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         This enterprise originated in Tipton and Iowa City. The prime movers in Tipton were Messrs. Wolf & Landt, Piatt & Carr, Judge J. H. Rothrock, J. W. Casad, William Gilmore, William Dean, Charles Hammond, William H. Tuthill and other representative business men. The Iowa City workers were Ex-Gov. Kirkwood, George J. Boals, C. T. Ransom, Ezekiel Clark, Rush Clark, et als. The company was organized in 1870. Messrs. Wolf & Landt, Judge Rothrock and William Dean were nominal stockholders in Tipton. These gentlemen did not expect to realize any pecuniary benefit from the enterprise, their sole purpose being to benefit Tipton and Cedar County by the building of a road from east to west through the county.

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         William P. Wolf and William Dean were elected as Directors from Tipton, and C. T. Ransom, Samuel Sharpless, Rush Clark and Kirkwood, from Iowa City.

         The first plan was to build a railroad from some point on the Chicago & North-Western Railway, in Cedar County, via Tipton to Iowa City, and thence to Ottumwa, and so on to the Missouri River, in the Southwest. After the organization of the company, the Clinton interests, represented in the main by E. H. Thayer, of the Clinton Age, urged the propriety and economy of making Clinton the eastern starting point, with a view of ultimately making connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Road, and thus establish railroad communication with the lumber districts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Then the Oskaloosa people united in the enterprise with a view of securing the extension of the road to that city and county.

         In aid of the Iowa Southwestern, the people of Inland Township voted a tax of five per cent, and the people of Center Township a tax of three per cent. The line was established, and, in the Spring of 1871, F. E. Hinckley contracted to build the road, payable in the stock and bonds of the company. Work was commenced at Rock Creek, two miles West of Tipton, in June, 1871, with Patrick Carlin as foreman, and for a time the work progressed rapidly.

         The parties who originated the enterprise were assured by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy management that Mr. Hinckley was acting in their interests, and, when the bonds were ready to be put on the market, endorsed on them a guaranty that the road, when completed, should be operated in connection with that road, and that forty per cent of the gross earnings of the road should be applied to the payment of the interest on the bonds. The bonds were properly issued and executed, and capitalists interested in the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad had agreed to take them and advance the ready money thereon. The bonds were on deposit there when the great fire in that city, in October, 1871, entailed general disaster upon the Northwest, and deranged the plans of all connected or associated with the building of this road. The bonds had not been transferred, and capitalists found other and better investments for their money. There was no money in sight with which to complete the road. The plans of James F. Joy, of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, for the payment of the interest on the bonds were “thrown out of gear.” And Mr. Hinckley was forced to look elsewhere for money to carry on the work. At this time, the most of the grading was done in Cedar County, and the stone culverts were nearly all built. Piers were built for the bridge at the Cedar River crossing, but, for reasons already stated—want of money—work was suspended at the end of the season of 1871.

         In the Winter of 1871-2, the company was reorganized under the name of the Chicago, Omaha & St. Joseph Railroad Company. Representing that he had assurances of financial relief from responsible parties connected with the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, of New York, Mr. Hinckley proceeded to make large contracts for materials, etc. The money promised was not realized, and through the influence of the Chicago & North-Western Railway, and the Rock Island Railroad Companies, and the unnecessary noise about the so-called Granger Railroad laws of the Northwest, capitalists were discouraged from rendering any help to the Iowa Southwestern, or, as it was called under the reorganization of the company, the Chicago, Omaha & St. Joseph Railroad.

         In the Spring of 1875, the name of the road was again changed to the Chicago, Clinton & Western Railroad, and work was commenced on the Clinton . . .

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. . . end and the Cedar County division, west of Cedar River. About seventeen miles of track was ironed out from Clinton, the old grade repaired, and considerable new grading done in Cedar and Johnson Counties, when, apparently for want of funds, work was suspended, and the iron then laid down has never been used, but still rests in abeyance. In the Fall of 1876, about nine miles of the road was constructed between the B., C.R. & N. Railroad and Iowa City, on which regular daily trains are being operated. A large amount of money was expended in Cedar County, and the friends of the enterprise are of the opinion that the road will yet be completed. At present, however, the affairs of the road are in statu quo.