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 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: 
 A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 By 
 Robert M. Sutton 
 Instructor in History 
 University of Illinois 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 Current Economic Comment 
 
 May 1951 
 
 Published by the University of Illinois Bureau of 
 Economic and Business Research
 
 ILIINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
 
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 The Illinois Central: A Centennial View 
 
 Robert M. Sutton 
 Instructor in History, University of Illinois 
 
 :^ uv v<f ^ 
 
 WHISTLES BLEW and flags waved on 
 the morning of February 10, 1951, as 
 the Illinois Central Railroad officially 
 opened its centennial celebration. Of 
 the rail lines in the United States, 
 many of which will be observing their 
 centennials during this decade and 
 those shortly to follow, none is more 
 exciting or colorful than the "Main 
 Line of Mid-America." The story of 
 the Illinois Central is a record of trans- 
 formation, growth, and progress adding 
 much to the drama of transportation 
 from the day of the covered wagon to 
 the streamliner of the present. 
 
 Across the pages of Illinois Central 
 history move some of the great leaders 
 of this country in the past century, as 
 well as a few of the more colorful per- 
 sonalities who have added zest to the 
 American scene. With Abraham 
 Lincoln, company attorney, heading 
 the list the supporting cast includes 
 George B. McClellan, Grenville Dodge, 
 Sidney Breese, Allan Pinkerton, Ros- 
 well B. Mason, Ambrose E. Burnside, 
 Nathaniel P. Banks, John A. Logan, 
 and, for good measure, "Casey" Jones 
 and Mark Twain. 
 
 This was the first railroad to receive 
 a grant of public land, the first to 
 carry on a large-scale colonization pro- 
 gram, and the first to promote rail 
 service to the Gulf region. Portions of 
 this present-day system served under 
 both Union and Confederate flags dur- 
 ing the War Between the States, and 
 probably did more than any other 
 private agency to hasten the re-estab- 
 lishment of commercial relations be- 
 
 tween the North and the South, once 
 the conflict was over. 
 
 Today the Illinois Central, with its 
 affiliated lines, constitutes one of the 
 vital north-south railroad systems of 
 the country, extending the length of 
 the Mississippi Valley from the Great 
 Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. As the 
 "Main Line of Mid-America" it serves 
 this vast region, which Alexis de 
 Tocqueville once called "the most mag- 
 nificent dwelling place prepared by 
 God for man's abode." The Illinois 
 Central operates 6,542 miles of main 
 line and branches located in fourteen 
 states of the Middle West and South, 
 and it is one of the few major systems 
 in the country operating in a predom- 
 inantly north-south direction. Its main 
 line links Chicago, focal point of twen- 
 ty-three railroad systems and the 
 world's greatest railroad center, with 
 New Orleans, the Crescent City, second 
 most important seaport in the country 
 in value of commerce and itself served 
 by eleven railroads. 
 
 Before glancing back over the cen- 
 tennial history of the "Main Line of 
 Mid-America" let us briefly examine 
 the factors which make a railroad 
 significant, as well as prosperous, in our 
 time.^ The most trustworthy gauge of 
 the economic health and efficiency of a 
 rail line is a knowledge of the amount 
 of traffic which moves over its route. 
 
 ' For an excellent, full-length treatment of 
 the history of the Illinois Central Railroad 
 and its affiliated lines, see Carlton J. Corliss, 
 Main Line of Mid-America: The Story of 
 the Illinois Central (New York: Creative 
 Age Press, 1950).
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 The sum total of operating revenues, 
 whether derived from freight, passen- 
 ger, express, baggage, or mail service, 
 makes possible, in turn, payments for 
 wages and salaries, purchase of new 
 equipment, repair of property and roll- 
 ing stock (including maintenance of 
 way), taxes, debt retirement and divi- 
 dends — in short, everything for which 
 a railroad company spends its money. 
 
 Freight Traffic 
 
 The most important single character- 
 istic of the freight traffic handled by 
 the Illinois Central is its diversification. 
 With the exception of coal, no par- 
 ticular commodity normally contributes 
 as much as 10 percent of the total 
 freight tonnage. In addition to the 
 products of mine, forest, and farm, the 
 road reaps the benefit of a widely 
 varied and rapidly expanding industry 
 over the entire line. Because of the 
 nature of the territory served and the 
 number of industries located along its 
 route, the Illinois Central normally 
 originates more traffic than it receives 
 from connecting railroads. Approxi- 
 mately two-thirds of the total tonnage 
 is originated along its own lines, and 
 only about one-third is received from 
 connecting lines. 
 
 An interesting aspect of the latter 
 type of business is the so-called "bridge 
 traffic" classification, i.e., the freight 
 traffic received from connecting rail- 
 roads and delivered to connecting rail- 
 roads. Because of its north-south direc- 
 tion the Illinois Central lies across the 
 lines of the principal east-west carriers 
 that dominate the American railroad 
 scene. It makes contact with 150 rail- 
 roads at 500 connecting points between 
 the Great Lakes and the Gulf. Thus 
 
 it is in the fortunate position of being 
 able to offer numerous routes not only 
 for traffic bound to points in its own 
 territory, but also for traffic destined 
 for locations served by others. The 
 profitable bridge traffic results from the 
 number of locations at which traffic 
 exchange is accomplished and from the 
 wide variety of commodities which find 
 their way into this exchange. 
 
 A look at the tonnage totals of the 
 Illinois Central will be enough to con- 
 vince even the most casual observer 
 that this route ranks high among the 
 major coal - carrying roads of the 
 country. Nearly half of its total tonnage 
 derives from the transportation of coal. 
 There are two important bituminous 
 coal fields reached by the Illinois 
 Central, one in Western Kentucky and 
 the other in Southern Illinois, both of 
 which arc adequately served by the 
 tracks of the "Main Line of Mid- 
 America." Production in both these 
 fields has been increased sharply in the 
 last decade, largely as a result of the 
 mechanization of mining operations, 
 proper treatment of coal at the mines, 
 and more aggressive merchandising 
 methods — to which this railroad has 
 contributed in a substantial way. 
 
 Because it serves so many different 
 regions with varied climates, the Illi- 
 nois Central is particularly fortunate 
 in the diversity of its agricultural 
 traffic. Such products as cotton, fruits 
 and vegetables, soybeans, potatoes, 
 wheat, corn, and bananas figure prom- 
 inently in its annual freight statistics. 
 Meat and other packing-house prod- 
 ucts are likewise important items of 
 traffic revenue. The company has 
 played an important role in organizing 
 and supporting agencies devoted to the
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 development of more diversified crops, 
 and to the improvement in ciuality and 
 yields of those already under cultiva- 
 tion. It has also pioneered a movement 
 to improve the milk and beef herds in 
 its territory by providing a widespread 
 artificial as well as natural insemination 
 service. The result has been not only 
 to bring about a steady improvement 
 in the quality of herds, but also to 
 gather for the Illinois Central a con- 
 siderable store of good will among 
 cattle owners. 
 
 Lumber and other forest products 
 also enter into the traffic total of this 
 leading north-south carrier. Here again 
 the Illinois Central has demonstrated 
 its foresight and energy in developing 
 and maintaining traffic by taking an 
 active part in furthering reforestation 
 in the South. It has perfected a small 
 tree planter, several of which are avail- 
 able to southern farmers, and which 
 facilitates the planting of new trees in 
 a serious effort to keep southern forests 
 on a perpetuating basis. 
 
 The vast number of varied manu- 
 facturing establishments served or 
 reached by the Illinois Central extend 
 along the entire line and compose a 
 virtual roster of American industry. 
 The company has in its employ quali- 
 fied industrial engineers who not only 
 solicit the location of new plants on its 
 lines but also draft plans for developing 
 the natural resources within its terri- 
 tory. In recent years a large number of 
 important industrial plants have been 
 established along the lines of the Illi- 
 nois Central. 
 
 No summary of the traffic potential 
 of this line in its centennial year would 
 be complete without a reference to its 
 promotion of an export-import business 
 
 with Latin-America. This export-im- 
 port business, which now constitutes 
 nearly 10 percent of all Illinois Central 
 traffic, is a most unusual type of rail- 
 road promotion. Representatives of the 
 company make frequent trips to Latin- 
 American countries and endeavor to 
 develop business opportunities for ship- 
 pers served by the Illinois Central. On 
 their return they travel throughout the 
 territory served by the Illinois Central 
 in order to bring to the attention of 
 businessmen various opportunities for 
 trade with regions they have visited. In 
 addition, the company's representatives 
 are often called upon to search out 
 markets for particular United States 
 products, and to establish business con- 
 nections for the importation of Latin- 
 American products which are desired 
 by customers of the railroad. 
 
 Some idea of the results of this very 
 active promotion of export -import 
 traffic may be gathered from the fact 
 that the Port of New Orleans advanced 
 to a rank of second place in value of 
 its commerce in 1948. 
 
 Passenger Traffic 
 
 Although for years freight revenue 
 has accounted for the bulk of the 
 operating revenue on the Illinois Cen- 
 tral (just as it has on most American 
 railroads), this company has not neg- 
 lected or sacrificed its passenger serv- 
 ice in any area where such service has 
 continued to be profitable. The passen- 
 ger service of the Illinois Central can 
 be divided rather easily into three main 
 categories, long-distance (or medium 
 long-distance), commuter, and local 
 service. It is the last of these categories 
 which has suffered most grievously in 
 recent decades, as the travel habits of
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 millions of Americans have been al- 
 tered by the widespread availability 
 and use of automobiles and motor 
 buses. Consequently, local and branch- 
 line passenger service has been seriously 
 curtailed as railroads have been willing 
 to abandon this type of business to their 
 competitors. It may come as a surprise 
 to learn that one hundred years after 
 its founding no passenger trains operate 
 over what was once the "main stem" 
 of the charter lines of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad between Centralia 
 and Freeport through the agricultural 
 heart of the Prairie State. 
 
 Suburban service on the Illinois 
 Central is almost as old as the road 
 itself. The community of Hyde Park 
 (now well within the city limits) had 
 been laid out some six miles south of 
 Chicago during the same time that the 
 Illinois Central was under construction, 
 and an experimental round trip be- 
 tween the two locations was performed 
 on June 1, 1856. The first suburban 
 service west of the Alleghenies began 
 regular operation between Chicago and 
 Hyde Park on July 21, 1856. 
 
 From this early beginning, commuter 
 service on the Illinois Central has 
 grown to today's gigantic proportions. 
 The great Chicago fire of 1871 was 
 not an unmixed blessing for the com- 
 pany, as it increased the demand for 
 homes outside the congested areas and 
 stimulated the development of com- 
 munities on the South Side. 
 
 The selection of Chicago as the site 
 for the World's Columbian Exposition 
 of 1893 and its location in the Jackson 
 Park area meant that the Illinois 
 Central would bear the main brunt of 
 the transportation load. During the 
 time that the Exposition was open the 
 
 Illinois Central operated 40,116 special 
 World's Fair trains, and another 36,600 
 regular suburban trains, carrying alto- 
 gether 19,142,911 people to, from, or 
 in Chicago, between May 1 and Octo- 
 ber 31, 1893. 
 
 The most important improvement of 
 the suburban service within the twen- 
 tieth century was the program of 
 electrification that was carried out be- 
 tween 1921 and 1926. Plans for the 
 electrification of the commuter service 
 were well advanced when World War I 
 intervened. The project had to be post- 
 poned until the return of peace and the 
 termination of control by the United 
 States Railroad Administration. 
 
 The electrification of Illinois Central 
 suburban train service, virtually com- 
 pleted by 1926, was accompanied by 
 other long-range improvements, such 
 as the elimination of street and high- 
 way grade crossings, and of railway 
 grade crossings as well, for a distance 
 of 28 miles south of the terminal area. 
 The continued development of com- 
 munities in the South Shore district, 
 together with the extraordinary popu- 
 lation growth in the area, is largely 
 responsible for the steady increase of 
 suburban traffic, which reached an all- 
 time peak of 47,067,959 revenue pas- 
 sengers carried during 1947. 
 
 In the realm of swift, comfortable, 
 long-distance passenger service the Illi- 
 nois Central has more than held its 
 own. Between Chicago and New Or- 
 leans, Miami, and Florida West Coast 
 points (in cooperation with southern 
 roads) ; and between Chicago and St. 
 Louis, Waterloo, and Sioux City, Iowa, 
 excellent coach and Pullman accom- 
 modations are offered by such well- 
 known favorites as the Panama
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 Limited, the City of New Orleans, the 
 City of Miami, the Seminole, the Day- 
 light, the Green Diamond, the Night 
 Diamond, the Hawkeye, and the Land 
 o' Corn. During the past twenty years 
 the Illinois Central has confined its 
 acquisition of new passenger equipment 
 almost entirely to the purchase of cars 
 for its fleet of light-weight streamliners 
 and most of those mentioned above are 
 so equipped. 
 
 Motive Power 
 
 The "Main Line of Mid-America" 
 is rapidly becoming unique in the mat- 
 ter of its motive power, for at the 
 present moment the road has no great 
 interest in, and certainly no long-range 
 plan for, a major Dieselization pro- 
 gram. True, most of its distance stream- 
 liners are powered by Diesel-electric 
 locomotives, and the company has re- 
 cently acquired many new Diesel switch 
 engines, but for the backbone of its 
 operations the Illinois Central is going 
 along with the steam freight locomo- 
 tive. Several factors help to account 
 for this decision on the part of the 
 management. First, the Illinois Central 
 is fortunate in that its roadway is char- 
 acterized by easy grades and relatively 
 slight curvature that place practically 
 no restriction in the way of efficient 
 railroad operation, nor does it in any 
 serious way limit freight train tonnages. 
 In the second place, while the company 
 is fully aware of the economies which 
 result from complete Dieselization, it 
 is also convinced that the use of steam 
 power has been a vital force in en- 
 couraging coal traffic. The soundness 
 of this program has been clearly dem- 
 onstrated up to the present time. While 
 coal traffic has grown substantially, the 
 
 ratio of transportation costs to total 
 operating revenues has been held down 
 remarkably well. In this respect, inci- 
 dentally, the Illinois Central has done 
 much better than most railroads of the 
 United States since the end of World 
 War II. 
 
 But certainly the most important 
 factor is that the Illinois Central pos- 
 sesses a highly efficient and recently 
 modernized fleet of steam locomotives. 
 During the dark depression years of 
 the mid-1930's it was faced with the 
 serious alternatives of either buying a 
 large number of new locomotives or 
 of extensively modernizing those on 
 hand. Recognizing the necessity for 
 holding down costs, and appreciative 
 of the fact that at the moment not all 
 its locomotives were being kept busy 
 moving the reduced traffic of the de- 
 pression years, the company adopted 
 the policy of modernization. An ex- 
 tended program of improvement and 
 conversion was begun in 1935 which 
 ultimately aff"ected more than a thou- 
 sand locomotives, and which found the 
 Illinois Central meeting the traffic chal- 
 lenge of World War II with a fleet of 
 steam locomotives so modernized as to 
 meet the schedules of its sharpest com- 
 petitors, and capable of handling the 
 available traffic efficiently and eco- 
 nomically. 
 
 Improved Finances 
 
 The remarkably strong financial posi- 
 tion enjoyed today by the Illinois Cen- 
 tral Railroad is not only a reflection of 
 the high regard in which that com- 
 pany's securities have been held almost 
 from the beginning of its history, but 
 also an indication of the success of its 
 long-range program aimed at the re-
 
 8 
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 duction of its bonded indebtedness 
 through the use of earnings. 
 
 Doing what one Wall Street railroad 
 security expert has called "an amazing 
 job" of restoring its financial position 
 endangered by the depression, the Illi- 
 nois Central managed in the years 
 between 1936 and 1951 to reduce its 
 bonded indebtedness by more than a 
 third. At the same time it was making 
 improvements on its physical property 
 and adding to its rolling stock. This 
 was not accomplished without hard- 
 ship, however, and between 1931 and 
 1950 common stockholders of the Illi- 
 nois Central received nothing in divi- 
 dends. It is the judgment of investment 
 counselors that the road's efforts have 
 borne fruit in that the company has 
 today a much stronger physical and 
 financial structure than would other- 
 wise have been the case. 
 
 Historical Background 
 
 With the "Main Line of Mid-Amer- 
 ica" thus entering its second century' 
 of service rather well situated as re- 
 gards traffic, equipment, and finances, 
 let us examine the beginnings of this 
 mid-century railroad giant of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley. It is not possible to 
 summarize adecjuately the early history 
 of the Illinois Central Railroad with- 
 out at least mentioning the shortcom- 
 ings of internal transportation within 
 Illinois, since these, it was feared, 
 would seriously retard the economic 
 development of the state. 
 
 The widespread interest in canals 
 and river improvements, in road build- 
 ing, and soon thereafter in railroads 
 points most clearly to the almost fren- 
 zied determination on the part of the 
 young state to provide the necessary 
 
 facilities for transportation. At least 
 fifteen years before the Illinois Central 
 Railroad became a reality, public men 
 in Illinois were promoting seriously the 
 idea of a "great central railroad" which 
 would link up the southern terminus 
 of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
 with the important Ohio-Mississippi 
 River junction at the southern tip of 
 the state. The earliest efforts to con- 
 struct a central Illinois railroad, how- 
 ever, ended in dismal failure with the 
 complete collapse of the Illinois In- 
 ternal Improvements Scheme of 1837. 
 Subsequent attempts to construct a rail- 
 road under private auspices during the 
 1840's also came to naught in spite of 
 the tireless efforts of Sidney Breese, 
 Senator from Illinois, to win Congres- 
 sional approval for a pre-emption 
 scheme designed to aid the railroad 
 builders. 
 
 The construction of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad was made possible 
 through a grant of 2,595,000 acres of 
 public land to the state of Illinois. 
 Senator Stephen A. Douglas was in- 
 strumental in getting the Federal Con- 
 gress to agree to this step, and the 
 proposal became law on September 20, 
 1850. The General Assembly of Illinois 
 decided, in turn, to award the land 
 grant, along with a charter to build and 
 operate the railroad, to a group of 
 eastern capitalists and railroad pro- 
 moters headed by Robert Rantoul, Jr., 
 of Massachusetts. The corporate exist- 
 ence of the Illinois Central Railroad 
 dates from February 10, 1851, when 
 the General Assembly approved and 
 Governor Augustus C. French signed 
 the charter which established the 
 company. 
 
 Few railroads have been organized
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 under circumstances which augured 
 for a more bright and prosperous 
 future than was anticipated for the 
 Illinois Central. The handsome grant 
 of alternate sections of land six miles 
 deep on either side of its two hundred- 
 foot right of way made it the largest 
 landlord in the state of Illinois next to 
 the Federal government itself. In ad- 
 dition, the rich agricultural potential 
 of the central and eastern counties of 
 the state was just beginning to break 
 through the stigma which had attached 
 to the prairie lands almost from the 
 beginning of white settlement in the 
 West. This region, once described as 
 the "lair of the wolf and the feeding 
 ground of the deer," was soon to be- 
 come one of the richest agricultural 
 areas in the world. At that time, of 
 course, an adequate understanding of 
 either the mineral wealth of the Prairie 
 State or its industrial possibilities was 
 completely beyond the fondest imagi- 
 nation of even the most enthusiastic 
 entrepreneur. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of these favor- 
 able factors which we now recognize as 
 working for the success of this ambi- 
 tious western railway, the projection 
 and construction of the Illinois Central 
 Railroad was a tremendous undertak- 
 ing at the time. The magnitude of the 
 operation may be judged from the fact 
 that it contemplated building a mileage 
 more than double that of any then 
 existing railroad, and the tracks had to 
 be laid through a relatively unde- 
 veloped and sparsely populated state. 
 The population of Illinois was only 
 851,470 in 1850, and the Illinois Cen- 
 tral and its contractors found it neces- 
 sary to import some 100,000 men to 
 work on the project. There were times 
 
 when as many as 10,000 workmen were 
 engaged on various aspects of the 
 road's construction. 
 
 Large numbers of these workers re- 
 mained to purchase farms or establish 
 homes in Illinois. Other thousands 
 from Europe, as well as from the east- 
 ern states of the Union, were encour- 
 aged to come and settle on the 
 railroad's land as a part of the 
 vigorous publicity campaign carried on 
 by the agents of the company's Land 
 Department. - 
 
 Construction was pressed forward 
 rapidly between 1852 and 1855, and 
 the last spike in the "Charter Lines" 
 was driven near Mason, Illinois, on 
 September 27, 1856, well within the 
 time limit laid down by the Act of 
 Incorporation. This portion of today's 
 Illinois Central System totals 705.5 
 miles of railroad and is still known as 
 the "Charter Lines." Its main line ran 
 northward from Cairo directly through 
 the center of the state to a junction 
 with the western end of the Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal in the LaSalle-Peru 
 vicinity. From there it proceeded in a 
 northwesterly direction to reach the 
 Mississippi River at Dunleith (now 
 East Dubuque), Illinois. The Chicago 
 branch (still so-called by many veteran 
 railroaders, in spite of the fact that it 
 has long since become the main line of 
 the Illinois Central) departed from the 
 main stem at a point just north of 
 Centralia and, following a course re- 
 markably free from curves or grades, 
 reached the rapidly growing metropolis 
 
 ■ An excellent study of the land policy 
 and the settlement program of the Illinois 
 Central is to be found in Paul W. Gates, 
 The Illinois Central Railroad and Its Colo- 
 nization Work (Cambridge: Harvard Uni- 
 versity Press, 1934).
 
 10 
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 
 addition to opening the rich interior of 
 IlHnois to settlement and promoting 
 agricuhural development, the Illinois 
 Central also operated as a year-round, 
 all-weather connection between the 
 Great Lakes-Upper-Mississippi region 
 and Cairo, the "gateway to the South." 
 
 Much of the Congressional enthu- 
 siasm for the Illinois Central Railroad 
 at the time of the passage of the land- 
 grant act had been generated by the 
 plan to extend the central railroad to 
 the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Ala- 
 bama. The successful passage of the 
 Douglas-sponsored measure was due, in 
 no small part, to the solid support 
 given it by congressmen and senators 
 from the Gulf States. One should never 
 lose sight of the fact that the Illinois 
 Central was designed, not as an end 
 in itself, but as an important part of a 
 boldly conceived transportation scheme 
 which it was believed would bind to- 
 gether economically and commercially 
 the rapidly developing West and South- 
 west. 
 
 The Mobile and Ohio Railroad, 
 already in existence, fell heir to the 
 land granted to the states of Alabama 
 and Mississippi, and it was freely pre- 
 dicted that a traveler would soon be 
 able to make a continuous rail journey 
 from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. Un- 
 fortunately, no guarantee of a physical 
 connection or even a corporate union 
 between the north and south lines was 
 insisted upon, with the result that the 
 ambitious program suffered at the very 
 outset from a lack of long-range plan- 
 ning and coordinated effort — so nec- 
 essary in a project of this kind. 
 
 The Illinois Central was deeply 
 
 interested in the development of a 
 southern connection, and soon a spir- 
 ited rivalry sprang up between the 
 business interests in Mobile and in New 
 Orleans. Both the Mobile and Ohio 
 and a series of roads working north 
 from New Orleans proceeded slowly 
 toward a potential junction with the 
 Illinois Central at Cairo. The New 
 Orleans line reached Columbus, Ken- 
 tucky, a small but thriving river com- 
 munity twenty miles below Cairo, on 
 January 31, 1860, whereas the Mobile 
 and Ohio Railroad was not completed 
 to the same point until April 22, 1861, 
 some days after the Fort Sumter epi- 
 sode had opened the American Civil 
 War.^ 
 
 The completion of the southern 
 routes came too late to have any real 
 bearing upon the commercial outlook 
 in the immediate prewar years. Neither 
 the Mobile and Ohio nor the lines to 
 New Orleans had time to demonstrate 
 how they would have exploited the 
 new connection with the Northwest 
 before war was upon them. Plans for 
 the exchange of goods ceased with the 
 outbreak of hostilities, and it remained 
 for the postwar decades to see the 
 southern lines develop as important 
 avenues of north-south trade. The re- 
 construction of these lines and the new 
 emphasis upon the southern connection 
 arc a vital part of the interesting story 
 of Illinois Central development after 
 1870. 
 
 ^ A more thorough coverage of many of 
 these developments in the early history of 
 the Illinois Central Railroad may be found 
 in the author's doctoral dissertation entitled 
 The Illinois Central Railroad in Peace and 
 War, 1858-1868, manuscript copies of which 
 are available in the University of Illinois 
 Library.
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 11 
 
 Impact of the Civil War 
 
 The beginning of civil war in 1861 
 raised serious problems for the Illinois 
 Central. The immediate result of the 
 war was to interrupt the coordinated 
 rail service which had so recently been 
 established between the sections, and 
 eventually to aim at the complete 
 severance of those long-established lines 
 of business and trade which followed 
 the Mississippi River and its tributaries. 
 Furthermore, there was the haunting 
 fear that the wording of the company's 
 charter would impose strange and 
 burdensome obligations upon the oper- 
 ations of the road. Finally, with 
 southern Illinois surrounded by slave- 
 holding territory, and with troops of 
 the Confederacy concentrated heavily 
 in Kentucky and southeastern Missouri, 
 the company's first aim was undoubt- 
 edly to protect Cairo and the southern 
 portion of the line from attack. Indeed, 
 the first active participation of the 
 Illinois Central in the Union war effort 
 was directed toward that very end, as 
 several companies of Illinois militia- 
 men were secretly moved from Chicago 
 to the defense of Cairo and the stra- 
 tegic Ohio-Mississippi junction at that 
 point early in May, 1861. 
 
 The Civil War raised a difficult 
 question in the relationship between 
 government and railroad with refer- 
 ence to the legal position of the land- 
 grant lines. In the earliest Congressional 
 grants of land for turnpikes and canals 
 it was customary to insert a provision 
 to the effect that these improvements 
 should "be, and forever remain, a pub- 
 lic highway for the use of the govern- 
 ment, free from any toll or other charge 
 whatever, for any property of the 
 
 United States, or persons in their 
 service." 
 
 When the first Federal land grant 
 for a railroad was passed in 1850, the 
 form and spirit of the above pronounce- 
 ment was contained in section four of 
 the act. Until the time of the Civil War 
 no question was raised as to the obliga- 
 tions of companies under land-grant 
 charters excepting that concerning the 
 transportation of mail. Considering the 
 limited military establishment existing 
 in the country at that time, little, if 
 any, importance was attached to the 
 "free from any toll" clause in the 
 charters. 
 
 The war changed all this, however, 
 and for the next several decades the 
 obligations imposed upon land-grant 
 railroads by their charters received 
 serious consideration both in Congress 
 and in the courts. The Illinois Central, 
 as the largest and most important of 
 the land-grant roads, was deeply con- 
 cerned as to the interpretation which 
 should be placed upon the "free from 
 any toll" clause by the government. 
 
 Months of uncertainty ensued, dur- 
 ina: which time the road continued to 
 provide transportation service for the 
 military and naval forces without any 
 assurance of reimbursement. Finally, 
 an agreement was reached whereby 
 the government claimed the right to 
 use the company's roadway without 
 compensation, but agreed to compen- 
 sate the railroad for the use of its 
 motive power, passenger and freight 
 cars, and other facilities. The amount 
 agreed upon was the normal rate al- 
 lowed non-land-grant railroads for pas- 
 senger and freight service, less 33¥i 
 percent said to be due the government 
 for "charter" privileges.
 
 12 
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 The agreement reached between the 
 United States government and the Illi- 
 nois Central Railroad on August 15, 
 1861, was continued in force through- 
 out the war. Except for numerous com- 
 plaints on the part of the railroads and 
 occasional efforts in Congress to bring 
 about a more literal interpretation of 
 the "free from any toll" clause, it re- 
 mained as the guiding principle in the 
 relationship between government and 
 the land-grant railroads until all claims 
 to land-grant rates were finally aban- 
 doned within the past decade. 
 
 The experience of the Civil War 
 caused an entirely new estimate to be 
 placed upon the value of railroads in 
 modern warfare. The Illinois Central 
 soon demonstrated its ability to serve 
 the needs of the military forces in the 
 West by taking the lead in the move- 
 ment of troops, equipment, and sup- 
 plies to Cairo for distribution farther 
 south. Its main line, reaching the upper 
 Mississippi at Dubuque, tapped the de- 
 veloping resources of the younger states 
 of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, 
 while its 250-mile Chicago branch 
 made contact with the important east- 
 ern rail lines, as well as with the 
 vitally important Great Lakes traffic. 
 In the words of William H. Osborn, 
 wartime president of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral, "The Illinois Central Railroad is 
 second only to the Washington branch 
 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
 in relation to the military operations 
 of the Government." 
 
 In view of its strategic location and 
 the transportation demands which were 
 made upon it, the Illinois Central was 
 most fortunate in being spared the 
 ravages of war upon its property and 
 line, a circumstance not enjoyed by 
 
 certain of the important eastern lines, 
 notably the Baltimore and Ohio and 
 the Northern Central. As the tide of 
 war moved south from Cairo the Illi- 
 nois Central's southern tenninus con- 
 tinued to be an important point of de- 
 parture for men and materials required 
 by the Union commanders in the field, 
 and a concentration point for prisoners 
 of war moved northward after success- 
 ful military operations in the South. 
 
 Although the contribution of the Illi- 
 nois Central to the military activity 
 of the North deserves emphasis, it 
 should be remembered that the com- 
 pany was also called upon to provide 
 transportation service for civilian enter- 
 prises likewise quickened by the stimu- 
 lus of war. Frequently, the road was 
 taxed to the limit to meet the demands 
 made upon it, and in situations where 
 military and civilian activities were in 
 competition for the road's facilities, it 
 was the civilian activity \vhich suffered. 
 
 Obstacles placed in the way of trade 
 as a result of the closing of the Missis- 
 sippi River struck a crippling blow at 
 one of the road's major sources of 
 revenue. The shift in the pattern of 
 the export trade of the Northwest 
 away from the Mississippi route and 
 toward the Great Lakes-Erie Canal 
 route accelerated a movement which 
 had been gaining strength for a decade 
 and more. The Illinois Central Rail- 
 road played a vital role in rerouting 
 the commodities of the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi valleys after the southern route 
 had been closed by the war. 
 
 Furthermore, the road found it 
 necessary to undertake the duties of a 
 grain merchant during 1861 and 1862 
 in order to protect its own position as 
 the state's largest landholder and make
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 13 
 
 possible the marketing of a bumper 
 corn crop. More than 3,000,000 bush- 
 els of corn and a much smaller quan- 
 tity of wheat were accepted by the 
 railroad at a figure slightly above 
 market price in lieu of cash payments 
 on company lands during these years. 
 Naturally, local industry, agriculture in 
 particular, felt the shortages of equip- 
 ment as well as the uncertainties of 
 freight service which were most acute 
 during periods of intense military effort. 
 
 The superiority of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral's Chicago line dates very clearly 
 and unmistakably from the Civil War 
 era. Even before 1861, the rapid de- 
 velopment of Chicago as a center of 
 trade and commerce had raised the 
 branch to a position of near equality 
 with the main line. The stoppage of 
 the Mississippi trade and the routing 
 of a major share of the Illinois grain 
 crop to Chicago hastened the transition 
 still further. By 1863, President Osborn 
 stated publicly that the Chicago branch 
 had become, in fact, "the main line 
 of the road." 
 
 The experience of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral during the Civil War was much 
 like that of American railroads gener- 
 ally during the world conflicts of the 
 twentieth century. Such difficulties as a 
 shortage of equipment, an inadequate 
 labor supply, rising costs, and main- 
 tenance difficulties in the face of an 
 unprecedented traffic demand all com- 
 bined to intensify the ordinary problems 
 of railroad operation. Consequently, 
 although rail earnings reached new 
 heights during the war, expenses of 
 labor, maintenance, and operation also 
 increased at a rapid pace. Nevertheless, 
 the Illinois Central became a consistent 
 dividend-paying railroad for the first 
 
 time during the Civil War. Dividends, 
 which had been meager before the war, 
 rose to 4 percent in 1862, 6 percent in 
 1863, 8 percent in 1864, and reached 
 the handsome figure of 10 percent 
 in 1865. 
 
 Post-Civil-War Problems 
 
 The chief concerns of the company 
 management as the postwar era opened 
 centered around such problems as the 
 difficulty of maintaining the traffic 
 level at a point comparable with that 
 of the war years, the necessity for re- 
 ducing the expenses of railroad opera- 
 tion which had nearly trebled since 
 1861, and the imperativeness of ac- 
 quiring feeder lines whose local busi- 
 ness, would, in turn, swell the traffic 
 total of the parent line. It was in con- 
 nection with this last concern that the 
 course and direction of future Illinois 
 Central development was determined. 
 
 The postwar decision of the com- 
 pany to acquire connections beyond the 
 borders of Illinois marked a definite 
 break with the original policy of the 
 road. Events of the previous years had 
 convinced the management of the ad- 
 visability of obtaining branch and 
 feeder line railroads as the surest 
 method of stimulating new business for 
 the Illinois Central. The initial steps in 
 the first out-of-state acquisition were 
 taken while the war was still in prog- 
 ress. The Dubuque and Sioux City 
 Railroad and its subsidiary, the Cedar 
 Falls and Minnesota, offered a most 
 satisfactory path for expansion into 
 the promising states of Iowa and Min- 
 nesota. The details of consolidation 
 were worked out during 1867, and on 
 October 1 of that year the Illinois
 
 14 
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 Central took formal possession of the 
 Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad. 
 
 That the Illinois Central had clearly 
 embarked upon the highroad of inter- 
 sectional expansion, by way of lease, 
 merger, and consolidation, became per- 
 fectly evident in the early 1880's. In 
 1872 the Illinois Central had extended 
 its influence 547 miles southward from 
 the Ohio River to New Orleans by 
 means of an agreement with the Mis- 
 sissippi Central and the New Orleans, 
 Jackson and Great Northern roads. 
 Soon these companies, along with 
 several other pioneer railroads of the 
 lower Mississippi Valley, were brought 
 together in the Chicago, St. Louis and 
 New Orleans Railroad Company, and 
 the Illinois Central's lease of this latter 
 company in 1883 extended its control 
 all the way to New Orleans. 
 
 Until 1881 the interchange of pas- 
 senger and freight cars was hindered 
 at the Ohio River by the necessity for 
 ferry service between Cairo and the 
 Kentucky shore. An additional dif- 
 ficulty arose from the fact that the 
 gauge of the lines north of the Ohio 
 was 4 feet 8V2 inches (today's standard 
 gauge) while that of the lines south 
 of the river was 5 feet. In a remarkable 
 performance on July 29, 1881, the 
 gauge of the entire line from East 
 Cairo to New Orleans was converted 
 in the course of a single day to stand- 
 ard gauge, thereby enabling both loco- 
 motives and cars to be exchanged 
 freely between the northern and south- 
 ern lines. 
 
 Equally noteworthy was the con- 
 struction of an enormous bridge across 
 the Ohio River at Cairo. Opened to 
 traffic in 1889, the Ohio River bridge 
 represented the last link in the long de- 
 
 velopment of the Lakes-to-Gulf rail 
 route. The Illinois Central is at the 
 present time engaged in a major proj- 
 ect of rebuilding and repairing the 
 bridge at Cairo. The improvements, 
 which will require several years to com- 
 plete, have been planned to interfere 
 as little as possible with the normal 
 flow of traffic over the bridge. 
 
 Through the years the present out- 
 line of today's Illinois Central map has 
 been filled in by numerous mergers 
 and consolidations accomplished both 
 by the parent company and by its 
 southern affiliate, the Chicago, St. 
 Louis and New Orleans Company. Be- 
 tween 1880 and 1900, the mileage of 
 the Illinois Central more than trebled, 
 while the traffic and earnings increased 
 in an even more spectacular manner. 
 This span of years includes the long as- 
 sociation of Stuyvesant Fish and Ed- 
 ward H. Harriman in the management 
 of Illinois Central affairs, and repre- 
 sents for the company its period of 
 greatest expansion and growth. 
 
 The pattern for twentieth century 
 railroad development had clearly been 
 set at the time of the death of Mr. 
 Harriman in 1909, though problems 
 of unbelievable intensity growing out 
 of wars, periods of inflation, and de- 
 pressions lay just ahead to complicate 
 the transportation scene down to the 
 present day. 
 
 The Railroad and Its Public 
 
 It would be unfair to assume that 
 the Illinois Central has been com- 
 pletely free from public criticism dur- 
 ing its long history. No company 
 engaging in business of a public char- 
 acter and directly concerned with the 
 public interest could be so fortunate.
 
 THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL: A CENTENNIAL VIEW 
 
 15 
 
 Most of its difficulties during the nine- 
 teenth century grew out of either the 
 unique arrangement prevailing between 
 the Illinois Central and the state of 
 Illinois, or the aroused state of the 
 public mind distressed by the industrial 
 transformation which followed the 
 Civil War. This condition was still 
 further inflamed by the prevalence of 
 questionable corporate practices in an 
 age of loose business morality. 
 
 In the former connection, tax diffi- 
 culties and interpretations arising 
 mainly from the charter provision that 
 the railroad must pay 7 percent of its 
 gross earnings into the treasury of the 
 state held the spotlight, and were 
 sharply reflected in the efforts of sub- 
 sequent Illinois constitutional conven- 
 tions (1862 and 1869) to prevent any 
 relaxation of the obligations of the 
 company under its 1851 charter. Thus 
 it is that the present Constitution of 
 Illinois contains the provision that "No 
 contract, obligation or liability what- 
 ever, of the Illinois Central Railroad 
 Company . . . shall ever be released, 
 suspended, modified, altered, remitted, 
 or in any manner diminished or im- 
 paired by legislative or other 
 authority. . . ." 
 
 In the latter situation the "aroused 
 state of the public mind," represented 
 by the Granger Movement, centered its 
 attack upon railroads generally and 
 emphasized in particular the matter of 
 rates and the discrimination evil. Illi- 
 nois, one of the centers of Granger agi- 
 tation, responded with a Railway and 
 Warehouse Commission to regulate the 
 rates and charges of railroads, grain 
 elevators, and warehouses. The de- 
 cision of the Supreme Court in the 
 celebrated case of Munn v. Illiriois 
 
 (1876) established the principle of the 
 greater responsibility of a business 
 clothed with the public interest and in 
 so doing upheld the right of govern- 
 ment to regulate all types of public 
 transportation. The enactment of legis- 
 lation in 1887 setting up the interstate 
 Commerce Commission shifted the 
 burden of regulation from the shoul- 
 ders of the individual state to those of 
 the Federal government. The various 
 strengthenings of the I.C.C. have long 
 since satisfied the demand for ade- 
 quate Federal supervision of American 
 transportation. 
 
 Additional difficulties which have 
 been more or less common to American 
 railroads over the past century occa- 
 sionally produced friction between the 
 Illinois Central Railroad and its work- 
 ers, its patrons, and its neighbors. In- 
 cluded in this category would be prob- 
 lems raised by the upsurge of organized 
 labor in the United States, the ever- 
 present smoke nuisance, and the de- 
 mand for the improvement of terminal 
 facilities. The controversy which raged 
 for years over the rights and privileges 
 belonging to the Illinois Central, and 
 the obligations and responsibilities 
 owed by the company, as a result of 
 permission granted by the city of Chi- 
 cago for the railroad to enter the city 
 along the lake front, proved to be one 
 of the hardest to settle. After years of 
 disagreement, litigation, and bitter re- 
 crimination, the lake-front controversy 
 was ultimately settled to the satisfac- 
 tion of the city, the state, the Federal 
 government, and the railroad. 
 
 To point out that the Illinois Cen- 
 tral has not always enjoyed the high 
 level of public confidence which it 
 possesses today is both to admit the
 
 16 
 
 CURRENT ECONOMIC COMMENT 
 
 intensely human character of many of 
 its early leaders in a day of great eco- 
 nomic and social turmoil, and to credit 
 the company with having made great 
 strides in the direction of building 
 better relations with its public. Begun 
 shortly after World War I, the public 
 relations program of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral has been remarkably successful in 
 its avowed intention of "taking the 
 public into its confidence." Under the 
 general supervision of George M. 
 Crowson since 1925, the program has 
 earned many compliments and much 
 favorable comment for its fresh and 
 constructive approach to a problem 
 long neglected by American business. 
 Sponsored and encouraged by its last 
 three presidents, Markham, Downs, 
 and Beven, and by the present head, 
 Wayne A. Johnston, the Illinois Cen- 
 tral has not only accomplished much 
 
 in the direction of maintaining friendly 
 relations with its public, but has set a 
 high standard of achievement in the 
 realm of employee relations and com- 
 pany safety as well. 
 
 Over the broad sweep of a century, 
 the Illinois Central Railroad stands to- 
 day secure in its proud claim of being 
 the "Main Line of Mid-America." Its 
 own century of service coincides with 
 an amazing century of national and 
 continental development to which the 
 railroad has contributed in such large 
 measure. Whatever the demands that 
 may be made upon American railroads 
 in the uncertain future, we may be 
 certain that the "Main Line of Mid- 
 America" will continue to provide the 
 same kind of safe, dependable, and 
 efficient transportation for which it has 
 been famous in the past.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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