Wright County, Minnesota - Chapter 13: Coming of the Railroads, 1915

Railroad projects for Wright county were set on foot as early as 1847, when Professor Increase A. Lapham, then a noted Wisconsin civil engineer, outlined a plan of two railroads, one from Lake Superior and the other from St. Paul, which were to meet on the Red River of tlie North, below where Fergus Falls now is. He made a map and studied the country with care. The three lines crossing Wright comity at the present time may be said in a general way to follow the route proposed by Professor Lapham, though nothing came of his plans at that time.

The Minneapolis & St. Cloud Railroad Company was incorporated by the legislature of 1855, to build a railroad from Minneapolis to St. Cloud, also a main line by way of Mille Lacs, from St. Paul, in the direction of Lake Superior. It is upon this charter, which has been kept alive by vai-ious territorial and state, legislative acts, that the Great Northern now operates in Minnesota.

The Land Grant Roads- Before the admission of Minnesota as a state, many railroad companies had been chartered by the territorial legislature. The first recorded effort was by J. W. Selby, of St. Paul, who gave notive of the introduction of a bill on March 2, in the session of 1852, to incorporate the Lake Superior & Mississippi River Railroad Company. It passed in the house but failed in the council. However, it actually became a law March 2, 1853, by act of a subsequent legislature. The second charter was granted to the Minnesota Western Railroad Company March 3, 1853, and the third to the Louisiana & Minnesota Railroad March 5, 1853. Not less than twenty-seven railroad com- paaies, including the Minneapolis & St. Cloud already mentioned, were authorized and chartered from 1853 to 1857. But there was no lite in any of tlieni until the lanti grants were made.

On March 3, 1857, congress granted to the territory of Minnesota lands amounting to 4,500,000 acres for the construction of a system of railways. This magnificent grant of lands caused the governor in 1857 to call au extra session of the legislature. An act was approved May 22, 1857, granting to four railroad corporations alternate sections designated by odd numbers, in a strip twelve miles in width, six miles on each side of the roads and their branches.

These railroads were : The Miiniesota & Pacific, the Transit, the Root River & Southern Minnesota, and the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley. They became known as the land grant roads. Of these, the Minnesota & Pacific was to cross Wright county. This road was created by the land grant act. The others had been in existence previously. The four companies were to pay three per cent of their gross earnings in lieu of taxes and assessments, and the lands granted by congress were to be exempt from all taxation until sold and conveyanced by the company. The corporations were generally given ten years to construct their respective roads. The financial embarrassments of 1857 retarded the progress of railroad building and it also became evident that the parties who had obtained the railway charters mentioned had neither the money nor the credit to complete these great higlnvays of internal improvement.

The Bond Issue. The territory of Minnesota was admitted to statehood May 11, 1858. The constitution, ratified and adopted October 13, 1857, provided, in article 10, section 2, that "no corporations shall be formed under special acts except for municipal purposes," and it was still further provided that "the credit of the state shall never be given nor loaned in the aid of any individual, association or corporation." Notwithstanding the strong feeling worked up over the talk of getting bonds in the aid of railroads so badly needed in the state, the first act of the legislature, which was approved March 9, 1858, before the state was admitted, was to submit an amendment to the constitution, providing for loaning the state's credit to the four land grant roads to the extent of .$1,250,000 each, or $5,000,000 in all, provided for every ten miles to be graded, and .$100,000 for every ten miles when the cars were running regularly. In return it required the roads to pledge the net income to pay the interest on the bonds and to convey the first 240 sections of land from the government grant to the state, and to deposit in first mortgage bonds an amount equal to the loan from the state for security. This occasioned much uneasiness among the most prudent of the citizens in the state ; and though public meetings were held denouncing the measure, it was, however, upon being submitted to the people, on the appointed day of a special election, April 15, 1858, carried by a large majority, there being 25,023 in favor to 6,733 against the amendment. Wright county voted almost unanimously in favor of the proposition, for in the Big Woods railroads were greatly needed. The measure afterward became known as the Five Million Loan Bill. The state bonds were of i);l,000 denomination, liad twenty-five years to run with interest at seven per cent, the railroad companies to pay the interest, and were to be delivered to the incorporators of the companies when ten miles of the road was graded and ready for the superstructure. Owing to technicalities and severe attacks on their validity, it was extremely difficult to market these bonds. Times were hard and the companies were unable to pay the required interest.

On the assembling of the legislature in 1860 the interest on the state bonds having been defaulted, an amendment to the constitution was adopted and submitted to the people expunging the section sanctioned and approved by them, April 15, 1858, reserving only the state's rights. The electors of the state at the general election of November 6, 1860, with unanimity, by a vote of 27,023 to 733, approved of the amendment.

Of subsequent developments, the Minnesota State Manual says : In 1887, a proposition setting aside the proceeds of 500,000 acres for internal improvement lands in settlement of the repudiated railroad bonds was by act of the legislature submitted to a vote at a special election called for June 12, and voted down by the decisive vote of 59,176 against, to 17,324 votes for, the proposition. This vote was largely owing to the fact that the state at that time had almost an entire new population that had come into the state long after the bonds were issued and had no definite knowledge of the history of the original indebtedness.

In 1881 the legislature enacted a law providing for the adjustment of these bonds, and designating the judges of the supreme court as a commission to make the settlement. The constitutionality of this law was questioned, a writ of injunction was served, and the final determination of the supreme bench was that the law was unconstitutional, as also the amendment of 1860, prohibiting any settlement without a vote of the people. This latter act had previously been determined unconstitutional by the supreme court of the United States. An extra session of the legislature was called in October of the same year, when the final adjustment was authorized by act of the legislature, on a basis of fifty per cent of the amount nominally due, and, after a careful examination of all the claims presented, the bond question was forever set at rest by the issue of adjustment bonds, to the amount of $4,282,000, to parties entitled to receive them. For the payment of these bonds the proposition of setting aside the pro- ceeds of the 500,000 acres of internal improvement lands was again submitted at the general election in 1881, and by a vote of 82,435 votes in favor, and 24,526 votes against, the action of the legislature was ratified.

The Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company was to construct a railroad from Stillwater by way of St. Paul and St. Anthony to a point between the foot of Big Stone lake and the mouth of the Sioux Wood river, with a branch by way of St. Cloud and Crow Wing, to the navigable waters of the Red River of the North, at such a point as the legislature might determine. Breekenridge was finally selected as the point between Big Stone lake and the Sioux Wood river. The line to Breckeuridge would cross Wright county, while the line to St. Cloud would be just across the river from this county. The company was also authorized to construct a railroad up the Mississippi valley from Winona to St. Paul, and also from a terminal point between the Big Stone lake and Sioux Wood river to any point on the Missouri river north of the fifty-fifth parallel of north latitude. Of the state bonds, this company received its share, having ready for superstructure nearly sixty-three miles of roadbed. This company was organized May 22, 1857, with a capital stock of $5,000,000. It had the power to increase this to cover the full cost of its extension, but was not to consolidate with any railroad company owned or operated outside of the state without the consent of the Legislature.

St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company. After the interest on the state bonds had been defaulted, and the bonds had been repudiated, railroad matters in the state lay dormant for some two years. Then a new era of internal improvements commenced by the state making new grants of the old franchises and lands to other corporations. The first company to get the benefit of the new enactment were persons who had been interested in the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company, which reappeared under the name of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company. Among the incorporators were : Edmund Rice, Dwight Woodbury, Henry T. Welles, Leander Gordon, R. R. Nelson, E. A. C. Hatch, J. E. Thompson, William Lee and Richard Chute. In the act incorporating the company, there was a proviso made by the state that certain portions of the road should be completed by specified dates. The company built a line from St. Paul to St. Anthony, and it was on this line on June 22, 1862, that the "William Crooks," the first locomotive in Minnesota with a train of cars, left St. Paul for St. Anthony. The other engine which was a part of the road's equipment was named the "Edmund Rice." Edmund Rice secured financial support in England, and the work continued. Slowly but steadily the St. Paul & Pacific Company laid its rails to the Red River of the North.

In 1864 the line was completed to Elk River, thirty-four miles from St. Paul and across the river from Wright county. In that year the corporation was divided into two companies. The line from Elk River to East St. Cloud, seventy-four miles from St. Paul, was completed in 1866. This gave Wright county a railroad lying only a few miles outside the course of its entire northern boundary line.

When the separation was made in 1864, the proposed line from St. Paul to Breekenridge became the "First Division," under the presidency of George L. Becker. The right of way through the Big Woods was cut in the winter of 1866-67. The line was completed to Wayzota, in Hennepin county, twenty-five miles, in 1867; to Delano, in Wright county, in October, 1868; to Cokato, also in Wright county, in July, 1869 ; then beyond tlie county and to Willmar later in the year. Breekenridge, on the Red River of the North, two hundred and seventeen miles from St. Paul, was reached in October, 1871.

During the financial panic of 1873, the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company became involved in a difficulty with its bondholders, and Jessie P. Farley, of Dubuque, Iowa, was appointed receiver of its unfinished lines. It was at tliis period that James J. Hill came into the limelight.

The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railvi^ay Company. In 1878, James J. Hill, who liad come to St. Paul from Canada in 1856, and had been gradually working his way upward, formed a syndicate consisting of himself, George Stephen (afterward Lord Mount Steven), Donald Smith (afterward Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal), and Norman W. Kittson. The syndicate acquired all the bonds and stock of the bankrupt two divisions of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, the agreement with the Dutch committee of holders being made March 13, 1878. Foreclosure decrees were entered against the company iu May, 1879, and the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company formed with a capital stock of $15,000,000, and .$16,000,000 of first mortgage bonds were issued, there being at that time 565 miles of completed railroad, and 102 miles under construction. The lines of the company were leased on February 1, 1890, for 999 years, to the Great Northern Railway Company, which had been organized in 1889, aud Imil taken over the cliarter of the Minneapolis & St. Cloud Railway Company.

In the summer, or autumn, of 1878, a survey was made through the northern part of the county, passing through the villages of Clearwater and Montieello. The people along the route were jubilant in anticipation of its early construction, but the project was abandoned, and their hopes unrealized. Tims matters remained until the winter of 1880-81, when another survey was undertaken, following the general course of the former, and com- monly called Rosser survey. Other routes were also surveyed, including one through Butt'alo. Propositions were submitted, aid extended from the towns of Monticello and Clearwater, and during the summer of 1881, the road graded as far as the latter village. Track laying began, from Minneapolis west, early in the season.

This line of railway up the west side of the Mississippi, passing through Wright county, and sometimes known as the Osseo branch, was constructed by the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company, under the charter of the Minneapolis & Northwestern Railway Company. It was built as far as Clearwater in Januarj^ 1882, and completed to St. Cloud and opened for operation December 17, 1882, the same date as the branch from St. Cloud to Milaca and Hinckley.

The "Sod" Line. The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company - popularly known as the "Soo Line" - was organized and incorporated in the year 1884, under the laws of the State of Wisconsin. Diu-ing the years 1884-1887, lines were constructed and operated between Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., a distance of 494 miles.

In 1888, the Soo Line began to branch out slowly, but gradually, and fast became a powerful factor in the development of the Northwest. The mileage of the company in 1890 was 782.

Three years later, in 1893, Portal, N. D., situated on the boundary between North Dakota and Canada, was reached, and a junction formed with the Canadian Pacific.

By 1900 the company owned 1,278 miles of road, to which 108 miles were added in 1902, and forty more in 1903. The year following the Winnipeg line was completed, from Glenwood, Minn., to Emerson, Man., a distance of 265 miles. The construction in 1905 was forty miles, largely in North Dakota, and in 1906 it was 149 miles. In 1907 and 1908 the Brooten-Duluth line was completed, being the second of its lines to traverse parts of Stearns county. The next year the entire system of the Wisconsin Central Railway, with a mileage of 1,412, was built, and is known as the Chicago Division. At the present time the "Soo" owns or controls 3,887 miles of railroad.

The Brooten-Duluth branch, begun in 1907, and completed in 1909, gave the central and western part of the county an additional outlet both to the Twin Cities and to Lake Superior. The line was completed from Brooten to the crossing of the Mississippi river, east of Bowlus in Morrison county, in 1907 ; from the crossing to Moose Lake, Carlton county, in 1908; and to Duluth in 1909.

The road is a consolidation of the Minneapolis & Pacific Railway Company, organized under the general laws of Minnesota in 1884, the Minneapolis & St. Croix Railway Company organized in 1885 under the Minnesota general incorporation laws, the Aberdeen, Bismarck & Northwestern Railroad Company organized under the general laws of the Territory of Dakota, the Menominee & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company organized under the laws of Michigan, and the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railway Company organized under the laws of Wisconsin, September 12, 1883. The last two companies were consolidated in 1886. William D. Washburn and other capitalists of Minneapolis were the principal financiers of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railway Company.

The "Soo" line has 707.02 miles east of Minneapolis; 2,214.59 west of Minneapolis; and a Chicago division (Wisconsin Central) of 1,017.44 miles, making a total mileage of 3,939.05.

Railroad Tax Fiasco. One of the roads which benefited greatly by the land grants was the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. By the line located through the southern part of this county, and the one just avoiding its northern border, a large acreage was secured within the county limits, the grant embracing the odd-numbered sections within a limit of six miles on each side of the lines. This, with the large amount embraced in the lands afterward taken under the homestead law, reduced the area taxable by the county to a mere fraction, and in 1867, through some misinterpretation of the terms of the land grant, an effort was made to tax the railroad lands within the county limits, the same as ordinary non-resident lands. They were, therefore, placed on the assessment rolls, returned, and advertised for sale for non-payment of taxes ; but the sale was prevented by an injunction served by the railroad company upon the county auditor and treasurer. Litigation followed, the case coming before the June term of the District court, and resulting in a decision in favor of the company. In this contest, H. R. Bigelow appeared for the railroad, and H. L. Gordon for the county. The case was carried to the Supreme court, by appeal, and the action of the lower tribunal confirmed. It was, on the whole, a most unfortunate affair, the most serious aspect of which was not the immediate expense incurred in the suits. By returning a large assessment on real estate, a corresponding tax was required by the state, which, as it was never collected in the county, was never paid into the state treasury, and the state auditor's books long showed a nominal indebtedness from Wright count.y.

The Minneapolis & Central Minnesota Railway Company has surveyed a line from Minneapolis, via Champlin, Monticello, Kimball Prairie, Fair Haven and Maine Prairie, to St. Cloud. The right of way has been secured for practically the entire distance, and consitlerable preparatory work has been done at the southern end as far as Clianiplin. Late in the fall of 1914, work was begun on the section from St. Cloud to Kimball Prairie, and grading pushed as rapidly as possible until freezing weather forced a suspension of operations. It is the intention of the company to resume work as early in the spring of 1915 as the frost is sufficiently out of the ground to permit the use of scrapers, and push it rapidly forward to completion. The line passes through one of the richest and best settled parts of the state, and will be of great advantage to the people along the route. The power used will be gasoline motors, at least for the present, though at a later date electricity may be substituted.