The Little Road
:/l-p.-.i
The Story of the
Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway
Frank G. Hicks
The Little Road
The Story of the
Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway
By Frank G. Hicks
Western Illinois University
Macomb, Illinois
Copyright © 2006 by Western Illinois University
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Western Illinois University Libraries
Western Illinois University College of Arts and Sciences
Macomb, Illinois 61455
Printed and bound in the United States of America
ISBN: 0-97771 16-0-9
Front cover photo: Macomb & Western Illinois locomotive number 2 is "on the point"
of a southboiiiui mixed train consisting ofa C'B&Q boxcar and M&Wl coach number 2
at Industry sometime during 1405 or l^Od.
Title page: This early view of the M&WI Industry depot faces northwest and shows the
siding just north of the depot.
Back cover photo: One of the original M&WI stock certificates, this is #19. The blank
lines denoting ownership and transfer date indicate that, like the rest of the M&WTs
stock, the Bank of Macomb was ne\er able to sell this share.
All three images are from Western lllint>is University (WIU) Archives and Special
Collections Unit.
I he editors wish to thank the Haines Family lund for Regional Studies for assisting
with the publication of this inaugural volume of the New Western Illinois University
Monograph Series.
Till Lin 1 1 Road
THE NEW WESTERN ILLINOIS MONOGRAPH SERIES
Jeffrey Hancks and Susan Martinelli-Femandez, Series Editors
Series Editorial Board:
Martin Dupuis
Raymond Greene
Greg Hall
John E. Hallwas
Inessa Levi (Ex-officio)
Jeffrey Matlak
Polly F. Radosh
David Stevenson
THE WESTERN ILLINOIS MONOGRAPH SERIES
Susan Glaspell: Voice From the Heartland (1983)
Marcia Noe
Thomas Gregg: Early Illinois Journalist (1983)
John E. Hallwas
John Hay's Pike County: Two Tales and Seven Ballads (1984)
Edited with an Introduction by George Monteiro
Robert G. Ingersoll: Peoria 's Pagan Politician (1984)
Mark A. Plummer
Joseph Smith, Jr. 's Red Brick Store (1985)
Roger D. Launius and F. Mark McKieman
We Are Sherman 's Men: The Civil War Letters of Henry Orendorjf (1986)
William M. Anderson
Adelaide Johnson: To Make Immortal Their Adventurous Will (1986)
Shirley J. Burton
Lincoln 's Springfield in the Civil War (1991)
Camilla A. Quinn
The New Western Illinois Monograph Series is pubHshed by the University Libraries and
the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Illinois University. The series supports
studies in the biography, history, geography, ethnography, literature, politics, and culture
of the western Illinois region. Correspondence about the original Western Illinois
Monograph Series or manuscripts for the new series should be sent to
Professor Susan Martinelli-Femandez, College of Arts and Sciences, Western Illinois
University, Macomb, Illinois 61455.
Series Acknowledgements
This is the first volume of the New Western Illinois Monograph Se-
ries. The original monograph series produced eight outstanding volumes in the
l9X0s and the early 1990s, but unfortunately it did not survive a previous
budget cut. It was not the original intent of WIU to reinstate the series, but
alter discussions with Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Hallwas and for-
mer Dean of Libraries James Huesmann. the timing seemed right to pursue it.
My position of Endowed Professor of Icarian and Regional Studies w as created
in July 2005, and one of my primary duties is to promote the region's history
and culture. Furthermore, the University Libraries has been successful in rais-
ing external funds to promote regional studies, establishing a budget from
which this book was partially produced. With the help of College of Arts and
Sciences Dean Inessa Levi, a new series editorial board has been formed,
drawing from the extraordinary faculty of the Western Illinois University
Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences. We envision publishing one
book each year on topics related to western Illinois regional studies. As this
book was already well underway before the new editorial board was created,
this volume did not pass through the members' hands. Thus, any mistakes in
the editorial process rest solely w ith me.
Most of the thanks for this volume go to 2005 WIU graduate Frank
Hicks. Frank worked tirelessly on this manuscript on his own time for several
years. His goal was to simply donate his research notes and papers to the
Archives. However, it was immediately apparent to us in the Archives that his
tremendous work needed to be shared with a w ider audience. Frank's passion
for railroads brought him to the WIU Archives; the outstanding service he re-
ceived from the staff and his dedication to the project kept him coming back.
The end result is a phenomenal contribution to western Illinois regional stud-
ies. .ArchiNcs staff members William Cook and Kathy Nichols provided in-
valuable assistance throughout the research process. Maria Vizdal volunteered
graciously to edit the manuscript, and she worked diligently with several cam-
pus offices to get the book printed. Countless other persons on the WIU cam-
pus pr()\ ided support to create this book. They remain aiioinnious. but their
\N()rk is greatly appreciated.
On behalf of the series editorial board. \\c look forward to producing
additional monographs and sharing our interest in western Illinois regional
studies
JelfrcN llancks
I ndowed Professor of Icarian and Regional Studies
\\csi(.Tn Illinois University
Foreword
Macomb, Illinois was very different at the dawn of the 20* century
than it is now. Like all of the cities in McDonough County it was a farm town,
just another county seat along the line of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy
Railroad. But early in the new century the city began to change. Ultimately
the most significant change would be the establishment of the Western Illinois
State Normal School. But there was another change at the dawn of the century
that signaled the advancement of Macomb: it got its own railroad.
The Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway, or MI&L, ran south out
of Macomb twenty miles, serving the communities of Industry and Littleton
and the farmers in between. Its trains ran through McDonough and Schuyler
Counties for more than a quarter of a century, carrying people and products
affordably, and generally reliably, to what had only fifty years before been the
frontier of the United States. Farmers shipped out livestock and grain destined
for the Chicago markets; merchants shipped in goods to sell in their stores;
customers shipped in products ordered from remote locations; and everyone
rode the train. The MI&L was affectionately nicknamed the "Little Road" by
the local newspapers. Unlike the massive, impersonal Burlington system that
ran through Macomb, the MI&L was owned and operated by locals. The train
would stop at any house or comer along its route to pick someone up or let
someone off. All that was required for front door delivery was a quick request
of the engineer, and when the train arrived, the crew would obligingly unload
the merchandise before continuing on their way. The conductors and engineers
knew everyone who lived along the route, and everyone knew them. Personal
service was a way of doing business.
The story of the MI&L is a twisting, tortured one, for from a purely
financial perspective the railroad probably should never have been built. It
was the product of the optimistic interurban boom of the early 20'^ century and
the determination of its owners to benefit their communities even if it meant
running a money losing operation. Though never very profitable, in the end it
did benefit the people and towns it served and for decades was an accepted and
important part of life for thousands of people. This is the story of the Macomb
Industry & Littleton Railway - "The Little Road."
Acknowledgements
First and foremost. I would like to thank Bill Cook. Kathy Nichols
and Maria Vizdal of Western Illinois University's Archives and Special Col-
lections Unit. For a year and a half they put up with my incessant demands on
their time and patience, and without their help not a single page of this history
would have been possible. Thanks go to Joe Piersen of the Chicago & North
Western Historical Society. Fred Ash. Bob Watson, and Dr. Harold Cox for
their help in tracing roster information. 1 would also like to thank the volun-
teers of the Schuyler County Jail Museum for their assistance and Viletta
Hilarv' for her time and reminiscences. Randall Hicks and Dave Swanson were
kind enough to proofread draft copies of this work and provided valuable in-
sight. Jeff Hancks provided valuable assistance with publication work.
This book is dedicated to my father, to whom 1 owe my lifelong
interest in trains.
Table of Contents
Series Description Hi
Series Acknowledgements iv
Foreword v
Acknowledgements vi
Map of The Little Road's Stations viii
1. The Coming of the Railroad 1
2. The Electric Road 11
3. In the Balance 25
4. Men of Industry 35
5. Strides of Progress 45
Afterword 57
Appendix A - Trackage and Structures 59
Appendix B - Rolling Stock 67
Appendix C - MI&L Annual Reports 73
End Notes 77
Bibliography 85
Macomb
Henderson Switch
Andrews Switch
N
A
\J Industry
Kirkpatrick Switch
Q Runkle Switch
O Little
:ton
A simple iliasiiam oj the MI&L route showing tmtetahle locations. Detailed track maps
can he found in Appendix A.
Till I I ITU- Road
The Coming of the Railroad
The history of the Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway runs hand-
in-hand with the history of Macomb and the areas surrounding it, and that story
begins long before the first white settlers even arrived in modem McDonough
County. The earliest French explorers first saw Illinois when they traversed
the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in the late 1600s; a few settlements followed
and in 1717 the region was made part of the Louisiana Territory. It became
British land in 1763 after the French and Indian War, and fifteen years later
George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia and Cahokia and claimed the land for
the state of Virginia. In 1784 Virginia ceded Illinois County, as it was called,
to the United States federal government. At first it was part of the Northwest
Territory, then in 1800 the Indiana Territory was formed with boundaries en-
compassing modem Illinois. In 1809 the Illinois Territory was created, and
nine years later Illinois became a state and its modem boundaries were estab-
lished.'
When Illinois became a state, there were about 40,000 whites living
within its borders, though not a single one of them in modem McDonough
County. Much of west-central Illinois, including the area around Macomb,
was part of the Military Tract. This was land that had been set aside for sol-
diers who had served in the War of 1812, in increments of 160-320 acres per
The above drawing shows the original courthouse in Macomb as it appeared during the
1830s, soon after it was built. Bateman & Shelby, The Historical Encyclopedia of Illi-
nois and McDonough County.
1 - The Coming of the Railroad
1
man. Many soldiers never claimed their land, and only a handful ever moved
to western Illinois. The first white settlers in McDonough County arrived in
1K26, around the time the county was separated from Pike County, its borders
fi.xed, and its governance put under the control of Schuyler County. The first
settlement was about a mile southeast of where Industry was later founded, and
over the ne.xt four years more settlements sprang up near the current locations
of Blandinsville and Macomb. In 1830 McDonough County was officially
founded and the settlement of Washington, changed to Macomb later in the
year, at its center, was made the county seat. The county was named for Com-
modore Thomas MacDonough, who had commanded the victorious American
fleet against the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. while the
county seat was named for General Alexander Macomb, commander of the
American land forces at Plattsburg in that same battle.'
Macomb expanded steadily in the years after the county was created.
In 1 84 1 it was incorporated as a village; fifteen years later it was incorporated
as a city. McDonough County grew up around it as well, with settlements in
the south, closer to Schuyler County and the Illinois River, being established
earlier than in the north. One of the first of these was Industry.
The first settler on the current site of Industry was a blacksmith who
set up shop in 1846. At the time there were virtually no real towns in the sur-
rounding countryside; even the nearest post office was fairly isolated. Not
until 1850 did other businesses begin to cluster around the lone blacksmith
shop, but the settlement began growing, and in 1855 the town, by now known
as Industry, was laid out and sur\eyed. It wasn't until two years later that the
current political townships in McDonough County were established, with In-
dustry Township encompassing the area around the new settlement. In 1867
the town of Industry was officially incorporated, and in the follow ing years
liuiustrv prospered as the largest town for ten miles in any direction.^
Six miles south of Industry lay the town of Littleton, over the border
in Schuyler County. The first white settlers in Schuyler County arrived in the
Rushville area in 1823, and only two years later the county was otTicially cre-
ated. What was later known as Littleton Township was originall\ Oregon
Township, fhe first settlers in the area arri\ed in the northern part of the town-
ship in 1836 and laid out the town of Doddsville, right on the border with
McDonough County. Thirteen years later James Little settled in the exact cen-
ter of the township and laid out a new town, Littleton. The \illage expanded
quickly, surviving a tornado that destroyed much of the town in 1856. and
growing to a si/e of more than 1 .000 by the end of the century.^
The most important development in Macomb's first century of exis-
tence was the coming of the railroad. The first successful steam locomoti\es
had been developed in I nglaiui in the late 1820s and the technology had
quickly spread across the Atlantic. A few short railroads were built on the east
coast in the early 1830s. and by the 1840s they had been greatly extended and
expanded. By 1840 it was becoming clear that railroads were the best way to
connect the far corners of the United States, and railroad lines began to be built
2 Till Lmi I Road
as far west as the Mississippi Valley. A network of railroads criss-crossing the
state of Illinois was conceived as early as the late 1830s. By 1850 the first
railroads were built west out of Chicago as far as Elgin and Aurora. Within the
next year or so canvassers, or fundraisers, spread out across the state to raise
interest in, and money for, the railroads that would be built to the Mississippi
and beyond.^
One of these planned railroad lines was the Northern Cross Railroad,
renamed the Quincy & Chicago Railroad in 1857. The Northern Cross would
be built between Quincy in the south and Galesburg in the north. It would con-
nect with the Central Military Tract Railroad and the Aurora Branch Railroad
being constructed between Galesburg and Chicago, thereby linking western
Illinois with the largest city in the state, as well as with Lake Michigan. The
intended route went straight through McDonough County and, of course,
through Macomb.'
The Northern Cross, the second railroad in Illinois to bear the name,
was originally conceived in early 1 85 1 as a link between the Mississippi River
at Quincy, and the Illinois & Michigan Canal. At the same time, though, there
were two other railroads extending toward each other from Galesburg and Chi-
cago: the Aurora Branch Railroad, renamed the Chicago & Aurora Railroad in
1852, building southwest from Chicago, and the Central Military Tract Rail-
road, building northeast from Galesburg. The Chicago & Aurora Railroad and
the Central Military Tract Railroad managements were able to persuade the
Northern Cross to change its northern terminus to Galesburg, thereby paving
the way for the creation of a through route from Chicago to Quincy.^
The first railroad meeting in Macomb was on November 5, 1851. It
was then that the Northern Cross' management presented their proposal for the
railroad fi"om Quincy to Galesburg, and asked for McDonough County to pur-
chase $50,000 worth of stock in the railroad company. A vote on this matter
was scheduled for March 1852, and the battle began. There was significant
opposition to the railroad. Many in the county claimed that it was unnecessary,
as goods produced locally could be taken beyond the county borders by carts.
The arguments were fierce, and the vote was actually delayed until May to
allow for more campaigning. In the end, the citizens of McDonough County
voted to approve the stock purchase by a margin of 817 to 644.
Even after the stock purchase was approved, though, there was no
railroad. The Northern Cross' president. Judge Nehemiah Bushnell of Quincy,
was unable to secure enough money from the eastern capitalists on whom he
had relied, and in June 1853 it was decided that McDonough County would
have to contribute an additional $25,000 to the railroad. This, and other fund-
raising efforts up and down the line, finally made construction of the railroad
possible, which took place between 1853 and 1856. In October 1855 the first
train ever to enter Macomb, the Northern Cross Railroad's locomotive Fulton,
arrived from Quincy on the newly-built track. The line to Galesburg was com-
pleted in January 1856, and operations on the Northern Cross were merged
with those on the Chicago & Aurora, after 1855 known as the Chicago
1 - The Coming of the Railroad 3
Burlington & Quincy. or CB&Q. and the Central Military Tract railroads.
Finally. Macomb had a permanent link to the outside world.
In the latter half of the \9^ century, a railroad was often the deciding
factor in whether a frontier town lived or died. The Northern Cross Railroad
(which was foreclosed on in 1864 and sold to the CB&Q a year later) brought a
tremendous amount of wealth and prosperity to the small village of Macomb.
The population of McDonough County more than doubled in the ten years be-
tueen 1850 and 1860, from 7,600 to 20,000, and a number of new towns grew
up along the railroad tracks. Bardolph, Bushnell. Colchester. Tennessee, and
Prairie City were all founded in the years that the railroad was being built. The
promises that the railroad's promoters had made in the early 1850s all came
true. Land prices in Macomb rose, the population increased, business for the
town's merchants grew, and ease of shipment of materials dramatically mod-
ernized the way the townspeople did business.
The construction of the railroad from Chicago to Quincy was part of a
much larger trend. By the start of the Civil War there were over 3,500 miles of
railroads in Illinois, and virtually every major population center was connected
to a growing network of steel ribbons stretching across the state. After the end
of the war the expansion continued. The Toledo Peoria & Western,
McDonough County's second railroad, was constructed across the northern
part of the county in the late 1860s. New railroads were being built all over,
and ^ by 1872 the
railroad mileage in
the state had in-
creased to over
6,300 miles,'- but
for every new ven-
ture that was con-
structed it seemed
that there were
three that foun-
dered before the
Irst shoNclfuI of
earth was turned.
By the late
9"' century the
region south oi'
Macomb which
included Industry,
Doddsville, and
Littleton was one
o\' tlie largest areas
in western Illinois
devoid of a railroad
link. Within an
rhi\ ISdl railnuuhthip of western Illinois shows the few rail-
waw ihroujih the Illinois Military Tract at the start of the Civil
ii\ir. Cr H'ooJworlh Collnn. "Railroad Map of Illinois."
Till Lini I R(),.\n
3I«
area of about 500 square j^^jj ^^^^^ Excursion Traius"!
miles bordered by
Macomb and Table Grove
in the north, Plymouth
and La Prairie in the west,
Clayton and Mt. Sterling
in the south, and Rush-
ville and Vermont in the FROI?! ]^IA€0:ilB TO ClUIIlCY!
east, there was no way to <=»Kr t:eces a-airs: <ss asTii iktst-SlUTT 8s:
get to the outside world '*-'^° ™^ ^^'""^^ county^
except by horse. Perhaps AGRICULTURAL FAIR I
because of this, numerous ._^.,,.. ... — l_ ■■ i
schemes for constructine A^i advertisement from the 1850s picturing a Northern
-, J ,, u T J Cross train. WIU Special Collections.
a railroad through Indus- ^
try and Littleton, the two largest towns in the gap, were brought before the
people of this area in the 1880s and 1890s. They all failed.
One of the last of these plans, and likely the one that got the farthest
before the turn of the century, was the line known as "Colonel Piper's Rail-
road." Colonel J.M. Piper was an entrepreneur from St. Louis who, in early
1895, proposed constructing a railroad that would extend from Macomb in the
north, south to Grafton on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Illinois River.
From there it would connect with the already-existing Bluff Line and proceed
directly into downtown St. Louis. The railroad would go through Industry,
Camden, Mt. Sterling, Perry, Griggsville, Detroit, and Pearl, and at its southern
end would traverse the length of Calhoun County, which, though bordered by
the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, lacked any rail link at all.'^
Colonel Piper revealed his plans for the new railroad, which was offi-
cially called the St. Louis Perry & Chicago, at a meeting in Macomb on March
1, 1895. Three months later, the first major canvassing meeting was held to
raise money for the venture. Forty thousand dollars in subscriptions would be
required of the people of Macomb. A good number of civic-minded business-
men, including Albert Eads, Van L. Hampton, and J.M. Keefer of Macomb,
and Amos S. Ellis and Joseph Lawyer of Industry, joined in the canvassing
efforts that took place during the summer of 1895. But the man leading the
drive for local support of the railroad was a man from Macomb named Charles
Vilasco Chandler.'"*
Bom in Macomb on January 25, 1843, C.V. Chandler was one of
Colonel Charles and Sara C. Chandler's seven children. The Colonel was the
owner and president of the First National Bank of Macomb, which brought in
enough money for C.V. to get a good education. After his mother died in
1855, he attended boarding schools near Chicago and in Danbury, Connecticut.
Instead of going off to college, in mid- 1862 he returned to Illinois and enlisted
in Company I of the 78"^ Illinois Volunteer Infantry to serve in the Civil War.
He quickly ascended the ranks to Sergeant-Major and after nine months of
service was already a Second Lieutenant.'"
I - The Coming of the Railroad 5
During September 1863 the 78'*' Illinois was part of Colonel John
Mitchell's Brigade in the Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas
Rosecrans. They were marching in the vicinity of Rossville, Georgia, when,
on September 19. the Battle of Chickamauga began. The bulk of both the Un-
ion and Confederate armies, including the 78"' Illinois, were brought into the
battle the next day. The Confederate armies under James Longstreet attacked
in the morning, shattering the Union flank and driving back part of the army,
but Union (ieneral George Thomas was able to rally his troops and stall the
Confederate advance. With Thomas" outnumbered troops facing the high tide
of the Rebel assault, two reserve brigades, one of which was Mitchell's brigade
with the 78"^ Illinois, arrived at the moment of greatest need from the rear to
support the Union line."'
This action of these two brigades saved the Army of the Cumberland
from rout, helped to cement Thomas' reputation as the "Rock of Chicka-
mauga," and resulted in forty percent of the men of the 78"^ Illinois being
killed, wounded, or captured. Of the regiment's twenty officers, eight were
casualties. C.V. Chandler was among them. At the height of the battle he was
hit b> a bullet which passed through one leg and into the other. After the battle
he was promoted to Adjutant, but though he went through a period of recovery
and briefly returned to duty, his wounds eventually forced him to resign on
April 3. 1864.'^
After the war Chandler went
to work for his father at the
First National Bank. In 1866
he married Clara Baker, w ith
whom he had six children.
By 1870 he was elected city
treasurer, beginning over
four decades of public ser-
\ice in Macomb. Chandler's
father died in 1878. making
C.V. the bank's president,
lie continued to successfully
i>pcralc the bank, reorganiz-
ing it in 1886 as the Bank of
Macomb. Chandler was civi-
calK-mindcd. and he spear-
headed several projects to
improve the City of
Macomb. By 1879. he had
purchased all of the busi-
nesses in the block just south
of the CB&Q freight house,
demolished them, and created
C.l C'hiinJhr in a IVIO-cru porlrail. liulcnuin A
Shclhv. The Unlorual iincvclopi'dia of Illinois ami
iSkDtiftimijh i'ouniv.
Till l.ini I Road
Chandler Park for the enjoyment of the people of Macomb. Twenty years
later, in 1899, he paid to build a monument to McDonough County's Civil War
soldiers in Chandler Park.'^
C.V. Chandler was one of the richest and most influential business-
men in Macomb, and his support for Colonel Piper's railroad was of tremen-
dous importance. He initially subscribed for $1,000 worth of stock in the rail-
road (worth about $21,000 in inflation-adjusted 2005 money) and later added
more to that amount. He served as Piper's primary contact person in
McDonough County, the leader of the local efforts to support the railroad.'^
The early signs seemed ominous to those in the Macomb area who
were weary of empty promises made by railroad promoters. There was no
construction work during the summer of 1895 until late August, when a hand-
fiil of surveyors began laying out the locations of crossings for several east-
west railroads. After this initial work was completed, there was again a lull in
construction. Support for the project in McDonough County waned, and ef-
forts by Piper to secure right-of-way from residents of Scotland Township in
August and September met with resistance from wary farmers.^"
Colonel Piper soldiered on and the St. Louis Perry & Chicago seemed
to inch toward reality, but he
was running out of time. In
December the national econ-
omy entered a two-year reces-
sion that was something of an
aftershock to the Panic of 1893.
Prices fluctuated wildly, and the
construction contractor in-
formed Piper that another 1
$500,000 was needed to build
the railroad.^'
Piper was desperate.
In an apparent effort to raise
more money, extensions to the
railroad were promised includ-
ing an east-west line through
Bluffs and Barry and a northern
extension all the way to Rock
Island and Des Moines, Iowa.
But it was all for naught.
Though construction work be-
gan in a few random locations
along the line in April 1896, by ]
June it was evident that Piper's
effort was foundering. In mid- Macomb 's Civil War monument, which was spon-
June, Piper sold the railroad for sored and paid for by C.V. Chandler. WIU Spe-
$14,000 to the CB&Q, with cial Collections.
1 - The Coming of the Railroad
Industry Enterprise: "Piper's Railroad.
Our poetical editor, who has been in the
cupola lor the last eight months looking
for the coming of Piper's new railroad,
craw led dow n from his perch this week
and penned the following:
Come and stand around us.
Although it hurts your head.
And we will try and tell you
Some things that Piper said.
They stood and looked upon him
With w istful, eager eyes.
And said to one another
I'm afraid he's telling lies.
Yes, Piper came to Industry
And said it was all so
That we would have a railroad.
But we guess it is no go.
Now Piper, he was with us
On the Fourth day of July
And said he'd come next year
On the early mom "Eli."
Me said unto our fanners-
"Its the very thing you need:
Then you can ship your grain
And everything you feed."
Me said unto our merchants.
Which sounded good and great:
"You can sell much cheaper then
On account of reduced freight."
He said unto our druggists
Words we didn't get to hear.
But we're of the opinion
That he asked if they kept beer.
Me said unto our painters.
Although 'twas very faint:
"You must remember, boys.
The depot and round-house is to paint."
Mc said to "lather Raybum."
And It sounded like a chann,
"That he'd be worth a million
If he'd only plat his farm."
He said unto our landlord.
And wc feared 'twould cause a muss:
"Now Joel, save the dollars.
For you will need a 'bus."
He said unto the doctor.
And it sounded rather funny-
"Doc. I w ish you'd keep them well
Until 1 get their money."
He said unto the dead beats
That loaf the whole year round,
"Remember, there'll be work to do
WTien the railroad comes to town."
He said unto our carpenters-
Creel, Laughlin and Bill West-
"There will be many bridges to build
And you want to do your best."
He said to our cigarmaker
To live in faith and hope.
For when the engines came to town
That everyone will smoke.
He said unto John Lickey,
Although we think it thin.
"The cars will kill a dozen a year
And that will make 'biz' for him."
He said to the committee.
Which numbered five or si.x.
"Remember, boys, to tell them
'Twill be here in ninety-six."
He said unto the printer.
But here our face we hide.
"If we would help to boom the road
'Twould cost nothing for us to ride."
Me said to unbelievers
Whom he tenned as arrant fools.
That the contract was already let
To those six hundred mules.
He said to a confidential.
But here we hate to tell.
"If I get the twenty thousand
I'll bust them sure as h-l." [sic]
And now my story is ended.
We hope in peace to abide.
But if Piper builds the railroad
We will all take a ride."
Fmm the November 8, 1895. Macomb Daily
Journal
H
liii I II 11 I Road
which it would have competed directly for traffic headed north out of
St. Louis. Predictably, by the end of 1896, the Burlington had quashed the
entire project. Residents of Macomb, Industry, and the other towns to the
south would have to wait for their railroad."
SCALE OF STATUTE MILES.
'spk^:s
h:X
*!5W\
>fWA»rJ fe«Tin^ 5| jJikJX"
it
5v /59S, western Illinois was served by a vast network of railway lines almost incon-
ceivable fifty years earlier. Rock Island is at top center, Macomb just left of center.
Rand. McNally cS: Company, ■' Railroad Map of Illinois. "
1 - The Coming of the Railroad
The Electric Road
The final push to build a railroad south from Macomb originated in
late 1901 with William Alexander Compton, a Macomb resident. Compton
was bom on March 5, 1864, south of Macomb in Scotland Township. Edu-
cated at the Macomb Normal College, he graduated in 1885, and after studying
law, was admitted to the bar in 1888. He later founded a successful and profit-
able real estate business and was elected to the Illinois state legislature as the
28"^ District Representative in 1896." In November 1901 Compton enlisted the
support of H.G. Tunstall, a man from New York City who represented a group
of venture capitalists interested in seeing a railroad built from Macomb to In-
dustry, Rushville, and Beardstown. What made this proposal different from all
that had come before it was electricity. The New Yorkers were unwilling to
consider a steam railroad, but rather insisted that the new line be an electric
interurban road.^ Electric traction was just entering maturity at the turn of the
century, and most major cities had rapidly expanding networks of streetcar
lines within their borders. The interurban, or inter-city electric railway, was a
newer phenomenon developed in the last years of the 1 9* century. More pow-
erful electric motors and controls made it possible to run high-speed electric
trains over long distances, creating the possibility for a nationwide network of
The M&WI's gas-electric box-cab motor is seen here in 1904 at the north end of the
railroad, at the corner of Jackson and Johnson streets in Macomb. The Catholic school
is in the background. Lumber is being loaded onto a boxcar right in the street. WIU
Special Collections.
2 - The Electric Road
11
inteairbans to rival the steam rail-
roads.
The people of
McDonough and Schuyler coun-
ties were enthusiastic about the
uica of such a modem railroad
being constructed locally. Pro-
railroad efforts centered around
Industry, where civic boosters
like Philander Avery and Amos S.
Ellis joined the effort to canvass
the area for money, and gather
support for the project. On No-
vember 13. 1901, the Macomb &
Western Illinois Railway
(M&Wl) was incorporated and
directors William Compton
(President), J.M. Keefer (Vice
President), Ralph S. Chandler
(Secretary and Treasurer). Isaac
M. Fellheimer. Albert Eads. and
Willis 1. Hitt were appointed to
the Board of Directors. The next
day a large meeting was held at
Industrv' to announce the plan for
the railroad. Though the line
would eventually run to Beards-
town, the segment from Macomb to lndustr\ would be built first and put into
operation before construction would continue south. Most of the M&Wl direc-
tors were present at the meeting. C.V. Chandler, however, was in Quincy
chairing the annual reunion of the 78"' Illinois, but he sent a letter expressing
his support for the project. It was decided that the residents of the Industry
area would have to raise S.^O.OOO toward the cost of the railroad. At a similar
meeting in Scotland lownship two weeks later, it was announced that the resi-
dents living in the areas south of Macomb would have to raise an additional
SI2.(HH),'
It wasn't easy to raise that much mone\ in an area with a total popula-
tion of fewer than I. ()()() people (adjusted for intlation. $42. (KM) in 1902 was
the equivalent of about S930.()()() in 2005 money). By late January 1902 it was
apparent that the canva.ssing committees in lndustr> and Scotland Township
weren't going to be able to raise (hat large an amount of mone\. so the require-
ment was changed. irS50.0()(> could he raised aU>iig the entire route, including
from Macomb it.self, the railroad would still be built. In a meeting at Industry
on January 2S. it was agreed to increase Macomb's share to S25.000, reducing
the amount of money Industry and Scotland fownship would have to raise by
William Alexander Compton in a I91i-era
portrait. Bate man & Shelby. The Historical
Encyclopedia of Illinois and McDonounh
County.
Tm Lirn.i Road
one- third.'*
By May 1902, the $25,000 expected of the southern part of the county
had been raised, and Chandler, Compton, and others were hard at work can-
vassing within Macomb. On June 27, S.B. Downer, a civil engineer from
Michigan who had previous experience laying out electric lines in Michigan
and Illinois, arrived in Macomb and began work on surveying the route from
Macomb to Industry. Two different routes were surveyed. The east route left
downtown Macomb headed straight east along Jackson Street and turned south
to follow the approximate current alignment of Route 67. The west route left
the city near the county fairgrounds at Johnson and Grant streets and went
south from there, turning east toward Industry about eight miles south of
Macomb. A streetcar line to the Western Illinois State Normal School on the
northwest side of town was also planned. Surveying and cost estimates were
completed by mid-July without much trouble, though the location of the depot
in Industry couldn't be agreed on. By September construction still had not
begun, and it wasn't until the first week of October that the company formally
announced that it had settled on the western route, and had secured most of the
right-of-way it needed.^
At 8:20 a.m. on October 16, 1902, the wife of M«feWI Vice President
W.H. Raybum turned the first shovelftil of dirt on the new electric railway in a
ceremony held on a part of the right-of-way located on James Scudder's farm
two miles west of Industry. Of the one hundred people in attendance, William
Compton was one of only a handfiil not from Industry. As soon as the cere-
mony was done, grading work was begun by ten teams with plows and
wheeled scrapers.^
The next two months saw slow progress in grading while the rail-
road's officers were involved in land condemnation proceedings in the courts.
As a railroad, the M&WI had the right of eminent domain, and could seize any
land it needed for its right-of-way. Unfortunately, in cases where a fair price
for the land could not be agreed upon, the courts had to set the price them-
selves. While the vast majority of the farmers along the railroad were happy to
donate or sell the land the railroad would need at a nominal price, there were a
few who insisted on a higher price.
President Compton purchased more wheeled scrapers in late Novem-
ber, and by mid-December there were two grading gangs at work. Web Kirk-
bride's gang, with twelve scrapers, was working north of Camp Creek while a
second gang of fifteen scrapers under Philander Avery was working on the
northwest side of Industry. It was tough work in spots as the grade heading out
of Industry was eighteen feet high and over thirty feet wide at the base.
At the same time, citizens south of Industry were taking notice of the
work being done to the north. After consulting with Compton, they got a
promise from the M&WI that if they could raise $20,000, the initial segment of
the railroad would be extended from Industry to Littleton. At a meeting in
November chaired by James Little, a canvassing committee in Littleton was
appointed to raise the money.^
2 - The Electric Road 13
In Januar\' 1903. work came to a standstill as the frozen ground could
not be effectively moved. Despite the cold, pile-driving began on the bridges
over Grindstone and Camp Creeks in February. In late March the railroad's
first injury occurred when Lowrey Avery received a scalp wound, when a pil-
ing he was working on sprung back and hit him in the head.
Grading began again in March at several points along the line. By
May there were 30 scrapers in operation, and work began at the northern end
of the line, with the workers quartered at the fairgrounds in Macomb. Progress
was still slow, and concerns began to rise about the timetable for completion.
The railroad's estimates for the time it would take the construction force to
complete a section of the grade were repeatedly shown to be overly optimistic,
and it appeared possible that the railroad might not be in operation by January
1. 1904. as promised. The danger in this was that the $50,000 that had been
raised from the local citizens was contingent on the railroad being in operation
between Macomb and Industry by this date, if it was not running by then, the
people who had subscribed money would no longer be contractually bound to
pay up. It was also pointed out that construction had not begun on the power
house, which would be needed to pro\ ide clectricit\ for the line's interurban
Chandler and Compton continued undaunted, though. In June they
met with the canvassing committee in Littleton, which had been unable to raise
the $20,000 asked of it. and discussed proposals for extending the M&Wl re-
gardless. Surveyors were already laying out a route between Industry and
Littleton, and the railroad agreed to extend south to Littleton as long as the
scheduled completion date was extended from Januar> 1904. to September
1904. Just days later, on June 27. the Macomb Mt. Sterling & Beardstown
Railway was incorporated for the purpose of extending the M&Wl from Little-
ton to Mt. Sterling and
Beardstown."
Grading work con-
tinued through the summer
with a force of about forty
scrapers. Most of the work
ciMicciitrated on a few areas
thai required large fills, par-
ticularly the approaches to
Camp Creek, and on the
northwest side of Industrv.
Unfi>rtunately the bridge
work was going verv slowly,
so the M&WI hired a man
from New York to run the
pile-driver, and brought on
Jack (). Moon ol' Colchester
lo head up the gang of car-
POBITION FOR LOADING.
Xfosl of the iiithiHtil ni;lil-ii(-\\ii\ na\ ,i.vvi</<'</ ii.sins;
hnrsc-JniHn HisUni H'hcclcJ Scrapers like this
line ( OiirUw i>t the .tiinird llistnneal Society
14
fill 1 nil I Road
penters building the bridges. In August, with concerns about the slow progress
mounting, Compton purchased more wheeled scrapers, bringing the number of
wheeled scrapers in use by the M&Wl to sixty-three. By the end of August, at
the height of the grading work, the company had 160 horses and 125 men
working on the grading and bridge work at several sites up and down the line
from Macomb to Industry.'"
At the beginning of September, the grading gangs began to be moved
south of Industry to begin work on the Industry-Littleton segment of the rail-
road. The last gang at work north of Industry was a large group working on
grading the approaches to Camp Creek, work that had begun back in late 1902,
and still hadn't been completed. In mid-September one of the workers, a Bo-
hemian immigrant, disappeared during a period of heavy flooding and was
presumed drowned in Camp Creek. The work continued, and the job was fi-
nally finished and the work force moved south of Industry near the end of the
month. '^
The grading work south of Industry was not any easier, but the com-
pany now had all sixty-three scrapers and a force of experienced men concen-
trated together. It took a month to hack through a large stand of timber south
of Industry and more time to create a twenty-seven foot deep cut, the deepest
on the entire route. An additional two weeks was needed for the workforce
under Dave Justus to grade a cut through the timber stand that was nicknamed
"Blue Cut," because it took so long to grade that it gave the workers the blues.
By the end of October, major grading work south of Industry was completed
after only two months. Most of the grading crews were laid off, and the re-
maining workers moved back to the northern end of the route to finish leveling
the grade, and to do the grading needed within the Macomb city limits.''^
It was at this point, in mid-November, that arrangements for the rail-
road's financing were finalized. A $300,000 mortgage was filed for the rail-
road's property with the county circuit clerk, with a bond issue by the railroad
to the American Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago. The 300 bonds were
each $ 1 ,000 40-year bonds with 5% annual interest. The amount of money it
had cost to build the railroad, $300,000, was the equivalent of approximately
$6.4 million in inflation-adjusted 2005 money. The problem with the bond
issue was that buyers for most of the bonds could not be found, so the majority
of them ended up in the hands of the Bank of Macomb, owned by C.V. Chan-
dler.'-^
Once major grading was done, work moved quickly. A ditch wide
enough for the crossties and deep enough that the track could be laid with the
railhead at street level was cut down the length of Johnson Street from Jackson
Street to a point just south of St. Francis Hospital, where the railroad entered
private right-of-way on the west side of the road. It was planned to lay tracks
from the comer of Jackson and Johnson Streets east down Jackson Street to the
square, from there north on Lafayette Street to Calhoun Street, and thence east
on Calhoun Street to the old CB&Q depot near Randolph Street. No grading
was ever done on this route, though, and the rails never got east of Johnson
2 - The Electric Road 15
Street. On November 2. 1903,
the first of what would eventu-
ally be over 100 carloads of
construction supplies arrived.
Cars of cedar ties from Michi-
gan and 30-foot rails of 60 lb.
weight (per yard) started to
arrive on the Burlington along
with cars of spikes, bolts, angle
bars, and switch components.
On November 1 7, the Reverend
.lames H. Morgan of the Pres-
byterian Church drove the first
spike in Macomb, and the con-
struction contractor's crew got
to work. On November 22, the
railroad's first piece of rolling
slock, a small 0-4-4T Forney
steam locomotive originally
built for the Chicago elevated,
arri\cd on the Burlington and
uas swiftly put into ser\ice
hauling supplies from the tem-
porary interchange with the
CB&Q that had been built on
North .lohnson Street, to the
steel gangs laying rail at the
south end tifioun. By November 23. track had been laid past the city limits,
and a week later the steel gangs were nearing Camp Creek."'
Opinions dilTcred on whether the railroad would be completed to
IndustrN on schedule. December h>()3, and wmild be able to collect the money
that had been raised. The Macomb Daily JoiirnaL a supporter of the railroad,
predicted that the railroad wmild not be completed to Industr\' until early .lanu-
ar\. but that most people who had signed pronnssor\ notes would o\erlook the
technical discrepancy and pay the money anyway. "The Journal makes this
counter forecast to croakers' predictions, because it does not believe that the
note-signers arc a set of Shylocks. who claim the 'e.xact execution of the bond.'
or else 'a pound of fiesh nearest the heart.'" fhe hn/nsirv Enterprise took a
more optnnistic tack, predicting that the railroad nnght. with a burst of effort,
be able to complete track all the way to l.ittleton by the end of the year.'
\\\ the Iburth week in I^ecember it became obvious that the railroad
woukl be \n Industry on time. Ihe railroad's first passenger car arrived from
the St. Louis Car Compain on December 17. It had to be pulled b\ a locomo-
ii\e. but was constructed so that electrical equipment could be easily fitted to it
later to make it self-propelled. On December 23. the rails reached their goal at
This road will surely go, and if it only goes to
Littleton and we do not get it here, it will cripple
Rushville quite badly. Macomb merchants are
making good in the north part of the county. Al-
ready are Macomb papers being circulated in that
part of the county, from Ray to Camden, and in
these papers are big advertisements of Macomb
merchants. People of the north part of the county
are tuming to Macomb, for they will have easier
access to that city and the railroad is rapidly pull-
ing everything toward Macomb. To be sure
Macomb is a good town and has hustling, up-to-
date merchants and business men who are looking
for a graft like this, which is all good and proper,
but don't we want this trade worse than they? But
how are you going to keep it? By seeing that this
railroad is graded to Rushville before a tie or rail
is laid along the route. Great stacks of ties are
strewn along the line now, and as fast as surfacing
is done these will be put down. No it is up to
Rushville, and if the business men want to hold
their own let them be up and doing. Hold a mass
meeting and devise a means of securing this rail-
road, in looking at this work going on one can
see the great strides Macomb is making for
Schuyler patronage, and their elTorts are bound to
win if Rushville don't wake up and take a hand.
From the Sehuylcr Citizen, as reprinted in the 3
Oetoher 1 90 J. Maeomb Daily Journal.
16
Till liiii I Road
last: the residents of I
Industry finally had
a railroad. Later that
day the Industry
depot, which had
been framed in ,
Macomb, was
loaded on one of the
construction trains
and taken to Indus-
try to be set up and
finished. The rail-
road got a Christmas
present early, when
on December 24, a
small gasoline-
powered locomotive
was switched onto Clarence Vial (in cab), James Ira Hodges and Roy Sullivan
M&WI rails from P^^^^ "^'^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ S'^^-^l^'^tric motor at the corner of Jack-
thp TRA^O Th" son & Johnson in Macomb in 1904. WIU Special Collections.
diminutive engine, which was one of the very first internal-combustion railway
locomotives ever put into use, was called the "electric motor" or simply "the
motor" by the M&WI, and was intended to be its ticket to fulfilling the require-
ment in its franchise that it not operate steam locomotives on a permanent ba-
sis.'^ The railroad didn't have enough money to string electric wire along its
route, but hauling trains with this gas-electric motor would make it possible to
do away with steam. Because of this, the railroad would still be popularly
known as the "electric road."
The days after Christmas saw a virtual halt to construction operations.
As of December 23, the construction crews had been "striking a 'bee-line' for
Littleton like the very Old Scratch was at the heels of every tie-man and rail-
man on the job," as the Macomb Daily Journal put it, but when the steam en-
gine went dead on Christmas Day, construction at the south end of the line was
temporarily halted. On December 29, the directors and officers of the M&WI
were taken on an inspection trip to Industry by the motor hauling the passenger
car. The next day, December 30, 1903, the Macomb & Western Illinois
opened for business. The first train left for Industry at 8:30 in the morning.
The years of work, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that had gone into
constructing a railroad south from Macomb, had not been in vain. The railroad
had finally arrived.'^
Operations in the first few months were spotty. The motor, though
brand new, was terribly unreliable and was continually breaking down. The
only other locomotive was the 0-4-4T Forney, which often had to abandon the
task of pulling construction trains to the south end of the line and instead per-
form yeoman duty on passenger runs to Industry. Track construction contin-
2 - The Electric Road
17
ued south from Industry and reached Littleton on January 31. 1903. By the
end of Februarv passenger service was extended to the south end of the line
and stockyards were erected in Littleton. On February 26, the M&Wl acquired
its second passenger car. a coach designed as a streetcar but without electrical
motors and equipment. With the arri\al of the second car. a standard schedule
was established in which car number 1 was used north of Industry, and car
number 2 was used between Industry and Littleton. The electric motor was
being used, between mechanical failures at least, for all passenger service.^"
The railroad almost immediately began to encounter serious operating
problems. Derailments were frequent owing to the poor and lightweight rails
and crossties and lack of track ballast, and with the spring thaw the railroad
experienced numerous washouts of the roadbed. In late March, there was a
suspension of service due to poor roadbed conditions. So much of the em-
bankment at Camp Creek had washed away that the ties were projecting out
past the grade thirty feet above the water. On March 29. the steam engine de-
railed just south of Camp Creek, damaging its air brake and putting it out of
service. The next week, service was suspended indefinitely until the track
gangs could repair the right-of-way sufficiently to allow safe passage of
trains."'
After three months of service, the M&WI was already experiencing
serious setbacks. The electric motor it had purchased had proven to be an al-
most complete failure, although the general consensus was that internal-
combustion engines of its type would "eventually do away with the trolley
The iiiilnuiil's first pcisscn^icr car. tomhinc I. seen here in IW4 hcin^ pulled north on
Johnson Street hy the ^as-electric motor. WW Special Collections.
Till I.ITTI 1 R()\l)
A story has just come to light on W.A. Compton, the president of the Macomb and
Western Illinois railroad, which proves that the company is accommodating and oblig-
ing to the public. In addition to stopping along the way and allowing people to get on
or off the train as they desire, a new courtesy has just been related. The incident hap-
pened one day while Mr. Compton was acting as conductor. He was just ready to pull
out with his train for Industry, and had, in a dignified manner that would make old
railroad conductors blush, exclaimed, "all aboard," when his attention was called to a
young lady running toward the train and making wild jestures [sic] with her hands, as if
she wanted to board the train. By this time the motor had begun to move and Mr.
Compton signaled it to stop. The young lady kept up her pace, running toward the train
like a fire department and Mr. Compton had stepped down on the platform to assist her
into the car, when to his surprise she rushed by him and made for a car window, that
had just been raised and planted a kiss on the cheek of a young man, who had been a
silent spectator, and bade him goodbye, asking him to "come up again next Sunday."
This started the laugh on the conductor and had all the occupants of the car been men
he might have "cussed," but instead he remarked that was the first time he ever saw an
entire railroad system held up until a girl could run two blocks to kiss her fellow good-
bye. As we have no desire to incur the ill will of the young man, and at the same time
cause trouble between him and his Industry girl, we refrain from giving his name.
From the Januaiy 22, 1904, Macomb Daily Journal.
wire or third rail." The problem was simply that it was too underpowered to be
of much use even on the moderate grades of the M&WI. The motor could not
manage to pull more than a single coach or freight car and, even with one
coach, could not make good enough time to keep to the passenger schedule.
As late as early April 1904, the motor was still being shown off, when a group
of CB&Q officials took it on a test run to Bardolph, but in May the M&WI
constructed a permanent water tower in Industry and confirmed that it planned
to use its diminutive steam engine for all future passenger trains. The motor
would be retained for use primarily within the Macomb city limits, since the
railroad's municipal ordinance did not allow the use of steam engines in town.
Every passenger train would undergo a "power change" at St. Francis Hospital
south of town where the steam engine would be exchanged for the motor, and
the motor would take the trains from the edge of town up to Jackson Street.^^
Operations continued between Macomb and Littleton, beginning at
the end of April, when service was restored over the repaired right-of-way. On
May 1, the connection between the M&WI and the Burlington was removed
from North Johnson Street, as it had been a temporary connection only and the
company was not allowed to keep its tracks laid on North Johnson. The rail-
road was cut back on Johnson Street to Jackson Street, where on the southeast
comer of the intersection a modest waiting room had been created in the front
room of a blacksmith shop. This severed the railroad's connection with the
national rail network and made it impossible to interchange freight cars. In
other words, any freight carried along the M&WI had to be unloaded at
Macomb and loaded back into CB&Q freight cars a few hundred feet away.^^
The railroad considered this situation intolerable, but the property
owners along the block and a half of North Johnson Street would not permit
2 - The Electric Road 19
the railroad to be rebuilt along that stretch of the street. The result was that in
late July, the M&WI developed plans to build a belt line around the west side
of Macomb. The new branch, whose sole purpose was to make it possible to
interchange freight cars with the CB&Q, let\ the M&WI main line just south of
St. Francis Hospital south of Macomb, it angled off in a northwesterly direc-
tion to the West Sewerpipe Works, which was located about two blocks west
of Ward Street on the south side of the CB&Q, and already had an interchange
with the Burlington. ■■*
The problem was that the M&WI was virtually incapable of continu-
ing normal operations until the west side belt line was completed. In early
August the steam engine failed. lea\ing the M&WI with only the unreliable
motor to haul trains, and with a tough decision. The decision it made became
the first shot fired in what would later be called by the Macomb Daily Journal
the "railroad war." On August 9. when several of the railroad's most vocifer-
ous critics li\ing along North Johnson Street were out of town at a Republican
convention in Bushnell, the railroad laid a temporary track along North
Johnson Street to connect its rails to the Burlington. The impetus was the need
to send the Forney steam engine out for repairs and to bring onto the M&WI a
leased Burlington steam engine to replace it. but the connection was not re-
ino\ ed after this exchange was complete. Freight cars and trains of construc-
tion materials for the west side belt line, on which construction was just begin-
ning, regularly traversed the new trackage on North Johnson Street in clear
defiance i)f the railroad's original ordinance.'^
The property owners who had opposed the railroad's presence on the
streets of Macomb were not happy. They tried to swear out arrest warrants
against the railroad's managers, but soon realized that it was technically a mu-
AW 11 / liH iinuittw I /}i)\c.s Willi ii niirk Iruiii at lilllcfon iiiniiihl l^ll-i. .A am lloJ^es
(ihinl fitini left) IS crew foreman, willi Janus ha Utnliics (scam J from right) engineer
anJ ( liarlie lilting (far right) fireman H tl SfH-cial ( olleetitms.
20
I III I II II I KoAl)
M&WI engine 1 poses with coach 2 and crew at Macomb Yards around 1904 (the
grandstands at the county fairgrounds are in the right background). L-R: Conductor
James Ira Hodges, Fireman Ed Smithers, Engineer Tom Hendrickson and son, and Roy
"Happy Hooligan " Ransom. WIU Special Collections.
nicipal issue. Therefore, on October 11, Superintendent of Streets S.P. Danley
served notice on the officers of the M&WI to remove their tracks from North
Johnson Street immediately. Two days later they received President Comp-
ton's response. The M&WI was not going to remove its tracks, and any effort
on the part of the city to remove them would be viewed as unlawful. The rea-
son was that the M&WI was engaged in hauling mail from Macomb to Little-
ton, which meant that removal of any railroad trackage was impeding the car-
riage of mail and was a violation of federal law. That same day Compton sent
workers out to double-spike the tracks on North Johnson Street, making it vir-
tually impossible for city workers to tear up the tracks without heavy special-
ized equipment. For the moment, the railroad had won. Its connection with
the Burlington on North Johnson Street was secure."^
Improvements were being made on the M&WI at a rapid pace during
the summer and fall of 1904. The water tower at Industry was completed in
late May and was soon followed by a small house for a handcar. In September
stockyards were built just north of the depot there. In October a permanent
depot was finally built in Littleton, following the grain elevator which had just
2 - The Electric Road
21
recently been constructed there. Condemnation proceedings to seize land for
the west side belt line in Macomb continued in court until early October, by
which time construction was already well underway. Most of the belt line trav-
ersed level ground, but a 400-foot-long trestle had to be built through low-
Since the new railroad has been put in operation a debt of gratitude has been paid by
the president of the road which will make both friends and enemies think more of Mr.
Compton than though he had done nothing to prove his gratitude to the young man who
saved the Compton household from the loss of their only child in a watery grave in
Kiljordan. Most of our readers are aware of the accident which befell the little fellow,
some four years ago next February, when he fell into the water and would have been
drow ncd had it not been for the prompt and heroic act of Jas. Hodges. The creek was
bank full and much ice was Hoating down. The child was standing on a bridge, and
becoming dizzy fell in. The mother, who was close by. tried in vain to rescue her child
and she ran down the bank screaming for help. At the critical moment Hodges, who
has made his way in the world as a hired hand, having worked for some time near in-
dustry, came driving at a rapid rate, being attracted by the heartrending screams of the
mother. He did not hesitate, but left his team standing and ran to the water's edge and
plunged in about ten feet in front of the child and thus took him from what would have
been a watery grave. He worked for some little time with the boy to bring him to con-
sciousness and then carried him to the Compton home, leaving for his home before Mr.
Compton arrived from his otTice. When Mr. Compton met Mr. Hodges he thanked him
for his kindness and on parting assured him that he would remember him in the future.
Nothing more was said of the matter between the two men until the company was ready
to start the passenger train on the new road when Mr. Compton sent for his benefactor
and informed him that he now had a chance to partly remunerate him for the act he did
in saving the life of his child and gave him a job as porter and brakeman on the new
coach. Mr. Hodges was surprised and glad to know that he had been remembered. It
was indeed a glad time for both. Mr. Compton seemed to be as glad of the chance to
repay his debt of gratitude as Mr. Hodges was glad to know that he was to have a good
job. Everybody who has leamed the above facts applauded Mr. Compton for giving the
job to the right man. Thus two men are made happy, each because he did his duty to
his fellow man. one with nc* thought of reward or any other thing except saving the life
that was in peril and the other to show his appreciation. The Enterprise hopes to see
Mr. Hodges make an elTicient employee and remain with the road for years.
From the Industry Enterprise, reprinted in the Januiiry l\ 1904. Maeomh Dailv Journal.
Comhietor James Ira UoJ^e\ (left} i\ surrounded hy well-dressed youn\i ladies in this
inhrior view ofM&WI cmuh 2 taken around 1904. WIU Speeial Colleetions.
Till IJITI I Road
lying ground just north of Grant Street, in what is now Patton Park. The rail-
road was also building a small yard and a 128 foot long engine house at the
junction of the two lines just south of St. Francis Hospital, a location which
would come to be known as the Macomb Yards. "^
On October 19, C.V. Chandler told the Macomb Daily Journal that
the railroad "would be willing to give any reasonable guarantee to the city or
individuals that we will remove the track [on North Johnson Street] by Jan. 1
[1905]," saying the connection to the CB&Q was "indispensable." The city
council held him to it. By early December, Chandler had been persuaded to
give the city a $10,000 bond guaranteeing the tracks would be gone from North
Johnson Street by January 1. Chandler kept his word. The 400-foot trestle
was completed by the first week of December, and by the end of the month
work had been completed on the belt line. The M&WI removed the tracks
from North Johnson Street on December 30, 1904. From then on, the tracks
along Johnson Street from the Macomb Yards north to Jackson Street would be
used solely by passenger trains hauled by the motor, and freight trains would
use the west side belt line to interchange with the CB&Q.'^
The next day. New Year's Eve 1904, was one of the worst days in the
railroad's short but tortured history. Around 6 p.m. that evening, the engine
house at the Macomb Yards caught fire and burned to the ground. The engine
house contained the motor, and it was completely destroyed. Furthermore, the
leased Burlington steam engine was severely damaged, and it had to be towed
to Galesburg to be rebuilt. The cause of the fire was never definitively deter-
mined. There was no insurance and the cost of the damage was estimated to be
about $4,000. The motor was not replaced, though a secondhand 4-4-0 steam
engine had coincidentally been purchased earlier that same day in Chicago to
supplement the railroad's small Forney."^
Two days after the fire, the "railroad war" continued at the Macomb
city council meeting when several aldermen tried unsuccessfully to repeal en-
tirely the ordinance granting the M&WI the right to run trains within the city
limits. The effort failed, but two weeks later St. Paul's Catholic Church, which
owned the property on the southwest comer of Jackson and Johnson Streets,
brought suit against the M&WI for $100,000 in damages. The church argued
that the railroad interfered with access to the church and was an "annoyance"
and "great inconvenience." The barrage of opposition to the railroad continued
when in late April, before the Catholic church's suit against the railroad could
even be tried in court, another suit was brought against the M&WI. Property
owners living along South Johnson Street, led by James W. Stuart, filed a law-
suit which asked for $7,500 in monetary damages. It was also a mandamus
suit that aimed to compel the removal of the M&WI entirely from within the
city limits of Macomb. "^*'
Operations condnued on the M&WI while the pending lawsuits
waited for their day in court. Business was fair and growing. In 1905, a coal
mine was built on the south side of Littleton adjacent to the M&WI which, at
its peak, produced about 1,500 bushels of coal each day. Most of the coal was
2 - The Electric Road 23
sold locally, the rest was taken north on the railroad. Passenger service was
booming and the railroad was making a protlt of as much as S2,000-$3.000 per
month. The $30,000 cost of constructing the west side belt line had added to
the road's debt, but the condition of the roadbed had been largely stabilized
and trains uere running on time. Management was still publicly advertising
plans to extend southward toward Mt. Sterling or Beardstown. It seemed that
the railroad's biggest problems on the horizon were the two cases pending in
court, of which the first, the mandamus suit brought by James W. Stuart, was
considered in June \W6. Judge Grier refused to dismiss the case, saying that if
the plaintiffs could prove their claims that the petition to allow the construction
of the M«&W1 along Johnson Street didn't have enough signatures for the city
council to legally issue the ordinance, then the tracks would have to be torn up.
In September 1906. the court denied an application by St. Paul's Catholic
Church for an injunction that would prevent the M&Wl from operating steam
engines within the city limits, which it had been doing on its passenger trains
since the destruction of the motor in the December 1904 engine house fire.''
Despite its legal victory, the beleaguered M&WI had not seen the last
of its troubles. Although it had been making an operating profit, it was still
S300.000 in debt due to its construction costs. This debt was supported by
C.V. Chandler through his Bank of Macomb, which held nearly all of the rail-
road's stock. Chandler was one of the richest men in town, and he was the
financial backer to a number of local ventures. Of these the M«feW! was para-
mount. However, by constructing the railroad to Littleton, he had overextended
himself On the last day of November 1906, completely without warning, the
Bank of Macomb did not open its doors. Chandler didn't ha\e enough cash
w ith which to do business, and he closed the bank until assets could be sold to
raise the money needed. Suddenl\ the future oi' Macomb's "Electric Road"
seemed in doubt. '
\M HI cnfiinc I is haulma the road's cnlire passenger roster of two cars in this shot
taken at hulmtry arounJ I W4 Wll ' Special ( 'ollections.
24
Till LriTi I Road
In The Balance
Over the course of the next week, the finances of the Bank of
Macomb were made pubUc. C.V. Chandler made it apparent that the bank's
cash shortfall was due almost entirely to the fact that it had been forced to sin-
gle-handedly finance most of the construction of the M&WI, and that it had
been unable to resell the railroad's bonds due to the barrage of litigation
against the road. Of the bank's financial resources, which totaled $566,000,
$239,000 were tied up in the M&WI. The bank's liabilities amounted to some
$455,000. The fact that the bank would be entirely unable to pay its debts
unless it could realize at least $100,000 from the sale of M&WI bonds or prop-
erty must not have been lost on Chandler, but he made reassuring promises to
the depositors of his bank and there was little sense of panic that the bank
would actually become insolvent. The Bank of Macomb was actually owned
by C.V. Chandler & Company, a banking firm comprised of C.V. Chandler
and his wife Clara, which also owned the Bank of Bardolph and was co-owner
of the Bank of Colchester. On December 19, 1906, Chandler sold the Bank of
Bardolph to a group of locals, ridding himself of that burden, but already there
were concerns that the M&WI might be in danger. In December, President
Compton of the M&WI made a statement that unless $50,000 worth of the
railroad's bonds were bought by the citizens of Macomb, Industry, and Little-
The above photo, taken at Industry around 1910. shows engine 4 hauling a single com-
bine northbound. WIU Special Collections.
3 - In the Balance
25
The three phoios on ihi\ ciiui nu ■.:. ,,; i\iij_c wctc itikcn ^ >■ ,',. - ' , . a iii lnJii\irv in
1907. A hove, engine 2 lies on its side with the ho.xearJuekknifeJ across the track in
front of it. Below, the tender is shown derailed and partly overturned behind the loco-
motive. Note the curious townspeople of Industry surrounding the wreck in these pic-
tures, and the steam apparently still escaping from the wrecked locomotive. Both pho-
tographs were taken on .Januaiy 25. from the east side of the tracks. Opposite, the
C'H<^{) wrecker (background) hauls the locomotive hack onto the tracks on January 26.
This photo looks northeast. HI I .Special Collections.
Till I. mi 1 Road
^-'i'^^'-^:*^-.
vnr
^/:
ton, the current management might not be able to retain control of the railroad.
This call was ignored.'
The year 1907 was not a good one for the M&WI. The bad luck be-
gan on January 25, when the only serious wreck in the railroad's history oc-
curred at Industry. Engineer Edward Harvey and fireman James Ira Hodges
were running locomotive number 2 northbound, and they were about a quarter
mile south of the Industry depot when the boxcar they were pushing derailed
and was thrown sideways across the tracks. The locomotive collided with it
and overturned, injuring Hodges and badly damaging the engine. There were
no other serious injuries, but it took two days for a crane rented from the
CB&Q to clear the wreck, and the loss of one of the railroad's only two steam
engines was no small problem."
Less than a month later one of the pending court cases, the suit
brought by St. Paul's Catholic Church to prevent the M&WI from using steam
engines on the streets of Macomb, came before the Illinois State Supreme
Court in Springfield. In this matter the railroad was successful. The court
found that the railroad was subject to the will of the property owners along its
route, but not to the church alone.
But the second lawsuit, the mandamus action brought by James W.
Stuart that aimed to force the removal of the railroad from the streets of
Macomb entirely, came before the county circuit court at the end of May, and
this time the railroad lost. Judge Gray found that the railroad had not con-
formed to its franchise, not by operating steam engines within Macomb, an
action specifically prohibited by the municipal franchise, but rather by ending
the tracks at Jackson and Johnson Streets and not extending them all the way to
3 - In the Balance
27
Lafayette Street as had been origi-
nally stipulated. The railroad was
given one year to remove its tracks
from within the city of Macomb.
The etTect on the railroad was po-
tentially disastrous. Without its
line into the city, it would be im-
possible to pick up or drop off
passengers closer than one mile
• -^ ^^^P^^^^ from the center of the city, a se-
^g^^l \^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^'rc inconvenience that would be
^■^^H )^^^^^^^^^^^ '^^'i'^ ^o harm the passen-
^Pim|r^^l|^|^|^^^^^ markedly. But
^T * -^^ sP^^P ''^^^ ^^ come. On June 8, 1907, a
* j^^ week after the court ruling came
down. involuntar>- bankruptcy
proceedings against C.V. Chandler
& Company were initiated in fed-
eral court in Peoria.
The bankruptcy proceed-
ings had been initiated by a group
of three of the Bank of Macomb's
creditors who claimed that Chan-
dler had shown preference to other
creditors in the partial pa>ments
he had made on his debts thus far. Over the next two weeks attorneys on both
sides met and were able to hammer out a deal which would avoid bankruptcy
court. The Bank of Macomb and the Chandlers individually would put all of
their property, business and personal, under the control of a committee of the
bank's creditors which would then determine the quickest and best way to con-
vert the assets into cash. Included in the arrangement were the bank's M«S:WI
stocks and bonds, consisting of all of the railroad's stock and most of its bonds.
This arrangement initially seemed to work out. but in late .August se\en sepa-
rate lawsuits were filed in circuit court by creditors of the Bank of Macomb
and the Bank of Colchester against the Chandlers and against Charles I. Imes,
co-owner of the latter institution. On September 10. the creditor's committee
met and agreed that an out-tW'-court settlement was no longer possible. The
next day the U.S. District Court in Peoria appointed Blandinsville's Frank W.
Brooks as receiver of the Chandler and Imes properties.^
The railroad was encountering its own problems while the fate of
C.V. Chandler's financial empire was being wrangled o\er. In .lune sei\ice
was suspeiuleil again due {o rebuilding wurk on the perennially problematic
Camp Creek Bridge. Just days later, on June 2K, an injunction suit was filed in
circuit court to prevent the M«S:WI from operating steam engines within the
city of Macomb, or more speciUcally. near the residence of Maria Gamage.
Charles J. hues. co-Je/eiuhinl in the civil suits
against C. V. Chandler. Bate man & Shelby.
The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and
McDonou^h County.
28
Till Lirii I Road
The suit was filed by James W. Stuart, the same man who had successfully
campaigned in court for the removal of the M&WI from Macomb, and in-
cluded as co-sponsors five other members of the Gamage family, though they
all later testified that they had not been involved with, or even been told about,
the suit. The reason given was that Maria Gamage was in poor health, and the
noise and smoke from the railroad's steam engines aggravated her condition.
Master in Chancery Hampton heard the case on July 1 , but before his decision
came down Maria Gamage died and the case was dismissed.^
The railroad's problems continued. A Prairie City man sued the
M&WI in August for $5,000 for injuries sustained in a horse runaway which
he claimed was caused by the railroad's steam engine; this was settled out of
court. St. Paul's Catholic Church's suit to have the tracks on Johnson Street
fronting its property removed was settled in October; the railroad removed that
half block's worth of tracks and paid the church $1 in damages.^
The saga of the Chandler bankruptcy continued through 1 907 and into
1908. C.V. Chandler announced in late 1907 that he would not resist the bank-
ruptcy, as he was sure he would be able to cover all of his debts in full.
Frank W. Brooks was elected permanent receiver by Chandler's creditors the
next month, and in January 1908, the first parcels of Chandler's properties,
including the Hotel Chandler, the post office block, and the Macomb elevator,
were put up for public auction.^
June 1, 1908, was the deadline set by the county court for the city of
Macomb to force the removal of the M&WI's tracks within the city limits, and
on that date, notice was served on the city council. A month later, on July 3,
the railroad stopped operating its passenger trains up to Jackson Street, and
instead terminated them at the Macomb Yards, just south of town. This pro-
voked an uproar from the citizens living south of Macomb along the railroad,
who were infuriated that a small group of people unhappy with the railroad had
managed to go to court and force it off the streets of Macomb. Passenger traf-
fic from the south fell off by two thirds due to the inconvenience of the new
northern terminus.^
The Macomb business community, alarmed by the serious problems
the M&WI was experiencing, was galvanized into action. Throughout June
and July, the Macomb Commercial Association headed up efforts to find a new
route for the railroad to use to get its passenger trains to downtown Macomb.
C.V. Chandler, who no longer controlled the railroad but was still an expert on
its operations, was a contributor to these meetings. Efforts focused on two
options, both of which would result in a terminal being built about half a mile
from the center of town. The first option was to build north starting from the
fairgrounds on private right-of-way located between Johnson and McArthur
Streets as far north as Chase Street, where a depot would be built. The second
option was to build a branch from the railroad's current northern terminus at
the West Sewerpipe Works along the south side of the Burlington as far east as
either the Jackson Street or CaiToll Street crossings. Chandler served as an
unofficial representative of the railroad and also helped to temper the sugges-
3 - In the Balance 29
lions made. Some of the plans, including those to finally electrify the railroad,
and others to extend it southward were extremely unrealistic considering the
precarious nature of the railroad's finances. The first option, to build the rail-
road north to Chase Street, was soon abandoned as impossible. The second
option, to construct tracks paralleling the CB&Q to the immediate south of that
railroad's right-of-way. seemed practical but soon came up against insurmount-
able difficulties. In order to establish a swath of land wide enough to build its
tracks, the M«S:WI would either have to condemn and tear down houses located
along the south side of the CB&Q, which it could not afford to do, or buy a
strip of land from the Burlington itself The CB&Q flatly refused this pro-
posal, and a counter-proposal it made to charge the M&WI for the right to have
its trains hauled into downtown Macomb \ ia the Burlington was turned down
due to a \ariety of operational problems and concerns. The M&WI's trains
would continue to terminate at the Macomb yards.'"
C.V. Chandler's financial woes continued. Public sale of his proper-
ties in mid- 1 90S didn't raise nearly as much money as expected, and the sales
of property owned by Chandler and the Bank of Macomb continued sporadi-
cally through 1908 and 1909. In late 1908 the question of whether the M&WI
could be considered an asset of the Bank of Macomb came up. The railroad
itself was not in bankmptcy, but the hank owned \ irtually all of the road's
stock, and therefore it was determined that the railroad was indeed an asset of
I'liis i\ the only sunnin\ipluiUt of ihc m'ioh,/ \/.V II / \kiim cni:inc tnimlHnd I. a -^-4-0.
Il i\ pnscJ. pnihahlv in the IVO.'i-IVO.S period, with <; mixcJ train consistinsi of u i^on-
t/ola. houiir iinJ i onihinr I souihhouml at the nanus Rtinkic house just north of Little-
ton This lar\;e hou\e. huilt in /.Vrtrt. nas still si,nufin\: '" 2(l().'i. Inuiiie eourtesv of the
Schuyler Counl\ Jail Museum
30
fill 1 II II I KoAi)
the bank. With this being the case,
it was the job of Frank W. Brooks,
as receiver, to convert the railroad
into cash. That meant the M&WI
was going to be sold."
The first proposal to buy
the railroad was made by its presi-
dent, William A. Compton. He
had been president of the railroad
since its inception and was better
acquainted with its operations than
just about anyone. In October
1908, he submitted a contract to
Brooks for an option, viable until
February 1, 1909, to buy all of the
stock and bonds of the M&WI
owned by the bank for $125,000
(about $2.4 million in inflation-
adjusted 2005 money). He also
submitted his resignation as presi-
dent of the M&WI, effective on Charles W. Flack, who became the second
February 1, 1909. Compton's president of the M&WI in early 1909. Bate-
proposal was regarded by the sup- '"^" * ^^^J^-^' The Historical Encvclopedia of
r. ^, -1 J .tu u * Illinois and McDonoush County.
porters or the railroad as the best ^
hope for its continued survival, but they were to be disappointed. Compton
was unable to raise the money he needed, and his effort collapsed. In early
1909 he was replaced as president of the railroad by Charles W. Flack. "
In February 1909, the Com Exchange Bank of Chicago began pres-
suring Frank Brooks to find a buyer for the M&WI. The Bank of Macomb
owned all of the stock of the railroad, but the Com Exchange Bank owned
$70,000 worth of the road's bonds and was considering foreclosing on the
M&WI. It brought in a wrecking company to evaluate the railroad and deter-
mined that the scrap value of the property was about $70,000. Brooks, in an
effort to gain complete control over the railroad, which was still mostly owned
by the Bank of Macomb, began negotiating with the Com Exchange Bank to
buy out its stake in the M&WI. In April he was able to make a deal whereby
he would acquire, as receiver of the Bank of Macomb, the remainder of the
railroad's bonds in exchange for $20,000 and a piece of property in downtown
Chicago owned by Chandler. The railroad was now firmly in the hands of
Receiver Brooks and was still operating regularly. In fact, in December 1909
an agreement was finalized with the CB&Q which allowed M&WI trains to
enter downtown Macomb over the Burlington's tracks, and for use of the
Burlington's depot in retum for regular fees. Now, once again, the M&WI had
access to downtown Macomb.
The Chandler bankmptcy was finally being wrapped up. The early
3 - In the Balance
31
TO MONMOUTH TO CHICAGO
PR. cityJ
predictions that C.V. Chandler would be able to cover his debts had turned out
to be false. His last gesture, an effort to save his railroad by trying to persuade
the creditors of the Bank of Macomb to take over ownership of the M&WI and
operate it for profit, was unsuccessful. Property formerly belonging to Chan-
dler was sold throughout 1^09. and in January 1910. Chandler's homestead at
the comer of Carroll and
McArthur Streets in
Macomb, his last piece of
property except for the
railroad, was sold at public
auction. C.V. Chandler,
once one of the richest
men in town and a leading
citizen of Macomb, now
owned nothing but a burial
plot in Macomb's Oak-
wood Cemetery. He
moved to Indianapolis to
live with his son, no longer
to have any influence on
the railroad, whose exis-
tence he had made possi-
hie. '^
In August 1910,
pursuant to an order by the
special referee of the
Chandler bankruptcy,
Frank W. Brooks put up
for sale all of the capital
stock and bonds of the
M&Wl. During the initial
bid period, which extended
1(1 September, the only bid
submitted was rejected for
lack of financing. In early
191 1. se\eral parties began
to express interest in pur-
chasing the railroad. Colo-
nel J.M. Myers, who had
made the 1910 bid, intro-
duced a proposal in Febru-
ary to sell stock in a com-
pany which would pur-
cha.se the M«&W1 and pos-
sibly extend it to Rushville
Tln\ ni(i/y \h()\\\ Hi' liHliniisUy's proposcJ expansion
(>/ the AM HI (JotlcJ line). It would have made Rush-
ville the junelion of four railroad lines instead of (he
terminus of a minor branch of the C 'lh^{^> Frank (1
lluks map
32
Till In II I Road
and Mt. Sterling. This proposal soon collapsed. A more realistic, if undesir-
able, option was brought up in May, when a large scrapping company called
Chicago House Wrecking (CHW) expressed a willingness to buy the M&WI
for $25,000. At the end of May another auction date for the railroad was set by
the special referee, this time in June. Again, no bids were accepted.
The possibility that the railroad might be sold for scrap prompted a
number of people interested in saving the railroad to begin raising funds to buy
the road. A man from Chicago, H.C. Billingsley, proposed in June that he
would buy the M&WI for $100,000, raise $2 million from capitalists on the
east coast, and use the new capital to electrify the railroad and extend it to
Rushville, Beardstown, and Mt. Sterling. Few were willing to support such
extravagant plans and his proposal was soon abandoned. A group of business-
men in Macomb led by Charles W. Flack and Isaac M. Fellheimer began rais-
ing money to buy the railroad, while a separate group of farmers and business-
men from Industry and Littleton, led by George N. Runkle and Thomas D.
Sullivan, began canvassing for money for their own effort to purchase the road.
As the Macomb Daily Journal put it, "There are so many propositions that one
who aspires to become a magnate would be puzzled as to which proposition he
should affiliate. There seems to be only one sure thing and that is that the fu-
ture of the Macomb & Western Illinois railroad hangs in the balance."'^
In late August 1911 the railroad was put on the auction block again,
and this time there were two bidders. Chicago House Wrecking bid $30,000
for the entire property, while the group of Macomb businessmen bid $40,000.
The bid by the Macomb businessmen undoubtedly saved the railroad from be-
ing sold for scrap at the time, but the bid was not actually accepted. Attorneys
for the Bank of Macomb's creditors objected to the sale and asked for a thirty
day extension on the bid period.
On September 21, bids for the M&WI were due and no fewer than
five bids were submitted for the railroad. Among these were bids for $40,000,
submitted by the group of Macomb businessmen, a bid for $45,000 made by
Fred Fitch, a capitalist from Kansas City, and another bid for $50,000 submit-
ted by Chicago House Wrecking. What CHW did differently, though, was
actually hand Frank W. Brooks a check for the sale amount on the day the bids
were due, removing any doubt about its financial backing. That was all Brooks
needed. He announced that the railroad had been sold to the wrecking com-
pany. Fitch appealed the sale in court, saying that CHW had acted improperly
by submitting the purchase money along with its bid, and the case was heard in
the U.S. Appeals Court in Chicago on January 4, 1912. Three weeks later, on
January 23, the court found in favor of Frank Brooks. The sale to Chicago
House Wrecking stood.
3 - In the Balance 33
MT^VXK «K IL.LIXOIM. —
m ! ?.^ i Kv/.\-Mttii.: i 'J.\JSW
{HlOOO}i
Tfwif
/. —
,,^rA...
t2^.
■^ Ar,.,^
Mm
Au>UwJu^m
— r^y^it
A^j4t ^tf^T^-rr r/.f
^
0
rAi.v M oMc f'/ //»<■ (irijiinal M&WI f(old hands, issued in 1^0.^. iiiul sii;ih\i hy H'.A.
Cnmplttn and Ralph i handli-r Wiillcn over it in red ink i.\ "C anccllcd hy deed of U.S.
Ciniri. Dee. M. I VI J " - the A/it H7 eea.\ed la e.visl. Hli Speeial Colleefians
Men of Industry
With the sale of the M&WI, the bankruptcy of C.V. Chandler and
Charles Imes was finally over. President Abe Harris of Chicago House Wreck-
ing (CHW) paid Frank Brooks $50,000 for the railroad, as agreed upon, which
enabled the creditors of the Chandler estate to see about sixty cents on the dol-
lar for their initial investments. As for the railroad, its fate was not left to con-
jecture for long. Earlier vague claims by M&WI co-owners CHW and Chi-
cago Assets Realization Company that they might extend, improve, or rebuild
the M&WI were forgotten when on February 1, 1912, only a day after the sale,
it was announced that the local managers of the "Little Road" had received
instructions from Chicago that passenger service was to be suspended at once
and that freight service was to last only one week longer. This was amended
the same day on the advice of CHW attorneys, whose recommendation was
that service continue one more week until CHW and M&WI officials had a
chance to meet. Their advice was taken.
Time was running out quickly for the railroad. On February 3, the
state boiler inspector condemned the only operational steam engine, number 4,
as unsafe. M&WI manager E.L. Tobie had a boiler inspector from Galesburg
come the next day and reverse this judgment so that the railroad could continue
The intriguing photo above, of five men standing on the pilot beam of M&WI engine 4,
is of uncertain vintage but may be a 1914 photo of some of the founders of the Macomb
Industry & Littleton Railway. WIU Special Collections.
4 - Men of Industry
35
operating. On February 5, the CB&Q announced that its contract to inter-
change freight and passenger cars with the "Little Road" had expired with the
transfer of ownership of the M&Wl. and that it would no longer accept any
M«S:W1 cars on its rails. Tobie again came to the rescue, persuading the Bur-
lington to allow freight cars to be switched between the two railroads, but pas-
senger service had to be cut back to the Macomb Yards once again. A testy
exchange between Macomb businessmen and the Burlington ensued, with the
locals suggesting that the city government compel the CB&Q to accept M&Wl
trains.^
On February 13. it became a moot point. The axe fell when CHW
suspended all freight and passenger ser\'ice on the "Little Road" permanently.
Passenger service ended with the last train that day. and within four days all
interchange freight cars had been taken to the Burlington for transfer off the
M&WL CHW officials began work on closing the mail contract. In the mean-
time, they made other arrangements for hauling mail to Industry and Littleton.
The reaction to the closure of rail service was an outpouring of sup-
port for continuation of operations. The same railroad, which for years had
suffered through the complaints and lawsuits of a minority of the people it
served, was now the subject of others' most strenuous efforts to keep it alive.
On March 19. a month after service ended, the largest businessmen's meeting
in years was held in Macomb. The purpose was to come up with a plan to not
only save the M&WI by buying it back from the wrecking company, but to
improve and expand it into a north-south connector like that which had been
envisioned ten years earlier. E.L. Tobie was the primary force behind the
movement to buy and extend the M&WI. His plan was to create a company
called the St. Louis Macomb & Northern (SLM&N) which would be extended
south to Rushville and north to a connection with the Atchison Topeka & Santa
Fe. probably at Stronghurst. The amount of money necessar>' to build the rail-
road ti> modern standards, SI. 2 million, was staggering, but Tobie believed
$684,000 could be raised by a bond issue and $600,000 by selling capital
stock.
Reaction to this plan was enthusiastic. Tobie managed to convince
many of the businessmen of Macomb. Raritan. Rushville. and Sciota of the
merits of his plan. Ihe people of Industry and Littleton, of course, were in sup-
port of anything that would save the railroad, which was their link to the rest of
the countrv'. On April I. 1912. Maynr Keefer of Macomb hecanic the first sub-
scriber [o the SLM&N bond issue with a purchase of Sl.OOO. and by the end of
the meeting that night at the Macomb Club, over $25,000 worth of bonds had
been sold. Within two weeks, committees had been fomied for each of the
towns along the intended right-of-way to canvass the area for funding.'
The lundraising went slowly, hut by late May 1912, Tobie was close
to his goal of raising SN)().(H)() for the bond issue. It took two extensions of the
original May I deadline set by Chicago House Wrecking, but by June IS, the
entire amount had been raised. S.'^.'> .()()() of it in the last two weeks of canvass-
ing aUine. lobie went to Chicago to meet with the CHW representatives and
36 Iiii Lii ill Road
on May 24, an agreement was at&sf to chicaqo
signed with CHW to sell the .>Cstronghurst
"Little Road" to the SLM&N
pending the securing of the en-
tire right-of-way.^
The future of the
M&WI remained uncertain.
Ownership was still in the hands
of Chicago House Wrecking,
and it was now up to Tobie to
accomplish two tasks. First, he
needed to survey and purchase
the land that would be needed to
extend the M&WI north and
south. Second, he had to secure
the ftinds necessary to cover the
remaining $600,000 needed to
actually construct the exten-
sions. Tobie first turned his
attention to the surveying,
which began in early July 1912.
The route was easy for most of
the distance, but on the north
side of Macomb, Crooked
Creek, later renamed the
Lamoine River, created a diffi-
cult obstacle. Several proposals of where the railroad should cross Crooked
Creek were made in July and August, but by September, surveying work north
of Macomb was essendally done.^
Tobie next turned his attention to raising the additional $600,000.
The communities around Macomb had been tapped for all of the money they
could spare for the railroad, and it was obvious that outside investors would
have to be brought in to construct the line to Stronghurst. For the first four
months of 1913 Tobie spent his fime trying to persuade financiers from Chi-
cago to invest in the railroad, but by mid-May the wrecking company was get-
ting impatient. With no evidence from Tobie that he would ever really be able
to raise the additional funds that would be needed to build the SLM&N, the
scrappers decided on May 17, 1913, to withdraw their offer to sell the railroad
to Tobie and put its assets up for public sale. The grand effort to extend the
M&WI had failed, and it was now up to the locals to save their railroad.^
Charles E. Nathan, a CHW representative, met with local leaders and
agreed to give them some time to try and raise money to buy the railroad. A
price of $90,000 was set. On May 22, 1913, Amos Ellis of Industry, and Van
L. Hampton and Isaac M. Fellheimer of Macomb organized a meeting at the
Macomb Club to formulate a plan to raise money among the local populace to
A diagram of the
planned route ofE.L.
Tobie 's St. Louis
Macomb & Northern.
Frank G. Hicks map.
RUSHVILLE
4 - Men of Industry
37
buy. repair, and operate the M&WI.
A two-part proposal was forwarded
to Chicago House Wrecking with a
thirty day option. The committee
offered to either purchase the M&WI
for $55,000. or pay S25.000 for the
right to lease and operate the railroad
for a period of years to be agreed
upon. This offer was swiftly rejected
by CHW. which claimed it could get
more than $55,000 by junking the
railroad and $90,000 by selling its
assets piecemeal."
On May 27. there was an-
other meeting to organize a move-
ment to buy the "Little Road." More
rCyjL^-y;. representatives from Littleton and
"JaT'. Industry were present, with Frank
Burnham. O.C. Gantz, and Robert
and William Runkle offering
reserved support. The ne.xt day l.M.
Fellheimer and V.L. Hampton left for
Chicago to meet with the owners of
Chicago House Wrecking and Chi-
cago Assets Realization Company.
Their report, made in Macomb on
June 2. was that they had secured an
option to bu\ the railroad during the
next forty-five days for $80,000. It was also said that lobie still claimed that
his financiers might yet pull through, and apparently this was regarded as the
best hope for the project. By early August, though, it was clear that even an
extension of the option was not going to be enough. The financiers from Chi-
cago. Lansing, and Detroit who had been consulted had refused to contribute to
the project, and the contract that had been drawn up was left unsigned. It was
back to the drawing board.'"
The real beginning of what wi>uld become the Macomb Industry &
Littleton Railway took place during a meeting on August 7. 1913, at the
M&WI office in Macomb. Isaac Fellheimer chaired the meeting. In atten-
dance were James Little and Thomas Williams of Littleton. Frank Burnham.
Oscar (iant/. John S. McCiaughey. and William Kittering of the Doddsville
area, and .Amos and forrest I His. Irank llussey, and Cieorge W. Clarrison rep-
resenting Industry. I'he decision was made to finally cast aside any otTers of
financing from outside. This time the railroad would be bought and owned by
the people of Macomb. Industry . and I ittleton. not b\ a bank, and not b\ in-
vestors from Chicago. On August 12. there was another meeting, this time in
The two possible roiilis llic SI \/A \ woiihl
have taken to ero\.\ C rooked C reek. Based
on a 1^12 U.S. (ieolofiieal Survey map.
38
Iiii Lin 1. 1 Ro.-M)
Industry, where a contract for a $100,000 stock subscription to purchase and
rebuild the M&WI was presented. Thomas D. Sullivan of Industry moved to
create an executive committee which would have charge of executing the con-
tract and selling the stock. This committee consisted of James Little and J.D.
Horton representing Littleton, Frank Bumham and John McGaughey of
Doddsville, Tom Sullivan and Horace A. Hoffman of Industry, and Isaac Fell-
heimer and Van L. Hampton of Macomb."
At first it appeared that this new movement presented a real hope to
save the M&WI, but within a month it seemed that the end was at hand. "It
looks as though the last move has been made and the 'Little Road'... is doomed
to be wrecked, and that at once," reported the Macomb Daily Journal on Sep-
tember 15, 1913. Representatives from the wrecking company had arrived in
Macomb to survey the M&WI, and arrange the repairs to the bridges and right-
of-way that would be necessary to haul scrap metal over the railroad. A week
later, on September 23, scrapping began at Littleton. Wrecking crews began
tearing up the rails and loading them onto flatcars for transport to Chicago,
while other crews repaired bridges to allow the locomotive to haul work trains
from the Macomb Yards to the south end of the railroad where the scrapping
work was going on. By the end of the month the water tower equipment in
Littleton was pulled out and sold for scrap, the old wheeled scrapers still sitting
in the Macomb Yards were sold for scrap, and the track wye at Littleton was
removed. An appeal from Fellheimer and Hampton on behalf of the executive
committee to delay the wrecking went unheeded by CHW. There was only one
option left for the railroad's supporters, who were short on time and money.
They had to go to court.'"
The farmers who owned land along the railroad intended to fight the
wrecking company using the Criminal Trespass Act. When the M&WI had
been built by Chandler, much of the land for the railroad had essentially been
given to the railroad on permanent loan, but it was to be used only for opera-
tion of the railroad. In the case the railroad was abandoned, title to the land
would revert back to the original owner. Since CHW was not operating the
railroad, but rather removing it for the purpose of scrap, the landowners argued
that the reversion clause had been activated and the land, including the railroad
tracks on it, was now theirs. J.D. Horton, a farmer living near Littleton, swore
out arrest warrants against the scrapping company workers on October 1 . A
week later George Runkle followed suit.'^
There was a also backup plan, in case the courts ruled that the wreck-
ing company could use the railroad as long as the tracks were in place. George
E. "Elsie" Garrison, a farmer living south of Macomb, owned a parcel of land
which had been given over for use by the M&WI under a different arrange-
ment. Rather than this parcel being promised to the M&WI for as long as the
railroad was operating, then-landowner George Garrison (apparently "Elsie's"
father) had given the land to the railroad only for the duration of his lifetime.
He had since died, and although the railroad could have condemned his land
through the usual eminent domain proceedings while it was operating, it
4 - Men of Industry 39
hadn't, and it was no longer capable of doing so since it wasn't operating any
more. On October 10, while CHW continued sending its workers south to
Littleton to continue tearing up the railroad, "Elsie" Garrison swore out a war-
rant against the wrecking crew for trespassing.
Efforts by CHW lawyers were unsuccessful in deterring Garrison. On
October 13. Garrison had Engineer Thomas Williams. Foreman Lawrence
Burke and Superintendent W.G. Bennett of the wrecking crew arrested and put
in the Industry jail. A week later a jury of six men in Industry heard the case,
and they found in favor of Garrison. Bennett was fined five dollars and the
other two were fined two dollars and fifty cents each. With the court confirm-
ing that Garrison's land was indeed his, and that CHW could not move its
workers across it at will. Garrison swore out warrants against ten other men
w ho had also been on the scrapping crew. ^
It worked. The scrapping halted while the CHW lawyers in Chicago
decided how to handle the case. At the same time the movement to buy the
railroad gained steam, and others, including William R. Clawson. Amos S.
Ellis. George W. Garrison. John F. Lawyer. Charles W. Runkle. and Andrew
E. Rush joined the effort. A meeting was held in the Women's Christian Tem-
perance Union hall in Industry to bolster support for those fighting the wreck-
ing company in court and to take further steps toward buying the railroad. It
was decided to form a company to do this. The money collected by the com-
mittee thus far to buy the railroad would be transferred to the new company. A
new executive committee of Frank Bumham, George Runkle. and A.E. Rush
was formed.'^
At the end of October the owners of the wrecking company threw the
locals a curveball. Through a complex series of legal maneu\ers they arranged
to have a New Yorker named John W. McKinnon appointed the new trustee of
the M&WI, replacing Continental Bank of Chicago, the old trustee. What this
did was to throw the issue of ownership of the railroad into federal court rather
than local court. Two days later Sangamon Loan & Trust, the receiver for the
M&WI, asked that the U.S. District Court in Peoria order the rails, ties, and
other railroad materials be torn up. and confimi that any interference be con-
sidered in contempt of court. Judge Humphreys gave this order, and scrapping
resumed. The farmers did not give up so easily, however. "Elsie" Garrison
swore out more warrants against the wrecking crew workers, and se\ eral fann-
ers along the railroad built fences across the tracks to impede the southbound
wrecking trains. The fences were unceremoniously run over, but by each eve-
ning most had been rebuilt and had to be run over again on the trip back north,
(ieorgc Runkle uenl so far as to build, and rebuild, this fencwig hniiself so that
none of his farmhands could be charged with contempt of court.'
"I Isie" Garrison's arrest warrants were executed on Halloween. 1^13
by Constable John Lawyer of Industry, not to be confused w ith attorney John
F. Lawyer, and the next day Industry's Justice of the Peace Mils ruled that the
U.S. District Court order did not give the scrapping company the right to de-
stroy the farmers' property. That same day the scrapping company, through
40 Till I nil I Road
Sangamon Loan & Trust, charged attor-
neys Charles Flack, John F. Lawyer, and
T.B. Switzer, States Attorney Falder,
Justice of the Peace Ellis, Constable
Lawyer, and George "Elsie" Garrison
with contempt of court. '^
Judge Humphrey heard the case
in Peoria on November 6, 1913. He
ruled for the defendants, saying no con-
tempt of court had occurred. However,
he gave an opinion that if the question of
reversion of property were to come be-
fore him, he would rule in favor of the
wrecking company. Though he gave no
official decision, it was his opinion that
the scrapper had the right to tear up the
railroad. The Macomb Daily Journal
wrote that the railroad's supporters "see
no reason for continuing the fight any
longer. The price asked by the owners John F. Lawyer cl 91 3. Bateman &
of the road is prohibitive, and there Shelby, The Historical Encyclopedia of
seems to be nothing left but to let it Illinois and McDonoiish County.
Four days later, however, their hopes were alive again. The three-
man committee formed in October had been in negotiations with W.G. Bennett
of Chicago House Wrecking and came to an agreement to purchase the railroad
for $68,000, with a nonrefundable $1,000 down payment to be made within a
week. But miscommunications between the owners of the railroad sank the
deal. Edward Ridgley, who was owner of Chicago Assets Realization Com-
pany and co-owner of the railroad along with CHW, refused to give his permis-
sion to accept the offer for $68,000. Negotiations continued in an on-again,
off-again manner during much of November. The Macomb Daily Journal
wrote "Like Banquo's ghost, the Macomb and Western Illinois railroad will not
down [sic], but rises in some form or another continuously." And so it was that
on November 25, 1913, an agreement acceptable to all parties was reached
between the local committee and the wrecking company. The committee
bought the M&WI for $70,000 (adjusted for inflation, about $1.3 million in
2005 dollars), with the option extending until December 28, and guaranteed by
a $1,000 forfeit paid every ten days until then. Half of the purchase price
would be made in cash, half in "acceptable notes." Subscriptions made previ-
ously to Tobie's St. Louis Macomb «fe Northern would be returned immedi-
ately to avoid claims of misuse, and a new company would be organized to
acquire the railroad with $100,000 of capital stock."*^
On November 26, 1913, a meeting was held at Industry to consider
the financial aspects of the venture. Two days later the contract was signed
4 - Men of Industry
41
We had a railroad. Remember the M. I. & L.? It
had its troubles and plenty of them. I was secretary
of this road for seven years and am very familiar
with its ups and downs, mostly down. This road
was first operated in 1904, went into bankruptcy in
1911, and taken over by local farmers and busi-
nessmen in 1913, and died very dead in 1928. 1
could tell a lot of stories about this railroad, so
many they would make a book. One I will relate is
how near some of us came to getting in jail for
contempt of the U.S. court. The road was in bank-
ruptcy and was sold to the Chicago Wrecking
Company. At the same time local men were work-
ing frantically to raise money to buy the road and
get it going again. The wrecking company was
going to start tearing up the road, in order to gain
time in raising funds, some of the less timid would
take up a rail or two. pile obstructions on the track
so as to slow up the wrecking. This didn't set well
with the wrecking company so they complained to
the Federal judge in Peoria who called the obstruc-
tionists before him and threatened to jail every man
that interfered. Some said he had a tw inkle in his
eye and was not very severe. Soon after the money
was raised and the new company was organized.
Recollections of Horace Hoffman, from notes for a
1948 speech to the Kiwanis Club.
and the work of canvassing the
countrv'side for funds began.
It wouldn't be easy. Although
Tobie had been able to raise
o\er half a million dollars for
his railroad, there was a
marked difference between the
well-built connecting railroad
he had proposed and the run-
down stub short line that the
new committee planned to
acquire and put into operation
again. The M&Wl would
need extensive rebuilding.
The scrapping crews had re-
mo\ed the rails as far north as
the county line, and the rail-
road's locomotives and rolling
stock were in abysmal condi-
tion. Fundraising was very
successful toward the south
end of the line, where the
M&WI had been the primary
link between the communities
of Littleton and Industry and
the outside world, but interest in Macomb was \irtually nonexistent. By the
second week of December. Macomb, with a population about twice that of the
Industry and Littleton areas combined, had contributed only SIS. 000 of the
$67,000 raised thus far. By mid-December, with a majority of the capital stock
subscribed to, an organizing meeting was called. On December 18, a notice
appeared in the newspaper calling for all subscribers to the capital stock of the
MaccMiib Industry & Littleton Railway to attend the organizing meeting at the
Industry Opera House on December 23. The notice was signed by George N.
Runkle, Frank Burnham, Andrew H. Rush. Thomas D. Sulli\an. and .lames
Little. Directors and Incorporators."'
rhe meeting on December 2.^ was the culmination iWiiearK two \ears
of strenuous effort on the part of hundreds of people to sa\e the little railroad
that C.V. Chandler had built. Beleaguered during its operating lifetime of only
nine years, the M&WI had still been a tremendous boon to the communities
and the people it served. Fhey had stood h\ while its future was determined
during the Chandler bankruptcy, but once its fate seemed scaled. the\ had been
galvanized into actitm. These men of Industry and Littleton had displayed a
determination, enterprise, and industriousness in the face of unlikely odds and
rcgrellahle misfortunes that luul tlnally paid o\'\'. Ihe hultisiry Mews described
what happened at the orgaiu/nig meeting when it became obvious that the
42
Till Lii ifi Road
One of the shares of capital stock in MI&L, this gold-toned certificate for share number
153 was owned by Eva Colby. WIU Special Collections.
committee was $8,000 short of the funds needed to buy the M&WI: "At the
meeting Tuesday G.N. Runkle and W.R. Clawson rose and stated they would
add $2,000 each to their subscriptions providing they could raise $4,000 more
in the crowd. Calvin Wilson responded by raising the subscription of his fa-
ther, J. Wilson, $1,000, and was quickly followed by others, $5,000 being
raised inside of five minutes' time." The next day, collection began on the sub-
scription money, and on December 28, the new company's directors left for
Chicago along with Attorneys Flack and Lawyer to finalize the purchase. On
December 30, 1913 the deal was struck. The "Little Road" now belonged to
the Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway Company.'"
4 - Men of Industry
43
Strides of Progress
They had done it. The men to whom the "Little Road" meant the
most, the farmers and businessmen of southern McDonough and northern
Schuyler counties, had saved the railroad themselves. No longer would the
line's patrons have to sit by and watch while the fate of the railroad was de-
cided in the courts of Macomb and Peoria. Now the customers became the
owners.
The euphoria of those who had worked so hard and so long to save the
Macomb Industry & Littleton (MI&L), as it would now be known, was likely
short lived. The railroad they had bought was a shambles. With the loss of the
trackage rights agreement that had allowed M&WI trains to enter downtown
Macomb along the Burlington, the line had lost its northern passenger terminal,
and the scrapping crews of Chicago House Wrecking had torn up the southern
three miles of the railroad entirely, cutting it back to about the McDonough-
Schuyler county line. The condition of the track that was still in place was
abysmal in many spots. Some of the bridges had been only temporarily fixed
by the scrapping company to allow for the wrecking trains, and the overall
condition of the roadbed was not safe enough to attempt passenger service.
The rolling stock of the railroad was also little better than junk, having gone
through months or years of deferred maintenance and disuse.'
The initial meeting of the MI&L directors following the sale of the
railroad was on January 1, 1914, in Industry. Those officials who came from
Macomb took the train, naturally, using the occasion to inspect the northern
half of the railroad. They were accompanied by William Hendrickson and
Jack O. Moon, both of whom had experience in railroad construction. The line
was judged to be in reasonable shape considering its history, and the railroad
The only steam engine the railroad ever bought new was the attractive 2-6-0 Mogul
shown above, built by Davenport Locomotive Works in 1914. WIU Special Collections.
5 - Strides of Progress
45
officials coming from the north made it to the Industry meeting to participate
in the discussions of how to conduct repairs of the railroad. The trip back,
though, was a different matter. Badly leaking flues on the line's only opera-
tional steam engine, number 4. meant it kept losing steam pressure, and there-
fore, traction. After a series of starts and stops to build up pressure it failed
utterly to push the combine, in which the railroad officials were riding, up the
north side of the Troublesome Creek depression. An effort was made to get
the combine across the shallow valley by uncoupling it on the south rise and
letting it coast up the other side, but the brakes on the car didn't work and
Charles Runkle managed to tumble down the railroad's embankment during an
attempt to arrest the free-rolling combine. The dead steam engine and combine
were left at the bridge and the directors had to walk the last three miles back to
Macomb in a blinding snow storm, not arriving home until 9:00 at night. It
wasn't until the next day that water could be carried out to the steam engine to
raise steam, and bring it back to the Macomb Yards under its own power."
No sooner had the MI&L been saved from an untimely death than
E.L. Tobie. the author of the ill-fated 1912 plan to buy and extend the railroad,
approached the directors with yet another scheme. This time he proposed
bringing in a railroad construction manager from Lansing. Michigan, named
W.T. McCaskey to help rebuild the line. The arrangement would involve
McCaskey being paid $25,000. half in cash and half in stock, to rebuild the
Ml&L. The catch was that McCaskey would also be represented on the board
of directors and would have a say in who managed the road, most likely to be
Mr. Tobie. The MI&L directors, having just managed to secure the railroad's
future in the hands of interested locals, were wary of someone from outside of
Illinois, someone motivated more by profit than by any interest in prov iding
service to McDonough and Schuyler counties, hav ing a say in the development
of the MI&L. and they refused the offer.
That did not prevent the rebuilding of the Ml&L. but it took a little
longer to raise additional funds to pay for the construction. Jack Moon was
placed in charge of the track and bridge work that commenced the second
week of January after the steam engine's flues were replaced, and work soon
commenced on the biggest headache on the line, the Camp Creek Bridge.
(i.W. Rollctt, a BurlingtcMi manager who had supcrv iscd the construction of the
CB&Q depot in Macomb the previous year, was employed as General Manager
in late January and he brought in an experienced bridge repair engineer from
the Burlington to help direct operations at Camp Creek. By the end of the
month, repairs io the railrtiad had been completed as far south as Camp Creek,
and during a directors' meeting on February 3, station agents were hired.
O. Sweazy regained his agency in Macomb. Fred Duncan became the lndustr>'
agent, and Kohn Little was hired to stalf the Littleton depot. ^
Freight service on the Ml&L commenced for tiic first time on
February K, 1914, with the opening of the Camp Creek Bridge, and reestablish-
ment of rail service between Macomb and Industry. The railroad was still hav-
ing problems with engine 4. and it needcil a running start to make it up the
46 I'MI- Lll II I RoM)
MI&L 4-4-0 locomotive 6, formerly of the Vandalia Railroad, shown hauling a mixed
train southbound at Industry. WIU Special Collections.
grade on the south side of Camp Creek. Although the motive power problem
would remain for the time being, other improvements were being made. The
Industry depot opened with rebuilt stockyards, new freight rates had been es-
tablished, and a movement was underway to relocate the Kirkpatrick switch to
a point half a mile north of its former location.''
Freight service was lively during the first few weeks of renewed op-
eration, but the acid test for the MI&L would be passenger service. It would
not be easy to maintain a consistent schedule. With only one working steam
engine, number 4, operation of all trains depended on the ability of that single
locomotive to remain operational all of the time. Service would also be trun-
cated: the northern end of the line terminated at the fairgrounds south of
Macomb, and the southernmost stop was at the Runkle Switch, as the track
south of there had been torn up by the wrecking crews. By the last week of
February, impatient people eager to take the train had resorted to riding in box-
cars, but on February 27, the MI&L finally instituted passenger service. It was
"once more a full-fledged railroad with a passenger and Ireight service, and
will run just as near on time as the average road," trumpeted the Macomb Daily
Journal. Initially there were two round-trips daily. The southbound trains
left Macomb at 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and the northbound trains left Runkle
at 10:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. The morning trains, likely scheduled mixed trains
hauling both passengers and freight cars, had running times of about one hour
forty-five minutes each way, but the afternoon trains cut that time down to
about an hour.^
The arrival of a new steam engine, number 5, on April 22, 1914 her-
alded a new, more stable, more prosperous era for the MI&L. It was the first.
5 - Strides of Progress
47
and last, steam engine ever bought new by the "Little Road" and was built spe-
cially for short line passenger and freight service by the Davenport Locomotive
Works located just seventy-five miles to the north. Only a week later, the
Ml«fcL tlnally returned to Littleton. Manager Rollett's crews hadn't stopped
working after completion of the Camp Creek Bridge but had continued south-
ward, laying down rails on the roadbed in Schuyler Count>' to replace track that
had been torn up by Chicago House Wrecking just six months before. The
work was hard and not always safe. In late March, a handcar traveling toward
Macomb was derailed at the edge of town by a brick wedged in the tlangeway
at a crossing, probably by a mischievous youngster. One of the section men
was thrown from the handcar and injured. The work continued, however, and
within two days after the railroad was completed to Littleton the track crews
were at work widening the Kirkpatrick curve west of Industry, from fourteen to
eight degrees, to allow for higher speeds and safer operation. Passenger opera-
tion into Littleton commenced as soon as the track was laid, and on April 29.
1914. a timetable was issued that would remain in effect for the next five years.
Northbound trains left Littleton at 6:50 a.m. and 1 1 :45 a.m. and arrived at the
Macomb Yards, south of town, at 8:10 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. respectively.
Southbound trains left Macomb at 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.. arriving at Littleton
at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. The trains were numbered, with trains 1 and 3
completing northbound passenger ains. and trains 2 and 4 making southbound
runs.
In March 1915. an agreement was finalized with the CBifeQ that al-
lowed the passenger trains of the Ml&L to access downtown Macomb. It was
similar to the old 1 90S agreement. The Ml&L would use the Burlington's de-
pot and ticket agent for an annual fee of $324. it would pa\ the Burlington two
dollars per car for each round trip between the Ml&L interchange and the de-
pot, or two dollars in each direction for each loaded freight car (empty freight
cars were to be handled free), and it would pay the Burlington twenty cents per
ton for all freight that passed through the Macomb depot.*"
A week after the trackage rights agreement with the Burlington was
re-established. MI&L engineer Alphonse Woerly left for Terre Haute. Indiana,
to pick up a newly-purchased steam engine. Vandalia Railroad 302. soon to
become Ml&L (^. was another 4-4-0 American t\pe engine, similar to. but lar-
ger and newer than the worn out and unserviceable number 4. While Woerly
was on his trip, the need for another reliable engine was made obvious. The
specter of suspension of service rose again as engine 5 broke two staybolts.
sidelining it. and halting passenger and freight for a day. Traffic resumed
when the Vandalia Railroad loconuniNc arrixed and was immediately put into
service.'
With terminals in Liitlett>n and in douiiiown Macomb established,
and with sufficient motive pi>uer to efrcclively maintain service, the Ml&L
had finally reacheil a point of equilibrium. Ihe successful and relati\ely pros-
perous times which the Ml&L experienced in the late teens saw relatively little
change in the operations of the company. The company suffered a blow on
48 Ini-. Lull I Road
A Ride on the MI«&L
Well Grandpa got acquainted with the people that were on the MI&L and so one day he
said "I'd like to take a trip with you." And they said "Well, bring your lunch and come
ahead." Now they had two or three freight cars and one or two passenger cars - de-
pending on what they were expecting - and it started there on the west side of Lafayette
Square, there was the little depot. Now sometimes they made just one trip down and
back, sometimes they made two trips in a day, depending upon what was happening -
sometimes according to crops and things like that. Well we had these children that
lived in our neighborhood whose father worked at the factory - we knew they didn't
have much. And then we had lemonade stands, and we'd make money and we'd buy
clothes for those kids for the next year. If the circus came to town, we always bought
the circus tickets for all of us. Well, then we decided one year we wanted to go on a
picnic, and Grandpa suggested that he would go with us and he would make arrange-
ments that we could all go on the MI&L to Littleton. And we got on the train that
morning and the conductor shook hands with everyone very graciously and did every-
thing he could to make us feel happy and told us he would come back and get us at
different times and take us up to the engine so that everyone would be certain to be in
the engine. By the time we got back and he suggested if we could have a boy and a girl
at a time that was better, well we all got up there and Grandpa, of course, was with us
supervising. We stopped at, always, someplace before we got to Industry for 15, 20
minutes and we'd get off the train and run around a little bit and get back on. And
when we got to Industry they'd say "Now we have a half hour here, you can walk
downtown and back, but don't take your lunches off the train - you're not going to eat
here." And we would go downtown, maybe we'd get a stick of gum or something, or if
people knew someone there we might stop to see someone. And we'd come back to the
train - they'd blow the whistle two or three times to tell us to start back. When we got
down to Littleton there was a little park, just real close. Well the conductor and the
brakeman and fireman would all take their lunches and go over; there was a well there
that had real cold, good water, and they'd go over and eat with us and we'd play games.
Then they'd load up, and if they had things we could help them load, they would let us
help load, you know - they made you a part of it, so that the kids felt like they really
had done something. And we came back to Industry, and had a period of time there,
and then came on to Macomb.
Recollections ofViletta Hilleiy, excerpted from a November 16, 2004, interview.
August 8, 1918, when fire engulfed a sizeable portion of downtown Industry.
Six commercial buildings on the north side of Main Street, including the new
Lindsey Theater and the building in which the MI&L offices were located,
caught fire in the early hours of the morning, and burned to the ground despite
the efforts of the town's population to extinguish the blaze. The MI&L offices,
on the second floor of the Conger Building, were completely destroyed. The
only salvageable documents were those inside the safe, which was found bur-
ied in smoldering rubble in the building's basement after the fire."^
The railroad did not stagnate, though. Improvements were being
made and others contemplated. A secondhand combine was purchased in April
1920 from the Beaver Penrose & Northern Railroad in Colorado. It arrived late
in May, and went into service after being repainted and refurbished. In Sep-
tember and October of 1 920, a series of letters was exchanged between repre-
5 - Strides of Progress 49
Wmm^&mMi^Bmm^}fmm\
UNIT PASSENGER CAWS
COMBINATION. INSPECTION
StCTION.TBACr REBAIHCAWS
AND LOCOMOTIVES l~ '
OPCWATC O B^
KCBOSENCOR DISTILLATE
GCNCRAL orricts:
T CHICAGO ■»
7I'«' WESTMINSTER BUILOING
Tel«phor<«5 Ranool^ 5*57-5456
FACTOR V
HAMMOND. INDIANA
T«l«phone Msminoxd*^
mtfiti^mQ^.^nQi.
#2
E. li
.Ve dc r.cL care to neaotlete an^' fert'ier If 1' Is t^e
habit of ihe ccrwunlty to 'e auspicious cf -a Company
of our standing. Unless there Is n spirit of cooperetlon
end 8 dfslre on t'-e pnrt of the citizens It rrculd not
be a prrfltabl? place for us tc be ard certs ir.ly a poor
place for us tc Invest.
An excerpt from a 1920 letter from the Railway Motor Car Company of America to A.E.
Rush. President of the MI&L. WIU Special Collections.
sentatives from the MI&L and the Railway Motor Car Company of America, a
fledgling builder of gasoline-powered locomotives and motorcars from
Hammond. Indiana, regarding the possibility of RMCCA moving its plant to
Macomb. Had an agreement been made, Ml&L operations might have been
revolutionized. RMCCA was willing to allow the Ml&L to use its motorcars
to hold down passenger service in exchange for permission to test its products
on the line to Littleton prior to delivery. Both sides were justifiably suspicious
of the others" stability. RMCCA is not thought to have ever actually gone into
production of any full-size railway equipment. Needless to say, the deal fell
through. Three years later, in January 1924, the possibility of using internal
ctimbustion came up again. Internal combustion locomotives had come a long
way since the dubiously useful boxcab that the M&WI had bought in 1903.
General Llectric had already built a few prototype switching engines, and later
in 1924, GE and Ingersoll-Rand debuted their successful line of 300 horse-
power diesel-clcctric su itchcrs. The Shiconih Daily Joitnial reported that the
Ml&L officials prophetically believed that internal combustion "will eventu-
ally displace steam power;" but the finances of the railroad didn't allow for
large capital in\ estments in such modem equipment, and the purchase of an
internal combustion kKHMiioti\e was put o\T iiulcllnitcl\. Thought was still
being given to extending the Ml&L, even at this late date. In 1922 an effort
was made to raise interest in building an extension from Littleton to Camden, a
distance of about twelve miles, but this came to naught."
rhc busy and stable, if not particularK prosperous, years that the
Ml&L had cnjo\ed in the late teens and earl\ 1920s were coming to an end.
Times were changing, and with the coming of the automobile, the role of short
lines like the Ml&L was fast disappearing. During the early 1920s, freight and
50
liii Lii II I Road
traffic levels on the railroad declined, and by the end of 1924, the MI&L was
operating in the red. The hope appeared to lie in, ironically, the construction of
hard roads. The State of Illinois was constructing several north-south main
arteries, all of them paved and designed for automobile use. Illinois Route 3
(later US Route 67) would pass through Macomb and Industry and just to the
east of Littleton, approximately paralleling the MI&L, and the construction
companies bidding on the sections of the hard road south of Macomb promised
large contracts to the "Little Road" in hauling gravel, cement, and other con-
struction materials.'^
But the year 1925, during which most of the construction of the Illi-
nois Route 3 hard road between Macomb and Rushville took place, would not
turn out to be the boon that the MI&L had hoped for. Over the course of the
summer the railroad hauled train after train of construction materials south to
Industry and Littleton, but for as much money as was coming in, more still was
going out to keep the railroad running. The railroad to Littleton had been
lightly built in 1903, and had never been significantly upgraded. Ballasting in
most areas was poor or nonexistent, ties were of low quality, and the weight of
the rail was mostly 56# (fifty-six pounds per yard), far lighter than the 80# or
90# rail used on larger railroads like the Burlington. The lighter rail fared well
only when lightweight passenger cars or grain cars traversed the track. Con-
versely, when larger, modem freight cars loaded with gravel and other heavy
materials traveled over the railroad repeatedly, they severely damaged the
track. Reconstruction of the right of way ate up the profits from the haulage of
hard road materials in 1925, and the general decline in traffic, both freight and
passenger, combined with that loss to throw the MI&L $20,000 into debt by
September.'^
The crisis was serious. Operations continued normally through the
fall, but expenses were cut to the bone to eliminate the operating deficit. The
matter of how to erase the debt, though, was a difficult question. Some had
argued earlier in the year that the downturn in business was only temporary,
but whether temporary or permanent, the railroad's poor financial condition
made it impossible for the
MI&L to raise $20,000
through operating profit. ii^
At a meeting of the stock-
holders in November, a
bond issue was debated
and voted down. When
that failed, A.E. Rush was
appointed to chair a com-
mittee to investigate ways
to pay down the debt.
Frank B. Bumham, W.C. Scenes like this, of Route 41 construction in Bushnell,
Butcher, J.W. Campbell, were common along the MI&L in the 1920s as hard
Charles O. Foulke, roads were built. WIU Special Collections.
5 - Strides of Progress
51
I lorace Hoffman, and Thomas D. Sullivan made up the committee. Their deci-
sion, presented at the annual meeting in January 1926, was to sell several par-
cels of land owned by the MI&L to pay off the debt. This land, which made up
about seventy acres near Industry and Macomb plus several lots in Macomb
itself, was sold in June 1926, and raised about $15,000. Other steps were also
being taken to cut costs. In mid-November 1925. the MI&L petitioned the
Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon two of its runs. Now, instead of
two daily round trips between Macomb and Littleton, there would be only one;
a morning run from Littleton to Macomb, and a return trip in the late after-
noon.
The relief afforded by the sale of land in 1926 was only temporary.
The debt remained at about S5,000 after the sale, and during the year and a half
following the property sale, the MI&L lost yet more money. Operation of
trains became irregular, the contract to carry mail was given to a bus company,
the company was unable to pay its taxes, and new stockyards in Bushnell
hahed the amount of stock the road carried. The year 1928 would prove to be
a pivotal one for the "Little Road." At the beginning of the year, plans were
unveiled to issue S25.000 worth of bonds to eliminate the debt and repair the
right-of-way and equipment. The need for these bonds became apparent in late
spring, at the same time the ICC approved the bond issue. A.C. Anders, the
railroad's general manager since 1919. resigned in early May. and a Chicagoan
named P.L. LIder was hired to replace him. Coincident with this was the ces-
sation on May 10, 1928, of all operations. The reason was the need to over-
haul the railroad's remaining operational steam engine, and the lack of the
S3,000 needed to do it. In early June etTorts to sell the bonds commenced, led
by O.G. Gant/ of Industry and A.J. Fish of Macomb. Time was short, as the
contract to build the hard road from Littleton west to Brooklyn was to be let in
June, and the MI&L was pinning its hopes for operational profits on haulage of
materials for that project. But public reaction to the bond issue was discourag-
ing. The people living along the railroad grew tired of the railroad's perennial
problems, and they were unimpressed by projections of $40,000 projected
gross income from the Littleton hard road business and of the railroad being
self-sustaining within the year. On June 22. 1928, the Board of Directors of
the MI&L voted to abandtm the railroad and sell it for scrap.'
The announcement's elTect was electrifying. The apparent impending
death of the "Little Road" merited a full-width front page headline in the
Miicomh Daily JoiinniL and it impressed the people living along the line like
nothing the canvassers had said. I'he justification for this drastic step was dif-
I>ireciors V'^^Wly o Wreck M. I. & L. R.
lU'uJlinc from llic Jiiih' 2.i. /V^.V. issue nf the Macnmh Daily Joiinuil.
52 Thk LiTTLt Road
KWCUISISBI
lOHRlMfOMB
ficult to controvert. The railroad was $15,000 in debt, and its assets were
unlikely to be worth much more than $20,000. No trains had operated in over
six weeks, and unless $3,000 could be raised to repair one of the steam en-
gines, operations could not be resumed. That was money the MI&L simply did
not have. It had been depending on the citizens living along the line to put
$25,000 toward the railroad to keep it operating, but they had declined. The
railroad had run out of options.'^
Whether the Ml&L directors actually intended to scrap the railroad or
not is conjecture. In all likelihood they were perfectly willing to, considering
the business outlook. But it did not come to pass. Following the announce-
ment of the decision to abandon the railroad, money began coming in to buy
the bonds the MI&L had issued. The railroad was still extremely important to
the farmers living along the line, who used it regularly to ship livestock and
grain, and it was vital to the contractors building the hard road out of Littleton,
who had set their bid price on the project with the ability to haul materials from
the CB&Q to Littleton via the MI&L in mind. Within six weeks the entire
$25,000 bond issue had been subscribed to, repairs were underway, and opera-
tions were set to begin. General Manager Elder was fired and replaced by F.B.
McPeek, who would later be succeeded by the same A.C. Anders who had
resigned the previous May. Freight and passenger operations finally resumed
in August, and starting in September the MI&L was back hauling hard road
materials to Littleton.'^
The temporary infiision of cash did not save the railroad as promised.
The decline in the railroad's fortunes was not a temporary blip, it was a trend
reflected in the fortunes of interurbans and short line railroads across the coun-
try in the late 1920s. As the nation's network of paved roads spread and auto-
mobile ownership exploded, the need for short-haul railroads like the MI&L
declined dramatically. Within six months of the bond sale, it became apparent
that the railroad's fortunes were not improving. Operation of the elevator in
Littleton ceased in June in anticipation of the MI&L shutting down. In July,
the elevator was leased to H.L. Mummert, manager of the Industry elevator
and an MI&L director, and reopened. Hauling of hard road materials to Little-
ton continued into the summer until that project ended, and during the late
summer harvest season, the MI&L was kept busy hauling bumper crops of oats
and wheat. '^
The final straw came in September 1929. On September 23, the Great
Lakes Coal & Coke Company, which supplied the coal to keep the "Little
Road's" steam engine running, filed suit against the MI&L for $528.70 in un-
paid coal bills. The line's locomotive was attached, or seized, and towed to a
Burlington siding under the observation of Sheriff Paul Eakle. About two
weeks later the Union National Bank, acting on behalf of the MI&L as a trus-
tee, settled with Great Lakes Coal & Coke and the engine was returned, but the
lesson was clear. The railroad was in a shambles. The locomotive was on its
last legs, most of the rolling stock was barely operational, and some bridges
and portions of the right-of-way had been condemned by railroad safety in-
5 - Strides of Progress 53
spectors. On October 8, 1929, a delegation consisting of MI&L directors Wil-
liam R. Clawson, V.A. Homey, H.L. Mummert, and Eli Willey, and attorney
Myron Mills went to Springfield to ask permission to petition the Illinois Com-
merce Commission to authorize abandonment of the Ml&L. Homey summed
it up. stating "While the railroad will be greatly missed by Littleton and Indus-
tr\'. the need for this ser\ice has diminished considerably in the past few years
with the building of hard roads through this territory."'''
Just days after the petition was filed, the Moline Construction Com-
pany filed suit against the Ml&L for foreclosure. Charles E. Flack, a Macomb
attomey, was appointed receiver in late 1929. Another nail in the MI&L's
coffin came on January 17, 1930, when the Union National Bank of Macomb
filed a foreclosure suit of its own. On Febmary 5. after hearing Charles
Flack's argument advocating abandonment of the Ml&L. Circuit Court Judge
George C. Hillyer signed the order authorizing the railroad to petition the ICC
for permission to abandon and scrap the railroad. The railroad was still run-
ning trains sporadically, but operations ended at the end of March when the
decision of the ICC came down. Permission to abandon the Macomb Industn,
& Littleton was granted. The life of the railroad that had been built by C.V.
Chandler, that had been saved by farmers and businessmen, that had been
owned its entire operating life by the people of McDonough and Schuyler
counties, was over.'"
Disposition of the railroad did not take long. The entire property of
the railroad, including all of the track, rolling stock, buildings, and land, was
put up for auction on May I. 1930 and sold to the highest bidder. The sale of
ihc railroad and the various parcels of land totaled $20,370.50. The largest
parcel, consisting of all of the rails. locomoti\es. and rolling stock, was bought
by D.A. Harper of Galesburg for $17,550. The railroad's obituary was printed
in the May 5, 1930 Macomb Daily Journal under the headline "Ml&L Railroad
MiAL .5 i.\ shown hack ai lis htrihpUicc in I >avcnport Jor scheduled heavy maintenance
and inspecUiin work m I'Jl*.^ \\'l[ Special Calleclions.
54
Till I ini r Road
The only known photo of engine 5 in aetiial use is ihis one, taken near the end of service
on the MI&L. Otis Gunning is the engineer and Joseph Johnson the fireman. Schuyler
County Jail Museum, Schuyler County^: Illinois Histoiy.
Crowded Out by the Strides of Progress, Once the Hope of Entire Country-
side." It was a fitting tribute to a venture which had formerly been so impor-
tant in the lives of the people and communities it served, yet which had been
rendered obsolete and unnecessary. The work of scrapping the MI&L began in
Littleton on May 20, and by the end of the month the Briggs-Turving Wreck-
ing Company had progressed past the point at which Chicago House Wrecking
had halted its demolition in 1913. The railroad was torn up as far north as In-
dustry by the second week of June. By June 19, the railroad had been removed
as far as the Macomb Yards, and the fleet of freight cars had been burned, with
the metal parts hauled away for scrap. On June 23, 1930, it was all over. The
last rails were taken up on the west side of town, the two passenger cars sold
for use as hog sheds, and the steam engine hauled dead to Galesburg for re-
building and resale. The Macomb Daily Journal's account concluded, "Thus
ends the history of the 'Little Road.'"''
5 - Strides of Progress
55
Afterword
On September 17, 1929, a quarter of Macomb's population of 10,000
gathered in Chandler Park to dedicate a memorial to the man who had worked
harder for the good of Macomb than any other. C.V. Chandler, who for nearly
two decades had been living in Indianapolis, came back to his hometown to
attend the unveiling of a memorial arch in the park he had created. At 87 years
of age, the old man was treated to an emotional day of receptions, dinners, and
reminiscences with the gratefiil citizens of Macomb.
Only a few short miles away, on the southern edge of town, the rail-
road that Chandler had made possible, the railroad that had been of so much
benefit to Macomb and the territories south of the city, the railroad that had
been the ultimate cause of Chandler's bankruptcy and disgrace back in 1910,
was in the last stages of its slow, terminal decline. Its last decrepit engine still
made occasional forays to Littleton and Industry over rollercoaster track and
condemned bridges, but it was obvious to all involved that the Ml&L was at
the precipice of extinction. Within six months of the dedication of the memo-
rial arch to C.V. Chandler, the railroad so closely associated with that man,
would be abandoned. Within twelve it would be gone.
There are not many traces of the Macomb Industry & Littleton left
today. The men who built and ran the railroad died off gradually. George N.
Runkle died in 1928, Frank Brooks survived the line by only months, dying in
May 1930. C.V. Chandler died in 1934, Charles Flack in 1950, and William
A. Compton in 1955. James Ira Hodges, the engineer who had been injured in
the Industry wreck in 1 907, survived into the 1 970s. The tracks were all torn
up and most of the buildings razed soon after the railroad stopped operating.
The elevators in Littleton and Industry were torn down, replaced by newer
structures, while the elevators built between towns disappeared. The Littleton
depot survived until it was destroyed by a tornado in 1981. There are no other
buildings from the railroad known for certain to survive. Structures exist on
Lafayette Street in Macomb and at the Runkle Switch site that resemble rail-
road buildings, but their heritage cannot be definitely determined. Grading for
the railroad is still evident in several places, particularly on the northwest side
of Industry where the grade over Grindstone Creek is quite obvious. It's also
apparent on the north side of Littleton, where the large concrete culvert that
carried the MI&L over Sugar Creek still stands and the right of way at that
point is used for an access road.
The effects that the railroad had on the towns and people it served
were, perhaps, longer lasting. It is impossible to determine how much wealth
the railroad brought the merchants of Macomb by carrying in shoppers from
the south, how much money the farmers between Macomb and Littleton were
able to save by having a convenient means of transporting goods close at hand,
or how much the communities of Industry and Littleton benefited from being
connected to the national railroad network. The MI&L served an important
Afterword 57
purpose during the years it existed, and it was eventually cast aside for a more
modem means of accomplishing the same. The railroad was never directly
replaced, though, and lndustr> and Littleton ne\er truly regained their unusual
status as focal points for local trade and traffic. Route 67 may carry far more
people and freight than the MI&L ever did, but no one driving at 40 miles per
hour through lndustr\' spends a few minutes running over to the comer dmg
store to buy a stick of gum. No one speeding by a mile east of Littleton takes
an hour to have a picnic in the park or ponders staying the night in town.
The "Little Road" that was once so important to the towns of
Macomb. Industry', and Littleton vanished along with a way of life, but it is
worth remembering how much the railroad meant to the people and communi-
ties that thrived along its tracks.
The /hiII'lIIv .slave Jroin the .\tl<XI. Little
Ion depot ts Ji\playeJ at the Sehuyler
C 'oitntv Jail Museum.
This eonerete eulverl remains on the north
sick' of Littleton, eanyini; the .\//c\c/. rii;ht-
of-way over Sui^ar Creek. Frank HieLs
photographs.
58
The Little Road
Appendix A
Trackage and Structures
The route of the MI&L remained fairly constant for its entire Hfe with
the exception of trackage north of the Macomb Yards; unfortunately documen-
tation is still not entirely complete. Questions remain about specifics regarding
the track and structures owned by the railroad, but these will be addressed in
this account.
Trackage In and Around Macomb
The MI&L operated trains into Macomb in four different manners
during its history. In addition, there was the original design for how the rail-
road was going to go through town, but which was never built. The original
concept was for the railroad to come into town from the south up Johnson
Street, turn east onto Jackson Street for two blocks until it reached Courthouse
Square, turn north onto Lafayette Street for another two blocks, then turn east
again and terminate along the CB&Q near Randolph Street at that railroad's
depot. None of the trackage east of Johnson Street was ever built. What was
built was a straight north-south line along Johnson which interchanged with the
Burlington just south of the comer of Johnson and Calhoun Streets. This was
the first operating arrangement for the railroad, and it lasted only a year, until
December 30, 1904. At that time, homeowners along North Johnson Street
were able to force the removal of the tracks on Johnson Street north of Jackson
Street, and the railroad was cut back to the south side of the intersection of
Johnson and Jackson Streets. During late 1904, the west side belt line was
built as a means of restoring the railroad's interchange with the Burlington.
This line began at the Macomb Yards, south of Grant and Johnson Streets, and
across the street from the fairgrounds grandstands, and angled northwest to a
meeting with the CB&Q at the West Sewerpipe Works on West Piper Street.
This belt line was completed at the end of 1904, at the same time as the sever-
ing of the connection at North Johnson Street.'
This inaugurated the second operating arrangement for the line, which
lasted until June 1908. Freight trains used the belt line on the west side, while
passenger trains proceeded up Johnson Street to the depot at Johnson and
Jackson Streets. When all M&WI trackage within the Macomb city limits was
ordered removed in 1908, the third operating arrangement was temporarily put
in place. Freight trains continued using the west side belt line, but passenger
runs were cut short at the Macomb Yards, where passengers had to disembark
and walk or take drays into downtown. This did not last too long, though, as in
December 1909, an agreement was reached with the CB&Q, allowing M&WI
passenger trains to proceed up the belt line and along the Burlington from the
West Sewerpipe Works interchange into downtown Macomb. This fourth op-
erating arrangement lasted until the sale to the wrecking company occurred in
Track and Structures 59
January 1912. After the MI&L restarted operations in 1914. it again termi-
nated passenger runs at the Macomb yards for a time, but by March 1915. it
had again signed an agreement with the CB&Q to allow passenger trains to
enter town from the west along the Burlington's tracks. This arrangement
lasted until the service suspension in May 1928. After service resumed in
D
CHAHDLEH IT
CALHOUM »T
^J^
1 ^'^^^'^l
^-
^^^^ JACKSON ST
i^^^P^
1
i
tCZ)
I \\
WASHIMOTOM ST
JEFFERSON ST
PIP
;r ST
<
CAHWOLL ST T
□□I
♦+♦♦♦♦♦▼ c
□ I 1 Huusfcj
I \^Z\
nnni
DDD
3
X
K
<
o I-
UU[
•UILT 11 1901 HCMOVCD 12 1WM
■ UILT 11 l»0> IKMOVtO 7 ISO*
■ UILT 11 IM) nfMOVIOft^ltJO
■ UILT 12 1904 RIMOVtO a 1930
rLAMNtD MtVCR ■UILT
CMICAOO ■URIINOTON 4 OUIMCT
Scale
nz:
N
A
FAIROROUNOS
This map shows ihc nmliny's of the raihoaJ throu\ih Stacomh. Trackage on Johnson
Siri'cl \\a\ cm hack to Jackson Street in IW4 anJ hack to the I'Jiff of town in / W.V.
The W't-.v/ Side tteh Line wa\ huill in late IW4 /'rank (1 Hick.<i map.
60
Tmi Lini I Ko..\u
CARROLL ST ■-
JACKSON •.
KILLJORDAN CREEK
August 1928, the railroad reverted to ending passenger service at the Macomb
Yards."
Trackage Between Macomb and Industry
The Macomb Yards, just south of St. Francis Hospital on Macomb's
south side, were the primary storage and maintenance facilities for the railroad
after they were built in late 1904. There was a wye, for turning engines, at the
location surrounding the Yards. (The facilities will be described in the struc-
tures section.) From there, the railroad
proceeded south along Rural Route 6,
later the St. Francis Blacktop, running
right along the west side of the road until
it crossed the road a mile south of 500N
and headed straight east into Industry
along the north side of 400N. There were
three major bridges between Macomb and
Industry: at Troublesome Creek, at Camp
Creek, and at Grindstone Creek. There
were also three sidings, better known as
switches, all of which were stops on the
timetable. Not much is known about
these switches. It is thought that all of
them featured stockyards, but it is not
known what other facilities, like waiting
shelters or elevators, they included. It is
not even known which side of the railroad main they were on,
though the west side is most likely. Henderson Switch was the
northernmost, located just north of Troublesome Creek at about
950N. Andrews Switch was located at about 600N. Kirkpatrick
Switch was originally located at the curve
south of Beaumont Road, but it was moved
about half a mile north, to a point just north
of Beaumont Road in May 1914.-^
Trackage in Industry
The railroad entered Industry from
the northwest along a curving alignment
south of the current Route 67. The trackage
around the Industry depot changed over
time. Originally there was a short side
track north of the depot leading to a stock-
yard, while later a longer passing siding
was buih that stretched nearly to First
Street. The railroad continued south-
southeast, crossing through the intersection
of First and Hickory Streets before curving
N
A
See Map 2 '.
®
Scale
1000' 2000'
N
A
TROUBLESOME_
CREEK
See Map 3
850N=^
3n
©
N
A
See
Map 4
Track and Structures
61
©
0 1000' 2000
I
■ BEAUMONT
I I I I I I I I t
N
A
i ^CAMP CREEK
back to a south-southwest ahgnment near Sherman Street.
South of town it assumed a direct north-south alignment in
line with First Street."*
Trackage Between
Industry and Littleton
The railroad headed straight south from Industry,
jogging slightly to the west at about 200N and then curving
gently to the west beginning south of the Carters Creek
crossing. This was the only major bridge between Industry
and Littleton, though there were a number of small bridges
over minor streams. The railroad track crossed Ina Road
heading southwest/northeast and turned to parallel that road
along its southern edge. Runkle
Switch, the only intermediate time-
table location between Industry and
Littleton, was located here. As with
the other three switches, nothing
concrete is known about the track
layout at this location. This was the
southern terminus of Ml&L opera-
tions from Februar\' <S to April 29.
1914. when the rails torn up by
Chicago House Wrecking were re-
laid all the way into Littleton. The
railroad turned straight south from
Ina Road after about a thousand
feet, assuming a north-south direc-
tion aligned with Main Street north i>f Littleton.^
Trackage in Littleton
The railroad proceeded through Littleton on a straight north-south
alignment, except for a slight bow to the east to accommodate the grade and
cuKert (uer Sugar Creek just north of downtown. Ihe railroad extended south
of liroadway for about 2.()()() feet before terminating, and at this location there
was a wye track uhich extended out to the west side of the main line. There
were also one or two sidings just south of the depot, which was located on the
southeast corner of the railroad's Broadway crossing. **
62
III! Lll II I KoAl)
This series of maps of the railroad was drawn by the author using original US
Geological Survey maps as a guide. These are route maps only and omit
some detail such as sidings (switches), depots and wayside structures.
Structures in Macomb
The original depot for the M&WI was located in the front room of a
blacksmith shop on the southeast comer of Jackson and Johnson Streets in
Macomb. This depot was used until trackage within the city was removed in
June 1908. During the period passenger service was cut back to Macomb
Yards, no depot was used and tickets were sold only on the train. When the
arrangement with the Burlington was first made, M&WI trains came into
Macomb over the Burlington but did not use that railroad's station. Later,
when the MI&L negotiated a new contract, the CB&Q depot was utilized as
the Macomb depot and the Burlington station agent was paid partially by the
MI&L. Sometime after the MI&L restored service into downtown Macomb
over the CB&Q, it purchased a small brick building formerly used as a monu-
ment company for use as its depot. This building was located just northwest of
the Burlington's Lafayette Street crossing. There were a couple of buildings at
the Macomb Yards site along Johnson Street south of Grant Street. There was
a two-stall engine house that was built in late 1 904 and then burned down on
December 3 1 of that year. It was rebuilt soon afterwards. There was also a
water tower and a handcar storage house on this site. There was only one
bridge in the Macomb area, a 400 foot long trestle built as part of the west belt
line construction project in 1904 that crossed Killjordan Creek, and the low
ground flanking Grant Street in the area of what is now Patton Park.
Structures in Industry
The best-documented of any of the MI&L structures is the Industry
Track and Structures
63
depot, of which a number of photos exist. It was a small wooden frame struc-
ture located east of the tracks on the west side of town, 650 feet northwest of
the elevator. Just south of the depot on the west side of the tracks was a water
tower, with a small handcar shed located just south of the water tower. These
structures were all built in 1904. The elevator, which was located further
south, near First Street, was built in 1908, but was not actually owned by the
railroad. There was also a small bridge on the northwest side of Industry
which crossed Grindstone Creek.
Structures in Littleton
Documentation of railroad structures in Littleton is somewhat
sketchy. Located on the east side of the tracks on the south side of Broadway
was a twenty-six by forty-foot depot built in the Pagoda style. This was either
torn down or sold by the scrapping company in 1913, and company expense
reports for 1914 include about S300 to either build a new depot or buy back the
old one. The depot survived the railroad by half a century, but was destroyed
by the 1981 tornado that devastated Littleton. The Littleton elevator is thought
to have been located on the west side of the tracks north of Broadway Street on
the approximate site of the current elevator. There was also a water tower lo-
cated on the west side of the tracks just south of the depot. Further south, lo-
cated alongside the wye near the southern terminus of the railroad, was the
Littleton mine superstructure. This extended over the tracks and included an
7/wN phohi. pniluihh lakcn around IVlf). looks southeast at huhistiy. The depot is in
the kit /oreiiidunJ with the elevator (straii^ht down the traeks) and water tower (to the
ri^ht) beyond it. HIL Speeud C 'olleetions
64
llll III II I KOAI)
elevator apparatus which was designed to dump ore directly into railroad hop-
per cars. This structure was built in 1905, but it is unknown how long it lasted.
The sale of mine property in 1918 may have included this site. Littleton facili-
ties also included a stockyard, and in later years, a lumber yard, but their loca-
tions are uncertain. There was also a bridge on the near north side of Littleton
which crossed Sugar Creek. In 1921 the bridge was replaced by a large cul-
vert, which still exists.^
I3r?**r
-Si^-**^
Structures Between the
Towns
Except for bridges,
little is known of the railroad
structures located between
the towns, other than that
they were few and far be-
tween. Latter-day anecdotal
evidence suggests that the
facilities at Kirkpatrick
Switch in the MI&L years
included an elevator, stock-
yards, and a waiting shelter,
built out of the body of an old
passenger car, most likely car number 1 or car number 2
■ 30fi -r^-x ^ :-. m^--^,r9>'-:
The only siin'iving photo of the Littleton depot is this
shot, taken looking south with Broadway in the fore-
ground. WIU Special Collections.
There may have also
been an elevator and a stockyard located at Runkle Switch near the county line.
Bridges included those over Troublesome Creek, at about 900N, Camp Creek,
near 600N, Carters Creek, near Ina Road, and a few small bridges, culverts and
overpasses. The Camp Creek bridge was the largest on the line. Thirty feet
high and originally 340 feet long, though later shortened in length, it was a
never-ending headache for the M&WI. It constantly needed repairs and the
bridge and its approaches were especially susceptible to erosion from high wa-
ter and rain. After the MI&L took over, the bridge was improved and was evi-
dently less of a problem in later years. '^
Track and Structures
65
Appendix B
Rolling Stock
STEAM LOCOMOTIVES
No.
1
1
2
4
5
6
Type
0-4-4T
4-4-0
4-4-0
4-4-0
2-6-0
4-4-0
Builder
Baldwin
7
?
?
Davenport
Pittsburgh
Acquired Former owner Note*
11/1903 Chic. Union Transfer 51 A
c 1904-5? ? B
c 1905-6 ? C
cl907? ? D
4/1914 (new) E
3/1915 Vandalia RR 302 F
INTERNAL COMBUSTION LOCOMOTIVES
No. Type Builder Acquired
(none) 6-wheel boxcab ? 1903
Note='
PASSENGER CARS
No. Type Builder
1 interurban/combine St. Louis
2 streetcar/coach St. Louis
4 combine ?
? combine ?
Acquired
1903
1904
1908
1920
Note*
H
I
J
K
FREIGHT CARS
Type Quantity
Boxcars 3
Flatcars 5
Coal cars 1
Known Nos.
9, 101
102
7
Note"
L
M
N
MAINTENANCE-OF-WAY EQUIPMENT
Type Quantity Note*
Handcars 3 P
Push cars 2 P
Iron cars 1 P
*NOTES
A. The first locomotiye 1 was built by Baldwin (serial #12990) as Chicago &
South Side Rapid Transit 26 in October 1892. It was a Vauclain compound
Forney type designed for rapid transit service. It ran on the Chicago ele-
vated until it was sold in 1898 to Chicago Union Transfer, where it became
their 5 1 and was assigned to Clearing Yard. It arrived in Macomb on No-
vember 22, 1903. The M&Wl rebuiU it somewhat and used it in freight and
passenger service during 1904.' It was sold off at some point, but exactly
Rolling Stock
67
lini^iiii. I il) ciihl coiuh - ill Littleton Junnsi l^d-J. lu-forc the ciif^nw Ihhicven been
painlcJ for AM li 1. This photo revealed the locomolive s former owner. C. U. T.Ry. L-
R: Fireman James Ira Hodges, Engineer Tom Hendrickson. Conduetor Roy Sullivan
and Wheeler Wells. WIU Special Collections.
when and to whom is not known.
B. Little is known of the second locomotive 1. The only solid evidence of its
existence is a photo of it in front of the Darius Runkle house, probably
around 1905 (see photo on page 30). The M&Wl purchased a 4-4-0 type
locomotive on December 31, 1904, from the Chicago & North Western.
The engine purchased. C«&NW 467, was a Class E-4 engine built by Grant
in 1S82.' This was apparently the first large steam engine bought by the
M«feWl, and it is possible, hut not certain, that this was M&Wl 1. This may
have been the engine listed in a 1913 \ahiation report as being stored un-
serviceable.
C. F^ngine 2 was used in passenger ser\ice around 1905 and 1906. The exact
date it was acquired is unknown, and nothing is known of its past. It's pos-
sible, but unlikely, that this was e\-C&NW 467. This was the engine in-
volved in the January 26, 1907, wreck in Industry. It was apparently not
rebuilt after this derailment but rather was scrapped." (See photo on front
cover. )
D. Ingine 4 was another 4-4-0 bought used from an unknown source at an un-
known dale. It is known that as of 1912, this was the onl\ operational en-
gine (another one. possibly engine number I, was stored unser\iceable at
that time), and that it was the only moti\e power in use on the M&Wl until
the Ml&l. purchased engine 5 in April 1914. At that time, engine 4 was
68
Tm- LiriLi Ro.m)
already badly worn out, and when engine 6 was bought in March 1915, this
locomotive was scrapped."* (See photo on page 25.)
This locomotive was the only steam engine ever bought new by the "Little
Road." It was a 2-6-0 "Mogul" designed for light branch or short line ser-
vice. It was built by Davenport Locomotive Works, serial number 1478. It
went through overhauls in 1920 at the CB&Q Aurora Shops, and in 1925 at
Davenport. It is thought to have been in use from its date of construction
until the last operation of the MI&L in early 1930. This was likely the last
engine to operate on the line.^ (See photo on page 45.)
The last locomotive ever bought by the MI&L was this one, a heavy 4-4-0
built by Pittsburgh Locomotive Works, serial number 694, in January 1884.
It was classified a D-22 type by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Originally St.
Louis Vandalia & Terre Haute 182, in June 1899, it became Terre Haute &
Logansport 302, and later in 1905 it became Vandalia Railroad 302. The
MI&L fitted it with a new boiler in 1917 and it was overhauled by Daven-
port Locomotive Works in 1922. It is believed that this locomotive was
sold for scrap in 1928.*' (See photo on page 47.)
. The most unique piece of equipment to run on the railroad was this six-
wheel box-cab gas-electric locomotive, delivered in late December 1903.
Among the earliest internal combustion engines ever to have been put into
service, its builder is unknown. Too far ahead of its time, it was severely
Combine 1 was brand new when this picture was taken in December 1903. Posing in
front of it, left to right, are Roy Sullivan, "Happy Hooligan " Roy Ransom, James Ira
Hodges, and Clarence Vial. WIU Special Collections.
Rolling Stock
69
underpowered and was of limited use. It was destroyed in the engine house
fire on December 3 1 . 1904. (See photo on page 11.)
H. This car is well documented. It was built by the St. Louis Car Company,
apparently on stock order 410A (the "A" meaning it was constructed in the
old Laclede shops), and delivered new to the M&Wl on December 16,
1903. Its design was that of a lightweight interurban. The vestibules were
enclosed and the car was designed to be electrified. It even came with roof
boards for supporting the trolley poles. It was painted Tuscan red. like all
M&WI passenger equipment, and seated forty-four people. It apparently
had no air brake equipment whatsoever. It was used for several years be-
fore being superseded by combine 4. but may have survived until 1913.*'
I. The second passenger car bought by the M&WI was also built by St. Louis,
this time on order 427. Ordered on November 13. 1903. it was delivered on
February 25. 1904. It was a "Robertson" style semi-convertible car. de-
signed as an electric streetcar, but fitted with couplers. The body was
thirty-four feet long, the car seated forty-eight and it had St. Louis 23A
trucks. Like car number 1, it was designed to be electrified later. Its body
was not built for buffering forces associated with train operation, and it may
not have lasted more than a tew years before being retired. Either this car
or car 1 was likely scrapped and placed at Kirkpatrick Switch for use as a
waiting shelter sometime during the early Ml&L years.'' (See photo on
page 21.)
J. Photographic evidence of the passenger cars used later in the railroad's life is
sketchy, but documentary evidence is better. Sales receipts prove that a
combine, almost certainly secondhand, was bought in late 1908 from the
Georgia Car Company of Atlanta for SI. 500 and lettered M&Wl 4. It is
thought that this may be the batten-board-sided car shown in the photo of
engine 4 at Industry (see page 25) but that is not absolutely certain. This
car apparently survived through the Ml&L years, and was likely one of the
two sold to Frank Haines for use as hog sheds when the railroad was
scrapped in 1930.'"
K. No photos exist of the last passenger car acquired by the Ml&L. and its
number on the "Little Road" is not even known. Documentary and newspa-
per c\ iilcncc proves that in April 1920, a used fifty-fcnir foot lone coinbiiic
The IVO.i fiiix-eU'clric locomoliw. "thv molar. " is shown here pulling coach 2
southhounil at Iruhistn- ihirin^ I W4. Wll I Special Collecfions.
70 Tin; Lirat Road
was bought for $2,700. It had formerly been Beaver Penrose & Northern
50. It is almost certain that this was one of the two cars sold to Frank
Haines in 1930 for use as hog sheds."
L. Little is known of the freight cars used by the railroad. The only available
evidence comes from photographs and from valuations made at various
times, which only list car totals. The 1913 valuations list three boxcars on
the roster; by 1930 there were only two. A boxcar numbered 101 is shown
in a 1904 photo in Macomb (see page 11), while a boxcar number 9 was
among the equipment damaged in the 1 907 wreck in Industry.
M. As with boxcars, little is known of the railroad's flatcar fleet. A photo dat-
ing to about 1904 shows a flatcar numbered 102 (see page 20). The 1913
valuations list four flatcars on the roster, and by the time the freight cars
were all scrapped in 1930 there were five.
N. The definition of a "coal car" is uncertain. It may refer to the wood-sided
gondola loaded with coal or ore which is shown in the photos of the 1 907
wreck at Industry. The 1913 valuation lists this car, but it is missing from
the 1930 list of scrapped freight cars.
P. Handcars, push cars, and iron cars were all lightweight equipment used in
track maintenance that could be lifted on or off the tracks by a small group
of men. Handcars were propelled by manpower, while push cars had no
means of propulsion, but could be pushed by hand or pulled by a handcar.
The purpose of iron cars was apparently to haul rail.'^
ROSTER QUESTIONS
Several major questions about the rolling stock roster of the MI&L remain
unanswered.
Where did the gas-electric locomotive come from? While ultimately unsuc-
cessful, this engine was revolutionary for its time, yet there is virtually no
record of who might have built it, nor was there any serious media coverage
at the time of its construction.
What happened to the number "3"? Strangely enough, it appears that the
M&WI skipped the number "3" in its numbering of both locomotives and
passenger cars. It is possible that evidence of locomotive number 3 and
passenger car number 3 simply hasn't been uncovered yet, but documentary
evidence suggests these numbers simply weren't used. But why not?
Where did the M&WI get its 4-4-Os? There are records indicating that the
M&WI bought its first 4-4-0 steam locomotive from the Chicago & North
Western in 1904, but the origins of the other two engines of the same type
which it bought secondhand are a mystery.
How did the railroad number its freight cars? Very early photos show
freight cars numbered in the low 100 series, but a picture of the 1907 Indus-
try wreck clearly shows a boxcar numbered 9. Did the freight car number-
ing scheme change at some point? Why?
Rolling Stock 71
Appendix C
MI&L Annual Reports
A number of annual reports from the MI&L during the 1910s and
1920s have survived and provide a clue to how precarious the railroad's opera-
tion was during that time. As the last annual report known to survive is from
1924, the real decline of the road from 1925 to 1930 is not well documented.
Receipts
Freight
Passenger
Mail
Miscel.'
Total
1915
13,726.55
10,029.75
835.76
4,656.81
29,248.87
1916
17,883.42
10,171.28
795.18
1,395.86
30,245.74
1917
16,328.49
8,441.25
780.75
1,434.51
26,885.00
7977-'
16,912.76
7,855.48
975.<^7
18,278.11
44,022.16
1918
22,776.00
8,277.71
822.03
20,516.50
52,392.24
1919
25,847.87
10,474.25
937.39
26,192.57
63,452.08
1920
20,511.61
10,804.72
1,420.86
28,833.38
61,570.57
1921
26,288.32
9,134.68
1,249.45
21,292.86
57,965.31
1922
25,498.05
7,789.23
1,224.04
19,497.43
54,008.75
1923
22,909.51
6,575.22
1,439.24
16,336.18
47,260.15
1924
25,047.70
6,050.46
1,333.36
27,405.62^
5,9832.14
1. This includes real estate rent, war tax (1917-1921 only), in 1918 includes the
sale of mine property, and from 1918 on, includes advances (payments for
the CB&Q), bills received and bills payable.
2. In 1918 the end of the fiscal year was changed from September 30 to De-
cember 31. The first 1917 line shows figures for the year ending September
30; the second line for the year ending December 31^'. Also, prior to the
1918 (and the latter 1917) accounting, advances (CB&Q fees collected by
the MI&L and forwarded), bills received and bills payable are not included.
3. This figure includes $6,000 of borrowed money.
Annual Reports 73
Expenditures
Operations Maint."* Terminaf Miscel.^ Total
1915
10.177.52
3,742.10
1,866.14
12.252.77
28.038.53
1916
11,883.89
5,201.73
2,441.37
9,331.50
28,858.49
1917
11,668.03
9,191.65
2,425.55
8,273.91
31,549.14
1917'
12.506.80
8.678.41
2.398.25
22.135.11
45.718.57
1918
15,277.76
7,967.26
2,223.26
26,336.72
51,805.00
1919
14,379.75
14,556.48
2,718.93
32.240.31
63,895.47
1920
14,435.33
10.069.58
38,611.44'
63,116.02
1921
15,102.74
11.745.82
30,243.84
57,092.40
1922
14.212.46
12.294.15
27,591.62
54,098.23
1923
13,960.74
9.196.68
23,322.67
46,480.09
1924
13,157.51
14,276.31
33,621.31
61,055.18
4. Until 1919 this includes only road maintenance, while equipment and struc-
tures maintenance is included under "miscel" [sic]. From 1920 on, struc-
tures maintenance is lumped in with road maintenance.
5. Terminal fees, charged by the CB&Q for interchanging equipment, are bro-
ken out through 1919. After 1920. they are folded into one of the other cate-
gories, but that category is not specified in the reports.
6. This includes "miscellaneous operating charges," taxes, notes, and interest,
war tax (1918-1921 only), and after 1917. includes advances (payments to
theCB&O).
7. Includes a S3. 500 deposit made to the CB«S:Q for engine repairs and $2,700
for the purchase of new equipment, a combine.
Profit/Loss Figures
Balance at end of fiscal year
Net Profit
1915
737.40
1,210.34
1916
2.124.65
1,387.25
1917
1.020.88
-1,103.77
1917'
1.187.31
n/a
1918
1,774.55
587.24
1919
1,331.16
-443.39
1920
-214.29
-1.545.45
1921
658.62
872.91
1922
569.14
-89.48
1923
1,149.20
780.06
1924
-68.84
-1.218.04
74 Tin- Lin I \ Road
Freight Carriage Figures (in cars) '
Grain cars
Stock cars
Merchandise'^
Miscel.
Total
1915
189
222
535(1124)
204
1,150
1916
211
273
(1378)
289
773"^
1917
165
305
(1500)
314
784'^
1917'
252
268
303
320
1,143
1918
275
393
284
382
1,334
1919
259
381
365
415
1,356"
1920
109
394
362
268
1,133
1921
175
400
326
182
1,083
1922
176
353
320
175
1,024
1923
141
372
258
183
954
1924
141
298
221
309
969
8. Figures for number of passengers carried are only available for 1916
(23,400) and 1917 (21,094).
9. Numbers in parentheses indicate total tons of less-than-carload merchandise
carried.
10. Does not include cars of merchandise.
11. This figure is from the original report but doesn't come close to balancing;
the source of the discrepancy is unknown.
Capital projects highlighted in surviving annual reports
Paraphrased from the original documents
1916
Placement of 7,718 cedar ties; ballasting and raising of 20,000 feet of track
with cinders and heavy refuse from the Macomb Sewer Pipe Company and
West Pottery; repairs to bridges over Troublesome, Grindstone, Carter, Saw
Mill, Payne, and Camp Creeks; filling in sixty-nine feet of the south end of
Camp Creek bridge and timbers removed; establishment of a lumber yard at
Littleton.
1917
Placement of 5,434 cedar and 1,435 oak ties; purchase of a new boiler for en-
gine 6 at a cost of $5,600.
1918
Placement of 2,555 cedar and 170 oak ties; replacement of several broken cul-
verts and box culverts with boiler shells bought from their original owners.
1919
Placement of 3,953 ties; engine 5 will have to go through a general overhaul in
spring 1920; a new coach is badly needed.
1921
Placement of 3,219 ties; new engine pit installed at the Macomb shop; boiler-
Annual Reports 75
iron culvert installed at Finch crossing in Industry; new eight by nine fifty-
foot culvert constructed at Winter Creek to replace former pile bridge; re-
placement of Gamage underpass with grade crossing.
1922
Placement of 4.177 ties; engine 6 put through Da\enport Locomotive Works:
engine tripped and dismantled. Hues removed and overhauled, and new and
larger tank cistern made, with a total cost, including new tender, of $4,300.
1924
Placement of 4.566 ties; repairs made to the Payne bridge; concrete box put in
at Gamage cattle pass in Macomb; new stock chutes at Kirkpatrick switch
and at Littleton; Littleton stock yard fences repaired.
76 Tiij; LiiTi 1 Road
End Notes
Chapter 1
1. Dr. Newton Bateman and Paul Shelby, The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
and History of McDonough County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing, 1907):
617-618. The land encompassing Illinois County was known in its French
days as Illinois Country.
2. James A. Edstrom, "Maps of Illinois Population and Newspaper History,"
Harper College, <http://www.harpercollege.edu/~jedstrom/
maptableofcontents.htm> (10 May, 2005); Bateman and Shelby, 622-624;
Macomb Daily Journal, 18 September 1914
3. BatemanandShelby, 671-672, 678.
4. Ibid, 658, 678.
5. Schuyler County Jail Museum, Schuyler County: Illinois History (Dallas: Tay-
lor Publishing, 1983): 6-7, 126
6. Albert J. Perry, History^ of Knox County: Its Cities, Towns and People, Vol. I
(Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1912): 591-592, 594
7. Ibid, 594-596, 598.
8. Ibid, 593-596, 598.
9. Bateman and Shelby, 68 1 -682.
10. Ibid, 682-683; Alex Holmes, History and Reminiscences of Alex Holmes
(Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Publishing, 1987): 87-88.
11. Perry, 598; Edstrom; Bateman and Shelby, 676-679, 683.
12. G. Woodworth Colton, Railroad Map of Illinois (New York: G. Woodworth
Colton, 1861), map; Bateman and Shelby, 683; Illinois Railroad and Ware-
house Commission, Annual Report for the Year Ending Nov. 30, 1872
(Springfield: State Journal Steam Print, 1873), 442-443.
13. Macomb Daily Journal, 1 March 1895, 23 November 1895
14. Ibid, I March 1895, 1 June 1895, 10 June 1895, 7 August 1895
15. Bateman and Shelby, 844-845.
16. 78"^ Illinois Infantry, Regimental History: Adjutant General's Report, quoted in
Linda Lee, 78''' Illinois Regimental History: Adjutant General's Report
<http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/history/078.htm> (10 May 2005); Mark
M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: McKay Books, 1988):
151-152.
17. 78**^ Illinois Infantry, Regimental History: Adjutant General's Report; Bateman
and Shelby, 845-846.
18. Bateman and Shelby, 846; John E. Hallwas, Macomb: A Pictorial History (G.
Bradley Publishing, 1990): 80, 101.
19. Macomb Daily Journal, 1 June 1895, 10 June 1895, 7 August 1895
20. Ibid, 7 August 1895, 27 August 1895, 30 August 1895, 9 September 1895
(reprinted from the St. Louis Chronicle)
21. Ibid, 23 November 1895, 20 December 1895
22. Ibid, 20 December 1895, 1 April 1896, 27 April 1896, 16 June 1896, 16 June
1896 (reprinted from the Lewistown News), 17 November 1896
End Notes 77
Chapter 2
1. Dr. Newton Bateman and Paul Shelby, The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
and History of McDonough County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing, 1907):
855-856.
2. Macomb Daily Journal, II November 1901, 15 November 1901. 13 December
1901
3. Ibid, 12 November 1901, 13 November 1901, 15 November 1 90 1 , 26 November
1901
4. Ibid, 1 1 January 1902, 28 January 1902
5. Ibid, 16 May 1902, 28 June 1902, 12 July 1902, 22 August 1902, 1 October
1902, 3 October 1902
6. Ibid. 16 October 1902
7. Ibid. 24 October 1902. 13 November 1902. 20 November 1902. 15 December
1902
8. Ibid, 20 November 1902, 24 November 1902
9. Ibid, 30 January 1903. 13 February 1903, 28 March 1903
10. Ibid, 13 March 1903, 1 May 1903, 8 May 1903, 6 July 1903 (reprinted from the
hnhisDy Enterprise )
11. Ibid. 22 June 1903. 29 June 1903
12. Ibid. 14 August 1903. 15 August 1903, 17 August 1903, 28 August 1903, 25
September 1903. Most of the workers were locals and were paid wages of
about $1.50 to $2.00 per day.
13. Ibid. 28 August 1903. 4 September 1903. 11 September 1903. 18 September
1903. 25 September 1903
14. Ibid. 2 October 1903, 16 October 1903, 28 October 1903 (reprinted trom the
Rushville Citizen)
15. Ibid, 1 1 November 1903, 1 December 1906
16. Ibid. 2 November 1903. 1 1 November 1903, 12 November 1903. 16 November
1903. 19 November 1903. 23 November 1903. 25 November 1903. 4 Decem-
ber 1 903
17. Ibid, 2 December 1903, 18 December 1903 (reprinted from the Industry Enter-
prise)
18. Ibid, 17 December 1903, 23 December 1903. 26 December 1903; Decision on
Petition of Macomh and Western Illinois Rail Road Company, McDonough
County Board of Super\isors. 2 December 1901 Term.
19. Macomh Daily Journal. 23 December 1903. 26 December 1903. 29 December
1903. 30 December 1903
20. Ibid. 5 January 1904. 22 January 1904, 4 February 1904 (reprinted from the
Schuyler County Citizen), 22 February 1904. 26 February 1904
21. Ibid. 18 March 1904. 1 April 1904. S April 1904
22. Ibid. 9 April 1904. 6 May \WA, 21 May 1904. 27 May 1904. 4 June 1904 (last
four reprinted Irom the Industrv Enterprise), 1 August 1904. The railroad
u.sed 60^/ rail and, according to the Illinois Railroad & Warehouse Commis-
sion's annual report for 1904. about two thirds of the route was earthen ballast
while the remainder was either slag or cinder ballast.
23. Ibid. 5 January 1904, 22 April 1904. 29 April 1904 (last two reprinted from the
78 1 HL LiiTLL Road
Industry Enterprise), 2 May 1 904
24. Ibid, 2 May 1904, 1 August 1904
25. Ibid, 9 August 1904, 1 1 October 1904
26. Ibid, 9 August 1904, 1 1 October 1904, 13 October 1904
27. Ibid, 21 May 1904, 1 August 1904 (reprinted from the Industry Enterprise), 24
August 1904, 25 August 1904, 23 September 1904, 7 October 1904 (last two
reprinted from the Industry Enterprise)
28. Ibid, 19 October 1904, 3 December 1904, 17 December 1904, 26 December
1904, 30 December 1904
29. Ibid, 2 January 1905; Joe Piersen, e-mail to the author, 26 August 2004
30. Macomb Daily Journal, 3 January 1905, 18 January 1905, 27 April 1905, 23
June 1906
31. Ibid, 2 September 1905, 2 January 1906, 23 June 1906, 28 September 1906, 30
November 1906
32. Ibid, 30 November 1906, 1 December 1906
Chapter 3
1. Macomb Daily Journal, 30 November 1906, 1 December 1906, 3 December
1906, 5 December 1906, 14 December 1906 (reprinted from the Industry En-
terprise), 1 9 December 1 906
2. Ibid, 26 January 1907, 28 January 1907
3. Ibid, 22 February 1907
4. Ibid, 31 May 1907, 1 June 1907, 10 June 1907, 2 June 1908. The original in-
tended route to Lafayette Street (see map on page 60) would have been impos-
sible for the M&WI's steam engines to traverse due to the sharp curves.
5. Ibid, 10 June 1907, 21 June 1907, 21 August 1907, 11 September 1907, 20 June
1908
6. Ibid, 18 June 1907, 27 June 1907, 28 June 1907, 1 July 1907, 2 July 1907, 3 July
1907
7. Ibid, 30 August 1907, 17 October 1907. It would appear the church had ap-
pealed the February ruling against it and the M&WI had decided to settle fol-
lowing the unfavorable judgment in Stuart's mandamus suit.
8. Ibid, 21 October 1907, 20 November 1907, 3 January 1908
9. Ibid, 2 June 1908, 8 June 1908, 25 June 1908 (reprinted from the Blandinsville
Star-Gazette), 2 July 1908, 7 October 1908
10. Ibid, 16 June 1908, 18 June 1908, 2 July 1908, 6 July 1908, 14 July 1908, 5
August 1908, 7 October 1908
11. Ibid, 20 June 1908, 12 September 1908, 5 February 1909
12. Ibid, 20 June 1908, 7 October 1908, 27 October 1908, 28 October 1908, 5 Feb-
ruary 1909
13. Ibid, 5 February 1909, 26 April 1909, 18 December 1909
14. Ibid, 6 January 1910, 4 October 1911, 18 September 1929; Macomb Journal,
27 February 1994
15. Macomb Daily Journal, 24 August 1910, 24 February 1911 (reprinted from the
Industry News), 9 May 1911, 1 June 1911, 6 June 1911, 18 August 1911
(reprinted from the Industry News)
End Notes 79
16. Ibid. 22 August 1911.2 September 1911
17. Ibid. 21 September 191 1, 4 October 1 9 1 1 . 3 January 1912. 23 January 1912
Chapter 4
1. Macomb Daily Journal, 3\ January 1912, 1 February 1912
2. Ibid, 3 February 1912. 6 February 1912. 8 February 1912. 13 February 1912
3. Ibid, BFebaiary 1912
4. Ibid. 20 March 1912. 11 April 1912. SI. 2 million in 1912 is equal to about
S23.8 million in inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars.
5. Ibid, 20 March 1912, 22 March 1912, 23 March 1912, 25 March 1912, 26 March
1912, 2 April 1912. 11 April 1912
6. Ibid, 27 May 1912. 8 June 1912, 18 June 1912. 20 June 1912. 24 June 1912
7. Ibid, 26 June 1912, 26 July 1912. 13 August 1912, 28 August 1912, 16 Septem-
ber 1912
8. Ibid, 22 January 1913, 22 April 1913. 1 May 1913, 6 May 1913. 17 May 1913.
19 May 1913'
9. Ibid, 19 May 1913. 20 May 1913. 23 May 1913, 26 May 1913
10. Ibid, 28 May 1913,31 May 1913.3 June 1913. 8 July 1913,2 August 1913
11. Ibid, 8 August 1913, 13 August 1913, 15 August 1913
12. Ibid, 15 September 1913, 24 September 1913 (reprinted from the Roseville
Times-Citizen), 24 September 1913, 26 September 1913. I October 1913
13. Ibid, I October 1913, 9 October 1913, 10 October 1913
14. Ibid. 9 October 1913, II October 1913. 13 October 1913. 20 October 1913
15. Ibid. 13 October 1913. 1 8 October 1913. 20 October 1913
16. Ibid. 25 October 1913
17. Ibid, 27 October 1913, 29 October 1913, 30 October 1913,31 October 1913
18. Ibid, 31 October 1913, 1 November 1913, 3 November 1913
19. Ibid, 5 November 1913, 7 November 1913
20. Ibid, 1 1 November 1913, 14 November 1913. 22 November 1913, 25 Novem-
ber 1913
21. Ibid, 26 November 1913, 28 November 1913. 29 November 1913, 1 December
1913, 3 December 1913, 8 December 1913. 17 December 1913, 18 December
1913, 23 January 1914
22. Ibid, 23 December 1913, 24 December 1913. 27 December 1913 (reprmicd
from the hnlustry Aov.v). 27 December 1913. 30 December 1913. 31 Decem-
ber 1913. The S2.()00 that Runkle and Clawson each pledged would translate
to about $37,000 each in inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars.
Chapter 5
1. Mcnomh Daih Jnuniiit. 1 January 1914, 2 January 1914, 23 January 1914
2. Ibid. 1 January' 1914, 2 January 1914
3. Ibid, 12 January 1914
4. Ibid, 13 January I9I4. 14 January 1914. 20 January 1914. 23 January 1914
(reprinted from the huluslrv .Vfn.v), 24 January 1914. 30 January 1914. 3 I eb-
ruary 1914.4 lebruary 1914
80 Till Liiii I Road
5. Ibid, 6 February 1914, 10 February 1914
6. Ibid, 23 January 1914, 10 February 1914, 26 February 1914, 27 February 1914
7. Ibid, 25 March 1914, 22 April 1914, 29 April 1914, 1 May 1914; Davenport
Locomotive Company builder's photograph, Macomb Industry & Littleton
Railway Company Papers 1901-1929, Western Illinois University Archives &
Special Collections Department, Macomb, Illinois.
8. Macomb Daily Journal, 2 March 1915
9. Ibid, 11 March 1915, 12 March 1915, 17 March 1915, 18 March 1915; Bob Wat-
son, e-mail to Les Beckman, 1 8 October 2004
10. Industry Press, 8 August 1918
11. Sales receipt, 23 April 1920, MI&L Papers; Industry Press, 28 May 1920; Cor-
respondence between Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway and Railway
Motor Car Company of America, 1 920, MI&L Papers; Macomb Daily Jour-
nal, 1 1 January 1922, 10 January 1924, 23 January 1924
12. Macomb Daily Journal, 11 January 1922, 12 January 1923, 23 January 1924,
28 February 1925
13. Ibid, 28 February 1925, 3 September 1925
14. Ibid, 9 November 1925, 13 November 1925, 14 November 1925, 16 November
1925, 27 January 1926, 10 June 1926
15. Ibid, 10 June 1926, 25 January 1928, 10 May 1928, 21 May 1928, 8 June 1928,
9 June 1928, 23 June 1928, 5 February 1930; Peoria Journal-Star, 8 February
1930
16. Macomb Daily Journal, 23 June 1928
17. Ibid, 9 August 1928, 1 1 August 1928, 22 August 1928, 14 September 1928, 26
July 1929
18. Ibid, 10 July 1929, 26 July 1929, 1 August 1929
19. Ibid, 24 September 1929, 3 October 1929, 10 October 1929; McDonough
County News, 24 October 1929 (reprinted from the Rushville Times)
20. Macomb Daily Journal, 25 October 1929, 17 January 1930, 5 February 1930,
31 March 1930
21. Ibid, 22 April 1930, 1 May 1930, 3 May 1930, 5 May 1930, 21 May 1930, 29
May 1930, 12 June 1930, 19 June 1930, 24 June 1930
Appendix A
1. Macomb Daily Journal, 15 April 1903, 1 1 November 1903, 12 November 1903,
2 May 1904, 1 August 1904, 9 August 1904, 3 December 1904, 6 December
1904, 30 December 1904; United States Geological Survey, Illinois: Macomb
Quadrangle (Washington: United States Geological Survey, 1912), map.
2. Macomb Daily Journal, 1 August 1904, 2 June 1908, 3 June 1908, 8 June 1908,
18 December 1909, 6 February 1912, 27 February 1914, 29 April 1914, 2
March 1915, 2 August 1928
3. Ibid, 13 February 1903, 13 May 1903, 22 June 1903, 11 July 1903, 24 July 1903,
1 April 1904, 1 August 1904, 6 January 1912, 1 May 1914; Sanborn Map
Company, Macomb, Illinois (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1924), map,
sheet 10; United States Geological Survey (1912), map; George A. Ogle &
Company, Standard Atlas of McDonough County, Illinois (Chicago: George
End Notes 81
A. Ogle & Company, 1913): 14.
4. United States Geological Survey (1912). map; Sanborn Map Company, Indus fiy.
Illinois (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1928), map, sheet 1; Photograph
of Industry depot, Ml&L Papers.
5. United States Geological Survey (1912), map; Macomb Daily Journal, 23 Janu-
ary 1914, 27 February 1914, 29 April 1914. It should be pointed out that the
location of Runkle Switch is not absolutely certain: the Runkle family owned
vast tracts of land along both sides of the MI&L between Industry and Little-
ton. The 1912 USGS map shows several buildings adjoining the Ml&L at Ina
Road, and other circumstantial evidence suggests this was the location of Run-
kle Switch.
6. United States Geological Survey, Illinois: Rushville Quadrangle (Washington:
United States Geological Survey, 1923), map; Photograph of Littleton depot,
MI&L Papers; Microsoft Corporation, Terrasen'er USA, 11 April 1998,
<http://terraser\'er.microsoft.com> (4 October 2005).
7. Macomb Daily JounuiL 5 January 1904, 19 October 1904, 3 June 1908, 18 De-
cember 1909, 2 March 1915; Sanborn, Macomb, sheet 5. It is not known for
certain that the depot at Jackson and Johnson Streets was used until 1908 but it
is unlikely another one was built on the same site. There is also mention in the
records of a bridge over Killjordan being built in July 1903. which may refer
to the rebuilding of the Johnson Street bridge. The small brick building just
north of the CB&Q on the east side of Lafayette Street in Macomb resembles
the Ml&L 1920s office and may in fact be that building, but at the time of this
writing its heritage could not be definitively determined.
8. Photograph of Industry depot area. MI&L Papers; Macomb Daily Journal, 13
February' 1903. 23 December 1903, 6 May 1904, 21 May 1904. 18 June 1904;
Sanborn, Industry, sheet 2
9. Macomb Daily Journal, 22 February 1904. 24 October 1904. 2 September 1905.
2 January 1906, 26 September 1913; Photograph of Littleton depot. MI&L
Papers; G.S. Rollett. "Stockholders Report for Year Ending Sept. 30'\
1916" (Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway Company. Industrs. Illinois.
1916. mimeographed); Audit. Business Services & Audit Company. 22 Janu-
ary 1919. MI&L Papers. There is some confusion as to the name of what is
nowadays Sugar Creek. Company records never mention Sugar Creek but the
1921 MI&L annual report does record construction of a "concrete culvert, size
8x9, 50 feet" to replace the bridge over "Winters Creek." It is thought that
this sizeable culvert may in fact be the one currently still intact at Sugar Creek
on the north side of Littleton, however it is just an assumption that Winters
Creek and Sugar Creek are the same.
10. Macomb Daily .Journal, 24 July 1903, I April 1904. 2 January 1914. 23 Janu-
ary 1914; Rollett (1916); United States Geological Survey (1912), map;
Macomb Sunday .Journal, 1986/10/12; information on the structures at
Kirkpalrick Switch is from the reminiscences of Nellie Kirkpatrick Pollock,
uliilc the ulentitv ol the passenger car is ci>niecture. A stnicturc apparently
resembling a railroad waiting shelter remains (in 2005) near the site of the
Runkle Switch but its heritage cannot be definitively determined.
82 liii Lin 1 1 Ro.M)
Appendix B
1. Central Electric Railfans Association, Chicago's Rapid Transit: Volume I
(Chicago: Central Electric Railfans Association, 1973): 2, 6; Photographs of
M&WI locomotive 1 at Littleton and Industry, Ml&L Papers; Macomb Daily
Journal, 23 November 1903, 1 April 1904, 22 April 1904, 27 May 1904.
2. Joe Piersen, e-mail to the author, 26 August 2004
3. Photographs of 1907 Industry wreck, MI«feL Papers; Macomb Daily Journal, 21
February 1907
4. Macomb Daily Journal, 2 January 1914, 12 March 1915; Audit, 22 January
1919, MI&L Papers. According to the newspaper article engine 4 was to be
rebuilt, but the MI&L didn't really need it, and the audit report from four years
later makes it clear the locomotive had been retired.
5. Davenport Locomotive Company builder's photograph, MI&L Papers; Invoice,
Chicago Burlington & Quincy - Aurora Locomotive Shop, 22 November
1920, MI&L Papers. The assumption that this was the last operational loco-
motive is conjecture. On 11 August 1928 the Macomb Daily Journal claims
that both of the railroad's engines (5 and 6) had been traded away for a better
locomotive, but on 5 February 1930 Charles Flack released a statement men-
tioning, among other things, that the railroad was still using a locomotive
bought in 1914. It seems likely that the newspaper was simply in error in its
1928 report, though aged engine 6 was quite possibly sold for scrap at that
time. After the railroad was abandoned, its engine, almost certainly 5, was
towed to Galesburg for rebuilding. What became of it after that is not known.
6. Bob Watson, e-mail to Les Beckman, 18 October 2004; A.C. Anders. "Annual
Report of Receipts and Expenditures" (Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway
Company, Industry, Illinois, 1922, mimeographed); G.S. Rollett. "Annual
Report of the Macomb, Industry & Littleton Ry. Co." (Macomb Industry &
Littleton Railway Company, Industry, Illinois, 1917, mimeographed); see the
note above concerning engine number 5 for details on its disposition.
7. Macomb Daily Journal, 26 December 1903, 27 May 1904, 2 January 1905; Pho-
tographs of the M&WI box cab locomotive at Macomb, MI&L Papers.
8. Alan Lind, From Horsecars to Streamliners: An Illustrated History of the St.
Louis Car Company (Park Forest: Transport History Press, 1978): 328; Dr.
Harold Cox, e-mail to the author, 2 September 2004; Macomb Daily Journal,
17 December 1903; Photograph of M&WI combine 1 upon delivery, MI&L
Papers. Information about this car's service life after about 1907 is conjec-
ture; the only photo of combine #1 after 1904 is the picture of it with engine
#1 in front of the Darius Runkle house north of Littleton. The 1913 valuation
report {Macomb Daily Journal, 20 May 1913) lists three passenger cars, one
of which must surely be the combine bought in 1908; one of the others is
probably this car.
9. Lind, 330; Photograph of M&WI coach 2, MI&L Papers; Macomb Daily Jour-
nal, 26 February 1904. Speculation about the car's resistance to buffering
forces is taken from photographic evidence and from the author's own experi-
ence with railway car construction. A Macomb Sunday Journal article from
12 October 1986 mentions a railway car body being used as a shelter at
End Notes 83
Kirkpatrick switch; this may or may not have been this car.
10. Sale contract between Ml&L and Georgia Car Company. 9 October 1908,
Ml&L Papers; Afacomh Daily Journal, 24 June 1930. It's not certain that this
car was one of the last two passenger cars owned by the railroad but it seems
likely.
11. Indusny Press, 28 May 1920; Sales receipt, 23 April 1920, MI&L Papers;
Macomb Daily Journal, 24 June 1930. It's not certain this was one of the two
cars sold in 1930 but since this was the line's newest car, it's quite likely.
12. Macomb Daily Journal. 20 May 1913, 19 June 1930, 24 June 1930; Audit, 22
January 1919, Ml&L Papers.
S4 llM l.ii II I Ro.'M)
Bibliography
Bateman, Dr. Newton and Paul Shelby. The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
and History of McDonough County. Chicago: Munsell Publishing, 1907.
Boatner, Mark M. The Civil War Dictionary. New York: McKay Books, 1988.
Central Electric Railfans Association. Chicago's Rapid Transit: Volume I.
Chicago: Central Electric Railfans Association, 1973.
Chrisinger, J.W. Map of Macomb, Illinois. Macomb: Macomb By-Stander,
1906, map.
Colton, G. Woodworth. Railroad Map of Illinois. New York: G. Woodworth
Colton, 1861, map.
Decision on Petition of Macomb and Western Illinois Rail Road Company.
McDonough County Board of Supervisors, 2 December 1901 Term.
Edstrom, James A., "Maps of Illinois Population and Newspaper History,"
Harper College, < http://www.harpercollege.edu/~jedstrom/
maptableofcontents.htm > (10 May 2005).
George A. Ogle & Company. Standard Atlas of McDonough County, Illinois.
Chicago: George A. Ogle & Company, 1913.
Hallwas, John E. Macomb: A Pictorial History. St. Louis: G. Bradley Publish-
ing, 1990.
Hillery, Viletta, interview by the author, tape recording, Macomb, Illinois, 16
November 2004.
Holmes, Alex. History and Reminiscences of Alex Holmes. Macomb: By-
Stander Press, 1923.
Illinois Railroad and Warehouse Commission. Annual Report for the Year
Ending Nov. 30, J 872. Springfield: State Journal Steam Print, 1873.
. Thirty-Fourth Annual Report.
Springfield: Illinois State Journal Company, 1905.
Industry Press, 8 August 1918, 28 May 1920.
Lind, Alan. From Horsecars to Streamliners: An Illustrated History of the St.
Louis Car Company. Park Forest: Transport History Press, 1978.
Macomb Daily Journal, 1 March 1895-24 June 1930.
Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway Company Papers 1901-1929, Western
Illinois University Archives & Special Collections Department, Macomb,
Illinois.
Macomb Journal, 27 February 1994.
Macomb Sunday Journal, 12 October 1986.
McDonough County News, 24 October 1929.
Microsoft Corporation. Terraserver USA. 11 April 1998. <http://
terraserver.microsoft.com> (4 October 2005).
Peoria Journal-Star, 8 February 1930.
Perry, Albert J. History of Knox County: Its Cities, Towns and People, Volume
I. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1912.
Rand, McNally & Company. Railroad Map of Illinois. Chicago: Rand,
Bibliography 85
McNally & Company, 1898, map.
Sanborn Map Company. Industry; Illinois. New York: Sanborn Map Company,
1928, map.
. Macomb, Illinois. New York: Sanborn Map Com-
pany. 1924. map.
Schuyler County Jail Museum. Schuyler County: Illinois History. Dallas: Tay-
lor Publishing, 1983.
Shadwick, G.W. The History of McDonough County. Moline. Illinois: Desaul-
niers, 1968.
United States Geological Survey. Illinois: Macomb Quadrangle. Washington:
United States Geological Survey, 1912, map.
. Illinois: Rushville Quadrangle. Washing-
ton: United States Geological Survey, 1923, map.
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The Little Road
The Story of the Macomb Industry & Littleton Railway
A century ago, Macomb, Illinois had its own railroad. The Ml&L
was a twenty-mile-long short line railroad connecting the people
of southern McDonough and northern Schuyler counties with
Macomb, and thus, with the national rail network and the rest of
the country. The MI&L lasted for a quarter of a century carrying
livestock, grain, goods, and passengers. Its history is a complex
tale of successes and failures, of triumphs and misfoHunes, and of
the people who worked so hard to make the MI&L a reality and a
success. This is the story of the Macomb Industry & Littleton
Railwnv - 'The Little Road."
ISBN 0-97771 16-0-9
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