The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-17
STOLE A RAILROAD LINE
CARRIED AWAY EVERYTHING Elk
CEPT THD RIGHT OF WAY,
WHICH WAS ENJOYABLE
EARLY WISCONSIN HISTORY
A Contractors Who Had Worked on
tho Odd Central Couldn't Get
HIS Pay, So He Took
Other Means.


Evening Wisconsin.
DID you ever hear OF a man stealing
and carrying away railroad, or did you
ever know that railroad In Wisconsin
was once stolen and carried away? asked
EDWARD Barber, an early-day railroad
man OF Wisconsin, and now the well
known real estate dealer of Milwaukee
Never heard of a novel case like that,
enf Well, was very much Of an In
terested spectator OF the stealing Of a
railroad In Wisconsin IN the early DAYS
OF struggling railroad enterprises, and as
enc OF the officials OF the fated road 1
was compelled to stand alongside the
right Of way and see our railroad picked
up ana hauled away-a genuine case Of
stealing-and 1t was all done before the
company could get out any legal papers
to stop 1t, because the road was stolen
on Sunday"
Mr.. Barber then proceeded to give the
details. which are Of particular interest
Just now In view Of the semi centennial
OF the Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul
road.
1t was along in 1859 that the railway
enterprise known as the Wisconsin Cen
trail Railway company mot related, or IN
any way connected with the present road
of the same name) had It's beginning in
were capitalists interested In both states,
and the plan was to construct and oper-
ate line of railroad from Eigin, Ill, to
Lake Geneva, and from the latter point
to Whitewater and Jefferson, Wis. The
original projectors secured, and paid for
the right-of-way from Elgin to the Wis
consin state line and from the boundary
to Jefferson. and later up as far as Co
lumbus, In this state. The road, con-
structed OF "strap-iron," placed on
scantiing run lengthwise, like the orig
inal tramways In England was compIet-
ed and operated from Elgin to Lake
Geneva. No attempt was made at ex-
tension for some time, but later the en-
terpr1se was taken hold Of by New
York capitalists. headed by Euclid Chad
sey and others, and an effort was at
once made to con$-ruct the road to JEFF
erson and Whitewater. from Geneva
The new promoters issued 81 100000 In
ponds, which were in addition to the
farm and town bonds already Issued and
sold for the benefit of the enterprise. A
contract was then made with the Canadi-
an railway construction firm of George
F. Harris & Co. Harris immediately
came to Wisconsin from Canada. bring
ing with him large outfit. consisting of
steam shovels, experienced workmen
etc., and started in dead earnest. He Sc
cured w. H. Bradford, now a well known
retired citizen Of Milwaukee, as his pri-
vate secretary.
About the same time the new owners
ordered POO tons Of English ''T" rail to
be delivered in Milwaukee. These rails
were finally unloaded at the dock at Mil
waukee, in bond. and the secretary of
the road, Edward Barber, was called
upon by Collector of Customs GotIetb
Weiss to plank down $4,000 in gold as
duty on the foreign IRON Harris went
TO work grading the road from Geneva
north and did some heavy cutting
through the Whitewater bluffs and on
through to Jefferson, where he put in a
bridge over the Rock river, to connect
une road with the Northwestern line
Ihe English. rails were taken TO White
water and laid for a distance of about
two miles. making a spur from the NIL
Waukee and Mississippi road
linen ruLiorS or war depressed business
capitalists became tirnid and hard times
set In and the Companies with completed
ROADS found 1t very hard to make both
enos meet, to say nothing of the pros
pect Tor new enterprises The bonds of
the Central would not sell. and it's funds
got low. Harris had big bill due on
work faithfully performed The COM
pany met and decided to give him thu
ponds to see what he could do with
them lie could do nothing. of course.
ana the company is still in HIS debt. He
clamoring for their nav.
One bright Sunday morning some ona
reported to the chief engineer of the
new road, Frederick Starin. that a long
train OF fiat cars had arrived at White
water JhAnction and that the trainmen
Lad bsoken the switchlocks on the track
connecting the Milwaukee and Mississippi
ana the Wisconsin Centrals two miles
or spur. Star1n got the secretary Ed
ward Barber and both FASTENED to the
scene to learn just what was up They
round their contractor, Harris, in charge
Of the train and he had a big crew of
his men with him. He ran his Special
UP to the far end Of the road, two miles
beyond the Junction, and there, on that
beautiful Sunday morning when courts
were not in session and injunction could
not be- had, his gang proceeded sys-
tematically to load the Wisconsin Cen
trail railroad on his special train-ties
rails and ALL The men would take I'D
and place a section on the fat cars and
the train would then retreat far enough
TO give the men chance to work on
the next section, thus taking up the
track In the wake of the train until all
of the two miles Of railroad were on
board. Then Contractor-Co Conductor Har-
IT'S gave the signal and his train with its
load of English rails pulled out on the
main line of the Milwaukee and Missis-
sippi and disappeared around a curve
What did we dor" exclaimed Score
tary Barber. We'll, what could we dor
Harris had our road aboard his train:
1t was Sunday and besides he had
big gang Of Irishmen with him. and we
decided, under the circumstances, to let
him steal the road. We knew he could
not get his money and we did not blame
him much. As his train passed us with
our railroad on board, he smiled graci-
ously at US and waved g. goodby We
never saw Harris after that The re-
mainder of our railroad in Illinois grad
ually disappeared. also; we never. knew
how or where. But the rIght-of-w way Is
still there, paid for. In later years Ed
win H. Abbot and George Esterly, Of
Whitewater, the inventor of the Esterly
reaper and header made an effort to
revive the project but without success,
and 1t was never built. Had IT gone
through, it would undoubtedly be the
Central road Of wisconsin today. as the
right-of-way ran directly through the
central part of the state
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