The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad – Volume I – 1845-1855.

**The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad** was Iowa’s first railway system. With its headquarters in Davenport, the M&M had lofty goals of building three lines in Iowa – the first running east/west from Davenport to Council Bluffs via Iowa City, the second running south from Muscatine to the Missouri border via Oskaloosa, and the third running north from Muscatine toward Minnesota via Marion/Cedar Rapids. Over the first ten years (1845-1855), much of the work entailed casting vision, partnering with eastern-based railroads, and raising funds. In 1855, the actual work of laying track in Iowa and building a functioning railroad began. This Volume I page attempts to cover that first decade (1845-1855).

Back when Iowa first became a U.S. Territory (1838) and Iowa City was just a glimmer in Chauncey Swan’s eye, there were dreamers, like John Plumbe, Jr. of Dubuque, who envisioned the day when the West would be connected with the rest of the world through the work of the Iron Horse. Author Mildred Sharp, in her 1922 article, The M. and M. Railroad, describes it this way…

*Read more about another dreamer – Asa Whitney – who picked up in 1844 where John Plumbe, Jr. left off.*

Once America caught the vision of building a Transcontinental Railroad (read more here), the race was on! All across the country, wealthy businessmen were looking to be a part of the first railway system that could accomplish such an amazing task. Here in Iowa Territory, the focus was on how Iowans could cash in on this westward expansion, knowing that any railroad corporation back East that wanted to be an intricate part of this transcontinental railroad idea would need to lay their tracks through Iowa on their way to California. Which brings us to Iowa’s first railway system…

As you can see on the map below, the idea was for the M&M to become an intricate part of a massive railway system that connected Boston, New York City, Baltimore & Philadelphia with Chicago and St. Louis, stretching westward to Council Bluffs, Iowa and Independence, Missouri.

*The proposed route for Mississippi & Missouri Railroad to connect with Chicago & points further east.*

So, here on this page, we’d like to offer you a chronological timetable that covers the first decade (1845-1855) of Iowa railroad history when the M&M was the hottest business investment throughout the Hawkeye State.

**Colonel** **George Davenport** (1783 – July 4, 1845) was a 19th-century English-American sailor, frontiersman, fur trader, merchant, postmaster, US Army soldier, Indian agent, and city planner. A prominent and well-known pioneer in Iowa Territory, he was one of the earliest settlers in Rock Island, spending much of his life being involved in the early settlement of the Mississippi Valley. In 1833, Davenport built his home on a lower part of Rock Island near Fort Armstrong. Two years later, he and six others – including close friend Antoine Le Claire – purchased a large tract of land along the Mississippi River opposite the island. On this site, the town of **Davenport, Iowa**, was officially founded on **February 23, 1836**.

Less than one month before his tragic death and one year before Iowa became the 29th U.S. State, Colonel George Davenport gathered ten businessmen in his home located on Rock Island. The agenda for the meeting was to discuss the idea of building the first railroad from Chicago to the Mississippi River. Those men meeting with Davenport that day in June 1845 were Antoine Le Claire, G.C.R. Mitchell, Judge James Grant, Ebenezer Cook, and A.C. Fulton – all from Davenport. Lemuel Andrews and P. Whitaker of Rock Island were there as well, along with N.D. Elwood of Joliet, Charles Atkinson of Moline, and Richard P. Morgan – a civil engineer and surveyor – also from Illinois. It was this gathering that first stirred the idea of bringing the railroad from Chicago into Iowa Territory. You can read more here.

Based on those preliminary conversations in Davenport’s home, The Rock Island and La Salle (RI&L) Railroad Company was incorporated two years later in Illinois on February 27, 1847, with an amended charter approved on February 7, 1851, renaming the group – The Chicago and Rock Island (C&RI) Railroad Company. Construction on the Rock Island line began westward from Chicago on October 1, 1851, and the first C&RI train was operated on October 10, 1852, running between Chicago and Joliet, Illinois. An article from The Quad Cities Daily Times (July 1936) tells us more…

Just as the Rock Island Railroad was forming in Illinois, here in Iowa, three men who were at that 1845 meeting with Col. Davenport – Antoine Le Claire, G.C.R. Mitchell, and Judge James Grant – joined together with A.C. Fulton to incorporate Iowa’s first railroad – The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company. Again, The Daily Times tells us more…

*In his **1848** report, U.S. Deputy General Surveyor, **George B Sargent** (above) records the **October 25, 1847** beginnings of the **Mississippi & Missouri Railroad** (M&M).*

Interestingly, while the paperwork for the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad goes back to 1847, it was not until the early 1850’s when the organization actually began to move off of the printed page and take shape as a corporation. In 1848 (below left) a committee of five men began petitioning the General Assembly of Iowa, hoping to procure land for a railroad line from Davenport to Council Bluffs, via Iowa City. And on February 20, 1850, a large assembly of businessmen and politicians – representing nineteen different Iowa counties – gathered in Iowa City at the Capitol building’s Senate Chamber for a Railroad Convention like none other (below right)…

***On February 6, 1850, The Iowa (City) Republican published several articles preparing our city for the big February 20th Railroad Convention.* *Below*** *(right)* ***is a list of delegates that planned to attend as of January 19, 1850. Notice, the Johnson County names is a list of who’s who in Iowa City…***

All the while, other businessmen located in other parts of the state were working just as diligently to bring the Great National Railroad (Atlantic to Pacific) railroad through their community…

While the M&M was being formed in Davenport (1848-1850), there were other investors around the state quickly forming other railroad companies (see above) – all hoping to be the first to lay tracks into Iowa, connecting with those railroads in Illinois that were building their lines quickly toward the Mississippi River. Read more about the four Iowa railroads racing to be the first line to stretch from Chicago to the Missouri River.

During the early 1850’s, throughout Iowa, there were small corporations forming with the purpose of attracting railroad companies – such as the M&M – to build their line through their community. Over in Iowa City, in the fall of 1850, local businessmen such as **LeGrand Byington**, **H.D. Downey**, and others helped form The Davenport & Iowa City **(D&IC)** **Railroad Company**, sending word to the owners of the M&M Railroad in Davenport that the good people of Iowa City planned to cooperate with their efforts to bring the railroad into Iowa, and, by the way, we resolve that Iowa City be assigned your highest priority! As you can see from the report of September 5 (below), the M&M board “cordially” approved the Iowa City invitation, calling for surveying work to begin immediately! Read more here.

As we said, the early 1850’s proved to be a key time when the relationships between investors in Iowa City and Davenport deepened. Below (left): the September 17, 1851 edition of The Iowa Capital Reporter informs readers about the next Rail Road Convention coming on October 15, and (right): in the December 28, 1929 edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen, editor and historian Jacob E. Reizenstein tells the story of this important Iowa City/Davenport railroad connection…

So, now, we arrive at January 1853, and The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company is making its move to become the first railway in Iowa…

(L-0067) **Mississippi and Missouri Stock Certi*ficate***. *Stock in M&M began circulating as the railroad began to lay out their business plans. Below, historian Dwight L. Agnew gives us a record of the M&M Board members as elected in 1853.*

(L-0071) January 20, 1853, the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. Bill 15) gave permission for the State of Iowa to offer a land grant to M&M, giving the company access to land across the Hawkeye State (see above). As it turned out, M&M had a very aggressive business plan – building in three directions (see map below) – Route 1) West – from Davenport to Council Bluffs via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines (red); Route 2) South – from Muscatine to the Missouri border via Oskaloosa (yellow); and Route 3) North – from Muscatine to the Minnesota border via Cedar Rapids (blue). Read more about the M&M’s other major competitor – the Lyons-Iowa Central Railroad.

It’s at this point, as M&M published their business plan, when the good folks of Iowa City and Muscatine began to squabble with each other – and with the M&M board – over why their city should be the top priority on M&M’s construction plans. Historian Mildred Sharp tells us more…

Iowa City vs. Muscatine! George Yewell‘s 1853 editorial cartoon stirred the pot! Click here to read more about George H. Yewell.

All this competition between Iowa City and Muscatine finally came to a head when two business men from Iowa City – LeGrand Byington and William Penn Clarke – were sent to the C&RI Board Meetings in Chicago, commissioned on March 12, 1853 by our fair city to twist some arms while also sweetening the deal with a $50,000 bonus – payable to M&M upon two conditions – 1) Iowa City becomes M&M’s priority one destination, and 2) M&M completes the 55-mile track into Iowa City on or before January 1, 1856! Johnson County historian – Clarence Ray Aurner – tells us more…

*Read more here about the $50,000 deal Iowa City made with M&M.*

On **May 17, 1853**, **Peter A. Dey** (above left) and **Grenville M. Dodge** (above right) – who were hired away from the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad by the M&M Railroad – begin their 300-mile surveying project across Iowa – from Davenport through Iowa City and Des Moines to Council Bluffs. You can read more here.

*Below – Iowa in 1854/1855 – look closely and you’ll see the proposed M&M line running from Davenport to Council Bluff*s…

In order to unite these two railroad lines – the C&RI of Illinois and the M&M of Iowa – it was necessary to form a new corporation that would be given recognition and empowerment in both states. So, on **January 17, 1853**, the **Rock Island Bridge Company** was incorporated and authorized to “build, maintain, and use a railroad bridge over the Mississippi River … in such a manner as shall not materially obstruct or interfere with the free navigation of said river.” Project engineers – drawing from an 1837 topographical survey by Lt. Robert E. Lee and other surveys – deemed the site of Rock Island ideal, so construction of the new bridge started on **July 16, 1853**, and lasted for nearly three years. Read more details here

Above: On August 31, 1853, both Iowa City newspapers – The Iowa Capital Reporter and The Iowa Republican – published updates on the M&M Railroad progress as given by B.F. Carmichael, contractor for the railroad.

On September 1, 1853, the Iowa-based M&M broke ground at Fifth & Iowa Streets in Davenport (see map above) with Antoine Le Claire (below) turning over the first shovel of dirt! Read more about Antoine Le Claire here.

The new M&M officers were John A. Dix of New York – President, William B. Ogden of Illinois – Vice President, John E. Henry of Iowa – Secretary, A.C. Flagg of New York – Treasurer, Norman B. Judd of Chicago – Solicitor, Henry Farnam of New Haven, CT – Chief Engineer, John B. Jervis – Consulting Engineer, with Directors – Dix, Ogden, Farnam, William Walcott, Thomas C. Durant, Ebenezer Cook, and Joseph E. Sheffield. The Daily Times gives us more detail…

With the C&RI line now complete from Chicago to Rock Island, on June 5, 1854, two excursion trains from Chicago to Rock Island leave at 8 am, arriving in Rock Island at 5 pm with 250 prominent citizens on board – including the mayor of Chicago. The next day – June 6, 1854 – a five-steamboat excursion cruise leaves Rock Island headed north to what is now Minneapolis-St Paul. It was quite the party!

While construction on the Illinois side of the new three-section Mississippi River Bridge began in July 1853, it wasn’t until September 1, 1854 when Davenport mayor James Grant (above left) along with Rock Island mayor John Knox, laid the cornerstone on the Davenport side of the bridge. Read more here.

**John A. Dix** – the New York politician & businessman – was the first president of M&M Railroad. In 1854, Dix visited Rock Island and offered the vision behind the work of The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad (see above).

John A. Dix gives a railroad pep-talk in Iowa City on January 5, 1856. Read more here.

On **May 2, 1855**, **Henry Farnam** (above left) and **Thomas Durant** (above right) – both actively involved with the C&RI Railroad and the Rock Island bridge project – became the two main movers-n-shakers of the M&M Railroad going forward. Below, historian Dwight L. Agnew tells us more…

Records show that three carloads of iron rail arrived in Rock Island on April 16, 1855 – via England and Chicago – arriving in Chicago before the Great Lakes were closed to navigation that prior winter. These three carloads were then ferried over the river to Daveport prior to the June 29 “first stake” ceremony.

*Davenport as seen from Rock Island – circa 1855*

And with the first track being laid in Iowa…

The 25-ton **Antoine Le Claire** was built by the **Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor** **Locomotive Company of Paterson, New Jersey** in 1855, and was said to be ‘state of the art’ manufacturing. The Le Claire arrived by rail in Rock Island on July 10, 1855. Read more here.

Keep in mind that there was no bridge over the Mississippi River in 1855, so the only way to transport the M&M’s prized locomotive – the 25-ton Antoine Le Claire – was by loading it on a flatboat and guiding it across the river! The story is told by The Daily Davenport Gazette…

*Below are articles from July 20 and July 21, 1855…*

Here’s yet another telling of the Antoine Le Claire story from railroad historian H.A. Nutting…

As you can see from this 1856 map above, the M&M Railroad successfully built their main line west from Davenport to Iowa City (55 miles), placing a Y Junction (X) near Wilton (27 miles). The plan was to build a north/south route from Muscatine to Cedar Rapids using the Y Junction as an intersection with their east/west route. In the July 21, 1855 Daily Davenport Gazette article (shown earlier), the proposed M&M building schedule was as follows: reach Walcott by August 5, Durant by August 20, the Cedar River by September 10, and Iowa City by December 1. As it turned out, this timetable proved a bit too optimistic. One month later – August 21, 1855 – The Rock Island Daily Republican gives us an interesting update…

In the August 21, 1855 edition of The Rock Island Daily Republican, we find that the M&M has now laid track to Walcott (12 miles) and that 13 locomotives have been ordered – 12 from **Breese & Kneeland (New York Locomotive Company)**. **The Davenport** – mentioned as arriving in Chicago in the October 27th edition of The Republican (above lower right) – is the first of those engines coming from Jersey City. **The Antoine Le Claire** – built by **Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor** of Paterson, NJ – arrived in Davenport on July 19, and **The Iowa** – built by **Norris Locomotive Company** of Philadelphia – was shipped to Muscatine on the same day this RI Republican article appeared – August 21, 1855! Read more here.

It’s important to point out here that the fledgling M&M Railroad purchased numerous steam locomotives between the summer of 1855 and October 1855 – with the first arrival, as we’ve shown you here, being The Antoine Le Claire. On a supplementary page, we give you an overview of those early locomotives of which six are believed to arrive in Iowa via flatboats prior to mid-November 1855. Click here to read more…

**Welcome to Walcott!** Located 12 miles west of Davenport, the original plan was for the M&M to complete construction by August 5. That estimate was off by 20 days, but on **August 25, 1855**, **The Iowa** (pictured above) and **The Le Claire** brought several cars to the new community located near the line between Scott and Muscatine Counties. Read more about The Iowa here.

The M&M Railroad’s arrival in Walcott caused a big stir across Iowa. Above and below are details from that special day – August 25, 1855.

So, what’s a Railroad Village? The coming of the railroad became the birthing point for many small communities across Iowa. Below, historian Dwight L. Agnew tells us more about the new “railroad villages” springing up in eastern Iowa…

*Walcott, named for the M&M Director – William Walcott – was another such example. The next station-stop – Wilton – had a similar story…*

**M&M Laying Iron West of Walcott** – The **August 29, 1855** edition of The Weekly Rock Island Republican reports that the M&M has “perfected their boat” so that they now run their railroad cars – loaded with iron rails – directly from land to the flatboats so workmen don’t have to load and unload the rails in order to cross the Mississippi.

The town of Wilton (Junction) in Cedar and Muscatine Counties owes its existence to the building of the M&M Railroad. Shortly after the right-of-way had been located (1853), Franklin Butterfield bought over 200 acres of land from B.C. Kauffman at the Y junction where the branch line into Muscatine was to be built. The town was first called Glendale, but before the plat was recorded in 1855, the name was changed to Wilton in honor of Butterfield’s home town in Maine.

With Wilton being the host of M&M’s Y Junction – where the east/west line met with the north/south line – the railroad was now a big business. Here, M&M built a round house and turntable for their locomotives, a carpenter shop, a blacksmith shop, and a dispatch shop. Wilton also served as host for M&M’s construction train, its’ bridge gang, and telegraph operators, engineers, brakemen, firemen and conductors. At its peak (1900), there were probably 100 to 125 railroad workers living in Wilton, with some bringing their families, while others lived in the several hotels and rooming houses.

*Here’s a map of Moscow Township – Muscatine County (1874) showing the C&RI line that runs through Wilton (far right) and across the Cedar River. Notice the Y Junction just south of Wilton.*

The Davenport Gazette (September 22, 1855) reports that the M&M Railroad bridge over the Cedar River will be completed “tomorrow” – **September 23, 1855**. As you can see from the map (above), the route to Iowa City (55 miles) is just a bit over half-way completed!

*Here’s **The Antoine Le Claire** – M&M’s first locomotive as photographed after 1866 when the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad took over the M&M.*

As we grow closer to the close of the year, its obvious that M&M, while making good progress in bringing the railroad into Iowa in 1855, is having a much harder time completing the first phases of its three-pronged business plan. Keep in mind that priority one was to complete the east/west line from Davenport to Iowa City (55 miles) by January 1, 1856. Newspaper records indicate that in early December, the line was still 12 miles from Iowa City and making slow progress just outside West Liberty. Read more here.

On the positive side, the second prong of M&M’s business plan – Muscatine north to Wilton (the Y junction) and then on to Cedar Rapids was making better progress. Records show that the construction train – The Iowa (pictured above) – which began its work (in Muscatine) in late July or August – had reached Wilton on October 1st. Yet despite that victory, the third-prong of M&M’s business plan – building south from Muscatine into Oskaloosa had completely gone untouched.

In order to celebrate those few victories the M&M had accomplished in 1855, a huge party was planned for November 20, 1855 in Muscatine. So, in closing up this report on the first decade of the M&M Railroad (1845-1855), allow me to share more about that big celebration…

In the days prior to the event, we find The Daily Davenport Gazette (above left) reminding the good people of Muscatine not to call their celebration the “first in Iowa” since a similar excursion occurred on September 25th in Walcott. On the right (above), we find a November 16th article that indicates the City Council of Davenport being invited to Muscatine’s big party.

Below, we find two articles that describe the November 20th event and the afterglow of November 21st. According to historical records, two of the M&M’s newest locomotives – The Davenport and The Muscatine – were used together to pull the six-passenger-car excursion train from Davenport to Muscatine!

***Click here to read about the earliest M&M steam locomotives***.

So, as we close this report on the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad and its first decade (1845-1855) in Iowa, allow me to share with you a section of an article written for Centennial Edition of The Muscatine Journal. Published on May 31, 1940, the article opens with a beautiful overview of that special November day in 1855…

Obviously, Muscatine historians failed to clarify that the “first M&M train” arrived in Walcott on September 25, 1855, but other than that little fact, let’s enjoy reliving their November 20, 1855 celebration…

*Click here to view actual photographs of early M&M steam locomotives*

Click here for a complete index of pages dedicated to Iowa Railroads

Click here for a M&M Railroad Timetable

On July 1, 1976, The Iowa City Press-Citizen published a special 76-page Bicentennial edition. In that edition there were articles and pictures related to stories found on this page. You can read more here.