jan 1, 1860 - “Paper Railroads”

Description:

(Photo: Samuel Hallett was the driving force behind the early efforts of the Union Pacific Railway Eastern Division. Kansas State Historical Society.)

The Leavenworth Pawnee & Western was one of eight chartered railroads in present day Wyandotte County before the start of the Civil War. This railroad was the only one that completed a line as planned during the Civil War. The general theme for the Kansas Territory for granting railroad charters for no more than one dollar was “the more rail lines the better.” In most cases there were simply no stock subscribers, no money in the company treasury, and no stock sold or paid for in cash.
In 1857 the Quindaro Parkville and Grand River Railway charter was to connect with the Hannibal St. Joseph Rail Way (Farley). Quindaro suffered financial problems after the national financial Panic of 1857, which hit the west in 1858. This was quickly followed by a terrible winter in 1860 and the start of the Civil War. It was a bitter pill to swallow for these citizens of an important route on the underground railroad. Many Quindaro townsite investors lost their life savings on land speculation in Quindaro. The famed boom and bust ferry port town of Quindaro is located three miles north of Wyandott City on the Missouri River. It was the most highly touted free-state town founded by the Emigrant Aid Society of New England. Beginning in 1856, the founder of Quindaro, Abelard Guthrie, lobbied in Washington D. C. to have his town become an important railway terminal (Farley).
There is no archaeological evidence of railroad building at Quindaro townsite prior to the Civil War but certainly the idea was discussed at a number of railroad conventions and small-town meetings in Missouri and Kansas (Schmits, pgs. 89-145). An advertising brochure published in 1856 exaggerated town site development with a plat of the city that includes proposed building sites and parks as well as a network of proposed railroads through Quindaro (Barrett, Dec. 1856). It is arguably one of the main contributing factors to the demise of Quindaro that a rail line was not built to Lawrence, or Leavenworth when the town was at its zenith in January of 1858 with an estimated 800 residents. George Park, founder of Parkville, Missouri on the east side of the river and Dr. Charles Robinson of Topeka were the principle advocates in favor of a bridge across the Missouri River between Quindaro and Parkville that would make connection with the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. At a meeting in Quindaro on December 5, 1856, and presided over by General S. C. Pomeroy, it was asserted that the best idea would be to build a rail bridge from Parkville to Lawrence with Quindaro as a centerpiece on the Missouri for passage north to Leavenworth, south to Wyandott and west to Lawrence (Kansas Herald of Freedom, p. 2). There was also excitement in Quindaro about a meeting held at a warehouse in Parkville on May 8, 1858 that dealt with a newly chartered Platte Country Railroad that would run from Parkville to Platte City and New Market, Missouri (Quindaro Chindowan, May, 14, 1858). Without doubt railroad connections were uppermost in the minds of promoters and citizens of the town. In an issue of the Chindowan, a free-state newspaper at Quindaro, an interesting governmental statistic was printed stating that Free States had 17,986 miles of rail while slave states had 6,490 miles in the United States (Quindaro Chindowan, November 21, 1857). It was railroads and not ferries that were foremost on the minds of northern anti-slavery settlers for limiting and ultimately abolishing slavery.
It was not until the early 1870’s the Missouri Pacific Railroad crossed the Kaw River into Wyandott then to Quindaro and to Leavenworth. According to a map of the area from 1878, the Missouri Pacific traversed a section of Wyandotte County known as Quindaro along the Missouri River (Munro, p. 104). The stop for Quindaro was at Nearman Station across from Parkville. The next stop on the route was at Connor’s Station which is in present day Lansing before reaching Leavenworth. A bridge was never built between Quindaro and Parkville.
In 1857 the Wyandotte, Minneola and Council Grove Railway charter was incorporated with capital stock of $5 million to build from Quindaro via Wyandott to Olathe, Minneola and Council Groves (Weiser, p.2). This charter was combined with other failures and became part of other railways. The owners were Alfred Gray (1830-1880) (1st Mayor of Quindaro), George Park, J.P. Root and James Winchell. Alfred Gray was an attorney with the New England Emigrant Aid Society, served in the Kansas Territorial Legislature, became Secretary of the State Agricultural Society and eventually Secretary for the State Board of Agriculture from 1866-1880. Gray was the most loyal to Quindaro looking after failed investor properties until 1864 when the third-class town finally lost its charter.
In 1858 the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain Railway is documented to have completed a geographic survey of land to build a railway from Quindaro to Lawrence but also failed to attract investors (Morgan, p. 448).
In 1858 the Kansas Central Railway charter was formed in part by anti-slavery proponent Charles Robinson (Weiser, p. 2). The group raised $3 million in capital stock to run a line from Leavenworth to Quindaro, then Wyandott City to Lawrence with a big picture aim at San Francisco. This group was unsuccessful and folded before the Civil War but it is evidence that this visionary route for a transcontinental railroad was stirring several years before Samuel Hallett and the Union Pacific Railway – Eastern Division.
In 1859 the Kansas Valley Line charter completed some grading in Wyandott toward Lawrence with the support of Wyandott City Mayor, Colonel James Parr (Morgan, p. 448). In Morgan’s History of Wyandotte County the use of the term “thoroughfares” (p. 448) is not referring to railroad lines but rather to stage coach lines. There were roads for horse drawn wagons from Quindaro to Wyandott, Lawrence and Topeka at this time but no trains until 1863 from Wyandott to Lawrence.
In 1891 an academic dispute broke out about “who was the first railroad on Kansas soil” between the Elwood Free Press and the Honorable F.H. Betton in the Kansas City Gazette (Wy.Hist.J. Vol IV. No. 1 pp. 2-8). The town of Elwood across from St. Joseph held that the first passengers rode on their four-mile line to Wathena pulled by “The Albany” steam locomotive on July 25, 1860. Betton gently discounted the significance of Elwood’s one-time event that led nowhere, and responded that the LP&W RW had graded and laid rail two years earlier in 1858 for at least two miles south from Leavenworth, and in the town of Wyandott under Mayor Parr, the Kansas Valley Line was graded for a short distance toward Lawrence. Betton subtly appears to be saying “connect the dottes!” The Kansas Valley Line became part of the Union Pacific Railway Eastern Division, and by extension then, when Engine No. 1 called the Wyandotte became the first to take passengers and freight from Wyandott to Lawrence in 1863, deserves the unique distinction of being the first railroad line in Kansas that went somewhere! Competition for railway success as spun by local newspapers was common among railroad promoters.
In 1859 the Wyandot and Osawatomie Railway was chartered. Its charter was consolidated by the Atchison & Topeka Rail Way (Weiser, p. 3).
In 1859 the Atchison Topeka Railway was chartered through Wyandott which in 1871 became the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (Morgan, p. 449). Their original plan was to run from Elwood, to Atchison, to Leavenworth, Quindaro, Wyandott, Osawatomie and points southwest. After several charter combinations, the AT&SF became one of America’s most successful railroads.

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images: