The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad
By C. G. Sappington
One of the first railroads built west of the Alleghenies was the
Madison and Indianapolis railroad, now a part of the Louisville
Division of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis
road. The actual work of building the road was commenced in the
year 1836, at which time the Ohio River was one of the great
highways of Madison, one of the gateways of commerce. Her
citizens had every reason to believe she would become one of the
chief cities of the west; great pork houses were built, and
other industries established. She then man-aged a trade over
hundreds of miles of territory and it was to increase this trade
that a railroad was projected and built. The very thing that men
sixty years ago expected to advance the interest of Madison only
had a tendency to turn the tide backwards.
Mr. Milton Stapp, a lawyer of prominence in those days, argued
for the building of the road before several sessions of the
legislature, but without success until the Internal Improvement
Act was passed, January 27, 1836, and work on the Madison and
Indianapolis railroad was commenced by the State soon after. The
following composed the engineering corps that surveyed the road
from Madison to Indianapolis: Jesse F. Williams, chief engineer;
Gen. Thomas R. Morris, resident engineer; John Woodbum, acting
State commissioner; Edward W. Beckwith, resident engineer; R. M.
Patterson, J. H. Sprague, J. B. Bacon, John Mitchell and William
Clyde, assistant engineers. James Tilden, John G. Sering,
William V. Utter and W. Hoyt, rodmen; Richard J. Cox, J. T.
Burns, William Spann and J. Vanosdol, axmen. William Stough and
A. W. Flint were the contractors who built the first section of
the Madison hill (or plane), beginning at the foot of the plane,
including the Crooked creek culvert and trestle at Third street
to the upper end of Big Cut. Joseph Henderson built the second
section, commencing at the upper end of first cut to upper end
of second (or Big) cut. James Giddings built the third section
to the top of the plane, David C. Branham and F. W. Monroe the
first section beyond North Madison, Robert Cresswell the next,
and Danville Branham the next, which reached Wirt station, six
miles from Madison. The contractors who built the remaining
portion to Vernon (22 miles from Madison) were David Pallertine,
Samuel Lefever, J. D. Fanel, Edward Fanel, John Carnahan, Thomas
Hays, Adam Eichelberger, A. Hallom & Co., Rundell Bird & Co.,
Cochran & Douchett, William McKenzie, Overhaltz & Goodhue,
William Griffith and John Carboy. Other contractors completed
the road beyond Vernon.
The road was completed to the different points on the line as
follows:
Graham, 17 miles from Madison, Nov. 29, 1838.
Vernon, 22 miles from Madison, June 6, 1839.
Queensville, 27.8 miles from Madison, June 1, 1841.
Scipio, 30.3 miles from Madison, June 1, 1843.
Elizabethtown, 37.3 miles from Madison, September, 1843.
Columbus, 44.9 miles from Madison, July, 1844.
Edinburg, 55.4 miles from Madison, Sept. 8, 1845.
Franklin, 65.5 miles from Madison, Sept. 1, 1846.
Indianapolis, 86 miles from Madison, Oct. 1, 1847.
When it was opened for business as far as Graham, the State
leased it on the last of April, 1839, to Robert Branham, Elias
Stapp, D. C. Branham and W. H. Branham, who continued in charge
until June, 1840. Under the terms of the lease the State was to
receive 40% of the gross receipts, the lessees to bear all the
expenses of operating. The expense was not very great as Mr. R.
J. Elvin, who was connected with the road for over fifty years
but is now dead, did all the clerical work for the road and Mr.
Bartholomew Tierney all the blacksmithing and repair work
necessary in those days. Mr. John G. Sering, State agent, was on
all trains to look after the interests of the State. The trains
would leave North Madison in the morning and run to Graham,
returning in the evening. The gross receipts the first month
were $849.38, and for the first fifteen months were $15,702.00,
which was a good showing in that period. The next lessees were
John G. Sering and William Bust, from June, 1840, to June, 1841,
when the State again took charge.
The road was completed to Queensville at this time and the State
was out of money, so the work was delayed for some months. John
Woodburn, Victor King and George W. Leonard, of Madison, started
a bank in 1841, issued bills (called Woodburn's bank bills) and
assisted the State in building the road to Scipio, three miles
farther north. On February 21, 1843, the State sold the road to
the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Co., N. B. Barber,
president, for $600,000.00, who gave mortgage to the State for
the full amount, but by manipulation the company got it from the
legislature for $75,000.00 in 5% State bonds worth on the market
about fifty cents on the dollar, making the net cost $37,500.00.
It was considered a clear case of thieving from start to finish.
The State paid out for the building and equipment of the line to
Queensville $1,624,291.93, of which $62,493.21 was from tolls.
The owners of the road then completed it to Indianapolis.
The inclined plane between Madison and North Madison was
commenced in 1836 and completed in 1841. It is 7,012 feet long,
with a total elevation of 413 feet or 311 feet to the mile.
There are two cuts on the plane, one 65 feet and the other 100
feet deep, cut through the solid rock. Previous to the
completion of the plane, passengers were transferred between
Madison and North Madison by omnibus. An old resident of
Madison, Mr. William Stapp, brother of one of the first lessees
of the road, says: "The omnibus did not always leave on time.
When the driver would hear that the mayor or some other
dignitary was to leave on that train, he would wait an hour for
the great man's arrival." When the plane was completed, the cars
were let down the incline by gravity and hauled back with eight
horses driven tandem to each car. The stables were located at
the foot of the plane and Joshua McCauley and Robert Hackney
were the drivers. Horses were used from 1841 to November 1848,
when Andrew Cathcart's improved engine with two sets of
cylinders and a pinion working in a rack in the center of the
track was put in use and gave good satisfaction until Reuben
Wells built the engine "Reuben Wells" (634) in July, 1868.
Andrew Cathcart was master mechanic of the Madison &
Indianapolis Railroad Company, and drew plans for the improved
(or cog) engine as it was called, went to Baldwin's works in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and superintended the building of
it.
The following are the wrecks occurring on the plane: Nov. 4,
1845, a passenger car was being let down the hill, when a wood
car following became unmanageable and crashed into the coach,
killing John Lodge, the first railroad conductor in the State,
and several others. Engine "M. G. BRIGHT" (635) blew up at the
foot of the plane in 1877, killing engineer Lindley and a
citizen of North Madison named Hassfurder. The above are the
only fatalities occurring on the plane.
The practice of letting all freight and passenger cars down the
incline by gravity was continued until 1880, at which time. Col.
J. R. Shaler, superintendent of the Jeffersonville, Madison and
Indianapolis railroad issued orders requiring the hill engine to
be attached in the rear of all cars coming down and going up the
incline. This order is still effective.
That portion of the road built by the State was laid with
English iron rails rolled at Wales, England, weighing 45 pounds
to the yard and in three different lengths, 15 feet, 18 feet and
15 feet 9 inches. They were shipped by vessel to New Orleans and
by boat up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Madison and cost
$75.00 per ton delivered. They were laid on cedar ties which
were fastened to a sill by a locust pin twelve inches in length.
The sills were 10x10 and cost eight cents per lineal foot. Cedar
ties cost twenty-five cents each, but proved too soft to hold
spikes and were taken up within five years and sold for fence
posts at 12½ cents. Locust ties proved too hard, so oak was
substituted which cost the same as cedar.
The first iron was laid, August, 1838. Some of the old rails
were taken up in 1893 and sent to the Chicago exposition. When
the rails were received, they were marked by cutting a square
hole half an inch in diameter in each end. Two of them are now
in service at North Madison just opposite the door of the old
blacksmith shop. Many of them were taken up and mixed with other
iron for the building of the Louisville Bridge.
In an interview with Mr. Elvin recently, he said John Lodge was
the first conductor on the Madison & Indianapolis railroad. He
also had the title of superintendent from June 1, 1841, to
March, 1842. W. J. McClure was the first agent, appointed March
1, 1842, and served until February 18, 1843. Samuel Thomas was
the first master mechanic and general manager, Henry Jackson the
first engineer, F. Fleming the second and F. Lunger the third.
The first three firemen were Jacob Bitterman, William Copeland,
and William Baugh. They ran the three locomotives owned by the
company. The first passenger coach was built by Thomas L. Paine
and Son, of Madison, in the fall of 1838, but not used until
March, 1839. It was very plain with small windows near the top
of the car, lever brakes, and was about thirty feet long. The
freight cars came from the east, via New Orleans, had four
wheels and a capacity of twenty-five or thirty hogs, or 10,000
pounds. When the first seventeen miles of road were completed
from North Madison to Graham (17 miles) an arrangement for a
grand excursion was made as the first locomotive was expected to
arrive from Baldwin & Co.'s works at Philadelphia. It had been
shipped on a vessel around by New Orleans. During the passage,
the ship was caught in a storm and the loco-motive was thrown
overboard along with other freight in order to save the ship.
The governor, State officials, members of the legislature, and a
number of other prominent men from various places having been
invited to participate in the festivities of the occasion, the
management determined not to disappoint them. As it had been
given out that on Tuesday, November 29, 1838, they would be
treated to a real "steam car" ride, arrangements were made to
borrow the locomotive "Elkhorn" from the Louisville & Portland
Railroad Company, at Louisville, Kentucky, for the occasion, on
account of the loss of the new one expected from Philadelphia.
The locomotive was hauled from the east end of the track at
Louisville and placed on a boat which was used in transporting
stone from the quarries east of Madison to be used in the
construction of the courthouse at Louisville and the boat was
then towed to Madison where the locomotive was unloaded and then
taken up the hill to North Madison by a man named Martin. It
required five yoke of oxen to haul it up the dirt road and it
was done amid great excitement. On Sunday afternoon following
the arrival of the first "steam car" that ever turned a wheel in
Indiana, it was understood that the engineer would raise steam
and see that it was in good order for the grand excursion, and
nearly everybody in Madison and vicinity tramped to North
Madison to see the wonderful machine work. It proved to be in
good order but to the disappointment of the people there
assembled; an exhibition of its locomotive power was reserved
for the grand blow-out in presence of the governor on Tuesday,
November 29. Great preparations were made for the reception of
the distinguished guests. A banquet was spread in an old frame
building on the river front in Madison and the Hon. Jesse D.
Bright was master of ceremonies on this auspicious occasion, and
as he never did anything by halves, you can judge of the
magnitude of the demonstration.
The day for the grand "steam car ride" arrived and all the
people of the surrounding country turned out to see the sight.
The governor and distinguished guests were on hand and after the
cars were filled with passengers, the "Elkhorn" with a full head
of steam moved off like a thing of life to the astonish-ment of
the assembled multitude. After running to Graham and back, the
governor and party took carriages for the city, where they
partook of the banquet awaiting them. There was more noise and
excitement made over the seventeen mile ride than there would be
now over a trip to California in a balloon. During the trip one
of the guests remarked that they had actually attained a speed
of eight miles per hour and he really believed that some day
they would be able to make fifteen miles per hour.
The borrowed locomotive was returned to Louisville and safely
delivered to the Louisville & Portland Railroad Company. The
expense of bringing it to Madison and returning it again
amounted to $1,052. This stroke of enterprise was commended by
the entire State and was heralded abroad, but not by telegraph
as such a thing was unknown in those days.
After the loss of the first locomotive, a duplicate order was
sent to Baldwin & Company and the first locomotive owned by the
Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company arrived safely in
Madison the first week in March, 1839, and on the sixteenth of
that month, a trial trip was made over the finished portion of
the road. From November 29, 1838, until the arrival of the first
locomotive in March, 1839, the construction train was operated
by horses, one passenger car passing over the road daily. The
road was formally opened for public traffic, April 1, 1839, as
far as Graham. While John Brough was president of the Madison
and Indianapolis Railroad Company, he spent over $100,000.00 of
the company's money trying to get a charter from the State of
Illinois for a road to St. Louis, Missouri, but failed. He also
attempted to build a road between Madison and North Madison to
avoid the steep incline plane and after spending $309,000, the
work was abandoned on account of the company being out of funds.
The old road bed, tunnels and abutments for bridges can be
plainly seen to this day. Brough was a smart man but a poor
manager. He induced the directors to purchase two steamboats,
the "Alvin Adams" and the "David White," at a cost of $70,000.
They proved a bad investment and almost a total loss.
The first freight depot owned by the company was an old pork
house at Madison, purchased in 1849 from a man named Flint, and
cost, including repairs, $8,416.09. The passenger station was
built in 1850 at a cost of $4,094.32. It had a cupola and bell
which was rung for five minutes one-half hour before the
departure of each train. The ringing of this bell was continued
until 1888, when it was cracked. The company tried to
discontinue the old-time practice of ringing the half-hour bell
several times, but the old residents protested to such an extent
that it was continued as long as the bell lasted.
Things were run pretty loose on the road in those early days,
and no check was kept on any of the employees handling the
company's funds. The favored ones remitted what and when they
pleased. Previous to the use of tickets on trains, the conductor
would fill out a blank with name of passenger, starting and
stopping point and amount of fare collected. This was sent to
the president, who kept the record in his office. Madison was
the second pork-packing city in the west and the road did a big
business hauling hogs during the winter months. In the year 1852
they handled 124,000 hogs.
Index
Source: Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. XII March, 1916
Indiana AHGP
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