62  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

this road was to be the extension of the Chicago and Danville line on to
the Ohio river, Brazil to be the crossing point of two great lines of rail-
road—a central line spanning the continent from the metropolis of the
Atlantic Coast to the peerless city of the Pacific Coast, the other to con-
nect the great central city of the Gulf with the great city of the lakes.
    Articles of association were filed in the office of secretary of state
on the 17th day of August, 1869, for the Raccoon Valley Railroad, to run
from the town of Harmony to the point on the Illinois line where the
Indiana & Illinois Railroad crosses the state line, a distance of thirty-five
miles.
    In the fall of 1878 the Terre Haute & Worthington Railroad was
prospected, surveyed and located, by way of Coffee and Howesville, and
the right of way taken, the work of construction to follow the next year.
But in 1879 W. B. Tuell extended the Terre Haute & Southeastern from
Clay City to Worthington, by which was accomplished substantially what
was sought to be (lone by the Terre Haute & Worthington, which was
then abandoned.
    In the year 1878 there was projected and placed on paper a con-
tinuous line of railroad from Lake Erie to the Ohio river, with Toledo
as the northern terminal, which was to follow the course of the abandoned
Wabash & Erie canal, appropriating the embankment and tow-path of the
former water-way as the road-bed on which to build the track. This road
would have crossed the south part of this county diagonally from the
northwest to the southeast. It was proposed to name this road “The
Wabash.”
    Within the same year, or at an early date in the year 1879, there was
profiled the Southern Branch of the Indianapolis & Springfield Railroad,
to tap the Clay county coal field.
    In the summer of 1881 was surveyed the St. Louis, Indianapolis &
Eastern, which, as announced by its promoters in the east, was to be the
intermediate section of a trunk line from New York to Mexico, to traverse
the block coal field of Indiana. The Van Normans were said to be the
prime movers in the enterprise, with Charles Howard, of Boston, general
manager. This line was to cross the upper course of Eel river, or Mill
creek, at what is known as the Lower Falls, in Owen county, and the
lower course of the stream at the old town of New Brunswick, intersect-
ing Harrison and Lewis townships, crossing the Evansville & Indianapolis
Railroad at Danville, a mile and a half southeast of Clay City. Robert
C. King, then ex-county superintendent of Owen county, as an employe
of this corporation, solicited and contracted the right of way for this
road through Clay county, who carried with him all the necessary assur-
ances directly from the hands of the incorporators that every representa-
tion made would be carried out in the construction and operation of the
road at a reasonably early day. Notwithstanding, the St. Louis, Indian-
apolis & Eastern, in the realization was never advanced beyond its tracings
upon parchment.
    On the 22d day of September, 1880, was incorporated the Green
Castle, Eel River & Vincennes Railroad, of which Col. M. B. Thompson,
of Urbana, Illinois, was made president. In the spring of 1881 Mr.
Thompson passed over the proposed route, meeting and addressing the
public at Poland, Bowling Green, Clay City and other points, saving that
if the townships generally along the line would vote the subsidy the road