The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-06-11

State, sp0rsely Dettleo, bc9rce Ok miiuonairo6
and even of modest capitalists. Among these
early charters was one between Indianapolis
and Lawrenceburg, contemplating steam con-
nection with the Queen city, then as now the
commercial entrepot of the Ohio river valley
and its upper tributaries. That was the one
practica. line, and but for q series of circum-
stances and personal selfishness, Cincinnati
aad Indianapolis would have been united
br rail by 1910 instead of q dozen years later.
The Lawrenoeburg enterprise, after few
ftful efforts at making real beginning, was
abandoned Then, in 1886, the State took
hold of the already initiated Madison and
Indianapolis" railroad. For five years 1t was
''Credit Mobiller' bonanza, nearly 50, 000. 90
being squandered IN constructing the road
from Madison to Vernon, a distance OF %
miles. Six years later (1S47) it entered the
capital. and this city was thus brought in
steam connection with all the navigable
waters of the wharf at Madison. Its monopoly
was unchallenged and emphatic
till rival enterprise, the Jeff doomed,
and disturbed its rates and plans. The
jeff was projected in 1S4S, and completed
from Jacksonville to Edinburg in 1852,
| from Columbus to the last named town
alongside the M. and l. Perceiving the i'm
| mediate certainty of calamity If two lines
were in operation side by side, the old mo-
| noply yielded to the inevitable, and was alb
sorbed By the rival new corporation by a 10
| years lease to the Jeff" At the expiration
OF this lease the JEFF purchased the old
parent road and the whole has since been
known as the J., ". and l. Ten or
| DOZEN YEARS AGO.
fortunately for the roads, the people along
them and the public at large, the controlling
interest in the j., NJ. and L. or Jeff passed
into the hands of the Pennsylvania
Central company, and from that
day prosperity marked the puny
| Jeff for her own. The rough and rotten
rails were displaced by new; the dilapidated
1 10. h-sp
equipment; graceful bridges were con-
structed to span the streams, and the whole
road was speedily rejuvenated. Colonel
Horace Scott was placed in charge, and IN
| der his mastery, methodical efficiency, his
untiring energy, his generous and broad
| minded management, the once most uncom-
! Portable, unaccommodating and unpopular
| Jeff has developed and grown to be star
line of travel and traffic. Without intend
| ing to be invidous, it may be stated with
| truth that for ease, comfort luxury and
| safety in travel no line in the West surpasses
| the j., NJ. and /.
The gratifying progress of this pioneer OF
| our steam transportation Is most wildly
| indicated by presenting brief .abulated
statement of the business periods score of
years apart:
Gross earnings. Sl,l72,gOO
| Net earnings.......--.......... $4,000
/
and the several branches, comprise 226 miles
| of road. The total cost was Sc, 500, 600. The
/ nearly half a million net earning quoted
above yields about per cent. on the in
vested capital, which is success almost
| unparalleled in railway operation since the
panic OF 1878 The equipment of the jeff
hundred locomotives supply
motive power. two-thirds that many
passenger coaches, and between 800 and
| g. 49,, ,Iork 60
line, thousands of the freight cars of the
fast freight companies also going over tn
| road. Most of the passenger coaches have
six wheel trucks and finest OF springs, which
| require generous outlay with an eye sim
gle to the ease and comfort of the travelling
public. Up to this period, the Jeff" is the
one direct line from here to the South by
rail, connecting IN Louisville with that
splendid railway corporation, cour
agsous and plueky so the ), Louis
Memphis, Nashville, Alabama and Georgia
to the very heart Of Dixie. When IndIanapo-
lis erects within her borders those numerous
cotton mills and print works, over the Great
Southern and the Jeff will roll to US those
| long trains laden with cotton bales, freshly
picked on the plantations
sway down South in Dixie"
TheJ., NJ. and 1. is almost an air line to
the Falls City. Colonel Horace Scott has
reason to be proud of his achievement of a
dozen years.
The remaining Indianapolis offshoot of
the Panhandle system is
THE vINcENNEs ROAD.
This was one of the lines projected by the
Utopian dreamers of 1886. Indiana has had
three PERIODS of railroad enthusiasm, re-
| spectiyely, 1S36-'40, 1S50-55, 1S65-'73. In
the first period, the line coupling the oldest
| town in the Commonwealth with her Capital
city was paper-built, but the enterprise had
y,nf fho of riot neN
and was doomed TO premature decay and
temporary oblivion. Its yitaliZation into
reality was only accomplished in what might
be called the Tertiary period QS65) and by
1865, largely through the energy of General
Omitted States senator) Burnside, ic was
completed. The Vincennes line does not at
present form link IN any of the continuous
and conspicuous trunk lines East and West.
but 1t is, in connection with the Cairo and
Vincennes road, an intermediate trunk route
direct to the Southwest and lower Missis-
sippi, bringing Indianapolis in close and
convenient commercial relations with that
undeveloped principality within the limits
of Arkansas and Texas. The stock products
of these areas, and OF Southern Illinois and
Western Kentucky find the Vincennes
ready pathway of shipment to the stock
yards on the Belt road. The l. and V. pen
etrates region of our own State barely
opened to development, ana a score OF years
hence the tier of counties crossed by this
line will show by their increase in popula-
ton, wealth and productive industry, the
inestimable value of this road The Vim
cennes is well built and comfortably
equipped line, and is under the immediate
management of MIR. E. w. McKenna, q pop
ular and capable railway magnate OF our
own city. Mr.. McKenna has been con-
nected with the line for long time and has
an abiding faith in its destiny. The Vim
cennes is a part of the network of roads
under the general control of the Pennsylva-
mia system, whicn is primarily commanded
of able lieutenants.
Other than the Panhandle group, the
most distinctively defined combination Of
roads Is
THE BEE LINE SYSTEM,
the artery route of which is the old reliable
Bellefontaine road east, technically desig