Date of Award

4-1935

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Raphael N. Hamilton

Abstract

The intention of the first part of this paper is to show how a few of the hundreds of separate railroads in the United States were begun during the years 1830 to 1850. All were built to fulfill a certain purpose, and nearly all were purely local enterprises with no thought of the great systems which were to develop. There was seldom the idea of consolidations in the building of these early railroads. They were built to serve the purpose and the need at hand. But the necessity for through service between distant points soon required that the different railroads join to form continuous lines.

The result, as we see in the second part of this thesis, was consolidations with the more prosperous companies buying up the defunct roads and building new lines. Large corporations were soon racing one another to see who could more efficiently and speedily get their trains from one point to another. The small companies soon gave way to the different systems controlled by a few corporations.

Comments

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts of Marquette University in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Philosophy

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