Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1904-01-23
THE HAMLET OF CHICAGO.
How Railroads Helped to Make 1t q
Great City.

Great City.
It was about twenty-five years after
the starting Of Chicago. in 1SO3, 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 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 Missls-
sippi river determined that railway
ought to be built to Galena, an ambi-
tious town in the lead mining regions.
ITO miles to the northwest Of Chicago.
They secured a charter for the Galena
and Chicago Union railroad, giving Ga
lena the honor of precedence in the IT,
tie because it was the more important
place. Why was it determined that
the first railroad should start for Ga
lena from the little hamlet on Lake
Michigan? Simply because there were
a few men there Of the railway build
ing spirit. These men might have
started a Chicago at some other point
on the lake more attractive by 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 at the site OF
Michigan City, by the head of the
great lake. sixty miles nearer the east
and on more direct line to the west
ern regions toward which railways had
begun to point from Lake Erie, or at
one of the favored landing places,
where now stand Waukegan. kenosha,
Racine and Milwaukee. The pioneer
railway was to determine the location
Of the greatest railway center in the
world, and when William B. Ogden
and his associates determined that
Chicago should be the starting point
of the railway to unite Galena with the
lake they did the thing which made
Chicago.
1t was twelve years after the charter
was granted before the first piece Of
road was completed. The panic of 1857
stopped the surveys, and construction
was not begun until 1917. but on Nov.
20, 1918 the Galena and Chicago Union
railroad ran its first train from Chicago
west TO Harlem. ten miles. Within
three years it had reached ElSin, forty
three miles. and by lS,-l had been en-
tended to FrccpOrt. 40 miles westerly
from Chicago. where ii stopped for
good. The Galena road never reached
Galcna. The gap of tifty-onc miles be.
tween Frerp0rt and the original goal
of its ambition was substantially filled
by the construction of the Illinois Cen
trail on its way to Dubuque. and the
Galena 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 WIS reach
ed 1T the end of 1870 The pioneer road
had built branch from Belvidere, 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 a 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