Forgive a man his indulgences.
Work all day for damn sure pay: The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Part 1
The history of the American Southwest is tied directly to the birth and expansion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The brainchild of Cyrus K. Holliday, a Pennsylvanian and Free-Soil activist who adopted Kansas as his home in 1854, the ATSF would eventually come to dominate the Southwest, dictating the growth of old cities and marking the spot of new ones through the lines they built. By the time of their incorporation into the CA&SF, the railroad held domain over a vast empire stretching from San Francisco to St. Louis.
Known to Westerners as the “Santa Fe” and to Easterners as the “Atchison”, the ATSF's beginnings were remarkably humble for such a expansive system. Railroads first appeared in Kansas in 1855, and despite the crisis of Bleeding Kansas another dozen railroads burst into existence by 1857. All had great aspirations, and many of them-- such as the St. Joseph & Topeka, which employed Holliday from '57 to '58-- aimed to eventually reach the old trade mecca of Santa Fe, which drew in 16 million pounds of freight and millions in freight charges alone by 1860. Holliday himself dreamed to make a road connecting Kansas and Santa Fe, and on January 31st, 1859, wrote up a charter for the Atchison & Topeka Railroad Company, which was approved by Kansas governor Samuel Medary on February 11th.
Construction did not begin for years. Kansas convulsed in the throes of drought from June of 1859 to November of 1860, severely reducing traffic and potential capital within the state, and the Civil War did little to assist matters later. Wagons that had years previously gone west for a new beginning were found going back east with the slogan “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted” painted on their canvas covers. Nevertheless, stock promotions and planning went ahead, and in 1863 the still-only-on-paper Atchison & Topeka received a land grant reaching to the Colorado state line, to be revoked if the railroad failed to reach that point by March 3, 1873. In November of that same year, the still-jubilant stockholders of the A&T voted to change the name of the company to “Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad”. Not a mile of track had yet been laid.
Tentative work began in 1865 when the ATSF ordered 3,000 tons of English iron rails (at a staggering $100 per ton) and sent surveyor O. B. Gunn to explore the land granted to the company. By March of 1866, Gun had returned, submitting his maps and estimating that the route from Atchsion to Topeka could be built for $11794 per mile, not far from the $10000 per mile previously claimed by promoters. Excited by this news, Holliday and the ATSF attempted to sell stock out east to raise the needed funds, but nobody bought and the company was forced to void its order for rail. From 1866 to 1868, Holliday scrambled to raise money needed to build the line.
The Topeka-based Weekly Record of October 28th, 1868 issued a notice from the ATSF management advertising tracklaying work with wages of $1.75 per day. Two days later, the first shovelful of dirt was turned in Topeka, and construction began. Although it infuriated residents of Atchison, the board of directors made the pragmatic decision to build the first line from Topeka southwest to Carbondale, where large coal deposits had recently been found and offered an immediate source of freight, income and fuel. By March of 1869, seven miles were built and the railroad had purchased its Locomotive No. 1, a coal-burning 4-4-0 named “Cyrus K. Holliday”. No. 2, the woodburning “General Burnside” entered service shortly thereafter, and regular service from Topeka to the end-of-track began on April 26th, 1869, by that point with the line extending from Topeka to Wakarusa. By July 1st the line reached Carbondale, but the company surged on, eventually reaching Burlingame by September 17th of that same year.
In July of 1869 alone, the company earned $1685.14, freight accounting for $745.94 and passenger traffic $939.20. With the Topeka-Carbondale line completed, the ATSF was now able to show eastern investors good progress in construction and revenue generation, and Holliday's little railroad began to draw in a flush of stock purchases from Bostonian capitalists. When Atchison Associates, Holliday's original group of supporters, imploded after attempting to water down ATSF stock, it was these Bostonian investors who suddenly gained control of the company.
This was fortunate for the railroad. The ATSF's Bostonian dynasty would last for decades, their conservative and long-term management style ensuring growth and making Santa Fe stock wildly popular in the eastern stock exchanges. Henry Keyes, their first president for the railroad, held the title for less than a year, but he created the new financial base for the company, moving ATSF headquarters to Boston, picking Kidder & Peabody to become their American financial agents and Baring Brothers of London their European agents, solid choices all around.
Keyes' presidency was followed by Ginery Twichell in 1870, in turn followed by the Scotland-born Henry Strong in 1873 and the American Thomas Nickerson 1874. All members of the Boston circle, they continued to encourage “developmental” investment in the railroad, spending as much on internal rail upgrades and depot expansions as they did outward expansion of new lines to the west and south. With their management and the influx of capital that followed, the railroad slowly built westward to the cattle town of Emporia in December of 1869, where they then paused, raised more funds from New England and English investors, and began construction anew in 1871. The town of Newton, Kansas was founded where the ATST intersected the popular cattle route of the Chisholm Trail, and services there began in July of 1871. Freight and revenue had grown enough that the Boston circle decided it was time to reach eastern markets, and on May 13th, 1872, they finally built a line to Atchison, working with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to finally connect western ranchers directly to Chicago cattle yards.
Despite all this progress, the company still had 330 miles of track to lay from Newton to the Colorado state line by the March 3rd 1873 deadline if it wanted to retain its land grants. Westward construction went as breakneck speeds in 1872, opening the line to Hutchinson on June 17, Larned on August 12, and wild Dodge City on the 19th of September. At each of these towns, business blossomed and crime soared as the railroad arrived; Larned briefly held the title of “meanest town in Kansas” until the crews moved on to Dodge City. Nevertheless, by December 22nd of 1872, the crews had completed the road to the Kansas-Colorado with only one last crisis: On the 23rd, Federal surveyors approached the ATSF foreman on-site and informed him that the state line was actually still four miles further west. Panicking, the foreman roused up whatever sober men were available, tore up sidings for spare rails, and hurriedly built the last stretch of track.
On December 28, 1872, the foreman wired to Topeka:
The Pacific would have to wait. The directors wired back the foreman, congratulating him on his work and ordering him to build the line a few miles into Colorado to reach the small trading settlement of Grenada and then cease work. The Santa Fe had exhausted its coffers. It would be another two years before the ATSF's finances were strong enough for further expansion, but in the meanwhile men still dreamed and planned. Holliday commissioned surveys from Grenada to Pueblo, and the company quietly set aside some profits for future campaigns. People outside the railroad also recognized its ambition. The editor of Topeka's Daily Commonwealth wrote in a December 29, 1872 article that
Work all day for damn sure pay: The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Part 1
The history of the American Southwest is tied directly to the birth and expansion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The brainchild of Cyrus K. Holliday, a Pennsylvanian and Free-Soil activist who adopted Kansas as his home in 1854, the ATSF would eventually come to dominate the Southwest, dictating the growth of old cities and marking the spot of new ones through the lines they built. By the time of their incorporation into the CA&SF, the railroad held domain over a vast empire stretching from San Francisco to St. Louis.
Known to Westerners as the “Santa Fe” and to Easterners as the “Atchison”, the ATSF's beginnings were remarkably humble for such a expansive system. Railroads first appeared in Kansas in 1855, and despite the crisis of Bleeding Kansas another dozen railroads burst into existence by 1857. All had great aspirations, and many of them-- such as the St. Joseph & Topeka, which employed Holliday from '57 to '58-- aimed to eventually reach the old trade mecca of Santa Fe, which drew in 16 million pounds of freight and millions in freight charges alone by 1860. Holliday himself dreamed to make a road connecting Kansas and Santa Fe, and on January 31st, 1859, wrote up a charter for the Atchison & Topeka Railroad Company, which was approved by Kansas governor Samuel Medary on February 11th.
Construction did not begin for years. Kansas convulsed in the throes of drought from June of 1859 to November of 1860, severely reducing traffic and potential capital within the state, and the Civil War did little to assist matters later. Wagons that had years previously gone west for a new beginning were found going back east with the slogan “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted” painted on their canvas covers. Nevertheless, stock promotions and planning went ahead, and in 1863 the still-only-on-paper Atchison & Topeka received a land grant reaching to the Colorado state line, to be revoked if the railroad failed to reach that point by March 3, 1873. In November of that same year, the still-jubilant stockholders of the A&T voted to change the name of the company to “Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad”. Not a mile of track had yet been laid.
Tentative work began in 1865 when the ATSF ordered 3,000 tons of English iron rails (at a staggering $100 per ton) and sent surveyor O. B. Gunn to explore the land granted to the company. By March of 1866, Gun had returned, submitting his maps and estimating that the route from Atchsion to Topeka could be built for $11794 per mile, not far from the $10000 per mile previously claimed by promoters. Excited by this news, Holliday and the ATSF attempted to sell stock out east to raise the needed funds, but nobody bought and the company was forced to void its order for rail. From 1866 to 1868, Holliday scrambled to raise money needed to build the line.
The Topeka-based Weekly Record of October 28th, 1868 issued a notice from the ATSF management advertising tracklaying work with wages of $1.75 per day. Two days later, the first shovelful of dirt was turned in Topeka, and construction began. Although it infuriated residents of Atchison, the board of directors made the pragmatic decision to build the first line from Topeka southwest to Carbondale, where large coal deposits had recently been found and offered an immediate source of freight, income and fuel. By March of 1869, seven miles were built and the railroad had purchased its Locomotive No. 1, a coal-burning 4-4-0 named “Cyrus K. Holliday”. No. 2, the woodburning “General Burnside” entered service shortly thereafter, and regular service from Topeka to the end-of-track began on April 26th, 1869, by that point with the line extending from Topeka to Wakarusa. By July 1st the line reached Carbondale, but the company surged on, eventually reaching Burlingame by September 17th of that same year.
In July of 1869 alone, the company earned $1685.14, freight accounting for $745.94 and passenger traffic $939.20. With the Topeka-Carbondale line completed, the ATSF was now able to show eastern investors good progress in construction and revenue generation, and Holliday's little railroad began to draw in a flush of stock purchases from Bostonian capitalists. When Atchison Associates, Holliday's original group of supporters, imploded after attempting to water down ATSF stock, it was these Bostonian investors who suddenly gained control of the company.
This was fortunate for the railroad. The ATSF's Bostonian dynasty would last for decades, their conservative and long-term management style ensuring growth and making Santa Fe stock wildly popular in the eastern stock exchanges. Henry Keyes, their first president for the railroad, held the title for less than a year, but he created the new financial base for the company, moving ATSF headquarters to Boston, picking Kidder & Peabody to become their American financial agents and Baring Brothers of London their European agents, solid choices all around.
Keyes' presidency was followed by Ginery Twichell in 1870, in turn followed by the Scotland-born Henry Strong in 1873 and the American Thomas Nickerson 1874. All members of the Boston circle, they continued to encourage “developmental” investment in the railroad, spending as much on internal rail upgrades and depot expansions as they did outward expansion of new lines to the west and south. With their management and the influx of capital that followed, the railroad slowly built westward to the cattle town of Emporia in December of 1869, where they then paused, raised more funds from New England and English investors, and began construction anew in 1871. The town of Newton, Kansas was founded where the ATST intersected the popular cattle route of the Chisholm Trail, and services there began in July of 1871. Freight and revenue had grown enough that the Boston circle decided it was time to reach eastern markets, and on May 13th, 1872, they finally built a line to Atchison, working with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to finally connect western ranchers directly to Chicago cattle yards.
Despite all this progress, the company still had 330 miles of track to lay from Newton to the Colorado state line by the March 3rd 1873 deadline if it wanted to retain its land grants. Westward construction went as breakneck speeds in 1872, opening the line to Hutchinson on June 17, Larned on August 12, and wild Dodge City on the 19th of September. At each of these towns, business blossomed and crime soared as the railroad arrived; Larned briefly held the title of “meanest town in Kansas” until the crews moved on to Dodge City. Nevertheless, by December 22nd of 1872, the crews had completed the road to the Kansas-Colorado with only one last crisis: On the 23rd, Federal surveyors approached the ATSF foreman on-site and informed him that the state line was actually still four miles further west. Panicking, the foreman roused up whatever sober men were available, tore up sidings for spare rails, and hurriedly built the last stretch of track.
On December 28, 1872, the foreman wired to Topeka:
We send you greetings on completion of the road to the state line. Beyond us lie fertile valleys that invite us forward and broad plains lie away in the distance, dotted with mingling herds of bison and cattle, awaiting a further advance. The mountains signal us from their lofty crests and still beyond the Pacific shouts “amen.” We send you three cheers of past success, and three times three for that which is yet to come.
The Pacific would have to wait. The directors wired back the foreman, congratulating him on his work and ordering him to build the line a few miles into Colorado to reach the small trading settlement of Grenada and then cease work. The Santa Fe had exhausted its coffers. It would be another two years before the ATSF's finances were strong enough for further expansion, but in the meanwhile men still dreamed and planned. Holliday commissioned surveys from Grenada to Pueblo, and the company quietly set aside some profits for future campaigns. People outside the railroad also recognized its ambition. The editor of Topeka's Daily Commonwealth wrote in a December 29, 1872 article that
...the road cannot remain on the prairie in the Arkansas Valley, but must be pushed on to a profitable terminus in the cattle regions of southern Colorado, and the silver mines of the territory. It is our opinion, based on our knowledge of the enterprise and resources of the company, that the A.T. & S.F. road will not be completed until it is stopped by the waves of the Pacific, and has been made the fair weather trans-continental route of the nation.
