JOURNEY TO THE NEW LAND – BY RAIL IN THE USA

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900 MILES OVERLAND FROM NEW YORK CITY TO WISCONSIN

contents ©2016 by Harold Pfohl

Courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection.

For an enlargement of this map see:  David Rumsey Map Collection USA 1852

It is reasonable to assume that the 900 mile journey from the East Coast to SE Wisconsin was made by railroad which at the time was new, primitive, poorly engineered, dirty, unreliable, and  uncomfortable but, even so, far superior to alternatives in terms of speed and convenience. Although railroad travel was new, it was a huge improvement in speed and access for overland transportation.  Average RR speed in 1850 was usually around 20-30 mph.  Both track and engine technology were rapidly improving but were at such an early stage of development that speed was very limited by our standards.  However, by the standards of 1850 passengers were flying along at a great rate.  The point of comparison was the speed of a fast horse.

Design and engineering were rapidly improving.  The photos below of railroad engines, trackage, and stations represent conditions that were typical of the era and representative of the experience the families would have had.

A steam engine built in 1848

The locomotive above was built in 1848.  While the design and engineering progress was very rapid, rail travel from the East Coast to Wisconsin would have employed engines of similar design.

Hanover Junction Pennsylvania, 1863, railroad yards

From: Library of Congress ~ 1860

Any of the small communities that the families traveled through would have had railroad stations that resembled the photo above.

From: Library of Congress ~ 1860

From: Library of Congress ~ 1860

One could easily imagine the above scene to have been experienced traveling along the plains of Western Ohio, Indiana and Illinois

City Point RR Depot, looking toward Petersburg

From: Library of Congress ~ 1860

A similar scene to the above Virginia port photo could easily be imagined when the emigrant train neared Chicago, bordering Lake Michigan which in the early 1850s had a population of about 45,000 and was growing at a phenomenal rate.

The train ride had to have been a very exciting adventure – speed of travel, passage through mountains, across newly settled lands, through a multitude of small villages, and through the new rail hub and Great Lakes port of Chicago (pop. 1852 – roughly 40,000), and Milwaukee (pop. 1852 – roughly 25,000).  But not without considerable ordeals as described by Otto Bettman in his book “The Good Old Days – They Were Terrible:”

“…Late arrivals and departures were aggravated by the absence of the ‘check system’ for baggage, which had to be identified and retrieved by the passengers themselves. Often this led to lengthy arguments and the smashing of trunks and suitcases on the platform…train schedules of the period might as well have been calibrated by sundial or calendar…connections were more miss than hit…The old wood burning locomotives belched cinders that pattered overhead like a hailstorm, and their smoke and steam engulfed the train until at journey’s end, the traveler found himself begrimed like a man who has worked all day in a blacksmith’s.  The alternative was to close the window and suffer the stenches of whiskey, tobacco, and closely packed bodies, stenches which remained imprisoned in the cars despite ceiling grills installed to ventilate them.  Frequently, those who elected to suffer ashes and cinder dust over suffocation were unable to budge the windows…”

Very recent means of transportation had been voyage by water, or by horse/ox and wagon.  Because of convenience and low cost of water transportation, port cities such as Milwaukee and Chicago developed rapidly, as did cities along the Mississippi River.  Hence, on the map one sees settlement and RR tracks spreading out from the Milwaukee area. RR trackage is shown as  black and white lines (see map below for enlargement of the Milwaukee region).

 No railroad had yet been constructed from Milwaukee to the Cedarburg area (Hamilton on the 1852 map below).  The Niemann family took an ox cart from Milwaukee to Cedarburg.

Pioneering: Fromm family – Town of Barton, Brüss family – Jackson, Niemann & Lüders families – Cedarburg

Courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection. David Rumsey Map Collection

The Niemanns and Lüders pioneered their land in Cedarburg township, Ozaukee Co., Brüss bought a small holding near Kirchayn by Jackson, Washington Co., and the Fromms settled in the “Town of Barton,” (Township) northwest of West Bend in Washington Co.  Note: Washington County was divided at a later date into Washington and Ozaukee Counties.

The destinies of these four pioneering families in Wisconsin were to be intertwined in Cedarburg through their descendants.

Next – the condition of their new homeland

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Just for fun: A RR & history digression – the 1860 equivalent of today’s “Air Force One” – the Presidential locomotive and car: