The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad built this depot in Rockford.

William B. Ogden and the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad

Colleen Scampini
Brookwood, Junior High School, Glenwood

In 1830 construction of a canal began in Chicago. It was thought that a canal in Chicago would make Illinois rich. Charles Butler, a New York real estate investor, visited Chicago in 1833 and decided that its financial prospects looked good. He invested $100,000 in 150 acres of land he had never seen. In 1835 Butler sent his brother-in-law, William B. Ogden, from New York to be overseer of his Chicago property. Ogden tried to survey the property while standing ankle deep in mud; the investment was a swamp at first. William Ogden could not believe the amount of money that seemed to have been wasted.

Ogden told Butler a generation would have to pass before they received their money back. Ogden decided to wait until the land dried up to try to sell it. Within ninety days, Ogden sold one-third of the land for the original overall price. He was left with two-thirds of the land to sell.

When Ogden was in New York, he stongly advocated construction of the Erie Railroad and, after he moved to Illinois, he often discussed with businessmen the possibility of a railroad westward from Chicago. Most of Chicago was not interested in a railroad. Chicago's prosperity depended on shipping from the Great Lakes, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the network of plank roads in the city. Merchants told Ogden railroads would ruin the city. He had little support inside Chicago for constructing his railroad.

He took his idea of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to the farmers living along the plank road. He promised that they would prosper from the railroad because they would not have to go to town with all their goods. Ogden set out to connect the town of Galena to Chicago because Galena had lead mines around it. These meant added wealth. Ogden needed a partner to help him complete the railroad. Johnathon Young Scammon, a New Englander, became Ogden's partner. Ogden

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This map shows the route of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad as it operated in the 1860s.

drove across the flatlands to stop at every farmhouse and talk about the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad. The idea of the railroad satisfied the farmers. Ogden sold the farmers a total of $250,000 in stock. Chicago's merchants defeated an ordinance that would have let the railroad come through Chicago. They did not want it cluttering up Chicago's water-front. Nonetheless, construction continued. The steam engine "Pioneer" made its first run in the autumn of 1848 on the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad tracks. Thus, Ogden had started the first successful railroad that ran westward from the Chicago city limits as far as Galena, where it met the Illinois Central Railroad. It took little time for Chicago merchants to see that the railroad shipped more goods faster and cheaper. They quickly dropped their anti-railroad views and hailed Ogden as a great man. The tracks of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad reached Elgin in 1850, Belvidere in 1852, and Freeport in 1853. In 1853 Ogden became active in railroads east of Chicago, but he also continued pushing the Galena lines westward until they met the Madison and Beloit in Wisconsin. He took over the Madison and Beloit Railroad and merged it with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad. This added greatly to the area's financial potential. William B. Ogden went on to become the president of many other railroad lines. He had proven to the public that railroads made Illinois an important commercial center.—[From William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis; Finis Farr, Chicago; Stewart H. Holbrook. The Sfory of American Railroads; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A Hisfory of the Prairie State; Harold M. Mayer and Richard C. Wade, Chicago.]

Men like William Ogden understood the importance of a Chicago terminus for
his railroad. Chicago eventually became one of the largest rail centers in the
country; pictured below is just one of Chicago's busy rail yards.

ILLINOIS HISTORY / DECEMBER 1994

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