1858
A railroad reached Fond du Lac; the Sheboygan & Mississippi road was completed from Sheboygan to Plymouth; the La Crosse company completed its main line to La Crosse and the Watertown line to Columbus; a Janesville-to-Mississippi railway was finished to Monroe.
The evidence
“Its favorite road was started from Chicago on the wide (six feet) gauge, and so constructed seventy miles to Sharon on the Wisconsin state line. This was changed to the usual (four feet, eight and one-half inches) width, and the work was vigorously pushed, reaching Janesville in 1855 and Fond du Lac in 1858. The Rock River Valley Union railroad company had, however, built about thirty miles from Fond du Lac south toward Minnesota Junction before the consolidation took place.”
1879-history-of-rock-county/04-wisconsin-railroads-commerce-health-statistics.md, PDF p. 173
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
On the printed page (PDF p. 173) · open the whole page “It was formed to build a railway from Janesville to the Mississippi river, but never reached the western terminus. It was finished to Monroe in 1858.”
1908-brown-rock-county/26-history-of-janesville.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 31 / book p. 545
Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.
Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources
On the printed page (Vol. 2, PDF p. 31 / book p. 545) · open the whole page
