April 15, 1857,
the First Train Arrived
In 1855 Rufus King, editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, traveled from Milwaukee to St. Paul following the proposed route of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad. During his three-day stopover in Prairie du Chien, he commented on the town as it prepared for the arrival of the railroad in 1857.
"Prairie du Chien was for many years a very important trading post and afterwards a prominent military station. When the Indians and the troops both moved away, the town, so long entirely dependent upon those two sources of prosperity, fell into decay. Emigrants passed it by... business became stagnant. The future looked dark till the approaching... Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad... kindled anew the hopes and revived the energies... of the old French town. ... the early completion of the road is assured. Gangs of laborers, busy grading the track, are scattered all along the Wisconsin and are trooping down toward the Mississippi. Active negotiations are in progress for lands and lots required for station houses, machine shops, and warehouses for the company. ... a large proportion of the vast and annually increasing traffic and travel must inevitably ... follow this new thoroughfare between the East and the West. The destiny of Prairie du Chien as a great point of transshipment and exchange is fully appreciated. It is pleasant to see what young and vigorous life has been suddenly infused into ... the ancient and timeworn town. It looks forward hopefully and confidently to the future... . The lapse of two years will show greater improvement and larger... population at Prairie du Chien than at any other point on the great river."
Prairie du Chien enjoyed the greatest growth in its history during those years leading to the arrival of the railroad. 327 buildings went up around town in 1857; 161 in Upper Town; 143 in Lower Town; 17 on the island and 6 in French Town. Among those still with us are the Old Rock School and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church as well as many houses.
On
April 15, 1857, a locomotive of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad
steamed
into Prairie du Chien trailing thick, black smoke.
It was a red-letter day for the young railroad and for
Prairie du Chien. A 200-gun salute
and a crowd that numbered in the thousands greeted the short train. Local and regional merchants excited
about improved business prospects were on hand. The
Milwaukee dignitaries who came on the train to Prairie
du Chien brought a keg of Lake Michigan water and ceremoniously poured
it in
the river symbolizing the joining of the lake with the Mississippi. The railroad was central to the
economic and social life of Prairie du Chien for the next century.
John Lawler arrived as a young clerk with the railroad and would become Prairie du Chien's most important benefactor. In 1859, he bought Mc Gregor's ferry. In 1874, he built the first of the famed pontoon railroad bridges that crossed the river at Prairie du Chien. From the fortune Lawler made transferring freight across the river, he donated the land and some buildings for St. Mary's and Campion, two excellent schools that lasted for nearly a century.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the coming of the railroad, the Fort Crawford Museum is opening Tracking Our Past, an exhibit about the railroad here from 1857-1874. John Mundt's new wall size mural and a biography of John Lawler will be featured. The display is to be introduced at Visitor Appreciation Day on Sunday April 29 when admission will be reduced.
"Tales
of Old Fort Crawford" is a monthly column written for the Fort Crawford
Museum by M.
Stemper.
[The illustration is from an original stock certificate for the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad.]