Little Miami Railroad - History

History

The Little Miami was incorporated on March 11, 1836, and its first president, who served without pay, was Jeremiah Morrow, governor of Ohio. It was the second railroad incorporated in the state of Ohio. The first meeting to sell stock was held at Linton's Hotel, Waynesville, May 13, 1836; the second on June 2, 1836 in Xenia. The railroad was originally intended to run from Cincinnati to Springfield where it was expected meet the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, which was building south to Springfield from Sandusky on Lake Erie. At the time of incorporation, the National Road had not yet reached Columbus, and other than trails, the main shipping route for the Great Lakes region to the rest of the nation to the east of the Allegheny Mountains suitable for trade was via the rivers leading to the Great Lakes and from there, on to points east along the Erie Canal. Winter rendered passage over the Alleghenies impracticable for large shipments, and the Erie Canal froze. The only alternative winter shipping route to points east was a lengthy circuitous southern route by riverboat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans for transhipment east, but the entire regions adjacent to the Great Lakes lacked a means of communication with the Ohio River for shipment of their products - Ohio had a rather extensive network of canals under construction by this time, but they too froze in winter like the Erie Canal. The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was projected to run from Sandusky on Lake Erie south to a proposed interchange at Springfield, where trains could be handed over to the Little Miami to proceed to Cincinnati -- thus providing the Great Lakes region and its products with year-round access to the rest of the nation, as access to any of the ships then sailing on the Great Lakes meant access to the proposed railroad link to the Ohio River. As such, the proposal of the two railroads working in close cooperation was projected to be one of the major trade routes of the era, and of particular importance during winter months.