Kiel, Wisconsin
Kiel is a city in Calumet and Manitowoc counties in the U. S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,738 at the 2010 census. Of this, 3,429 residents lived in Manitowoc County, 309 residents lived in Calumet County; the city is located within Manitowoc County, though a portion extends west into adjacent Calumet County and is known as "Hinzeville". It was once known as the Wooden Shoes Capital of Wisconsin as it held the only wooden shoes factory in Wisconsin. In 1852 Charley Lindemann immigrated to the area and began a settlement among the Native American Menominee and Potawatomi tribes, his wife named the community after her home town of Germany. Two years Col. Henry F. Belitz nicknamed the "Father of Kiel", built a hotel and mill along the north side of the Sheboygan River. A road was built across Wisconsin to connect Green Bay with Milwaukee area communities; the bridge was built across the Sheboygan River in 1858 connecting Kiel with Sheboygan. In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, Kiel became a manufacturing area with businesses specializing in brick, wood shoes and furniture manufacturing.
A book called "Yellowbird" written by Kielite Henry Goeres in the late 1800s recounts - in a blend of fact and fiction - the early history of the settlement in the 1850s when European settlers interacted with Native Americans in the area. Kiel was incorporated as a village in 1892 and incorporated as a city; the city continues to retain a diverse manufacturing and commercial base, which has long been a characteristic of the community. Each year in August, Kiel holds the Kiel Community Picnic or "Kiel Picnic" in City Park. At present, the Kiel Picnic runs for four days from a Thursday through a Sunday; the Kiel Parade is held on Fremont Street on the Sunday of the Kiel Picnic. Traditionally, the firing of a cannon announced the start of the Picnic; each year in February, Kiel holds its Ice Sculpting Contest on Fremont Street. Sponsored teams compete for prizes. Kiel has a significant amount of German heritage, each June, the city holds "German Days" in City Park. Kiel is home to the regarded Kiel Municipal Band, a community marching band tracing its origins to the late 1800s.
The band is known for its signature tune "Invincible Fidelity". The city is home to an abundance of walking trails. Kiel is located at 43°54′53″N 88°1′55″W, along the Sheboygan River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.67 square miles, of which, 2.53 square miles is land and 0.14 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 3,738 people, 1,565 households, 1,021 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,477.5 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,697 housing units at an average density of 670.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 96.9% White, 0.4% African American, 0.6% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.7% from other races, 0.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.0% of the population. There were 1,565 households of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.8% had a male householder with no wife present, 34.8% were non-families.
29.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.8% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.98. The median age in the city was 38.7 years. 26.5% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the city was 48.0% male and 52.0% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,450 people, 1,425 households, 940 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,433.9 people per square mile. There were 1,498 housing units at an average density of 622.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 98.58% White, 0.06% African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.23% from other races, 0.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.72% of the population. There were 1,425 households out of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.1% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.0% were non-families.
30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.04. In the city, the population was spread out with 26.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $44,239, the median income for a family was $53,798. Males had a median income of $36,576 versus $27,070 for females; the per capita income for the city was $23,112. About 1.7% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.6% of those under age 18 and 2.7% of those age 65 or over. Wisconsin Highway 67 run north/south at the extreme east edge of Kiel. Highways 32 and 57 run through downtown Kiel, entering the city from the north at the northwest corner of the city and enter from the east at the southeast corner of the city.
Wisconsin Highway 149 had its western terminus in Kiel. It was extended west to Fond du Lac. Many years the original route from Cleveland to Kiel was
Janesville, Wisconsin
Janesville is a city in southern Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Rock County, the principal municipality of the Janesville, Metropolitan Statistical Area; as of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 63,575. The Janesville area was home to many Native American tribes before the settlement of people from the East. With the Indian Removal Act of 1830, many Native American peoples were uprooted and forced out of their homelands to make room for the new settlers, with many Native peoples, including the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi, being forced onto reservations. American settlers John Inman, George Follmer, Joshua Holmes, William Holmes, Jr. built a crude log cabin in the region in 1835. That year, one key settler named Henry Janes, a native of Virginia, a self-proclaimed woodsman and early city planner, arrived in what is now Rock County. Janes came to the area in the early 1830s, wanted to name the budding village “Blackhawk," after the famous Sauk leader, Chief Black Hawk, but was turned down by Post Office officials.
After some discussion, it was settled that the town would be named after Janes himself and thus, in 1835, Janesville was founded. Despite being named after a Virginian, Janesville was founded by immigrants from New England; these were old stock Yankee immigrants, descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s. The completion of the Erie Canal caused a surge in New Englander immigration to what was the Northwest Territory; some of them were from upstate New York, had parents who had moved to that region from New England shortly after the Revolutionary War. New Englanders, New England transplants from upstate New York, were the vast majority of Janesville's inhabitants during the first several decades of its history. Land surveys encouraged pioneers to settle in the area among the abundance of fertile farmland and woodlands. Many of these early settlers began cultivating wheat and other grains; some of the key settlers hailed from the burned-over district of western New York State.
Some of those in that revival movement were active in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. One of the settlers in Janesville was William Tallman, who hailed from New York. Tallman came to the area in 1850, bought up large tracts of land in hopes of inspiring his fellow New Yorkers to settle in the fertile Rock County, he established himself as one of the most influential and affluent members of the budding Janesville populace. He was passionate about the call for abolition, became a supporter of the Republican Party. One of the crowning moments in Tallman’s life was when he convinced the up-and-coming Illinois Republican, Abraham Lincoln, to speak in Janesville in 1859; the Tallman house is now a historical landmark, best known as “The place where Abraham Lincoln slept.”As the population grew in the Janesville area, several new industries began cropping up along the Rock River, including flour and lumber mills. The first dam was built in 1844. Janesville was active during the Civil War.
Local farms sold grains to the Union army, Rock County was one of the counties in Wisconsin with the highest number of men enlisted. Thomas H. Ruger, of Janesville, served in the war, along with his brothers, Edward and Henry, he rose to the rank of brigadier general. Ruger served as military governor of Georgia, commandant of West Point, he is memorialized at Fort Ruger in Hawaii. After the Civil War, Janesville’s agriculture continued to surge and a greater demand for new farming technology led to the development of several foundries and farm machine manufacturers in the area, including the Janesville Machine Company, the Rock River Iron Works. With the boom in the farm service sector, establishment of a rail system, Janesville soon began to ship goods to and from prominent eastern cities, including New York and Philadelphia. After decades of rigorous grain farming, the soil quality around Janesville began to degrade. Farmers responded to this by planting tobacco, which became one of the most profitable and prolific crops grown in Wisconsin during the late 19th century.
Another development during the mid-19th century was the establishment of a women’s rights movement in Janesville. The movement was founded in the 1850s, continued after the Civil War. One of the key focuses of the group during the 1870s was the Temperance movement. In the late 1880s, German immigrants began to arrive in Janesville in large numbers, they were the largest non-English-speaking group. Unlike in some other areas, in Janesville they experienced no hostility or xenophobia. Janesville's founding English-Puritan-descended Yankee population welcomed them with open arms, with many writing back to relatives in Germany enthusiastically; this led to chain migration. Only one German-language newspaper was founded in the town. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Milwaukee Road and Chicago and North Western railroads had freight and passenger rail connections to the city. Passenger rail service continued until 1971. One of the key developments in Janesville’s history was the establishment of a General Motors plant in 1919.
The plant was established to produce Samson tractors, a company acquired by GM co-founder William C. Durant. Durant was encouraged by Joseph Craig, the president of Janesville Machine, to build a plant to produce the Samson tractors in Janesvill
Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans. The Union Pacific Railroad system is the second largest in the United States after the BNSF Railway and is one of the world's largest transportation companies; the Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of the Union Pacific Corporation. Union Pacific is known for pioneering multiple innovative locomotives the most powerful of their era; these include members of the Challenger-type, the Northern-type, as well as the famous Big Boy steam locomotives. Union Pacific ordered the first streamliner, the largest fleet of turbine-electric locomotives in the world, still owns the largest operational diesel locomotive; the Union Pacific legacy began in 1862 with the original company, called the Union Pacific Rail Road, part of the First Transcontinental Railroad project known as the Overland Route. The railroad would subsequently be reorganized thrice: as the Union Pacific Railway, as the Union Pacific "Railroad", as a renamed Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The current Union Pacific corporation began in 1969 as the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, itself created in a reorganization of a railroad whose legacy dated to 1865. Over the years it would grow to include the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, in addition to its eponymous railroad; the 1998 Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger was not UP's first: Union Pacific had merged with Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. However, because the merger with Southern Pacific changed the scope of the Union Pacific railroad, this article will refer to the unmerged system as Union Pacific, the merged system as Union Pacific. Union Pacific's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's largest freight railroad by volume, which primarily services the Continental U. S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.
S. The original company, the Union Pacific Rail Road was incorporated on July 1, 1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862; the act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the Central Pacific Railroad line, constructed eastward from Sacramento, CA; the combined Union Pacific-Central Pacific line became known as the First Transcontinental Railroad and the Overland Route. The line was constructed by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, the first rails were laid in Omaha; the two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah, 53 miles west of Ogden on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America.
Subsequently, the UP purchased three Mormon-built roads: the Utah Central Railroad extending south from Ogden to Salt Lake City, the Utah Southern Railroad extending south from Salt Lake City into the Utah Valley, the Utah Northern Railroad extending north from Ogden into Idaho. The original UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872; as detailed by The Sun, Union Pacific's largest construction company, Crédit Mobilier, had overcharged Union Pacific. In order to convince the federal government to accept the increased costs, Crédit Mobilier had bribed congressmen. Although the UP corporation itself was not guilty of any misdeeds, prominent UP board members had been involved in the scheme; the ensuing financial crisis of 1873 led to a credit crunch, but not bankruptcy. As boom followed bust, the Union Pacific continued to expand; the original company was purchased by a new company on January 24, 1880, with dominant stockholder Jay Gould. Gould owned the Kansas Pacific, sought to merge it with UP.
Thusly was the original "Union Pacific Rail Road" transformed into "Union Pacific Railway."Extending towards the Pacific Northwest, Union Pacific built or purchased local lines that gave it access to Portland, Oregon. Towards Colorado, it built the Union Pacific and Gulf Railway: both narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Rockies and a standard gauge line that ran south from Denver, across New Mexico, into Texas; the Union Pacific Railway would declare bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893. Again, a new Union Pacific "Railroad" was formed and Union Pacific "Railway" merged into the new corporation. In the early 20th century, Union Pacific's focus shifted from expansion to internal improvement. Recognizing that farmers in the Central and Salinas Valleys of California grew produce far in excess of local markets, Union Pacific worked with its rival Southern Pacific to develop a rail-based transport system, not vulnerable to spoilage; these efforts came culminated in the 1906 founding of
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, with New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. A line connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa. There was a significant branch to Omaha, west of Fort Dodge and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota, starting from Cherokee, Iowa; the Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety. The Canadian National Railway acquired control of the IC in 1998; the IC is one of the early Class I railroads in the US. The company was incorporated by the Illinois General Assembly on January 16, 1836. S. House of Representatives authorizing a land grant to the company to construct a line from the mouth of the Ohio River to Chicago and on to Galena. Federal support, was not approved until 1850, when U. S. President Millard Fillmore signed a land grant for the construction of the railroad, making the Illinois Central the first land-grant railroad in the United States.
The Illinois Central was chartered by the Illinois General Assembly on February 10, 1851. Senator Stephen A. Douglas and President Abraham Lincoln were both Illinois Central men who lobbied for it. Douglas owned land near the terminal in Chicago. Lincoln was a lawyer for the railroad. Illinois legislators appointed Samuel D. Lockwood retired from the Illinois Supreme Court, as a trustee on the new railroad's board to guard the public's interest. Lockwood, who would serve more than two decades until his death, had overseen federal land monies shortly after Illinois' statehood helped oversee early construction of the completed Illinois and Michigan Canal. Upon its completion in 1856 the IC was the longest railroad in the world, its main line went from Cairo, Illinois, at the southern tip of the state, to Galena, in the northwest corner. A branch line went from Centralia, to the growing city of Chicago. In Chicago its tracks were laid along the shore of Lake Michigan and on an offshore causeway downtown, but land-filling and natural deposition have moved the present-day shore to the east.
In 1867 the Illinois Central extended its track into Iowa, during the 1870s and 1880s the IC acquired and expanded railroads in the southern United States. IC lines crisscrossed the state of Mississippi and went as far as New Orleans, Louisiana, to the south and Louisville, Kentucky, in the east. In the 1880s, northern lines were built to Dodgeville, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Omaha, Nebraska. Further expansion continued into the early twentieth century; the Illinois Central, the other "Harriman lines" owned by E. H. Harriman by the 20th century, became the target of the Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911. Although marked by violence and sabotage in the south and western states, the strike was over in a few months; the railroads hired replacements and withstood diminishing union pressure. The strike was called off in 1915; the totals above do not include the Waterloo RR, Batesville Southwestern, Peabody Short Line or CofG and its subsidiaries. On December 31, 1925 IC/Y&MV/G&SI operated 6,562 route-miles on 11,030 miles of track.
At the end of 1970 IC operated 11,159 of track. On August 10, 1972, the Illinois Central Railroad merged with the Gulf and Ohio Railroad to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. On October 30 that year the Illinois Central Gulf commuter rail crash, the company's deadliest, occurred. At the end of 1980 ICG operated 8,366 miles of railroad on 13,532 miles of track. In that decade, the railroad spun off most of its east–west lines and many of its redundant north–south lines, including much of the former GM&O. Most of these lines were bought by other railroads, including new railroads such as the Chicago and Western Railway and Louisville Railway, Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad and MidSouth Rail Corporation. In 1988 the railroad's then-parent company IC Industries spun off its remaining rail assets and changed its name to the Whitman Corporation. On February 29, 1988, the newly separated ICG dropped the "Gulf" from its name and again became the Illinois Central Railroad. On February 11, 1998 the IC was purchased for $2.4 billion in cash and shares by Canadian National Railway.
Integration of operations began July 1, 1999. The Illinois Central was a major carrier of passengers on its Chicago to New Orleans mainline and between Chicago and St. Louis. IC ran passengers on its Chicago to Omaha line, though it was never among the top performers on this route. Illinois Central's largest passenger terminal, Central Station, stood at 12th Street east of Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Due to the railroad's north-south route from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, Illinois Central passenger trains were one means of transport during the African American Great Migration of the 1920s. Illinois Central's most famous train was the Panama Limited, a premier all-Pullman car service between Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans. In 1967, due to losses incurred by the operation of the train, the Illinois Central combined the Panama Limited with a coach-only train called the Magnolia Star. On May 1, 1971 Amtrak took over the oper
Wisconsin Central Ltd.
Wisconsin Central Ltd. is a railroad subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. At one time, its parent Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation owned or operated railroads in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia. Wisconsin Central Ltd. started in US in the mid-1980s using most of the original Wisconsin Central Railway's rights of way and some former Milwaukee Road rights of way after the Soo Line Railroad acquired the Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota holdings of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road and divested its older railway trackage in Wisconsin. In 1993 the Wisconsin Central acquired the Green Bay and Western Railroad and the Fox River Valley Railroad. In 1995, Wisconsin Central acquired the 322-mile Canadian Algoma Central Railway whose tracks ran north of Sault Saint Marie to Hearst, Ontario; the Algoma Central runs a popular tourist passenger train through the Agawa Canyon and Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park near Lake Superior Provincial Park. In 2001, the Wisconsin Central was purchased by the Canadian National Railway.
Along with the former Illinois Central Railroad, the former Wisconsin Central became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. At the time of its sale to Canadian National, Wisconsin Central operated over 2,850 miles of track in the Great Lakes region; the railroad extended from Chicago through Wisconsin to Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota, to Sault Ste Marie and north to Hearst, Ontario. April 3, 1987: The Soo Line Railroad announces the sale of its Lake States Transportation Division to private investors, forming the new Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation. October 11, 1987: The first WC train runs, from Stevens Point to North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. May 1991: WC shares begin trading under the ticker symbol WCTC, raising $36.2 million. 1992: Railway Age Magazine names WC "Regional Railroad of the Year". 1993: WC acquires the Fox River Valley Railroad and Green Bay and Western railroads through a new subsidiary, Fox Valley & Western Ltd. 1993: A WC-led consortium acquires New Zealand Rail through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central International, renames it Tranz Rail in 1995.
1995: WC acquires the Algoma Central Railway through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central Canada Holdings. 1995: A WC-led consortium acquires Rail Express Systems in the United Kingdom. 1996: WC partners with Canadian National Railway and CSX, inaugurating a new intermodal shipping corridor between the west and east coasts of North America. 1996: Three trainload rail freight operators in the UK are united into a new WC subsidiary, English Welsh & Scottish. March 4, 1996: A Wisconsin Central freight train derails in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. 1997: EWS acquires two more freight railways in the UK. 1997: Another WC subsidiary, the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Company, acquires 207 miles of track from Union Pacific Railroad forming a WC connection between Green Bay and Ishpeming, Michigan. 1997: A new WC subsidiary, Australian Transport Network, acquires a one-third ownership and an operating interest TasRail in Tasmania. Six months ATN acquires the Emu Bay Railway in Tasmania. 1999: Railroad industry trade journal Railway Age magazine names WC president Edward Burkhardt its Railroader of the Year.
January 30, 2001: WC and CN announce plans for CN to purchase WC for $800 million and the assumption of $400 million of WC's debt. September 7, 2001: The Surface Transportation Board approves the sale of WC to CN. October 9, 2001: WC is acquired by CN. December 21, 2011: Duluth and Pacific Railway and Duluth and Iron Range Railway owned by CN, are merged into Wisconsin Central. January 1, 2013: Elgin and Eastern Railway is merged into Wisconsin Central Ltd indirectly as parent company CN made the acquisition. Romell, Rick. Soo Line Historical and Technical Society WC2scale - Wisconsin Central Motive Power Photo Gallery #1 RailPictures. Net – Photographs of the Wisconsin Central
Canadian National Railway
Canadian National is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec that serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, is Canada's only transcontinental railway company, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across about 20,400 route miles of track. CN is a public company with 24,000 employees and as of September 2018 it had a market cap of $84 billion Canadian dollars. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding to its privatization in 1995. In 2011, Bill Gates was the largest single shareholder of CN stock; the railway was referred to as the "Canadian National Railways" between 1918 and 1960, as "Canadian National"/"Canadien National" from 1960 to the present. The Canadian National Railways was incorporated on June 6, 1919, comprising several railways that had become bankrupt and fallen into federal government hands, along with some railways owned by the government.
On November 17, 1995, the federal government privatized CN. Over the next decade, the company expanded into the United States, purchasing Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central Transportation, among others. Now a freight railway, CN operated passenger services until 1978, when they were assumed by Via Rail; the only passenger services run by CN after 1978 were several mixed trains in Newfoundland, a several commuter trains both on CN's electrified routes and towards the South Shore in the Montreal area. The Newfoundland mixed trains lasted until 1988, while the Montreal commuter trains are now operated by Montreal's AMT. In response to public concerns fearing loss of key transportation links, the government of Canada assumed majority ownership of the near bankrupt Canadian Northern Railway on September 6, 1918, appointed a "Board of Management" to oversee the company. At the same time, CNoR was directed to assume management of Canadian Government Railways, a system comprising the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, National Transcontinental Railway, the Prince Edward Island Railway, among others.
On December 20, 1918, the federal government created the Canadian National Railways – a title only with no corporate powers – through a Canadian Privy Council Order in Council as a means to simplify the funding and operation of the various railway companies. The absorption of the Intercolonial Railway would see CNR adopt that system's slogan The People's Railway. Another Canadian railway, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, encountered financial difficulty on March 7, 1919, when its parent company Grand Trunk Railway defaulted on repayment of construction loans to the federal government; the federal government's Department of Railways and Canals took over operation of the GTPR until July 12, 1920, when it too was placed under the CNR. The Canadian National Railway was organized on October 10, 1922; the bankrupt GTR itself was placed under the care of a federal government "Board of Management" on May 21, 1920, while GTR management and shareholders opposed to nationalization took legal action. After several years of arbitration, the GTR was absorbed into CNR on January 30, 1923.
In subsequent years, several smaller independent railways would be added to the CNR as they went bankrupt, or it became politically expedient to do so, however the system was more or less finalized following the addition of the GTR. Canadian National Railways was born out of both domestic urgency. Railways, until the rise of the personal automobile and creation of taxpayer-funded all-weather highways, were the only viable long-distance land transportation available in Canada for many years; as such, their operation consumed a great deal of political attention. Many countries regard railway networks as critical infrastructure and at the time of the creation of CNR during the continuing threat of the First World War, Canada was not the only country to engage in railway nationalization. In the early 20th century, many governments were taking a more interventionist role in the economy, foreshadowing the influence of economists like John Maynard Keynes; this political trend, combined with broader geo-political events, made nationalization an appealing choice for Canada.
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and allied involvement in the Russian Revolution seemed to validate the continuing process. The need for a viable rail system was paramount in a time of civil unrest and foreign military intervention. CN Telegraph originated as the Great North West Telegraph Company in 1880 to connect Ontario and Manitoba and became a subsidiary of Western Union in 1881. In 1915, facing bankruptcy, GNWTC was acquired by the Canadian Northern Railway's telegraph company; when Canadian Northern was nationalized in 1918 and amalgamated into Canadian National Railways in 1921, its telegraph arm was renamed the Canadian National Telegraph Company. CN Telegraphs began co-operating with its Canadian Pacific owned rival CPR Telegraphs in the 1930s, sharing telegraph networks and co-founding a teleprinter system in 1957. In 1967 the two services were amalgamated into a joint venture CNCP Telecommunications which evolved into a telecoms company. CN sold its stake of the company to CP in 1984.
In 1923 CNR's second president, Sir Henry Thornton who succeeded David Blyth Hanna, created the CNR Radio Department to provide passengers with entertainment radio reception and give the railway a competitive advantage over its rival, CP
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, known as Canadian Pacific is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns 20,000 kilometres of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, as far north as Edmonton, its rail network serves Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and New York City in the United States; the railway was first built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885, fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but no longer reaches the Atlantic coast. A freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada.
The CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo in honor of Sir Donald A Smith who had risen from Factor to Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company over a lengthy career in the beaver fur trade. Smith was a principal financier of the C. P. R. Staking much of his personal wealth. In 1885, he drove the last spike to complete the transcontinental line; the company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the IC&E was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road; the combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, a line to Chicago and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.
It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U. S. headquarters are in Minneapolis. Together with the Canadian Confederation, the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task undertaken as the National Dream by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, he was helped by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, the owner of the North Western Coal and Navigation Company. British Columbia, a four-month sea voyage away from the East Coast, had insisted upon a land transport link to the East as a condition for joining Confederation; the government however proposed to build a railway linking the Pacific province to the Eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 July 1871. Macdonald saw it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent. Moreover, manufacturing interests in Quebec and Ontario wanted access to raw materials and markets in Western Canada; the first obstacle to its construction was political.
The logical route went through the city of Chicago, Illinois. In addition to this was the difficulty of building a railroad through the Canadian Rockies. To ensure this routing, the government offered huge incentives including vast grants of land in the West. In 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald and other high-ranking politicians, bribed in the Pacific Scandal, granted federal contracts to Hugh Allan's Canada Pacific Railway Company rather than to David Lewis Macpherson's Inter-Ocean Railway Company, thought to have connections to the American Northern Pacific Railway Company; because of this scandal, the Conservative Party was removed from office in 1873. The new Liberal prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie, ordered construction of segments of the railway as a public enterprise under the supervision of the Department of Public Works led by Sandford Fleming. Surveying was carried out during the first years of a number of alternative routes in this virgin territory followed by construction of a telegraph along the lines, agreed upon.
The Thunder Bay section linking Lake Superior to Winnipeg was commenced in 1875. By 1880, around 1,000 kilometres was nearly complete across the troublesome Canadian Shield terrain, with trains running on only 500 kilometres of track. With Macdonald's return to power on 16 October 1878, a more aggressive construction policy was adopted. Macdonald confirmed that Port Moody would be the terminus of the transcontinental railway, announced that the railway would follow the Fraser and Thompson rivers between Port Moody and Kamloops. In 1879, the federal government floated bonds in London and called for tenders to construct the 206 km section of the railway from Yale, British Columbia, to Savona's Ferry, on Kamloops Lake; the contract was awarded to Andrew Onderdonk, whose men started work on 15 May 1880. After the completion of that section, Onderdonk received contracts to build between Yale and Port Moody, between Savona's Ferry and Eagle Pass. On 21 October 1880, a new syndicate, unrelated to Hugh Allan's, signed
