Morris tribune., 1922-07-07

The first railroad designed to
pass over the route now traversed
by the Great Northern Company,
from st. Paul, Minneapolis, through
Litchfeld, Willmar, Benson, Morris,
and ON to Breckenridge, was the old
Minnesota & Pacific Company, Or
ganized and chartered by the terri
torial legislature in 1857. But al
though the company was entitled to
the large grant rights extended by
Congress for the construction and
operation of the road, and the state
in 1858 or 1859, in aid of the un-
dertaking loaned it's credit to the
company by issuing and delivering to
the officers thereof negotiable state
bonds in the sum of $5,0O0,OO0, the
company wholly failed to construct
the road. Money was scarce in those
days and could not readily be raised
even on the credit of state bonds.
The panic of 1857 had not released
it's hold, and the opening of the civil
war in 1861, left the matter of rail-
road building wholly in the air, and
all was at standstill until the war
closed. But the Minnesota & Pa
cific Company did nothing other than
to make survey Of the route to
constructed, evidence of which was
found in Morris by the surveyors of
the First Division Company in 1870,
and little grading out Of st. Paul.
The officers Of the company, or some
of them, fraudulently put the state
bonds in circulation, and they
reached the hands of innocent hold
ers, and although the state received
nothing therefor it was after a pro-
lOnged controversy compelled to pay
them. At the time the bonds were
issued and so delivered matters looked
more favorable and hopes were enter
tanned for a railroad through the
big Woods" as that large body of
timber extending from a few miles
east Of Litchf1eld to Minneapolis was
then known, to what promised to be
and has in fact since become the
great prairie agricultural lands lex
! tending many days travel to the
north and west" But the hopes were
in vain. The mortgages given by
the railroad company to secure and
protect the state were defaulted and
foreclosure became necessary. At
the foreclosure sale, some date in
1859 or 1860, rights and franchise
of the company, the real subject
matter of the mortgage, there was
no property, were struck off to the
state, it being the only bidder, for
the sum of $1,000. AS stated the
company had no property, and the
only thing acquired by the state as
purchaser was a return of the fran
chise and rights granted to the COM
pany by it's territorial charter. All
further efforts by the state through
legislation to help the company out
failed, and finally it passed off the
stage of action about the year 1862.
No dishonesty in the delivery of the
bonds was charged to officers of the
state, for that seemed the only means
of raising funds for the work of
grading and constructing the road.
The state was then new, settlers were
coming in and railroads were neces-
sary to facilitate opening the from
tier and to afford ready and ac-
cessible market to those portions of
the state far removed from the navi-
gable rivers, the Mississippi, Mime
sofa and st. Croix, and other
smaller yet semi-navigable streams
along which the early settlements
had been confined. The delivery of
the bonds was in good faith and in
the expectation that railroad
would be forthcoming, and the loss
to the state came from assuming that
those in official charge of the rail-
road building operations were also
acting in good faith, and capable of
carrying out their obligations, an as
sumption which subsequent events
proved erroneous.
However, the people were not dis
couraged nor dismayed but kept at
work to bring into the state rail-
road builders with the necessary
funds, or means to, obtain them, and
in 1852 the legislature by special
act created and chartered the st.
Paul & Pacific Railroad company,
vesting in it all the rights, fran
chises and privileges Heretofore
granted to and possessed by the old
Minnesota & Pacific company, and
authorizing it to proceed and con-
struct the road the former company
had agreed but failed to build; vest
ing in it also all rights in the federal
1 -
pany on the completion of the road
to every odd numbered section of
government land within ten miles of
the line as actually located and con-
structed. The land grant was one
of the incentives and inducements to
the pioneer railroad builders to ven
ture on what was then a very haz-
SPdOuS financial undertaking. The