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 UNIVERSITY 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 http://archive.org/details/villageatendofro131dani 
 
INDIANA 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 ** 
 
 VOLUME 13 
 
 « 
 
 DISTRIBUTED BY 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 1941 
 
OFFICERS, 1941 
 
 James A. Woodburn, President Emeritus 
 
 Eli Lilly, President 
 
 Charles Roll, First Vice-President 
 
 Mrs. Harvey Morris, Second Vice-President 
 
 Wylie J. Daniels, Third Vice-President 
 
 John G. Rauch, Treasurer 
 
 Christopher B. Coleman, Secretary 
 
 Executive Committee : The above officers and Lee Burn.-., 
 Chairman ; Cornelius O'Brien, Albert L. Kohlmeier, Mr 
 W. W. Gaar, Hal Phelps. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 To. 1. The Village at the End of the Road. A Chap- 
 ter in Early Indiana Railroad History, by 
 Wylie J. Daniels 1 
 
 k Io. 2. The Contribution of the Society of Friends 
 to Education in Indiana, by Ethel Hittle 
 McDaniel 113 
 
 o. 3. Camp Morton 1861-1865. Indianapolis Prison 
 Camp, by Hattie Lou Winslow and Joseph R. 
 H. Moore * 225 
 
 NfDEX 385 
 
INDIANA 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 VOLUME 13 
 NUMBER 1 
 
THE VILLAGE AT THE END 
 OF THE ROAD 
 
 A Chapter in Early Indiana Railroad History 
 
 By 
 WYLIE J. DANIELS 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 1938 
 
i82 5 
 
 u T should do injustice to my feelings, were I to pass unno- 
 Heed my early, devoted friend, John Hager, of Hancock. 
 I knew him long, I knew him well. As I was traveling one 
 rainy day on horseback through the woods, between Indian- 
 apolis and Connersvillc, near where Greenfield now stands, I 
 heard a loud voice before me, some half a mile off. My horse 
 was wading through the mud and water, up to the saddle-skirts. 
 I moved slowly on, until I met John Hager driving a team of 
 four oxen, hauling a heavy load of merchandise, or store-goods, 
 as he called it, from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, then in the 
 woods. He had been fifteen days on the road, and it woidd 
 take him three days more to get through. He stopped his oxen 
 a few moments, but said he must move on, as they would be 
 anxiously looking for him at Indianapolis, as they were nearly 
 out of powder and lead when he left, and they could get none 
 until he got there, as his was the only wagon that could get 
 through the mud between Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and it 
 was just as much as he coidd do. He hallooed to the oxen, 
 plied the lash of his long whip, and the team moved on at the 
 rate of a mile an hour — the wheels up to the hubs in mud. 
 
 "Such was John Hager and his teams, carrying the whole 
 commerce between the Queen City and the Railroad City of the 
 West, at that early day/' 
 
 — Smith, Early Indiana Trials and Sketches 
 
 1936 
 
 "He recognized the lights of Kansas City, St. Lotas, Indi- 
 anapolis at hour intervals. Near Indianapolis a tailwind lifted 
 his speed to 295 m. p. h., carried him past Columbus in 55 
 minutes. ... 7 dont think there was anything sensational 
 about it/ said Mr. Hughes/' 
 
 — Time, January 27, 1936 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Possibly no period in the history of Indiana has seen greater 
 changes than the ten years between 1845 an d I ^55- I n 
 those years the state might be said to have reached maturity. 
 Hopes long deferred were realized. The state debt was ad- 
 justed, the Wabash and Erie Canal finished, the public-school 
 system established, a new constitution adopted, the first state 
 benevolent institutions were built, the use of the telegraph 
 begun, and, perhaps most important of all, the first railroads 
 were completed. The period witnessed the excitement of the 
 Mexican War and of the discovery of gold in California, the 
 triumph of the Democratic party in Indiana, and the beginning 
 of its disintegration on the slavery question. It was a time of 
 commercial and agricultural prosperity and of bitter political 
 controversy, and the newspapers reflect the enthusiastic, hope- 
 ful, and partisan spirit of those days. 
 
 Indiana was fortunate in having many outstanding men as 
 editors of its leading papers in the forties and fifties, but only 
 a few of the most prominent can be named here. John D. 
 Defrees, born in Tennessee and coming to Indiana from Ohio 
 in 183 1, edited the Indiana State Journal, the leading Whig 
 paper, from 1845 to : 854- Michael C. Garber, a Valley Vir- 
 ginian, became editor of the influential Madison Courier in 
 1849. I n T &4-i George A. Chapman and Jacob Page Chap- 
 man, originally from Massachusetts, came from Terre Haute 
 to edit the Sentinel, the leading Democratic paper. In 1850 
 they sold it to William J. Brown and Austin H. Brown, who 
 were the editors until 1855. From 1841 the columns of these 
 papers are full of news about railroads, building or projected. 
 As these roads were financed almost entirely by local stock 
 subscriptions, publicity was essential, and the papers not only 
 published advertisements, accounts of meetings, letters, state- 
 ments of earnings, engineering reports, and annual reports, 
 but made frequent editorial comment. 
 
 W. R. Holloway says that the Sentinel editorials were 
 mainly written by Page Chapman, who was a master of invec- 
 tive and adept at the form of editorial repartee characteristic 
 
 (7) 
 
8 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 of the period, of which the following, from the weekly issue 
 of April 18, 1844, is a somewhat restrained example: 
 
 "The Bloomington Post is mistaken in supposing that 'that 
 strong and spirited writer, T. J. Barnett, still presides over the 
 editorial department' of the Indiana Journal. On the contrary, 
 the principal editor of the Journal for some months, has been 
 Mr. Kent, formerly one of the editors of the New Hampshire 
 Statesman, we believe. Aside from politics, Mr. Kent appears 
 to be a gentleman, a scholar, and a good bit of a poet also, 
 judging from some of the hob nail songs of which he is the 
 author ; and for these reasons, and with an eye to the just dis- 
 position of rewards, should Mr. Clay, by any possibility happen 
 to be elected — of which by the way, we have not the slightest 
 fear — we cannot permit the honors of editing the Journal to 
 be misapplied. The saddle should be put upon the right horse, 
 and the panniers upon the right Jackass — and when the latter 
 happens to be the case, the Editor of the Bloomington Post 
 will be ready for a load." 
 
 With so much material available, the writer has felt justi- 
 fied in endeavoring to give the contemporary view of railroads 
 by means of copious quotations. Some such use of its files 
 was forecast by the daily Sentinel in its issue of April 30, 
 185 1 : "we all know that bound files of newspapers become 
 valuable for their antiquity. With what delight would the 
 curious citizens of Indianapolis, two hundred years hence, 
 when Indianapolis shall cover two or three townships, look 
 over a file of the 'Sentinel,' and note the discussions in rela- 
 tion to new buildings, streets, railroads, &c. — the latter, per- 
 haps, being displaced by daily lines of balloons, to all parts of 
 the world." 
 
 The method of presentation adopted may be somewhat un- 
 orthodox, but it has seemed to the writer that a clearer picture 
 can thus be presented than by endeavoring to express in his 
 own words the attitude of the people of that day. By so doing 
 he has to some extent avoided the risks of overemphasizing the 
 relatively unimportant for the sake of effect, of becoming 
 sentimental over the "dear dim days beyond recall," or speak- 
 ing with pitying condescension of a generation that had to 
 depend on those "funny little engines and cars." That gener- 
 ation was meeting and solving, after many setbacks, the chief 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 9 
 
 economic problem of the day, the need for better transporta- 
 tion, and had no time for self-pity. It thought it was doing 
 a good job and who can deny that it was? 
 
 This article is based on papers prepared for meetings of 
 the Indiana Historical Society and the Indianapolis Literary 
 Club in 1935 and 1936. Much additional material has been 
 included. I wish to express my thanks to Miss Nellie Arm- 
 strong and to Miss Dorothy Riker of the Indiana Historical 
 Bureau for their careful editing and many helpful suggestions, 
 and to Miss Esther McNitt of the Indiana State Library for 
 her assistance in selecting the illustrations, all of which are 
 from collections in the State Library. Extensive use was made 
 of the newspaper files of the Indiana State Library and the 
 Indianapolis Public Library. For permission to publish the 
 two drawings by Christian Schrader I am indebted to Mrs. 
 Louise Schrader Graham of Madison. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 National Road Bridge over Pogue's Run, at Noble 
 and Washington Streets. From a drawing by 
 Christian Schrader 16 
 
 Advertisement of Madison and Indianapolis Rail- 
 road, 1843 3 2 
 
 Indianapolis in 1846 44 
 
 Railroad Map of Indiana, 1850 63 
 
 Timetable, Indiana Routes, 1852 84 
 
 East View of Union Station, Indianapolis, in the 
 late 1850's. From a drawing by Christian Schrader 100 
 
 (11) 
 
THE VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 
 A Chapter in Early Indiana Railroad History 
 
 The outlook for central Indiana in the early forties must 
 have appeared rather gloomy. The state was still suffer- 
 ing severely from the results of the panic of 1837 and the 
 collapse of the internal improvement scheme. A state debt of 
 over $13,000,000 upon which no interest was being paid, with 
 a total property valuation of only $92,000,000, weighed heavily 
 on all enterprise. 1 Nevertheless the population was increas- 
 ing, especially in the upper Wabash Valley where the Wabash 
 and Erie Canal was approaching Lafayette, which it reached 
 in 1842. 
 
 Central Indiana, however, was still dependent on roads 
 which were described as intolerable in summer and impassable 
 in winter. Indianapolis was practically mudbound for several 
 months of the year. Of the Michigan Road to Logansport 
 one editor remarked, "it makes our 'bones ache' whenever we 
 think of it," while the following extract from the weekly 
 Sentinel of October 31, 1843, gives a disheartening glimpse of 
 stagecoach travel on the National Road at that period. 
 
 "That part of the National Road as it is called, from Indi- 
 
 lu In regard to . . . Indiana and Illinois, we have very little to say. 
 Indiana has a debt of more than $13,000,000, with a population of about 
 700,000 souls. The amount of taxable property in the State was returned 
 in 1840 as about $92,000,000. Illinois has a debt of upwards of $13,000,- 
 000. The population of the State was less than 500,000 in 1840. To both 
 these States, the remark of Governor Carlin, of Illinois ... is applicable : 
 'unfortunately . . . the State was allured from the path of wisdom and 
 economy by the seductive spirit of speculation, and the wild fury of popu- 
 lar delusion, which spread over every part of the Union, and induced to 
 embark in an expensive system of internal improvements, at a period when 
 the country was literally deluged with an inflated circulating medium, which 
 gave the semblance of success to the most visionary and chimerical enter- 
 prise.' But both these States have immense natural resources, and a rapidly 
 increasing population fully capable of developing them ; and they must 
 become wealthy. At present, we believe, it is not in their power to comply 
 with their engagements." Article from North American Review, quoted in 
 Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), March 28, 1844. 
 
 (13) 
 
14 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 anapolis to Terre Haute, with the exception of half a dozen 
 miles, is probably as bad as any road in the State. Henry 
 Clay it will be remembered gave the casting vote against the 
 last proposed appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars towards the completion of the road, in the last year of 
 Mr. Van Buren's administration. We wish he had been in the 
 coach that capsized with Mr. V. B. a year or so ago. 2 We wish 
 that he and Captain Ogden, who fooled away so much money on 
 the road, building bridges on the Terre Haute prairie, at a 
 cost of $30,000, where there is not, and never will be a drop 
 of water — were compelled to ride over the road in a wagon 
 without springs, at least once a week, until they both were 
 brought to a humiliating sense of their sins in regard to it. 
 But though this would be a sad punishment, we confess it would 
 be hardly severe enough, for the reason that, in defiance of 
 these disadvantages, the 'Eclipse Line of Stages' now running 
 over the road daily, under the immediate direction of Col. 
 Robinson, one of the Stage Company, would relieve them, as 
 it does every body else, of most of the evils they would other- 
 wise experience. . . . We recently made the trip from Terre 
 Haute to this place, 70 miles, in fifteen hours, including plenty 
 of time for breakfast and dinner on the road. We like to go 
 ahead pretty fast, but that was quite fast enough. The coaches 
 are all new, large and comfortable; the teams as the horses are 
 called, fine, fat and speedy; and the drivers, a most important 
 item, men who thoroughly understand their business. Conse- 
 quently no line of Stages in the State can now surpass this, for 
 safety, speed and comfort." 3 
 
 2 Former President Van Buren visited Indianapolis on June 11, 1842, 
 and was upset in a stage near Plainfield two days later. Indiana Journal 
 (semiweekly), June 14, 1842. Henry Clay came to Indianapolis on October 
 5, 1842. 
 
 3 The weekly Sentinel of January 23, 1845, reprinted the following letter 
 from the St. Louis Missourian : 
 
 "Wheeling, December 30, 1844. 
 "Dear Sir — I left St. Louis, Mo., on the morning of the 24th of Decem- 
 ber ... in the great Eastern Mail Line, which is run by Gen. O. Hinton 
 & Co., from St. Louis to Terre Haute, Indiana ; and by J. & P. Voorhees & 
 Co., from the latter place to Dayton, Ohio; and by Neil, Moore & Co., from 
 Dayton, O., to Wheeling, Va., which lines are all in connection on the 
 National Road. The coaches on all these lines are the very best that can 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 15 
 
 Editor Chapman was apparently greatly irritated by the 
 condition of this road. On March 13, 1845, ne wrote: "Tyler 
 vetoed the Harbor bill, as it is called, to which was added an 
 appropriation for the Cumberland [National] Road. So we 
 get nothing at present, if ever. We have never been sanguine 
 of an appropriation, since Clay's death-blow to the road in 
 1840, for which O. H. Smith scored him so severely. We 
 must get up a small chunk of a war, when the government will 
 desire to transport western soldiers and munitions of war over 
 roads three feet deep with mud. The necessity of a good mili- 
 tary road will then be learned, if not before. Money enough 
 is every year fooled away on West Point Academy to finish 
 the road without difficulty. But that is a mill for the manu- 
 facture of Aristocrats and must be sustained, whether we have 
 a military road or not." 
 
 The mail service furnished another cause of complaint. 
 According to the triweekly Sentinel of December 12, 1846: 
 "For more than a week we have had no Northeastern, Eastern, 
 Southern or Southeastern mails. Various are the excuses. 
 The whole concern is utterly devoid of anything like system 
 or regularity, and is in worse confusion than at any time since 
 the foundation of the government, as we verily believe. As 
 proof of this, we need only refer to the fact of such general 
 complaint over the whole country. A particular case we will 
 note. On this, Friday, evening, we have had no eastern mail 
 for seven days. Some are due daily. A few individuals at 
 St. Louis, Mo. and along the route, combined to bring through 
 
 be had — the teams are in fine condition — the drivers careful and obliging — 
 and every attention is paid to passengers. ... I am satisfied of its being 
 the most desirable and shortest route between St. Louis, Mo., and Wheeling, 
 Va. The running time ... is four and a half days, and I lay by at three 
 different places at night — thirty-one hours — thus making the whole time 
 through in five days and eighteen hours, including all stoppages. The order 
 in which these lines are run, are as follows : Leave St. Louis at 7 a. m., arrive 
 at Terre Haute next day by 6 p. m. Leave Terre Haute at 3 a. m., arrive 
 at Indianapolis at 8 p. m., same day. Leave Indianapolis at 4 a. m., arrive at 
 Dayton by 1 p. m., next day. Leave Dayton at 6 p. m., and arrive at Colum- 
 bus at 6 a. m. Leave Columbus at 7 a. m., and arrive at Wheeling by 
 6 a. m. . . . Distance from St. Louis to Wheeling, 535, miles — time in 
 travelling, 108 hours — . . . . The fare is $24 through — from St. Louis to 
 Dayton, O., $14, and from Dayton to Wheeling, Va., $10. 
 
 J. Ottenger" 
 
16 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 the President's Message. It reached this place in less than four 
 days from Washington! 41 and was mainly carried, as we learn, 
 by the regular mail contractors. Now, if such speed can be 
 attained by individual enterprise, no matter from what cause, 
 why is it that the regular mails are weeks behind ?" 
 
 So much for passengers and mail. How did the farmers 
 fare with their produce and the merchants with their goods? 
 On July 18, 1843, under the heading "Wabash and Erie Canal," 
 Chapman wrote : "It is a fact that we are beginning to send 
 produce west to the New York and Boston markets. Large 
 quantities of Hemp and other articles are now being forwarded 
 in wagons to Lafayette, some 65 miles north west, by our enter- 
 prising citizens, to be sent on the Wabash and Erie canal to 
 Boston and New York markets .... The immense influence 
 the opening of this canal will have on three-fourths of the 
 whole State is incalculable." 
 
 In the same year we find the comment : 5 "By the prices 
 current published in the Beacon (Lawrenceburg), it would 
 appear that produce bears a higher price there than at any 
 other place in the State. Indeed the fact seems to be generally 
 known ; for trains of teams pass here constantly for that point. 
 What with Lafayette on one side, and Lawrenceburgh on the 
 other, who can wonder at the stagnation of business here at 
 present?" 
 
 But a note of optimism is beginning to appear. On August 
 15, 1843, under the heading "Indianapolis and Madison Rail- 
 road." the editor wrote : "The distance between Indianapolis 
 and Madison on the Ohio, is about 80 miles. 6 The railroad is 
 now nearly completed to Columbus, about 40 miles, half way 
 between the two first named points, and ten miles more to 
 Edinburgh will soon be ready to receive the rails. A passage 
 from this place to Madison is daily afforded by one of our 
 enterprising stage lines, where the traveller can take a steam- 
 boat and pass up or down the great thoroughfare of the West. 
 The produce in this and the surrounding counties has hereto- 
 fore been transported in wagons to Madison, Lawrenceburgh 
 
 4 The telegraph did not reach Indianapolis until 1848. 
 6 Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), October 31, 1843. 
 6 The distance from Indianapolis to Madison is 86 miles ; from Columbus 
 to Madison, 45 miles. 
 
tf iF ; i~ ^ *;u*Mi 
 
 
 •■ 
 
 
 1; j 
 
 >* 
 
 • 
 
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 /ate i 
 
 
 
 ^wis 
 
 
 
 C3 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 17 
 
 and Cincinnati. The trip to and from usually took from 9 to 
 12 days. Now wagons can reach Lafayette, on the Wabash 
 and Erie canal in 2 1/2 days, and the railroad in two, and the 
 whole trip performed in less than half the former time and 
 more than half the cost of transportation saved : consequently 
 the price of heavy articles, such as salt and iron is reduced one 
 third. - 
 
 "It is believed from the energy manifested by the company, 
 that the railroad can be finished to this place in two years, and 
 new stimulus will be given to the upper valley of White river 
 that will immensely increase its products. This fertile section 
 of country has heretofore been almost shut out of market, and 
 the staple articles of pork, wheat, tobacco and hemp cost one 
 third of their value to carry them to market." 
 
 2. 
 
 Much has been written about the Madison Railroad and it 
 has been generally agreed that its completion to Indianapolis 
 was the most significant single event in the early history of the 
 capital. In this paper I have tried to reduce statistics to a 
 minimum and have attempted to show the public attitude 
 toward the road during its construction. However, a brief 
 account of its early history taken from a report of President 
 Merrill to the stockholders, which appeared in the weekly 
 Sentinel of November 14, 1844, may be of interest. 
 
 "The Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road was one of the 
 works, embraced in the general system of Internal Improve- 
 ments, adopted by the State in the year 1836. It was then 
 located from Madison to Columbus, 45 miles, and afterwards 
 to Edinburgh, 1 1 miles further. The expenditures of the State 
 on the road, between the years 1836 and 1842 were $1,624,- 
 2 9 x 93> °f which $62,493 21 were received from tolls, and the 
 balance from the State Treasury. 
 
 "The money expended by the State completed the road to 
 Griffith's, 28 miles, and paid for about one half of the grading 
 and bridging 28 miles further ; the ground for the Depot in 
 Madison, the work shops on the hill, two locomotives, and the 
 cars necessary for the road then finished, were also purchased 
 or constructed for the State. Without doubt, there was great 
 
18 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 waste of money, especially on the Madison Plane, 7 and the 
 Bridges south of Vernon, but the finished part was generally 
 well done, and the best quality of the T. Rail procured for it. 
 
 "The Legislature of 1842, finding the public works unprof- 
 itable and expensive, with no funds to complete them, and dull 
 prospects of profit from them, if completed, passed the act 
 providing for their extension by private companies, as herein, 
 under which this association has been organized. By virtue 
 of its provisions about $80,000, mostly in land, at cash prices, 
 was subscribed as stock in April and May, 1842. In June 
 Directors were chosen and the Board organized ; in July the 
 first 13 miles north of Griffith's were put under contract, and 
 soon after the next four, to Columbus. 
 
 "The Road was completed, June 1, 1843, 3 miles to Scipio; 
 Sept. 1, 7 further, to Elizabethtown ; Feb. 1, 1844, 41/2 miles 
 to Clifty; and July 3, 2 1/2 miles further, to Columbus. 
 
 "A very large portion of the travel and business of the 
 road is done by persons residing in its vicinity. The bad con- 
 dition of the roads north of Columbus, 8 the cheap rates of 
 travelling, in rival stages, from Indianapolis to other points 
 on the Ohio, and the occasional failure of the cars to arrive 
 in time for the mail boat up the river, have as yet, limited the 
 patronage of the road in the central part of the State. . . . 
 
 "The Company engaged in this work at a period of great 
 depression. Many of them who cheerfully subscribed land and 
 produce, were unable to pay the smallest amount in money; 
 
 7 As Mr. Dunn has said, the greatest difficulty was in getting the road 
 out of Madison into Indiana. This was finally accomplished in 1841, when 
 the famous cut was completed — 7,000 feet long, with a 5.9 per cent grade. 
 Before 1848, horses were used to pull the cars up the incline. November 1 
 of that year, Cathcart's cog track was put into service. Jacob P. Dunn, 
 Indiana and Indianans . . . (Chicago and New York, 1919), I, 400; Madison 
 and Indianapolis Railroad, Annual Report, 1848 (Madison, 1849) p. 10. 
 
 8 It was of this road that a disgusted traveler wrote on the register of an 
 inn in Franklin : 
 
 "The roads are impassable — hardly jackassable ; 
 I think those that travel 'em should turn out and gravel 'em." 
 — Dunn, Indiana and Indianans, II, 936. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 19 
 
 and repeatedly the Directors have been compelled to advance 
 their private funds and lend their personal credit to promote 
 the progress of the work, or prevent its stopping altogether." 
 An interesting sidelight on wages paid at that time is found 
 in the same report : "The ordinary expenses of the road, for 
 each working day, have been for some time about as follows : 
 Pay of Superintendent, two Clerks, and two 
 
 assistants, $7 74 
 
 do Machinist do do 4 37 
 
 do Blacksmith do do 2 66 
 
 do Carpenter do do 2 yy 
 
 Conductor, Engineer, Fireman and two hands 
 
 on the train 5 00 
 
 Four hands on the Plane, and one at Colum- 
 bus 3 88 
 Wood and oil, and oats and hay for 7 horses 5 00 
 Wear and tear of engines and cars, say 4 38 
 
 $3600 [$35.80]" 
 In other words, the thirty employees of the road, including 
 the superintendent, received total wages of about $27 a day. 
 
 The necessity for completing the railroad to Indianapolis 
 as soon as possible seems so apparent at this day, that we should 
 expect to find that all citizens were putting their shoulders to 
 the wheel. Unfortunately, such was not the case. The follow- 
 ing excerpts from a letter to the weekly Sentinel (February 
 28, 1843), are rather revealing: 
 
 " . . .It astonishes me to hear many people talk about 
 helping the 'Rail Road Company,' just as if they were throw- 
 ing away what they sign, or the stock they take in it was lost. 
 Now I believe if the road was done, it would be the best stock 
 in the State, and there can be no doubt of it. Yet they don't 
 view it so. I recollect about four years ago to have met a 
 gentleman in Shelbyville, who lived on the Ohio river near 
 Aurora, Dearborn county. At that time, Internal Improve- 
 ment was all the go, in this section of country ; and this gentle- 
 man was the reverse. With him it was — 'Internal Improve- 
 ment, and damnation to all Internal Improvements.' I asked 
 him the reason why he was so much opposed to it — to our way 
 
20 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 of thinking about it. His answer was, that 'the land on the 
 Ohio river was worth from $80 to $100 per acre; that there 
 was not much good land on it, and that it was worth it — every 
 
 cent.' 'And now,' says he, 'if you make your d d Rail 
 
 Roads and Canals, you will make all the land in the centre of 
 the State worth as much.' I then asked him if it reduced the 
 price of land on the Ohio river. He said he 'did not know; 
 but they had already enough competition, and if we would 
 make our own roads, he would not care, provided they were 
 not taxed for us.' 
 
 "We all know that Madison is on the road to greatness, 
 and Indianapolis is closely linked to her. We cannot separate 
 their interests, when the road is done. Some contend strongly 
 that Madison then will be removed to Indianapolis; while 
 others take the opposite side, and contend more strongly that 
 Indianapolis is removed to Madison, while all agree that they 
 are together, one and the same. Now I don't care which it is 
 that is removed — not a farthing — since we all are agreed on 
 their being together ; that is what I want, and every one else ; 
 for with them we take the two rivers, (the Ohio and White 
 rivers) and all the counties, townships, and lands." 
 
 At a meeting called by the friends of the railroad at the 
 courthouse in Indianapolis on April 16, 1843, an d reported in 
 the weekly Sentinel of April 25, the following resolutions were 
 adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, it is of the greatest importance to the county 
 of Marion, that the Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road, be 
 extended during the approaching Fall, to the town of Edin- 
 burgh to which point the Board of Directors have made let- 
 tings ; and 
 
 "Whereas, it is with regret that we are forced to the con- 
 clusion, that there has been, and still is a disposition, shown 
 to arrest the progress of the Road at Columbus, by refusing 
 materials and provisions to contractors, except at such ruinous 
 prices as to forbid their further progress, at the present prices, 
 at which the work has been taken, therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That we hereby tender to the present contrac- 
 tors, our produce and other articles, which they may need, or 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 21 
 
 can use in the progress of this work, at our lowest cash prices, 
 and will take therefor the stock of the Madison and Indian- 
 apolis Rail Road Company. 
 
 "Resolved, That it is our deliberate opinion that the 
 counties of Marion and Johnson, in their corporate capacity 
 or by their citizens individually should complete the grubbing, 
 grading and bridging of said Road from Edinburgh to Indian- 
 apolis and that for such work as it progresses the company 
 should issue stock certificates, as to other contractors. ..." 
 
 A notice for a similar meeting in October, 1843, invited 
 "Every Farmer ... to attend, and ascertain for himself how 
 easily his Wheat, Oats, Hay, Beef, Pork, Hemp, and Tobacco, 
 which will not now bear the tedious and expensive transporta- 
 tion over our bad roads, can bring him the highest Ohio River 
 Price, at a small expense. 
 
 "Every Mechanic, Merchant, and Manufacturer is urged 
 to attend, and judge of his interest in the increased demand for 
 every article of trade and exchange which the completion of 
 the Rail Road would insure." 
 
 Perhaps the real state of affairs was revealed by President 
 Nathan B. Palmer of the railroad company, who was called 
 upon at this meeting, and "made some interesting statements 
 in reference to the construction and operations of the Road, 
 and expressed the opinion . . . that the company could com- 
 plete the Road, if the people of the country interested in it, 
 would take hold of the matter in earnest and 'talk* less about 
 it. He lamented the fact that the farmers and others, though 
 wishing to see the road completed, seemed unwilling to furnish 
 the contractors upon the Road, with provisions and other 
 necessaries, taking Stock in payment." 9 
 
 Meetings to arouse interest were held in all the townships 
 during the fall and early winter, but subscriptions for stock 
 were slow in coming in. The public was willing to "let George 
 do it" and even the exhortations of Editor Chapman were use- 
 less. On November 21, 1843, he wrote: 
 
 "The impulse lately given to the movements on the Rail 
 Road should not be suffered to flag. Those who have time 
 and means should employ them in agitating the matter. If it 
 
 "Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), October 17, 1843. 
 
22 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 fails now, it fails for years ; and while all around us are advanc- 
 ing with rapid strides to prosperity and wealth, we shall either 
 remain stationary or retrograde. It must not be." 
 
 In spite of these exertions, a committee composed of repre- 
 sentatives from each township addressed a public notice to the 
 citizens of Marion County on February 18, 1844, stating that 
 the plan for raising a sufficient fund by voluntary subscrip- 
 tions had been abandoned. 10 They proposed instead that a tax 
 of one per cent be levied on all property in Marion County for 
 a period of three years, 11 and that the money thus raised be 
 used to purchase stock in the railroad, such stock to be appor- 
 tioned to the taxpayers in proportion to the amount of tax 
 paid by each. They further proposed that the question of 
 levying such a tax be submitted to the voters at the coming 
 April election. They also furnished an elaborate set of figures 
 prefaced by the statement that the "Railroads are to commerce, 
 what the genial sun of spring is to the growing corn of the 
 husbandman," and showing the profit that would accrue to 
 every class of citizens by the completion of the road and that 
 the stock so purchased was sure to be a good investment. 
 
 A warm controversy ensued which cut across party lines 
 and to a great extent developed into a town-versus-county 
 struggle. The following extracts from letters published in the 
 weekly Sentinel of March 12, 1844, show clearly how definitely 
 opposed were certain points of view : 
 
 "Messrs. Editors : As a citizen of Marion county and a 
 friend to the measure proposed to secure an early completion 
 of the Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road, I cannot be indif- 
 ferent to the efforts which are being made ... to infuse into 
 the minds of the more unwary of our people, prejudices against 
 the tax which has been proposed to be raised to accomplish that 
 object. 
 
 "As I have given the subject some attention, I cannot but be 
 astonished that any one, who desires to promote the prosperity 
 of the county, should oppose a measure, which to my mind 
 appears so just and equitable in its operations — so beneficial 
 and glorious in its results. 
 
 ^Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), February 20, 1844- 
 u Laws of Indiana, 1841-4 2 (general), p. 17. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 23 
 
 "I have been told that there are some even among those who 
 stood foremost in the ranks to suggest the tax, that now express 
 their doubts of the ability of the people to meet it : others con- 
 sider the measure so onerous to a certain class of tax payers, 
 that they cannot conscientiously vote a burden upon them : while 
 some oppose it because a portion of the money must be ex- 
 pended in Johnson county. It would indeed, be a difficult 
 task to answer every caviller, and it would be impossible to levy 
 a tax, however small, that would be paid by all without mur- 
 muring; but when we are satisfied of the importance of a 
 measure, we ought to enter into it, if not with cheerfulness — 
 we ought not certainly to oppose it .... : the question there- 
 fore is, a tax and the railroad, or no tax, no railroad .... 
 
 "The amount proposed to be raised, is one per cent on the 
 $100 valuation of property, in addition to the ordinary State 
 and county tax. Will this sum be so oppressive that the people 
 of Marion county cannot endure it for three years?" 
 
 So much for the affirmative. We will now hear an oppo- 
 nent of the tax : 
 "To the Citizens of Marion County: 
 
 "An Address to the citizens of Marion county has recently 
 been published, purporting to come from a committee appointed 
 by a meeting of citizens previously held at the court house, who 
 were in favor of levying a county tax for the completion of the 
 rail road from Edinburgh to Indianapolis. To this address, 
 as members of the committee are appended the names of per- 
 sons who never assented to the same. My name was thus used 
 without my assent, and without my authority, and I am thus 
 made to recommend to the people a tax which I totally dis- 
 approve. 
 
 "I will therefore state some of the reasons why I disapprove 
 of the proposed tax, in order to set myself right before my 
 fellow citizens; and if they should, after hearing these reasons, 
 be still in favor of the tax, though I shall regret it, I shall have 
 at least cleared myself from the blame of recommending it to 
 them. 
 
 "In the first place, I doubt the expediency of attempting to 
 carry on any extraordinary work of improvement like this by 
 government, whether that government be of the State or the 
 
24 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 county. No work of this kind was ever successfully and profit- 
 ably executed in that way. The Internal Improvement system, 
 which has indelibly disgraced the State, is a case in point. 
 Individual and voluntary enterprise is the only safe, sure and 
 prudent means by which such improvements can be prosecuted. 
 To these propositions, contradiction is defied. . . . 
 
 "If the road could be finished, the greatest and most im- 
 mediate benefit, as well as the most certain, would accrue to 
 the real estate owners in Indianapolis. There is capital and 
 credit enough there, properly used, to complete the road without 
 difficulty; yet these property holders, instead of using their 
 own means, are holding back and calling upon the farmers to 
 tax themselves for the improvement of town property. The 
 reason of this may be found in the facts already stated as to 
 the improbability of profit from the stock dividends. They 
 understand this matter perfectly well, though most of the 
 farmers may not, and they therefore advocate a general tax 
 that their pockets may be filled at the public expense and with- 
 out risk to themselves. For one, I will not willingly assent to 
 this, but on the contrary, shall oppose it with all my might. 
 
 "My fellow citizens, I do not thus speak because I am an 
 enemy to the road. I am its friend : but I am a greater friend 
 to you. I should be glad to see the road finished, and will 
 voluntarily contribute to its cost. I will not be forced to do 
 more than that, however, by a compulsory tax, which must be 
 oppressive to my neighbors. I cannot allow my name to be 
 used in favor of such a project, and sooner than my hand shall 
 give a vote for it, I will cut it off. 
 
 Your fellow citizen, 
 John Johnson, of Washington Township." 
 
 The election of April, 1844, not only showed Democratic 
 gains but gave Editor Chapman, who had opposed the tax, an 
 additional opportunity to crow. On April 4, under the head- 
 ing "Glorious Result," he wrote: "But though they [the 
 Whigs] can claim some 70 or 80 majority, in the town of 
 Indianapolis, the aspect is changed when the honest and hardy 
 Yeomanry of the Country come up to the polls. They are 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 25 
 
 no longer to be gulled and humbugged by the cries of hard 
 cider, log cabins, coon skins, nor even by that of Hob Nails, 
 raised by the white fingered, and perhaps light fingered, fops 
 and dandy lawyers of Indianapolis, many of whom never did 
 an honest day's work in all their lives ; who are the drones of 
 the social hive, and live in luxury and laziness on the fruits of 
 the toiling millions. These men, who are so prone to exhibit 
 their insolence in the streets, and who teach their children to 
 hoot at and insult their democratic neighbors as they pass, may 
 infer from the result of this election, what is to be that of 
 August and November, and begin in time to learn the lesson of 
 humility which it teaches." 
 
 The railroad tax was defeated. It had a majority of 34 in 
 Center Township, but the other townships were overwhelmingly 
 against it. 
 
 The failure to obtain funds in Marion County by this means 
 undoubtedly slowed the progress of the road. Nevertheless, 
 the revenue was sufficient to complete it to Columbus in July, 
 1844, and make some progress towards Edinburg. The stage 
 made daily connections with the train for Madison and the 
 Sentinel announced, "Let all who would like a ride to Cincin- 
 nati, leave here at 8 o'clock a. m. and in less than 20 hours they 
 can be in Cincinnati." 
 
 Even before the road reached Columbus, the proprietor of 
 the Columbus Hotel thought it worth while to run the following 
 advertisement in the weekly Sentinel of September 5, 1843 : 
 
 "The subscriber still continues to entertain the Public and 
 Travellers generally at his Hotel, on the north east corner of the 
 public square in Columbus. Grateful for past patronage, he 
 solicits a continuance of the same. His table is always served 
 with all the substantials and delicacies of the season; his bar 
 with choice wines and liquors, which people can drink or not, 
 as best suits them ; his stables, large and commodious, are well 
 provided with provender, and tended by careful and experienced 
 ostlers. His servants are faithful and attentive, kind and oblig- 
 ing. Possessing every advantage, he flatters himself that those 
 who may favor him with their patronage will be agreeably 
 entertained. 
 

 26 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 "Stages leave daily for the Rail Road Depot, now only 
 seven miles distant. 
 
 John B. Hunter/' 
 
 Stock subscriptions and taxes having failed, the directors 
 of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad next asked the legis- 
 lature to amend the charter of the company. On January 16, 
 1845, tne Sentinel reported: 
 
 "The bill granting to the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad 
 Company the use of the road for eight years, on condition that 
 the Company will finish the road to Indianapolis in three years, 
 passed both branches of the Legislature — and is now a law. 12 
 This bill allows the Company the privilege of opening books 
 for stock in the eastern cities, for the purpose of obtaining a 
 subscription sufficient to complete the road; or, the Company 
 have the privilege of borrowing money at a rate of interest, 
 not exceeding seven per cent. . . . The bill gives the Company 
 the privilege of negotiating a loan, and should they conclude 
 to do so, the road would afford ample security. The Company 
 we have no doubt, if they consult their individual interest, will 
 immediately borrow money sufficient to complete it." 
 
 The passage of this law revived the hopes of the com- 
 munity. On March 6 the Sentinel reported a meeting of the 
 Board of Directors at Madison, and their decision that the 
 route to Indianapolis should be immediately decided upon and 
 the location of the depot established. There was undoubtedly 
 keen competition among the real estate owners of Indianapolis 
 to secure the location of this station on their property. The 
 Robert J. Elvin collection in the Indiana State Library con- 
 tains several maps showing various proposed locations. Appar- 
 ently those at Senate Avenue and Georgia Street and Mary- 
 land and Pennsylvania streets were strong contenders, but the 
 site finally chosen was on high ground at South and Pennsyl- 
 vania streets, separated from the town by the low and muddy 
 valley of Pogue's Run. There is little doubt that this choice 
 was prompted by Nicholas McCarty's donation of a large tract 
 of land in the block between Delaware and Pennsylvania streets 
 fronting on South Street and by donation of the owners of 
 
 ™Laws of Indiana, 1844-45 (general), pp. 41-42. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 27 
 
 tracts in the square immediately north of South Street. 13 The 
 directors were probably influenced further by the difficulty 
 of constructing and maintaining the railroad over Pogue's Run 
 Valley. As Maryland Street was then the southern limit of 
 settlement in the town, this selection was vigorously opposed. 
 I quote from the Sentinel of April 3, 1845 : 
 
 "Public notice is hereby given to all whom it may concern, 
 and particularly to the five Directors of the Madison and Indi- 
 anapolis Rail Road Company from the county of Marion, that 
 an effort will be made at the next annual election of Directors, 
 to change the location of the Depot, which they have made in 
 direct opposition to the expressed wishes of those interests they 
 were delegated to represent ; to some point in the town of Indi- 
 anapolis, accessible to the trading and travelling community. 
 
 A Stockholder." 14 
 
 But in spite of these objections, the directors were re-elected 
 and proceeded with the work as planned. 15 
 
 On June 19, 1845, the Sentinel stated : "The R. R. Company 
 
 13 The property donated was covered by the following deeds : Nicholas 
 McCarty to Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, dated April 3, 1845, recorded 
 April 12, 1845, Deed Record Q, p. 24, in office of Recorder of Marion 
 County; Washington Hall Company to Madison and Indianapolis Railroad 
 Company, dated April 10, 1845, recorded April 12, 1845, in ibid., p. 2j ; 
 James M. Ray to Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company, dated April 
 12, 1845, recorded April 13, 1845, in ibid., p. 25. 
 
 "On September 18, 1845, the Sentinel published a letter from a dis- 
 gruntled citizen, signing himself "Justice'': 
 
 "Look out for Sharks ! 
 
 "The citizens of this city should be advised that, a desperate set of 
 speculators, after having succeeded through the most hypocritical and 
 iniquitous scheming, to procure the location of the Railroad depot three 
 quarters of a mile from the business part of the town, and opposite a low 
 bottom intervening between it and the town, are now seeking to tax the whole 
 town to build embankment roads over this swamp to increase the value of 
 their particular property. The project is a most villainous one, and is 
 prompted by the self-interest of these sharks." 
 
 These charges were inaccurate, for the grading of Pennsylvania and 
 Delaware streets was done by owners of abutting property. Post, pp. 34-35. 
 
 l0 0n July 10, 1845, a list of the newly elected directors was given in the 
 weekly Sentinel. Chapman observed that "the public, as well as the stock- 
 holders, have in them a guaranty that their interests will be faithfully looked 
 after." 
 
28 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 have positively obtained $35,000 from New York capitalists, 
 and $15,000 from Philadelphia — making the round sum of 
 $50,000 in cash. The company, we understand have also ob- 
 tained $20,000 in cash and $20,000 in land, from other sources. 
 So that it now seems certain that the grading and bridging 
 of the whole road will be completed in about one year. This 
 is good news for Central Indiana." 
 
 The business of the road was increasing, and every week 
 Secretary William N. (Uncle Billy) Jackson, sent the editor 
 of the Sentinel an itemized statement from Madison of the out- 
 ward and inward business. 16 The following figures are for a 
 typical week in October, 1845 : 
 
 "outward inward 
 
 213 passengers. 17 S passengers. 
 
 201,115 lbs. merchandise. 9,830 bush. Wheat. 
 
 970 bbls. Salt. 853 bbls Flour. 
 
 35 bbls. Whiskey. 252 bush Flaxseed. 
 
 18 bbls. Tar and Oil. 90 bush Corn. 
 
 9 bbls. Molasses. 80 bush Rye. 
 
 13 half bbls. Beer. 115 bush. Apples. 
 
 13 Kegs Powder. 96 Pork barrels. 
 
 120 bush. Stone Coal. 420 Lard kegs. 
 
 12,000 shingles. 11,250 feet Lumber. 
 
 10 ploughs. 20 Cords Wood. 
 2 Threshing Machines. 20,000 Staves. 
 
 8,300 lbs other Freight." 
 Cars were now running to Edinburg, 17 56 miles north of 
 
 16 Jackson's autobiographical sketch contains this comment on the situa- 
 tion : "In January 1844 I was asked to take the Secretaryship of the Madison 
 & Indianapolis rail road Co. at Madison which I accepted at a salary I 
 think of $500. per annum. This was a difficult and trying position. The 
 company was without money or credit. The State internal improvement 
 System had collapsed, destroying private fortunes and public credit. The 
 interest on the State debt had been long unpaid ; and creditors at home and 
 abroad were denouncing the State of Indiana. A few of us thought— perhaps 
 hopec l_that if we could get the road through to Indianapolis a better state 
 of things would come; and for three years I averaged more than 16 1/2 
 hours of daily toil." 
 
 17 The weekly Sentinel of June 19, 1845, printed the following announce- 
 ment, under the heading "Clear the Track!" "The 4 th of July will leave 
 Marion County almost depopulated, we have no doubt. A Great Free 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 29 
 
 Madison, making the journey in 5 1/2 hours — an average 
 speed of 10 miles an hour. The little road would probably 
 have seemed very crude to a visiting Englishman. In 1846 a 
 train on the Great Western ran from London to Bristol, a dis- 
 tance of 118 miles, in 2 hours, 26 minutes, 40 seconds, includ- 
 ing stops, 18 an average speed of 48 miles an hour. However, 
 there were prospects of faster travel in Indiana. Chapman 
 wrote in October, 1845 : 19 
 
 "Two locomotives in complete order are in daily operation 
 between Madison and Edinburgh. A third having undergone 
 a thorough repair, will be out in a few days, and a fourth will 
 be shipped from New York in November, making a sufficient 
 amount of power to be provided against contingencies and to 
 accommodate the large increase of business and travel on the 
 road. So soon as this additional power is arrived, it is expected 
 that the passengers will be carried in a separate train, and the 
 speed increased." It was — to 15 miles an hour! 
 
 On February 4, 1846, a small advertisement, probably the 
 first of its kind in an Indianapolis paper, appeared in the semi- 
 weekly Sentinel: 
 
 "Rail Road Bonds. 
 
 "We have a few Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road 
 Bonds for sale. 
 
 Smith, Hanna & Co." 
 
 In the summer of 1846, the New York Globe was quoted 
 as follows in the Sentinel: 20 "One of the most promising Rail- 
 road stocks in this country is the Madison and Indianapolis — 
 its business increasing at the rate of one hundred per cent, per 
 annum. The receipts thus far this year have been equal to 
 $100,000 for the year, which would yield a dividend of 20 per 
 cent, on its capital stock." 
 
 Possibly this had some connection with the following article 
 
 Barbacue, given by the Rail Road Company, will come off on that day at 
 Edinburgh. There will be an extra train of Cars at that place, when all 
 disposed will be accommodated with a ride. This is a glorious chance for 
 those who never rode after the 'Iron Horses/ and we expect to see hundreds 
 upon hundreds there." 
 
 19 Indiana State Sentinel (semiweekly), August 5, 1846. 
 
 "Ibid, (weekly), October 16, 1845. 
 
 x Ibid. (semiweekly), July 11, 1846. 
 
30 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 reprinted in the semi weekly Sentinel of August 19, 1846, from 
 the Madison Banner of the previous week. 
 
 "It is with pleasure we are authorized to say that the Madi- 
 son and Indianapolis Railroad Company, through their agent, 
 J. F. D. Lanier, Esq., of this city, have succeeded in negotiat- 
 ing in the city of New York, a loan of $100,000.00 on favor- 
 able terms. 21 This will enable the Company to complete the 
 road to Indianapolis by the 1st of March next; and when com- 
 pleted, it will be of great benefit to the people, and no doubt 
 highly profitable to the stockholders. This they deserve, as 
 they took hold of it with energy in a dark and trying hour in 
 the history of Indiana. 
 
 "We are informed that Mr. Lanier was very much indebted 
 for his success to the credit and exertions of Messrs. Winslow 
 & Perkins, a highly respectable and responsible firm in Wall 
 street, New York. They took the pains to look into the condi- 
 tion and prospects of the Company, and became satisfied of 
 its entire security and good management, and that its stock 
 must prove at an early period very profitable." 
 
 It seems quite likely that a part of the increase in the busi- 
 ness of the Madison road was due to the repeal of the British 
 corn laws in the spring of 1846. Chapman commented on 
 June 27 : "The repeal of the British Corn-Laws, rendered 
 certain by the news by the Great Western, published in our last, 
 is almost as much a matter of rejoicing to the people of the 
 Western States, as to the starving people of Britain themselves. 
 
 21 The loans of $50,000 and $100,000 were secured by the following 
 mortgages : Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company to John J. Palmer, 
 trustee, dated July 10, 1845, securing $50,000 bonds, dated July 10, 1845, due 
 August 1, 1850, recorded on July 14, 1845, in Bartholomew County, Indiana, 
 in Deed Record J, p. 157, bonds to be of $1000 denomination, with interest 
 at 7 per cent per annum ; Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company to 
 John J. Palmer, trustee, dated July 11, 1846, securing $100,000 bonds, dated 
 August 1, 1846, due August 1, 1853, recorded on July 11, 1846, in Bartholo- 
 mew County, Indiana, in Deed Record K, p. 30, bonds to be of $1000 denomi- 
 nation, with interest at 7 per cent per annum. 
 
 The bonds of both issues were convertible into stock, at par, at the 
 option of the holder (20 shares of $50 par stock for each bond). An indica- 
 tion of the prosperity of the road is seen in the fact that the conversion 
 privilege was exercised and the two mortgages satisfied of record, April 
 20, 1849. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 31 
 
 Give us now but a just modification of our own tariff, and a 
 long vista of prosperity opens to our view, unsurpassed in the 
 annals of the world. ... To the people of Indiana in particu- 
 lar, this event is of especial interest. No State in the Union 
 is more interested in the success of free trade, for by that alone 
 can our people hope for general prosperity." 
 
 When the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company 
 took possession of the road in February, 1843, President 
 Palmer stated that it would be the ambition of the company to 
 maintain "the high reputation of the Railroad from no acci- 
 dent having ever occurred on it." They did maintain this repu- 
 tation for over a year, but late in March, 1844, the Madison 
 Banner gave its readers news of an "Awful Occurrence on the 
 Inclined Plane of the Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road." 22 
 
 "It becomes our painful task to record one of the most 
 heart-rending catastrophies that ever took place in our vicinity, 
 or perhaps in the State, and which has cast over our citizens 
 a deep feeling of sorrow and regret. On Thursday evening 
 last, about 4 o'clock, a collision of the passenger and wood cars 
 took place on the inclined plane, when they were about half 
 way down the descent, by which the former car was stove to 
 pieces, two persons instantly killed, a third so horribly mangled, 
 that he died in a few hours — a fourth killed instantaneously 
 by jumping from the car before the final crush — and some ten 
 or twelve more or less dangerously wounded." 
 
 I feel justified in omitting the gruesome details given 
 by the Banner. Following this account was a statement to the 
 public by John Lodge, the conductor : 
 
 "A sense of duty to you and to myself, requires that I should 
 give a brief statement of the circumstances connected with the 
 dreadful calamity and loss of life on yesterday evening. . . . 
 It has been the practice, for some time past, to bring into the 
 city one wood car every day. The wood cars are large, fixed 
 on eight wheels, having generally, five or six cords of wood 
 upon them. Yesterday six cords had been put on. I have al- 
 ways made it a rule, when I apprehended any danger from the 
 slipperiness of the track or otherwise, after the wood cars are 
 
 22 The accident occurred March 28, 1844. The account from the Madison 
 Banner is reprinted in the Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), April 4, 1844. 
 
32 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 brought to the top of the inclined plane, to direct them to be 
 detained there until the passenger car reached the foot of the 
 same ; and on yesterday I gave direct and express orders not to 
 start the wood car from the head, until the passenger car (in 
 which I and the passengers were stationed) should reach the foot 
 of the plane ; but, contrary to this order, it was started, when we 
 had proceeded not more than two or three hundred yards ; and 
 to this disobedience of orders the sad accident is solely attribut- 
 able. Immediately after the wood car was started on yesterday, 
 I discovered that it was gaining upon us with very great ve- 
 locity, travelling, as I supposed, about a mile a minute, and I 
 motioned repeatedly, to the conductors, to hold it back; but 
 they had evidently lost all control of it; and we were struck a 
 little below the centre of Hendricks' embankment. Before 
 the passenger car, and attached to it, was the baggage car — 
 consequently at the time of the concussion, the passenger car 
 was in the midst. The first effect of the concussion was to 
 throw the forewheels of the baggage car off the track. It did 
 not go over the bank however, but continued running on the 
 cross ties until it was entirely stopped by the rocks in the cut, 
 when the general crash took place, and all the cars were broken 
 in pieces — causing the final disastrous result. The moment I 
 became satisfied that the wood car was not under the control 
 of its conductors I deemed that our only chance of escape, was 
 to let the baggage and passenger cars go off at full speed ; but 
 the impetus of the wood car was such that it proved of no avail. 
 
 "I will only add now, that I have always used the utmost 
 carefulness in the management of the train — so much so, in- 
 deed, that I have been charged with cowardice, and deemed by 
 some too timid for the post of Conductor." 
 
 I am sorry to report that this faithful and conscientious 
 employee was killed in an accident the following year. Fatal 
 accidents were rare, probably because of the slow speed of 
 the trains, but minor accidents were frequent enough to call 
 forth one of Chapman's caustic paragraphs ; 23 
 
 "We should like to inquire if the management of our rail- 
 road cannot be somewhat improved. Complaints are numerous, 
 and we had an opportunity, a few days since, of noticing some 
 
 2Z Indiana State Sentinel (semiweekly), December 2, 1846. 
 
RAIL ROAD. 
 
 The .11 ad i «oii and f iidianapolis Rail Road Coin- 
 pan}', having this day taken possession of the Rail Road un- 
 der the authority of a late Aet of the (wencral Assembly, 
 now respectfully aiiuoiniee to the public, and especially tra- 
 vellers and business men, that the Une will be kept in ope- 
 ration* for the conveyance of travellers and freight, every 
 day in the week, except Sundays, and under the personal 
 care of experience il and attentive men. It will be the am- 
 bition of the Company that the high reputation of the Rail 
 Road, from no accident having ever occurred on it, shall be 
 maintained. Strict attention will be given to the comfort of 
 travellers, and the careful and prompt delivery of freight. 
 The Directors have established a tariff of tolls for all the 
 
 leading points from Madison to Columbus, upon n scale as low, it is believed, 
 as any road in the West : and which is so arranged as to encourage and facili- 
 tate the trade and J exportation of the surplus of the country. The board hope 
 to have the road extended to Columbus, so as to convey passengers and freight 
 to and from that point by the month of June next. 
 
 Until the road gfcjall be completed to Seipio, the rate of tolls *m freight, from ', 
 
 the depot, (of CriffithV) will be the same as heretofore clmrjritt >>j the Stair, except th.it inetced of fading SI.- (.■ S<-rip. ai 
 I heretofore, all payments will be required m par lauds, subject, however, to a deduction «l twenty -five per cunt from the 
 | nominal chtirgc*. , 
 
 The Board of Directors having, in their efforts to extend the road, eon.. 
 
 : trarted large debts m the perc.'jnue of Iron, nre compelled, from u*cet»ity. to reqoir.- the t.)IN to bo paid in pax fund*. , 
 which only will dioclttirge tnch bwebtodnesa 
 
 j The Directors and Stockholders having embarked, with much present sacri- 1 
 
 | flee and haiarrl, in the effort to extend- thr- great work, « indi-pen^ablr d> the uttered* of the country, 
 • dence to their fellow citizeu* for y>atroaagc and ucqaieweo'-e 
 
 
 '1 he Board feel assured, that a comniunij 
 
 a of the road, will readily kMcfrhc that wbatov-e 
 ; of the whole Line, m to that omk:. tho arr.ner m'mts aud . -m r^o.. of t 
 [fiat, ) 
 
 ts and >•! 
 and the 
 
 «ply interested in the exfen 
 
 pKII listen U.e eat, :is 10 n and final .-omnWir.i 
 sh»n ho , nahlod 
 
 J*. R. PALMER, Pres't. 
 
 Mtuiinan mid JW.ononofo IiuU Road Co. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 33 
 
 bad management. We do not intend to implicate the excellent 
 conductor of the passenger train by these remarks; for if ever 
 pains were taken to accommodate the public and do justice to 
 the company, none can do better than Mr. Wilson. But it would 
 seem to us that his authority is too limited or restricted. — As 
 an instance of this, on our passage, a freight train, or rather a 
 train of hog pens, empty, were immediately following the pas- 
 senger train. The road was covered with snow, and slow 
 progress was necessarily made by the first train. When near 
 Vernon, it was necessary to retrograde to gather headway. 
 The engineer of the 2d train, one Sandy something, notwith- 
 standing he was hailed to check his speed, came lumbering on 
 at full speed, coming in contact with the 1st with sufficient 
 force to prostrate any who might have been on their feet, and 
 injuring the locomotive so that it required nearly four hours to 
 repair the damage. When this Scotchman was requested to 
 take on the passengers and mails, and leave the hog cars to be 
 brought on, he doggedly refused, thus leaving the passengers 
 sitting hours in the cars and losing the mails. Why had not 
 the conductor authority in such a case? We advise the direc- 
 tors to put all such engineers on to the fore end of the locomo- 
 tives, head downwards, to serve as brooms for the rails." 
 
 3- 
 
 By the summer of 1846 the impulse given to the activities 
 of the town by the slowly approaching railroad was increas- 
 ingly apparent. It was remarked in the Sentinel of September 
 12 that with all its new buildings, Indianapolis was "wonder- 
 fully advancing," and the sardonic suggestion was added that 
 the morals of the town might well be improved in equal ratio. 
 Late in October, Editor Chapman wrote : 24 
 
 "Within a week or two we have induced several of our 
 friends, residents, to take a walk in the southern part of town, 
 and a more surprised set of 'individuals,' than they were, on 
 examining the improvements, we have not seen. Our inter- 
 est would lead us to advocate improvements in the north part 
 of town. But we cannot withhold the meed of praise from 
 those who have such an interest in their own section. It is a 
 general benefit to all, and deserves especial notice. Those who 
 
 2i Indiana State Sentinel (semiweekly), October 31, 1846. 
 
34 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 witnessed the improvements could scarcely recognize Pogue's 
 crooked Run. In that neighborhood, the first thing that greets 
 the eye, is the splendid and commodious depot building, some 
 300 feet in length, and now nearly roofed over. Although 
 beautifully situated for show, we could not but regret that the 
 directory had not looked a little further ahead, and established 
 it at a point more beneficial to the company, and readier of 
 approach to the public generally. Certain we are, the error 
 will yet be discovered. But it is now established, and we are 
 glad to trace the evidences increasing around us that we are 
 to have a Railroad before long, at least in sight of town. We 
 were particularly struck with the vast amount of important 
 work done between the depot and town. A canal from near 
 Virginia Avenue down Pogue's Run valley, 50 feet wide and 
 9 feet deep has been extended to the intersection of Meridian 
 street. A new circle street has been opened and graded from 
 the depot building, which terminates also with the canal at 
 the junction of Meridian and Louisiana streets. At this point 
 is a large and commodious new warehouse, standing solitary 
 and alone, awaiting the completion of circle street, which we 
 understand is to be laid with a private Railroad track, to con- 
 nect with the depot. 
 
 ". . . The whole has been done by a few public spirited 
 individuals, but few owners of Washington street property, 
 west of Meridian street, paying a dollar. These men would 
 not be without the improvements terminating on Meridian for 
 thousands of dollars, and should therefore lend a helping hand. 
 . . . The [Pogue's Run] canal, it is contemplated by the 
 owners through which it passes, is to be ornamented with shade 
 trees, and the banks gravelled and sodded. If so, the upper 
 or north part of the town may bid adieu to the term 'aristo- 
 cratic' for the South must become the 'fashionable end!' . . 
 
 "Our town Council too, are showing their good works, and 
 redeeming themselves from the charge of spending the public 
 money in cleaning out gutters to be filled again, turnpiking 
 alleys while our principal streets are many of them left in a state 
 of nature, deep in mud, and ornamented with dog fennel! 
 They are erecting good substantial buildings and grading our 
 principal southern avenues in a permanent manner. To be 
 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 35 
 
 sure, the heavy grading doing and done on Pennsylvania and 
 Delaware streets, like Circle street and Pogue's Run Canal, is 
 done by individuals, for which they deserve much praise. But 
 it is no more than just, that some portion of such general im- 
 provements should be borne by others not a little benefitted, 
 especially, as without them, the depot would in wet seasons, 
 be almost unapproachable. 
 
 "Our streets are now crowded with wagons. What will it 
 be when the business of 40 miles circumference is done here? 
 Are our merchants aware that to do business as it will soon 
 have to be done here, they must have warehouses for the recep- 
 tion of their produce? It is strange that no efforts are making 
 to be prepared for business. At least a dozen warehouses 
 should go up this season, to say nothing of pork or slaughter 
 houses, &c. However, if citizens will not avail themselves of 
 the advantages they possess, others will soon be amongst us 
 who will." 
 
 This was a rather handsome admission on Chapman's part, 
 as most of the public-spirited citizens so highly praised were 
 members of what he was pleased to call the "Whig Junto," 
 while the property on which the new circular street was laid off 
 belonged to the Morrises, sarcastically referred to by Chapman 
 as the "Royal Family." An industry track was laid in this 
 street which became a few years later the wye track leading to 
 the J. M. & I. R. R. from the Union Station. 25 
 
 On one point Chapman was wrong — efforts were being 
 made to prepare for increased business, as witness this adver- 
 tisement appearing on November 18, 1846 : 
 "Profitable Investment. 
 "Railroad Lots at Indianapolis. 
 
 "The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad depot, being per- 
 manently located at its termination at Indianapolis on blocks 
 
 25 See plat of Austin W. Morris, dated April 1, 1846, recorded May 7, 
 1846, in Deed Record Q, p. 264, office of Recorder of Marion County. The 
 semiweekly Sentinel of February 28, 1849, contained the following : "Morris 
 & Co. have lately erected a large and fine Steam Flouring Mill, adjoining 
 their capacious warehouse on Meridian Street. The Morrises have made 
 many and extensive improvements in the city within a few years ; and none of 
 more utility than the Steam Saw Mill, Flouring Mill, &c. connecting with 
 the Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road by a branch built by themselves." 
 
S6 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 17 and 24 and the road passing through in, no and adjacent 
 to 109, the undersigned owner has laid the same off into lots 
 as an addition to the town. They are so laid as to have con- 
 venient access to the cars and fronting good streets, and, with 
 the exception of donations made to the Railroad Company, on 
 which they have already erected a depot some 300 feet long, 
 will be offered at public sale, on the premises, on Thursday, 
 the 10th day of December next. ... As the Railroad is ex- 
 pected to be completed by next spring, this sale is now offered 
 to be in time for the erection of warehouses and buildings of 
 various kinds by those who wish to be prepared for the immense 
 business induced by this great thoroughfare. 
 
 Nicholas McCarty." 26 
 
 During the summer of 1847 the road had continued its 
 slow progress northward from Franklin and in September was 
 approaching Indianapolis. On the twenty-fifth, the following 
 statement appeared in the semiweekly Sentinel : 
 
 "It is now ascertained beyond all doubt that the iron is laid, 
 ready for the cars, on the Madison and Indianapolis railroad, 
 within four miles of this city, and that the wood work is ready 
 for the Iron up to the depot at this place, and that the workmen 
 are progressing in laying the iron at the rate of from half a 
 mile to three quarters of a mile per day, so that if we intend to 
 commemorate the event of the arrival of the first railroad car 
 at Indianapolis, in a respectable manner, worthy of the me- 
 tropolis of the young giant of the west, arrangements must be 
 commenced this day. . . . We have intimations that many of 
 the citizens of Cincinnati, Lawrenceburgh, Madison, Louisville, 
 Jeffersonville and New Albany, and other towns and cities on 
 
 26 A plat of Nicholas McCarty's subdivision was recorded April 4, 1845, 
 in Deed Record Q, p. 20. Mr. McCarty must have been a busy man at this 
 time. In the spring a Whig convention at Cumberland nominated him for 
 Congress. Said the Sentinel of May 19, 1847 : "We regret this, because they 
 might have put forth a less worthy man to be beaten. As a gentleman and 
 an honest man, we esteem him highly ; as a politician, we do not think he 
 suits the people, and we are sure he does not suit us. However, being the 
 second richest man in the township, (as per the tax list) we suppose his 
 friends thought he could best afford it ; and, perhaps, certain other aspirants 
 thought this the best plan to keep him out of their way in future." McCarty 
 was defeated for Congress by the heavy Democratic majority in Brown 
 County ; he was elected state senator in 1849. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 37 
 
 the Ohio river, and many others from Logansport, Delphi, 
 Lafayette, Covington, Terre Haute, &c. &c, on the Wabash, 
 and of all the towns and villages on the road, as well as the 
 whole of Central Indiana, are anxious to be present at an event 
 so important in our State's history ; w r e therefore call a meeting 
 of the citizens of Indianapolis and Marion County generally, 
 at the rooms in the second story of Norris's row, at three 
 o'clock on this day, (Saturday,) for the purpose of making 
 arrangements for the celebration. . . . Let us all move to- 
 gether in the celebration. All say, for the honor of Indianapo- 
 lis, there must be a celebration, and a few of us have deter- 
 mined that there shall be one of some kind ; and it now rests 
 with our citizens to say whether it shall be worthy of the capi- 
 tal of Indiana or not. 
 
 Many Citizens." 
 
 A "large and respectable" meeting was duly held to con- 
 sider plans for an appropriate celebration, President Samuel 
 Merrill of the railroad attending to present the matter to the 
 assembled citizens. The day was set for October i, and a com- 
 mittee of seven appointed to make the necessary arrangements. 
 In answer to a modest resolution that "the Rail Road Com- 
 pany ought to permit passengers, for a week at least, to travel 
 on the road at reduced prices," President Merrill promised 
 transportation "along the whole or any part of the route for 
 one third of the usual rates," with the understanding that 
 "ladies alone, if their number be sufficient for the purpose 
 . . . occupy the covered cars." Rides to Franklin and back 
 on the afternoon of the celebration were to be only twenty- five 
 cents. 27 
 
 The "great day" arrived, the last rail was laid in the morn- 
 ing, and early in the afternoon, the first train, an excursion 
 train from Columbus, reached the town. It was greeted by a 
 large crowd of rejoicing natives, many of whom then saw a 
 locomotive for the first time and ran in fright as the train 
 approached. Glowing accounts of the celebration appeared in 
 the Indianapolis papers — the large crowds, the excitement, 
 firing of cannon, playing of bands, the parade with a cavalry 
 company and a circus outfit in line, Governor Whitcomb's 
 
 ^Indiana State Journal (weekly), September 28, 1847. 
 
38 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 speech from the top of a car, and fireworks at night. Accord- 
 ing to Holloway, however, "the rejoicings were not extrava- 
 gant, and if they had been they would not have exceeded the 
 importance of the occasion which for the first time rendered 
 the Capital independent of mud, ice and freshets." 
 
 After reading the enthusiastic reports in the Indianapolis 
 papers, it is a little disconcerting to find the following account 
 from the Columbus Gazette, reprinted in the semiweekly 
 Sentinel of October 9, 1847 : 
 
 "The Railroad Celebration ? — On Friday morning last, 
 we took passage in the cars, in company with a large number 
 of ladies and gentlemen of this town and elsewhere, to attend 
 the 'celebration' of the first arrival of the cars at Indianapolis. 
 There were two lengthy trains of cars compactly filled with 
 passengers, all of whom anticipated that a 'grand jollification' 
 would be gotten up by the very enthusiastic and spirited citi- 
 zens of that place, and with this bright picture viewed through 
 hope's flattering spectacles, the few short hours of our journey 
 were happily and merrily whiled away. 
 
 "At Franklin a first rate lunch was provided for our party, 
 who were well prepared for it, with sharp appetites and ready 
 dimes, after partaking of which, the cars were soon whirled 
 to the Capital. 
 
 "When we arrived, some three or four hundred persons 
 were gaping about, but nothing could be seen in the shape of 
 a celebration, if we except two shots, or rather rounds — fired 
 by some overjoyed being, who could not otherwise give vent to 
 his feelings — from an innocent, inoffensive double-barreled 
 pistol! On dis-incarnating ourselves, a portion of our force 
 discovered the 'reception' — a couple of baskets of cheese and 
 crackers and a bucket of water. Concluding it best to 'look 
 out' for quarters some place or other and not depend too much 
 on the hospitalities of our friends, we . . . hailed an accom- 
 modating omnibus, peculiar to Indianapolis, (adapted, except 
 on 'momentous occasions,' to hauling wood,) without seats, 
 propelled by two skittish two year olds, which conveyed us and 
 some half dozen others to Browning's in a short space of time, 
 for a quarter each. Being imbued with a knack of discovering 
 things, and impelled to do so in the present instance, as much 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 39 
 
 from motives of curiosity as otherwise, we kept our eyes in 
 active search for the 'celebration,' but without success — it was 
 defunct. Our next care was to secure a room, which, at first, 
 we were of the opinion would be almost as difficult as our 
 attempt at discovery, and likely to be attended with the same 
 results, but by divers round-about approaching to his gruff ness, 
 the proprietor of the Washington Hall tavern, we at last were 
 told that we could have a bed when night come! 
 
 "By this time the cry for quarters became general, but the 
 hotel keepers, it seems, were disposed to treat them with much 
 indifference, caring very little whether our company were 
 accommodated or not. Many a young hopeful had his cheek- 
 smote by harsh words from these dignified and accommodating 
 personages. The Circus which was being exhibited there when 
 we arrived, had drawn very fair custom for them [the hotel 
 keepers], and knowing well that our stay would be short, they 
 cared not a snap about paying any attention to us whatever. 
 With very few exceptions the people of the central city had 
 their latch strings hung out on the inside. 
 
 "It is hardly necessary to say that our company of visiters 
 were exceedingly surprised. The 'laudable public spirit' of 
 which the citizens of Indianapolis prate so much, as their 
 characteristic, seems to have waned no little on this occasion, 
 and so far as we are able to find out from personal observa- 
 tion and inquiry, nothing worthy of being mentioned tran- 
 spired, either in honor of the arrival of the cars, or in respect 
 to the respectable number of persons who 'came for to see the 
 celebration.' Closed doors, and 'don't care' was the principal 
 order of the day. The whole affair so far as conducted by the 
 Indianapolitans was rather discreditable to their good name 
 than otherwise — and if we except the illumination and rocket 
 shooting at night, we may safely say the 'celebration' was a 
 bore. 
 
 "The railroad company, it is but justice to say, conducted 
 everything pertaining to the comfort of the large crowd of 
 passengers, while on the cars, in a manner highly creditable to 
 them, and well deserving the thanks of all. Conductors Wilson 
 and McKeehan were particularly active in rendering the situa- 
 tion of the ladies pleasant and agreeable. 
 
40 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 "N. B. Since the above has been in type we have received 
 the State Sentinel and Journal. They speak of the celebration 
 as a glorious one. For the first time we are apprised of the 
 fact that Gov. Whitcomb did speak, and that Chapman's can- 
 non did 'went of f !' Better late than not at all." 
 
 Chapman comments : "The foregoing we copy from the 
 Columbus (Ind.) Gazette, edited by a very worthy, young, 
 unfledged whig, who don't often 'get so.' The thousands 
 present would probably understand the 'state of his health,' 
 from the article itself." The editor of the Columbus Gazette 
 in the fall of 1847 was W. H. H. Terrell, born in 1827, who 
 became the adjutant general of Indiana under Governor 
 Morton. 
 
 The immediate effects of the opening of the road seem to 
 have exceeded the most sanguine hopes of the citizens. Re- 
 ferring to the recent celebration, the editor of the Sentinel 
 wrote on October 6 : "The change since is so great, although 
 but a few days have intervened ; the times so wonderfully 
 altered that business flows upon us without parallel, and we are 
 compelled to pass it by for the present. Pinched before for 
 time, day and night now will hardly suffice to keep our 'dis- 
 tance.' In consequence of the accumulation of matter upon 
 our table, the crowd upon our advertising columns, the large 
 portion of time necessary to be devoted to calls on business, to 
 say nothing of calls for nothing in particular, we shall slip over 
 a week or two, dependent mainly on Mr. Scissors, Esq." 
 
 Five days later, the weekly Journal commented : "The rail 
 road is doing a profitable business this week under the reduced 
 fare. All the passenger cars on the road have been brought 
 into requisition, and the demand of the traveling public not 
 fully met at that. Whether from the reduced rates, or from the 
 novelty of the thing, or from pleasure, or all these combined, 
 we know not, but it is certain there never was as great a desire 
 to ride on rails as has been manifested here and along the whole 
 route the present week. It is innocent and pleasant amusement, 
 when performed by steam. We like to see it — so does the rail 
 road company." 
 
 In the same issue the editor added : "An enterprising mer- 
 chant of this city informs us that he is paying 66 cents a bushel 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 41 
 
 for wheat. This is still an advance. Corn 25 cents. Flax 
 seed 60! Hurrah for the rail road. The farmers must com- 
 mence clearing land about here. Beech-nuts will not hereafter 
 be quite as profitable as corn. We expect our business men 
 will yet head the wheat buyers of the Wabash." 
 
 The Sentinel was more cautious. With the price of wheat 
 at J-$ cents, the editor said : "We think they cannot long remain 
 thus high. The rise was too sudden — from 45 to 73 in some 
 three weeks. The demand is yet good, however." 28 Wheat 
 reached 90 cents in December. 
 
 The following local items are typical of Chapman : 29 "A 
 Fact. — Since the opening of the railroad, our people generally 
 rise an hour or two earlier in the morning. This adds to the 
 commonwealth, health, and prosperity of the place. The time 
 thus saved will pay for two or more newspapers, besides giving 
 to those who take them plenty of time to read and profit by 
 them." 
 
 "Our city presents a striking appearance for the better, 
 since the completion of the railroad. It is now dodging along, 
 such piles of goods are constantly arriving; and our farmers 
 appear also to feel the spirit of progress. The streets are lined 
 with wagons." 
 
 But it remained for a writer in the Journal to strike a senti- 
 mental note : 30 
 
 "Indianapolis is not as it used to be ; — to the name it has 
 added the appearance of a city. The completion of the rail 
 road has transformed its every feature, and one, looking upon 
 its crowded thoroughfares and listening to the din and con- 
 fusion of its commerce, could scarce conceive it once had been 
 the 'sweetest village of the plain.' 
 
 "Indianapolis has changed. Lumbering wood carts and 
 sway backed Pennsylvania wagons are not the only vehicles 
 that now grace our streets, but hacks are whirled to and fro, 
 and, more than all, an omnibus — yes ! a bona fide omnibus — 
 with its ebon attendant, as obsequious as a Frenchman and im- 
 pudent as a cockney, rattles daily along our Broadway, and 
 
 "^Indiana State Sentinel (semiweekly), October 13, 1847. 
 
 "Ibid, (semiweekly), October 9, 1847. 
 
 ^Indiana State Journal (weekly), November 2, 1847. 
 
42 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 arouses every morning with the merry blast of its horn a host 
 of slumbering clerks. 
 
 "Indianapolis has changed. The very urchins that stroll 
 our side walks have ceased to strike the bones. The lively air 
 of Dandy Jim and the plaintive strains of Lucy Neal are sung 
 no more ; 'ground and lofty tumblings' are forgotten in earnest 
 striving to imitate the whistle of the locomotive. 
 
 "Indianapolis has changed. Even little Pogue's Run, that 
 used to wind babbling and sparkling in the merry sunlight, 
 now floats straightened and straitened in its course, as tame 
 and unromantic as a canal. The light of the Delaware's camp 
 fire once gleamed across its waters — once, the dusky Indian 
 maid, mirrored in its wave, 'decked her dark flowing hair' for 
 some festival day, but now those waters are the wallowing 
 places for swine, and that wave is tinged with the filth of a 
 growing city. 
 
 "The dumb brutes are amazed at the fire-eating monster 
 that daily whistles by them. The porker leaves the bounteous 
 mast untouched, and scampers away with bristles erect; sober 
 cows, affrighted by the wild snort of the locomotive, scour 
 across the stumpy fields ; the worn out draft horse looks 
 thoughtfully over the fence, and shakes his head with incredu- 
 lity, as the black demon speeds hissing along. 
 
 "Indianapolis has changed. Ye who would see the Hoosier 
 as he was — who would view the leather-stockings of the west, 
 and behold the flint locked rifle, the hunting shirt and the 
 coon skin cap, — come quickly, for these things are fast passing 
 away. The sun of the squatter's glory is declining, the hardy 
 pioneers who felled the first trees and reared the first cabins 
 on the banks of White river, have gone to the spirit land, or 
 sought a home beyond the father of waters. 
 
 "Indianapolis has changed. Friday, Oct. ist, 1847, was 
 an era in our history. On that day we were linked with com- 
 merce. From the beginning of the world until that day, the 
 rattling of the cars and the whistle of the locomotive were un- 
 known sounds, but from then until the end of civilization, per- 
 haps to the end of time, those sounds will never die away." 
 
 By January 31, 1848, the same writer was mourning the 
 good old days of the twenties : "A few months ago we spoke 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 43 
 
 of the sudden transformation brought about by the completion 
 of the Rail Road; a transformation so speedy indeed, that it 
 seemed caused by the influence of Ala [d] din's Lamp. 
 
 "We would now speak of that gradual passing away of old 
 things, that change which has crept upon us in the silent lapse 
 of time. 
 
 "Though we view with admiration our thronging streets, 
 and listen with astonishment to the bustle and din of our com- 
 merce, 'tis a relief and a pleasure though tinged with sadness, 
 to look back over a span of more than twenty years, to draw 
 down from their dusty alcoves neglected recollections, and 
 contrast things as they were with things as they are. 
 
 "When the seat of government was located here in 1821, 
 a cluster of log cabins sprung up on the bank of White river, 
 and by mere accident the first purchases were made in the 
 west end of town. Here for a time business centered — but it 
 proving unhealthy owing to the proximity of the river, our 
 fathers — like good Mussulmen turned their faces toward the 
 rising sun, and when the Court House loomed up from among 
 the trees in our eastern suburb, it became the nucleus of our 
 infant metropolis, and forsaken as this spot now appears, it 
 was then the heart of trade, and presented many a stirring and 
 exciting scene. 
 
 "Time rolled on and when the voice of State grew from an 
 infant's wail to a stentorian's roar, when the gesticulation of 
 learned debate demanded more room than the humble walls of 
 a Court House could afford, after a severe contest between the 
 East and West-enders, the Capitol was wisely located where 
 it now stands. The tide of business rolled back again toward 
 the West, and from that time to this, between the Court House 
 and the Capitol, our City has increased with a steady and 
 healthy growth. 
 
 "Yes ! improvement seems to be reaching forth on all 
 sides. — None can complain, all have their peculiar advantages. 
 The Western suburb owing to its water privileges, is and will 
 be the seat of our manufactories. The North and East can 
 ever boast of their pleasant homesteads and beautiful man- 
 sions. — The South opens wide the golden gate of commerce. 
 
 "We said the contemplation of this gradual change tinged 
 
44 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 our pleasure with sadness. We were born here, and every 
 house, and street, and tree are old and familiar acquaintances — 
 they are dear, very dear to us. We never knew how dear until 
 it was our lot to wander far away, when we learned that no 
 time nor distance can dim the love of memory of this our 
 native place. 
 
 "Yes ! The contrast of the past with the present is shaded 
 with sadness. Yet, though we acknowledge with pleasure the 
 onward march of improvement, yet as we behold from time to 
 time, the crumble, the fall, the transformation of boyhood 
 scenes, we feel that friends are passing away. 
 
 "That cluster of cabins, the germ of our now flourishing 
 city, has long since vanished, and now little heaps of moulder- 
 ing rubbish, overgrown with grass, alone are left to tell the 
 tale they ever were. 
 
 "The first rude frames, the unpretending bricks reared by 
 our fathers, they too are gone, save here and there, some time- 
 worn monument of 20 years ago. The humble comforts of 
 those early days are fast ripening into munificence and luxury. 
 Improvement has drawn on its seven league boots, and must in 
 future make many and rapid strides. 
 
 "Though the Depot now seems to draw our commerce to 
 itself, the day has not far to come when winged words shall 
 fly over our forests, and the speeding locomotive shall startle 
 upon, the North and East and West, as well as South — every 
 hill and stream with its wild snort and furious scream." 31 
 
 In the fall of 1847, Page Chapman returned from a trip 
 to the East in a not very amiable mood and with some new 
 ideas about railroads, which he did not hesitate to express : 32 
 
 31 This nostalgic outburst would have been more convincing if the writer 
 had omitted the statement that he was born in Indianapolis. He could not 
 have been more than twenty-seven years old. 
 
 ^Indiana State Sentinel (semiweekly), October 30, 1847. The Indiana 
 State Journal (weekly), October n, 1847, also did a little "pontificating" 
 on the same subject: "The stockholders of the Michigan Plank Road Com- 
 pany have been notified by the Treasurer to pay in two dollars per share 
 on the amount of stock subscribed to this undertaking. . . . While many 
 places in this State are carried away with railroad projects, nine out of ten 
 of which will never be completed, Logansport, if she is true to herself, will 
 have the advantage of a good plank road intersecting the Madison and 
 Indianapolis rail road at this city, which will afford her every facility 
 
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VILLAGE AT THE EXD OF THE ROAD 45 
 
 "Our people just now are very zealous in favor of more 
 railroads, especially in this neighborhood, where nearly all are 
 astonished at the remarkable effects produced by the recent 
 completion of the Madison and Indianapolis line. That is all 
 right. We need more railroads, especially some eligible outlet 
 northwardly, so that we can reach New York next year, by 
 way of the New York and Erie railroad, in three days. The 
 country too, from here westward, through Illinois to St. Louis, 
 needs, and will pay well for a road. We must in time also 
 have a direct eastern route, either to Cincinnati, Wheeling or 
 Pittsburgh. Within ten years, every one of the lines here indi- 
 cated, will be built. But that consummation will be delayed or 
 hastened just in proportion as we divide or concentrate our 
 efforts in their favor. We need not say that we believe in 
 well digested plans and united concentrated effort. This is the 
 more necessary, because we have no surplus capital, and be- 
 cause what little we have must needs be kept in active business 
 to be productive. Every man of enlarged views and who un- 
 derstands anything of the philosophy of business, must be 
 satisfied on a moment's reflection, that if we can secure the 
 construction of the main stems, lateral and collateral branches 
 of roads will be sure to follow wherever they may be needed." 
 
 A week later, he observed that the New York and Erie, 
 when finished, would take a very great portion of the Western 
 travel, and continued : "We have no particular interest in 
 puffing the New York and Erie railroad, but we have some 
 indirect interest in favoring any new route that will aid in 
 correcting the miserable management which prevails on the 
 railroads from Buffalo to Albany and from Cumberland to 
 Baltimore. The former, especially, is one of the most ricketty 
 concerns in the whole country, and upon both, the accommo- 
 dation of passengers is the very last thing thought of. Their 
 managers seem to think that people travel only for the purpose 
 of allowing themselves to be abused and fleeced, in every pos- 
 sible way which ingenious roguery can devise." 
 
 requisite to her growth and prosperity. It will build up the intermediate 
 towns too, which a railroad would not do, as well as increase the worth of 
 real estate along the road four fold, by giving the farmers an opportunity 
 they do not now enjoy, of wheeling their produce to market with their own 
 teams at all seasons of the year." 
 
46 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 In the same article he says of the Fitchburgh and Worcester 
 Railroad : "The requisite amount of stock has been taken up, 
 to warrant the immediate commencement of the work on this 
 road. 
 
 "This is a sort of 'cross-cut' road — connecting at each end 
 with lines running to Boston. Twenty years ago, one would 
 have been caged as a lunatic for thinking of such a scheme." 
 
 On December i, 1847, Chapman turned his guns on the 
 Madison road : "The depot of our railroad was located so far 
 out of town, for the accommodation of gentlemen who desired 
 to speculate upon lots, that we seldom get over to it; and as 
 no one connected with it realizes the propriety of furnishing 
 items of intelligence concerning it, not even so much as to 
 advertise the hours of departure, prices of passage and freight, 
 or anything else, we have to depend upon some lucky accident 
 to learn anything connected with the concern. . . . What folly 
 it is, for instance, to start trains at 6 o'clock in the morning. 
 With proper management, they could just as well start at 9. 
 As to freight, every body growls. Accidents are plenty enough, 
 at any rate. On Wednesday, last week, a new locomotive was 
 knocked in pieces by running against a tree which had been 
 blown upon the track; damage $400 or $500. On Saturday 
 last, we are informed by a gentleman, that the cars ran off 
 the track once or twice, and the axle of a tender was broken. 
 Other accidents may have occurred, but if so, nothing has been 
 said about them, as no one, so far as we know, has been 
 killed." 
 
 A week later, the following item appeared : "Two more 
 locomotives were smashed by a collision of the passenger and 
 hog trains, a day or two ago. Nobody killed. A new lot of 
 locomotives have been ordered by the Directors, and we have 
 no doubt they will be needed at the rate they smash up those 
 on hand." 
 
 On December 9, however, we find an answering communi- 
 cation from President Merrill of the railroad: "For some 
 weeks past, the Sentinel and the Journal have frequently no- 
 ticed the management of the Railroad. So far as editors think 
 proper to express opinions of the managers of the road, they 
 must pass for what they are worth; but it seems to me that 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 47 
 
 upon making statements and drawing conclusions, editors 
 should inquire into facts. It is not denied that in trying to 
 do the large amount of business unexpectedly offered us, we 
 have met with disappointments. These have been occasioned 
 mostly by the high floods of the last two years, which have 
 done us ten times more damage than all the other accidents put 
 together. For the want of sufficient motive power, cars and 
 tracks, and by attempting to do too much under the circum- 
 stances, we have sometimes failed, and all our failures, with 
 many exaggerations, have been chronicled. 
 
 "Our company, which has laid out less than $10,000 a mile 
 on the track it has constructed, and for the motive power and 
 cars to run on it, may not have got along as well as on roads 
 that have cost five times as much. But even on the best roads, 
 as I understand it, both iron and timber sometimes break. 
 Locomotives usually cost from $600 to $1200 a year to keep 
 them in repair ; and of 500 car wheels, it is estimated that 75 
 break the first year, 150 the second, and nearly all the third 
 year. 33 When such things take place on other roads they must 
 be expected on ours, w r here the business has been such that 
 engines, cars and hands have almost of necessity been over- 
 worked. We are doing all we can to remedy these difficulties; 
 but we could no more afford to do in a day all the business 
 that is sometimes offered, than the Sentinel or Journal can 
 publish at once all the articles that their various customers ask 
 of them. Since I have been on the road, now three years and 
 a half, no passenger has been injured on the trains, nor has 
 there been any serious accident to engines or cars, except in 
 three instances. In the first of them by the breaking of an axle 
 when the freight train was going too fast, three cars were 
 thrown off, and damage sustained to the amount of $300. 
 When the engineer understood that he was blamed, he left 
 immediately, and has not since been in our employ. The sec- 
 ond accident was the injury to the engine, Johnson, a few days 
 
 ^This difficulty persisted for several years. In the Madison Daily 
 Courier of April 20, 1853, we find the following item : "In order to remove 
 the danger of the breakage of car wheels, and the disasters incident on such 
 breakage, several of the railroad companies of the East are now trying the 
 experiment of using wrought iron wheels." 
 
48 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 ago, which run on a culvert in the dark, that had been broken 
 down by a tree falling on it. This engine has since been re- 
 paired at an expense, as Mr. Thomas the machinist states, of 
 $100. In this case no blame was imputed, for after the engine 
 was reversed and the brakes applied, the wheels slid more than 
 a hundred yards. At least seven-eighths of the matters stated 
 in the Journal in reference to this accident, are untrue. The 
 last accident was the collision of two engines in the Vernon 
 Cut on Thursday last. In this case I am not well informed 
 as to particulars ; but I suppose some blame should be attached 
 to both engineers. One of them if now in fault, has never be- 
 fore been blamed by anyone during five years' service. The 
 damage is estimated at $500 by the best judge of these matters 
 that I have seen. 
 
 "As to the early hour of starting which the Sentinel speaks 
 of so harshly, it was adopted because the business on the Madi- 
 son Plane could not otherwise be done this year, and because it 
 is desirable to have the passenger trains ahead of the freight 
 trains whenever it is possible. There are other good reasons, 
 but these must answer at present. The time will soon come I 
 hope, when the editors of the Sentinel will not be required to 
 rise so early in order to take passage on the cars. 34 
 
 "I was not present at the location of the depot, and no other 
 director, as far as I know, had any interest in the present site. 
 
 1 had previously urged its location in Pennsylvania street, 
 where it is crossed by Maryland street, but this location as I 
 understand, was prevented by the city council. I have no 
 choice, whether the Sentinel will publish this article, or take 
 
 34 Beginning with the issue of February 12, 1848, the triweekly and semi- 
 weekly Sentinel ran the following announcement : 
 
 "On and after Monday, January 3d, 1848, the Passenger Cars will leave 
 Madison and Indianapolis daily, (Sundays excepted,) as follows, viz: 
 
 "Leave Madison at 8 o'clock a. m., and arrive in Indianapolis, at about 
 
 2 P. M. 
 
 "Leave Indianapolis at 7 1/2 o'clock a. m., and arrive in Madison, at 
 about 1 1/2 p. m. 
 
 "Freight trains run daily leaving Madison and Indianapolis at 5 o'clock 
 
 A. M. 
 
 "All Freight for the Northern Station must be at the depot at Madison 
 by 3 o'clock, to insure its shipment the succeeding day. 
 
 Henry R. Hall, Sup't." 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 49 
 
 some other course to correct the errors into which it has 
 fallen." 
 
 Chapman pleaded not guilty to the charge of exaggeration 
 and made a new attack : "The fact is, no one connected with 
 the road has ever taken sufficient interest in it, to see that such 
 matters were correctly reported to the Press." 35 
 
 At this point it may be fitting to touch upon the rivalry 
 between Madison and Indianapolis that developed as soon as 
 the road was completed. This is from the semiweekly Sentinel 
 of December 4, 1847 : 
 
 "The Madison Banner actually has expressed its belief of 
 the want of a 'decent Hotel' in that town! This is an evidence 
 of public spirit, progress, and improvement, which will be hailed 
 with universal satisfaction by all persons who are compelled 
 by the force of circumstances to stop at Madison. Certainly 
 the Banner has assessed a large debt of deep gratitude upon the 
 travelling public, for such a suggestion ; but we hope the Madi- 
 son capitalists will be governed by their usual prudence and 
 sagacity, and not run into any scheme of wild speculation, 
 unless they can get the State to stand between themselves and 
 all chance of loss!" 
 
 The Banner's reply was quoted in the Sentinel of Decem- 
 ber 29: "'The in[n]uendo that Madison has received more 
 aid than her equitable share from the State, comes with a very 
 bad grace from Indianapolis ! What have we received here but 
 one end of the railroad? Indianapolis has not only got the 
 other end, but she has been built up, and her people enriched 
 almost exclusively by money begged and squeezed out of the 
 State Treasury. Shame on your impudence, Mr. Sentinel.' ' 
 
 Chapman answered : "Shame upon yourself, sir : Our 
 folks may have 'begged and squeezed,' but have they stolen?* 6 
 That's the question." 
 
 33 By the fifties, editors had apparently become less critical. In this 
 connection the following item from the Madison Daily Courier of June 9, 
 1849, may have some significance : "The principal Eastern railroads give the 
 editors residing along their lines, cards which entitle them to travel free 
 whenever and wherever they desire to go. It is one of the few Eastern 
 customs worthy of imitation in the West." 
 
 3<5 To a claim made by the Cambridge Reveille that "But for Whig men 
 and measures, the Madison and Indianapolis railroad never would have been 
 
50 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Apparently this feeling was not shared by the younger 
 generation, if we may judge from the following letter pub- 
 lished in the semiweekly Sentinel of April 7, 1849, under the 
 head, "That ride — The Dance." 
 
 "Last Friday was indeed a splendid day for the blooming, 
 intelligent, and beautiful ladies, with their finely polished 
 beaux, of our sister city, Madison, to make their anticipated 
 visit to our pretty city; and the cordiality with which they 
 were received by our no-less beautiful, and bright-eyed dam- 
 sels, and attentive gentlemen, gave evidence of the reciprocity 
 of good feeling which always has, and is sincerely hoped al- 
 ways will exist between the citizens of the two places. 
 
 "In compliance with an invitation from the President of 
 the Rail Road Co., I took passage on that splendid new car 
 for a pleasure ride to Columbus, in company with that thing 
 of beauty, Miss M., together with Mr. M., and a host of 
 others. On arriving at Columbus we were received with the 
 sweet smiles and friendly shake of the beautiful hand of Miss 
 B. and also honored with an invitation to her father's residence 
 to partake of some refreshments, which we respectfully de- 
 clined. Leaving the ladies, or rather the ladies left us, Mr. M. 
 and myself came to the determined conclusion to . . . see the 
 sights. The first sight we came to was a grog-shop which was 
 shut up — that's a 'good Qgg J thought we, and walked on ; the 
 next sight was a fashionable drinking saloon, wide open, it 
 was indeed an extensive establishment, challenging an extensive 
 business, but I will state here for the information of temperance 
 folks that it is the only remaining one in town, and its exis- 
 tence very short. But here we stopped . . . and after wetting 
 our parched palates, retraced our steps. . . . After the lapse of 
 a few minutes the whistle gave evidence of the approach of the 
 
 made," Chapman had retorted in the semiweekly Sentinel of October 23, 1847: 
 "But for 'Whig men and measures,' the M. and I. railroad would have been 
 finished years ago. Whig policy, as carried out on that road, squandered 
 money enough on the 'deep diggins' alone to have built half the line at least; 
 and those 'diggins' will stand as a prominent monument of Whig folly and 
 rascality, long after the natural entrance to Madison shall take their place." 
 The fact remains, however, that most of the men who completed the 
 road were Whigs, Nathan B. Palmer, the first president, being an outstand- 
 ing exception. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 51 
 
 outward train, which we found . . . literally crammed and 
 jammed with Madison beauty. The conductor handed me into 
 the new car, he did, but there was no vacant seat ; but I 
 quietly took a lien near the door, and I would presume to say 
 that I bothered the boys considerably, but I did'nt care. I 
 was bound to look at the gals, and they were in that car, they 
 were. Everything, how r ever went pleasantly, and we arrived in 
 this city at a late, but fashionable dinner hour. And now let 
 us to the dance. 
 
 "As we anticipated . . . this was the dance of the season. 
 The music was 'tip-top.' Twelve coti[l] lions were on the floor, 
 gaily fluttering to and fro to the merry sound of heavenly 
 music, silks and satins, gold, silver, and sparkling diamonds, 
 brilliantly flashed before our eyes, the gaudy train moves on 
 and on, and round, and round. O pleasing consciousness ! 
 Celestial flame ! I feel there's more in dancing than some 
 folks would imagine. ... I cannot refrain from noticing one 
 fair damsel more beautiful than all the rest, but here she comes, 
 adorned in all the charms of sportive gaiety and what rapture 
 warms the glowing breast of every one who looks upon that 
 form of classic chasteness. She is acknow[l] edged the 'queen 
 of beauty,' and the 'queen of the dance.' It is Miss F. of 
 Madison. What permanent felicity must flow in company 
 with one so sweet, so perfect, so — but words are poor; what 
 can I say? So everything. Still, still, her image rises to my 
 view, wher'er I turn that pleasing countenance pursues. . . . 
 
 "The merry dance went on till nearly three in the morning, 
 and the ringing of the depot bell made music for them as they 
 promenaded to their respective homes. 
 
 Fidelio." 
 
 4- 
 As soon as the ultimate success of the Madison and Indi- 
 anapolis Railroad seemed assured, interest was revived in many 
 of the railroad projects which had been dormant since the thir- 
 ties, and several new roads were planned. One of the first of 
 these was the Shelby ville Lateral Railroad chartered in 1845 
 to build a line from Shelbyville to a connection with the Madi- 
 son and Indianapolis at Edinburg. It was completed in 1849. 37 
 
 ^"One locomotive and a part of another for the Shelbyville railroad 
 reached here in a section canal boat, in tow of the steamboat 'Cumberland, 
 
52 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 From Shelbyville another line was built to Rushville, and a 
 third to Knightstown, both of which were open for business in 
 the fall of 1850. In August, the Rushville Whig said: 38 
 
 "We are growing impatient about the completion of our 
 railroad. The work is progressing very finely, and the road 
 will be completed in the time designated by us last week, should 
 no accident occur and the weather remain favorable. The 
 Shelbyville and Edinburg road sent up a freight train on our 
 road on Monday. It came within a couple of miles of town, 
 and brought freight and passengers from Madison. Our mer- 
 chants opened goods in the evening which were shipped from 
 Madison in the morning ! Our farmers can unload wheat here 
 in the evening, and the next day it can be carried to the Ohio 
 river! A new era in business is about to commence in Rush 
 county ! Farmers, hold on a few days with your produce, and 
 give it a fair opening! The road will be ready for you within 
 two weeks, and from thence forward the shrill sound of the 
 steam whistle will make music for the good people which will 
 replenish their pockets and augment their business." 
 
 On November 8, 1850, the Madison Daily Courier reported 
 that "The engine for the Shelbyville and Knightstown road 
 was put up at the Madison shops, and departed for its destina- 
 tion this morning, in charge of Mr. Charles Peddle, an excel- 
 lent engineer from the 'uld line,' who takes charge of the 
 machine department of the new road. The first train of 
 freight cars, seven in number, came down from Knightstown 
 
 No. 2' yesterday morning. The missing part was in a section of the boat 
 which sprung a leak and sunk at Coal Port some two hundred and twenty- 
 five miles above Cincinnati. As it was got to shore before sinking, and as 
 the river has fallen considerably, it will be recovered without any great loss. 
 
 "... The parts of the locomotives are put in these sections of boats 
 at the machine shop in Philadelphia. From thence they are floated along 
 the canal to Hollidaysburgh, where a car is run under them, which takes them 
 over the mountains to Johnstown. Here they are again put in the canal and 
 floated to Pittsburgh, and locked down into the Ohio river, and put in tow 
 of a steamboat for this city. 
 
 "Not a single article is moved from the place where it was put by 
 the Philadelphia machinist until it is put in charge of the railroad agent here. 
 Nothing is broken, nothing damaged and a vast deal of heavy lifting is 
 entirely dispensed with." Madison Daily Courier, May 19, 1849. 
 
 ^Reprinted in Indiana State Journal (triweekly), August 28, 1850. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 53 
 
 on Tuesday, laden with some five hundred barrels of flour. 
 The stock of cars on the road is light at present, but it will be 
 increased to meet all demands, as rapidly as practicable." 
 
 The arrival of the first passenger train was marked by a 
 unique "accident" which is described in the Madison Courier 
 of Wednesday, October 30, 1850: 
 
 "The Shelby ville and Knightstown Railroad was opened on 
 Saturday last; the cars and locomotive engine were run into 
 the depot at Knightstown for the first time then. We under- 
 stand there were several thousand of the inhabitants assembled 
 to see the iron horse. The shrill signal of the engineer to the 
 brakeman, in coming into the depot, caused great consternation 
 among them, particularly the female part of the crowd ; one 
 lady fainted, and was carried up into the town before she re- 
 vived. Gen. Stevens will have to moderate his whistle, when 
 he runs the next train into the depot." 
 
 The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad was, of course, 
 instrumental in building these first feeder lines which brought 
 the produce of two rich agricultural counties to Madison. The 
 effect of the large influx of business from these new lines on 
 the parent road is clearly shown by the following extracts from 
 the Madison Courier: 
 
 "A Big Haul 39 
 
 "There was brought over the railroad on Saturday last, 
 from Franklin and Edinburgh, in a single train, and with one 
 locomotive, thirteen hundred and sixty-five hogs I The train 
 numbered twenty-eight double cars ; the engine was the Gover- 
 nor Whitcomb; the engineer Mr. Sherburne. This is the 
 greatest haul ever made over the road, and probably has never 
 been excelled on any road in the Union. The train was com- 
 pelled to overcome, for two and a half miles, a grade and 
 curvature equal to sixty feet per mile." 
 
 "Railroads. 40 
 
 "Owing to the accident on the Knightstown road, an ac- 
 count of which we published last week, the 'locomotive' had to 
 be sent to the 'hill depot' of the 'old road' for repairs ; business 
 has been considerably retarded in consequence. We under- 
 
 ^Madison Daily Courier, December 2, 1850. 
 "Ibid., December 11, 1850. 
 
54 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 stand the President of the Madison road despatched a loco- 
 motive to Knightstown yesterday, which will remain on that 
 road until the engine, belonging to it, is repaired. There are 
 now in Knightstown and vicinity, some four thousand hogs 
 awaiting the means of transportation to the pens of this city. 
 The pressure on the model road, consequent upon the necessity 
 of having to furnish the new roads with cars and engines, and 
 the great increase of business, has prevented the promptness 
 usual in the transit of produce and passengers. The growling 
 of the hog men has become very audible, rather more than a 
 grunt of dissatisfaction. 
 
 "We hear of large lots of swine at Columbus, Franklin 
 and Edinburgh." 
 
 "Hogs, Railroads, &c, &c. 41 
 
 "We suppose that this week will close the pork killing sea- 
 son, as we learn from different pork merchants there are not 
 many more hogs to arrive. — [Louisville Demo., yesterday. 
 
 "The packing season has only fairly commenced at this 
 place, while from the above it would appear to be near the 
 close at Louisville. Up to Saturday night last, forty-three 
 thousand hogs had been received by the railroad ; and we learn 
 this morning that there are now awaiting the means of trans- 
 portation, at Indianapolis 3000, at Greenwood 1200, at Frank- 
 lin 7000, at Edinburgh 4200, at Columbus 4000, at Knights- 
 town 2000, and at Pendleton 2000. 
 
 "As we have once before stated, the business this season 
 has been greatly retarded by the want of cars and locomotive 
 engines on the new roads. The immense car-houses and 
 depots of the Madison road were not able to supply the de- 
 mand and do justice to the trade of the road; besides, the new 
 roads have been very unfortunate, in breaking up cars and 
 injuring locomotives. On the Knightstown road for instance, 
 the new locomotive, we noticed when it was taken from the 
 boat here, run but a short time before it was so badly crippled 
 as to be unfit for use, and was sent to the hill depot of the 
 Madison road for repairs. A locomotive was then procured 
 from the Shelbyville road, which was used only a few days 
 when it was run over some horses, and put horse du combat. 
 
 41 Madison Doily Courier, December 17, 1850. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 55 
 
 The locomotive Edinburgh, belonging to the old road, was the 
 next. It, we understand, was run into the woods on Saturday 
 last, where it still was at the latest advices. 
 
 "The Hoosier State brought down last night Mr. Andrew 
 Cathcart and two new locomotives constructed under his im- 
 mediate superintendence at Patterson, N. J., which will be 
 placed upon the road in as short a time as practicable. The 
 locomotive belonging to the Knightstown road, we understand, 
 is now ready for use, and will be sent out to-day." 
 "Business on the Madison Road. 42 
 
 "As there has been some complaint against the railroad 
 company, in regard to the transportation of hogs this season, 
 we furnish a few facts in relation thereto. 
 
 "The first train was run last year, we think on the 14th 
 day of November, and operations closed about the 8th of Jan- 
 uary. In that time a fraction under 57,000 hogs were trans- 
 ported. This year operations commenced four days later than 
 last year, and up to Wednesday night last, sixty-three thou- 
 sand six hundred hogs were brought in; being an excess of 
 6,600 over last year, and in 19 working days less time. During 
 the five first weeks of this season, as large a number were 
 brought in as during the first eight weeks of last year. If 
 there is no misfortune, the year will close with 75,000. Noth- 
 ing like this has ever been done on the road ; and under this 
 showing we think the company rather merits praise than cen- 
 sure. The trains have been run constantly, and the operatives 
 of the road are literally broken down by fatigue and over 
 exertion. Some of the locomotives have not been cold for 
 fourteen days. 
 
 "Two causes have conspired to produce the rush upon the 
 road, and consequent impatience of owners of stock. The first 
 was the scarcity of corn, which brought the hogs early, and in 
 large quantities to the points of shipment. The second, the 
 high prices, accompanied by fears of a fall, which induced an 
 anxious desire to get speedily to market. There was a time 
 when there were 30,000 hogs on the road; and if the means of 
 transportation had been trebled, the company could not have 
 
 "Madison Doily Courier, December 28, 1850. 
 
56 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 brought them forward with sufficient rapidity to have avoided 
 complaint. 
 
 "We are well aware that the road has not had, and has not 
 now, sufficient power. But the freight has felt this more 
 seriously than the hog transportation. The freight trains have 
 been reduced; and for more than a week the freight of the 
 branch roads has been suspended, that the power might be 
 used in the transportation of hogs. A few days will bring all 
 right; and we presume the directory and officers of the com- 
 pany will provide against all such contingencies during the 
 coming year." 
 
 "The Railroad 43 is doing an immense business at present, 
 and the quantities of produce sent in from the interior of 
 Hoosierdom astonishes those well acquainted with her capacity. 
 If no accident happens this week, the business done on the 
 road will be greater than that of any previous ten days or even 
 two weeks." 
 
 The jubilation of the Madisonians was marred by an occa- 
 sional discordant note, thus : 44 
 
 "The gross receipts of the Madison Railroad for January, 
 185 1, will amount to upwards of thirty thousand dollars. — 
 Mad. Cour. 
 
 "And yet that company view with the utmost jealousy any 
 other road leading from Indianapolis to the Ohio river. One 
 would suppose that after making these immense profits, they 
 might be a little charitable. But they listen to nothing save 
 the cravings of their insatiable avarice. They have even ar- 
 rived at the absurd notion that the Legislature have no busi- 
 ness to grant a railroad charter without first obtaining their 
 consent. We'll see whether 
 
 'Such things can be, 
 And overcome us like a summer cloud.' 
 
 Franklin Democrat. 
 
 "The Democrat does the intelligent managers of this road 
 gross injustice in the above. Such has never been the policy 
 of the present managers, they know that an attempt to stop 
 the downward current of the Ohio river would be as futile, as 
 
 "Madison Daily Courier, January 9, 185 1. 
 "Ibid,, February 19, 1851. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 57 
 
 to prevent the construction of railroads, whenever, and wher- 
 ever the trade of the country will justify the investment. It is 
 only the small cross-road politician who would be the advocate 
 of such a course of action." 
 
 The procedure followed in the organization and financing 
 of these early roads was practically the same in every case. 
 After the charter had been obtained from the legislature, where 
 there was probably considerable logrolling, and occasionally at 
 least a trace of sharp practice, a public meeting was held, 
 which was addressed by the commissioners of the road ap- 
 pointed in the charter. Minutes of the meeting were printed 
 in the newspapers in towns along a proposed line and offices 
 were established in each town for receiving stock subscriptions. 
 To arouse the public interest, additional meetings were held at 
 the larger towns at which the prospects of the line were pre- 
 sented in somewhat glowing terms. When sufficient subscrip- 
 tions to satisfy the terms of the charter had been obtained, a 
 board of directors was chosen which in turn elected officers, 
 and the company was ready to proceed with the work as rapidly 
 as payments on the subscriptions were made. 
 
 The Indianapolis and Belle fontaine Railroad presents a 
 typical example of such an organization. The weekly Sentinel 
 of April 6, 1848, tells of a meeting held at Muncie to stimulate 
 interest in the road. Preambles and resolutions were adopted 
 stating that a company had been chartered by the legislature to 
 construct a railroad from Indianapolis via Pendleton, Ander- 
 sontown, Muncie, and Winchester to the Ohio state line, where 
 it would intersect a railroad running to Bellefontaine, Ohio, 
 at that point connecting with lines to Sandusky and Pittsburgh. 
 The importance of this road, "which if constructed, must be- 
 come one of the great thoroughfares for the transportation of 
 the immense business, between the Atlantic cities . . . and 
 the centre of this great Valley," was pointed out. 
 
 It was further resolved that the company should organize, 
 locate, and commence the work under the provisions of the 
 charter without delay, and that books for subscriptions to the 
 stock should be opened at various towns along the line of the 
 road. Newspapers at Sandusky, Bellefontaine, Pittsburgh, 
 Indianapolis, Madison, Terre Haute, Lafayette, and St. Louis 
 
58 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 were requested to publish the proceedings, "for which they 
 will receive the thanks of this meeting." 
 
 The following is quoted from the weekly Sentinel of May 
 n, 1848: 
 
 "On Monday, the first instant, the books for subscription 
 to the stock of this road were opened at this place, and on 
 Tuesday evening O. H. Smith addressed our citizens from 
 the porch of the Washington Hall, 45 on the importance of 
 the work." This speech shows how farsighted were the 
 views of the former United States Senator, who became the 
 first president of the "Bee Line." Smith outlined the situation 
 as it had been presented at the Muncie meeting of March 21. 
 "He said that the routes through Chicago and Cincinnati were 
 the opposing and rival routes of the central Indiana route, and 
 he earnestly maintained that the time had now come when 
 central Indiana had to decide whether the immense travel, emi- 
 gration, and business of the west should pass around or go 
 through central Indiana. He said the centre had the route, the 
 country, the people and the means, and it only required concert 
 and action, to insure, at a very light cost, by a profitable in- 
 vestment, the extension from Bellefontaine of this route 
 through the centre of the State." 
 
 Calling attention to the rival interests of other growing 
 towns, he "showed the policy of the people of Cincinnati, by 
 which they had built up that great City of the West, and why 
 it was that they had abandoned the Terre Haute and Richmond 
 route. It was, he said, because Cincinnati now had the road 
 from Sandusky completed, and she would favor no road that 
 would divert the travel from that road before it reached Cin- 
 cinnati. . . . The Cincinnati policy was, to favor a direct road 
 from that place to St. Louis ; such would be their course, and 
 
 45 Washington Hall, long the leading hotel of the town, stood on the 
 south side of Washington Street immediately east of the alley between 
 Meridian and Pennsylvania streets. For years the headquarters of the 
 Whig party were located there. At this period it was generally known as 
 "Browning's" from the name of the proprietor. When he went to Madison 
 in 185 1 to take charge of the new hotel there, completed the previous year, 
 Browning's became the Wright House. According to the Madison Daily 
 Courier of June 2, 1851, "Mr. Browning took possession of the Madison 
 Hotel, yesterday, the 1st instant." 
 
VILLAGE AT THE EXD OF THE ROAD 59 
 
 central Indiana was called upon, in self-defence, to give to her 
 own people and to the people of the eastern cities, an oppor- 
 tunity ... of passing upon a direct route between St. Louis 
 and Sandusky . . . and not to force them round by either' 
 Cincinnati on the east, or Chicago on the north." 
 
 Smith urged that advantage be taken of the central location 
 of Indianapolis, "destined, if a proper policy was pursued, to 
 be the great mart of business for the interior centre of this 
 immense agricultural region of country. . . . That it was at 
 about the same distance from Sandusky that Cincinnati was, 
 and upon the same line, ioo miles from the Lakes, and that 
 goods could be brought at as little cost from Boston, New 
 York or Philadelphia, as they could to Cincinnati, when this 
 road shall be completed — and that there was no more reason 
 why the people of Indianapolis . . . should go to Cincinnati 
 to buy goods than that those of Cincinnati and Ohio should 
 come to Indianapolis to buy them." 
 
 He realized the importance of the rapid westward move- 
 ment in the country, and "dwelt upon the importance of inter- 
 secting the great current of western emigration at Sandusky, 
 and opening the New York, Boston and Philadelphia markets 
 to our farmers ; and he asked those who had been talking of a 
 route to Wheeling, why it was that Cincinnati had not taken 
 that route, as Wheeling was so much nearer Cincinnati than 
 Sandusky? He answered, that the Wheeling route would not 
 meet the great current of trade and business from Boston and 
 New York, nor open the markets of those cities to Cincinnati ; 
 and . . . the same reasons should operate on the people of 
 central Indiana in selecting their route. . . . He said he did 
 not design to disparage the Peru or Lafayette railroads; he 
 wished them all constructed, as he was of opinion that these 
 works would aid each other, while they would enrich the 
 farmers of the country." 
 
 As to the possibility of pushing railroad construction too 
 rapidly, he "differed entirely from those who believed that one 
 rail-road to Indianapolis would make the city, but that several 
 would destroy it ; he thought the more the better. He earnestly 
 called upon the citizens of Indianapolis to take stock as their 
 ability should enable them, to enable the Company to organize 
 
60 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 at once, and prosecute the work to completion as soon as pos- 
 sible. He maintained that the stock must be good, and re- 
 ferred to other works to prove it. He spoke of the Madison 
 Rail-road — showed its importance, and the great benefit it 
 would derive from the construction of the road north. He 
 spoke of the Terre Haute road, as being another link of the 
 great chain, and as carrying it to the great valley of the Wa- 
 bash, upon the direct route to St. Louis. He spoke of the road 
 from Richmond to Indianapolis — denied that if constructed, 
 it would be a rival in interest of the Indianapolis and Bellefon- 
 taine Railroad, as its direction was upon the Wheeling route, 
 and the other upon the northern, and although it would cross 
 the road from Sandusky to Cincinnati, yet it would be at a 
 point so near to the Ohio, probably Dayton, that the travel from 
 the north-eastern cities, would be drawn by the suck of Cin- 
 cinnati, to that place, and would pass around Indiana altogether. 
 He alluded to the rival interest which he had understood the 
 Richmond route would encounter with the stockholders of the 
 Knightstown and Shelbyville Railroad and the White Water 
 Valley Canal Company, and he urged the great importance there 
 was of having a work commenced at Indianapolis immediately, 
 to connect with the Sandusky Rail-road, and said it was the in- 
 tention of those interested in the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine 
 route, to commence and press the road in continuous sections, 
 until completed to the Ohio line, beginning at Indianapolis, so 
 as to make the work productive and safe to the stockholders." 48 
 Progress on the construction of this road was steady and 
 by October, 1850, it was completed to Pendleton. 47 Editor 
 Garber, who was a guest of the M. & I. Railroad, gave an in- 
 
 * R The semiweekly Sentinel of July 1, 1848, announced that "the Board 
 will organize this day, at Muncie, by the election of the officers of the 
 company. In our last, for the want of correct information, we stated that 
 the amount of stock subscribed was about $300,000, and the amount sub- 
 scribed in this city was $70,000 ... we learn that the amount subscribed in 
 this city is over $130,000, and will be considerably increased. The company 
 have every encouragement to proceed rapidly with the work." 
 
 * T 0. H. Smith, president, announced the winter schedule of the Bellefon- 
 taine Railroad in the triweekly Sentinel of December 12, 1850: "The Cars, 
 Freight, and Passengers, in connection with the Madison Railroad, leave 
 the Depot at Indianapolis, daily, (Sundays excepted,) at a quarter before 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 61 
 
 teresting account of the arrival of the first train in the Daily 
 Courier of October 10 : 
 
 "This road, commencing at Indianapolis, running through 
 a flat, well cultivated country, constructed on a gravel basis, 
 with the heavy T rail, is probably one of the best roads in the 
 west. It was our good fortune to be present on Tuesday last, 
 at the ceremonies, on the occasion of opening the road to 
 Pendleton, a distance of twenty-eight miles. . . . We never saw 
 so many democrats, so many of the fair sex, so many babies, 
 or such quantities of ginger-bread at one time in our life before. 
 Where a county or State road crossed the railroad, the crowds 
 there assembled had every appearance of a camp-meeting. The 
 tenants of every farmhouse, near the line of the road, were 
 assembled on the side, with eyes and mouths open, gaping in 
 astonishment at the iron horse, as he puffed and snorted passed 
 them. At the regular stations, the crowd would come up, look, 
 and — being somewhat assured by the passive quietness of the 
 engine — place its hands on the cylinders, the wheels, &c, &c. 
 When the engineer, through wanton [n] ess, would try the water- 
 gages, the vast crowd would fall back as if it had received an 
 electric shock. At the present terminus the trains could not 
 move without danger of accident to the people. We are happy 
 in stating that owing to the incessant and persevering exertions 
 of Mr. Brough, the day passed off without any accidents. At 
 Pendleton, Messrs. Smith and Brough made short addresses 
 to the people. 
 
 "'While on the road up, Mr. Andrew Cathcart( engineer) 
 received a severe injury, by having one of his feet caught by 
 a key which fastened the upright pump on the locomotive 
 'Franklin.' Mr. Cathcart came home yesterday in the passenger 
 car. 
 
 "The country through which the Bellefontaine road runs 
 is not so highly cultivated as Rush and Shelby counties ; but 
 
 eight in the morning, returning, leave Pendleton at one o'clock in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 "Lines of Stages from the Wabash and upper White River, meet the 
 Cars at Pendleton." 
 
 In the report of the company for 1850 it is stated that this train consisted 
 of one passenger and four freight cars. 
 
62 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 the material is there to put it in as high a state of cultivation 
 as any county in this or any other State. 
 
 "We returned yesterday with our other conductor, who we 
 shall not 'puff — it is altogether unnecessary. Vance is second 
 to none; like the road he serves, he is a model." 
 
 Anderson was reached in June, 185 1. 48 The following 
 account of the celebration there was copied from the Indiana 
 Statesman of Indianapolis, in the Madison Daily Courier of 
 June 27. 
 
 "At two o'clock the speaking commenced. Governor 
 Wright was first introduced to the audience by Hon. O. H. 
 Smith, president of the Company. The Governor was pe- 
 culiarly happy on the occasion, and was listened to with marked 
 and respectful attention by an immense crowd, as were also the 
 remarks of Judge Wick, Judge Kilgore and Dr. Cook. . . . 
 It must have been a proud day for Mr. Smith and the other 
 energetic managers of the affairs of the company. The im- 
 mense throng, the enthusiasm of the people, the large receipts, 
 were calculated to encourage them in the prosecution of the 
 work to a speedy completion. At about four o'clock, the Madi- 
 son train having arrived, the three trains started for Indianapo- 
 lis, crowded to their utmost capacity, and arrived safe, with- 
 out accident or any unpleasant occurrence, at about half past 
 [six]. We have seldom seen a celebration pass off so pleas- 
 antly. This was owing no doubt to the presence of so many 
 of the ladies. 
 
 "In looking over the 'sea of upturned faces' which met the 
 
 48 The weekly Sentinel of June 26 reported that "a greater number of 
 persons participated in the celebration of the opening of the Bellefontaine 
 and Indianapolis Railroad to Anderson on last Thursday than in any similar 
 celebration that ever came off in Indiana. We are informed by the Presi- 
 dent of the company that nearly three thousand persons arrived at Anderson 
 on the cars during the day — of course much the larger portion went from 
 this city." 
 
 Apparently some were dissatisfied with the service, for the daily Sentinel 
 of June 23 contained the following item : "An old pioneer, on one of the 
 trains going up to Anderson on last Thursday morning, remarked that not 
 quite twenty years ago, he carried the mail between Indianapolis and Ander- 
 son, when the trip often occupied three days; and yet he heard men about 
 him complaining, because the cars did not make the trip in less than two 
 hours !" 
 
The roads shown are: i. Madison & Indianapolis; 2. Shelby ville Lateral 
 Branch ; 3. Shelbyville & Rushville ; 4. Shelbyville & Knightstown ; 5. Colum- 
 bus, Nashville & Bloomington ; 6. Martinsville Branch; 7. Indianapolis & 
 Bellefontaine ; 8. Indianapolis & Peru; 9. Indianapolis & Lafayette; 10. 
 Lafayette & Crawfordsville ; n. Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Richmond; 
 12. New Albany & Salem; 13. Jeffersonville & Columbus; 14. Lawrence- 
 burg & Greensburg; 15. Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton. Note that the lines 
 from Greensburg and from Richmond to Indianapolis are not shown on this 
 1850 map. 
 
64 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 view on every side, we were particularly struck with the healthy, 
 robust appearance of the people. It was a sight which did us 
 good. Another beautiful thing to look upon, was the immense 
 fields of grain. The crops of wheat, corn, grass, and in fact 
 everything, will be far beyond precedent. The farmer will 
 this year reap a rich harvest. The 'good time' so long expected, 
 has surely come. 
 
 "We learn from Mr. Vanhorn, the gentlemanly conductor, 
 that the gross receipts on the occasion was between $1,100 and 
 $1,200." 
 
 On November 12, 1850, the triweekly Sentinel published 
 the following list of railroads then completed or under con- 
 struction in Indiana : 
 
 "Madison and Indianapolis, 
 Shelbyville and Edinburgh, 
 Shelbyville and Knightstown, 
 Rushville and Shelbyville, 
 Indianapolis and Bellefontaine, 
 New Albany and Salem, 
 Jeffersonville, 
 Lafayette and Indianapolis, 
 Peru and Indianapolis, 
 Crawfordsville and Lafayette, 
 Evansville and Illinois, 
 Lawrenceburgh and Indianapolis, 
 Junction, 
 
 Terre Haute and Richmond, 
 Richmond and New Castle, 
 Martinsville and Franklin, 
 Southern Michigan, 
 Richmond and Ohio, 
 Cincinnati and St. Louis, 
 
 
 Com- 
 
 Con- 
 
 Length. 
 
 pleted. 
 
 structing, 
 
 88 
 
 88 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 — 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 — 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 — 
 
 83 
 
 28 
 
 55 
 
 100 
 
 27 
 
 73 
 
 66 
 
 8 
 
 58 
 
 61 
 
 — 
 
 61 
 
 70 
 
 — 
 
 70 
 
 26 
 
 — 
 
 26 
 
 50 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 87 
 
 — 
 
 87 
 
 38 
 
 — 
 
 38 
 
 141 
 
 — 
 
 141 
 
 50 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 — 
 
 20 
 
 100 
 
 — 
 
 100 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 160 
 
 — 
 
 160 
 
 On November 28, 1850, 
 
 1205 212 993 
 
 the editor sounded a note of 
 
 warning : 
 
 "In a late number of our paper, we gave ... a table show- 
 ing that there had been projected in Indiana 1205 miles of rail- 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 65 
 
 road, of which there had been completed 212 miles. To this, it 
 is highly probable, there will be added in the course of next 
 season, over 100 miles more of complete road; and, we think, 
 it is not going too far, to say that in the course of the next 
 five years our State will contain at least 1000 miles of railway 
 in use, intersecting every section, and opening new avenues of 
 business to our people. . . . Still, may we not be excused for 
 saying, that there is a possibility, nay more, we fear, a proba- 
 bility of carrying this matter too far for the safety of those 
 concerned ? It is not every railroad, as experience has proved, 
 that will realize the expectations of its proprietors, or meet the 
 anticipations of the stockholders. Roads that are merely local, 
 or that come in close competition with each other, will certainly 
 be less productive than leading lines, without competition, as 
 it depends much upon the amount of through travel and busi- 
 ness, a road will do, as to its profits and dividends." 
 
 5. 
 One of the interesting features of this period of feverish 
 activity in railroad construction is the attitude of Cincinnati, 
 Madison, and Louisville in regard to the trade of central Indi- 
 ana. 49 Their plans were generally based on the assumption 
 that the agricultural products of that rich district would con- 
 tinue to run, as they had always done, "with the currents of our 
 
 49 The following census figures are illuminating: 
 
 1850 i860 
 
 Cincinnati H5.435 161,044 
 
 Louisville 43J94 68,033 
 
 Indianapolis 8,091 18,611 
 
 Madison 8,012 8,130 
 
 New Albany 8,181 12,647 
 
 Richmond 1,443 6,603 
 
 Terre Haute 4,051 8,594 
 
 Lafayette 6,129 9,387 
 
 Evansville 3,235 11,484 
 
 Jeffersonville 2,122 4,020 
 
 By 1870 Indianapolis had outstripped its state rivals and had 48,244 
 people; Louisville had 100,753, and Cincinnati, 216,239. Chicago passed 
 Cincinnati in that decade. 
 
 The three leading Indiana counties in population in 1850 were Wayne, 
 25,320; Marion, 24,103; and Jefferson, 23,916. The population of Indiana 
 was, in 1840, 685,866; in 1850, 988,416; and in i860, 1,350,428. 
 
66 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 rivers, into that immense receptacle of Western produce, New 
 Orleans." 50 Men of broader vision, like O. H. Smith or Page 
 Chapman, might have different ideas of what was likely to 
 happen, and views like theirs were not always disregarded in 
 the river cities, if we can judge from letters like the following, 
 quoted in the Madison Daily Courier of September 21, 1850, 
 from the Cincinnati Gazette : 
 
 "Messrs. Editors : The steady and consistent stand which 
 the Gazette has for many years taken in the advocacy of works 
 of internal improvement, and in the support of commercial and 
 manufacturing enterprise generally, gives the public the right 
 to hope that the powerful aid of your editorial pen will not be 
 wanting in an effort to secure our present trade in Indiana, and 
 to extend it into the fertile and fast improving prairies west 
 of the Wabash. 
 
 "A crisis has arrived in the history of Cincinnati, precisely 
 analagous to that which New York passed through thirty-three 
 years ago, when the great Erie Canal was projected by the 
 illustrious De Witt Clinton. By the construction of this Canal, 
 connecting that city with the Lakes, and thus with the valleys 
 of the Ohio and Mississippi : a point which, seventy years ago, 
 was the commercial inferior of Boston, Philadelphia, and Balti- 
 more, has distanced its competitors in the race, and has laid 
 the North American continent under tribute. 
 
 "Every merchant in Cincinnati is aware that our great field 
 of trade lies, and always must lie, in central and Western Indi- 
 ana. To it we owe everything, and with it we grow or decline 
 in prosperity by the immutable laws of nature. Now, this 
 trade is in danger of being cut off, and will inevitably be les- 
 sened and diverted by three active competitors, who are already 
 pushing their railroads into the very heart of the stronghold of 
 our superiority. These competitors are Louisville, Madison 
 (I might add Evansville to the list), and New York. Let 
 Cincinnatians distinctly understand that the two Western cities 
 just named are our equals in natural position, and will soon be 
 our superiors in artificial connection also, unless we take advan- 
 tage of the present opportunity to strike the blow which will 
 
 ^Indiana State Sentinel (daily), June 13, 1851. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 67 
 
 at once make us the New York of the West, and enable us for- 
 ever to defy all attempts at rivalry. 
 
 "Louisville is now constructing a railroad, already in part 
 completed, from New Albany, via Gosport and Greencastle, to 
 Crawfordsville, connecting there with one nearly finished to 
 Lafayette. It will be seen by a glance at the map that she will 
 then be the most convenient and accessible market to the mer- 
 chants of central and western Indiana, and of eastern Illinois. 
 Let Louisville once complete this road, without a direct com- 
 munication with Indianapolis on our part, and in five years she 
 will double her population, and claim again our title of "Queen 
 City," as she has done before. 
 
 "Madison, by her connection with Indianapolis merely, has 
 sprung up within a few years from a fourth-rate river town 
 into a large and flourishing city. What, then, may she not ex- 
 pect when the five railroads now constructed and in progress, 
 from Indianapolis, are completed . . . affording her access to 
 every part of Indiana and eastern Illinois. 
 
 'Large oaks from little acorns grow.' 
 
 "If any of our merchants should undervalue the amount of 
 trade already intercepted by Madison, let them step upon a 
 steamboat and pay her a single day's visit, and they will be 
 astonished at the loss which we already sustain, and which 
 would in itself amply repay the proposed enterprise, since the 
 'railroad direct' would at once restore to us the large and profit- 
 able business which she at present possesses. 
 
 "New York, always sagacious and alive to her own inter- 
 est, has already perceived the magnitude of the prize which lies 
 within our grasp, and is already aiming to secure it by a rail- 
 road direct from Bellefontaine to Indianapolis, which will be 
 completed and in use this fall as far east from the latter point 
 as Pendleton. 
 
 "Now, then, what will our prospect be three years hence 
 for the most important trade we possess? 
 
 "New York will be within three days' travel, via Indianapo- 
 lis, of Lafayette, of Peru, of Terre Haute; and via Terre 
 Haute, within four days of St. Louis — direct. 
 
 "Madison will be within twenty-four hours of the same 
 points, and also of Bellefontaine and Rushville. 
 
68 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 ''Louisville will be in connection within twenty-four hours, 
 with the two White rivers and the Wabash valley. 
 
 "Evansville will be the southern terminus of the Wabash 
 and Erie Canal — the cheapest and best route for goods into 
 that rich valley during six months in the year. 
 
 "And where will Cincinnati be? 
 
 "Where Louisville has been for ten years past — where 
 Baltimore is now — nowhere! 
 
 "The sectional jealousies of short-sighted politicians in 
 Indiana have hitherto defeated every attempt for a charter from 
 Cincinnati to Indianapolis direct. But, in the haste of adjourn- 
 ment last session, it is well known that they have inadvertently 
 given us such a privilege via Rushville, the cheapest, most di- 
 rect, and every way most desirable route we could have selected. 
 
 "The enterprising inhabitants of that flourishing town, 
 and of the counties adjacent to the road, although their means 
 are somewhat diminished by their railroad, just completed, to 
 Shelbyville, connecting them, via Edinburgh, with Madison, 
 are fully alive to the importance of work, and the writer of this 
 article has been assured by several of her leading men, that if 
 we will but meet them at the State line, Indiana will make her 
 own connection with Indianapolis. 
 
 "Thirty years of commercial intimacy have made Cincinnati 
 deservedly popular in Indiana. 
 
 "Everywhere, during three months which the writer has 
 spent in . . . that region, the most earnest desire has been mani- 
 fested by the merchants . . . for a connection that would 
 enable them to purchase their goods in Cincinnati, instead of 
 in Madison, Louisville, and New York, as at present. 
 
 ". . .we think it will be obvious to every intelligent busi- 
 ness man, that the direct road to Indianapolis, thus tapping 
 every public work in Indiana, is the road which our position 
 imperatively demands, and in comparison with which all others 
 . . . are of small importance. The city should subscribe liber- 
 ally in its corporate capacity. Every property holder should 
 contribute — every merchant . . . should take stock freely, 
 according to his means; for, by this small (comparatively 
 small) undertaking, Cincinnati becomes the center of such a 
 system of railway communication as is possessed by no other 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 69 
 
 city in the world, New York excepted. We shall have, via 
 Indianapolis, Eastern Indiana, via Pendleton and Winchester, 
 to Bellefontaine ; Southern Indiana, via Rushville, Shelbyville, 
 and Edinburgh, to Madison ; Southwestern Indiana and the 
 White river valley, via Columbus and Bloomington, and thence, 
 doubtless in a short time, to the Wabash in that direction; 
 Western Indiana to Terre Haute, and off in that direction to 
 St. Louis; Northwestern Indiana, to Lafayette; and Northern 
 Indiana, to Peru. 
 
 "If the books are not opened for this direct road to Indi- 
 anapolis, via Rushville, before its next session, the Legislature 
 will, beyond doubt, repeal their involuntary grant. Shall we 
 push on with 
 
 The tide 
 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ?' 
 
 "In a few weeks, time will show. 
 
 A Merchant." 
 
 The Madison and Indianapolis road, with its feeders, being 
 the first in the field, fought hard against the construction of 
 the Lawrenceburgh and Jeffersonville roads. The Jefferson- 
 ville Railroad had been chartered on January 20, 1846, as the 
 Ohio and Indianapolis Railroad Company; the new name was 
 adopted under an act of January 15, 1849. The city of Louis- 
 ville contributed $200,000 to the road and Jeffersonville also 
 made a large donation. The following editorial from the 
 Cincinnati Gazette, reprinted in the weekly Sentinel of July 17, 
 1 85 1, clearly outlines the situation: 
 
 "An active competition is going on among the towns below 
 us on the river, to draw away from Cincinnati the trade of the 
 fertile State of Indiana, and to secure it to themselves. Their 
 united efforts are of course, directed to divert this trade from 
 us, however they may disagree in the distribution of it. 
 
 "Louisville and Jeffersonville, in the direction of Indianapo- 
 lis represent one interest, New Albany another, Madison still 
 another, and more powerful interest. The road from Jeffer- 
 sonville to Columbus is nearly ready for the cars. The certainty 
 of the completion of this rival road, has stimulated Madison to 
 more vigorous exertions to prevent the trade of the rich 
 counties of Shelby, Rush, &c, from being diverted to Louis- 
 
70 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 ville. As a means of preventing this, the City Council of 
 Madison have appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
 Sullivan, White, Stapp and Farnsworth, to negotiate for the 
 purchase by the city, of the Railway from Edinburgh to 
 Shelbyville. 
 
 "The Louisville Courier says : Tt will not do for our citi- 
 zens to remain listless while neighboring cities are active and 
 awake to their interests. Louisville should have the control of 
 the roads beyond Columbus, as in this way only can our mer- 
 chants trade with the people of that section on anything like 
 fair and equal terms. Let us . . . secure these roads, and we 
 will . . . secure a trade of almost incalculable magnitude . . . 
 with which we have heretofore been entirely unacquainted, and 
 which has been enjoyed exclusively by Cincinnati and Madison. 
 Few of our readers have an adequate conception of the beauty, 
 fertility, and productiveness of that portion of Indiana with 
 which the Jefferson Railway will bring us into connection, and 
 now that the vast trade of this region is within our grasp, we 
 must not by inaction permit it to be wrested from us. A bright 
 future is before Louisville if she is only true to herself.' 
 
 "And what will be the future of Cincinnati, if she sleeps 
 on, and lets this vast trade go into other markets? — Cin. 
 Gazette." 
 
 That Louisville on this occasion proved true to herself is 
 shown by the following announcement in the weekly Sentinel 
 of July 17, 1851, taken from the Louisville Courier: 
 
 "Our Indiana Railroad Connections. — We are de- 
 lighted ... to inform our readers that the Jeffersonville 
 Railroad Company has effected the purchase of the Edinburgh 
 and Shelbyville railroad, and have already taken possession of 
 it. They have also leased, for the term of five years the Shelby- 
 ville and Knightstown road. This is a move of great import- 
 ance to Louisville, as it secures to us the trade of the richest 
 portion of Indiana." 
 
 The majority of the stock ($110,000 out of $141,300) in 
 the Shelbyville Lateral Railroad (between Edinburg and 
 Shelbyville) was owned by two of Madison's wealthiest citi- 
 zens, Michael G. Bright and John Woodburn. When it was 
 proposed that the city of Madison buy this railroad, there was 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 71 
 
 great opposition. In the Madison Daily Courier of July 9, 
 185 1, Garber said : 
 
 "We have no idea that the citizens of this city will enter 
 the lists with Louisville, in bidding for the Shelbyville road. 
 Madison is probably the only city on the Ohio that has not run 
 in debt to aid works of internal improvement. — When she docs 
 put forth her energies it will not be to invest in such a road as 
 the Shelbyville. We understand that Messrs. M. G. Bright and 
 John Woodburn, who are so deeply interested in the sale, would 
 be opposed to taxing their city property for the purpose of 
 buying this road." 
 
 And added on July 16, 185 1 : 
 
 "Under all the circumstances surrounding this case, we are 
 clearly of the opinion, that the city of Madison should not be- 
 come the purchaser of any of this stock. The road is too far 
 from us, and the action of the stockholders of the Madison road 
 too uncertain as regards the future." 
 
 At any rate Bright and Woodburn did sell their stock, ex- 
 changing it by an agreement dated July 1, 185 1, for stock of 
 the Jeffersonville Railroad Company. Jeffersonville stock to 
 the amount of $175,000 was exchanged for the $141,300 out- 
 standing Lateral Railroad stock. In 1853 Bright and Wood- 
 burn were elected directors of the Jeffersonville Road. 51 
 
 The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad and the city of 
 Madison immediately made plans to win back the trade lost by 
 the sale of the Shelbyville Lateral, by building a new road from 
 Columbus to Shelbyville. The situation is clearly set out in 
 an article appearing on August 11, 1852, in the Courier, under 
 the heading "Columbus & Shelby Railroad" : 
 
 "Mr. Brough last night spoke to the largest assemblage of 
 citizens we have ever seen collected at the Court House, upon 
 the importance of this proposed Railroad to the trade of Madi- 
 son. Some propositions are so plain, said Mr. Brough, that a 
 bare mention of its object is sufficient. So we think, and so, 
 doubtless, our readers in this city will think after we have 
 stated the facts. 
 
 "At the town of Shelbyville, in Shelby County, two Rail- 
 roads branch off, one through the fertile county of Rush, the 
 
 51 Madison Daily Courier, May 19, 1853. 
 
72 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 other to Knightstown in Henry Co., which will be continued to 
 Newcastle in the same county, and thence to Fort Wayne, on 
 the Wabash and Erie Canal. The produce of the counties of 
 Rush, Hancock and Henry is now carried over the two roads 
 we have mentioned to Shelbyville, thence with the produce of 
 Shelby county, over the Shelbyville road, to Edinburg, thence 
 to Madison. — The merchants and manufacturers of Madison 
 have made desirable business connections with the farmers and 
 business men of those counties. The city of Louisville has bid 
 for the trade of these fertile counties, designated the 'garden 
 counties of the State' through her Jeffersonville road, the pur- 
 chase of the Shelbyville road and the construction of eleven 
 miles of new road from Columbus to Edinburg at a cost of 
 some $400,000. Now the proposition is simply, will the city 
 of Madison aid in securing the trade she now has by a liberal 
 subscription to the stock of the proposed road from Columbus 
 to Shelbyville, a distance of twenty miles, which is estimated 
 to cost $175,000? Or will she rest quietly and see her trade 
 cut off ? What is asked of the people of this city? A subscrip- 
 tion by the city of 50 or $60,000 to the capital stock of this 
 road. The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company agree- 
 ing to guarantee that she shall realize at least six per cent on 
 the investment." 
 
 In spite of opposition by the Bright-Woodburn interest, the 
 Madison council passed a resolution to subscribe $50,000 for 
 stock in the new railroad. 52 Work was begun in the summer 
 of 1853 and the road was completed in December. 53 In the 
 
 52 Madison Daily Courier, September 3, 1852. 
 
 ^According to the Courier of December 27, 1853 : "The Columbus & 
 Shelby Railroad is completed — the last bar was laid on Saturday last. The 
 road will be formally opened to the trade today. . . . The Columbus & 
 Shelby Railroad is twenty-three and three quarters of a mile long, and was 
 commenced about the 1st of June last, and put through in the unprecedented 
 short time of seven months — not quite ten days to the mile 
 
 "This road is owned mainly by the city of Madison and the Madison and 
 Indianapolis Railroad, and, although the [Shelbyville and] Knightstown 
 Road has been sold to the Jeffersonville Company, [and] a new running 
 arrangement has been made by the same company with the [Shelbyville and] 
 Rushville Road — the traps and triggers all set to prevent a pound of freight 
 or a dollars' worth of trade from coming to this city ... yet the trade the 
 Columbus & Shelby Road will bring to this city will be very valuable, and 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 73 
 
 spring of 1853 the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad se- 
 cured another " feeder" when it leased the line from Franklin 
 to Martinsville. 54 
 
 In the meantime, however, the Jeffersonville Railroad had 
 been completed to Columbus 55 and was being continued to 
 Edinburg, paralleling the Madison Railroad. The rivalry be- 
 tween the two lines was bitter, and sometimes amusing. 56 The 
 Daily Courier of January 27, 1853, carried the following 
 article : 
 
 "Exciting Locomotive Race. — Yesterday morning a race 
 came off between the two trains of cars on the Jeffersonville 
 and Madison roads. The two railroads are laid side and side 
 for ten or twelve miles, from Columbus to Taylorsville and 
 the trains started very near together, the Madison train in the 
 lead, when the passengers threw out banters for a race. — This 
 was accepted by the Jeffersonville train, drawn by the fine 
 locomotive Clarke, and away they went at real 'railroad speed,' 
 when the Clarke passed Madison 'under way,' like a streak, to 
 the great delight of the passengers on the train. [Lou. Courier. 
 
 "Great difficulty is experienced by the managers of the 
 Madison road in passing the numerous trains engaged in trans- 
 porting the heavy freights which pass over the road. Each 
 engineer has a time book, which he is required to run his train 
 by. He is considered as culpable by the managers if he tran- 
 scends the order by running too fast as too slow ; each train is 
 expected to be at the proper place at the right time, neither too 
 fast or behind the time. The Locomotive 'Clarke' or any other 
 engine of the Jeffersonville road, can pass or be passed on the 
 parallel road whenever it suits them to do either. The Jeffer- 
 sonville road is 'a boy yet,' the Madison road is in the prime 
 of manhood, knows what it is about, and about what it can do." 
 
 Further west, Louisville had been trying to hold the trade 
 of the counties along the present Monon route, as witness the 
 following editorial from the Louisville Democrat : 57 
 
 prove the wisdom of the City Fathers in the subscription ... to aid in 
 its construction." 
 
 u Ibid., March 31, 1853. 
 
 **Ibid., October 9, 1852. 
 
 x Ibid., January 31 and May 2, 1853. 
 
 ""Reprinted in Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), June 7, 1849. 
 
74 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 "Extension of the Salem and Indianapolis Railroad. 
 — A committee of the citizens of Lawrence county is now in 
 this city, prepared to solicit subscriptions for the construction 
 of this road. 58 We have but a few words to say. 'Be wise in 
 time.' The contribution of $40,000 in stock will secure the 
 completion of this road to Bedford, on White river, in the short 
 space of eighteen months. The whole country along the line 
 of this road is awake to its importance, and the question is now 
 distinctly asked of Louisville, will you, by subscribing the sum 
 asked, secure the valuable trade of this richest portion of Indi- 
 ana, or permit Cincinnati and Madison to wrest it from you 
 by making a branch road from Columbus to Bloomington ? 59 
 This is now proposed by the Madison and Indianapolis Rail- 
 road Company; and the stock will be taken, too, if Louisville 
 refuses to extend the necessary aid, and requite that country 
 that has so long remained faithful to her, and is now disposed 
 to pour its wealth into her lap. We repeat, therefore, to the 
 merchants and citizens generally, 'be wise in time.' We trust 
 that it will soon be our pleasant duty to announce that the whole 
 amount of stock required is taken. — Lou. Dem." 
 
 The mention of a proposed Columbus and Bloomington 
 road brings up the thought of what might have been. The 
 semi weekly Sentinel commented on May 16, 1849: 
 
 "We have neglected to notice the proposed new line of rail- 
 road from Columbus to Bloomington, via Nashville in Brown 
 county. . . . We have now the proceedings of a meeting of 
 the Board of Directors of said line, which we shall publish in 
 our next if possible. There seems to be no doubt that the 
 magnificent hills of Brown county will soon echo with the 
 snorting of the locomotive ; and when that time does come 
 many who now regard the 'State of Brown' as 'a howling 
 wilderness,' may find out that it embraces within its confines 
 some of the most beautiful scenery in the State, and that the 
 location is as healthy as it is beautiful.' 3 
 
 Madison was vitally interested in the construction of this 
 
 58 For a full account of the New Albany and Salem Railroad (now the 
 Monon), see A Pioneer Indiana Railroad, by Frank F. Hargrave (Indian- 
 apolis, 1932). 
 
 59 The promoters of the New Albany and Salem undoubtedly opposed the 
 building of the road from Columbus to Bloomington. See ibid., p. 41. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 75 
 
 road. At a meeting held at the courthouse to devise ways and 
 means of aiding its construction, Mr. Brough made an address 
 which convinced "all who heard him that Madison must look 
 to her Railroads, and to her Railroads alone, in order to com- 
 pete with her rivals on the East and West, for the interior trade 
 of our State." A resolution was passed requesting the board of 
 county commissioners to subscribe for stock to the amount of 
 $5o,ooo. 60 
 
 On April 10, 1850, the Daily Courier reported that the sur- 
 veys on the Columbus and Bloomington road had been "carried 
 as far as Nashville, eighteen and three-tenths miles from Col- 
 umbus. An entirely different route has been obtained from the 
 line originally run, and one that is thought will be much more 
 easily constructed." 
 
 The following additional news was given in the issue of 
 May 16, 1850, under the heading "Columbus, Nashville, and 
 Bloomington Railroads" : 
 
 "The Bloomington Herald says : On Wednesday evening 
 last Mr. Sprague, the principal engineer of this road, with a 
 corps of surveyors, levelers, &c, accompanied by J. H. Bradley, 
 Esq., one of the Directors, reached Bloomington, and stopped 
 for the night at the Temperance Inn. From them we gather 
 the following facts : The survey is completed through to Bloom- 
 ington, upon which an estimate can be made. The route will 
 probably be changed in a few places when finally located, where 
 the line can be improved enough to warrant the change. 
 The line is, perhaps, one of the most favorable ones of that 
 length in the State, with the exception of two points — both 
 together being only about four and a half miles long. These 
 points are the head of Salt Creek, in Brown county, and the 
 ascent from Brummet's Creek, in Monroe. They must receive 
 pretty heavy grades — possibly seventy-four feet to the mile. 
 The great Cumberland road has grades of eighty-five feet to 
 the mile. The ascent from Brummet's Creek will not cost 
 probably over half as much as was at first expected. The whole 
 distance will be thirty-six and a half miles." 
 
 On July 3, 1850, the Courier noted that "about one hundred 
 thousand dollars additional subscription is required to ensure 
 
 60 Madison Daily Courier, November 21, 1849. 
 
76 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 the completion of the road," and added : "There is no project 
 in the State in which the city of Madison has so deep an interest 
 as this Bloomington Road. To bring the treasures of the 
 mineral region of the State to this point, is at once to ensure 
 manufacturing enterprise and capital, and build up here a large 
 and flourishing city." 
 
 Unfortunately the financial difficulties could not be over- 
 come and the Courier of November 9, 1850, laments the un- 
 happy fate of the proposed road : 
 
 "Requescient in Pace ! 
 
 "All earthly things must fade away. The great elements 
 of creation are every day resolved by the unceasing ravages of 
 time. The laws of decay are written upon the Heavens. Man 
 should therefore reconcile himself to these fixed ordinances 
 of nature. The Columbus, Nashville and Bloomington Rail- 
 road, so magnificently depicted upon paper, so essential to the 
 welfare of our citizens, and so familiar to our readers, is a 
 creature of yesterday, and its obituary is written. Farewell! 
 Had you lived to the vigor of manhood earth would have scarce 
 limited thy fame 
 
 "The above article we cut from the Bloomington Reporter 
 of the 19th of October. From all we can learn, concerning the 
 Road, we are constrained to say that it is true. The project 
 has failed. The amount necessary to complete the grubbing 
 and grading of the road was estimated at $210,000; of this sum 
 Jefferson and Bartholomew counties, and citizens of Madison 
 subscribed $110,000, leaving only $100,000 for the county of 
 Monroe and her citizens; they have refused or neglected to 
 do their part toward the grading, &c. (The Madison road 
 would have made the superstructure, furnished and put down 
 the iron. ) We say too, may it rest in peace ; and may the 
 county of Jefferson get her bonds again, and devote the same 
 to the erection of a court-house and fire-proof buildings, for 
 the safe keeping of the titles to the millions of dollars in 
 property within her limits, or to the different plankroads, 
 which terminate in this city, and which are crawling along 
 slowly, but we hope surely, toward completion." 
 
 The Madison influence in the legislature was so strong that 
 the promoters of a road between Cincinnati and Indianapolis 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 77 
 
 had to resort to rather devious methods to get a charter. Said 
 the weekly Sentinel of January 31, 1850: 
 
 "J u st before the close of the session of the Indiana legis- 
 lature, an act passed incorporating Companies to construct a 
 railway from Indianapolis to Shelbyville, 61 thence to Greens- 
 burgh. This, connected with the Lawrenceburgh Road to 
 Rushville, will open a direct way to Cincinnati by way of 
 Lawrenceburgh. We have not seen the act, and are not advised 
 of its provisions beyond what is stated above. Even this act 
 met with the opposition of the Madison interest. — Cincinnati 
 Gazette. 
 
 "The 'Madison interest' knew nothing about it ; nor do we 
 suppose that ten members of the General Assembly were any 
 wiser. It was a trick of legislation, such as is often played off 
 under the loose manner of doing business, which has always 
 prevailed in our legislature, upon the plea of economy. No 
 such trick could be played, if bills were printed; but that would 
 cost something! Everybody here, however, is glad that the 
 bill spoken of by the Gazette was smuggled through; and if 
 the Cincinnatians want the road, as they certainly should, they 
 had better take hold of it, immediately and actively." 
 
 The Junction Railroad (now the Baltimore and Ohio be- 
 tween Cincinnati and Indianapolis) was also meeting opposi- 
 tion, as shown by the following article reprinted from the Cin- 
 cinnati Gazette in the triweekly Sentinel of December 10, 1850 : 
 
 61 The first railroad track laid in Indiana (1834) was a m1 ^ section 
 near Shelbyville on a projected Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis line. A car 
 operated by horse power was run on it, primarily for exhibition purposes. 
 It was not extended and should not be confused with the road built in the 
 early fifties. The latter was constructed under several charters. The Rush- 
 ville and Lawrenceburgh was incorporated in 1849 to build a line via 
 Greensburg. By an act of January 21, 1850, the Shelbyville and Indianapolis 
 Railroad Company was chartered and the name of the Rushville and 
 Lawrenceburgh was changed to Lawrenceburgh and Upper Mississippi. 
 These roads finally consolidated to form the Indianapolis and Cincinnati. 
 In 1850 the Lawrenceburgh and Upper Mississippi was proposing to build 
 its main line west from Greensburg through Edinburg and Martinsville to 
 Terre Haute with branch lines to Columbus and to Shelbyville and Indian- 
 apolis. The Annual Report, 1852, shows that the directors were then putting 
 all their efforts on the line through Shelbyville to Indianapolis, while the 
 Greensburg and Terre Haute line remained a road on paper. 
 
78 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 "A correspondent near Connersville, Ind., writes us on the 30th 
 ult., that the operators from Madison, &c, have been through 
 the counties of Shelby, Rush, Fayette, Union, Henry, and 
 Marion, purchasing up the hogs, and sending them forward 
 to Madison on the Railroad, and that 50,000 hogs will be sent 
 there this season, which would not have been sent if the Junc- 
 tion Railroad to Cincinnati had been made. They would have 
 been sent to Cincinnati, where a better price would have been 
 obtained, but the farmers in that region have got tired of driv- 
 ing hogs on foot. 
 
 "Our correspondent thinks it strange that the people of 
 Cincinnati should hesitate a moment to assist the Junction 
 Road, and says that if the Junction Company had $200,000 
 more stock subscribed, they could finish their road to Indi- 
 anapolis — finish it in one year, so much of it being already 
 done. That amount of additional stock would have been taken 
 by the citizens along the line, had they not been crippled by the 
 [Whitewater] canal, and restrained by the indifference of 
 Cincinnati, and the active exertions of Madison and Louisville 
 to push forward their projected roads to divert business and 
 travel from this city. . . . — Cin. Gaz." 
 
 6. 
 
 While the river cities were struggling for the trade of 
 central Indiana, work was being done in other parts of the state 
 that eventually had a decided effect on the result. The Terre 
 Haute and Richmond Railroad Company was chartered on 
 January 26, 1847, to build a road between those two places by 
 way of Indianapolis. By an act of the legislature, approved 
 January 20, 1851, the original company was succeeded by two 
 companies, one of which, retaining the original name, was to 
 construct the line between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. The 
 other company, the Indiana Central, was to build the line be- 
 tween Richmond and Indianapolis. The first company was 
 frequently referred to as the Terre Haute and Indianapolis but 
 the name was not officially changed until 1865. 
 
 The progress made on these lines can be followed in the 
 Sentinel On June 13, 1850, the editor wrote: "We were 
 startled, the other day, by the sound of the steam cars rolling 
 over the Terre Haute road through the south-western part of 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 79 
 
 our city, two or three squares south of the State House. The 
 steam cars are now running as far as White River, conveying 
 materials for the road." On May 27, 1851, the following item 
 was reprinted from the Terre Haute Journal: "The iron for 
 the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad is arriving. The 
 steamer Bay State came up yesterday morning with a full cargo 
 of this article ; as did also the Lewis Wetzel yesterday after- 
 noon." On June 10, 185 1, the daily Sentinel reported that 
 "two locomotives for the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Rail- 
 road came up on the Madison road to this city on last Friday. 
 They are elegantly finished, and display more taste on the part 
 of the builders for gracefulness and beauty than any locomo- 
 tive we ever saw before. They are entirely new, and are from 
 the 'Boston Locomotive Works.' " 
 
 Terre Haute must have been booming at this period, for 
 the Wabash and Erie Canal had been completed to that point 
 in October, 1849. Chapman, who had formerly lived in that 
 town, wrote : 62 
 
 "The Wabash & Erie canal is at length finished to Terre 
 Haute. The boats arrived on Thursday last, from Toledo, 
 with gentlemen on board, of the intermediate towns. The good 
 people of Terre Haute rejoiced exceedingly, fired big guns, 
 and gave a glorious dinner to the company on board the boats. 
 Terre Haute, the most beautifully situated town in this State, 
 and perhaps in the whole West, will now go ahead rapidly. 
 Her generous inhabitants, (barring their inveterate whiggery, 
 of the 'tender mercies' of which we had some experience in 
 time past,) 63 will show themselves deserving of their addi- 
 tional good fortune." 
 
 Concerning the Richmond end of the line, the triweekly 
 Sentinel of December 7, 1850, reported as follows : "We are 
 informed by those who are most acquainted with the progress 
 of the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad, that the grading 
 
 62 Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), November 1, 1849. 
 
 63 Probably these "tender mercies" were not unrequited, if we can judge 
 from the following note in the weekly Sentinel of July 12, 1849: "The last 
 Wabash Express [Terre Haute] contains a 'picture' from 'Natural History,' 
 which was probably intended for the doggery-type of the editor of that 
 paper, but it looks a great deal more like the whig candidate for Congress 
 in that district. Which of you was it intended for, Danaldson?" 
 
80 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 
 of said road from Greenfield to Knightstown, was on the 27th 
 tilt., sold out to responsible bidders at low rates and that the 
 work on the same will commence as soon as the state of the 
 weather will admit, and that the grading of the same from 
 Centreville to the State line, is also let ; and notice of the letting 
 of the grading and grubbing from Centreville to Knightstown 
 which was advertised to take place on the 5th inst. ; which 
 leaves but twenty miles to- wit : from Greenfield to Indianapolis, 
 of the entire road to be hereafter let." 
 
 Farther north construction had been begun on the Lafayette 
 and Indianapolis line under a charter approved in January, 
 1846, and we note that books were opened on the first of June 
 of that year for stock subscriptions at various towns, including 
 "Lafayette, in the county of Tippecanoe, under the superin- 
 tendence of John Purdue." 64 
 
 The Peru and Indianapolis, also chartered in 1846 to con- 
 struct another road from the capital to the Wabash and Erie 
 Canal, had overcome early difficulties and was laying flat bar 
 rail on the southern end of its line, which was completed to 
 Noblesville in March, 185 1. 65 On March 5 the semiweekly 
 Sentinel contained the following announcement : 
 
 "Ho! for Noblesville! — The Celebration of the com- 
 pletion of the first twenty-two miles of the Peru Rail Road 
 will come off at Noblesville on next Tuesday, the nth instant. 
 The cars will leave this city at 8 o'clock a. m., and 2 p. m. and 
 returning will leave Noblesville at 10 1/2 a. m. and 4. p. m., 
 stopping at 'intermediate ports.' Fare 50 cents for the round 
 trip. The Brass Band of Noblesville will officiate, and 
 speeches are expected from Gov. Wallace, and others. Indi- 
 anapolis will be thar." 
 
 The celebration was actually held on March 12. The 
 Sentinel says that "at 8 o'clock a. m. a train of open cars, 
 loaded to overflowing with ladies and gentlemen from our city, 
 started amid the cheering strains of music from Downie's 
 
 64 For an account of the building of this line, see "The Big Four Railroad 
 in Indiana," by Ared Maurice Murphy, in Indiana Magazine of History, 
 XXI, 140-60 (June-September, 1925). 
 
 65 By ordinance of the City Council of Indianapolis, September 10, 1849, 
 the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad Company was directed to straighten 
 Pogue's Run between New Jersey and Washington streets. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 81 
 
 Brass Band. At every crossroad crowds of anxious and 
 astonished native Hoosiers were waiting to get their first sight 
 of the iron horse, and as he foamed and puffed along, we were 
 greeted with cheering and waving of handkerchiefs. At half 
 past nine, the train entered the streets of Noblesville, where 
 hundreds of persons were already awaiting our arrival. . . . 
 Long live Noblesville, and its hospitable citizens. " 
 
 Apparently as an afterthought, the editor added : "The 
 opening of this Railroad will bring to our city the trade of 
 Hamilton and Tipton counties, which will aid in increasing the 
 prosperity of the Railroad City." 66 
 
 Thus, early in 185 1, Indianapolis had three railroads in 
 operation and the following schedule appeared in the daily 
 Sentinel of April 28. 
 
 "Madison and Indianapolis — Leaves daily, except Sun- 
 day, at 8 1/4, a. m. Arrives every day, except Sunday, at 
 12 1/2 o'clock M. 
 
 "Indianapolis and Bellefontain[e] — Leaves for Pen- 
 dleton, daily, except Sunday, at 3 1/2 o'clock p. m. Arrives 
 from Pendleton, every day, except Sunday, at a quarter before 
 8 o'clock, A. M. 
 
 "Indianapolis and Peru — Leaves for Noblesville, daily, 
 Sundays excepted, at a quarter before 4, p. m. Arrives from 
 Noblesville, every day, except Sunday, at 8 o'clock, a. m." 
 
 All of these roads were using the Madison Depot. The 
 daily Sentinel of April 29, 1851, reported: "The arrivals of 
 the cars from Pendleton and Noblesville, and the departure of 
 the trains for Madison, every morning, make a stirring time 
 at the depot. The whistling of the Locomotives, the rumbling 
 of the Cars, and the hurry and bustle of the porters and pas- 
 sengers, render the scene an interesting one to our country 
 friends, who crowd to the depot every morning." 
 
 06 The Indiana State Journal (weekly), August 3, 1850, made this 
 prophecy : "Boston has heretofore been called the Rail Road City. She will 
 not long be entitled to the honor. Indianapolis will take that laurel from 
 her brow. When our Rail Roads are all completed, (and they will be in 
 less than five years) we shall have six roads commencing here, viz: — 
 The Madison, the Terre Haute, the Bellefontaine, the Lafayette, the Peru, 
 and the Lawrenceburgh. Gov. Ray was right, when, eight years ago, he 
 called this the 'Radiating Rail Road City.' " 
 
82 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 It should be noted that these partially completed roads 
 centering in Indianapolis were acting as feeders of the Madi- 
 son road. The Ohio River was still the main highway and 
 Madison was still the main gateway to the state. The five 
 years of her greatest glory were from 1847 to ^S 2 * an d this 
 was due to the practical monopoly enjoyed by the Madison 
 and Indianapolis Railroad. That road was tremendously pros- 
 perous, and its president, John Brough, was correspondingly 
 arrogant. John R. Cravens, of Madison, who was also an 
 officer of the company, gave two interesting examples of this 
 attitude. When the directors of the Ohio and Mississippi road 
 came to Mr. Brough with the proposition that they would 
 build their line by way of Lawrenceburg and Madison to Vin- 
 cennes, if the Madison road would support them, Mr. Brough 
 replied that "the Madison Road cannot father all the paupers 
 in the country." The Ohio and Mississippi is now the Balti- 
 more and Ohio Railroad. The story of Madison would doubt- 
 less have been far different had Mr. Brough accepted this 
 offer. Chauncey Rose, president of the Terre Haute road, 
 about the same time proposed that the Madison road should 
 lease his line, and received the same answer. Mr. Rose re- 
 plied with appropriate profanity that they would soon see 
 which was going to be the pauper road. 67 In a few years the 
 Madison road was in financial straits. 
 
 In spite of these indications to the contrary, Mr. Brough 
 was making an effort to create good will for the railroad in 
 Indiana, as is made clear by the following item : 68 "We are 
 authorized to say that all articles from this State, designed for 
 exhibition at the Agricultural Fair, to be held at Cincinnati, 
 during the first week in October next, will be carried over the 
 Madison and Indianapolis Railroad free of charge; the fact 
 that they are so designed to be satisfactorily shown to the 
 agents. Stock will also be transported without charge. Every 
 effort will be made to prevent injury to it; but under this 
 rule the Company will not be responsible for damages, other 
 
 67 Cravens, John R., "Pioneer Days of the Madison and Indianapolis 
 Railroad Company," in Indiana Magazine of History, XII, 243-44 (Sep- 
 tember, 1916). 
 
 ^Madison Daily Courier, September 7, 1850. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 83 
 
 than those that may accrue from any defect in their cars or 
 means of transportation." 
 
 Garber of the Courier, who was carrying on an editorial 
 battle with Defrees of the State Journal, took advantage of an 
 opportunity to hold him up to ridicule : 69 
 
 "Under the liberal order of the managers of the M. & I. 
 Railroad, to pass animals over the road, intended for exhibi- 
 tion at the Ohio State Agricultural Fair, the great one of 
 Indianapolis, the celebrated J. D. Defrees, was passed over the 
 road yesterday free. He arrived here safe, and was shipped 
 for Cincinnati on the steamer Ringgold, under the paternal 
 care of Capt. T. T. Wright, who understands the management 
 of donkeys almost as well as boats. There is hardly a doubt 
 but the premium on this kind of stock will be awarded to 
 Indiana." 70 
 
 The Couriers attitude in a case involving the transporta- 
 tion of newspapers is easily understandable. 71 Garber quoted 
 the following paragraph from the Cincinnati Commercial : 
 
 "About the meanest act we have heard of lately is the 
 prompt refusal to transport newspapers for circulation over 
 the M. & I. Railroad free of charge. Several publishers would 
 send their papers to Indianapolis daily for circulation, were it 
 not for the tariff of 25 cents per package, laid on by the 
 President, John Brough. We did not know before that so 
 small a spirit existed inside of the great fat man. No other 
 railroad in the U. States charges newspaper publishers a cent 
 for carrying their packages the year in and year out, and the 
 President of the M. & I. Railroad is welcome to all the popu- 
 larity he can obtain for his small potato decision. ..." 
 
 To this attack Garber retorted: "On Friday last we re- 
 ferred to the above illiberal and coarse attack, made by the 
 Cincinnati Commercial upon President Brough, of the model 
 railroad of the west. We then said that our papers had been 
 
 m Ibid., October 1, 1850. 
 
 70 Another singular live stock shipment was noted by Garber : "Meldrum 
 & Co. shipped, this morning, from the Hill, a Grizzly Bear, to Indianapolis. 
 This is like sending coal to New Castle, during the session of the Legislature." 
 Ibid., February 14, 1853. 
 
 n Ibid. f October 3, 1850. 
 
84 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 carried and distributed at the different points on the road free 
 of charge, and that if such an order had been made we were 
 not aware of it. Since then we have received the following 
 communication from Mr. Brough, in relation to the transporta- 
 tion of newspapers over the railroad : 
 
 " 'The papers issued here, at Indianapolis, Vernon, Colum- 
 bus and Franklin, are carried, whenever requested, on the cars. 
 We do not feel called upon to carry packages of Cincinnati or 
 New York papers, for the benefit of paper venders, free of 
 charge. The statement is not true that other roads do more 
 than we do. The Little Miami Road carries the papers of 
 Cincinnati free; but I do not understand that packages from 
 Philadelphia or New York are carried free of charge. On 
 eastern roads, all such packages are regularly charged and paid 
 for. We carry our home papers free, as an accommodation 
 to publishers and subscribers. . . . ' " 
 
 Railroad building continued at a rapid pace. An elaborate 
 time card dated June i, 1852, which is now in the Indiana State 
 Library, is reproduced on the facing page. We note that the 
 Terre Haute road has been completed ; the trip to Indianapolis 
 takes four and one-half hours, and the fare is $2.00. Five 
 hours to Madison cost $2.50. You could travel as far as Mun- 
 cietown on the Belief ontaine road for $1.50, and it took three 
 and one-half hours. For a fare of 50 cents you could go to 
 Noblesville in about three hours. There were also trains from 
 Edinburg to Shelbyville, Knightstown, and Rushville, con- 
 necting with the Madison road. To go to Cincinnati, you took 
 a boat at Madison on the arrival of the train at 4 :oo p. m. 
 and got to Cincinnati at 4 :oo a. m., in time to make the morn- 
 ing trains for the east. 
 
 By 1853 it was apparent that the Madison and Indianapolis 
 monopoly was nearly over. As early as January 15, 1852, 
 De frees had advocated in the State Journal the sale of the stock 
 of the Madison and Indianapolis held by the state. He said 
 bluntly: "The Jeffersonville Road will be completed to Co- 
 lumbus early next season — the branch of the New Albany road 
 from Gosport to this city is certain to be made within a short 
 time — and the road ... to Cincinnati, by way of Lawrence- 
 burg, is also certain to be completed at an early day. All these 
 
 

 ti;hhi; iiaiti; \- mniMo\i> n.\ium\i>. 
 
 HAUISON AND CIHCIKHATI PA.CXJET t-IJNB. 
 
 WISCONSIN, AHD HOOSIiR STATE, J 
 
 Capt. J. G. WRrUHT, •;|*> 1 'J 
 
 Capt. T. T. WRIGHT, 
 
 pS|; TERRE HAUTE & RICHMONl 
 
 
 TERRE HAUTE TO INDIANA?' 
 
 <y 
 
 Mm 
 
 Trains from EAenburg to SbelbyviJie, K&igbtstoisra & '. 
 
 WtXJIUT WTI3V& DAILY EIACII W 'A. "V 
 

 VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 85 
 
 Roads will come in competition with the Madison Road, and, 
 in our opinion, will render its stock of very little value. . . . 
 Produce intended for the New Orleans market will not be 
 taken to Madison for transhipment when it can be conveyed to 
 New Albany, below the falls of the Ohio, for the same price ; 
 and that intended for New York will not be sent to Madison 
 when it can be taken to Cincinnati for the same money. Viewed 
 in any possible light, we do not think the State's interest in this 
 road worth a great deal." 
 
 Early in 1853 the Bellefontaine road was finished, 72 and 
 the connection to Cleveland via Galion established in May, 
 while that same month the Richmond Palladium announced 
 that the Indiana Central was completed to Centerville, and 
 that the work would be pushed to the west as fast as money 
 and men would take it. The Central reached Indianapolis in 
 September, and late in the year the Lawrenceburgh road was 
 completed. Thus, at the end of 1853, Indianapolis had two 
 through routes to the east, and three to the Ohio River, for 
 the Jeffersonville road had reached Edinburg in 1852 and 
 after a long controversy with the Madison and Indianapolis 
 an agreement was reached in August, 1853, by the terms of 
 which the trains of the Jeffersonville line were to use the 
 Madison tracks to Indianapolis. 73 
 
 72 "In ten days more the Bellefontaine Road will be completed to Union, 
 and a connection formed with the Dayton and Greenville road. So that we 
 need have no fears of ice obstructing the Eastern travel as heretofore. We 
 shall have a direct through Railroad line to Cincinnati, and in twelve 
 months . . . shall be in connection with Cleveland by this line, and with 
 Columbus, Ohio, by the Central line, via Richmond, Dayton, and Springfield. 
 Soon the shrill whistle of the car will take the place of the keen crack of 
 Jehu's whip. Stage coaches will become obsolete things, and the Billy Neals, 
 Admiral Ressides and Peter Campbells will only be remembered in history. 
 Sic transit gloria mundi." Indiana State Sentinel (weekly), November 
 24, 1852. 
 
 ^Indiana State Sentinel (daily), August 12, 1853. The Jeffersonville 
 road had an exceptionally heavy business during the Civil War, and played 
 an interesting role in connection with Sherman's march to the sea. Sherman's 
 problem was to deliver at Chattanooga and beyond supplies amounting to 
 130 carloads daily. Available were about 60 locomotives and 600 cars, while 
 at least 100 locomotives and 1000 cars were needed. Sherman instructed the 
 holding of all trains that came from Louisville to Nashville. He says : 
 "As soon as Mr. Guthrie, the President of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- 
 
86 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 The later unhappy history of the Madison and Indianapolis 
 Railroad has often been told. After many vicissitudes it was 
 sold at foreclosure in 1862 and finally consolidated with the 
 Jeffersonville line to form the Jeffersonville, Madison and 
 Indianapolis Railroad Company in 1866. 74 Today that part of 
 the "Model Railroad of the West" from Madison to Columbus 
 is a little-used line with one train each way daily. The roads 
 between Edinburg and Shelbyville, and Shelbyville and Knights- 
 town, were abandoned before i860 and a line between Colum- 
 bus and Cambridge City established, using the Columbus and 
 Shelbyville, Shelbyville and Rushville, and the Rushville and 
 Cambridge City line, which was built in 1866 and 1867. 
 
 The Indiana State Journal (daily), September 19, 1853, 
 printed the following comment on the Belle fontaine road, made 
 by Clement E. Babb, editor of the Christian Herald: "The 
 road from Union to Indianapolis is of the first class. Its ma- 
 chinery and cars are equal to any in the West. It has very few 
 curves or grades, and when the track becomes well settled, it 
 
 road, detected that we were holding on to all his locomotives and cars, 
 he wrote me . . . that he would not be able with diminished stock to bring 
 forward the necessary stores from Louisville to Nashville. I wrote to him, 
 frankly telling him exactly how we were placed, appealed to his pa- 
 triotism . . . and advised him ... to hold on to all trains coming into 
 Jeffersonville, Indiana. He and General Robert Allen, then quarter master- 
 general at Louisville, arranged a ferry-boat so as to transfer the trains over 
 the Ohio River from Jeffersonville . . . ; months afterward I was amused 
 to see, away down in Georgia, cars marked 'Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne,' 
 'Delaware & Lackawanna,' 'Baltimore & Ohio,' and indeed with the names 
 of almost every railroad north of the Ohio River. How these railroad 
 companies ever recovered their property, or settled their transportation 
 accounts, I have never heard, but to this fact, as much as to any other 
 single fact, I attribute the perfect success which afterward attended our 
 campaigns." Memoirs of William T. Sherman (2 vols. 2d ed., New York, 
 1886), II, 11-12. 
 
 "Mr. W. N. Jackson, in an autobiographical sketch, attributes the down- 
 fall of the Madison and Indianapolis to the competition of the Lawrence- 
 burgh and the Jeffersonville roads, the unprofitable investment in the 
 Columbus and Shelbyville road, and to the loss of $400,000 in attempting to 
 build a road around the Madison Plane — (afterwards known as "Brough's 
 Folly"). On April 18, 1853, the Madison Courier (daily) noted that there 
 were eight hundred men at work on the proposed new line around the plane. 
 See also Annual Report of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, January, 
 i853, PP- 7-8. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 87 
 
 will admit of as high a rate of speed as any road in the world. 
 The running time now between Indianapolis and Union 
 (eighty- four miles) is about four hours. This route passes 
 through a country that is gently undulating and highly pro- 
 ductive. It has until recently been shut up by bad roads and its 
 distance from market. But since it has come to be within a 
 few hours ride of Indianapolis, Cleveland, Dayton, and all the 
 rest of the world, it is beginning to increase in population and 
 prosperity. Its towns, as Winchester, Muncie, Yorktown, 
 Anderson, Pendleton, etc., are growing fast. It seems like 
 magic — or a dream, that where two years ago a man could 
 hardly get through on horseback at some seasons, hundreds are 
 now dashing along, daily at the rate of twenty-five miles an 
 hour. 
 
 "At Indianapolis we found new buildings, new faces, new 
 trains of cars — every evidence of rapid advancement and pros- 
 pective greatness. We cannot stop to enumerate the changes 
 and improvements of eight short months. They would fill 
 our sheet. 
 
 "But we must not linger at the Railroad city, however great 
 the temptation. It has eighteen trains of cars daily to justify 
 its appropriation of the name. We took one of them to 
 Lafayette at six o'clock. 
 
 "Lafayette is generally well built, and does more business 
 in proportion to its population than any place with which we 
 are acquainted. The amount of the produce shipped and of 
 the goods sold there, is immense." 
 
 A commentary on the prosperity, real or anticipated, of the 
 various railroads running to Indianapolis, is found in the list 
 of prices of stocks and bonds in August, 1853, m tne Cincin- 
 nati market : 75 
 
 Stocks 
 
 Indiana Central 
 Indianapolis & Bellefontaine 
 Indianapolis & Lafayette 
 Jeffersonville & Indianapolis 
 Lawrenceburgh & Upper Mississippi 
 
 ""Indiana State Sentinel (daily), August 8, 1853. 
 
 Offered 
 
 Aske 
 
 88 
 
 90 
 
 IO3 
 
 106 
 
 7 6 
 
 80 
 
 72 
 
 78 
 
 73 
 
 75 
 
go 
 
 
 95 
 
 68 
 
 
 70 
 
 107 1/2 
 
 
 108 1/2 
 
 Int. Due 
 
 Offered Asked 
 
 7 1866 
 
 99 
 
 101 
 
 10 1857 
 
 102 
 
 104 
 
 7 i860 
 
 106 
 
 106 1/2 
 
 7 1861 
 
 95 
 
 95 1/2 
 
 7 1861 
 
 90 
 
 94 
 
 7 1866 
 
 93 
 
 95 
 
 7 1861 
 
 102 
 
 103 
 
 7 1866 
 
 in 
 
 112 
 
 88 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Madison & Indianapolis 
 Peru & Indianapolis 
 Terre Haute & Richmond 
 
 Bonds 
 
 Indiana Central 
 Indiana Central 
 Indianapolis & Bellefontaine 
 Indianapolis & Lafayette 
 Jeffersonville & Indianapolis 
 Lawrenceburgh & Upper Mississippi 7 
 Madison & Indianapolis 
 Terre Haute & Richmond 
 
 7. 
 
 Indianapolis was booming with the railroads. The follow- 
 ing article in the daily Sentinel of May 28, 1853, shows the 
 impression made by the town on a visitor : "Our City. — 'A 
 Cincinnatian' writing to the 'Daily Times/ from this city, 
 under date of the 24th inst, speaks thus of our city : 
 
 "Indianapolis is situated in a vast and fertile plain, some 
 50 or 60 miles square, of the most fertile land in the world, 
 and when fully developed and properly cultivated, will be the 
 seat of a large and wealthy population. 
 
 "I was in this city some seven years ago — then it did not 
 contain over 3 or 4000 inhabitants ; now there are not less than 
 14 or 15,000; every house in the city is occupied, and some 
 have two or three families in them. Property has risen several 
 hundred per cent. ; labor is in great demand, and the highest 
 degree of prosperity is everywhere apparent. 
 
 "Indianapolis is a beautiful place. It has many elegant 
 buildings, and some of the private residences are splendid. 
 The streets are all wide, and graveled; with, in many cases, 
 paved sidewalks. Almost all the streets are ornamented with 
 trees, many of which are now in bloom, and give out a beau- 
 tiful fragrance. The inhabitants display much taste in all of 
 their improvements and designs. You also see many private 
 carriages, evidencing, if not opulence, at least independence. 
 The agricultural interests of the West have been very prosper- 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 89 
 
 ous in the last few years. This with the rise of real estate, and 
 the increased value given to lands by the numerous railroads, 
 have made many families wealthy. If the increase does not 
 continue until a reaction ruins them again, it will be well 
 enough. They are building a splendid hotel here, called the 
 Bates House, equal, if not superior to anything in the West, 
 except the Burnet House. After the Railroad from Terre 
 Haute to St. Louis is finished, and some of those now in the 
 progress of construction, are completed, it is supposed there 
 will be over 3000 strangers daily passing through Indianapolis 
 in the traveling season. There is no doubt Indianapolis will 
 become a large and handsome inland city, and as a place of 
 delightful residence, will have few rivals in the West. 
 
 "The above contains the substance of what we hear from 
 strangers almost every day." 
 
 Comment has already been made on the rivalry of Madison 
 and Indianapolis which began as soon as the M. & I. Railroad 
 was completed. This rivalry was intensified as other railroads 
 were planned and included other Indiana cities as well. The 
 meeting in the editorial mind of two conflicting emotions, state 
 pride and a jealousy of other towns, produced some remark- 
 ably contradictory paragraphs. A letter in the Indiana States- 
 man, published at Indianapolis, and reprinted in the Madison 
 Daily Courier of October 31, 185 1, said: 
 
 "Every person who reads the papers, must have discovered 
 a spirit of rivalry between Indianapolis and Madison — yet, so 
 far as the Press have noticed it, in either city, it has been done 
 very good naturedly. There are, however, individuals in both 
 cities, that do not fail when occasion presents, to express a 
 bitterness toward each other, unpardonable for citizens of the 
 same State. Every high-minded honorable citizen of Indiana, 
 rejoices at the prosperity of any city or town within its bor- 
 ders. If the locality of one city or the enterprise of its citizens, 
 caused it to make more rapid progress than another, let the 
 latter not only rejoice at its neighbor's prosperity, but double 
 its own exertions to win the race, by high and honorable means. 
 That these criminations and recriminations, can affect the pros- 
 perity of either city is not even dreamed of — and all the evil 
 that can result from these foolish slanders, is (the advertising 
 
90 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 a fact) that there are some very ignorant, very jealous, and 
 very narrow-minded men reside in both places. 
 
 "There is a wrong feeling manifested by some of our 
 citizens toward Madison, in connection with the Madison and 
 Indianapolis Railroad. It is said, and said too, with an air of 
 triumph, 'Only let the Jeffersonville Road be completed, and 
 Madison will be left high and dry — alone in her glory.' This 
 is a wrong spirit ; for it evidences a lack of laudable State pride 
 when we desire to contribute to the prosperity of cities of other 
 States, at the expense of those of our own — provided other 
 things are equal." 
 
 New Albany by this time was another close rival of Madi- 
 son. The following attack and answer appeared in the Courier 
 of September 12, 185 1, under the heading "Madison Looking 
 Up." 
 
 "We learn from the Courier that a company is being organ- 
 ized in Madison for the establishment there of an iron foundry 
 and a ship yard on an extensive scale. That's right, gentlemen. 
 Let the Madison people pay more attention to labor and indus- 
 try, and less to speculating, backbiting, and 'financiering,' and 
 she will in time regain a portion of her lost credit. — N. A. 
 Ledger. 
 
 "Really, good friends, it is possible that the people of 
 Madison seem to be more given to 'speculating, backbiting and 
 financiering' than their more righteous neighbors of New 
 Albany. Indeed human nature between Crooked creek and 
 the Ohio is we opine about the same sort of human nature 
 that is developed along 'muddy Mill creek's marshy marge' or 
 the salubrious morasses of Bear Grass. We'll admit appear- 
 ances are against us when compared with New Albany, just as 
 the same comparison would make against Cincinnati and 
 Louisville. 
 
 "A truce, however, to this sanctimonious 'backbiting!' 
 Why cannot Madison and New Albany and Indianapolis and 
 Lafayette and Evansville and Terre Haute, all cities of Indiana, 
 vie in generous rivalry with each other, and grow and prosper 
 alike, without such petty exhibitions of a narrow and selfish 
 jealousy? And why is it that the newspapers, which should 
 always throw their influence to counteract everything illiberal 
 

 VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 91 
 
 and unintelligent, are found rather fostering this spirit of 
 'envy, malice and all uncharitableness' ? We do not exempt 
 from this charge certain publications in our own city, which 
 are ready [to] pounce upon even the uninspired vaticinations 
 of a poor local editor, who, because he wanted a paragraph, 
 and was willing to amuse himself the while, cried aloud, with 
 respect to all but one of the aforesaid cities, after the manner 
 of Jonah before Nineveh, never dreaming that his contempo- 
 raries would be absurd enough to take him for a prophet or the 
 son of a prophet." 
 
 Editor Garber was still in a conciliatory mood on Novem- 
 ber 20, 185 1, when he wrote under the heading "Indiana" : 
 
 "No Western State, we think, has more towns that are 
 advancing with greater rapidity than those of Indiana. Rail- 
 roads and Plankroads, an industrious and growing population, 
 and enterprise and energy, in every pursuit, are developing with 
 astonishing progress her whole Agricultural area and building 
 up at every point demanded by present or prospective Com- 
 merce cities which shall be the centre of Manufactures and the 
 heart into which shall pour the flowing and returning arteries 
 of Trade. Indianapolis, if we predict aright, will demon- 
 strate that a town need not of necessity be located on an Ocean, 
 Lake or River shore to attain magnitude. While New Albany, 
 Madison, Evansville, Terre Haute and Lafayette, all 
 being upon either the navigable Ohio or Wabash Rivers, all 
 being the terminus of or lying upon some great improvement — 
 either a Railroad or a Canal — and all being the radiating point 
 of numerous Plankroads projected and in esse, the march of 
 each is onward, and growth, wealth and prosperity commen- 
 surate with the development of the State at large are in the 
 certain future of all. Add to these a city located upon the 
 Southern shore of Lake Michigan and every section of Indiana 
 will in process of time become independent of any extra terri- 
 torial metropolis. ..." 
 
 But articles like the comment on the following advertise- 
 ment 76 kept finding a place in the columns of the Courier : 
 
 "Madison Daily Courier, April 28, 1852. 
 
92 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 New Arrangement. 
 
 MADISON AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD. 
 
 "On and after Monday, the ioth of May, the Passenger 
 Cars will run as follows : 
 
 "Leave Madison every morning (Sundays excepted) at 7 
 o'clock, and arrive at Indianapolis at 12 m. ; leave Indianapolis 
 on same day at 11 1/2 o'clock, a. m., and arrive at Madison at 
 
 4 l/4 P. M. 
 
 "Arrangements have been made by which the Terre Haute 
 and Indianapolis, Indianapolis and Bellefontaine, and Peru 
 and Indianapolis roads will be run in connection with the Madi- 
 son and Indianapolis road. 
 
 "Passengers will thus be enabled to leave Madison and ar- 
 rive, either at Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Yorktown, or Nobles- 
 ville, on the same clay. In like manner they can leave either 
 of those points, and reach Madison in one day. 
 
 "April 28, 1852. — dim B John R. Cravens 
 
 "Journal and Sentinel, Indianapolis, copy. 
 
 "From an advertisement of the M. & I. Railroad company 
 which is to be found in to-day's paper, we learn that Indian- 
 apolis will only be the town at the other end of the railroad 
 until the tenth of May, after which time it will only be a point 
 on the Madison railroads." 
 
 On June 16, 1852, the Daily Courier was fairly successful 
 in combining a "knock" and a "puff" : 
 
 "Gen. Elliot, of the Wright House, Indianapolis, paid 
 Madison a flying visit last evening, accompanied by his accom- 
 plished lady and her beautiful sister. The General complained 
 of a 'head-ache.' Most people who exchange the quiet retire- 
 ment of village life for the heat, dust, noise, and turmoil of the 
 city are usually affected in this way. The 'Wright House' is 
 one of the best in the State, second to no other west of the 
 Burnet House." 
 
 By 1853 the bitterness was apparently increasing. The 
 daily Sentinel said on August 9, 1853 : "The Madison Courier 
 thinks that the people of Indianapolis are 'prodigiously in- 
 flated.' The most 'prodigiously inflated' man we ever saw was 
 a Madisonian, who by dint of dinning it into his ears at dinner 
 for an hour, had succeeded in making a greenhorn believe that 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 93 
 
 Madison, in population, business, and prosperity, almost 
 equalled Indianapolis, and that it did'nt make a bit of differ- 
 ence to Madison whether any body traveled on the Madison 
 railroad or not." 
 
 Other editors rushed to the aid of Madison. Said the 
 Terre Haute Express, under the heading "Ungrateful" : 77 
 
 "Several papers (those at Indianapolis particularly), are 
 gloating over the ruin which rival roads are said to be bringing 
 upon Madison. It may be that the trade of that city will suffer 
 by the multiplication of these channels of intercommunication, 
 and that the enterprise of her citizens will not meet its just 
 reward. If so, it is to be lamented. — But Indianapolis is the 
 last place where these triumphs should be heard. Madison was 
 the pioneer railroad city of Indiana, and has done more to give 
 vitality to the system than all other communities beside. When 
 either the poverty or meanness of the Capital shut out all hope 
 of aid from that quarter, Madison bravely shouldered the 
 burthen of the road which connected the Ohio with the center, 
 and secured the first successful experiment in this common- 
 wealth. This was done, too, at a time when the credit of the 
 State was prostrate — when Madison capitol alone could be 
 brought to infuse life and health into the enterprise, 78 and 
 
 ^Reprinted in Indiana State Sentinel (daily), August 16, 1853. 
 
 78 The following article throws some light on the relative wealth of the 
 two cities in 1851, and the feeling between them: 
 
 "Large Tax Payers. — According to the new assessment the following 
 persons own over $20,000 worth of taxables in the corporate limits of this 
 city: Harvey Bates, 57,130; Nicholas McCarty, $45,626; Austin W. Morris' 
 heirs, $43,555; Isaac Blackford, $40,676; Daniel Yandes, $40,125; John 
 Carlisle, $31,450; Jas. Blake, $31,258; James Whitcomb, $30,764; William 
 Young, $30,400; Humphrey Griffith, $27,198; James M. Ray, $26,925; 
 Stoughton A. Fletcher, $24,605 ; Little, Drum and Andersons, $24,522 ; 
 William Sheets, $23,300; Robt. B. Duncan, $22,945; James W. Yandes, 
 $22,725; Calvin Fletcher, $21,718; Nathan B. Palmer, 21,500; Noah Noble's 
 heirs, $20,800. hid. State Journal. 
 
 "The Journal has given the world the above statement to show that 
 Indianapolis is bound to be the first city in Hoosierdom. ... If ever the 
 State capital does thrive and grow much beyond its present limits (and as 
 the prosperity of our own city depends upon that of Indianapolis and the 
 State of Indiana at large, we hope that it may grow beyond even the 
 most sanguine expectations of the State Journal,) the capitalists and work- 
 ing men of the city must be . . . the means used in effecting so desirable 
 a result. . . . 
 
94 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 when public odium was attempted to be used to bear down the 
 road. The entire energy of her Stapps, and Brights, and Mar- 
 shall, and Dunns, in the Legislature, and of her Laniers, and 
 Woodburns, and Whiteheads, in the business walks of life, are 
 well remembered, and until their efforts shall be forgotten, it 
 is too soon for the sluggards of Indianapolis to put on airs or 
 take credit for prosperity brought to them by the labors of 
 others. We love Madison for her past heroic conduct — we love 
 her for her energy — we love her for her noble-hearted public 
 men; and, above all, we love her because her legislators and 
 citizens have been uniformly disposed to advance the great 
 interests of the State, and uphold its credit at home and abroad 
 . . . and we sincerely hope that, notwithstanding the predic- 
 tions of its enemies, Madison will continue to prosper, flourish, 
 and expand." 
 
 Editor Garber commented : 79 "We assure the Express that 
 
 "Indianapolis, then, contains nineteen persons whose taxables amount, 
 each, to over $20,000 — with an aggregate of $587,222. In Madison there 
 are four individuals whose taxables amount to $596,525, viz : 
 
 M. G. Bright, $129,640 
 
 W. Hendricks' heirs, 136,760 
 
 John Mclntire's heirs, 236,100 
 
 John Woodburn, 94,025 
 
 $596,525 
 There are also twenty-eight individuals and firms, besides the above four, 
 whose taxables amount to $925,462, viz : 
 
 "Alois Bachman, $35,180; Charles W. Bassnett, $20,150; Jesse D. Bright, 
 $28,150; Barbon, Shaw & Buel, $40,000; Jonathan Fitch, $36,710; J. Farns- 
 worth, Jr., $24,187; Victor King, $22,430; John King, $22,769; George W. 
 Leonard, $34,140; C. T. Lodge, $32,790; J. F. D. Lanier, $65,120; Lewis & 
 Crawford, $38,800; John Marsh, $26,350; John Oliver Mclntire, $26,286; 
 John R. Cravens, $20,800; A. W. Pitcher, $33,425; Nathan Powell, $44,170; 
 Polleys & Butler, $30,500; Isom Ross, $23,200; W. P. Stevens, $25,110; 
 Shrewsbury & Price, $21,300; Chas. L. Shrewsbury, $26,240; White, Cun- 
 ningham & Co., $35,100; David White, $23,900; Jesse Whitehead, $74,320; 
 Shadrach Wilber, $31,190; W. G. Wharton, $21,545; Howard Watts, $24,600; 
 R. & F. Bower, $37,000 — total, $925,462 — making a grand aggregate of 
 $1,521,987. 
 
 "Indianapolis may become the first city in the State in ten years ; it may 
 be possible, but it is certainly highly improbable." Madison Daily Courier, 
 September 17, 1851. 
 
 ™Ibid., August 12, 1853. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 95 
 
 the ruin exists only in the imaginations of those with whom 
 the 'wish is father to the thought.' Rival railroads cannot ruin 
 the prospects of Madison ; they must improve those prospects 
 materially. If the editor of the Express were here for an hour 
 or two we could demonstrate to him that this city was never 
 more prosperous ; her people are doing more business and build- 
 ing more houses than ever they did in any one season, and the 
 untiring energy of the Stapps, Marshalls and Dunns is now 
 ably seconded by 'Young Madison.' 
 
 "The reproof administered to the Indianapolis people is 
 just, for it appears from their actions that they think their 
 city can prosper only at the expense of their neighbor at the 
 deep diggins. This is not, and never was the case with 
 Madison.'' 
 
 Austin H. Brown, the editor of the Sentinel, replied to the 
 attack of the Express as follows : 80 "The assertion that the 
 papers of Indianapolis are 'gloating over the ruin which rival 
 roads are said to be bringing upon Madison,' is, so far as the 
 Sentinel is implicated, wholly untrue. We have never enter- 
 tained nor expressed the slightest feeling inimical to the wel- 
 fare and prosperity of Madison, or any of her citizens. On 
 the contrary ... we have always rejoiced at the growth of 
 every city in the State, and our State pride has as frequently 
 been gratified by a favorable reference to Madison by strangers 
 as to any other city, and this feeling we have entertained in 
 common with nine-tenths of the people of Indianapolis. 
 
 "We are sorry that ... we have never had any evidence 
 that this feeling has been reciprocated by the press or the 
 people of Madison. On the contrary, our earliest recollections 
 of the Madison papers are the sneers they contain at what they 
 were pleased to call the 'village at the end of the road' ; 81 and a 
 citizen of Indianapolis could not stop an hour in Madison, 
 
 ^Indiana State Sentinel (daily), August 16, 1853. 
 
 81 "G. A. Chapman, senior editor of the Sentinel, and J. D. Defrees, editor 
 of the Journal, (Indianapolis,) came down in the cars on Saturday last. 
 Defrees took the boat for Cincinnati, and may be, for aught we know, on his 
 way to Washington to get an office. Chapman stayed with his friends in 
 this city until this morning, when he returned to the little town at the other 
 end of the railroad." Madison Daily Courier, April 30, 1849. See also 
 ante, 92. 
 
96 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 either on business or pleasure, without being surrounded by a 
 parcel of such loafing wits as may be always found round a 
 hotel where liquor is sold, who made it their business to sneer 
 and jest at 'the village,' until the patience of the visitor would 
 become exhausted, and he would leave the town in disgust. 
 As a result, the next time he wanted to buy groceries or sell 
 wheat, he kept right on to Cincinnati, where he would be sub- 
 ject to no such annoyances. 
 
 "The story about Madison finishing the road unaided, is 
 all gammon. The people of Indianapolis did their full share 
 of the work, because they were well aware of its importance to 
 this city. After it was finished, however, the stock was bought 
 up by eastern capitalists, and the management removed from 
 Indianapolis to Madison. Then it was that the system of petty 
 tyranny, extortion, and insult was resorted to by citizens of 
 Madison to build up their city at the expense of the central 
 portion of the State, which has resulted, in spite of the most 
 vehement opposition of the Madisonians, in the building of the 
 Jeffersonville and Lawrenceburgh roads. The Madisonians 
 seemed never to have contemplated that the people of the in- 
 terior could ever find any outlet for their business and travel 
 but Madison, and to have acted upon the policy of trying the 
 capacity of their endurance rather than making friends of 
 them to secure their custom when competition would arise. 
 
 "The legitimate consequences of this policy are now evi- 
 dent. The people of this part of Indiana don't trade at Madi- 
 son — when they go to Market, either to buy or sell, they go to 
 Cincinnati or Louisville, and not by way of Madison either. 
 We hear no more gibes and jeers from the Madisonians about 
 'the village at the end of the road.' Their tune is changed. 
 They now dolefully complain of the 'jealousy and envy of the 
 Capital.' 
 
 "They are as much mistaken now, as they were then. The 
 people of Indianapolis are not envious of the people of Madi- 
 son at all. . . . They are satisfied with the business and pros- 
 perity of their own city without bothering their heads about 
 those who don't come in their way. They trade where they can 
 best please themselves, and if that is not at Madison, the 
 Madisonians are alone to blame. The trade of central Indiana 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 97 
 
 once might have been secured almost exclusively to Madison, 
 had her business men and citizens been courteous and accom- 
 modating, but they were not, and now it is too late. The citi- 
 zens of this city and county are neither envious or jealous of 
 Madison, but she will have to get along with but comparatively 
 a small portion of their trade." 
 
 The reply is found in the Courier of August 18, 1853 : 
 "The editor of the State Sentinel publishes a long article . . . 
 to prove that the citizens of Indianapolis and of Marion county, 
 'are neither envious nor jealous of Madison.' Whoever reads 
 this article will not fail to discover that there is at least one 
 editor in Indianapolis who is both jealous and envious, if noth- 
 ing worse. 
 
 "No fact is better attested than that it was the Madison 
 people and their capital that finished the pioneer road in Indi- 
 ana to Indianapolis, and contributed thereby so much to the 
 projection and completion of the other roads in the State, and 
 this, too, after the State of Indiana had broken down, failed in 
 the undertaking. Indianapolis did its full share, says the 
 Sentinel! We have been informed that the Company would 
 have bursted up before the road reached Columbus, had it 
 depended on the action of the Indianapolis portion of the 
 Directory. The individuals from that city positively refused 
 to loan their credit for a comparatively small sum, for the 
 prosecution of the work. Then it was that the energy and 
 determination of the Madison men saved the project ; they 
 endorsed the notes of the company, raised the money, and 
 pushed the road into the State capital. 
 
 "It was after the project of building the Bellefontaine road 
 had been almost abandoned by the capitalists of Indianapolis 
 that the 'Madison management' of the pioneer road (a manage- 
 ment which an Indianapolis editor now sneers at) stepped in, 
 loaned the iron which that road is now using, and endorsed its 
 bonds to enable it to raise the money to pay for putting it 
 down. The Peru road is also indebted for similar favors. 
 
 "Had it not been for the indomitable energy of Madison 
 men, the impetus given to the Railroads of the State, which 
 have benefitted Indianapolis to so great an extent, might have 
 
98 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 taken another direction. We are, however, safe in saying that 
 it is to the success of the Madison road that Indianapolis is 
 indebted for the roads which now run through that city. 
 
 "The charge of 'petty tyranny, extortion and insult,' is 
 also without foundation in fact. — The large and extensive 
 trade of the Madison merchants with all the interior counties 
 proves this, — a trade which has never grown so rapidly as it 
 has done since the first of January last. The people of this 
 city are content with their prospects. They have not, nor have 
 their papers sought to decry the prospects of the State capital. 
 The 'insult, spite and vehement opposition' has heretofore been 
 directed against Madison. This the press of the State under- 
 stand full well. 
 
 "The charge of opposing the construction of the Jef ferson- 
 ville and Lawrenceburgh roads is new to us, unless the recent 
 arrangement by which the building of the parallel road between 
 Edinburgh and Indianapolis was abandoned, can be so con- 
 strued. 
 
 "That there are grown children in both cities who cannot 
 think their city is prosperous without pulling down a sister city 
 is very true ; but of this class Indianapolis has much the great- 
 est number. ..." 
 
 The truth of the matter seems to be that in 1853 Madison 
 was losing ground relatively, though still prosperous. The 
 opinion of such an unbiased observer as D. R. B. Nevin, editor 
 of the Democratic Banner at New Castle, would seem to indi- 
 cate that this was the case : 
 
 "Madison is a place of rather a prepo[sse]ssing appearance, 
 and of considerable business. At one time it boasted of being 
 the largest city in the State, 'but alas for time's changes,' the 
 spirit of competition, it has been far surpassed by its more for- 
 tunate rivals, New Albany and Indianapolis. The population 
 numbers twelve thousand, we believe, with dull prospects of 
 any material increase ever being made. It contains two of the 
 best political newspapers in the State, the 'Republican Banner,' 
 and the 'Courier,' different in politics, but nevertheless 
 abounding in able and spicy articles. The 'Madison House,' 
 we consider one of the best conducted hotels in the Western 
 country, possessing splendid parlors and chambers, an obliging 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 99 
 
 landlord and attentive servants, it may well be considered a 
 model house." 82 
 
 The question of the interchange of passengers and freight 
 at Indianapolis, among the roads then being constructed, appar- 
 ently received early consideration. Meetings were held as early 
 as August, 1849, to discuss the subject, and at a meeting held 
 on December 19 at Indianapolis, at which the Madison and 
 Indianapolis, Indianapolis and Bellefontaine, Terre Haute and 
 Richmond, and Peru and Indianapolis companies were repre- 
 sented, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : 83 
 
 "Resolved, that it is expedient to locate and establish at 
 Indianapolis, a joint Rail Road track, connecting the Madison 
 and Indianapolis, the Terre Haute & Richmond, the Peru & 
 Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis & Bellefontaine Rail Roads. 
 And to locate and establish on said joint track a joint Passenger 
 Depot for said Companies." 
 
 Such was the origin of the first union tracks and Union 
 Station in the United States, an arrangement which has proved 
 equally advantageous to Indianapolis and to the railroads. 
 
 On April 1, 1850, the Common Council passed an ordi- 
 nance authorizing the building of the union tracks. In May, 
 1850, the Union Track Railway was organized and began 
 building. According to the semiweekly Sentinel, on June 19: 
 "The Union track running around the east and south sides of 
 our city, connecting the four railroads that have been located 
 to this place together, is now finished, and the locomotives and 
 cars are daily passing from the Madison road over the track 
 with rock for the bridge over White river for the Terre Haute 
 road, and with lumber and iron for the Bellefontaine road." 
 
 The track was laid as a single track, with fill for two 
 tracks, and in 1853 was double-tracked as far as East Street. 
 As originally planned, the track was to extend as far north 
 
 S2 This statement is quoted in the Madison Daily Courier, May 29, 1852, 
 with the following comment : "We are sorry we did not meet Mr. Nevin, 
 satisfied that we could have shown him the evidences that Madison is the 
 largest city — the best built, and that there is more business done here than 
 is done in any other city in the State." 
 
 s3 From the minutes of a meeting held at Indianapolis, December 19, 1849. 
 See also Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, Annual Report, 1850, p. 12. 
 
100 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 as Massachusetts Avenue. It was later arranged that it 
 should commence at New York Street, and in 1854 the north- 
 ern end was finally placed at the center of East Washington 
 Street where it has since remained. On the west it extended to 
 the center of Tennessee Street, now Capitol Avenue. 
 
 Several sites were considered for the station, and the north 
 half of Square 96 with Louisiana Street on the north, Meridian 
 on the east, and Illinois on the west was finally selected by the 
 Joint Committee. There was great objection to this location 
 on the part of some who considered it too remote from Wash- 
 ington Street, and the Peru Company refused to join in the 
 construction. Work on the station, or depot as it was gener- 
 ally called, was started in 1852. It was 420 feet long and 100 
 feet wide, with stone foundation, brick walls, and shingle roof, 
 supported, to quote an early writer, by a little forest of timber, 
 making the depot, which was one story high, very dark. 84 It 
 cost $30,000. Colonel T. A. Morris was the engineer in charge 
 of the work. There were five passenger tracks inside and two 
 freight tracks outside and north of the station. The original 
 depot was enlarged in 1866 by a two-story addition 48 feet 
 wide on the south side. This remodeled structure is the "old 
 depot" as it is remembered by many people today. In 1888 it 
 gave way to the present building, which has in its turn been 
 remodeled. However, some of the tracks in the elevated struc- 
 ture of today have the same location as those five original 
 tracks built eighty-five years ago. 
 
 On April 30, 1853, the daily Sentinel notes that the depot 
 "is now having the remainder of its ponderous roof placed 
 upon it," and on July 13 announces that the gas company 
 (organized two years before) is laying pipe down Meridian 
 Street for the purpose of lighting the Union Depot. It com- 
 ments on July 28 that the price of gas, $3.50 per thousand, is 
 less than the average charge in several cities. Again I quote 
 from the Sentinel: 85 
 
 "The busiest part of our city at present is the track of the 
 Union railroad, between the Terre Haute Depot and Washing- 
 
 84 The plat of the Union Station is recorded in Plat Book No. 1, pp. 111- 
 12, office of Recorder of Marion County, Indianapolis. 
 85 Issue of May 16, 1853 (daily). 
 
mm 
 
 .c.V" ~ 
 
 \* 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 101 
 
 ton street. Several hundred men are employed on the line of 
 the track, laying switches, building bridges, depots, &c, laying 
 new rail, and performing other labor upon the various roads 
 connecting with the track." 
 
 On September 23, 1853, the daily Journal said: "The 
 great Union Passenger Depot, about which so much has been 
 said and sung, is at last about completed, and in a few days it 
 will be appropriated to its legitimate use. For several days 
 trains have been whirling through it, and we observe that some 
 of the companies have already taken possession of their tracks." 
 
 But railroads were no longer a novelty, and there appar- 
 ently was no celebration when the new station was opened. 
 On September 28, 1853, a small notice in the advertising 
 column read : 
 
 "Notice 
 
 passenger trains will leave the general 
 
 passenger depot on and after 
 
 wednesday, september 28 
 
 John Brough, President" 86 
 
 The next day the Journal commented : "The Union Pas- 
 senger Station was opened yesterday. 87 The inauguration was 
 attended by a goodly array of travelers from the various Rail- 
 roads and many of our citizens drawn there by the novelty of 
 the scene. It was a lively sight — one that did the eyes good." 
 The local editor of the Sentinel also remarked on the "anima- 
 
 88 "John Brough, Esq., of this city, has been appointed President of the 
 Union Board ; Mr. Stephens, late of the Hudson River Railroad, super- 
 intendant of the station, and our friend and much esteemed former citizen, 
 William N. Jackson, General ticket agent." Madison Daily Courier, October 
 I. 1853. 
 
 87 "Our readers have perhaps noticed that we avoid the word 'depot' 
 when speaking of the Union Passenger Station. 'Depot' is a French word, 
 signifying a town or place where goods are lodged for safe keeping or for 
 re-shipment. . . . We believe in calling things by their correct names, 
 and ... we shall call it the Union Station or Union Passenger Station. 
 It is rather depreciating humanity to speak of this building as a place where 
 so many men, women, and children are unloaded out of one car and loaded 
 into another or hauled off to the hotels. 
 
 "... the building might be called the Grand Railroad Rendezvous, but 
 the title spoken of will do to start on." Indianapolis Morning Journal, 
 October 3, 1853. 
 
102 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 tion at the Union Depot," and added proudly: "Six passenger 
 trains departed for all parts of the country. 88 The Terre Haute 
 train left with about 250 passengers." 
 
 The fact that the first canalboat to reach Evansville by 
 the Wabash and Erie Canal from Lake Erie arrived at its 
 destination about a week before the opening of the Union 
 Station, illustrates the temporary overlapping of these two 
 methods of transportation. 
 
 The trains of four roads, Madison, Bellefontaine, Terre 
 Haute, and Indiana Central (Richmond) used the station the 
 first day and late that fall trains of the Lawrenceburgh road 
 (Indianapolis and Cincinnati) entered. These five roads shared 
 the expense of constructing the union tracks and building the 
 Union Station. The Lafayette and Indianapolis road was 
 completed in December, 1852, and had built a depot on a site 
 between North and St. Clair streets east of Missouri Street. 
 The Sentinel remarks : "We have heard the opinion expressed 
 by many that this depot is too far from the center of business 
 to be of much advantage to either the Road or the shippers." 
 
 8s Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of James Brown Ray, one of the 
 ablest and certainly the most eccentric governor Indiana has ever had. He 
 was an early advocate of railroads, and in his message to the legislature in 
 1827 pointed out their superiority to canals. A few years later he predicted 
 that Indianapolis would some day be a great railroad center with lines 
 running in every direction like the spokes of a wheel, a statement that was 
 greeted with ridicule by his contemporaries. His views on railroads com- 
 bined with certain eccentricities such as his practice of signing hotel 
 registers, "J- Brown Ray, Governor of the State of Indiana and Commander 
 in Chief of the Army and Navy thereof," led many people to think that he 
 was mentally unbalanced. In an advertisement appearing in the triweekly 
 Sentinel of December 31, 1846, he announced his intention "to open a Law, 
 conveyancing, writing, abstract-making, Land-agency, general and emigrants' 
 intelligence and counsel office, in the Row of brick buildings, in a room up 
 stairs, opposite the Jail and Court House, on Main Washington street, In- 
 dianapolis, Indiana." After offering various properties in trade he con- 
 cluded : "I want a Printing Office to advocate my four National Railways, 
 from Indianapolis, la., to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and Lake 
 Michigan and Gulf of Mexico, with a strip of public land 100 miles broad, 
 and 2500 long, with a railway at the centre, in exchange for property." 
 
 Oddly enough his prediction came true except in one important respect ; 
 the center of the system envisioned by him was to be Square 63 (on Wash- 
 ington Street across from the courthouse), most of which was owned by 
 James Brown Ray. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 103 
 
 The Lafayette road found this to be the case for passenger 
 service, at least, and ran its line along the canal bank to a con- 
 nection with the Union Track at Capitol Avenue. 
 
 In 1854 both the Peru and Lafayette companies began to use 
 the Union Station as renters and a year later the Jef fersonville 
 road, using the Madison road's tracks from Edinburg, entered 
 the station also as a renter. 89 Thus by 1855 the city had eight 
 railroads. It seems probable that railroad building had been 
 overdone. At any rate, the depression of 1857 stopped work 
 on several lines then projected and construction was not re- 
 sumed until after the Civil War. 90 
 
 It is apparent that a combination of circumstances tended 
 to concentrate the early railroad facilities of the city in the 
 valley of Pogue's Run. The first factor was that the Madison 
 road, more or less by chance as we have seen, had stopped at 
 South Street. The other roads were for several years feeders 
 of the Madison, and it was to their advantage to connect with 
 that road. The Pogue's Run Valley gave a comparatively easy 
 line of approach from the east and northeast, as it was not 
 very difficult or expensive to straighten the meandering stream 
 and build the Union Track along its banks. It also happened 
 that the Run and, therefore, the Union Track, ran at such an 
 
 S9 W. R. Holloway, Indianapolis . . . (Indianapolis, 1870), p. 258. 
 
 90 Chart readers will note that the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad was 
 completed during the Mexican War "prosperity," and that the other roads 
 were built in the boom period following the discovery of gold in California. 
 Concerning the importance of railroads in the Civil War, Emerson D. Fite 
 has this to say in his Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during 
 the Civil War (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910), pp. 14-15: 
 
 "Still another piece of good fortune for the West was the trunk line 
 railroads. These were bands of iron binding the farming sections to the 
 East, helping to hold them in the Union by providing a market for their 
 produce. In the ten years preceding [the war], in the states of Indiana, 
 Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, seven thousand miles of railroad were con- 
 structed, provisions far in advance of the needs of the country, but, as it 
 proved, a magnificent preparation for the unforeseen strain of war. The 
 Mississippi formerly had been the outlet of these sections to a market. . . . 
 After the war closed the river, if the railroads had not been in existence, the 
 West would have been isolated, without a market; and it was believed by 
 some that rather than lose this, the section would have followed its market 
 into secession. According to this view, the Union was saved by the rail- 
 roads." 
 
104 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 angle that it was easy to locate tracks and freight houses in 
 the valley of the Run where the land was unoccupied and must 
 have been relatively cheap. There was one great difficulty — 
 Pogue's Run itself was not completely subdued until 19 14, 
 when it was placed in a concrete drain. Until that time it 
 caused much trouble by overflowing at intervals, but in spite 
 of this, the general arrangement of railroad facilities in the 
 downtown district worked out very satisfactorily for both the 
 roads and the shippers of Indianapolis. 
 
 9. I 
 
 The construction and equipment of the Madison road in its 
 first years were undoubtedly crude in comparison with the 
 English roads and some of the eastern roads of the same 
 period, but doubtless the main-line roads of Indiana in the 
 later fifties compared very favorably with the better railroads 
 of that day. The smaller roads probably remained quite 
 primitive. 
 
 On that part of the Madison road built by the state, 
 wrought iron T rails imported from England and weighing 
 45 pounds to the yard were used, but the remainder of the road , 
 to Indianapolis was at first laid with strap rail which consisted 
 of bars of iron about 5/8 inch thick by 2 inches wide, spiked 
 on oak stringers. As the spikes worked loose the effect of 
 expansion and contraction would cause the ends of the bar to 
 curl up, forming what were called "snake heads." If the 
 process had gone far enough a wheel might strike the bar in 
 such a way as to complete the curl and force the bar through 
 the floor of the car, probably resulting in a considerable sur- 
 prise to the passengers, as well as the derailing of the car. A 
 not uncommon occurrence was the stopping of the train while 
 the trainman went ahead to spike down the "snake heads." 9 
 The writer has seen bar rail of the following dimensions : 
 2 1/2 inches wide, 3/4 inch thick, 19 feet 10 inches long. The 
 holes for the spikes were rectangular in section, 1/2 inch by 
 7/8 inch, and were counter-sunk. They were spaced on 18-inch 
 
 91 George S. Cottman, Centennial History and Handbook of Indiana • • • J 
 (Indianapolis, 1915), p. 134. See also note 94, post, for further mention of 
 "snake heads" and their prevention. 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 105 
 
 centers. The bar rail for the Madison and Indianapolis Rail- 
 road was rolled at Cincinnati. 92 
 
 By 1851, however, the Madison road had relaid its track 
 with 60-pound T rail. 93 Bar rail was used on the Peru and In- 
 dianapolis road and on several of the smaller lateral roads, 94 
 but T rail weighing from 56 to 60 pounds to the yard was used 
 from the beginning on all the through lines. Much of the T 
 rail used at first was imported from England, but in his annual 
 report for 185 1 President Brough of the Madison and Indian- 
 apolis road stated that he considered "American Compound" 
 T rail superior to the English product, although it was higher 
 in price. Old records of Colonel Morris on the original Union 
 Track show that T rails in 15-foot and 18-foot lengths cost $55 
 to $57.50 a ton, delivered, and weighed about 60 pounds to the 
 yard. Ties cost 12 1/2 cents to 16 cents each. Chairs cost 
 
 92 James Hall, The West: Its Commerce and Navigation (Cincinnati, 
 1848), p. 300. 
 
 93 The following article was reprinted in the Indiana State Sentinel 
 (semiweekly), February 28, 1849, from the Pittsburgh Post : "Madison 
 and Indianapolis Railroad. — John Brough, Esq., the efficient President 
 of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad . . . has purchased for the Com- 
 pany, of Messrs. Weld & Co. of Boston, 4,400 tons of railroad iron, of the 
 T pattern. The purchase is regarded as highly favorable, being at the rate 
 of $45 per ton, payable twelve months after delivery, with interest. Of this 
 amount, 1,200 tons are to be shipped so as to reach New Orleans in May 
 or June — the remainder in all the balance of the year 1849. 
 
 "The iron will complete the entire track . . . from Madison to In- 
 dianapolis. The road for the last two years has paid the stockholders 14 
 per cent, per annum. An increase of the capital stock will be made to meet 
 the present expenditures for the improvement of the track; but it is estimated 
 that upon the stock so increased, the road will produce over ten per cent." 
 
 94 The daily Sentinel of May 27, 185 1, printed the following comment 
 from a report of the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad : "The 'sawed 
 track' . . . will compare most favorably in smoothness, permanency, and 
 safety with the best of roads, with the most costly railing. It acts most 
 completely as a self -leveling superstructure; and, under favorable circum- 
 stances, can never require repair excepting in the removal of decayed timbers. 
 Of this character of track, it is proposed to construct the remaining portion 
 of the road. This plan of track removes entirely the 'Snake-head' objection 
 to the flat bar road. 'Snake-heads' can only occur where there is a great 
 and sudden depression in the line of track ; and upon this plan the tendency 
 to depression in the support of weight is no greater at one point than at 
 another." 
 
106 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 from 45 cents to 47 cents apiece. Spikes cost 51/2 cents a 
 pound, a single spike weighing .45 pound. Ties used on the 
 original Union Track contained 21 feet board measure and 
 were apparently 6 inches by 6 inches by 7 feet. 
 
 The method of construction in use at that period is shown 
 very clearly by the following quotation from an engineering 
 report made by Colonel Thomas A. Morris to the Terre Haute 
 and Richmond Board of Directors, which appears in full in the 
 weekly Sentinel of March 30, 1848: 
 
 "Whatever may be the plan, and however perfect may be 
 the construction of the track of a road, it will always be in a 
 deranged and badly adjusted condition, unless the road be 
 thoroughly drained and secured from the effects of frost. To 
 effect this as far as possible, the estimates for the track pro- 
 vide for covering the graded surface of the road, under the 
 track, with gravel or broken stone one foot in depth, after- 
 wards filled to the top of the cross-ties with the same material. 
 
 "The plan for the superstructure estimated, is as follows : 
 "Longitudinal mud-sills, 3 by 10 inches, are placed upon the 
 compacted gravel surface, 3 feet from centre to centre ; upon 
 these cross-ties are placed, 6 by 6 inches square, 71/2 feet 
 long, and 5 feet apart. In the space between the ties, two 
 blocks are placed so as to decrease the space between the bear- 
 ing points of the strong [string] pieces. The cross-ties are 
 notched to receive string pieces 6 by 6 inches square, secured \ 
 in their places by wooden wedges. Upon the strings the iron 
 rails are secured, leaving a width of track of 4 feet 81/2 inches 
 clear. The timber all to be sound white or burr oak. The 
 amount estimated for a track as above described, is $2,250 
 per mile. 
 
 "I would recommend to your Board to procure a rail of 
 not less than 60 lbs. to the yard. From contracts recently made 
 by the Madison and Indianapolis Rail Road company, I under- 
 stand that the _L bar, of 60 pounds to the yard, is delivered at 
 Madison at $63 per ton of 2240 lbs. It would require about 
 $3 per ton more to transport it to this place. The estimate for 
 1 mile of iron would be : 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 107 
 
 94.3 tons, at $66 per ton, $6,223 80 
 
 Add, for chairs and spikes, per mile, 400 00 
 
 Superstructure, per mile, 2,250 00 
 
 Making track, per mile, $8,873 °°" 
 
 As Colonel Morris was the leading engineer of Indiana at 
 that time, and was employed by nearly all the roads entering 
 Indianapolis, we may assume that the above type of construc- 
 tion was in general use in the state. Most of the locomotives 
 in use in the late forties weighed about fifteen tons, and freight 
 cars, with four wheels, carried about three tons each, the aver- 
 age length of a freight train being about fifteen cars. 95 
 
 The appearance of new equipment on the roads was faith- 
 fully recorded in the press. "The largest locomotive ever seen 
 on the Allegheny and Portage Railway — where large locomo- 
 tives are common — passed over that road on the 29th ult., for 
 the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad," said the Madison 
 Daily Courier of May 6, 1850. Five days later the Courier re- 
 ported the arrival of the locomotive at the railroad wharf. 
 "This locomotive weighs, when on the track ready to run, about 
 forty-three tons ; of over three hundred horse-power ; built at 
 the shop of the Baldwins, in Philadelphia, under the superin- 
 tendence of Mr. A. Cathcart; 06 with five cylinders; and is in- 
 tended for this end of the road. We are told this engine is 
 
 95 Four-wheeled freight and passenger cars soon gave way to cars with 
 eight wheels. "Twenty-five cars went down in the Madison freight train 
 yesterday. The train was nearly one-eighth of a mile in length." Indiana 
 State Sentinel (daily), May 3, 1851. 
 
 9C "J. O. D. Lilly, Harper, Walley, Idlar, Edgar, Wallace, and Cathcart 
 are but types of the American mechanic. To such men the world is indebted 
 for the mechanic arts, from the simple form of the wheel and pinion up to 
 man's latest and proudest achievement, the Locomotive Engine. Who is it 
 that can look upon the majestic steamer Hoosier State as she 'walks the 
 water like a thing of life,' or upon gigantic Locomotives John Brough and 
 M. G. Bright as either toils up the hill through the deep diggings, dragging 
 the long trains loaded with the wealth of the people, and does not feel a thrill 
 of exultation, whose heart does not beat quicker with national pride when 
 he views such specimens of the art of the American mechanic? ... To 
 the genius of a Cathcart, the world is indebted for the means of overcoming 
 the heighth of the planes with safety. To the Lillys, Edgars, Harpers, Idlars, 
 Walleys, and Wallaces, Indiana is indebted for the 'model railroad of the 
 West.'" Madison Daily Courier, July 28, 1851. 
 
108 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 called the 'J°lm Brough,' on account of its great weight, and 
 for the great amount of business it is capable of doing." 
 
 A further description of the locomotives used on the 
 Madison and Indianapolis road appears in a History of the 
 Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1923 : "Among the lo- 
 comotives completed during 1846 and 1847, should be noted 
 the 'M. G. Bright,' built for operating the inclined plane 
 on the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. The rise of 
 this incline was one in seventeen, from the bank of the 
 Ohio River at Madison. The engine had eight wheels, 42 
 inches in diameter, connected, and worked in the usual manner 
 by outside inclined cylinders, 15 1/2 inches diameter by 20 
 inches stroke. A second pair of cylinders, 17 inches in diame- 
 ter with 18 inches stroke of piston, was placed vertically over 
 the boiler, midway between the furnace and smoke arch. The 
 connecting rods, worked by these cylinders, connected with 
 cranks on a shaft under the boiler. This shaft carried a single 
 cog-wheel at its center, and this cog-wheel engaged with an- 
 other of about twice its diameter on a second shaft adjacent to 
 it and in the same plane. The cog-wheel on this latter shaft 
 worked in a rack-rail placed in the center of the track. The 
 shaft itself had its bearings in the lower ends of two vertical 
 rods, one on each side of the boiler, and these rods were united 
 over the boiler by a horizontal bar, which was connected by 
 means of a bent lever and connecting rod to the piston worked 
 by a small horizontal cylinder placed on top of the boiler. By 
 means of this cylinder, the yoke carrying the shaft and cog- 
 wheel could be depressed and held down so as to engage the 
 cogs with the rack-rail, or raised out of the way when only 
 the ordinary drivers were required. This device was designed 
 by Mr. Andrew Cathcart, Master Mechanic of the Madison 
 and Indianapolis Railroad. A similar machine, the 'J°n n 
 Brough,' for the same plane, was built by Mr. Baldwin in 
 
 1850." 
 
 On August 18, 1 85 1, the Madison and Indianapolis Rail- 
 road announced : "On the first day of September next, Messrs. 
 Adams & Co. will put a branch of their Express on this road, 
 to which a separate Car will be assigned, to run with the Pas- 
 senger Train." On and after that day nothing but Passenger's 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 109 
 
 Baggage, strictly speaking, will be received or taken in the Bag- 
 gage Car. All packages, articles, or freight, which parties de- 
 sire to have transported by the Passenger Train, must be de- 
 livered to the Express agents, to be taken by them." 97 
 
 Another innovation was noted in the Madison Daily Courier 
 of November 7 : "An improvement has been introduced in the 
 passenger trains on the Madison Road which, though slight in 
 appearance, tends greatly to the safety of passengers. The 
 cord which connects the different cars and the bell of the 
 engineer runs through the inside of the cars instead of over 
 their tops. Should an accident occur to one of the hind cars 
 and the conductor not be present, any of the passengers can 
 give the signal to the engineer to stop." 
 
 A "new and splendid ladies' car, built by the company at 
 North Madison," was added to the passenger train in the spring 
 of 1852, "making, including the baggage car, a train of five 
 large cars. Well do we remember," commented the Daily 
 Courier of May 18, "when one only was used, and that holding 
 but twelve persons. The business of the road has increased 
 wonderfully within the last four years and is still increasing, 
 not only in the number of passengers transported over it, but 
 in the amount of freight." 
 
 The Daily Courier of October 8 describes two passenger 
 cars sent that morning to Terre Haute : "These are the first 
 turned out from the manufactory in this city, and in point of 
 ; finish and durability of workmanship, will compare favorably 
 with the Cars built at any shop West of the mountains. Each 
 ' Car will seat 60 passengers, and has a saloon. The seats are 
 covered with figured plush ; the backs O G mahogany and zebra 
 wood. That portion of the floor used as a passage way be- 
 tween the seats is beautifully finished with strips of yellow 
 pine and black walnut, 1 1/2 inch wide. Mirrors at each end 
 of the Cars are provided for the double purpose of ornament 
 and to show how ugly lady or gentlemen passengers are when 
 they behave rudely. It may seem paradoxical, but we know 
 of no better plan than to put a rude ill-behaved passenger beside 
 or in front of a looking glass, so that he sees 'himself as others 
 
 97 Madison Daily Courier, August 27, 1851. The opening of this service 
 apparently did not begin until September 15. Ibid., September 13, 1851. 
 
110 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 see him.' The springs are of Indian Rubber, the patent metal- 
 lic Rubber, with pendulum truck." 
 
 Twenty miles an hour was good speed for a passenger train 
 of three or four cars. Wood was used as fuel and an entry in 
 an old notebook of Samuel Merrill, president of the Madi- 
 son road, which is now owned by the Indianapolis Public 
 Library, shows that a supply was contracted for at 90 cents a 
 cord delivered. On the smaller roads, such, for example, as 
 the one between Edinburg and Shelbyville, it was customary 
 for all passengers to help "wood up" the engine, while the tank 
 was filled by dipping a supply of water from some wayside 
 stream with leather buckets which were carried on hooks at 
 the side of the tender. From this practice arose the much 
 used term "jerk-water railroad," which certainly could not have 
 been applied to all the roads in Indiana even at that early 
 period. 98 
 
 Both engines and cars increased quite rapidly in weight, 
 and there were many wrecks in the late fifties and sixties due 
 to the fact that the roadbeds and bridges could not stand up 
 under the heavier trains and higher speed. In the early fifties, 
 however, it would seem that the cow was one of the worst 
 enemies of the railroad. There are numerous reports of acci- 
 dents resulting fatally to both the cow and the cars. We are 
 relieved to read in the daily Sentinel of July 12, 1853: "The 
 Directors of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad have 
 determined to enclose the road with a substantial fence." This 
 
 98 Cottman, Centennial History of Indiana, p. 134. 
 
 "Fencing at that time was probably inadequate. An item appearing 
 in the Sentinel of May 21, 1851, suggests as much: 
 
 "The author of the following graphic and highly poetical effusion, must 
 have been inspired by the Pic Nics which have come off in this vicinity 
 lately. . . . 
 
 'And now the merry plough-boy 
 Whistles his morning song 
 Along the dale, and through the vale 
 'Tis echoed loud and long, 
 The farmers flocks are roving free, 
 And on the budding shrubbery 
 His spouse's 
 Cowses 
 Browzes.' " 
 According to the Madison Daily Courier, October 25, 1852, 'The 
 
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD 111 
 
 will prevent accidents, and will enable the Company to increase 
 the speed with perfect safety." 
 
 Here is an example of accurate reporting from the daily 
 Sentinel of September 23, 1853 : "On Wednesday, as the after- 
 noon train from this city to Lafayette was crossing the Fall 
 Creek bottom, one and a half miles north of Indianapolis [near 
 the aqueduct], the cars were thrown off the track by running 
 over a cow. The cow was unobserved by the engineer, being 
 hidden from his view by an ice-house which fronted on the 
 embankment of the road, which, at this point, is 10 feet high. 
 
 "Three passenger cars were thrown off the track; the first 
 one was turned bottom upwards. It contained seven pas- 
 sengers, all of whom were more or less bruised. The second 
 car was turned half round cross-wise of the track, and one end 
 pitched over on the ground below the embankment. Although 
 this car was full, no one was injured. 
 
 "The third car was quite full, most of the passengers being 
 ladies. Fortunately it was thrown off on the west side of the 
 track and ran into the . . . second car in such a manner as to 
 prevent its upsetting. . . . No lives were lost. The cars were 
 so much injured that freight cars had to be substituted. The 
 train was delayed several hours. 
 
 "Those who may wish to see the wreck created by this 
 accident, can be saved a long walk or ride by calling at the 
 Metropolitan Gallery, as Messrs Rea & Bailey have taken a 
 daguerreotype of the scene." 
 
 And speed was undoubtedly increasing. Under the heading 
 "Rapid Traveling," the daily Sentinel said on August 6, 1853 : 
 "J. R. Nunemacher, Esq., of New Albany, left Philadelphia 
 Wednesday morning at 1 1 o'clock, via New York, New York 
 and Erie, Lake Shore, and Belle fontaine Railroads, arriving 
 
 estimated cost of fencing in the track of the Madison railroad to Indianapolis 
 is $30,000, which is at the charge of the company, as the farmer is paid for 
 the work of putting up the fences through his land." The Annual Report 
 of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad Company for 1856 (Cincinnati, 
 1857), P- 8, says on the subject: "The amount expended in fencing the 
 track the past year, was eight thousand dollars. It is our purpose to prosecute 
 this work with rapidity, until the entire line is enclosed. Until this is done 
 the amount, paid for stock killed will constitute a large item in our Expense: 
 Account." 
 
112 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 at the Palmer House, in this city, Thursday evening at ten 
 o'clock." 
 
 Unfortunately, such speed was not confined to the country. 
 Says the daily Sentinel of May 27, 1853 : "We mentioned the 
 fact, the other day, of the Bellefontaine train coming in at the 
 rate of about eighteen miles an hour, and we are informed that 
 yesterday the train from Lafayette came in at equally as great 
 speed. Cannot our laws on this subject be enforced, or must 
 this reckless speed be permitted until it results in the loss of 
 life? The Union track is almost always crowded with people 
 at the time the trains come in, and the speed at which some of 
 them have been running over it lately is extremely dangerous. 
 We trust that the conductors on the trains will pay some atten- 
 tion to this matter; if they do not, we think it will be the 
 marshal's duty to pay some attention to them." 
 
 Today the marshal is too busy looking after another kind 
 of speeder, and perhaps his successor will be zooming around 
 in a police plane, checking up on pilots who exceed five hundred 
 miles an hour. In those distant years, let us hope that there will 
 still be a few yearners for the good old days, who, looking 
 back through the "mists of antiquity" will perceive the broken- 
 down stagecoach and the rusting "iron horse" standing for- 
 lornly together, while at the side of the Jehu of coaching days 
 will loom the sterner figure of Casey Jones, that brave engineer, 
 who, with a true devotion to his calling, said just before he 
 died: 
 
 "There are two more roads that I'd like to ride 
 The fireman asked 'what might they be?' 
 They're the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe."