History of the Rock Island RR

The story of the Rock Island Railroad began during the mid 1840's, when a meeting was held early in the summer of 1845 at the home of Colonel George Davenport on Rocky Island, to discuss the construction of a railroad from Rock Island City to connect with the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which was under construction, at either La Salle or Peru. Davenport's murder by bandits later that summer served to delay development of the idea.

On February 27, 1847, a charter was granted by the General Assembly of Illinois for the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad, to run from Rock Island to the terminal of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and a subscription drive for funds started in the cities and towns along the proposed route.

After discussion with Henry Farnam, a railroad construction engineer who was building another line into Chicago from the east, it was decided to petition the government for an amendment to the charter, to allow the extension of the line from La Salle to Chicago. Such a charter was granted on February 7, 1851, and on April 8, 1851, the Rock Island and La Salle became the Chicago and Rock Island.

On September 6, 1851, the Sheffield and Farnam Construction firm submitted a contract to build 181 miles of track for $3,987,638.00, the firm to operate the line until construction was completed, and then turn the operation of the line over to the corporation. This contract was approved September 17, 1851.

Construction started in April of 1852, and in less than 6 months Farnam had the 40 mile stretch from Chicago to Joliet almost ready to open, and all but eight miles of the stretch from Joliet to Peru ready to lay rail. Joliet got passenger service on October 18, 1852. Ottawa got service on February 14, 1853, La Salle in March of 1853, Peru in April, and Rock Island received its first train on February 22, 1854.

Meanwhile, a group of investors in the Peoria area, under the leadership of Isaac Underhill, began to plan for a rail line to connect Peoria to Chicago, via the now building Chicago and Rock Island.

On February 12, 1853, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad to construct a line from Peoria to the Bureau Valley, at a point not higher up the Bureau Creek than Indian Town (Tiskilwa).

A construction contract was executed in May 1853 with the Sheffield and Farnam firm to construct the Peoria and Bureau Valley line while the construction firm was completing the Chicago and Rock Island.

Land for right of way was bought from the owners, and it appears that some of it brought a good price for the time. The city of Chillicothe leased part of Third Street to the railroad for the right of way through town.

The first Chillicothe depot was built on its present site in the summer of 1854. It was similar to stations at Rome, Sparland, Henry. Small and jerry built, they mainly served to keep the stationmaster out of the weather. The railroad soon built a grain elevator by the depot.

In May of 1854, the Peoria & Bureau Valley Railroad was leased in perpetuity to the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad.

Isaac Underhill, the president of the Peoria and Bureau Valley, played an important part in the history of Rome, and the Peoria area. He is said to have first arrived in Peoria on Christmas Day, 1833, after shipping a load of groceries to New Orleans and then St. Louis, where it is said he opened a store. He is said to have purchased two lots at the corner of Washington and Liberty streets in Peoria, and at that time there were no buildings on any street above Washington.

He is said to have been operating a ferry in Peoria in March 1834, in partnership with Lewis Bigelow, who was a lawyer and person of importance in Peoria. On August 5, 1834, he is said to have bought the Peoria ferry and the "ferry fraction" of land, (now known as Bigelow and Underhill's addition) which included the old French claims from the village destroyed by Captain Craig in 1812. This "ferry fraction" was platted and offered for sale in July 1836. He later platted Underhill and Green's and Underhill and Bourland's additions, while in the real estate business.

He is said to have platted the second town of Rome on October 10, 1835, and thus should have owned the town site. He then purchased 2200 acres of land, and is said to have closed his store in St. Louis, and to have started cultivation of his farm at Rome in 1840 with the plowing of 200 acres, (one story has it that due to hard times and poor sales, he plowed out the survey stakes for the Rome town site in order to plant a crop) to which he added 500 more the next year. The farm grew to be the largest in the county.

In 1846 he planted 500 acres to orchard, with ten thousand grafted apple trees and six thousand peach trees.

On April 1, 1853 he sold his farm to Clapp and Butler for $40,000, in order to put his money into the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad.

The Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad, was to connect Peoria with the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to the north at Bureau Junction. The story is told that there were problems in chartering this line with the state, since a steamboat owning family (maybe the Moss family who lived at what is now Detweiller Park), trying to protect their business, refused to sell the right of way north of Peoria. Also, in 1849 Peoria had granted another railroad, the Peoria and Oquawka, which would become part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, an exclusive right of way along Water Street, and this road would not allow another railroad to cross, or use, this right of way.

The story says that since it was starting to look like Rome would become the railhead, and handle all the freight traffic that was headed north to Chicago, business and land values picked up in Rome. Some stories have Rome as the railhead, growing to be almost as large as Peoria, and taking the business. The business people in Peoria soon convinced the boat owners and the city fathers that the property that they all owned in Peoria would soon be worthless if other railroads were not allowed to build into Peoria. It’s a nice story, but not supported by historical facts.

It is a fact that Moss, whose construction firm was building the Peoria and Oquawka, also had money invested in the Peoria and Bureau Valley, and that Underhill named the new station built at the former Love's Settlement in Medina township, Mossville, after his former neighbor, Moss. It is a fact that arrangements were made to allow the Peoria and Bureau Valley to enter Peoria from the north, on the old State Coach Road, but it could not cross Water Street, (and the Peoria and Oquawka) and thus connect with the other lines building into Peoria from the south and east.

After the state chartered the Peoria and Bureau Valley line on February 12, 1853, the construction was completed in two years with only eleven months of actual working time. The first train from the north arrived in Chillicothe in October and in Peoria on November 7, 1854. With trains to Chillicothe in October, and into Peoria by November 7, Rome was not the railhead (as claimed in the story above) for very long.

One reason for the growth of the stories about Rome could be the historical fact that after Lincoln and Douglas debated the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Peoria in October 1854, they left Peoria by steamboat for another debate in Lacon. Douglas stayed on the boat, but Lincoln left the boat at Rome, and took the train on the newly built railroad to Sparland, where he visited with old friends and spent the night. Douglas claimed he became ill on the boat, some say from food poisoning, and the Lacon debate was canceled.

There is another Rome railroad story that there was a time, when there were problems with the city of Peoria over rights of way to connect to the boat landing, and that a spur track was built to a large ware-house by the river, at a good landing point in Rome. This was done to facilitate freight handling from the boats, making Rome the head of navigation, and thus avoiding the complications in Peoria. Huebinger's "Standard Atlas of Peoria City and County" for 1896 shows such a siding south of the business district in its plat of Rome. Andreas' "Atlas Map of Peoria County Illinois" for 1873 does not show such a siding, but it does not show any rail sidings anywhere in the county. If this story is true, the siding must have been put in before 1868, because the Peoria and Pekin Union Railroad was formed in 1868, to solve the right of way problems in Peoria. In a conversation with Larry Moritz, in November, 1988, Moritz said that he had been told that the large building by the river was a large ice house, and that the siding was for the rail shipping of ice, and the icing of reefer cars, with ice that had been cut on the river and stored in the ice house.

It is reported that on a blustery November 7, 1854, a crowd of about 500 people gathered at the foot of Main Street in Peoria to greet the first train from Chicago as it made its way from Bureau to Peoria. The small engine and cars never exceeded 15 MPH due to the poor condition of the track. The passengers were jolted about whenever the engine changed speeds, and they might have begun to envy the cheering crowds that lined the route.

Eventually, the track was improved and passenger service became more popular, as rail travel was faster and more comfortable than stagecoach. Once the final connections were made, the steam locomotives passed through Chillicothe several times a day carrying freight and passengers.

Thomas Crutchfield, of Rome, became the "Division Foreman" and James Fleming of Chillicothe was the section boss.

In 1864 the grain elevator by the railroad burned, but was soon rebuilt.

Chillicothe, with a population of 1000 was incorporated as a city in 1873. Major concerns of Mayor Henry Hosmer were cleaning up the merchandise unloaded from the steamboats on the river front, keeping the ferry operating as late in the fall as possible, and hogs running loose in the downtown area.

In 1873, Chillicothe had two dry goods stores, seven groceries, three hardware and three drug stores, one clothing and two millinery shops, three variety stores and one bank. There were two grain elevators, two wagon shops, five blacksmiths, one hotel, two restaurants, two livery stables, one bakery, one cannery, two meat markets, two harness shops, a lumber yard, two barbers, two furniture stores, three saloons, one billiard hall, one poultry buyer, one newspaper and three shoemakers. There was one dentist, three doctors, and one lawyer.

It is reported that in 1879, overnight travelers on the Rock Island were charged $1.50 for a double berth and meals were another 75¢.

In 1880 the population of Chillicothe was 1200, with a bank, two dry goods stores, seven groceries, two drug stores, a farm machinery dealer, two hardware stores, two furniture stores, two elevators, a lumber yard, a flour mill, a saw and planing mill, two jewelry stores, a millinery store, a bakery, a real estate office, two barbers, and other shops.

It is thought that the present depot was built in the 1870s, and most of its present structure is the original material. The unusually wide overhang was designed to keep passengers out of the snow and rain; however, it gave the depot a graceful gothic appearance. It is told that the reason that the southeast corner of the roof is cut on a taper is that when this building was built, and the siding track put in, the south curve of the siding was too close to the depot, and the trains hit the roof. Since it was cheaper to change the roof than it was to move the tracks, the edge of the roof was changed.

Most of the bricks around the depot are the original ones, which had been buried under mud and asphalt over the years.

The depot was always crowded at train time with families saying sad good-byes or eagerly awaiting an arriving friend. Outside stood taxi service, in the early days a horse-drawn wagon, then later Model T's, and then newer automobiles to pick up the passengers and take them to their final destination.

An 1896 map of Chillicothe shows that there was a store on the southwest corner of Third and Cedar, diagonal from the depot on the northeast corner of the intersection, and a hotel just to the south of the store. To the east of the depot was the grain office. There was another hotel on the northwest corner of Second and Cedar. There was a livery stable on the southwest corner of First and Chestnut. There were churches on the southwest and northeast corners of Second and Elm, one on the northwest corner of Third and Walnut, and one on the southeast corner of Fourth and Pine. There was a mill (Eva Dodge Mounce of the Foundation of Historical Research of Illinois Potteries reports that this was a pottery run by Joseph Bradley, not yet completed in 1893, and closed by 1899) at Front and Pine, and the ferry also operated from Front and Pine. There was a sawmill on the northwest corner of Water and Birch. The pop factory was just north of Elm, on the East Side of First. J. Carroll had an icehouse at the foot of Cedar, and another at the foot of Chestnut, and the Chillicothe Water Electric Light and Power Plant was between the two icehouses.

There used to be a separate village of North Chillicothe. The first settlement was based on the Santa Fe Railroad. This line was in operation through North Chillicothe by 1888, with service from Chicago to Kansas City and on to California. The original bridge over the river was a drawbridge that had to be raised for river traffic. This was later replaced with a higher bridge to avoid having to use a lift section.

The Santa Fe located it's state headquarters in North Chillicothe in 1901, and made it a division point, with crews being changed here after the run from Chicago or Fort Madison, and built a round house and switching yards. There were 8 through passenger trains each way each day, plus freights and local trains. Chillicothe decided that it wanted the growing rail center in the city. But, the people who were working for and with the Santa Fe Railroad had already incorporated the new settlement a mile north of the city of Chillicothe as the village of North Chillicothe in May, 1890. The 1900 population was 417. A post office was established December 22, 1892, but was discontinued November 30, 1917.

The Santa Fe opened the gravel pits north of town, and by 1896 had a spur line built down into the pits.

North of the pits, near the creek, in the northwest quarter of section 17 was the Waterhouse Paper Stock Company, with it's own spur line. An 1896 map of the county shows the four blocks "Waterhouse Addition to North Chillicothe" located south of the mill in the east half of the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 17. This mill is reported to have turned out 8 to 12 tons of brown butcher and grocer paper from straw every day, until it was destroyed by fire.

The 1896 map shows that the Santa Fe depot was east of Santa Fe Avenue, close to the tracks, and the Division Office was east of the depot. What we know as the depot was originally build as a recreation center for trainmen, and made into a depot after a fire destroyed the original. At the north end of Santa Fe, there was a hotel on both sides of the street. There was a church on the southwest corner of Moffitt and Santa Fe. The post office was on the southwest corner of Matthews and Santa Fe. The jail was across the street, on the southeast corner of Matthews and Santa Fe. There was a land office on the northwest corner of Wilmot and Santa Fe. There was a lumber office on the West Side of the north end of Benedict, north of the alley, and another hotel south of the alley. The Santa Fe stockyards was east of Fourth.

The two Chillicothe's finally merged in 1968.

The 1896 map shows the Rome depot as having been west of the tracks, and north of Knox Street. The post office was between the tracks and Third Street, at the end of La Salle, the store was on the southeast corner of Third and La Salle, and the school was on the northeast corner of Third and La Salle.

Homer Gill has photographs of Rome that were taken by his father about 1906-07. They show the depot, and A.O. Proctor's store and office, which was later moved to the south side of Knox to become the original Lawson’s store, and his grain elevator to the north of the office, along the tracks. The school can be see to the east of the elevator.

D. McEvoy became C.R.I.&P. agent in Chillicothe in October of 1902, E.W. Bell began as a telegraph operator in February 1903, and Oscar Harvey joined him in November 1904. Glen Todd started as an operator March 1924, and McEvoy, Harvey and Todd were working at the depot in 1932. Harvey later became the agent

On August 8th, 1937, the "Rock Island Rocket" made its first run through Chillicothe. By the 1940's, there were eight freight trains daily through Chillicothe, two in the morning plus a coal train from Peoria, one local that worked between Peoria and Bureau Junction, one train to Chicago, one to Silvis and two gravel trains from the Coogan gravel pit north of town.

Because of the gravel pits, Chillicothe had a weigh master (Inez Thompson, who sang with the "Big Four" quartet) that weighed cars near Irion's on Third Street. By 1943, the Rock Island had a car inspector, a crossing flagman, one agent and three telegraphers (there was a telegrapher on duty in the depot 24 hours a day, seven days a week) in Chillicothe.

Claire Bonnett and Oscar Harvey served as agent. Dewey Screeton was the daytime Signal Flagman.... He lived in Henry and came to work on the 5:30 AM train and went home on the 5:15 PM train.

The Rock Island also had a section gang that worked out of Chillicothe, consisting of four laborers, one foreman and a signal maintainer. Tracks were serviced by road gangs in Mossville, Chillicothe, Sparland, and Henry, with a total of 5 men on each gang.

The trainmaster was out of Peoria and the general superintendent was located at Silvis, Illinois. There was an R.I.P (repair) track in Peoria and a roundhouse and enginehouse at the foot of Morton Street, or Voris, where all incoming and departing engines were serviced and repaired. These structures lasted well into the 70's, when they were all torn down and the location became Constitution Park.

In addition to the eight freight trains that went through daily, there were two Rockets daily from Chicago and two from Peoria. They also ran a train from Chicago that arrived in Chillicothe at 5:30 AM, plus two other steam trains, one from Peoria at 5:30 PM and another from Bureau at 12:30 AM.

Engine 886, a steam 4-6-2 Pacific type was fired by Swede Allstram and engineered by N.N. Brown and Ray Vonk. Both Swede and Ray were from Chillicothe and they were known far and wide for the way they handled their train. The train itself carried a crew of 2 brakemen, Len Roberts and Joe Carroll and the conductor, Joe Sales.

Engineers wore striped overalls and starched white caps. Firemen wore blue caps and red bandannas around their neck, supposedly for emergency flagging.

When 886 came around the Rome curve, you could hear the wheels squealing, as the track was banked to allow a full 65-mile per hour speed limit. Swede, the fireman, chained himself in the cab with a ten-inch wide leather belt/harness and shoveled coal from Peoria to Bureau Junction, and back.

The train made the trip from Peoria to Bureau in 50 minutes and speeds would reach over 75 miles per hour over the straight sections of track. Merle Bradley claimed it was the fastest steam engine run in America at that time. Stops were made in Chillicothe, Sparland and Henry.

886 and her crew ran for many years, and they became almost legendary for getting their train in on time. The Wheels of Time Museum, north of Peoria on Route 40, is the supposed final resting place for old 886. Before that she was displayed first at Glen Oak Park and then at Detweiller Park for many years where she fell into disrepair and deterioration. The park board sold it to Wheels of Time and she was moved up the hill to her current resting-place. It is one of only two or three Rock Island steam locomotives ever saved from the scrapper and donated to a city, Peoria being the lucky recipient. Actually it is not the original 886, because when the Rock Island was all set to donate it, they realized that they has already scrapped it, but luckily they still had a sister engine, 887. The Rock Island simply repainted and renumbered it to 886.

In 1937, six unique TA passenger locomotives were ordered from the Electro-motive Corporation. The first TA, #601, a 1200 horsepower diesel and its train, a five car articulated stainless steel streamliner was demonstrated over the system and eventually placed in service as the Peoria Rocket. It made two round trips daily between Peoria and Chicago, a 171-mile run scheduled for two hours and forty minutes.

A stranger, a G-1001 showed up on December 1, 1955, when the "Talgo Jet Rocket Aerotrain" came through on a test run. Placed originally in service between Peoria and Chicago, the run proved far too rough for the bus-body coach riders and this unit, plus the other two jets, soon fell into mere commuter service between Chicago and Joliet. Less than five years later all were retired from service, the original set being scrapped and the other two donated to St.Louis and Green Bay railroad museums.

The Peoria Rocket was regarded as something of an extension of Chicago commuter service and as a result a varied assortment of motive power could be found on it at any time. Differing from commuter service, however, was the fact that the Peoria Rocket carried a full dining car and a reserved seat parlor-lounge-drawing room car. Like commuter service, the coach and/or chair car could not be reserved in advance.

By 1964, there were six rockets between Peoria and Chicago, three each way. The early morning Rocket to Chicago was scheduled out of Peoria at 6:30 AM and would usually pass the Chillicothe depot around 7:00 AM, sometimes stopping if flagged, but usually just going on by. On some days in the summer, there would be extra cars, or even an extra train, when groups would charter them to go to a Cubs game in Chicago. The return trip would usually arrive in Chillicothe around 9:00 PM. The other Rockets to Chicago left at 2:00 PM and around 4:20 PM, with the other two from Chicago arriving at Chillicothe at 10:30 AM and 7:00 PM, but by the 1960's none of them were ever on time due to the poor condition of the tracks.

Block & Kuhl's, a Peoria department store (The Big White Store), sponsored a "Santa Claus Special" train on the Rock Island for many years. Usually on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Santa came into town on the train from the North Pole, (a.k.a. the railroad yard) then rode in a parade through town in his sleigh, ending up at Block & Kuhl's toy department. The Block & Kuhl's decoration committee would go to the Rock Island engine house and decorate the train with evergreens and Christmas items, and then the train would roll down the tracks and stop at the main Rock Island depot, which is now the River Station Restaurant, Santa would get off and get in his sleigh, which was waiting nearby. This used to be a very big event in Peoria, and several times the Chillicothe Band was asked to be in the parade.

In the early 1960's, the Rock Island reached its peak of 14 daily passenger trains, 33 commuter runs, and numerous freights and transfer drags, but 1965 was the beginning of the end.

The previous year, 1964, was the last profit the railroad would ever earn, and on January 10, stockholders approved a proposed merger with the Union Pacific. The U.S. Postal Service started dropping the Railway Post Offices, and one by one, the Rock Island applied to discontinue its long haul passenger trains until by 1970, only the Peoria Rocket and Quad-cities Rocket Service remained.

Finances deteriorated swiftly for the Rock Island. By early 1975 the railroad could no longer pay its fuel bills, and on March 17, the board voted to file for bankruptcy. Federal Judge Frank McGarr promptly named John. W. Ingram to be president and chief executive officer.

Ingram cut the work force and announced a new paint scheme and image. The road would become the "ROCK", its locomotives and cars painted in optimistic blue and white.

The company needed all the help it could get. Not only had the USRA turned down their request for a $100 million loan, but also the Union Pacific had withdrawn its ten-year merger proposal. Meantime, losses mounted to $14 million in 1976, a whopping $35 million in 1977 and $28 million in 1978.

On January 25, 1980, the bankruptcy court ordered the trustees to prepare for shutdown. All traffic was embargoed, and on March 31, 1980, the last train entered the last terminal.

Along more than 7000 miles of track from St. Paul to Galveston, from Chicago to Denver, after almost 130 years of service, the rails were silent.