Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 12

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MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

action. On February 1, 1849, when Judge Breese introduced a general land grant bill pro- viding for the parceling out to the several states slices of the public domain, it was purely in the interest of this road, though general in character. The senate approved the measure, but the house rejected it, thus leaving the field open to Douglas and Shields.

The senate, and, indeed, the house of representatives, saw at once the sincerity of the Little Giaut and of the hero of the Mexican war, and received their direct land-grant bill of January, 1850, with favor. The promise made by the senators that the grant would not be used in the interest of speculators, as members of the Great Western railroad company, alias Holbrook & Co., were known to be, won support for this measure, and further, Alabama and Mississippi derived benefit, as the act of September 17, 1850, approved September 20, pro- vided for the grant of lands in the states named, as well as in Illinois, as aid in the construc- tion of a great central railroad from La Salle, Ill., to the Ohio river at Cairo (with branches to Dubuque, via Galena, and to Chicago), and thence to Mobile, Ala. Senator George W. Imes, of Iowa, urged the Dubuque clause; Thomas Childs, Jr., of New York, the Mobile clause, while Douglas and Shields watched Chicago's interests so closely that a great ovation was giveu to them on their return. On this occasion, each gave testimony to the work of John S. Wright in pointing out forcibly the advantages of such a grant and to the action of the congressmen from Illinois in their able support of the bill.

The action of congress did not pass unnoticed by the moneyed men of New York. No sooner was the act approved than they considered its relation to themselves, and on December 28, 1850, signed a memorial to the legislature of Illinois, showing forth their plans for con- structing the Central road and its branches. This memorial was signed by Robert Schuyler, George Griswold, Governor Morris, Franklin Haven, David A. Neal, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Jona Sturges, Thomas W. Ludlow and John F. A. Sanford. The much-talked-of plan to give all control to the state and make the stock a basis for banking, as United States bonds are now in the system of national banks, opposed the plans of the Eastern men, but the people had little faith in the business qualities of this political machine, and on February 10, 1851, James L. D. Morrison's substitute for Asahel Gridley's bill, incorporating the Illinois Central railroad company, was passed. The names of the corporators were those given above as signers of the memorial, with Joseph W. Alsop, LeRoy M. Wiley and William H. Aspinwall, all of whom are gone to the dreamland of railroad builders, with the exception of Franklin Haven. On March 19, 1851, the special charter was accepted by the company, and in the shadow of former failures, work was commenced. Roswell B. Mason, of Bridgeport, Conn., was appointed chief engineer, March 22. and before May 20, he and staff were at Chicago, ready to enter upon surveying the route. In September, 1851, a mortgage for $17,000,000, on two million acres of the lands granted to secure the construction bonds, was executed. James F. Joy and Mason Brayman were employed to secure right of way in Chicago, and had their work countenanced by the ordinance of June 14. 1852, sigued by Walter Smith Gurnee, mayor. John B. Calhoun, who named the original stations along the road, was accountant and financier. David A. Neal purchased eighty thousand tons of iron rails in England (at from $38.50 to $43.50 per ton, on board ship at Liverpool), and had them deliv- ered in Chicago early in 1852, through Clark & Jessup, and on May 20 of that year the fourteen miles of track from Thirteenth street to Calumet station, now Kensington, were com- pleted, aud Michigan Central trains ran into the city on that day. Indeed, the Michigan Central railroad company made a loan to the Illinois Central to further the construction of this portion of the road. In February, 1852, charts of the road were placed before the com- missioner of the land office at Washington, D. C., and in March that official approved the

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

selection of about two million acres of the public lands. The last construction contract was entered into October 13, 1852, and one year after the Michigan Central trains steamed into Chicago over the Illinois Central tracks, sixty-one miles of the road between Bloomington and La Salle were in operation, and a temporary bridge erected over the Illinois river. In July, 1854, the road between Chicago and Urbana (one hundred and twenty-eight miles) was opened for traffic; early in November, 1854, trains were running between Freeport and Galena, and later that month passengers for the South were brought to Cairo via the Chicago & Mississippi railroad to St. Louis, the Ohio & Mississippi to Sandoval, and thence one hun- dred and eighteen miles on the completed southern end of the Illinois Central to Cairo, William K. Ackerman, president of the company from 1877 to 1883, being one of the through passengers. The main line, La Salle to Cairo, three hundred and one miles, was not com- pleted until January 8, 1855; the track from Galena to Dunleith was completed June 11, 1855, and from La Salle to Dunleith, on June 12; the Chicago branch, 249.78 miles, was completed September 26, 1856, and on September 27, that year, Engineer Mason reported that the last rail on the 705.6 miles of road was placed, after a total expenditure of $35,110,- 609.21, or over $18,000,000 above the estimate cost, and over the amount of the original capital stock. From September, 1856, to the beginning of the Civil war, little beyond rou- tine work was accomplished. The Peoria & Oquaka railroad was built from Gilman to El Paso in 1857, connecting the main line with the Chicago branch. During the Civil war, the road, in all its departments, was taxed to its greatest capacity. Many of its employes entered the army, thus reducing the number of experienced railroad men; the department of war required it to carry troops and military supplies gratuitously; refugee negroes and deserters looked upon it as an eleemosynary institution, constructed solely to haul them away from danger, while war prices exercised no small influence on the company's treasury, for they balanced, if they did not overbalance, the extraordinary earnings of those terrible years of war. The views of Congressmen E. B. Washburne and others led to the observance of the charter, but congress, recognizing the services of this railroad, decided that the roadbed, and not the equipped railway, was only subject to use by the United States, and appropriated a sum equal to the value of the train service rendered.

In the fall of 1867 the Central company leased the Dubuque & Sioux City railroad and began the construction of the Dunleith-Dubuque bridge, which was completed January 1, 1869, and the transfer ferry cast aside. Later, in 1869, the Cedar Falls & Minnesota rail- road (fifty-four miles in length) and the Iowa Falls & Sioux City railroad (forty-nine miles in length) were begun. They were completed in 1870, thus making the Iowa system four hun- dred and two miles. During the last-named year the Belleville & Southern Illinois railroad came into use as a connecting line between Cairo and St. Louis, and in 1871 the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield railroad was constructed, connecting the Chicago branch with Spring- field, December 3, that year. On November 17, 1874, the trains of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad company first entered the city over the tracks of the Central, and continued to use such tracks until 1891, notwithstanding the notice of 1884 and the order of the court, requir- ing that company to evacuate.

The lake front act of 1869 was conceived in 1866 in the interest of local speculators, known as the Chicago Harbor & Improvement company. This improvement company did not succeed in obtaining legislative sanction for their designs. A similar measure was intro- duced in 1869 and passed, but was vetoed by the governor, John M. Palmer, April 14, 1869. Two days after the legislature passed the bill over the veto.

This act of 1869 turned over to the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

and the Michigan Central (which used then the same depot) the three blocks of land between Randolph and Monroe streets, they to pay therefor $800,000 to the city. With the two northern blocks the state had nothing whatever to do, they having been given to the city direct by the general government for park purposes. The block between Monroe and Madi- son the city held under a different title. The land had passed from the general government to the canal commissioners, and had been dedicated by them to public uses. The railroad tendered $200,000 as first installment, but the city refused acceptance, and hence litigation. On July 3, 1871, the United States proceeded to stop the company from encroaching upon the lake, and on April 15, 1873, the peculiar aet of repeal, abolishing the privileges given by the legislature in the act of 1869, was passed. Litigation of course resulted and the decision of United States Circuit Judges Harlan and Blodgett, given February 23, 1888, is awaiting final approval or disapproval by the United States supreme court.

The year 1871 was an uneasy one for Illinois railroads, but more particularly for those entering Chicago, where the great fire destroyed buildings, rolling stock, grain and merchan- dise, as if they were so many tinder boxes. The direct loss was $300,000: but the insurance being carried by a trans-Atlantic company, who paid all policies, this loss was reduced to a nominal sum, leaving the heavy indirect losses only to be considered. The fire, after all, was only the echo of the earthquake. The granger legislature of that year enacted laws which, if left on the statute books, would have before this wiped out great enterprises in Illinois and left railroads, like some of the churches, to be operated according to one thousand different notions. The supreme court declared the foolish law unconstitutional, but mobs continued to interfere materially with the management and property of the road, causing heavy losses.

Prior to 1878 the rude primitive sleeping cars built by the company were in use. That year the contract with the Pullman palace car company was perfected. On May 26, 1880, the beginning of the town of Pullman was made, and later that year the Central company saw that the time had come to establish a thorough suburban service different in toto from that which obtained from 1856 to 1880. In 1882 two tracks for freight trains, two tracks for passenger trains, and two tracks for suburban trains were built from the Chicago yards south to the ruins of 1871, known as the Ceutral depot, and in 1883 the South Chicago railroad, from a point near Seventieth street east to Yates avenue, and thence to South Chicago, was completed. The ordinance approving plans for a bridge over the main river, to be built by the company, was passed December 1, 1862, but not until 1879 was the bridge constructed. The St. Charles air line railroad bridge over the south branch meeting the requirements of the company up to that time. In 1880 the Kankakee & Southwestern railroad was extended to the northern division at Minonk, and the independent connection with the Chicago branch created. The erection of the six-hundred thousand-bushel elevator at Cairo, the Randolph street viaduct, two docks, and the extension of terminal facilities must be credited to 1882, while the building of the South Chicago branch dates to 1883.

From 1866 to 1872 communication between the Northwestern and Southern states was mainly confined to the Mississippi. In the last mentioned year this company desired to establish a thorough line which, in a measure, would meet the spirit of the act of congress by bringing New Orleans, rather than Mobile, into direct communication with Chicago. A contract was made with the owners of the roads grouped under the title, the Mississippi Central railroad, the length of which system was two hundred and thirty-two miles, and the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern railroad, two hundred and six miles in length. Both systems were then under one management, and the owners not only agreed to an inter- change of traffic with the Illinois Central, but also for the extension of the first named road

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

one hundred and eight miles north from Jackson, Tenn., to a point opposite Cairo, Ill. The contract provided that the Illinois Central railroad company should invest one-eighth of the earnings from traffic to and from the roads named in their consolidated mortgage bonds for a decade at the rate of $100,000 per annum, but later an opportunity to purchase $200,000 of such bonds annually to the amount of $6,000,000, was given so as to enable the Southern men to build the one hundred and eight miles and improve the road generally. The gap was completed December 24, 1873, and Chicago and New Orleans, nine hundred and thirteen miles apart, were connected by iron rails. Later the Illinois Central company exchanged $5,000,000 worth of its five per cent. bonds for $5,000,000 worth of the seven per cent. bonds of the Southern roads and agreed to purchase the road under stated conditions, even in the face of a debt amounting to $18,372,834. On March 10, 1876, the Southern com- panies failing even to pay interest, the property was sold under foreclosure, passed into the receiver's hands, and on January 1, 1878, became an integral part of the Illinois Central' under the title Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans railroad company. On January 1, 1882, the Southern lines - five hundred and forty-eight miles of main track, thirty-one miles of branches, one hundred and six locomotives, two thousand two hundred and forty-one cars, $1,000,000 five per cent., one thousand nine hundred and fifty-one bonds, $125,000 six per cent. bonds, and $623,043.70 in cash were surrendered to the Illinois Central company.

The methodical system of James C. Clark, thoroughly inculcated in the minds of employes, also fell into the hands of the new proprietors and the bright day dreams of the railroad promoters of 1835-51 were fulfilled. During the seven years ending December 31, 1890, this great central trunk line made progress undreamed of before. The Canton, Aber- deen & Nashville railroad was begun in 1883; a controlling interest in the one hundred miles of road from Grenada to Memphis was secured; the Ohio river bridge at Cairo was constructed, and the old ferry transfer abolished; the South Chicago branch 4.76 miles in length, with double track, was built and equipped for heavy suburban and freight service; the middle division was extended to the main line near Bloomington, giving a total length of 131.26 miles. In 1886 the work of constructing the Chicago, Madison & Northern railroad was entered upon, and in August, 1888, this road was opened from Chicago to Freeport, Mad- ison and Dodgeville, while in 1890 the right of way through Chicago was acquired. In 1887 the Chicago, Havana & Western railroad (one hundred and thirty miles in length) was pur- chased from the sheriff, and the Rantoul narrow gauge, connecting West Lebanon, Ind., with Leroy, Ill. (seventy-six miles in length), was acquired similarly. The gauge of the lat- ter road was changed subsequently. In 1885 the Chicago, Burlington & Northern railroad sought right of way between East Dubuque and Portage Curve, and had thirteen miles of the Illinois Central company's right of way condemned. The supreme court decided the con- demnation proceedings illegal, and the new road was purchased by the Illinois Central com- pany, who lease it to the original builders. In 1888 the stock of the Dunleith & Dubuque bridge company was purchased by the Central company, who use it jointly with the Chicago, Burlington & Northern railroad and the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City railroad. The Cherokee & Dakota railroad (one hundred and fifty-three miles in length) extending from Cherokee, Iowa, to Sioux Falls, Dak., and from Cherokee to Onawa, was built, and also a road from Manchester to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The securities of the Dubuque & Sioux City rail- road company (one hundred and forty -three miles in length) and of the Iowa Falls & Sioux City railroad company (one hundred and eighty-three miles in length) were purchased, and those roads became practically the property of the company. Two grain elevators were erected, and pretentious depot buildings constructed, as at Jackson and Holly Springs, Miss., and other important points on the road,

MEMOIRS. OF MISSISSIPPI.

In October, 1850, the company paid $45,000 under protest to the United States for the grant of the unused portion of the Fort Dearborn reservation. As has been stated the first depot was at Thirteenth street, and the first train to enter the city was one of the Michigan Central company's. This depot was used from May 20, 1852, to July, 1853. On June 14, 1852, the city council granted permission to lay down tracks within the limits along the mar- gin of the lake, in accordance with the legislative act of February, 1852, authorizing a branch road from Twelfth street north to the south pier of the inner harbor, and this permission was accepted March 28, 1853. Lands for depot purposes were acquired north of Randolph street, from the United States, as shown above, or by purchase from private owners and, south of Twelfth street, by purchase. From Sixteenth street to Randolph street piles were driven in the lake bed and the track constructed thereon between 1852 and 1854. After the fire of 1871 individuals as well as the company made this piling the breastwork of a dump- ing ground for debris, and since that time a large area from a point northeast of Randolph street sonthward, has been filled in in like manner. The congressional grant to Illinois was two million five hundred and ninety-five thousand acres, and of the grant by the state to the railroad company, one hundred and seven thousand six hundred and fourteen acres were first conveyed to preemptors. By the close of 1856 over one million acres were sold, and up to Jan- uary 1, 1890, there were two million four hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine acres sold, yielding a total of $28,742,002 or about three-fourths of the total cost of the road up to that time, $35,110,609. From 1856 to October 31, 1889, the company paid into the state treasury $11,873,337. 14, being the amount of the statutory seven per cent. on the gross income, or about $350,000 per year. The road withstood the Schuyler frauds of 1853-4, the panic of 1857, the panic of 1873, the granger laws of 1871, the fire of 1871, the Iowa restrictions of 1876, the Valentine scrip of 1878, the great strike, and the latter day attacks on its Chicago right of way. Its progress in modern times is phenomenal, when its conservative policy is compared with the extension of the system and the introduction of improvements in permanent way, rolling stock and running schedules. Only on October 29, 1889, the great bridge over the Ohio was opened, giving an all-rail route between the Gulf of Mexico and Chicago. This bridge is three miles and four thousand seven hundred and twenty feet in length, and was constructed at the cost of $2,700,000. The approaches, com- pleted in 1891, included the elevation of the tracks above flood level and entailed an extraor- dinary cost. By July 1, 1890, the system embraced 1,398.48 miles of Northern lines; 593.34 miles of Western lines, and 896.65 of Southern lines, or a total of 2,888.47 miles.

The presidents of the road were Robert Schuyler (deceased), March 19, 1851 to July 11, 1853; William P. Burrall (deceased), 1853-4; John N. A. Griswold, January, 1855 to Decem- ber, 1855; William H. Osborn, December 1, 1855 to July 11, 1865; John M. Douglas, 1865 to March 14, 1871; John Newell, April 14, 1871 to September 11, 1874; Wilson G. Hunt, September, 1874 to Jannary 28, 1875; John M. Douglas, January, 1875 to July 17, 1876; William K. Ackerman, October 17, 1877 to Angust 15, 1883, and James C. Clark, August 15, 1883 to May 18, 1887. Stuyvesant Fish elected May 18, 1887, is now president.

The names of the pioneers of this now immense system are given in former pages. The directors elected February 10, 1851, all of whom except Franklin Haven, are deceased, were men prominent in building up the country in its infancy as they were in building railroads.

In 1851 Morris Ketchum (deceased) was elected a director; in 1852, Gov. Joel A. Mat- teson (deceased); in 1853, William P. Burrall (deceased); in 1854, J. Newton Perkins (deceased); William H. Osborn, Frederick C. Gebhard (deceased), J. N. A. Griswold and James F. Joy; in 1855, Thomas E. Walker (deceased), and Ebenezer Lane; in 1856, Gov.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

William H. Bissell (deceased), and Abram S. Hewitt; in 1857, Pierre Choteau, Jr. (deceased), and Gustavus W. Smith; in 1859, William Tracy (deceased); in 1860, Gov. Richard Yates (deceased), and Nathaniel P. Banks; in 1861, John M. Douglas; in 1862, James C. Fargo, William R. Arthur, H. H. Hunnewell, and Edwin H. Sheldon; in 1863, James Caird and Cunningham Bothwick; in 1864 Gov. Richard Oglesby, Henry Chauncey and William G. Hunt; in 1865, Ambrose E. Burnside (deceased), and R. D. Wolterbeck; in 1868, Gov. J. M. Palmer, and George Bliss; in 1871, J. Pierrepont Morgan, Louis A. Von Hoffman, John Newell, Lucius Tilton (deceased), and William H. Gebhard; in 1872, William K. Ackerman; in 1873, Gov. John L. Beveridge, and L. V. F. Randoph; in 1875, Abram R. Van Nest (deceased), Frederick Sturges, and Constantine Menelas; in 1876 Gov. Shelby M. Cullom; in 1877, A. G. Dulman, Stuyvesant Fish, Ben. F. Ayer, James C. Clarke and John Elliott (deceased); in 1879, W. Bayard Cutting: in 1882, Sydney Webster; in 1883, Gov. John M. Hamilton; in 1884, Gov. R. J. Oglesby (second term), Walter Luttgen, Robert Goelet and S. Van R. Cruger; in 1885, William W. Astor; in 1886, Oliver Harriman and Levi P. Morton; in 1888, John W. Auchincloss; in 1889, Gov. Joseph W. Fifer, J. C. Welling, Charles M. Da Costa (deceased), and George Bliss, and in 1890, J. W. Doane and Norman B. Ream.

A biography of the directors of this great corporation would bring to light many points in its history and present to the reader subjects both interesting and instructive. A sketch of each of the presidents from 1851 to 1891 would in itself make a volume worthy of study, for in it would be found an exposition of all those executive principles which lead to failure or success. Fortunately for the Illinois Central, the men who held this responsible position were, with one exception, true and capable. To the present incumbent of the office success is credited in everything, and nothing succeeds like success.

The road lines in this state are the main line, the Kosciusko branch, the Memphis divis- ion, the Canton, Aberdeen & Nashville (Kosciusko to Aberdeen), the Yazoo & Mississippi valley, and Jackson to Parsons. Its passenger earnings for this state in 1889 were $596,561,- 65; its freight earnings $2,674,581.84, and its taxes for nine months of that year were $106,425.

The Lonisville, New Orleans & Texas railroad is the great outlet of the Yazoo delta, running parallel to the great river. It was completed January 1, 1885, and of course has a brief career, although it is the second line in the state. Its branches are: The Glendale & Eagle Nest, the Leland & Huntington, the Wilzcinski & Glen Allen, the Lamont & Rosedale and the Slaughter & Woodville. The general offices are at Memphis, and the officers are as follows: President, R. T. Wilson; general manager, James M. Edwards; secretary, C. H. Bosher; treasurer, F. H. Davis; comptroller, William Mahl; assistant general manager, A. M. Cooke; general superintendent, T. J. Nicholl; general freight and passenger agent, E. W. How; auditor, J. T. Penton, and general counsel, Yerger & Percy. Its passenger earnings for 1889 were $721,085.53; freight earnings, $1,686,746.02, and taxes paid, $64,684.12.

The Mobile & Ohio railroad was completed April 22, 1861, and although a comparatively old road the facts of its career seem unobtainable. Its branches from the main line along the eastern border of the state are the Aberdeen & Muldon, Artesia & Columbus and Artesia & Starkville. Its passenger earnings in 1889 -- in every case for Mississippi-were $185,- 317; its freight earnings, $883,069.57, and its taxes, $47,054.29.

The Georgia Pacific railroad is another late arrival, and was completed only July 8, 1889. Its branches are: Stoneville to Sharkey, and less than a mile at Columbus. Its pas- senger earnings for the year chosen were: $37,619.56; freight, $72,456.41, and taxes are exempt, except as to levees,

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314