January, 1886. Residents of Princeton and Zimmerman, Minnesota, were filled with hopelessness fearing they would never enjoy the luxury of railroad service. Although pioneer inhabitants of these communities frequently besought the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba’s (St P M & M) management to provide railway service, the town folks were rebuffed repeatedly. That month, however, during the depths of their despair, one Major A.M. Fridley of Anoka, Minnesota stopped in Princeton. One night during his stay at the old North Star Hotel, he suggested to a group of friends that it might be beneficial to call on Mr. J.J. Hill personally. Consequently, a self-constituted committee consisting of Messrs. C.H. Rines, T.H. Caley, J.T.D. Sadley, the editor of the Princeton Union, and Senator Houlton of Elk River, was accorded an audience with Mr. Hill. The committee appraised Mr. Hill of what they thought residents of Mille Lacs county would do to get a rail line constructed through their communities. Less than nine months following the conference with Hill, trains began operating on the new branch line.
Prior to availability of railroad service, the Princeton & Elk River Stage Co., under the excellent management of Messrs. Campbell and Libby and Messrs. Houlton and Baker, served the people of Princeton faithfully. Despite stormy weather and bad roads, the stage coach made its regular daily trip to Elk River. Only twice during the decades of its existence did the stage company fail to reach Elk River, and those failures occurred during blizzards when snow drifts rendered roads impassable. In an age of progress, however, transition from the stage coach to palace or parlor cars and dining cars on a relatively fast railroad was eagerly and easily assimilated.
Elk River and Milaca were connected by the St P M & M when the last rail was spiked down in the latter village on Saturday, 13 November 1886. On Wednesday, 24 November the first train carrying a party of St P M & M officialdom passed over the line. This epochal event caused a gala ball to be given Friday evening, 26 November at Princeton’s Palace Rink. Revenue trains commenced operating over the line Monday, 29 November 1886. The line served residents, farmers, and businesses between Elk River and Milaca for nearly ninety years.
Deprivation of rail service, endured by the town folks and farmers until very late 1886, was attributable to at least two factors: The negative impact of the Civil War on railroad construction and Jim Hill’s resolute, unassailable determination to utilize St P M & M resources to cross the great prairie, conquer the Rocky and Cascade mountain ranges, and thus tap revenue sources on the Pacific coast. Hill, of course, could largely control all variables except the Civil War’s aftermath – and it impacted his plans mightily.
CIVIL WAR’S IMPACT
Following numerous years of very bone-jarring stage coach travel between Elk River and St. Paul, the St. Paul & Pacific R.R. (St P & P) and the Great Northern Railway (GN), on Monday, 7 November 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, introduced passenger service twice daily between the termini of St. Paul and Elk River. The line stagnated at Elk River for two years due to the aftermath of the boldly, destructive Civil War.
Being aware of the watchfulness of his board, Hill took advantage of the impetuosity of the Princetonians and their neighbors and suggested jointly financing the cost of construction. On or about Thursday March 4th, 1886, he proposed Mille Lacs County would be obligated to issues about $47,000 and the town of Baldwin about $2,500 of twenty year, five percent bonds. Hill’s quid pro quo proposal worked to everyone’s advantage – Hill got his short cut to Duluth and the locals got rail service.
Within the following two weeks a bond election was conducted. Subsequently, the Princeton Union on March 25th announced the railroad bond proposition had carried by a sweeping majority of 430 to 66. Voters in the village of Princeton cast 241 votes supporting the bond issue and not a single ballot in opposition.
Locating Engineers and Surveyors
Merely preliminary surveys were sufficient inducement to spur land speculators into frenzied activity. One extremely confident speculator bet a new hat with the Elk River Star’s editor that grading would be commenced on a line from Elk River to Princeton before the year expired. If the editor took on the proffered bet, his decision would cost him a new hat.
By late March surveying and locating had progressed sufficiently to let the job for bids. Shepard & Co., one of Hill’s favorite contractors, was awarded the contract for building the road, but Shepard opted to sublet the project. Consequently, large numbers of sub-contractors in early April began inspecting the proposed route prior to submitting firm bids. Close inspection was prompted by an allegation that the locating engineers and surveyors had encountered considerable difficulty locating a route across Tibbets Brook in the town of Livonia. Several routes were surveyed, but engineers observed that the underlying terra firma was characterized by instability due to marshy conditions. Ultimately the problem was solved by going around the east side of Lake Fremont. Soon thereafter contracts were let for clearing the route north of Princeton.
On Sunday, 24 October 1886, a sizeable track-laying crew of about 100 men arrived in Elk River and laid the first rail at 4:37 PM the next day. A spokesman for the crew asserted they were capable of laying two miles of track daily.
Laying track on prairie land characterized largely by gentle gradients and curves, shallow fills, and low bridges over slow-running creeks hardly presents much of an engineering challenge. Roadbed on the Princeton line quite likely was graded by commonly used “Swede carts,” “godevils,” or trays pulled over short distances on greased poles.
The Union euphorically continued. “All aboard for Elk River, Anoka, St. Paul and Minneapolis. Train going south leaves Princeton at 7:30 AM every day except Sunday. Train from the south due at 6:30 PM (sic) every day except Sunday. You can eat breakfast and supper in Princeton and have five hours to transact business in St. Paul, or six hours in Minneapolis, all in the same day.”
Nationally, coverage emanated from the Railroad Gazette. “Regular trains,“ declared the Gazette or Friday, 3 December 1886, “commenced to run over this branch November 29. The stations on the branch with distances from Elk River are: Zimmerman, 10:23; Princeton, 19:02; and Milaca, 33:08. At its northern end this branch connects with the St. Cloud and Hinckley branch.” Weekly issues of the Railroad Gazette were becoming increasingly voluminous as the railroad industry approached its heyday.
The local press declared the Eastern Minnesota as the best equipped railway in Minnesota and described its coaches as, “models of comfort and convenience” and its sleeping cars as “veritable palaces on wheels.” Crews were considered to be very courteous and caused trains to arrive and depart promptly. Trains normally consisted of chair cars, a diner, and sleeping cars plus the usual “head end” cars.
The expanded service included two additional stations, Long’s Siding and Soule’s Siding. Despite the increased number of stops, the running time for passenger service was reduced about 50 percent.
Prospects were boding well for the Elk River-Milaca line – perhaps patrons of the line were falling into a state of complacency. On Monday, 13 November 1899, their smugness was rudely shattered when the Eastern Minnesota Railway began using the Brook Park cut-off which took their trains through Cambridge about fourteen miles east of Princeton. The Eastern named its new line between Duluth and the Twin Cities “The Bee Line.” Usage of the shorter, new line had a profound, negative effect on the Elk River line. For several more years towns along the line continued to enjoy good rail service, but the die was cast – it was the beginning of an agonizingly long ending. Within two weeks after the Eastern effected the change, the Minneapolis Evening Journal reported, “Princeton is kicking vigorously over the lack of train facilities since the day train on the Eastern Minnesota was transferred to the Coon Creek cut-off. Now the Princeton people have only one train each way a day, and these trains pass through the village in the dead hours of the night. The town is only a short distance from Minneapolis, but it gets no mail until it is a day old.”
By 1908 all luxury cars were replaced with ordinary day coaches, which were crowded and considered generally uncomfortable. An irreversible decline of passenger service had become established and it accelerated quickly. In 1930 the GN lost the mail revenue on the line as the U.S. postal service began dispatching by truck. Within seven more years the GN had reverted to one train each direction daily, except Sunday. Introduction of hard-surfaced; all weather highways encouraged the purchase and registration of increasing numbers of automobiles and trucks. Consequently, the usage of railroad service declined precipitously. Also, at this time, the country was suffering in the throes of a catastrophic economic depression, which further shocked the railroad industry.
Ultimately service shrank to a mixed train with a single combination car attached to the rear of a string of freight cars. Then, sadly, passenger service that had been enjoyed for nearly sixty-six years was discontinued Wednesday, 15 October 1952. Thereafter an occasional passenger would ride in the caboose.
Structures
Passenger stations ranged from very primitive to commodious along the line. The railway village of Pease, along with one or two other towns, had less than desirable depot facilities.
While Pease was cursed with a car body depot until 1920, Princeton enjoyed a permanent frame depot from the outset. Then in 1902 The GN invested about $15,594 in a fine new brick structure which was dedicated Friday evening, 30 January 1903. (The local press inflated the cost to $20,000.) Approximately 500 people attended the gala dedication ceremony. Festivities included, of course, speeches by political luminaries and other local dignitaries, a dance at Jesmer’s opera house, and a very lavish supper at the Commercial Hotel. A special train carrying two coaches of revelers from Milaca arrived at 8:15 PM. The merry making continued until nearly 4:00 AM when the special train for the Milaca people departed.
Specifically, what justified such an auspicious event? The depot’s sheer size and fine architectural lines were perhaps adequate justification. Its length 215 ft., height 35 ft., and width exceeding 37 ft. dwarfed other structures in Princeton. Its architecture combined the Queen Anne and Dutch motif. The exterior displayed Princeton (really Brickton) cream brick, sandstone trim, and a red cedar shingle roof. Passengers boarded trains from a stone platform. Allegedly, it was the finest depot within 200 miles of the Twin Cities.
Agricultural and forest commodities accounted for the largest portion of freight forwarded. Surprisingly, however, one industrial product shipped out was not insignificant – substantial quantities of brick were transported from Brickton located about two miles north of Princeton.
Founded in 1889, the brick industry prospered for forty years. By 1902 five yards produced five million bricks annually. Their product, dubbed “Princeton” brick, was renowned for its appealing cream color. In 1929, however, the industry encountered transportation problems which led to its closure that year.
Industries strung along the line consisted of the usual: grain elevators, lumber yards, warehouses, coal yards, oil terminals, automobile dealerships, and so on. Grain elevators were fairly sizeable ranging in capacity from 20,000 to 30,000 bushels. At least two major oil companies maintained storage terminals along the tracks. Notably, all the freight handled by rail could easily be moved by motor truck.
The Orphan Trains
Between 1853 and 1929 at least 200,000 children and several thousand adults were part of a migration unique in the history of the United States. The demand for agricultural labor was unrelenting as the “western” states sought to grow their commercial and agricultural economies. “Western” is an illusionary term because as settlers migrated westward, the boundaries did also. Ultimately, the western boundaries included Minnesota and orphan trains plied the state’s railways including the Elk River – Milaca line.
“Placing out” was organized by New York’s Children’s Aid Society, which was founded by Charles Loring Brace. Brace, an idealistic theologian, borrowed the concept of “placing out” from Europe where it had been used quite effectively for sometime. The Society’s goal, of course, was to relocate the true orphans, street waifs, and indigents of America’s poor to wholesome homes with caring, loving parents.
End of Line
Although passenger service discontinued in late 1952, freight service continued for nearly an additional twenty-four years. Early in the 1970’s studies conducted by Iowa State University, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and other bodies emphatically concluded that railroads could divest themselves of low-density branch lines with minimal negative impact on the shippers or railroads.
Coincidental with the conclusions reached by the Iowa State University’s study team and DOT’s group, freight service was discontinued between Princeton and Milaca between 1972 and 1973 and between Elk River and Princeton in 1976. The Elk River-Milaca line, the one-time short cut to Duluth, was abandoned and relegated to archives of historical documentation in the Mille Lacs County’s and Minnesota Historical Society’s Libraries.
It has vanished into obscurity and become entombed in dusty files containing faded photographs, and smudged print on yellowed, crumbling newspaper. Or perhaps it will reappear occasionally as a footnote in railroad literature.
(From: A pamphlet about the Great Northern Railway – Elk River-Milaca Branch – Reference Sheet No. 283 – June 2000.)