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Fulton County's
Mary Elizabeth Rogers The Interurban Railway System in Fulton County, Illinois, was established in 1903. It started in Canton, Illinois, and extended through Fulton County to the towns of Norris, Bryant, Farmington, Fairview, St. David, Lewistown, and Dunfermline. On May 5, 1903, W. S. McGinnis of Canton, representing James A. Lawrence of Chicago, was granted a franchise for an electric railroad in Canton. Because Canton could not give a franchise to an individual, McGinnis organized the Fulton County Electric Railway Company. On September 14, 1903, company officials and citizens of Canton watched Mayor D. W. Lewis drive the first stake. Immediately after the route had been mapped out, the company had to be reorganized for legal reasons, and on October 9, 1903, the state of Illinois rechartered a new company named the Illinois Central Electric Railway Company. Small construction cars capable of seating a dozen passengers arrived in Canton during the first week of July 1906. They were gasoline-powered four-wheeled cars that were used as transportation for workers along the line. For five cents a trip the cars carried the first passengers to Chautauqua meetings. Later, trailers were attached for more passengers, but an extra load caused many breakdowns. By August, work was started on the line to St. David. In January 1907 the line to St. David was completed. A new, four-wheeled, thirty-five-passenger-capacity, gasoline-powered car was delivered and successfully ran for the first time from Canton to St. David on June 3, 1907.
Constant breakdowns, costly repairs, and loss in service, however, necessitated a change to electric cars. In November 1907 work was started to electrify the line. In May 1908 the line between Canton and St. David was completely electrified, and the Danville Car Company delivered two, eight-wheeled, forty-foot, interurban cars, numbers 9 and 10. Each had electric lights, a smoking section, hot water heat, and plush interior decorating. In 1908 the train crew received their first uniforms of blue with silver trimming and caps to match. A depot was built at Roller's Curve, north of St. David, for people from Dunfermline. Work was begun on the north extension of the Illinois Central Electric Railway toward Norris in the spring of 1909. In July trailer numbers 14 and 15 and motor car number 12 were delivered. In August the line was completed to Norris, and plans were underway for building a line to Fairview and Farmington. On March 3, 1910, the Canton Weekly Register reported, "Three killed and many more or less seriously injured is the record of the first serious accident on the Illinois Central Electric Railway, which occurred shortly after 7 o'clock Tuesday morning at a point about a quarter of a mile north of Birch street, when regular car No. 9 northbound, and extra No. 12 southbound, smashed together in a disastrous head end collision." The heavier car number 12 rode over the frame of number 9 smashing in one instant everything above the frame. Three died on that foggy day when visibility was poor. Car number 9 was towed and scrapped. Car number 12 was only slightly damaged. It was repaired and put back into service. It became necessary to supply the line with more power because of the extension of the line to Norris. As a result, a power substation was built in Norris. In Canton on the corner of Van Buren Court and Pine Street another power plant was built. With that power it was possible to extend the line to Fairview, and it was completed in December 1910. The people of Bryant and Lewistown asked the company for service to their towns that following spring. It was considered but plans were already made to build the tracks to the mining community of Gilchrist, north of Norris, and on to Farmington. Regular service began to Farmington in July 1912 and the interurban had twenty-four miles of track. The Farmington depot was located on the west side of Main Street. It was reported that miners who worked in the mines south of town were permitted to sit in the seats in the morning, but after their day's work in the dirty mines, they were asked to stand for the return trip. After the Farmington line was finished, the southern route from St. David through Bryant and on to Lewistown was started. On November 28, 1912, the final rail was laid with considerable ceremony by the company president and Lewistown's mayor. Service started soon after that. Two new cars, sixty feet in length, were ordered by the company and delivered in December. Service was good and inexpensive. The fare from Farmington to Canton was 20 cents, 25 cents from Canton to Lewistown, 15 cents from Lewistown to Bryant, and 15 cents from Bryant to Canton. A couple of cars were delivered, tried out, and found to do fifty miles per hour on a straight stretch of track. In 1914 a severe snowstorm stopped the interurban service for three days. The drifts were six feet deep. One car with forty passengers became snowbound about two-and-a-half miles south of Canton. According to a local historian, "A relief crew left the car barns, but the wind and snow forced them to quit at 10 P.M. Two carriages were sent out and brought back about a dozen passengers." The remaining passengers were rescued the next day. Because of the automobile and improved roads there were fewer and fewer passengers. The Interurban service was continued until midnight September 13, 1928. Before then, however, the Interurban Railway System was one of the factors in the improved transportation of Fulton County, Illinois.—[From Canton Daily Ledger; Canton Weekly Register, Mar. 3, 1910; Helen Hollands-worth dark, ed., A Hisfory of Fulton County Illinois In Spoon River Country 1818-1969; Farmington Sesquicentennial 1834-1984; Edward R. Lewis, Jr., Reflections of Canton in a Pharmacist's Show Globe.]
In addition to the Interurban Railway, Fulton County also boasted another rail
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