58  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

Traffic connection by this line between Terre Haute, Brazil and Har-
mony was established in the fall of 1900—Sunday, September 2, at noon.
As this road crosses the county where the width is just twelve miles, and
the length of the track 12.36 miles, there is but little deviation from the
straight line. This road has but 35 of a mile of side-track in this county.
The valuation for taxation, including rolling-stock, etc., is $109,515.
    The minimum mileage in the county is that of the Evansville &
Terre Haute, which is but .23, or less than a quarter of a mile, of which
the assessed valuation is $9,200.
    The total taxable value of the railroad properties of Clay county, as
shown by the duplicate for the year 1908, is $2,170,435, and the total
mileage, main and side lines, 222.91.
    An enumeration and sketch of the railroads of Clay county would be
incomplete were it to ignore those built only upon paper. Numerous
reminiscences might be written in detail of the roads projected and pro-
filed which failed in the realization. Of this class there is the larger num-
ber. Clay county would now rank foremost of the ninety-two counties of
the state in mileage, facilities and valuation; had all the lines contem-
plated and placed on parchment been transferred to terra firma. Of the
unrealized the most conspicuous in memory is the “North & South,” or
“Northern & Southern,” of forty years ago, which was to afford the
block coal field outlets to the lake and the Ohio river, with Chicago,
Illinois, and Owensboro, Kentucky, as terminals, for the utility and neces-
sity of which the agitation began as early as 1868. Stimulated by the act
of the legislature passed at the session of 1869, providing for subsidies by
taxation in aid of railroad construction, the promoters of this enterprise
became the more confident and vigilant during the summer and fall of that
year. Public meetings were held at Bowling Green on the 18th day of
August and the 9th day of September, when articles of association were
gotten up and filed for the “Indiana Northern & Southern Railroad Com-
pany,” of which the capital stock was put at $4,000,000 and the following
directors elected for Clay county: George W. Wiltse, Enos Miles, John
Gilfillan, John G. Ackelmire, Thomas J. Gray, A. D. Cotton, George V.
Goshorn.
    Surveys were made and the road located through this county and,
under the provisions of the new law, an election ordered by the board
of county commissioners, the first of its kind in the history of the county,
and the only one in which the appeal was made to the taxpayers of the
county at large. At their December term (1869) the board of commis-
sioners made the following record: “And it is by the board ordered that
the polls in each and every township and precinct in the county be opened
on the 20th day of January, 1870, and the votes of the legal voters of
said county be taken according to law upon the question of appropriating
100,000 dollars, it being a sum less than two per cent on the taxable
property, for the purpose of aiding the Indiana Northern and Southern
Railroad Company in the construction of a railroad through Clay county,
payable upon the express condition, and not otherwise, that the said com-
pany permanently and finally locate, construct and complete said road
through Clay County, as follows, to wit: At or near Brazil, thence to a
point not exceeding one mile from the seminary building at Center Point,
thence so as to cross Eel river at a point not exceeding three-fourths of
a mile from the courthouse at Bowling Green, and thence to a point not
exceeding fifty rods from the Baptist church at Middlebury, Harrison