Main Line of Mid-America: The Story of the Illinois Central
New York: Creative Age Press, 1950. Hardcover. Hardcover in pale yellow cloth with green stripe and lettered in gilt. Generally fine, in edgeworn dust jacket. (note: the map endpapers of this particular copy were bound in upside down). xviii+ 490 pp. with bibliography, index. Illustrated with maps, reproductions and photographs. A classic in the gnere, a story of transformation, growth and progress with few parallels in modern history---the story of the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1836, Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker proposed a transcontinental railroad along the general route that the Illinois Central would exist. The railroad was formally born in 1851 at Springfield, Illinois and completed in its original portion near Mason in 1856. Abraham Lincoln once represented the railroad in a lawsuit and Mark Twain piloted some of its steamboats 1859-1861. It was the major transportation rouet for the large-scale colonization effort of the United States' midwestern region; parts served under both Confederate and Union flags during the Civil War, and probably did more than any other non-governmental agency to re-establish commercial relations between the North and South after the war. By 1890, the road had stretched westward to South Dakota and south to New Orleans. Fine / good. Item #E30208
Price: $32.50