Iowa History
Project
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ANNALS OF IOWA, January 1921
HOW BOONESBORO LOST A RAILROAD STATION
By Alonzo J. Barkley
In May, 1856, congress passed "The Iowa
Land Bill," granting lands to the state of Iowa, to aid in the
construction of four lines of railroad across the state. One of these
lines war to run northwesterly from Lyons, Iowa, to a point of intersection
with the Iowa Central Railway, near Maquoketa, thence running as near as
practicable on the forty-second parallel to the Missouri River.
The Iowa legislature, by an act approved July
14, 1856, granted the land insuring to the state for the construction of said
line of railroad to the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company, upon certain
conditions named in the act. The great panic of 1857 put this company
entirely out of business. In March, 1860, the state resumed the grant and
made it over to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company, a company
organized June 14, 1859, and composed largely of stockholders in the Chicago,
Iowa and Nebraska Railroad Company, already in operation from Clinton to Cedar
Rapids, Iowa. The Cedar River was bridged at Cedar Rapids and the
railroad built west to Otter Creek in 1860 and 1861, to Marshalltown in 1862,
to State Center in 1863, to Nevada by July 4, 1864, and the track laid to Boone
in December, 1864, but the road was not surfaced up and completed from Nevada
to Boone until 1865.
On March 28, 1865, the town plat of the town
of Boone was filed for record by John I. Blair, who had previously purchased a
large portion of the land where the city of Boone is now located.
The railroad was built from Marshalltown to
the Missouri River, under the management of John I. Blair, and W. W. Walker*
was his chief engineer.
*Mr. Walker's widow resides
in Cedar Rapids with her daughter, Mrs. A. W. Lee. Her younger daughter,
Mrs. Johnson Brigham, resides in Des Moines.
In July, 1862, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri
River Railroad was leased in perpetuity to the Galena and Chicago Union
Railroad Company, which company then owned the line from Chicago west to the
Mississippi River, opposite Clinton, Iowa, and operated the Chicago, Iowa and
Nebraska Railroad under lease. The lease covered not only the portion of
the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad then built, by the entire line to
the Missouri River, when the same should be completed to some point on said
river.
On June 2, 1864, the Galena and Chicago Union
Railroad was consolidated with the Chicago and North Western Railway and from
that time the operation of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, under
the lease, was by the Chicago and North Western Railway Company.
During the time the railroad was being built
westward from Cedar Rapids across the state, it was uncertain in the minds of
our people in Boone County just when and where the railroad would be built
across the west half of the state, and at what point it would touch the
Missouri River. Owing to this uncertainty its promoters were enabled to
secure some local aid through the counties which it finally passed. Our people
wanted an outlet for their products and had already abandoned all hope of ever
getting transportation by way of the Des Moines River, which they felt could
never be made navigable, except during the high water stages lasting a few
weeks in the spring and fall. Their anxiety was so great that Mr. Walker
induced Boone County to donate its swamp land funds and its unsold swamp lands
to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, on condition that it build its
road through this county. The contract was to be void in case the road
was not built ten miles west from the east line of the county, within a certain
fixed time. This contract was ratified by the voters of Boone County at a
special election held soon after for that purpose.
Boonesboro wanted a depot, and to this end an
agreement was made, and the $10,000 bonus asked by the company was finally
raised, part in cash and part in notes. Several "railroad
meetings" had been held in Boonesboro to arouse the people and secure this
subscription. Mr. Walker not being satisfied with this arrangement, asked
that the notes be guaranteed by responsible parties, which for some reason was
not done within the time specified.
During the last of those "railroad
meetings" held in the old courthouse for the purpose of raising the
subscription to secure the depot, a little incident occurred that may be of
interest to some of the old settlers, who looked upon the location of a depot
in Boonesboro as a foregone conclusion. Mr. Blair and Mr. Walker were in
attendance at that meeting and Mr. Walker was called upon to explain certain
matters under discussion. Hardly had he begun to talk when a man, who had
been largely instrumental in calling this meeting, was seen to walk quietly out
of the room. Mr. Walker, glancing at his overcoat which hung across the
back of his chair, noticed that a package of papers had been taken from its
pocket. Cutting his remarks short, he at once picked up his coat and,
beckoning Mr. Blair, they walked out of the building and, in a very short time,
drove rapidly away toward Des Moines. Before showing up again they
purchased lands a mile or more east of the courthouse and subsequently located
the depot almost a mile and one-half northeast of the public square in
Boonesboro, and located the town of Boone on lands purchased for that purpose.
About three years later the man who carried
off Mr. Walker's papers told the writer of this article that he went directly
to the office of Jackson Orr, a prominent citizen of the county, where together
they examined the sequestered papers and found them to be plats and surveys,
showing the depot located about where it now stands, and a line of railroad
running down a swale to Honey Creek, thence down this creek to the Des Moines
River, leaving Boonesboro entirely to one side.
The finances of the company were not at that
time sufficient to warrant its acceptance of the donation raised and the
building of its road through Boonesboro, crossing the Des Moines River over
such an expensive viaduct as the one now spanning the river on the main line of
the Chicago and North Western Railway between Boone and Ogden. The large
saving in the cost of building down Honey Creek and crossing the river at
Moingona, in addition to the large profits subsequently realized form the sale
of lots in the new town of Boone, might naturally lead one to the conclusion
that at no time had the company considered locating its depot in Boonesboro.
In July, 1864, congress made an additional
land grant to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad and authorized it to
change its line of road so as to connect with the proposed Union Pacific
Railroad at Council Bluffs. The construction of the line west of Boone
began late in 1865 and the track was laid into Council Bluffs in January, 1867,
but regular service from Woodbine to the Bluffs was not given until April,
1867.
In 1884 the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River
Railroad was sold to the Chicago and North Western Railway. It was, in
fact, a consolidation, but for convenience in handling it was made a sale.
The Iowa Railroad Land Company was organized
in 1869 by the stockholders of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad.
The land grant of that railroad company was conveyed to the Iowa Railroad
Land Company September 15, 1869, and in 1887 the Iowa Railroad Land Company
bought from the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Company its unsold lands.
The building of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri
River Railroad Company being finished in 1867, the grant was thus matured and
perfected. However, it was not until 1902 that this grant was fully
adjusted so that all tracts granted were definitely known and the companies
given evidence of title thereto.
In June, 1871, the Blair Town Lot and Land
Company took over the unsold town lots and the purchased lands along the road.
It was consolidated with the Iowa Railroad Land Company in 1888.
The Moingona Coal Company was organized in
June, 1866, and took over from the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad
Company certain timber and coal lands, which had been acquired by that
company in and near Moingona, and coal mines operated there for about
twenty years, when the mines closed, and the unsold lands of this company were
conveyed to the Iowa Railroad Land Company.
A NOTABLE
SPEECH OF BLACK HAWK
American annals contain many orations by, or
attributed to, American Indians. Some of these efforts are among the most
eloquent utterances of any time or tongue. Few readers of American
history have not read and been moved by the words of Logan, the Mingo, and
those of Keokuk, the Sac, and few will not accord these speeches the credit of
having moved nations, both red and white, to or from war.
A speech of Black Hawk seldom to be found in
Iowa historical sources is presented through the courtesy of Mr. A. N. Harbert
in this number of the ANNALS OF IOWA, in the body of the reprinted copy of
"Galland's Iowa Emigrant." Black Hawk was a Sac, not a
chieftain, however, nor o special fame except for action in harmony with his
own belief of tribal right. Yet, weighing his words by their results and
by the response in our own natures as we gather their import, diminished by
translation, the utterances of Black Hawk here presented must take place among
the best of Indian efforts that have come down to us.
Whether Black Hawk ought to have uttered the
language attributed to him, or to have remained silent, and whether he ought to
have followed them up with war or have followed Keokuk's counsels for peace, is
not our present question. But even white men cannot escape conclusion
that from Indian racial standpoint Black Hawk was consistent in utterance and
heroic in action, nor from the same viewpoint is there escape from conclusion
that Keokuk was inconsistent in utterance and craven in action. From the
white man's standpoint, of course, one condemns Black Hawk and commends Keokuk.
But from every consideration Black Hawk in this speech rivals Keokuk in
the fair object of all speech, namely, in producing results.
The moving planes of racial or tribal life have
ever produced heat at their friction edges. The Indian life is ideally
typified in the life and words of Black Hawk. The transition from savage
toward civilized life is ideally typified in the life of Keokuk. The
contrast and conflict in the two lives, if not in their respective utterances,
present the ideal setting for drama in aboriginal life, for they reveal the
elements of American frontier war.
Black Hawk, the loser, was defeated, deposed,
driven "forty miles from the Mississippi," disgraced and denied all
but a few friends at his death and burial at Iowaville. His grave was
desecrated, his bones dragged forth for exhibition about the country as a
curiosity, and only escaped that degradation by a timely accidental fire.
Keokuk, blue-eyed, mixed blooded, exalted and bonused throughout the era
of sale and dispossession from their ancient lands of his race, was vouchsafed
the honors and ease of royalty until his death in Kansas.
Black Hawk's was the reward of loyalty to the
ideals of a declining race; Keokuk's the reward of attachment to the ideals of
a race ascendant. Black Hawk's speech, as set out by Doctor Galland, is
among the greatest of the type which, in face of a lost cause, induces a
population to throw its all upon the altar of its race.