Railroads and the Minneapolis Milling District

“Temples of Mammon and Hives of Industry” Railroads and the Minneapolis Milling District

Don L. Hofsommer hen we consider that young, vigorous city of Minneapolis and machinery and where railroad- “ it is but a few short years and a broad outback and burgeoning ers had toiled ardently to meet the Wsince the birds of the air market for local products.1 needs of shippers and travelers alike. and the beasts of the prairies were More than a century-and-a- Only an interpretive museum stands monarchs of all they surveyed in and quarter later, only an industrial to celebrate the area’s industrial around the Falls of St. Anthony,” archaeologist or a patient re- past; the Stone Arch Bridge, the marveled a local writer in 1867, “we searcher could detect traces of this former Milwaukee Road passenger can safely say that we live in an age of well-muscled, constantly frenetic depot (now a hotel) and a portion improvement.” Raw wilderness had manufacturing and transportation of its freight depot (a coffeehouse) indeed been transformed in the twin- hub. The west bank milling district provide the sole reminders of the age kling of an historical eye. The hum by the twenty-first century was of railways. The opening of the $125 and clatter from mills, factories, and once again utterly transformed— million Guthrie Theater in June machine shops along the west bank apartment structures, condomini- 2006 seemed an apt denouement. of the Mississippi River was punctu- ums, and office buildings standing The transformation was complete.2 ated day and night by the whistles where swarms of men had turned and bells of locomotives that repre- out prodigious volumes of lumber, sented the critical link between the flour, woolen goods, iron products, As early as 1821, the U.S. Army had recognized that the Falls of St. Bustling Minneapolis milling district at the Falls of St. Anthony, about 1890 Anthony, a thundering 16-foot cata- ract on the Mississippi, would be a ready and convenient power source. In that year, the post commander at Fort Snelling ordered construction of both gristmills and sawmills on the west bank. In 1838 Franklin Steele staked a large claim on the east side, and a decade later he completed a dam and sawmill. Before the year was out, the half-million board feet of lumber produced there failed to meet the insatiable demand. In 1855 the fledgling community of St. An- thony was incorporated with a population of perhaps 3,000. Across the way, investors exploited water power, too, and a small settlement of homes, stores, schools, and churches dotted

Don L. Hofsommer, professor of history at St. Cloud State University, has published widely in the field of railroad history. Among his recent titles are The Tootin’ Louie: A History of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Rail- way and Minneapolis and the Age of Railways.

Summer 2009 249 the landscape. About 1,500 persons water, which was limited in most on the east bank of the Mississippi in lived there when Minneapolis was areas and totally absent in others. Illinois, and they or their surrogates platted in 1855 and a suspension But St. Paul had the Mississippi and had already breached the rolling bridge over the river connected the its tributaries. A total of 630 vessels prairies of Iowa—or were about to. two young communities.3 called there in 1864 during a 210-day Farther north, two predecessors of Downstream stood St. Paul, the shipping season.6 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul region’s premier urban center and However useful and important, (CM&StP or Milwaukee Road) had the head of navigation on the Mis- nature’s highways were inadequate to moved west from Milwaukee to the sissippi. Trade centered there, and it demand. Dog sleighs in 1849 deliv- Mississippi—one to Prairie du Chien, was Minnesota’s territorial and then ered mail to St. Paul from Prairie du the other to La Crosse. All of these state capital. In 1850 its population Chien, Wisconsin, and a crude stage represented bold urban economic had been a mere 850, but the city road also linked those two communi- impulses of leaders in Chicago and grew to 4,040 in 1855 and to an im- ties, if by a most indirect route. An- Milwaukee, and each road, in time, pressive 10,600 in 1860.4 other coarse road connected St. Paul would figure in the railroad affairs of Minnesota.8 Yet none of these early players During the 1850s the United States evinced any immediate interest in Minnesota, occupying themselves experienced a veritable explosion in the well-settled areas of Illinois, of railroad construction. Wisconsin, and Iowa. Railroad ventures were, after all, capital and labor intensive: expensive undertakings St. Paul’s early fortunes were with Stillwater, and a third reached fraught with monumental financial tied to navigation. Steamboats on out to the neighboring village of St. risk. No need to add danger by build- the upper Mississippi dated from Anthony. And, of course, ox carts had ing ahead of justifiable demand. 1823 when the Virginia landed at been freighting to the Red River of So Minnesotans were left to Fort Snelling; in 1844, no fewer than the North since the mid-1840s.7 wring their hands. Statehood in 1858, 41 vessels made the trip, and three None of this was adequate to ful- a growing population, and a gener- years later regular packet service fill transportation needs. Railroads ous grant of land for use in fostering began to the awakening commu- were the answer. Increasingly, public railroads were offset by the Panic nity of St. Paul. Shortly thereafter, leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs of 1857 and rumblings of civil war. service inched up the Minnesota embraced ribbons of rail as trans- By 1861 a stage line accommodated River to Shakopee and eventually to portation salvation. Steamcars, they passengers and mail on a daily turn Mankato, New Ulm, and even occa- perceived, would provide a reliable, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, sionally to Redwood.5 low-cost, high-speed means of mov- and the Milwaukee and Chicago There was no question that the ing passengers, mail, and express. railroads urged patrons to utilize steamboat was a salient element Further, rails alone could provide all- steamboats to La Crosse, Prairie du in what historian George Rogers season transport of freight—lumber, Chien, or Dunleith (Illinois, across Taylor identified as the “transporta- fuel, and grain, for example—in a from Dubuque) for rail connections tion revolution” that gripped the way that would not consume the eastward. The Dunleith Line, for nation between 1815 and 1860. Yet, value of commodities in carriage example, provided nightly 24-hour like all waterborne commerce, the charges. service from St. Paul to Dunleith, steamboat was subject in northern During the 1850s the United where passengers could board Il- climes to the “ice king,” which closed States experienced a veritable ex- linois Central trains. Railroad agents streams and lakes for months each plosion of railroad construction—a and forwarding and commission year. Moreover, there was an obvious total of 21,605 miles of new line put merchants solicited freight over the disadvantage irrespective of locale: in service. By the end of the decade, same water-rail routes. But, as al- vessels were restricted to navigable several Chicago-based roads stood ways, travel and shipping on inland

250 Minnesota History waterways was seasonal. “The unex- pected withdrawal of the boats” in November 1863 “left several St. Paul passengers at Dubuque” when the river froze up. Some of them bought horses for the remainder of the trip, a local newspaper drearily reported, “and are now journeying northward by their own conveyance.” 9

The railroad era did, of course, finally arrive in Minnesota. After fits and starts, the St. Paul & Pacific recruited adequate capital, and on June 28, 1862, the resplendent Wil- liam Crooks steamed away from a crude depot in St. Paul. With a few cars in tow, it was bound for end-of- The resplendent William Crooks, 1864, billed by photographer track about ten miles to the north- Moses Tuttle as “the first engine in the state” west—an open bit of prairie on the east bank of the Mississippi River, the late years of the Civil War. “The neering obstacles between Mendota just short of the falls at St. Anthony. endless water power here is being and Minneapolis gave pause to pro- A year later, the company advertised steadily developed,” wrote a local moters, however, and they wondered three trains daily (except Sunday) in journalist as early as 1861, “giving em- openly if St. Paul might not be a each direction.10 ployment to large bodies of mechan- better choice for the road’s northern There was predictable rejoicing ics and laborers.” But, he moaned, terminus. Minneapolis held its in St. Anthony and especially, St. this natural gift was “comparatively breath, nervous in the extreme, as Paul, but the mood in Minneapolis unavailable and unproductive . . . for the company built a pier and ware- was subdued. The road started and want of railroad transportation and house at the mouth of the Minnesota was headquartered at St. Paul, and communication.” 12 River and advertised for bids on a “Pacific” in the corporate title urged Not surprisingly, then, Min- line from Mendota to St. Paul. On that the enterprise would not long neapolis attached huge importance August 8, 1864, the steamboat Enter- tarry at St. Anthony before heading to schemes to implement a rail line prise delivered MC’s first locomotive westward. Minneapolitans had either reaching southward to the Iowa as well as “iron for the road” to Men- to walk over the suspension bridge border—one that did not favor or dota. Nevertheless, the Minnesota to reach the railroad or, as a local even touch “Saintly neighbors” down- Central had pledged itself first to newspaper reported, save their shoe stream. The first of such efforts was Minneapolis—perhaps because the leather by paying Burbank & Com- the “Cedar Valley” organization, which city or some of its prominent citizens pany twenty-five cents for a stage ride experienced a bumpy evolution, in- offered a land subsidy near the west “to and from the cars.” Freight, like- cluding name changes and corporate bank milling district.14 wise, had to be carted across the river, reorganization, to become the Minne- Construction proved depressingly loaded, and then unloaded after the sota Central (MC) in 1864.13 slow. The line finally opened from very short rail trek to St. Paul.11 Grading had commenced in 1856 Mendota to Northfield on Septem- Frustration increased among between Mendota and Owatonna, ber 4, 1865; with completion of the Minneapolis’s industrial and political but hard times and then war pre- Minneapolis-to-Mendota leg, through leaders as the city grew and activity vented further labor until 1863, when service began from Minneapolis to around the falls accelerated during the project took on new energy. Engi- Dundas and all the way to Faribault

Summer 2009 251

MNHist_Sum09_inside_singlesREV.indd 251 6/23/09 10:29:32 AM on October 18. Additional work in including flatcars and boxcars. They put up extensive sheds for storing 1866 took rail to Owatonna in mid- built and rebuilt passenger coaches flour prior to shipment. An iron August and, the next year, to Aus- and even assembled locomotives. works and foundry appeared, as did tin and beyond. Another company, The more than 200 men at the shops a paper factory. J. Dean & Company, McGregor Western, climbed out of and other local employees of the located near the railroad’s depot on the Mississippi River valley in north- company predictably rejoiced at the Second Street, advertised “2½ acres eastern Iowa and on October 14, 1867, arrival of the pay car and paymaster, of . . . dry and well seasoned lumber,” joined rails with the Minnesota Cen- who, as the Minneapolis Tribune and the Claystone Cooper Shop, op- tral at Adams, Minnesota, to complete reported, “distributed his greenbacks posite the depot, was rebuilt into a a through route from Minneapolis to quite freely.” plow factory. Lager beer flowed from the east via Prairie du Chien. Business on the west bank was four breweries in the area, and local For its Minneapolis hub, Min- brisk. Before the Civil War ended, “saddlery makers” turned out “har- nesota Central committed itself to six lumber mills were perched on the ness double and single.” 16 erect the necessary support facilities. Minneapolis Water Power Company’s Beginning October 28, 1865, the On 14 acres (seven city blocks) of dam. Flour merchants supplied local Minnesota Central scheduled double depot grounds just one block from and distant markets, and nearby daily passenger service between the lumber and flour manufacturers, stood a tub and pail manufacturer, a Minneapolis and Faribault, which six impressive buildings arose, all sash and door factory, a large cooper was extended as the line went on but one built of stone: a frame pas- shop, and the North Star Woolen to Owatonna and Austin. Sleeping senger and freight depot; a five-stall mill. Some of these firms predated cars were added when the through engine house with turntable and two the arrival of Minnesota Central route was established via Prairie du water tanks adjoining; a two-story rail; many more followed. Soon after Chien. And three daily Minneapolis- car shop; a one-story machine shop; hostilities ended, a large grain eleva- to-St. Paul “accommodation trains” a blacksmith shop with six fires; and tor was erected beside the Minne- handled commuter chores. Demand a building for drying lumber.15 sota Central’s track. Cadwallader C. for freight service was nothing short Workmen at the car shop soon Washburn built a substantial new of dramatic. The Minneapolis Tri- turned out new freight equipment, flour mill, and Minnesota Central bune on June 10, 1867, reported that

Mills on the west bank jostling for access to hydropower, viewed from the Winslow House in St. Anthony, early 1870s “the amount of lumber, flour, merchandise, etc. that is shipped daily is enormous. . . . so great that the rolling stock of the company is wholly insufficient.” Indeed, said theTri - bune, “the yard is literally piled with lumber from one end to the other, awaiting shipment.” 17 In 1869, Minnesota Central and McGregor Western combined to form the Milwaukee & St. Paul, and, with rival Minnesota Valley, constructed, owned, and operated a line from Mendota to St. Paul. The new corporate identity caused consider- able consternation in Minneapolis. The original companies had boasted local control, but area promot- ers clearly had lacked the financial wherewithal to birth the enterprise. “Milwaukee” in the new name erased any pretense; the road obviously was a tool of that Lake Michigan port city, designed to hold a huge geo- graphic area subservient to its own economic interest. And the “St. Paul” Route map for the railroad the Minneapolis Tribune optimistically certainly implied that company own- called the Milwaukee, St. Paul & Minneapolis, 1868 ers saw Minnesota’s capital city as more worthy than its “rural suburb.” & St. Paul exercised a “tigerish it was not until 1867, when a railroad Milwaukee interests presently broad- monopoly”—indeed, it was “a posi- bridge was thrown over the Missis- ened control of the region by driving tive detriment to our manufacturing sippi from St. Anthony, that the first a line upriver on the Minnesota side interests.” The newspaper pleaded StP&P train arrived in Minneapolis, from La Crosse through Winona, for “more lines of communication where a throng of people welcomed it Red Wing, and Hastings and then with the West and South” because, with cheers. A new depot was opened completing an independent outlet it rightly contended, “greater facili- on Dakota Street between Wash- from Milwaukee to Chicago. All of ties for carrying freight” would mean ington Avenue and Third Street, this and the Minnesota Central’s pio- that “rates would be materially re- and a three-stall roundhouse and neer line from Minneapolis to Owa- duced . . . what every businessman turntable went up nearby. The road tonna and Austin soon were pooled in Minneapolis and St. Anthony is pressed westward in 1868, arriving with other properties to become the interested in.” 19 in Breckenridge in 1871. “The Pacific mighty Chicago, Milwaukee & St. The St. Paul & Pacific, having road is bound to be a great feeder of Paul (or Milwaukee Road), a blue reached St. Anthony in 1862, could Minneapolis,” the Tribune joyously chip behemoth that, along with other help with this, but only marginally. predicted. Business volume increased Chicago roads, threatened to choke In 1864 it had pushed northwest- so dramatically that the road’s roll- Minneapolis’s own instincts for ward to Elk River; in 1866–67 it ing stock was inadequate to demand, urban economic ascendancy.18 reached East St. Cloud and Sauk and the St. Paul & Pacific expanded The Minneapolis Tribune fussed, Rapids, and it had authority for an- its Minneapolis yard and side tracks. with reason, that the Milwaukee other line west to the Red River. But But it could do nothing to ameliorate

Summer 2009 253 By 1880 Minneapolis stood first among all domestic locations in flour production, third in milled lumber, and twentieth in miscellaneous manufactured products.

problems caused by the imperious absolutely necessary. So was a line to July 1871 and Sioux City Junction Chicago roads—and its allegiance, as the south—eventually, they hoped, all (Merriam) four months later. always, was to St. Paul.20 the way to St. Louis. In 1870 an old The nasty Panic of 1873 threw a At the end of 1870, some 20,300 charter was dusted off and amended wrench into the flywheel of M&StL’s persons lived in the capital city, to create the Minneapolis & St. Louis long-range plan for a route to St. which had direct rail communica- Railroad (M&StL) with immediate Louis, just as it did for innumer- tion northward to Duluth (Lake authority to build and operate from able ventures elsewhere. But even in Superior & Mississippi), southwest some point on the Lake Superior those depression years, a vibrancy to St. Peter (St. Paul & Sioux City), & Mississippi line above St. Paul attended the west bank. Further to the west and northwest (St. Paul through Minneapolis to the Iowa build-up occurred as the financial & Pacific), and south and southeast border. Behind the enterprise was crisis passed. Miscellaneous Min- (Milwaukee & St. Paul). All but the a “who’s who” at the falls, including neapolis manufacturers—58 of them, latter were headquartered in St. Paul. milling magnate William D. Wash- creating everything from substantial By comparison, Minneapolis and St. burn, who exclaimed: “Upon this en- iron products to soap, furniture, and Anthony, with a combined popula- terprise more than any other hangs brooms—aggregated $3.78 million tion of 18,079, claimed only marginal the future destiny, for good or for in sales for 1876 alone. Minneapo- transportation service and, city lead- evil, of our young city.” He pledged lis Harvester shipped a carload of ers testily admitted, even that had a substantial personal support for the Meadow Lark mowers and reap- distinctly St. Paul or “foreign” flavor. project and purchased important ers daily; Monitor Plow turned out Yes, Minneapolis—to which St. An- properties for facilities and tracks to, corn planters, sulky hay rakes, and thony soon would be joined—had in, and about the industrial district railroad plows and scrapers; and many reasons to be proud as the new on the west bank of the falls. This Lymann Brothers, owners of North- decade opened. The collective value would give the Minneapolis & St. western Oil Tank Line, bought in of manufacturing at the falls was an Louis an exclusive advantage.22 “burning and lubricating oils” for impressive $6.8 million. Lumber The M&StL gained leasing rights local use. In 1876 the market value of led in value, followed by flour. What from the St. Paul & Pacific for a par- lumber and lumber products reached Minneapolis needed, and needed allel line in Minneapolis out to Cedar $3.4 million, superseded, however, desperately, were railroads and more Lake and from there through Chaska by the value of flour and bran—$7.3 railroads—forged and owned locally, and Carver to a junction with the St. million. C. C. Washburn by 1875 had tightly focused on the needs of Paul & Sioux City. The new road also added substantial capacity at the falls hometown industry and commerce, secured operating rights over the with his A Mill, reportedly the larg- and certainly not pets of St. Paul or St. Paul & Pacific’s Mississippi River est such facility in the country, and stooges of powerful rivals Milwaukee bridge to push northeastward to the Stammitz & Schober opened their and Chicago.21 Lake Superior & Mississippi at White smaller but still impressive Phoenix Bear Lake. Initially, the M&StL Mill. By 1880 Minneapolis stood first used the St. Paul & Pacific passenger among all domestic locations in flour A curious mixture of fear and facility in Minneapolis but erected production, third in milled lumber, determination slowly but surely its own six-stall roundhouse in the and twentieth in miscellaneous man- mobilized leaders in Minneapolis. lower part of the city and a smaller ufactured products.23 A direct rail outlet from the city to engine facility in the milling district. This impressive growth of indus- Lake Superior, they concluded, was Track reached White Bear Lake in try at and near the falls was matched

254 Minnesota History by expansion of rail lines serving the As early as 1870 the St. Anthony and Fourth Avenues. “It will be a city. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Democrat had grumped that the Chi- credit to the company, a convenience Paul marched confi dently into ad- cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul’s depot to its patrons, and an ornament to ditional service areas in Wisconsin, in Minneapolis was “small . . . quite the city,” enthused the Minneapolis Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota insuffi cient to accommodate the Tribune. The edifi ce opened at the Territory; Minneapolis & St. Louis large amount of travel.” The company end of February 1877.25 drove lines into Iowa and Dakota had made modest betterments a year This provoked editors at the Territory; St. Paul & Pacifi c meta- earlier, but nothing more substantial Tribune to goad St. Paul & Pacifi c of- morphosed into the St. Paul, Minne- was authorized until 1876, when the fi cials to “take a peep at” CM&StP’s apolis & Manitoba and looked toward road announced plans for a new two- new facility and then “return to their Montana Territory and beyond; and story “French style” depot fronting on own dilapidated and tumble-down the fabled Northern Pacifi c entered Washington Avenue between Third depot” in the city “and refl ect, as they the local scene. So did the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha (nee Fleeting glory: the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul’s impressive Minneapolis passenger St. Paul & Sioux City), a Chicago & station of 1877 soon proved inadequate. Replaced with an even grander edifi ce after 20 North Western surrogate.24 years, it was razed (shown here) in 1900.

MNHist_Sum09_inside_singlesREV.indd 255 6/23/09 10:44:54 AM sit and wait for trains in the midst of drays.) Volumes increased when the built only about three miles of track, the dreary discomforts of that dingy Panic of 1873 eased, as manufactur- all at the upper end of the west side waiting room,” on the comparative ing grew and the city’s railroads ex- milling district. It added a two-stall elegance of the Milwaukee Road’s tended reach. In late October 1875, engine house and support build- structure. That shaming may have more than 250 carloads of lumber, ings nearby and began operation in had the desired effect, for the StP&P shingles, and lath filled the Milwau- midsummer 1879 with plant switch- did agree to replace its “old excuse for kee Road’s yards. St. Paul & Pacific ing and interchange of cars among a depot” with a functional if unpre- was similarly busy, loading out about CM&StP, St. Paul & Pacific and, tentious one-story frame building be- 20 cars of lumber per day. The fol- eventually, the Omaha itself.29 tween Washington Avenue and Third lowing September, 1,095 carloads of In response, the Minneapolis & Street. It, too, opened in 1877.26 wheat arrived for the city’s hungry St. Louis increased its own capacity in the middle and lower end of the milling district with elevated tracks, Impressive traffic statistics level with the second floor of several shippers. It put down more yard encouraged railroads to add capacity tracks, erected a yard office at Eighth in or near the milling district. Avenue South and an engine house at Eleventh Avenue South (later moved to Nineteenth Avenue South New station facilities certainly flour mills, which dispatched in the at Bluff Street), and continued to did reflect the growing and insistent same month 915 cars of flour and 173 handle a plurality of business in the need for passenger transport. “The cars of bran. In 1876 railroads deliv- district.30 amount of travel to and from Min- ered 25,312 cars of freight to Minne- The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. neapolis,” exclaimed one observer apolis and carried away 31,275.28 Paul, nevertheless, did more busi- in 1869, “is unprecedented . . . the These impressive traffic statistics ness at Minneapolis than any other trains are always crowded.” Passen- encouraged railroads to add capac- single carrier, and its managers were ger trains delivered business travel- ity in or near the milling district. determined to maintain that domi- ers, excursionists, immigrants, and The Minneapolis & St. Louis’s early nation. Energized in part by its suc- land hunters moving west. The St. entry into the area had essentially cess in raiding M&StL’s rich domain Paul & Pacific operated special trains created a shield between most of the with Minneapolis Eastern, CM&StP annually from Minneapolis to the important shippers, hugging the west advanced on several fronts, including Minnesota State Fair and also, along bank, and the powerful Chicago, Mil- a new 10-mile “short line” between with the Milwaukee Road, scheduled waukee & St. Paul. To overcome this Minneapolis and St. Paul (shaving commuter trains between Minneapo- disadvantage, this company, along five miles from the original route lis and St. Paul. In 1876 the carriers with opponents of the Washburns, by way of Mendota), as well as an operated 12,016 passenger trains to, in 1878 dredged up an old charter impressive 31-mile cutoff westward from, or through Minneapolis, deliv- authorizing Minneapolis Eastern from Minneapolis to its Hastings & ering 121,130 customers to the city.27 to build a line from St. Paul to Min- Dakota line at Cologne. In 1880 the Freight volumes, meanwhile, neapolis. The Minneapolis Eastern road decided to remove its cramped mirrored local, regional, and even proved to be a stooge for the Chicago, shop facility and roundhouse from national economic circumstance. In Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Chi- downtown to South Minneapolis, June 1869, the Chicago, Milwaukee, cago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha where it erected a 24-stall round- & St. Paul had dispatched 77 cars of (client of the larger Chicago & North house, substantial shop buildings, locally generated lumber, flour, ma- Western), and other anti-Washburn and other impressive facilities. chinery, furniture, and merchandise. forces. Combined, they forced the Virtually all of the structures at the (It also handled lading to and from M&StL to exchange and lease tracks downtown location were eventually St. Paul & Pacific stations, such as in a way that broke its strong posi- razed, although CM&StP did retain Anoka and St. Cloud, transferred by tion. In the end, Minneapolis Eastern its turntable near Eighth Avenue.

256 Minnesota History Demolition freed up space for ad- Northern—led by the energetic and rights over the St. Paul & Pacific ditional yard tracks to serve the talented James J. Hill, who took eastward from Sauk Rapids through large inbound and outbound freight greater interest in Minneapolis than the Mill City to St. Paul. NP later houses near the passenger depot, had earlier managers. Hill in 1883 gained independent access from the a company-owned million-bushel celebrated construction of a splendid west, built two bridges over the Mis- grain elevator, and an independent stone-arch bridge over the Missis- sissippi at Minneapolis—one above wheat house. Reaching beyond its sippi and in 1885 of a new passenger Hennepin Avenue, one below—and customers in the milling area, the station at the foot of Hennepin Av- constructed its own line to St. Paul, railroad also ran spurs to Empire enue, used by several other roads as using the Minneapolis & St. Louis Elevator, Case Threshing Machine, well. Hill and associates in 1884 also through the milling zone. Along with and a hide-and-wool dealer south of wedged directly into the traffic-dense other relative newcomers, the Min- Washington Avenue.31 west side by creating Minneapolis neapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Not to be forgotten was the Western. This switching and transfer and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapo- former St. Paul & Pacific—now re- company in 1892 completed a yard lis & Omaha established yards and christened St. Paul, Minneapolis & clinging to the river’s edge on the other facilities along the west bank of Manitoba and soon to be the Great lower end of the district and added the river above Hill’s new passenger a bridge downstream from the stone facility. A sidebar agreement between Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul’s structure.32 the NP and M&StL allowed the latter freight station and, beyond, tracks The Northern Pacific was a late- use of NP tracks into and out of St. of the Minneapolis Eastern and comer to the Minneapolis party, Paul, and from 1886 to 1892 M&StL Minneapolis & St. Louis, all serving initially inching in through the back operated commuter trains between the busy west side mills, early 1900s door, so to speak, with operating the two cities with eight intermediate stops, including one at a small frame depot at Tenth Avenue South.33 By 1890 the industrial landscape and railroad matrix along the Mis- sissippi’s west bank in Minneapolis stood in mature form. Even so, a new entry, the Chicago Great Western, located its freight house and passenger depot at Washington Avenue and Tenth Avenue South, and in 1897–99 Milwaukee Road replaced its passenger terminal with a new Renaissance Revival station fronting on Third Avenue South along Washington Avenue. The three-story headhouse featured an elaborate 140-foot tower and a 600-foot train shed covering five tracks.34

Minneapolis and its railroads grew up together. “As a center of business,” opined the State Atlas in 1861, “Minneapolis and St. Anthony can have no real rival in Minnesota. The entire trade of the upper Mis-

Summer 2009 257 sissippi must from necessity center with Minneapolis a full player in declined and, likewise, made exit. here.” Indeed, echoed the Tribune in the steamcar civilization, a Tribune So did machine shops and woolen the next decade, “Nature designed writer invoked the obvious: “Rail- mills. Railroads had provided the es- that a great city should be built at roads are the vital arteries of her life sential link between the city and its the Falls of St. Anthony.” But nature . . . the great iron duets . . . [enabling expansive hinterland and between alone was inadequate. Railroads, too, Minneapolis to] receive and dissemi- the city’s manufacturers and their were essential to the development of nate its commerce and manufactur- broad consumer base. Agents of great cities. The Atlas in 1863 had ers, and all the new materials which profound change in their own right, recognized as much, declaring that enter into all their products.” This the railroads now found themselves “of all the great interests upon which verity was writ large in the west bank victims of change. The last passenger our citizens must” put their shoul- milling district—“temples of mam- train departed from the Milwaukee ders, “none is more important than mon and hives of industry,” as one Road station in 1971, and the final our present and prospective railroad writer approvingly labeled it.35 freight car was billed out of the west enterprises.” Fifteen years later, with Yet change was afoot. Lumber side industrial area a few years later. the age of railways well unfurled and milling moved away from the falls Dismantlers picked up the rail to and then disappeared from the local end the era. As the writer from 1867 “Hives of industry”: Milling district scene; flour milling continued apace might have put it: “We live in an age viewed from the courthouse, about 1912 well into the twentieth century, then of improvement.” 36 a Notes 1. Minneapolis Tribune, June 16, 1867. 1864; St. Paul Pioneer, Aug. 27, 1866; Min- Minneapolis Tribune, Jan. 9, 1869, May 16, 2. St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 26, 2006. neapolis Tribune, Apr. 17, 1867 (quote), July 24, Aug. 19, 22, Sept. 18, 27, Nov. 10, 3. Lucile M. Kane, The Falls of St. An- Aug. 5, Oct. 7, 1868, Jan. 5, Apr. 14, Aug. 12, 23, 1876, Feb. 19, 26, 1877. thony: The Waterfall that Built Minneapo- Nov. 16, 1869. 26. Minneapolis Tribune, Nov. 28, 1876, lis (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society 16. M. A. Fuller, Map of the Manufactur- May 15, 1877. Press, 1987), 9–41. ing Interests at the Falls of St. Anthony, 27. Mail service also improved. Chicago 4. Handbook of St. Paul 1900 (St. Paul: 1873; State Atlas, May 11, Aug. 10, 1864; papers in 1866 arrived at Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, 1900), 73. St. Paul Pioneer, Dec. 3, 1865, Nov. 21, 23, “only 36 hours old.” Railway Mail Service 5. Christopher Columbus Andrews, 1866, Nov. 13, 1867; Minneapo1is Tribune, (en-route sorting of mail) began on the Mil- History of St. Paul with Illustrations and June 16, 1867, Aug. 7, Sept. 4, 5, 1868, Feb. waukee Road’s pioneer line via Austin late Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men 25, Apr. 7, Sept. 16, 1869; Kane, Falls of St. in 1867. St. Paul Pioneer, Sept. 11, 14, 30, and Pioneers (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason, Anthony, 58–59. 1866, Nov. 29, 1867, July 4, 1868; Minneap- 1890), 392–401; Theodore Blegen, Minne- 17. St. Paul Pioneer, Oct. 24, 1865; Min- olis Tribune, Nov. 19, 1869, Oct. 3, 1876, sota: A History of the State (Minneapolis: neapolis Tribune, June 10, 1867, Aug. 8, Jan. 8, 1877, Apr. 4, 1884. University of Minnesota Press, 1963), 180. 1868; Minnesota Central, Annual Report, 28. Minneapolis Tribune, Apr. 17, May 6. George Rogers Taylor, The Transpor- 1865, 27. 14, June 21, 1867, Oct. 23, 1875, Oct. 3, tation Revolution, 1815–1860 (New York: 18. St. Paul Pioneer, Nov. 28, 1865; Min- 1876, Jan. 8, Oct. 22, 1877. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1951), vi; St. neapolis Tribune, Sept. 4, 1869; Don L. 29. Minnesota Railroad Commission Paul Pioneer, Nov. 14, 1864. Hofsommer, Minneapolis and the Age of Report, 1878, 504, 1879, 22; Corporate His- 7. Andrews, History of St. Paul, 402–07. Railways (Minneapolis: University of Min- tory of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & 8. John F. Stover, Iron Road to the West: nesota Press, 2005), 8–15. Omaha Railway Company (Apr. 1, 1940), American Railroads in the 1850s (New 19. Minneapolis Tribune, Mar. 25, May 7, 20; Hofsommer, Minneapo1is and the Age York: Columbia University Press, 1978), 1869. of Railways, 58–60. ix, 13, 16, 116. 20. Minneapolis Tribune, June 12, 1867; 30. Hofsommer, Minneapolis and the 9. Rasmus S. Saby, “Railroad Legislation St. Paul Pioneer, May 1, 1867, May 13, 1869; Age of Railways, 58–60. in Minnesota, 1849 to 1875,” Collections of Hidy, Hidy, Scott, and Hofsommer, Great 31. Minneapolis Board of Trade, Annual the Minnesota Historical Society 15 (1915): Northern, 5–11. Report, 1881, 13; A. D. Emery, “The Twin 1–29; State Atlas (Minneapolis), Apr. 21, 21. Judson W. Bishop, “History of the Cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Milwau- 1860, June 5, 1861, Dec. 18, 1861, Jan. 28, St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad, 1864–1881,” kee Magazine, May 1925, p. 3–9; Minneap- July 26, 1863; St. Paul Pioneer, July 29, Collections of the Minnesota Historical olis Tribune, Jan. 16, Apr. 19, 1880. Nov. 10, 1863. Society 10, pt. 1 (1905): 399–415; Andrews, 32. Hidy, Hidy, Scott, and Hofsommer, 10. John H. Randall, “The Beginning of History of St. Paul, 411, 418–19; Kane, Falls Great Northern, 46–48; Minnesota Rail- Railroad Building in Minnesota,” Collec- of St. Anthony, 57–59. road Commissioner Report, 1889, 593. tions of the Minnesota Historical Society 15 22. Here and below, Clare L. Marquette, 33. Northern Pacific,Annual Report, (1915): 215–20; Ralph W. Hidy, Muriel E. “The Business Activities of C. C. Washburn” 1877, 6–7, 9–12, 1879, 7–8, 17–18, 1886, 10, Hidy, Roy V. Scott, and Don L. Hofsommer, (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1940), and 1889, 10; Louis Tuck Renz, The History The Great Northern Railway: A History 327–28; Minutes of the Minnesota Western of the Northern Pacific Railroad (Fairfield, (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, Rail Road, Constituting Minute Book of the WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1980), 93–94, 128; 1988), 2–5. Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad 8-28-80: Minneapolis Journal, Dec. 6, 1886. 11. State Atlas, Apr. 15, 1863. Aug. 26, Dec. 27, 1869, Apr. 15, 1871, per- 34. C. M. Foote, Atlas of the City of Min- 12. State Atlas, Apr. 21, 1861, Oct. 7, 1863. sonal collection; Isaac Atwater, ed., History neapolis (Minneapolis: the author, 1892), 13. The road’s corporate lineage began of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota (New plates 1–22; F. H. Johnson, Brief Record with Minneapolis & Cedar Valley (1856), York: Munsell & Co., 1893), 335; Minneap- of the Milwaukee Road from the Chartering progressing to Minneapolis, Faribault & olis Tribune, Feb. 11, 1870, July 18, Aug. 15, of Its First Predecessor Company in 1847 Cedar Valley (1863), and Minnesota Central Nov. 15, 1871. See also Don L. Hofsommer, to Date, August 1939 (Chicago: CM&StP, (1864); Saby, “Railroad Legislation,” 49–60. The Tootin’ Louie: A History of the Minne- 1939), 41. 14. Here and below, John C. Luecke, apolis & St. Louis Railway (Minneapolis: 35. State Atlas, Apr. 21, 1861, Oct. 7, Dreams, Disasters, and Demise: The Mil- University of Minnesota Press, 2005). 1863; Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 4, 1869, waukee Road in Minnesota (Eagan: Grena- 23. Minneapolis Tribune, Nov. 7, 1875, Nov. 8, 1875, July 10, 1878. dier Publications, 1988), 1–14. Apr. 9, 14, May 22, 1876, Jan. 3, 21, Mar. 23, 36. Harold A. Edmonson, ed., Journey to 15. The area lay between Washington May 21, 24, 1877; Kane, Falls of St. Anthony, Amtrak: The Year History Rode the Passen- Ave. and Second St. from South Third to 113. ger Train (Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publish- Tenth Aves. Here and below, Minnesota 24. Hofsommer, Minneapolis and the Age ing, 1972), 94; Hofsommer, Minneapolis Central, Annual Report, 1865, 6, 18–20, of Railways, 43–74. and the Age of Railways, 292–93; Minneap- personal collection; State Atlas, May 11, 25. St. Anthony Democrat, Feb. 16, 1870; olis Tribune, June 16, 1867.

The photo on p. 252 is courtesy the author; all others are in MHS collections, including p. 253, from the Minneapolis Tribune, Jan. 7, 1868.

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