Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1902 — Findley, Fort Wayne & Western Again. [ARTICLE]

Findley, Fort Wayne & Western Again.

From the following dispatch from Kankakee, 111., to the Chicago papers, it seems that there is Quite a definite prospect of the revival of the proposed Findlay, Fptt Wayne and Western Railroad project. The Vanderbilts, who recently purchased the Indiana, Illinois and lowa railroad, are to have a giant rival for the western freight business which has been controlled absolutely by that road for many years. Since the sale of the road the Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania and other eastern roads, which received their share of the transferring business, have lost their prestige and all the business has gone to the Lake Shore. The new road will run from Findlay, O„ to Fort Wayne and hence to Kankakee, where it will connect with the Southwestern railroad, a branch of the Illinois Central. It will also extend to Minonk and north to Freeport via the Illinois Central, thus enabling the new road to connect with ail the western trunk lines. This line was surveyed through Indiana about two years ago, and passed across Jasper county, in a due east and West direction, enter ing the county west of Medaryville, and leaving it a little north of Parr. This preliminary line ran 7 or 8 miles north of Rensselaer, but the projectors stated that they consider any reasonable proposals from Rensselaer for deflecting the line so as to strike our town. But it takes more than telegrams to newspapers or even preliminarysurveys to build railroads.