Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 12: Means of Transportation, 1912

Forest Trails - First Roads, Bridges and Ferries - Steamboat Navigation - Alton, St. Louis' Rival - Tlie Eagle Packet Company - Revival of the River Trade - Early and Late Railroad Building - Electric Railroads.

The handsomest passenger trains in the world are some of those running between Chicago and St. Louis and passing through Madison county. It is a far cry back to the primitive days when sledges were used as means for transportation in the county, but away back in 1814 the bodies of the seven victims of the Wood River massacre were taken to the cemetery on a sled because, the narrative says, "there were no wagons in those days." Of course this means none in that settlement. There must have been wagons in the county, as the first settlement within the present boundaries was made at Goshen in 1802, and that there were none in Wood River settlement seems almost incredible.

In aboriginal days the Indians had trails through the forest and over the prairies, al¬ most invisible to the eyes of the white man but plain to the ancient denizens of the land, and the early white settlers soon had their own pathways through the wilderness, marked by barked trees or bent branches and by other indications on the open prairie. These were known as "the trace," over which came the pioneers on foot or on horseback. "The trace" soon became a roadway, over which the emigrant wagons made their toilsome way.

The streams were forded at shallow places, or ofttimes crossed by swimming. It was over obscure trails that the army of Geo. Rogers Clark passed on its march from the Ohio river to Kaskaskia. There was "a trace" across the country from Vincennes to Kaskaskia in those days, and some historians claim that Clark followed this "trace" on his march the follow¬ ing spring from Kaskaskia to Vincennes. Later writers claim that he did not follow it, for fear that swift Indian runners, along that route, would detect his approach and give in¬ formation to the enemy whom he planned to surprise. Hence, it is now held by some, that he blazed a trace of his own farther south, and was thus able to conceal his march and effect the surprise and capture he contemplated.

The first roads in the new country were those along the most direct routes between new and scattered settlements. After the county had been laid out into townships a more advanced road system was adopted, to a great extent along township lines.

After the organization of the county the first duty entered upon by the court of com¬ mon pleas was the improvement of the roads, as was evidenced at the first meeting of the court at the house of Thomas Kirkpatrick on the site of Edwardsville, in April, 1813. At this meeting Joseph Newman was appointed overseer of the road leading from the town of Cahokia to Indian Ford on Cahokia creek, be¬ ginning at the bridge on the Canteen creek. Anthony Cox was also appointed overseer of the lower section of the same road. At the same meeting John Kirkpatrick was appointed overseer of the road "leading from Mr. Sam¬ uel Judah's to Thomas Kirkpatrick's mill on Cahokia creek, keeping in good repair the banks of said Cahokia creek." By the rec¬ ords of the court it appears that, in March, 1815, there were six road districts, and the court listed' from twelve to twenty-four per¬ sons as subject to road labor in each district as follows :

Thus was the system of road labor, under superintendents, inaugurated in this county. It probably supplied as good country roads as we have at present under the Road Commismissioner system. Certainly they could not have been much worse where no paving ma¬ terial is employed. Ferries over the Missis¬ sippi were made subject to taxation in 1813. The court named the following rates: Wil¬ liam Baker's ferry, $1.00; Samuel Gillham's $1.00; William B. Whiteside's $1.00; Walk¬ er's, $3.00.

ings into the interior. For many years the main improvements in transportation through the county consisted in building bridges over the streams at the old fords or at some other favorable points, and also in the building, to some extent, of plank or MacAdam turnpikes with toll gates at which fees were collected for driving over them. These were generally private enterprises acting under charter, but in time became obsolete. In the early days ox teams were much used upon the country roads and in bringing produce to market, while cattle and hogs were driven to market on the hoof. Along in the forties and fifties it was a com¬ mon thing to see huge droves of hogs being driven along the country roads to the extensive packing houses at Alton, some of them coming from long distances. There were country inns or taverns all along these stock routes for the accommodation of the drovers and cattle dealers.

When steamboats replaced the keel boats and barges on the Mississippi a great impetus was given to the trade and commerce of the county and shipments to the cities on the lower and upper river of the products of Madison's fields, farms and orchards rapidly increased. The increase of available markets and the resultant heavy demand for grain, flour and stock from the county made the river ports and landings lively centers of business. The beginning of steamboat communication was in 1818, a year after the General Pike landed at St. Louis on the first trip of a steam¬ boat up the Mississippi. From 1818 to 1820 Col. James Johnson shipped supplies from Al¬ ton, or rather the site of Alton, to Fort Osage on the Missouri, under contract with the gov¬ ernment. It was not, however, until 1834 that the steamer "Tiskilwa" commenced making regular trips between Alton and St. Louis. The years between 1840 and i860 were the golden age of steamboating on the Mississippi and Madison county shared in the general prosperity induced thereby. While much of the trade of the county was drawn to St. Louis, especially from the eastern and south¬ ern sections and the adjacent American Bot¬ tom, Alton was the great receiving and ship¬ ping point of the county and also of Macoupin and Jersey.

Of these piping times of steamboat prosper¬ ity before the advent of railroads, much might be written. It was a prosperous era for the river towns before the railroads wrested from the rivers the supremacy in trade. I know of nothing which better illustrates this than some side lights thrown on the picture in the rem¬ iniscences of Hon. Joseph Brown, one of the most successful steamboat captains on the river in the early days. He relates that in 1 835-6 the river trade of Alton was abreast of that of St. Louis. Of course the trade of St. Louis soon forged far ahead, but, for a time, Madison county's commercial capital was a close rival of St. Louis in that particular line.

As an illustration I quote a few passages from Captain Brown's reminiscences which give an idea of the extent of that trade in his personal experience, and such contemporaries of his as Capt. W. P. LaMothe, John A. Bruner and the Mitchell Brothers could tell similar tales of old times on the river. Cap¬ tain Brown writes: "At that time (1836) Al¬ ton was considered the head of navigation for New Orleans boats and many of the upperriver boats turned back up the river from Al¬ ton, and Ohio river boats came to Alton and turned back from there. Among the New Or¬ leans boats of that day were the 'Alton' and 'Vandalia,' and of the Ohio river boats the 'Paul Jones' and the 'Champion,' the latter be¬ ing a low pressure boat brought from Lake

Champlain to beat the 'Paul Jones,' which up to that time was considered the fastest boat on the river. A boat called the 'B. I. Gilman' was considered the finest boat on the upper Mississippi. About this time (1846) I was running a mill at Alton and to show the freaks of fortune, of which I have had many, flour was very low in New Orleans, and I had held back my flour until I had the entire mill and warehouse full. So I went to St. Louis and chartered a steamer, the 'North Alabama,' to come to Alton for a full load of flour. She came and I loaded her with 18,000 barrels and she started for New Orleans, and didn't stop at St. Louis, having all the freight she could carry. It was in the fall of 1846, the water was low in the river and she grounded below Memphis. When I heard of it I nearly went wild, for I had drawn bills of credit on the flour and I feared they would become due and the flour not there to meet them, and knew there was no profit in the flour anyway at the quoted price ; for superfine flour was quoted at only $2.60 a barrel in New Orleans. The boat laid aground twelve days and in the meantime the Mexican war broke out and flour went up $2.00 a barrel, so that I cleared over $18,000 on that one boatload of flour.

"Alton had quite a number of St. Louis and Alton packets, beginning in 1836. Among them were the 'Winnebago,' the 'Tiskilwa,' the 'Omega,' the 'Pearl,' which later ran to St. Charles and then the 'Little Eagle' which was built for the Alton trade. She was only ninety feet long, painted black and took about seven hours to come from St. Louis to Alton. You could hear her screaming for an hour before she reached the landing. If anyone at that time had said the river would ever be bridged and that a train would ever reach Alton from St. Louis in half or three quarters of an hour, he would have been thought to be crazy. The 'Little Eagle' had but one engine, like all boats of that day. W. P. LaMothe was her captain.

He afterwards built the 'Luella' and controlled the trade for some years. Later on I bought him out because I wanted the boat to carry my flour promptly to St. Louis to ship south. That caused dissatisfaction with the Wises, who also had a flour mill at that time, and the result was that the steamer 'Tempest' was put in opposition. I then cut the fare from sev¬ enty-five cents to ten cents and gave supper. We ran that way for nine months and then compromised and I finally bought them out of the trade.

"Afterwards I built the far-famed 'Altona,' which has probably never been beaten for speed. She frequently ran from Alton to St. Louis inside of an hour and came up from St. Louis to Alton in an hour and thirty-seven minutes. She paid for herself in one year and on the finishing of the railroad from Alton to Springfield I sold her to the railroad company for just what she cost me to build her. She was commanded by Captain LaMothe after I had sold her to the Chicago & Alton. Then I bought the big 'St. Louis,' a boat that was 350 feet long with immense power and was ex¬ pected to come from New Orleans to St. Louis inside of three days, but she proved a failure for speed on account of her model and never came inside of seven days, but was the biggest carrier on the river. She was built ahead of her time and carried so much that she was never loaded to the guards until I bought her. Soon after the yellow fever broke out in New Orleans and all the other boats laid up on ac¬ count of it, but I owed half the purchase money of the boat and dared not lay up; be¬ sides the price of freight went up to an enor¬ mous rate. So I loaded the boat to the guards, it being the first time I ever had freight enough to load her, and went into New Or¬ leans when one hundred persons were dying a day. I cleared $10,000 on that trip and think I earned it, for if I had not been in debt for

"After that I built the 'Mayflower.' She was a very fine boat, three hundred feet long, and was one of only two boats that had three decks. I was commodore of the fleet of twenty-eight steamers that came to Alton in 1866 to welcome President Johnson. He and General Grant were going 'round the circle,' so-called. They came down from Alton to St. Louis on the 'Ruth,' and I can assure you that to manoeuvre twenty-eight steamers in front of Alton was no easy matter, but for¬ tunately we had no accidents."

These excerpts from Captain Brown's rem¬ iniscences give a vivid picture of what the river business was before the war, and be¬ fore and prior to the advent of the railroads. Fifty years ago as many as ninety steamers had been known to leave St. Louis in a single day bound for ports on the Upper Mississippi, Lower Mississippi, the Missouri, the Illinois, the Osage, the Ohio, the Wabash, the Cum¬ berland, the Tennessee, the White, the Red, the Washita and the Arkansas. Now it is a red letter day when a half dozen steamers cast loose from that port within twenty-four hours. The extension of the Indianapolis & St. Louis and the Chicago & Alton railroads from Al¬ ton to St. Louis, signaled the decline of the river traffic between those two ports and trans¬ ferred the greater part of Madison county's river trade to St. Louis.

Other steamers engaged in the Alton and St. Louis trade were the "Alpha" in 1837, and in 1845 the "Gov. Briggs," Captain James E. Starr. When the railroad company, then the Chicago & Mississippi, bought the "Altona" in 1852 she was commanded by Capt. D. C. Adams. The company also bought the "Cor¬ nelia" and the boats made two trips a day to connect the railroad with St. Louis. Other steamers in the trade were the "Reindeer," the

"St. Paul," and the "Winchester." The boats not proving profitable to the company were sold to J. J. and W. H. Mitchell, W. P. La Mothe and Joseph Brown of Alton, and Gaty, McCune & Company of St. Louis, who con¬ tracted to do the railroad business between Al¬ ton and St. Louis. Up to 1865 there were many different steamers in the Alton-St. Louis trade, among them the "Baltimore," "York State," "David Tatum," "B. M. Runyan," "City of Alton," "May A. Bruner," "Southwester" and others. In addition to those men¬ tioned other noted steamboat men of those times were Capt. George E. Hawley, William Barnes, James S. Bellas, Thos. G. Starr, John A. Bruner, 'S. J. Owings and Leander Mitchell. Of these the most prominent were Captains Brown, Bruner and La Mothe. All the steamboat men named above were resi¬ dents of Alton.

After the war and the extension of both the Chicago & Alton and the Illinois & St. Louis railroads to St. Louis both business and competition were less lively. The "Southwester" continued in the trade until 1868 and was succeeded by the "Comet." In 1869 the "Belle of Alton," Captain Bruner, came out and remained in the trade until 1871 when she was sent south and was destroyed by fire at New Orleans. She was succeeded in the Al¬ ton trade by the "Schuyler," which steamer was followed by the "Illinois" and the "De- Smet." After two months of rivalry between these steamers, the former, owned by the Illi¬ nois River Packet Company, was withdrawn, leaving the "DeSmet," Capt. Bruner, alone in the field.

In 1869 the Alton packets extended their daily trips to Grafton. Other steamers en¬ gaged in the trade were the "Imperial," the "Jennie Baldwin," the tug boat "Jack Robert¬ son," and for short periods, the "Atlantic," "Josie," "Eagle" and "Cherokee."

Capt. J. T. Dodge, of Alton, an old soldier, was connected with the Alton-St. Louis trade for twenty-five years after the war and is now the only survivor of those engaged in the bus¬ iness prior to the advent of the Eagle Packet Company, with the exception of Capt. George E. Hawley, of St. Louis, a veteran of the period before the war. The steamers named above soon had a rival in the "Spread Eagle," owned by the Eagle Packet Company of Keokuk and Warsaw which concluded to en¬ ter a new field. The rivalry between the De¬ Smet and The Eagle Packet Company was ended by consolidation in 1874. The Eagle Packet Company, from small beginnings on the upper river continued to grow in business and importance after its removal to Alton. In 1880 its officers were as follows J. R. Williams of Warsaw, president; G. W. Hill, secretary and treasurer ; Henry Leyhe, superintendent ; William Leyhe, assistant superintendent. All of these became residents of Alton except Captain Williams. Captain Hill survived to the good old age of eighty-six, dying at his home in Alton in 1910. Captains William and Henry Leyhe are still residents of Alton and among its most prominent citizens.

The Eagle Packet Company is now the most powerful and important steamboat line on the Mississippi. Since it entered the Alton-St. Louis trade in 1874 it has owned and operated many steamers including four "Spread Eagles" which have succeeded each other in the Alton, Grafton and St. Louis trade. The last of the name was launched in 1911 and commenced regular trips in September of that year. The company now owns and operates the following steamers : "Alton," "Spread Eagle," "Bald Eagle," "Grey Eagle" and "Cape Girardeau." The officers of the com¬ pany in 1911 were: President, Capt. William Leyhe ; secretary and treasurer, Capt. H. W.

Leyhe ; general superintendent, Capt. Henry Leyhe. The company also has a controlling interest in the Cape Girardeau Transportation Company which owns the steamers "Little Eagle," "Echo" and numerous barges.

Capt. Hill retired from the company a short time prior to his death and his heirs now oper¬ ate the new steamer "G. W. Hill," named after the Captain, in the St. Louis-Calhoun county trade.

Of course Alton has always been a shipping and receiving point for the various upper Mis¬ sissippi and Illinois river lines, but I have con¬ fined my review to lines and steamers owned and operated by Alton rivermen.

Mississippi river steamers in the spacious days before the war were short-lived. They fell early victims to fire, explosion and flood. One stretch of river, near the mouth of the Missouri was, in early times, known as "the grave yard" from the large number of steam¬ ers that there met with disaster and whose bones now line the bottom of the stream. Of course this is all changed now and, with gov¬ ernment regulations and inspection, the out¬ lining of the channel with buoys and lights, and with the practical elimination of racing, safety of steamers and security to passengers have been attained to the highest degree pos¬ sible and accidents have become rare. While this is true it is also true that the type of ves¬ sels, in speed and carrying capacity, has not advanced in conformity with the progress of the age. The greatest improvement is in the handling of gang planks by steam or electri¬ city, instead of by stevedores, and in the use of derricks, to a large extent, in the loading and unloading of freight. With the introduc¬ tion of such innovations as are in use on the great lakes the revival of the river trade, which had been almost eliminated by railway competition, seems assured.

The historic Internal Improvement scheme was at its height in Illinois in 1836. The legis¬ lature which met in December of that year appropriated $10,200,000 for the improvement of the navigation of the rivers of the state and for building a network of railroads. The scheme included a railroad from Alton to Mt. Carmel, passing through Edwardsville, and Highland, with a branch from Edwardsville to Shawneetown ; a road from Alton, via Upper Alton, to Terre Haute, Indiana; and one from Alton to Springfield. The first two roads were located and considerable work done thereon in the way of grading and bridging, traces of which can yet be seen east and north of Alton and between Alton and Highland. The road from Alton to Springfield was surveyed and considerable stock taken. After the improve¬ ments had made considerable progress came the great financial crash of 1837 and the gen¬ eral suspension of the banks. After strug¬ gling along with its load of debt and obliga¬ tions for three years the legislature abandoned its improvement scheme, although sections of railroads in different localities, aggregating nearly 129 miles, had been completed, but the only consecutive section was that between Springfield and Meredosia called the North¬ ern Cross Road. It was fifty-one miles long and cost $952,000. It was a dead failure from the start and was sold in 1847 for $21,000 to Nicholas H. Ridgely of Springfield, after va¬ rious lessees had failed to make it profitable.

The honor of being first in the field with a railroad should be awarded to St. Clair county where the Illinois & St. Louis was built from the bluffs to the river, across the American Bottom. It was built without state aid by Governor Reynolds, S. B. Chandler, George Walker and Daniel Pierce. It was designed to carry coal to St. Louis and was the first road in the Mississippi valley.

The first railroad built in Madison county was the Chicago & Alton, then known as the Alton & Sangamon. It was chartered in 1847 and completed to Springfield in 1852. Its projector was Capt. Benjamin Godfrey, of Alton, and he was the moving spirit in the enterprise until its completion to the state capital. He lived in a car and followed the work as it progressed and mortgaged all his property to ensure its success. The work of building the road through Alton was a stu¬ pendous undertaking. It involved building a culvert through the Piasa valley from the river as far north as Eighth street and the filling in of a large tract of low land adja¬ cent ; and, further, the cutting of a roadway through the hills north of town to the Sum¬ mit, two miles from the river, in order to secure a practicable grade. The second road built was the Terre Haute & Alton, now a part of the Big Four. It was incorporated in 1851 and pushed forward rapidly to a con¬ nection with the Indiana city. Its principal promoter was Capt. Simeon Ryder, of Alton, who was president of the road both prior to and after 1854. In 1856 it was extended from Alton to East St. Louis.

The Wabash system has a course of about thirty-four miles in Madison county, extend¬ ing from the southwest corner to a point ten miles west of the northeast corner. It was originally, in this county, the Decatur & East St. Louis road, which was completed to East St. Louis in 1871 and became part of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific system.

The St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute has a course of twenty-four miles through Madison county. It is now a link in the Pennsylvania system. In July, 1868, the track was laid as far as Highland and in July of that year, train service was inaugu¬ rated between that city and East St. Louis.

Foster and Wood River townships. It ter¬ minates at East Alton, its trains from that point running into East St. Louis over the Big Four tracks. The road was built in 1869- 70 by the farmers and merchants along the line, together with bonuses from the towns en route, and was known as the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis. After numerous changes it passed into the hands of the Bur¬ lington in 1876, under (practically) a per¬ petual lease.

The St. Louis, Jacksonville & Chicago rail¬ road, extending from Godfrey to Blooming¬ ton, has about six miles of track in Madison county, extending from Godfrey to the Jersey county line. It was acquired, under lease, by the Chicago & Alton prior to 1870 and is operated as a part of its Jacksonville and Kansas City branches.

The Toledo, St. Louis & Western railroad, known as the "Clover Leaf" and allied with the Alton system, was built as a narrow gauge road and was subsequently changed to stand¬ ard gauge. It has thirty-seven miles of road in Madison county. Work was commenced on the line in this county in 1881.

The Alton & St. Louis railroad was built in 1864 by John J. Mitchell, of Alton, under agreement with the Chicago & Alton to merge its franchise with that road on its completion to St. Louis, which was done. The Chicago & Alton has some thirty miles of main track in this county with many miles of sidings.

The Upper Alton division of the Chicago & Alton was built in 1881 to avoid the heavy grade coming out of Alton. It is seven miles long and is known as the "cut off," saving two and a half miles in distance.

The Illinois Terminal railroad, operating from Alton to Edwardsville with branches and extensions, is really the most important road in the county as regards local develop¬ ment, on account of its comprehensive con¬ nections with all the great trunk lines passing through the county. The nucleus of this road was the Madison County railroad, extending originally from Edwardsville west to the Mississippi river where it formed a connec¬ tion with the Alton and St. Louis packets. The road was built by Tunstall & Holmes of St. Louis, who had purchased the steamers of the Alton-St. Louis line from the Chicago & Alton road when that company extended its line from Alton to St. Louis. Leading citi¬ zens of Edwardsville were the promoters of the new line. Judge Joseph Gillespie, Judge David Gillespie and Capt. J. F. Lusk were prominent pioneers of this road. Edwards¬ ville subscribed $50,000 cash, and $25,000 bonds to this enterprise. The original intention was to build to Alton and the Ohio & Missis¬ sippi also intended to form a connection with the road to Alton, but rival and antagonistic railroad influences prevented the consumma¬ tion of the original plan and the road was only built to the river. Capt. J. True Dodge rep¬ resented Tunstall & Holmes contractors, in the building of the road. The civil engineers were H. C. Swift and T. M. Long and the first engine, at the suggestion of Capt. Dodge, was named "Harry C. Swift." The German Savings Bank, of St. Louis, had a mortgage on the road and eventually foreclosed it and the property was purchased at the sale by Jay Gould, who owned it for sixteen years, when it passed into the control of the Wabash and was operated by that company until leased by the Illinois Terminal in 1899. This company was incorporated in 1895 for the purpose of serving industries located in the city of Alton and developing the manufac¬ turing resources of the city and county. Im¬ mediately after incorporation the work of construction was begun and the road com¬ pleted from Henry street to the eastern city limits by the following February. It was the intention at the time to build the road to Edwardsville Crossing and there make con¬ nection with the Edwardsville branch of the Wabash, which would give the latter com- pany entrance to Alton. It was also designed to make connection with the joint levee tracks in Alton, but various delays and antagonisms developed and it was not until 1900 that, by joint arrangement with the Alton Bridge company, the railroad was able to extend to the Union station and the levee tracks. In the meantime, in the spring of 1899, a formal agreement had been entered into with the Wabash railroad, whereby they leased to the Illinois Terminal for a term of years that portion of their track from Edwardsville Crossing to Edwardsville. A connection was then constructed from the eastern city limits to Edwardsville Crossing, and the road was put in operation from Henry street in the city of Alton to Edwardsville in November, 1899.

In 1904 a line was constructed from Cot¬ ter's station to LeClaire, adjacent to Ed¬ wardsville in order to secure a direct connec¬ tion with the Toledo, St. Louis & Western and the Litchfield & Madison railroads.

In August, 1910, a trackage arrangement was made with the St. Louis & Illinois Belt railroad, whereby the Illinois Terminal rail¬ road obtained the right to operate trains over that portion of the St. Louis & Illinois Belt railroad, between LeClaire and Formosa Junction, .thereby securing a connection with the St. Louis, Troy & Eastern, at Troy Junc¬ tion and the Vandalia railroad at Formosa Junction, and giving it twenty-five miles of track in the county.

Inasmuch as the success of the Illinois Ter¬ minal railroad was largely dependent upon its ability to secure the location of manufac¬ turing plants along and adjacent to its line, a vigorous campaign for the location of indus¬ tries was commenced in 1907, which resulted in several large factories being located in the vicinity of Alton, and also more or less of an industrial development in and around Ed¬ wardsville.

house facilities just east of Alton, which were made necessary by the rapidly increasing traffic coincident with the development of the industrial district.

The general offices of the Illinois Terminal railroad are located in Alton and it has al¬ ways been the policy of the promoters and owners of the company to make it a local in¬ stitution as near as possible, and, in the de¬ velopment of the industrial interests and re¬ sources of Madison county for which its loca¬ tion and connections peculiarly fit it. The officers of the Illinois Terminal are George M. Levis, president; H. H. Ferguson, vice president; L. A. Schlafly, treasurer; H. S. Baker, secretary; George M. Levis, H-. H. Ferguson, L. A. Schlafly, H. S. Baker and James Duncan, directors.

The Litchfield & Madison railroad is forty-four miles long. It extends from Litchfield, Montgomery county, to Madison, Madison county. All but about twelve miles of the road are in the latter. Through Olive and Omphghent townships it parallels the Wabash. It was originally a part of the Jacksonville & Southeastern lines, but when that system disintegrated it was purchased by the present corporation and became an inde¬ pendent line. It traverses a rich territory and is known as a "coal road" from the large quantities of that fuel it transports from the mines to the markets. It is also a very im¬ portant factor in developing the resources of Madison county. James Duncan, of Alton, is president and a director. C. A. Caldwell of Alton is likewise a director.

The St. Louis, Troy & Eastern is another important local road and a heavy coal carrier. It has a mileage, at present, of some twentyfive miles in this county. The Granite City & Madison Belt line and the Madison, Illinois & St. Louis Railway are local connecting lines, each a fraction less than two miles in length. The Granite City & East St. Louis Company and the Granite City & Mississippi

The Alton Terminal is a short line within the Alton city limits. It is operated by the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Com¬ pany of Illinois.

The Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis, locally known as the Bluff line, runs northwest from Granite City through Madison county, a dis¬ tance of some twenty-six miles, through Nameoki, Chouteau, Wood River, Alton and Godfrey townships.

The railroads entering Alton have connec¬ tion with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the West Shore Burlington by means of the St. C., M. & St. L. Belt Line, which passes over the Alton bridge to West Alton on the Missouri side of the river.

The total mileage of steam roads in Madi¬ son county in 1911 was: Main track, 422 miles ; second main track, 45, and sidings or turn out tracks, 190; total steam trackage in county, 657 miles.

The eight trunk lines traversing Madison county pass through the following towns or cities. The stations on the Chicago & Alton are: Venice, Madison, Granite City, Mitchell, Edwardsville Crossing, Wood River, Wann, Upper Alton, Alton and Godfrey. The Toledo, St. Louis & Western has stations at Madison, Horseshoe Lake, Stallings, Peters, Glen Carbon, Edwardsville, Fruitt, Kaufmann, Alhambra and New Douglas. The Big Four (New York Central lines) has stations at Venice, Granite City, Nameoki, Mitchell, Lake View, Edwardsville Crossing, Wood River, East Alton, Alton, Moro, Bethalto and Dorsey, also Lenox and Livingston on "cut off." The Wabash stations are Venice, Gran- ite City, Mitchell, Poag, Edwardsville, Car¬ penter and Worden. The Vandalia, Penn¬ sylvania system passes through Collinsville, Troy, Formosa, St. Jacob, Highland and Pierron. The stations of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis are Madison, Granite City, Chou¬ teau Slough, St. Thomas, Oldenburg, Hart¬ ford, Federal, Alton and Clifton Terrace. Illinois Central stations are Madison, Barco, Stallings, Peters, Glen Carbon, Mont, Kuhns, Marine, Ellison, Alhambra and Binney. The stations on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois are Granite City, Lenox and Livingston.

Within the last decade the system of trans¬ portation by electric roads has made great progress in Madison county. There are now five electric lines in the county as follows : Alton, Granite & St. Louis, operating some sixty miles of track including the street lines in the city of Alton. This includes branch line from Mitchell to Edwardsville.

completed nearly to Jerseyville and will, doubtless, enter that city before this work is published. Five miles of the road have been in operation for five years from Alton to Godfrey.

This review of the railroads of Madison county is a striking picture of the wonderful progress of methods of transportation in the past hundred years, from Indian trails in 1812, to hundreds of miles of steam and elec¬ tric railroads in 1912. Probably no other county in the state, except Cook, is traversed by so many trunk-line railroads radiating to all parts of the country.