In addition to being the president of all of these railroad companies, Mr. Blair after 1862 gave personal attention to their construction and was in absolute control of their affairs in the west. These railroads came to be called the "Blair Roads," and were so generally spoken of in the public prints. From this people generally came to think that he was nearly the sole owner of all, or at least personally owned a controlling interest in the whole group. This, however, was not the fact. Mr. Blair's individual ownership averaged about one-sixth, about another sixth being owned by his associates in the Lackawana Iron & Coal Company of Pennsylvania, among which were Joseph H. Scranton, of Scranton, Pa.; Moses Taylor, of New York, and William E. Dodge, D. Willis James, and James Stokes, who then comprised the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Company.
The controlling interest was always owned by a group of New England capitalists and their associates, who were at the same time the controlling stockholders in the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railroad Company—the line already constructed from Clinton to Cedar Rapids. Among these latter were Oakes and Oliver Ames, of North Easton, Mass.; John Bertram, of Salem, Mass.; Charles A. Lambard, of Maine and later of New York; William T. Glidden, David P. Kimball, Joseph and Frederic Nickerson, of Boston, and Horace Williams, of Clinton, Iowa.
THE CEDAR RAPIDS AND MISSOURI RIVER RAILROAD
In May, 1856, congress passed what was then called "The Iowa Land Bill," making grants of land to the state of Iowa to aid in the construction of four lines of railway across the state, one of which was to be from Lyons City, thence "northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Railroad near Maquoketa, thence on said main line running as near as practicable to the 42nd parallel across the state of Iowa to the Missouri River." The general assembly of the state by an act approved July 14, 1856, granted the land inuring to the state for the construction of this line to the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company upon certain conditions contained in said act. That company began the construction of the road in the year 1856, considerable grading was done at different points along the line as far west us Anamosa, but the panic of 1857 coming on the work was stopped and never again resumed by the Iowa Central Air Line Company.
It being quite probable that at the next legislative session the state would resume this land grant and forfeit the rights of the Iowa Central Company, and pass the grant over to some other company who would undertake the construction of the road; for the purpose of obtaining this grant, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company was organized on June 14, 1859, by the prominent eastern stockholders in the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad, together with John Weare and John P. Ely, of Cedar Rapids, and G. M. Woodbury, of Marshalltown, Iowa.
In March, 1860, the state resumed the land grant from the Iowa Central Company and made it over to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad. Work was begun on the line west from Cedar Rapids in 1860. The bridge over the Cedar river was built in the winter of 1860-61, and forty miles of track completed to Otter Creek Station (now Chelsea) during the year 1861, and to Marshalltown in December, 1862. Milo Smith, of Clinton, Iowa, was the chief engineer and had charge of the construction of the road until it reached Marshalltown.
In 1861 John I. Blair became largely interested in this enterprise, and thereafter took control of the construction beyond Marshalltown. After 1862 W. W. Walker was chief engineer until the road was finished. Track was laid to State Center in 1863, and on July 4, 1864, to Nevada, and to Boone in December, 1864, but the road was not surfaced up, finished and put in operation from Nevada to Boone until the succeeding year.
In July, 1864, congress made an additional grant of land to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, and authorized it to change its line of road so as to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad at Council Bluffs. Work beyond Boone began in December, 1865, the track was laid into Council Bluffs in January, 1867, but regular service between Woodbine and Council Bluffs was not instituted until April of that year.
In July, 1862, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad was leased in perpetuity to the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company, which company then owned the line from Chicago west to the Mississippi River opposite Clinton, Iowa, and operated the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad under lease. The lease covered not only the portion of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad then built, but the entire line to the Missouri river when the same should be completed.