Iron Mountain Railroad
To give you an idea of early travel connections, we are reprinting an advertisement from the Missouri State Gazetteer, 1860, that gives arrival and departure times for the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad and the stagecoach connections you could make to points in the Southwest.
"St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad.
Best Route to South-East Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.
"Time Changed
"Winter Arrangement – takes effect Thursday, Dec. 1, 1859
"Trains will leave St. Louis Depot, corner of Main and Plum streets as follows:
"For Carondelet – 7:00, 8:45; 10:00, 11:10 A.M.; and 2:00, 3:40, 5:00, 7:00 and 11:40 P.M.
For Jefferson Barracks and Quarantine – 7:00 A.M. and 2:00 and 5:00 P. M.
For Pilot Knob and Potosi – 2:00 P.M.
"Returning will leave
Pilot Knob at 6:00 A.M.; Potosi at 7:00 A.M.; Quarantine at 7:50, 10:13 A.M. and 5:50 pm; Jefferson Barracks at 7:55, 10:20 A.M. and 6:02 P.M.; Carondelet at 6:20, 8:10, 9:20 10:33 A.M/ and 1:10, 3:08, 4:20, 6:20, and 10:00 P.M. Returning will leave St. Louis at 11:40 P.M. This will accommodate persons wishing to visit places of amusement in the city.
"Stage Connections.
The Missouri Stage Company is now running in close connection with the cars of the Company.
"A Tri-weekly Line of Mail Stages, from Pilot Knob, via Greenfield, Missouri, to Pocahontas and Batesville, Arkansas, connecting at Pocahontas with a semi-weekly Steamboat Mail Line for Powhattan, Jacksonport, Napoleon and all points on Black and White rivers. Connecting at Batesville with Hanger & Ayliff’s Daily Mail Stage Line from Des Arc to Fort Smith, at a point fifty miles South of Batesville; also, intersecting with the semi-weekly Overland Mail Route from Memphis via Fort Smith to San Francisco, at a point fifteen miles North of Little Rock. At Little Rock, stages leave daily for Hot Springs and Camden, Arkansas and for Clarksville, San Antonia [sic], and other prominent points in Texas, thus forming a entire new line to the South-West.
Jas. A. Felps, Superintendent "
[Note: The Greenfield, Missouri, referred to is probably not the Greenfield in Dade County, Mo. According to Geographic Names Information System, the location of Quarantine was in St. Louis County and was a "Community located around Koch Hospital, to sequester those with communicable diseases. Existed approximately 1895 to 1910" so this 1860 reference may be a different location.]
Wikipedia has two articles of related interest, the Iron Mountain Baby, who attended college in Springfield, and St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. The Missouri Pacific website has a great timeline of the Iron Mountain railroad. A biography of Louis Houck covers his work in building and promoting railways in Southeast Missouri.
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