Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1898 — GIFFORD, THE SWAMP KING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GIFFORD, THE SWAMP KING.

He la Now Building a Seventeen-Mile Kail way 'lhrongh His Land. Thirty years ago Benjamin J. Gifford laid the foundation of his large fortune by a scheme for reclaiming swamp lands in the counties of Kankakee, Champaign and Livingston, in Illinois. These lands had the best of soil, yet, on account of their wet character, were useless for farming purposes. By virtue of large canals and dredge ditches these lands were all brought into market, and from them Mr. Gifford derived large profits. Before selling out the major portion of his land In Illinois he planned and built a railway running from West Lebanon, Ind., to Rantoulj 111., a distance of about seventy miles, which was afterward sold to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and is now a part of that system. In this transaction Mr. Gifford made $250,000. In 1892 he went to Jasper County, Indiana and began the purchase of lands. This county has been noted for its swamp. After a thorough examination of the character of the soil of these swamp lands, and running leveds to ascertain whether there was any outlet for the water, Mr. Gifford began to purchase land in this county, paying from $5 to $25 per acre. He has continued to purchase until he is now the owner of approximately 33,000 acres of land in Jasper County, extending from northwest to southeast a distance of twenty miles. Nelson Morris, of Chicago, owns 20,000 acres adjoining Mr. Gifford’s land upon the north and running to the Kankakee River. Mr. Gifford first excavated a system of canals or dredge ditches of at least 100 miles in length at an immense cost He has constructed 120. houses and barns at an average cost of S6OO each. He has, within the last two years, taken off his land railway ties enough to complete twenty-five to thirty miles of railway. He has now commenced the construction of a railway beginning about two and one-half miles east of De Motte station, on the Indiana, Illinois and lowa Railway, running thence southeasterly a distance of twenty miles. This line, with the exception of probably two miles, is wholly upon his own land. It crosses the Chicago and Indiana coal branch of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railway at Knlman station. The presumption is that eventually the road will be constructed on north across the Kankakee River to Hebron station on the Panhandle Railway, and possibly there may be an in-

dependent line on Into Chicago without regard to the Panhandle connection. It will run southeasterly to Monon station on the Monon Railway. The change In this swamp region wrought by the system of canals is almost beyond belief. Within a year and a half lands which would mire a cow or a horse—in fact, lands where an animal would go out of sight, where the muck was from three to six feet deephave been made to produce corn eight feet high; and a region which was a wilderness without population has been settled by over 100 families, bringing into this county an increase in population of 400 to 600 people. Mr. Gifford is reputed, at tjie present time, to be worth from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000, and has no family except a wife. —Chicago Chronicle.

GIFFORD'S LANDS.