Part 2 "As a link in the undertaking I, in 1847, called on Mr. William Vandever, of Rock Island, and proposed to draw up a railroad charter and petition the Illinois legislature for authority to build a railroad between Rock Island and LaSalle, to connect the Illinois canal. "The request was granted by an act passed on the 10th of April, 1847, which charter I now hold, but too lengthy to here rehearse; work to commence within three years. I consumed one of the years in talking and writing. Then I individually opened a subscription list for stock, entered a few shares for myself and, as a member of the board of county commissioners, prevailed on my two associates of the board to pass an order submitting to the people the question of taking $25,000 in stock of the Illinois railroad. "I immediately went to work and called meetings at every schoolhouse and every grove settlement in the county to get a few shares of stock here and there, and endeavored to secure votes for the $25,000 county appropriation. In many quarters I met with bitter opposition to voting money to go to Illinois. I found many Ciceros to combat, yet the appropriation was carried and that now small sum of $25,000 put the ball in motion and was a splendid investment for Scott county and the great west, even to the shore of the Pacific ocean. "I found it but a small task to convince the majority of my farmer audience. I brought them over when I told them that with a railroad to Chicago, and extending to the east, instead of getting 5 and 6 cents per dozen for their eggs they would get 12 to 15 cents; that instead of 12 to 18 cents for good chickens, they would get 20 and 25 cents; that instead of getting 10 to 15 cents for prairie chickens and ducks, they would get 15 up to 25 cents; that instead of 37 cents per dozen for quail, they would get 50 to 60 cents, and that instead of 40 to 50 cents for a fourteen-pound turkey, they would get 75 to 90 cents, and instead of getting 30 to 40 cents for good wheat, they would get 70 to 80 cents per bushel, and for all products in proportion. "I told the farmers that but yesterday this territory was untrodden wilderness; that we had faced every hardship and privation to open and to plant the stars and stripes on its fertile plains to stay; that where not long since stood the Indian wigwam, now cities rise; that where the buffalo, the elk and deer grazed, now vast fields of golden wheat appear to gladden the farmer's heart and repay him for his toil; that we have here on these lately dreary prairies created a scene of life and beauty. The prairie grass has given place to the garden and the vineyard; the hazel thicket to the blooming rose; and the Indian trail to the promenade of the fair. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/