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Message Board > Hooppole, Yorktown & Tampico Railroad

Hooppole, Yorktown & Tampico Railroad
The Tampico Area Historical Society encompasses parts of Whiteside County and Bureau County in Illinois. Focus is on Tampico, Hume Twp., Hahnaman/Deer Grove, & Prophetstown in Whiteside County & Yorktown & Thomas in Bureau County.

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Administrator Denise 42 posts Jan 17, 2004 12:41 PM	We have artifacts from the old HY&T in the museum. There is a photo of the station on this site (in photo album, I think). I will be posting more photos and info on the HY&T as time allows. ---------- Denise
Les Niemi Guest Jan 18, 2004 7:24 PM	Here's some articles from The Tornado newspaper: May 2, 1903 ELECTRIC ROAD MEN HERE Proposed to Build a Line From Rock Falls to Tamipco, Yorktown and Hooppole. R.L. LEITCH and A.J. McNEIL both of Rock Falls were here Monday in the interests of the Dixon, Rock Falls and Souuthwestern Electric rail road. The gentlemen interviewed a number of merchants and Tuesday went to Yorktown, and then to Hooppole inspecting the feasibility of a route via Tampico and those places. They talked to the farmers and others along the proposed route and were very favorably impressed, they say, with teh sentiment expressed. The company these gentlemen represented is undecided as to the route from Rock Falls south to Rock Island - it will either be via Tampico or Via Prophetstown and Hooppole, the last route missing Yorktown. Messrs. McNEIL and LEITCH returned to Rock Falls Wednesday but made no promise over which route the line will be built. They say that it will surely be built on one of them. May 16, 1903 A meeting of the Dixon, Rock Falls & Southwestern electric railroad was held at Rock Falls last Friday morning at which time it was decided that the road would be built from Dixon to Rock Falls, south to Tampico and then to Hooppole, Atkinson and Geneseo to Rock Island. The road will in reality be an extension of teh Northern Illinois Electric railway and the same people who are backing the Shaw road at Dixon will finance the Dixon, Rock Falls and Southwestern. The construction of this road will not commence before next spring. May 23, 1903 They Want Electric Road Hooppole and Yorktown Farmers Hold Enthusiastic Meetings Entusiastic meetins of farmes at Yorktown andHooppole, offers of bonuses, free right of way and a clamoring to buy stock, is the encouragment the Rock Falls - Rock Island Electric Railway company is meeting south of here on the project to construct a line from Rock Falls via Tampico, Yorktown and Hooppole to Atkinson. In thw words of prominent farmers everybody is railroad crazy, especially around Hooppole, and some say the farmes there will, if necessary, even build the raod in their vacinity and tender it to the company, so anxious are they for it. Last Friday A.J. McNEIL, A.C. STANLEY, H.L. SHELDON, John PIPPERT, O.E. MAZSON, all of Rock Falls, and connected with the projected line, visited Tampico in the interestt of the road, and from there drove to Yorktown where a meeting was held in the hall over the blacksmith shop. The project was discussed and the following committee was appointed, who accompanied the Rock Falls gentlemen to Hooppole and Atkinson to look up the route, etc: Arthur ROGERS, F.E. FOY, John WERDERMAN and J.E. BUNKER. Everywhere they were received enthusiastically and all the farmers interviewed want the road. May 23, 1903 An electric railroad from Morrison south through Denrock to Erie has been projected by a half dozen Morrison gentlemen. The company is capitalized at $2,500 and the following citizens are the officers: George MILNE, president; Aaron D. HILL, secretary; Arthur M. KIDD, treasurer; Paul BENT, general manager; Charles G. MACKLIN, counsel. July 11, 1903 The survey for the electric line from Rock Falls to Tampico and south through Yorktown and Hooppole began Monday at Atkinson. August 8, 1903 E.W. DOW, of Rock Falls, was here Wednesday in the interests of the electric railway. He went from here to Hooppole. September 19, 1903 Contract Let For Road. The contract for the Electric Rail Road through Tampico is let in New York Monday. That electric cars will be running through Tampico, Yorktown and Hooppole by September 1, 1904, is now certain as the contract for the construction of the line was let Monday in New York to Robert GREGORY. The contract says the road must be in operation by September 1, 1904. The road is sixty miles long and will start in Dixon, then extend west on the south side of the Rock river to Rock Falls, thence west and south to Tampico and then south and west through Yorktown and Hooppole to Geneseo. The cost of the line will be about $1,500,000. November 13, 1903 CONTRACT LET FOR ROAD New Contract is Mde for the Electric Road Through Tampico The contract for the electric road through Tampico has been let a second time, according to the President George SHAW of Dixon. The first contract was nullified on account of trouble with one of the contactors, Colgrove by name, who, it is alleged, misappropriated $8,000 of the comany's funds. The contract this time has been let to the firm of Maffee, Carter and Co., of New York City. The work of building the raod from Dixon to Rock Falls south through Tampico, Hooppole and Geneseo will be commenced, according to President SHAW, as soon as the necessary papers can be made out and recorded. It is said to be the expectation of the company to begin work within a few weeks and to finish as much of the grading asa possible this winter so theat the work of teh track laying and comoletion of the road may be pushed as rapidly as possible int he spring with the hopes of having the line in ooperation early during the coming summer. November 20, 1903 ROAD FILES TRUST DEED Electric Road Files Trust Deed or Mortgage at Morrison for $1,800,000. The Dixon Rock Falls and Southwestern electric railway which is the road to build through Tampico, Yorktown and Hooppole, Tuesday filed a trust deed or mortgage with the circuit clerk at Morrison, for $1,800,000. This deed covers the expense of building the proposed electric railway from Dixon to Rock Island, and is given to secure the company's bonds which are to be taken by the Morton Trust company of New York. This trust-company is the same concern with which the original contract to furnish the finances for building the road was made. The trust deed consists of fifty pages of typewritten copy, in which all contingincies [sic] are ably provided for and the interests of both the trust company and the railway company carefully protected. It was drawn up by the attorneys for the trust company and signed by the officials of both concerns. The contracts for building the road has been given, as before stated, to Massy, Carter & Company of New York City, a firm well known through out the country, and thoroughly responsible and reliable in every way. Further than this change, the condition of the company remains the same. There is now no question but that the road will be built. In a short conversation with Atty. H.L. SHELDON of Rock Falls, he stated that the new electric road is an assured fact in spite of the misappropriation of the $8,000 by Contractor COLGROVE. He says the company was secured and will lose nothing whatever. The present contract calls for the completion of the road by Sept. 1, 1904, and Mr. SHELDON says the people of Tampico and vicinity can rest assured that the road will be built. December 25, 1903 ELECTRIC ROAD BUYS SITE Power House Site For Tampico's Electric Road is Purchased at Rock Falls The Rock Falls & Southwestern electric railway, the road which is projected through Tampico, Yorktown and Hooppole, has purchased the old RAYSON place in Rock Falls on the river bank, fomerly occupied by Attorney J.W. WHITE, and it wll be the site of the car barns and power plant of the electric road. The purchase of the property is another evidence that the road has financial backing and will be built. The power house will be of brick and work will be begun on it as soon as weather permits. The other power house will be located at Atkinson. Mr. MASSEY, president of the construction company, who will build the road, has arrived in Rock Falls and rented a residence, where he will reside during the construction of the line. The route of the electric line south of here is not yet fully decided by the company. The plan was to go west on Kimball street three miles and then south. E.W. DOW of Rock Falls was here last week and was working to secure right of way on the road direct south. There are more houses on this road, while on a three-mile stretch of the other route there are no houses. The company favors the road straight south. December 9, 1904 The resurvey of the proposed electric railway through here was completed early this week. Levels have been taken from Rock Island to Geneseo then north through Hooppole and Tampico to Dixon. Many curves and kinks have been taken out of the line as first surveyed. Blue prints are now being made by the engineers at the Dixon office and it is expected the road will soon be financed.
Administrator Denise 46 posts Feb 01, 2004 6:10 AM	mandnwolf - Is there anything that you could share with us to post on site? We have most of the articles in magazines you mentioned, but the photos of personnel and engines, I'm not sure about. If so, you can scan and email them to me or snail mail to museum. Thanks, Denise
Anonymous Guest Apr 24, 2004 7:57 AM	Re: HY &T photos I have an idea that in the picture of H Y & T locomotive 048 taken in the shed in Hooppole, the person may be engineer Lee Groves, rather than fireman Ed Anderberg. Neil Wolf
Administrator Denise 52 posts Apr 24, 2004 11:41 PM	Neil, I have added your comment regarding the O48 directly to the photo description in the HY&T Album. Thanks for your many contributions! ---------- Denise
Fredmaggie Guest Feb 25, 2005 11:33 AM	Re: Hooppole, Yorktown & Tampico Railroad: When a youth, in circa 1940, when visiting my grandmother Mathis in Hooppole, I used to play around the subject roundhouse and stock. Stories are my grandfather (either Jones or Mathis) was part owner, and that my mother and uncle crewed on the train. The engine was a 0 -6-0 steam, as I recollect. Presume it ran into the thirties. I'd always understood it to be the Hooppole, Tampico, Prophetstown RR- but again that was second hand. We lived in Dixon at the time. Fred Hoon 2/25/05 fredmaggie@earthlink.net
bob johnson Guest Feb 25, 2005 4:56 PM	to fredmaggie. i believe your grandfather mathis was named howard. he was the big influence to get the hy@t going, and he was probably the largest stock holder. i was born in 1943 and can barely remember the old dummy, but my mother told me that an engineer named gerald perkapile, gave me my first train ride. i did get a chance to ask gerald about it, but all he could say was i suppose. also, you have relation in wisc.? howard and anita mathis? they are friends of mine. thanks bob johnson
Neil Wolf Guest Oct 25, 2005 6:02 AM	Administrator: I discover that I misattributed 3 photos of HY&T locomotive #1315 submitted to your website. The 3 photos of #1315 in Hooppole were not taken by my grandfather, Walter Ott. They are photos that I found on another internet website, listed as "Photos courtesty William Raia by Paul Stringham, August 13, 1941". I had stored them on the same file on my computer.
Administrator Denise 289 posts Oct 27, 2005 7:05 AM	Neil, I have noted the info on the photos. Thanks. Denise ---------- Denise Family History Coordinator Tampico Area Historical Society
rock 1 post Dec 24, 2006 10:42 AM	Does anyone have the exact dates when Guy Renner, Virgil Duren, and Lee Groves were the crew on the HY&T? That is the crew that I remember. Hooppole, is my hometown and try to get there every year to visit friends. E-mail address is rock2@usfamily.net
Administrator Denise 481 posts Dec 27, 2006 11:03 AM	Rock, I will check the archives and see what I can find. ---------- Denise Family History Coordinator Tampico Area Historical Society

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TAMPICO AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY - MUSEUM - FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY/RESEARCH CENTER 119 Main St., P. O. Box 154, Tampico, IL 61283 www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com tampicoareahistory@gmail.com We are an all-volunteer organization so your donations are always appreciated! Sign up to receive our e-newsletter. Thank you! Visit us on FACEBOOK.