"N. E. Brown."
HOW THE FIRST RAILROAD CAME TO CEDAR RAPIDS
T. DEVENDORF IN THE SUNDAY REPUBLICAN OF JUNE 10, 1906
The population of the city in 1856 was not to exceed 1,200 to 1,500 people. There was little wealth in the community. No manufacturing enterprises had as yet located here. The principal dependence of the people was in the farming community and the bountiful harvests that Iowa never fails to produce.
The one great desire and ambition of the people was for a railroad to the east on which they could transport their surplus product to an eastern market. Railroad building had not been very extensive in the west, the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska had its track built as far west as the Mississippi river and was formulating plans to bridge the river and extend the road across the fertile prairies of Iowa. Some of our pioneer citizens with shrewd business instincts and confidence in the rapid settlement and development of the state, on the completion of the railroad, became interested in this new project and advocated the granting of a loan to them provided the road should be built to or through our growing city. The subject of giving aid to this new proposed railroad was discussed largely among the people, and on the 1st day of September, 1856, the city council passed a resolution instructing the mayor to call an election of the qualified voters of Cedar Rapids to vote on the question, shall the city in its corporate capacity subscribe sixty thousand dollars to the capital stock of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska railroad and pay for same in bonds issued by the city. Said bonds were to bear interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum, and were to mature 20 years after date at the option of the city. The election was called by Mayor Isaac Whittam and held September 22, 1856, and resulted in the very decisive vote of 111 for the proposition and only 2 against it.
THE OLD BLAIR BUILDING, NOW THE SITE OF THE KIMBALL BUILDING
These bonds were to be issued in series as the work on the new road progressed, fifteen thousand dollars worth when the contract was let for building the road from De Witt to Cedar Rapids; the second series of fifteen thousand dollars worth when the first five miles of grading were completed in Linn county; and the balance of thirty thousand dollars worth when the grading was finished into the city of Cedar Rapids and the road in operation and cars running as far west as Mt. Vernon.