History: Electric Car Interurban Service, Eau Claire, WI, 1898-1926 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, or the legal representative of the contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Nance Sampson 19 March 1999 ==================================================================== Electric Car Interurban Service Between Eau Claire and Chippewa Folded Up in 1926 Chances are that not many Eau Claire or Chippewa Falls residents would swap a ride on the intercity bus route that binds the two cities today for a jerky ride on the streetcar that connected the two cities until 1926. For those who can remember, it's fun recalling experiences riding the old "Inter-urban." But the memory must go back more than 40 years for fond recollections of the inter-urban. It was on August 7, 1926 that the old iron horse creaked out of its barn on Menomonie street, rocked over town to Barstow Street, puffed up the Madison Street hill to Omaha Street, swung north on Starr Avenue to begin its 11-mile trek to Chippewa Falls, a journey that ended at the loop in Irvine Park. Synonymous with the term inter-urban are phrases that no longer complement the vocabulary of anyone under the age of at least 50 -- names like electric park, with its canopied waiting station, amusement rides, dance pavilion, ball park and band shell. Today this is known to the younger set as Lake Hallie park. Other than a memory or two, only one vestige of this 12 1/2 mile line of electric street car line remain today (1968). That is the shelter house for waiting riders which stands just inside the Jefferson Avenue entrance to Irvine park. Even the "original" chairs on which street car passengers sat still were used this past year by fair-goers. And Irvine park superintendent Ralph Wolfe found recently the original sign which proclaimed the canopied shelter as the "Irvine Park Station." It had been buried for 40 years beneath slabs of board and other relics in the Irvine Park office. Wolfe has hung it once again on the end of the old shelter, which was constructed in 1907. The death of the interurban electric streetcar line which connected Eau Claire with Chippewa Falls, was due to the greater use residents of these two communites made of the then recently formed Motor Buss Line, a firm which today itself is threatened with extinction due to lack of use, its schedules continuously are being cut back in an attempt to make operation of the buss line profitable. The bus line was formed in 1920 by the Willette Bros. and Bob and Frank Agnew of Chippewa Falls. Bob Agnew himself at one time had worked for the interurban line, whose formal title was the "Chippewa Valley Electric Railway Co." Thus, those two cities, which had pioneered city rail transportation and which had held on to this prestige as long as possible -- actually too long -- succumbed to the rapidly growing motorized type of urban transporation even in 1920 quite common in most other metropolitan centers of the country. Although there is but one remaining physical remnant from the interurban days, there still are several geographical leftovers, namely street names. A few old timers still refer to Lake Hallie as electric park, and passenger pickup spots such as No. 1 Crossing and No. 2 Crossing, are known today by virtually the same names -- First Crossing and Second Crossing. Other spots along the Interurban line where passengers could be picked up included Dodges, Michauds, Hansens, Hagens, Chippewa Junction, Staffords, and, of course, at the loop in Irvine Park, where the Interurban would begin its route to Eau Claire. Records Hazy Records of the firm owning the old Interurban are hazy, due partly to the fact that the electric rail line was only part of the company operation. The streetcar line in Eau Claire was the other part. For example, the line in 1913 had 11 open cars (for summer excursions to electric park and to Chippewa Falls), 14 closed cars, one flat car and one snowplow car. The overhead cable structure was used by the electric cars, with both double and single poles supporting the lines. Generally, a double set on the corners and single pole on the straightaway was the rule. Power generated to run the electric Interurban line came from the Cedar Falls dam near Menomonie. The 33,000 volt line came into the city here from the west and ran to the Dells Power house in the Chippewa River. The first power station built by the company in 1898 was on Starr Avenue and it housed a steam driven generator. Later, a motor-driven unit was installed and powered from the Dells power house, and propelled the Interurban as far as the Lake Hallie electric park. Apparently this was uneconomical, for the Starr Avenue power house was closed in 1908 and full use of the Cedar Falls dam power was employed until construction of the Madison Street substation was completed in 1912. Financial records of the CVERC, although incomplete, indicate the impact of the first real competition which confronted the electric street car line. From 1898, when the Interurban made its first run, until 1920, when the Motor Bus Co. of Chippewa Falls made its first run, the line's financial picture was not alarming. However, from 1920 until the Interurban made its final run in 1926, the picture turned rather dismal. In fact, in 1920 the electric line showed a net profit of $33,385, but during the following year, 1921, after the bus line between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls was established, the net income of the Interurban dropped to a minus $6,841. It continued to decline, with a net loss of $18,000 in 1922, a net loss of $39,00 in 1924 and a net loss of $37,500 in 1925, a year before the electric line owners threw in the sponge on the run between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. Revenue Drops Likewise, gross revenue of the line showed a corresponding drop from $86,000 in 1920 to $36,000 in 1925. This was in spite of the fact that the number of passengers from 1920 to 1925 did not drop a corresponding percentage. While 713,000 passengers rode the Interurban in 1920, it dropped to only 623,000 in 1925. However, an indication of the slipping profit margin was revealed in the fact that in 1920 the Interurban traveled only 185,000 miles between the two cities, while in 1925 the figure soared to nearly 400,000 miles, causing a corresponding jump in expenses from $53,000 to $75,000. Fares, by today's standards, were not excessive. It cost but a nickel to ride the Interurban from downtown Eau Claire to First Crossing and only 20 cents to ride to Chippewa Falls. A sliding scale of fare rates was in effect all along the line with a six cent fee from downtown to Second Crossing; eight cents to Melby; nine to Michaud; a dime to electric park; 11 cents to Hanson; 12 cents to Hagens; 13 cents to Chippewa Junction; 14 cents to Staffords; and 15 cents to the Chippewa Falls city limits. The fare from Chippewa Falls to electric park was 11 cents and only a nickel from Irvine station to the south city limits. These rates were from the April 19, 1916 report of the Wisconsin Railroad commission. However, with greater expense in operating the electric line, and a declining income, it was apparent that the Interurban's days indeed were numbered. Like every other device made by man, the old had to give way to the new. But a half century of service to man was nothing to be ashamed of. The Interurban line was established in 1897 by one A. E. Appleyard, who came into the bustling lumbering communities of Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls from fresh financial successes with electric rail lines in Boston, Mass. and Columbus, Ohio. These, he assumed, were convincing weapons in gaining the support of people in this area for an Interurban electric railway between the two cities. Earlier in 1897, Appleyard had purchased the street railway company and the local light and power company and incorporated them into one firm -- the Eau Claire Light and Power Co. Horse and mule drawn street railway services began in Eau Claire in 1879 and the first track was laid in 1880. On Nov. 5, 1889 the first electric street car was driven over city streets by Charles Lahner. Eau Claire then was only the fourth city in the United States to operate electric street cars, the second in Wisconsin (Janesville was first) and so far as Wisconsin Historical Society records indicated, the city also was the first in the nation to heat its cars in winter time with electricity. Merger Occurs But after Appleyard purchased the firm, he realized that the street railway was not doing well financially and he convinced the owners of three Chipewa Falls Water Works and Lighting Co. to form a new firm, the Chippewa Valley Electric Railway Co., which was incorporated March 29, 1898. He then sold them the street operation of his corporation in Eau Claire and made himself chief stockholder int he new company. The new CVERC received francheses July 6, 1897 from the city of Chippewa Falls and the Town of Lafayette (later Town of Hallie) to lay trackage and erect lines. Construction of electric lines to operated the Interurban began in 1897 and operation commenced in the spring of 1898. Appleyard then had visions of extending the electric rail lines through Chippewa Falls to Bloomer and beyond to Long Lake, in the midst of an active logging territory. But these grandiose ideas never materialized due to financial difficulties which were to crop up later. However, the Interurban met with instant success between Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire. It was a then quick half-hour ride between the two cities for visitors and picnickers, for automobiles then were not bein mass produced and roads were poor at best. Also, farmers along the route (old Hy. 53) found the electric line a quick and easy mode to ship produce to the two cities or points between. In that first year of operation, Appleyard was president and superintendent of railways; Charles Lahner (who after retirement operated a meat market on Water Street) was assistant superintendant; and James Pratt and Joe Patneaude were motormen. Firm Sold In 1905 the noted Wisconsin and Middle West lumberman O. H. Ingram and associates purchased both the Chippewa Valley Electric Railway Co. and the Eau Claire Light and Power Co., incorporating them into the Eau Claire Railway Light and Power Co. All of Igram's partners were well-established lumbermen and pillars of community business and social life at the time. John S. Owen, vice president of the firm, was owner of several mills in the area (later to become O and N lumber yards) and in the South and West; and Byron A. Buffinton, treasurer of the firm, had been a long time Eau Claire businessman. Among his interest were grocery merchandizing, lumbering and banking. A descendant of Buffington's - Marshal B. (Buffington) Atkinson is editor of the Eau Claire Leader and Daily Telegram today (1968). In 1914 the Eau Claire Railway, Light and Power Co. was sold to the American Public Utilities Co., with the former owners returning full time to their varied local business interests and the new owners continued to expand the line. Edward Wahl became superintendent of the electric rail line and in 1914 the Interurban to Altoona was built a distance of 3.7 miles from the Barstow St. - Grand Avenue intersection. The American Public Utilities Co., owned by Charles Kelsey and Joseph Brewer of Grand Rapids, Mich., purchased the La Crosse Gas and Electric Co., merged the facilities here and changed the name to the Minnesota and Wisconsin Light and Power Co. This firm was aggressive and skilled, but in 1923 it realized that due to its venture into such activities as the Wissota Dam project in 1917, they were becomeing overextended and voted to sell their western Wisconsin properties to NSP of Wisconsin. A company traffic study in 1924 concluded that limited or even discontinued Interurban service between Chippewa Falls and Eau Calire was imperative. Service in 1922 had been expanded, but financial losses continued due mainly to the emergence two years before -- in 1920 -- of the bus line between the two cities. --Taken from the Eau Claire Leader / The Daily Telegram, Progress Edition, 1968