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MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. VOL. X. PLATE XI.

HISTORY OF THE ST. PAUL & SIOUX CITY RAIL- ROAD, 1864-1881 *

BY GEN. JUDSON W. BISHOP.

MINNESOTA VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY.

The Minnesota Valley Railroad Company was organized in 1864 under an act of the Minnesota Legislature approved March 4th, 1864, which act granted to that company all the "lands, in- terests, rights, powers and privileges" granted to the then Terri- tory of Minnesota by and under the so-called Land Grant Act of Congress approved March 3rd, 1857, and which were con- ferred on the then so-called Southern Minnesota Railroad Com- pany by act of the Legislature approved May 22nd, 1857, pertain- ing to the proposed line of railroad from St. Paul via Mankato and other points named to the southern boundary of the state in the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux river, where Sioux City now is.

The said act of March 3rd, 1857, had granted to the state six sections of land per mile of the railroad as a bonus for its con- struction; and a subsequent act of Congress approved May I2th, 1864, granted four additional sections per mile which were duly transferred to the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company by act of Legislature approved March 2nd, 1865.

The Minnesota Valley Railroad Company was organized with an authorized capital stock of $500,000, of which $473,000 was at once subscribed and paid in.

Its principal stockholders and first Board of Directors were: H. H. Sibley, Russell Blakeley, R. H. Hawthorne, George Cul-

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, April 13. 1908.

400 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

ver, W. F. Davidson, E. F. Drake, H. M. Rice, J. L. Meiriam, Horace Thompson, Franklin Steele, John S. Prince, J. E. Thomp- son, J. C. Burbank, T. A. Harrison, John Farrington, W. D. Washburn, and C. H. Bigelow. Of these seventeen directors, only the last three named now survive.

The officers of the company were: E. F. Drake, president; J. L. Merriam, vice-president; G. A. Hamilton, secretary; and Horace Thompson, treasurer. These gentlemen continued in their respective offices until the merging of the St. Paul and Sioux City and its subsidiary lines, with the West Wisconsin, St. Paul, Stillwater and Taylor's Falls, and North Wisconsin lines, into the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Rajlway Company in 1880.

In 1865 the road was located and constructed from M'endota to Shakopee, 22 miles; and in 1866 it was expended eastward from Mendota to West St. Paul, 6 miles, terminating at South Wabasha street, near where a freight yard and depot were re- established last year (in 1902), and was extended westward from Shakopee to Belle Plaine, 19 miles, making then, in all, 47 miles of completed road.

About the first of April, 1867, the writer was appointed chief engineer, and under his supervision the location and con- struction of successive extensions were completed to Le Sueur in 1867, to Mankato in 1868, to Lake Crystal in 1869, and to St. James, 122 miles from St. Paul, in 1870.

Meantime, in 1869, the Minnesota Valley Railroad Com- pany and the Minnesota Central Railroad Company (since ab- sorbed by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Com- pany) joined in the construction of the bridge over the Missis- sippi river, and of the line from Pickerel lake (two miles east of Mendota) to and over said bridge and to the site of the pres- ent Union Depot in St. Paul; our company building a freight house, 40 by 300 feet, on the river bank at the foot of Robert street, so arranged on the river side as to exchange freight with steamboats, there being then no direct railway connection at St. Paul for the east or south.

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD COMPANY.

On the 7th day of April, 1869, the name of the company was changed from the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company to

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. 401

the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company, the road in that year having run out of the valley at the south bend of the river, and having reached the open prairie at Lake Crystal on its way towards Sioux City.

The new company had $2,400,000 of capital stock, and fif- teen directors : Messrs. H. H. Sibley, Horace Thompson, S. F. Hersey, George A. Hamilton, J. L. Merriam, W. F. Davidson, J. C. Burbank, J. S. Prince, E. F. Drake, A. H. Wilder, C. H. Bigelow, T. A. Harrison, Russell Blakeley, H. G. Harrison, and J. W. Pence; of whom Mr. Bigelow is now the only sur- vivor.

Mr. John F. Lincoln had been appointed superintendent of the line in 1867, and continued as such until 1880.

IMPORTANCE OF THE MINNESOTA RIVER.

The Minnesota river in those days was a factor not to be disregarded by the railroad:

First, Because it was navigable and therefore a competitor for April, May, June, and July, as far up as Mankato, and a part of the time to Fort Ridgely and the Redwood and Yellow Medicine Indian agencies.

During the spring and summer of 1867, the terminus of the road being at Belle Plaine, we arranged with the steamer "Mol- lie Mohler" to make a round trip daily, leaving Belle Plaine on arrival of our morning train from St. Paul, to Mankato and return, to connect with our afternoon train to St. Paul. Other and larger boats made frequent trips whenever they could find a paying load, and at that time the railroad wanted and needed all the business the country afforded.

Second, The river was accustomed in the spring and sum- mer months to overflow its banks and cover the bottom lands one or two miles wide, and five to fifteen feet deep, compelling us for safe construction to keep our railroad line above high water level, and to follow generally the contour of the bluffs.

At that time all that part of the state south and west of Mankato tributary to the Minnesota river was in grass, uncul- tivated and uninhabited except by the few settlers along and near the river banks. Some twelve or more counties were

402 MINNESOTA HISTO!

drained by the Maple, th Cottonwood, the Redwood, qui Parle rivers, all, with flowing into the Minnesota

The water from the or from heavy rains in the at once into the creeks ar a few hours wras flooding at last the West St. Paul f

With the settlement an situation and the habits of has been many years since the river above Shakopee, ; floods again.

ST. PAUI

of the Des Moines riv of Iowa by act appr< Sioux City and St. ] had been organized in the incorporators of t Messrs. H. H. Sibley, the last named compa the articles of incorpo

THE ROUTE 1

In November, i8<

at Mankatn it was sn

404 MINNESOTA HISTOR

In the winter of 1870- road having been completed with the Sioux City and ^ which that company assum of the road from St. Jame to acquire all the lands gi City Company and not the course, all the lands granted

The new company was t to a junction with the Iowa the Illinois Central railroad) of Sioux City, in the year ]

The Sioux City and S time had enlisted new men ai

ST. PA

As we approach Falls and Sioux Ci valley several famili and who were comf<

We went throu quired attention, anc week. I soon foun become quite a well coming in from the into it and follow i suited, when a sett In a few weeks the 1 with graders and bi

406 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

«

operation through to Sioux City, using the Iowa Falls and Sioux City track between Lemars and Sioux City, as is in fact now done (1903).

The counties in southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa, near and tributary to the new road, were by this time sparsely occupied by new comers, unaccustomed to the new life and situation; and, apprehending a repetition of the previous winter's experience, every effort was made to prepare and pro- vide for it on the part of the Railroad Company, and to induce and stimulate such preparation on the part of the settlers, by ac^ cumulating fuel and supplies during the fall months.

On the 1 3th of November the winter commenced with a furious snowstorm with high wind, which lasted two or three days. The weather was extremely cold, and the snow particles were hard and fine like sand, and it was impossible for man or beast to make headway against it. It blinded the eyes, cut the skin like a shower of needles, confused the mind, and smothered the breath ; and, if the man who was overtaken by it did not im- mediately find shelter, he was likely to perish miserably in a very short time. This was the "blizzard" which, in its several murderous visits during that winter, cost the lives of nearly a hundred victims in different parts of this state. The winter all through was even more severe than the preceding one, and the road wras again for several months operated, so far as was possible, at a heavy loss to the company.

On the first of January, 1873, the writer was appointed gen- eral manager by both companies interested in the line between St. Paul and Sioux City, Capt. Thomas P. Gere (who had been assistant engineer) succeeding him as chief engineer of both com- panies; and the authority of John F. Lincoln as superintendent was extended over both roads making the through line.

During the spring and summer of 1873 thorough preparations for the coming winter were made by the sloping out and oblit- erating of the shallow cuts so that snow would not lodge in them, and by constructing double lines of snow fences and plant- ing trees to protect the deeper cuts, and generally bringing the new track into better condition. These efforts proved suc- cessful, and there has been little trouble in operating the road in any winter since then, except in the unusually severe one of 1880-1881.

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. 407

It has been said already that the country between Man- kato and Sioux City, a stretch of nearly two hundred miles, was in 1871 and 1872, when the road was under construction, a naked prairie, almost as destitute of trees as of human in- habitants. As during those and the following years the lands were being taken and occupied by actual settlers, the company by precept and by example tried to encourage the planting of trees; and, for ten years, young trees, cuttings, and tree seeds were transported to every station free of charge. The beneficent results of this policy are now apparent to one who sees the splen- did groves surrounding the comfortable farm houses and shading the parks and streets in the villages and cities, and who remembers the utterly blank landscape of thirty years ago.

THE GRASSHOPPER SCOURGE.

The new settlers had generally done in the previous sum- mer months more or less breaking up of the virgin sod, and everywhere along and in the vicinity of the roads were fields of corn, wheat, and other grain, giving promise of a plentiful harvest, tTie first crop of the pioneers generally in their new homes. One August day the sky was filled with a cloud of grasshoppers coming from unknown regions of the Northwest, full grown and hungry. They alighted in myriads on every field of grain, and in an hour the ground was bare. After com- pleting the devastation of the growing crops, they filled the ground with eggs and then departed, whither no one knew.

It is hard now to appreciate the situation, and to realize the consternation that pervaded the inhabitants and those inter- ested in the Railroad Company, as every hope of a crop of any kind for that season disappeared, while the gravest apprehen- sions remained as to that of the coming year. ; Generally, how- ever, the ground was fall plowed in preparation for the next spring sowing, and with the vague hope that the eggs might be destroyed by the winter frosts.

In early June of 1874 the fields that had been devastated by the grasshoppers in the previous summer had been generally cultivated and re-seeded and were promising a generous re- turn to the anxious owners. But now the eggs were hatching,

408 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

and in a few days the little hoppers outnumbered the wheat plants five to one. A few more days and the fields were eaten bare again. Whole counties in southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa were in this condition, and a panic ensued at once. I spent a day in personal inspection of the devastated fields and in interviewing the demoralized settlers, and, return- ing that night to St. Paul, reported the situation next morning to our Directors at a special meeting. The ouflook was very discouraging, but it would become a great deal worse if some- thing were not done at once to check the impending stampede of the disheartened settlers, and to restore and establish confidence.

I suggested a plan, and it was adopted, and the next day I was at the front again, putting it into operation.

I had proposed to join with five others in the purchase from the company, at its regular published prices, of all the railroad lands in two townships located in the heart of the grasshopper district, and to immediately commence breaking the sod, em- ploying the settlers to do the work in small tracts. Messrs. Horace Thompson, A. H. Wilder, and John L. Merriam, of St. Paul, and Adrian Iselin and George I. Seney, of New York, who were consulted and who approved by telegraph, formed, with myself, the party who were facetiously dubbed the "Grass- hopper Syndicate/'

The lands were selected near Sheldon, Iowa, and I tele- graphed to John L. Kenny, who had been quartermaster in my regiment ten years before, and who knew how to manage men and teams, to meet me there next morning.

While he proceeded to mark off a square mile of land into twenty acre tracte, I "intercepted" the migrating settlers as they came in sight on their way to Dakota, or to anywhere beyond the grasshoppers, and before night I had captured twelve of them, each with a contract to break twenty acres at $2.50 per acre. The wagon bed was lifted off, and the wife and children commenced housekeeping in it, while the man unlimbered his breaking plow and started in. The news spread over the country like a prairie fire in November, and within six weeks I had over 2,000 acres turned over. A good many of these men, after completing their contracts, returned to their abandoned home- steads and broke twenty acres or more each for themselves.

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. 409

Then came the fall plowing, and the panic gradually quieted down. Meantime the hoppers had devoured the crops, had grown to maturity, filled the ground with eggs again, and de- parted. Now evidently there was more trouble to come. With 2,000 acres of newly broken land to be utilized, we built a farm house with barn, sheds, granary, etc. Next spring it was all put into crops, including corn, oats, flax, barley, etc., and one square mile field in wheat.

About the first of June the growing grain was something to be proud of as we looked it over, but a close inspection re- vealed the ground alive with 'hoppers again. I would not weary this audience with any more grasshopper war stories, but we have recently heard that they filled the ground with eggs last fall in certain northwestern counties of the state, and our expe- rience may be helpful to those interested there.

I telegraphed to St. Paul for barrels of coal tar, and for plates of sheet iron about eight feet lonof by four feet wide, and we undertook to save that square mile of wheat in this way. The sheet iron plates were bent up a little at the front edge, and at the rear edge a strip was turned up six or eight inches wide. These plates were laid along the south line of the field at the southeast corner, with a space of eight or nine feet between them, end to end. A horse was placed in front of, and be- tween, each pair of plates, his whififletree being attached by wires about nine feet long to the nearest corners of the two plates behind him, so that, when ready to advance, the "line of battle," as the boys called it, extended about as many rods as there were plates. Then the plates were brushed with coal tar, and the line advanced northward. The 'hoppers in front of the horse would jump to the right and left, and another and final jump would land them in the tar. At first a man was re- quired to manage each horse, but as they became used to the work, their heads were connected by lines, so that a man at each end and one to spare, could guide a line of eight or nine horses, and could clean about sixteen acres at every trip across the field. Each pan would accumulate a load of several bushels of 'hoppers in crossing the field, and at the end of the trip the pans were cleaned with shovels, rebrushed with tar, readjusted in line, and a return trip was made in like manner over the adjacent ground.

410 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

Though all this did not work smoothly and perfectly at first, it did after a few hours' practice, and we thus covered the entire square mile in five days.

The next week we went over the ground in like manner from east to west, and found that we had effectually cleaned up the little pests without appreciable injury to the growing grain; and then our other fields were treated in like manner. These operations were watched with great interest by neighbor- ing farmers, and many of them saved their crops by similar efforts.

A week later a new danger threatened this particular field. A quarter section cornering on it had been sown also to wheat, and had been abandoned by the owner to the 'hoppers hatched therein. They had eaten it bare, and now, being half grown, had begun to migrate over to our field. They were not old enough to fly, and traveled in short leaps, and there were mil- lions of them, all hungry.

Fortunately they were discovered when the movement com- menced, and it was met by commencing a ditch at the corner and extending it as rapidly as possible to the north and east. We found that a ditch two feet wide, and one and a half feet deep, was sufficient to stop them ; very few were able to cross it — the grand army went into it, and were utterly unable to rise out of it. In a couple of days they had nearly filled it, and the raid was over.

A good many fields were abandoned to the pests that sum* mer, to be totally destroyed, but some were saved, to yield a fair harvest. Our square mile of wheat gave us 11,298 bushels, which was sold at 80 cents ; the total expense of fighting the 'hoppers was between 30 and 40 cents per acre.

This year (1875) tne grasshoppers at maturity generally left the country without depositing eggs, and there has been no serious trouble with them since. Those appearing in later years were less in numbers, easily handled, and created no panic.

The "Grasshopper Syndicate," however, continued its op- erations, breaking up new land every year, and selling out both new and cultivated lands, as buyers appeared, carrying on meantime its farming operations on a large scale, until in 1882

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. 411

it was closed out, returning to each man all the capital he had invested, with interest and a handsome dividend of profits. It had deserved and achieved success.

Its example was followed by other large non-resident land owners, several of whom placed their lands under the writer's management for similar treatment. So, besides the 13,000 acres owned by the Syndicate, of which about one-half was put under cultivation, two farm headquarters, with buildings, etc., being successively established, he had to look after other similar en- terprises, establishing three other farms and cultivating about 4,000 acres. All of these were successfully carried through until disposed of to the satisfaction and profit of the owners, and incidentally to the benefit of the road at a critical time in its history. Of course, as a railroad manager he could give but casual personal attention to these farms; but, with capable and honest foremen in charge, and with a system of reports and accounts, he was able to keep them under such supervision as was necessary without neglecting the regular railroad work.

EXTENSION" OF THIS RAILWAY SYSTEM.

There were financial troubles in 1873, z^74 an'd 1875,' an^ there was a disposition to unfriendly legislation in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin during those years, apparently growing out of the so-called granger movement among the farmers; and for these reasons not a mile of railroad was built in Minnesota during the three years last named.

In 1876 the Worthington and Sioux Falls Railroad Com- pany was organized by the St. Paul and Sioux City people, and the road was built from Sioux Falls Junction to Luverne in that year. It was extended to Beaver Creek in 1877 and to Sioux Falls in 1878, being the first railroad to reach that city.

In 1879 the branch road was built from Luverne to Doon, Iowa, 28 miles; the Pipestone branch was built from Heron Lake to Woodstock, 44 miles (later extended to Pipestone, H miles) ; and the Blue Earth City branch, from Lake Crystal to Blue Earth City, 34 miles, , which was continued in 1880 to El- more at the Iowa state line, ic miles. With these, the St. Paul,

412 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

Stillwater and Taylor's Falls railroad, 28 miles, the Hudson and River Falls railroad, 12 miles, and the Omaha and Northern Nebraska railroad, 63 miles, were all merged into the St. Paul and Sioux City system, making now nearly 700 miles of con- nected railroad, including the extensions, completed in 1880, of the Sioux Falls road to Salem, South Dakota, 39 miles, of the Omaha and Northern Nebraska road from Oakland to Sioux City, 66 miles, and the Sioux City and Ponca road, 29 miles, a narrow gauge road which was purchased in 1879 and rebuilt in 1880.

In 1879 tne St. Paul and Sioux City road had outgrown its shop accommodations at Shakopee, and, accepting an offer from the city of St. Paul of an eligible tract of forty acres within the city, near the north end of the Mississippi river rail- road bridge, the construction of the various buildings was com- menced; and in 1880 they were fully completed and equipped with the necessary machinery and tools, and a special branch track was constructed to connect them with the main line.

The conditions arising from the various and different arrange- ments that had been made from time to time for the construction of the two main divisions between St. Paul and Sioux City, and of the various branches and subsidiary lines, appeared to re- quire a general consolidation of all the lines, and general read- justment, consolidation and reissue of the stock and bonds. This was effected as above stated, in 1879, in the corporate name of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company, with the same officers and directors who had theretofore constructed and managed the properties.

This accomplished, the situation was greatly simplified, and general conditions moreover had much improved. The grass- hoppers and the blizzards had passed into ancient history. The government lands had all been taken up by actual settlers, and cfur railroad lands were selling freely for settlement and cul- tivation ; prosperous villages and cities were growing up rap- idly, and the settlers were no longer destitute or dependent, but were in condition to give business and earnings to the road. Meantime, however, other roads were invading our territory from the east, and were compelling readjustment of rates and division of the business.

ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. 413

ORGANIZATION OF THE CHICAGO, ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS AND OMAHA RAILWAY COMPANY.

It now became apparent that a closer and a permanent connection via St. Paul with Milwaukee and Chicago, and with Lake Superior, must be had; and the suggestion was made and considered of the purchase of, or merging with, the properties then known as the West Wisconsin and North Wisconsin rail- roads.

Messrs. Drake, Thompson and Merriam went to New York in January, 1880, to see what might be done to this end; but the sudden death of Mr. Thompson in that city on the 27th of that month interrupted and at last wholly changed our plans. What was finally done was to sell a majority of the St. Paul and Sioux City stock to a syndicate headed by Mr. H. H. Porter, of Chicago ,and composed of the principal owners of the Wis- consin properties. This was followed in the succeeding spring of 1880 by a general reorganization of all the properties under the name of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Rail- way Company, under which name the lines are now owned and operated.

In the reorganization, several of the old St. Paul and Sioux City directors retired, and .were replaced by new men, Mr. Porter becoming president of the new company. The writer remained with the new organization as general manager; and Mr. E. W. Winter was appointed general superintendent, and Mr. Francis B. Clarke, general traffic manager, their authority being extended over all lines embraced therein. During the summer of 1880 the site was purchased, and the general office building (now occupied) at Fourth and Rosabel streets, St. Paul, was erected. The Prince street freight yard and depot and the Spring street yard in this city were established; terminals in Minneapolis and Omaha were acquired and equipped ; and the several extensions of various limes heretofore named, and others in Nebraska, were completed.

In connection with other roads, the St. Paul Union Depot Company was organized, and the original building was erected and the yards were established. These in the past twenty years have been twice enlarged and rearranged in the effort to accom-

414 MINNESOTA HIST<

modate and keep pace wi there. A contract was m Railway Company, for th( and Minneapolis, and for last named city; and, afte was made between the city railroad companies, as to nance of bridges where th intersect. Under this agi have been bridged as requii With fresh capital a policy of making his road ments were made on the ^ high standard, and new ec ness was provided.

ST. PAUI

grass country, uninhab ing of the road had re<

The enterprise am men who in the begini and who through succ rience maintained faith should be ever gratefi nesota, and especially perous counties so sple ent management.

If this imperfect s nesota Historical Socic ory of those men, most

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