The Dixon Branch of the Galena Railroad Built Through from Dekalb to Dixon at This Time

Introduction

Malta did not exist at the start of 1850. But the Crimean War in Europe (Remember “The Charge of the Light Brigade”) cut off the bread basket of Europe, and grain for export to Europe brought fantastic prices, consequently settlers started moving to government land that is now Malta Township. The first was Ezekial Whitehead in 1851. Others soon followed, but the only market for their grain meant a ten day round trip over horrible roads with a forty bushel wagon to Chicago. The Dixon branch of the Galena Railroad built through from DeKalb to Dixon at this time and following a petition from local farmers, the rail road established a station first called Milton, then Etna and lastly Malta in an effort to avoid conflicting names of other stations on the line. In 1856, Horace Fay surveyed and planned the Village. Also that year James M. Orput built the first house, and became the Village’s first merchant. The Village grew rapidly and was incorporated in 1869. The first school was constructed in 1857, and with the outbreak of the Civil War 94 men left the community to join the Union Army. Four churches existed, four hotels, four lodges, seven doctors and a dentist. A flour mill and grain storage facilities brought a great deal of trade to town. A concert band and a string band were set up and a football team. The population increased to the extent that for a short time, Malta was the largest town in DeKalb County and talk was a field to make it the county seat. Since Malta was a railroad shipping point, stock yards were built along the railroad in town and for many years, Malta was the biggest grain and live stock shipping point between Chicago and the Mississippi. Most of this progress came to a halt on the night of September 7th, 1894. On that night a disastrous fire wiped out the center of Malta. Since that time the Village has had a slow regrowth. One last moment of glory came in the autumn of 1914, when Malta was chosen to have the first seedling mile of concrete, ours the first of 3389 miles of our country’s first transcontinental highway, poured at the edge of town. Today Malta is mostly a bedroom community for commuters earning their living further east.