Pioneer Days of the Madison &
Indianapolis Railroad Company
John R. Cravens
John Brough was president of the Madison
and Indianapolis railroad at a salary of $3,000 and I was
vice-president at a salary of $1,500 per annum. Brough was an
educated man and a splendid speaker, but not a railroad manager.
When we leased the Muncie road in 1852, we arranged for an
excursion to Muncie. A few days before the day set, Brough
wanted to back out as he was afraid we would lose money and not
get the cars back in time to load hogs for Madison the next
days. The hog trade was our main traffic and as we had so few
coaches, we were often forced to use the hog cars for passengers
by making seats in them of clean lumber. I persuaded him to run
the train and greatly to our surprise, we could not carry the
people, turning away hundreds. We cleared over $1,000.
Our road was run in connection with a
line of steamboats, the "David White," "Alvin Adams" and "Jacob
Strader." We had our own wharf boat and sometimes received three
and four hundred people per day from the boats. This would
necessitate extra trains, which were often delayed awaiting the
arrival of hog trains from the north in order to get cars to
load the passengers in. I would have to act in the capacity of
conductor in emergencies and had some strange experiences.
I was bringing a hog train from
Indianapolis one day when the engineer wanted to get off at his
home out on the road and he asked me to act as engineer, to
which I readily assented and got along all right until I
attempted to back the engine into the roundhouse at North
Madison and went clear through the brick wall.
Our new engine and cars were shipped
from the east as far as they could be by rail and we would send
ox teams to meet them and haul them to our track. We afterward
received them by lake and rail to Cincinnati, thence by boat to
Madison. Brough was very independent and made the directors of
his road believe they had the greatest monopoly of the age. We
had leased the Belfountaine & Muncie roads and newly projected
lines were anxious for us to take hold of their schemes and push
them to completion. When the Ohio and Mississippi railroad was
building they wanted to come via Madison and at a meeting of the
directors of the two roads, Brough in his positive way declined
to have anything to do with them, saying: "The Madison &
Indianapolis cannot father all the paupers in the country." He
made the same remark in 1853 when Chauncey Rose, of the Terre
Haute road wanted to lease his line to the Madison &
Indianapolis and Mr. Rose replied in a forcible manner: "By God,
gentlemen, you don't have to and we will see who will be the
paupers within two years," and he did. Brough ruined the Madison
& Indianapolis trying to build a road to avoid the steep incline
plane at Madison, called "Brough's Folly."
In 1853, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was
preaching in Madison and being anxious to visit our shops on the
hill, I took him up in my carriage and suggested to him that we
go down the incline in the "buggy," (a four-wheeled handcar with
a seat on each end and lever brakes). We were going pretty fast
and I asked him if I should check up. He replied in the
negative, saying it was the first opportunity of his life to
ride fast and I let her go until the reverend gentleman with a
wave of his hand said "too fast." He spoke of it afterwards as
the fastest travel of his life.
Years ago it was said that the reason
such an incline was built at Madison was that State Commissioner
John Woodburn owned the ground through which the first cut was
built and conceived the idea that the railroad running through
his place would enhance its value, and arranged to have his
prospective son-in-law, Edward Beckwith, appointed engineer in
charge, otherwise the grade might have been longer, but of less
magnitude. Beckwith afterward turned out bad and had to flee the
country.
Index
Source: Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. XII March, 1916
Indiana AHGP
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