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Transportation

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The Railroad

In the legislature passed an act granting state aid to two railways, $1,500,000 for the Hannibal & St. Joseph and $2,000,000 for the Pacific. This was not a gift, the state being given a first mortgage on the railroad to secure the loan. The Pacific road in its charter granted March 12, 1849, was given ten years to complete its work and seven years to begin. It was authorized to issue ten million dollars in bonds, of which the state guaranteed four and a half million. The railroad was required by its charter to come through Jefferson City. Hence the people of this city and county were relieved of the enormous expense of some counties in being required to raise funds to induce the railroad to come through their territory. The United States Government granted the Pacific Railroad 1,160,000 acres of land.

The railroad brideg at Osage City

Construction began in 1851 and by 1855 the road had almost reached Jefferson City. Construction cost ran $47,000 per mile, about twice the estimate. So by the time the road was built to Jefferson City the company had spent all its state aid and nearly all the city aid received. This was the only railroad in the state on which real progress had been made. Labor cost in construction increased from seventy-five cents to a dollar twenty-five cents a day. Sickness interfered with the work, cholera causing many deaths. Investigation by the legislature, however, cleared the management of suspicion of corruption or inefficiency.

As construction to Jefferson City neared completion, the people of the city watched with keen interest the progress of this enterprise which meant so much to them. The newspapers were filled with railroad news.

"We learn from Mr. Pratt, the engineer in the immediate charge of the work," says the Inquirer of February 3, 1855, "that daylight shone through the tunnel on the Pacific Railroad about four miles from this place for the first time, on the evening of the 23rd inst….We congratulate Mr. Pratt upon the precision with which his two lines, coming from opposite sides of the hill, met in the center, and Messrs. Price and Parks with their large force of operations are getting to 'see through' a work prosecuted with so much energy. The tunnel is about 700 feet long…and was commenced on the eighth of June and has been worked day and night…except about six weeks lost by contention among the laborers."

Preparations were made for a grand celebration on November 1, the date scheduled for the arrival of the first train from St. Louis to Jefferson City. We quote from the Inquirer on preparation for the celebration and subsequent events:

"The Celebration - The eventful day has at length arrived, when we may expect the iron horse to reach our city for the first time, and everything bids fair for a grand day. The committee of arrangement assisted by a number of the ladies of this city, are very busy preparing the tables at the capitol…The city will be filled to overflowing by the crowd from the surrounding country, and the passengers brought by the first train of cars. This will be the greatest day ever known in the history of Jefferson…."

"Postponement One Day - On Thursday morning our city was crowded…by people who had come to participate in celebrating the opening of the railroad…Everything was arranged at fine style at the capitol and all were eagerly expecting the guests by the cars. The steam ferryboat Queen Sucker fired up and left our levee, for the Moreau, with Captain Rogers, mayor of this city, Col. J. M. Richardson, Col. Tarlton, Wm. Lusk and others as a committee to receive the delegation from St. Louis. Shortly after the departure of the ferryboat it commenced raining and the people began to scatter to find shelter. Many sought the portico of the capitol and remained until nearly night, when Gen. T.L. Price announced that dinner would be postponed until the next day, Friday."

"Awful Catastrophe - Many Lives Lost - Friday morning…some doubts and fears began to be expressed as to the cause of the non-arrival of our invited guests. As the morning advanced, these fears became strengthened; and at last, about 1 o'clock in the morning, the arrival of the ferryboat with the locomotive and cars which were to have conveyed the guests from the Moreau to Jefferson City brought us the sad news that the bridge across the Gasconade had given way beneath the weight of the train and its human freight, and all were precipitated from a height of some thirty feet, crushing and piling up the cars one on the other. (Many conflicting rumors kept the city in suspense for hours.) Just as we are going to press we are waited upon by Mr. John Holden…who reached here this evening and gives us the every way reliable statement that nine passenger cars were precipitated off the bridge which gave way on the first span, carrying over all the passengers with the exception of those in the last car which hung at an acute angle over the wreck of those beneath.

Among the slain were Dr. Bullard, Henry Choteau, Thomas O'Sullivan, chief engineer, and Samuel Best, fireman. These are the names of all that were recognized, although up to the hour of ten last night some twenty-five or thirty other bodies were taken out but not recognized by our informant. Others of course are buried beneath the ruins."

Thirty-one lives were lost in this disaster, and the railroad suffered a heavy financial loss. The following year the railroad was completed to Jefferson City, including a bridge across the Moreau at which point passengers were transferred by ferry prior to its completion. A ferry was also used across the Gasconade until a new bridge was completed.

From History of Jefferson City 1821-1938 by James E. Ford

Missouri Pacific Station, Jefferson City

Jefferson City has the advantages of three great railroad systems-two of which, the C & A and the MK&T, have no mileage within Cole County, their depots being in North Jefferson across the river. The Missouri Pacific, however, has a large mileage within Cole County, the main line running its entire length from east to west, the Lebanon branch of that system going through the southwest part of the county.

Of the Missouri Pacific railroad it is difficult to refer in a review without connecting the article with the late great Napoleon of finance, Jay Gould. There are many well posted people of the state who have some idea of the immense value the operations of Jay Gould were during his lifetime to the great Commonwealth of Missouri. He took hold of the Missouri Pacific when it was bankrupt, and developed it into one of the most important railroad systems of the entire country. Its value in building up not only the country through which it passes, but the two great commercial and manufacturing cities of Missouri-St. Louis and Kansas City-is simply beyond compute.

It has brought each of these trade centers into close touch with the fine agricultural and live stock districts of Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, the cotton fields of Arkansas and Texas, the mineral districts of southwest Missouri, and the untold wealth which is brought to the surface annually in that great producer of precious metals, Colorado. In addition to this great system, his genius had much to do with bringing to its present high standard the Wabash system both east and west of the Mississippi. His far seeing and fertile brain coupled with his wonderful executive ability, was the principle element in developing the Western Union Telegraph system to its now wonderful efficiency.

-from Cole County Illustrated Sketch Book and Directory 1900

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