History of the Railroads in Johnson County
The
following has been transcribed from "Leading Events in Johnson County"
by Clarence Ray Aurner. The following is composed of excerpts and is
not the entire chapter provided in the book. The full history can
be found off-site at Leading Events in Johnson County, Vol. I, Chapter XII. The
first line of railroad that went so far as to make a grade in Iowa was,
in the beginning, known as the “Lyons Iowa Central.” It’s general
direction as provided for by survey and as understood by act of the
assembly approved February 4, 1850, was across the state from Lyons, on
the Mississippi, by way of Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to the
Missouri river. The act surrendered the right of way one hundred feet
wide through section sixteen in each township, and through any other
lands the state might own, and provided for a method of securing this
right of way through the lands of resident, or non-resident
owners. All along the line from Lyons westward, this road was the
all-absorbing topic from the time the first dirt was moved until it
went out of the minds of men with the nickname of “The Calico Road,” as
will be learned later.The
immediate connection of this with Johnson County appears first in May,
1853, when a petition came before the county judge, F. H. Lee, from
many citizens asking for a vote on the question of bonds. The
records indicate that the petition was signed by a large number of
citizens of the county. The question proposed reads literally as
follows: “That the county of Johnson will aid in the construction of
the Lyons Iowa Central Railroad within the limits of said county, in
case Iowa City is made a point in the said road, by subscribing fifty
thousand dollars stock; that the county bonds shall be issued therefor
bearing interest and payable within twenty years; that an annual tax of
three mills on the dollar be levied for the payment of the interest
annually; and after ten years the rate of tax be increased to an amount
not to exceed one per cent on the taxable property in the county, and
this to continue until the bonds and interest are all paid.” This was a
plain proposition, without any condition attached beyond “the point on
the line.” At this date one does not understand why such propositions
for voting taxes blindly were so easily carried. It happened many times
in connection with the railroad history of Iowa counties, and it was a
foregone conclusion that this would carry by a large majority. The very
suggestion of steam cars crossing this state was sufficient to arouse
enthusiasm and the purchasers of bonds made it a business to speculate
on this enthusiasm.The
newspapers of that interesting period are not obtainable, but according
to legal provision the notice of this election was published for four
weeks in the Iowa Capital Reporter and Iowa City Republican. This was
the beginning of bond history which ran on for a period of not less
than seventeen years before final agreement on a settlement.On
the sixteenth day of June, 1853, the vote was taken on this first bond
issue and the canvass of the vote on July 1, gave 453 votes for the
issue and 47 votes against the issue, a majority of 406, Iowa City
township casting 231 votes for and none against the proposition, while
no township of the eleven voting at that date had a majority against
the tax. Pleasant Valley had 16 for and 10 against, showing the
greatest opposition. From a special study of this Lyons Iowa Central
Road as projected, and as it concerned a citizen of Iowa City, has
since then occupied a leading position in his chosen profession, we may
select the following items as prepared by Mrs. Ruth Irish Preston for
the Annals of Iowa, for January 1910:Previous
to 1850 all efforts had been toward the improvement of the inland
waterways, but in this year, when the Fourth General Assembly convened
at Iowa City (December 6, 1852) Governor Hempstead recommended that the
Legislature “urge Congress to make a grant of public lands to aid in
the construction of railroads in Iowa;” and at this session strong
efforts were made to secure land grants to aid in the construction of
several lines in the State.“In
1850 a company had been organized in Iowa City to build a road from the
Mississippi to that place. This organization was known as the
“Iowa City and Davenport Railroad Company,” and later, having taken no
steps toward construction, other than the making of a preliminary
survey, its franchise was transferred to the “Mississippi and Missouri”
company – after its organization in October 1852 – on the condition
that the road should be built through Iowa City. This transfer was made
May 25, 1853.“However,
before the organization of the “Mississippi and Missouri” company in
October, and before the recommendation of Governor Hempstead concerning
land grants in December, 1852, the “Lyons Iowa Central” engineering
corps was in the field, locating its line from Lyons westward. I quote
the following from the journal of my father, C. W. Irish, who was a
member of the engineering party; “October 15, 1852. Today I entered the
corps of engineers at work setting grade stakes on the Lyons Iowa
Central Railroad. The party consists of the following persons: Mr. J.
I. Wanzer, assistant engineer; C. H. Holbrook, as rodman; J. Wright, as
teamster; Wm. Hunter and myself as axe men.” During the next two months
Mr. Irish, then a youth of eighteen, worked back and forth several
times between Iowa City and Lyons, serving for a time as chainman in
Mr. Buck’s party and then as rodman in R. P. Mendenhall’s corps.“In
January, 1853, Mr. Estes and party arrived at Lyons, after which Mr.
Allen Slack, chief engineer, made different arrangements for the
several parties under his charge. The winter of 1852-53 was not a very
pleasant camping season. My
father records that, “The winter has been a remarkably cold one, the
thermometer standing several times at 18 and 20 degrees below zero. The
Mississippi river is frozen to a greater depth than it hash been for
some time and the ground is cracked open in every direction.”“As
further proof of the priority of the Lyons Iowa Central work over that
of any other railroad in the State, I cite the following from a recent
letter to me from Hon. Peter A. Dey of Iowa City:“In
the spring of 1853, while in charge of the construction of a division
of the Chicago and Rock Island railroad n Bureau Valley, Illinois, I
was instructed to make a survey of a railway from Davenport to Iowa
City to be followed by a location as early as practicable. Before
it was fully completed it was turned over to Mr. B. B. Brayton and I
directed to make a survey to such point on the Missouri river as I
deemed practicable for the starting of a line of railway to be extended
p the Platte valley. My instructions in this regard were liberal.
The haste to make this survey was occasioned by the fact that a line
was being surveyed on practically the same route by the Lyons Iowa
Central railroad company. This survey was being made by a Mr.
Buck, a land surveyor living near Lyons. Having occasion to observe
some of Mr. Buck’s work I saw that his object was evidently to get as
near as practicable an air line from one county seat to the next.
This was usually followed by a vote in every county in favor of issuing
bonds to aid in the construction of the railroad. Under this plan bonds
were voted and as I remember, issued in Clinton, Cedar and Johnson
counties and voted but not issued in Iowa, Jasper, Poweshiek and Polk
counties. The haste in making the Chicago and Rock Island surveys
seems to have been to prevent, if possible, the further issue of bonds
by other counties until something was definitely determined. At
that time, it was thought by parties interested in the Rock Island Road
that money could be procured from the securities of the road to build
across the State of Iowa as soon as the conditions warranted.
When I came into the State there was a strong feeling particularly in
Cedar, Poweshiek, Jasper and Polk counties, in favor of the Lyons Iowa
Central project, which was stimulated by a railway campaign that put
its orators in the field. The head and brains of this project was
H. P. Adams, a gentleman I believe from Syracuse, N. Y.”“Looking
further for information regarding this first railroad work in Iowa, I
find in the “First Annual Report” of the Lyons Iowa Central, an article
from the Chicago Democrat of February 4, 1854, concerning the “Galena
Air Line” (a road then under construction by the Galena and Chicago
Union Railroad, parent of the railroad system of Illinois) which was
then completed to the village of Lane in Ogle County, seventy-five
miles west of Chicago. The article states:“The
whole of the road is under contract and is to be completed to the
Mississippi by the first of August next. At Dixon it crosses the main
line of the Illinois Central and will furnish the people living on the
line of that road, for many miles north and south of that point, direct
railway communication with our city. At Fulton City it is said there is
a fine point for crossing the Mississippi. The plan of the bridge
places it one hundred feet above high-water mark, and of course it
would be no impediment to navigation. From Chicago to Fulton City the
distance is 135 miles. There will be two daily passenger trains
and one freight train leaving the city on the first of May next. The
extension of the Galena Air Line westward is called the “Lyons Iowa
Central Railroad”. Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, is the point to
which several of the extensions of the roads from this city are aiming
and that is to be the western terminus of this road. It is under
contract and the money is provided to built it to Iowa City,
seventy-three miles. The distance from Lyons to Council Bluffs is
308 miles. It is to be completed to Tipton, fifty miles west of
the Mississippi, by the first of October next. This part of the road is
to be nearly an airline. Five hundred men are now at work upon the
road. The country through which it passes is as fine as any portion of
the Mississippi valley and it may therefore be expected to add very
much to the business and general prosperity of the city. It is to be
completed to Iowa city by the first of April, 1855.Bond issues continued to be discussed but left out of this articleHowever, the final climax of the bond issue is told as follows by Mr. Gilbert Irish in his History of Johnson County:“ After
years of discussion and litigation a convention of counties was called
December 15 1868. Delegates from Washington, Muscatine, Johnson,
Jefferson, Lee, Cedar and Poweshiek counties met in the city of
Muscatine. After a lengthy discussion the following preamble was
adopted:“Whereas
the recent decision of the Federal court, involving corporation
railroad bonds in this State seems to us subversive of our authority
and the dignity of our State courts, and dangerous to the rights and
privileges of citizens of the State, if not a positive and unwonted
encroachment upon the jurisdiction of the State courts, therefore,
Resolved, that this convention recommends to the citizens of the
several counties, and citizens interested in this railroad bond
question, to pay all their taxes except the railroad tax, and refuse to
pay that until all legal and practical remedies are exhausted.Several
other default resolutions were adopted, speeches were made by Hon. Rush
Clark of Johnson County, Charles Negus of Jefferson, Robert Gower of
Cedar and by es-Governor Kirkwood, who said: “All will admit that we
have a right to make our state constitution and laws just as we please,
provided we do not trench upon the constitution of the United States.
What a value is this right if our courts cannot interpret the meaning
of our constitution and laws.”Still,
like Banquo’s ghost, the railway bonds would not down, and in the
following May, 1869, a United States Marshal came to Iowa City and
arrested the Board of Supervisors and City Council on a warrant for
contempt, and took them as prisoners to Des Moines. When the United
States entered the field, it soon closed the bond war. The terms
of peace were brief and dictated by the victorious bond holders – it
was tax or prison, and tax it was for some years.“I
visited points on the road-bed that are still visible at Iowa City,
prominent among which are a big cut just outside and north of the
Catholic cemetery, and a remnant of embankment at the head of Dubuque
Street which was to have formed the approach to the proposed bridge
over the Iowa river. Soon these historic evidences of the Lyons
Road will be gone as are the men who wrought and suffered loss and
disappointment in its work. As the laborer is worthy of his reward it
is gratifying to realize that not a few of the men who bravely met
defeat in this venture afterward attained distinction in their chosen
profession. Prominent among these were Messrs. J. I. Wanzer, J. L.
Estes, Allen Slack and Charles W. Irish.
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