The Library/Archives recently acquired this stock certificate for the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company.
Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company stock certificate (NSHS RG5000)
The company was founded in 1864 for the express purpose of building a connection between Sioux City, Iowa and the Union Pacific’s main line at Fremont, Nebraska. The bottom of the certificate reads:
“This Road commences at Sioux City, Iowa and connects with the Union Pacific Rail Road at a point on the Platte River forty seven miles west of Omaha in the State of Nebraska, thus giving to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Northern Iowa a connection with the Union Pacific Rail Road for which purpose it was designated by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, under the authority conferred upon him by Act of Congress.”
From A.T. Andreas’ History of the State of Nebraska (1882), p. 207:
“The Sioux City & Pacific Railroad has, during 1881, built and opened for business in the State about 110 miles of main track. Of the above, twelve miles was an extension of the Niobrara Division from Plainview to Creighton, which is in the heart of Knox County, and a most inviting section of country for immigration. The remaining 100 miles was an extension of the main line of the Elkhorn Valley from Neligh to Long Pine. This runs through a part of Antelope County, and also through Holt, and into an unorganized section of high rolling prairie, which is excellent soil and well watered, and now open to homesteading. All the above extensions open up trade to Omaha, the future of which can only be measured by similar events of other sections of the State by this and other roads. This road has now in operation 280 miles of road in Nebraska; has fifty miles more graded, which will be ironed to Fort Niobrara as soon as the opening spring will permit track-laying–by May at the furthest. Its officers are: Oliver Ames, President; P. E. Hall, General Manager; J. E. Anesworth, Chief Engineer, in charge of construction; J. S. Wattles, Superintendent; J. R. Buchanan, General Passenger Agent; K. C. MacLean, General Freight Agent.”
The Sioux City & Pacific became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway system in the 1880s and was later absorbed by the Union Pacific. For more information, contact the Library/Archives.
-Tom Mooney, Curator of Manuscripts
