Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-02-17
The M. IL MI. IL. II. Co.

The NJ. & Nj. IL. n. Co. q ,
Wepromised, yesterday, to givepour reade
some extracts from the pamphlet just ISSUE
by Mr.. Isett, concerning the doings of th
Company. He makes several grave charg
of deception and fraud against the Compan
and, having been for number of years OF
of the Directors, we presume he know
whereof he speaks. He avows that he has r
other object in view in making his exposur,
than the public good, and thinks, as Sta
and people, we would be much better Of
to-day, without mile of railroad, than "
are at present We have been deceived, take
in, swindled, and are yet at the mercy of Wa
street sharpers, so far as our railroad interest
are concerned. 1t behooves us, he thinks, t
look these facts in the face, and extricat
ourselves from eur dilemma in the bes
manner we can. 9b.rE .rotc
The M. & NJ. R. R. Co. was organized Dee
%, 1852, at Chicago, Messrs. Farnam an
Sheffield, of Conn.,, and John B. Jervis, of N
Y, being the prime movers of the scheme
On the 9th of June, 1853, in order to snlis
the more general cooperation of the people o
the State, the Company amended its origina
proposition to construct railroad from Dav
export across the State, by including in thei
plan one branch ola Muscatine to Oskaloosa
and another to Cedar Rapids. The chief mer
of this Company, Mr.. Isett gives US to under
stand, never possessed any considerable
means, or, if they did, never risked it in the
building of railroads. They asked the people
of Iowa, by county, city, and private sub
scriptions, to raise one-third of the means
while they promised, from their own pockets
or by subscription to the stock of the Company
in the East, to raise the remainder. For q
time, the plan appeared to work well; the
people took hold nobly, and furnished the
amount asked from them; but, when it was
all expended, the work began to lag, and
finally came to a stand still. Here we give
Mr.. Isett's words for the next steps taken:
"Mr. Farnam in the meantime made this
important discovery, that if he would decline
being a member of the board, and associate
with himself Thos. G. and Charles Durant, of
the city of New York, gentlemen represented
by him to be immensely wealthy, they three
would take the contract to build the road to
Iowa City and Muscatine, with the privilege
Of extending that contract, if they saw proper,
within q given time, to Fort Desmoines and
Oskaloosa. The proposition was submitted
10 the board, and appeared to be the only
alternative-either to accept this proposition
Or abandon the work for the time being, or
perhaps until what work on the line already
accomplished would be total loss. The
directory were very anxious that the work
should continue in progress, and, seeing no
,ther alternative, concluded to accept the
proposition. Consequently, N. B. Judd, a
member of the board and Farnam's man Of
.ll-work, at least so far as the Mississippi and
Missouri Railroad is concerned, presented a
contract, which was entered into by the
directory and the aforesaid contractors, by
which they agreed to take the work already
lone, material, &C., and complete the roads at
cost to the Company Of thirtyone thousand
lollars per mile (without ballasting). After
making several other important and costly
reservations under the above arrangement, the
oad was completed and is now in running
operation as far as Iowa City and Washington,
md passed into the hands of the stockholders,
It cost to them, as near as | can ascertain,
# over forty-five thousand dollars per mile
light of way, agencies, engineering, &C.,
included.
81
",With view to the speedy completion of
he main line from Iowa City to Council Bluffs,
he following grand financial plan was
.dopted in May, 1857, to-wt: A mortgage
If the entire roa between those points, with
IS equipments and appurtenances, and of the
and granted to them by Congress, to Thos. E.
" alker, of the city of New York, and Curtis
B. Raymond, Of the city of Boston, { both
by Farnam and his associates as
being gentlemen of immense wealth, and of
arge influence in the city of London, where
hose bonds were expected to be sold, as
rustees for the bondholders, for the sum of
seven millions of dollars, and issued con-
,truction bonds for that amount at seven per
;ent. per annum, the interest payable semi
the principal reimbursable in 1877.
The trustees gave the directory every assur-
.nce that the negotiation would be successful.
rhey had already been in correspondence with
English capitalists, and were confident that
several millions would be taken in London as
,oon as the bonds could be sent over, but as
! proof that we were imposed upon by those
trustees, or that they overrated their influence
with English capitalists, we have the fact
that thew never succeeded in selling any of
the bonds"
Mr.. Isett holds that the Company has for
feited its right to the Land Grant, as it was
required that rs miles of the main line, by
Iowa City, shonld be completed by the 1st of
December, 1859. He asks:
"How is the balance of this road to be built
Whv. sirs, whenever the people living along
the line, and who purchased these alternate
sections of government lands at $3.50 per
acre, that they should have had at $l.25, will
furnish the money to build the road it will be
built. and not before. The same song will be
sung and the same stories told by Farnam and
his CLIQUE of Wall street sharks, to the people
around Desmoines and farther west, that was
told to us near the Mississippi, viz: Gentle
men, if YOU will furnish one-t third of the money
to build this road, we will furnish the remain
ing two thirds, and build it for you. They
will forget to tell you, as they did us, that you
must furnish your third first, and lay it out
upon the work, and we will raise our two
thirds by placing mortgage upon what you
have done and by floating debt. 1t will be
we'll for all parties living west of the first
hundred miles of this road to examine this
matter carefully before they act, for, in my
opinion, if this line of road remains under its
present managers and bloodsuckers, they will
be as beautifully swindled as we who have
been living farther east. State aid has been
and is now the cry of those foreign gentry.
If they could only get the State to grant them
aid to the tune Of few millions, they would
be very happy men. They have already
received a very large amount of city and
county bonds, together with very liberal
private subscription also, four hundred
thousand acres of choice lands; and now, if
they could only get their paws into the State
treasury and get out few millions, it would
be most beautiful thing to top off with, and