The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1874-04-04

public lands to various states in the
spring of 1856, to aid the develop
ment of their infant railway systems.
Wisconsin received lands to aid two
lines of railway connecting her
southern settlements with Lake Su-
perior One of these was to run
from Madison via Portage City and
Lake ST Croix, to the City of Supe-
rior, at the head of the Lake. The
Legislation chartering road on this
route, was afterward amended to
include branch to bayfield,, Wis.
The first company possessed of
this grant was the Milwaukee and
La Crosse Railway Company, con
trolled by Mr. Byron Kilborn. This
corporation made use of the grant
between Portage City and Tomah,
a distance of about sixty miles. At
Tomah they diverged to Lacrosse.
The next year after Wisconsin
had received this grant from the
Government, wave ot financial
disaster swept over the nation, and
soon after the greater storm Of civil
war. For seven years western rail
way systems were IN a state of par
alysis, having neither men, money,
credit, nor attention. The storm at
last began to abate, and with the
prospect of the return of peace, the
Tomah and Lake st. CroiX (noW
the West Wisconsin, Railway was
put on legal footing. This line of
l56 miles was built as fast Us the
nature of the case would permit;
was completed over two years ago,
and now forms an important link in
one of the most direct great through
lines of the Northwest.
The ST. Croix and Superior por-
ton of the grant was taken by a
company which after little grad
inc, and a good deal of timber cut
ting, passed the grant from hand to
hand in speculation. The state,
however, by consent of the Interior
Department at w asnington. sent an
agent OH the grant, who kept ac-
count, and made collections rs far
as possible from the trespassers on
the timber.
IR 1869 the grant already once
renewed, expired by limitation, and
all acts and charters concerning
its use by railway companies were
repealed. 1t appears nevertheless
from the subsequent ruling Of the
L. ). courts, that the interest OF the
State in the grant inhered, till 4 tor
nal forfeiture was pronounced by
act Of Congress, or decree of the
judiciary. In every test case be
fore the courts, the rights of Wis
consin in the grant have been main
tanned to the present hour, and the
u. S. Senate has repeatedly refused
to concur with the Lower House
when in a spasm of assumed politi
cal virtue on the land question, 1t
had done Wisconsin the gross injuS-
lice of trying, on merely technical
grounds, to resume this grant.
At the late session Of the Wlscon-
sin Legislature, the St. CroiN grant,
now very valuable, was conveyed to
the North Wisconsin Railway Co.
composed mainly of the same par
ties who built the line from Tomah
TO Lake St. CroiX-and to the chi
cago and Northern Pacific Air Line
Railway Co.; the probability Is, that
these two companies, will build the
road, and thus justify the gift of the
81. CroiA grant.
In this connection we give below
what the ST. Paul Press of the 2nd
says, as to surveys by the North
Wisconsin Railway:
A surveying party has just left
Hudson, Wis, under the charge of
Chief Engineer J. Is. G.. Roberts, a
gentleman well known In engineer
ing circles, to make survey along
the proposed line of the new road,
full history of which has been
heretofore published. The party
viii first proceed TO a point some
forty miles north Of Hudson. 1t is
not probable that any material
change will be made from the line
that has been marked out by pre-
vious surveying parties, the simple
object being to take final view OF
the country before operations are
commenced IN earnest.