USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 55
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On motion, it was resolved that a committee, consisting of one member from each county here represented, be appointed to report a basis upon which to vote in this convention. The President appointed A. L. Gilstrap, B. F. Loan, Wm. P. Peniston, Thos. Butts, Thos. R. Bryan, Dr. Livingston, W. Halliburton and James Waugh.
George Smith, of Caldwell, presented the following propositions for the consideration of the convention, and moved to lay the same upon the table, which was done : .
WHEREAS, The people of Northern Missouri are in favor of the project of a railroad from Hannibal to St. Joseph, therefore
Resolved, By the delegates (their representives) that we recommend the following as the best method to procure the means for the contruc- tion of the same :
First. A liberal subscription by the citizens of the state to the cap- ital stock of said company.
Second. That Congress be petitioned for a grant of alternate sec- tions and parts of sections of all vacant lands ten miles on each side of said road, when located.
Third. That the company procure a subscription to the stock by Eastern capitalists, and, should the foregoing means prove inadequate, sve then recommend that the Legislature pass an act authorizing the company to issue bonds, to be indorsed by the Governor or Secretary of State, for the residue ; the company to give a mortgage on the whole work to the state, for the liquidation of said bonds.
The convention then adjourned till afternoon.
At the opening of the afternoon session, it was resolved that the rules for the government of the House of Representatives, of Missouri, be adopted for the government of this convention.
A report was adopted, by which the basis of voting in the conven- tion was fixed as follows : that each county represented in the conven- tion be entitled to one vote for every one hundred votes therein, by which rule the County of Marion was allowed 15 votes ; Shelby, 7; Macon, 9; Linn, 7; Livingston, 8; Grundy, 6; Davis, 9; Caldwell, 4; Ray, 15 ; DeKalb, 3 ; and Buchanan, 22.
The committee, to whom was referred the duty of submitting sub- jects for action of this convention, reported :
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
I. To appoint a committee of three members to draft an address in the name of this convention, to the people of Western Missouri, set- ting forth the advantages to be derived from the contemplated railroad from St. Joseph to Hannibal.
2. To appoint a committee of three, whose duty it shall be to peti- tion the Legislature of Missouri for such aid in the undertaking as can be afforded consistently with the rights of other sections of the state.
3. To appoint a committee of three to petition Congress for a dona- tion of alternate sections of lands, within six miles on each side of said road, when located.
4. To appoint a committee whose duty it shall be to superintend the publication and distribution of the proceedings of this convention, together with the charter of the road, and the address to the people of Northern Missouri.
5. Said committees to be appointed by the President and the mem- bers of each committee as nearly contiguous as practicable.
The Convention then adjourned till the following morning, when on reassembling, the five above-mentioned resolutions ware unanimously adopted, with the exception of the fifth, which was adopted, with an amendment, striking out all after the word President.
Among other resolutions offered at this session of the Convention, the following by Judge King, of Ray, was unanimously adopted by way of amendment to a similar one offered by Dr. Grundy, of Livingston :
Resolved, That whereas this Convention has adopted a resolution authorizing a memorial to Congress for donation of alternate sections of land to aid in the construction of the contemplated railroad, also author- izing a memorial to the Legislature for such aid in the undertaking as can be afforded consistently with the rights of other portions of the state, therefore, we, the delegates, pledge ourselves to support no man for Congress who will not pledge himself to the support of the proposition aforesaid, nor will we support any man for Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor or member of the Legislature who will not pledge himself to give such aid in the construction of the said railroad consistent with the rights of other portions of the state, as contemplated by the resolution aforesaid.
Mr. George Smith, of Caldwell, offered the following resolution, which was read and adopted :
Resolved, That the committee appointed to petition the Legislature be instructed to ask for an amendment to the fourth section of the act incorporating the Louisiana and Columbia Railroad Company, (being the law by which the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Company are to be governed), so as to give the power to the President and directors of the last mentioned company, to call in an amount not exceeding ten per cent. every sixty days, and change the notice from sixty to thirty days.
The following resolution by Mr. Sharp, of Macon, was adopted :
WHEREAS, It is not only extremely important to the agricultural and commercial interests of the intermediate country, that a good wagon road be opened from St. Joseph to Hannibal, but the United States mail
ยท
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
stages cannot be put in motion on said route until said road shall be opened. And
WHEREAS, It is of the utmost importance, as well to the whole inter- mediate country as to the two extremes that mail facilities be speedily obtained in stages through said country. Therefore,
Resolved, by this Convention, That it be recommended to each county through which said road may pass, immediately to open, bridge, and put in good repair the said road, in order that mail stages may be immediately started, according to the act of Congress establishing said route.
Mr. Tarr, of Livingston, moved to reconsider the vote adopting the third proposition reported by the committee on business, which was agreed to.
He then offered the following amendment to said third proposition :
Adding to third proposition by the committee on business, as fol- lows, " Also to petition Congress that should any of the alternate sections on the road, or within six miles on either side thereof to be sold at any time subsequent to the 16th day of February, 1847, and before the action of Congress in relation to these lands, that other lands be granted as nearly contiguous as possible in lieu thereof."
Which was agreed to, and the third proposition as amended was then adopted.
Dr. Livingston, of Grundy, offered the following resolution which was adopted :
Resolved, That the proceedings of this Convention be signed by the President, Vice Presidents and Secretaries, and that the President be requested to transmit a copy thereof to each of our representatives in Congress, requesting them to use their utmost endeavors to obtain from Congress the grant of land contemplated by the proceedings of this Convention."
The President then announced the following committees :
I. To address the people of Northern Missouri-Archer, Bragg and Cossitt.
2. To petition Congress, in accordance with the resolution of the Convention-Cravens, Halliburton and Shortridge.
3. To petition the Legislature-Tarr, Geo. Smith, of Caldwell and Dr. Livingston.
On motion, it was resolved, that the thanks of the delegates and their constituents are due the officers of this convention for the able manner in which they have discharged their duties in this Convention.
The Convention then adjourned sine die.
The charter for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was secured mainly by the exertions of Robert M. Stewart, afterwards Governor of the State, and, at the time of its issuance, a member of the State Senate, and of General James Craig, and Judge J. B. Gardenhire, who repre-
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
sented Buchanan County in the Legislature. (General Craig was after- wards President of this road, with two brief intervals, for the period of eleven years, from 1861).
With all the enthusiasm on the part of the people, material aid was lacking, as it was not until 1852 that the building of the road became a definite fact. At that period, Hon. Willard P. Hall represented a district of Missouri in Congress, and was Chairman of the Committee of Public Lands. By his efforts the passage of a bill was secured granting six hundred thousand acres of land to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Company, and the success of that long cherished enterprise was finally assured. The preliminary survey had been made by Simeon Kemper and Colonel M. F. Tiernan, accompanied by Robert M. Stewart, whose indefatigable efforts in behalf of the interests of the road, contributed as much if not more than those of any other man to their ultimate accomplishment. Stewart became afterwards the first President of the company. The building of the road commenced at the east end. About the spring of 1857, work was begun on the west end, and, by March of that year, the track extended out from St. Joseph a distance of seven miles. The first fire under the first engine that started out of St. Joseph on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, was kindled by M. Jeff. Thomp- son. This was several years before the arrival of the first through train in February, 1859. (Sometime in the early part of 1857).
The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was completed February 13, 1859. On Monday, February 14, 1859, the first through passenger train ran out of St. Joseph. Of this train E. Sleppy, now (1881) Master Mechanic of the St. Joseph and Western machine shops, in Elwood, was engineer, and Benjamin H. Colt, conductor.
The first to run a train into St. Joseph was George Thompson, who ran first a construction and then a freight train.
The first Master Mechanic of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad shops in St. Joseph, was C. F. Shivel. These shops were established in 1857. In the following year Mr. Shivel put up the first car ever built in the city.
On the 22d February, 1859, occurred in St. Joseph the celebration of the completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph road. This was, beyond doubt, the grandest display ever witnessed,in the city, up to that period.
M. Jeff. Thompson, at that time Mayor of the city, presided over the ceremonies and festivities of this brilliant occasion. The city was. wild with enthusiasm, and the most profuse and unbounded hospitality prevailed.
A grand banquet was held in the spacious apartments of the Odd Fellows' Hall, which then stood on the corner of Fifth and Felix Streets- Not less than six hundred invited guests were feasted here ; and it was
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
estimated that several thousand ate during the day at this hospitable board.
Broaddus Thompson, Esq., a brother of General M. Jeff. Thompson, made the grand speech of the occasion, and performed the ceremony of mingling the waters of the two mighty streams thus linked by a double band of iron.
The completion of the road constitutes an era in the history of St. Joseph, and from that period dawned the light of a new prosperity. In the five succeeding years the population of the city was quadrupled, and her name heralded to the remotest East as the rising emporium of the West.
In the summer of 1872, this road commenced the building of a ibranch southward from St. Joseph, twenty-one miles, to the City of Atch- ison. This was completed in October of the same year.
THE ST. JOSEPH AND WESTERN RAILROAD.
This great thoroughfare, the first line built from St. Joseph westward, through Kansas and Nebraska, was chartered by the Territorial Legis- lature of Kansas, February 17, 1857, during the session of 1856-57, under the name and style of "Marysville or Palmetto and Roseport Railroad Company." The first meeting of the incorporators of this road was held in the City of St. Joseph, February 26, 1857. On motion of Captain Fred W. Smith, Colonel A. M. Mitchell was called to the chair and B. H. Matthews appointed secretary pro tem. On motion, five directors were appointed. These included Bela M. Hughes, A. M. Mitchell, R. Rose, W. F. Smith and Silas Woodson. The only further business transacted at this meeting was to open books for subscription to stock.
The next meeting occurred March 9, 1857, when A. M. Mitchell was unanimously elected President of the company. In the meantime, stock in the road to the amount of $100,000 had been subscribed.
At a meeting of the directors, held February 8, 1858, F. J. Marshall was elected President in place of A. M. Mitchell, resigned.
July 12, 1859, a new Board of Directors was organized. These included Robert M. Stewart, Silas Woodson, S. Miller, F. J. Marshall, John H. Likens, Albert Lee, M. Jeff. Thompson, Fred. W. Smith and William Blair. Of this Board, M. Jeff. Thompson was elected President.
July 8, 1859, Engineer Matthews was ordered to locate the road as far as Troy, and to report progress from time to time.
August 25, 1859, John Severance was elected engineer of construc- tion, in place of Matthews.
At a meeting, held November, 1859, S. K. Miller was elected Super- intendent of Construction of the road.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
In 1859-60, three miles of track was graded and the rails laid. In 1860, John Corby was elected President of the road.
At a meeting, held October, 1864, Wm. R. Penick was elected Pres- ident of the road.
In session of the Legislature, of 1866, the State of Kansas granted as aid to this road one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres of land.
At a meeting of the stockholders, held April 17, 1862, the name, " Marysville or Palmetto and Roseport Railroad," was changed to " St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad," under an act of the Kansas Legisla- ture of March, 1862.
Roseport was the name of a small town in Kansas, opposite St. Joseph. It was afterwards called Elwood. At present (1881) it exists only in name, the town site having crumbled into the Missouri River, by the encroachments of that uncertain stream.
June 7, 1866, T. J. Chew was elected President of the St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad, and active labor on the same was resumed under the direction of John Severance, Chief Engineer.
October 15, 1867, General James Craig was unanimously elected . President, which office he held till his resignation, May, 1868, when Silas Woodson was elected to fill his unexpired term.
At a regular meeting, held October 13, 1868, the City of St. Joseph, by reason of owning stock to the amount of four hundred thousand dol- lars in the road, requested that General George Hall be elected Presi- dent, which was according done.
By May, 1869, the road was built as far as Troy, and was located to Hiawatha.
At the annual meeting of the Directors, held October 21, 1870, George Hall was again elected President.
October II, 1870, thirteen directors were elected, with Dudley M. Steele, President ; Milton Tootle, Vice-President, and R. C. Bradshaw, Secretary.
In the following October, 1871, D. M. Steele was again elected, and E. H. Saville, Secretary.
November, 1872, D. M. Steele resigned as President, and H. C. Tan- ner, of New York, elected in his place.
By August, 1872, the road was completed to Alexandria, Nebraska, a distance of 167 miles from St. Joseph.
In December, 1872, the road reached Hastings, Nebraska, the west- ern terminus of the line, 227 miles from the Missouri River.
October, 1873, William Bond was elected President, and has since continued to hold that position.
At a meeting of the Board, held October 1, 1879, the name of the road was a second time changed, and styled the St. Joseph and Western Railroad.
580
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
In the summer of 1879, an extension was built, under management of L. D. Tuthill and John Doniphan, a distance of twenty-five miles from Hastings, connecting it at Grand Island with the Union Pacific Railroad.
The present (1881) management include William Bond, President ; L. D. Tuthill, Superintendent, and Alfred Mitchell, Secretary.
June, 1872, Colonel John Doniphan was elected attorney for this road, and so continues to the present (1881).
THE KANSAS CITY, ST. JOSEPH AND COUNCIL BLUFFS RAILROAD,
now one of the most important lines in the state, is the outgrowth of several consolidations.
February 24, 1853, the Legislature of Missouri granted a charter for a road to extend from St. Joseph to Kansas City. This, 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 DeKalb, 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 1I, 1855, the Atchison and St. Joseph Railroad was incor- porated. The articles of association provided that Benj. Stringfellow, John H. Stringfellow, Peter T. Abell, John Doniphan, Stephen Johnson, Elijah H. Norton, Harvey Collier, Robert W. Donnell, Reuben Middleton, Bela M. Hughes, James H. Lucas, John Simon, or any five of them, con- stitute 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, the present (1881) site of the Bank of St. Joseph, and there orga- nized 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 meeting elected a director.
Stock was taken by the parties present, and in a short time after, the city of Atchison subscribed $100,000; Abell and Stringfellow, $10,000 ; John Doniphan, $1,600, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, $10,000. Other parties contributed liberally, swelling the aggregate of subscrip- tions over and above the city stock, to about $60,000.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
Contracts for grading were immediately let along the entire line of the road, and work commenced at Winthrop, opposite Atchison. By July Ist, 1859, this grading was completed between St. Joseph and Win- throp, a distance of twenty miles.
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 D. Burnes, Treas- urer.
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 broke at Weston in the presence of a vast concourse of people, April 27, 1859. The occasion was one of singular rejoicing, and grand civic and military display, in which the cities of Atchison and Leavenworth, as well as other neighboring towns, also largely par- ticipated.
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 purpose of an early completion of the same, made a contract with the Platte County Road by which they transferred to that corporation the road-bed, fran- chises and right of way from St. Joseph to Weston, which 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 opera- tion 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 Coun- try " being subsituted 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 released this road to Weston and Atchison and Atchison and St. Joseph Railroads, on condition of a re-organiza- tion of the same 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.
582
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
Joy and his friends then came to the front, and built the road from St. Joseph to Hamburg, seventy-nine miles long, opening it for the traffic of 1868. This road was called the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad.
Next in order came the consolidation of the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs and the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph roads, in 1868, under the corporation name of St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad Company.
In 1870, the Missouri Valley Railroad and the St. Joseph and Coun- cil Bluffs Railroad were consolidated, bringing the entire line from Kansas City to Council Bluffs under one management. Out of this union was born the present (1881) Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Rail- road.
We have referred to the completion of the Branch road from St. Joseph to the Iowa line, just beyond Hopkins. Shortly after this, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company built a connecting branch, from Creston, Iowa, southward, to Hopkins, Missouri, thus afford- ing unbroken communication between St. Joseph and Chicago.
February 8, 1871, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the con- solidated roads to change the route from St. Joseph, via Jimtown, to Savannah, substituting a more direct course along the Missouri River bottom, via Amazonia ; which was accordingly done.
The following have been Superintendents of this road in its differ- ent phazes and under its different names :
Davis Carpenter, when it was (in 1866) the Platte Country Railroad ; Col. A. G. Gower, from 1866 to 1869 ; Maj. A. L. Hopkins (now of the Toledo, Wabash and Western) from 1869 to 1870; J. F. Barnard, from 1870 to the present time (1881).
TIIE ST. LOUIS AND ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD (NOW A BRANCH OF THE WABASH, ST. LOUIS AND PACIFIC,)
was commenced in 1867, and completed in the winter of 1869-70, when it went into bankruptcy. Under a sale in the Bankrupt Court it was bought in by the bondholders, who leased it to the North Missouri Rail- road Company. It is seventy-three miles in length, extending from St. Joseph, in a southeasterly direction, through Plattsburg, the seat of Clin- ton, and Richmond, of Ray County, and continuing on to a point on the Missouri River, opposite Lexington, crossing the main line of what is now (1881) the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad at R. & L. Junc- tion.
This branch road has had a variety of fortune.
The name of the trunk line with which it connects St. Joseph has been styled, at different periods, successively, the North Missouri, the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern, and finally, the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
' One of the oldest trunk lines in the state is the
MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD.
This road was talked of as a probable enterprise as early as 1848. In 1850, it was commenced. On the Ist day of November, 1855, it was completed to Jefferson City.
On that day, a fearful disaster befel : A train of fourteen cars, from St. Louis, laden with human freight, embarked for the purpose of cele- brating or of taking part in the celebration of the completion of this road to the State Capital, were precipitated into the river by the falling of the Gasconade bridge. The loss of human life in this terrific wreck was appalling. Seventy-five persons were almost instantly ushered into eternity, and many others were seriously injured. The engineer who built the bridge was on board the train and escaped. Just about the beginning of the war the road was extended as far as Dresden, six miles west of Sedalia.
Joseph Hansen opened the first telegraph office here, in November 18, 1863.
The succeeding four years, of course, put a stop to every such char- acter of improvement, and work was not again resumed till the close of the civil war, when labor on the same was actively revived ; and, before the close of the year 1865, the Missouri Pacific had reached Kansas City. It was subsequently extended through Leavenworth City to Atchison.
About January, 1880, some citizens of St. Joseph offered Jay Gould $30,000 in consideration of his extending the Missouri Pacific, on the Kansas side of the river, to St. Joseph. This, Gould agreed to accept, and the money was raised and paid over. Considerable dissatisfaction, however, was expressed on the part of some who had contributed to this fund, when Mr. Gould leased the right of way, and brought his trains to St. Joseph over the Atchison branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. The first train of the Missouri Pacific to reach St. Joseph arrived February 23, 1880.
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