Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1859 — RAILROAD MATTERS. [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD MATTERS.

We are informed by Judge Crane, General Superintendent of the Fort Wayne Western Railroad, that it is the intention to renew the work on the section of the road in this State next spring, and that they are pushing the Illinois section bravely on, a part of the iron for which being already purchased. The last Montidello Spectator came to us quite jubilant over the fact that the Toledo, Burlington and Log«n*port Railroad had been completed between that place and Reynolds’ Station, on the New Albany and Salem Railroad. The first locomotive entered Monticello on Monday week. One of the prominent members of the Toj ledo, Burlington and Logan snort Railroad, | informed one of our leading citizens the other Jay, that if the people of Jasper county would grade a road from Rensselaer to their road, (on an air-line in the direction of Lafayette,) that company would iron and stock the road. This is a liberal offer, but we think that the general di-trust of the people of Jasper county would preclude all hopes | of effecting such tin arrangement at present. | Yet. the fact that the road through the soutlii ern partrof this county, ; Iter having lain in statu quo for so many years, is now pushing ahead, and will be completed the coming fall, is very encouraging, and shows that i railroad affairs arc looking up. The most sanguine friends of this road, after it had j been graded most of the way hetweeen Logansport and the Illinois State line, almost ga/?e it up in despair, and many actual did g*vo up all hope. Tite building of a brunch road as the one under consideration, would he of immense advantage to our peopl ■, in the absence of any road through the center of the county. Besides giving us an outlet for our produce, •developing the country for miles in every direction from the road, furnishing an easy I access for strangers to visit our county who i • are in search of cheap farms and rich land, thus filling up the county with substantial [farmers and increasing i»s wealth and pros- ! perit'., it would form the nucleus at no dis- [ ! tant day, we believe, for an air-line road he- j | tween Lalayette and Chicago. The Cincinnati, Logansport air) Chicago Road will i probably be completed during the coming fall or winter. That road will be lorty-four miles shorter than the present traveled route between Cincinnati and Chicago, and when ■ completed, it will of course monopolize the [ greater portion of the passenger and freight i business between those two poinst. This j will greatly reduce the income of the Cin- . cinnati and Indianapolis, the Indianapolis ; and Lafayette, and the New Albany and Salem Roads, if it does not, indeed, cripple 1 | them beyond recovery. These roads, then, ! must find a shorter route, in order to successfully compete with their Logansport rival: i and that shorter route cannot he found except by building an air-line road from Lafayette to Chicago, or, what is very nearly the same thing, from Battle Ground (thus j avoiding the expense of bridging the Wa-j hash) to the mouth of the Calumet river, and thence running into Chicago on the track of the Michigan Central. Such a road would strike Rensselaer and Crown Point. That the road will he eventually built we firmly believe.