THE BUILDING OF BAILKOADS AND ITS EFFECTS. 203 



country was settling up, and the cost of transporting pro 

 duce to St. Louis and Chicago, the principal distributing 

 points, over the common roads was so great that it left the 

 farmer little or nothing to carry back to his family. The 

 country villages were few and far between. Kailroads had 

 not been built, and it was with the greatest difficulty that 

 the farmer could gather enough money to pay his taxes. 

 The construction of railroads began, but before these were 

 in operation a feeling of awakening had so grown upon the 

 popular mind that Farmers Clubs began organizing, though, 

 at first, more to discuss matters of cultivation than any 

 thing else. 



In 1852, the exactions of the country merchants, or mid 

 dle men, as they were even then called, came in for a great 

 share of the blame, and justly, beyond a doubt. They were 

 the protected monopolists, who, by the force of their cohe 

 sion, controlled prices, and, while they grew rich themselves, 

 oppressed the farmers J I do not stop here to ask, Would 

 not, and does not, the farmer seek to do the same, if oppor 

 tunity or circumstances favor ? I am now simply writing 

 history. 



In the year just named/the Michigan Southern Railroad 

 was completed to Chicago. The Galena Union, now North 

 western, was stretching westward, and the Illinois Central 

 was nearly completed. The opening of these lines gave 

 partial relief, and caused towns and villages to spring up as 

 if by magic along their routes. Heretofore, the only com 

 modity that brought the farmer any returns in cash was the 

 live stock which he fattened and sold to the drover, to be 

 driven on foot to the nearest point where it could be packed 

 and distributed. ) 



^Agriculture, which before had been languishing, suddenly 

 became remunerative. With the advent of the towns along 



