HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD, a corporation controlling the principal line of railroad extending through the entire length of the State from north to south, besides numerous side branches acquired by lease during the past few years. The main lines are made up of three general divisions, extending from Chicago to Cairo, Ill. (864.73 miles); from Centralia to Dubuque, Iowa, (340.77 miles), and from Cairo to New Orleans, La. (547.79 miles)-making a total of 1,253.29 miles of main line, of which 705.5 miles are in Illinois. Besides this the company controls, through lease and stock ownership, a large number of lateral branches which are operated by the company, making the total mileage officially reported up to June 30, 1898, 3,130.21 miles.-(HISTORY.) The Illinois Central Railroad is not only one of the lines earliest projected in the history of the State, but has been most intimately connected with its development. The project of a road starting from the mouth of the Ohio and extending northward through the State is said to have been suggested by Lieut.-Gov. Alexander M. Jenkins as early as 1832; was advocated by the late Judge Sidney Breese and others in 1835 under the name of the Wabash & Mississippi Railroad, and took the form of a charter granted by the Legislature in January, 1836, to the first "Illinois Central Railroad Company," to construct a road from Cairo to a point near the southern terminus of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Nothing was done under this act, although an organization was effected, with Governor Jenkins as President of the Company. The Company surrendered its charter the next year and the work was undertaken by the State, under the internal improvement act of 1837, and considerable money expended without completing any portion of the line. The State having abandoned the enterprise, the Legislature, in 1843, incorporated the "Great Western Railway Company" under what came to be known as the "Holbrook charter," to be organized under the auspices of the Cairo City & Canal Company, the line to connect the termini named in the charter of 1836, via Vandalia, Shelbyville, Decatur and Bloomington. Considerable money was expended under this charter, but the scheme again failed of completion, an
