USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 7
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From the date of the Chillicothe convention the men at the head of the enterprise never suffered the interest to flag. Stewart, accompanied by an enthusiastic retinue of energetic men, traveled backwards and forwards, making speeches and friends everywhere.
The campaign continuel until 1852, when material aid was secured. By this time the people were pretty well educated on the subject of railroads, and were eager to have one in their vicinity. Through the efforts of Congressman Willard P. Hall, of Missouri, chairman of the committee on public lands, a bill was passed granting 600,000 acres of land to the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, and this immense concession swept away all initial troubles, and put the enterprise solidly on its feet.
The construction work was started on the east end in 1856. In the spring of 1857 they began building out of St. Joseph. The road was completed February 13, 1859, connection being made with the rails from the east and west on that day near Chillicothe.
Because of his eternal optimism for the road, there are many who think that "Mark Twain" took his character of "Colonel Sellers" from "Bob Stewart." It is stated, but without any particular authority, that a railroad enthusiast of the fifties started an ox team at Hannibal and plowed a furrow clear across the state, and that Stewart, who assist- ed in the survey of the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, followed this prim- itive survey almost exactly. For fifty years following the road's con- struction the inhabitants of northern Missouri have spoken of this ox team survey and its wonderful practicability. Truth is, it was originally intended to run the road through Shelbyville, Bloomington and Linnens, and Bloomington made a large donation on the strength of an agree- ment to strike that town. Afterwards the line was moved southward and Bloomington's money was refunded.
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Robert Morris Stewart, to whose untiring energy and faith the building of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road is aseribed, was born at Truxton, Courtland county, New York, March 12, 1815, and died at St. Joseph, Mo., September 21, 1871, a poor man. He was never mar- ried. His remains rested in an unmarked grave in Mt. Mora Cemetery. until 1908, when the state had erected a handsome and imposing monu- ment to his memory.
In his early life Stewart taught school and studied law in his native state. He came to Missouri in 1839 and located at St. Joseph. Stewart served as prosecuting attorney of Buchanan county and two terms in the Legislature, onee in each branch. In 1848 he was appointed regis- trar of the land office at Savannah, which position he resigned in order to engage in the preliminary survey of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. He superintended the entire work, in spite of the fact that a part of the time he was compelled to go about on crutches as a result of an injury. His earnest and indomitable energy overcame all the embarrassing obstacles confronting the enterprise. Shortly after the completion of the survey Stewart went to the National Capital and secured the land grant referred to in the report of the Chillicothe convention.
Stewart served as president of the road after its completion, and labored incessantly to make it a popular means of travel. It is related that a baby was disturbing the sleep of the passengers one night. The weary mother was unable to quiet the little one. Finally, President Stewart, who was on the coach, took in the situation. He walked over to the mother and remarked :
"Madame, my name is Stewart. I'm president of this road and it's my duty to look after the comfort of our patrons. Hand that baby to me."
Not knowing whether he was going to throw the child out of the window or otherwise murder it, yet fearing to disobey the "president of the road," the frightened mother handed her infant over. Stewart, who never had a child of his own, clumsily took the little passenger in his arms and walked as steadily as he could up and down the swaying aisle. The compound motion seemed to be just what the youngster wanted and it fell asleep in the president's arms. Then it was handed back to the mother, with the admonition to send for the president if it kicked up any more fuss.
Stewart aided in the construction of the St. Joseph and Denver railroad and projected the St. Louis and St. Joseph road. He was the author of the "Omnibus Bill," under which the railroad system of the
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state was built up. To every enterprise or measure calculated to help the state he was an earnest friend and worker.
In politics Stewart was always actively interested. This campaign is characteristic of the man: Trusten Polk (Democrat), of St. Louis, was elected governor at the election in 1856. Soon after his inaugura- tion Polk was elected United States senator to succeed Henry S. Geyer, deceased. He accepted the senatorship and resigned as governor. A special election was held in August to fill the gubernatorial vacancy. Stewart became the anti-Benton Democratic candidate. James S. Rol- lins, known as "the father of the State University," was the Whig nominec.
An exciting contest followed the lining-up of the rival candidates. Rollins was well known as a campaign orator of power. He was alert, quick to see a point and take advantage of it, and of attractive personality.
Stewart, less skilled in oratory, had considerable ability. The rivals met in joint debate several times. On such occasions there were large and tumultuous crowds. The dynamic subject of slavery was up, with all its direful portent. State enterprises, various internal improve- ments, etc., were the less sinister issues trailing along with that of the black man. The battle waged fierce. After a meeting some said Rollins had the better of it: others insisted Stewart had flattened his opponent out. At times bloodshed between the heated partisans was narrowly averted. At Gallatin a personal encounter occurred between Rollins and Stewart on the platform. This came near precipitating a riot among the shouting multitudes, but quiet was finally restored, and nobody was carried home on a stretcher.
The contest was marked by biting sarcasm, withering denunciation and dramatic defiance. Whenever the candidates were billed to appear it was no trouble to get out a crowd. An edict of the mayor wouldn't have kept the people at home.
Rollins was beaten by 334 votes in a total of 96,640. Stewart was inaugurated in January, 1858. His first official act was to pardon Will- iam Langston out of the penitentiary, where he had been sent for com- plicity in a brutal murder. Langston had at one time nursed Stewart through a long and serious illness. Stewart was never the man to forget anyone who had done him a kindness.
Not long after he became governor of Missouri, Rollins went to Jef- ferson City and registered at the Madison House. Governor Stewart met his old antagonist, extended a friendly hand and invited him to be his guest at the executive mansion while in town. Rollins accepted,
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and all the animosities of the campaign were wiped ont at the governor's hospitable board.
In the fall of 1858 Governor Stewart issued the first Missouri proclamation for a day of fasting and prayer in recognition of the Divine blessings to the state and its people.
When the Civil war came on Governor Stewart lined up with the Union side, and was a member of the Gamble constitutional convention of 1861.
Following are some of the first officers of the Hannibal and St. Joe road :
J. K. Hayward, general superintendent; George H. Nettleton, auditor and chief engineer; John L. Lathrop, treasurer; H. H. Court- right, general freight agent; Peter B. Groat, general ticket agent; G. O. Bishop, superintendent bridges; Farley, master mechanic; Thomas D. Price, paymaster; James Carr, general attorney; Josiah Hunt, general land commissioner; Henry Starring, general baggage master.
George H. Davis of Quincy, Illinois, is the only man now connected with the road who was with it during the construction period. Begin- ning as a workman on construction, he was appointed roadmaster of of the western division when they started operating trains and served in that capacity during the troublous times of the Civil war. He is now claim agent, fairly strong and active, and still intensely interested in railroading. Mr. Davis was born in New Hampshire seventy-six years ago. He has been in the railroad business since he was eighteen.
Another notable personage connected with the construction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, and who served it for fifty years there- after is Isaac N. Wilber, now a resident of Brookfield, the Missouri division headquarters. Mr. Wilber was born in Dutchess county, New York, February 24, 1836. He came to Missouri December 1, 1857, and entered the service of the road, named as a chopper, at a point in Kan- sas near St. Joseph. From that time on he served as tie chopper, car- penter, night watchman, brakeman, conductor, fireman, engineer, machinist, roundhouse foreman, general foreman, division master mechanic and, finally, master mechanic of the great railroad shops at Hannibal. He resigned January 1, 1908, at the completion of fifty years' service with the road. On that occasion Mr. Wilber received from the successor to the Hannibal and St. Joseph road officials the following pleasant recognition of his long and efficient service :
"The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad receives with regrets the resignation of I. N. Wilber and takes this method of expressing
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its appreciation of his loyal and devoted service through an unbroken period of fifty years and its sincere hope for his continued happiness and prosperity."
The compiler of this history is indebted to Mr. Wilber for the following interesting paragraphs concerning the initial years of the "'Joe."
""The first locomotives. In the early days the locomotives were named instead of numbered, and were as well known as the cities and prominent people of that day. The residents along the line all had some one engine they considered their favorite and great were the dis- cussions around the stations and country taverns as to the speed, qualifi- cations, etc., of the respective engines. The following is a list of the locomotives identified with the early history of the road and the devel- opment of Missouri. In 1857 there were thirteen engines-wood burn- ers, with 16-inch cylinders. They carried the following names: Mis- souri, Albany, R. M. Stewart, Hannibal, St. Joseph, Gov. Polk, Marion, Shelby, Macon Linn, Livingston, Caldwell and Buchanan. In 1859 fif- teen more were purchased and named for the Indian tribes: Cherokee, Chippewa, Mohegan, Ottawa, Chickasaw, Oneida, Comanche, Seneca, Miami, Apache, Omaha, Ontario, etc .; then, later, six more were pur- chased and named for territories : the Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Montana and Utah.
"''Gov. Polk' changed to Gen. Lyon.' Soon after the battle of Wilson's creek, in August, 1861, the Gov. Polk was changed to the Gen. Lyon, as a compliment to the dead hero and a rebuke to Gov. Polk for his position on the slavery question. (The management of the road at the time was strongly in sympathy with the north.)
"In 1863 I was given my first engine to run, and continued in such a capacity during the war. Those were trying times for railroad men in Missouri. Many of the locomotives had cabs constructed of boiler steel to protect the enginemen from the bullets of the much-feared bushwhackers.
"Col. U. S. Grant at Salt River. I was pulling a west-bound pas- senger train in the summer of '63 or '64-I am not sure as to the year- and when we reached Salt river in Shelby county we found the confed- erates had burned the bridge (Bill Anderson's gang, I think) and I saw for the first time Col. U. S. Grant and his regiment transferring their wagons and munitions of war across the river.
"Soldier and Engineer. During the war we railroad boys per- formed double service. When we came in off the road at the end of our trip we were placed on guard duty or drilled by Captain Loomis, our
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assistant superintendent, and our work as soldiers consisted largely of guarding company property. The only active service we had was when we were sent to Shrinkey to capture Tom Harris and his band, who were terrorizing the community, but after being locked up in the old seminary at Monroe for two days, and nearly being captured our- selves by the redoubtable Tom, we got back to work, and I, for one, thought I was more of a success as a railroad man than as a soldier.
"I was paid for my work from 1857 to 1865 as follows:
"One dollar a day for chopping ties, $1.25 a day as a brakeman, $1.50 a day as a fireman and $2.50 a day as an engineer.
"Coal ticket as a train order. In the early sixties we were on a westbound train and had an order to meet an eastbound train at Bevier, the great coal town of Macon county, and likewise of the state. At mid- night, on reaching the station, we found the train had not arrived. It was a beautiful summer night and my fireman and I got on top of the cab and laid down to take a nap in the moonlight. It appeared the conductor and brakeman were also taking a rest on top of the way car (caboose). At daybreak the conductor woke up and came over to the engine to wake up the sleepy crew. When we all got stretched out and thoroughly awake we decided to proceed. But one thing bothered ns- had we met our train. Bevier was not a telegraph office in those days. In our quandary we walked over to the coal shed and made a search through the coal tickets. As we found one bearing the name of the engine we were to meet we decided it was safe to proceed. We reached the division at Brookfield four hours late. We were asked no questions and had no statements to give out, and I don't suppose the superin- tendent or the dispatcher on duty ever discovered it, for every fellow worked out his own salvation in those days the best he could."
One of the younger generation of railroad men prominently con- nected with the operation of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road for a long time was P. H. Houlahan, now general manager of the Chicago & Alton and the "Clover Leaf" roads, with headquarters at Chicago.
Mr. Houlahan was born at Ottawa, Illinois, March 13, 1855. He entered the railroad service in 1867 as water boy and track hand on the construction of the Ottawa and Fox railway, and the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy road. From 1870 to 1875 he was track hand, check clerk, station baggage man and ticket agent. From 1875 to 1880 he was brakeman and conductor on the Fox river branch, Burlington system. In July, 1884, he was appointed trainmaster of the St. Louis division, same system; in 1886 he was made master of transportation of the Missouri and Kansas division of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas
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railroad; from November, 1886, to April, 1890, he was trainmaster of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road; in 1890 he was appointed assistant superintendent, and in June, 1892, was honored with the superintend- ency of the entire western division.
It was while Mr. Houlahan was trainmaster that the fast service between Chicago and Kansas City was inaugurated. He saw to it that the line between Kansas City and Quincy held up its end of the schedule, and to determine how the locomotives and their crews stood the strain he went over his entire division and back in the engine cabs. Following is the schedule of this first run of the regular fast service :
EASTBOUND.
Left Kansas City 6:30 p. m., December 18, 1887
Arrived Macon. 11:32 p. m., December 18, 1887
Arrived Quincy. 1:45 a. m., December 19, 1887
WESTBOUND.
Left Quincy. 2:06 a. m., December 19, 1887
Arrived Macon. 4:13 a. m., December 19, 1887
Arrived Kansas City. .9:15 a. m., December 19, 1887
The fast Chicago-Kansas City train became known to the general public as the "Eli." On the time card the eastbound train is designated as No. 56 and the westbound as No. 55. From the date of its commission in 1887 until the publication of this volume it has held its own as the "crackerjack" train of the Missouri system.
During Mr. Houlahan's connection with the western division of the Burlington he laid down this philosophy for successful railroading :
"I believe in men more than in machines. It is the human judg- ment that averts the crisis, not the safety appliance. Use all the appli- ances of proven practicability, but first of all get men-men who think clearly and rightly.
"The personnel of a railroad system is built up by the same grad- ual process it requires to raise an army to its highest degree of efficiency.
"The method of instilling a feeling of personal responsibility into each man is to form a nucleus of cool-headed spirits, with judgment, like a military staff, and these men coming in daily contact with every department of the service will instinctively impress upon every employe something of their own high code of executive ability.
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
"I am not one of those who believe that men should be retired from active service when they have left forty or forty-five behind," Mr. Houlahan went on. "It requires from thirty-five to forty years to ripen those intelleets to perfeet judgment. The man of forty has generally been tried by fire, and thereafter he avoids the flame. Like the veteran general on the battlefield, he knows what's best to do."
Mr. Houlahan's views were quoted with approval by leading rail- way journals, and practical results followed the system on the "Joe."
William C. Brown, now president of the New York Central system, is another of the "Joe" boys. Mr. Brown came from the farm, and refers with pride to his knowledge of agriculture by actual contact with the soil. He was born in Herkimer county, New York, in 1853. A saw and ax were the primary tools used by Mr. Brown in acquiring his railroad education. Engineers on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, when they stopped at Brown's woodpile, would jeer him and ask how he liked being a "railroader."
From wood ehopper Mr. Brown climbed to seetion man and then foreman. While in that labor he studied telegraphy at night. One day an operator didn't show up and young Brown was given the vacant key. At 19 he was appointed train dispatcher on the Illinois Central, and never lost an hour's time or made a blunder.
In 1881, when he was chief train dispateher of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quiney, Mr. Brown was promoted to trainmaster, and by 1890 had climbed to the position of superintendent.
During the six years following 1890 Mr. Brown was general man- ager of the Hannibal and St. Joseph, and the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs lines of the Burlington system, and he managed, somehow, to find time to fill the office of general manager of a couple of other lines.
In 1902 he became vice-president of the New York Central, and his wonderful energy in reorganizing and rehabilitating the system resulted in his being made president of New York's greatest railroad.
There was a spectacular event in connection with the early opera- tion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph road. On April 3, 1860, a fast mail run was made from Hannibal to St. Joseph, 206 miles, to connect with the Pony Express at the latter town. The officials of the road were tremendously interested in the test run. Add Clark, a capable engineer, was honored with this order from headquarters:
"You are to make a record that will stand fifty years."
The road was not seasoned. Light rails, from forty to fifty pounds, were used. The rails of trunk lines today are twice as heavy. An
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engine, "The Missouri," the best on the road, tender and a mail car produced in the Hannibal shops, constituted the fast mail train. In the car were Joshua Gentry, who was then president; Superintendent J. T. K. Hayward, Assistant Superintendent O. N. Cutler, Trainmaster G. H. Davis, Conductor Jack Harris and the precious mail destined for the far west.
L. L. Coleman, local fuel agent at Macon, thus relates what he knew of the fast run :
"In those days all engines were wood burners. On that day I was at Macon with my wood-sawing outfit. There were about 2,000 cords of wood piled four ranks deep and eight feet high on the railroad bank opposite Weed street, and also opposite Joe Jaeger's small tin and repair shop, and Captain Barnes' general store. The late Ed. F. Ben- nett handed me a telegram from the general fuel agent to wood the tender in the quickest possible time. I at once erected a platform the height of the tender. I then secured all the help that could stand on the platform and when the train came in sight every man loaded his arms as full of selected wood as he could hold. As the train slowed up in front of the platform, each man dropped his load of wood into the tender, and the train pulled out without the loss of 15 seconds. I had barely time to look into the car and see the occupants clutching the seats with both hands to keep from being tossed all around the car. The engine was the 'Missouri,' Addison Clark, engineer. Attached was one coach, the finest then on the road. It would not be used for a smoker today. The president of the road, Joshua Gentry, was 'elegantly' attired in a home-made suit of blue jeans, trimmed with velvet cuffs and collar.
"I thought that the train would surely be ditched before reaching St. Joseph, but it kept the track, and the small mail pouch was deliv- ered in four minutes on the west bank of the Missouri river to William Cody (Buffalo Bill) and from him to others, and was carried across the plains and mountains to San Francisco, the ponies being driven hard under whip and spur all the way."
The train reached St. Joseph ahead of the schedule and the mail was handed to the Pony Rider at 7:15 p. m.
Engineer Clark, in an interview in the Springfield (Mass.) Reg- ister, says his train averaged forty-three miles an hour that day, making the 206 miles in four hours and fifty minutes.
That was dangerous railroading, considering the state of the track at that period, but the men of the "Joe" seemed to think that no dis-
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aster could have been worse that day than a failure to make the time, and they were willing to share the risk they required of the train erew.
At each town through which the little train swept were immense crowds assembled. They cheered, and the men in the mail car responded by waving their hats and fluttering handkerchiefs. The sweating men in the cab had no time to notice things outside the slender lines ahead. As a precaution to insure the safety of the train, Trainmaster Davis directed that all switches be spiked from end to end of the run, and no other train be allowed on the main line within an hour of the fast mail.
This brings us to the Pony Express, the flesh and blood connection with the far west. If the men of the railroad were wrought up over their part of the venture, what must have been the anxiety of William H. Russell and his associates as they waited tidings of the long and hazardous flight through the mountain wilderness and across the sands, every mile of which presented a new problem to horse and rider !
The Pony Express was put in operation to meet the insistent call of the western miner for better mail service from back home. Hither- to his letters had traveled in sailing vessels around by way of the Isthmus, or on the overland stage, which took twenty-one days to make the 2,000-mile journey from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento.
It was a revolutionary epoch. The Atlantic cable had but recently been laid by Cyrus W. Field, and the people of the United States were calling Europeans their neighbors. The great west was being peopled by a steady flood of immigration, men of brawn and brain, who were dreaming dreams of the greatest country on the earth, and were work- ing out those dreams. In January, 1860, a Wall street syndicate made a proposition to transport the United States mail from New York to San Francisco for $5,000,000 per year and to exceed any time that had ever been made with the mail sack across the continent. William H. Russell, a freighter of the plains and of the mountains, staggered the government with a proposition to handle the mail by Pony Express from St. Joseph to Sacramento-1950 miles-in eight days by the watch ! Russell, it is said, had the support of Secretary of War Floyd. A bond of $200,000 was put up to guarantee the performance of something which was regarded by many as impossible.
A clause in the contract required that the letters be written on the thinnest of tissue paper. The tariff on each letter was $5. Tuesday, April 3, 1860, at 7:15 p. m., the first Pony Rider started ont from St. Joseph on the trail to the west. The journey was covered in less than the schedule time and Russell's firm was awarded the contract to carry
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