Monon Railroad - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

How the Monon Was Built Its First Line Was Constructed in the Very Beginning of the Railway Era. The Old Salem Road Consolidation with the Air Line Steady Growth of the System Other Railroad Matters. One of the oldest railroads in Indiana is the Louisville, Albany &. Chicago. The New Albany & Salem Railroad Company was organized on July 8, 18-17. under the act of Jan. 28, 1842, which authorized private companies to take up any of the unfinished works of the State and complete the same on their own account. On Jan. 8 , 1847, an act was passed which granted the railroad company the right to occupy that part of the New Albany to Crawfordsville macadamized road which lay between New Albany and Salem. An act was passed on Feb. 11, 1848. w hereby all tho rights of the State were relinquished to the company and an extension of the line granted. On Jan. 12, 1848, an act was passed granting the company tho right to issue funds, and on Jan. 12. 1850, another act passed gave the company power to receive bonds in payment for stocks. Then, on Jan. 8, 1551, the company was empowered to issue any form of indebtedness. The railroad was opened for business from New Albany to Michigan City, a distance of 2SS.2G miles, on July 4, 1ST2. At this time Ibis was a great railroad to the State, extending from the Ohio river to Lake Michigan, and the opening of the road was the occasion for much rejoicing all along the line. On Oct. 4, 1859, the name of the road was changed from the New Albany & Salem to the present name Louisville, New Albany & Chicago. In 1851 a company was formed to build a road from Crawfordsville to Lafayette, a distance of twenty-eight miles, and was named the Crawfordsville & Wabash railroad. Maj. I. C. Elston, Sr., of Crawfordsville, was the president. This road was built under the supervision of Michael Gerbrick, who ran the first engine on the road. Mr. Gerbrick is yet a resident of Crawfordsville, and is seventy-seven years old, and the father of thirty-two children. Mr. Gerbrick took out the third engine on the Madison & Indianapolis railroad, and the first engine on the New Albany & Salem road. He was the general manager of the Crawfordsville & Wabash road until it was sold to the New Albany & Salem road, in 1852. Mr. Gerbrick remained with this company several years in charge of an engine, and when he quit railroading he had charge of an engine on the Michigan Central road. He had been a railroad engineer for twenty-nine years, and he is to-day bale and heart3 and -is a buyer of produce and poultry. The first excursion train was run on July 3, 1853, from Crawfordsville to Lafayette, where a celebration was held the next day. This excursion train was run into by a gravel 'train and one man was killed. Alex Wilson, now of Lafayette, had three ribs broken, and Pat Fitzpatrick had a leg broken. The road was sold on Dec. 27, l872, under foreclosure of the mortgages and was bid in by the bondholders. A new company was organized under the old name, with a capital stock of $3,000,000. On May 5, 1881, this company was consolidated with the Chicago & Indianapolis Air-line company. but the old name was still retained. The main line then was 288.26 miles long, and the Air line division 152.2 mile and extending from a point four miles north of Indianapolis, at the junction of the W., St. L. 5t 1 (?) road, to Hammond, on the Chicago & Atlantic road. To reach Indianapolis this company had to use 2.85 miles of the W.. St. L. &. P. road at a cost of 9? per annum, and 1.81 miles of the CM C, C. & I., at a yearly cost of $1,218.24. In reaching Chicago the company used 1.57 miles of the Chicago & Atlantic road at a yearly cost of $3,500, and 10.53 miles of tho Chicago Sc. Western Indiana road at a cost of $127,200 per year. Upon the road there are 105 stations. The distance from Louisville to Chicago is 317 miles There are extensive stone quarries along, the line of the L., N. A. & C, at Salem, Hertford, Kiottsville. Hoolington and Stinesville. A few miles north of Hertford there is a perfect horse-shoe bend, and all along the line from Greencastle to Salem there are numerous deep cuts through rock. The L. N. A. Sc. C. railroad has been given the name of the 'Monon route." after the town where the Air-line division crosses tie old main line. During the past year the management has leased the Louisville Southern road, thus adding many miles to tho system, and has secured a controlling interest in a new bridge across the Ohio river at Louisville. Also additional track has been laid at and near Indianapolis, whereby the company will not be dependent upon the use of other railways in reaching the city. Personal, Local and General Notes. President Mackey is quoted as saying that be would have his Evansville lines connected with the Cincinnati, Wabash &, Michigan road by July 1, l900. The Big Four commenced yesterday putting in three new side tracks at the Indianapolis yards, which will add another line to the side tracks at this point. Eight passenger conductors on tho New York Central road have, within the past week, received blue envelopes. The cause of their discharge is not stated. On the first of next month regular passenger and freight trains will be put on the Evansville & Richmond road, to be run between Evansville and Seymour. The new owners of the Canada & St. Louis road are securing the right of way through Sturgis. To get through that place they now run over the tracks of the Grand Rapids & Indiana road. The Union Pacific is promoting worthy young men as opportunity otters. John V. Scott, who has been appointed assistant general passenger agent, a few months ago was a clerk in the passenger office at Omaha. In tho week ending Nov. 16 the Indianapolis &. Vincennes road hauled from the Island City coal mines 200 car-loads of coal, against 2b$ ? in the corresponding week of ?. The coal travels over the 1. & V. is steadily increasing. It is expected that the court will this week decide which of the reports of Special Commissioner Fishback will be confirmed in tho case of tho Indianapolis, Pern & Chicago, now tho Lake Erie Sc. Western, against tho Wabash. It is stated that the freight tonnage over the T. H. & L. division of the Vandalia this year has been 23 per cent, heavier than in l&S, and the coming year, with the opening of the St. Joe extension, an increase of 50 per cent, is expected. President Corbin proposes to add ?3,000,000 worth of new equipment on the Philadelphia & Heading road between now and April 1, 1900, and will buy for cash, making provision for such payments in some other manner than the ordinary way, that of a car-trust arrangement. For the last ten years George Cutler, the engineer on the Chicago & Alton road, has done nothing but haul the paycar over the road once a month, and the train which the ? travel on. This requires ten to twelve days of each month, but he is paid for full time. The Chicago. Burlington & Quincy seems to be rapidly recovering from the effects of the strike and the rate wars of tho last year or two. The directors have declared a quarterly dividend of 1 per cent, without borrowing money to pay it, and there is a very respectable surplus left in the treasury. In the State of Michigan no more clergymen's permits will be issued. The cause of the preachers loss is tho two-cents-a-mile bill passed by the last Legislature of Michigan, which took effect Oct. 1. It is understood that at the next meeting of passenger agents of roads in that State special rates to parties will be withdrawn. The Queen & Crescent route will make another shortening up of running time between Cincinnati and Jacksonville. Sunday next, reducing the time to twenty-eight hours and forty-five minutes from Cincinnati to Jacksonville, and after Sunday next one can leave Indianapolis at or. M. and be in Jacksonville on tho following night at 11:45. The arbitrary stand which tho Transcontinental lines took was the immediate cause of the advance in passenger rates which the roads east of the Missouri river have ordered to take effect on the 1st of December. Under tho present rate, 100 from Pittsburg, Cleveland. Columbus. Cincinnati, Indianapolis and the refusal of tho transcontinental linen to prorate, the roads rut of the Missouri would get nothing,which forced them to advance the rates. Under the new tariff the Pittsburg rate is advanced to 8117, the Cleveland rate to 115 and the Columbus rate to $100.20 to the Pacific coast . C. C. Waite. president and general manager of the Columbus Sc Hocking Valley road, now in New York city, tells the friends of the road that the earnings of the line are now so large that he has been able to pay off the September interest, and the earnings are increasing 60 rapidly that no apprehension need exist in regard to razing future interest It is admitted by the passenger men of the Chicago lines that the putting off of faster trains and liner equipments over the Vanderbilt and Big Four lines, and over the Pennsylvania and Vandalia lines, has cut into the through travel via Chicago considerably, and a still further falling off of business will not be a surprise to the Chicago railroad officials. President Caldwell, of the Nickel-plate, is confident that this road is to take its place ? among the dividend-paying roads. The road has earned so far this year a surplus above operating expense and fixed charges of 8158.254, or 3.1C per cent, on the preferred stock, and the remaining weeks of 1S89 the earnings bid fair to exceed those of any preceding weeks of the year. C. E. Henderson, late general manager of the Ohio, Indiana Sc Western road, will leave on the first of next month to assume his duties with the Philadelphia Sc Heading. His headquarters are to be at Pottsville. Pa. His position is to be that of general manager of the coal and iron interests of the company at that point, which includes disposing of the products of tho two interests. It is now thought probable that George F. Evans will be made general manager of the Mackey lines. Further acquaintance is said to have convinced President Mackey that he (Mr. Evans) was a man of larger railroad ability than he has been credited with. He is handling the affairs of the Louisville. Kvansville Sc St. Louis road very successfully, and is a hard-working, faithful official. The Pennsylvania Company is finding difficulty in enforcing the payment of a penalty on cars which are detained on sidetracks over forty -eight hours for loading or unloading. Shippers and consignees, in some cases, not only refuse to pay such charges, but threaten to prosecute the company if it attempts to collect them, taking the ground that to collect ? is illegal, under the laws of the State. The rate war which has been going on between the Wabash and the Grand Trunk roads on business between Detroit and Chicago has ended, and the questions of issue are to be arbitrated by Commissioners Blanchard, Midgely and Faithorn. So far as the passenger rates are concerned, an arbitration has already been effected, the Wabash being given a 25 cents per ticket differential below that of the Grand Trunk. The L., N. A. Sc C. system is G14 miles in length. The old ? line from New Albany to Michigan City is 283.26 miles in length; it is 150 miles from Indianapolis to Hammond on the C. Sc A. road; from there it is twenty-one miles to Chicago over other roads. The Louisville Southern system is 110 miles long; the French Lick branch, which starts at Orleans, is n1 miles long, and tho Switz City branch. 412 miles, starting from Bedford. This latter branch is a narrow-gauge road. President Ingalls expresses himself as much pleased over the outlook for the Ohio, Indiana & Western, and says it will come out all right. The road in October earned 137,802, and tho exhibit would have been much more favorable could the general freight agent have secured cars to handle the business offered. In the latter part of the month more cars were furnished, and an increase in the earnings of the freight department is shown over the corresponding period last year. The chief engineer of one of the Indianapolis lines states that 85 percent, of the railroad bridges in this State and in Illinois are iron structures, and of the renewals of tho last year 02 per cent, have been iron bridges. He expresses the opinion that two years from now wooden bridges on railroads in Ohio. Indiana and Illinois will be few. With this improvement there has been a widening of water-ways, and in ' the ? roads in the States named are not likely to have much trouble from floods. The Evansville & Rockport railroad is a new organization which came into existence yesterday. The incorporators are W. J. Wood, Leo Howell, D. J. Mackey, F. W. Cook, and others. The intention is to build from Rockport, Ind. to along the Ohio river to Newburg. connecting with tho present Evansville. Suburban &. Newburg road, now in operation. The road is a dummy line, and is but the beginning of a system of suburban railways which will connect all the small towns within a radius of fifty miles with Evansville. The new extension will, it is under stood, be in operation by July

Engine 103, which was in the Monon wreck recently is out of the shops looking as good as ever. She made her initial run Monday on No 5, in charge of Engineer Crawford, who was at the throttle when the wreck occurred. No one could ever tell that the machine was ever in such a condition as she was on “Black Friday.”