Adams, Charles K.

In 1868 farmer, lawyer and first mayor of Topeka, Kansas, Cyrus K. Holliday obtained a charter and raised capital for a new railroad that began running in Kansas the following year; he dreamed of a railway to replace covered wagons along the Santa Fe Trail between Independence, MO and Santa Fe, NM; by 1890, 9000 miles of track had been laid; the railway became bankrupt in the Panic of 1893, but was bought by Edward Payson Ripley, who added 2000 miles of track; it became one of the largest privately-owned rail systems in the world, with passenger service from Chicago to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and with the bulk of its business in freight.