Draft for Wikipedia
Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs
The first railroad scheme to engage the attention of the county, and which became the subject of a general ballot was the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph railroad. The company working under this style was organized May 18, 1858. The object of the company was to build and operate a railroad from Council Bluffs to some point on the Missouri state line, there to connect with a railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri. The articles of incorporation were filed for record in the recorder’s office in the county of Pottawattamie, May 18, 1858, and filed in the office of the secretary of state, July 2, 1858.
H. C. Nutt was appointed chief engineer. He made preliminary survey from Council Bluffs south to the state line, and made his first report to the first annual meeting of the stockholders, held at Council Bluffs, July 12, 1858. The first ground was broken for the railroad, at Council Bluffs, near the present depot of the K. C., St. Jo. & C. B. railroad. The road was put under contract from Council Bluffs to the Iowa state line. Considerable grading was done in Pottawattamie and Mills counties, and several thousand ties delivered.
The contractors were Charles Hendrie and John Jones, of Council Bluffs. J. S. Andrews was general agent of the company for obtaining aid, managing real estate and right of way, soliciting stock subscriptions, and supervising the work. The war, commencing in April, 1861, soon stopped operations on this railroad, and during its continuance no progress was made.
On April 11, 1860, the Pacific City land company conveyed to the railroad company 300 lots in Pacific City on condition that there be no depot for ten years in Mills county other than Pacific City. The Pacific City lots did not turn out to be of much value, and the station has been abandoned for business reasons.
September 23, 1865, the company entered into a contract with Willis Phelphs, of Springfield, Massachusetts, for the completion of the road in two years. During the winter of 1855-6 the road was re-surveyed re-located by a new chief engineer, E.G. Ferris, who remained until the completion of the work. Ties and other material were also obtained.
The road was completed from Council Bluffs to the southern line of Mills county by January 1, 1867, and on January 15, 1867, trains commenced running regularly between Council Bluffs and Bartlett. Part of the iron for this portion of the road was brought up the Missouri river in steamboats from St. Joseph and landed at Stillary’s in Mills county, a town long since washed into the river. Later in the fall the iron was brought to Woodbine, in Harrison county, then the terminus of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and taken to Council Bluffs in wagons. In 1866 and 1867 the floods in the Missouri river delayed the progress of the work, and in 1867 the trains were stopped seventy days on account of damages by the floods.
The road was completed to the Missouri state line, December 30, 1867.
When the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad was commenced in 1859, it was expected that it would meet at the state line, the Platte country railroad from St. Joseph, but that and some other companies were merged in the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs railroad company, which was organized in the fall of 1866, and completed to the Junction at the Iowa state line, a mile south of Hamburg in August, 1868, when trains commenced running regularly through from St. Joseph to Council Bluffs. In the fall of 1868 a majority of the stock of the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad company was purchased by Nathaniel Thayer, as trustee, and in the month of November the road passed in the charge of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad company. It was consolidated with that company April 7, 1869, taking its title.
A second change was made May 19, 1870, and a new consolidation formed with the Missouri Valley railroad company, the united companies taking the title of the Kansas city, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad company. Under this name the road was for some time operated.
Burlington Route
The next proposition entertained by the county was in the year 1868, when Glenwood township took the initiative. At the meeting of the township trustees for September 24,of that year, a petition signed by one hundred and twenty voters was presented “asking said board to call an election and submit the question, ‘Shall Glenwood township aid in the construction of the Burlington and Missouri River railroad as provided by chapter 48 of the acts of the 12th General Assembly of the state of Iowa?’” The petition was granted and the election called. The balloting was had at the old brick school house on October 6, 1868. The election resulted in the casting of one hundred and sixty-five votes for, and fifty against taxation. This result was duly “reported to the clerk of the board of supervisors” on the next day, the seventh of the month. The project had been conceived before this time, for on the minutes of the board of supervisors for October, 1867, appeared the following:
Resolved, That all the taxes now levied and standing against the clear list of lands in Mills county, Iowa, belonging to the Burlington and Missouri river railroad company, be and the same is hereby remitted, provided, that said company shall construct their road when extended west on the line of their road where it was definitely fixed and located by the board of directors in March, 1857.
It may be proper before proceeding further to note the incorporation of this company. The act of incorporation was commenced by a preliminary meeting of some of the principal citizen’s of Burlington, Iowa, January 15, 1852; but it did not complete its organization nor become an efficient company until November 22, 1853. By March 22, 1854, it had completed seventy-five miles of its road, from Burlington to Ottumwa. Meanwhile the various congressional and state acts had been passed, relative to the swamp and other lands. The Burlington and Missouri River railroad, was one of the roads specified in the several acts, and it accepted the trust imposed by the state, July 25, 1856. By this grant the company received from the state to aid in the construction of its road 287,099 acres of land. This was subsequently increased to the aggregate of 390,072.23 of which there are, in Mills county, 40,613 acres. For a history of the litigation between this company, and its successor, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the county, reference may be had to the swamp land troubles.
In 1868 another railroad scheme was projected through the county, and which was made the object of action on the part of the board of supervisors. It was the Chillicothe and Omaha railroad, which however was never completed. The action referred to bears date of January, 1868, and is as follows:
Resolved, That the sum of five hundred dollars or so much thereof as shall be required therefor, be and the same is hereby appropriated for the survey and fina1 location of the Chillicothe and Omaha railroad centrally through the county of Mills, making the county seat a point therein, and that as soon as the president of said company shall certify to the clerk of this board, and accompany said certificate with, a plat of said survey and location, to be filed in his office, stating the amount that has been used for that purpose, the same not to exceed $500, shall thereupon be paid to him.
Soon after the coming of the Burlington and Missouri called for renewed action, and in the matter of taxes on the lands of that company, received in trust from the state to aid in its construction, the following action was had, bearing date of December, 1868:
Resolved, That in consideration and on condition that the Burlington and Missouri River railroad company shall locate the line of their road and build the same through Mills county, Iowa, via Glenwood, in said county, and also locate and build a depot at said town of Glenwood, it is hereby resolved by the board of supervisors of Mills county, in the state of Iowa, that the taxes that may have been or shall be levied on the lands belonging to said railroad company in said county, shall be and the same is hereby remitted, provided that this resolution shall not be so construed as to remit said taxes for more than two years to come, including also the taxes which have been and are now levied on and standing against said lands, it being the true intent and meaning of this resolution.
This action of the supervisors was destined to become one fraught with most important results, for in the trial of the causes which grew out of the swamp land grant between the county and the railroad company, it was used as a most potent argument in relation to the attitude of the county to the railroad when making the compromise relative to the suits pending in the supreme court of the United States. The road was completed, and the first train passed through Glenwood in the year 1869. The same company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, control the Nebraska City & Sidney railroad, built in 1878, and the K. C., St. Joe & C., B. railroad, a history of which precedes. Besides the branches above indicated as being under the control of this great corporation, there is the Hastings & Avoca branch, which runs from the first named place to Carson City.
Mr. Coolidge built a grist mill in Section 12, Township 72, Range 43 for the grinding of grain. A pond on the banks of Keg Creek was created to turn the mill wheel. The mill was sold to Mr. T. B. Gordon in 1851. It was thereafter known as the Gordon Mill.
1869 The Burlington Missouri River Railroad came to Glenwood, changing the route of Keg Creek and cutting the Gordon Mill trace in half. This probably caused the end of the mill operation. The obstructed mill pond grew into a lake, fed by drainage of the large acreage to the east and the McCoy Branch Creek to the north of the lake.
Glenwood Park and public ownership of the lake began with 35 acres of original Burlington Missouri Railroad right-of-way sold to Glenwood for $325 when a new right-of-way was constructed. The property ran from southwest of the city limits to the point where the new right-of-way crossed the old one on the McCoy farm east of Glenwood. It included the original depot and the existing lake. Only 23 acres were suitable for park land.
Wabash
Another road has been recently completed through the county, the Wabash, or more commonly known as the Council Bluffs, Pacific & St. Louis railroad; this road pursues a very sinuous course through the county.
For years it was anticipated that sooner or later a railroad would be constructed up the valley of Silver Creek in the general direction of Council Bluffs. But not until the year 1879 was work actually begun on the road that was to influence the township so vitally. H. H. Huffaker secured from the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company the location of a station on his farm. (HHH)
With the coming of the Wabash railroad from St. Louis to Omaha, more people came into the community. Henry H. Huffaker gave land for the town of Silver City to be founded in 1879. Mrs. Huffaker was given the honor of naming the little town, and she chose Silver City because it was near the sparkling clear Silver Creek. (ILF) A. W. Crosby, W. G. Moore and Nathan Brookhouser were the first merchants beginning business the spring of 1879.
I can “hark” back to a time when there was no Silver City. Because before Silver City ‘I was.’ Harrison Huffaker and family were the sole occupants of the place. Myself and some nine or ten other men stayed all night with him in his little modest home in February 1897. We were members of a surveying party conducted by T.A. Clark, an uncle of mine, employed by the Wabash R.R. Company, who surveyed and constructed the first thirty-six miles out of Council Bluffs. Where Mineola now stands there were just two families, the Cash and Lanz. D.H. Soloman, a noted attorney, of Council Bluffs. was employed by the R.R. Co., to get the right¬of-way through, which required all the diplomacy of a foreign Counsul, but D.H. was equal to the occasion. A perfect gentleman in demeanor,
suave, mild as Moses, and his step was such that he could walk on pavement of fresh laid eggs and never crack a shell. It is hardly necessary to state that he had very few damage suits.
It is a long step backward from 1932 to 1879, 53 years with only the memory as a record. Some events in the "chain” are left out and the describing becomes disconnected and a loss of interest follows. So the writer pleads guilty and asks the leniency of the court.
After the survey of the Wabash was made and the grade stakes set, the contractors came on and took their places with their mules, scrapers, shovels and plows. Some of these contractors had only a mile from that up to six or eight, depending on their financial resources. If I am not mistaken I think J.J. Brown an old R.R. Contracor of Council
Bluffs was the “big man” among the riding several miles out of Council Bluffs — starting from the Union Depot.
Cheap bunk houses were built along the right of way and mule stables were put up for the mules. In the bunks were mostly Irishmen. “Sons of Erin” with a number of Swedes. In these bunks Irishmen from Donegal and the Cove of Cork, Dublin, and Tipperary, rested after 12 hours of gruesome toil; ate, drank, slept, swore and fought that the “Wabash” might live, move and have its being.
South of Silver City, some 2½ miles near the old Landon and Schroder home were located the Shannon and Martin's outfit where they took out a “cut” and made a "fill" across the low ground north and south to the township line of Silver Creek. Whether they came any farther south or not I cannot say as memory fails here.
Just south and a little west of where Patrick’s Mill used to stand was a firm of Morrisy &
Jones--famous in the annals of the Wabash--but that is another story.
Leaving a point just west of G.W. Patrick’s old mill site, in Center township, the R.R. Line, runs south and east. Crossing Silver Creek about half way through Section 12 in Center township, keeping very close to the creek on the east side for a mile and a half, then coming back into Silver Creek twp. in the N.W. corner of Section 18. Passing through
the lands then owned by W.C. Swarts, Arron Lewis and Pat McCormick, all very low ground, with many sloughs and small water holes, where in the heat of summer, bred innumerable swarms of flies, mosquitoes, gnats and all sorts of creeping things. Venting their spite during the day on the men and mules, and when night came mingling their voices with that of the whippoorwill, frogs and screech owls, sending up a demonical deafening nightly chorus, that woke echoes in the hills, causing the worn and weary Irishman to roll over in his bunk, sit up and wonder what it was all about. For it was
in the jungle of dense forest growth, wild grape vines, thorn bushes and stumps, so thick one could hardly pass among them, that the “Forces” of Morrisy & Jones were encamped. Equipped only with old fashioned Drag Scrapers, pick, shovels, and plows, for all this was before the day’s of modern machinery and dynamite. Here was a job that staggered the imagination, a battle with the combined forces of Nature, arranged against them, these Noble Sons of “Erin” labored and built through the blistering heat of summer day and sun,
a section of the most discouraging difficult and diabolical link of the Wabash on the whole line between Council Bluffs and Pattonsburg. “There are they who came up through great Tribulation.” Little today, does the average passenger riding over the rails of the Wabash, in his upholstered seat, dream or think of the Martyrs, far from home and country, who suffered almost the returns of the Inquisition, and made it possible for him to travel in such luxury and ease.
The Wabash Railroad started in 1879 from Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Louis, Missouri. At one time it had four passenger trains, two going each way every day. It also carried the mail which was delivered to and from the train to the Post Offices. The freight trains also carried lots of freight stopping at each depot. With the coming of trucks carrying freight, the railroad finally lost a lots of business, including mail and passenger.
At each town, the railroad had section crews, (men who worked on the tracks) and also a depot agent. Later they closed some depots and also took off the section crews. The railroad used trucks that run on rails making the length of their working lines longer and depot agents about every other town. At one time a passenger train and freight train were all in one, stopping to pick up mail and freight. With not too many passengers, the railroad finally stopped the passenger train. The last passenger train going through Silver City was June 1968.
The Norfolk and Western took over the Wabash in October 1964.
One of the interesting but less-well-known early-day towns of Mills County was Solomon, a community founded after the Council Bluffs & St. Louis Railway was completed on its almost diagonal course across the county in 1879. It later became the Wabash Railway and today is the Norfolk & Western. Solomon was in the southeast corner of Mills County, some three miles from the east border and less than a half mile from the Fremont County line. It was named after one of the county's pioneer lawyers and lawmakers, the Hon. Daniel H. Solomon, who also had large land holdings in Deer Creek township and was reported to have owned a section in the vicinity of the town that bore his name. Joel Solomon, possibly a relative, was one of the county's pioneers and also a large landowner in Deer Creek township.
Tabor & Northern
The first railroad scheme to engage the attention of the county, and which became the subject of a general ballot was the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph railroad. The company working under this style was organized May 18, 1858. The object of the company was to build and operate a railroad from Council Bluffs to some point on the Missouri state line, there to connect with a railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri. The articles of incorporation were filed for record in the recorder’s office in the county of Pottawattamie, May 18, 1858, and filed in the office of the secretary of state, July 2, 1858.
H. C. Nutt was appointed chief engineer. He made preliminary survey from Council Bluffs south to the state line, and made his first report to the first annual meeting of the stockholders, held at Council Bluffs, July 12, 1858. The first ground was broken for the railroad, at Council Bluffs, near the present depot of the K. C., St. Jo. & C. B. railroad. The road was put under contract from Council Bluffs to the Iowa state line. Considerable grading was done in Pottawattamie and Mills counties, and several thousand ties delivered.
The contractors were Charles Hendrie and John Jones, of Council Bluffs. J. S. Andrews was general agent of the company for obtaining aid, managing real estate and right of way, soliciting stock subscriptions, and supervising the work. The war, commencing in April, 1861, soon stopped operations on this railroad, and during its continuance no progress was made.
On April 11, 1860, the Pacific City land company conveyed to the railroad company 300 lots in Pacific City on condition that there be no depot for ten years in Mills county other than Pacific City. The Pacific City lots did not turn out to be of much value, and the station has been abandoned for business reasons.
September 23, 1865, the company entered into a contract with Willis Phelphs, of Springfield, Massachusetts, for the completion of the road in two years. During the winter of 1855-6 the road was re-surveyed re-located by a new chief engineer, E.G. Ferris, who remained until the completion of the work. Ties and other material were also obtained.
The road was completed from Council Bluffs to the southern line of Mills county by January 1, 1867, and on January 15, 1867, trains commenced running regularly between Council Bluffs and Bartlett. Part of the iron for this portion of the road was brought up the Missouri river in steamboats from St. Joseph and landed at Stillary’s in Mills county, a town long since washed into the river. Later in the fall the iron was brought to Woodbine, in Harrison county, then the terminus of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and taken to Council Bluffs in wagons. In 1866 and 1867 the floods in the Missouri river delayed the progress of the work, and in 1867 the trains were stopped seventy days on account of damages by the floods.
The road was completed to the Missouri state line, December 30, 1867.
When the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad was commenced in 1859, it was expected that it would meet at the state line, the Platte country railroad from St. Joseph, but that and some other companies were merged in the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs railroad company, which was organized in the fall of 1866, and completed to the Junction at the Iowa state line, a mile south of Hamburg in August, 1868, when trains commenced running regularly through from St. Joseph to Council Bluffs. In the fall of 1868 a majority of the stock of the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad company was purchased by Nathaniel Thayer, as trustee, and in the month of November the road passed in the charge of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad company. It was consolidated with that company April 7, 1869, taking its title.
A second change was made May 19, 1870, and a new consolidation formed with the Missouri Valley railroad company, the united companies taking the title of the Kansas city, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad company. Under this name the road was for some time operated.
Burlington Route
The next proposition entertained by the county was in the year 1868, when Glenwood township took the initiative. At the meeting of the township trustees for September 24,of that year, a petition signed by one hundred and twenty voters was presented “asking said board to call an election and submit the question, ‘Shall Glenwood township aid in the construction of the Burlington and Missouri River railroad as provided by chapter 48 of the acts of the 12th General Assembly of the state of Iowa?’” The petition was granted and the election called. The balloting was had at the old brick school house on October 6, 1868. The election resulted in the casting of one hundred and sixty-five votes for, and fifty against taxation. This result was duly “reported to the clerk of the board of supervisors” on the next day, the seventh of the month. The project had been conceived before this time, for on the minutes of the board of supervisors for October, 1867, appeared the following:
Resolved, That all the taxes now levied and standing against the clear list of lands in Mills county, Iowa, belonging to the Burlington and Missouri river railroad company, be and the same is hereby remitted, provided, that said company shall construct their road when extended west on the line of their road where it was definitely fixed and located by the board of directors in March, 1857.
It may be proper before proceeding further to note the incorporation of this company. The act of incorporation was commenced by a preliminary meeting of some of the principal citizen’s of Burlington, Iowa, January 15, 1852; but it did not complete its organization nor become an efficient company until November 22, 1853. By March 22, 1854, it had completed seventy-five miles of its road, from Burlington to Ottumwa. Meanwhile the various congressional and state acts had been passed, relative to the swamp and other lands. The Burlington and Missouri River railroad, was one of the roads specified in the several acts, and it accepted the trust imposed by the state, July 25, 1856. By this grant the company received from the state to aid in the construction of its road 287,099 acres of land. This was subsequently increased to the aggregate of 390,072.23 of which there are, in Mills county, 40,613 acres. For a history of the litigation between this company, and its successor, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the county, reference may be had to the swamp land troubles.
In 1868 another railroad scheme was projected through the county, and which was made the object of action on the part of the board of supervisors. It was the Chillicothe and Omaha railroad, which however was never completed. The action referred to bears date of January, 1868, and is as follows:
Resolved, That the sum of five hundred dollars or so much thereof as shall be required therefor, be and the same is hereby appropriated for the survey and fina1 location of the Chillicothe and Omaha railroad centrally through the county of Mills, making the county seat a point therein, and that as soon as the president of said company shall certify to the clerk of this board, and accompany said certificate with, a plat of said survey and location, to be filed in his office, stating the amount that has been used for that purpose, the same not to exceed $500, shall thereupon be paid to him.
Soon after the coming of the Burlington and Missouri called for renewed action, and in the matter of taxes on the lands of that company, received in trust from the state to aid in its construction, the following action was had, bearing date of December, 1868:
Resolved, That in consideration and on condition that the Burlington and Missouri River railroad company shall locate the line of their road and build the same through Mills county, Iowa, via Glenwood, in said county, and also locate and build a depot at said town of Glenwood, it is hereby resolved by the board of supervisors of Mills county, in the state of Iowa, that the taxes that may have been or shall be levied on the lands belonging to said railroad company in said county, shall be and the same is hereby remitted, provided that this resolution shall not be so construed as to remit said taxes for more than two years to come, including also the taxes which have been and are now levied on and standing against said lands, it being the true intent and meaning of this resolution.
This action of the supervisors was destined to become one fraught with most important results, for in the trial of the causes which grew out of the swamp land grant between the county and the railroad company, it was used as a most potent argument in relation to the attitude of the county to the railroad when making the compromise relative to the suits pending in the supreme court of the United States. The road was completed, and the first train passed through Glenwood in the year 1869. The same company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, control the Nebraska City & Sidney railroad, built in 1878, and the K. C., St. Joe & C., B. railroad, a history of which precedes. Besides the branches above indicated as being under the control of this great corporation, there is the Hastings & Avoca branch, which runs from the first named place to Carson City.
Mr. Coolidge built a grist mill in Section 12, Township 72, Range 43 for the grinding of grain. A pond on the banks of Keg Creek was created to turn the mill wheel. The mill was sold to Mr. T. B. Gordon in 1851. It was thereafter known as the Gordon Mill.
1869 The Burlington Missouri River Railroad came to Glenwood, changing the route of Keg Creek and cutting the Gordon Mill trace in half. This probably caused the end of the mill operation. The obstructed mill pond grew into a lake, fed by drainage of the large acreage to the east and the McCoy Branch Creek to the north of the lake.
Glenwood Park and public ownership of the lake began with 35 acres of original Burlington Missouri Railroad right-of-way sold to Glenwood for $325 when a new right-of-way was constructed. The property ran from southwest of the city limits to the point where the new right-of-way crossed the old one on the McCoy farm east of Glenwood. It included the original depot and the existing lake. Only 23 acres were suitable for park land.
Wabash
Another road has been recently completed through the county, the Wabash, or more commonly known as the Council Bluffs, Pacific & St. Louis railroad; this road pursues a very sinuous course through the county.
For years it was anticipated that sooner or later a railroad would be constructed up the valley of Silver Creek in the general direction of Council Bluffs. But not until the year 1879 was work actually begun on the road that was to influence the township so vitally. H. H. Huffaker secured from the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company the location of a station on his farm. (HHH)
With the coming of the Wabash railroad from St. Louis to Omaha, more people came into the community. Henry H. Huffaker gave land for the town of Silver City to be founded in 1879. Mrs. Huffaker was given the honor of naming the little town, and she chose Silver City because it was near the sparkling clear Silver Creek. (ILF) A. W. Crosby, W. G. Moore and Nathan Brookhouser were the first merchants beginning business the spring of 1879.
I can “hark” back to a time when there was no Silver City. Because before Silver City ‘I was.’ Harrison Huffaker and family were the sole occupants of the place. Myself and some nine or ten other men stayed all night with him in his little modest home in February 1897. We were members of a surveying party conducted by T.A. Clark, an uncle of mine, employed by the Wabash R.R. Company, who surveyed and constructed the first thirty-six miles out of Council Bluffs. Where Mineola now stands there were just two families, the Cash and Lanz. D.H. Soloman, a noted attorney, of Council Bluffs. was employed by the R.R. Co., to get the right¬of-way through, which required all the diplomacy of a foreign Counsul, but D.H. was equal to the occasion. A perfect gentleman in demeanor,
suave, mild as Moses, and his step was such that he could walk on pavement of fresh laid eggs and never crack a shell. It is hardly necessary to state that he had very few damage suits.
It is a long step backward from 1932 to 1879, 53 years with only the memory as a record. Some events in the "chain” are left out and the describing becomes disconnected and a loss of interest follows. So the writer pleads guilty and asks the leniency of the court.
After the survey of the Wabash was made and the grade stakes set, the contractors came on and took their places with their mules, scrapers, shovels and plows. Some of these contractors had only a mile from that up to six or eight, depending on their financial resources. If I am not mistaken I think J.J. Brown an old R.R. Contracor of Council
Bluffs was the “big man” among the riding several miles out of Council Bluffs — starting from the Union Depot.
Cheap bunk houses were built along the right of way and mule stables were put up for the mules. In the bunks were mostly Irishmen. “Sons of Erin” with a number of Swedes. In these bunks Irishmen from Donegal and the Cove of Cork, Dublin, and Tipperary, rested after 12 hours of gruesome toil; ate, drank, slept, swore and fought that the “Wabash” might live, move and have its being.
South of Silver City, some 2½ miles near the old Landon and Schroder home were located the Shannon and Martin's outfit where they took out a “cut” and made a "fill" across the low ground north and south to the township line of Silver Creek. Whether they came any farther south or not I cannot say as memory fails here.
Just south and a little west of where Patrick’s Mill used to stand was a firm of Morrisy &
Jones--famous in the annals of the Wabash--but that is another story.
Leaving a point just west of G.W. Patrick’s old mill site, in Center township, the R.R. Line, runs south and east. Crossing Silver Creek about half way through Section 12 in Center township, keeping very close to the creek on the east side for a mile and a half, then coming back into Silver Creek twp. in the N.W. corner of Section 18. Passing through
the lands then owned by W.C. Swarts, Arron Lewis and Pat McCormick, all very low ground, with many sloughs and small water holes, where in the heat of summer, bred innumerable swarms of flies, mosquitoes, gnats and all sorts of creeping things. Venting their spite during the day on the men and mules, and when night came mingling their voices with that of the whippoorwill, frogs and screech owls, sending up a demonical deafening nightly chorus, that woke echoes in the hills, causing the worn and weary Irishman to roll over in his bunk, sit up and wonder what it was all about. For it was
in the jungle of dense forest growth, wild grape vines, thorn bushes and stumps, so thick one could hardly pass among them, that the “Forces” of Morrisy & Jones were encamped. Equipped only with old fashioned Drag Scrapers, pick, shovels, and plows, for all this was before the day’s of modern machinery and dynamite. Here was a job that staggered the imagination, a battle with the combined forces of Nature, arranged against them, these Noble Sons of “Erin” labored and built through the blistering heat of summer day and sun,
a section of the most discouraging difficult and diabolical link of the Wabash on the whole line between Council Bluffs and Pattonsburg. “There are they who came up through great Tribulation.” Little today, does the average passenger riding over the rails of the Wabash, in his upholstered seat, dream or think of the Martyrs, far from home and country, who suffered almost the returns of the Inquisition, and made it possible for him to travel in such luxury and ease.
The Wabash Railroad started in 1879 from Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Louis, Missouri. At one time it had four passenger trains, two going each way every day. It also carried the mail which was delivered to and from the train to the Post Offices. The freight trains also carried lots of freight stopping at each depot. With the coming of trucks carrying freight, the railroad finally lost a lots of business, including mail and passenger.
At each town, the railroad had section crews, (men who worked on the tracks) and also a depot agent. Later they closed some depots and also took off the section crews. The railroad used trucks that run on rails making the length of their working lines longer and depot agents about every other town. At one time a passenger train and freight train were all in one, stopping to pick up mail and freight. With not too many passengers, the railroad finally stopped the passenger train. The last passenger train going through Silver City was June 1968.
The Norfolk and Western took over the Wabash in October 1964.
One of the interesting but less-well-known early-day towns of Mills County was Solomon, a community founded after the Council Bluffs & St. Louis Railway was completed on its almost diagonal course across the county in 1879. It later became the Wabash Railway and today is the Norfolk & Western. Solomon was in the southeast corner of Mills County, some three miles from the east border and less than a half mile from the Fremont County line. It was named after one of the county's pioneer lawyers and lawmakers, the Hon. Daniel H. Solomon, who also had large land holdings in Deer Creek township and was reported to have owned a section in the vicinity of the town that bore his name. Joel Solomon, possibly a relative, was one of the county's pioneers and also a large landowner in Deer Creek township.
Tabor & Northern
posted by Bob at 11:12 AM
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