Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....The Illinois Central Railroad 1879
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Book Title: History Of Coles County

THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.

   Like the Indianapolis & St. Louis, the Illinois Central had its rise in the
Internal Improvement system of 1835, and, like that road, went down in the
collapse of the system in 1840. Some work was done on the road during this
period, chiefly at the northern end-its connection with the canal. It was
intended to connect the canal and the junction of the rivers at Cairo by means
of this road; and from published statements of the late Judge Sidney Breese and
letters of Stephen A. Douglas, we learn the idea originated as early as 1835,
the commencement of the system referred to.

   The revival of railroads and the consequent improvement in property received
a great impulse in Congress by the grant of 3.000,000 acres of land to the State
of Illinois for the construction of the Central road. A more munificent grant of
land could hardly be imagined at that date, and to the Senators and
Representatives in Congress of that session is the grant due. The provisions of
the grant were that the road was to be completed in ten years. In case of
failure, the unsold lands were to revert to the General Government, and for
those sold the State was to pay the Government price. The belt of land was to
include each alternate section for a width of twelve sections, the odd-numbered
sections to be the property of the railroad, the even-numbered ones to be the
property of the Government, and to be sold at not less than double the ordinary
price ($1.25 per acre), i. e., $2.50 per acre.

   The lands in this belt not already sold were to be withdrawn from market and
to remain so until the location of the road was permanently decided upon. The
State found itself in possession of the grant of land at the session of 1850,
and 1851, and as the act of Congress had passed the September previous, the
intervening time had been assiduously taken up by the press and stump of the
State in advocating and discussing plans for carrying out the project. It may he
remarked here that every plan brought forward was secretly fed by private
interests as much or more than by public good. Each town on any line from Cairo
to La Salle knew it was destined to be the one the road should pass through. The
session of the State Legislature was harassed by various monopolists, who saw in
the brilliant prospects an easy way to secure wealth, and who, for a time,
seriously crippled the enterprise. Many persons were strongly in favor of the
State engaging in the work as it had done twelve years before, and advocated the
payment of the State indebtedness by means of the sale of the lands and profits
from the lands.

   The maxim that "A burnt child dreads the fire" was exemplified here. The
State did not care to repeat the experiment it had so disastrously attempted a
few years before; especially so when an unexpected solution of the problem of
how to best build the road presented itself.

   Robert Schuyler. George Griswold, Gouverneur Morris, Jonathan Sturgis, George
W. Ludlow and John F. A. Sanford, of New York City, and David A. Neal, Franklin
Haven and Robert Rantoul, Jr., of Boston, came before the Legislature,
represented by one of their number, and offered, if the State would give them
the grant of land, they would build and equip the road, and have it in running
order by the year 1854; that by the 4th day of July, in that }rear, the road
would be completed. There was a speedy, unlooked for solution of the whole
question. A company of capitalists step forward, propose to complete and equip
the road in a given length of time, much shorter than the State could hope
to-to, in fact, relieve them of all care in the matter, and, when done, to pay
annually into the treasury 7 per cent of all its gross earning in lieu of all
taxes, State and municipal. It is said, in their eagerness to obtain the road,
the capitalists would have bound themselves to pay 10 per cent as readily as 7:
but that that was engineered through the Assembly by a prominent citizen of
Illinois, who was secured for this purpose by the company. After a little delay
in getting the Commissioner of the Land Office, at Washington, to convey the
land to the company, work was begun. At the outset, much strife was engendered
over the route the road should take, several towns vying with each other in
their efforts to obtain not only the road through their midst, but the
commencement of the branch to Chicago. The question was finally decided by the
State selecting a route as direct as possible, through a region containing as
much unsold land as possible, thereby gaining all the land she could. The main
line ran from Cairo north to Central City, where the Chicago branch diverged in
the direction of that city, taking in its route Coles County. The main stem
continued north through Decatur, Bloomington, La Salle, where it encountered the
southern end of the canal, and on northward, ending at Galena. Thus, by rare
sagacity, a company of capitalists found themselves in possession of a
magnificent railway, built from  the proceeds of bonds issued by them secured by
the lands, without the outlay of a dollar of their own money. They set aside a
certain part of the lands, the proceeds of which were to be applied to the
interest on the bonds. The prices realized for all these lands ranged from $5 to
$55 per acre, and as the road opened, an immense region of hitherto unproductive
lands, the sales on the part of both the road and the Government were simply
enormous. The Government was the real gainer, for much of the lands had been in
the market over thirty years and had not found a purchaser. Now the railway
promised a speedy outlet for farm produce; towns and villages sprung into
existence with Western-like prodigality, and before a decade of years had
passed, the enterprise had yielded a hundred-fold. It was the first subsidy
granted any railroad by the Government-a practice which, we are prone to say,
has, in a measure, been somewhat abused.

   The Illinois Central Road was completed and in full running order by the
winter of 1856, a year and a half from the time the memorialists agreed to make
it, they having been delayed in getting the grant of land properly deeded to
them by the Commissioner of the Land Office at Washington. Construction-trains
were running that winter, and on January 1, 185(3, says Mr. Frank Allison. of
Mattoon, a passenger-train made the first run from Chicago to Cairo.

   This railway is one of the longest in the West, and from the 7 per cent of
its earnings a revenue accrues to the State amounting now to over a half-million
dollars annually. This, the Company has at various times endeavored to reduce or
change; but the people have set their faces against it, and, not long since,
have placed it beyond the reach of the Legislature, by a constitutional
amendment to the organic law of the State.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY. ILLINOIS,

CONTAINING

A History of the County—its Cities, Towns, &c; a Directory of its Tax-Payers;
Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map
of Coles County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest,
Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c, &c.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO:
WM. LE BARON, JR., & CO., 186 DEARBORN STREET.
1879.

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