Harrison County, Missouri - Chapter 17: Railroads, 1921

FIRST IN THE UNITED STATES - RAILROAD BUILDING IN MISSOURI - A RAILROAD CONVENTION - THE RECOMMENDATION - CONGRESS PETITIONED - GOVERNOR BOGGS' MESSAGE - SPECULATION - LAND GRANTED BY CONGRESS - INTEREST IN 1850 - ACTIVITY IN 1851 - RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION AGITATED IN HARRISON COUNTY IN 1859 - ROADS BUILT TWENTY YEARS LATER - INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS - THE BURLINGTON SYSTEM - MODERN TRANSPORTATION.

The first rail of the first railroad built in the United States was laid on July 4, 1828, by Charles Carroll, who was at the time the only surviving singer of the Declaration of Independence.

For a year or two, cars and coaches were drawn by horses, but after that the locomotive engine was introduced. Fifteen miles of this road had been completed by 1830. Other railroads had been planned, and in a few years were under construction, so that by 1850, a little more than 9,000 miles of railroad had been built in the United States.

Notwithstanding this progress in railroad building throughout the country, not one mile was constructed in Missouri until 1851. However, a peculiar road was started in 1849 or 1850, which extended to a point on the Missouri opposite Lexington, was operated by horse power, and its rails and cross ties were built entirely of timber. Missouri was fortunate in having great natural highways of commerce in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. The steamboats then coming into general use made these natural highways all the more important and profitable to Missouri by establishing connections not only with the outside world, but also between different parts of the state. Along the Mississippi and Missouri and their tributaries were thriving and prosperous towns, and these seemed well satisfied with the conditions, as they then existed. Eastern capitalists either were not able to take up railroad building in Missouri, or did not consider it to their advantage to do so. However, agitation for railroad building began as early as 1836. A railroad convention was held on April 30, of that year, at St. Louis. Delegates to the number of fifty-nine, representing eleven different counties, assembled at St. Louis at this time, and passed various resolutions in which the advantages of railroads were set forth.

It seems to us at this day, rather strange that they recommended two lines of railroads running out of St. Louis, one to Fayette, by way of St. Charles, Warrenton, Fulton and Columbia, for the purpose of opening up an agricultural region, the other to the valley of Bellvue in Washington County, with a branch to the Merrimac Iron Works in Crawford County, for the purpose of developing the mineral region.

Congress was also petitioned by this convention to grant 500,000 acres of public lands to encourage these enterprises, and it was also urged that the State of Missouri place its credit at the disposal of the companies that would undertake to build these roads.

oGvernor Boggs, in the fall of the same year, in his message to the Legislature, strongly urged a general system of railroad construction. Doubtless, inspired by this convention of railroad delegates, and the recommendation of the governor, the Legislature proceeded to incorporate, during the months of January and February, 1836, at least eighteen railroad companies whose aggregate capital stock amounted to about $7,875,000.

The early thirties were a period of general speculation throughout the United States, and the Missouri Legislature in granting franchises to railroad companies so freely and generously, was only following the example of many other states. However, little progress was made, in railroad building by these companies, due doubtless, in a large part, to a panic in 1837, and for ten years thereafter, failing to do so, the public lost interest in railroad enterprises. The 500,000 acres of land granted by Congress to assist in internal improvements in Missouri, were divided among the various counties of the state, to be used in the construction of roads.

It was not until 1850 that the people again became interested in railroad building. At this time the population of the state had increased to 682,044. This increase in population was not confined to the older settled portions of the state, that is along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, but also in the more inland sections. The country had recovered from the panic of 1837, and the spirit of enterprise was aroused throughout the country. St. Louis became roused. In 1850, her population was 80,801,

Missouri was being roused. Governor King proposed to the Legislature in his message in 1850, that the state should lend its credit to the railroad companies by issuing bonds, and lending them the money realized from the sale of these bonds. The companies were to pay an annual interest at the rate of six per cent, and to pay off the principal in twenty years.

On February 22, 1851, a law was passed by the Legislature, granting aid to two railroad companies, the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and the Pacific. The first was granted $1,500,000, and the latter $2,000,000. The Hannibal & St. Joseph, which had been incorporated in 1846 was to build a road which would connect Hannibal, on the Mississippi, with St. Joseph, on the Missouri. The Pacific, which had been incorporated between 1847 and 1851, was to construct a road which would run from St. Louis to Jefferson City, and from thence to the western boundary of the state.

The construction of railroads in Harrison County first began to be agitated as early as 1859. However, no material results were obtained in the way of getting a railroad for twenty years afterward and Harrison County depended upon the stage coach and pony express during this time. The first railroad agitation which produced fruitful results began in 1879, at which time a preliminary survey of the Leon, Mount Ayr & Western, a branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Road, was surveyed through Harrison County was very marked, and following its completion the popuof $40,000, and granted the right of way from Bethany north to the Iowa State line. Work was commenced on the road in the summer of 1880, and on October 28, of that year, the first train of cars ran to Bethany. The line was extended southward to Albany in 1881, and consolidated at that place with a narrow gauge road which had been constructed a short time previous from St. Joseph to Gentry County. The latter was subsequently changed to a standard gauge, and the road is now one of the most important branches of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy system.

The influence of this road in developing the material resources of Harrison County was very marked, and fallowing its completion the population has greatly increased, and all kinds of real estate advanced in value.

An immediate outgrowth of the road was the platting and building up of Blythedale, Ridgeway and New Hampton, and a vast increase in the business interests of Bethany. The line runs from northwest to southeast, and includes about forty-two or forty-three miles in Harrison County.

In the year 1884 the Des Moines & Osceola Narrow Gauge was extended southward from Leon, Iowa, to Gainesville, Missouri, the latter place being the present southern terminus of the line. This road is now a standard gauge and is a part of the Burlington system, also. Another railroad which passes through the southern part of Adams and Sugar Greek townships, the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas Gity Railway, is also a part of the Burlington system. The stations on this road in Harrison Gounty are Oilman Gity and Melbourne. Only about eleven miles of this railroad are in Harrison County.

No prophet of the present day, however great his vision, can foretell the transportation and mode of travel of the future. Even now man practically dominates the air and, in speed and distance of flight, puts to shame its feathered inhabitants.

Less than half a century back Jules Verne in his story of how the imaginary Phileas Fogg had encircled the globe in eighty days, set the world to talking and marveling about the accelerated speed of life, yet less than twenty years after or about thirty years ago Nellie Bly, a reporter for a New York paper, in actual travel, clipped eight days off the record of the marvelous trip of Phileas Fogg. In 1911 Andre Jaeger-Schmidt made the planetary loop in a trifle less than forty days. Thus from 1872 when Verne calculated Phileas Fogg record-setting tour until 1911 only a matter of thirty-nine years, mankind had come a half nearer the flying heels of time. Thus the imagination and vision of Jules Verne has been discounted by actual facts. What we may expect we would not hazard a conjecture.