From the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company's "Souvenir", presented in 1895, we glean the following interesting paragraphs, giving an outline history of "the pioneer road".

As this is the pioneer road of the state of Kansas, it will be necessary, in writing a history of it, to go back to the early history of Kansas. The section of country tributary to the road was a part of Missouri Territory, and, in 1854, when the Kansas and Nebraska Act was passed, was comprised in the "Great American Desert". The only part of Kansas that was then believed as likely ever to be of value was north of the Kansas river, and west as far as the Big Blue river. The rest was esteemed to be the home and heritage of the wandering Indian tribes and buffalo. Kansas was inhabited by many tribes of Indians, who had reservations. Upon the northern part, opposite St. Joseph, were the Sac and Fox Indians and the Iowa Indians removed from this side and once owners of the Platte Purchase.

Joseph Robidoux had, in 1826, established a trading post at the mouth of the Blacksnake to catch the trade of the Indians passing from Agency Ford, Grand River and Western Missouri, to Highland, Doniphan county, Kansas, where there was quite an Indian settlement. At that time, the country, after passing a few miles west of St. Joseph, was covered with buffalo grass. The rains were infrequent in summer and grass and herbage generally dried up by August, so it was hardly possible to pass over the country west of the river in the fall or winter with teams. In 1853--4--5, there was no running water from June until November, between the Missouri river and the Big Blue. Parties from St. Joseph sending out goods in wagons to the stations during these months, had to carry water with them. At this day there are many streams and hundreds of springs that never go dry. This change is largely due to the act of cultivating the ground and the cessation of burning the grass every Fall by the Indians, in order to confine the game to the small, wooded valleys of winter streams.

A ferry was established at the Big Blue at a Pawnee trading post, now known as Marysville, and in 1853 Gen. Frank Marshall and James Doniphan bought it, and in 1854 they laid out the town of Marysville, named it after Mrs. Mary Marshall and called the county Marshall after General Marshall.

In 1849 the United States sent out a regiment of soldiers, laid out a route known as the military road from Ft. Leavenworth to the Big Blue at Marysville, and built forts at Laramie, Fort Hall and the Dalles, and this was the main route traveled by the Argonauts of California south of the Platte for many years by much the larger number.

In 1850 a large part of the California emigration crossed at St. Joseph, and passed up Peter's creek to Troy, Kansas, and united with the military road at Kennekenick (Kennekuk), in Brown county, and thence to the Big Blue at Marysville. When the territory was admitted in 1854, many settlers rushed into Doniphan county, as the lands were esteemed valuable; but settlements were pushed out in Brown and Nemaha slowly, and in Marshall up to 1861 there were but few settlers except at small towns and stage stations. Marshall county, now one of the largest corn producing counties of the state, was believed to be a barren soil, unable to produce anything except sunflowers and buffalo grass. Beyond the Big Blue but few settlements were made until the railroad penetrated that region.

In 1854, NcGraw, conductor for the stage line across the continent, established stations at Guitau's, nine miles this side of Marysville; another near Hanover, called Hollenberg; another at the mouth of Elk Creek, where it joins the Little Blue; another on the Big Sandy, one at the Lone Elm in the Platte Valley and then at Fort Kearney.

The idea of the originators of the St. Joseph & Grand Island railroad was to follow, as near as the topography of the country would allow, this route to the valley of the Big Platte, and then to the Pacific as laid out by the military road. The country is now a prolific farming region, one of time most highly cultivated and productive in time Union. Corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley, all seem adapted to the soil, and respond to the cultivation as magnificently as any in the world. Blue grass seems indigenous to the soil, and always follows cultivation. The buffalo grass has long since departed, and is supplanted, in the uncultivated lands, by the rich, nutricious blue stem, which makes fat and bone for the cow, and the soil grows the most elegant clover, and is now covered by thousands of graded hogs.

In 1856--7, under what was a great Western emigration, St. Joseph had what has since been known as a boom. In 1856 an individual named Rose landed here, and proposed to enlighten the citizens as to the best mode of making cities. After a few weeks' contact with Gen. Jeff. Thompson, Recorder Dolman, Col. Tierman, and several of St. Joseph's progressive men, he concluded that he did not know more than all the St. Joseph men, and went over the river to what is now known as Elwood, and called it Roseport, after himself, in the meantime a colony of South Carolinians, becoining tired of trying to make Kansas a slave state, bought the claim adjoining Marysville and called the town Palmetto, and in February, 1857, the Kansas legislature passed an act chartering a railroad from St. Joseph to the Big Blue, "The Marysville, Palmetto and Roseport railroad", entitled as follows: "An Act to incorporate the Marysville or Palmetto and Roseport Railroad Company; approved February 17th, 1857."

The charter named as incorporators, Robt. M. Stewart, afterwards governor of Missouri; W. P. Richardson, Indian Agent at Doniphan, Kansas; Gen. F. J. Marshall, then of Marysville; Bela M. Hughes, St. Joseph; Richard Rose, A. M. Mitchell, Reuben Middleton, R. H. Jenkins, Fred. W. Smith, and W. S. Brewster.

On the 20th of February, 1857, the Territorial Legislature of Kansas incorporated the St. Joseph & Topeka R. R. Co. The incorporators were mostly citizens of Kansas, and the city of St. Joseph voted to aid the company, and on the 20th of October, 1859, a contract was entered into between these two companies to own the right-of-way jointly for the railroad from Elwood, or Roseport, to Troy, and use the same track. This road afterwards changed its route and ran down the river from Wathena to Doniphan and thence to Atchison. It was long since sold out at forclosure, and the right-of-way purchased by Jay Gould and sold to the Rock Island after the track had been removed and the iron sent west to lay switches, side tracks, etc., on the Grand Island.

But we will go back to the Marysville & Roseport Company. The seventh section of the original Act, approved February 17th, 1857, gave the company power to survey, work, locate and construct a railroad from Marysville to Roseport, in the Territory of Kansas, so as to connect with the Hannibal & St. Joseph.

This company was organized on the 26th of February, 1857, when five directors were chosen.

At the next meeting, held July 12th, 1859, a new board of directors was organized, and the road ordered located to Troy. S. K. Miller was elected superintendent of construction of the road.

In 1860, three miles of track were graded and ties and iron laid to near Wathena, the company having an engine named the "Mud-Cat".

At a meeting of the stockholders held April 17th, 1862, the name of the Marysville or Palmetto & Roseport R. R. Co., was changed to the St. Joseph & Denver R. R. Co., under an act of the Kansas legislature of March, 1862. Nothing was done from 1862 to 1866, when a local company was formed under the general incorporation laws of Kansas, known as "The Northern Kansas and Telegraph Company". The incorporators were citizens of Kansas, and it was framed under belief that it could get aid from the state of Kansas and more favorable legislation than the old St. Joseph & Denver R. R. Co., on account of the connection of Gen. Jeff. Thompson and other southerners with that road in its earlier history, as well as to secure a grant of 125,000 acres of land from the state of Kansas, which it was feared could not he held by the St. Joseph & Denver R. R. Co. Articles of incorporation were signed on the 17th of January, 1866, under the general railroad laws of 1865, of the state of Kansas, and were signed by Thomas A. Osborne, Frank H. Drenning, Sol Miller and C. E. Fox of Doniphan county; Ira Lacock, Samuel Speer, and C. E. Parker of Brown county; Geo. Graham of Nemaha county; E. C. Manning and J. D. Brianbough of Marshall county, and Henry Hollenberg and D. E. Ballard of Washington county, all of Kansas. After an organization by the election of a board of directors in May, 1866, Samuel Lappin was elected president, and terms of consolidation were agreed upon with the St. Joseph & Denver Railroad, and on October 9th, 1866, the consolidation took place, and the old name of St. Joseph & Denver Railroad was retained.

January 7th, 1866, Maj. T. J. Chew was elected president and John Severance engineer, and the work was commenced from Wathena west, and on October 15th, 1867, Gen. James Craig was elected president, when the City of St. Joseph voted $500,000 stock to the road, for which bonds were issued, and are now a part of the indebtedness of the city, having been renewed and assumed by the city. On October 13th, 1868, Gen. Geo. Hall was elected president, and in 1869 the road was built to Troy and located to Hiawatha, and the county of Doniphan voted bonds to aid its construction. On the 23d of July, 1866, an act was passed by congress, granting the odd sections of land as far west as the 100th meridian of longitude, west, to the Wathena, Kansas, Railroad & Telegraph Company, for the benefit of the St. Joseph & Denver Railroad Company for ten miles on each side of the line. At that time the road was located to Hanover, and it is believed by many that a mistake was made in the further location. If the road had been located up the Republican river toward Denver the company would have obtained over one and a half million acres of good land. By the location made it received upon final patents 640,000 acres, less than one-half, and inferior lands, as the prior land grants to the Union Pacific and the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Companies covered about two-thirds of the land that the company would have obtained had it been the oldest grant.

On October 27th, 1869, General Hall was re-elected president. On the 11th of October, 1870, Dudley M. Steele was elected president and Milton Tootle vice president, and construction pushed to Marysville in February, 1871. In October, 1871, D. M. Steele was re-elected president and the road was completed to Alexandria, in Nebraska that year. In November, 1872, D. M. Steele resigned and H. C. Tanner of New York, was elected president of the road, and it was completed in December, 1872, to Hastings, Nebraska, 227 miles from St. Joseph.

In 1873, William Bond of New York, was elected president, and held the position until 1875, when the first mortgage bondholders sold the road in a foreclosure, and it was organized again as the St. Joseph & Western Railroad, and Mr. Bond was receiver, and with L. D. Tuthill operated it until 1879, when Jay Gould bought a controlling interest.

In 1879. L. D. Tuthill, Major Hansen and John Doniphan organized the Hastings & Grand Island R. R. and with the capital furnished by Mr. Gould, built the 25 miles of road from Hastings to Grand Island, there forming a connection with the Union Pacific, and it was consolidated as a part of the St. Joseph & Western Railroad.

In 1885, the road was re-organized and named the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company, which is its present title.

It was not an uncommon occurrance on the frontiers in an early day, when the country was sparsely settled, for persons who ventured out in the winter to he overtaken by a snow storm, and either frozen to death or so badly frozen that amputation of feet or hands was necessary to save their lives. A circumstance of this kind occurred west of Iowa Point about the year 1857. A young lady, Miss Martha Perkins, who lived on Cedar Creek, attended a party in Iowa Point in January or February of that year, where she became offended at some trivial matter and started, alone, for her home five miles west. She had not proceeded far when a blinding snow storm broke upon her with all its merciless fury, which soon oblitered the dim pathway she was following.

Dr. Jonathan Leigh, now of Hiawatha, Ran., who amputated her feet., gives the following account of this sad occurrance:

"About time first of March, 1857 or 1858, I was called to Miss Martha Perkins, who lived on Cedar Creek, five miles southwest of Iowa Point. On my arrival I found both feet dark in color, cold and in a state of complete gangrene. I learned from the family that early in the preceding January she went to Iowa Point to attend a party, where she remained till the following evening. when she started home afoot and alone. She was soon overtaken by a blinding snow storm with a strong north wind (a firstclass blizzard), which soon obliterated the little trail she was following. Night came on and she became bewildered, not knowing the direction she was going. So she wandered around in that dreadful storm until, (they supposed) about 1 o'clock in the morning, when she found a bank near a small branch. She gathered some tall weeds that stood two or three feet above the snow, which was about ten inches deep, stuck them down in the snow in a semi-circle, to form a kind of wind break, and crouched down in her little weed hovel, where she expected to die before morning.

As soon as it was learned that she had left Iowa Point but a short time before the approach of the storm (blizzard), seaching[sic] parties started in all directions. At the end of the third day she was discovered and in a semi-conscious condition. Three days and nights in such a storm would seem to be beyond endurance.

At my visit in March, amputation was suggested which was readily agreed to. Three days later at noon was the time set for the operation. As there was no physician whom I could invite to assist me, I requested the father to invite two or three of the neighbors that I might have some assistance if necessary. On arriving at the appointed time I found four men and their wives all ready to render any assistance they could. The first thing to consider was the construction of some sort of an operating table. This was soon decided. An old quilt was spread on the rough floor of the shanty and a stick of wood for a pillow; that was all there was to it. I asked the men if any of them could administer chloroform and they all answered in the negative. I commenced the administration of the anaesthetic and when, as it often happens, the patient reached the point of sub-consciousness, she began to mutter, then to talk louder and louder, my assistants all thought the patient was dying. One man bolted for the door and the others followed like sheep jumping a fence till the patient and myself were left alone. But when the patient was sufficiently anaesthetized I got down on my knees on the floor and removed the offending parts, dressed the stumps and remained with my patient till next morning, when I left her comfortable and hopeful. The recovery was somewhat tedious but complete.

In the year 1838, my brothers located a general merchandise store midway between the Blacksnake Hills and Weston on the Missouri river, and did a general business with the inhabitants of that country, and also had a large trade with the Sac and Fox Indians. In the year 1841, my father's family moved to the Platte Purchase and settled on a claim opposite the place where Doniphan now stands in Doniphan county, Kansas. In the year 1842, the Indian agent at Fort Nemaha notified my brothers that a payment was about to be made to the Sac and Fox Indians and invited them to be present, and make their collections. They proceeded to the agency, I going along. My age then was 12 years.

We crossed the Missouri river in an Indian canoe, and taking the old Indian trail to the divide near Independence creek and passing near where John L. Berry lived, crossed the Wolf river near the Sac and Fox village, and arrived at Fort Nemaha agency in the evening. Major Richardson was the U. S. Indian agent and John W. Foreman was the farmer for the Iowa, Sac and Fox Indians. The major and Mr. Foreman were Kentuckians, and from the blue grass region, and here we beg to remark, that their latch strings were hanging out and the proverbial Kentucky hospitality was constantly on top.

Our visit was extended for several days, and was a very pleasant one, the major taking great interest in the matter of the collections, for which purpose my brothers were at the agency. We digress to remark that a few years afterwards the major's only child, a daughter, was married to Willard P. Hall, who accompanied Gen. A. W. Doniphan on his memorable campaign through Santa Fe and old Mexico, and was at the roundup of the Mexican army at Sacramento, where General Doniphan captured the entire outfit and "ten acres of sheep". Willard P. Hall was afterwards governor of Missouri, and one of the ablest judges of the supreme court of Missouri.

Our trip to the Nemaha agency has always been a pleasant memory and reminiscence that will never be forgotten. John W. Foreman is well known to the people of Doniphan county, and the destiny of the writer is closely linked with the interests and the advancements of the county.

In the year 1851, James F. Foreman, who had been an assistant farmer at the agency, was granted permission to establish a trading post at the point where afterwards the town of Doniphan was located. The appointment of Mr. Foreman as a trader was only to secure the location for a town site when the land should be purchased, as the Indian agent evidently knew would soon occur.

In the year 1854, the writer with some others crossed the Missouri river at Iowa Point, Wm. Banks operating the ferry. We camped near the river the first night, and the second night we camped on Cedar creek at the crossing of the St. Joseph Overland route. We recall that that night there was a Frenchman with some eight or ten wagons and voyagers encamped there, going to Brown's Hole in the mountains. The wagons were loaded with Indian goods and provisions, ammunition, etc., etc. I suppose the etc., etc., was about ten barrels of copper distilled whisky, which is said to be an antidote for snake bites, tarantula and centipede poisons. Our destination was Fort Kearney, where we remained for a considerable time, buying broken down cattle, horses and mules. On our return to Big Blue river, Francis J. Marshall informed us that a treaty had been made for the lands embracing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. We then proceeded to the Missouri river and camped on the bottoms below Iowa Point, which afterwards became the property of H. Guthrie, who died a year or so since.

During the month of August my brother, Milton, and myself went up Wolf river to see how the land lay, and went into camp near the old Sac village, the Indians having moved away. The camp was near a little stream which was crossed by the Indian trail, a thicket of brush being near our camp. Milton Utt went to the agency in the afternoon, leaving the writer in charge of the camp. I had spent an hour or two reading when, glancing up the bottom towards Hooper's ford, I saw what caused my hair to "stand pat", for not more than 300 yards away was about seventy-five Indians who proved to he Pawnees, advancing. Each warrior was carrying a long lance, the point of which glistening in the sun, shown brilliant and beautiful. Each member of the band carried his bow and quiver of arrows at his back. My long acquaintance with Indians and their ways came to my aid, and stepping out from the brush into the path, I gave them a sign to halt which they did very promptly. I then gave them a sign for one to advance. The leader, a fine six-foot brave, dressed in war paint and feathers, stepped up to within about ten feet, when I halted him. In sign language I asked who they were and where going. The chief answered that they were on a visit to the Iowas to smoke and feast and would then go home; that they had been between the Blue rivers and had a fight with roving Cheyennes, and he showed two scalps to prove that what he said was true. I had previously advised him that I was a Missourian. By this time several of the band came forward, and I told the chief to send the young back to their line; that I would permit but one to do the talking; then I made a sign that they could pass to the left, which they did in good order. They displayed several scalps and other trophies as they passed. They were all large, fine looking warriors, rigged out in fantastic Indian toggery and making a display that will never be witnessed on old Wolf river again. After I got rid of them you can imagine that I felt greatly relieved. They went on out to the Iowas and put in several days feasting and smoking, and then returned to their own rerservation near Columbus, Nebraska, and that was the last visit of the Pawnees to Doniphan county.

From the Alton (Kan.) Empire, September 18, 1902, we glean the following:

Probably the oldest living settler in Kansas today is Wm. Brittain of Alton. The contest for that distinguishment has been confined to a man named Flanagan in Doniphan county and one named Luther Dickinson in Atchison county. The Troy Chief thinks Flanagan an older settler than Dickinson, but Uncle Billy Brittain has Flanagan beaten by a couple of months

Mr. Brittain was born near Spencer, Owen county, Ind., in 1828, and lived there with his parents till 1836, when they moved to Louisa county, Iowa, and in 1839, moved to the Platte Purchase near St. Joseph, Mo. There with his younger brother he assisted his father, John Brittain, in opening up a large farm in the bottoms twelve miles from St. Joseph. John Brittain died in 1846. William and his mother and six younger brothers resided on the farm till 1850, when they returned to Indiana. That summer he was married to Sarah Smith and in the fall they returned to the old homestead in Missouri, where he and his wife lived till Kansas was opened up for settlement. In June, 1854, he crossed the Missouri river and took a claim and built a small log cabin. In the fall of that year he moved his family, consisting of his wife and two children, to their new home in the territory. Here he experienced all the hardships and vicissitudes attending first settlement of Kansas. The Indians were daily visitors at his home during the first winter in Kansas.

In 1856, came the great struggle as to whether Kansas should be a free or slave state. Great excitement prevailed throughout the country. It was an almost daily occurrence to hear of some one being bushwhacked and shot down on the public highway. Uncle Billy, whose sentiments were so hunted down by the Pro-Slavery party that he was forced to hide his horses in the dense brush, and cross to the other side of the river. Mrs. Brittain carried water and feed to the horses for over three weeks. After the excitement subsided he returned home to his family. Soon after this the election was held and Mr. Brittain served as one of the judges of election. He says Major Richardson brought over a cannon and a barrel of whisky and all the street whittlers he could get to follow him, voted them all and carried the election. Then they established a proslavery court and Wm. Brittain, Wm. Chapman and Nicholas Holmes were arraigned before that court, tried and found guilty of treason for serving as judges of election for the Free State party and fined $25 each, which they paid. This happened at Bellemont in Doniphan county. The court proceedings were, of course, a farce and a bluff, and merely an incident of the lawlessness and feeling at that time and place. But finally the Free state party came into power and Mr. Brittain and his party felt easier. Mr. Brittain acted as one of Jim Lane's body guards when that noted gentleman passed through Doniphan county on his way to Lawrence in 1856.

Uncle Billy enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas Volunteer Infantry at Troy, Doniphan county, on the 5th day of September, 1862, and immediately started south. His entire service was in Southern Missouri and Arkansas. He was wounded at the battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., in 1863, and discharged at Springfield, Mo. He returned home and in the fall of 1863, enlisted in Co. F. Kansas State Militia and fought in the battle against Price in Jackson county, Mo., south of Kansas City.

In 1878, Mr. Brittain came to Osborne county and settled on a claim in Hawkeye township, where he resided until 1896, when he sold out and located at Alton.

Uncle Billy is a fine old man. He was not only in the service of his country in the rebellion, but took a prominent part in the battles of 1856 for a free state of Kansas. He has voted for every Republican president from Lincoln down to McKinley.

The first live real estate man to do business in St. Joseph was Colonel Andrew G. Ege, a tall, straight, active Marylander, according to one of the. oldest residents, who adds that he was a hustler. "It was before the settlement of Kansas that the colonel and his refined family settled here," relates the News. "They were wealthy, intelligent Southern people, and soon became very popular with all classes. About this time Judge Henry M. Vories, lived on a farm of ten acres about half a mile north of the court house. It was woody then, with a country road winding around on top of the hill, leading to the Vories farm and beyond. Colonel Ege concluded that he would buy the land, and after dickering for some time over the price, finally made a purchase, paying $1,000 an acre. People were amazed when told of farm land being sold for $1,000 an acre, and concluded that the colonel had more money than judgment. Not long after his purchase the land was platted into town lots, which were readily sold, and Ege made a great deal of money on the speculation. Ege's additions are still a part of the city, and a very important part, too. Judge Vories left about that time and went to California, but returned after some years, not meeting with success in the golden state, and was elected chief justice of the Missouri supreme court. Colonel Ege went to Kansas as one of the earliest pioneers, securing nearly 10,000 acres of land in Doniphan county, and became a notable citizen of the Jayhawker state."---K. C. Journal.

Mrs. L. M. Blackford, mother of Rev. O. J. Blackford, pastor of the Tabernacle Methodist Episcopal church, Detroit, is one of the few persons who can remember over the entire history of railroad development in the United States. Furthermore, she was one of the passengers on the first successful railroad train which made its trial trip in the summer of 1830.

The father of Mrs. Blackford---then Leah M. Blake, a little girl of 6---was a merchant in Portland, Me. He frequently went to New York on business, often taking members of his family with him. He and his daughter were in New York on one of these occasions when it became noised about that a train of "steam cars" was to make a trial run from Troy to Schenectady. Mr. Blake went immediately to Troy, and he and Leah were among the "tourists" of this memorable trip: Mrs. Blackford recalls quite vividly the crude train which ran on wooden rails at the rate of about twelve miles an hour.

There are other incidents in Mrs. Blackford's life that are quite worthy of mention. She and her husband, Rev. Ira B. Blackford, a Methodist minister, were leaders in the founding, in 1857, of Baker university, Baldwin City, Kansas, and she was one of the first teachers of languages there. It is interesting to note that among the special things taught in the early history of this university were music, drawing, painting and embroidery. Reverend and Mrs. Blackford were also prominent in the organization of the Kansas conference at Topeka, 1855.

During the civil war Mrs. Blackford, with other brave women---while their husbands were at the front---helped to man the guns at Fort Leavenworth.

Until recent years Mrs. Blackford was well known as an able lecturer. Her last public address was given in Saginaw on Memorial Day, 1898, when she took the place of her son, who was unable to fill the engagement.

This lady was a resident of "Columbus City", (1855--6), as she quaintly calls the knobs of farm land overlooking Burr Oak Bottoms, at a point fourteen miles northeast of Troy, Kan., and although eighty years of age with face as fair as a girl's and faculties alert, her eye kindles and her dear heart warms right up to the subject as she talks of the days of pioneer Methodism in Doniphan county.

Doniphan county made it possible for St. Joseph to become a great city. Atchison, too, drew much of her life blood from our soil.

[Men who came and settled in Wayne Township from 1854 to 1857.]

List furnished by Edward W. Ege.

Sugar creek, which skirts the Brown farm, was so called because in the early days the Kaw Indians used to gather there every spring, and beg permission to tap the hard maple trees along the creek for sugar. They were peaceable, and permission was always granted. A path led across the land owned by Alexander Brown, which originated somewhere near Doniphan, on the other side of the river, and was made by squaws. Reaching the river at Doniphan, the squaws would take the canoes and row over into Missouri. With furs on their backs, they traveled a distance of eight miles to trade at the mill of "General" Martin. Here they exchanged their furs for flour or meal. Then these women would start back on the eight mile walk, a sack of meal on each weary back, and oftentimes a papoose tied on top of the sack.