USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > St Joseph > History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. : from the time of the Platte purchase to the end of the year 1915 biographical sketches of noted citizens, living and dead > Part 21
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In 1852 the building of the road was assured. Willard P. Hall, who had, in 1846, argued against railroads on general principles, now became the good angel of the despondent enterprise. As chair- man of the committee on public lands in Congress he secured the passage of a bill granting six hundred thousand acres of land to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, and the work of construction began at Hannibal as soon as possible.
The state loaned its credit to aid the work in the sum of 1,- 500,000 bonds to be issued and used conditioned on proof that the sum of $50,000 had been actually expended in construction. John Corby of St. Joseph, agent of the road, borrowed the first $50,000, and this enabled the work to continue until funds were secured from sales and bonds issued by the counties through which the line passes.
Again, in 1855, the company having exhausted all its resources, the state loaned an additional $1,500,000, making in all the sum of $3,000,000, which was liquidated, with interest, in about seventeen years after the completion of the road.
The contract for building the entire line was let to John Duff & Co., August 10, 1852, its construction being subject to various parties. Work was commenced first on the eastern line, and pro- gressed slowly
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In August, 1857, the steamboat Saranak brought an engine and cargo of rails to St. Joseph. Some grading was done, a track laid, and the engine hauled out on the bank, with all the people in town and vicinity as lookers-on. It was a great curiosity.
Work proceeded very rapidly for those days, and progress was reported all along the line. John Corby of St. Joseph was a direc- tor and a heavy contractor in the construction of the road. When the two ends of the line were a hundred miles apart stages were put on to carry passengers from one point to the other, and a lively business was done.
Large warehouses were constructed at Hannibal and at St. Joseph, and steamboat lines started up and down the river to trans- act the immense business done in connection with the road.
On February 14, 1859, the first through passenger train ar- rived at St. Joseph from Hannibal, with Edgar Sleppy as engineer and Benjamin H. Colt as conductor. A great celebration in honor of the completion of the road was held on Washington's birthday, at the old Odd Fellows' Hall. A jug of water from the Mississippi was emptied into the Missouri River at the mouth of Blacksnake, the ceremony of mingling the waters being performed with great sol- emnity by Broaddus Thompson, a prominent citizen in those days, and a most unique character withal.
John Patee had donated a strip of ground containing forty acres, from Olive street west of Eighth south to Mitchell avenue, for terminal facilities. A depot was built at Eighth and Olive streets. In 1857, before the completion of the road, shops were established, with C. F. Shivels as master mechanic. In the summer of 1872 a branch was built from St. Joseph to Atchison. The Han- nibal & St. Joseph road became part of the Burlington system in 1884.
THE K. C., ST. J. & C. B .-- The consolidtion of several pioneer railroads is represented in the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs line. February 24, 1853, the legislature of Missouri granted a charter for a road to extend from St. Joseph to Kansas City. A company under the name and style of the Platte County Railroad was organized in 1857 by William Osborne, Davis Carpenter, M. Jeff Thompson and others. Under the auspices of this company a line was surveyed from St. Joseph southward through DeKalb, in Buchanan County, Platte City and Parkville in Platte County, to Kansas City. The legislature of 1856-57 granted aid to this road in the sum of 700,000. A subsequent act provided that none of the bonds of this road should be available till the year 1859. The char- ter also authorized the extension of the road to the northern bound- ary of the state, under which provision it was completed to Savan- nah in 1860, and graded to Forest City.
December 11, 1855, the Atchison & St. Joseph railroad was incorporated. The articles of association provided that Benjamin Stringfellow, John H. Stringfellow, Peter T. Abell, John Doniphan, Stephen Johnson, Elijah H. Norton, Harvey Collier, Robert W.
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Donnell, Reuben Middleton, Bela M. Hughes, James H. Lucas, John Simon, or any five of them, constitute the first board of directors.
In the summer of 1858, General Benjamin Stringfellow, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, Peter T. Abell, Harvey Collier, Reuben Middleton, John Doniphan and Robert W. Donnell met in St. Joseph, in the Methodist church, which then stood on the northeast corner of Third and Felix streets, and there organized the company. At this meeting Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Atchison, was elected a director and president of the company. Charles West, of St. Joseph, was also at
this meeting elected a director. Stock was taken by the parties present, and in a short time after the city of Atchison subscribed $100,000; Abel Q Stringfellow, $10,000; John Doniphan, $1,600, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, $10,000. Other parties contributed liber- ally, swelling the aggregate of subscriptions over and above the city stock, to about $60,000. Contracts for grading were immedi- ately let along the entire line of the road, and work commenced at Winthrop, opposite Atchison. By July 1, 1859, this grading was completed between St. Joseph and Winthrop.
In March, 1859, the Weston & Atchison Railroad Company was incorporated under the general laws of the state. The officers of this incorporation were John Doniphan, president; James N. Burnes, vice-president; Fielding H. Lewis, secretary, and Daniel D. Burnes, treasurer. Private subscriptions were forthwith made to the road to the amount of $44,000, and the city of Weston issued her bonds to the amount of $50,000 in aid of the building of the same. Ground was broken at Weston April 27, 1859.
July 15, 1859, the Weston & Atchison and Atchison & St. Jo- seph companies, finding that their means would be inadequate to accomplish more than the work of grading the road, for the pur- pose of an early completion of the same, made a contract with the Platte County road by which they transferred to that corporation the roadbed, franchises and right-of-way from St. Joseph to Wes- ton. This company was enabled on the work so done, during the year 1859, to draw most of the state aid, and in January, 1860, the road was completed and in operation from St. Joseph to Atchison. In December of the same year the road was finished to Iatan, and by April 4, 1861, trains were running through to Weston. In 1863 the name of this road was changed, the style "Platte Country" be- ing substituted for the original "Platte County."
In 1864 the road was seized by Governor Hall for non-payment of interest on state bonds. Immediately the Weston & Atchison and the Atchison & St. Joseph railroad companies commenced suits for their road-bed on the ground that the original contract was illegal. The legislature of 1867 acquiesced on condition of a reor- ganization under the name and style of the Missouri Valley Rail- road Company, and a completion of the road from Savannah, through Maryville to the northern boundary of the state. Under this act the road was completed to Hopkins in 1869.
The road from Council Bluffs to Hamburg, Iowa, fiftyy-two miles in length, was built by Willis, Phelps & Co., and completed in
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1867. It was styled the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad. Hon. James F. Joy and his friends came to the front and built the road from St. Joseph to Hamburg, seventy-nine miles long, opening it for traffic in 1868. This was called the St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad. In 1870 the Missouri Valley and the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs railroads were consolidated and the road called the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs.
The Missouri Valley road ran from St. Joseph to Savannah, via Jimtown, up to 1871, when this roadbed was abandoned, a cut- off to Savannah having been built from Amazonia. In 1884 the K. C., St. J. & C. B. road became part of the C., B. & Q. system.
Davis Carpenter was superintendent in 1866; Col. A. G. Gower from 1866 to 1869; Maj. A. L. Hopkins from 1869 to 1870. Col. J. F. Barned was superintendent from 1870 to 1884, when he was made general manager of the K. C., St. J. & C. B. and H. & St. J. roads under the C., B. & Q. system, serving as such until the sum- mer of 1887, when he was succeeded by W. F. Merrill, who re- mained until August of 1889, being succeeded by W. C. Brown. Mr. Brown remained until January, 1896, when he was succeeded by Howard Elliott.
THE ST. JOSEPH & GRAND ISLAND-This is the successor of the Marysville or Palmetto & Roseport, the first railroad projected in Kansas, which was chartered February 17, 1857. In 1856 a party of South Carolinians, who had moved to Kansas with the expecta- tion that slavery would be perpetuated, purchased a claim adjoining Marysville and founded a town, which they called Palmetto, but which has long since disappeared. The projectors of the road, anxious to please the people of both Palmetto and Marysville, blended both names into the title of the railroad. Roseport was the original name of Elwood, opposite St. Joseph, named for Richard Rose, a prominent promoter in those days, who lived in St. Joseph. Roseport, however, gave way to Elwood, and Elwood has since given way to the tawny and turbulent current of the Missouri River. There remain, however, the postoffice, the depot and the name.
In April of 1860, when M. Jeff Thompson was president of the road, a small engine, named "Albany," and three flat cars were crossed on the ferryboat "Ida." In June of 1860 the track-laying began. John Broder, later chief of police of this city, drove the first spike. Sinclair Miller was superintendent, George Lewis superin- tendent of track-laying, and James Whitney engineer of the "Al- bany." By July 19, 1860, the road was completed to Wathena, and on that day there was an appropriate celebration at that place. The Jackson Guards of St. Joseph and many citizens assisted. They crossed the river on the ferry and rode to Wathena on the flat cars.
Work was suspended owing to disturbed political conditions, and the engine was brought back to St. Joseph. During the war the farmers in the Kansas bottoms used the flat cars, drawing wood and produce to the ferry landing with oxen. In time, however, the
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track rotted and cottonwood trees grew profusely among the ties.
In 1862 the name was changed to the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company, the purpose still being the building of a line to Marysville. The Northern Kansas Railroad Company was author- ized to build an extension from Marysville to the Nebraska line, and acquired the lands granted by an act of congress approved July 23, 1866. The two companies were consolidated August 11, 1866, under the name of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company, with a capital stock of $10,000,000. The city of St. Joseph aided this enterprise to the extent of $500,00.
The work of extension was begun in 1867, and the road opened to Hastings, Neb., in 1872. The portion of the road in Nebraska was built under the general railroad law of that state. The total amount expended in construction $5,449,620.77, of which $1,400 was from stockholders, $782,727.10 from the state and county sub- sidies, and $4,665,493.67 from the sale of $6,755,900 mortgage bonds. The property was placed in the hands of a receiver in 1874, and sold under foreclosure in November, 1875. Under the scheme of reorganization two companies were formed-the St. Joseph & Pacific Railroad Company owning and operating the road from Elwood westward to Marysville, and the Kansas & Nebraska Rail- road Company owning and operating the road from Marysville, Kan., west to Hastings, Neb. On the 29th of March, 1877, those two companies were again consolidated under the title of the St. Joseph & Western Railroad Company.
The Hastings & Grand Island Railroad Company was incor- porated May 9, 1879. Its road extending from Hastings to Grand Island, Neb., twenty-five miles, was opened October 1, 1879, and bought by the St. Joseph & Western Railroad Company February 18, 1880. By the terms of the sale the stock was exchanged for an equal amount of the St. Joseph & Western stock. Of the land grant, 300,000 acres were placed in the hands of trustees for the benefit of the stockholders of land script.
In January, 1880, the roads came under the control of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. From February, 1880, to Janu- ary, 1884, the road was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. On the latter date it began to be again operated inde- pendently.
On the 11th of June, 1885, the St. Joseph & Western road was sold under foreclosure, the sale of the Hastings & Grand Island rail- road following on the 19th of the same month, both lines being bought by a committee of the bondholders. The St. Joseph & Marysville Railroad Company and the Grand Island & Marysville Railroad Company, two new corporations, were organized in the states of Kansas and Nebraska and consolidated into the St. Joseph & Grand Island railroad. The property of the company includes the St. Joseph bridge and the entire line between St. Joseph and Grand Island, 252 miles.
John F. Barnard was superintendent in 1871-72, and was suc- ceeded by Wm. H. Sheridan, who served only a short time and was
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succeeded by L. D. Tuthill. Mr. Tuthill remained until June, 1885, when he was succeeded by Daniel McCool, who served until Janu- ary, 1888. Wm. Lush was then made general manager, remaining until May, 1888, when he was succeeded by G. M. Cummings, who served until December, 1888, when E. McNeill took charge. Mr. McNeill was succeeded in August, 1890, by W. P. Robinson, Jr. During 1891 the office was abolished, the road being under the Union Pacific system. In January, 1892, Mr. Robinson returned and remained eight years, being succeeded by Raymond DePuy. The road is now a part of the Union Pacific system.
During the summer of 1898 the Grand Island began running trains into Kansas City over leased lines, but this service has since been discontinued.
THE ST. JOSEPH & TOPEKA-In 1858 the St. Joseph & Topeka Railroad Company obtained a charter from the Kansas legislature. The St. Joseph city directory of 1860 shows that Willard P. Hall was president; John Corby, vice-president; M. Jeff Thompson, sec- retary ; Joseph C. Hall, treasurer, and Adam Brenner, of Doniphan, assistant treasurer. The city of St. Joseph issued bonds to the amount of $50,000 to aid this enterprise. It was not until 1872, however, that anything materialized. In that year a line was built from Wathena to Doniphan, via Palermo and Geary City, by George H. Hall, John L. Motter, O. B. Craig, Wm. Craig and George W. Barr. The road was leased to the K. C., St. J. & C. B. company and operated until 1876. Trains were run from St. Joseph to Atchison, the St. Joseph & Western tracks being used to Wathena and the Atchison & Nebraska tracks from Doniphan to Atchison. The road had been bonded and the bonds placed with a firm of New York brokers. Before the bonds were disposed of the firm failed and the bonds were taken by its creditors as assets and foreclosed. The line was acquired by the St. Joseph & Western Company. After a time the rails were taken up and relaid on that road. The Hannibal & St. Joseph would have purchased the line had it been possible to acquire the city's interest in the bridge. The St. Joseph & Topeka was also known as the George Hall road and as the "Corkscrew" route.
THE SANTA FE SYSTEM-The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Company enters the city from two directions-from the southeast and from the southwest. The branch from the southeast was begun in 1867 and completed in the winter of 1869-70. It was then called the St. Louis & St. Joseph railway. Shortly after the completion of the road the company went into bankruptcy. Under a sale in the bankruptcy court the road was bought by the bondholders, who leased it to the North Missouri Railroad Company. Subsequently it was controlled by the Wabash Company. In 1886 it passed into the hands of the late Winslow Judson and others, and was called the St. Joseph & St. Louis. In 1888 the road passed into the con-
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trol of the Santa Fe system and was called the St. Joseph, St. Louis & Santa Fe.
At about the same time the "Santa Fe" Company built a line from Atchison to St. Joseph, via Rushville. This company also built a line to Lake Contrary shortly after the completion of the Atchi- son line.
The St. Joseph Terminal Company was organized in 1889. The "Santa Fe" and "Grand Island" companies are jointly interested. Shops and a round house were built on lower Sixth street, and, in 1890 a freight depot was erected at Fourth street, south of Olive. Formerly the Grand Island and St. Joseph & St. Louis companies jointly used a freight depot that stood near where the shops and round house are now located. Before the erection of the Union Depot this was used as a passenger station also for these roads.
THE "ROCK ISLAND"-In 1872 a branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad was built from Edgerton Junction, in Platte County, through Crawford, Bloomington and Rush Town- ships, Buchanan County, to Winthrop. Bloomington Township voted bonds to aid this enterprise. This was not accomplished with- out opposition, however, and the majority was so small that there was a protest. The bonds were certified to by the county court, but for some years there was objection to paying the levy called for by these bonds ; there was also litigation, but without avail.
In 1885 the people of St. Joseph subscribed $50,000 to secure a branch of the "Rock Island" from Altamont, Daviess County. Trains began running over this line in May, 1886.
Early in 1886 the "Rock Island" projected a line west of the Missouri River. The Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Railroad Com- pany was chartered in Kansas and the people of St. Joseph sub- scribed for stock to the amount of $300,000. The road was bonded and built. Shops were located at Horton, where a prosperous town soon sprang up. At Horton the road forks, one branch going through Topeka and Wichita to Oklahoma and Texas and another through northern Kansas to Denver. Trains began running into St. Joseph in November, 1889. After several years the bondhold- ers foreclosed and the stockholders lost what money they had in- vested.
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THE ST. JOSEPH & DES MOINES-The St. Joseph & Des Moines Railroad Company was organized in this city in 1877, with Col. John L. Motter as president. In November of the same year a con- tract for the grading was let, work was commenced at once, and by the first of April, 1878, the first twenty miles of roadbed was ready for the rails. Track-laying was commenced June 1, the first engine placed on the road June 26, and the line was in operation by Octo- ber. This was a narrow-gauge road while under the control and ownership of John L. Motter, James H. Pickering, F. L. McLean, Wm. B. Johnson, Isaac T. Hosea, A. N. Schuster, R. L. McDonald
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and John B. Hundley. The first officials of the road were: John L. Motter, president and general manager; James H. Pickering, superintendent; F. L. McLean, general freight and ticket agent; W. B. Johnson, secretary and treasurer.
In 1880 the line was purchased and became a branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The gauge was at once widened. It thus added one more important feeder to the great "Burlington sys- tem." A depot was located on Mitchell avenue, near Fifteenth street. A few years ago this station was closed and all trains now use the Union Depot exclusively.
THE MISSOURI PACIFIC-In January of 1880, when it was learned that Jay Gould desired the entrance of the Missouri Pacific railroad to St. Joseph, a number of citizens, interested directly or indirectly in reviving the St. Joseph & Topeka road, offered him a bonus of $30,000 to enter the city over that line. The offer was accepted and the money paid over. Gould, however, disappointed these people by leasing a right-of-way over the Hannibal & St. Joseph tracks. In 1905 the Missouri Pacific secured its own ter- minal facilities in St. Joseph, a franchise being granted in the name of the St. Joseph & Central Branch. The company built a new freight house between Third and Fourth streets, south of Ange- lique street, in 1907. The first train of the Missouri Pacific reached St. Joseph on February 23, 1880. Until the completion of the Union Depot the old Hannibal & St. Joseph depot at Eighth and Olive streets was used.
THE CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN-This road was built to St. Jo- seph from Des Moines in 1889. It was then called the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City, and known as the "Diagonal" route. In 1890 the road was completed to Kansas City. It name was changed to Chicago Great Western some years ago and it is familiarly known now as the "Maple Leaf" route, the emblem being a maple leaf. For many years the company's trains did not use the Union Station, because satisfactory terms could not be secured. In 1905 all ob- stacles were overcome and Union Station service commenced.
A modern passenger station was built at Third and Antoine streets in 1896. The management has always dealt liberally with the people, asking no bonus, paying for everything and aiding the city by large expenditures in the building of the Blacksnake sewer.
THE UNION PACIFIC-Up to the war period St. Joseph was generally regarded as the logical starting point of the Union Pacific railroad. The Hannibal & St. Joseph road connected the Missis- sippi and Missouri Rivers ; the Kansas legislature had chartered the Palmetto & Roseport, from Elwood to Marysville, and this road was completed to Wathena; the Pony Express was operated out of St. Joseph over what was supposed to be the route of the future trans-
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continental railroad. When the Union Pacific was projected two branches were contemplated, one from Memphis by the southern route, and one from the Missouri River. When the road was char- tered by congress, in 1862, two branches were provided for, but both were to start from the Missouri. River and meet at the 100th parallel, about where North Platte, Neb., is located. Wyandotte secured the southern branch, and there was a contest between St. Joseph and Omaha for the northern branch. The senators from Missouri-Wilson and Henderson-strongly advocated the cause of St. Joseph. The prospects of success seemed good until an Omaha champion recited in fervid eloquence the fact that the United States flag had been torn down from the postoffice here in May of 1861, and that the people of St. Joseph had been so disloyal as to require the constant presence of United States troops to preserve order and protect those who held Union sentiments. In conclusion he urged that such conduct deserved a rebuke and the proper way of admin- istering this was to start the northern branch of the Union Pacific. railroad from Omaha. He carried off the honors, though he did this community a gross injustice.
UNION TERMINAL-In 1901 a charter was granted the Union Terminal Company, an organization formed by John Donovan and others interested in the St. Joseph Stock Yard. The principal line extends from the stock yards to a point near Jule street, where a connection is made with the Chicago Great Western. The purpose of the project was to facilitate traffic to the stock yards and pack- ing plants, and also to afford terminals for other roads which might desire to enter St. Joseph. In connection with this enterprise twenty-two acres of reclaimed land have been added on the river front.
INTERURBANS-The first interurban built into St. Joseph, or out of the city, as you may prefer, was by the St. Joseph and Savan- nah Interurban Railway Company, which began operating the line from this city to Savannah April 4, 1911. The line is owned by the street railway company and represents an investment of $400,000.
The Kansas City, Clay County & St. Joseph Railway Company, an enterprise promoted by George Townsend and C. F. Enwright, is one of the most important interurban railway projects in the West. It built the line from St. Joseph to Kansas City, with a mileage of 52 miles. A branch extends from North Kansas City to Excelsior Springs 30 miles in length. The first car to enter St. Joseph over this line was February 17, 1913, drawn by a locomo- tive. The first car under regular power-electricity-came April 29, 1913. This enterprise represents an investment of about $5,000,- 000, and has been a decided success from the start.
THE BRIDGE-In 1870 there was incorporated the St. Joseph Bridge Building Company, composed of General Willard P. Hall, J.
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