Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1904-03-30
THE HAMLET or CHICAGO.
How Railroads Helped 20 Make 1t
Great City.


Great City.
1t was about twenty-five years after
the starting of Chicago. in 1903. 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, few farseeinS men
among the pioneers in the country be
tween Lake Michigan and the Missis-
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 II
tie because it was the more important
place. Why was it determined thas
the first railroad should start for Ga
lena from the little hamlet on Lake
Michigan? Simply because there were
few men there of the railway build
ing spirit. These men might have
started Il 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. 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 1887
stopped the surveys, and construction
was not begun until 1S47. but on Nov.
20, 1S4S. the Galena 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 1854 had been eS-
tended to Freeport, leo miles westerly
from Chicago, where it stopped for
good. The Galena road never reached
Galena. The gap Of fifty-One miles be.
tween Freeport and the original goal
Of it's ambition was substantially filled
by the construction Of the Illinois Cen
trail on it's 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 was reach
ed at the end of 1855. The pioneer road
had built a branch from Belvidere. ILL.,,
into Wisconsin and was proposing ali
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 con-
pany.