LXIII. RAILROADS.

 

The project of connecting Plymouth and other parts of the country by means of railroad communication was not seriously contemplated by the citizens of Marshall county until the year 1853. The Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago route had been talked of prior to that time, and a company had been organized for the purpose of building it, but as to whether it would be constructed by way of P1ymouth, or on some other line which would leave it out, no one could tell. The following notice appeared in the Plymouth Banner, the only paper published in the county at that time, July 21, 1853:

 

"Gov. William Bebb and John B. Niles will address the citizens of Marshall county at the courthouse in Plymouth, on next Wednesday , the 27th inst., at 2 o'clock p. m., in relation to making Plymouth a point on the Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago railroad."

 

The meeting was held and a lively interest awakened, but no definite action was taken by the people at that time. In the meantime the feasibility of building a railroad from Fort Wayne to Chicago had been discussed, a company formed, and a preliminary survey made. In an editorial in the Banner of April 7, 1853, the editor said:

 

"On the twenty-fifth day of May, 1853, the entire line will be put under contract (the Fort Wayne & Chicago route) .Engineers will be here this evening. They are locating the road this time, and will pass on westward as fast as possible. An effort is being made to employ another corps of engineers. We hear rumors almost daily that it is uncertain whether the road will be built or not. It is unnecessary to spend much time in contradicting the many rumors gotten up, by men who do not know anything about the matter."

 

The line was established on the completion of the third survey, and most of the contracts let at the time advertised. The same paper, on June 16, 1853, contained the following:

 

"The contractors are making arrangements as fast as possible to commence work upon their several contracts. Already shanties are being erected in many places along the line, and we are told by one of the directors that within one month from this time there will be at least 2,000 hands at work between Fort Wayne and Chicago."

 

The contract for building the Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago road was let to French, Tyner & Co., who agreed to make it a first-class road in every particular, with water stations and rolling stock complete, and have it completed by September 1, 1855, They failed, however, to complete

 

 


331                                          HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

 

their contract by the time specified. Times June 5, 1856, stated :

"Regular trains are now running in connection with the Logansport stage. The work on this road is pushed forward with energy, and before the Fourth of July we expect to hail our neighbors of Plymouth with a steam trumpet that will startle the natives."

 

The Plymouth Banner of June 26, 1856, said : "The cars of the LaPorte & Plymouth railroad will make their stoppings in a few days at the depot grounds of the Fort Wayne railroad. The track from the present landing is but a few rods west of the town seminary, and is now nearly completed."

 

This, however, was after the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago railroad had been completed to the turntable at the northwest part of town. The date of its completion to that point was July 18, 1856, and the event was celebrated by a free excursion from LaPorte to Plymouth, and by a "grand railroad ball" at the Edwards House in the evening. The first train that came to Plymouth over that road was an excursion train, on the eighteenth of July, 1856, and consisted of two sections. Nearly all the cars were box and flat cars. There were only three or four indifferent passenger coaches, in which only the female portion of the excursionists were permitted to ride. David Kendall was the chief conductor. He was assisted by Welcome Rice, who afterwards and until his death a few years ago was conductor on that road. It was a free ride for the LaPorte people, and a large number, including railroad laborers, shop hands, etc., embraced the opportunity to visit Plymouth for the first time. The road was completed to the water tank and turntable, which stood in an old field about seventy-five rods east of where the curve in the road now is, half a mile or so northwest of the courthouse. There was no depot there then, and the excursionists were dumped out on the ground without ceremony.

 

A great many Plymouth people were at the end of the track when the train came in to escort the visitors downtown. The streets were crowded with people from town and surrounding country, and amid the rejoicing and general excitement of the occasion it was not long until several quarrels and knockdowns took place, which finally resulted in a general riot. The railroad laborers and shop hands openly boasted that, they had come down to clean Plymouth out, and that they could whip the whole town. A number of sawmill men from south of the river bridge came to the rescue, among whom were Ben Klinger, Wm. Guy, Henry M, Logan, High Slade, John Aldrich, and perhaps others. Stacy Burden and a number of farmers from his neighborhood joined them, and from the recruits from town the Plymouth forces outnumbered the invading army two to one. The fight now became general, and Michigan street, from LaPorte to Garro street, was crowded with an infuriated mob engaged in a regular fist fight. No stones, clubs or fire arms were used, but there were probably never so many black eyes and bruised faces according to the number engaged as there were in that fracas. W. W. Hill, the Plymouth bakery man, in attempting to “stay the slaughter and stop the. effusion of blood," got the worst of it, and when the late Uncle Jake Klinger lifted him out of the gutter onto the sidewalk, he was more dead than alive.

 

The Plymouth boys finally succeeded in driving back the rioters, and

 


 

332                                          HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

 

when the lines reached Garro street, between where the post office and the state bank now is, they became thoroughly demoralized, took to their heels, and ran for the railroad train as fast as their legs could carry them. The train men, fearing serious trouble might result if they remained longer, blew the engine whistle, and it was not long until the "invading army" were on their way home. Several were severely hurt, and one LaPorte man so badly injured that he died not long afterwards. His comrades believed that the man who inflicted the injury was William Guy, of

Plymouth, and they succeeded in getting him to go to LaPorte, where he was supposed to have been drugged and placed on the railroad track, where he was run over by the cars and killed. This was the end of the railroad celebration of the arrival of the first train of cars into Plymouth.

 

The citizens of Plymouth, however, celebrated the event in the evening by giving a "grand railroad ball," at the Edwards house, then the principal hotel in the town. A copy of the printed invitation is still in possession of the present writer. Underneath the heading. "Grand Railroad Ball," is the picture of a passenger train of cars, apparently running at the rate of forty miles an hour, but that was rather deceptive, as the passenger trains on that road for many years did not make more than ten or fifteen miles an hour. In fact, they were so slow that they were the subject of the butt of all the practical jokers along the line of the road. Hugh Rose, whom all the older people of Plymouth knew very well, was one of the passenger conductors. It was told of him that on one of his trips from LaPorte to Plymouth, when near Tyner he came across a man hobbling along with one wooden leg. Rose, in the goodness of his heart, slowed up his train and asked him if he would not get on and ride. The cripple thanked him and told him he was much obliged, but as he was in a hurry he guessed he would walk on.

 

No more we sing as they sang of old,

To the tones of the lute and lyre,

For lo, we live in an iron age-

In an age of steam and fire.

The world is too busy for dreaming,

And has grown too wise for war,

So today, for the glory of science,

We sing of the railroad car.

 

Then came the following invitation : "You are respectfully invited to attend, with your lady, the ball to be given at the Edwards Hotel in Plymouth on the evening of July 18, 1856. Managers: Tom Price, G. B. Roberts, Homer Allen, Samuel Burson, Will. H. Salisbury, LaPorte; W. L. Woods, La Fayette; C. French and Lot Day, South Bend; N. H. Oglesbee; L. C. Barber, M. Pomeroy, E, S. Elliott, John Smith and David Vinnedge, Plymouth." Everyone of these men is dead, as is also, Will. C. Edwards, proprietor of the hotel. The music was furnished by Hull & Arnold's band, of Niles, Michigan, and the function was one of the most important that had occurred in Plymouth up to that time.

 

The track was completed from the turn table to the Fort Wayne depot, and trains stopped there about September 1, 1856. This road was not completed from Plymouth to Peru until some time in 1868.

 


HISTORY OF JVIARSHALL COUNTY.                                   333

 

The original survey of the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago railroad, located the line through the northern part of Plymouth. It will be noticed that the residence of Mr. 0. G. Soice, on the east side of North Michigan street, stands zigzag with the points of the compass. It was built by Lorenzo Matteson, a house carpenter, about 1854-55, and many imagine that locating it in this odd way was the result of a cranky notion Mr. Matteson had to be different from his neighbors. But such was not the case. The railroad line had been laid out there, and grading had been done in front of the house and across the river near the residence of Henry Humrickhouser, and so on southeast beyond where the Pennsylvania road now is located, and being morally certain that the road would be built on that line was the reason Mr. Matteson built his house to correspond with the angle of the road. This line had been surveyed before the coming of the Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad. When it was found that that road was to be built, the Peru road was changed and the present line established so as to intersect the Fort Wayne road at the present crossing, where it has ever since remained; so the line surveyed through the north end of town was abandoned, the grading smoothed down, leaving the Matteson house standing "cater-angling" with the world, in which position it has remained ever since.

 

The report of Samuel Hanna, president of the Fort Wayne road, dated December 1, 1854, stated that it was the purpose of the company at that time to direct their efforts to the early completion of the division between Fort Wayne and Plymouth, to get a temporary connection with Chicago over the I. P. & C. road, which was completed to Plymouth at that time. The road to Plymouth was completed to Plymouth early in November, and the first train over it arrived in Plymouth November 11, 1856. It was a year or more before the road was completed to Chicago.

 

Several residents of Plymouth were connected, in one way or another, in perfecting the organization of the company and building the road. A. L. Wheeler was a member of the first board of directors and took an active part in its management until it was completed, when he resigned.

 

C. H. Reeve was attorney and solicitor for the company, and proved an efficient and energetic officer in perfecting its organization and in soliciting subscriptions to its capital stock, etc. J. B. N. and J. M. Klinger, G. H. Briggs, George 'Edwards and A. C. Thompson were connected with the engineer corps.

 

Charles E. Morse was the first station agent at Plymouth, and Daniel McDonald the first telegraph operator after an office was established here.

 

The Baltimore & Ohio railroad was completed through Marshall county in December, 1874. So rapidly and quietly was the work done that few of the people of the county were aware that it was being built. The roadbed lies across the north part of the county, about eight miles from Plymouth. There are three stations on its line in the county - Bremen, La Paz and Teegarden.

 


334                                          HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

 

Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Railroad Company.

 

This company was organized in 1869 for the purpose of building a railroad from Kankakee, in Illinois, to Plymouth, Indiana. James A. McGrew, of Illinois, was chosen president; Charles H. Reeve, of Plymouth, vice-president; John C. Cushman, secretary, and J. B. N. Klinger, chief engineer, the last three all of Plymouth. Center and West townships in Marshall county voted aid to this company to the amount of about $60,000, but the company failing to come up to their part of the contract, only a portion of the amount voted was paid. The line was about all graded, several bridges built and ties purchased, when the affairs of the company became financially embarrassed and were placed in the hands of a receiver for final settlement. Work on the road was then abandoned, and upon final settlement the company, having no assets, disbanded and work permanently ceased. A new company a few years later was organized in Illinois, which secured the right of way. of this road from Kankakee to Knox, Indiana, with all the work that had been done upon it. It is called the "Three I" road, its real name being the Iowa, Illinois & Indiana railroad. In place of coming to Plymouth from Knox the company built the road from Knox by way of Walkerton to South Bend. It has been completed and in operation more than a dozen years.

 

The Vandalia Railroad.

 

The Terre Haute & Logansport branch of the Vandalia railroad from Logansport to South Bend was completed to Plymouth in June, 1884. In 1883 a subsidy tax of $30,000 was voted in Center township by a vote of 648 in favor and 447 against, being a majority of 201 in favor of the tax. The Lake View club, at Maxinkuckee lake, composed of eight residents of Plymouth, gave the company the right of way through their grounds, which was of considerable value, as an inducement to build the road to Plymouth instead of by way of Walkerton to South Bend, as was threatened. At any rate the company got the subsidy, the road was built, and it has proved to be a good investment.

 

The Nickel Plate.

 

The New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroad, universally known as the "Nickel Plate," was completed through the southern part of the county from the east to west in the latter part of 1882 or first of 1883. The original survey located the line something like four miles south of Argos, which had the effect of stirring up the citizens of that town, who finally induced the company to change their survey and locate it through that town. The people of Argos paid for the survey and gave the right of way, and the building of the road on that line was rapidly pushed to completion. The road is one of the important trunk lines between the east and the west, and is especially valuable to the people of the southern part of the county. The stations on its line in this county are Tippecanoe, Argos, Rutland; Hibbard and Burr Oak.

 

The Logansport & South Bend Traction Company.

 

In October, 1907, an election was held in Center and North townships on the proposition to raise about $50,000 to aid the construction of the

 


HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.                                     335

 

above named company. The vote in Center township was 251 in favor and 836 against, being a majority of 585 against the proposition. In North township the vote was 41 in favor and 251 against, a majority of 210 against, being a total against it in the two townships of 795. In 1905 this same company surveyed the line from Logansport to Argos, and from there to Bourbon and Bremen, and thence to South Bend by way of Mishawaka. They secured the voting of subsidies in Walnut, Bourbon and German townships, but so far no work has been done on the line.

Plymouth, South Bend & Niles Railroad. For more than fifty years the building of a railroad from South Bend to Plymouth has been considered at different times, but railroad connection between the two places was not consummated until the completion of the Vandalia railroad in 1884.

 

A railroad meeting was held at the courthouse in South Bend November 18, 1856, at which the following resolutions were adopted:

 

Resolved, That a company be formed for the construction of a railroad from the town of Plymouth, in the county of Marshall, to South Bend, and from thence north in the direction of Niles, Michigan, to the northern boundary line of the state of Indiana.

 

Resolved, That such company, when organized, be known by the name of the Plymouth, South Bend & Niles Railroad Company.

 

Resolved, That the capital stock of said company be $200,000.

 

Resolved, That the number of directors to manage the affairs of such company be nine.

The secretary presented papers for the subscription of stock, and 610 shares, $30,500, was subscribed by citizens of South Bend.

 

Elisha Egbert, for many years judge of the Marshall county common pleas .court, presented articles of association, which were adopted and ordered spread upon the records by the stockholders. A board of directors was then elected and the meeting adjourned.

 

The board of directors then met and organized by the election of Elisha Egbert, president; A. B. Ellsworth, treasurer, and John F. Miller. All these parties are long since dead. Mr. Miller became a Union general in the war of the rebellion; afterwards removed to San Francisco, where later he was elected to the United States senate, he held until the time of his death.

 

The company failed to accomplish anything, and the organization was to go to pieces.

 

Another company was organized in 1871, the line surveyed, and the reported that a road could easily be built along the line of the road; but nothing was done, and the company ceased to exist.

 

The Plymouth & Ligonier Railroad Company.

 

This was the name of a company organized in 1871. At the organization the following board of directors were elected: Samuel T. Hanna, Fort Wayne; Charles H. Reeve, John C. Cushman, C. C, Buck, C. E. J. B. N. Klinger and Daniel McDonald, of Plymouth. Of these, Reeve was elected president; John C.! Cushman, vice-president ; C. Buck, treasurer; Daniel McDonald, secretary, and Jacob B. N .

 


336                                          HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

 

Klinger, chief engineer. The requisite amount of stock was subscribed to enable the company to organize under the law in such cases made and provided, but none of it was ever paid, and no business transacted outside of the preliminary organization. The company was formed more for the purpose of keeping out another company about to be formed on that line in the interest of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Railroad Company than for the purpose of building a road. Having served its purpose it went into a state of innocuous desuetude, and now is a thing of the past.