- BELOIT AND MADISON RAIL ROAD COMPANY.--Directors:
John B. TURNER, W. L.
- NEWBERRY, Edward J. TINKHAM, and E. S. WADSWORTH, Chicago,
Ill.; L. G. FISHER, Hazen CHENEY, and John HACKETT, Beloit, Wis.;
Volney ATWOOD, J. A. SLEEPER, and Otis W. NORTON, Janesville,
Wis.; Simeon MILLS, F. G. TIBBITS, and Elisha BURDICK, Madison,
Wis.; John B. TURNER, President; Benj. DURHAM, Secretary; Edward
J. TINKHAM, Treasurer; and John P. ILSLEY, Chief Engineer. This
company was incorporated by act of the legislature, approved
Feb. 18, 1852. By the charter the company [is] authorized to
create a capital stock of $1,200,000, and to locate, construct
and operate a single or double track railroad, from the village
of Beloit in the county of Rock, via Janesville in the county
of Rock, to Madison, the capital of the State of Wisconsin, with
power also to connect or consolidate with other railroad companies.
The company was organized at Madison on the 1st day of July,
the same year, by the election of officers as stated above. Preliminary
surveys were immediately commenced, preparatory to the location
of the line, and the attainment of the right of way. The report
of the chief engineer shows the length of the line from Beloit
to Madison to be 52.08 miles, and the estimated cost $790,000,
or $15,027 per mile, laid with heavy T rail. Some portions of
the work have already been contracted, and the engineer is now
actively engaged in completing the surveys and procuring the
right of way, and the whole line will soon be ready for contract,
and it is confidently believed that the entire road will be completed
to Madison by the 4th of July, 1854. By an amendment to its charter,
passed February, 1853, this company [is] authorized to construct
[its] road direct from Beloit to Madison, and by running about
twelve miles west of Janesville, the line will be reduced in
length something over four miles, and be entirely removed from
competition with rival roads. The district of country through
which this road passes to its present terminus, the capital of
Wisconsin, is equal, if not superior, in population, productiveness
and natural beauty to any portion of the state; while its ultimate
extension to the Wisconsin river at Portage city, and thence
through the extensive pine regions of the north to Lake Superior,
or the Upper Mississippi, insure for it an immense and constantly
increasing business, as that interesting portion of the country
becomes settled and more fully developed. The very favorable
terms on which this company [has] arranged with the Chicago and
Galena railroad company, to run in connection with and operate
this road as a branch of that already popular and profitable
thoroughfare, added to the many other superior advantages already
enjoyed by this company, warrant the belief that this will prove
one of the most useful, as well as most profitable, railroad
enterprises in the Great West. To Simeon Mills, Esq., of Madison,
is due the credit of originating and largely contributing toward
the successful prosecution of this enterprise.
-
- [Source: Wisconsin Gazetteer,
©1853 Beriah Brown, Printer, Madison, pp. 48-49]
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