The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 58

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899

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385

HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Dider in two years' time, at the outside. The Directors are ready to advertise for contracts for the section between Beloit and Janesville as soon as the moderate sum allotted to this place be taken. Let it be taken at once, and before next year at this time, as the Board now design, the section spoken of will be graded. Who will get up a call For a railroad meeting ?

After the preliminaries, the work must have been taken hold of " in earnest," for in 1849, Mr. Hugh Lee made the survey of the Rock River Valley Union Railroad, which was designed to run from Chicago to Fond du Lac. The first survey of this road was made via Beloit, but the route was subsequently changed so as to pass east of the city about eight miles, through Shopiere and Jefferson Prairie to Janesville and Fond du Lac. This was the first survey of a railroad made in the State of Wisconsin. The original line of the road having been changed, the name was also changed and it came to be designated as the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, and still later it came to be known as the Chicago & North-Western, which name it still bears.

While the citizens of Beloit were, as we have seen, alternating between hope and fear, Chicago was stretching forth her iron arms in the direction of the new settlement, and the progress of the road was watched with the liveliest interest by the Beloit farmers and merchants, and, in fact, by all the residents of the Rock River Valley, north of the Illinois line. Almost every mile of completed road was anxiously watched and chronicled as a superlatively important event, while the traffic which it secured was eagerly watched and commented upon as indicating what might be hoped for when the locomotive should thunder through their own streets. The. Journal, of June 13, 1850, thus discusses this aspect of the question :

During the month of April, the receipts for passengers and freight on the railroad, amounted to $6,008.66. During the month of May, just passed, there were received from the same sources $10,816.54-between an increase- of $4,807.88-over 40 per cent. The entire expenditure for the construction of the road, purchase of locomotives, cars, stations and station-houses, has been $402,000. and upon this sum the receipts of the past month, after deduct- ing running expenses, will yield 20 per cent. When it is considered that the expense of running short is much greater, in proportion, than for long distances, and that this year has not afforded either in or out freights that ordinary years will, this result must be highly satisfactory as it exceeds the expectations and calculations of the most ardent friends of the road. It is now manifest that no plank-road, or other improvement, offers the inducements to capitalists for investments that this road does. As the road advances toward Rock Island, the revenues must increase immensely, notwithstanding a reduction of rates of freight and fare may be made.

The diversion of the Rock River Valley Union Road, from its originally projected route through the city of Beloit to Shopiere, Jefferson Prairie and Janesville, was not only a disap- pointment, but a mortification to the residents of Beloit.

Nor were the manifestations of their displeasure confined to depreciative comment. Ener- getic measures were inaugurated to secure a railroad to the city direct, and to this end negotia- tions were entered into with the Chicago & Galena Railroad Company to extend its line so as to make Beloit its northern terminus. Having already subscribed or agreed for $15,000 worth of the stock of the Chicago & Fond du Lac road, they now proposed to take, and did, eventually, take, more than five times that amount of stock ($80,150 was the amount) in the Chicago & Galena Company. These negotiations and this liberal subscription had the desired effect, and the branch road from Belvidere to Chicago was immediately surveyed and work begun, and so energetically prosecuted that by November, 1853, the branch from Belvidere (twenty-two miles distant) was completed, and Beloit was connected by iron bands with the great railroad center of the West. The work was vigorously carried on toward Madison, and, in 1854, a contract and lease were made between the Galena Company and the Beloit & Madison Company, by which the latter was to build its road from Beloit to Madison. During the same year, the road was built and the iron laid seventeen miles from Beloit to Footville, and the road was placed in operation to Afton, eight miles from Beloit, and was run in connection with the Galena road. Work on the line had reached Magnolia, three miles further, when it was suspended. The road and its property were afterward sold under foreclosure, and a new company organized, in which the Galena Company owned the principal portion of the stock, guaranteeing also the Beloit & Madison Company's bonds, and it took a perpetual lease of the road. In 1863, work on the line was resumed. The consolidation of the Galena and North-Western Companies occurred June 2, 1864, and the new Company prosecuted and completed the road to Madison, which was reached September 1 of that year. The Beloit & Madison Company was incorporated February.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

28, 1852, with the following officers : President, John B. Turner ; Secretary, Benjamin Dur- ham ; Treasurer, Edward Ilsley. The road runs almost on a direct line from Beloit to Madison, leaving Janesville seven miles to the east.

It was the original intention of the gentlemen at the head of the early railway interests in Rock County to extend two branches of the road, then building from Chicago to Janesville, toward the north and northwest. Accordingly, charters had been obtained at the various ses- sions of the Legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota with this purpose in view, and in April, 1852, all these charters were amended so as to consolidate them into one. The plan was to build a branch from Janesville to Fond du Lac, of Winnebago, and from thence to Fond du Lac. of Lake Superior. Another branch was to run from Janesville to St. Croix Falls, via Madison and La Crosse ; thence to St. Paul, and from St. Paul to the Red River of the North. From this point it was intended to build a branch westerly to the boundaries of Minnesota, with a fourth branch of the series to the British line, and thence back down the Red River of the North. The original, or second Janesville branch, was then to be extended easterly to the head of Lake Superior and connected with branch No. 1 at Fond du Lac. This was the most magnificent system of (paper) railroads ever built by citizens of Janesville. The Company had its head office in New York, where the material for the road, then in course of construction between Chicago and Janesville, was purchased and its bonds negotiated.

The original charters granted by the Minnesota Legislature are still on file among the archives of that State.

A Janesville gentleman, conversant with the railway history of Rock County, gives the following facts concerning the North-Western road since it passed to the present manage- ment : " The Rock River Valley Union Railroad property was sold at auction on the 24th day of March, 1855. A. Hyatt Smith withdrew from the Company a year before the sale took place. William B. Ogden was the purchaser. Charles Butler, who also held an interest, became Pres- ident of the Company. Mr. Ogden was the President of the Illinois & Wisconsin road, then building from Chicago toward Janesville. Soon afterward, the two roads consolidated under the name of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad Company. The Directors under the consolidation were William B. Ogden, Charles Butler, John J. R. Pease and Joseph A. Wood. In 1856, the road was completed and Janesville joined to Chicago by rail. Mr. Ogden then became President of the whole system, and continued as such until June, 1859. In the great railway crash of 1857, he became financially embarrassed, and finally went into bankruptcy, control of the road passing to Samuel J. Tilden and O. D. Ashley, who re-organized it and made it what it is. They proposed to the bondholders-who had never received any interest on their investment-that if they (the bondholders) would advance $600,000, the road could be placed upon a paying basis. The bondholders had confidence enough in the management to advance the money, and work was begun at once. At that date, the Company had ninety miles of road between Janesville and Chicago, and a short stretch running out of Fond du Lac. They built fifty-six miles between Janesville and Minnesota Junction, over the route originally laid out and partially graded by the R. R. V. R. R. Co .; constructed four bridges over Rock River, ironed the road complete, put cars on the track, and turned the road over to the Company with a part of that $600,000 left. They had 180 miles of road then on a paying basis."

We shall now go back to another interesting period in the railway history of Rock County : In 1852, the Racine, Janesville & Mississippi Railroad Company was incorporated by the following gentlemen : Charles S. Wright, Marshall M. Strong, Samuel G. Bugh, James Catton, Peter Campbell, Henry S. Durand, James H. Earnest, John P. Dickson, Daniel Law- son, William J. Allen, S. S. Barlow, James Neil and William H. Lawrence. The charter gave the Company power to locate and build a railroad from Racine, by way of Janesville, through Rock. Green, La Fayette and Grant Counties to the Mississippi River. In 1855, by act of the Legislature, the name was changed to the Racine & Mississippi Railroad Company, and the intention to build a railroad to Janesville, and thence in Wisconsin to the Mississippi River.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

was abandoned. The road was pushed forward from Racine during this year, and completed to Beloit, via Clinton Junction, September 15, 1856.

An interesting incident connected with the construction of this road was the struggle to get to Jefferson Prairie ahead of the Chicago & Fond du Lac road, to entail upon that road the expense of " frogs," etc., which would have to be borne by the road crossing a track already laid. Both roads exerted themselves to the utmost; the workmen caught the spirit of their employers, worked with redoubled vigor as they neared the point of crossing, and, when they came in sight of each other, the work became an exciting race, which was won by the Chicago company by about ten minutes.

Beloit agreed to take 1,000 shares of stock in the Racine & Mississippi road in exchange for bonds of the town to the value of $100,000, having twenty years to run, and bearing 7 per cent interest. This subscription eventually led to protracted litigation, and an account of that transaction is essential to a complete history of the railroads in Beloit. An act of the Legisla- ture, approved February 10, 1853, authorized the subscription of "$100,000 to the capital stock of a railroad company authorized to construct a railroad from the city of Racine to the village of Beloit, and to pay for the same in the bonds of the said town, payable in twenty years, with interest, payable annually in the city of New York, not exceeding 7 per cent. Section 5 of this act required that the subscription should be approved by a popular vote of the citizens of the town, and required that one week's notice of the election to be held for that pur- pose should be given in a newspaper printed in the village. In accordance with this require- ment, the following notice appeared in the Beloit Journal of March 31, 1853 :

An election will be held at Burroughs' Hall, in the village of Beloit, on Thursday, the 7th day of April next, to commence at 9 o'clock A. M., for the purpose of determining by a vote of the majority of the legal voters of the town of Beloit voting at such election, whether the Board of Supervisors of the town of Beloit shall subscribe for the town $100,000 to the capital stock of a railroad from the city of Racine to the village of Beloit, and to pay for the same in bonds of the town, in pursuance of the foregoing act of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin.

Dated March 28, 1853. [Signed by the Supervisors].

At the election, 321 votes were cast for the proposed subscription and only 67 against it, and on the 5th of October, 1853, the Supervisors of the town passed a resolution to issue bonds to the amount indicated, and to deliver them to the Racine & Mississippi Railroad Company. Prior to this date, on the 8th of March, 1853, the Directors of the Company had passed a resolution to accept the bonds of the town in exchange for the stock of the Company, " condi- tional that the road from Racine to Beloit be one division, and the stock therein a distinct stock ; and also conditional that the Company provide for the payment of the interest on said bonds for said town until the completion of the road to Beloit." On the 21st day of May, 1853, the town and the railroad Company entered into the following agreement :

An agreement made and entered into this 21st day of May, 1858, between the town of Beloit, by John East- erly, George B. Sanderson and Allen Warden, the Board of Supervisors of said party of the first part, and the. Racine, Janesville & Mississippi Railroad Company, party of the second part, witnesseth :

Whereas, The Board of Supervisors of the said town of Beloit subscribed for and in behalf of said town, for 1,000 shares of the capital stock of said Company, by an article of subscription dated this day, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin, entitled "an act to authorize the town of Beloit to aid in the con- struction of a certain railroad from the city of Racine to the village of Beloit," approved February 10, 1858. Now, in consideration of said subscription by the town of Beloit aforesaid, and of $I in hand paid, by the party of the first part to the party of the second part, the said party of the second part doth hereby covenant and agree to and with the party of the first part, as follows :

First. That the bonds of said town of Beloit to be issued for the amount of said subscription, shall in no case be sold in market for less than ninety-five cents on the dollar, without the consent of the Board of Supervisors of said town, or their agent.

Second, That the amount of said subscription, as soon as realized, shall be expended upon that portion of said railroad commencing at Beloit and running east to Delavan.

Third, That said Company will pay all interest that may accrue on said bonds up to the time said railroad shall be fully completed to Beloit.

Fourth, That the stock subscribed by the town of Beloit shall be entitled to at least one Director in the Board of said Company.

Fifth, That the stock owned by the town of Beloit shall in no case be merged in the stock of any other road, branch, or corporation whatever, nor be liable to any assessment for any liability or contract of the said Company with any other road, branch, or corporation, without the consent of the said town of Beloit, unless the said road

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

shall take, or offer to take, the said stock off from the hands of the town of Beloit, at its value in the market, not below par.

In witness whereof, the Supervisors of the said town, in behalf thereof, have hereunto set their hands and senls, and the said Company, by its President and Secretary, has also signed the same, and caused the seal of the said Company to be hereunto affixed, the day and year aforesaid.

On the 17th of October, the railroad company ratified this agreement and instructed the President to accept the town bonds and deliver the stock of the road, which he did.

The town bonds were negotiated, the road constructed, and, the town having failed to pay the interest called for by the coupons attached to the bonds, suit was brought on bond No. 95 in the Circuit Court of Rock County, without a jury, before A. Scott Sloan, Judge of the Circuit Court. The case was decided adversely to the town, the Judge finding :

This cause having been fully heard by me, I hereby find, as a matter of fact. that all the allegations in the plaintiff's complaint are established by evidence, and are true ; and, as a matter of law, find that the plaintiff is entitled to a judgment against said defendant for one hundred and sixty-two dollars and seventy-eight cente, and costs.

Dated Dec. 24th, 1858.

By the Court, A. SCOTT SLOAN, Judge.

The case was then appealed to the Supreme Court of the State, the appellant relying upon the alleged unconstitutionality of the act of the Legislature, authorizing the town to subscribe to the stock of the railroad Company, first because it imposed a tax, and was not passed by yeas and nays; and second, because it authorized the town, "an integral part of the State," to become a party in the construction of a work of internal improvement, and "to create a debt for that purpose, and to enforce taxation to obtain money for the payment of that debt, when, by the Constitution, the whole State could do no such thing." The decision of the lower Court was affirmed.

This line, known as the Western Union Railroad, recently became the property of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company.

In 1852, a charter was granted to the Southern Wisconsin Railroad Company, with authority to build a road from Janesville through the southern counties of Wisconsin to the Mississippi River. The incorporators were Ensign H. Bennett, Joseph Bodwell Doe, James H. Earnest, William R. Biddlecome, John Moore, Prosper Cravath, John M. Stewart, John W. Blackstone and Joel C. Squires. The route was surveyed, and a lengthy stretch of grading completed. In the mean time, the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company had built a branch from their main line, running from Milton Junction to Janesville. This branch was opened for traffic in January, 1853. In 1855, an act of the Legislature was passed, giving the Milwaukee & Mississippi Company authority to continue their Milton & Janesville branch from the latter point through the villages of Monroe, Shullsburg and Benton to the Mississippi River, opposite or near Dubuque. The Southern Wisconsin Company was then absorbed by the Milwaukee & Mississippi. The work of laying the track on the grade made by the Southern Wisconsin Company was begun immediately. On September 1, 1857, the line was completed to Brodhead, nineteen miles west of Janesville, and, in January, 1858, was finished to Monroe.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

CHAPTER V.

JJEE COCK COUNTY PRESS-ROCK COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY-WISCONSIN INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCA- TION OF THE BLIND-AGRICULTURE OF ROCK COUNTY-HORTICULTURE AND THE HORTICUL- TURAL SOCIETY-ROCK COUNTY POOR FARM-A MEMORABLE TRAGEDY-ROCK COUNTY STA- TISTICS-SOME OF ROCK COUNTY'S ILLUSTRIOU'S DEAD.

ROCK COUNTY PRESS.

not Journalism and journalists are regarded by the superficial masses as necessary incidents, if evils, to an imperfect type of civilization. Others contemplate the profession and its Pa trons with an indifference born of ignorance and prejudice ; regarding only the defects in one ar - frailties of the other, conceding consideration to neither, for services which become more prominent as the success of either becomes more pronounced.

But the newspaper, the editor, the reporter and the compositors are the Archimedean levers ich move the world. Their character and doctrines fashion public opinion, and their defects triumphs become matters of history.

of Their jests may become stale and their principles exchanged by the minority for novelties passing attraction ; their enemies may forgive and friends forget-yet through all these en Targoes, through the mass of inconsistencies malevolent human nature cultivates, the univer-

sal verdict of mankind renders to their agencies, an infinite good.

Important affairs may be at times mismanaged, but they are never misunderstood, and their accomplishment is never attended by a perverted or dishonest ingenuity. There is cer- tai maly no profession or professional representative who is more entitled to the fullest comple- ment of moral respect and admiration than journalism and the journalist. He is the weathercock of public opinion, and must be firm and upright amidst swaying interests and perilous exi- gen cies. His thoughts must not be blinded by personal considerations, but left free to adjudi- cate questions of grave import to humanity, as safely and clearly and effectually as the purest Of Juge upon the bench. Such must the editor be-a man true to himself, his race and his God. such material must he be composed, if he would dictate a policy and direct an administra- tion which will live in history as the mark and model of its time.

On Thursday, August 14, 1845, The Janesville Gazette was first issued. The pioneer paper of Rock County was at that date a small quarto of twenty-four columns, and, though typographically, and as the circulator of national, State and local news, fully equaled the most extravagant expectations, was an insignificant publication as compared with the Gazette of to- ay. Since its first issue, the paper has come to be a power in Wisconsin, and enjoys a cir- culation (at one time measured) by thousands, among all classes of readers.

In the initial number, Messrs. Alden & Stoddard, the proprietors, introduced their venture to the citizens of Rock and Walworth Counties with the statement that " No apology and but few remarks" were " necessary in laying" their " prospectus before the public. This commu-

ally

nits ," they continued, " by the lively interest it has already taken in the enterprise, has virtu- demanded the establishment of a press at this place ; and it is to meet this demand that we have been induced to an undertaking that might otherwise seem extremely hazardous.

men "The main features of our paper will be political, though we shall afford liberal depart- ts to agricultural, literary and miscellaneous articles.

the "We make no hesitation in declaring our party preferences. We shall fearlessly advocate principles of the WHIG PARTY as they have been most distinctly defined in the late Presi- den tial contest, and yet we shall be guided by no narrow proscriptive policy in the treatment of

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

our political opponents. We shall resort to no debasing obsequiousness to secure their smiles, but shall treat them candidly and courteously." The address concluded with an announcement that " The Gazette would be published every Thursday morning," and that "The terms would be two dollars per annum in advance. Two dollars and fifty cents if not paid until the expira- tion of six months."

The introductory editorial overture sets forth more in detail the objects of the enterprise to be : "To relate faithfully the passing events of the day-to give our opinions on the spur of the moment, upon subjects which time has but halt developed-to remark, as is frequently nec- essary upon individual action, perhaps in reproachful terms, and give direction, as the most humble party paper will, to political action, frequently places one in no very enviable position.

"We shall endeavor to pursue a plain, consistent course, confining ourselves to political issues fairly defined, and which were clearly set forth in the memorable struggle of '44 and pre- ceding campaigns, reserving to ourselves the right, of course, of occasionally reviewing what we may not inaptly call the uncertain politics of the day. Should it become necessary, in our editorial intercourse with the public, to resort to personal remark, we shall endeavor to do so candidly, carefully avoiding that low abuse so frequently resorted to by political opponents.

" We oppose the Democratic party, not from any personal considerations whatever, but because we do not like their leading measures. Let them oppose us on the same terms, and we shall not complain.

"The literary selections of this paper shall be choice, and the miscellany varied and inter- esting enough to suit the wishes of any reasonable person.

" Under the agricultural head we shall make such selections from the standard periodicals as will be of great interest to our readers. We solicit communications from our practical farmers.

" We ask of our friends a wide circulation and a generous patronage."

The first edition contained two columns of editorial; one column containing the proceed- ings of the Territorial Whig Convention held at Madison on the 24th of July ; nine columns of literary miscellany ; considerable local and reprint; Oregon correspondence of the Springfield Journal; English and Southern correspondence of the New York Tribune ; a call for the Democratic Convention in Janesville ; half a column of poetry and seven columns of advertise ments. Among the latter were those of Isaac Woodle, E. V. Whiton, Volney Atwood and F. W. Tompkins, attorneys ; Lane & Lewis and A. K. Stearns, physicians; Sally & Close, tailors; E. H. Strong, dealer in tin-sheet-iron and copper ware; M. B. Edson, dealer in drugs and medicines, also books, stationery, etc .; H. F. Pelton & Co., dealers in paints, oils, dye-stuffs, groceries, crockery, hardware, dry goods, etc .; E. H. Bennett and Jackman & Smith, dealen in dry goods, groceries and all kinds of merchandise ; a court notice ; the Fireside Friend; George Cook, playing, visiting and blank cards, New York ; proprietors of the United Stata -Journal; of the Western Literary Review, published in Cincinnati by E. Z. C. Judson ; of the True American, to be published in Lexington, Ky., and be devoted to gradual and constitu- tional emancipation, so at some definite time to place our State upon the firm, safe and just basis of liberty," and the National Pilot, a paper published in Buffalo on a " new and peculiar plan." The paper was very presentable in appearance and make-up and commanded at once a success as deserved as it must have been gratifying to Messrs. Alden & Stoddard. Mr. Alden came West from Claremont, N. H., in the fall of 1844, and, establishing himself at Janesville, began the foundation of the Gazette, which promises to survive the days of its founder. In the fall of 1845, as has been stated, he issued the first number in conjunction with E. A. Stoddard, who came from Milwaukee and took charge of the printing and publishing. Mr. Alden remained in charge until 1856, when he severed his connection with the Gazette to engage in other pursuits. In 1857, he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, remaining in that office eight years, going thence to Madison, where he accepted a position in the office of the Secretary of State, where he served five years, resigning to take charge of the editorial columns of a Madison newspaper, where he now is associate editor of the Journal.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 58

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 899

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899