In 1869, a new railroad was chartered to connect Plymouth, in Marshall County, to near Bureau, Illinois. It was a plan to build a road to connect the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago to the Rock Island & Pacific. Within four years, most of the roadbed had been graded. And the company was put into slumber mode due to the Panic of 1873.
Plymouth Weekly Republican, 22 September 1869: “Hon. Jas. McGrew, President of a railroad, visited our town this week to interest the citizens in a new line of railroad that is to be built from some point on the P. Ft. W. & C. R. R., in Indiana, through Kankakee City to Barean (sic), Ills., on the Rock Island and Pacific railroad. A company has been organized in Illinois to build that portion of the line which is in that state.” Both of the companies that would be connected by this railroad “are anxious to have the road built, and will iron it as soon as graded and tied.”
The Illinois section of the road, the Kankakee & Illinois River Railroad, was chartered in Illinois on 16 April 1869. The new railroad on the Indiana side, called the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific, would receive its charter on 7 January 1870. These two companies would be consolidated on 20 October 1870. The company would keep the name of the Indiana half of the railroad – PK&P.
The first sign of things to come for this road appeared in April 1871. According to the Plymouth Weekly Republican of 27 April 1871, “The Chicago Times, and in fact all of the Chicago papers, of April 12th contained an item relative to the sale of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Company.” Basically, the company was being reported as sold to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. While this would have been entirely possible, given the feeder route status of the PK&P, there was one group of people that were not notified that the company had been sold. The company itself. As it turned out, right below the above mentioned article was a denial by the PK&P that such a sale had even happened.
Things came to a screeching halt for the company when William C. Richards, Kankakee, filed a petition in bankruptcy against the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific. The claim was based on eight first mortgage bond coupons for the railroad. Those eight coupons were to be paid, in gold, on 1 July 1873. They were valued at $35 a piece. There were hundreds of said coupons that were not being paid, as well payments for other law suits.
The bankruptcy put the railroad into a holding pattern. For years. In March 1879 it was reported that there were some mumblings about the PK&P being purchased by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago. When the company had suspended operations in 1873, most of the grading had been done and bridges built…at least on the Illinois side. There was hope that the PFtW&C would complete and operate the railroad as soon as possible. Such hope was misplaced.
The company languished even more. At this point, all the work had been done on the Illinois side. It had done no work whatsoever in Indiana. Finally, the PK&P was sold at foreclosure to John S. Cushman on 5 May 1881. On 11 July of that year, it would become the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad of Illinois. 11 August 1881 saw the II&I of Iowa chartered. 14 September 1881 was the date of creation of the Indiana version of the II&I. They were all consolidated on 27 December 1881 to form the ultimate Indiana, Illinois & Iowa.
The II&I used the routing of the original PK&P, at least to Knox, Indiana. The II&I used that right of way set apart by the PK&P to build from Momence, Illinois, to North Judson, Indiana in 1883, a total of 56.2 miles. Three years later, the line was extended to Knox. The last 33.39 miles from Knox to South Bend were completed in 1894.
Through a few consolidations, what was originally part of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific would become part of the New York Central on 23 December 1914. I covered that railroad in the article “The New York Central in Indiana.” Plymouth never did get the new railroad that would connect it to the Pacific Ocean via the Rock Island and the Union Pacific.
Indiana Transportation History 