Originally published on 09 Feb 2015.

There has been a lot of discussion in other groups that I belong to concerning the National Road. Most people consider US 40/Washington St. the old road. And for the most part, they would be correct.

However, there are sections of the old road in Indiana that were bypassed when the state decided to make US 40 a four lane divided highway. This occurred in the 1930s and 1940s. One section east of Knightstown comes screaming to mind. There are other sections that had been bypassed, as well, outside of Marion County.

Today, I want to focus on Marion County. East of downtown Indianapolis, Washington Street holds true to the old road’s path. There are, however, two places on the west side of Indianapolis where that does not hold true.*

(Editor’s Note) * Later research shows that there was another slight variation created in the National Road, at the location of the junction of the old National Road (US 40) and the new Rockville Road (US 36) just west of the Big Eagle Creek bridge and just east of the old Big Four railroad overpass.)

Near the town of Bridgeport, just north of Indianapolis International Airport, is a section that has basically been lost to history. Starting near what is now Washington St and Bridgeport Road, the old National Road turned slightly right to cross the East Fork White Lick Creek. Just west of the creek, the old road is called Old Washington St. The bypassed section is about 1/2 mile long, and would have connected to another bypassed section in Hendricks County that is now cut in half by the Ronald Reagan Parkway. (One of the reasons for this bypass was a very shallow crossing angle for the Pennsylvania Railroad.)

The other bypassed section was created long before US 40 even existed. Originally, the old road crossed White River west of downtown Indianapolis at a 90 degree angle…typical of road building at the time. This created a short section of the original road to travel north of due west. That section was still called National Road for many years, but eventually was named Washington Ave. It has been completely removed for the building of White River State Park. The old road crossed the river, landing on the west bank at almost the same spot as the old Washington Street bridge (again, removed from service by White River State Park).

The old road’s path now sits under the Indianapolis Zoo. So does another transportation landmark that is now gone…the Indianapolis Street Railways West Washington Street barns – where all of the street cars, trackless trolleys and busses, at one point, started.

The old National Road covered bridge lasted into the 20th Century. The old Washington Street bridge lasted until the late 1980s. The ISR barns, which became part of Metro in 1975, lasted until 1985.

Most “road geeks” are very familiar with the Dixie Highway. Heck, there is even a group on Facebook dedicated to the history of that very iconic highway. But, there were two lesser known “Dixie Highways” of sorts travelling through Indiana.

The first one ran along the western part of the state, known as the “Dixie Bee Line.” From what I have gathered, the “Bee” was a play on words…both referencing the flying insect, and the letter “B,” as in second Dixie Highway. Ignoring the fact that there were actually two routes of the more famous trail.

The second was called the “Hoosier Dixie Highway (HDH).” That is the subject of this entry. The HDH connected the Lincoln Highway at Goshen to the Dixie Highway at Cincinnati. There are big sections of this old road that would make it, albeit not permanently, into the state highway system.

Starting at Goshen, it would travel roughly due south through Waterford, Milford, Leesburg, Warsaw and Silver Lake. Turning east, it would travel toward North Manchester, although it would never make it to the town. It would turn south toward Wabash, sharing the route through Urbana to Wabash with the Hills and Lakes road.

From Wabash, it would turn southeast toward Marion, taking La Fontaine into the road’s fold. At Marion, it would be joined by both the Belt Line and the Ben Hur Route. It would share the route with one or both of these to Gas City.

From Gas City, the HDH would go through Fairmount, Summitville, Alexander to Anderson.

South of Anderson, the road would split into two routes: one through Middletown, and one through Markleville. The two routes met again west of Cadiz, where the route would enter New Castle. Southeast out of New Castle, it connected to the old National Road at Dublin, after winding its way through New Lisbon.

The HDH then traveled with the National Old Trails Road (old National Road) to Cambridge City. It would then travel south, along the 1926 version of SR 1, through Milton and Beesons to Connersville. It would then travel through Everton and Blooming Grove to Brookville. From there, it would follow, roughly, what is now US 52 and old US 52 through Cedar Grove, New Trenton, Longnecker and West Harrison towards it’s eventual end at Cincinnati.

While most of this road is still mostly travelable, there are places that are lost to time and private property. I would love to do a road trip of this old route. Or as most of it as I can.

Originally published 19 August 2014.

RAILROAD HISTORY: Fairland, Franklin & Martinsville Railroad (part of the Big Four/NYC)

As a child, I spent a lot of time traveling between Indianapolis and Morgantown. It was a long trip at that time. Why would we do this on a regular basis? To go roller skating. A family friend ran (owned) a skating rink right on SR 135/252 in Morgantown. Yes, I was quite good. (And could probably still do it, as long as I didn’t have to go to work for the next week!)

I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, but in my later years, I noticed an old railroad right of way right along the north side of SR 135/252 between Trafalgar and Morgantown. As I got into railroad history, I came to find out it was part of the Big Four Railroad (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway).

My goal for the next few days is to give a brief history of trackage that ultimately became part of the CCC&StL. (Granted, this is not my favorite of roads – as a matter of fact, it ranks as one of my least favorites. Mainly because I AM a fan of the Pennsylvania Railroad!)

This time, we are starting with that old railroad bed along Indiana State Roads 135 and 252.

On 20 January, 1846, a special act of the Indiana legislature chartered the Martinsville & Franklin Railroad. This company built between its namesake towns in 1853, connecting to the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad at Franklin. These 26 miles of railroad tracks linked the county seat of Morgan County to Indianapolis and the Ohio River at both Madison and Jeffersonville. Financing of this road was helped out by the Madison & Indianapolis, in an effort to thwart the Jeffersonville Railroad. When the line opened to traffic on 17 May, 1853, the M&I took over operations with a five year lease.

When the lease was over, traffic dried up. The Martinsville & Franklin fell into bankruptcy. It emerged from that bankruptcy on 5 Mar, 1859, as the Franklin & Martinsville Railroad. Traffic was still non-existent on the road. For seven years, no trains ran at all.

The next chapter in the road’s history came with the arrival of one Ambrose Burnside. He gained control of the old, disused, railroad. He also had a plan. He was going to extend it east to a junction with the Indianapolis & Cincinnati. On 26 September, 1865, his plan started with the creation of the Cincinnati & Martinsville Railroad. That was the same day that the extension of the line to Fairland was authorized.

The Cincinnati & Martinsville completed the route to Fairland, and its junction with the Indianapolis & Cincinnati on 14 Jun, 1866. But the plan did not go off as desired. Bankruptcy again followed.

On 27 Jan, 1877, the Cincinnati & Martinsville was reorganized as the Fairland, Franklin & Martinsville Railroad (FF&M). It was this road that was leased to the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railway (some would call this the “real” Big Four).

The FF&M officially came to an end on 16 Jun, 1915, when it was consolidated completely into the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. But the little line continued on for almost 30 years as part of the Big Four. But just like other country lines to little towns, the writing was on the wall for the little road.

On 7 December, 1942, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the abandonment of trackage from Martinsville to Trafalgar. Industrial trackage in Martinsville was taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The other industrial tracks, at Morgantown, were turned over to the Illinois Central.

Eight years later, the ICC again approved abandonment of trackage – this time from Trafalgar to Franklin.

It looks like the entire line, from Fairland to Martinsville, was scrapped between 11 October, 1961, and 18 December, 1961.

(sources: ICC Valuation report, dated 31 December, 1917, of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway and the book “Ghost Railroads of Indiana” by Elmer G. Sulzer, originally published in 1970.)

Indiana is nowhere near unique in the naming of roads. Throughout the state, there are roads that are named using three major principles: location, person or destination.

Most county roads, at least south of Marshall County, and not including Marion County, have coordinate naming: CR 500 S, meaning 5 miles south of an arbitrary center line. In Marshall County, the roads running east-west are named for their distance from the northern county line. St. Joseph County, they are more or less alphabetical by mile from the Michigan State line. These are just a few examples.

But, what I wanted to discuss is roads named after destinations. And why you can’t really follow that road name to its destination easily.

For instance: Shelbyville Road in Marion, Johnson and Shelby Counties. It’s easy to start…heck, Indianapolis didn’t change the original road’s name that much from where it started at Fountain Square to almost the township line at Troy. (Yes, it’s called Shelby St. because it was the old Shelbyville Pike.)a

And, yes, Carson Avenue is a little puzzling. But we can deal with that. Leaving Marion County, it is called Shelbyville Road. And from there, poof. No idea where it goes. I would assume that it meets the Michigan Road at the intersection of SR 9 and Boggsville Road. But that is only a logical estimation. I really can’t find anything about it.

My wife went to Franklin College. Right off the campus, there is a road called Greensburg Road. Guess what? It used to be the Franklin-Greensburg State Road. But just as the road enters Shelby County, the name just disappears. Another logical assumption is that the old route would have included Vandalia Road, which is a straight line (more or less) from SR 9 west of Geneva to Greensburg. But how it gets from the Shelby County line at just south of CR 500S to the south center of Shelby County at SR 9 near CR 900S is beyond me.

There are a lot more examples of such things: Lafayette Road west from Noblesville, Mooresville Road south from Indianapolis, and Franklin Road connecting Franklin and Noblesville are just three. I am sure that wherever you are, if you are in Indiana, there is an example of such a destination road near you…that might wind its way to that destination.

I know that part of the reason for this is that early in Indiana history, very few roads were actually built to go directly to the destination. Most roads in this state follow survey lines. While some roads were started in the general direction of the destination, the builders would inevitably find a reason to use existing paths. Sometimes it was the easiest. Sometimes, it was land owners that wanted nothing to do with a road crossing their land.

All I know is that I would love to find out two things: 1) what were the paths of those old roads and 2) how on Earth did they mark them for travel.

Originally published 30 November 2014. Admittedly, there is some duplicate information for the post on Monday. The reason this happened is simple. The Indiana Transportation History group was, most of the time, written at the spur of the moment. There is a lot of duplicate information over there. One, because it was usually presented unscripted. Two, because tracking down what I had written before over there is hard to do. And three, most honestly, my memory leaves a bit to be desired at times.

Believe it or not, at one time Indianapolis was a frontier outpost with very few redeeming qualities. Sure, the state government was based there. But they had to contend with malaria every spring/summer, transportation facilities that were nothing more than stump strewn dirt and/or mud paths, and basically a subsistence living being so isolated.

That changed very abruptly on October 1, 1847. The Madison & Indianapolis Railroad came to town.

Some would ask “why Madison?” And if you look at it in today’s view, that’s a very good question. But at the time, it (almost) made a lot of sense. At the time, Madison was the second largest city in Indiana (after New Albany – which is a major reason people ask why Madison. But more on that later), and it was the closest point on the Ohio River to Indianapolis. That was important because the closest major retail and stockyard center to Indianapolis was Cincinnati. If livestock went south, and retail goods went north, the M&I would be in the cat bird seat for all of it.

But two small details doomed the little town of Madison. One is the very large hill that keeps Madison flat against the Ohio River. And two was the fact that most commerce had already started flowing through Louisville, Jeffersonville and (ahem) New Albany because the Ohio River became really REALLY shallow at that point, so all traffic had to stop and unload there to continue to points west on the Ohio. (See Falls of the Ohio)

But once the railroad was started – and moving traffic between Indianapolis and Madison – all looked like roses to the M&I management. And it didn’t take long for the attitude of “we are the first, and we are the biggest – we can do what we want” to set in.

First, was the upstart railroad from Jeffersonville. In the early 1850s, the “J” started building north. In an effort to control more markets inland, the M&I encouraged the building of two railroads from its mainline. One at Edinburgh, one at Columbus.

The “J” ended up buying both of them, with the Edinburgh line being abandoned in favor of the Columbus line (both of which ran to Shelbyville).

Also in the early 1850’s, the M&I merged with the Peru & Indianapolis Railway (for those that know the fair train route, that was built as the P&I). Within nine months, a court ruled that that merger had to be undone. (Still looking for why that happened!)

Also, in another battle with the “J”, the M&I decided not to allow the “J” to use their tracks north from Columbus. So the “J” built right next to the M&I for 10 miles.

And in another bout of Sudden On-set Arrogance, the M&I management was approached to invest in and help build another route. The management of the M&I decided that they were not in the business of helping and propping up upstart railroads. That “upstart railroad” was the Terre Haute and Indianapolis, and the man told to get lost by the management of the M&I was Chauncey Rose. Turns out that it probably would have been a very good investment for the M&I, since when it was all said and done, that upstart route stretched from South Bend to Terre Haute, and from Indianapolis to Saint Louis.

In the end, it was all for naught. The Madison route, once the Jeffersonville reached Indianapolis, went into a slow decline. It eventually got to the point that the Jeffersonville bought the M&I. In the end, it all ended up part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The PRR kept running trains into Madison, but like the Vincennes line, it was never a really profitable enterprise, if any money was made at all.

Originally published 18 August 2014.

In the ICC Valuation report about the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway, there was included a complete history of which companies built which sections of track.

The CIL included, at the time of the report, 509 miles of main line trackage. It became part of the Monon as follows:

Indianapolis, Delphi & Chicago built 40 miles from Delphi to Rensselaer in 1878.

Crawfordsville & Wabash built 28 miles from Crawfordsville to LaFayette between 1846 and 1852.

The New Albany and Salem built 35 miles between named towns in 1850.

The New Albany and Salem built two sections, from Salem to Crawfordsville, and from LaFayette to Michigan City, a total of 225 miles, in 1854.

The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) built 43 miles from Rensselaer to Dyer in 1881.

The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) built two sections, from Dyer toward Hammond, and Delphi to Indianapolis, totaling 79 miles, in 1882.

The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) built 1 mile at Hammond in 1884.

(Total track acquisition from the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) was 451 miles.)

The Bedford, Springville, Owensburg and Bloomfield built 34 miles from Bedford to Bloomfield in 1877.

The Bloomfield Rail Road built 6 miles from Bloomfield to Switz City in 1878.

(Total track acquisition from the Bedford & Bloomfield was 40 miles.)

The Orleans, West Baden and French Lick Springs Railway built 18 miles from Orleans to French Lick in 1887.

At the time the LaFayette and Monon was purchased, it consisted of no main line track, 13.5 miles of yard tracks at LaFayette, machine shops and car shops. Total acquired mileage: 0.

At the time of the purchase of the Chicago and Indianapolis Terminal Company, the property consisted of warehouses, storage facilities, and side tracks at Indianapolis. Total acquired mileage: 0.

And that is the history of the Monon, according to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1918.

Originally published 18 Aug 2014.

During World War I, all of the railroads in America were taken over by the United States federal government. The idea was that with the mass amount of traffic to support the war effort, government operation was going to be more efficient and functional (cough cough hack hack – sorry 🙂 ).

In 1918, all railroads In the U.S. were to file “valuation reports” with the Interstate Commerce Commission. These were to be an overview of the railroad as of December 31, 1917.

I decided to look up the Monon. At the time of the ICC Valuation Report, it was still the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway Company, created on 31 Mar, 1897.

In the Monon’s history to that point, there were 16 separate corporate entities that made up the 17th entity – the CIL Railway.

Here is a list of what became the Monon, according to that report. The first date is the founding of the company.

01/10/1896 Chicago & Indianapolis Terminal Company – was sold to the CIL on 04/01/1897.

06/16/1892 Lafayette and Monon Railway Company – was sold to the CIL on 03/31/1897.

07/13/1885 Orleans, Paoli and Jasper Railway – name changed on 03/09/1887 to Orleans, West Baden and French Lick Springs Railway.

03/09/1887 Orleans, West Baden and French Lick Springs Railway – was sold to the CIL on 03/31/1897.

11/09/1874 Bloomfield Rail Road Company – sold to the Bedford, Springville, Owensburg and Bloomfield Rail Road on 03/29/1884.

11/09/1874 Bedford, Springville, Owensburg and Bloomfield Rail Road – sold to the Bedford & Bloomfield Railroad on 03/12/1883

03/12/1883 Bedford & Bloomfield Railroad – Sold to the CIL on 03/31/1897.

09/11/1872 Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Rail Road – sold to the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (2) on 03/03/1881.

01/28/1880 Chicago & Dyer Railroad – consolidated with the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (1) to form Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (2).

01/27/1880 Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (1) – consolidated with the Chicago & Dyer Railroad to form Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (2).

01/29/1880 Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway Company (2) – consolidated with the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (1) to form the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) on 08/10/1881.

01/19/1846 Crawfordsville & Wabash Railroad – sold to the New Albany and Salem Rail Road on 06/17/1852.

07/08/1847 New Albany and Salem Rail Road – name changed to Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Rail Road on 10/24/1859.

10/24/1859 Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Rail Road – acquired by the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (1) on 01/07/1873.

01/07/1873 Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (1) – consolidated with the Chicago and Indianapolis Railway Company to form Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) on 08/10/1881.

08/10/1881 Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway (2) – conveyed to the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway Company on 03/31/1897.

Thus ends the corporate genealogy of the Monon Railroad – up to 31 December 1917.

This entry today is a more personal look at the behind the scenes of ITH. That is why it will be published on Saturday….a day that I will not normally be posting.

People may wonder: “why do you do an Indiana Transportation History group and blog?”

The answer is both straight forward and confusing at the same time.

My interests in history stretches back almost four decades. I am not sure how I became interested in history. I just did. And it wasn’t just general history, it was a more local variety. When I was stationed in Norfolk, VA, I studied the history of the area. When I was transferred to Cleveland, the same thing happened.

Along with an interest in history, I have, for as long as I can remember, had a fascination with collecting maps and license plates. I have had two very nice collections of both. My current collections are better than the first.

When I was growing up, my family made quite a few trips to the are where my parents grew up, western Pennsylvania. For some reason, I found myself interested in the roads that we traveled, and the signs (especially route markers) I saw along the way. Remember, I grew up when the interstate system was almost complete. I can’t remember ever having to get off of I-70 and use US 40 due to construction of the route, but now that I have had the chance to look back, I know it happened.

And it was US 40 that sparked an interest, as well. Anyone that travels I-70 in either direction from Indianapolis sees that US 40 shield…a LOT. (As a side note, there was only one place in Indiana where I-70 crossed US 40 and there wasn’t an exit: Washington Street and I-65/I-70 in downtown Indianapolis.) I remember seeing that shield, wondering what it was about. For some reason, while growing up, I never made the connection between that US 40 shield and things like the US 19 or US 119 shield I saw back in Pennsylvania. As I grew up, I had to figure this out.

I also found myself interested in railroads and trains. It also helped that my granpap (grandfather to those of you in Indiana) worked for the local railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

So, combine all of the above: interest in history, map geek, road geek, license plate collector, map collector, and train nut.

Add one more thing, and the resulting expenditures involved in that, and you have the Indiana Transportation History group and blog: Genealogy.

With my interest in genealogy, I managed to acquire a subscription to newspapers.com. Anyone that has looked at the Facebook group knows that I rely on that site…a LOT.

And that is how this whole thing started. I am glad that it has become something that others will use. I may never become rich and famous because I talk about route markers and dirt trails. That’s OK. I am doing something I enjoy…and that, apparently, others enjoy as well.

Just an observation.

(I end this entry with a line I use on almost every personal post I make.)

The subject city tends to puzzle those that decide to spend some time looking at Indiana history, or the history of things like the Michigan Road.

I can understand that. After all, if you have ever been to Madison, you know that as beautiful as the city is, it really seems out of the way from almost everywhere. And out in the middle of nowhere.

But why was Madison chosen for the start of both the first state road in Indiana and the first railroad* in Indiana? The answer actually has to do with two numbers: 2, and 87.

(* The first connecting railroad in Indiana. The actual first railroad in Indiana was in Shelbyville along side part of the Michigan Road.)

What am I talking about? The number 2: the ranking of the city of Madison in terms of population in the state. The number 87: the number of miles to Indianapolis, being the closest connection between Indianapolis and the Ohio River.

Madison was the terminus of, actually, three connections to Indianapolis. The Michigan Road, Indiana’s first state road, was built from Lake Michigan at Michigan City to the Ohio River at Madison. And, according to my research, it was a vote of 11 yeas to 10 nays that made Madison the southern end of the road. Another front runner was New Albany, then the number 1 populous city in the state. The Michigan Road reached Indianapolis via Greensburg and Shelbyville.

The Madison-Indianapolis State Road also connected the two cities. That route connects to Indianapolis via Vernon, Columbus and Franklin. In Indianapolis, the route is still mostly intact as Madison Ave., which in itself has a great deal of historic significance, especially starting in 1919.

The last connection was the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. This was the railroad mentioned above. After a lot of mergers, it would become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, or Panhandle, Railway). In the early 1980’s, this route was abandoned between Columbus and North Vernon.

This doesn’t count the old state roads that connected Madison to Lawrenceburgh (the actual spelling at the time) and Cincinnati, and Madison to Lexington. What is currently SR 56 west of Madison was called Lexington Road in 1876. East of Madison, at the same time, it was called Lawrenceburgh Road. The Lexington Road would have, as it does today, branched along the way connecting Madison to Jeffersonville and Louisville.

For being as connected as Madison is, it really feels like you have to want to go thereto get there. And THAT, my friends, doesn’t bother me at all. It is a trip that I would make again and again. For there are a ton of reasons to visit the little city at the bottom of the hill. And I would recommend it.