150 Years of Railroading in Starke County, Indiana

150 YEARS OF RAILROADING IN STARKE COUNTY, INDIANA Compiled by Marvin Allen, Starke County Historical Society 2005 Contents Chapter 1: New Albany and Salem Railroad (Monon) 1852-1853 Radioville-San Pierre-Kankakee-LaCrosse Chapter 2: Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad (Penn) 1856 Donaldson-Grovertown-Hamlet-Davis-Hanna Chapter 3: Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad (Penn) 1858-1861Denham-North Judson-English Lake-LaCrosse Chapter 4: Chicago and Atlantic Railroad (Erie) 1883 Monterey-Ora-Bass Station-Aldine-North Judson-Lomax-Wilders Chapter 5: New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate) 1882 Burr Oak-Ober-Knox-Brems-South Wanatah Chapter 6: Iowa, Illinois and Indiana Railroad (NYC) 1881 & 1894 Walkerton-Hamlet-Knox-Toto-North Judson-San Pierre-Teft Chapter 7: Cincinnati, Richmond and Muncie Railroad (C&O) 1902 Lawton-Lena Park-North Judson-English Lake-LaCrosse Chapter 8: Bass Lake Railroad (Erie) 1898 Bass Station-Lake Station Chapter 9: Lake Michigan, Logansport and Ohio River Railroad 1852 & 1855 The line that was never built Foreword The year 2002 marks the 150 th year of railroad history in Starke County. It all started with the New Albany and Salem Railroad that ran north and south through the western portion of the county. At its peak, seven railroads traversed Starke County. Today, although much has changed, the Norfolk Southern runs many trains through Knox between Chicago and Buffalo on the former Nickel Plate line. Norfolk Southern also uses the former Pennsylvania line across the northern half of Starke County for additional freight traffic. While it may seem to the casual observer that railroads are in a decline, statistics from the Association of American Railroads show that freight revenue is at an all time high of 33.5 billion for the year 2001. These days Class 1 railroads rule the road. There are 8 of them and CSX and Norfolk Southern (operating in Starke County) are two of them. As with most communities that were settled and developed in the second half of the 19 th century, Starke County’s settlement and growth paralleled the expansion of railroads through Indiana. The county and its communities have been referred to by some as the crossroads of the nation. There is a basis for this claim in the various routes connecting Chicago, Lake Michigan’s harbors, and the Ohio River. North Judson, in particular, was at the intersection of several major railroad lines, connecting the Great Lakes Area with the Ohio River, as well as eastern and western United States. If we examine early maps and relate them to the present day, we find that almost every town and village in Starke County had its beginnings as a railroad stop. Some have changed names, or even faded away, as the needs of the railroads have changed. The conversion from steam to diesel had a major impact on Starke County’s villages. There was no longer a need for locomotives to stop and fill their tenders with water to make steam. Stops such as Davis, Kankakee and Riverside soon vanished into history. Others changed their names, such as Rye, Starke, Nickel Plate and Brandtwood once they were more than just railroad stops. It is difficult these days to understand the importance and reliance of our ancestors on railroads in Starke County. But we have to remember that roads that could be navigated during wet weather and winter conditions were nonexistent until the 1920’s. And even then travel was perilous and very limited to just a few main roads like the Yellowstone Trail, Lincoln Highway and the Michigan Road. The following excerpt from Centennial History and Handbook of Indiana by George S. Cottman, A Survey of the State by Counties by Max R. Hyman, Originally Published in 1915 also by Max R. Hyman describes the difficulty of travel in the 1800’s prior to railroads quite well. “Most of the year a journey over the roads was simply a slow, laborious wallowing through mud; the bogs were passable only by the use of "corduroy," and this corduroy of poles laid side by side for miles not infrequently had to be weighted down with dirt to prevent floating off when the swamp water rose. In a book called "The New Purchase," which purports to depict life in central Indiana in the early eighteen twenties, the wagon trip to Bloomington is described in the author's peculiar, half-intelligible style. He speaks of the country as "buttermilk land," mashland," rooty and snaggy land," with mud holes and quicksand and corduroys, "woven single and double twill," and there are fords "with and without bottom," IN the early spring, he says, the streams were brimful, "creeks turned to rivers, rivers to lakes, and lakes to bigger ones, and traveling by land becomes traveling by mud and water." As one proceeded he must tack to right and left, not to find the road, but to get out of it and find places where the mud was "thick enough to bear." The way was a "most ill-looking, dark-colored morass, enlivened by streams of purer mud (the roads) crossing at right angles," and these streams were "thick-set with stumps cut just low enough for wagons to straddle," Innumerable stubs of saplings, sharpened like spears by being shorn off obliquely, waited to impale the unlucky traveler who might be pitched out upon them, and the probability of such accident was considerable as the lumber wagon lunged over a succession of ruts and roots, describing an "exhilarating seesaw with the most astonishing alternation of plunge, creak and splash."” This record will attempt to document the beginnings, history and present day status of each of the seven railroad lines and spurs that once traversed Starke County. Along the way, we will illustrate using maps, photographs, stock certificates and post cards. Sometimes it may seem our information conflicts with other recorded histories of local railroading, but this is only because the ancestry of railroad lines is complex. The definitive resource for railroading in Indiana may be “Railroads of Indiana” by Simmons and Parker and published by Indiana University Press. Telephone book listings for Starke County Railroad offices in 1951 Chapter One The first railroad through Starke County was built in 1852 and ran north and south through the western portion of the county. It was known as the New Albany & Salem Railroad and had been organized in 1847 to connect Michigan City with Louisville. There were only two stops along its way through west Starke County; Culverton, which was later called San Pierre, and Kankakee, which was on the south bank of the Kankakee River. The Kankakee stop was later known as Riverside. The New Albany and Salem was truly a pioneer railroad and faced many of the problems of early railroad building. From Chapter 9 of The Story of American Railroads by Stewart H. Holbrook we learn: “Two years after beginning of construction the New Albany & Salem had completed 27 miles of road and was the third longest railway in the state, the two longer being the gigantic Madison & Indianapolis, with 88 miles of road, and the Indianapolis & Belfontaine, with 28 miles. The mileage for the entire state totaled 212. The New Albany built its first track on ties laid four feet apart and connected by stringers imbedded in notches in the ties. The rails were simply bar iron, held in place by big spikes driven through the center and their heads countersunk in order not to project above the rails. It was presently discovered that because the ends of the rails were connected by tongue and groove, there was not enough space to allow for the expansion caused by changes in temperature. The bars heaved and writhed, loosening the spikes. The spikes gave way, the bars spread, and locomotives were derailed. The T-rail was already being used on all of the better-financed roads which were publicizing the sinister menace inherent in bar rails in order to scare passenger traffic off such murderous contraptions. Railroad President Brooks was not slow to see the disadvantages of bar iron, and soon he was replacing his own tracks with T-rail made by the Crescent Iron Manufacturing Company of Wheeling, Virginia. This, he told his directors, would relieve the New Albany from the "bad name" of running on bar iron which, he said, "has had a very unfavorable influence upon our passenger business." He added that agents of competing roads had been able, by a series of gross and unspeakable misrepresentations, to alarm passengers and "keep them off our line." Pioneer railroads such as the New Albany & Salem had to devise their methods of operation as they went along, and the primeval Hoosiers were equal to the task. Wood was, of course, the fuel used. The company figured it could run as average train about 28 1/2 miles on one cord of four-foot wood; and the wood could be cut, delivered and piled in the tender for $1.41 a cord. Wood-up stations were established at regular intervals of from 20 to 25 miles, and here farmers delivered the wood in four-foot lengths. The wood- up at Lafayette was the largest on the line and remained in use until after 1870. It held one hundred cords. To cut the sticks once more for easy handling by firemen, the New Albany's ingenious mechanics devised a flatcar with a stationary engine aboard, rigged to a circular saw. This was called The Rooster , and a picture of a cock appeared in full color on the car's sides. The Rooster was hauled up and down the line, its crew making little ones out of big ones.

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