Tebo & Neosho Railroad was a branch of this line built under the general law of the State of Missouri authorizing the construction of branches of railroads already in existence. From the time of its inception both companies were canvassing for county aid, and some counties voted aid to one, some to the other. This conflict was waged through the early half of 1871. In March the Jackson County, Mo., subscription was transferred from the Springfield to the Clinton road. This act caused bitter agitation and resulted in litigation. In June, conflicting interests were harmonized by a compromise, under which one line was to be built as far as Har- risonville, and two from that point, one by way of Springfield, and one by way of Clinton. Work was begun at the Kansas City end July 15. In the following winter the company called on the anthori- ties of Jackson County for money, and a dispute which arose about the amount of work done culminated in litigation and a cessation of work until 1873, when all difficulties were adjusted, the company se- curing the Jackson County bonds and disbursing the proceeds for grading, finishing the road bed for nearly a hundred miles southward from Kansas City. But the panic of 1873 precipitated a new trouble. The company, unable to negotiate its bonds for the purchase of iron and rolling stock, was finally driven into bankruptcy, and the road was sold December 1, 1876, for $1,100. Meantime, in May, 1870, the Platte County Railroad, from Kansas City to the Iowa line, and the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad, from the Iowa line to Council
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Bluffs, were consolidated, having passed into the control of the Bos- ton interests represented by Mr. Joy, and took the name of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad.
In June, this year, a company was organized to build a road from Kansas City via Plattsburg northward, but no other measures toward the construction of the road were ever taken. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which had been begun in 1868 at Atchison, was put into operation to Emporia. The railroad up the west side of the river to Troy, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad between Sedalia and Parsons, were finished. Kansas City had eight railroads with the beginning of 1871. In September of this year the Chicago & Southwestern Railroad was completed to Beverly, on the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad. It passed into the pro- prietorship of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, and ran its trains into Kansas City over the line of Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad until January, 1880, when, under a contract with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, it began to use the tracks of that corporation from Cameron to Kansas City. In January, 1872, the name of the North Missouri Railroad was changed to Kansas City, St. Louis & Northern. When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad had been extended so far into the Kan- sas Valley as to begin to show largely in the transportation of Texas cattle, it was found that about two-thirds of its business originated at and was destined for Kansas City, and the company saw the desira- bility of securing a line of its own to this important point, and in the spring of 1872 a company was organized in Topeka to build the Topeka & Lawrence road to Lawrence, and a company was formed in Kansas City to construct a line between Kansas City and Lawrence. The latter was known as the Kansas City, Lawrence & Topeka Rail- road Company. November 12 Kansas City voted $100,000 in its aid.
The Kansas City & Eastern Railroad was inaugurated in the sum- mer of 1873, under the name of the Kansas City, Wyandotte & North- western Railroad. The course originally chosen for this road was from Kansas City through Wyandotte, northwesterly to the Kansas and Nebraska State line. Failing to secure requisite aid along the line in Kansas, the company concluded to divert the course of the road down the Missouri Valley. Kaw Township, in which Kansas City, Mo., is located, had voted $150,000 to aid the line as originally projected, and in March, 1873, voted to transfer the Kaw Township bonds to the new line. The contract for the construction of the first
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section, between Kansas City and Independence, was let in October, 1873, and work was begun in December, and finished in 1874; and in 1875 the balance of the line to Lexington was put under contract, and completed early in 1876. This was a " narrow gauge" local line, since changed to a "standard gauge" and operated by the Missouri Pacific Company-of great importance to Kansas City, in that it brings to its doors the product of the great coal mines at Lexington. In the early part of 1872 an effort was made to induce the railroads centering in Kansas City to build a union passenger depot, to replace the small wooden structure upon the site of the present Union Depot, which had been erected by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company when their road first entered the city, and which but illy served the purpose to which it was devoted. As an encouragement to the railroad com- panies, a proposition to exempt such a depot from taxation for fifteen years was submitted to the voters of Kansas City, Mo., at the spring election, but it was unfortunately defeated. The road between Ottawa and Emporia, and between Ottawa and Burlington, was projected about this time, and it was built some time later. It became known as the Kansas City, Burlington & Santa Fe Railroad, operated in con- nection with the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern Railroad. In 1873 there was a futile attempt made to secure a union of interest between the Kansas City, Wyandotte & Northwestern " narrow gauge" Railroad and that of the Keokuk & Kansas City Company, projected from Keokuk to Kansas City; and a road was strongly advocated from Kansas City northward toward Chariton, Iowa.
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