Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company

The Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company was originally chartered the Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad Company in 1847. By the end of the Civil War the TH&R became an important east-west trunk line and in March 1865, to better reflect reality, the Indiana legislature changed the name of the TH&R to the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. In 1867 William Riley McKeen became its president. He renamed the system the Vandalia line in 1868, and to keep the railroad independent began a long and complicated series of maneuvers to modernize and expand the line. McKeen eventually sold the line to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on 18 August 1893. A financial depression was in full swing that summer and it continued through 1894. The year 1895 also began poorly for the line. It marked the end its 42 year record of never having killed a passenger, when a train derailed on the afternoon of January 28. McKeen's position as president was reduced to figurehead status and he stepped down at that year's annual stockholder's meeting. Things went from bad to worse for the line over the next ten years and on 14 December at a special stockholder's meeting the TH&I board voted to consolidate the company into an all new Vandalia Railroad Company. The vote passed and at midnight on 31 December 1904 the 58-year history of the railroad came to a quite end, and the next day the new Vandalia Railroad took its place.

From the description of Stock certificate, 1888. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 60571021

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