The Railroad Comes 1859

Populations 1860 Federal Census

Kansas City 4400

Omaha 1883

Council Bluffs 2000

Total 8283

St. Joseph 8932

In the days of the fur traders, the rivers were the highways. Overland travel was by horseback and in the more settled parts of the country by stagecoach. In the 1780s, James Watt, a Scotch engineer, perfected the steam engine. The first successful application of steam for railroad locomotion was in England in 1825. Five years later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad commenced a fifteen-mile operation in America with its "Tom Thumb' engine. By 1840 there were 2800 miles of railway line in the United States, and by 1850 there were 9000 miles, all east of the Mississippi River. At that time the town of St. Joseph was seven years old and had a population of 3460.

A railroad to the Pacific Ocean had been under consideration for a number of years. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri in 1849 introduced into Congress a resolution favoring a transcontinental railroad line to run west from St. Louis. It was clear to all that the building of such a line was an immense project, too large for private capital, and that a federal subsidy would be necessary. The first action by Congress was taken on March 1, 1853. The Thirty-second Congress appropriated the sum of $150,000 to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The Secretary of War in President Franklin Pierce's Cabinet, then Jefferson Davis, was authorized to employ the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers to explore the region and suggest possible routes. Five routes were suggested:

1. North Route' - 2025 miles from St. Paul to Seattle. This is the route now followed by the Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads.

2. “Central Route' - also called the “Overland Route' and the Mormon Trail. 2032 miles from Council Bluffs to near Sacramento via the South Pass in Wyoming. This is now largely the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific route.

3. "Buffalo Trail - 2080 miles from Westport (now Kansas City) to San Francisco. Now followed to some extent by the Denver & Rio Grande Western.

4. Fort Smith, Arkansas, through Santa Fe to San Francisco. 2096 miles, now largely the route of the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe. 5. “Southern Route” - From Texarkana through. El Paso, Fort Yuma to Los Angeles. 2024 miles, now largely the Southern Pacific route.

The undertaking was so large that it was realized that only one of the possible lines could be built. This fanned the fires of sectional rivalry, already becoming tense over the free state-slave state issue, which involved control of the federal government. The Southern Congressmen wanted the transcontinental line, but would block a northern route; the Northerners felt equally strong, so a stalemate continued as the nation drifted toward the War between the States. Some of the states, however, subsidized local railroad construction on their own. In 1847 the State of Missouri legislature chartered the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and guaranteed $3,000,000 of bonds which were sold to pay for the construction of the line. In 1849 at the direction of state Senator Robert M. Stewart a preliminary survey of the route was made by Simeon Kemper. In 1849 the Pacific Railroad of Missouri was chartered to run from St. Louis to Kansas City, and the state guaranteed $7,000,000 of its bonds. The financial panic of 1857, however, put an end to such state subsidies and with the exception of the Hannibal & St. Joseph all railroad building in the state came to a standstill. Building of the Hannibal & St. Joseph line had been started on the east end in 1852 and in the spring of 1857 work was begun on the west end. John Corby was experienced in railroad construction and he contracted to build twenty-five miles of line. M. Jeff Thompson of St. Joseph was the engineer in charge of the building of the Western Division.

The Hannibal & St. Joseph line was completed on February 13, 1859, and the following day the first through passenger train ran the o6 miles from Hannibal to St. Joseph. John Patee had given to the railroad company a forty-acre tract of land extending south and west from the corner of Eighth and Olive Streets. The passenger depot was at that corner, and the shops, of which one still stands, were a few hundred yards to the south. A week after the first passenger train arrived a special train carrying delegations from Hannibal, St. Louis, and Chicago left Hannibal on February 21 at 5 a.m. and reached St. Joseph late in the afternoon. The following morning, a parade was organized including marching citizens, militia companies, prairie schooners, and several brass bands, all led by Jeff Thompson, due to be elected mayor of St. Joseph in a few weeks' time. The line of march was to the mouth of Blacksnake Creek at approximately the foot of Francis Street where all were received by seventy-six-year-old Joseph Robidoux, founder of the city, near the location of his former Indian trading post. The visiting delegations produced jugs of water from the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Michigan, and the Mississippi River which were ceremoniously poured into the Missouri River with appropriate remarks by Broaddus Thompson, brother of Jeff Thompson. Willard P. Hall was the orator of the day, and predictions were made for the benefit of the Chicago visitors that St. Joseph would one day surpass their community. Hospitality was extended at the Odd Fellows' Hall, standing at Fifth and Felix Streets. It was estimated that several thousand people were served there during the day and a grand banquet for six hundred was held in the evening. It was the greatest scene of festivity which St. Joseph had ever seen.

The schedule of train service adopted by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was:

Trains east leaving St. Joseph - Express 6:00 a.m.

Accommodation 5:00 p.m.

Freight 61:5 a.m.

Trains west arriving St. Joseph - Express 10:23 p.m.

Freight 4:00 p.m.

Accommodation 5:00 p.m.

For several years, St. Joseph was the unchallenged western railhead of the nation. In July 1859 M. Jeff Thompson, mayor of  St. Joseph, was elected president of the Marysville, Palmetto & Roseport (Elwood) Railroad and in June 1860 track was laid from the western side of the Missouri River as far as Wathena, Kansas. The name of the road was changed in 1862 to 'St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad and eventually the line became the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad, a part of the Union Pacific system.

In 1867 a railroad line was built from Cameron Junction to Kansas City, and consolidated with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in 1870. A railroad bridge was built across the Missouri River at Kansas City in 1869. St. Joseph did not build its railroad bridge across the Missouri River until 1873. There is a body of opinion that the wagon outfitting trade of St. Joseph was still important enough in 1860 to dampen incentive to build the railroad bridge. However, the problem of financing, the imminence of the Civil War, and the departure of Jeff Thompson from St. Joseph must have been additional factors. A record has survived of the payroll of the St. Joseph Depot of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad for the month of August 1863:

Agent $82.33

2 Clerks 70.00 each

2 Clerks 50.00 each

TOTAL 3322.33

That first depot survived until 1882 when a new and impressive passenger station with hotel facilities on the second floor was built on the east side of Sixth Street where Mitchell Avenue would cross, if cut through. This station was destroyed by fire that started in the hotel quarters in 1892 and was rebuilt in 1896. That station served until 1960, when reduced railroad passenger travel caused it to be taken down.

The property of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was leased to the Burlington Railroad in 1900 and completely consolidated into that system in 1901.