History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 41

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 41

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The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, originally the Southwest Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was endowed December, 1852, by the State, with one million two hundred thousand acres of land, and with an appropriation of one million dollars of State bonds. In the spring of 1853 the president of the Missouri Pacific, who was then in New York, entered into a contract with Diven, Stancliff & Co. for the construc- tion of the whole Southwest Branch. In December, 1855, the Legislature passed an act transferring to the main line the one million dollars before authorized for the Southwest Branch. The company was also author- ized to mortgage a million acres of their lands and those

of the Southwest Branch, and issue their own bonds thereon to the extent of ten million dollars, to aid them to construct that branch, the State agreeing to guar- antee three million dollars of the company's bonds, the proceeds to be expended on the first one hundred and fourteen miles of the Southwest Branch, reaching from Franklin to a point beyond the Gasconade River ; but the company was required to expend fifty thou- sand dollars, to be derived from other sources, for every one hundred thousand dollars of bonds to be guaranteed. This act required the First Division of the branch to be completed within three years from its date, under penalty of forfeiture of the road to the State, with its lands and franchises, by operation of law, subject only to the mortgage above mentioned. The law also extended the privileges of actual settlers on railroad lands, by granting them rights of pre-emption at two dollars and fifty cents per acre to the extent of fifteen miles from the road.

From 1854 to 1861 the State contributed two mil- lion dollars more to its construction. As the condition of its several contributions to the funds of the South- west Branch, amounting to five million dollars, the State of Missouri had stipulated for the forfeiture to it of the road, its lands, franchises, etc., in case of fail- ure on the part of the company to pay the interest on the bonds issued by the State.

Such failure having been made, on Feb. 19, 1866, the Governor took possession of the road as State property, and by act of the Legislature its name was changed to the " Southwest Pacific Railroad," and the property was offered for sale. It was bought by Gen. J. C. Fremont at one million three hundred thousand dollars, payable one-fourth cash, the balance in four annual installments, and under the obligation to ex- pend five hundred thousand dollars in its extension the first year. Fremont and his associates failed to comply with this agreement. He, however, succeeded in completing the road to the Gasconade River, at Arlington, or thirteen miles, but encumbercd the property with debts to a large amount. He took possession June 14, 1866, and was dispossessed by the Governor, under the terms of the sale, June 21, 1867.

While Fremont and his associates, one of whom was Levi Parsons, were in possession of the property, they procured from Congress the charter of the At- lantic and Pacific Railroad Company. This charter contemplated one hundred million dollars of capital, granted forty sections, or twenty-five thousand six hundred acres, of land per mile in the Territories, and twenty sections, or twelve thousand eight hundred acres, per mile in the State through which its line

575 157 103 280 38

Washington Branch.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

might pass ; provided for a railroad from Springfield, Mo. (thus tapping the charter of the Missouri Com- pany), to the Pacific Ocean, with a branch in the Indian Territory from Van Buren, Ark., to an inter- section with the main line on the Canadian River ; and further provided for the consolidation of the company to be formed under this charter with any other (to wit, the Missouri Company) which might have been chartered over the same route or any part thercof. This charter was passed July 27, 1866.

Before the proprietors of this great enterprise had time to realize from the speculation, their power in the premises was broken to a degrec by the loss of their control over the Missouri portion of the road, once more the property of the State. Andrew Peirce, Jr., F. B. Hayes, and their associates, having been losers as holders of bonds issued under the Fremont régime, which were apparently rendered worthless by the forfeiture of the property to the State, associa- ted themselves together under a new act of the Mis- souri Legislature, organizing the South Pacific Rail- road Company, and to this new company the State made almost a clean donation of all the road already completed, unsold lands, etc., on certain stringent con- ditions, to wit :

1st. The company was required to spend $500,000 the first year to complete the road to Lebanon in two years, to Springfield in three years and six months, and to the State line by the 10th of June, 1872.

2d. They were to deposit $1,500,000 in cash in the State treasury, which they were to be allowed to with- draw only in sums of $100,000, as the same might be expended in extending the road.

3d. They were required to give a bond in the sum of $1,000,000 for the faithful performance of the con- tract, and for the payment of $300,000 to the State in three annual installments.

These conditions having been complied with, and an excess of $200,000 over the sum required having been deposited with the treasurer, the South Pacific Company took possession June 30, 1868, and com- pleted the road to the several points mentioned in from twelve to eighteen months less time than was re- quired by their contract with the State.

The " Atlantic and Pacific," chartered, as above mentioned, July 27, 1866, was duly organized in Oc- tober, 1866, and Gen. Fremont chosen president on June 11, 1868. The property having meanwhile been encumbered by the indorsement of some $3,000,000 bonds issued by the Southwest Pacific, the control of the company passed into the hands of the same partics who owned and controlled the South Pacific Railroad Company, and on Oct. 21, 1870, the said South

Pacific Company sold and conveyed its entire property to the Atlantic and Pacific. Thus the entire property and franchises of all these companies became merged in one under the liberal Federal charter granted to the Atlantic and Pacific, who thus owned not only what the stockholders had bought and paid for, but what has cost the State of Missouri and county of St. Louis over $6,000,000 in securities to its predecessors.

The St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company is the successor of the Southwest Branch of the Missouri Pacific, which, as we have seen, was sold in 1868 to purchasers who were incorporated as the South Pacific Railroad Company. The latter corporation completed the road to Lebanon, seventy- one miles, in 1869 ; to Springfield, fifty-six miles, in May; and to Peirce City, fifty miles, in October, 1870. At this date the Atlantic and Pacific Rail- road Company purchased the road and completed it to Vinita, three hundred and sixty-four miles from St. Louis, where connection was made with the Mis- souri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. On the 1st of July, 1872, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Com- pany leased the Pacific and Missouri, to which its line once belonged, and operated that road until No- vember, 1875, when the Atlantic and Pacific was placed in the hands of a receiver. On the 8th of September, 1876, the road and lands of the company were sold under foreclosure of mortgages to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company, and the corporation was reorganized under the latter name.

Few Western roads have made the rapid progress that the St. Louis and San Francisco has. Up to the time of its extension to Springfield, in the southwest- ern corner of Missouri, its business was comparatively small. No sooner had the country of the Ozarks been reached than the road began to rise in impor- tance, and to-day it is regarded as one of the most valuable roads of the St. Louis system. Several years ago the branches to Carthage and other parts of Southwest Missouri were built; then the extensions were carried into Kansas. On June 8, 1881, the first passenger train that ever steamed its way through Benton and Washington Counties, Ark., went into Fay- etteville, and opened up a most fertile portion of that growing State to St. Louis.

During last year the line was completed to Van Buren and Fort Smith, beyond the Boston Moun- tains into the Arkansas valley, where the finest of cotton is grown, as well as all kinds of grain and fruit, and coal of the best varieties abounds in inex- haustible quantities. The right of way has been secured through the Choctaw nation, and the survey made for the further extension of the road to Paris,

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RAILROADS.

Texas, where it will some day form connections with the Houston and Texas Central and the Gulf, Color- ado and Sante Fé Roads, two of the leading lines of that State, which will reach Paris by the time the St. Louis and San Francisco is finished to that point. The completion of the latter will give three com- peting lines to Texas, all under separate and distinct managements.

During last year the road was extended to Tulsa, in the Indian Territory, and is being rapidly pushed on to Albuquerque to meet the Atlantic and Pacific, which is jointly owned by the St. Louis and San Francisco and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railway Companies. West of Albuquerque the road is in operation to Cañon Diablo, three hundred and twelve miles, and the grading is being rapidly done from the latter point to the Colorado River. The Southern Pacific, working eastward, has a large foree grading from Mohave, and expects to have the line completed to the Colorado River by the time the Atlantie and Pacific reaches that point.

The mileage of the St. Louis and San Francisco at this time (Jan. 1, 1883) is in detail as follows :

St. Louis, Mo., to Halstead, Kan .. 533 Pierce City, Mo., to Tulsa, Indian Territory .. 138 Plymouth, Mo., to Fort Smith, Ark. 134

Joplin, Mo., to Girard, Kan .. 39

Springfield, Mo., to Sparta, Mo. 27

Oronogo, Mo., to Galena, Kan. 20

Total 891

On the 14th of March, 1882, the following persons were elected directors of the road : Leland Stanford, San Francisco, Cal .; Edward F. Winslow, Jay Gould, A. S. Hateh, C. P. Huntington, W. L. Frost, James D. Fish, and William F. Buckley, New York ; Albert W. Nickerson, Boston, Mass .; Charles W. Rogers, R. S. Hayes, St. Louis. The executive officers of the company are Edward F. Winslow, president, New York; C. W. Rogers, first vice-president and general manager, St. Louis; James D. Fish, second vice- president, New York ; T. W. Lillie, secretary and treasurer, New York ; A. Douglas, auditor, St. Louis ; John O'Day, general attorney, St. Louis; W. A. Thomas, Springfield, Mo., and J. R. Wentworth, Neodesha, Kan., division superintendents ; D. Wish- art, general passenger agent, St. Louis ; T. E. Cassidy, general freight agent, St. Louis; W. H. Coffin, land commissioner, St. Louis; D. H. Nichols, master of transportation, Springfield, Mo .; James Dun, chief engineer, Springfield, Mo. The principal office of the company is located in St. Louis.

The St. Louis, Salem and Little Rock Railway, which reaches St. Louis by the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, extends from Cuba to Salem, Mo.,

a distance of forty-one and five-tenths miles, with a number of small branches. The company was ehar- tered Jan. 17, 1871, and the road was opened Oct. 15, 1873. The president of the company is A. L. Craw- ford, of New Castle, Pa .; Vice-President and Pur- chasing Agent, H. A. Crawford, St. Louis; Treasurer and Sceretary, William Brewster, Erie, Pa .; Assistant Secretary and Treasurer, E. L. Foote, St. Louis.

Of the enterprising band of St. Louis capitalists who secured the completion of the Missouri Pacific and its Southwest Branch none was more ardent, self-sacrificing, or energetic than Daniel Randall Garrison. Mr. Garrison was born near Garrison's Landing, Orange Co., N. Y., Nov. 23, 1815. His father, Capt. Oliver Garrison, owned and commanded the first line of packets that ran between New York and West Point, early in the present century before steamboats were known. Capt. Garrison was of old New England Puritan stock, and his wife was of a Holland family that settled in New York at an carly day. Her connections embraced such historic names as the Schuylers, Buskirks, and Coverts.

Young Garrison's youth passed without special incident until his removal with his father to Buffalo in 1829, where he obtained employment with Bealls, Wilkinson & Co., engine-builders, with whom he re- mained until 1833, when he went to Pittsburgh and was engaged in one of the largest machine-shops in that eity. In 1835 he removed to St. Louis.

While he was in Buffalo, Daniel Webster visited the place, and young Garrison was one of three young men who presented the great "expounder of the Constitution" with an elegant card-table, as a testi- monial of their indorsement of his tariff views. The table was a mosaic, composed of nearly every deserip- tion of American wood, and was accepted by Mr. Webster with flattering acknowledgments. The ad- miration which Mr. Garrison thus early formed for the great statesman has continued undiminished ever since.

Upon arriving in St. Louis, Mr. Garrison secured employment at the head of the drafting department in the foundry and engine-works of Kingsland, Light- ner & Co., and although less than twenty-one years of age, was soon distinguished as one of the ablest and most trustworthy mechanics in the city. This engagement continued until 1840, when, in connection with his brother, Oliver Garrison, he started in busi- ness as a manufacturer of steam-engines. Manufac- turing establishments in the West were comparatively few at that time, and nearly all manufactured artieles were brought from the East ; but coal and iron ex- isted in abundance in Missouri, and the Garrisons

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reasoned that St. Louis presented many unsurpassed advantages as a manufacturing point. Their start was moderate, but as business prospered the capacity of their works was increased until nearly every kind of stcam machinery in use was made by them. Their success had a stimulating effect on other enterprises of the kind, and gave a great impetus generally to the manufacturing interests of the city. During thesc years Mr. Garrison worked incessantly; all the draft- ing of the establishment was done by him, and every piece of work turned out passed under his personal inspection at every stage of its manufacture.

In 1848 the discovery of gold in California agi- tated the whole country, and a tidal wave of immi- gration swept westward. Believing that as the Pacific. slope was settled a large market would be created for steamboat and mill machinery, the Garrisons imme- diately began to manufacture for that region, and Daniel was sent to California early in 1849, to super- vise the introduction of their products. He went via the Isthmus; and upon his arrival at Panama found the discoveries of gold fully confirmed, and wrote to his brother Oliver at St. Louis to send on three engines immediately. These reached him in California in the fall of the year (1849), were quickly sold at a handsome profit, and were the forerunners of other extensive and profitable shipments of the kind.

One of the engines were sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, and Mr. Garrison went to Oregon to de- liver it. Here was displayed a signal illustration of his fertility of resource in unforeseen emergencies. On the voyage the main couplings of the engine had been lost overboard, and it was necessary that Garrison should supply them ; but since to order them from St. Louis would, in those days of slow-going sail-vessels by way of Cape Horn, have involved a protracted delay in the ordinary course of affairs, Garrison under- took to make the couplings himself. The nearest known iron ore was on the upper Willamette, a hun- drcd miles or so distant, and the only way to get it down to liim was by means of Indians and mules. This was done, however, and when the ore arrived Garrison had a blast furnace ready and made his iron and poured his casting. This is believed to have been the first iron manufactured on the Pacific coast. He also built the boat for his engine,-one hundred and eighty fect kecl, twenty feet beam, and six feet hold, -also no doubt the first steamboat ever constructed on the waters of the Pacific.

Mr. Garrison returned to St. Louis in 1850, and soon after the brothers retired from the foundry, each having made an ample fortune. Daniel R. Garrison

then settled down upon his beautiful farm in West St. Louis, embracing a large tract in what is now the fashionable "Stoddard's Addition." This tract was covered with woods when Mr. Garrison cstablished himself there, and through its shady recesses he and his neighbors had often hunted deer and other game. It is now traversed by handsome avenues, and is dotted with charming residences.

After a brief period spent in the enjoyments of country life, Mr. Garrison, at the earnest solicitation of his friends and many prominent citizens of St. Louis, undertook the task of completing the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad,-an enterprise partly finished, but just then in what seemed a most helpless and hopeless condition. The directory of the company embraced such strong men as George K. McGunnegle, Judge Breeze, of Illinois; Col. Christy, Col. John O'Fallon, W. H. Belcher, H. D. Bacon, and Mr. Garrison himself. The others all turned instinctively to Mr. Garrison as the one man to lift the project out of the " slough of despond." First stipulating that he should have absolute power in the premises, he ac- cepted the trust, and ultimately succeeded in finishing the work, but not without almost herculean labors in the face of obstacles that only those intimately ac- quainted with the circumstances can have any idea of. To Daniel R. Garrison, thereforc, unquestionably be- longs the honor of having completed the first railroad that connected St. Louis with the East. The com- pletion of the road was a marked event in the history of St. Louis, and the merchants of the city gave Mr. Garrison a magnificent service of solid silver, as a tes- timonial of their appreciation of his invaluable labors.

Mr. Garrison continued to manage the Ohio and Mississippi until 1858, and then left it in fine condi- tion. Meanwhile he had become interested in the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. When the war broke out this road was finished from St. Louis to Sedalia, where it stopped, owing to lack of money to carry it forward. The enterprise was involved in the greatest embarrassments, and Mr. Garrison was ap- pealed to to extricate it. He refused the presidency of the road, but was made vice-president and general manager, and, armed with full powers, succeeded in completing the road to Kansas City in the face of ob- structions that seemed insurmountable. The war was in active progress at the time, and in Missouri hostile armies were continually fighting for the possession of the splendid domain through which the Missouri Pa- cific was to run. While the road was being built, therefore, he was placed between two hostile armies, and more than once he periled his life to push forward his great undertaking. As he was an uncompromis-

D. R. Garrison

LIBRARY O: THE UNIVERSITY Of WINDIS.

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ing Union man, he repeatedly received warnings that his life was in danger, but these threats did not affeet his composure in the slightest degree ; he kept on, and before the war was over cars were running into Kansas.

In 1869 it was desired to reduce the gauge of the road from five and a half feet to the standard gauge, and in July of that year Mr. Garrison superintended the execution of the work. So complete were his arrangements that this great feat was accomplished in sixteen hours, without the slightest interruption to travel, over the whole distance from St. Louis to Kan- sas City.

Mr. Garrison remained as vice-president and general manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and its eon- neetions until 1870, when he retired. In 1874, how- ever, he was elected vice-president and general man- ager of both the Missouri Pacific and the Atlantic and Pacific, and so remained until the sale of those great properties.

As a railroad man, Mr. Garrison had cultivated an enlarged view of the future of the Mississippi valley, and naturally regarding iron as the base of its pros- perity, he interested himself upon his first retirement from the management of the Missouri Pacific in the organization of the Vulcan Iron-Works in South St. Louis, employing nearly one thousand men, and the first mill of the kind established west of the Missis- sippi. Very soon thereafter he and his friends built the Jupiter Iron-Works, one of the largest furnaces in the world, and still later he brought about a con- solidation of the two interests under the title of the Vulean Iron and Bessemer Steel-Works, which were owned principally by himself and his brother. For years he was managing director of these giant estab- lishments, and conducted them with signal success. When he finally retired from the position a few months ago his employés presented him with a finely-engrossed testimonial expressive of their appreciation of his kindness as a humane and thoughtful employer, and of regret that the relations between master and men, so signally pleasant iu every particular, were about to be sundered.

It would be difficult to name one who has done so much for the real prosperity of St. Louis and the West as has Mr. Garrison, and there are not many who, having accomplished so much, would take so modest a view of their labors as he does of his; for he is one of the plainest and most unassuming gentle- men of which the city can boast, and yet one of the most courteous and approachable. He is tall and of ro- bust frame, is still capable of great physical and mental endurance, and possesses to a pre-eminent degree a

" sound mind in a sound body." _ Upon searcely any other man in St. Louis, and perhaps in the whole West, have rested such great responsibilities as fre- quently in his later career have devolved upon him. In every demand made upon him he has shown the finest executive ability. It has been justly remarked that Mr. Garrison " has compassed within his own experience an amount of beneficent enterprise and well-directed labor that, if parceled out among a score of common men, would make the life-work of each very large." All this Mr. Garrison has accom- plished by sheer native energy and ability, for he is a self-made man in the most literal sense of the expres- sion. He came to St. Louis a poor young man, and is now one of its wealthiest citizens; but his wealth is not merely in stocks and bonds ; it consists also in the valued esteem of his fellow business men and the citizens of. St. Louis, who gladly honor him for his unstinted labors in behalf of their city and State.

The biographical edition of Reavis' "St. Louis, the Future Great City," was dedicated to Mr. Garri- son in these appropriate words :

"To Daniel Randall Garrison, a citizen great in the attri- butes of manhood, one who has woven out from his individu- ality, his superior brain and restless activity a large contribu- tion to the city of my theme and to my country, one who in building up his own fortunes has impressed his character upon many material interests, and who gives promise of still greater usefulness in the future, this volume, which illustrates a fade- less hope and a profound conviction in the future of St. Louis, is respectfully inseribed by the author."

The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, one of the earliest railroad enterprises in Missouri, was chartered on the 16th of February, 1847, and ground was broken at Hannibal early in November, 1851. When the Pacific Railroad sought aid from the State the two enterprises worked together, each aiding the other, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad procured the State credit for $1,500,000. Again acting together before Congress, they both procured a grant of land. The Hannibal line was completed to St. Joseph in 1859. The Missouri Pacific Railway Company uses the road between St. Joseph and At- chison, together with the terminal facilities at both places. The total length of the line between Hannibal and St. Joseph is 206.41 miles, and the branches are :

Quincy .- Palmyra, Mo., to Quincy, III., 13.42 miles. Kansas City .- Cameron to Kansas City, Mo., 53.05 miles. Atchison .- St. Joseph to Atehison, Mo., 19.47 miles.

Making the total length of lines owned and operated 292.35 miles.

The Laclede and Crevecœur Lake Railway Company was chartered Sept. 26, 1880, and opened July 1, 1881. The company owns no rolling stock,

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

it being operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, whose road it joins at Laclede Junction, eight miles from St. Louis. Its line extends from Laclede Junction to Crevecœur Lake, Mo., and is twelve miles in length.

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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 41

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