History
The Ohio and Indianapolis Railroad was chartered February 3, 1832, to build from Indianapolis, south to the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, Indiana. The company was not organized until March 17, 1848, and on February 3, 1849, it was renamed the Jeffersonville Railroad.
The first section, from Jeffersonville to just north of Memphis opened in 1850. The next year it leased the Knightstown and Shelbyville Railroad, starting to operate it in 1852. The line opened north to Columbus August 1852, and on September 1, 1852, it began operating the Rushville and Shelbyville Railroad under lease.
Indiana's first railroad to actually be built was created on June 20, 1836, by act of the Indiana General Assembly as the state-owned Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. Construction began on September 16, 1836. After building only 27.80 miles (44.74 km) from Madison to Queensville (just northwest of North Vernon in Jennings County) by 1841, the railroad was transferred to private ownership on February 26, 1843, as the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company. This entity completed the remainder of the line from Queensville to Indianapolis, a distance of 57.99 miles (93.33 km), by 1847. Successful for more than a decade, the railroad went into decline and was sold at foreclosure in 1862, and renamed the Indianapolis & Madison Railroad (I&M). That company abandoned the M&I's 10.08 miles (16.22 km) of trackage between Columbus and Edinburgh in 1864 and began running over the Jeffersonville Railroad's nearby tracks.
Organized on April 30, 1866, for the purpose of uniting the two lines, the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company (JM&I) absorbed the Indianapolis & Madison the next day, with the Jeffersonville Railroad being officially merged in on June 1 of that same year, upon the filing of the Articles of Consolidation.
On May 22, 1868, the Reno Gang held up the JM&I Railroad train at Marshfield, Scott County, Indiana, and escaped with $90,000 cash described as being in "new notes." The money was never officially recovered and in today's value, represented more than $2 million.
Read more about this topic: Jeffersonville, Madison And Indianapolis Railroad