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ST. PAUL.
CLOSING BOOKS FOR 1879.
THE EMPIRE CITY
Which Is Making Giant Strides in the
Commercial Race.
COMPARISON CAN E INVITED
With Any City of 50,000 Inhabitants
on the JPace of the Earth.
SAOT PAUL NEWSPAPER
Which Records the Glory and Great
ness of the Apostolic City.
OUR RAILROAD ADVANTAGES,
Which Brings an Empire to Our Doors
to Trade.
OUR MERCHANT PRINCES,
Who Have Brought the City Up to
Present Greatness.
Which Garners ia the Work of 1879
and Presents a Bird's Ej View
for the Favored Readers
of the "Globe."
The readers of the GLOBE this morning
will, we imagine, share with us in surprise
at the business exhibit for 1879, which St.
Paul is able to present. It iq the first time
in the history of St. Paul when anything
like a comprehensive record has been at
tempted, and it has developed a oity of
greater proportion than even those most fa
miliar with the pw^o supposed. While our
record is, as we say, comprehensive,
it is very far from luing complete. In fact,
it* is largely contint to commerce alone,
almost no attention being given to mann-
faoturea. That branch of industry is BO
immense that it iq of necessity reserved for
a future chapter. 1 ho review of the rail
road system which centers at St. .Paul will
be found of permanent value. If there was
any question relative to the future a glance,
at the extent and progress of these lines
would settle all doubt. With sixteen
linos of railroad pouring their va8t trade
upon us, it is not surprising that we should
be obliged to grow to meet the demands
upon us. 1 here is no such thing as stand
ing still. From ten miles of railroad and ten
thousand inhabitants, we have advanoed to
nearly three thousand miles and over fifty
thousand, inhabitants. This is the record of
seventeen years, and is only the beginning of
our progress. A faint idea of what is in store
for us oan be formed by the review of 1879.
If one year oan accomplish so much
the multiple will make St. Paul a oity which
even the wildest enthusiast cannot now fore-
Bee.
Itsand
COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE
We point with pleasure to the record of
the merohants of St. Paul. No oity in the
country oan present abetter exhibit of
enrailroad
ergy, sagacity and integrity in its business
men, and the amount of their transactions
demonstrate the esteem in whioh they are
held by the surrounding country.
In short we point to the whole record
presented as one of which the city may well
be proud, and not the least reason for con
gratulation is the existence of a such a paper
as the GLOBE, which is enabled to supply it.
The record is made without ocoupying space
for self laudation. It is sufficient for the
GLOBE to present an epitome of the oity,
leaving its own individuality to merge in the
general whole.
THE RAILROADS.
Most intimately associated with the pros
perity of this oity and indexes, as well as
promoters of the settlement of the State and
all the New Northwest are the trunk lines of
the great railway system of whioh St. Paul
is the common center and headquarters.
These railroads, the St. Fanl & Sioux Oity,
the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba, the
Northern Pacifio, the St. Paul & Dulutb, the
Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis, the Chicago
& St. Fanl, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul, and the Eastings & Dakota, with
their local connections, cover a
vast field of industrial operations
and a greater field for industrial develop
ment. The constructors of most of them
have moved along with or ahead of the pio
neer settlers of the country. The enter
prise of their builders, struck down by the
storm of 1873, was the first to recover and
give promise of a new era of progress and
prosperity. The renewal of railway con
struction in 1878, and the results of tho
yen-were more encouraging. It stimulated
entei prise in every quarter and set in motion
towards the unoccupied lands of Minnesota
and Dakota a migratory influence whioh ia
attracting here the best olasses of immi
grants from the Eastern States, from the
British islands, and from Scandinavia and
Germany. This influence will gain strength
as the railway progress of the year 1879 be
comes known.
A BOTE? BEVIEW.
wi'l present a sketoh of extraordinary activ
ity and of grand results accomplished, some
of which point unmiatak&bly to yet greater
works to be undertaken. The tangled webs
of conflicting claims and hopeless litigation
in whioh the original St. Paul and Pacifio
property was involved and bound, have been
unraveled, the great project has been fully
carried out, and the new St. Paul, Minneapo
is & Manitoba railroad company, taking the
place of the old companies, with all the in
terests ana claims adjusted, has in its posses
sion and ownership two lines of railway,
traversing the finest portions of oor fertile
State and extending from St. Paul to theDatdh
Manitoba border, with a branoh pointing
westward through the great wheat belt. The
St. Paul & Sioux Oity railroad company,
from a local corporation, with seemingly a
ieeble hold upon a short and dependent road,
has developed into a great corporation with
a grand trunk line, the eight arms of which
lay hold upon four States and one great
Territory and reaoh out towards the Western
fields of gold. The Hastings & Dakota ex
tension has opened the upper valley
of the Minnesota and started oities of the
future on the shores of Big Stone Lake. The
St. Paul & Daluth railroad has passed into
the possession of capitalists under whose
auspices contributory railways are to be
built in the valley of the St. Croix and the
pine forests of the North. The Chicago, St.
Paul & Minneapolis and the other companies
have largely increased their facilities for
business and their tributary roads are being
extended into regions which will add to the
trade of St. Paul while swelling the trans
portation of the main roads. Bnt most
significant, perhaps, of all are the changes
of the year whioh havefixedthe
HEADQUABTEKS OP THE BAILBOADS
their commanding interests at St. Paul.
These changes are leading to great local im
provements, suoh as the Union depot, head
quarters' buildings, maohine, car and repair
shops, stock yards, elevators, terminal and
transfer yards, etc, while these in turn are
leading to new business enterprises and en
larged sources of trade and facilities of man
ufacture.
SIXTEEN DIVEBG1NG LINES
of railroad practically terminate in St. Paul,
as follows: The Chicago & St, Paul, river
division Milwaukee & St. Paul, Iowa divis
ion Hastings & Dakota, St. Paul & Sioux
City, "Worthington & Sioux Falte, Black
Hills Branoh, Blue Earth City
Branch, St. Paul & Manitoba,
main Ime, St. Paul & Manitoba,
branch line, Northern Pacific, St. Paul &
Daluth, St. Paul & Stillwater, St. Paul,
Stillwater & Taylors Falls, Chiosgo, St.
Paul & Minneapolis, North Wisconsin, and
Hudson & River Falls. They send into St.
Paul every day over one hundred trains, and
the companies can hardly keep paoe in the
supplying of facilities with their fast in
creasing traffic.
Si- Paul', Minneapolis Manitoba.
At the close of the year 1878 there were
few readers of this article to whom the situa
tion of the St. Paul & Pacifio property and
franchises did not seem a hopeless confusion
of conflicting titles and claims, in which
enterprise was fast bound and the vast in
terests involved were inextricably entangled.
Bat there were some men who did not
despair of rescuing this valuable property.
Messrs. Norman W. Kittson and James J.
Hill of St. Paul had the sagacity to see the
opportunity and they enlisted witn them
Donald J. Smith and George Stephen, of
Montreal. These men after a multitude of
delays and obstacles brought most of the
parties in the way of settlement to an agree
ment to terms on which they could be re
tired and the titles to the property be con
solidated. And right here, it is well to rec
ognize at once the great service these gen
tlemen have rendered to Minnesota and St.
Paul in carrying their purpose to its present
completion. They have made the grand
scheme of the organization of the St. Paul
& Paoifio railroad an accomplished fact
and in less than a year's time have sur
mounted and removed obstaol6s which have
for years thwarted the plans of experienced
builders and financiers and denied
the hopes of thousands of people dependent
upon and waiting for the coming of the rail
road. They have consolidated the detached
fragments into a great double trunk line of
railway, and their work stands a marve
among the wonderful achievements of west
ern railroad men.
The basis of entanglement was laid in the
passage during the last legislative session, of
an act which permitted any railroad corpora
tion, organized under the laws of this State,
to buy in any railroad property and fran
chises sold under mortgage foreclosure.
Early in May a sale of the branoh line of
the St. Paul & Paoific, from St. Paul to Sauk
Rapids, was made under a foreclosure of what
was known as the $2,800,000 mortgage, and
it was bid in for Messrs. Kittson, Hill,
Stephen and Smith, who organized under the
general laws of Minnesota, and adopted the
name of the
ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS & MANITOBA
railway company. Subsequently and after
this organization foreclosure, sales of the St.
Paul & Pacific and First Division of St.
Paul Paoific property were made, as fo'-
lows: First, under the $6,000,000 mort
gage, the whole of the ms-in line, so called,
from St. Anthony station to Breckenndge.
Second, under the $3,000,000 mortgage the
first 150 miles of the main line, on which
it was the prior mortgage. Third, under the
$1,200,000 mortgage, the branch line, St.
PaultoSauk Rapids. Fourth, under the $15,-
000,000 mortgage, the St. Vincent extension
as located and partly built, from St Cloud to
St. Vincent. The new corporation was
the purohaser at all of these sales, which
were confirmed by the courts having juris
diction, and in June last the new company
took possession, with a clear title and all the
old, conflicting incumbrances and legal com
plications removed.
The new company was then fully organ
ized by the election of Geo. Stephen, presi
dent N. W. Kittson, vice president, and
James J. Hill, general manager. More re
cently Mr. Kittson, having seen the project a
success, resigned the vice presidency, and
Mr. R. B. Angns, of Montreal, now a resi
dent of St. Paul, took his place, Mr.
Kittson, however, still remaining on
the exeoutive committee. Without
desiring to seem invidious it is due Mr. Hill,
who has bad the laboring oar in the imme
diate operation of the road, to say that he
has developed most remarkable ability, and
that the oldest railroadjmen in the entire
country have witnessed his success with
amazement. It is no exaggeration to say
that he has no superior in railroad manage
ment anywhere, and all along the line his
general policy is hailed with enthusiasm.
The final link in the present road system
of the company was acquired from the Bed
River & Manitoba railroad oompany, a cor
poration organized in tho interest of the
committee, represented by Mr. Far
ley, then receiver of the St. Paul & Pacifio
and First Division companies. This link
oonneots the main line at Breokenridge with
the extension line near Barnesville. Order
has come out of oonfasion. The spirit of
enterprise is released from bondage, and ac
tive progress has succeeded to hesitancy and
vain struggling under a burdensome load of
debt. The new company is firmly seated,
with a valid title and full command of
abundant resources.
Since the new company obtained posses
sion of the property and its lines of road
have been consolidated the
TEAFFIO HAS INCREASED
fully one hundred per cent., and it is notable
that the St. Paul business has been so large
ly added to by eaoh extension of road and
addition of territory, that its increase is yet
greater than the general increase of the
company's business. The amount of the
business at this station, in the absence of de
tailed reports, can only be judged from the
fact that since August last it has been an al
most daily occurrence that as many as six
hundred oars were employed in the com
pany's St. Paul yards and not infrequently
as many as seven hundred to seven hundred
and twentythe latter being the highest
number of any one day.
As this company's lines cross the State in
the northern and central portions of the
Lake Park region and traverse
the whole valley of the Red
River of the North to the British line, its
grain carrying business has naturally re
quired great additions of storage and carry
ing faoihties.
FORTY-NINE NEW ELEVATOES
have been built along its lines since the Is
of July lastone at St. Paul, with a capacity
of 800,000 bushels, one at Minneapolis, wiih
a capacity of 600,000 bushels, thirteen on
the main line between Minneapolis and
Breokenridge, and thirty-four on the exten
sion and branch linesthe forty-seven way
elevators having an aggregate capacity of
about 1,500,000 busheis. All these are the
additions of the last six months
only. But those who know best
the development of the country
have no doubt but that the managers of the
company's affairs will be embarrassed next
fall and winter by the lack of storage room
for grain along the lines. It is remarked by
the company's employes that from new sta
tions where never a bushel of grain was
marketed before, 50,000 to 100,000 bushels
eaoh will be shipped of the crop of 1879.
Since the 1st of July last, the St. Paul &
Manitoba-company has pnrohased^ 365 new
freight cars and rebuilt 50 rebuilt three
passenger coaches and rebuilt two locomo
tives and purchased five new ones.
PEBMANENT IMPBOVEMENTS.
In the same period of six months it has
relaid its track from St. Paul to St. Cloud,
75% miles, with steel rails, and has perfect
ed the road bed, oulverts and bridges.
It has laid, also with steel, 3%
miles of a second track out from St.
Paul and wUl complete the double track to
Minneapolis the coming seasan. It has
completed the eighty miles of road between
Alexandria and Barnesville. It has finished
a spur track (the beginning of a great west-*
em branch) from Orookston, by iisher's
Landing and a bridge over the river into
Grand Forks, 14 7-10 miles, and has graded
and made ready for the iron miles of
road-bed, westward from Grand Forks
cowards Fort Totten. It has relaid a portion
of the main line tracks, between Minneapolis
and Darwin, with 631} tons of iron, re
placing chair iron with improved rails. It
has built new sidings at 56 stations, 12 miles.
It has used 137,445 ties in repairs and 241,-
296 in construction. Bridges rebuilt on
old lines, 39 bridges repaired, 5 new
turn tables, 4, new engine houses of
four stalls and upwards, 5 new frost
proof tanks and tank houses, 9 new wind
mills, 12 new passenger and freight depots,
16 new freight houses, 5 new section
houses, 11 new coal sheds and derrick
houses, 4 other new buildings, suoh as re
pair and paint shops, etc., 6 and new track
scales, 5. In addition large repairs have
been made to other mechanical structures
and, as far aa possible in the limited time,
all the property of the company has been
put into most serviceable condition.
STJMMABT.
New line built, 100 mile? new sidings
built, 12 05 miles relaid with 56 steel rails,
lh\ miles relaid with new iron (during the
year), 46 miles new grading
made ready for track laying,
11.5 miles bridges built and repaired,
89 new mechanical structures, 78. The
lumber used in the buddings and bridges
amounted to 3,069,796 feet. The total of
excavations for new roadway, sidings and
track yards, for the six months, is 1,484,815
cubic yards. The new elevators, not includ
ing St. Paul and Minneapolis, have taken
probably 2,350,000 feet of lumber. Iron ties
were used for eighty miles of the new
line.
For the year 1880 the company proposes
prosecuting its Fort Totten branoh, relaying
the main hnes with steel rail, additions to
rolling stock, increasing faoihties at its
way stations and continuing its
IMPBOVEMENTS AT ST. PAXIL.
The latter, inaugurated this year, (besides
the great elevator being built under agree
ment with the company by-the St. Paul Ele
vator Company) includes the headquarters
building, now approaching completion, two
freight houses, completed, and the enlarge
ment of freight and transfer yards. The
headquarters building, designed to accom
modate all the general offices of the com
pany, is a brick building 50 by 110 feet,
three stories and basement. One of the new
freight houses is 500 feet long by 40 feet
wide, and the other is 400feet long by 50 feet
wide. The grading andfillingof. the last
six months in the terminal yard in St. Paul
has amounted to 140,000 cubic feet. Daring
1880 the car, machine and repair shops in
this oity are to be enlarged, and the working
VOL. II. ST. PAUL, WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 31, 1879.-TRIPLE SHEET. NO. 351
force of the same, now about 200 mechanics,
will be largely increased. The company is
identified with St. Paul and is not
only ready to co-operate in all that
may be needed to confirm the
commanding position, of the city, but will
keep at least equal pace with the develop
ment of the city and State in providing lib
eral terminal facilities whioh will add to the
commerce, manufactures, population and
wealth of the oity.
THE NEW SHOPS.
Since the above was written authority has
been given for stating that the oompany has
acquired title to lands covering about one
mile of track frontage next beyond the pres
ent shops np to Rice street, giving a total
frontage, less the new elevator grounds, of
one mile and a-half from t'ie Chicago junc
tion. On this newly purchased ground will
be built, during the year I88O, the new car
buildings and repair shops whioh are to
have a frontage of three thousand feet (or
over half a mile) and, when completed in
full, will be the largest works of the kind in
the Northwest, corresponding in extent and
the number of men employed with the great
operating business of the company's two
long lines. The tracks along this frontage
are also to be straightened and the grade
materially improved. These,facts are con
firmatory of the closing sentence of the last
paragraph above.
St. Paul & Sioux City.
The history of the St. Paul & Sioux City
Railroad company for the year 1879 will
make np an extraordinary chapter in the
Btory of rapid growth of railway companies
of the West. For several- years the people
along the original line of the oompany have
been impoverished by, first, the grasshopper
plague and then unfavorable season for
gram. Nevertheless their confidence
in the soil and climate and
the advantages of 'locality has
not abated, though it may have waned at
times, and their numbers have been greatly
incieased by emigration, while the losses,
partial to complete, of successive crops of
gram, have had the effeot to turn them
largely to surer, and, in the run of years,
more profitable productive industries.
Hence the business of the road, though not
showing the immense increase which would
have come from a rapid development of the
grain-produoing capacity of ahe country,
has been marked by an en
couraging growth of traffic whioh may
be regarded not only as permanent, but as
indicating that the country has been forced,
by its apparent misfortunes, into the second
ary stage of industrial development in ad
vance of the, temporarily more favored sec
tions of our new northwest. The direotors
and stockholders of the St. Paul & Sioux
City company, mostly
KESIDENIS OF ST. PAUL,
and prominent ra the local business of this
city, seem never to have lost faith
ia the country upo& which their
enterprise is dependent. They have
invested in the company's land?,
have opened farms and have led off in exam
ples of ways in which the use of land may
be made profitable in spite cf grasshoppers,
drouth and bailby the raising of stock
and the cultivation of a variety of produots
of the soil. The good results are already
observable in the increasing freight traffic of
the road, and in the prosperity of the villages
and trading stations along the line. Bnt, as
railroad men, the directors and stockholders
of this company have done yet more.
During the past year they have, by purchase,
consolidation and extension, converted
their railway from an unimportant connect
ing line, dependent ohiefly upon local traffic,
into
ONE OF THE GREAT TBUNK LINES
of the West, with feeder branohes radiating
into or towards the most prodnotive regions
of the New Northwest, and the power to
command favorable connections in every
needed direction. At the beginning of the
year these gentlemen formed the following
companies, and owned and operated the fol
lowing lengths of track: St. Paul & Sioux
City, 122 miles Sioux City & St. Paul, 148
miles and Worthington & Sioux Falls, 59
milesa total of 829 miles. The
three companies were first consolidated un
der the first given name. Since then the
oompany has acquired by purohase and con
solidation the St. Paul, Stillwater & Taylors
Falls railroad, twenty five miles, and the
Hudson & River Falls railroad, twelve miles,
has purchased the Covington, Columbus &
Black Hills (otherwise Sioux City & Ne
braska) railroad, twenty-six miles, and has
constructed railways as follows: The Blue
Earth branch, thirty four miles the Black
Hills branch, forty-four miles, and the Rock
River branoh, twenty-eight miles.
This makes 497 miles, an
increase of 168 miles of railway during
the year. In addition to all this the Omaha
& Nebraska railroad, 63 miles, has been pur
chased under a contract by whioh the St.
Paul & Sioux City company will acquire
possession and complete control the 1st of
February next. This will give this com
pany a total of 560 miles to be operated
in 1879, to whioh 150 to 200 mile3 will be
added by construction during the year.
THE FIELD OCCUPIED
by this great St. Paul corporation oan best
be estimated, with regard to
its probable transportation business
or its probable contributions to the commer
cial importance of St. Paul, after a glance at
3ome map which will show the whole extent
of the country contributory to the main line
and its branohes, and the relative position of
the company's lines with reference to the
natural exchanges of commodities.
The main line extends diagonally through
Southern Minnesota and across the north
western quarter of Iowa, from the Missis
sippi to the Missouri. Its eastern arms
reach to the outlet of the great St. Croix
pineries at Stillwater and into the fertile
valley of the Kinnickinnick. At St.Dundee,
Paul it connects with the Midland
rpine egion of Northwestern Minnesota, and
also by the St. Paul & Daluth railway with
the northern lake route to the seaboard,
while its Wisconsin connections are bkewiee
with a great lumber producing region. The
country along the main line is endowed with
a temperate- climate and very rich soil, and
will ultimately have a dense population.
Kfh^^ ^4
(BiobE
THE BLUE EABIH BRANCH,
extending from Lake Crystal, near Mankato,
southwardly, by way of Minnesota Oity to
Blue Earth City, traverses a fertile valley
and prairie district, and will
soon be extended, continuously,
through a naturally wealthy country to the
coal fields and lime and gypsum beds of the
Fort Dodge region. The
W0BTHINGTON & SIOUX FALLS BBANOH.
extends through an exceedingly rich prairie
country, in southern Minnesota and Dakota,
to the greatest waterpower of Dakota, on
the Dakota (or James) river, where a great
manufacturing oity is already well started.
THE BED UIVEK BRANCH
leads from Luverne, on the Worthington &
Sioux Falls branch, down the valley of Rock
river to Doon, in Lyon county, and is en
tirely within the land grant of the company.
It 'was built to open the lands to ettlement
and to contribute to the general business of
the trunk line.
THE BLACK HILLS BBANOH
starts from t*ie main line at Heron Lake and
run northwesterly toward Flandrau, Dakota.
Its present winter terminus is at Woodstock
in Pipestone county, eleven miles from Pipe
stone Oity and twenty-six miles from Flan
drau. As far as located the line lies within
a feitile prairie region, dotted by beautiful
lakes and lined by clear-water streams. Its
direction points unmistakably to future di
rect connection with the settlements of the
Blaok Hills and Yellowstone regions and to
crossing the Missouri valley where it is yet
unoccupied, but where a few years from now
there will inevitably be large and prosperous
settlements. The
SIOUX OITY. & NEBBASKA BOAD
extends from Covington, opposite Sionx
City, northwesterly parallel with the general
course of the Missouri, to Ponca, the county
seat of Dixon county, Nebraska. Here it
will enter upon the great valley of the Nio
brara, and ocoupies a favorable position for
commanding a large portion of its trade,
and for extension northwesterly. The
OMAHA & NEBBASKA BOAD
is built from Omaha northerly to Oakland,
Nebraska. leavmg a gap of fifty miles, which
will be built early during the season of 1880,
to complete the connection at Sioux City,
giving the St. Paul & Sioux City company
an unbroken line, all under its ownership and
absolute control, to Omaha. Its lines beyond
the Missouri will be held, however, and op
erated under the name of the Sioux City &
Nebraska Railroad company, a new corpora
tion organized under the statutes of Ne
braska, for holding and operating the pur
chased lines and building extensions as the
interests of the oompany and the develop
ment of the country may require.
THE OABBXTNG TBADE
of this system of roads cannot but have im
mense proportions. The stook and coarse
grains of Nebraska and the Missouri and
Niobrara valleys and the coal and lime of
the Fort Dodge region, with the varied pro
ductions of the great agricultural regions
traversed will make np the leading elements
of east-bound traffic, the volume of which
will be strengthened by St. Paul beiDg,
as it is, the best market of the
Northwest and by the Duluth and Chicago
connections with Eastern markets. The
west bound traffic will have its chief sources
in the lumber regions of Minnesota and
Wisconsin and in the mercantile and manu
facturing trade of St. Paul. At the Weat
the company has possession of the right
side of the Missouri valley for one hun.
dred and fifty miles. Its main line and
intermediate branohes hold a grand ter
ritory in Iowa, Dakota and Minnesota. At
the East it lays hold upon the greatest
produce consuming and shipping points of
the Northwest. Its future traffic, then, can
only be estimated by one whose judgment
can bound the possibilities of the richest
portion of the Northwest.
LIVE STOOK AND POKK.
Within a few years many of the farmers
of Southwestern Minnesota and Northwest
ern Iowa have been driven Into stock rais
ing, and nearly every oounty has its great
and model stock farms. The Missouri and
Niobrara valleys and all that section of Ne
braska reaehed by this company's lines are
also heavily devoted to stock raising. The
company already brings considerable stock
here for St. Paul consumption and
for shipment eastward, but an
ticipates a much larger business
in stock carrying, when the new stock y&rds
furnish facilities for rest, care and transfer
of the animals and enable the St. Paul &
Sioux City company to compete for the
Chicago and Milwaukee stock trade. A di
rect addition to the stock carrying of the
road is also expected from the establishment
of large packing houses here in St. Paul, for
which arrangements are now about com
pleted. In this connection, it may be inter
esting to' note what is being done by the one
PACKING HOUSE IN SIOUX OITT.
This establishment, by the way, is located
onlv one block away from the prircirm!
jtreet, but the public-spirited people of that
flourishing city know better than to turn up
their noses at such a profitable establish
ment. It employs through this winter sea
son about 120 men, and pays out not less
than $10,000 a day. It has already cut np
about 30,000 hogs this season and is packing
at the rate of abont 4,000 a week. A con
siderable proportion of the hogs
it packs are carried into Sioux
oity by this company's main line, being
purchased for that market at WortiiingtorL.
Le Mars and other trading point*. Of
course the company would rather have tbe
long haul to St. Paul, for the sake o#larger
earnings bnt the country will be ready to
Bupply big packing houses at St. Paul,
whenever they are started, without limit
ing tbe Sioux City packers.,,
PEBMANENT IMPBOVEMEMS.
During the year tbe St. Paul & Sionx City
company has built new station booses as fol
lows: On the Black Hills division, at Avooa,
Summit Lake and Woodstock. On
the Rook River division, at Rock Rapids and
Doon. On the Slue Earth division, at Oar
den City, Vernon, Amboy, Winnebago City
and Blue Earth City. Elevators, eaoh with
a capacity of 30,000 bushels, have been built
at Winnebago City and Blue Earth City, and
a number of grain warehouses have been
erected by private parties at others of the
company's stations. On the main line 38
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miles of steel rails have been laid in place of
iron, making abont 80 miles of steel track.
All renewals of track are to
be hereafter made with steel.
Large renewals of bridges have
been made on the main line in tbe most sub
stantial mannerstone arohes and iron truss
bridges. At Minneopa, in place of a bridge
330 feet long and eighty feet high, the gap
has been filled over a stone arched culvert of
twenty feet span, 185 feet lengwhich is be
lieved to be the largest arched culvert in this
part of the country. An iron bridge, 130
feet span, haa been erected over the Desduring
Moines at Windom. And three iron spans,
each of lOO feet, have been, erected over the
Blue Earth river near Mankato. The design
in these and all renewals and repairs, is to
make the main line in every respect equal to
any railroad in the United States.
TJOOAXJ IMPROVEMENTS.
During the year this company has- entered
upon an extensive work of improvement in
St. Paulthe providing of shops and other
terminal facilities on grounds purchased in
the Fourth ward. The grading of the
grounds has been about two-thirds com
pleted and the railway line leading to the
grounds from the main line on the upper
levee is about all graded except two rock
cuttings at whioh the work is being prose
cuted this winter. All the arched culverts
but one, which is under way, have been fin
ished. The largest of these is 100 feet long
with 12 feet span. It is intended to have
the track laid to the shop grounds early
in the spring for carrying the ma
terial to be used in building, and the
grading of tbe grounds will be resumed and
finished as soon as the weather will permit.
The structures to be erected on the shop
grounds the coming season are as follows:
A round house with forty stalls,iron machine
shop, wood machine shop, blacksmith shop,
car building shop, paint shop, boiler house,
water tanks, sand houses and coal sheds, and
side tracks and switohes, with residences or
quarters for yardmaster, watchman, etc. The
shops will employ about 300 men and the
plan contemplates additions, as required,
which will considerably more than double
the establishment. The expenditure on the
grounds and structures during the coming
year may be estimated at $200,000.
THE STOOK YABDS.
In association with the Chicago, Milwau
kee & St. Paul company, the St. Paul &
Sioux City company will build early this
year a spur track to the great stock yards lo
cated and being built on the river flat oppo
site the upper levee. The line has been lo
cated and estimates prepared and the con
struction will be begun* as soon as the
weather will allow. The yards have to be
approached by a long pile bridge.
The Northern Pacific.
This great enterprise of the Northwest is
in good bands and is being prosecuted with
a steadfastness which' promises the com
pletion of the road.-from St. Paul and Du
luth to the Paoific. within a few years. On
the Pen d'Oreille division beyond the moun
tains, for the ooming seaeon of construction,
contracts have been let for building 200
miles, from the mouth of Snake river to
Lake Pen d'Oreille, and steel rails for this
contraot having been going.forward from
New York for the last three months. On the
eastern, or Minnesota and Dakota division,
during the past year 140 miles have been
graded west of the Missouri, on whioh the
track has been laid for 60 miles and the
rails and ties are on hand for laying 40 miles
more. The work of grading is being con
tinued through the winter and the contracts
let require the grading to be finished to the
Yellowstone by Sept. 1st next, and provide
also for steel rails, ties, etc., to complete the
road during tbe season to the Yellowstone.
PEBMANENT IMPBOVEMENTS.
During the past year the company has re
laid its track from Brainerd to Fargo, with
steel rails, a distance of 138 miles, and has
made extensive improvements to the road
way generally by renewal of bridges, ties,
ballasting, etc. It has recently completed a
new shop, engine house and freight house at
Fargo, all of brick and most substantially
built. It has also erected during the year
new depots at Verndale, Aldricb, Fort Rip
ley, Motley^ Casselton, New Buffalo, Tower
City and Valley City, and made additions to
passenger and freight houses at several other
points. Grain houses have been erected by
private parties during the year at sixteen
stations.
The company has inoreased its rolling
stock for Minnesota and Dakota during tbe
year by the purohase of 10 locomotives and
100 freight cars, and has contracted for 10
more locomotives and 350 box, stock and fiat
cars, to be delivered early in the coming
spring.
LOCAL IMPBOVEMENTS.
At the recent metting of the directors in
New York, General Manager Sargent was
authorized to begin grading for the head
quarters building in this city, and also the
filling of its grounds upon which to erect
freight houses. The headquarters building
is to be of brick, four stories high, and the
freight houses will be extensive enough to
give full accommodations for the immense
local and transfer of the company. The ex
cavation and filling alone, to be begun as
early as preparations can be made, will cost,
it is estimated, not less than $60,000. An
engineer is to arrive here this -week, who is
o have charge of the St. Paul improvements
and the piling, etc., for anew elevator at Du
luth. Other improvements and additions at
St. Panl are contemplated by the company,
the time of beginning which will depend on
arrangements now pending so that it is pru
dent to say only that the coming season will
be one of extraordinary activity about the
Northern Paoifio property in this city.
The St. Paul & Duluth,
This railroad has earned the gratitude of
St Paul and southern and central Minnesota
by the relief and protection it has given in
opening to us tbe northern lake route. Its
principal items of traffic, other than in the
steadily increasing local trade are coal, lum
ber, wheat and flour. It brings to St. Paul
the whole of the city's supply of hard coal
and large quantities of lumber for the local
market and for transfer to roads leading
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west and southwest, and carries to the lake
extensive shipments of wheat and flour.
During the year 1879 the oompany has built
a branch, 6 miles, from Northern Paoifio
Junction to Knife Falls, at which latter place
Brandenburg & Moore have a large saw mill,
and a great pine region, heretofore closed, is
made available to lumbermen. Ten miles
of roadway has been graded during the year
on the Taylors Falls brancb, from Wyoming
to Center City, and the traok will be laid and
the road opened by the 1st of July next.
The earnings of the company have increased
the year so that the gross receipts
for 1879 will be about $560,000more than
in any year since the road was built, even
when it was doing the business of the North
ern Paoific company. The lumber trade of
the road is increasing rapidly and the favor
able present season promises to bring it np
to very great proportions.
IN ST. PAUL.
The management of this company, located
in and identified with St. Paul, are also just
ly entitled to the favor of all St. Paul, for
this reason, that they buy abroad nothing of
equipment or suppliea.whioh can be made or
purohased here. It is their policy to spend
the money of the company, to that extent,
where it is earned, and in that they are en
tirely endorsed by the stockholders. During
the year 1879 they have built about twenty
five new oars at the St. Paul shops and they
are building fifty more this winterbuying
the 400 wheels for them from the St. Paul
Foundry. All told, the company gives em
ployment to about 1,000 men, and in its St.
Paul shops this winter has about SOO roe
chanics at work. On account of the increas
ing terminal business, recent large additions
have been made to the company's depot
grounds in this city at an expense of about
$10,000.
Chicago, Milwaukee Jt St. Paul.
Details of the operations of this great cor
poration of the Northwest, which owns and
operates three trunk lines in the State of
Minnesota, are not obtainable because tbe
company's headquarters are not here. But
it may be generally stated that its traffic, as
appears from the monthly reports in railroad
journals, has greatly increased during the
last year, and since July last has amounted
to monthly totals greater than the company
has ever before shown. This will apply par
ticularly to the Minnesota lines. During the
year the Hastings & Dakota line of this
Company has been extended from Montevi
deo to Ortonvilleat the foot of Big Stone
lake, on the western bolder of the Statea
construction of forty-eight miles of new
line. The company entered upon the yea
with its lines in first-class condition and
maintains it. It has noprojeot of extension
in which our readers are directly interested,
except that it will, when it can obtain per
mission to cross the territory now reserved
for the Sisseton Sioux, extend its Hastings
& Dakota division to the Dakota (called
James) river and up the valley of that river
to Jamestwon, on the Northern Pacifio. It
is important to St. Paul that this division be
intimately associated with the commerce of
the city.
LOCAL IMPBOVEMENTS.
The most extensive work in this vicinity
in which this oompany has engaged during
the past year is the building of the Short
Line from this city to Minneapolis. It is a
most difficult undertaking, requiring extra
Ordinary excavation and involving an outlay
of not less than $500,000. The grading is
nearly completed for the double track, which
has lately been decided upon, and one track
is laid for construction purposes. When
completed, whieh it will be early during the
coming summer, it will be in every respect a
first class road, shortening tho time of transit
between Minneapolis and this city to about
twenty-five minutes, and affording, in cross
ing the beautiful bridge which is to span the
Mississippi, one of the finest railroad views
in all the West.
During the latter part of the year this
company has been greatly enlarging its
freight yard in St. Paul by laying down ad
ditional tracks to accommodate its fast in
creasing lecal and transfer business.
This it has been compelled to do,
notwithstanding its fixed purpose to provide
still larger and better freight accommoda
tions on the lower levee, whenever the ground
can be obtained. The management hope to
obtain the ground so as to erect next summer
freight houses which in capacity and appear
ance will surpass any yet built in this State.
In association with tbe St. Panl & Sionx
City company, this company is about to build
a spur track over a pile bridge to the new
stook yards.
This company has no lands for sale, the
lands earned on its Hastings & Dakota
division having passed to the construction
company or original owners of tbe line and
not being for sale here, while the State swamp
lands inuring to its other lines have not yet
been conveyed.
Chicago, St Paul & Minneapolis.
During its construction period and np to
three years ago, this railroad was named the
West Wisconsin. It is two hundred miles
long, from St. Paul to Elroy in Wisconsin,
and is operated in connection with the Chi
cago & Northwestern company's railroads.
We believe that no other road of similar
length in all the country has had a develop
ment of business for the last two years equal
to that of this road. Its gross earnings for
1878 exceeded those of 1877 by over twenty
five per cent., and its gross earnings of 1879
have exceeded those of 1878 by over twenty
five per cent. The volume of this inoreased
business may be judged from the company's
additions of rolling stock. During the year
1879 it has purchased twelve new locomo
tives from the Baldwin Locomotive Oom
pany, makers of all the engines in use on
this road. It has purchased and put into
the different color lines freight cars as" fol
lows: Bed Line, 50 cars Hoosao Tunnel
line, 70 cars Bine Line, 150 cars Erie &
#North
i%
Shore, 100 cars, and Canada Southern,
lOO cars. It has also pat
into tbe Lumber Line 150 of
the best oars ever bnilt for that
business, thirty-three feet long, convenient
and secure for lumber handling and yet
adapted to general freight. The company
has also bnilt, the past year, for its traffic
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