Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1903-10-29
EARLY HISTORY OF
A BIG RAILROAD
AND WHY THE NORTHWESTERN
FAILED TO REACH GALENA.
SHORTER CUT 10 RIVER
Panic Of 1887 sefell While Original
Surveys Were In Progress and
Construction Was Not Commenced
TIN Ten Years Later~-An Historic
Tablet.

The world had not heard OF railways
in 1903 when Chicago was founded,
1t was % years after the starting of
Chicago before the first locomotive
wont into service In the United States,
and pioneers had to live, 45 years
after they planted Chicago be-
fore they could see a railway track in
all that region,
As early as 1896 few far-seeing
men among the pioneers In the eoun-
try between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi river determined that n
railway ought to be built TO Galena,
an ambitious town In the lead mining
regions, ITO miles to tho northwest
OF this point They secured a char.
ter for the Galena \ Chicago Union
railroad giving Galena the honor of
precedence In the title. because 1t was
the more important place Why was
II determined that the first railroad
should start for Galena from the little
town on Lake Michigan? Simply be,
cause there were few men there of
the railway building spirit These
men might have started Chicago at
some other point on the lake more at
tractive by nature than this, They
might have stuck their stakes at the
mouth Of tho Calumet. broader and
deeper stream than the Chicago, or Mt
the site of Michigan City, by the head
of the great lake, 60 miles nearer the
east and on n more direct line TO tho
western regions toward which rail.
ways had begun TO point from Lake
Erie. or at one of the favored landing
places, whore now stand WaulSegan.
Kenoshs, Racine and Milwaukee, The
pioneer railway was TO determine the
location of the greatest railway center
in the world, and when William u.
Ogden and his associates determined
that there should be the starting point
of the railway to unite Galena with
tho lake, they did the thing which
went far toward making Chicago.
1t was IL years after the charter
was granted before the first piece OF
road was completed. The panic OF
1897 stopped the surveys, and con.
struction was not begun until 1si7.
but on November 20, 1siS, the Galena
& Chicago Union railroad ran It's first
train from Chicago west to Harlem,
10 miles. Within three years II had
reached Elgin, AZ miles, and by 1854
had been extended to Fredport, 1870
mills westerly from Chicago. whore II
stopped for good. The Galena road
never reached Galena The gap of
81 miles between Freeport and the
original goal Of It's ambition was sub.
stantially filled by the constructor OF
the Illinois Central on it's way TO
Dubuque, and the Galena a Chicago
Union company, having decided on n
more direct line to the Mississippi
river, built the Dixon air limo from
Turner Junction on the old road 80
miles west Of Chicago, on To the Miss.
issippi, which was reached at the end
Of 1856 The pioneer road had built
branch, from Belyidere, into Wiscon.
sin and was proposing an extension TO
the northwest when a competitor, I'm.
der the name of the Chicago, st Paul a
Fond du Lac. began to build a road dl.
rect from Chicago into the same Wis.
consn territory That road became
the Chicago & Northwestern, and It's
line now forms the Wisconsin division
of the present company, In 1864 the
Galena e. Chicago Union railroad
was consolidated With the Chicago a.
Northwestern and disappeared from
the scene Of action In 1866 the Chi
caEo g. Northwestern absorbed the
Chicago e. Milwaukee and Milwaukee
n Chicago railroad companies, which
had built line between the places
named In their titles, and this was the
origin of the Milwaukee division Of
the Northwestern road. Tho Chicago
& Northwestern system and the entire
railway system Of the northwest
therefore, started in t848 from the
Galena a Chicago Union road, and II
was fitting that to commemorate the
Inauguration Of the tremendous inter.
est To which Chicago owes so much
the city should place In the wall Of
the modern Northwestern railway sta.
tion a tablet marking the site OF the
first railway depot In Chicago The
tablet shows the crude original sta
tion and the first locomotive on the
line