Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–99)

The original Wisconsin Central Railroad Company was a major early railroad of northern Wisconsin, building lines up through the forested wilderness, and opening large tracts to logging and settlement. It established stations which would grow into a string of cities and towns between Stevens Point and Ashland, including Marshfield and Medford, and it connected these places to Chicago and St. Paul. It played a major role in building Chicago's Grand Central Station. Despite these successes, it struggled financially from the start and was bankrupt by 1879. It was leased to the Northern Pacific Railway from 1889 to 1893 and was finally reorganized from bankruptcy in 1897 as the Wisconsin Central Railway.

Background

1865 map of Wisconsin

By the time of the Civil War the southern half of Wisconsin was somewhat settled. Much of the north, however, remained wilderness, including swaths of beautiful virgin timber^[1] and deposits of iron ore. Treaties with Native Americans had placed most of this land in the hands of the federal government. Logging of the white pine had begun along the rivers, where the product could be floated out, but some stretches of timber stood far from large enough streams for river-logging. One such stretch lay between the Chippewa and Wisconsin Rivers

At that time, U.S. feelings toward Great Britain were not as warm as today. Britain was officially neutral during the Civil War, but many of the British elites sympathized with the Confederacy. This was only 50 years after the War of 1812, in which Britain had captured Prairie du Chien, among other indignities. And it was less than 100 years after the American Revolution. The British Province of Canada lay just across Lake Superior, and the War Department wanted the ability to move troops and supplies to that border, just in case.^[2] Toward that end, military wagon roads were cut through the northern forest. These were financed in part by land grants, where the government gave the road-builders timber and land close to the roads.^[3] But these stump-choked wagon roads would have transported war materials very slowly, so in 1864 the U.S. Congress offered similar land grants to encourage several proposed railroad-building projects from Portage up through the center of the state to Superior.^[4] Generally, if a railroad was built of adequate quality, its company received half the land and timber for ten miles on either side of what you built - the odd-numbered sections.^[5]

Two companies were established in 1866 to take advantage of Congress's offered land grants. The first corporation, the Winnebago and Lake Superior Railroad Company, was chartered to build from Menasha, the manufacturing center on Lake Winnebago, north to Stevens Point, and then onward to Superior. This railroad eventually was headed by Judge George Reed of Manitowoc.^[6] The second corporation, the Portage and Superior Railroad Company, intended to build from the city of Portage north to Stevens Point, also to Superior. The two railroads were consolidated in 1869 to become the Portage, Winnebago, and Superior Railroad Company, and this railroad's name was changed to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company in 1871.^[7] The Manitowoc and Minnesota Railroad, which Reed also headed, was consolidated into the Wisconsin Central in July 1871.^[8] None of these early railroad companies laid track, but their mergers provided corporate structure to move forward.

As corporate consolidation proceeded, Reed planned to build the first leg of the Wisconsin Central from Menasha to Stevens Point. Reed's colleagues included Menasha civic leader (and his brother) Curtis Reed and Matt Wadleigh, a lumber man from Stevens Point.^[9] They had the right to the land grant, but it paid only after track was built, so they needed money to get the project rolling.^[10] Judge Reed went east to look for financing.^[11]

Gardner Colby of Boston had worked his way up from store clerk to store owner to importer, then bought a textile mill and made his fortune selling clothing to the Union Army during the Civil War. Interested in Wisconsin timber and iron ore, he could arrange the financing that Judge Reed's group needed. But Colby didn't know anything about building a railroad. So he brought in Elijah B. Phillips, president of the Lake Shore and Northern Indiana Railway.^[12]

With financial backing secured, Judge Reed went back to Wisconsin to lay more groundwork. He had a civil engineer plan and estimate the first portion of the proposed railroad. That stretch from Menasha to Stevens Point was already somewhat settled, and Reed traveled up and down it raising support from the young towns that stood to profit from a rail connection. The arrangement with Colby was that locally raised money would buy the right of way, clear and grade it, put in culverts and bridges, and provide ties. Then Colby and his associates would provide the rails, stations, and all the equipment to run a railroad. Reed persuaded Menasha, Neenah and Waupaca to each give $50,000 to the project, Stevens Point $30,000, Ashland $20,000, and other towns smaller amounts.^[13]

Building the Line North

Construction began June 15, 1871 in West Menasha. Reuben Scott of Menasha oversaw this first 63-mile leg to Stevens Point. Two subcontractors cleared and graded the roadbed, employing as many as 2000 men, 600 horses, and 100 yoke of oxen. Other contractors built bridges, culverts and trestles. The largest such project was the 200-foot bridge across the Wolf River at Gills Landing, with a half mile of trestle approaches. The road bed was formed 16 feet wide at the top, with 9-foot hand-hewn cross ties. Then the steel rails were laid. Given equipment at that time, they made remarkable progress, averaging a mile per day. By October two trains were running daily to Waupaca, and the first train steamed into Stevens Point November 15, an occasion for celebration there. Governor Taylor and other dignitaries rode the new railroad late in the year and were impressed with its smoothness.^[14]

The second construction season in 1872 went pretty well too, though it was a different operation. Beyond Stevens Point the route passed through a wilderness of forests and swamps, with occasional camps of Indians, timber cruisers, and pioneer settlers. This time the Hooper, Boyle and Seymour Construction Company organized the road-building work, beginning March 18. At the Wisconsin River just west of Point, a bridge-building contractor constructed a three-span Howe truss bridge on piers of stone cut just west of the river. The railroad also established its Operating Headquarters in Point, building a six-stall roundhouse and shops there. By September the rails had reached "Section 53," fifty-one miles northwest of Stevens Point. They named the station Colby, in honor of Gardner Colby's son Charles, a director of the Wisconsin Central, and a partner in Phillips and Colby Construction Company. Beyond Colby, they had cleared the roadbed to "Mile Post 101," which would later be renamed Worcester, just south of modern Phillips.^[15]

Wisconsin Central Railroad Lands 1881

History

The Wisconsin Central's existence as an independent carrier was short-lived. Much of the Wisconsin Central right of way was built over land obtained through a Federal land-grant. It was the only land-grant railroad in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Central Railway's tracks reached Ashland in 1877, St. Paul in 1884, Chicago in 1886 and Superior in 1908. The line was leased from 1889-1893 by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The lease was terminated when the Northern Pacific declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893.

While under the control of the Northern Pacific, the Wisconsin Central Railroad constructed Solon Spencer Beman's great Romanesque Grand Central Station (Chicago) in 1889 as its southern terminus. When the Northern Pacific defaulted on its lease terms in 1893, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad acquired the several Chicago properties of the Wisconsin Central including Grand Central Station.

Notes

References

• Gjevre, John A. (2006). Saga of the Soo Vol III: EAST, WEST and to the NORTH. Moorhead, Minn.: Agassiz Publications. 
• Martin, Roy L. (January 1941). History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54). Boston, Mass.: The Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc., Baker Library, Harvard Business School. 
• Mladenoff, David; Sickley, Ted. "Appendix A: Ecological History of Wisconsin's Forests" (PDF). Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2016-01-02. 

See also

• Wisconsin Central Transportation - a reincarnation which operated 1987–2001

External links

• Soo Line Historical and Technical Society