CHRISTIAN CHURCH, CENTRAL CITY
The work begun by the Dubuque and Sioux City Company was vigorously prosecuted so that the road was completed and in operation to Fort Dodge early in 1869. In the fall of 1870 it was finished through to Sioux City and the entire line turned over to the Illinois Central Railroad Company for operation under the lease. J. E. Ainsworth was superintendent of construction. In the original articles of incorporation the principal place of business of this company was fixed at Dubuque, Iowa, but in October, 1869, the articles were amended and the main office of the company moved to Cedar Rapids. John I. Blair was the first president. He was succeeded in 1871 by Horace Williams, who remained at the head of the affairs of the company until the control of the same passed into the hands of the Illinois Central Railroad.
In March, 1887, the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Company sold to the Iowa Rail Road Land Company the remaining acres of its land grant and all assets accruing from land transactions. At that time all of the individual stockholders of the railroad company sold their shares to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, who moved the offices of the corporation from Cedar Rapids to Dubuque, and afterwards consolidated the company with the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad Company.
THE FREMONT, ELKHORN AND MISSOURI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY
This company, while a Nebraska corporation, soon after its organization and up to 1884 kept its general offices and accounting department in the Blair building in Cedar Rapids. It was organized at Fremont, Nebraska, in January, 1869, to construct a line of railroad up the Elkhorn Valley, in Nebraska, and obtained a land grant from the state of Nebraska amounting to about 100,000 acres, also some county bonds from Dodge and Cuming counties, Nebraska. In 1869 John I. Blair and his associates in the Sioux City and Pacific, and the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River enterprises obtained control of the company, and undertook the construction of the railroad. Ten miles of track north from Fremont were laid late in the season of 1869. In 1870 the road was finished to West Point, and leased to the Sioux City and Pacific Company, which company from that time on continued to operate (under said lease) the several extensions of the Elkhorn road up to August, 1884. In 1871 the road was extended to Wisner, a distance of fifty-one miles from Fremont, where the terminus remained until 1879, in which year the main line was built to Oakdale, and six miles of track laid on the Creighton branch north from Norfolk. In 1880 the main line was extended from Oakdale to Neligh, and the Creighton branch finished to Plainview. In 1881 the main line was extended to Long Pine, and the Creighton branch finished to Creighton. In 1882 the main line was extended to Thatcher, and in 1883 to Valentine. In August, 1884—at the time of the purchase of the Iowa roads by the Chicago & Northwestern—this last named company acquired all the stock in the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and thereafter the work of extension was pushed vigorously.
In the two succeeding years a line was built into the Black Hills country and the main line of the road extended to the eastern boundary of the state of Wyoming. Between 1884 and 1888 several lines of railroad in the south Platte country of Nebraska were constructed by the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Company. L. Burnett, was engineer in charge of location and construction until the road was completed to Wisner. From 1879 to 1889—during which period the main line from Wisner to the west line of the state, the Black Hills branch as far as Whitewood, and the South Platte lines were built—P. E. Hall was superintendent of construction and J. E. Ainsworth chief engineer. John I. Blair was the president from 1869 to 1872, Prince S. Crowell, of East Dennis, Massachusetts, from 1872 to 1876, and James Blair, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, from 1876 to 1883, when he was succeeded by Horace Williams, who remained the president of the company until the control was taken by the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company in 1884.