A railroad company built lines from Columbus to Portage and from Brookfield to Milwaukee.

The evidence

• “Paul Railway Company." The new company succeeded to all the rights, of both the La Crosse and Horicon companies, and soon afterward, in 1863, purchased the property of the Milwaukee & Western company, thus getting control of the roads from Milwaukee to La Crosse, from Horicon to Berlin, from Brookfield to Watertown, and the tranches to Columbus and Sun Prairie. In 1864 it built from Columbus to Portage, from Brookfield to Milwaukee, and subsequently extended the Sun Prairie branch to Madison, in 1869. It alsopurchased the Ripon & Wolf River road, which had been built fifteen miles in length, from Ripon to Omro, on the Fox river, and extended it to Winneconne on the Wolf river, five miles farther, and twenty miles from Ripon.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/04-wisconsin-railroads-commerce-health-statistics.md, PDF p. 172 / book p. 176

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources