Forging the Bee Line Railroad, 18481889 The Rise and Fall of the Hoosier Partisans and Cleveland Clique

Olson III Arthur Andrew

Published by Kent State University Press, 2017

About this Item

Fine in publishers cloth in like dustjacket. 1st edition, 1st issue. Illustrated throughout. n the 1830s, as the Trans Appalachian economy began to stir and EuropeÕs Industrial Revolution reached its peak, concerned Midwesterners saw opportunities and risks. Success of the Erie Canal as a link to East Coast economic markets whetted the appetites of visionaries and entrepreneurs, who saw huge opportunities. Amid this perfect storm of technology, enterprise, finance, location, and timing arose some of the earliest railroads in the Midwest. By the late 1840s three such vision-driven railroad ventures had sprung to life. Two small railroads carrying goods to Midwestern marketsÑthe Indianapolis & Bellefontaine in Indiana and the Bellefontaine & Indiana in OhioÑspawned early enthusiasm, but few citizens would look beyond the horizon. It was the admonition of Oliver H. Smith, founder of the Indiana line, who challenged the populace to look farther: Òto decide whether the immense travel . . . and business of the west should pass round or go through central Indiana.Ó Soon, the two local lines would crystallize in the minds of people as the ÒBee Line.Ó In Cleveland, meanwhile, a clique of committed businessmen, bankers, and politicians came together to finance the most prosperous of all early Midwestern railroads, extending from Cleveland to Columbus. Their aspirations expanded to control the larger Midwestern market from Cleveland to St. Louis. First by loans and then by bond purchases, they quickly took over the ÒBee Line.Ó Hoosier partisansÕ independence, however, could not be easily brushed aside. Time and again they would frustrate the attempts of the Cleveland clique, exercising a degree of autonomy inconsistent with their dependent financial underpinnings. Ultimately, they acquiesced to the reality of their situation. After the Civil War, even the group from Cleveland fell victim to unscrupulous foreign and national financiers and manipulators who had taken their places on the boards of larger trunk lines expanding throughout the Midwest. Exhaustively researched and meticulously documented, Forging the ÒBee LineÓ Railroad, 1848Ð1889 is the first comprehensive scholarly work on this most important of early Midwestern railroads. ISBN 1606352822.

Seller Inventory # PJH53414

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Forging the Bee Line Railroad, 18481889 The Rise and Fall of the Hoosier Partisans and Cleveland Clique
• Publisher: Kent State University Press, 2017
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included