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Reflections
Hard roads, autos and trucks doomed interurban trolley service : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisHard roads, autos and trucks doomed interurban trolley service
| by Roger Matile
| 5/3/2012
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Interurban trolley service began in 1900 in Kendall County with the line that eventually became part of the regional Aurora, Elgin & Chicago. In 1900, the line was extended from Aurora down the west side of the Fox River to Oswego, where the tracks crossed via the Fox River bridge. At the intersection of Main and Washington in Oswego the line turned south, following Main Street and modern Ill. Route 71 to Van Emmon Road, where the tracks turned to follow the right-of-way of the Fox River Branch line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy into downtown Yorkville.
In that era of bad roads, all-weather, dependable interurban service was a godsend. The county and local municipalities charged franchise fees to the interurban company, and also taxed the interurban line, and those interurban taxes represented a fair amount of county and municipal tax revenue.
Local residents used the trolley to commute to work and to school, as well as to shop. During that era, Aurora offered shopping and educational opportunities not available in Montgomery, Oswego, or Yorkville. With local high schools considered less rigorous than the big high schools on Aurora's east and west sides, many families sent their children to Aurora high schools. Shopping, too, was better in downtown Aurora where chain department stores shared the business district with quality local stores.
Farmers used the interurban to ship fresh milk to creameries in Yorkville and Aurora and the interurban delivered fresh baked goods each morning to Montgomery, Oswego, and Yorkville from Aurora bakeries.
Interurban service expanded in 1913 with the completion of the Yorkville-Morris line serving the farming communities south of Yorkville. The line paralleled modern Ill. Route 47 after leaving downtown Yorkville, and a string of grain elevators were soon built by farmer cooperatives along the line. The interurban line carried both passengers and grain and freight cars, with grain loaded at the elevators along the line shipped directly to the Illinois River at Ottawa. In return, the line brought lumber, coal, and other supplies back north to be marketed by the farmer cooperatives. Possibly even more importantly, the line provided electrical power that made the elevators feasible to operate, and which was also marketed to farms and businesses along it.
By the early 1920s, however, interurban lines all over the nation were under attack by the burgeoning automobile and truck industry. By the last day of December 1922, the 6,952,492nd Model T Ford had rolled off the assembly line, and trucks were becoming increasingly popular ways of hauling freight between points, even though the state's road system was less than adequate.
By that time, all-weather concrete roads were being built. Unlike railroad and interurban tracks, the new roads being pushed all over the nation were supported by tax dollars, and it didn't take long for the expansion of tax-supported hard-surfaced roads to take a toll on interurban lines.
In 1922 alone, 722 miles of concrete highways were completed throughout Illinois, virtually all of them financed by a $60 million bond issue approved by Illinois voters in 1918. By June of 1923, according to a state press release, 7,000 men, 1,650 teams, and 87 concrete mixers were in action throughout the state.
More and more of the nation's short-haul freight was being carried by larger and larger trucks, and many of the passengers who once rode the interurban were now going to school, to church, and to stores in automobiles.
As Kendall County Record editor Hugh R. Marshall presciently put it in a June 20, 1923 editorial: "The DeKalb [interurban] line was killed by automobile and truck opposition. The Fox & Illinois Union Railroad is in financial straits because of lack of patronage. The Aurora & Elgin line will soon be in trouble because of the new truck line between these two cities. The elevator companies which are built along these lines will be made valueless because of the removal of the power to move their grain if the present use of trucks increases and the small railroads will be worth nothing to stockholders. It is all very well for the casual user of an interurban road to see them go, but the abandonment of these same roads will be money out of the pockets of the ordinary citizen... You people who live in a place fed by an interurban do not, at present perhaps, realize the benefit-'you never miss the water till the well runs dry,' says the old adage. Take away your street car line, remove the service offered you, stop the taxes which are helping you pay the public expense, and put it on your shoulders and you will learn that the railroads are, in truth, the backbone of the country."
And, indeed, in that same week's Record appeared a notice from the owners of the Fox & Illinois Union saying they planned to cease operations. That line was saved for a few years when it was purchased by a farmers' cooperative, which kept it going until Route 47 was paved from Yorkville to Morris.
On Sept. 19, 1923, the Record reported the AE&C line from Carpentersville to Yorkville had been sold for $1.7 million to creditors. The line's indebtedness was set at $2.5 million. On Aug. 6, 1924 the end finally came when the Record reported that: "Through an order from the Illinois Commerce Commission, the interurban line from the [Fox River] park south of Montgomery to Yorkville will be discontinued as soon as buses are provided to take care of the traffic... The road has been in existence for nearly 25 years and for a long time was a pleasant means of getting into and out of town. Of recent years, since the ascendancy of the automobile, traffic has fallen off." The line closed down in 1925.
By the time the interurbans died, the age of the automobile was well underway, with its tax-supported all-weather roads. We can only wonder what would have been the interurbans' fate had as many tax dollars been lavished on them as were used to subsidize the auto, truck and bus industries.
Looking for more local history? Visit http://historyonthefox.wordpress.com
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