Howard County IN Archives History - Books .....Railroads 1909
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 4, 2006, 12:01 am

Book Title: History Of Howard County Indiana

RAILROADS.
BY OTIS C. POLLARD.

   The Indianapolis & Peru Railroad was the first to be built through Kokomo.
Its construction was started toward Kokomo as early as 1852. The New London
Pioneer did excellent service in enlisting popular favor in behalf of this
enterprise before the fifties were reached. Colonel C. D. Murray was the agent
at Kokomo, who collected the subscriptions of stock taken in support of the
enterprise. The line was first built out of Indianapolis as far north as
Noblesville. The road consisted of planking, which was crowned with an iron
strip. This was the kind of rail employed, and which served all practical
purposes for some time. Travel necessarily over such a line was very slow:
little better than a horse could jog along. The train had to move with a due
regard to its ability to keep the track, and it was not an infrequent thing, say
those most acquainted with the subject, that the engine jumped the track and had
to be returned to its proper place with jack-screws., which were always carried
in the baggage car, ready for any such emergency which might arise. Then there
was the danger of the thin iron piece which formed the top of the rail warping
under the rays of the sun and the occasion was not rare upon which the train had
to be stopped to permit of the track being nailed down to allow of further
progress. Mrs. L. E. Harrison was a passenger over this road in its very
infancy. She was attending a private school at Indianapolis and returned home
with her father, who was serving his first term in the legislature. After the
journey to Noblesville, a tedious one at best, had been accomplished, Judge
Linsday was met with his farm employe, who had brought for his use a large,
magnificent horse of the breed which he (Judge Linsday) always possessed, and
upon the back of this faithful steed he rode to Kokomo. Mrs. Harrison, then a
young lady, was placed in a large wagon, provided for the accommodation of
travelers north, and entered upon the trip to Kokomo. The ground was covered
with ice, and the wagon wheels sank into the mud up to the hubs. After many
hours the wagon drew up to the door of a hostelry at Tipton, where the party
rested, feeling utterly exhausted. It was such conditions as these which formed
public opinion to welcome the advent of a railroad line connecting the north
with Indianapolis and the east. It was not only the desire for speed and
convenience in travel, but to quickly and easily reach various markets as well.
In 1852 Captain Milton Garrigus was busy helping grade upon the line, boarding
with his assistants at the old McClintock house in Kokomo, then the only hotel
and a notable house in its day.

KOKOMO IS JUBILANT.

   When the road penetrated Kokomo there was a rejoicing the fullness of which
it is hard at this late day to fully appreciate. The old log courthouse was the
scene of a jollification at which Judge Linsday, Colonel C. D. Murray and Dr.
Corydon Richmond were chief speakers. The fight to get the road along its
present route, Buckeye street, was won by the exertions of the merchants, who
desired to save drayage bills, as they reasoned the matter in that day, being
afforded the privilege of having goods, as they hoped, unloaded at their very
doors. Buckeye street was then the Wall street of Kokomo, and it was believed
that it would remain the heart of the business section by reason of the location
of the railroad, an expectation destined to be disappointed. Be that as it may,
it was the scene of the principal commercial activity in Kokomo in its day. The
farmers' wagons drew up to its stores, and produce and grain found their way to
the foreign market, passing over this street, which was a commercial triumph.
Kokomo was proud in those days. Her leading citizens saw the opportunity of
Kokomo becoming a second Indianapolis. At any rate, the arteries of trade
expanded, she felt the inspiration of the new road and started upon a career of
growth which she has not since abandoned, but has ever since continued. An
elevator business was not long in establishment and the claims of magic change
from the presence of the road were more than realized. For some months Kokomo
was the terminus of the line. A hack carried passengers through to Peru; those
who might desire to proceed to that destination. Samuel C. Mills was the first
agent of the company in Kokomo, in which capacity he continued several years. He
and Dr. Corydon Richmond donated the present depot site. Dr. Richmond surveyed
it and Mr. Mills carried the chain. It was a part of the Mills & Richmond
addition, and they donated the railroad company a number of lots. This for the
reason that David Foster was a formidable competitor against them for the
location of the depot upon property of which he was the owner. Mr. Mills built a
large frame structure upon the site of the Howard flouring mills, which served
at first as a warehouse for the company's freight and as a passenger depot, and
was so utilized until the company erected a depot upon the spot now occupied by
its passenger and freight station. In time the road was extended to Peru and
ultimately to Michigan City. Then the cup of joy in Kokomo was full.

THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE.

   But the pride of the citizens in the future was further increased in the
announcement that the Pennsylvania line was to pass through Kokomo. During the
fifties this road was built and Kokomo enjoyed still a wider field of commerce
than ever before, as did the county. For a few years the road was called "the
jerk water road," due to the fact that the territory over which it passed
between Windfall and this city was swampy and undrained, and in the spring of
the year, in particular, the heavy weight of the train passing over the line
would throw the mud and water up against the car windows in streams. The
instances are numerous where locomotives were derailed, owing to the unsafe
condition of the tracks. Milton Garrigus was a passenger in the first train
which passed over the new7 line going from this city to Logansport. He describes
the trip as rough and perilous and exceedingly tedious.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ROAD.

   Perhaps the most important railroad acquisition of late years was the
Cloverleaf line, which gives markets to the extreme West as well as to the
Eastern seaboard. In the start this great road consisted of a small line between
Frankfort and Kokomo, and the road was known as the F. & K. line. It was a
standard-gauge line, with Frankfort and Kokomo as terminal points. The original
depot in Kokomo stood upon Elm street for several years, a small frame
structure. A leading spirit in the promotion of the building of this road was
Henry Y. Morrison, of Frankfort. A. Y. Comstock was a lieutenant in Kokomo. The
road was voted a subsidy of about four thousand dollars a mile, only about three
thousand dollars of which was collected. In the end the promoters of the
enterprise turned over the rights of way, subsidy and all assets to the
contractors, who decided to advance further money, upon condition of completing
the road, which was effected. The road was started in 1873 and finished in the
spring of 1874. The road being a short line with no feeders, and depending alone
upon local custom, had a hard pull for a period of several years. Finally, in
1880, negotiations were started for a road from east to west, the line being
known as the Toledo, Bloomington & Western. The Frankfort & Kokomo line was in
the path of the new road, but this property had been purchased by the Lake Erie
& Western Railroad Company, which sold the line to the new corporation, but
reserved the right of way through Frankfort, making it necessary for the new
company to pass through that city by an independent route. The road was changed
to a narrow-gauge. It was operated in this manner until it passed into a
receivership, being later bought by the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad
Company, which changed the line back to the standard-gauge. The line from the
east reached Kokomo January 1, 1881.

   Kokomo's commercial prosperity was further advanced and enhanced by the
construction of a street railway line, which has developed into the Kokomo,
Marion & Western Interurban Railroad Company, with a line from Kokomo to Marion,
a profitable property, while a line between Kokomo, Lafayette and Terre Haute
iis [sic] in its incipiency, but a certain thing of the future in all probability.

INTERURBAN LINES.

   Perhaps as great a stimulus as Kokomo has experienced from railroad building
was in the advent, a few years ago, of the lines of the Indiana Union Traction
Company through the city. It is the peoples' road, and freight service is as
handy as the groceryman's delivery wagon, while the passenger patronage is
remarkable.

   Kokomo's railroad facilities are little short of remarkable, the size of the
city considered, and by reason of them she has thrived as a manufacturing point
after the virtual depletion, if not relative failure, of natural gas, which is
no longer to be had as the "cheap fuel for factories in unlimited amounts."

   North, east, south and west, Kokomo is conected [sic] by rail with the busy
marts of trade, and thrives in consequence of excellent and perfect railroad
facilities and reasonable rates.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. I
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/howard/history/1909/historyo/railroad18ms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/infiles/

File size: 10.0 Kb