Audrain County, Missouri - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 20 of those read), 1884

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 20 of those read)

But little more than half a century ago the practicability of rail¬ road transportation, according to the present principle of traction, was for the first time successfully demonstrated.

To George Stephenson, of England, a man of humble birth and for¬ tune, but of the greatest natural genius, belongs the honor of this crowning triumph of the utilization of steam.

On the 27th of September, 1825, he made the first really success¬ ful trip ever made on a railroad, by steam, by running a locomotive drawing a train of cars at the rate of twelve miles an hour, on the railway from Stockton to Darlington.

The Quincy Railroad, in the United States, was commenced during the winter of the same year and was completed the following year. Other parts of the country quickly followed the example there set, and the United States soon distanced all other countries in railroad building.

We now have in regular operation over 25,000 miles of road, or within a few thousand miles of as many as there are in all the balance of the world.

As population pushed westward railroads were extended into the interior, and Missouri, at that time a frontier State, showed com¬ mendable enterprise and liberality in encouraging railroad building. Various railroad enterprises were discussed and advocated in this State as early as 1835, and two years afterwards charters were granted by the Legislature to the St. Louis and Bellevue, Mineral and Louisiana and Columbia Railroad Companies. These were after¬ wards merged into the charters of the Iron Mountain and Hannibal and St. Joe Companies. After the close of the Mexican War, the building of a railroad to the Pacific coast began to be agitated, and the people of Missouri, and particularly of St. Louis, were among the first to advocate the enterprise. The policy of St. Louis was to (290) build three grand trunk lines from that city, one directly west up the Missouri into Kansas and to the Pacific ; another toward Arkansas and the South-west ; and the third towards Iowa and the great North¬ west. For these roads charters were granted by the Legislature, and they ultimately became the Missouri Pacific, the Iron Mountain and the North Missouri, respectively.

The North Missouri Railroad Company

The North Missouri Railroad was chartered on the 1st of March, 1851. The company was authorized to build, equip and operate a railroad from St. Louis via St. Charles, thence on the dividing ridge between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers through this State to the Iowa line and in the direction of Des Moines. The road was com¬ pleted to St. Charles in August, 1855 ; to Warrenton in August, 1857 ; to Mexico in May, 1858 ; to Moberly in November of the same year; and to Macon in February, 1859.

The St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway Company was organized under the general laws of Missouri, and in 1872 became the owner by purchase of the old North Missouri Railroad. Financial embarrassments having overtaken the North Missouri in 1871, it was sold out under foreclosure, and M. J. Jessup, of New York, became its purchaser. In February of the following year he sold it, as stated above, to the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Company. This company operated the road with marked ability and success until the 7th of November, 1879, when it consolidated with the Wabash Rail¬ way Company east of the Mississippi, forming the present Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway, the third largest system of roads in the United States.

The Wabash, St. Louis And Pacific

As has been said, the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway is the product of the consolidation of the old Wabash east of the Missis¬ sippi, and the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern. The general offices of the consolidated road are at St. Louis. Of these mention will be made further along. For convenience of management the road is divided into two granch divisions known as the "Western Division" and the " Eastern Division. " The former, being that part west of the Mississippi, aggregates over 1,300 miles ; the latter,

The old Wabash Railway originated in the Toledo and Illinois Rail¬ way, which was organized April 25, 1853, under the laws of Ohio, authorizing the company to construct and operate a road from Toledo to the western boundary of that State. On the nineteenth of August, following, the Lake Erie, Wabash and St. Louis Railroad Company was organized under the laws of Indiana to build a road from the east line of the State through the valleys of the Little river and Wabash river, to the west line of the State in the direction of Danville, Illinois. The road from Toledo through Ohio and Indiana was constructed under these two charters. On the 25th of June, 1856, the two com¬ panies were consolidated under the name of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company. This organization having become financially embarrassed in the panic of 1857, its property was sold in October, 1858, under foreclosure of mortgage and purchased by Ozariah Boody, who conveyed it to two new companies under the names, respectively, of the Toledo and Wabash, of Ohio, and the Wabash and Western, of Indiana, the two being consolidated October 7, 1858, under the style of the Toledo and Wabash Railroad Company. This company operated the road through the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, until 1865, when all interests between Toledo and the Mississippi river at Quincy and Hamilton were consolidated under an agreement between the Toledo and Wabash, the Great Western, of Illinois, the Quincy and Toledo, and the Illinois and Southern Iowa Railroad Companies, under the name of the Toledo, Wabash and West¬ ern Railroad Company. The Great Western Railroad Company of this combination was organized in 1859, and its road extended from the Indiana State line to Meredosia in Illinois, with a branch from Bluff City to Naples. The road from Meredosia to Camp Point was owned by the Quincy and Toledo Company, and the road from Clay¬ ton, Illinois, to Carthage, Indiana, was owned by the Illinois and Southern Iowa Company.

In 1870 the Decatur and East St. Louis Railroad Company con¬ structed and equipped a road between Decatur and East St. Louis, which in the same year came under the management of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company, and in 1871 this road was opened to St. Louis. The Hannibal and Naples Railroad, including its branch from Pittsfield to Maysville, was leased to the Toledo, Wabash and Western Company in 1870, and the following year, the same company obtained control of the Pekin, Lincoln and Decatur Railroad. In 1872 the Lafayette and Bloomington was added to the lines of the Toledo, Wabash and Western. Butin 1874, when so many railroads were forced to the wall by the stringency in the money market, the Toledo, Wabash and Western was forced to go into the hands of a receiver, and John D. Coe was appointed by the court to conduct the affairs of the road. He retained control of it until 1877 when a reorganization was effected under the style of the Wabash Railway Company. While the road was in the hands of the receiver the leases of the Pekin, Lincoln and Decatur, and -the Lafayette and Bloomington Railroads were set aside as well as that of the Quincy bridge, which it had previously secured. In 1879 the Edwardsville branch passed under the control of the Wabash, and in 1879 the con¬ solidation between the Wabash and the Kansas City and Northern was effected, as stated above.

The capital stock of the consolidated company - the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific - was $40,000,000, and in addition to this it had an indebtedness of $35,469,550, making the capital and bonded debt of the company $75,464,550. The present system includes twentyone originally distinct and independent lines of road. Previous to the consolidation the Wabash proper extended from Toledo to St. Louis, Hannibal, Quincy and Keokuk, with a branch from Logansport to Butler, Indiana, or a total length of 782 miles. But by the consolidation these roads were united with the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern and its branches, which gave the new company a through line from Toledo to Kansas City, St. Joseph and Omaha, making the total at that time 1,551 miles. The same year of the con¬ solidation entrance was made into Chicago by its purchase of the Chicago and Paducah, extending from Effingham and Altamont to Chester, Illinois, and by the construction of a branch from Strawn, ninety-six miles northward. Subsequent acquisitions were the Toledo; Peoria and Warsaw, a distance of 246 miles, and before the close of the year the Quincy, Missouri and Pacific, the Champaign, Havana and Western, the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, and the Centreville, Moravia and Albia, all connecting at different points with the main line. On the 1st of January, 1881, the system embraced 2,479 miles of road.

The lines built and acquired during the year 1881, were the Detroit and Butler, an extension of the Logansport and Butler division to the city of Detroit, 113 miles; the Indianapolis, Pennsylvania and Chia^o, 161 miles in length ; the Cairo and Vincennes, the Danville and South-western, the Quincy, Missouri Pacific, the Des Moines, North¬ western, and the Attica and Covington, making the total mileage at the close of the year 3,384 miles. The Butler and the Detroit roads, in connection with the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw, completed the second independent trunk line of the system from the Mississippi river to Lake Erie, besides securing new and important connections upon its entrance into Detroit.

In 1872 several extensions and branches were finished, the most important of which were the Shenandoah and the Des Moines divis¬ ions. The former continued the Detroit trunk line from the Missis¬ sippi to the Missouri. The latter, which now extends to Spirit Lake, in the north-western part of Iowa, opened up that great State to the traffic of the Wabash System. The total length of the system in 1882 was 3,670 miles, as follows : -

Recapitulation

During the year 1883 considerable additions have been made to the road, including the extension from Fonda, Iowa, to Spirit Lake, Iowa, a distance of about 80 miles, and others of importance, but the official figures have not been made public.

The controlling stockholders in the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific are also the leading stockholders in the Missouri Pacific and in the Iron Mountain, or the " South-western System," as the two last named roads, with their tributary lines, are called, so that virtually the Wabash and the South-western constitute a single system of railways. Indeed, in April, 1883, the Wabash was leased to the Iron Mountain of the South-western system, so that the whole 10,000 miles of road are now practically under one management, making by far the largest railway system in the world. These roads all traverse magnificent territory, and looking at these from the standpoint of the future development of the country, they are without doubt the most valuable railroad property on the globe. This is particularly true as to the Wabash system. Where are there five States in the Union equal to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, the States in which the Wabash roads are located? Their elements of agriculture, mineral and forest wealth make them now, even under partial development, a region of unsurpassed value. In 1882, although constituting but nine per cent of the total area of the United States, they produced 196,244,100 bushels of wheat of the 502,798,600 bushels raised in the whole country, or over 39 per cent of the total crop of the Union. Of the 740,665,000 bushels of corn, they yielded 340,705,900 bushels, or 46 per cent of the total crop. Their other farm products were propor¬ tionately large. In manufactures they are also of the first import¬ ance. Of the $5,369,667,706 worth of manufactured products turned out in 1880, these States produced 20 per cent, or products valued at $1,147,606,405. Bituminous coal is found in inexhaustible quan¬ tities in each of the five States named, and other minerals, particularly in Missouri, are found in great abundance. With a population of only 12,000,000 in 1880, what may we not expect the value of their products to be when they contain 60,000,000 inhabitants, as they are certainly destined to do? With such a territory to draw from, the Wabash Railway has little to fear in the future, so far as volume of traffic is concerned.

In point of management the Wabash is conceded to be one of the ablest conducted roads on the continent. The men who are now at the head of its affairs are men who have risen to eminence in railway management by their own ability, enterprise, and personal worth ; men who, amid the failure of thousands, and in the most trying times in the history of railroads the country has ever seen, have built up one of the greatest railway systems in the world - gathering up the wrecks of roads here and there where others had left them, and con¬ fining them in a harmonious, successful whole - a display of execu¬ tive and business ability, of enterprise and far-sighted sagacity, with but few parallels in history. No man in the management of the road but that holds his position because of his success in railroad affairs ; because of his success whereothers had failed, a success achieved upon a very sea of disasters. Look back ten years ago at the condition of the roads which now constitute the Wabash system ! Then there were not more than a score of them, scattered here and there over the great prairie States, the fairest and most fertile region under the sun, yet all of them tottering on the very brink of bankruptcy, and many of them practically dead as business investments. First one was taken from the hands of a receiver, a piece of dead property, and put on its feet and made to stand, not only to stand, but to become selfsustaining and prosperous. Then another was taken under the pro¬ tection of the first and put through a little course of resuscitation - and still another, and another, until the present magnificent system has been formed. It is an unrivaled distinction of the Wabash Sys¬ tem that it has been built up of roads mainly which had before proven failures, - that it is the product of the brain and energy of men who have shown the genius and to force success where others have failed.

To-day the Wabash is one of the best roads in the United States. Its main lines are all laid with steel rails, and its road-beds, bridges, culverts, depots, and other improvements, are not surpassed in the West. The rolling stock of the road has long been regarded as among the best in the country. Having always had sharp competi¬ tion, the management has made it a fixed policy to afford the public the best of accommodations, whether in passenger travel or freight shipments. As a result their coaches, sleepers, and dining cars are perfect triumphs of art, not only in point of comfort, but of elegance and good taste, and their accommodation for freight, both merchan¬ dise and live stock, are all that could be desire. In one important particular the Wabash is without a rival in the West, - in time . It runs through cars daily, including elegant chair-cars, sleepers and dining-cars, direct from St. Louis to New York and Boston, making over thirty miles an hour on the through trip, and on all main lines its through rates of speed are approximately as great. Not only in pas- senger travel is it ahead of any of its rivals as to speed, but in freight transportation also. Less than four days are required to land its through fast freights in New York after they leave the depot at St. Louis.

With regard to tariffs, it would be suppressing the truth not to say that the Wabash is among the most liberal of roads. In fact, in rail¬ road circles it is not as popular as some roads, for the very reason that it has so often led the way in reducing passenger and freight rates. Recognizingthe fact that low tariffs increase travel and trans¬ portation, its policy has always been to reduce the cost of carriage to the lowest possible figures. Nor ought the public to close their eyes to what the railroads generally have done in this direction.

The following table in which are given the average passenger and freight rates of six leading Western roads since 1865, shows the steady reduction of tariffs going on : -

Table

1 865 to 1883 the general average of rates has fallen off three-fourths. "Thus, while the railroads have increased the prices of grain, stock and other products by opening up the country to the general markets, they have lessened the cost of carriage to one-fourth of what it was in 1865. This, too, of their own motion, because the great increase of their own business justified it, and because their running expenses have become proportionally much less. Railroad management is like every other line of business ; if left alone it will regulate itself, and to the best advantage for all concerned, as the above figures conclusively show. Doubtless, rates will still go down, but not on account of a senseless outcry against railroads, nor of restrictive legislation, even less senseless than the clamor of the ignorant, but because of improve¬ ments steadily going on in railway transportation, and of increased business and other favoring circumstances. The public is as much interested in the roads being run on a prosperous basis, and far more, than the managers themselves. To the latter it is but little more than a mere matter of profit and loss. But to the public railroads are everything. They have done more to develop the wealth and re¬ sources, to stimulate the industry, to reward the labor, and to pro¬ mote the general comfort and prosperity of the country than any other, and perhaps all other, mere physical causes combined. They scatter the productions of the press and literature broadcast through the country with amazing rapidity. There is scarcely a want, wish or aspiration they do not in some measure help to gratify. They pro¬ mote the pleasures of social life and of friendship ; they bring the skilled physician swiftly from a distance to attend the sick, and enable the friend to be at the bedside of the dying. They have more than realized the fabulous conception of the Eastern imagination, which pictured the genii as transporting inhabited palaces through the air. They take whole trains of inhabited palaces from the Atlantic coast, and with marvelous swiftness deposit them on the shores that are washed by the Pacific seas. In war they transport armies and sup¬ plies of the government with the utmost celerity, and carry forward as it were on the Avings of the mind, relief and comfort to those who are stretched bleeding and wounded on the field of battle. No, we must not give up nor cripple the railroads. If their tariffs are still looked upon as burdensome, let us remember Iioav much they have been reduced in the past, and trust to the future with the conviction that reductions will still be made, whenever and wherever possible, to the proper managements of the roads. A single invention - the steel rail - brought down freight rates 40 per cent; then may Ave not look to time and genius still to remove whatever objectional features remain? But as the rates now stand, a wonderful contrast they offer to the rtld ox - or horse - wagon system of transportation. In 1817 a com¬ mittee of the New York Legislature reported that the average cost of transporting a ton of freight from New York City to Buffalo was $100. Now a ton of freight is transported from Kansas City to New York for less than one-tenth that amount.

Most of these gentlemen are well known to the general public. As has been said there is not a man connected with the management of the road who has not risen to his position by his own ability, energy and worth. The whole world is familiar with the career ot the presi¬ dent of the company, certainly one of the most remarkable men of this or any other age. A New York farmer's son, self-educated and starting out in life for him¬ self without a dollar, by dint of his own exertions and character he has risen to the position of the first railroad manager on the globe. A great deal has been said for and against Mr. Gould. A great deal has been said for and against every man who has made a distinguished success in life. It is one of the conditions of success to be criticised and slandered as well as honored and esteemed. But if men are to be judged according to the general results of their lives, Mr. Gould has nothing to fear for his reputation in history. He has given to the country the finest systems of railway and telegraph the world ever saw, and if the people do not seem to appreciate the time will come when his services and character will receive the homage which is their due. Mr. Gould became the president of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific on the organization of the company in 1879. Personally, however, he does not direct the affairs of the road, but is directly represented in its management, as he is in the man¬ agement of all his other Western roads, by the first vice-president of the company. Capt. Hayes was originally from New York. By profession he is a civil engineer. His first prominent connection with Mr. Gould's Western roads was as the builder of the Texas and Pacific. That road was constructed with amazing rapidity, and its affairs were managed with such ability and success that Capt. Hayes became at once recognized as one of the ablest railroad men in the country. The construction of the road was commenced in 1881, and on January the 15th of the following year it was ready for traffic to El Paso on the Mexican border, thus opening up the route via the Southern Pacific to San Francisco. Following this, Capt. Hayes was placed at the head of Mr. Gould's whole South-western System, or, in other words, was made first vicepresident of the roads embraced in that system, and on the lease of

Personally, Capt. Hayes is a quiet, unassuming gentleman. He is one of the few men whom position does not change in their bear¬ ing toward those around them. True manhood is superior to any position, however exalted, and this quality distinction cannot add to nor make less. It is only the weak and vain, those whose positions are above their merits, who make their importance and authority con¬ spicuous. From no word or action of Capt. Hayes, outside of his official duty, would it ever be discovered that he is at the head of the greatest combination of railroad systems in the world. He is the same dignified, unpretentious gentleman now that he was before he became distinguished for his great executive abilities. In his office all who have business with him are treated with the consideration and respect due them. In this particular he is in marked contrast with not a few whose positions are far less prominent. If all were as he is it could not be said with truth, as unfortunately it sometimes seems to be, that he who becomes a railway official puts his modesty and good manners behind him.

Captain Hayes' leading characteristics as a railway manager are coolness and caution, united with firmness and great enterprise. No step of importance is taken without a thorough understanding of its results, and of the influence it is likely to have upon all the interests affected by it. But when a measure is once decided upon and ap¬ proved, it is carried out with a resolution and energy that makes its success a foregone conclusion. He not only directs the general policy of his roads, but personally overlooks the administration of affairs in the several business departments of the service. He sees to it that abuses are nowhere tolerated, and that the business of the differ¬ ent companies is dispatched with promptness and efficiency. The result is manifest, not only in the harmony with which everything moves through the half-dozen great roads over which he presides, but in the superiority of service they have rendered since he was placed at their head, and in the remarkable financial success they have achieved. Of all others, he is undoubtedly the man for the position he holds, and his selection for the place is but another proof of the remarkable sagacity of the man whose interests, mainly, he repre¬ sents.

The second vice-president of the company, as appears above, in the roll of general officers, is Mr. A. L. Hopkins, but a sketch of his career as a railroad manager has been given in the review of the Mis- souri Pacific Railway in another volume issued by the publishers of the present work. Also the sketches of several other officers of the Wabash appear elsewhere in connection with the Missouri Pacific, with which they are likewise identified.

Col. H. M. Iioxie

the third vice-president of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, and of the Missouri Pacific or South-western system, like many of our most successful men, has risen to prominence and independence by his own energy and intelligence and the indomitable strength ot his charac¬ ter. He is a Western man by birth, and started in life poor and without even the favor of influential friends. When a young man he went to Des Moines, Iowa, and there in a few years became recognized for his high character and great enterprise as one of the most progressive and influential citizens of the place. Such was the consideration in which he was held that without his solicitation or even desire he was recommended for and appointed to the responsi¬ ble office of United States marshal. This position he filled with great efficiency until the expiration of his term of office, at the con¬ clusion of which he declined reappointment, desiring to devote his whole time and attention to business interests.

On the inauguration of the great Union Pacific Railway enterprise, Col. Hoxie became connected with it as a superintendent of con¬ struction ; and there he first distinguished himself for great executive ability and indefatigable energy in pushing the work to completion with unparalleled rapidity. The energy and dispatch with which the road was pushed across the continent was regarded as one of the most marvelous pieces of enterprise the world had ever seen, and was commented on by the leading journals of Europe as an evi¬ dence of the wonderful spirit of progress prevailing in America. To Col. Hoxie, more than to any other one man, is due the credit re¬ sulting from the expedition and success with which the two oceans were for the first time " linked with bands of steel." He personally supervised the work under his charge, and for months was on the ground at day-dawn, to leave only at dark, directing and pushing the work forward. The ability and success with which he conducted the construction of the Union Pacific attracted the attention of lead¬ ing railroad men all over the Union, and his services were in great request. On the completion of the road, Col. Hoxie was made its general superintendent - at that time one of the most important and difficult positions to fill in the entire railway service of the country. But the result vindicated the high estimate the board of directors had placed upon his ability and energy. As superintendent of the practical operation of the road, his success was not less bril¬ liant than his success had been as superintendent of construction. His future as one of the great railroad managers of the country was now assured.

From the Union Pacific he was called to Texas to build the Inter¬ national and Great Northern. There he displayed the same qualities he had shown in the construction of the Union Pacific. The Inter¬ national and Great Northern was built with amazing rapidity. Of this he also became superintendent, and later along was appointed vicepresident of the company. As soon as the Texas and Pacific passed into the hands of Mr. Gould he became superintendent of that road also. On the formation of the South-west System he was appointed general manager of the International and Great Northern and of the Texas and Pacific, and was also appointed third vice-president of all the consolidated roads. Afterwards when, in May, 1883, the Wabash was leased to the Iron Mountain, thus becoming practically a part of the Missouri Pacific, or " South-west System," as it is called, that road also came under his control, so far as the third vice-presidency is con¬ cerned .

As third vice-president of these roads, Col. Hoxie has the manage¬ ment and superintendence of the entire freight traffic of the combined lines. These roads aggregate nearly 10,000 miles, and together consti¬ tute the most extensive system of railways under one management in the world. To have the control of the freight interests on this vast system is a responsibility which but few men could safely undertake, a responsibility perhaps not equaled by that of any office, civil or military, in the government. The freight business on a railroad, as everyone knows, is to the prosperity of the road what the advertising business of a newspaper is to the success of the paper - the very life¬ blood of its existence. The main support of every prosperous road comes from its freight business ; this is the source of its greatest rev¬ enue, and on the success of its freight management everything else depends. Nor is any other department of railroad management so com¬ plicated and difficult. The interests to be considered are innumerable and often conflicting, but all must be consulted and harmonized to the best possible advantage. It requires not only a broad compre¬ hension of the general principles of transportation and trade, but an intelligent and thorouoh knowledge of practical business affairs, and of the best methods of conducting business transactions. Not only must general interests be looked to, but details also must be closely regarded. Nothing will wreck a road quicker than bad freight man¬ agement. It is, therefore, one of the most important departments, if not the most important, of railway management.

The success that has attended Col. Hoxie's administration of this department of railway service, as official figures show, is gratifying in the extreme. The receipts from freight transportation have been unprecedentedly large - out of all proportion, in fact, to former years, even allowing for the growth of the country - and notwith¬ standing this, rates have been steadily reduced. These facts, though perhaps not so conspicuous as his construction of the Union Pacific Railway, speak hardly less for his ability as a railroad manager. In¬ deed, it is at least questionable whether it required a higher exercise of ability to gain the applause of the world by linking the two oceans together, than it does to successfully conduct the diversified, compli¬ cated and extensive business of 10,000 miles of railway traffic.

Col. Hoxie is now somewhat past the meridian of life, but his energy, resolution and force of character seem only to have been strengthened by his ripening years. A man of prodigious capacity for work, he superintends, directs and personally inspects every branch of the service in his charge ; and he seems to be as active and as am¬ bitious of the future as he was before he had achieved either reputa¬ tion or fortune. Personally he is highly esteemed. Having risen from the people himself, there is nothing of the aristocrat either in his manners or thoughts. He weighs men according to their character and intelligence, and respects rank and fortune in the individual only so far as he makes himself worthy of respect. A man of gener¬ ous impulses and a kind, sympathetic nature, he is a warm, true friend to those who gain his confidence, and there is nothing, not dishonora¬ ble, within the bounds of reason that he would not do to serve them. Those who have known him for years speak of him as one of the truest hearted and best of men.

One of the oldest general officers of the Wabash, or rather one among those longest at the head of the affairs of that part of it west of the Mississippi, is the present secretary of the company. Col. How is an old St. Louisan and comes of one of the best families of the city. He com¬ menced his railway career in the ticket office of the old North Mis¬ souri Company, but rapidly rose by promotion to one of the general officers of the company. Prior to the organization of the present

Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, he was the vice-president of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern, the predecessor to the Wabash west of the Mississippi. The St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern was the successor to the old North Missouri, and was one of the most successful, enterprising and progressive railways ever operated on this side of the river. It not only brought the affairs of the old North Missouri out of embarrassment, but improved the road in every particular and added hundreds of miles of track to its original lines. It built and opened the line to Omaha and increased the ser¬ vice, both passenger and freight, on all the lines of the road. Its financial success was unequivocal and most gratifying ; so much so that it became one of the most valuable pieces of railway property in the country. Its management was characterized by unusual ability and vigor, and to no one was it more entitled for its rapid and bril¬ liant success than to Col. How. A man of a high order of ability and of extensive experience in railway affairs, young and full of en¬ ergy and ambitious to make the road a success, he infused into its management a new life and vigor, and urged it forward upon a policy that soon placed its success beyond the shadow of a doubt. Looking back upon the record the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern road has made, he has every reason to feel satisfied with the influential and leading part he took in its management. Col. How now has much to do with the finances of the road, so far as its practical operation is concerned, and lias entire control of its tax department. In these de¬ partments of railway management he has already established a high reputation. His success in the tax affairs of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern was particularly conspicuous. He saved hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company annually by defeating exor¬ bitant and erroneous levies. He is in every sense a worthy member of the present brilliant management of the Wabash.

Colonel R. Andrews

the general superintendent of the road, was originally from Philadel¬ phia, and was superintendent of the old Wabash, east of the Missis¬ sippi, for a number of years before the consolidation. The success of that road was largely due to the able and energetic manner in which he conducted the affairs of the superintendent's office. Having estab¬ lished a wide and enviable reputation while with the old Wabash, when the consolidation took place he was naturally placed at the head of the same department of the new company. Col. Andrews is not only a railway official of high standing, but is possessed of the qualities, to a marked degree, that challenge the respect and esteem of all men. He is a man with whom it is a pleasure to have business relations, and who adds much to the popularity and patronage of the road with which he is connected.

the general passenger agent of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific and Missouri Pacific System, is distinguished for being one of the most popular and efficient general passenger agents in the United States. His rise in the railway service has been unprecedentedly rapid. Pos¬ sessed of a quick, active mind, and of stirring energy, in each posi¬ tion he has held he comprehended the scope of his duties almost at a glance, and discharged them with so much spirit and success, that his advancement was assured and rapid. That he is the general passen¬ ger agent, although still a young man, of the most important railway system in the United States, a system in which none but the ablest and best men are permitted to hold important positions, is, in itself, the highest indorsement of his character and ability that could be given. And he is worthy in an eminent degree of the prominence to which he has risen. With qualifications far above the position he holds, although it is one of the first in prominence and responsibility, he brings to the discharge of his duties that ability and dignity, that clear and intelligent grasp of the influence and effects of measures upon the difficult interests of the road, and that self-respecting, manly bearing which not only make him a marked success, but elevate and dignify the position he holds. Personally Mr. Townsend is a mau of wide and genuine popularity. Of an open, frank nature, well disposed toward the world and full of life, he always has a pleasant word for every one, and apparently, without effort, wins the good opinions and confidence of all with whom he comes in contact. His personal pop¬ ularity was by no means the least consideration that influenced his promotion to his present office. In business affairs he is courteous, polite and affable, and no one leaves his office with an unpleasant in¬ cident to remember. His chief clerk, is also comparatively a young man, and is highly esteemed both in railroad circles and by the general public. He commenced life for himself by learning the printer's trade, and having the qualities for a successful man in almost any calling, he of course succeeded as a printer. He became an artist in his trade - one of the finest printers throughout the country. Subsequently he was called into the service of the Wabash Railway to superintend its fine advertisement work, of which he has since had charge. It has doubtless been noticed by every one who has traveled in the West that the Wabash has the handsomest, most artistic and unique advertisements of all the West¬ ern roads. This of course is the result of Mr. Fisher's control of its advertising department. And he has made the distribution of his advertisements as judiciously as he has made their appearance at¬ tractive. Indeed, he has been remarkably successful in advertising the road, and its rapid increase of business is proof that the industry and good judgment he has shown in his work have not been without their reward. In the entire service of the road no one is more popular and more deservedly so. He is as accommodating and gentlemanly as if it was his only study to be pleasant and obliging. Personally the writer desires to acknowledge here a favor received at his hands - material assistance in collecting the data for the preced¬ ing sketches of the Wabash Railway.

Colonel Wells H. Blodgett

general solicitor of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific in all business of a legal character affecting the active management of the road, became connected with the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern, the predecessor of the present Western Division of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, as its assistant attorney during the winter of 1873-74. In June following he was elected general solicitor of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern by the unanimous vote of its board of directors. On the consolidation of that company with the old Wabash in 1879, he became general solicitor of the new Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, the position he now holds. Col. Blodgett's career as a railroad lawyer has been one of marked ability and success. Gifted with a legal mind of a high order and of fine administrative ability, industrious almost to a fault, and an inveterate student, of the highest integrity of character and of close, exact business habits, justly popular with all who know him for his smooth, gentlemanly demeanor, and for his high personal worth, a clear, philosophical thinker and a pleasant, logical speaker, he combines, to an eminent degree, all the more important qualifications, both natural and acquired, for the chief law officer of one of the great railway corpora¬ tions of the country. Like most men of real merit who have risen to eminence he is essentially a sell-made man.

His father, Israel P. Blodgett, now deceased, was a respectable farmer of Illinois, but like most of his neighbors in that then new part of the country, was not a wealthy man. Wells H., therefore, had little or no pecuniary means to assist in establishing himself in life. After acquiring a common school education, supplemented with a few terms of college instruction, young Blodgett went to Chicago and began the study of law under his brother, Hon. Henry W. Blod¬ gett, now judge of the United States District Court there, but then the general solicitor of the Chicago and North-western Railway. Of studious habits, a superior mind, and entirely devoted to his chosen profession, he made rapid progress in his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1860 with expressions from the court highly compli¬ mentary to his attainments and promise for the future. He at once entered actively upon the practice of law in Chicago, and was making rapid progress in his profession when the civil war burst upon the country with all its fury. The life of the nation imperiled, he saw but one duty before him - to go manfully to its defense. He became a private soldier in the army of the Union, and followed the flag of his country with unfaltering devotion until it floated in triumph from the granite-ribbed hills of Maine to the sunlit waters of the Southern Gulf. For meritorious conduct as a soldier he was repeatedly pro¬ moted, and rose to the command of a battalion with the rank of colonel. He was twice commended by written reports of the com¬ manding general for conspicuous gallantry on the field. Two honor¬ able scars, the proudest decorations a soldier can wear, attest the patriotic part he took in the war.

After the war Col. Blodgett located at Warrensburg, Missouri, in the practice of the law. There he at once took front rank in his pro¬ fession, and in 1866 was elected to the House of Representatives of the State Legislature. Two years afterwards he was elected to the State Senate. Following this, in 1872, he was unanimously nominated by his party for re-election to the Senate, but was defeated at the polls by a test party vote. Indeed, he ran far ahead of his own party ticket, and was defeated only by a small majority.

In the Legislature, his ability and attainments made him a leading member in each of the houses in which he sat. A clear, soberminded thinker, and a conscientious, upright man, the fact that he supported a measure left but little or no doubt in the minds of others that it was for the best interests of the State ; and advocating it in his calm, lucid manner, he seldom failed to carry it to a successful issue.

Though a Republican, earnest and faithful, Col. Blodgett was one of the first prominent men in the State to advocate the enfranchise¬ ment of those who had been in rebellion. His record in the Legis¬ lature on this question forms one of the brightest pages in the history of his career. With him the broad, vital principle upon which our government is founded - equal and fair representation for all - was of vastly more importance than any temporary party advantage or expedient. Indeed, his conception of true partisanship is that it should strive to keep the party identified with the best interests of the country. The rank and file of those formerly in rebellion he be¬ lieved to have been honest but misguided ; and respecting their honesty of purpose and bravery, since they had submitted to the authority of the government and sworn to obey the laws, he believed no good pur¬ pose could be served by showing the distrust of their sincerity, and continuing them under the ban of civil ostracism. Hence he advo¬ cated earnestly and ardently their restoration to citizenship ; and to his efforts, less than to no man's in the State, were the enfranchised indebted for their ultimate right to vote.

By the close of his term in the Senate, such was the high standing he had attained as a lawyer, no less than as a public man, for he had continued the active practice of his profession all the time, that his services as official attorney were sought by various important cor¬ poration interests. Indeed, he had already distinguished himself in corporation practice, a department of the profession for which he has a special taste. In the spring of 1873 he accepted the assistant attor¬ neyship of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway as stated above, and was soon afterwards elected general solicitor for the road.

The St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern was the successor to the old North Missouri ; and the mere mention of the name of that road suggests confusion, chaos and law suits without ending. Its policy was to fight everything and pay nothing - perhaps because it had nothing to pay with. It finally went down under a perfect maelstrom of litigation ; and the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern inherited from it a very sea of legal entanglements. To straighten out these and get the new road in proper condition, so far as its law interests were concerned, was the first work to which Col. Blodgett addressed himself, and it was a work which no ordinary lawyer could have accomplished. None with less ability than he showed, none with less industry, less energy and resolution, less system and method in the conduct of business, could have succeeded. But being a thorough business man no less than an able lawyer, he went to work in his office and in the courts, and in a remarkably short time had his dock¬ ets practically cleared - clearer by far than railroad dockets usually are - and in almost every case with success to his company. His office, also, became a model system, order and method ; indeed this - orderly arrangement of everything connected with his legal and business affairs - is one of his chief characteristics, without which the diversified and complicated business of which he has charge could not be successfully conducted.

In the settlement of damage cases against the railroad, and, in¬ deed, of every class of claims, Col. Blodgett inaugurated an entirely different policy from what had before prevailed. He has always made it a rule to compromise every claim on a fair basis in which there is any merit at all, even though the law does not allow the claim, where compromise is possible. This policy, which has since been adopted by the law departments of several important roads, he has found best in every respect. It tends to promote that good feeling between the people and the road so advantageous to both ; whilst it saves thousands of dollars legal costs to the company and to claim¬ ants. As claimants can afford to compromise their claims at much less than they might ultimately recover by litigation, on account of the great cost and delay attending it, thus, without injury to them, the road saves additional thousands by fair compromises. This policy both good conscience and business sagacity approve.

Col. Blodgett makes it as much to the interest of claimants to compromise as to the interest of the road. He tells them frankly that he will allow what is fair on their claims ; but before he will allow the company to be bilked, he will make it cost them more than they can possibly hope ultimately to realize by suit. A railroad lawyer of the first order, he knows beforehand in almost every case what the decision of the courts will be ; and when he goes to law against a claim, he generally wins the case. Indeed, the frequency with which cases are won bv the railroad is often made a subject of criticism unfavorable to the courts. The fact lies not in the bias of the courts in favor of the railroad, for that does not exist ; but in that the road scarcely or never goes to the higher courts with a bad case. The attorneys for the road know a good case when they see it, and they know a bad one ; the first they carry up ; the second they settle. Thus the railroad is scarcely ever beaten in the courts.

Col. Blodgett, although he has long stood in the front rank of lawyers in the West, is still comparatively a young man, being now only forty-four years of age. Considering his age and the position lie occupies in his profession, it is not too much to say that his career has been a most successful and brilliant one. Nor has he yet nearly approached its meridian. With little less, if not quite a score of years more of professional activity before him in the ordinary course of nature, years, too, usually of the greatest advancement in the legal profession, his future promises a degree of eminence to which but few men can hope to attain.

Mr. Grover and Col. Curtiss. Mr. Burnett is the leading trial lawyer after Col. Blodgett. He has the reputation of being one of the best trial lawyers and most successful attorneys at the bar. He was until recently a resident of Illinois, and then engaged in the prac¬ tice in that State with success for over fifteen years. In the trial of railway cases he is ably assisted by one of the best railroad lawyers among the younger members of the bar in the State. Mr. Grover has always made a specialty of railway law, and has been connected with the Wabash and its Western pre¬ decessor, the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern, and Col. Blodgett, for nearly ten years. Of studious habits, a quick, active mind, and gifted with a remarkably retentive memory, the curriculum of railway law, if the expression may be allowed, has become almost as familiar to him as the usual course of studies to the college pro¬ fessor. He is especially efficient and capable in the preparation of cases for trial - in drawing the papers, hunting up the law and mak¬ ing citations thereto, and in examining the testimony beforehand and arranging it in proper order for introduction. This branch of work is his specialty in the office. Thus thoroughly posted in the law and facts of nearly every case of importance in the circuit courts in which the road is interested, when the cases come on for trial he is an invaluable and almost indispensable assistant to the leading trial attorney. He generally takes an active part in the trial of cases which he has prepared, and, if they are carried to the Supreme Court, assists in preparing the briefs for them in that tribunal. He is a young lawyer of established reputation and of a high order of ability, and will doubtless ultimately take front rank in his profession.

Colonel Curtiss

is the office lawyer of the legal department, and is one of the oldest railroad attorneys in years of service in St. Louis. He is a lawyer of wide and profound learning, a deep thinker, and an able and logical reasoner. More of a counselor than a barrister, he is yet an eloquent and vigorous advocate when he becomes thoroughly enlisted in the trial of a case. But being a fine judge of the law and justly averse to the rough-and-tumble manner in which, unfortunately, cases in the Western courts are too often tried, he finds work in the office more congenial to his tastes and more in keeping with his judicial cast of mind and his legal attainments than would be the case with him in the active conduct of cases in court. His province, in other words, is to beat the bushes, if a figure of rhetoric may be allowed, while the younger attorneys of the office catch the birds. Col. Curtiss is at present a member of the State Legislature from St. Louis and is re¬ garded as one of the ablest members of the House. He is a man of strict integrity, a high sense of honor, of broad and liberal views in politics as well as in everything else, generous in all his impulses, and of an open, frank disposition, dignified and urbane in bearing - in short, a gentleman of the old school, great-hearted and kind, whom it is a pleasure to know.

There are several other gentlemen in the legal department, includ¬ ing Mr. St. Maur, a gentleman eminently worthy of his position, notices of whom cannot here be made for want of space. Suffice it to say that the legal department of the Wabash, like every other department of its corps officiel , from the chief to the last subordinate officer, is in the hands of men who hold their positions because they are the best who can be had for their places. All in all, it is without question one of the best managed and most serviceable roads in the United States.

Chicago And Alton Railroad

This road was originally known as the Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad, and was completed through Audrain county east, October 30, 1871. The South Branch , or what is known as the Fulton Branch of the Chicago and Alton, was completed March 6, 1872. The Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago was finished March 15, 1879. All of these roads are now owned and operated by the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company. The number of miles of each is as follows : -

The main line was constructed through the county at a cost of $25,000 per mile. The Fulton Branch cost $30,000 per mile. The county subscribed $300,000 to the Louisiana and Missouri River Rail¬ road, which is now the Chicago and Alton.

The following are the directors of the road : T. B. Blackstone, Chicago, 111. ; John B. Drake, Chicago, Ill.; Morris K. Jesup, New York. Term of service expired first Monday in April, 1883.

John F. Slater, Norwich, Conn. ; George Straut, Chicago, Ill. ; James C. McMullin, Chicago, Ill. Term of service expires first Mon¬ day in April, 1884.

John Crerar, Chicago, Ill. ; Lorenzo Blackstone, Norwich, Conn. ; John J. Mitchell, St. Louis, Mo. Term of service expires first Monday in April, 1885.

Officers And Agents

The Chicago and Alton Railroad Company was organized October 16, 1862. The following: table will show the number of miles of road now owned and operated by this company : -

Chicago And Alton Railroad Co

Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad (Louisiana to Cedar City via Mexico) 100.80 Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago Railroad (Mexico to Kansas City) . 162.62

Capital Stock Funded Debt

Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad Company's first mortgage 7 per cent, bonds, due August 1, 1900, assumed by the Company in set¬ tlement of accounts under contract for construction, dated July

Mississippi River Bridge Company's first mortgage sinking fund 6 per cent bonds, due October 1, 1912, assumed by our Company under terms of lease . 700,000 00

Ill the foregoing statement the income bonds of the company amounting to $1,083,000, due January 1, 1883, are excluded, hav¬ ing been (with the exception of a few bonds not yet presented) paid at maturity by the application of funds provided for that purpose before the close of the year 1882.

The remainder of the mortgage bonds of the Joliet and Chicago Railroad Company, assumed by the company under the terms of the lease of the Joliet and Chicago Railroad - amounting to $306,000, on

Sixty-nine thousand dollars of the 6 per cent sinking fund gold bonds of the Company have been redeemed and canceled on account of sinking fund during the year.

Sleeping car repairs Passenger car repairs . Dining car and pay car repairs Baggage, mail, etc., repairs Air brake repairs Freight car repairs.

Freight Transported In 1882

The Chicago and Alton is now one of the most deservedly popular railroads in the West. It is especially popular along the line of its route through Missouri ; popular, because of the courtesy of its offi¬ cers and employes, and because of its speed, safety, and the prompt arrival and departure of its trains upon schedule time. Its passen¬ ger coaches are not only neat, but elegant in design and construction. Each train is supplied with reclining chairs, which are always so highly esteemed by the traveler, whether his journey be long or short.