Introduction
WHEN a corporation, like an individual, reaches a certain age, it has prerogatives. A man of sixty-five frequently reflects and muses over a lifetime filled with accomplishments, disappointments, joys, and sorrows. The Nickel Plate Road, likewise, has a colorful background filled with eventsnot all momentousbut each of interest or pride to many.
It seems, therefore, that its existence and history merit at this time a permanent recording so that in the years to come, when even we have passed away, all knowledge of these things will not have been lost, but will remain not only as a memory but as a patternand even an inspirationto those who shall succeed us to continue and to aspire to even greater things than we in a mere lifetime have been able to add.
It is impossible in a short space to pay tribute to each individual who has contributed to the organization, construction, operation, and expansion of an entity as comprehensive as a railroad. However, by tracing the broad outlines of its development, we can recreate the lifeline and in so doing pay tribute to the total achievements of the thousands of employees, investors, patrons, and loyal friends, which the Road claims today. It is hoped that this volume, in recalling the past, will serve as an inspiration for the future to all those who read its pages.
President, The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad
List of Illustrations
Engine No. 1 of the New York, Chicago and St.
Louis Railway
Birthplace108 Broadway, New York City
Ground plot of Broadway and environs where the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway was conceived
George I. Seney
Columbus R. Cummings
William Boyden Howard
Calvin Stewart Brice
Walston Hill Brown
John T. Martin
Edward H. R. Lyman
Alexander M. White
Charles Foster
Samuel Thomas
William Fleming
Daniel P. Eells
The streets of Bellevue, Ohio, 1881
North view of Findlay, Ohio
The Evolution of a Trade Mark
Map of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, 1882, showing the proposed Joliet and Youngstown branches
The Nickel Plates first general offices, the Hoyt Block, Cleveland, Ohio
The Rocky River Railroad, 1881, Cleveland, Ohio
Railroad pass, Rocky River Railroad
Nickel Plate bridge over Cuyahoga Valley, 1882, Cleveland, Ohio
Bellevues Nickel Plate roundhouse
Conneauts first yard engine
One of the Nickel Plates most famous advertisements
Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the eighties
The Wabash Canal in 1881, Fort Wayne, Indiana
The main street of Conneaut, Ohio, 1882
Engine No. 1
Notice of completion of the construction of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway from Buffalo to Chicago, September 1, 1882
Officers of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, 1882
Official announcement of the opening of the railroad for passenger business, October 13, 1882
B. G. Mitchell
Nelson Robinson
Stevenson Burke
J. H. Devereux
The Broadway depot, Cleveland, Ohio
Clevelands Public Square and Forest City House
William K. Vanderbilt
D. W. Caldwell
Samuel R. Calloway
William Henry Caniff
O. P. Van Sweringen
M. J. Van Sweringen
J. J. Bernet
Facsimile of pp. 2 and 4, Nickel Plate folder on the Gold Fields of Alaska
Facsimile of pp. 6 and 9, Nickel Plate folder on the Gold Fields of Alaska
Insignia of the Veterans Association of the Nickel Plate Road
Trade Mark of the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad
The first engine on the standard gauge run over the Frankfort-Kokomo Railroad, March 28, 1874
The old Frankfort and Kokomo Railroad, Michigantown, Indiana, March 28, 1874
No. 32 on the Toledo, Delphos, and Burlington
Stock certificates of the Toledo, Delphos and Indianapolis Railway Company, 1877-1878
Map of the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad
No. 9, the first passenger train on the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, at Coffeen, Illinois
Celebrating on No. 48 of the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City at Edwardsville, Illinois
The Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City No. 16, with its crew, at Charleston, Illinois
Frankfort, Indiana, in latter Nineteenth Century
The Dean Richmond , a Clover Leaf boat, and her captain, George W. Stoddard
The Clover Leaf station at Warren, Indiana
Stock Drovers Pass, Lake Erie and Louisville Railway
Map of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad
Muncie, Indiana, in the early eighties
Looking north on Fourth Street from Columbia Street in Lafayette, Indiana, in early L.E. and W. days
The Lafayette, Muncie and Bloomington Engine No. 13 with its lucky crew
Engine No. 95 and crew at Bloomington, Illinois, in the eighties
Walter L. Ross
William Harahan
The Niagara Frontier Food Terminal, Buffalo, N.Y.
The Northern Ohio Food Terminal, Cleveland, Ohio
The Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio, before the building of the 58-story Terminal Tower
The Terminal Tower
George D. Brooke
Engine No. 700
The Van Sweringen Rail System
Five dollars in scrip issued by the Fort Wayne and Southern Rail-road in 1852
Stock certificate of the Fort Wayne and Southern Railroad, 1852
Dividend check issued by Lake Erie and Western, 1898
