Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-03-27
THE SHORT LINE COMING
SALINE AHEAD OF THE REC
ORD.
$57, 900 OF STOCK TAKEN UP TO
NOON YESTERDAY.
Canvassing Going on Rapidly and
$4,000 or $4,000 will be
Raised.
rHE SHORT LINE COMING
Names Of Subscribers, Speeches, Go.

From the Saline County Progress, March 90
At one O'Clock on last Tuesday after
noon a large number of the citizens OF
Saline gathered at the Opera House to
take measures in behalf of the Short
Line railroad.
On the platform were seated Messrs.
M. V. L. McClelland, VIM. B. Steele
and j. Wentworth, of Lexington,
prominent leaders of the Short Line
movement in Lafayette; MI. j. Fl.
Waugh, of Columbia, treasurer of the
Short Line Company, Gen. Odon
Guitar, of Columbia, vice president OF
the Short Line, Mr.. j. H. COrdell, OF
Marshall, secretary of the Short Line,
Judge Jno. P. Strother, Judge John E.
Ryland, Hon. VIM. H. Letcher, Col.
Samuel Boyd and others.
Mr.. j. H. Cordell called the meeting
to order, and moved that Col. Samuel
Boyd take the chair. Col. Boyd was
unanimously chosen chairman, Messrs.
A. T. Palmer and B. j. Orear vice.
presidents and Ed. T. Orear secretary.
Col. Boyd made a few forci5le re-
marks upon taking the chair. He
traced the course of the Short Line
across the state, and said it was the
connecting link between two great
railroad systems extending from the
Atlantic to St. Louis on the east, and
from the Pacific to Kansas City on the
west. That jealous railroad syndicates
had kept one another off this territory
and 1t was left for individuals to build
the Short Line through it, thus getting
a road 20 miles shorter than any other
line between Kansas City and St.Louis,
and 60 miles shorter than the G. & A.
He told how nobly Boone and Howard
had done their part, and asked if Saline
with her rich soil, and all the wealth
and intelligence of her people would
allow Boone to surpass her in liber-
atty.
Col. Boyd then called on Gen. Odon
Guitar, of Columbia, who SAID, on TAX
ing the platform, that he felt at a loss
in presuming to urge the citizens of the
empire county of the continent to un-
dertake an enterprise so plainly to their
advantage as a railroad connecting the
two great marts of trade through
which, as gateways, were opened the
grand systems transportation that ell
circled the globe.
He introduced the discussion of the
question by reading a few lines from
a tattered and faded old letter, which
had been folded and sealed with q wafer
after the old fashion. 1t was of the
date of Feb. 23rd, 1S36-over so years
ago-and was written by a gentleman
i'll Columbia to his brother then in
Philadelphia buying goods. 1t alluded
to a proposed railway, to be the first
west OF the Mississippi river, and to
run through ST. Charles, Warren,
Montgomery, Galloway, Boone, How
ard and as far west as practicable.
This road, Gen. Guitar said, was sur
veyed right along where the Short
Line is to run, and the survey termi-
mated at Columbia in the summer OF
1S36-thus making the route of the
present Short Line the path of the
very first railway movement ever
pushed west of the Mississippi river.
The writer Of the letter was a sou OF
Col. Richard Gentry. who fell in the
Seminole war at the battle of Okecho-
bee. The letter made a complimentary
allusion to Rev. DR.. Yantis, Of Saline,
who was then only 25 years old, and
had just been employed at a salary of
$500 to preach at Columbia.
Gen. Guitar said that it was the
Short Lines natural route, and ran
through the earliest settled country of
earliest settled because it was the
cream of-the state. That the North
Missouri road (now the Wabash) tried
to come that way but that the people
of Galloway and Howard met the sur
veyors at their county lines and refus-
ed to permit them to come, saying
that the railroad would be used to mi
their negroes OFT to the free states and
they wouldn't have it.
Boone, however, was more far sight
ed and raised $3.50, 900 and thus man
aged to get the North Missouri through
the northern part of the county, and
then in 1867 built a branch road with
her own money, to connect with it.
He said that every road that Boone
had got was obtained by her own pub
lie spirit and liberality. "Boone," said
Gen. Guitar, "has connection with the
G. & A. and Wabash by the Centralia
branch, and thus has competing lines,
but you have only one road and that
a Chicago road-a road 60 miles longer
than the Short Line, and 80 miles out
of your w state. By the Short Line
you would be three hours nearer to st.
Louis, and that much closer to all the
great markets of the world which could
be reached quicker through st. LOUIS
than Chicago"
He said that "business is business
with railroads as we'll as other people,
and that they wanted all they could
get, and got all they could. And that
Saline could afford to give $500. 900 for