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uuuuuuuuu The Grand Excursion of 1854 William J. Petersen The first railroad to unite the Atlantic with the Mississippi River reached Rock Island on February 22, 1854. To celebrate this event leading citizens of the country were invited by the firm of Sheffield and Farnam, contractors for the construction of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, to participate in a joint railroad and steamboat excursion to the Falls of St. Anthony. The response was so hearty and the requests for passes were so numerous that the Minnesota Packet Company was obliged to increase the number of steamboats chartered from one to five.359 So lavish were the preparations that an eastern paper declared the affair “could not be rivaled by the mightiest among the potentates of Europe.” The account continues: “Without bustle or noise, in a simple but grand manner, like everything resulting from the combined action of liberty and association — guests have been brought hither free of charge from different places, distant thousands of miles, invited by hosts to them unknown, simple contractors and directors of railroads and steamboats.”360 John H. Kinzie was chairman of the reception committee in Chicago, where the Tremont House served as headquarters for the assembled guests. There, Millard Fillmore, a President by accident, met Samuel J. Tilden, who later failed by accident to achieve the presidency. Prominent western leaders such as Ninian Edwards (former Governor of Illinois) and Edward Bates of Missouri (later Attorney General in Lincoln’s cabinet ) exchanged views with notable Easterners such as John A. Dix, John A. Granger, J. C. Ten Eyck, and Elbridge Gerry. Francis P. Blair of Maryland greeted his son, Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. New Haven and Yale University sent Professors Benjamin Silliman, A. C. Twining, Leonard Bacon, and Eleazar Thompson to match wits with Judge Joel Parker of Harvard and Professor Henry Hubbard of Dartmouth. George Bancroft, a Harvard graduate and already a national historian, accepted an invitation to make the “fashionable tour”: he was repeatedly called upon to address the crowds which gathered to greet the Easterners. Catherine M. Sedgwick was one of the more notable women to make the trip.361 No profession was so ably and numerously represented as was the press. Almost every metropolitan paper of the East had sent a writer to accompany the excursion. Charles Hudson of the Boston Atlas and Thurlow Weed of the Albany Evening Journal were seasoned and nationally known editors. Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican and Charles A. Dana of the New York Tribune were at the threshold of long and famous careers. Hiram Fuller of the New York Mirror, Epes Sargent of the Boston Transcript, Charles Hale of the Boston Advertiser, and W. C. Prime of the New York Journal of Commerce were other eastern reporters. The West was represented by such editors as William Schouler of the Cincinnati Gazette and C. Cather Flint from the staff of the Chicago Tribune.362 Early on the morning of June fifth the excursionists assembled at the Rock Island station in Chicago. Shortly after eight o’clock two trains of nine coaches each, gaily decorated with flowers, flags, and streamers, and drawn by powerful locomotives, left the city. Speeches, military parades, and the discharge of cannon greeted the excursionists on every hand. A free lunch was distributed at Sheffield, Illinois. Notwithstanding frequent stops, the trains reached Rock Island at 4 P.M. There the Golden Era (Captain Hiram Bersie commanding), the G. W. Spar-Hawk (Captain Montraville Green commanding), the Lady Franklin (Captain Le Grand Morehouse commanding), the Galena (Captain D. B. Morehouse commanding ), and the War Eagle, in command of Daniel Smith Harris, lay waiting to take the excursionists aboard.363 So large was the number of unexpected or uninvited guests that the five boats were quickly jammed, and it was necessary to charter two additional craft — the Jenny Lind and the Black Hawk. But accommodations still proved insufficient. According to Dana “state-rooms had been allotted at Chicago, where the names had been registered; but many of the tickets had been lost, and many persons had none at all. Besides there had been some errors — husbands and wives were appointed to different boats, and several young fellows were obliged to part from the fair ladies about whom they had hitherto revolved with the most laudable devotedness.” The lack of berths caused fully one-third of the guests to renounce the steamboat trip and return to Chicago. Despite...

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