Minutes of the Willow Ford Town Council, October 1851
1In 1850, Congress gave Illinois a large grant of public land to help build the Illinois Central Railroad. Towns across the prairie now argued over whether to pay to bring a line to their own streets. At Willow Ford, the railroad company offered to lay track to the town if the town bought $40,000 of the company's stock. The council met to decide.
2Councilman Amos Treadwell spoke first. "The river and the canal have served us well, but only for part of the year. From about December to March the canal freezes, and our wheat sits in barns while prices in Chicago rise and fall without us. A train runs in January as well as July. By rail, our wheat could reach Chicago in less than a day. By boat and canal it takes the better part of a week."
3"Think also of the farmers on the prairie east of town, twenty miles from any river," Treadwell went on. "They haul wheat to our landing by wagon over roads that turn to mud each spring, or they do not grow wheat to sell at all. The new line would run right past their fields. And the telegraph company will string its wire beside the track. Today we learn Chicago and New York grain prices days late from the newspapers. With a telegraph office here, we would know them the same morning."
4Councilman Ezra Lindqvist answered. "I do not doubt that trains are fast. But forty thousand dollars is more than this town collects in taxes in many years. A canal boat carries a ton of grain for much less than a railroad charges today. The river and the canal already join us to Chicago and the Great Lakes to the north, and to St. Louis and New Orleans to the south. Why pay for what we have?"
5"And who says the company will finish?" Lindqvist asked. "Railroad companies have gone bankrupt and left half-built track rotting on the prairie, and the towns that bought their stock lost their money. If we wait, perhaps a richer company will build the line for nothing."
6After two hours of debate, the council voted 5 to 2 to buy the stock. The track and the telegraph wire reached Willow Ford in 1855.