Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-31


the number of men employed with the great
operating business of the cpmpany's two
long lines. The tracks along this frontage
arc slso to be Strengthened and the grade
materially improved. These facts are con-
frmatory of the closing sentence of the last
paragraph above. .-.. .
st. Paul g. Ssoua CITY.
The history of the st. Paul & Sioux City
Railroad company for the year 1879 will
make up an extraordinary chapter in the
story of rapid growth of railway companies
of the West. For several years the people
along the original line of the company have
been impoverished by, first, the grasshopper
plague and then unfavorable season for
grain. Nevertheless their confidence
in the soil and climate and
the, advantages of locality has
not abated, though it may have waned at
times, and their MEMBERS have been greatly
Increased by emigration, while the losses,
partial to complete, of successive crops of
grain, have had the effect to turn them
largely to surer, and, in the run of years,
more profitable productive industries.
Hence the business of the road, though not
showing the immense increase which would
have come from a rapid development of the
grain producing capacity Of abe country,
has been marked by an en-
couraging growth of traffic which may
be regarded not only as permanent, but as
indicating that the country has been forced,
by it's apparent misfortunes, into the second
ary stage of industrial Development in adj
vance Of the temporarily more favored SEQ
tions of our new northwest. The directors
and stockholders of the st. Paul & Sioux
City company, mostly ....
RESIDENTS OF ST. PAUL,
and prominent IN the iocal business of this
city, seem never to have lost faith
in the country upsss s. which their
enterprise is dependent. They have
invested in the company's lands,
have opened farms and have led off in exam
pies of ways in which the use of land may
be made profitable in spite CT grasshoppers,
drouth and hail-by the raising of stock
and the cultivation of variety of products
of the soil. The good results are already
observable in the increasing freight traffic of
the road, and in the prosperity of the villages
and trading stations along the line. But, as
railroad men, the directors and stockholders
of this company have done yet more.
During the past year they have, by purchase,
consolidation and extension, converted
their railway from an unimportant connect
ing line, dependent chiefly upon local traffic,
into
ONE OF THE GREAT TRUNK LINES
of the West, with feeder branches radiating
into or towards the most productive regions
of the New Northwest, and the power to
command favorable connections in every
needed direction. At the beginning of the
year these gentlemen formed the following
companies, and owned and operated the fol-
lowing lengths of track: St. Paul & Sioux
City, 122 miles; Sioux City & St. Paul, 14e
miles; and Worthington & Sioux Falls, SO
miles-a total of 329 miles. The
three companies were first consolidated un-
der the first given name. Since then the
company has acquired by purchase and con-
| solidation theSt. Paul, Saltwater g. Taylors
Falls railroad, twenty five miles, and the
Hudson & River Falls railroad, twelve miles,
Black Hills otherwise Sioux City & Ne
braska) railroad, twenty-six miles. and has
constructed railways as follows: The Blue
Earth branch, thirty four miles the Black
Hills branch, forty -four miles, and the Rock
River branch, twenty-eight miles.
This makes 497 miles, an
increase of 1853 miles of railway during
the year. In addition to all this the Omaha
& Nebraska railroad, 63 miles, has been pur-
chased under contract by which the St.
Paul & Sioux City company will acquire
possession and complete control the 1st of
| February next. This will give this COM
| pany total of $50 miles to be operated
in 1879, to which $50 to 200 miles will be
added by construction during the year.
...s THE FIELD OCCUPIED
by this great st. Paul corporation can best
be estimated, with regard to
its probable transportation business
or it's probable contributions to the CONNER
oial Importance of st. Paul, after glance at
some map which will show the whole extent
of the country contributorY to the main line
and its branches, and the relative position of
the company's lines with reference to the
natural exchanges of commodities.
The main line extends diagonally through
Southern Minnesota and across the north
western quarter of Iowa, from the Missis-
sippi to the Missouri. Its eastern arms
reach to the outlet of the great st. Croix
pineries at Saltwater and into the fertile
valley of the Kinnickinnick. At St.
Paul it connects with the Midland
| rpine egion of Northwestern Minnesota, and
also by the st. Paul q Duluth railway with
the northern Like route to the sea board,
while its Wisconsin connections are likewise
with great lumber producing region. The
country along the main line is endowed with
a temperate climate and very rich soil, and
| will ultimately have dense population.