USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > St Joseph > The Daily news' history of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. From the time of the Platte purchase to the end of the year 1898. Preceded by a short history of Missouri. Supplemented by biographical sketches of noted citizens, living and dead > Part 22
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Work proceeded very rapidly for those days, and progress was reported all along the line. John Corby of St. Joseph was a director and a heavy contractor in the construction of the road. When the two ends of the line were a hundred miles apart stages were put on to carry passengers from one point to the other, and a lively business was done.
Large warehouses were constructed at Hannibal and at St. Jo- seph, and steamboat lines started up and down the river to transact the immense business done in connection with the road.
On February 14, 1859, the first through passenger train arrived at St. Joseph from Hannibal, with Edgar Sleppy as engineer and Benjamin H. Colt as conductor. A great celebration in honor of the completion of the road was held on Washington's birthday, at the old Odd Fellows' Hall. A jug of water from the Mississippi was emptied into the Missouri River at the mouth of Blacksnake, the ceremony of mingling the waters being performed with great solem- nity by Broaddus Thompson, a prominent citizen in those days, and a most unique character withal.
John Patee had donated a strip of ground containing forty acres. from Olive street west of Eighth south to Mitchell avenue, for ter- minal facilities. A depot was built at Eighth and Olive streets. In 1857, before the completion of the road, shops were established, with C. F. Shivels as master mechanic. In the summer of 1872 a branch was built from St. Joseph to Atchison. The Hannibal & St. Joseph road became part of the Burlington system in 1884.
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THE K. C., St. J. & C. B .- The consolidation of several pioneer railroads is represented in the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs line. February 24, 1853, the legislature of Missouri granted a charter for a road to extend from St. Joseph to Kansas City. A company under the name and style of the Platte County Railroad, was organized in 1857, by William Osborne, Davis Carpenter, M. Jeff Thompson and others. Under the auspices of this company a line was surveyed from St. Joseph southward through De Kalb, in Buchanan County, Platte City and 'Parkville in Platte County, to Kansas City. The legislature of 1856-57 granted aid to this road in the sum of $700,000. A subsequent act provided that none of the bonds of this road should be available till the year 1859. The charter also authorized the extention of the road to the northern boundary of the state, under which provision it was completed to Savannah in 1860, and graded to Forest City.
December 11, 1855, the Atchison and St. Joseph railroad was incorporated. The articles of association provided that Benj. String- fellow, John H. Stringfellow, Peter T. Abell, John Doniphan, Stephen Jolinson, Elijah H. Norton, Harvey Collier, Robert W. Donnell, Reuben Middleton, Bela M. Hughes, James H. Lucas, John Simon, or any five of them, constitute the first board of directors.
In the summer of 1858, General Benjamin Stringfellow, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, Peter T. Abell, Harvey Collier, Reuben Middleton, John Doniphan and Robert W. Donnell met in St. Joseph, in the Methodist church, which then stood on the northeast corner of Third and Felix streets, and there organized the company. At this meeting Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Atchison, was elected a director and president of the company. Charles West, of St. Joseph, was also at this meet- ing elected a director. Stock was taken by the parties present, and in a short time after, the city of Atchison subscribed $100,000; Abel & Stringfellow, $10,000; John Doniphan, $1,600, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, $10,000. Other parties contributed liberally, swelling the aggregate of subscriptions over and above the city stock, to about $60,000. Contracts for grading were immediately let along the en- tire line of the road, and work commenced at Winthrop, opposite Atchison. By July Ist, 1859, this grading was completed between St. Joseph and Winthrop.
In March, 1859, the Weston and Atchison Railroad Company was incorporated under the general laws of the state. The officers of this incorporation were John Doniphan, president; James N. Burnes, vice-president; Fielding H. Lewis, secretary, and Daniel
THE FIRST UNION STATION, burned February 9, 1895.
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D. Burnes, treasurer. Private subscriptions were forthwith made to the road to the amount of $44,000, and the city of Weston issued her bonds to the amount of $50,000 in aid of the building of the same. Ground was broken at Weston April 27, 1859.
July 15, 1859, the Weston and Atchison and Atchison and St. Joseph companies, finding that their means would be inadequate to accomplish more than the work of grading the road, for the pur- pose of an early completion of the same, made a contract with the Platte County road by which they transferred to that corporation the roadbed, franchises and right of way from St. Joseph to Weston. This company was enabled on the work so done, during the year 1859, to draw most of the state aid, and in January, 1860, the road was completed and in operation from St. Joseph to Atchison. In December of the same year the road was finished to Iatan, and by April 4, 1861, trains were running through to Weston. In 1863 the name of this road was changed, the style "Platte Country" being sub- stituted for the original "Platte County."
In 1864 the road was seized by Governor Hall for non-payment of interest on state bonds. Immediately the Weston and Atchison and the Atchison and St. Joseph Railroad Companies commenced suits for their road-bed on the ground that the original contract was illegal. The legislature of 1867 acquiesced on condition of a re- organization under the name and style of the Missouri Valley Rail- road Company, and a completion of the road from Savannah, through Maryville to the northern boundary of the state. Under this act the road was completed to Hopkins in 1869.
The road from Council Bluffs to Hamburg, Iowa, fifty-two miles in length, was built by Willis, Phelps & Co., and completed in 1867. It was styled the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph Railroad. Hon. James F. Joy and his friends came to the front and built the road from St. Joseph to Hamburg, seventy-nine miles long, opening it for traffic in 1868. This was called the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad. In 1870 the Missouri Valley and the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs railroads were consolidated and the road called the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs.
The Missouri Valley road ran from St. Joseph to Savannah, via. Jimtown, up to 1871, when this roadbed was abandoned, a cut-off to Savannah having been built from Amazonia. In 1884 the K. C., St. J. & C. B. road became part of the C., B. & Q. system.
Davis Carpenter was superintendent in 1866; Col. A. G. Gower from 1866 to 1869, Maj. A. L. Hopkins from 1869 to 1870. Col. J.
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F. Barnard was superintendent from 1870 to 1884, when he was made general manager of the K. C., St. J. & C. B. and H. & St. J. roads under the C., B. & Q. system, serving as such until the summer of 1887, when he was succeeded by W. F. Merrill, who remained until August of 1889, being succeeded by W. C. Brown. Mr. Brown re- mained until January, 1896, when he was succeeded by Howard El- liott, the present general manager.
THE ST. JOSEPH & GRAND ISLAND .- This is the suc- cessor of the Marysville or Palmetto & Roseport, the first railroad projected in Kansas, which was chartered February 17, 1857. In 1856 a party of South Carolinians, who had moved to Kansas with the expectation that slavery would be perpetuated, purchased a claim wijoining Marysville and founded a town, which they called Palmetto, but which has long since disappeared. The projectors of the road, anxious to please the people of both Palmetto and Marysville, blended both names into the title of the railroad. Roseport was the original name of Elwood, opposite St. Joseph, named for Richard Rose, a prominent promoter in those days, who lived in St. Joseph. Roseport, however, gave way to Elwood, and Elwood has since given way to the tawny and turbulent current of the Missouri River. There remain, however, the postoffice, the depot and the name.
In April of 1860, when M. Jeff Thompson was president of the road, a small engine, named "Albany" and three flat cars were crossed on the ferryboat "Ida." In June of 1860 the track-laying began. John Broder, now chief of police of this city, drove the first spike. Sinclair Miller was superintendent, George Lewis superintendent of track-laying and James Whitney engineer of the "Albany." By July 19, 1860, the road was completed to Wathena, and on that day there was an appropriate celebration at that place. The Jackson Guards of St. Joseph and many of our citizens assisted. They crossed the river on the ferry and rode to Wathena on the flat cars.
Work was suspended owing to disturbed political conditions, and the engine was brought back to St. Joseph. During the war the farmers in the Kansas bottoms used the flat cars, drawing wood and produce to the ferry landing with oxen. In time, however, the track rotted and cottonwood trees grew profusely among the ties.
In 1862 the name was changed to the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company, the purpose still being the building of a line to Marysville. The Northern Kansas Railroad Company was author-
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ized to build an extension from Marysville to the Nebraska line, and acquired the lands granted by an act of congress approved July 23, 1866. The two companies were consolidated August 11, 1866, under the name of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company, with a capital stock of $10,000,000. The city of St. Joseph aided this en- terprise to the extent of $500,000.
The work of extension was begun in 1867, and the road opened to Hastings, Neb., in 1872. The portion of the road in Nebraska was built under the general railroad law of that state. The total amount expended in construction was $5,449,620.77, of which $1,400 was from stockholders, $782,727.10 from the state and county sub- sidies, and $4,665,493.67 from the sale of $6,755,900 mortgage bonds. The property was placed in the hands of a receiver in 1874, and sold under foreclosure in November, 1875. Under the scheme of re- organization two companies were formed-the St. Joseph & Pacific Railroad Company owning and operating the road from Elwood westward to Marysville, and the Kansas & Nebraska Railroad Com- pany owning and operating the road from Marysville, Kan., west to Hastings, Neb. On the 29th of March, 1877, those two companies were again consolidated under the title of the St. Joseph & Western Railroad Company.
The Hastings & Grand Island Railroad Company was incor- porated May 9, 1879. Its road extending from Hastings to Grand Island, Neb., twenty-five miles, was opened October 1, 1879, and bought by the St. Joseph & Western Railroad Company February 18, 1880. By the terms of the sale the stock was exchanged for an equal amount of the St. Joseph & Western stock. Of the land grant, 300,000 acres were placed in the hands of trustees for the benefit of the stockholders of land script.
In January, 1880, the roads came under the control of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. From February, 1880, to January, 1884, the road was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. On the latter date it began to be again operated independently.
On the IIth of June, 1885, the St. Joseph & Western road was sold under foreclosure, the sale of the Hastings & Grand Island rail- road following on the 19th of the same month, both lines being bought by a committee of the bondholders. The St. Joseph & Marys- ville Railroad Company and the Grand Island & Marysville Railroad Company, two new corporations, were organized in the states of Kansas and Nebraska and consolidated into the St. Joseph & Grand Island railroad. The property of the company includes the St. Jo-
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seph bridge and the entire line between St. Joseph and Grand Island, 252 miles.
John F. Barnard was superintendent in 1871-72, and was suc- ceeded by Wm. H. Sheridan, who served only a short time and was succeeded by L. D. Tuthill. Mr. Tuthill remained until June, 1885, when he was succeeded by Daniel McCool, who served until January, 1888. Wm. Lush was then made general manager, remaining until May, 1888, when he was succeeded by G. M. Cummings, who served until December, 1888, when E. McNeill took charge. Mr. McNeill was succeeded in August, 1890, by W. P. Robinson, Jr. During 1891 the office was abolished, the road being under the Union Pa- cific system. In January, 1892, Mr. Robinson returned and is at present in charge.
During the past sunimer the Grand Island began running trains into Kansas City over leased lines.
THE ST. JOSEPH & TOPEKA .- In 1858 the St. Joseph & Topeka Railroad Company obtained a charter from the Kansas legis- lature. The St. Joseph city directory of 1860 shows that Willard P. Hall was president ; John Corby, vice-president; M. Jeff Thompson, secretary ; Joseph C. Hull, treasurer, and Adam Brenner, of Doni- phan, assistant treasurer. The city of St. Joseph issued bonds to the amount of $50,000 to aid this enterprise. It was not until 1872, however, that anything materialized. In that year a line was built from Wathena to Doniphan, via Palermo and Geary City, by George H. Hall, John L. Motter, O. B. Craig, Wm. Craig and George W. Barr. The road was leased to the K. C., St. J. & C. B. company and operated until 1876. Trains were run from St. Joseph to Atchison, the St. Joseph & Western tracks being used to Wathena and the Atchison & Nebraska tracks from Doniphan to Atchison. The road had been bonded and the bonds placed with a firm of New York brokers. Before the bonds were disposed of the firm failed and the bonds were taken by its creditors as assets and foreclosed. The line was acquired by the St. Joseph & Western Company. After a time the rails were taken up and relaid on that road. The Hannibal & St. Joseph would have purchased the line had it been possible to acquire the city's interest in the bridge. The St. Joseph & Topeka was also known as the George Hall road and as the "Corkscrew" route.
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THE SANTA FE SYSTEM .- The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Company enters the city from two directions-from the southeast and from the southwest. The branch from the southeast was begun in 1867 and completed in the winter of 1869-70. It was then called the St. Louis & St. Joseph railway. Shortly after the completion of the road the company went into bankruptcy. Under a sale in the bankruptcy court the road was bought by the bondholders, who leased it to the North Missouri Railroad Company. Subsequently it was controlled by the Wabash Company. In 1886 it passed into the hands of the late Winslow Judson and others and was called the St. Joseph & St. Louis. In 1888 the road passed into the control of the Santa Fe system and was called the St. Joseph, St. Louis & Santa Fe.
At about the same time the "Santa Fe" Company built a line from Atchison to St. Joseph, via Rushville. This company also built a line to Lake Contrary shortly after the completion of the Atchison line.
The St. Joseph Terminal Company was organized in 1889. The "Santa Fe" and "Grand Island" Companies are jointly interested. Shops and a round house were built on lower Sixth street, and, in 1890 a freight depot was erected at Fourth street, south of Olive. Formerly the Grand Island and St. Joseph & St. Louis companies jointly used a freight depot that stood near where the shops and round house are now located. Before the erection of the Union Depot this was used as a passenger station also for these roads.
THE "ROCK ISLAND."-In 1872 a branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad was built from Edgerton Junction, in Platte County, through Crawford, Bloomington and Rush Town- ships, Buchanan County, to Winthrop. Bloomington Township voted bonds to aid this enterprise. This was not accomplished with- out opposition, however, and the majority was so small that there was a protest. The bonds were certified to by the county court, but for some years there was objection to paying the levy called for by these bonds ; there was also litigation, but without avail.
In 1885 the people of St. Joseph subscribed $50,000 to secure a branch of the "Rock Island" from Altamont, Daviess County. Trains began running over this line in May, 1886.
Early in 1886 the "Rock Island" projected a line west of the Missouri River. The Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Railroad Com-
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pany was chartered in Kansas and the people of St. Joseph subscribed for stock to the amount of $300,000. The road was bonded and . built. Shops were located at Horton, where a prosperous town soon sprang up. At Horton the road forks, one branch going through Topeka and Wichita to Oklahoma and Texas and another through northern Kansas to Denver. Trains began running into St. Joseph in November, 1889. After several years the bondholders foreclosed and the stockholders lost what money they had invested.
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THE ST. JOSEPH & DES MOINES .- The St. Joseph & Des Moines Railroad Company was organized in this city in 1877, with Col. John L. Motter as president. In November of the same year a contract for the grading was let, work was commenced at once, and by the first of April, 1878, the first twenty miles of roadbed was ready for the rails. Track-laying was commenced June I, the first engine placed on the road June 26, and the line was in operation by Oc- tober. This was a narrow-gauge road while under the control and ownership of John L. Motter, James H. Pickering, F. L. McLean, Wm. B. Johnson, Isaac T. Hosea, A. N. Schuster, R. L. McDonald and John B. Hundley. The first officials of the road were: John L. Motter, president and general manager; James H. Pickering, superintendent; F. L. McLean, general freight and ticket agent ; W. B. Johnson, secretary and treasurer.
In 1880 the line was purchased and became a branch of the Chi- cago, Burlington & Quincy. The gauge was at once widened. It thus added one more important feeder to the great "Burlington sys- tem." The depot was located on Mitchell avenue, near Fifteenth street, where stops are still made, though all trains run to the Union Station.
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THE MISSOURI PACIFIC .- In January of 1880, when it was learned that Jay Gould desired the entrance of the Missouri Pa- cific railroad to St. Joseph, a number of citizens, interested directly or indirectly in reviving the St. Joseph & Topeka road, offered him a bonus of $30,000 to enter the city over that line The offer was accepted and the money paid over. Gould, however, disappointed these people by leasing a right of way over the Hannibal & St. Joseph tracks. The first train of the Missouri Pacific reached St. Joseph on February 23, 1880. Until the completion of the Union Depot the old Hannibal & St. Joseph depot at Eighth and Olive streets was used.
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THE CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN .- This road was built to St. Joseph from Des Moines in 1889. It was then called the Chi- cago, St. Paul & Kansas City, and known as the "Diagonal" route. In 1890 the road was completed to Kansas City. Its name was changed to Chicago Great Western some years ago and it is familiarly known now as the "Maple Leaf" route, the emblem being a maple leaf. The trains of this road have never entered the Union Depot, it having been impossible to make arrangements for this that were mutually satisfactory. Recently a modern passenger station was built at Third and Antoine streets. The management has always dealt liberally with the people, asking no bonus, paying for every- thing and aiding the city by large expenditures in the building of the Blacksnake sewer.
THE UNION PACIFIC .- Up to the war period St. Joseph was generally regarded as the logical starting point of the Union Pacific railroad. The Hannibal & St. Joseph road connected the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers; the Kansas legislature had chartered the Pal- metto & Roseport, from Elwood to Marysville, and this road was completed to Wathena; the Pony Express was operated out of St. Joseph over what was supposed to be the route of the future trans- continental railroad. When the Union Pacific was projected two branches were contemplated, one from Memphis by the southern route, and one from the Missouri River. When the road was char- tered by congress, in 1862, two branches were provided for, but both were to start from the Missouri River and meet at the 100th parallel, about where North Platte, Neb., is located. Wyandotte secured the southern branch, and there was a contest between St. Joseph and Omaha for the northern branch. The senators from Missouri-Wil- son and Henderson-strongly advocated the cause of St. Joseph. The prospects of success seemed good until an Omaha champion re- cited in fervid eloquence the fact that the United States flag had been torn down from the postoffice here in May of 1861, and that the people of St. Joseph had been so disloyal as to require the constant presence of United States troops to preserve order and protect those who held Union sentiments. In conclusion he urged that such con- duct deserved a rebuke and the proper way of administering this was to start the northern branch of the Union Pacific railroad from Omaha. He carried off the honors, though he did this community a gross injustice.
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THE BRIDGE .- In 1870 there was incorporated the St. Joseph Bridge Building Company, composed of General Willard P. Hall, J. M. Hawley, J. H. R. Candiff, J. B. Hinman, John L. Bittinger, James A. Matney, O. M. Smith, I. G. Kappner, John Pinger, J. D. Mc- Neely, W. Z. Ransom, Mordecai Oliver and Isaac C. Parker. A bridge across the river had long been a necessity and the people were willing to give all possible aid. Hence, on January 25, 1871, they ratified an ordinance, at a special election, authorizing a subscription for five thousand shares of the capital stock of the company above mentioned, to be paid for in the city's bonds, twenty years after date, and bearing 10 per cent interest per annum. This practically meant a donation of $500,000. But nineteen negative votes were cast.
The company at once secured the services of Col. L. D. Mason, an engineer of national reputation, who, after having fixed the loca- tion of the bridge, was empowered to advertise for bids for its con- struction. The highest bid received was from the Baltimore Bridge Company, $1, 175,000; the lowest from the Detroit Bridge and Iron Works, $716,000. The latter company was awarded the contract. On July 25, 1871, the first material arrived, and on September 26, the first stone was laid, on the Kansas side, in the presence of a large assemblage of people. In 1872, while the work was in progress, a proposition to transfer the bridge to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road Company, according to the proposition of Mr. B. F. Carver, was presented at a meeting of the Manufacturers' Aid Association, held March 20, 1872. The proposition, as may be supposed, caused a great deal of excitement among the people.
Mr. Carver's proposition was to furnish the money to complete the bridge under the present direction, as fast as Chief Engineer Mason would estimate for the required funds ; that he would extend the St. Joseph & Topeka Railroad to Atchison, Kan., and connect it with the various roads at that town; that he would remove the ma- chine shops, car works and general offices of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, located at Hannibal, to St. Joseph ; that he would fix the tariff of highway travel on the bridge at rates one-half lower than those of any similar structure on the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers; and that he would make the tariffs to railroads equal as between his and all others, and that rates guarded and liberal be assured to all. In consideration of his doing these things, he asked that the city transfer to him its entire stock of $500,000, and that the machine and car shops should be exempt from taxation, as they were in Hannibal, for twenty years.
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There was much debate and a great variety of opinions deliv- ered. Some wanted the bridge made absolutely free for highway travel, while others thought it was better to allow the owners of it to collect a low rate of tariff and return to the city a portion of the bonds voted to the work. All appeared to favor the proposition in one form or other, and adopted a resolution, unanimously, that it was the sense of the meeting that the city's stock ought to be sold when- ever judicious terms could be made. The council submitted the transfer to the vote of the people, but before the election day had arrived the ordinance was withdrawn.
There are six piers. Wooden caissons were sunk to bed rock. The work in the interior of these caissons was carried on under pneumatic pressure and the masonry of the piers progressed upward as the caisson was sunk. Nearly one and one-half million feet of lumber and 16,000 cubic feet of concrete were required for the cais- sons and 172,000 cubic feet of masonry for the piers. The super- structure consists of three fixed spans of the quadrangular Pratt truss, each 300 feet long, one fixed span at the east approach of 80 feet, and a draw span of 365 feet, making the entire length of the bridge 1,345 feet.
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