Sangamon & Morgan Railroad

City: Meredosia

County: Morgan

State: Illinois

Initially projected to connect Quincy, Illinois, with the Indiana state line, the Sangamon and Morgan Railroad began as the Northern Cross Railroad. The state sold the Northern Cross in 1847 to Nicholas Ridgely, who changed the name. In 1853, it was re-named the Great Western Railroad. In 1854, the railroad reached Decatur, Illinois, and by 1856 the line extended to the Indiana state line as part of the Toledo, Wabash, and Western Railroad Company.

"An Act to Incorporate the Sangamon and Morgan Rail Road Company,” 1 March 1845, Laws of Illinois (1845), 150-54; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1972), 200-202.