Galena & Chicago Union, Chicago’s first railroad, began construction in 1848. In 1855 the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac was organized to extend northwestward from near Chicago. CStP&F was reorganized on 7 June 1859 as Chicago & North Western, which on 15 February 1865 consolidated with Galena & Chicago Union. The Galena & Chicago Union was chartered on 16 January 1836 and is considered to be the origin of the North Western railroad system.
History of Chicago; Its Commercial and Manufacturing Interests and Industries, I. D. Guyer, 1862
NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.
One of the most important of these Railways, which centre in Chicago, is the Chicago and North-Western Railway. This very popular Railway is now in complete order, having added largely to its equipments and motive power, as well as a thorough repair of its entire track, which renders it in every respect a first-class road.
This is one of the most important roads entering into Chicago, and when it shall have completed all its projected connections, especially that with the Lake Superior mineral region, it will do more to enrich this Capital of the West than any other iron-belted avenue which centres here. Its connections with so many different roads, steamboat and stage routes in the North-West, must eventually make it one of the most remunerative corporations in the West.
By a glance at the map on the last page of this volume, our readers can form some idea of the many points in the North and North-West that can be reached by this road.
This Road, without doubt, is one of the most important to the interest and trade of Chicago, among the many that terminate in this city. Located, and running as it does, through the very garden of the agricultural country of the North-West, its many railroad connections in Wisconsin, give it an opportunity to compete successfully with the trade of Milwaukee, the capital of Wisconsin. It crosses every railroad in the State tributary to Milwaukee, and at every crossing arrangements have been made to transfer cars to its track; consequently it commands a large share of the products of the North-West, which, without this road, would be obliged to seek Milwan-kee as its only market. Having a direct connection with Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc., the increase of business as the country fully develops itself, must be immense.
The main line of this Road extends from Chicago to Appleton, Wis., a distance of two hundred and thirteen miles, and is now being extended from Appleton to Green Bay, a distance of thirty miles, which extension will be completed and running by the middle of September, 1862, making the total distance of the main line two hundred and forty-three miles.
The completion to Green Bay will be of great importance both to the road and to this city, as it will open a trade to Chicago that heretofore has had no outlet, except by lake to Buffalo, and during the close of navigation has had no
outlet whatever.
The importance of the Chicago and North-Western Railway, we are pleased to learn, is fully appreciated by our business men. It has also a direct connection with the Mississippi River from Dunleith, Prairie du Chien and La Crosse, and most natu-Tally commands a large share of the resources of Minnesota, Iowa, etc., both in passengers and freight, from its northern terminns. It now receives an immense trade from the great lumbering country in Northern Wisconsin; and before long, in accordance with the design of its projectors, it will penetrate into the great mining and mineral districts of Northern Michigan. Probably no road in the North-West has such peculiar advantages in its location as this. Almost every point is tributary to it, and it must eventually prove, as the country develops itself, one of the best paying roads in the country. The capital of the road is as follows :
The following are the officers of the Road:
WM. B. OGDEN, President; P. H. SMITH, Vice President; GEO. L. DUNLAP, General Superintendent; E. DEWITT ROBINSON, General Passenger Agent; GEO. P. LEE, Treasurer; CHAS. S. TAPPIN, General Freight Agent.
Company’s Office, corner of Lake and Clark Streets.
Chicago Weekly Post, February 13, 1873
The direct connection between St. Paul and Chicago recently formed by two powerful systems of railroad, having ramifications all through the Northwest, suggests the necessity of giving to the readers of The Evening Post a comprehensive description of both systems. This is done by the map presented herewith and by the articles accompanying.
The Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul system by unbroken lines.
The Northwestern system is indicated in the map by dotted lines.
In the map the Iowa and Dakota Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul road running west from Prairie du Chien is represented as complete to Cary It is in operation to Algona, Iowa and ultimately will run to Yankton on the Missouri river. At almost any point west of its future terminus it may be tapped so as to connect with Omaha and the Central Pacific road.
The Winona and St Peters route is in operation to New Ulm, but eventually will connect with the Northern Pacific.
Thus will the iron arms of Chicago stretch out to grasp the two great Pacific routes by both these connections.
Passengers and freight have been carried to St Paul by the West Wisconsin connection since the 4th of January last. It is expected that the passenger business of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul through from Chicago, will commence in a few days. The freight business is already equal to the capacity of the company.
The Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul.
Perhaps no corporation in the United Status has advanced with Buch giant strides to prosperity and extent as the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company The early days of the Milwaukee and St. Paul road proper were not of the brightest and the company had many difficulties to surmount and opponents to vanquish For quite a number of years the railroad in question was in a condition of surpassing slowness, from which it has been rescued as much by the advancing wealth of the great Northwest as by the dashing enterprise of the officers who have recently had charge of it. Running as it does through a magnificent country, with every opportunity for advancement and development, the road could hardly fail to grow in popularity and consequence. Since 1866 the corporation has become possessed of every railroad of importance in Wisconsin, except the Chicago and Northwestern. A legislative act of Wisconsin, in 1867, decreed that the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad should not lease, operate, or purchase any part of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad, and the latter was placed under a similar restriction. After the death of Henry Keep the two roads came under one presidency, but their geographical positions rendered them inevitable rivals, and a kind of irrepressible conflict arose between them. This resulted in the withdrawal of Alexander Mitchell to the chief direction of the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. Up to this period both companies were dependent on a single line from Chicago to St. Paul. This thing could not last, so a determined effort was made on either side to obviate the difficulty. The anticipated completion of the Western Wisconsin railroad to a junction with the Northwestern at Elroy would give the latter company an independent line. This the Milwaukee and St. Paul people could not stand, so they resolved to strike out a highway for themselves, over their own iron. Accordingly the new line from Milwaukee to this city which is now—
Thoroughly Opened For Freight Traffic.
was undertaken and carried to a successful issue. When the road will be ready for the reception of passengers has not yet been announced, but, doubtless, a very short time will suffice to complete the laying of the track along Canal street, which will bring the cars to the Fort Wayne depot at Madison street bridge.
With such men as Alexander Mitchell, Russell Sage, S. S. Merrill, John C. Gault, N. A. Cowdrey, D. A. Olin, and Frederick P. James, to watch its interests and outwit its opponents the new corporation has attained magnificent proportions and may be truly rated among the titanic railroad systems of America. It has a vast field in which to operate, and is, undoubtedly, equal to the grand mission before it.
Its Lines.
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company have now in operation, throughout the Northwest, 1,668 miles of road distributed as follows:
This table shows the immense importance of the new arterial system of the great railroad corporation.
Chicago, as has been remarked innumerable times, is
The Natural Centre of All the Railroads in the Northwestern States, and, however corporations in its vicinity may be titled, it is certain that the Chicago brand will stamp every new thoroughfare with the spirit of enterprise and compel it to become, in some measure, a feeder of this vast concentric depot.
A glance at the maps will show that the branches of this railroad extend far into the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota, away even to the Northern forests, where now the Indian and wild deer attest the absence of civilization. With the first scream of the locomotive, on the iron track of progress, the red man and the stag will fly to the farther wilds, and commercial prosperity will begin to dawn on the vast but now comparatively fallow territory away under the star beams of the North. Yet, though within a few years the magic effects of steam transportation will be made evident in the semi-wilderness, the main object of the nearer time is to afford facilities to the farmers in the great cultivated plains of our neighboring States to transport their cereals, etc., eastward and give them a marketing facility which they have never yet attained.
The Portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota
through which the main branches of the road extend, are among the most fertile in America. The dwellers on the soil are thrifty, industrious, and enterprising. They form a connecting link between the more advanced commercialism of Illinois and the yet crude trading spirit of that portion of the Union bordering upon the wild North American possessions of Great Britain. Even these latter, when the arterial railway system has connected the nearer roads with those which shall pass through the famous Red river region, must come beneath our influence and in some degree, while serving their own most vital interests, aid in further building up the Northwestern metropolis—the seat of commercial animation.
Hundreds of Miles of New Roads,
running into the grand channel are projected in Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Hardly a point of any value will be left untouched. Work has already commenced on many of these. La Crosse, St. Paul, Winona, Hastings, and other towns will be the greater outlying points of the railway network. A junction with the Northern Pacific railroad will be made at Minneapolis, thus diverting southward a great portion of the trade that is destined to come over that grand thoroughfare. At another point the new road will connect with the Pacific, Hastings and Dakota railroad which will lead to the near relation of the Mississippi States with those of tho Missouri and the Platte. Yankton, the lusty young pioneer city of Dakota Territory, will be one of the chief outlying depots.
This is no exaggerated picture. The most ordinary intelligence can, at a glance, comprehend how that railroad system which has done so much for the older States and settlements, can do so much more for those newer and more remote. Chicago, by her fortunate geographical position, as well as by the business enterprise which makes that position a matter of tenfold value, must derive incalculable benefit from all this. Without entering into the broader view of the matter which comprehends the entire of our Northwestern region, our citizens may congratulate themselves on the indomitable business pluck of the railroad monarchs who threw down the gage of civilization, the concomitant of commerce to the very depths of the wilderness.
The main trunk and branches of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railroad are laid with tracks which cost in building, on an average, about $35,000 per mile, being at a rate of about $10,000 per mile, in advance of most other Western railways. About $3,500,000 will cover the cost of the line between this city and Milwaukee, that sum to comprehend depot facilities, right of way, and other important matters. The road between Milwaukee and Chicago is of steel.
Freight and Passenger Business.
The company has already announced, through all the papers, that it is ready to do any amount of freight business. When the injunction restraining the Milwaukee and St. Paul road from using the tracks of the Northwestern railroad, from Carroll street to the south side of Madison street, is disposed of, which may occur within two or three weeks, the passenger department of the road will be put in first class working order.
The Chicago and Northwestern
The history cf the Chicago and Northwestern railroad is, in itself, a detailed rehearsal of the progress and material development of the vast extent of territory through which its main lines and interminable branches—forming a complete network of railroads, all centering in Chicago—extends. Starting from this city, the whole Northwest is pierced by its civilizing rails and wealth-producing ties—rails that congregate as one community the people whose homes are thousands of miles apart, and ties that cement and bind together business and social relations that would otherwise remain as distinct and separate as the poles. It is not the purpose of this article—indeed it would be a matter of utter impossibility, in an ordinary newspaper sketch—to give in detail, from the placing of the first tie many years ago, to the driving of the last nail of the latest extension, only a few days distant, the steady progress of this great artery of Western commerce. Such an undertaking would be one of little less labor and research than would be a compilation of the small and great events of the rebellion of the South.
To glance at the map, were all other roads obliterated, the Northwestern, in its zig-zag shapes, its web-like complicity of combinations, presents the appearance of a complete and inexhaustible system of railroads. With one division running due west, leaping over the Mississippi, plunging through great prairies, skipping over dreary marshes, and tapping the fertile regions beyond the Missouri; with another penetrating the great forests of the North, hugging the shores of the noblest of Western lakes, spreading out among the immensity of prairies, and only stopping when Superior’s rugged banks are reached; with still another shooting in a straight line toward the snowy wilds of Minnesota; with arms that reach out where-ever there is anything available to grasp, or where industry is capable of gathering the reward of toil; with all these evidences of unbounded enterprise and unstinted ambition, the Northwestern Railroad Company may well arrogate to itself the proud title of a King of the transportation facilities of the richest agricultural and mineral district on the Western hemisphere. It has in round figures, nearly sixteen hundred miles of track, and its earnings now figure up over twelve million dollars annually with operating expenses that reach upward of seven millions yearly.
The Various Divisions.
The road has seven distinct divisions as follows: The Wisconsin Galena, Iowa Madison, Peninsula and Milwaukee, and Winona and St Peters
The Wisconsin division extends from Chicago to Marquette; the Galena to Freeport; the Iowa to Anamosa; the Madison to Elroy; the Peninsula to the Lake Superior mines, and the Milwaukee to the latter city. At Elroy, the Madison division forms a junction” with the West Wisconsin railroad, running from that point to St Paul Minn., the full particulars of which will be found below.
The following table exhibits the different branches of the Northwestern railway with the exact length of each one:
The St. Paul Route.
The latest and most important event in connection with the Northwestern is the junction formed at Elroy with the West Wisconsin railway, opening up as it does a through route to St Paul. Elroy is a small town in Wisconsin, 210 miles in a northwesterly direction from Chicago. The West Wisconsin formerly connected with the Milwaukee and St Paul railway at Tomah, but subsequently for the purpose of securing direct connection with Chicago a change was made, and the line from Warren to Tomah, a distance of nine miles, was abandoned. A new line was then constructed from Warren to Elroy (thirty-two miles), and at that point the wedding of the strong with the weak took place. Although these few miles are in a straight line, and generally easy of construction, in many places the work was heavy, including a tunnel one thousand feet in length. The road was completed and the junction formed on the 5th of January last, and from that date the new route has been in operation. It is looked upon as one of the most important features of the railroad extensions of this section of country, and will prove of inestimable advantage to a large thriving and hitherto secluded expanse of territory now made tributary to the commercial interests of Chicago. Not only will our merchants be benefited, but those of St Paul and intermediate cities will feel in a material manner the advantages secured by direct connection, without the annoyance expense and delay of a change of cars and transfer of merchandise.
Lake Superior.
The gap between Marinette and Escanaba (65 miles), completing the connecting link between Chicago and Marquette, is also a recent accomplishment and one the advantages of which can hardly be estimated. Where once the journey could not be made in the winter time at all, and during the season of navigation the great iron mountains of Lake Superior could only be reached from Chicago by a long, circuitous and tedious trip, it can now be reached in one day without trouble and at comparatively trifling expense. This route brings to Chicago’s door the vast wealth contained in the inexhaustible mines of that country, and empties into our lap a product richer than gold and enduring as the hills from whose bowels the valuable ore is taken.
The extension from
Milwaukee to Fond du Lac (64 miles)
has been constructed within the past year. It runs through a country not previously accessible for miles, by any road and establishes a much shorter route between Chicago and many prominent points in Wisconsin.
The other branches added to the facilities of a year ago are a track from Stanwood to Tipton (the latter town being located eight miles south of the main line of the Iowa Division), and from Geneva to Batavia, a jog of two and a half miles. These branches were constructed for the particular benefit of the towns named, but in a small degree add to the general prosperity caused by the increased advantages
The Map,
printed in connection with this article, gives a comprehensive view of the entire Northwestern railway, and by tracing the diverging lines, much can be ascertained that it would require great space to describe in words. Chicago is proud of it; she points to it as the result of her own indomitable energy; she regards it as one of the many evidences of the future greatness of this Northwestern metropolis; and as the lines shall extend, and the corporation expand, Chicago will exult even as a father rejoices at the progress and improvement and promising greatness of his dearest son.
The Officers.
The following is a list of the officers of the.
Equipment.
The last report stat es that the total equipment of the company, on the 31st May, 1872, as revised and corrected from actual inventory of engines and cars, deducting discrepancies in numbers, cars destroyed, worn out, and burned in Chicago was as follows:
Locomotive Engines — First class 216: second class and switching, 53. Of these 98 are wood burners and 171 coal burners. Total 269
Car Equipment — First class passenger cars, 123; business cars, including pay car and directors’ and officers’ cars, 4; second class passenger cars, 27; caboose and way cars, 123; baggage, mail, and express cars, 76; boarding cars for men, 7; box freight cars, 3,530; platform cars 960; live stock cars, 337; dump cars for road work, 25; iron ore cars, 1,121; pile driving, wrecking, derrick, and paint cars, 10. Total number of all descriptions, 6,343 exclusive of the Winona and St Peter railroad equipment.
- Interior of Directors’ Car of the C&NW Railway
John Carbutt #194
Chicago and North Western Railway Company.
1869
Chicago & Northwestern Railway
1887
Chicago & Northwestern Railway
1900
Chicago Tribune, January 16, 1936
This is the First Railroad in Chicago which ran the first train 10/25/1848 Chicago to Oak Park.
That Locomotive the “Pioneer ” is now the oldest Baldwin made and is at the Chicago Historical Museum.
The First Mayor of Chicago “Ogden” was also the First president of the G&CU railroad
Hello Mr. Carlson, On the face of the 1900’s vintage train station in Lake Bluff there is an emblem that looks like a shield, or perhaps the vertical grill on the front of an old engine. Do you happen to know what the emblem is specifically? It is on the east face of the station, about 2 feet in diameter, above the portico.
i own the chicago northwestern section house in superior nebraska lived there since 1946