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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
jected, chartered and partly constructed in "Wisconsin and Illinois, between 1848 and 1855, including the Madison & Beloit Railroad, the Bock River Valley Union Railroad, and the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad-the last named company being chartered by the Illinois Legislature in 1851, and authorized to build a railroad from Chicago to the "Wisconsin line. The Wisconsin Legislature of 1855 authorized the consolidation of the Rock River Valley Union Railroad with the Illinois enterprise, and, in March, 1855, the consolidation of these lines was perfected under the name of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad. During the first four years of its existence this company built 176 miles of the road, of which seventy miles were between Chicago and the Wisconsin State line, with the sections constructed in Wisconsin completing the connection between Chicago and Fond du Lac. As the result of the financial revulsion of 1857, the corporation became financially embarrassed, and the sale of its property and franchises under the foreclosure of 1859, already alluded to, followed. This marked the beginning of the present corporation, and, in the next few years, by the construction of new lines and the purchase of others in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, it added largely to the extent of its lines, both constructed and projected. The most important of these was the union effected with the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which was formally consolidated with the Chicago & Northwestern in 1864. The history of the Galena & Chicago Union is interesting in view of the fact that it was one of the earliest railroads incorporated in Illinois, having been chartered by special act of the Legislature during the "internal improvement" excitement of 1836. Besides, its charter was the only one of that period under which an organization was effected, and although construction was not begun under it until 1847 (eleven years afterward), it was the second railroad constructed in the State and the first leading from the city of Chicago. In the forty years of its history the growth of the Chicago & Northwestern has been steady, and its success almost phenomenal. In that time it has not only added largely to its mileage by the construction of new lines, but has absorbed more lines than almost any other road in the country, until it now reaches almost every important city in the Northwest. Among the lines in Northern Illinois now constituting a part of it, were several which had become a part of the Galena & Chicago Union before the consolidation. These
