The development of Peoria-area railroads began in the 1840s and brought immigrant laborers of many nationalities to central Illinois, many of them who put down not only tracks, but roots that remain in this area.
This was the message that Ralph “Bud” Linroth, author of three books on Illinois railroad history, shared with more than 50 members and guests of the Peoria County Genealogical Society (PCGS), which met July 14 at at Peoria’s North Branch library. Linroth, whose 272-page, hardbound book “ A History of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CBQ) Peoria Line” was published in 2020, retired from the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railways company in Galesburg in 2009 after a 38-year career as a railman. In addition to his insights on central Illinois’ rail history, Linroth shared several personal stories and anecdotes from his career with attendees.
During his hour-long presentation, Linroth related how some of the early railroad workers became part of Peoria’s history and shared genealogy. “In Galesburg they brought in lots of Irish and Swedes to work on the railroads; this is where my people came from,” he said. “This ties our railroad history to our local genealogy.”
Linroth delved into the processes involved in order to attract railroad investors to communities like Peoria, El Paso and Chillicothe. Oftentimes, the choices investors made determined the success or failure of the towns themselves. Many communities became “ghost towns” when railroads passed them by, causing entire populations to uproot and move to other nearby communities selected for railroad service.
Peoria’s first railroads were established in the 1840s when a group of capital investors purchased stock to secure the rights to the Illinois Central Railroad route, according to Linroth. “If you didn’t want to play ball and provide so many dollars, the railroads passed you by in a different direction. This happened in Oquawka and Fairview. It was always based on how much stock (a town) was going to buy,” Linroth said. “The Illinois Central was the first (successful) railroad to come into Peoria, and there were a few other pieces of track here and there.”
Peoria’s railroad “heyday” came in the 1910s when no less than 14 separately owned rail providers crowded the Peoria Riverfront between Water Street and the Illinois River. Along with the CBQ line, the Toledo, Peoria and Western (TP&W) Railway, Peoria and Pekin Union PP&U) Railway, Chicago and Northwestern Railway, Illinois Central and Chicago Rock Island and Pacific were among the lines feeding into downtown Peoria to receive passengers and freight from river-dependent industries such as distilleries and the Peoria Stockyards.
Initial railroad activity in Peoria originated from western lines such as the Illinois Central and advanced no further than the Illinois River. In 1867, TP&W constructed a bridge to connect their line as far east as Indiana (it was destroyed in a barge accident on February 12, 1970). PP&U built a bridge in 1872 (a new bridge was built in 1912 and lasted until 1984 when it, too, was rebuilt to comply with new navigational rules). The Peoria Terminal Company also built a bridge near Pekin in 1900 (it lasted until a barge accident in 1973 forced its closure).
“For many decades Peoria was the western terminus of a lot of the eastern railroads, with about two-thirds of them in competition with each other,” said Linroth. “The first depot in Peoria was
located at the foot of Elm Street. The second depot was built by CB&Q in 1855 at the junctions of Walnut and Water streets. This depot was called the Union Depot because it was used by several of the railroads of that time.” By 1899 13 different railroads utilized the Union Depot, which remained in use until 1952 when operations shifted to Edmund Street.
The driver behind much of central Illinois’ early railroad expansion was competition for access to local coal and grain, which helped Peoria’s growth due to its prime logistical access to rail, road and river transportation, the author and former railman noted. “There was a huge grain elevator operation in between the river and Water Street, and the CB&Q built their yard next to this elevator,” said Linroth, who often cited Charles Ballance’s 1870 book “The History of Peoria” when relating central Illinois’ early railroad history.
According to Ballance, at the time of his writing the CB&Q was completing “a branch of their road from Elmwood to Buda, through a back part of Peoria County, making, by means of other roads, another tolerably direct route from Peoria to Chicago, and bringing the immense coal-fields of Peoria and Fulton counties into connection with the Chicago market.”
Details on other railroad lines that once connected with Peoria, including the short lived (1869-1874) Peoria, Atlanta and Decatur Railroad Company (of which the noted orator and Peoria attorney Robert G. Ingersoll was a board member and investor) are largely lost to time. The unifying thread between all of Peoria’s past railroads and central Illinois’ genealogical history was the people who toiled constructing the lines, many of whom were underpaid, overworked and poorly housed within the communities they benefitted.
“In Galesburg’s case and in many other areas immigrants were brought to this country just to do the railroad work. The Union Pacific used a lot of Chinese labor, and here in Galesburg we have a memorial to what we call the Mexican Boxcar Camp, where the Mexican workers had their own little community at the edge of the yard and lived in the boxcars. They have kept track of those families,” said Linroth, who volunteers as a docent at the Galesburg Rail Museum on most Fridays. “Many of the immigrants who worked on central Illinois railroads put down roots that still remain.”
Linroth’s books also include “A History of the CB&Q Quincy Branch'' (2016) and “A History of the CB&Q Illinois Pea Vine, The Galesburg to Savanna Branch” (2009). Linroth may be contacted at (309) 368-1807. For more information on the PCGS, visit www.peoriacountygenealogy.org.
