page_title: Alfred Kelley
section_title: Columbus and Xenia Railroad
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Kelley / Early involvement with railroads / Columbus and Xenia Railroad
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Aktie der Columbux &amp; Xenia Railroad Company vom 1. September 1849
context_page_description: Alfred Kelley was a banker, canal builder, lawyer, railroad executive, and state legislator in the state of Ohio in the United States. He is considered by historians to be one of the most prominent commercial, financial, and political Ohioans of the first half of the 19th century.
  Kelley is known as the "Father of the Ohio and Erie Canal" for his successful legislative attempt to establish the Ohio and Erie Canal. He was one of the canal's first two "acting commissioners", and oversaw its construction and completion. He was the president of Columbus and Xenia Railroad and the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, and pushed for a state charter for the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad. For this, he is known as the architect of Ohio's rail system.
  As a member of the Canal Commission Fund, he helped save Ohio from bankruptcy in 1841 and 1842.
context_section_description: The Columbus and Xenia Railroad (C&X) was chartered by the state of Ohio on March 12, 1844. The Little Miami Railroad, chartered some years earlier, was already under construction and would like Cincinnati and Xenia, Ohio, in 1845. The C&X would link Xenia to Columbus—creating the first rail link between Ohio's two largest cities. The incorporators of the C&X had difficulty raising funds and initiating construction, and no survey of the route had been made by February 1847.
  Kelley agreed to become president of the railroad in 1847 at a salary of $500 ($13,720 in 2019 dollars) a year. With private investors unwilling to take a risk on the line, Kelley convinced city and county governments along the route to sell bonds and use the money to invest in the C&X. With this money in hand, Kelley was able to convince East Coast financiers that the railroad was a sound investment. He personally went to New York City to sell C&X bonds, and raised enough money to not only complete construction of the railroad but also to buy locomotives and rolling stock to equip it. Kelley also accompanied engineer Sylvester Medbery as he traveled the line's likely routes, the two men essentially surveying them together. Kelley then personally approved the route of the C&X. For the track, Kelley traveled to the United Kingdom and contracted with Sir John Guest & Co. of Wales for T rails. The C&X was one of the first railroads in Ohio to used T rails instead of strap rails. The 200 short tons (180 t) of rails did not arrive in Cleveland until July 1849, delaying the laying of track until the fall.
  Work on the road began in October 1847, just months after Kelley assumed the line's presidency. The laying of track was complete on either February 19 or February 21, 1850, and regular service began on February 27. The C&X began generating substantial profits, and Kelley personally negotiated an agreement with the Little Miami Railroad which ensured an excellent working relationship between the two lines for many years.
  Kelley stepped down as the C&X's president some time between May 4, 1852 and April 21, 1853.
caption: A Columbus & Xenia Railroad stock certificate issued in 1849, bearing Alfred Kelley's signature
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