...from Lomax to Topeka continues as a MISSOURI PACIFIC branch line.
Yes, the boom had hit Quenemo in 1886; one railroad's construction gang hitting town upon the
heels of another. Also a big moderm roller flour mill of Fuller and Company was then being built
there. No wonder the editor of the Osage County Republican predicted optimistically that Quenemo
would soon take its place alongside Wichita and Topeka as a leading city of Kansas. Indeed it is a
wonder to me, glancing backward, that somehow, despite its early promise as a railroad center it
remained so small. Reading these yellowing newspapers it was easy to visualize the excitement of
those years, and I can easily see those wooden sidewalks crowded with gandy-dancers looking for
whatever diversion this town offered and mingling here and there were Sac and Fox Indians who as of
1886 had not yet been forcibly removed to the Indian Territory.
Today no trains at all stop at Quenemo. Just last summer, the SANTA FE depot was torn down to be
replaced by a shed.
At Lyndon those boosters who only a short time previously had managed to raid the courthouse and
steal the county records from Burlingame, thereby making Lyndon a county seat, organized the
SALT CREEK RAILROAD COMPANY. However, this plan seems to have been dropped with the
construction of the CCC&CG.
Some miles to the west at Osage City another, the COUNCIL GROVE, OSAGE CITY AND OTTAWA,
was building westward to Council Grove, thereby forging a link in the present MISSOURI PACIFIC
LINES.
Yes, history was in the making then. I just wish I had that time machine Alley Oop is always using,
for I would like to see the "Pea-vine" in all its glory and to find out more about the locomotives and
men who operated them.
(From the August, September, and November 1953 isssues of "Sparks"; Volume #1/Issues #7-10):
"THE TALE OF THE LEAKY ROOF" (By Howard Killam and H.B. Alley)---
The Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield Railway, known over western Missouri as the
"Leaky Roof" was rather ill-starred as a corporation, but like most such ventures it made up in
bucolic romance anything it may have lacked as a lure to investors.
On July 22, 1867 two old steamboat operators, Harstick and Roy, incorporated the St. Louis, Lawrence
and Denver Railway, having the line, completed in 1871. This road operated from Lawrence, Kansas
through Desoto, Cedar Junction and Olathe, Kansas to Pleasant Hill, Missouri. From Cedar Junction
the road followed the windings of Cedar Creek from its confluence with the Kaw up to Olathe. This
portion of the road became known as "Calamity Road". It is said that a car turned loose at Olathe
would coast the entire eleven miles to Cedar Junction. It is said that Harstick and Roy had some
sort of grudge against Kansas City and built the road to divert traffic around it to the west.
The Kansas Midland was built from Topeka to Lawrence by the Kansas Midland Railroad Company
successors to the Lawrence and Topeka Railroad Company being completed in 1871. The road from
Kansas City to Cedar Junction was also built by the KM in 1874, the connection between Lawrence
and Cedar Junction being the St. Louis, Lawrence and Denver Railway. The StLL&D acquired a
branch from Lawrence to Carbondale, Kansas, 33 miles as the St. Louis, Lawrence and Western
Railway.
On August 1, 1875, by purchase from Harstick and Roy, the section of the StLL&D from Lawrence
to Cedar Junction (Desoto) was consolidated with the KM as the Kansas City, Topeka and Western.
This consolidation was completed October 1, 1875 and was at once leased to the Santa Fe, becoming
the main line between Kansas City and Topeka. This lease was made because Wyandotte County,
Kansas had voted the Santa Fe $250,000 in bonds provided the Santa Fe had trains running through
the county before the expiration date of the bonds. To do this the Santa Fe acquired the above
roads. The StLL&D was then operated as the "Pleasant Hill and Desoto Division" of the
Santa Fe. This division was sold to the Pleasant Hill and Desoto Railway Company and operated by
the Santa Fe from March, 1877.
George H. Nettleton, president of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis in the early 1880's decided
to build a road through Henry County, Missouri coal fields to connect with the parent line at
Ash Grove, Missouri. He organized a separate company, the Kansas City, Clinton and
Springfield Railway Company the parent company owning half the stock. This new road was
consolidated with the PH&D. The portion of this road from Raymore Junction, Missouri to Pleasant
Hill was abandoned sometime about 1920 except for a few miles south of Pleasant Hill, which track is
now operated by the Missouri Pacific. As of July, 1943 the bridges on this short strip of road still carry
the original Santa Fe numbers.
The report of the railroad commissioners for Missouri in 1885 stated that:
"This company (the KCC&S) organized by articles of association filed September 3, 1884, became the
owner by purchase of the Pleasant Hill and Desoto division of the Santa Fe February 10, 1885, and
extended that line from Raymore Junction to Ash Grove in Greene County, a point on the Kansas
City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railway 20 miles west of Springfield passing through Cass, Henry, St. Clair
and Polk counties."
(Continued on the very next page----------)
