The charter for the Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad Company was secured in January 1847. Construction started late in 1849, and the entire 73 miles of the TH & R opened in February 1852. With the railroad in operation and successful, former president Chauncey Rose turned his attention toward extending the TH & R westward to St. Louis with the construciton of the Terre Haute & Alton in 1854 and the Belleville & Illinoistown in 1856 as the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis. For a time it was the TH & R's primary western connection. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 and the virtual closure of the Mississippi River to commercial traffic, the TH & R ceased to be a small, hometown enterprise. In June 1862 it was reorganized as the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute. By the end of the war, TH & R found itself part of an incresingly important east-west trunk line. Never completely satisfied with the Alton as the western connection TH & R became increasingly disenchanted with the line's performance. In February 1865 the St. Loius, Vandalia, & Terre Haute Railroad was incorporated and proposed as the new western connection, joining the Highland & St. Louis and the Alton line. In March 1865 the Indiana legislature changed the name of the TH & R to the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. On 1 January 1905 it consolidated with the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute, Terre Haute & Logansport, Logansport & Toledo, and the Indianapolis & Vincennes to form the Vandalia Railroad Company.
From the description of Letter, 17 March 1851. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 57571251
