The Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad Company (E&CR) was Evansville, Indiana's first railroad company. It had a long railway that connected those two places. It was renamed Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad in 1877. It went on to be consolidated with other railroads of the region into the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.
Initial incorporation and charters The railroad was originally chartered by an Act of the Indiana legislature on January 2, 1849, as the Evansville and Illinois Railroad Company (E&IR) to connect Evansville with the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad at Olney, Illinois via Princeton. This was amended on January 21, 1850, to extend the railway from Princeton to Vincennes instead, and to remove the authorisation to build to Mt Carmel, Illinois. A separate Wabash Railroad Company had been chartered to build a railroad from Vincennes to Crawfordsville, but it was merged into the E&IR on November 8, 1852, and the company name was changed by Act of the state legislature, authorising the merger, to finally become just the E&CR on March 4, 1853.
Route and construction Section 1 of the railroad was the route from Evansville to Vincennes, built at an accumulated cost of as reported in 1854 by its president Samuel Hall. Section 2 of the railroad then went from Vincennes to Terre Haute, a route of . Section 3 of the railroad then extended from Terre Haute to Rockville, and Crawfordsville, for a further .
Section 2, from Vincennes to Terre Haute, was built under William D. Griswold and Chauncey Rose, was opened to through traffic on November 23, 1853, and completed in 1854. Rose donated his stock in the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad to the Evansville and Crawfordsville to finance its construction.Olney Daily Ledger, April 1, 1875, p. 3. Available on Newspapers.com.
Section 3 was built under the presidency of John Ingle Jr (for more on whom see Inglefield, Indiana). In 1854 there was a plan to proceed onwards past Crawfordsville to Fort Wayne. The Rockville to Crawfordsville section was extended under a June 2, 1869, charter as the Evansville, Terre Haute, and Chicago Railroad Company, to extend to a total distance from Rockville of to Danville, Illinois, under the presidency of Josephus Collett. This was completed by 1872.
Stops Former 19th-century stops on the railroad were: Field's Station Petersburg Road McIntire's Rockville, () north by east of Terre Haute Rosedale, () south of Rockville Otter Creek, () from Terre Haute Terre Haute, from Evansville Hartford, south of Terre Haute Farmersburg, () from Sullivan and from Terre Haute Ascension, from Sullivan and from Terre Haute and the post-office for Farmersburgh Currysville (later Curryville), () from Terre Haute Sullivan, () from Terre Haute and from Evansville Paxton's (later Paxton), () south of Terre Haute Carlisle, south of Sullivan and from Evansville Oaktown () north of Vincennes and from Evansville, also known as Oak Station Emison also known as Emerson,() north of Vincennes Vincennes () north of Evansville and which was previously on the Evansville and Illinois Railroad Purcell's, () south of Vincennes, which served the farms surrounding the then hamlet of Saint Thomas () and was situated on one such farm owned by Andrew Purcell after whom it was named. Decker () south of Vincennes, formerly known as Decker's Station and Deckertown, serving both Johnson and Decker Townships Miller's, north of Evansville Hazleton, () north of Princeton and from Evansville Patoka, () north of Princeton and from Evansville Princeton, () north of Evansville King's (later King), () north of Evansville LaGrange, north of Evansville Fort Branch, () south of Princeton and from Evansville Haubstadt, () south of Princeton and north of Evansville Saint James, () north of Evansville Nash Depot, north of Evansville Ingles (later Inglefield), () north of Evansville, a post-office run by John Ingles Sr the father of John Ingles Jr Erskine, () north of Evansville Evansville, terminus and from Terre Haute
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