Elkhart Township (part 5 of 5)

But as early as 183G the state was so heavily burdened with the work already begun tliat no new lines were projected by it. But the vast system already laid out included all parts of the state and none was neglected. Elkhart county receivetl its proper recognition in the construction of state roads, and a canal was promised it. The latter was to run through the county seat, and was located through Goshen where Rock Run now flows, and would liave receixed its water supply from the reservoir at Rome City. But with the advent of railroads the canal projects were promptly abandoned. And when it became apparent that the state would not be able to construct them the people promptlv turned to individual enterprise. At this day we are amazed at the exhibition of courage and confidence which this involved. In our r)wn time even, with the Aast accumulation of wealth in the hands of indi- viduals whicli is availalile for profitable investment, tiie construction of a railroad is an undertaking which no community or individual would seriouslv consider. What then must have been the faith and courage of our peojile of that early day of comparative poverty that they could undertake that which we would not? But our wonder is greater when we consider that the cost of such enterprises was then vastly greater than the same would cost now. The estimated cost of the Madison & IndianaDolis Railroad was not less than twenty-iive thousand dollars a mile. And the state actually e.\pended $1,493,013 on that road with the result of only twenty-eight miles in operation and twenty-seven miles more nearly but not quite graded. A very much larger sum than \\inild be required now to produce the same result.

With infinite courage, charter after charter was sought from and granted by the legislature, for at that time there was no general law for the incorporation of such companies. One of the best conceived and most feasible of these projected roads was that which the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad Company was organized to build. It was to extend from Toledo to Chicago, passing through Indiana so as to connect all of the county seats of the northern tier of counties. This much of its purpose was covered by its charter, and its possibilities were clearly indicated in its name. Its incorporators included William L. Latta, James R. McCord, James H. Barns, Joseph H. Defrees, Johnson Latta and E. W. H. Ellis of Goshen. On the 21st of February, 1837, the directors, William L. Latta and James R. McCord, of Goshen ; Robert Stewart, of ]^Iichigan City ; and John Brown, Aaron Staunton, of LaPorte, met at South Bend and began active work to secure the construction of the road. To obtain the necessary funds they ordered that stock subscription books be opened for popular subscriptions on the second Tuesday of March, following, at designated places in Michigan City, LaPorte, South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen, Lima and Steuben. It was evidently the hope of the patriotic projectors of this road that stock enough would be taken to provide the money for constructing the road, or at least for making a good beginning. But the result was disappointing, and nothing of importance came of this effort. Nevertheless the fact remained that without such a road the country it was intended to traverse would never be developed, and its future prosperity depended upon it. With so large an issue at stake ultimate success was certain. Impressed w'ith this certainty a few of this little band determined to keep alive their organization, and as their ranks were depleted new men took their places.

and year after year they met, elected officers and bided their time. Among- these men were Judge Osborne of LaPorte, Judge Stanfield and Schuyler Colfax of South Bend, John Davenport and Joseph H. Defrees of Elkhart, James H. Barns, E. W. H. Ellis. Milton Mercer and Dr. M. M. Latta of Goshen. The counties east of Elkhart do not seem to have shared in this hope and work.

If the record of that company could be found it would be a valuable record and a monument to the earnestness of these men. They spared no efifort to secure the result they aimed at, but they abandoned all hope of succeeding by local contributions. When that which is now known as the Chicago, Pittsburg & Fort Wayne road was being extended from the east toward Fort W'ayne, they endeavored to have it constructed from Fort ^^'ayne to Chicago by way of Goshen. Failing in this they appealed to the legislature to urge their claims on the general government, and they secured from the legislature a joint resolution, approved January 19, 1846 (Acts 1846, p. 123), as follows: " A joint resolution in relation to the Bufifalo & Mississippi Railroad."

Where.\s, The completion of saitl road would afford the general government many facilities in time of war with Great Britain (which even now seems not improbable) for the transportation of arms, ammunitions of war, troops and everything necessary for their comfort and convenience, together with the speedy and expeditious dispatches so essential to the safety and effective prosecution of the object of organized armies in a free and independent government like ours ; and

Wherea.s, The communication between the upper valley of the ^Mississippi and the commerce of Lake Michigan i.s entirely suspended during a considerable portion of the year in consec|uence of the Straits of Mackinaw being closed with ice ; and

Whereas, The general government of the United States has on former occasions extended a liberal policy by aiding in the prosecution of internal improvements that are national in their character, by repeated donations of the pulilic domain, contributing thereby the means when properlv executed of advancing the interest of every individual in this \'ast, growing and happy republic : therefore be it

Rcsok'cd. By the General .Assembly of the state of Indiana that our senators he instructed and our representatives requested to use all reasonable exertions to procure a donation of a variety of all the lands owned by the general government situated in the Fort Wayne and Winamac land office districts, in the said state of Indiana, to aid in the construction of the said Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad.

in its belialf failed to procure public aid. But about this time a rival compan}- \\ith better financial backing appeared and began the construction of a railroad from Toledo to Chicago through the southern tier of counties in Michigan. Here was a great danger impending, for if this company, the Southern Michigan Railroad Company, succeeded in the construction of its parallel line connecting its same terminals it would make it impossible for the projectors of the Buffalo & Mississippi Company ever to secure, in the face of such competition, the mone}- required for the construction of their road. Affairs having taken this critical turn, the gallant little band of patriots determined to compel their rival to build their road. This was to be brought about by preventing the granting to it of a charter for the construction of this part of its line which must come into the state at the southern bend of Lake Michigan except upon that condition. To secure this the county was induced to elect able men to the legislature pledged to labor for this result. In 1849 Joseph H. Defrees and Michael C. Daugherty were elected from Goshen for that special purpose, and in 1850 Joseph H. Defrees was elected senator and Milton Mercer a representative to continue the contest. But the projectors of the rival company, by coming intO' this state at the northern part of this county and making Elkhart, South Bend and LaPorte points on their line, were able to secure strong local cooperation, and, in spite of the opposition of Goshen, secured, under the name of Northern Indiana Railroad Company, the needed charter. But the new company for some reason caused it to be given out that the charter secured by it was in some respects unsatisfactory, and negotiations were begun for the transfer to it of the charter and franchises of the Buffalo & Mississippi Company. The result was an agreement by which, in consideration of such transfer, the company agreed to extend a spur from Elkhart to Goshen and run at least one train a dav between the towns.

Besides this it was also agreed that if the citizens of Goshen would purchase and donate to it the tract of land now owned bv its successor, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Companv, on the east side of Goshen, it would erect and maintain a round house there. The land was donated and the round house erected. In the fall of 185 1 the railroad was built into Elkhart, and the year following saw it extended into Goshen as agreed. We, at this day, can scarcely realize the magnitude of this event and the wild enthusiasm of the people over it. The coming of the first train was celebrated by public meetings and lx>nfires, and the men to whose perseverance it was dne were the heroes of the (lay. 'I"hc Dalix Truth thus describes the advent of the iron horse at Elkhart: "About four o'clock on a Friday afternoon early in the month of October, 1851, a wood-burning engine, hauling a train of tiat cars and caboose, roiled over the wooden bridge across the Elkhart river and puffed along to the foot of Main street, which was then in the forest south of the village proper. For weeks this event had been the topic of conversation among the inhabitants of the little hamlet, and the night previous to the advent of the iron horse had been an anxious one. Many people waited all night long in order to be on hand to welcome the incoming train. Captain Chamberlain says that he was one of a party of boys who, escaping from the confines of a schoolroom presided over by C. J. Conn, had gone in swimming while awaiting the coming of the train. Jt had been heralded abroad that the road would run a free excursion to \Miite Pigeon on the following Sunday, and people came for miles around to participate in the wonderful event. With an old-time passenger coach, a box car, and a numlser of flat cars arranged with planks for seats and crowded with passengers, the train started."

The securing of the round house at Goshen was considered a very important thing, but when the company located its shops in Elkhart the round house was abandoned. This was in 1870. Because of the careless phraseology of the deed to the company, which failed to make the maintenance of the round house a condition of the title, Goshen lost lx)th the rountl house and the land. But these were mere incidents. The railroad was the great prize and secured for Goshen all that its projectors hoped for. In 1850 its population was but seven hundred and eightv, in i860 it had increased to two thousand and fifty-three and its future was assured.

The compulsorv construction of the road from Elkhart to Goshen led to its extension east to Toledo, and Goshen thus became a point on the main line, and Elkhart, favorably located at the junction of the two branches, became the natural location for the shops of the company, which have contributed more than anything else to the building up of that splendid and growing city.

Fortunately for Goshen the new company bad no special use for the men who had so successfully struggled to secure its road. If it had honored them by making them directors in the new company they might have been satisfied to rest with the honor. But there is a peculiar fascination in railroad work, and the first success of these gen- tlenieii only stimulated them to new efforts in the same line. Accordingly when Captain Wells, after having built a railroad from Kalamazoo to White Pigeon and sold it to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company, came to Goshen to secure the co-operation of its citizens in the construction of a road from White Pigeon to Wabash, through Goshen, he at once availed himself of the assistance of Mr. J. H. Defrees, who became one of the directors and most active workers in the new company, first known as the Goshen, Warsaw, Wabash Railroad Company. This road was speedily constructed from Goshen to Warsaw, and was put in operation in 1870. If completed as originally intended it would have passed through Middlebury and connected at White Pigeon with the road running thence to Kalamazoo. To secure this, Aliddlebury voted liberal ;iid, and it was paid into the county treasurj- for the company, but tiie road was not built and the money was returned. The failure to construct this line was a most serious detriment to Goshen, as it would have placed Goshen midway on an important line extending from Grand Rapids to Indianapolis. Its construction was pre^-ented by the Lake Shore Sr Michigan Southern Company, which refused to agree to buy it if constructed, as Mr. Wells had been led to believe it would do, and the result was that it broke Mi". Wells financially, and for a time Goshen was its northern terminus. In 1872 the extension of the road to Niles was promised if cities.along the line would aid it, and this having been done the extension was quickly made.

Soon after this, in 1873-4, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, having determined to extend its line into Chicago from the east, began to suney its line. The citizens of Goshen promptly endeavored to secure the location of the road through their city, and monev was raised to pay the expenses of a preliminary survey of such a line. '\[\-. Stonex"s first practical railroad work consisted in circulating a subscription paper for tliat purpose. While Goshen failed in this, the county secured tlie road and Xa]i]i;iiiee li;is grown from nothing ti) he a tlnriving town as the result.

Aliout the same time the Chicago & Canada Southern Railfoad was projected, and its route was located through the county by way of ]\Iiller.sburg, Benton, New Paris and Wakarusa. Goshen again endeavored to secure it, but the location of our city is too elevated to enable a line to lie buill at Uav cost on a low grade through it, and the Canadian Southern was projected as a freight line to be built with a

This conditicm liarred Goshen out and the line was Idcated, the right of way bought, and a considerable part of the road bed graded when work was stopped. It was understood that this was done in the interest of the Lake Shore & ^Michigan Southern Railroad Coni])any to prevent its formidable competition.

It now seemed certain that no more railroad building would be done through Goshen unless brought about by Goshen. The only feasible project seemed to be for the construction of a line running through the count}- from the northeast to the southwest, and a ccjmpany was promptly organized to construct such a line. The name of the company was Michigan. Indiana & Southwestern Railroad Company. Its pro^ posed terminals were Jackson, Michigan, and Danville, Illinois. Milton Mercer was one of the most active of its promoters. After some changes this company became the Canada and St. Louis Railroad Company, of which the first directors included Milton Mercer. E. D. Chipman and W. L. Stonex, of Goshen, and Jonathan S. Mather, of Middlebur^-. In August, 1888, the control of this company passed into the hands of J. J. Burns and associates. Goshen and Middlebury voted aid, and the road was completed from Goshen to Battle Creek, Michigan, and put in operation by January, 1889. The company about that time became financially embarrassed and soon after failed. Only a fe\\ kne\\- what ef^nrts were made to complete this line or to keep it from falling into control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. Only an unavoidable accident prevented the extension to Goshen of the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad from Knox to connect with it by way of Plymouth and extend it as intended from Battle Creek to Bay City.

This having occurred, an attempt was made to sell the road, as built, to the C. \Y. & M. R. R. Company, and every detail of this had been agreed upon. If one day longer had been allowed to pass this A\'ould ha\'e nccurred, but by an unex])ecte(l and unfdreseen nin\-e the road went into other liand? and at last became, as it now is. the Goshen ,& Michigan branch of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company.

between Toledo and Chicago. It was organized as the Toledo & Chicago Air Line Railway Company, and was a Goshen organization. Mr. Mercer was its first president and Mr. Stonex was its first secretarw This project was favorably considered by the public, and it soon recei\-ed recognition, with the result that it was taken hold of by a party of eastern capitalists whO' secured control of it and undertook to construct the line. The Lake Shore Company at once antagonized it for the reason that, if constructed, the road would pass between the two branches of the company, and being considerably shorter between the same terminals would verv materially injure its line. Their opposition prevented all chance of negotiating the bonds of the company in the east, and this seemed to be fatal. But a combination of four eastern railroad companies was formed to jointly build the road for their joint use between Toledo and Chicago. Each company was to provide onefourth of the money for the construction, and by this means the necessity of negotiating bonds was to be avoided. The matter was being carried forward secretlv under the management of Senator Brice when unfortunately an over-zealous newspaper reporter in Lima. Ohio, olv tained some knowledge of the facts and published them. This disclosure of the plan gave the management of the Lake Shore Company the necessary information to enable them to crush the enterprise, which they did.

But before the end came Goshen had voted over sixty thousand tlnllars to aid toward the construction of the road on condition that its shops should be located here, and other towns and townships voted about the same amount.

Notwithstanding the defeat of this enterprise the exploiting of it gave publicity to the value of such a line and the willingness of the people to aid in constructing it. Very soon after this the Wabash Railway Company put engineers in the field and surveyed a line for its system which would give it a short line from Detroit to Chicago, and they follo\\ed substantially the line of survey of the Canada Southern C ompany. The Wabash Company selected this for the very reason which had induced the former company to adopt it. its remarkably low grade. W'hen the line was being surveyed the citizens of Goshen had a public meeting and appointed a committee to try to induce the comjiany to abandon the pioposed line and come nearer Cioshen. This the o impany endeavored to do, but finally abandoned the attemjjt. But when the road wa;= being constructed and the crossing of the road of the

Lake Shore Company was being made at [Millersburg, the latter com- ]iany forced the former to make an overhead crossing, and by this means destroyed the ideal grade of the new company. If this had been anticipated Goshen could have secured the new road.

While this was interesting the citizens of Goshen, Mr. H. E. Bucklen was quietly engaged in the construction of a railroad from Elkhart toward South Bend. This was done in the name of the Elkhart & Western Railway Company. \Mien completed it was bought by the Lake Shore Company. The Elkhart & Western road, while not of great length, became and continues to be a very important line for the city of Elkhart.

While the building nf these railroads seemed to be the great enterprises, in comparison with which all others were almost insignificant, there had been quietly undertaken and carried forward another w'ork which in time developed into a \-ery great and important one. In 1886 there was organized in Elkhart a company, under the name of the Citizens Street Railway Company, for the purpose of constructing a horse car line for the city. Its members were Elkhart citi/:ens. and they hurried the work forward to a successful accomplishment. After five years, in 1891, the company decided to abandon horse power and substitute electricity. This was of doubtful wisdom, as the use of that power was so new that it required costly experimenting. When it was put in operation as an electric line, according to the information obtainable, there was but one other such line in the Lhiited States. After a .succession of heavv losses the operation of the road was suspended, and in the winter of 1892 a receiver was appointed for it. The road was sold to private parties at the receiver's sale in I'ebruar}-, 1894.

In February. 1893, J- J- Burns and others organized a company known as the Indiana Electric Railway Company, by Goshen citizens, chiefly to build an electric railway in Goshen. After building about a mile and a half of track this company also failed and went intn the hands of a receiver, and in Xovember. 1893, its assets passed into the liands of private parties.

In ]\Iay, 1894, J- J. Burns and others organized a com])any known as the Indiana Electric Railway C(jnipany for tlic purpose of buying the roads above referred to and of cnnipleting anil connecting them into a single svstem. The new company Imught the lines and scjdu had the Elkhart line in nperatii.n, and not long aftei" the ( ioshen line was also put ill operation, the first car (in the hitter hnc being run on tlie Fourth of July, 1896, and from time to tiirie during tiie next two years gradual extensions of these hues were made. In Septeml^er, 1898, the owners of the South Bend & Misha\\aka Street Raihvay hnes, Arthur Kennedy and Frances J. Torrence, of Pittslxirg, Pennsylvania, bought the stock of the Indiana Electric Railway Company and took possession of the property early m October. This long delayed construction of the line required to connect the two cities was pushed rapidly forward, and on the 2 1 St of December. 1898, the first car was run from Elkhart to Goshen.

Much has been said of the prospective chain of electric railways from Cleveland to Chicago. The building that is being done by the Indiana Railway Company is gradually bringing this in sight. The construction on the South Bend-LaPorte line will make a connection between Michigan City on Lake Michigan, to Goshen, two-thirds of the way across the state to the east. The St. Joseph Valley line under construction will carry- this chain farther to the east from Elkhart to La- Grange. This will lea\e onl}' two gaps in the chain between Chicago and Cleveland, the one between Hammond and Michigan City and that from Ladrange to an electric line extending some distance west from Toledo.

I\Iiddlebury is already connected by electric line with LaGrange, and the developments of the next few years will no doubt see all the centers of this county connected not only with each other but with the outside world.

The Winona Interurban Railwa\' Co., co-operating with the Commercial E.xchange of Goshen, took up the matter of building an electric line between Goshen and ^Varsaw. in 1903. Elkhart township voted in August, 1904, $30,000 for the construction of the road which was to pass through Waterford, New Paris, Milford and Leesburg. Active work of construction began in July, 1905, and at present writing nearly all the grading is finished, and by the first of the year the entire line will be equipped and in operation. The length of the line is twenty-four miles, the estimated cost, rolling stock, power house and equipment included, being not less than $500,000. This is an independent line, but increasing- as it does the length of electric transportation in the county, is an important connecting link across the country between the principal trunk lines and affords the long desired communication lietween Goshen and

The Huntington. Columbia City and Xorthwestern is a projected line which will doubtless be built in the near future, running from Goshen to Lake Wawassee and other centers to the southeast.