Term: Beloit & Madison Railroad Co.
Definition:
Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "This company was incorporated by act of the legislature, approved Feb. 18, 1852. By the charter the company are authorized to create a capital stock of $1,200,000, and to locate, construct and operate a single or double track railroad, from the village of Beloit in the county of Rock, via Janesville in the county of Rock, to Madison, the capital of the State of Wisconsin, with power also to connect or consolidate with other railroad companies. ¿ The report of the chief engineer shows the length of the line from Beloit to Madison to be 52.08 miles, and the estimated cost $790,000, or $15,027 per mile, laid withi heavy T rail. Some portions of the work have already been contracted, and the engineer is now actively engaged in completing the surveys and procuring the right of way, and the whole line will soon be ready for contract, and it is confidently believed that the entire road will be completed to Madison by the 4th of July, 1854. ¿ The district of country through which this road passes to its present terminus, the capital of Wisconsin, is equal, if not superior, in population, productiveness and natural beauty to any portion of the state; while its ultimate extension to the Wisconsin river at Portage city, and thence through the extensive pine regions of the north to Lake Superior, or the Upper Mississippi, insure for it an immense and constantly increasing business, as that interesting portion of the country becomes settled and more fully developed. ¿ To Simeon Mills, Esq., of Madison, is due the credit of originating and largely contributing toward the successful prosecution of this enterprise."
[Source: Hunt, John W. Wisconsin Gazetteer (Madison, 1853)]
