BY ELIZABETH LOWRY FREELANCER
With the rapid growth of the American population in the 1800s, the time had come for a revolutionary form of mass transit to originate.
Through the nation’s introduction to steam locomotives, even small towns such as Monmouth became familiar with railway transportation.
Monmouth was once home to not one, but two railroads: The Oregonian Railway, later known as Southern Pacific, and the Independence and Monmouth Railway Company. However, the I & M was the railroad Monmouth citizens could call their very own.
In “Monmouth, Oregon: the Saga of a Small American Town,” Scott McArthur writes about the I & M’s principal shareholder, Independence banker, Herman Hirschberg’s claim to having the shortest railroad in the country.
While no one ever cared to check the accuracy of his statement, with only 2 ½ miles of track — stretching from Second Street west along E Street in Independence and ending at Warren and Jackson Streets in Monmouth — it wasn’t hard to believe.
In the I & M’s 1895 annual report, the grand total cost consisting of both construction and equipment stood at $22,702.77. This included the 12-ton locomotive which cost $4,045.32, the passenger car at $2,157.98 and the flat freight car with a price of $385.
McArthur documents instances of trains barreling down the tracks and killing livestock that had wandered in front of its nearly unstoppable path.
McArthur also described instances of runaway cars and overloaded trains that almost did not make it up the street.
The Jan. 31, 1974, edition of the Polk Sun details the inaugural run of the I & M. The initial trip took place on Aug. 25, 1890 and transported 143 passengers, who paid five cents each to board, from the Southern Pacific depot in Independence to Monmouth.
McArthur describes a humorous moment during the inaugural run. Upon reaching Beeler Hill on Jackson Street, the train’s engine stalled due to the equipment being new and stiff. The men on the train helped push the train up the hill before climbing back aboard and made a triumphant, if somewhat asthmatic, entry into Monmouth.
Over the course of the day, the railroad was able to collect 543 fares staying at five cents each as locals continued to ride back and forth between Independence and Monmouth.
In the first 11 months of operation, making six trips daily, the I & M transported a total of 47,031 passengers.
In 1902, the I & M leased tracks from Southern Pacific in order to expand its transit to nearby towns Airlie and Dallas.
By 1909, the I & M added a small gasoline powered passenger car to their company, dubbed “the Peanut Roaster.”
In an undated article of the Monmouth Herald, the small car is depicted as carrying its own turntable in which the operator used to swivel the car around on the tracks for the return trip.
While the I & M boasted three locomotives, two passenger cars, and two freight-passenger cars in 1913, profits soon declined in the wake of the affordable automobile.
In the I & M’s income statements, transcribed in “Moody’s Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities,” passenger earnings went from as much as $3,617 in the years 1911–1912 to an abysmal $30 in the years 1914–1915.
The I & M ended service officially in 1918.
