Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-02-15
Ar. r. HrLDRETH, Editor.
Charles City, Iowa, Feb. 10, 1866
McGregor Western Railroad.

gor Western Railroad were in danger
of passing into wrong hands and be-
ing misapplicd, has aroused to high
pitch the indignation of the citizens in
all the counties through which the road
should pass.
Fortunately, Secretary Harlan, sus'
pecting something wrong in the mat
ter, has not issued the patents for any
Of the 400 sections (256. 900 acres) o
! land which the McGregor Wester,
I Railroad Company sought to obtain
e Nor will Mr.. Harlan allow the patent
to be issued until fully assured tina
/, the conditions of the grant are strict,
, complied with. Herein we are safe
and Judge Greene, who seems to bt
President, Board of Directors and, in
fact, all there IS, of the McGregor West.
ern Railroad Company, will probably
fail in making his big grab of all the
government lands in Northwestern
Iowa.
Meetings arc now being held in the
several counties along the railroad
route, for the purpose of memorializing
the Legislature and Secretary of the
Interior upon the subject, and no small
amount of indignation is expressed at
the fraud attempted to be practised
upon the entire northern one-third of
the State.
A bill is now before the General AS
sembly which, if passpd, as it is con-
fidently believed it VI be, will prop
erly and securely >Dect the land
grant from the clutches Of the corrupt
and faithless cormorants, and only al
low it to be used in good faith to aid
in the building of an east and west
railroad on the AID parallel, as the
act of Congress intended.
Judge Greene, finding that the Lee
gislature are looking after him, de-
clarcs that he will have nothing to do
with them, and threatens to apply to
the Courts to consummate the enor-
nous land grab which he is seeking to
make.
1t should be borne i'm mind that thir-
ty Of the forty miles of railroad for
which Judge Greene claims the lands,
was built and in operation before the
grant was made by Congress and that
the remaining ten miles was built, not
on the AID parallel, but some sixteen
miles north of it, and in the direction
of Minnesota. This road--that is,
that portion of it witch is now in ope.
ration and that portion which is con
tracted to be built from its present
terminus to Austin, Minnesota--is lea
sed to the Milwaukee and Prairie d.
Chien Railroad Company, with all its
franchises, for ninety-nine years. Il
Judge Green were allowed to take the
lands west of us for his McGregor and
Minnesota road they would undoubted
ly be used for cancelling the debts of
or at any rate be swallowed up by, thu
Milwaukee and Prairie du Chen Rail
road Company, and thus inure to tn
benefit of Wisconsin, and not Of low;
as Congress intended.
1t is fortunate for us that we hav,
in the Office of the Secretary of tn,
Interior an honest man, one who hates
treason and corruption in every form
and who is also watchful enough no
. to allow himself to be used to perfec
SO great an outrage and wrong as ha
! been sought to be carried out by tn
taking from us Of our railroad LAM
grant. Let us be thankful that on
rights are yet secure. and that Their
is good prospect Of soon seeing on
east and west railroad completed ant
!, in operation. We mean by this tina
: new company stands ready to accep
the grant and build the railroad, an,
that the grant will probably be cor
ferred upon them, unless the compan,
I Of which Judge Green is the embed
r ment shall at once proceed to bull
the road on the line contemplated i
, the act of Congress granting the lands
j Elsewhere we Copy the debate ha,
: in the House of Representatives a
. Des Moines, on Wednesday of las
! week, on this subject