Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 10: First Roads, 1909

Chapter 10: First Roads

Who turns his back when the winds blow chill. And wails "Alack," when his luck is ill, May never possess the pride of soul - He earns who battles and gains the goal.

In addition to what may be termed the commercial aspect of good roads, they have a highly important social aspect as well. They bring the farmer into closer touch with the world at large. He and his family are not forced to remain at home for days at a time because the condition of the roads make traveling unpleasant, if not difficult. Good roads insure efficient and prompt rural mail deliveries, placing the newspapers on the table of the farmer early on the day of publication, enabling him to transact much of his business by mail and to take advantage of early information as to fluctuations in the prices of his farm products. Good roads mean that the farmer and the members of his family can enjoy to a greater degree the society of their neighbors and friends in the town and country. They mean that his children can be more regular in school attendance, and can receive to a greater degree the advantages of education. They mean the bringing closer together of the town and country, with advantages on both sides, for as the farmer is benefited by being brought into closer touch with the town, so all the business interests of the town prosper as the result of the facility with which the farmer and his family can do their shopping. Good roads also benefit the inhabitants of towns and cities by affording facilities for pleasant country drives. They invite the business man to the establishment of country and suburban homes, such as he can enjoy only when he is assured that the condition of the roads will be such as to enable him to reach his place of business promptly in all kinds of weather.

Everybody knows that good roads are good things, and that nothing is more conducive to good business than good roads. Among the improvements of any country, nothing is more important than its roads or highways. Civilization is judged by its roads. In this chapter we will speak of our roads and railroads, taking them as they came in. When Mount Vernon was first laid off it had no roads - not even by-paths, and the pioneers had their cabins, their clearings, the public buildings and the public roads all to make. First, as to wagon roads, for it was many years before railroads were even dreamed of. First, we allude to the

Saline And Walnut-Hill Road

At the beginning the Goshen road was the only one running into or through the county, and it crossed what is now the Fairfield road, four miles east of the site of Mount Vernon. The County Commissioners made several efforts to get a road viewed and laid out before they succeeded. Several times committees were appointed to view and lay out certain roads, but time passed and no road. Finally, James Abbott, William Jordan and Reuben Jackson reported that they had viewed and selected a line for a road running through Mount Vernon, beginning at or near the southeast corner of the county and up through Jordan's Prairie, on the north. The report was accepted and the road ordered, eighteen feet wide. Uncle Joseph Pace was the surveyor, G. P. and A. P. Casey, chain carriers. Jordan and Abbott had a bottle of whiskey. After drinking, they offered it to Uncle Joe Pace ; he took the bottle and emptied its contents on the ground. The road was opened and most of it is used to this day. The bridge across Casey's Fork of Muddy was the only one to be built, and Ben Hood and Canton Wilkey built it for forty-four dollars and fifteen cents. The Vandalia road was the next opened, but it took a long time to make people believe it was a permanent highway. The came next, which accommodated the Grand Prairie people in getting to town. With a few changes the same is the Richview road of today. Next the bossed by John Summers, who had located over the creek, and began business with his mill, on the D. H. Warren place. In the main what was then made the aforesaid road is the Fairfield road of today. Then came the

Brownsville Or Pinckneyville Road

In alluding to these roads we have not attempted to give details, but simply referred to results, the very thing sought by the pioneers and the one thing needed - open roads. After these difficult - that is, difficult to secure and difficult to follow, highways were duly opened, other roads "too numerous to mention" became the order of the day throughout the county. Among them was a road across the southwest corner of the county - the Nashville and Equality road. Another from Salem to Chester across the northwest part of the county. In 1 839 a new state road from McLeansboro to Mount Vernon was located. Later a road was laid out from the academy to Short's Mill on the creek and thence east into the wilderness; the Richview and Farrmgton road crossing the Salem road near Pleasant Grove ; the Frog Island road ; the Ashley and Spring Garden ; one from Rome to the Carlyle road ; the Mount Vernon and Lynchburg road; the Spring Garden and Tamaroa road; one from Lynchburg to Ham's Grove and many others - so many in fact, that strangers are always in doubt which road to take. Many of them, like a snake, wriggle in and wriggle out, leaving the traveler still in doubt whether the snake that made the tract is going north or coming back. No attention was paid to section or township lines in the laying out of these roads and much valuable land has been impaired by their various windings. Of course the personal interests of the "viewers" and others cut coniderable ice in the formation and subsequent preambulation of these roads. And we may truthfully say that under township organization, we have very expensive roads and very few really good ones - especially in winter, when good roads are needed. Unfortunately we have nothing to make roads of - except dust or mud. But the time is coming when we will import the material and malie good roads.

Our Railroads

When our pioneers were viewing and laying off the wagon roads alluded to above, they had never dreamed of having a railroad into or through Jefferson county. But about 1836 and from that on, they began to dream and dream until the railroad fever fully set in. In that year the Illinois Central road was chartered and our people wanted it but only got about four hundred yards of it across the northwestern corner of the county - although in 1 852 when the road was really built, the surveyors ran a survey through Mount Vernon in charge of B. G. Roots, and made us think we already heard the toot, toot of the iron-horse. Of course a great mistake was made by not locating the road through Mount Vernon and Jefferson county. The Legislature had a crazy fit in the session of 1836-7-8 and attempted to cover the whole state with railroads at once - one from Cairo to Galena, one from Shawneetown to Alton - and several in the central and northern part of the state - in all about fifteen hundred miles. The result was a debt of fourteen million dollars, and a "jerkwater" road from Springfield to the Illinois river on the west - about a hundred miles, worth perhaps one hundred thousand dollars. By the efforts of Noah Johnston in the Senate and H. T. Pace in the House an act was passed which gave us an interest in two hundred thousand dollars that was appropriated to counties that failed to get any railroads. But we missed the railroad, and missed getting the money - except one hundred and fifty dollars secured by the persistent efforts of H. T. Pace - part of what we were entitled to from the sale of the "Saline lands." Then railroad excitement died out until 1851-2, when the Illinois Central was again chartered, and the work actually begun. Then the fever broke out again. The Sangamon & Massac road was chartered, Jefferson county being represented in the company by J.

M. Johnson, Z. Casey, T. M. Casey and H. T. Pace, but there the thing stopped. Another was the "Mount Vernon Railroad Company" with Z. Casey, H. T. Pace, S. H. Anderson, Q. A. Wilbanks, J. R. Allen, S. K. Allen, S. W. Carpenter and B. F. Wood, as charter members - to build a road from Mount Vernon, tapping the Central at some point to be determined - it didn't tap.

We, the undersigned citizens of the county of Jefferson and state of Illinois, in consideration that any person or association of persons, organized or incorporated under and by virtue of any act of the Legislature of the state of Illinois now in force, or under and by virtue of any act of the Legislature aforesaid which may hereafter be enacted, will and shall build, construct and equip a railroad from the town of Ashley, in Washington county and state of Illinois, the town of Mt. Vernon, in Jefferson county and state of Illinois, either as a separate and distinct road or forming a portion of a through road running to the town of Fairfield in Wayne county, Illinois, or to any other point east of Fairfield, within a reasonable time from this date, do hereby agree, undertake and bind ourselves and each of us to grant and convey by good and sufficient deed or deeds of conveyance in law and equity the quantity and description of lands situated in said county of Jefferson and annexed to and set opposite our names to any such person, or association of persons organized and incorporated as aforesaid, so soon as such person, or association of persons, incorporated and organized as aforesaid, shall give securities or guarantees sufficient to satisfy any number of persons not exceeding five whom we, or such portion of us shall in any public meeting at the court-house, in Mt. Vernon, called for the purpose upon ten days' notice, designate and appoint, that said railroad will be constructed and equipped within a reasonable time, as aforesaid, from this date.

Subscribers. No. Acres

In 1850 Congress gave Illinois the swamp lands within her borders for educational and internal improvements, and the state in turn gave each county the same lands within its borders for the purposes named. Jefferson county's share was about nineteen thousand acres and at an election held in 1855 the proposition to do- nate these lands to the construction of a railroad carried. Propositions were made by foreigners to build the road, but not accepted. Then Governor Casey founded a company under the name and style of Van Duzer, Smith & Co. and to this company the work was awarded, signed by Z. Casey, and A. M. Grant as president and secretary of the old company. Subscriptions were opened at Anderson & Mills' store and forty thousand dollars soon subcribed and partly paid in. The work began to boom. The track was cleared from Ashley to Mount Vernon and the road-bed partly finished. Van Duzer, Smith & Co. were everybody's pets ; they went in debt to everybody. Ties were piled along the line; they got money from Shackelford & Givens and had our trustee give them a deed for four thousand acres of the swamp lands; Dr. Green and others found themselves grantors for them to the tune of ten thousand dollars. One of them had married one of our handsomest ladies; Van Duzen took five hundred thousand dollars in bonds to New York to sell and it is said his report is not yet in. Work began to drag - slower every day; and then - the work ceased - and the whole enterprise was a dismal failure. The grantors attached what little was left - virtually nothing ; Smith went back to New York and his wife was reported rich, but he owned nothing; Van Duzer went to Michigan and later to the penitentiary and Goetschins died in Paducah, Kentucky. The company forfeited everything. The old company recovered the franchise and the road-bed was sold at Springfield and bought in for the company through Thomas Hobbs for a mere pittance. To recover contingencies, a new charter was formed for the Ashley & Mount Vernon Railroad by Z. Casey, H. T. Pace, J. R. Allen, W. D. Green, T. B. Tarmer, C. T. Pace and Noah Johnson. Then came others who wanted to build the road, or rather wanted the lands, and after much maneuvering and scheming and so forth and so on, bonds for one hundred thousand dollars was voted by the people of the county for the building of the road through the county. After many efforts and many propositions had failed, a new company got a charter for a railroad from St. Louis to Shawneetown and took the name of the St. Louis & Southeastern Railroad Co. This company was composed of Orvil Pool, James H. Wilson, J. J. Castles, S. K. Casey, W. D. Green, T. H. Hobbs and E. F. Winslow - all old residents, except General Wilson, who was General Grant's chief of staff during war, and General Winslow, who built the Brough road by the Vandalia, sold out for one hundred thousand dollars and became a railroad man. And the contract was finally let to Winslow & Wilson, principally through Dr. Green, who had definitely learned that it was the best way to subserve Mount Vernon's interests. After all the efforts and many besides. Mount Vernon's first railroad, the St. Louis & Southeastern (now Louisville & Nashville Railroad) was completed in 1869-70, using the original road-bed from Mount Vernon to Ashley, made in 1858 by Van Duzer, Smith & Co., and instead of obtaining a "bob-tailed" road as the projectors were often twitted with, we secured what later proved to be one of the best trunk lines running from the Southeast to the great Northwest. Mount Vernon also secured extensive and valuable car shops that largely increased our population and wealth. These shops were unfortunately burned down in 1878, but speedily rebuilt. Later, the work was removed to Howell, Indiana, and the buildings were leased to the Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Company (of which, more hereater). The boom that struck Mount Vernon with the coming of the first railroad has had a few lulls, but has never ceased, and now that it is one of the best railroad centers in the southern part of the state, its destiny is intimately linked with future prosperity. And for this we should not forget that we are largely indebted to the public-spirited gentlemen of our county named in connection with the securing of this first road.

Prior to this time a Marion and Jefferson county railroad was chartered ; also the Shawneetown branch of the Illinois Central, both to run through Mount Vernon, and still others, but - "nothing doing," or nothing done with these roads.

A road was undertaken from Alton to Mount Carmel, money borrowed and the road begun by Gen. William Pickering. He spent all the money he could get and all he had himself and made the road-bed from Princeton, Indiana, to Albion, Illinois, then failed, but retained the ownership of the franchise and road-bed, which he sold to Bluford Wilson and others - his heirs getting fourteen thousand dollars only for it. The purchasers, after dickering around for a long time, got matters in shape to continue work on the road - finally changing its name to the Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company, and adding several branches. It reached Mount Vernon in 1883. For a year or two its western terminus was Mount Vernon, running its trains to St. Louis over the Louisville & Nashville, but it was finally built to St. Louis, via Rome and Centralia, and after achieving success, was transferred to the system of the Great Southern road - this giving us another trunk line east and west and adding still more to our population and wealth. The Southern has become a very popular road and that without costing Jefferson county many thousands of dollars, as the first road did. Jefferson county paid good and well for its first road.

The Jacksonville & Southeastern

on the Louisville & Nashville (sending its trains here over that line), was operated a few years and sold to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and now runs south through the county, crossing the Louisville & Nashville at Woodlawn, passing through Woodlawn, Cravat, Waltonville and Emerson City.

The Chester & Tamaroa

road was extended to Mount Vernon in the eighties and is another valuable link of road - especially, locally. It is destined to be continued to Terre Haute, Indiana, and become part of another trunk line system. It is doing a fine local business, and is chiefly under the management of C. B. Cole, of Chester.

The Chicago, Eastern Illinois

Railroad Company built into Mount Vernon a few years ago, and this link formed part of another trunk line, the Frisco system, which runs all over the West and South. This gives us a direct line to Chicago, as good as the one we ought to have had years before. It runs to the Ohio river and crosses the Mississippi river at Thebes and takes in the entire Southwest. It is a fine road and cost the county nothing.

So it will be seen that Mount Vernon and Jefferson county are "fixed" so far as railroads are concerned - making the county seat one of the most desirable railroad centers in all the region round about. Certainly our "internal improvements" are keeping pace with those of other inland counties of the great Prairie state.

In conclusion we may say that we have in Jefferson county about four hundred and fifty miles of railroad track (including the sidings at the different towns), fifteen depot buildings and other valuable railroad property, upon which the county derives a good revenue. We have facilities for traveling in every direction, two or three times every day, and instead of driving our hogs and geese to Shawneetown or St. Louis, while we hauled our chickens and eggs and hides, as we used to, we have a home market for them at good prices, and what we want from the cities can be laid at our doors on twenty-four hours' notice. Where it used to take us a full week to go to St. Louis and do our little trading, we can now go in the morning, do a days' business and be home by bed-time. What would the first settlers of Mount Vernon have thought of the visionary who had the spirit of optimism so deeply implanted in him as to prophesy that all this would come to pass within the natural lifetime of one man? It teaches us that instead of adopting the pessimistic wail of

"The world's a hollow bubble, don't you know? Just a painted piece of trouble, don't you know?" we should mount the higher plane of optimism, and proclaim from the hill-tops