Snapshot of History
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Benton’s Chicago Great Western depot in 1910.
BY MIKE AVITT
In Benton’s early years, this train station was open 24 hours a day; such was the importance of the Chicago Great Western Railway. Benton’s depot was dismantled in 1948 and a replacement depot, consisting of half a boxcar, was placed in its stead.
I have been asked to speak at a railroad history symposium in Creston on July 9th. My talk will describe the branch lines of the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad, the Chicago Great Western’s main line, and the functions of a small-town depot.
We easily recognize the train station was the transportation hub of a community in the 1800s. What is often overlooked is the communication aspect of a depot. Telegraph and telegrams were instant information in a pre-telephone, pre-radio world. More importantly, in my opinion, is the mail, newspapers, and periodicals that were carried in daily. Because Des Moines, St. Joseph, and Kansas City were on the Chicago Great Western, their newspapers could be read by locals less than twelve hours after being printed. Think about how important that was at that time.
I will be showing many southern Iowa depot photos at the symposium in various stages of operation. Some of the pictures will show train order signals, poultry cages, cream cans, depot agents, passengers, steam engines, hacks, section crews, and motor cars. I’ll discuss the scene and give a description of the branch line, depot, or town. I’ll give the year the depot was built and torn down (or burned) if known.
Railroads came in quickly but they went out slowly. Court cases, partial abandonments, and contract disputes marked the painful exit of the Burlington’s branch lines. After another curtailment in service in 1945, Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, the co-founders of Hy-Vee, moved their headquarters from Lamoni to Chariton, putting them at the intersection of the CB&Q and Rock Island Railroads; both main lines.
I am aware of most of the origins of nearby towns outside Ringgold County. After 20 years of studying Ringgold County history, I picked up a great deal of the neighboring counties history. It was common for the CB&Q to hire town companies to plat villages along their rails. The CGW didn’t do that but neither did they have branch lines in southern Iowa – none! By the way, there is only one branch line left in all of southwest Iowa, that being the Shenandoah to Red Oak line of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
I’m also taking my railroad matchbook collection to the symposium and I may take the 500+ photographs I’ve taken of depots since 2002. I have other things to show but I hope to gain information from other presenters and possibly more photographs to add to my collection.
