History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 104

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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This company maintained its organization for some time and General Hill as agent opened subscription books to the capital stock in Washington, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Yankton, but the company was not able to secure the cooperation of the United States Government ; other interests more powerful checkmated its efforts.

John I. Blair, of New Jersey, was the great railroad builder in Iowa for a number of years. He built the Illinois Central and also the Northwestern Road through Iowa to Council Bluffs, completing it in 1866. He also organized a company called the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company under the laws of Iowa, and had that company designated by the President to build the north branch of the Pacific. There was no railway at Sioux City at this time, but Blair, in 1867 constructed the north branch of the Pacific Railroad from Mis- souri Valley, Iowa, to Sioux City, and also from the Missouri Valley West, crossing the Missouri at Blair, and connecting with the Union Pacific at Fre- mont, Nebraska. When it was learned that Blair had secured this valuable fran- chise, which had been done quietly, and while Mr. Lincoln was President, there was great indignation among the settlers of the Missouri Valley above Sioux City, and very earnest efforts were made to get a reconsideration of the matter. Andrew Johnson had become President in the meantime and before anything was done toward the actual building of any road. . The Legislature of Dakota for 1864 passed an urgent memorial on the subject, furnishing a vast amount of information regarding the advantages of the Missouri and Niobrara route, and Governor Edmunds, in his message to the Legislative Assembly of 1864-5 calls attention to the subject in the following pointed language :

The location of the northern branch of the Pacific railroad is doubtless a question of far greater importance than any to which I can at this time call your attention, and when presenting, as we do, for the consideration of the President of the United States, by far the shortest and most practicable route up the valleys of the Missouri and Niobrara rivers to intersect the trunk line in the vicinity of Fort Laramie, thus forming almost an air line from the passes of the Rocky Mountains to Chicago-the great railroad center of the North- west-our claims, it appears to me, are paramount to all others which have been heretofore contemplated or even spoken of for this line of road.

I call your attention to this subject at the present time for the reason that it is reported that a company has already been designated to construct the line under consideration, and that it is contemplated by this company to construct the road from Sioux City down the valley of the Missouri River in a southeasterly direction for a distance of one hundred miles or more, to intersect the branch of the Pacific road running west from Omaha. How long will it take, I beg leave to inquire, to reach California, by traveling in this direction? It is

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probable that Congress, in making such liberal appropriations to encourage the early con- struction of this line of road, contemplated or expected the funds of the Government would be used for constructing a railroad running southeast from Sioux City, in order to form a railroad connection with the Pacific coast? I think not. t have no doubt that Congress. when legislating upon the subject, expected the companies or persons selected to construct the several branches would at least try to shorten the distance and time to Calforma by constructing the roads in that direction.

Believing this to be the case. I recommend that you carly call the attention of the President to this subject and memorialize him to reconsider the action of his predecessor. President Lincoln, in designating the company to construct this branch of the Pacific rail- road, and in case this cannot be done, that you lay the matter before Congress and solicit from that body such legislation as will require the company designated to construct this branch in starting from Sioux City toward California by the most direct and practicable route.

The memorial passed at the last session of the Legislative Assembly on this subject. approved January 12, 1863. clearly sets forth not only many of the advantages gained by selecting the Niobrara route, but also some of the disadvantages in adopting the route southeast from Sioux City. I respectfully submit this subject for your consideration, hoping that you will, by prompt and judicious action, secure to your constituents the advantages to be derived from having this road constructed through the southern portion of this territory, fully believing this to be in accord with the views of a large majority of Congress in making the appropriation to encourage its construction.

The flight of time and the development and consummation of many of the plans of the leading railroad builders, enables us at this day to see that the original design of this Dakota enterprise had its origin in a broadminded and substantial plan concurred in by the leading transportation interests of the country, to run the north branch of the Union Pacific Railroad on a route substantially as laid in this Dakota Charter of 1862, and this was well known to such Dakotans as Surveyor General Hill, Newton Edmunds, M. K. Armstrong, General Todd, and others, then residents and prominent in the affairs of the young territory. The north branch of the Union Pacific has in fact not been built to this day, as origi- nally contemplated, but the railway from Sioux City south to Missouri Valley, thence west across the Missouri River at Blair, Nebraska, and thence to Fre- mont, Nebraska, to a connection with the Union Pacific was the line that secured the grants and loans from the Government. President Lincoln, at the time lie designated Mr. Blair's company was wholly engrossed with the great problem of the Civil war, and could not have given the subject such consideration as its importance demanded. What might have become one of the principal com- mercial arteries of the country, became a short local line of little importance and is not now nor has it ever been popularly recognized as the north branch of the Pacific Railroad, though at one time it was dignified with the name of the Sioux City and Pacific Railway.

URGENT DEMANDS FOR IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION

Railroad facilities were demanded by the growing interests of Dakota in 1867. Farmers needed cheaper and speedier transportation for their surplus products ; merchants needed better facilities for procuring their merchandise, and the people needed more ample and comfortable facilities for traveling. The Union Pacific Railway was well under way, and the northern branch was under construction from Missouri Valley to Sioux City, which had apparently extin- guished the ambition of the Missouri and Niobrara Valley Railway Company which had relied chiefly upon securing from President Johnson the designation of that company to build the north branch of the Pacific. This having been denied the company was not in a position to prosecute so expensive a work, through a country entirely uninhabited, or practically so except for a short dis- tance, and the project was given i .

DAKOTA AND NORTHWESTERN

In the winter of 1866-7 the Legislature enacted a law incorporating the Dakota and Northwestern Railroad Company. This was prior to the action

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of Congress prohibiting territorial legislatures from granting special charters. The granting of this charter was the beginning of earnest practicable efforts to secure a railway west from Sioux City. The names of the original incorporators of the company indicate that the incorporation was formed in good faith and with the design of building a railroad forthwith from Sioux City up the Valley of the Missouri, touching at Elk Point, Vermillion and Yankton. The act of incorporation was the last of the special charters granted to any corporation or individual, Congress having, a little later, inhibited the territorial legislatures from granting any special charters. The law was considered a very favorable enactment for the railroad company hence the care that was taken to conform to all its requirements by the company, for a number of years following its cnactments, waiting for a donation of land from the Government. It finally passed into the control of the Dakota Southern Railroad Company. The names of the incorporators were: John I. Blair, president of the Northwestern Rail- road Company and builder of the Sioux City and Pacific; A. W. Walker, vice president of the same company ; Alexander Ramsey, United States senator from Minnesota ; D. S. Norton, Ignatius Donally, Geo. S. Becker, Edmund Rice, Green Clay Smith, Newton Edmunds, George M. Pinney, Donald McLean, J. W. Boyle, A. J. Faulk, William Tripp, J. B. S. Todd. W. A. Burleigh, Ara Bart- lett, B. M. Smith, S. L. Spink, M. K. Armstrong, D. T. Bramble, W. N. Colla- mer, 11. C. Ash, A. G. Fulle, James S. Foster, Geo. W. Kingsbury, George Weare, John P. Allison, F. M. Zeibach, Mahlon Gore, L. D. Parmer, John H. Charles, E. Kirk, J. C. C. Hoskins, J. Stone, James E. Booge, William Freeney, C. K. Smith, C. K. Howard, Theoph. Bruguier, T. J. Kinkaid, Charles La- Breeche, O. F. Stevens, Geo. W. Kellogg. I. T. Gore, Wm. Gray, Michael Ciurry, D. M. Mills, J. W. Turner, J. P. Kidder, P. H. Jewell, Nelson Miner, Ole Bottolfson, A. VanOsdel, Felix LaBlanc, Canute Weeks, Amon Hanson, James McHenry, R. M. Johnson, Austin Cole, Hugh Fraley, P. H. Conger, R. 1. Thomas, John Thompson, Kerwin Wilson, Wm. Stevens, Win. Cox, C. Ducharme, J. V. Hamilton, C. H. McCarthy, John Dillon, Joel A. Potter, J. A. Lewis, Joseph S. Collins, Geo. B. Hoffman, Hiram Dryer, Gus Gilbert, John Goeway, E. H. Durfee, J. Shaw Gregory, W. P. Lyman, Geo. H. Hand, F. J. Dewitt, and William Bordino.

These parties were largely citizens of Dakota Territory and Sioux City, and were representative business men who had become interested in this enterprise with the determination to secure the building of a railroad up the Missouri Val- ley from Sioux City. They did not promise to build and equip the road, but they expected to place it in such a condition, with the surveys made, right of way secured, with the addition of some county, town and individual aid as would induce railway construction men, and some of this class were represented among the incorporators to take the franchise and build the line, which was contem- plated to run from Sioux City along the Dakota side of the Missouri to the Big Cheyenne. The incorporators or a quorum of that body met at Yankton July 4, 1867, and organized by electing Judge J. P. Kidder, president ; A. G. Fuller, secretary, and James S. Foster, treasurer. The meeting then adjourned to recon- vene August 29th. At the August meeting there were present the officers elected in July. also W. A. Burleigh, Win. Tripp, Ara Bartlett, S. L. Spink, D. T. Bramble, Win. N. Collamer, H. C. Ash, Geo. W. Kingsbury, Hugh Fraley, W. P. Lyman, Geo. H. Hand, Wm. Bordino, Newton Edmunds, L. 11. Litchfield.

On the motion of General Tripp a committee was appointed to procure the necessary books and receive subscriptions to the capital stock for the purpose of raising the necessary funds to make a preliminary survey of the line of the road, so far at least as from the Big Sioux River to Yankton, prior to the meet- ing of Congress, and that all incorporators present at the meeting shall stand personally responsible to this committee to pay their share of the expense for obtaining the books, the price for which must not exceed fifty dollars. The committee appointed consisted of Wm. Tripp, A. G. Fuller, D. T. Bramble, Geo.

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11. Hand and Win. N. Collamer. On motion, Wm. Tripp, S. L. Spink, Geo. H. Hand, James S. Foster, A. G. Fuller, D. MI. Mills, James McHenry, Hugh Fraley, Joel A. Potter and Patrick 11. Congar were appointed a committee to open the stock subscription books, also to prepare a memorial to Congress for the purpose of procuring a land grant to assist in the construction of the road, and to cause a preliminary survey of the line to be made, and to transact any other necessary business. This meeting adjourned to meet October 25th, to hear the reports of the committees.

At this October meeting George Stickney was elected chief engineer and another adjournment was taken to January 6, 1868, when the directors met in annual meeting at Fuller's Hall, Yankton, and elected officers, as follows: W. A. Burleigh, president; J. P. Kidder, vice president; A. G. Fuller, secretary ; M. K. Armstrong, treasurer; Wm. Tripp, attorney, and George Stickney, chief engineer. A preliminary survey of a portion of the line of this road had been made in November, 1867, by Chief Engineer Stickney from the Sioux River to Yankton, and a very favorable route was found. The company proposed to apply for a land grant, and this survey was made to aid in securing the favor- able action of Congress.

Chief Engineer Stickney's report follows :

To the Stockholders of the Dakota & Northwestern Railway Company :

Gentlemen : I herewith submit a report accompanied by a profile of a preliminary survey of the Dakota & Northwestern Railroad, made by direction of a meeting of the incorporators assembled at the office of the surveyor general of the territory on the 25th day of Octo- ber, 1867:

The initial point of this survey is at the intersection of the line dividing lots No. 1 and 2. of section 14, township 89 north of range 48 west, with the Big Sioux River in Union County, Dakota Territory, distant from Sioux, lowa, five miles, thence in a right line to a point on the south line of lot 2 of the northwest quarter of section 19, township 91, range 49 west, at a distance of fifty-seven rods from the southeast corner of said lot. This point is in the Town of Elk Point. This town is the county seat of Union County, is situated in a rich agricultural district immediately adjacent to an extensive body of good timber. On the line of the river at this point is a good steam sawmill. Distance from Elk Point to the initial point on the Big Sionx, 14.7 miles ; from the point in the Town of Elk Point the line of survey is a right line to a point on the west line of township 92 north, range 50 west, at a distance of seventy rods from the southwest corner of said township. This point is 7.2 miles from Elk Point ; here is a large body of excellent timber on both sides of the Mis- souri River. From this point the survey extends in a right line to a point on the west line of section 19, township 92, of range 51 west, at a point five rods north of the quarter stake on the west side of said section, thence north seventy degrees west 112 rods, to a point in the Town of Vermillion. This town, the county seat of Clay County, is situated on the Missouri River, has a good steamboat landing with an abundance of good timber and is rapidly improving, being centrally located in the county. From said last mentioned point in the Town of Vermillion the survey extends as follows: North 84 west 364 rods to a point on the side of the bluff on the east side of the Vermillion River, thence south & west twenty- six rods to the east bank of the Vermillion River, thence on said course twenty-two rods to the west bank of said river, thence on said course 154 rods 15 links to a point on the south side of the Government wagon road, thence on a right line to the northwest corner of section 17, township 93, range 54 west, thence in a right line to a point eighty rods south of the northwest corner of section 17, township 93, north of range 56 west, thence in a right line to the quarter post on the west line of section 18, township 93, north of range 50 west, in the Town of Yankton, Dakota Territory. The distance from the Big Sioux River to Yankton, on the line of this survey, is 54.4 miles. This line passes the entire length through one of the richest agricultural portions of Dakota, a section of country rapidly settling up. The soil is a rich alluvial deposit, easy of cultivation, producing abundant crops of all the cereals and all kinds of vegetables. This section of country is peculiarly adapted to the raising of stock. There is an abundance of good timber on the south side of the line of this survey at an average distance of two and a half miles. In the bluffs on the north side of the line. at short intervals, are beds of limestone and boulders, suitable for building culverts and foundations of buildings. The Town of Yankton, the capital of Dakota Territory, the termination of this survey, is situated on the north bank of the Mis- souri River on a high level plateau. with a permanent steamboat landing; this is the largest town in Dakota in the Missouri Valley : it has already a large and rapidly increasing trade . it is the depot of supplies for an extensive trade for hundreds of miles above on the Missouri River, and now contains nearly a thousand inhabitants. At a natural point for a large city in the Upper Missouri it is surpassed in natural advantages by no other location

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The roadbed will require an elevation on an average throughout of not more than three and one-half feet. There is an abundance of gravel and hard loam at Vermillion and Yankton for grading purposes, and throughout the entire route there is a vast supply of timber on the south of the line. There are only two bridges on the entire line to be built, one over the Vermillion, the other over the James River. The construction of these bridges is not difficult or expensive. The vast trade of the Upper Missouri River demands an early completion of this road, not only to Yankton, but to the mouth of the Big Cheyenne and westward until its western terminus shall be the shores of the Pacific. As the Platte Valley is a natural thoroughfare to the Pacific on our south, so the Missouri Valley is a natural and practical central route for a railroad to the Pacific, passing through the rich mineral and agricultural regions of the Black Hills and Montana Territory. The interests of the people of the whole country and the general Government demand the earliest possible com- pletion of a railroad across the continent by way of the Valley of the Missouri River. GEORGE STICKNEY, Chief Engineer.

The cost of building one mile of ordinary railroad in Iowa at this time was about fifteen thousand dollars. It was stated that the iron cost about eighteen dollars for each twenty-four foot rail weighing 448 pounds delivered; 440 rails to the mile, costing $7.929, or a little over 4 cents a pound ; 440 joints, $170.00 ; 40 kegs of spikes at $38 per keg, or 4 cents for each spike ; 2,500 ties at 50 cents cach, $1,250. For laying one mile of track $425.00. Grading cost all the way from $1,300 to $9,000 per mile. Right of way was donated as a rule. Bridges over the ordinary rivers, $10,000.

The officers of the Dakota & Northwestern Company and those of a new company organized at Sioux City called the Missouri Valley Railroad Company held a meeting at Sioux City, February 1, 1870, where the Dakota Company inade a transfer of its franchise, books, etc., to the Iowa organization, under an agreement that the purchasing company should build a line of road from Sioux City to Yankton via Vermillion by the Ist of September, 1871.

The first grading for a railroad made in the Territory of Dakota was one mile on the line of the railroad projected from Sioux City to Yankton. One mile of grading was completed near Elk Point in Union County in the summer of 1870, under a contract awarded to George Stickney, the chief engineer of the company, and a resident of Union County. The work was done in compli- ance with the company's charter, which was a special instrument given in 1867 before Congress prohibited the passing of special charters, and was considered a very liberal and valuable charter.

OTHER RAILROADS BUILDING TO DAKOTA

In May, 1869, Gen. John Lawler, of McGregor, Iowa, and Dr. J. J. Whitney, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, visited Yankton, and remained several days looking over the city and country surroundings. General Lawler was the vice president of the McGregor & Western Railway Company, which at that day was building west through the northern tier of Iowa counties, and was projected to enter Dakota about twenty-five miles south of Sioux Falls, about where Canton is located. thence south by west to the Missouri River, striking that commercial artery at Yankton. These gentlemen were favorably impressed by their ob- servations and gave the people much encouragement, stating that the plans of their company had been matured after a thorough examination of the country and Yankton was to be their Missouri River point. Later in the same month, Chief Engineer Shephard, of the same company, came over for the purpose of informing himself regarding the topography of the country hereabouts and other matters of consequence to his company. On the 9th of July following, Capt. C. E. Woodman, engineer in charge of the western division of the road, reached the Missouri River at Yankton, after having made a reconnoitering survey of a line from near Canton to Yankton. Ile informed the people that his report would be favorable to the construction of the road. In the meantime the McGregor and Western became merged with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and the western division was called the "Yankton Division of the Chicago, Mil-

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waukee & St. Paul." Nothing more came of this project and the company subsequently selected Chamberlain as its Missouri River point.

George Walcott, a civil engineer, made a preliminary survey of a line from Sioux City to Yankton, via Elk Point and Vermillion. in November, 1869, pre- sumably in the interest of Sioux City, or parties who contemplated building the road, but no further step was taken by the parties responsible for the survey.

These various movements together with the pressing and increasing demand had served to accentuate the popular interest in the railroad question, and as Yankton appeared to be the objective point of all the various projects and was conceded to have the most at stake in the early success of the project it was looked to lead off on some practicable plan, at the same time it was apparent that no assistance, but opposition could be looked for unless the road accommo- dlated the settlements along the Missouri Valley, which in fact were the only settlements of influence and population in the territory at the time. Out of this situation grew the agitation of a plan to subsidize a railway company by the issuing of territorial or county bonds or both. It was doubted whether this could be legally done under the authority of the organic act and sanctioned by a legislative enactment, but there seemed an almost unanimous voice in favor of resorting to it if a market could be found for the bonds. In connection with the proposition it was currently reported that where the bonds were issued by authority of a vote of the people interested, the courts would sustain their validity, notwithstanding the lack of express authority in the organic act, and so it proved.

A meeting made up of the prominent men of the territory was held at Yankton. September 21, 1869, for the purpose of discussing this matter, as well as other propositions. Representatives were present from all the counties and settlements. Judge Jefferson P. Kidder, of Vermillion, was made president, and Gen. H. A. Pierce, of Yankton, secretary. Addresses were made by Congressman Spink, Judge Kidder, Judge Brookings, Capt. Nelson Miner, of Vermillion, Gen. William Tripp. George Stickney, Union county : F. J. Dewitt, Charles Mix ; and the situa- tion was quite thoroughly discussed. The question of securing a grant of land from the national Government or aid from that source in any other way was talked over, but not in a hopeful spirit. Land grants were no longer favored by Congress. Nothing definite was accomplished at this meeting, and without any other conclusion than that the interests of the territory urgently demanded railway facilities, the meeting finally turned the subject matter over to a committee of one from each county, which was instructed to enter into correspondence with railway people and with capitalists, with the view of effecting the extension of some of the lines then pointing westward through lowa and Minnesota, into Dakota. It was manifest, however, that the representatives from the other counties east of Yank- ton were not inclined to favor such a line as the Yankton division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, from Canton to Yankton, as that would not benefit the pres- ent interests of Union, Clay and Vermillion counties, but would be the cause of settling up rival trading points to those already established. and would divert immi- gration to the lands bordering the new railroads. A road from Sioux City up the Missouri Valley seemed to arouse the greatest interest. The committee was duly appointed, consisting of H. A. Pierce, Yankton County: T. O. Wisner. Union County ; George Stickney, Clay County ; Franklin J. Dewitt, Charles Mix County ; J. Q. A. Fitzgerald, Lincoln County : John Thompson, Minnehaha County : H. C. Ash. Jayne County : W. A. Burleigh. Bon Homme County; and Enos Stutsman, Pembina County.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 104

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198