ANNUAL EEPORT—COMMERCE. 
69 
nishes the* best assurance that the enterprise will be carried 
through to a successful termination. The company received 
from congress, in 1864, a grant of ten sections of land per 
mile, over a million acres in all, of valuable agricultural and 
timber lands, which is yet untouched; and from each of the 
counties through which it passes, a donation of fifty thousand 
dollars. 
“ A committee appointed by the president of the chamber 
of commerce, passed over the road on the occasion of the 
opening of the second division to Augusta, and in connection 
with a* very flattering report of the progress and prospects of 
the road, offered the following resolutions, which were adopted 
by the chamber ;***** 
“The West Wisconsin Kailroad is operated by the Milwau¬ 
kee and St. PaulEailway Company. The local business of the 
road, thus far, has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of 
its friends and furnishes the best assurance of its future pros¬ 
perity, when, in addition to its local traffic, it shall have se¬ 
cured a connection with the grand net-work of roads extending 
from St. Paul.” 
“ The Western Union Railroad .—The Western U nion Kail- 
road, extending from Eacine to Savanna on the Mississippi 
river, thence to Fulton and Eock Island, 197 miles, was pur¬ 
chased in July last by Alexander Mitchell, Esq., of this city, 
and a new company organized, composed of Mr. Mitchell as 
president, S. S. Merrill as vice president, and other capitalists 
interested in the Milwaukee and St. Paul Eailway. Since the 
acquisition of the road by the new company its business has 
steadily increased, and its condition greatly improved. A con¬ 
necting link of road, fourteen miles in length, is now in pro¬ 
cess of construction from Elkhorn, on the Western Union Eail- 
road, to Eagle, on thejsouthern division of the Milwaukee and 
St. Paul Eailway, thirty-six miles from Milwaukee, thus estab¬ 
lishing an unbroken line of road, under one management, from 
Milwaukee to Eock Island, and at the same time making the 
Western Union an important trunkline of railroad—a position 
