The Elkhorn Land and Town Lot Company was organized under the laws of the state of Nebraska in February, 1871. There was conveyed to this company the land grant made to the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley road, also the purchased lands and town lots at the several stations between Fremont and Wisner. This company was consolidated with The Iowa Rail Road Land Company in 1899.
The capital stock of these three companies was issued pro rata to the stockholders of the respective railroad companies along the lines of which these town lot companies respectively operated.
The Missouri Valley Land Company was organized in May, 1875, and purchased for cash the remaining unsold portion of the land grant of the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company, as well as the unsold town lots and purchased lands belonging to that company. This company was consolidated with The Iowa Rail Road Land Company on May 3, 1901.
THE MOINGONA COAL COMPANY
When the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad was extended west from Boone there was purchased for account of the stockholders of that company certain timber and coal lands at and near Moingona—where the line of railroad crosses the Des Moines river. The Moingona Coal Company was organized in June, 1866. These coal and timber lands were conveyed to that company, and its shares of capital stock ultimately allotted pro rata to those stockholders in the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, who had furnished the money for the construction of the line west of Boone—known as the third division of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad. The town of Moingona was platted and put upon the market and coal mines opened at that point, which mines were operated continuously for about twenty years. In 1899 mining operations had ceased and the personal property of the coal company having been closed out, the remaining real estate was turned over to The Iowa Rail Road Land Company.
The aggregate sales up to 1910 made by these railroads, land and town lot companies and this coal company, including land grant lands, purchased lands, and town lots, amount to sixteen million, six hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. The taxes paid by said companies on said real estate while held by them amount to two million, seven hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars.
For many years it has been fashionable for magazine writers and a certain class of politicians to severely criticise and condemn the public men of that day for their action in making land grants to railroad companies. The members of congress have been characterized as imbecile and corrupt, and the recipients of land grants denounced as thieves and robbers. While it is quite probable that in some cases sufficient care was not exercised, and that such grants sometimes have been a little too liberal, looking at the situation as it was in those days and the subsequent results, there can be no doubt whatever that the policy was a sound one and the action of congress in most of the cases exactly right.
A large portion of what is now known as "the middle west" then consisted of vast unbroken stretches of prairie land, impossible of settlement because of the want of timber for fuel and building purposes. This territory could not support a population until transportation facilities were provided for carrying in the necessary lumber, fuel, and supplies, and carrying away the agricultural products as the land should become cultivated. The price of the land at private entry was then $1.25 per acre. The government gave half of the lands within the land grant limits to the railroads and immediately advanced the price on the even sections to $2.50 per acre, not only getting the same amount of money for the same acreage, but making sales of the government land much more rapidly.
