The Mississippi & Missouri – Iowa’s First Railway System.

The Mississippi & Missouri (M&M) Railroad was Iowa’s first railway system. With its headquarters in Davenport, the M&M had lofty goals of building three separate lines across Iowa – one heading west, one north, and one south. Over the first ten years (1845-1855), much of the work entailed casting vision, partnering with eastern-based railroads, and raising funds. Which brings us, now, to…

On January 20, 1853, the U.S. House of Representatives 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. As it turned out, M&M had a very aggressive business plan (see map above) – building in three directions – Route 1) West – from Davenport to Council Bluffs via Iowa City and Ft. 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).

(L-0067) **Mississippi and Missouri Stock Certi*ficate***. *Stock in M&M began circulating as the railroad began to lay out their business plans.*

Because funding was limited, M&M had to pull back on their extensive 3-pronged building plan, and over the next four years (1853-1857) focus exclusively on connecting Davenport with Council Bluffs (the east-west line) via Iowa City and Ft. Des Moines. This decision, of course, angered many of the M&M investors who had planned on Muscatine being a priority. You can read about those squabbles here. But now, with the emphasis on heading west out of Davenport, and with other competitors – like the Lyons & Iowa Central Railroad – stepping into the race, it was paramount that M&M send out a team of surveyors as soon as they could. Historian Dwight L. Agnew tells us more…

The **Lyons & Iowa Central Railroad** formed in Lyons/Clinton in 1850 and had built a good head of steam moving their line toward Iowa City before falling to financial failure in 1854. You can read more here.

Which brings us now to two important railroad men: Peter A. Dey and Grenville M. Dodge. Again, historian Dwight L. Agnew gives us more…

Obviously, the two pictures above show **Peter A. Dey (1825-1911)** and **Grenville M. Dodge (1831-1916)** in the latter part of their lives. In 1853, when assigned to the M&M surveying job in Iowa, Dey was 28 years old, while Dodge was only 22!

*Note: With the work beginning In Davenport on **May 17, 1853**, by May 26th, (9 days) Dey and Dodge had plotted out M&M’s preliminary route line between Davenport and Iowa City – 55 miles!*

At this point in our story, we are fortunate to have found a short article written by Grenville M. Dodge (pictured above left during his Civil War days) and published in The Iowa City Daily Press on August 5, 1905. Going forward, we’ll post Dodge’s biographical material from that article while also adding in other details we have found. Let’s start with Dodge’s comments about the M&M surveying team’s first stop in Davenport in mid-May…

Davenport’s Antoine Le Claire (below) became one of the most active supporters of the M&M Railroad. Dwight L. Agnew tells us more…

Once Peter Dey & Grenville Dodge reached Iowa City in late May, the team spent the summer months of 1853 finalizing the surveying details for the first phase of the M&M plan – Davenport west to the Y-Junction where the line would split with one set of tracks going on to Iowa City, while the other heads south into Muscatine. Records show that it was during these summer months when Peter Dey moved his residence to Iowa City.

During the summer of 1853 and into the fall, M&M sent several representatives across the state, working westward from Iowa City toward Ft. Des Moines. Their primary job was to raise both awareness and financial support for the coming railroad. Records show that while there were some who were excited, many other Iowans were skeptical of the idea, making fund-raising difficult, indeed. By early September (see below), Grenville Dodge and his surveying party were itching to head west, particularly aware that another team of surveyors from the Lyons & Iowa Central Railroad were out there, doing the exact same thing.

Interestingly, because of the contact with M&M’s executive Henry Farnam and M&M surveyor Peter Dey, the community of Grinnell was founded (1854) by four men: Josiah B. Grinnell, a Congregationalist from Vermont; Homer Hamlin, a minister; Henry Hamilton, a surveyor; and Dr. Thomas Holyoke. According to city records, this new railroad village located on M&M’s westward line to Des Moines was to be named “Stella,” but J. B. Grinnell convinced the team to adopt his name instead, describing it as “rare and concise”.

Grenville Dodge and his surveying party reached Des Moines sometime in the early fall, picking a site for the M&M depot in a corn field that was located “far from the center of the town.”

Grenville Dodge concluded his 1905 article with details from his surveying travels between Des Moines and Council Bluffs…

As you can see from Dodge’s account (below), he fell in love with the beautiful setting of Council Bluffs, and after his surveying assignment was completed, he moved here, living in this area for the remainder of his life.

Historian Dwight L. Agnew gives us more details on this amazing surveying job performed by Grenville Dodge and his M&M team…

With the preliminary survey completed, the M&M management team spent much of the following year (1854) raising funds and securing land across Iowa. It wasn’t until June 29, 1855 when the first railroad spikes were actually driven into the ground in Davenport, with construction of the M&M line west into Wilton Junction and south into Muscatine not being completed until the fall of 1855. You can read more details here.

**Iowa in 1854/1855** – look closely and you’ll see the proposed M&M line running from Davenport to Council Bluffs, and notice the Lyons & Iowa Central line running from Lyons/Clinton to Iowa City. Below – as we mentioned earlier, the **Lyons & Iowa Central Railroad** had planned an east-west route from Lyons/Clinton through Iowa City and Des Moines and on to Council Bluffs, but financial problems sank the company in 1854, leaving M&M as the primary east-west railroad in 1855. You can read more about the L&IC Railroad and other competitors here.

As we close this overview of M&M’s 1853 surveying project, here’s Grenville Dodge’s summary from his 1905 newspaper article…

**Grenville Mellen Dodge (1831-1916)** – Born in Danvers, Massachusetts in 1831, as a young boy, Dodge came under the tutelage of civil engineer Frederick W. Lander, who started him in a career of land and railroad surveying. He graduated from Captain Alden Patridge’s Norwich, Vermont Military and Scientific Academy in 1851 with a degree in civil engineering, and soon after, relocated to the American Midwest, taking a job as a surveyor for the Illinois Central Railroad.

Throughout the 1850’s, Dodge made railroad surveys in Iowa and the Nebraska Territory (see map above), all with an eye for a transcontinental railroad, a popular cause among civil engineers and politicians. In 1859, he met future President Abraham Lincoln in Council Bluffs, and his discussions with him firmly entrenched in Lincoln’s mind that a transcontinental railroad was possible and needed.

Active in the local militia, when the Civil War began in April 1861, Grenville M. Dodge offered his services to preserve the Union, and was commissioned as Colonel of the 4th Iowa Volunteer Infantry on June 17, 1861. Offered the position of Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad in January 1866, Dodge resigned his army commission to accept the job. He directed the surveying, grading and construction the railroad west from its starting point in Omaha, Nebraska, to its meeting with the eastward directed Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory (see pic below), fending off continual labor issues, weather, natural obstacles, and obstructing railroad and government officials in the process. In all, he guided the Union Pacific in building over one thousand miles of railroad track in what was is considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th Century.

His last years were spend in his hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he passed away in 1916. His residence in Council Bluff is now the Grenville M. Dodge National Historic House and Museum, and is a National Historic Landmark.

**Grenville M. Dodge** (right center) shaking hands with Samuel S. Montague at the Golden Spike Ceremony in Utah – **May 10, 1869.**

**Peter Anthony Dey** (1825–1911) – Born in Seneca County, New York in 1825, Dey graduated from Geneva College in 1844, where he studied law before switching over to civil engineering. In 1846, he was employed by the New York and Erie Railroad as a civil engineer, working on the Cayuga and Seneca Canal building locks before working on the Erie Canal and for several railroads. In 1850, Dey assisted in the construction of the Michigan Southern Railway, in charge of the division of that railroad in the vicinity of La Porte, Indiana. In the fall of 1852, he joined the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad and was in charge of division work from Peru to Sheffield, Illinois.

In the summer of 1853, Dey moved to Iowa City and continued his activities as a civil engineer, overseeing the construction of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad (M&M). In the winter of 1856, he rejoined the Rock Island Railroad, serving as the **mayor of Iowa City in 1860**. In 1863, Dey explored locations for the Union Pacific Railroad working alongside Thomas C. Durant, before retiring (1864) from his railroad interests and entering the banking industry in Iowa City. Here, he became President of the First National Bank of Iowa City, serving in that capacity until 1878.

In 1872, Dey was one of three commissioners that oversaw the construction of the new Iowa State Capitol building at Des Moines – a task that was not completed until 1884. Dey was a member of the Iowa State Historical Society at Iowa City and for twelve years served as its president. In 1878, he was appointed to the Railroad Commission and in 1888, he was elected Commissioner of Railroads in Iowa, where he served until 1895. Many other states are said to have modeled their railroad commissions on that of Iowa’s under Dey. In 1895, he was again elected President of First National Bank, and he died on July 10, 1911, two weeks after he relinquished his duties as President of the bank and the Farmers Loan and Trust Company.

Dey married Catherine Thompson (1834–1899) of Connecticut at the Trinity Church in Buffalo on Oct. 23, 1856.; they had six children. On September 11, 1857, they moved into the house at 507 North Clinton Street in Iowa City, which today serves as the home of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop (see pics below).

Without a doubt, the surveying work of Peter A. Dey and his younger partner – Grenville M. Dodge – was a foundational piece in the early success of Iowa’s first railway system – the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad.

*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.