The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-07-27
THE COUNTY BOND QUESTION,

islature and the nearly unanim Gus
vote of the people of the county,
the Board of Supervisors, to aid the
building of railroad from Superior
to the Northern Pacific Junction.
issued to the Superior & St. Croix
railroad company the bonds of
Douglas county to the amount OF
S350,O00, running thirty years, semi
annual interest eight per cent, pay
able in New York, the county re-
ceiving in return the nominal equiv
alent of the companY's stock for
said amount. The Superior & St.
Croix railroad company at once
entered upon the work of building
the road, letting the contract for
, the entire work and turning over
the county bonds to Mess. III. S.
and H. D. Walbridge, brothers and
prominent business men and bank
ers, OF Toledo, o., and J. III. Sar-
gent, an experienced civil engineer
and railroad builder, of Cleveland,
.. A careful and expensive survey
was made, the right of way pro-
cured, sub-contracts let, a large
portion, perhaps two-thirds, of the
entire line of "a miles, was cleared,
and grubbed, and a few miles grad
ed, bridge timber was got out and
delivered at the proper points, the
slate dykes near the Junction were
blasted away,-in fine the building
of the road progressed bravely du-
ring the year 1872 and until the fall
of 1873. In August of the latter
year the Northern Pacific railroad
company as part of the plan to
compromise all questions of differ
ence regarding the harbor, and to
place Superior on an equal CONNER
sial footing with Duluth, SO far as
that road was concerned, agreed to
build within year line of railroad
from Duluth to Superior, crossing
between Rices and Conner's Points,
and running down the bay front to
the Nemadji, ard to build the road
from Superior to the Junction with
in three years. To carry out this
plan the Superior & St. Croix rail-
road company was reorganized by
the introduction OF new men upon
It's board of Neutrality-suspicious.
who held their seats in the interest
of the n. 2. Co., namely, Gen. G.
w. Cass, Fred Billings, c. B.
Wright, G. w. Mead, Thos. H.
Garfield, and NJ. c. Kimberly, be-
ing a majority of the nine directors
of the company, the local directors
being l. w. Gates, II. Hayes, and
James Edwards. 1t was also
agreed that $275, 900 Of the county
bonds were to be given this new
company, $4,000 when the bay
shore line was finished, the balance
when the road to the Junction was
opened for business, and the $275,.
600 of bonds were deposited in a
bank at Madison to be held subject
to this agreement. The remaining
$4,000 were to be retained by
Walbridge Bro. & Sargent to reim
burse them for their outlay upon the
work.
The history of the case after this
is BRIEFLY told. In September 1873
Jay Cooke went down to financial
ruin, carrying with him the North:
ern Pacific company, and thus ex-
tinguishing Snperior's tond hope
for railroad from that source. Our
county then found itselfin this shape:
It's bonds for s35O,OOO were abroad,
and work upon its favorite railroad
line suspended with no hope of re-
newal, for Walbridge Bro. & Sar-
gent confessed their inability to
proceed further, alone and unaided,
with the enterprise. The promised
and fully-expected help from several
OF the cold proprietors" of Superior,
in the way of cashing the bonds,
was totally denied them, and all
that remained for them to do was
to suspend, ,an6 call it bad bargain.
They claimed that as they had ex-
pended some $4,000 Oh the work,
that they were entitled to and would
retain that amount of bonds to re-
imburse them; and they proceeded
to trade and sell the bonds to sun
dry and divers persons in various
parts of the country, who now hold
them; and who are heard from oo-