Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad

State: Illinois

In February 1855, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad to combine with Alton and Sangamon Railroad under the new name of Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad. The line ran from St. Louis to Chicago, with stops in Alton, Springfield, Bloomington, and Joliet and connections to other lines or forms of transportation at all the cities on the route. Abraham Lincoln represented the railroad in several cases and also apparently used an annual pass to travel on it. Following purchase of the company by Joel A. Matteson and Elisha C. Litchfield in 1856, the General Assembly re-chartered the railroad as the St. Louis, Alton, & Chicago Railroad in 1857.

Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 27 March 1855, 1:4; 16 April 1855, 2:5; For Lincoln’s cases involving the Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad, search “Chicago, Alton, & St. Louis RR,” under Participant, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; “An Act to Change the Name and Amend the Charter of the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad Company, and to Authorise said Company, and the Belleville and Illinoistown Railroad Company, and the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad Company, to Make Contracts and Running Arrangements with Each Other, or to Lease or Buy the Road of the said Belleville and Illinoistown Railroad Company,” 14 February 1855, Private Laws of Illinois (1855), 322-24; Abraham Lincoln to Richard P. Morgan, Jr.; “An Act to Incorporate the St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad Company,” 21 January 1857, Private Laws of Illinois (1857), 5-6.