Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-08-24
OTTUMWA IS GAMER.
Purchase of Central by Milwaukee
Means Much for This City.
MAKE OTIUtWA A DIVISION POINT.
Company Wight be Induced to Estab-
lisll Big Shops Here-Thc Ottum.
wa and Northern Project
and ITS Bearings.
From Wednesdays Daily.

From Wednesdays Daily.
The confirmation of the rumor that
the Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Paul
railroad is negotiating for the pur-
chase of the lines of the Iowa Central
comes like sweet music to the ears of
Ottumwa business men, manufacture
ers and wholesalers. No movement in
railroad circles for years is being
SO closely watched as this. The Court
er, believes that the citizens of Ottum-
wa have but faint idea of the i'm
MENU good such a purchase will be
to Ottumwa. 1t means the culmina-
ton of the plan for which the Ottum-
wa & Northern railroad company was
organized, without the expense and
trouble that the building of such q line
by local capital would entail. 1t
means, if the Milwaukee purchases the
Central, that it will Immediately
use its new lines, thus throwing open
to Ottumwa factories and wholesale
houses the entire northern half of
Iowa, by a direct route, for freight
prived of by the fact that the Central
freight service does not enter Ottum-
wa.
Col. L. NJ. Martin, the general man
ager of the Iowa Central, has arrived
at the company's head offices in Mar
shalltown and confirms the reported
negotiations with the Milwaukee road,
and the fact that he is to step out of
4 the position of general manager, which
She also confirms, would seem to indicate
that the negotiations were progressing
fayorably. The Iowa Central road is
the most important of the smaller
, lines in Iowa, and the fact that the
road is today paying nice dividends,
which, however, are being spent in inn
proyements, is an argument in favor
of the statement that its lines traverse
some of the best sections OF the state.
It's main lines cover over 500 miles of
road. and run frem Abba, north to
Manly Junction, which is north of Ma
son City, from Oskaloosa to the Mis-
sissippi river, and from the Mississippi
river to Iowa junction, Ill. 1t has
branch lines covering 141 miles, known
as the Montezuma. State Center, Sto-
ry City, Beimond, Newton, Lynnville
and Northwood branches, and coal
mine branch from Carbon Junction to
Carbonate.
The acquisition of this road by the
Milwaukee would place that road far
in the lead of any other line in Iowa
in point of mileage in the state, and
what is better for Ottumwa, would
make this city one of it's center
points. With the present line run
ming through here from Marion to
NKansas City, with the proposed Gin
ton Ottumwa cutoff, which is already
beingqstarted in order to relieve the
heavy traffic from Chicago to Kansas
City. and with the Iowa Central lines,
which will be- fed from Ottumwa by
way of Hedrick over the present track
of the Milwaukee, Ottumwa will be
one, if not the most important, of diyi-
sion points on their entire system. 1t
may mean the establishing OF immense
shops here as Ottumwa would virtu-
ally be the center point of all these
1ines-for the purpose of caring for
the work that must be done on the
rolling stock for these lines. The
company will certainly need to build
shops to care for this business, and the !
advantages possessed by Ottumwa for
the location of such shops should be
an incentive for Ottumwa business
men to open negotiations with the
Milwaukee officials to this end as soon
as the sale of the Iowa Central is made.
What is viewed with much satisfac-
ton by Ottumwa business men, how
ever, is the fact that if the sale is made
it will accomplish just what they have
been laboring for for years, and with
out any expense or much outlay on
the part of the citizens. While every
thing is practically in readiness for the
building of the Ottumwa & Northern,
this work will not be necessary, as
there will be no need of building
connecting link with the Iowa Central
tracks at Wright as the Milwaukee
road already possesses a splendid line
to Hedrick, which there connects with
the Central.
The Milwaukee is not the only road
figuring on the acquisition of the Iowa
Central. 1t was announced asthorita-
lively yesterday that overtures have
been made 10 the Northwestern, the
Burlington and the Milwaukee roads to
take the property, and that there is a
prospect that the two latter-named
roads will buy it together and dismem-
Der the system, each taking over a
part of it. The annual meeting of the
stockholders of the Milwaukee road
will be held September 90 and at that
meeting it is expected that the Mil
waukee's attitude toward the property
will be finally determined. The North
western is now considered out of the
negotiations because of its having COM
lnenced the construction of line from
Belle Plaine to Mason City and Blue
Earth that practically parallels the
Iowa Central.
-----------------
Forteith Iowa Volunteers.
Montezuma, Aug. 23--The twelfth
reunion of the Fortieth Iowa Veterans