Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 32: Railroads, 1891

rj^HE Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company was organ- _L ized in 1849, and was inspired by the late Chauncey Rose. There was considerable delay in getting to the work of construction. Strangely, at least strange now, opposition was met. At some places along the road the people were incredulous, and said the road was not needed; that one train a month would carry all the surplus crop, etc., and that the highways would be ruined and the cattle killed; and the peace and quiet of the country destroyed. Illinois had just gone through a bitter experience of exaggerated public im¬ provements as had other States, and the people were skeptical as to any of these big enterprises. There was then but one railroad in In¬ diana, the Madison & Indianapolis, but Mr. Rose was indomitable, though many of the wealthy men hereabouts were disinclined to aid him. In New York John Rose, his brother, who was in mercantile life, was rich and moved in the best financial circles. He helped raise the money, as did the Indiana firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., but the most of it came from Boston through a man named Wells who furnished the iron. In the spring of 1851 the work of con¬ struction began simultaneously at Indianapolis and Terre Haute.

Mr. Rose wanted a man who was practical and who knew some¬ thing about motive power. John Brough, who as auditor of the State of Ohio, attracted the attention of Winslow, Lanier & Co., the Madison people in New York, who had been put in charge of their Madison & Indianapolis road. With him was a young man named Charles R. Peddle, who had come out from the east. Peddle took service with Mr. Rose and went with him to Boston to buy four engines from Hinckly to use in the work of construction and was started home with them. They were top-heavy things, with no pilots, and very clumsy machines. When leaving Boston Mr. Rose gave him money and advice - the latter to sew the bank bills in his vest taking out occasionally enough to pay expenses. In those times you could not get through bills of lading, and freight had to be paid at the beginning of each line. From Boston they went to Troy, where they crossed the Hudson on the bridge and then went down to Albany; thence by what afterward became the New York

Central to Buffalo. Here the four engines were hauled through the streets to the lake dock and there, after much difficult work, loaded on a vessel for Toledo. At Toledo two canal boats were brought into service and two engines put on each boat. Then began the long ride down the Wabash & Erie canal. At Defiance, Ohio, one boat continued on to Cincinnati, the other coming around through Indiana to Terre Haute. Two engines were wanted at each end of the proposed road; two were thus brought to this end, but the others were carried from Cincinnati down the Ohio river in the Canal boat and at great risk to Madison, Ind., where Mr. Brough turned over his force of men and facilities to get them over the bluff by the incline and on the track of the Madison & Indianapolis road. From there to Indianapolis was comparatively an easy journey.

The road was completed with the exception of six or seven miles when winter, a hard winter, came on and prevented further work that year. Early in March, 1852, the two sets of workmen met at a point between Fillmore and Greencastle. The track-laying was done by John Hise and a man named Trindel, Hise being from Pennsylvania and Trindel from an eastern State, perhaps also Penn¬ sylvania, the latter a contractor, afterward superintendent of the Union depot at Indianapolis. The two Trindels, afterward con¬ ductors, and the Sachs family, the latter engineers, came with these contractors and worked at track-laying. From these track workers most of the original train crews were made up. Geet. Sherburne, brother of Asa and the others, saw Peddle when he was passing through Bochester, N. Y., with the four engines and they said they would be out here soon. Thus came the Sherburnes. Sylvester Heustis, father of Ed Heustis, was the first superintendent; he died of consumption while holding that position in 1855.

The first train over the road was a special, carrying Mr. Rose and party. William Baugh was engineer, and he is still with the company here in the shops. Three Taunton engines with pilots were secured and passenger coaches from Columbus, Ohio. The roundhouse being here, this was the starting and ending station, and so it came that Terre Haute became the residence of the train crews as they " tied up " here at night and over Sunday. A day's work on a passenger was a round trip to Indianapolis, about four hours each way, for which the passenger fare was about five cents a mile, or $3.65 one way. Mr. Rose retired as president after a few years, to engage in the building of the Vincennes road and the Rockville road, and to act as executor of his brother John's estate, much of which was left to himself. Samuel Crawford, father of Paymaster Frank Crawford, succeeded him until about 1857, when he died, and Mr. Peck, of Indianapolis, became president. When business increased it was found necessary to run trains at night. Heustis was afraid, but Crawford said they could get big head¬ lights. Mr. Peddle ordered some from Cincinnati, and trains began making night trips, killing fewer cattle than expected and meeting with no serious accidents. After awhile Picker came in as superintendent, coming from somewhere about Michigan City, and bringing with him as his telegraph operator, John S. Simpson, afterward general manager. Then came Herkimer as superintend¬ ent, but he was turned loose at the same time Mr. Peck was voted out of office, and W. It. McKeen was elected president in 1866.

When the road was in operation between Terre Haute and Indianapolis only the route of travel from St. Louis east was by stage from St. Louis here, thence by rail to Indianapolis, over the Madison and Indianapolis to Madison, by the Ohio river to Cincin¬ nati, thence over the Little Miami and on to the Pennsylvania road, a zigzag trip of it. The Terre Haute & Alton (now the Indian¬ apolis & St. Louis Railroad) from here west was built, along in 1855 and 1856. The Indiana Central, from Indianapolis to Rich¬ mond was contemplated at the time the Terre Haute & Indianapolis road was started, and it was to be part of the through line across the State, but the Wayne county people who were engineering the project were slow. The Bee Line was also started, earlier than the Terre Haute & Indianapolis, but did not reach Union City to con¬ nect with the road building down to there from Galion, as soon as the Terre Haute & Indianapolis was completed, so that the Terre Haute & Indianapolis was the second through road in the State, the Madison & Indianapolis being the first.

The Terre Haute & Alton was in a very bad condition for several years until Mr. Griswold took it. Sometimes the engines would come in covered with mud, splashing through several inches of it near St. Mary's. A. A. Talmage was a conductor on the road then. He tells the story that when he had a new engineer he went on the engine with him to give him the points. Running along over in Illinois and making good time around some curves, the jolting grew monotonous. He watched the engineer bobbing up and down on his seat. He saw the new man was getting nervous, and finally, as he bounced nearly to the top of the cab he reached for the throttle to slow up. Talmage caught his arm and prevented him, explai ning that the head brakeman had his brake set tight; that with the throttle wide open the train was kept taut, and that if the engine slowed up, and set the cars to swaying they would swing off the track. But under the Griswold management the road was improved and trains made good and regular time. The Indiana Central was built, but it continually brought in the eastern trains an hour or so later than the arrival of the trains over the Bee Line. The latter folks wanted Mr. Rose to carry their trains right through, but he showed favoritism to the Indiana Central. The Bee Line folks then tried to buy up the Terre Haute & Indianapolis, and presently letters written by President Peck in 1866 or 1867 to New York parties encouraging the deal were sent back here to Mr. Rose ask¬ ing what they meant. The directors met and Mr. Peck retired, as did Superintendent Herkimer who was his ally. Mr. McKeen suc¬ ceeded as president and Mr. Peddle as superintendent. Then began the new roads, the Bee Line building from Indianapolis here, and the Pennsylvania Vandalia from here to St. Louis. The latter was the first completed. Then the war commenced, and in the Union depot at Indianapolis there were lively times caused by the runners of the two routes. The Pennsylvania had an interest in the Terre Haute & Alton, yet was its rival. Up to this time the Terre Haute & Indianapolis had things all its own way, paid good dividends and sometimes issued stocks for dividends, having a hard fight with the legislature on the law that required that all earnings above a six-per-cent dividend were to go into the school fund. After a few years the Pennsylvania made some arrangement by which its interests in the Indianapolis & St. Louis passed to the Bee Line.

The building of the Yandalia line through Illinois is quite a chapter in railroad construction in the west. Illinois from the early thirties had suffered with a severe attack of " home policy." That is, her statesmen had resolved that it was the best thing to develop Illinois cities and fight outsiders. The Illinois lawmakers supposed great cities were to be made by statute laws, and they fixed upon Alton, Shawneetown and Cairo as the " future greats " of the State. In 1851, when it became certain that the Illinois Central would be built, came the era of railroad building. The Illinois legislature was appealed to for charters. What is now the Yandalia line asked for a charter to run direct from Terre Haute to St. Louis. But this, in the opinion of the Illinois statesmen, would ruin the State and build up St. Louis, so they granted a charter for the Indianapolis & Alton Railroad, and, by a combination, also a charter to the Ohio & Mississippi from St. Louis to Vincennes, and refused to charter a direct line from Terre Haute to St. Louis. In 1854, after the Ohio & Mississippi and the Terre Haute & Alton were built, then Brough applied to Illinois, had a special session of the legislature, and a charter was granted over the line as it is now. This came just in time to meet the panic of 1857, and Brough failed to build. The matter lay dormant until after the war, when a new organization was effected and the Yandalia line completed in 1858. This accounts for the present two lines from Terre Haute to St. Louis. Alton is hardly a way station on the Indianapolis, Terre Haute & St. Louis Railroad.

The Evansville & Crawfordsville (the corporate name) was incorporated January 2, 1849, and in August following was organ¬ ized. It was first intended to go to Mount Carmel, but the amended charter allowed it to go to Vincennes. The road was built from Evansville to Vincennes under the charter of the Wabash Railroad Company, and the first section was completed in 1854. The line from Vincennes to Terre Haute, fifty-eight miles, was constructed under W. D. Griswold and Cliauncey Rose.

The Evansville , Terre Haute & Chicago was organized under the general - law of 1869, to build from Terre Haute to Danville, Ill., a distance of fifty-five miles. It has been in operation since 1871. Josephus Collett and Chauncey Rose were principals in this enterprise. Mr. Collett was president until the consolidation, and the property became the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company.

The Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. - This is mostly an Illinois road, but is an important outlet to Chicago for western Indiana. It was completed to Danville, Ill., from Chicago, in 1871. The next year a branch was built from Bismarck, Vermilion county, Ill., to Brazil, Ind.

The Logansport, Crawfordsville & Southwestern. - This extension of the Evansville was built to Rockville, and was an operated road, running partly over the track of the Evansville & Cincinnati Rail¬ road, in 1872.

The Illinois Midland. - While there is none of this road's track in Indiana as it comes into Terre Haute over the Van track, yet it is an important outlet for Terre Haute to Decatur, Ill., and the northwest. It was opened and operated in 1872. Its first presi¬ dent was a man of Terre Haute - Mr. Harvey.

Terre Haute is now a prominent railroad center, and that too for some of the most important trunk lines in the country. Eight railroads strike the county as follows: Chicago & Indiana Coal, 4.80 miles in the county; Evansville & Indianapolis, 13.71; Evans¬ ville, Terre Haute & Chicago, 4.47 ; Evansville & Terre Haute, 15.16; Indiana Block Coal, 8.64; Indianapolis & St. Louis, 22.49; Terre Haute & Indianapolis, 16.14; Terre Haute & Logansport 11.12. The main track of those roads within the county is 96.5 * miles; side tracks, 54.58 miles; improvements on right of way in the county valued at $58,965.