Iowa railroads-1861

MUSCATINE

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 10/17/2008 at 16:15:08

Dubuque Weekly Times
April 4, 1861 & April 11, 1861

AT LAST!

One Hundred miles of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad are completed, and the first passenger train passed over the track from Cedar Falls to this City yesterday! – This is an event for which our citizens and the inhabitants of the Cedar Valley have for anxious months looked forward, and they will now rejoice together! The unremitted solicitude and labor on the part of the officers of the Company of which this extension is the result, no one save themselves can comprehend; but we trust the increased business which the Company will speedily realize will abundantly repay them for all their toil.

Now, then, let the next link in the Extension reach to the Iowa, and before the close of the present season!

IOWA RAILROADS. – Less than five years ago there was not a mile of railroad in this State. Now we have seven roads, with an aggregate of 550 miles:

Dubuque to Cedar Falls - 100
Farley to Anamosa - 34
Clinton to Cedar Rapids - 81
Davenport to Marengo,
and to Muscatine and Washington - 144
Balington to Ottumwa - 75
Keokuk to Eddyville - 91
Keokuk to Fort Madison - 25

Total - 550

Eighteen miles will soon be added to the Dubuque, Marion and Western road, from Anamosa to Marion; the Mississippi and Missouri road will soon push on from Marengo to Grinnell; seven hundred men are at work on the road leading westward from Cedar Rapids, and grading is progressing on most of the roads in the Southern part of the State. Considering what is and has been the condition of the times for nearly four years, Iowa has accomplished wonders in the line of railroads.