Columbus Public Library

In 1863, Isaac Seymour, N. A. Cowdrey, Horace Galpen, David H. Hughes, William Gould, Frederick P. James and George Smith, all of New York, and Asahel Finch and William H. White, both of Milwaukee, associated themselves under articles of agreement, dated May 5, of that year, as the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company. They had purchased, at mortgage sale, the Western Division of the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad, being that portion of the lines between Poi'tage and La Crosse, and in their articles of agreement stipulated that they might purchase the Milwaukee & Western Railroad, commonly called the Watertown road, running from Milwaukee to Columbus, with a branch to Sun Prairie ; the Milwaukee & Horicon road, running from Horicon to Berlin, and the Eastern Division of the La Crosse & Milw^^iikee road, when practicable ; and these purchases were subsequently perfected. Other persons afterward became associated with them, and the company operated, under orders of the United States Court, the Eastern Division of the La Crosse & Milwaukee road, accounting to the court for its use. The lines owned by the company, under the purchases made by them, were as follows : From Milwaukee to Columbus, via Watertown, 78 miles ; from Portage to La Crosse, 98 miles ; from Watertown to Sun Prairie, 26 miles ; from Horicon to Berlin, 49 miles ; from Ripon to Omro, 10 miles. In order to own a through line from Milwaukee to La Crosse, the company constructed 28 miles of track, from Columbus to Portage, which was completed in September, 1864, when the through line was open to travel. All through trains previous to that time had I'un over the Eastern Division of the La Crosse road. The cost of the lines of road and entire property purchased by the company, of which they entered into the possession June 13, 1863, was $8,144,138, for 261 miles of road, or $31,203 per mile.

Passage source: The History of Columbia County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement .., published 1880.

Chicago tf- North western. - A stretch of about seven and a half miles of this road passes through Columbia County. In 1870, the Baraboo Air Line Railroad Company was incorporated with authority to build a railroad from Columbus, AVatertown, Madison, or any point intermediate, via the village of Lodi, Baraboo, Abelman's Mills and Reedsburg, to Tomah, La Crosse, or any point on the Mississippi River above La Crosse. In 1871, the Baraboo Air Line Company was consolidated with the Beloit and Madison Company, and both were then consolidated with the Northwestern Company, and the construction of the road northwest of Madison, or the Madison Extension, as it was called, was rapidly pushed forward toward AVinona Junction, a distance of 129 miles. Aid was voted to the Air Line road previous to the consolidation, and was paid to aid its construction as follows: City of Madison, $25,000 cash ; Lodi, $25,000 bonds and $15,000 cash;

Passage source: The History of Columbia County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement .., published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Columbus City - 28,748 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.