I am researching Charles M. Cross, who was born in Illlinois in 1870. His parents were Charles Thomas Cross & Lucinda Strain. On 30 May 1898 Charles M. Cross married Sophia Tanner. He was a railroad employee at the time of the marriage. Charles died in 1922 & is buried in Coon Rapids Cemetery. Sophia Tanner was born in Iowa in 1875 & died in 1940 & is buried in Coon Rapids Cemetery. I have her father as William Tanner & her mother's last name as Holm. Is anyone else researching these two individuals? Also has anyone done any research on Railroads in Carroll County, Iowa in the late 1800's. Thanks Pam

I've done some research on railroads in Iowa, but it is a bit sketchy. Here is what I have. There was a great deal of interest in being the first railroad into an area so back in the 1850's, the race was on to cross the continent. In 1854, the Chicago & Rock Island was the first railroad to reach the Mississippi River. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy reached E. Burlington in 1855. The Illinois Central reached Dunleith, Illinois across from Dubuque also in 1855. The Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Line, however, was the first railroad to cross the Mississippi and they were in Cedar Rapids by 1859. They were in Boone in 1865 and reached Carroll in 1866. Then on to Coucil Bluffs in 1867. This railroad later became the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Carroll was laid out in 1867 by John I. Blair the famous railroad promoter of Northwest Iowa. A. L. Kidder was the first to move his family to town. The railroad built the first building in Carroll - a warehouse. Isaac N. Griffith (my great, great grandfather) built the first store. One interesting story I read about the railroads near Carroll was about the grasshopper hordes in 1873. I guess that swarms of these insects attacked western Iowa every year from 1867 through 1878, but 1873 was the worst year. They were so thick that the trains couldn't make it up the eastern slope of the divide at Arcadia due to the grasshopper bodies making the rails too slick. I hope this is interesting to you. Robert Larry Akin --- pam prine <pprine@frontiernet.net> wrote: > I am researching Charles M. Cross, who was born in > Illlinois in 1870. His parents were Charles Thomas > Cross & Lucinda Strain. On 30 May 1898 Charles M. > Cross married Sophia Tanner. He was a railroad > employee at the time of the marriage. Charles died > in 1922 & is buried in Coon Rapids Cemetery. > > Sophia Tanner was born in Iowa in 1875 & died in > 1940 & is buried in Coon Rapids Cemetery. I have > her father as William Tanner & her mother's last > name as Holm. > > Is anyone else researching these two individuals? > Also has anyone done any research on Railroads in > Carroll County, Iowa in the late 1800's. > > Thanks > Pam > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion > online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com