Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-12-04
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THE HAMLET OF CHICAGO,
How Railroads Helped to Make 1t "a
Great City.

GreAt CITY.
1t was about twenty-five years after
the starting Of Chicago, in 1868. before
the first locomotive went into service
in the United States, and the earliest
pioneers had to live, if any did, forty
five years after they planted Chicago
before they could see a railroad track
in all that region.
AS early as 1886, says the Chicago
Railway Age, a few farseeing men
among the pioneers in the country be
tween Lake Michigan and the Msss
sippi river determined that Il railway
ought to he built to Galena. an alnbi-
tious town in the lead mining regions
lie miles to the northwest Of Chicago
They secured Il charter for the Galena
and Chicago Union railroad. giving Ga
lena the honor of precedence in the IT,
tie because it was the more impol1ant
place. Why was it determined that
the first railroad should start for Ga
lena from the little hamlet on Lake
Michigan! Simply because there We're
few men there OF the railway build
ing spirit. These men might have
started Chicago at some other point
on the lake more attractive hy nature
than this. They might have stuck
their stakes at the mouth Of the Calu-
met. a broader and deeper stream
than the Chicago, or ut the site of
Michigan City, by the head of the
great lake, sixty miles nearer the east
and on q more direct line to the west
ern regions toward which railways had
begun to point from Lake Eric, or at
enc of the favored lunsting places, !
where now stand Waulegan, kenosha.
Racine arl Milwaukee, The pioneer
railway Vas to determine ,tlte location
Of the greatest railway center in the
world. AID when William b ogden
aud his associates determined that
Chicago Should he the starting point ,
Of tue railway to unite GaIena With the
lake they did the thing Which made ,
Chicago.
It vas twelve years after the charter
was granted before tie first piece of
road was completed, The panic of 1877
stopped the surveys, and cons trIcton
Was not begun until 1871, but on Nov I
90 1873. the Galcna and Chicago Union
railroad ran its first train FROM Chicago
west to Harlem ten miles Within
three years it had reached Elgin, forty .
three miles, and by 1851 had been cX-
tended to E'rccport, TO miles westerly
from Chicago, where it stopped for
good. The Galena road ueYer reached ,
Galena. The gap of iifty-onc miles be-
tween Freeport and the ori .slla goal
Of its ambition was substantially filed
by the construction of the Illinois Cen
!ral on its way to Dubuque. and thc
Galcna and Chicago Union company,
having decided on more direct line to
the Mississippi river, built the Dixon
Air Line from Turner Junction on the
old road, thirty miles west of Chicago,
on TO the Mississippi. which vas reach
ed at the end of 1875. The pioneer road
had built a branch from Relvidere, Ill.,.
into Wisconsin and was proposing an
extension to the northwest when
competitor under the name Of the Chi
cago, st. Paul and Fond du Lac began
to build road direct from Chicago in
to the same Wisconsin territory. That
road became the Chicago and North
western. and its line now forms the
Wisconsin division of the present COM
pany. I