from their own number a president, vice-president, and treasurer, each to serve one year. The directors were also to elect a secretary annually, and to provide for the appointment and employment of such other officers, attorneys, agents, engineers, clerks, and laborers, as might be needed to manage the affairs of the corporation, and build and operate a railroad. The object of the company was to build and operate a railroad from Council Bluffs to some point on the Missouri state line, there to connect with a railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri. The articles of incorporation were filed for record in the recorder's office in the county of Pottawattamie, May 18, 1858, and filed in the office of the secretary of state, July 2, 1858. The company was organized under the forty-third chapter of the Code of Iowa, entitled "Corporations for Pecuniary Benefit," approved February 5, 1851, and was to continue fifty years. The principal place of business was Council Bluffs, in the county of Pottawattamie. May 19, 1858, a convention was held at Council Bluffs to further the objects of the company. At this convention four counties in Iowa, two in Nebraska and three in Missouri were represented by delegates. The first board of directors was composed of Enos Lowe, S. F. Nuckolls, B. F. Rector, J. W. Coolidge, L. Nuckolls, L. W. Babbitt, James A. Jackson, J. D. Test, and Addison Cochran. The board organized by the election of the following officers: President, S. F. Nuckolls; Vice-President, Horace Everett; Treasurer, L. Nuckolls; Secretary, Samuel S. Curtiss. H. C. Nutt was appointed chief engineer. He made preliminary survey from Council Bluffs south to the state line, and made his first report to the first annual meeting of the stockholders, held at Council Bluffs, July 12, 1858. The chief engineers successively appointed by the company, prior to 1865, were H. C. Nutt, Col. Peabody and Edward Everett. November 6, 1859, the first ground was broken for the railroad at Council Bluffs, near the present depot of the K. C., St. Jo. & C. B. railroad. On the following evening a railroad meeting was held in Concert Hall, in Council Bluffs, at which speeches were made by Col. Peabody, engineer of the road, and the territorial governor of Nebraska, Samuel W. Black. The road was put under contract from Council Bluffs to the Iowa state line. Considerable grading was done in Pottawattamie and Mills counties, and several thousand ties delivered.

The contractors were Charles Hendrie and John Jones, of Council Bluffs. J. S. Andrews was general agent of the company for obtaining aid, managing real estate and right of way, soliciting stock subscriptions, and supervising the work. The war, commencing in April, 1861, soon stopped operations on this railroad, and during its continuance no progress was made. The organization of the company was carefully maintained. On July 13, 1861, the following persons were elected directors: James A. Jackson, J. T. Baldwin, Horace Everett, J. P. Casady, Samuel Knepper,

Edward Gilliland, W. C. Sipple, S. F. Nuckolls and R. L. Douglass. The same directors were annually elected during the continuance of the war, with but few changes.

By virtue of an ordinance of the city council of the city of Council Bluffs, passed and approved November 14, 1859, a city election was held December 8, 1859, to decide on the proposition for the city to subscribe $25,000 to the capital stock of the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph railroad company. The subscription was carried by a vote of 243 to 15. City bonds were to be issued, as the work on the road progressed, and given to the company in payment of the stock. The bonds were to bear ten per cent interest, and the principal was to be paid in ten years from date. Seven thousand dollars of these bonds were issued during the progress of the work on the road under the Hendric-Jones contract, and eighteen thousand dollars of the bonds were issued in 1866, and in consideration of said bonds, stock in the company, amounting in the aggregate to $25,000, was issued to the city at different times. These bonds have all been paid off, principal and interest.

Pursuant to a proclamation of J. P. Casady, county judge of Pottawattamie county, dated January 10, 1860, a contract, dated January 9, 1860, between the county and the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad company, for the transfer to the company of the swamp lands of the county and the proceeds thereof, under the provisions of chapter 132 of the acts of the general assembly of Iowa, passed at the session of 1857-58, was submitted to a vote of the people of the county at a special election held February 15, 1860. The election went in favor of the contract and transfer by a vote of 373 to 133. The contract was signed by J. P. Casady, county judge, and S. F. Nuckolls, president of the railroad company. The transfer was to be made subject to the provisions of the swamp-land act of congress, approved September 28, 1850, and the state and county were released from liabilities for draining and reclaiming said lands. April 30, 1860, J. P. Casady, county judge, executed a deed conveying to the railroad company 8,032.37 acres of land, valued at $1.25 per acre. There was also assigned to the company the claim of the county against the United States for indemnity lands and money due on account of swamp lands sold by the government; and by virtue of these assignments the company received in cash $10,000 and 4,451.75 acres of land in Kossuth county, Iowa, and 400 acres of land in Pottawattamic county, on which this county held judgment, were also all given to the company. This real estate and money were valued at $40,000, and certificates of stock in the company to that amount were issued to the county. May 7, 1860, John Doniphan and B. M. Hughes, of St. Joseph, conveyed to the company ten acres of land in a square form in the northwest corner of eof nw. † of 1–74–44, for depot purposes at Council Bluffs, on condition that

the company should maintain a freight and passenger depot on the premises for ten years after the completion of the road. The conditions were accepted by L. W. Babbitt, vice-president of the company. April 11, 1860, the Pacific City land company conveyed to the railroad company 300 lots in Pacific City on condition that there be no other depot for ten years in Mills county than Pacific City, and also leased to the railroad company 220 acres of timber land, which was sold to Charles Heddire, contractor, for $1,320. The Pacific City lots did not turn out to be of much value, and the station has been abandoned for business reasons.

A similar proposition was submitted to the voters of Fremont county, January 30, 1860, but was defeated by a vote of 492 to 41.

At the annual meeting of the stockholders in July, 1865, the following persons were elected directors: R. L. Douglass, L. W. Babbitt, J. P. Casady, Horace Everett, S. S. Bayliss, James A. Jackson, A. H. Harris, Edward Gilliland and J. W. Coolidge.

R. L. Douglass was elected president; J. P. Casady, vice-president; Horace Everett, treasurer; and Samuel Jacobs, secretary.

September 23, 1865, the company entered into a contract with Willis Phelphs, of Springfield, Massachusetts, for the completion of the road in two years the Hendric-Jones contract being surrendered and canceled. By this contract the road passed into the hands of Mr. Phelphs and his associates. All the property, real and personal, of the company, all its capital stock, except about twenty shares and excepting the Council. Bluffs city and Pottawattamie county stock, were to be surrendered to him.

During the winter of 1855-6 the road was re-surveyed and re-located by a new chief engineer, E. G. Ferris, who remained until the completion of the work. Ties and other material were also obtained. March 1, 1856, the first mortgage was put upon the road, being signed by Robert L. Douglass, president; and executed to Horatio N. Case and Ephraim W. Bond, of Springfield, Massachusetts, as trustees, to secure the payment of $500,000 in bonds to be issued in sums of $1,000 each, bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum, payable semi-annually-July 1st and January 1st of each year-the principal payable January 1st, 1880. Release was filed February 25, 1880. Previous to this mortgage there was no incumbrance upon the road.

The road was completed from Council Bluffs to the north line of Fremont county by January 1, 1867, and on January 15, 1867, trains commenced running regularly between Council Bluffs and Bartlett. Part of the iron for this portion of the road was brought up the Missouri river in steamboats from St. Joseph and landed at Stillary's in Mills county, a town long since washed into the river. Later in the fall the iron was brought to Woodbine, in Harrison county, then the terminus of the Chi

cago & Northwestern railroad, and taken to Council Bluffs in wagons. In 1866 and 1867 the floods in the Missouri river delayed the progress of the work, and in 1867 the trains were stopped seventy days on account of damages by the floods.

In 1867 Pottawattamie county and the city of Council Bluffs surrendered their stock to the company in consideration of the completion of the road to the Fremont county line, and the agreement of Mr. Willis Phelphs to complete and open the road to the Missouri state line by January 1, 1868. July 1, 1867, a second mortgage on the road was executed to George B. Phelphs, as trustee, of $150,000, to be issued in bonds of three denominations; 130 bonds of $1,000 each; 30 bonds of $500 each; and 50 bonds of $100 each. They were all to bear interest at ten per cent, payable semi-annually -July 1 and January 1 of each year-principal payable July 1, 1872.

The annual meeting of the stockholders was held at Council Bluffs, July 8, 1867, and adjourned to meet at Council Bluffs, July 23, 1867, at which, besides the election of directors, the following resolution was offered and passed: "Resolved, That the second clause of article (10) ten of the original articles of incorporation of the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad company be and the same is hereby rescinded." The clause rescinded made Council Bluffs the headquarters of the company. It was ordered that the foregoing change in the articles of incorporation be published and recorded as prescribed in chapter 52, of the revision of 1860.

The road was completed to the Missouri state line, December 30, 1867. The last annual meeting of the stockholders was held at Council Bluffs July 13, 1868.

In the summer of 1866 a contract was made between the company and the county of Otoe, in the then territory of Nebraska, that provided that the railroad should be built on the line then staked out, not to be further than a mile and a quarter from the bank of the Missouri river, opposite the foot of Main street in Nebraska City. Within which stated distance the company was to build and maintain a freight and passenger depot for all time to come, unless the river should wash the railroad so as to render it necessary to remove to another convenient point. In consideration of this agreement the county agreed to issue, and did issue, and deliver to the railroad company county bonds, to the amount of forty thousand dollars, bearing ten per cent. interest, payable semi-annually; the principal to be paid in twenty years. These bonds were issued and disposed of by the company before the organization of the Kansas City, St. Joe & Council Bluffs Railroad Company. It is understood, however, that the interest on the bonds was paid for some years; and that afterwards the county resisted and still resists the payment of either interest or principal. When the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad was commenced in

1859, it was expected that it would meet at the state line, the Platte country railroad from St. Joseph, but that and some other companies were merged in the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs railroad company, which was organized in the fall of 1866, and completed to the Junction at the Iowa state line, a mile south of Hamburg in August, 1868, when trains commenced running regularly through from St. Joseph to Council Bluffs. In the fall of 1868 a majority of the stock of the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph railroad company was purchased by Nathaniel Thayer, as trustee, and in the month of November the road passed in the charge of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad company. It was consolidated with that company April 7, 1869, taking its title. The consolidation was approved by Nathaniel Thayer, representing 9056 shares, and Willis Phelphs owning 452 shares, which constituted a majority of the entire number issued, which was 10,500.

A second change was made May 19, 1870, and a new consolidation formed with the Missouri Valley railroad company, the united companies taking the title of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad company. Under this name the road was for some time operated. The gross earnings of the road for 1878 were $1,499,029.80-an average earning per mile of $6,000.20. In the same year the officers of the company were as follows: President, Nathaniel Thayer, Boston, Mass.; Secretary, Charles Merriam, Boston, Mass.; Treasurer, Charles Merriam, Boston, Mass.; Assistant Treasurer, J. S. Ford, St. Joseph, Mo.; General Manager, Geo. H. Nettleton, Kansas City, Mo.; General Superintendent, J. F. Barnard, St. Joseph, Mo.; General Passenger Agent, A. C. Dawes, St. Joseph, Mo.; General Freight Agent, George Olds, St. Joseph, Mo.; Attorneys, W. F. Sapp and partners, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The road is now under the control of the C. B. & Q., and its business is daily greatly increasing.

The next proposition entertained by the county was in the year 1868, when Glenwood township took the initiative. At the meeting of the township trustees for September 24, of that year, a petition signed by one hundred and twenty voters was presented "asking said board to call an election and submit the question, Shall Glenwood township aid in the construction of the Burlington and Missouri River railroad as provided by chapter 48 of the acts of the 12th General Assembly of the state of Iowa?" The petition was granted and the election called. The balloting was had at the old brick school house on October 6, 1868. tion resulted in the casting of one hundred and sixty-five votes for, and fifty against taxation. This result was duly "reported to the clerk of the board of supervisors" on the next day, the seventh of the month. The project had been conceived before this time, for on the minutes of the board of supervisors for October, 1867, appeared the following:

The elec