In 1845, the holders of the canal bonds advanced the sum of $1,700,000 for the purpose of finishing the canal; and subsequently, William B. Ogden and a few other citizens of Chicago, having obtained possession of an old railroad-charter for a road from that city to Galena, got a few thousand dollars of stock subscribed in those cities, and commenced the work.  The difficulties were very great, from the scarcity of money and the want of confidence in the success of the enterprise.  In most of the villages along the proposed line there was a strong opposition to having a railroad built at all, as the people thought it would be the ruin of their towns.  Even in Chicago, croakers were not wanting to predict that the railroad would monopolize all the trade of the place.

In the face of all these obstacles, the road was built to the Des Plaines River, twelve miles,—­in a very cheap way, to be sure; as a second-hand strap-rail was used, and half-worn cars were picked up from Eastern roads.

These twelve miles of road between the Des Plaines and Chicago had always been the terror of travellers.  It was a low, wet prairie, without drainage, and in the spring and autumn almost impassable.  At such seasons one might trace the road by the broken wagons and dead horses that lay strewn along it.

To be able to have their loads of grain carried over this dreadful place for three or four cents a bushel was to the farmers of the Rock River and Fox River valleys—­who, having hauled their wheat from forty to eighty miles to this Slough of Despond, frequently could get it no farther—­a privilege which they soon began to appreciate.  The road had all it could do, at once.  It was a success.  There was now no difficulty in getting the stock taken up, and before long it was finished to Fox River.  It paid from fifteen to twenty per cent to the stockholders, and the people along the line soon became its warmest friends,—­and no wonder, since it doubled the value of every man’s farm on the line.  The next year the road was extended to Rock River, and then to Galena, one hundred and eighty-five miles.

This road was the pioneer of the twenty-eight hundred and fifty miles of railroads which now cross the State in every direction, and which have hastened the settlement of the prairies at least fifty years.

Among these lines of railway, the most important, and one of the longest in America, is the Illinois Central, which is seven hundred and four miles in length, and traverses the State from South to North, namely:—­

1.  The main line, from Cairo to La Salla           308 miles
2.  The Galena Branch, from La Salle to Dunleith    146  "
3.  The Chicago Branch, from Chicago to Centralia   250  "

This great work was accomplished in the short space of four years and nine months, by the help of a grant of two and a half millions of acres of land lying along the line.  The company have adopted the policy of selling these lands on long credit to actual settlers; and since the completion of the road, in 1856, they have sold over a million of acres, for fifteen millions of dollars, in secured notes, bearing interest.  The remaining lands will probably realize as much more, so that the seven hundred and four miles of railroad will actually cost the corporators nothing.