Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

killed by the train. After the train had been stopped and
the child was returned to her unharmed, she was so
fllled with joy, and in such a state of shock. that she
could not utter a word for some time afterward.
The two men said it was one experience they did not
want to have repeated.
Anamosa and the surrounding area was having its
troubles with an old fashioned winter in January 1910.
There was already a foot of snow on the ground when.
on January 4th, another storm moved in. It snowed
most of the day and into the night, dumping another 10
inches of new snow on the ground. Trains all over this
area were unable to operate on anything close to their
schedules. For instance, the 6 p.m. Milwaukee
passenger train from Cedar Rapids, which was due on
the evening of Jan 4th, did not arrive in Anamosa until
9:30 a.m. on the morning of January 5th. It went as far
as Monticello, gave up trying to go north, and returned.
The freight trains were not running at all during this
period, and coal was in somewhat short supply in
Anamosa. On Thursday. Jan. 6, the temperature
was at -20 degrees in Anamosa. but the wind had gone
down and the work of clearing the streets, highways
and railroads commenced.
The first part of 1978, the Milwaukee Railroad flied
notice with the Interstate Commerce Commission that
they planned to abandon the line which served Stone
City, Anamosa. Langworthy and Monticello. The
railroad was abondand: leaving the city with only one
means of transporting freight—the highways.
The history of the Iowa Midland Railroad would begin
with Col. William T. Shaw who had his eye on a better
route to Chicago than the one taken by the Dubuque
Southwestern Railroad. He became president and
builder of the Iowa Midland from Lyons to Anamosa,
with connections to the Chicago 8: Northwestern at
Clinton.
The building of the Iowa Midland RR began in Lyons.
Clinton County, and was completed to its terminus in
Anamosa in 1871, having about 71 miles of track. In
Anamosa the tracks of this railroad ran parallel to. and
just south of. the tracks of the Milwaukee railroad, from
just west of North Scott, on west to a point near North
Ford. where they crossed over to the north side of the
Milwaukee tracks. From this point they ran west of the
reformatory to the stone quarry. The Iowa Midland had
a turn table. on which they turned the locomotives
around for their retum trip to Lyons. and a roundhouse
and other facilities in Anamosa. The municipal
swimming pool and adjoining park now occupies the
area on which they were located. The lines.
locomotives, and other rolling stock, were serviced and
repaired at these facilities. The Iowa Midland had a
standpipe for water, located just a short distance west
of the passenger depot, which was connected to the
Anamosa city water mains.
Going east from the passenger depot, the Midland
tracks crossed the intersection of East Main Street and
South Scott in such a manner that if you were in an
automobile making a left turn from Scott onto Main
Street, you would be forced to cross the tracks of the
Midland twice in less than 100 feet. This fact appeared
in Ripley's “ Believe It Or Not".
At some point in the mid-1870s. the Iowa Midland
was leased to the Chicago 8: Northwestern Railway
System. In October of 1884, the Chicago &
Northwestern purchased the Midland.
The Midland had served Lyons (now a part of
Clinton), Midland Junction, The Sand Pit, Almount,
Andover, Bryan, Goose Lake, Quigley (name later
changed to Petersville). Delmar, Maquoketa. Nashville.
Baldwin, Monmouth, Onslow, Center Junction. Amber
and Anamosa, which was its terminus.
The Iowa Midland Branch of the Chicago 8:
Northwestern had connections in Anamosa with the
Milwaukee Rairoad and the Chicago, Anamosa. 8:
Northem Railroad; all three using the Union passenger
depot in Anamosa. From information I have been able
to gather, the Chicago. Anamosa Br Northem— better
known as the CAN— used the roundhouse, turntable
Iowa Midland Railroad
and other facilities of the Midland through an
agreement with the CAN. There were many rumors
back in the early 1900s that the Chicago Northwestern
was going to aquire the CAN to extend its line to the
north, but this never came to pass. The two railroads
did, however. work very closely together for several
years until the CAN was abandoned in 1916.
After the Iowa Midland Railroad became the Midland
Branch of the Chicago 81 Northwestem, many
improvements were made on the Midland Branch. In
the late 1800s and early 1900s the rails were replaced
with heavier ones to accommodate the larger engines
and other equipment which was to be operated on the
Midland Branch. An improvement of no small
importance was made about a mile east of Anamosa on
the trestle work of the Midland. This was about 30 feet
high and close to 300 feet long. This trestle was
replaced by a concrete bridge 64 feet long, with an arch
20 feet wide by 16 feet high. It took 2.700 barrels of
cement, 85 carloads of screened gravel, 40 carloads of
sand and 22.000 feet of lumber for the forms. From the
top of the arch to track level was about 14 feet. This and
the trestle work was fllled in with dirt by the Chicago 81
Northwestern making a much safer roadbed for the
tracks. The cost of the bridge was about 823,000 and
the dirt flll put in by the railroad cost several thousand
dollars more.
The Midland Branch was officially abandoned in
1950, and the last train came down the line from
Anamosa in April 1951. picking up all of the stray cars
along the line.
The Chicago, Anamosa & Northwestern Railroad was
better known as the ‘CAN' because of the initials that
were placed on their equipment: C.A.& N.R.R.
In October 1903, a surveying party was at work
under J.F. Lacock. chief engineer. He said the line
followed an old survey that ran from Anamosa to
Prairieburg, Coggon and Quasqueton. And that the
survey was being made for a better roadbed than most
other railroads had, as the grades were not more than
one and one-fourth percent and the curves would not
exceed flve per cent.
This survey that the CAN followed was that of the
Davenport, Iowa 8: Dakota Rd. and a large amount of
grading was done in the 1880s by the Williams
management which was swamped by lack ofcapital.
The organization in charge of building the CAN line
was the Midland Railway Construction Company of
which Henry Kiene was president; Stephen B. Howard,
secretary; Paul Keine, treasurer — all of whom were