246 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
ports rested so lightly upon the souls of these officials that it was 
frequently neglected, or undertaken without enthusiasm!. Rail¬ 
roading was regarded as private business, and the public was to 
he taken into the managers’ confidence only when such frankness 
appeared likely to further the business of the company. Yet 
enough of the reports exist to he of great aid in establishing the 
dates for the opening of specific sections. The James J. Hill 
Collection of the University of Wisconsin is specially rich in 
ephemeral literature of this sort, and has been drawn upon con¬ 
stantly. 
About 1850 there had been built enough railways in the 
United States to necessitate the inauguration of another variety 
of source material of high value. The American Railway 
Guide 1 began its monthly issues in this year, and since its value 
to the purchaser depended entirely upon its fidelity in describ¬ 
ing actual running arrangements, its time-tables have been of 
great use in confirming other sources in their statements of 
operation. Unfortunately the number of copies that escaped 
destruction is small. 
Urom yet another point of view, the local newspapers and 
county histories have been full of usful detail in verification. 
The railroad companies often advertised in the papers, while 
these printed news items on the facts of operation. The writers 
for the innumerable county histories, that ripened during the 
eighties to adorn the parlor table of every rural household, al¬ 
most always mention the date when the first train ran into the 
county seat, and often describe the ensuing celebration in some 
detail. In at least one case the wreck of an early excursion 
train called forth a monument of historical evidence upon the 
completion of a new through line. 1 2 
1 Published in New York by Dinsmore and Co. There was already 
in existence a “Pathfinder Railway Guide for the New England States,” 
but the advance of construction had now made a national guide both 
possible and necessary. Cf. Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, XXII, 683. 
2 This occurred in the autumn of 1859, when the Chicago and North¬ 
western had opened its line from Chicago, by way of Janesville and 
Fond du Lac, to Oshkosh. Hist, of Winnebago Co., Wisconsin, (Osh¬ 
kosh, Allen and Hicks, 1880), 146; Hist, of Fond du Lac Co., Wiscon¬ 
sin, (Chicago, Western Hist. Co., 1880), 437; Fond du Lac Common¬ 
wealth, Nov. 2, 1859; New York Tribune, Nov. 5, 1859. 
