USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 52
USA > Missouri > Chariton County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 52
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THE WABASH ST. LOUIS AND PACIFIC.
This road owns and operates in Chariton county over sixty miles of road, valued for the purposes of taxation in 1882, at $513,948.30. upon which it paid for that year a tax of $7,665.96, as shown by the following statement taken from official sources : -
STATEMENT.
Divisions.
Length.
Main Line . .
25.4
Valuation. $282,958 18
Tax. $4,419 06
Chillicothe Branch
21.4
271,474 02
2,336 54
Glasgow Branch .
15.0
59,416 10
910 36
61.8
$513,948 30
$7,665 96
The main line of the road formerly known as the West Branch of North Missouri passes through the county from west to east, enter- ing it directly west of Huntsville and passing out at Brunswick on the same parallel, making a slight curve southward, however, between the
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-
- 580
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
eastern and western borders. This road gives the citizens of this county the advantages aceruing from being directly on the main line of one of the finest and most extensive railways systems of the Union, advantages, the importance of which is understood by every intelli- gent person.
On the east, the road leads directly to St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, and the East, making connection with all the great trunk lines centering at those cities and at intermediate points. On the west it leads to Kansas City and St. Joseph without change of cars for either place, making connection with all the great trans-Missouri systems of the West.
The Chillicothe branch has developed into one of the most important roads in the country. It now leads on through Northwest Missouri, and to Omaha, there connecting with the great Union Pacific and other roads.
As has been said, the St. Louis, Wabash and Pacific Railway is the product of the consolidation of the old Wabash east of the Missis- sippi, and the St. Lonis, Kansas City and Northern. The general offices of the consolidated road are at St. Louis. Of these mention will be made further along. For convenience of management the road is divided into two grand divisions known as the " Western Division," and the "Eastern Division." The former, being that part west of the Mississippi, aggregates over 1,300 miles ; the latter. that part east of the river, on the old Wabash Railway, has a total mileage of over 2,300 miles.
The old Wabash Railway originated in the Toledo and Illinois Railway, which was organized April 25, 1853, under the laws of Ohio authorizing the company to construet and operate a road from Toledo to the western boundary of that State. On the nineteenth of August, following, the Lake Erie, Wabash and St. Louis Railroad Company was organized under the laws of Indiana to build a road from the east line of the State through the valleys of the Little river and Wabash river to the west line of the State in the direction of Dan- ville, Illinois. The road from Toledo through Ohio and Indiana was constructed under these two charters. On the 25th of June, 1856, the two companies were consolidated under the name of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company. This organization having become financially embarrassed in the panie of 1857, its property was sold in October, 1858, under foreclosure of mortgage and purchased by Ozariah Boody, who conveyed it to two new companies under the
581
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
names, respectively, of the Toledo and Wabash, of Ohio, and the Wabash and Western, of Indiana, the two being consolidated October 7, 1858, under the style of the Toledo and Wabash Railroad Company. This company operated the road through the States of Ohio. Indiana and Illinois, until 1865, when all interests between Toledo and the Mississippi river, at Quiney and Hamilton were consolidated under an agreement between the Toledo and Wabash, the Great Western, of Illinois, the Quiney and Toledo, and the Ilinois and Southern Iowa Railroad Companies, under the name of the Toledo, Wabash and West- ern Railroad Company. The Great Western Railroad Company of this combination was organized in 1859, and its road extended from the Indiana State line to Meredosia, in Illinois, with a branch from Bluff City to Naples. The road from Meredosia to Camp Point was owned by the Quincy and Toledo Company, and the road from Clayton, Illinois, to Carthage, Indiana, was owned by the Illinois and Southern Iowa Company
In 1870 the Decatur and East St. Louis Railroad Company con- strueted and equipped a road between Decatur and East St. Louis, which in the same year came under the management of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company, and in 1871 this road was opened to St. Louis. The Hannibal and Naples Railroad, including its branch from Pittsfield to Maysville, was leased to the Toledo, Wabash and Western Company in 1870, and the following year the same company obtained control of the Pekin, Lincoln and Decatur Railroad. In 1872 the Lafayette and Bloomington was added to the lines of the Toledo. Wabash and Western. But in 1874, when so many railroads were forced to the wall by the stringeney in the money market. the Toledo, Wabash and Western was forced to go into the hands of a receiver, and John D. Coe was appointed by the court to conduct the affairs of the road. He retained control of it until 1877. when a reorganization was effected under the style of the Wabash Railway Company. While the road was in the hands of the receiver the leases of the Pekin, Lincoln and Deeatur, and the Lafayette and Bloomington Railroads were set aside as well as that of the Quincy bridge, which it had previously secured. In 1879 the Edwardsville branch passed under the control of the Wabash, and in 1879 the consolidation between the Wabash and the Kansas City and Northern was etfected, as stated above.
The capital stock of the consolidated company - the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific - was $40,000,000, and in addition to this it had
39
582
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
an indebtedness of $35,469,550, making the capital and bonded debt of the company, $75,464,550. The present system includes twenty- one originally distinct and independent lines of road. Previous to the consolidation the Wabash proper extended from Toledo to St. Louis, Hannibal, Quincy and Keokuk, with a branch from Logansport to Butler, Indiana, or a total length of 782 miles. But by the consolidation these roads were united with the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern and its branches, which gave the new company a through line from Toledo to Kansas City, St. Joseph and Omaha, making the total at that time 1,551 miles. The same year of the consolidation entrance was made into Chicago by its purchase of the Chicago and Paducah, extending from Effing- ham and Altamont to Chester, Illinois, and by the construction of a branch from Strawn, ninety-six miles northward. Subsequent acqui- sitions were the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw, a distance of 246 miles, and before the close of the year the Quincy, Missouri and Pacific, the Champaign, Havana and Western, the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, and the Centreville, Moravia and Albia, all connecting at different points with the main line. On the 1st of January, 1881, the system embraced 2,479 miles of road.
The lines built and acquired during the year 1881, were the Detroit and Butler, an extension of the Logansport and Butler divi- sion to the city of Detroit, 113 miles; the Indianapolis, Pennsyl- vania and Chicago. 161 miles in length ; the Cairo and Vincennes. the Danville and Southwestern, the Quincy, Missouri Pacifie. the Des Moines, Northwestern, and the Attica and Covington, making the total mileage at the close of the year 3,384 miles. The Butler and the Detroit roads, in connection with the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw, completed the second independent trunk line of the system from the Mississippi river to Lake Erie, besides securing new and important connections upon its entrance into Detroit.
. In 1872 several extensions and branches were finished, the most important of which were the Shenandoah and the Des Moines divi- sions. The former continued the Detroit trunk line from the Missis- sippi to the Missouri. The latter which now extends to Spirit Lake, in the northwestern part of Iowa, opened up that great State to the trafiie of the Wabash System. The total length of the system in 1882 was 3,670 miles, as follows :-
583
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
EASTERN DIVISION.
Miles.
Toledo to St. Louis
435.7
Decatur to Quincy .
150.7
Bluff's, Illinois, to Hannibal, Missouri
49.8
Maysville, Illinois, to Pittsfield Illinois
6.2
Clayton, Illinois, to Keokuk, Iowa
42.3
Logansport, Indiana, to Detroit, Michigan
213.8
Edwardsville, Illinois, to Edwardsville Crossing, Illinois
8.5
Indianapolis, Indiana, to Michigan City, Indiana
161.0
Havanna, Illinois, to Springfield, Illinois
47.2
West Lebanon, Indiana, to Le Roy, Illinois
76.0
Vincennes, Indiana, to Cairo, Illinois
158.0
Danville, Illinois, to Francisville, Indiana
115.1
Ifollis, Illinois, to Jacksonville, Illinois
75.3
Toledo, Ohio. to Milan, Michigan
34.0
Attica, Indiana, to Covington, Indiana
14.5
State Line, Indiana, to Buckington, lowa
214.8
La Harpe, Illinois, to Elveston, Illinois
20.8
Hamilton, Illinois, to Warsaw, Illinois
5.9
Chicago, Illinois, to Altamont, Illinois
215.5
Streator, Illinois, to Streator Junction, Illinois .
29.6
Shumway, Illinois, to Effingham, Illinois
8.5
Warsaw, Illinois, to Havana, Illinois
102.2
White Heath, Illinois, to Decatur, Illinois
29.7
Bates, Illinois, to Grafton, Illinois
71.4
Champaign, Illinois, to Sidney, Illinois
14.0
Total
.
2,307.6
WESTERN DIVISION.
St. Louis to Kansas City .
276.8
Brunswick, Missouri, to Council Bluffs, Iowa
224.4
Rosebury, Missouri, to Clarinda, Iowa
21.5
Moberly, Missouri, to Ottumwa, Iowa
131.0
North Lexington, Missouri, to St. Joe, Missouri
76.3
Centralia, Missouri, to Columbia, Missouri
21.8
Salisbury, Missouri, to Glasgow, Missouri
15.0
Ferguson, Missouri, to St. Louis, Missouri
10.0
584
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
Miles.
Quincy, Missouri, to Trenton, Missouri
155.9
Keokuk, Iowa, to Shenandoah, Jowa
244.0
Relay, Iowa, to Des Moines, Iowa
91.3
Des Moines, Iowa, to Fonda, Iowa
115.0
Total
. 1,343.0
RECAPITULATION.
Eastern Division
· 2,307.6
Western Division
1,363.0
Total,
3,670.6
During the year 1883 considerable additions have been made to the road, including the extension from Fonda, lowa, to Spirit Lake, lowa, a distance of about eighty miles and others of importance, but the official figures have not yet been made public.
The controlling stockholders in the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific are also the leading stockholders in the Missouri Pacific, and in the Iron Mountain, or the " Southwestern System," as the two last named roads, with their tributary lines, are called, so that virtually, the Wabash and the Southwestern constitute a single system of railways. Indeed, in April, 1883, the Wabash was leased to the Iron Mountain of the Southwestern System, so that the whole ten thousand miles of road are now practically under one management, making by far the largest railway system in the world. These roads all traverse magni- ficent territory, and looking at these from the standpoint of the future development of the country, they are without doubt, the most valu- able railroad property on the globe. This is particularly true as to the Wabash System. Where are there five States in the Union, equal to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, the States in which the Wabash roads are located? Their elements of agricultural, mineral and forest. wealth make them now, even under partial development, a region of unsurpassed value. In 1882, although constituting but nine per cent of the total area of the United States, they produced 196,244,100 bushels of wheat of the 502,798,600 bushels raised in the whole country, or over thirty-nine per cent of the total crop of the Union. Of the 740,665,000 bushels of corn, they yielded 340,- 705,900 bushels, or forty-six per cent of the total crop. Their other farm products were proportionally large. In manufactures they are
585
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
also of the first importance. Of the $5,369,667.706 worth of manu- factured products turned out in 1880, these States produced twenty per cent, or products valued at $1, 147.606,405. Bitumious coal is found in inexhaustible quantities in each of the five States named. and other minerals. particularly in Missouri, are found in great abundance. With a population of only 12,000,000 in 1880, what may we not expect the value of their products to be when they con- tain 60,000,000 inhabitants, as they are certainly destined to do? With such a territory to draw from, the Wabash Railway has little to fear in the future, so far as volume of traffic is concerned.
In point of management the Wabash is conceded to be one of the ablest conducted roads on the continent. The men who are now at the head of its affairs are men who have risen to eminence in railway management by their own ability, enterprise, and personal worth ; men who, amid the failure of thousands, and in the most trying times in the history of railroads the country have ever seen, have built up one of the greatest railway systems in the world - gathering up the wrecks of roads here and there where others had left them, and con- fining them in a harmonious, successful whole - a display of execu- tive and business ability, of enterprise and far-sighted sagacity, with but few parallels in history. No man in the management of the road but that holds his position because of his success in railroad affairs ; because of his success where others had failed, a success achieved upon a very sea of disasters. Look back ten years ago at the condition of the roads which now constitute the Wabash system! Then there were more than a score of them, scattered here and there over the great prairie States, the faire-t and most fertile region under the sun, yet all of them tottering on the very brink of bankruptcy. and many of them practically dead as business investments. First, one was taken from the hands of a receiver, a piece of dead property. and put on its feet and made to stand, not only to stand, but to become self- sustaining and prosperous. Then another was taken under the pro- tection of the first and put through a little course of resuscitation - and still another, and another, until the present magnificent system has been formed. It is an unrivalled distinction of the Wabash Sys- tem that it has been built up of roads mainly which had before proven failures,- that it is the product of the brain and energy of men who have shown the genius and to force snecess where others had failed.
To-day the Wabash is one of the best roads in the United States. Its main lines are all laid with steel rails, and its road-beds, bridges,
586
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
eulverts, depots, and other improvements are not surpassed in the West. The rolling stock of the road has long been regarded as among the best in the country. Having always had sharp competi- tion, the management has made it a fixed policy to afford the pub- lic the best of accommodations. whether in passenger travel or freight shipments. As a result their coaches, sleepers, and dining ears are perfeet triumphs of art, not only in point of comfort, but of cleganee and good taste, and then accommodation for freight, both merchan- dise and live stock, are all that could be desired. In one important particular, the Wabash is without a rival in the West, -in time. It runs through cars daily, including elegant chair-cars, sleepers and dining-cars, direct from St. Louis to New York and Boston, making over thirty miles an hour on the through trip, and on all main lines its through rates of speed are approximately as great. Not only in pas- senger travel is it ahead of any its rivals as to speed, but in freight transportation also. Less than four days are required to land its through fast freights in New York after they leave the depot at St. Louis.
With regard to tariffs, it would be suppressing the truth not to say that the Wabash is among the most liberal of roads. In fact. in rail- road circles it is not as popular as some roads, for the very reason that it has so often led the way in reducing passenger and freight rates. Recognizing the fact that low tariff's increase travel and transpor- tation, its policy has always been to reduce the cost of carriage to the lowest possible figures. Nor ought the public to close their eyes to what the railroads generally have done in this direction.
The following table, in which is given the average passenger and freight rates of six leading Western roads since 1865, shows the steady reduction of tariff's going on : -
TABLE.
Years.
Passenger Rate per Mile, Cents.
Freight Rate per Ton per Mile, Cents.
1865
4.81
4.11
1866
4.58
3.76
1867
4.32
3.94
1868
4.17
3.49
1869
3.91
3.10
1870
3.80
2.82
1871
3.58
2.54
.
587
. HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
Years.
Passenger Rate per
Mile, Cents.
Freight Hate per Ton per Mile, Cents.
1872
3.46
2.39
1873
3.38
2.30
1874
3.15
2.18
1875
3.09
1.97
1876
3.01
1.89
1877
2.94
1.63
1878
2.89
1.61
1879
2.63
1.47
1880
2.56
1.32
1881
2.49
1.24
1882
2.41
1.11
1883
2.37
1.02
For comparison, we give the official figures of the Wabash freight rate per ton per mile, since 1875 : -
Year.
Rate, Cents.
1876
1.10
1877
0.87
1878
0.75
1879
. 0.63
1880
0.79
1881
. 0.68
1882
. 0.64
1883
· 0.58
These figures verify what was said above that the Wabash has had the march of Western roads in the reduction of freight rates. From 1865 to 1883 the general average of rates has fallen off three-fourths. Thus, while the railroads have increased the prices of grain, stock and other products by opening up the country to the general markets, they have lessened the cost of carriage to one-fourth of what it was in 1865. This, too, of their own motion, because the great increase of their own business justified it, and because their running expenses have become proportionally much less. Railroad management is like every other line of business ; if left alone it will regulate itself, and to the best advantage for all concerned, as the above figures conclusively show. Doubtless, rates will still go down, but not on account of a senseless outcry against railroads, nor of restrictive legislation, even less
588
. HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
senseless than the clamor of the ignorant. but because of improve- ments.steadily going on in railway transportation, and of increased business and other favoring circumstances. The public is as much interested in the roads being run on a prosperous basis, and far more, than the managers themselves. To the latter it is but little more than a mere matter of profit and loss. But to the publie railroads are everything. They have done more to develop the wealth and re- sources, to stimulate the industry, to reward the labor, and to pro- mote the general comfort and prosperity of the country than any other, and perhaps all other, mere physical causes combined. They scatter the produetions of the press and literature broadcast through the country with amazing rapidity. There is seareely a want, wish or aspiration they do not in some measure help to gratify. They pro- mote the pleasures of social life and of friendship; they bring the skilled physician swiftly from a distance to attend the sick, and enable the friend to be at the bedside of the dying. They have more than realized the fabulous conception of the Eastern imagination, which pictured the genii as transporting inhabited palaces through the air. They take whole trains of inhabited palaces from the Atlantic coast and with marvellous swiftness deposit them on the shores that are washed by the Pacific seas. In war they transport armies and sup- plies of the government with the utmost celerity, and carry forward as it were on the wings of the mind, relief and comfort to those who are stretched bleeding and wounded in the field of battle. No. we must not give up nor eripple the railroads. If their taritl's are still looked upon as burdensome, let us remember how much they have been reduced in the past, and trust to the future with the conviction that reductions will still be made whenever and wherever possible to the proper managements of the roads. A single invention - the steel rail - brought down freight rates forty per cent : then may we not look to time and genius still to remove whatever objectional features remain? But as the rates now stand, a wonderful contrast they of- fer to the old ox -or horse - wagon system of transportation. In 1817 a committee of the New York Legislature reported that the average cost of transporting a ton of freight from New York City to Buffalo was one hundred dollars. Now a ton of freight is trans- ported from Kansas City to New York for less than one-tenth that amount.
The following are the general officers of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific : -
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES. 589
Jay Gould, President, New York.
R S. Hayes. First Vice-President, St. Louis, Mo.
A. L. Hopkins, Second Vice-President, New York.
II. M. Hoxie, Third Vice-President, St. Louis, Mo.
A. IF. Calet, Treasurer, New York.
D. S. II. Smith, Local Treasurer, St. Louis, Mo.
James F. How, Secretary, St. Louis, Mo.
O. D. Ashley, Second Secretary and Transfer Agent, 195 Broad- way, New York.
Wager Swayne, General Counsel, New York.
Wells H. Blodgett, General Solicitor, St. Louis, Mo.
Geo. S. Grover and Frank S. Curtiss, Assistant General Attorneys, St. Louis, Mo.
D. B. Howard. Auditor, St. Louis, Mo.
Morris Trumbull, Assistant Auditor, St. Louis, Mo.
Geo. Olds, Freight Traffic Manager. St. Louis, Mo.
Robert Andrews, General Superintendent, St. Louis, Mo.
K. H. Wade, Superintendent Transportation, St. Louis, Mo.
W. S. Lincoln, Chief Engineer. St. Louis, Mo.
M. Knight. General Freight Agent, St. Louis, Mo.
H .. C. Townsend, General Passenger Agent, St. Louis, Mo.
-
F. Chandler, General Ticket Agent. St. Louis, Mo ..
Geo. P. Manle, General Baggage Agent, Union Depot, St. Louis, Mo.
R. B. Lyle, Purchasing Agent, St. Louis, Mo.
Geo. F. Shepherd, Paymaster, St. Louis, Mo.
C. P. Chesebro. General Car Accountant, St. Louis, Mo.
C. Selden, Superintendent Telegraph, St. Louis, Mo.
Geo. C. Kinsman, Assistant Superintendent Telegraph, St. Louis, Mo.
Jacob Johann, General Master Mechanic. Springfield, Ill.
U. H. Kohler, General Master Car Builder, Toledo, Ohio.
I. N. MeBeth, General Live Stock Agent, St. Louis, Mo.
Most of these gentlemen are well known to the general public. As has been said there is not a man connected with the management of the road who has not risen to his position by his own ability, energy and worth .. The whole world is familiar with the career of the Pres- ident of the company,
MR. JAY GOULD,
certainly one of the most remarkable men of this or any other age. A
-
590
- HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
New York farmer's son, self-educated and starting out in life for him- self without a dollar, by dint of his own exertions and character he has risen to the position of the first railroad manager on the globe. A great deal has been said for and against Mr. Gould. A great deal has been said for and against every man who has made a distinguished success in life. It is one of the conditions of success to be criticised and slandered as well as honored and esteemed. But if men are to be judged according to the general results of their lives, Mr. Gould has nothing to fear for his reputation in history. He has given to the country the finest systems of railway and telegraph the world ever saw, and if the people do not now seem to appreciate
" What manner of man is passing by their doors, "
the time will come when his services and character will receive the hom- age which is their due. Mr. Gould became the president of the Wa- bash, St. Louis and Pacific on the organization of the company in 1879. Personally, however, he does not direct the affairs of the road, but is directly represented in its management, as he is in the man- agement of all his other Western roads, by
CAPTAIN R. S. HAYES
the first vice-president of the company. Captain Hayes was originally from New York. By profession he is a civil engineer. His first pro- minent connection with Mr. Gould's Western roads was as the builder of the Texas and Pacific. That road was constructed with amazing rapidity, and its affairs were managed with such ability and success that Captain Hayes became at once recognized as one of the ablest railroad men in the country. The construction of the road was com- menced in 1881, and on January the 15th of the following year it was ready for traffic to El Paso on the Mexican border, thus opening up the route, via the Southern Pacific to San Francisco. Follow- ing this Captain Hayes was placed at the head of Mr. Gould's whole Southwestern System, or, in other words, was made first vice-presi- dent of the roads embraced in that system, and on the lease of the Wabash to the Iron Mountain in May, 1883, he became first vice-presi- dent of the Wabash Company.
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