History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 38

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 38

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"Prior to the decision of this question, and while it was pending, considerable feeling arose in St. Louis, which was manifested in denuneiations of the board of directors, coupled with charges that they were purposely delaying the location of the line, especially that portion of it nearest to St. Louis, for unworthy reasons, arising out of a desire to enrich themselves by speeulations in lands, having, as was alleged, in their eapa- eity of directors information respeeting the route to be selected which the community generally could not proeure. When, therefore, the report of the engineer was made, the road was immediately located (on the sueeeeding day, as appears by the records of the company), and an order made for the publication of the route selected.

" It should, perhaps, also be added that though, as has been explained above, the board of directors were influenced by popular prejudice in favor of the inland route (in which they probably to some extent participated) to locate the road upon that route so far as Franklin, there is no evidence whatever that in the actual location of the road upon the particular route adopted to that point any considerations had weight except the engineer's report and the questions of economieal construction and use."-Report of Joint Railroad Committee of Missouri Legislature, published Nov. 28, 1855.

the 19th of June, 1851, which, we are told, " ex- cited very considerable interest, and called forth a large vote." It resulted as follows :

For James H. Lucas, 3015 votes ; Hudson E. Bridge, 2943; James E. Yeatman, 2915; Edward Walsh, 2914; Louis A. Labeaume, 2892; James Harrison, 2883; Luther M. Kennett, 2777 ; John C. Rust, 2728; Thomas . Allen, 2294; Daniel D. Page, 2036; Joseph Charless, 1598; Joshua B. Brant, 1584; George Collier, 1470. This list completed the board. The next highest was Isaac L. Garrison, who received 1452 votes.

The first division of the road (thirty-nine miles) having been put under contract, the first spadeful of earth was removed, in the absence of the Governor, by the then mayor of the city, Hon. Luther M. Ken- nett, on the 4th of July, in the presence of a large and enthusiastic audience. This memorable event took place at a point on the south bank of Chouteau Pond, on Mr. Minckes' ground, west of Fifteenth Street.

The event was the occasion of a great popular demonstration, in which the entire city participated. The day was introduced with a national salute by the Missouri Artillery, under the command of Capt. Henry Almstedt. At an early hour the city in every portion was filled with the members of the civil and military societies who designed to join in the proces- sion. Chief Marshal Grimsley had announced that the march to the ground would commence punctually at eight o'clock A.M., and accordingly as early as half- past seven the various associations, orders, companies, clubs, etc., began to pour into Fourth Street from all quarters. The city had seldom witnessed such an enlivening spectacle as that displayed previous to the forming of the procession. Flays were flying from the tops of engine buildings and public-houses, and streamed from the windows of newspaper offices, or floated over the street at many points ; numerous de- tachments of military corps werc dashing to their various places of rendezvous ; squads of civil societics were coming to view from every corner, and the whole was enlivened by the inspiring sounds of music. Soon after seven o'clock an immense multitude thronged Fourth Street from Washington Avenue, where the head of the line rested, a distance of several blocks. The line formed on Fourth Street, and shortly before eight o'clock the chief marshal as- sembled his aids and assistants and instructed them in regard to the duties assigned them. The band of the St. Louis Grays was then ordered to its post, and the following officers also took the places previously agreed upon :

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Thornton Grimsley, chief marshal; John S. Watson, II. W. Williams, aids ; assistant marshals, Joseph P. Wilkinson, Wil- liam J. Romyn, William Waddingham, Jr., Benjamin Bogy, Alfred Dryden, William Light, Charles Mehl, William II. Coz- ens, - MeDowell, Thomas Horrell, John Kern, D. Preston, William T. Knapp, John C. Vogel, George L. Nuckolls, George Shuly, William S. Chapman, Frederick King.

The chief marshal then arranged the procession in the following order :

Chief Marshal and his Aids. St. Louis Grays' Brass Band. Governor, his Aids, Heads of the Departments.

President, Directors, and Company of the Pacific Railroad. Corps of Engineers. Orator of the Day and Invited Guests.

Judiciary of the Eighth Circuit and Officers of the several Courts. Mayor and Board of Aldermen, Delegates, and Executive Offi- eers of the City. Editorial Corps.

St. Louis Grays, Capt. George Knapp.

Missouri Dragoons, Capt. Brinkman.

Missouri Artillery, Capt. Almstedt. St. Louis Yagers, Capt. Sehaeffer. Union Swiss Guards, Capt. Frye. St. Louis Fire Department.

Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons. Ilibernian Benovolent Society.

Catholic Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society. St. Vincent Orphan Society.

German Roman Catholic Society.

St. Louis Musical Club. Social Glee Club.

St. Louis Gymnastic Society. German Benevolent Society. United Association of Free Men. Sons of Temperance.

German Catholic Total Abstinence Society. United Ancient Order of Druids. United Patriotic Refugee Association. Citizens in Carriages. Citizens on Horseback.

Arrived at the grand stand, which had been erected at Chouteau's Pond for the speakers and invited guests, the band performed the " Grand Pacific Rail- road March," which had been composed for the occa- sion by Mr. Balmer, after which Col. Thornton Grimsley, the grand marshal, announced the order of proceedings, and then introduced the president of the railroad company, Thomas Allen. Mr. Allen deliv- ered an interesting address, in which he reviewed the history of the road up to that time, and in the course of it he said,-

" The charter of the Pacific Railroad was granted in 1849, and slept for a year, disregarded and almost unknown. It is about eighteen months since public attention was first called to it, and only about fifteen months since the company now act- ing was organized under it. During that period we have had a good deal of preliminary work to do, comparatively new country to explore, and the people to awaken to the considera- tion of a new subject. We have made over eight hundred miles of preliminary survey ; we have located about seventy miles ; we have obtained the promised support of every county

upon the line ; we have secured the co-operation of the State, and a loan of the publie ercdit; we have brought the subject to the notice of the government of the United States, and we have procured subscriptions which, though not yet so large as we desire, give us great encouragement.

"We have found our distance across the State to bo about three hundred miles, and our grades easy, the maximum not exceeding forty-five feet to the mile, and that occurring only on a short distance. The cost is estimated below the average cost of railroads, at about twenty thousand dollars per mile, or about six millions for the whole completed.

The particular business of our proposed road has been estimated by the engineer, and the estimate is made in detail, und will be found upon examina- tion to be a very moderate one. The general re- sult, however, is that the passenger business will amount to $457,900

Freight. 470,200

. Total, second year .. $928,100

" This would be a gross profit of about fifteen per cent. on six millions. The cost of running may be forty to fifty per cent. of the gross earnings. But it should be borne in mind that this business will constantly inerease.

" The business on the Missouri River in 1850 seems to afford some corroboration of this estimate, if we may compare the river with the railroad. The results obtained from manifests is probably below the truth, but gives,-

For freight. $450,478

For passengers. 368,000

$818,478"

Upon the conclusion of Mr. Allen's address, a pro- logue in verse, composed by A. S. Mitchell, secretary of the company, was recited by J. M. Field. Hon. Edward Bates, orator of the day, then delivered an elaborate address, in which he drew a graphie picture of the fertility and resources of the great Mississippi valley.

" Ifere wo are," said Mr. Bates, "in the centre of the great valley, the natural centre of the largest body of rich, habitable land on tho face of the earth,-a land large enough to maintain in comfort two hundred millions of people, every ono of whom could bring the produce of his labor to this centre by natural navigation,-just below the confluence of three mighty rivers, Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois, and just above the influx of the beautiful Ohio, whose fertile banks are already teeming with industry, enterprise, and wealth. Look at the map of the val- ley, its broad surface is divided into quarters by the figure of a eross,-a little irregular, to be sure, but still a cross. The Mississippi is the shaft, and the Ohio and Missouri are the limbs. And the shaft and both the limbs are bristling with tributaries, eael one of which is large enough to be considered in Europe a mighty river, fit to be improved and cherished as the artery of a nation's commerec.

" Look again at the map, and note the distance and the com- manding points. The driftwood that floats past our city plunges in the turbid waters of the Mississippi for twelve hundred miles before it is washed by the bright waves of the ocean. The water-line of commerce from Pittsburgh to St. Louis is twelve hundred miles. Your steamers go up the Mis- souri, without a snag pulled out or a sand-bar removed beyond our western border, two thousand five hundred miles. Aseend- ing the Mississippi, they push their bows into the very foam of St. Anthony's Falls ; and above those falls, I know not how many hundred miles of placid water invite the adventurous boatmen

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RAILROADS.

to the far north. Go up the Illinois : you can find no stopping- place there, for the Father of Waters is wedded to the lakes. In Illinois and New York the duty imposed by the great gifts bestowed upon us is partly done, and now, by the aid of their canals, you can leave the ocean in a boat, and entering the Mis- sissippi or the Hudson, circumnavigate the nation.

"We occupy the most important point on this great circuit. If there were not a cabin or a white man from the Ohio to the Missouri; if our forests were still in pristine solitude, and our prairies untracked, save by the hoof of the buffalo and the moc- casin of the Indian savage, I should still believe-considering the extent and richness of the valley, the number, length, and direction of its rivers, and its capacity to produce, in boundless plenty, all that can minister to the comfort, wealth, and power of man-I should still confidently believe that the greatest city upon the continent must be established within that span's length upon the map.

" Consider the country through which the road is to pass. It abounds in all the means necessary for the support and comfort of a dense population. Its rich soil produces in abundance all the plants that belong to the climate, and its most barren hills serve but to contain its unmeasured stores of mineral treasures. " But whither does it tend ? When you have constructed the road to the frontier of Missouri, what power can stop it there? Beyond lie the extended plains of the Missouri and the Arkan- sas, New Mexico, Utah, California, Oregon, the Pacific, and the old Eastern World. My mind recoils from the magnitude of the contemplation, and I leave the incalculable results to mingle with the future glories of our country's name."

In the absence of the Governor of the State, Hon. Austin A. King, who was detained at home by ill- ness, Hon. Luther M. Kennett was called upon by the president of the company, Mr. Allen, to perform the ceremony of raising the first sod in the com- mencement of the work of grading the road. On receiving the spade which Mr. Allen presented for that purpose, Mr. Kennett made a brief address, closing with the statement that he would proceed to use the spade "to make the first cut in the line of the Pacific Railway."

At the conclusion of Mr. Kennett's speech, the procession again formed, and while the band played the " Governor's March," the assemblage proceedcd to the line of the road, near the shore of Chouteau's Pond. The mayor here shoveled a few spadefuls of earth into the pond, and was followed by the presi- dent, Mr. Allen, and several other members of the Pacific Railroad Company. Enthusiastic cheers greeted this procecding, with which the ceremonies closed.

The first section of the First Division (from St. Louis to Franklin), the construction of which was thus in- augurated, extended from Seventh to Fourteenth Street, St. Louis, and included the filling in of Chou- teau's Pond. The work of grading was fully com- menced on the 2d of August, 1851. The contracts on the first divisions were let when labor was cheap,

and with little or no experience by contractors in doing work in Missouri, and labor increased in price from seventy five cents to one dollar and twenty-five cents per day. A great deal of sickness prevailed upon the line most of the time. The cholera made its appearance nearly every year on almost every sec- tion. Provisions of all kinds rose to very high prices. Material was found more difficult of excavation than any one could have supposed. All these difficulties combined increased the cost much over original esti- mates. A large portion of the work when the cars commenced running to Franklin was in an unfinished condition, and required a great deal of labor with gravel trains; in widening embankments and taking down slopes in cuts. Most of the ballasting was done by the company, material being procured from the bluffs upon the Maramec River.

The second division extended from Franklin to Jefferson City.1

As the work progressed it was soon discovered that more money would be needed, and on the 6th of Sep- tember, 1851, an election was held to test the sense of the people of St. Louis County on the expediency of subscribing an additional one hundred thousand dollars to the stock of the company, which resulted in favor of the proposition. Strenuous efforts were also made to swell the resources of the company by procuring grants of land from the general government. In June, 1852, as heretofore stated, Congress passed an act approved June 10th, which granted the right of way to the State of Missouri and a portion of the public lands to aid in the construction of railroads. The provision of the act relating to the sale of tliese lands was as follows :

" That a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and twenty sections on each road, and included within a continuous length of twenty miles of said road, may be sold ; and when the Governor of said State shall certify to the Secretary of the Inte- rior that said twenty miles of said road is completed, then an-

1 Sections 16 and 17 were the heaviest on the First Division, covering very deep roek excavations and two tunnels, one about six hundred and the other about four hundred and fifty feet long. During the progress of this work the cholera appeared and drove, at several periods, the entire force from the sections. Great num- bers died, and for a while it was impossible to induce men to go upon the work. Finally the contractors succeeded iu procuring a large force, but there was a good deal of trouble between Sec- tions 17 and 18, which finally resulted, in January, 1853, in a general riot in which two laborers of Section 17, John Flood and James Carroll, were killed and a number of others badly injured. In order to suppress these disturbances and restore order, the St. Louis Grays, Capt. Knapp, and the Missouri Artillery, Capt. Almstedt, were dispatched to the scene and accomplished that object. After this outbreak a police force was stationed upon Section 18, which had become known as the " Bloody. Eigh- teenth," to preserve order.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

other like quantity of land hereby granted may be sold, and so from time to time until said road is completed; and if said road be not completed within ten years, no further sales shall be made, and the lands unsold shall revert to the United States."

The State of Missouri also extended liberal assist- ance to the road. The first legislation on the subject, as we have seen, was the act of March 12, 1849, which required the company to complete the road within ten years from the date of its commencement, and reserved to the State the right to purchase the road at the expiration of fifty years, two years' notice of the intention so to do having been given, its value to be ascertained by appraisers mutually chosen. The General Assembly afterwards passed an act, approved Feb. 22, 1851, granting to the Pacific Railroad Com- pany a loan of the credit of the State to the amount of two millions of dollars, in special bonds of the State, bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum from the date of the respective issues thereof, payable twenty years thereafter, to be deliv- ered to the company in sums of fifty thousand dollars, after satisfactory evidence that an equal sum, derived from the other moneys of the company, had been ex- pended on the work prior to the original and each successive issue. The act provided further that as a condition precedent to the delivery of the first install- ment of bonds, a bona fide subscription to the capital stock of the company of one million and a half of dol- lars should be made; required the company to provide for the payment of the accruing interest and the prin- eipal of the bonds, and provided that the acceptance of the successive issues of bonds, filed in the office of the Secretary of State, should operate as a mortgage of the entire property of the company to the State, to secure the payment of principal and interest, to be foreclosed for the benefit of the State upon failure to make such payment, with the further condition that none of the bonds should be disposed of at less than their par value.

During the same session an aet was passed entitled " An Act to amend the act entitled ' An Aet to ineor- porate the Pacific Railroad,' " approved March 1, 1851, and accepted by the stockholders of the com- pany, as required by the act, on the 2d of December, 1851, enlarging and defining the powers granted by the original act of incorporation, removing the con- ditions therein contained that the city of Jefferson should be made a point on the line of the road, and that it should intersect the western linc of Van Buren County, and authorizing the company to select any route from St. Louis to the western line of the State deemed most advantageous. The act authorized the company to borrow money for the purpose of com-

pleting and operating the road (to any amount not exceeding the unsubscribed capital), and to issue bonds therefor, secured by mortgage on their prop- erty, subject, however, to the prior lien of the State.

On the 13th of December, 1852, the president and directors of the Pacific Railroad Company ad- dressed a memorial to the General Assembly, setting forth their willingness-in view of the fact that that part of the grant of land made to the State by the act of Congress, approved June 10, 1852, and applicable to a railroad from St. Louis to the western boundary of the State, would, if the lands were selected with reference to the then proposed line of the road from St. Louis to the western boundary of the State, yield so small a quantity of land in view of the conditions coupled with the grant, as to be of comparatively little value to the railroad-to undertake the construction of a branch road, diverging from the trunk line of the Pacific Railroad, and terminating on the western boundary of the State, south of the Osage River, and seeking, if the views of the memorialists should be adopted, a further loan of the credit of the State in aid of the construction of the proposed branch road, and also, in view of the proposed diversion of the land grant from the main trunk of the Pacific Railroad, praying for an additional loan of the State credit to secure its completion. The memorialists further proposed to con- struet a branch of the Pacific Railroad southwardly to the Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob, if the aid of the State by a loan of her credit should be given. At the first session of the seventeenth General As- sembly an act was passed entitled' " An Aet to accept a grant of land made to the State of Missouri by the Congress of the United States, approved June 10, A.D. 1852, to aid in the construction of certain rail- roads in this State, and to apply a portion thereof to the Pacific Railroad," approved Dec. 25, 1852, and accepted by the Pacific Railroad Company, as re- quired in the act, on the 21st of January, 1853. This act vested the lands granted by act of Congress in the Pacific Railroad Company, to be by it se- lected, and located along the line of a road to be con- strueted by that company identical with the main line of the Pacific Railroad to the point of divergence, and diverging from the main trunk line of the road at a point east of the Osage River, and striking the west- ern boundary of the State south of the Osage River, at any point selected by the company. This act granted a loan of the credit of the State in aid of the construction of the Southwest Branch Road to the amount of one million of dollars, on the condition that no part of the credit thus granted should be used until a bona fide subscription of five hundred thousand dollars to the

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RAILROADS.

capital stock of the company, applicable to the eon- struction of the Southwest Branch, should be made, and on terms and under limitations similar to those which had attended the former grants of the eredit of the State. The act further provided that the main trunk of the Paeifie Road should be located from St. Louis to Jefferson City ; thence by the best inland route through Johnson County, terminating at any point designated by the company in Jackson County, conditioned that the counties west of Jefferson City should subseribe four hundred thousand dollars to the capital stock of the company, in addition to the amount already subscribed ; in default of which the company should be at liberty to select for the road any location deemed expedient. An additional grant of the eredit of the State to the amount of one million dollars, ap- plicable to the construction of the main trunk of the Pacific Railroad, was made by this aet, on the same terms and conditions as prescribed in the act of Feb. 22, 1851, with the requirement that the road should be completed to its terminus in Jackson County and in operation within five years from the date of the passage of the aet. Power was granted to the company for the purpose of raising money from time to time, for the completion and construction of the Branch Road, to sell the land in the manner pro- vided in the act of Congress of June 10, 1852, and to issue bonds bearing a rate of interest not greater than seven per cent. per annum, secured by mortgage of the lands, subject to the terms of the aet of Con- gress, for the redemption of which bonds the faith of the State should in nowise be pledged.

In the winter of 1853 an aet was passed entitled " An Act to authorize the formation of railroad asso- ciations, and to regulate the same, approved Feb. 24, 1853, which provided that the gauge of track or width between the rails of all railroads in this State should be five feet six inches," the gauge adopted and brought into use prior to that time by the Pacific Railroad Company.

An act was also passed at the same session amend- atory of the original act of incorporation, approved Feb. 24, 1853, authorizing the Pacific Railroad Com- pany to extend, construct, and operate the road to any point west of the boundary of the State, and to enter into contracts for that purpose.

At the first session of the Eighteenth General As- sembly an act was passed entitled " An Aet for the benefit of the Pacific and other railroad companies," approved Feb. 10, 1855. This act provided for the loan to the Pacific Railroad Company of the sum of two hundred thousand dollars. The act so amended former laws as to require the Governor to deliver to the several

railroad companies in the State who were entitled to a further issue of State bonds the whole amount within the limits of the grants to them respectively to which they were entitled by virtue of showing an equiva- lent amount of actual expenditure upon their roads, respectively, of funds derived from other sources, without regard to the limit of such disbursement, before fixed at fifty thousand dollars ; and, further, by authorizing the several companies to sell the bonds issued to them at their market value, even though they should fall below par, and by authorizing the hypothecation of the bonds, if desired, to carry on the operations of the roads.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 38

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358