USA > Missouri > Livingston County > Past and present of Livingston County, Missouri : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 11
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ringing of bells and great rejoicing. A meeting was regu- larly organized. Col. R. F. Richmond, of Hannibal, was president; L. L. Hawkins, of Palmyra, secretary. Hon. Joseph B. Crockett, of St. Louis, was the orator of the day, and delivered a most eloquent address, which was published and circulated.
A large procession was formed, headed by Hon. A. W. Lamb as chief marshal, and marched out to Draper's meadow, selected as the site for the breaking of ground, and the serv- ing of a bountiful dinner. Amid the close attention of the large concourse, a few shovelfuls of dirt were thrown up by Col. R. M. Stewart, Hon. James H. Lucas, of St. Louis, and Hon. L. M. Kennett. Then there was great cheering. Among the many prominent men of the state present on the occa- sion were Lieut-Gov. Thomas L. Price, Hon. James B. Bow- lin, Hon. Carty Wells, Gen. John B. Clark, Sr., Hon. Clair- borne F. Jackson, Hon. James S. Greene and Hon. Willard P. Hall. At this ceremony Livingston county was repre- sented by W C. Samuel, who was sent down by the county court, expressly as the county's representative.
Work, however, on the new road progressed slowly. The route was not definitely located, and the subsidies not all se- cured. Besides, not as much was known about railroad build- ing in those days as is known now. The board of directors, in 1851, memorialized Congress for a large grant of the pub- lic lands to aid in building the road, and made earnest efforts to secure this result. The president, Hon. R. M. Stewart, and attorney, Mr. R. F. Lakenan, in 1852, visited Washington to aid in securing the favorable action of Congress.
A bill was introduced in Congress for this purpose, and came up for action in May, 1852. Hon. Willard P. Hall, of Buchanan county, then chairman of the committee on terri- tories in the House of Representatives, had charge of this bill. The scene on the passage of the bill was very exciting. There were strong opponents to the measure, and they were work- ing hard to defeat it. It came near being lost by an amend- ment being offered by Hon. W. A. Richardson, of Quincy, who desired that the eastern terminus of the road should be
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at his town, and sought to have the officers of the road agree that it should run to Quincy eventually, at any rate. His amendment was to grant a like quantity of land to a proposed railroad in Illinois. Congress had already granted an im- mense domain of valuable land to the Illinois Central Rail- road, and Richardson's amendment excited strong opposition to the Hannibal and St. Joseph's grant.
Stewart promised Mr. Richardson that if he would with- draw his amendment a new company should be formed to build a branch from Palmyra to Quincy. Hon. Stephen A. Douglas had left his seat in the Senate to urge his friends in the House to support the measure, and he kindly inter- fered and induced Richardson to withdraw the amendment, the latter saying did not design to injure the measure. The bill then passed the House by a vote of 103 to 76, and in the Senate it had but little opposition. The provisions of the act of Congress gave alternate sections of land to the state of Missouri in trust for the benefit of a railroad from Hannibal to St. Joseph, and the state turned these lands over to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company.
The grant of 600,000 acres of fine agricultural land set- tled the fact that the road would eventually be built; the people knew it was a mere question of time. In August, 1852, a contract was made with Duff & Leamon, of New York, to build the entire line. This contemplated the "Northern Route" through Bloomington, then the county seat of Macon county. Afterward, at a meeting of the directors at Glasgow, March 10, 1853, the "Southern Route"-on the present line- was chosen, and the contract relet to John Duff & Co., of New York, at $23,000 per mile.
The road was located by Maj. James M. Bucklin, chief engineer, a very superior engineer, but addicted to drink, and who, in two or three years, became a confirmed drunkard, and was discharged. He lay around the old Virginia Hotel, on the levee, in Hannibal, John Toncray, proprietor, drinking at Toncray's saloon, until he became a wreck. The town of Bucklin, Linn county, was named for him. The prelimi- nary survey had been made by Simeon Kemper and Col.
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M. F. Tiernan, who were accompanied by Col. R. M. Stew- art. The latter gentleman's indefatigable efforts in behalf of the interests of the road contributed more than those of any other man to their ultimate accomplishment. His services in behalf of the road also made him governor of the state in 1857, when he was elected on the democratic ticket over Hon. James S. Rollins, whig, of Boone. Stewart's majority was only 334, which it is said was accomplished by whig votes from the strong whig counties of Marion, Monroe and Macon, and other counties along the line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, which votes were cast for him out of friendly con- sideration for what he had done in aid of the new enterprise.
Early in the year 1857 work was begun at the St. Joseph end. In March of that year the track extended east from St. Joseph seven miles. The first fire under the first engine that started out was kindled by M. Jeff. Thompson, afterward the Missouri Confederate brigadier.
The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was completed Feb- ruary 13, 1859. The next day the first through passenger train ran out of St. Joseph. Of this train E. Sleppy was engineer, and Benjamin H. Colt, conductor. The first engineer to run a train into St. Joseph was George Thompson, who ran first a construction train, then a freight train. At that time the equipment consisted of fourteen freight cars, six passenger coaches and four engines. The superintendent lived at Han- nibal and his name was J. T. K. Hayward. He was a great American, a man of strong force of character. Hannibal was the general headquarters of the road. For many years John B. Carson was general manager. The final work on the road was not done by Duff & Co., but by J. M. Ford and others.
According to the regulations on the time card, no freight train was permitted to run faster than eighteen miles an hour except on special orders. The passenger trains west bound left Hannibal at 10:30 A. M. and reached St. Joseph, a dis- tance of 206 miles, at 9:30 P. M.
Several towns long since forgotten were given on the card as stations. Hudson was the name for the place now known as the city of Macon. Meadville was known as Bottsville.
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New Cambria was called Stockton. Then there were not half as many stations as there are now. Hannibal, Hudson (Macon), Brookfield, Chillicothe and St. Joseph were the principal stations.
Eleven engines were in service on the road, and they were given names instead of numbers. The names were as fol- lows: Hannibal, Stranger, Missouri, Chippewa, Oneida, Mohegan, Ottawa, Seneca, Omaha, Miami and Apache. In those days the engines covered about 3,000 miles a month. Now there are about 170 engines on the road, and their mile- age will each average 7,500 miles a month.
The firemen on the coal burning engines received $1.50 a day and the firemen on the wood burners only received $1.25 a day. No trains ran on Sunday.
Something like twenty years ago the Hannibal & St. Joseph lost its identity by being absorbed by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and afterwards becoming a part of the great Bur- lington route. The "old guard" had to go, and with them came the resignation of W. R. Woodward, the picturesque superintendent, as well as J. H. Barnard, at that time general manager. The result was that W. F. Merrell became the new general manager, and S. E. Crance superintendent of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. The coming of Crance brought a lot of followers, and for a few years they continued to come from Aurora, from the famous Fox river division; from Galesburg and from the St. Louis line of the C., B. & Q. For about six years Superintendent Crance was general superin- tendent of the entire Missouri lines, with headquarters at St. Joseph.
About the time of the coming of Superintendent Crance from the C., B. & Q., came a new general manager, W. F. Merrell. He was a college graduate, a man of fine sensibili- ties, a polished gentleman. But after a few years, with the order of things, Mr. Merrell was promoted by the Burlington system and went to Chicago, afterwards resigning to accept a higher official position with the Pennsylvania system.
Mr. Merrell was succeeded by W. C. Brown at St. Joseph and with the coming of Brown came new ideas. As a rail-
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road manager he soon demonstrated that he was a pacemaker. He captured everybody with whom he came in contact. Rail- way men liked him for what he knew. The public generally admired him for his brilliancy and push. Brown kept on climbing up the great ladder of the railway world. He was promoted and went to Chicago. The Lake Shore or Vander- bilt system took a notion they wanted him for their vice- president and general manager. They got him and the former Missourian went to Cleveland. And later was vice-president and general manager of the New York Central.
Then there was a successor to be appointed to succeed Mr. Brown as general manager of the Missouri lines of the Bur- lington route. At the time Howard Elliott was general freight agent, like Mr. Brown, he had come up from the bot- tom round of the ladder. The first work in railroading done by Mr. Elliott after graduating from Harvard College was carrying a chain with a surveying corps. When Mr. Elliott was made general manager all who knew him said he would be equal to the emergency. With his administration the gen- eral manager's headquarters were moved to St. Louis from St. Joseph. Mr. Elliott was made a director of the St. Louis World's Fair and was a strong factor in the promotion of the greatest exposition the world has ever seen-when suddenly it was announced in the St. Louis papers that Mr. Elliott's true worth had been recognized by the great Burlington sys- tem whereby he was appointed vice-president with headquar- ters at Chicago.
The Hannibal & St. Joseph is looked upon as the greatest single track in America, in point of business, handling more trains in proportion to its mileage than any other line of the Burlington system.
Though a few time tables now in existence show when shortly after the road was built, there was but one passenger and one freight train carded to run over it, each way, every twenty-four hours, at the present time through and separate passenger trains run between St. Louis and Kansas City, St. Joseph, Omaha, Denver and Portland, between Chicago and Kansas City, St. Joseph, Atchison and Leavenworth, in addi-
.
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tion to through cars between St. Louis and Los Angeles, Chi- cago and San Francisco, via St. Joseph and Kansas City-all running to and from these points.
To give an idea what is being done on this piece of rail- road in a more condensed form, there is an average of 285 trains each twenty-four hours, running over parts or between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, on this less than 300 miles of the Burlington system. It is no uncommon thing for meat, stock, and merchandise trains to run over the line between St. Joseph and Hannibal, or Kansas City and Quincy, in less time than passenger trains were carded to make the run between the same points previous to the putting on of the pioneer fast passenger train between Chicago and the Missouri river, ("The Eli,") in 1887.
Not long since a train of cattle left Kansas City for Chi- cago in the afternoon, contended with other trains, consumed the necessary running time over the Missouri and Mississippi river bridges, made the stops for railroad crossings, junctions, fuel, sidetracked for passenger trains, changed engines and train crews, etc., and made the run between Kansas City and Quincy in eight hours. The next day another train made the run between the same points in seven hours and thirty-five minutes.
This is an illustration of the progress that has been made in single track railroading in Missouri between the year 1859, when the first steel bond was made between the "Father of Waters" and the "Big Muddy," and the present time.
Speaking of the "Eli," perhaps no train on the entire Burlington system has contributed more to its name and fame than this train. Back in the days of 1887 Henry B. Stone, the leader of the great strike, was the general manager of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the promoter of the fast Chicago-Kansas City train through Chillicothe. P. H. Hou- lahan, at that time trainmaster, went to Kansas City to come out on the first east bound "Eli," riding to Quincy to where the trains met and then back to Kansas City-in other words twice across the state in a night.
There has perhaps no railway in the country contributed
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more to history than the Hannibal & St. Joseph. General Passenger Agent Daniels of the New York Central, America's greatest railway system, saw the first cars in his life run over the Hannibal & St. Joseph when he was a lad in Macon county. Elihu Root, secretary of war, was once a $40 a month clerk in a Hannibal & St. Joseph office.
John B. Carson, long ago general manager of the "Old Reliable" with headquarters at Quincy, went to Chicago and became a millionaire, while his son "Jimmy" blew barrels of money upon actresses and made a fool of himself after his father died.
W. H. McDoel, another former Hannibal & St. Joseph official, later became president and general manager of the Monon route.
Thus North Missouri's old historical railway has been a maker of history in men. Go where you will to any railway division town in the United States, from Vermont to Texas and to Old Mexico, and you will find former employes of the "Jo."
Some have gone higher, while others have bumped against unkind fates. Some have risen in the railway world, others "held their own," while others have not done so well; and still others have "given up the fight" and been shipped over yonder in a sealed box, to sleep out on that silent city of the hillside beside their kin.
It is an interesting story, that of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. It is a link in the endless chain reaching from the Great Lakes to the Golden Gate of the Pacific.
On the 22d of February, 1859, occurred at St. Joseph, the celebration of the completion of the road. Not less than six hundred invited guests were feasted at a grand banquet given in the spacious apartments of the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the corner of Fifth and Felix streets. The road was completed through this county in February, the month of its final com- pletion.
The road did a big business the first two years. It had no competition, charged five cents a mile for passengers, and sometimes more, and had all the business it could well do.
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During the war it suffered severely. Its officers were loyal and early in the day the entire management was known to be on the side of the government. The principal stock was held in Boston, and nearly all various superintendents and other officers were Northern men.
The secessionists of the state, therefore, attacked it, and injured it no little. September 3, 1861, the bridge across Platte river was destroyed by them, and a train containing men, women and children ran into the chasm, and some were killed. In December following, the Chariton bridge was burned. It became necessary to station detachments of troops at every bridge and trestle work. The bushwhackers tore up the track, ditched the trains, burned cars and stations, from time to time, and the road came out of the war, like other property in the state, much the worse for the conflict.
In the early fall of 1861 the military authorities com- pelled the union of the tracks of the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Quincy & Palmyra, at the latter city, and Quincy be- came the terminus, practically, although Hannibal was and yet is the nominal and legal terminus, according to the charter. March 2, 1867, the Quincy & Palmyra passed into the hands of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. This was done under authority of the act of the Legislature of that date, all stock of the Quincy & Palmyra (having been previously acquired) being merged into that of the Hannibal & St. Joseph, under the charter of the latter corporation.
In 1867-1868 was built a "feeder" of the road from Kan- sas City to Cameron. The road was chartered before the war, and was originally called the Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior. Afterward the name was changed to the Kansas City & Cameron. February 14, 1870, this road was merged into the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and still is a part of the same. The first train over the railroad bridge across the Missouri at Kansas City passed July 4, 1869.
In the summer of 1872, the Hannibal & St. Joseph Com- pany commenced the building of a branch or extension of the road from St. Joseph to Atchison, Kansas, a distance of
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STREET SCENE, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE HENRIETTA HOTEL. CHILLICOTHE
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twenty-one miles. This branch was completed in October of the same year.
The completion of the road was the occasion of a jubilee. The track-laying gangs from the east and those from the west met at a point on the east side of section 4, on the S. B. Mum- power farm, three miles east of Chillicothe on the 13th day of February, 1857. Besides the gangs of workmen there was present William Kent, S. B. Mumpower, George Babb, Sol. Hoge, George Kent, now of Oklahoma, Jerry Kent, now of Nevada and many others whose names are not available. Four railroad locomotives occupied positions within a few rods of the closing link and as the last rail was put in place and the spikes driven home, these engines set up a screech and howl of whistles that echoed and re-echoed over the country for miles. Then from every farm house for miles around farmers and their families in wagons, on horseback and on foot came to witness the triumphant completion of the old Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad and join in the celebration. From Mr. S. B. Mumpower who was present and participated in the celebration, we are informed that the great number of people present joined the screeching whistles of the engines with their cheers, but all was peaceable and orderly and no whiskey as heretofore erroneously reported and nobody under the in- fluence.
THE WABASH-OLD NORTH MISSOURI
March 1, 1851, the North Missouri, now Wabash Rail- way, was chartered by the Legislature and the company was authorized to build, equip and operate a road from St. Louis in the direction of Des Moines, Iowa, by way of St. Charles. The road was finished to St. Charles in August, 1855, and thence north to Macon in February, 1859.
In 1860 a company styling itself the Missouri River Valley Railroad Company, was incorporated and authorized to con- struct a line from Randolph county to Brunswick in Chariton county and thence through Carroll, Ray and Clay counties to Platte county. The Chariton & Randolph Railroad Company was also organized a year previous, the late Gen. Sterling Vol. 1-9
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Price, who became famous in defense of his southern rights principles, was prominently connected with the last named en- terprise. With one aim in view the two organizations com- bined for the purpose of building a road from Moberly, through Brunswick and along the north bank of the Mis- souri river. The two companies were consolidated in 1864 by an act of the Legislature, the line being built and com- pleted to Kansas City in 1869, the road having been finished to Brunswick in December, 1867.
The Chillicothe & Brunswick Railroad Company was in- corporated by an act of the Legislature approved January 26, 1864, and empowered to construct and operate a road be- tween the two points named. The first board of directors was composed of J. B. Leeper, J. B. Bell, Benj. Berry, D. G. Saunders, S. K. Alexander, Thos. T. Eagles, W. A. Love, W. S. Davis, S. B. Deland, and John Smith of Livingston county ; W. H. Plunkett, Thos. Anderson, John H. Blue, Adamantine Johnson, W. E. Moberly, John Ballentine, John H. Davis, James McFarren and David Loud, of Chariton county; W. R. Creel and W. A. Delany, of Carroll county.
On the fifteenth of May, 1866, Livingston county voted on the question of taking $200,000 stock in the Chillicothe & Brunswick Railroad, and the proposition was defeated by the following vote: For taking stock, 451; against, 536. But April 25, 1867, another election was held to decide whether or not the county should take stock in the road to the amount of $150,000, and the proposition carried by the following vote : For, 1,064; against, 678. The county court made the subscription May 7 following, agreeing to issue 8 per cent bonds of the county as follows: When the first ten miles of track shall be completed, $25,000 for every additional five miles of track. The bonds were dated August 1, 1868, and not signed or issued till that time. The last of these bonds was paid by the county in the year 1885.
The road was constructed in 1869-70, and on its comple- tion to Chillicothe, there was great rejoicing, and a large ex- cursion to Brunswick.
The St. Louis, Chillicothe & Omaha Railroad Company
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was organized June 18, 1867, to build a road from Chil- licothe to the Iowa line. The first board of directors was composed of W. R. King and St. A. D. Balcombe, of Omaha; C. P. Chouteau and E. W. Samuels, of St. Louis; J. B. Bell, C. V. Meade, L. D. Murphy, J. H. Hammond and Peter Markey, of Chillicothe; D. H. Solomon, of Glen- wood, Iowa; J. S. McIntire, of Clarinda, Iowa; W. C. Stewart, Gallatin, Missouri, and C. V. Comstock, of Albany, Missouri. On the fourth of June, 1869, the name of the company was changed to Chillicothe & Omaha Railroad Com- pany. September 13, 1870, the St. Louis, Council Bluffs & Omaha Railroad Company was incorporated in the State of Iowa to build a road from Council Bluffs to a connection with the Chillicothe and Omaha, on the state line. A week later, September 20, the Chillicothe & Omaha and St. Louis, Council Bluffs & Omaha were consolidated under the name of the latter.
Going back to the Old North Missouri Company, it must be said that in 1871 that corporation became bankrupt, and sold its property to M. K. Jessup, of New York. The follow- ing year Jessup sold it to the St. Louis, Kansas City & North- ern Railway Company, which was organized the same year, for the purpose of purchasing the road, and operated it until November 7, 1879, when it consolidated with the Wabash Railway Company, and the new organization was called the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, commonly called Wabash. The old Wabash originated in the Toledo & Illinois Railway, which was organized in the State of Ohio, April 25, 1853, to build a road from Toledo to the western boundary of the state.
For some time after its completion the Brunswick & Chil- licothe Railroad was operated by lessees, but in a few years it and the St. Louis, Council Bluffs & Omaha were absorbed by the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific.
On the twenty-seventh of May, 1870, an election was held to test the sense of the qualified voters of the municipal town- ship of Chillicothe as to the propriety of a subscription of the county court, in behalf of the township, of the sum of $12,000
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in aid of the Chillicothe and Omaha road. The election re- sulted : For the subscription, 320; against, 50. On the tenth of April, 1871, bonds of the county in behalf of the town- ship, were issued to the amount of the subscription, which was $12,000. The bonds numbered twenty-four, of $500 each, bearing interest at 8 per cent.
The First National Bank of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, purchased the bonds soon after they were issued, on which the county paid the interest until in February, 1877, when the county court, understanding that a recent decision of the United States supreme court had declared similar issues of bonds null and void, refused longer to pay. The bank there- fore brought suit, and the case is now in the United States su- preme court, having been decided in favor of the bank in the courts below. At the time of the voting of the bonds Rich Hill was a part of Chillicothe township.
The extension of the road north from Chillicothe was begun in 1870 and was completed to Plattsburg the following year. In 1879, when the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific took charge of the old Chillicothe & Omaha, work was resumed, and during that and the following year the road was extended to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILROAD CO.
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, was located in the latter part of March, 1886. The project was first broached in the fall of 1885. A survey of the line was made through the county in October, running diagonally through the county from northeast to southwest, by way of Chillicothe near Dawn, and through the southeastern portion of Caldwell by Polo. The road in this quarter is a portion of the extension of the main line from Ottumwa, Iowa, to Kansas City, and was completed April 1, 1887.
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