Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....Terre Haute & Alton Railroad 1879
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Book Title: History Of Coles County

TERRE HAUTE & ALTON RAILROAD.

   In 1850, the next railroad was made in Illinois. By February of that year,
the Chicago & Galena (now Chicago &, North-Western) was finished as far as
Elgin, and an excursion-train ran between the two cities. A great revival in
railroad interests sprang up. Among those sharing in the awakening was the old
Terre Haute & Alton Road, which a second time comes into the narrative.

   Work began under a new corporation in 1851. The old route was determined on,
as much of it at either end could yet be used. As has been stated no grading had
been done in Coles County. The Illinois Central, whose early history is
analagous to that of the Terre Haute & Alton, was surveyed while work was being
done on the latter road, and an agreement made between the two roads stipulated
that whichever got to the place of contact last should bear the expense of
crossing. Work went vigorously on through 1853, 1854 and 1855, and, in order to
accomplish the feat, the Terre Haute & Alton Road hastily graded their route and
reached Mattoon first. This was accomplished in the winter of 1855. As fast as
either end of the roads was completed, cars were put on, the intervening links
being traversed by stages which carried passengers who desired to travel in the
then incomplete condition of the roads. This road completed its bed and ran a
train of cars through from Terre Haute to Alton a little before the holidays in
the winter of 1855-56. The grading was very incomplete, many places the engine
being unable to pull but few cars at a time. When "stuck," as the natives called
it, fence-rails were used as an assistant motive power, or neighboring horses or
oxen borrowed to help haul the engine over the incline.

   About the time of the building of this and the Central road, a policy arose
on the part of the residents of Central Illinois known as the "State's Policy."
It more particularly affected those on the line of the Terre Haute & Alton Road,
whose terminus was Alton, which by the people of that city, always a rival of
its great foreign neighbor, was considered as one of the public corporations
that would in time enable her to become what she sought to be- the emporium of
the Mississippi Valley. This policy party sprung suddenly into existence when
the Ohio & Mississippi, and the Vandalia-then known as the Brough Road-attempted
to get charters. They must not center at a point opposite St. Louis; they must
come to Alton or not be built. No track was allowed to be laid from Alton to the
river on this side of St. Louis, and for two years this "policy" threatened the
serious failure of these two corporations. It was extremely narrow, selfish and
bigoted, and was handled without gloves by the foreign press and by the people
on the line of these two roads striving to get a crossing in Illinois. Not until
1852-53. did the party lose its power in the State Legislature, and not till a
new body was elected from the people, who, by this time began to see its
narrowing effects, were the desired charters allowed.

   Senators Douglas and Young wrote letters to prominent men in Illinois urging
them to abandon the idea, and pointing out to them the fact that the grant to
the Central Railroad could not have been obtained, had such a "policy" been
known to exist.

   Owing to this feeling, mainly, the Terre Haute & Alton Road was built from
the city on the Wabash to her aspiring neighbor on the Father of Waters; and,
owing to this same policy lurking then in the minds of the citizens of that
place, was the road for a number of years compelled to transfer its freight and
passengers to boats, and float them to the mighty emporium on the western bank
of the same mighty stream. It was finally overcome, however. A track was built
to the east side of the river, opposite St. Louis, where, until the erection of
the present grand bridge, the ferry-boat transferred them over the river.

   With the change of terminus, a change of name occurred, and when the
connection was effected with the road leading eastward to the capital of
Indiana. tin* name assumed its present form.

   Now it connects with the "Bee Line," eastward, and forms a continuous route-
from the cities of the Mississippi Valley to those on the Atlantic seaboard.

   Mr. E. B. McClure, the General Superintendent, is a citizen of Coles County,
residing at Mattoon. Here is what what [sic] may be termed the "Halfway House,"
and here are some of the principal offices. The car-shops of this Company were
removed from Litchfield, in 1870, and erected on a lot of ground donated by the
residents of the northeast part of town, where they are placed. They were
secured through a donation of $60,000 on the part of Mattoon, in whose history a
full account of them may be found.


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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