History of the Illinois Central Railroad

"History of the Illinois Central Railroad," by John F. Stover, Railroads of America series, Macmillan, New York, 1975. This 575 page tome covers the history of the Illinois Central Railroad from its founding to the merger with Gulf Mobile and Ohio to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. The book is part of the Macmillan Railroads of America series. Its coverage is extensive and detailed. The story of the Illinois Central is typical of Midwestern railroads of the age. Illinois had extensive raw prairie lands to be sold and developed. The land was ideally suited to agriculture, but transportation was limited. Railroads were the solution. The state legislature had already blessed the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1832, which Congress had given a land grant in 1827. In 1836, a charter was granted to the Central Railroad Co. for a line from the mouth of the Ohio River at Cairo to Galena in the far northwest corner of the state. In 1837, the legislature funded construction with $10MM of state securities. Most of the funds went to the Central Railroad, but other supplementary rail lines were included. One was the Northern Cross Railroad from Quincy via Decatur to Danville. Another was a line from Alton via Hillsboro and Shelbyville to near Terre Haute, IN. There was also a Southern Cross line from Alton via Salem to Mt. Carmel, and a Peoria to Bloomington line. Construction on the Northern Cross, the first railroad in Illinois (and the only one of these to get built this early), began at Meredosia in 1838 and was completed to Springfield in 1842. However this line failed to prosper. It was the subject of jokes in a time of Abraham Lincoln. A major development was the decision of Congress to provide land-grant lands for construction of the Illinois Central, the first such grant to a railroad. This grant was arranged by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, in 1848. The act provided for six square-mile sections of public land for each mile of railroad constructed. It also provided for a branch line from Centralia to Chicago. The grant extended south through Alabama and Mississippi to Mobile for what became the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. Once again funding the railroad proved to be a challenge. Initial attempts to sell bonds were unsuccessful, but fortunately, New York Central interests through their connections were able to market the bonds, primarily in Europe, especially in England and in Holland. Construction of the original line began on December 23, 1851 and was completed on September 27, 1856. The resulting 705-mile system was the longest in the US at the time. Other railroads were also building in Illinois. They included the Chicago, Alton, & St. Louis, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Chicago & Rock Island. They were built from Chicago to the Mississippi. There was also the Galena and Chicago Union, later, the Chicago & Northwestern, and to the south, the Great Western (Northern Cross/Wabash/Norfolk South