The History of the Illinois Central Railroad in Freeburg, Illinois.

The Illinois Central line between Belleville and DuQuoin, Illinois, was built by the Belleville and Southern Illinois Railroad Company,  later to be called the Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company, which was incorporated by the General Assembly of Illinois Congress on February 14, 1857. Very little was done as far as the construction of an actual RR line until after the Civil War. In 1866, surveying began on the rail line between Freeburg and Belleville. In May 1869, the contract for the building of the line from Belleville and the newly added addition to New Athens was awarded to Messrs. Clark & Co. of Chicago. The contract stipulated that the work is to be completed to Freeburg, which is one-half the distance, by the first day of September 1869, and to New Athens by the first day of October. Of course, this schedule could never be kept as many problems occurred with labor. But the line from Belleville to Freeburg, a distance of only seven miles, was completed by November 1869, and at that time, when the first locomotive rolled into town, there was a huge celebration.

Many Freeburg people had never seen such a massive piece of machinery, clanking and pouring hot white steam from every orifice. Some people ran in fear as the massive engine rounded the curve north of town. The whistle could be heard for miles. By the end of 1870, the 15-mile line from Belleville to New Athens, through Freeburg, had been completed. Now work began to continue the line to DuQuoin and then on to Cairo. This line would now be called the Cairo Short Line. In October 1869, a new locomotive, of thirty tons, 16 x24 cylinders, had been purchased at the McQueen Works in New York, for the amount of $13,500 ($285,000 today). This engine was specially designed for a passenger train service that had been planned for the new line which was now being extended into St. Louis.

Freeburg Train Station, Circa 1890.

With the start of passenger service, towns along the line would need a station for train stops. The first depot was built in Freeburg in 1870. By the time the station was completed in 1871, the name of the line was changed to St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company, and remained in operation under this name until October 1895.

Freeburg Illinois Train Station Passengers, Circa 1890s.

At this time, the line was leased to the Illinois Central Railroad Company and this same company purchased the line in February 1907. By this time, the line had been extended to Paducah, KY, and through connecting extensions to the south and north, this line could travel to the Gulf of Mexico or Canada. The line saw the most passenger travel during the period of 1910-1940. It was also during this time that a second rail would be added to the line that extended almost the entire length of the line. In the 1920-1930 period, twelve trains made a stop in Freeburg from 5:45 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. (going both ways). After the war ended in 1945, passenger service began to decline as people were obtaining automobiles or riding the bus. Although a train ride was often fast, comfortable and relaxing, it could also be messy and often the passengers were faced with smoke and soot-filled cars as the trains raced across the tracks.

By September 1958, the ICRR had discontinued all but one passenger stop which headed north to St. Louis in the morning and south to Cairo in the evening. It would take only 8 months until the ICRR decided to dismiss all passenger service in this line. Nobody cared to ride the train anymore.

The ICRR would continue to operate this line for freight purposes until 1999 when it was taken over by the Canadian National Railroad Company. The CNR continues to operate this line to this day with very limited train service.

Many men have served as station agents in Freeburg over the years. The first recorded agent was Mr. Rad Burnett in 1898. He remained until December 1905, when Mr. T.E. Crawford took over, and remained until 1917. At this time, Mr. Charles C. Mulkey became the station agent. He would be located in Freeburg for 21 years and in January 1938, Mr. Roy Virgin, a native of Lementon Station [1] (which was located in the area of the Gas plant south of Freeburg), became the station agent. Mr. Virgin is probably the most remembered of the agents here in Freeburg. In April 1955, Mr. Russell Kilgore was appointed as station agent after Mr. Virgin decided to retire. Mr. Kilgore would be the last agent at this station. By 1960, nearly all freight and mail stops in Freeburg had ceased. The need for a depot had ended and the building became a playground for local kids until, in the mid-1980s, when the depot was torn down. The second track was also removed.

There were other rail lines that almost became a part of Freeburg’s history. In April 1909, St. Louis & St. Libory Railroad Company purchased a “right of way” through Lyman Wilderman’s farm, from the Locust Grove Schoolhouse to the current Illinois Central Railroad line (running east to west, east of the Gas Plant south of Freeburg). Necessary grading would be done immediately and then a switch would be laid to connect with the ICRR line. A completion date of September 1, 1909, was the hope. Grading from Silver Creek, heading west to the ICRR line near Lementon Station had already been completed by June 1909. This line would progress no further and later became an access rail line for the Red Ray Mine.

Another line was planned in December 1905. It would be an electric rail line traveling from East St. Louis to Freeburg by way of Millstadt and Smithton with future extensions heading to Fayetteville and St. Libory. This electric rail line never got past the planning stages.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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[1] Lementon Station - John T. Lemen, a trustee of the First Baptist Church resided south of Freeberg. A mine close to the railroad, located on the Ben Hartman farm, was known as the Lemen Mine. Near here, on the William Hartman farm was the Lemen School. Further south, about three miles, was a railroad stop known as Lementon Station.

Was Rosehill Cemetery Initially named Roe’s Hill?

The town of Chittenden was a subdivision of Lake View Township. In 1859 Chittenden was sold and incorporated as a cemetery named Rose Hill (aka Roe's Hill; Rose Hill). The rail line is the former North Western Railroad Company tracks that ran along the east side of the property in what is now known as Ravenswood Avenue. 

The proper name of Rosehill Cemetery, dedicated in 1859, is debatable. Though most official paperwork gives it as a single word, Rosehill, it’s not uncommon to see it written as Rose Hill. And several popular stories claim that the name was supposed to be Roe’s Hill, and only a clerical error resulted in the name we know today.

Rosehill Cemetery, Founded in 1859, Entrance, Chicago, Illinois.

The often-given story: "The land, seven miles north of downtown Chicago, was once a farm and tavern owned by a stubborn old pioneer named Hiram Roe. When someone wanted to buy the land from the old man for a cemetery in 1859, stubborn old Roe only agreed when the buyer promised to name the cemetery after him – but a clerical error resulted in it being spelled as 'Rosehill' instead."

But, while there’s reason to believe Roe was a real person, the story of him wanting to have the cemetery named after him is certainly fiction. 

Hiram Roe's farm sat atop the highest point in the area, from seventeen to twenty feet above the adjacent prairie on the south and east, and was commonly known as "Roe’s Hill." One of the reasons his land thrived was because, when it rained, it was one of the few farms in the area that didn’t turn into a swamp.

The land wasn’t bought from him and wasn’t intended to be a cemetery when it was first purchased.

Lawsuit records recorded in The Northeastern Reporter in 1895, when a suit for over-payment was going on, make the whole story clear of how the land changed hands: In 1857, Francis H. Benson bought the land where the cemetery now sits, then in the suburban town of Chittenden, for about $25,000 from the Illinois and Wisconsin Land Company. He intended to parcel it out into lots for houses, but the Panic of 1857 hit the economy hard, causing the land to lose about one-half of its value and decimating the market for suburban real estate. The only money Benson made from the land in the first year came from selling off a bit of gravel he found on it.

Trains arrived at Rosehill Cemetery at Chittenden Station, named for the “town” of Chittenden, where the land was sold to the Rose Hill Cemetery Company. 

The elevation and dryness of the soil made Benson think some of the lands would make a good cemetery. He partnered with James Blaney, the first president of Rosehill, to form the Rosehill Cemetery corporation. The company was incorporated in February of 1859, and the cemetery opened for business that summer. Benson and Blaney’s names are both carved onto the gate. When the cemetery published a promotional book in 1913, they said that the name came from wild white roses that grew on the hill.

St. Henry Catholic Church, 6335 North Hoyne Avenue,  Chicago, confirmation documents from 1891 show entry for families living in "East Ravenswood Park (Rose Hill)" from family Search; Film № 008571278 - page 126.

In this very early image, before 1897 or so, the original Northwestern tracks can be seen at ground level. You are looking north. The cemetery is off the left. The large train station is on the east side of the tracks, opposite the cemetery and where passengers would board trains back to Chicago.

But the story that the name of the cemetery may have grown from a hill named for Mr. Roe may not be entirely false; while the “stubborn farmer who owned the land” tales are of decidedly modern vintage, probably about 60 years ago, stories that the land was once called Roe’s Hill appear in several 19th-century sources.

1924 Northern Illinois Principal Cities and Railroads. Rand McNally and Company.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

The first mention found comes from just over 20 years after the cemetery was chartered, when the Chicago Tribune ran an article about onion farming on September 6, 1880. In the article, it said that in the early days of Chicago history, teamsters traveling in the woods seven miles north of town would often stop at the “Jug Tavern” owned by old Man Roe, who made a sort of whiskey that was popular enough for its fame to make them start referring to the area as Roe’s Hill.

Roe's cabin was near the later residence of J. A. Budlong, which was located at Foster and Western. The Budlong Pickle Farm was located on Western at Berwyn. 

A few years later, A.T. Andreas’ authoritative History of Cook County also mentioned this, stating that the area of Bowmanville was once known as Roe’s Hill for Hiram Roe. 

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The Tribune mentioned Roe again in 1900 when an article on the origins of the names of various suburbs said that Bowmanville was originally known as Roe’s Hill after Hiram Roe. 

However, census records say nothing about a Hiram Roe in the area. There was a farmer named Hiram Rowe up near McHenry County, but there was no evidence that he ever lived closer to the city. Furthermore, these mentions that the area was called “Roe’s Hill” in the old days (the 1830s-1850s) are all from a few decades later; no instance of anyone calling it Roe’s Hill in the actual “old days” has been found. Andreas and the Tribune may have just been repeating neighborhood gossip and urban legends.

Looking North on Ravenswood Avenue. Note the cemetery's name on the entrance structure; ROSE HILL.

Perhaps the tale that Rosehill was Roe’s Hill may have all been a misunderstanding; In 1856, Robert Ferguson wrote a book on Danish and Norse names in Scotland and said that a Rose Hill in the U.K. was, he believed Roe’s Hill, from the Old Norse word for “King properly.”  Perhaps someone heard that bit and thought it applied to the Rosehill in Chicago.

Still, the fact that sources knew the full name and even the tavern's location makes it look like there was a kernel of truth in the story someplace. So, Hiram Roe remains a bit of a mystery; A tour guide who works at Rosehill said he’d pored through all of the oldest books at the cemetery, looking for any mention of Hiram Roe without finding a word.

ADDITIONAL READING: Ancient Chicago Indian Mounds (Rosehill).

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.