When Sullivan County and the City of Milan were first chartered, people traveling did so by walking, horseback, or horse drawn vehicle.

Eventually, they were able to make connection with a railroad at Centerville, Iowa, and Kirksville, Missouri, by stagecoach or hack. Sometimes the trip to Kirksville [30 miles] could take a week due to high water.

Following the Civil War, railroads started appearing in Sullivan County. First built was the "Chicago, Burlington and Kansas City" (later "Burlington Northern") from 1871 to 1878 running north and south along East Locust Creek. Next came the "Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul" along the western part of the county in 1874. The "Quincy, Missouri and Pacific Railroad" was finished from Quincy, Illinois, to Trenton, Missouri, in 1881. This provided Milan and Sullivan County with transportation to major markets like Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Quincy and St. Joseph.

The depression, better roads, cars and trucks, plus the drought of the 1930's, struck a blow to the railroads. In 1939, the Quincy, Omaha, and Kansas City link between Milan and North Kansas City was dismantled. The link between Milan and Quincy was closed in 1953.

The "Burlington Northern" dismantled their line through the center of Sullivan County in 1982. The closing of these tracks ended an era for Milan and Sullivan County. Young men and women from our county departed from the depot to engage in two "World Wars", CCC Camps, and to bigger cities to seek their fortunes.

The railroads brought many jobs to the area. They had the "shops" where they built and repaired boxcars. The "roundhouse" was to repair and rebuild the steam engines, plus crews for the two lines running through Milan. A switch engine would be running 24 hours a day switching cars from one line to another. At the turn of the [20th] century, the population of Milan was close to 3000. Almost every family had someone connected with the railroad: grandfather, father, brother or uncle.

"In my younger years, we lived on South Pearl Street and East 5th Street mostly. I recall hearing the lonesome wail of a freight south of town in the early mornings calling for help with their load or to let the yard man know they were stuck on the grade south of town."

"On early mornings during winter months of the mid 1930's, a freight leaving town with maybe 50 cars of coal out of Novinger would have people all over the coal cars throwing coal off to the side. They would jump off just before the train reached the top of the grade and go back and pick up coal off the side of the track and put it in a gunny sack, shoulder it, and head for home. I am sure the railroad knew, but they knew no one had money to buy coal, so they looked the other way."

"I recall one year (around 1934) the railroad brought a flatcar to Milan with a whale on it. You could stand in its mouth and have your picture taken for 5 cents. It was on a side track between what is now Con Agra [Premier Foods] and MFA. If anyone has a picture of it, I would sure like a copy."

"Milan, being on a crossroads, was good because all circuses traveled by train and Milan was a good place for a water stop -- they would unload their animals to water them and throw up a tent and put on a show and load up the next morning and proceed on down the line."

"Some of my mates and myself enjoyed going down around the tracks to mess around in the summer. One area we enjoyed was what was called "The Hobo Jungle". It was a patch of thick young trees. There would about always be several hobos present who would be washing their clothes out in a gallon bucket or maybe cooking clams they had gotten from an old railroad pond. Most of them were good people out looking for work which was hard to find in the 30's. They would ride the rails, stopping in larger towns trying to find work."

"When I was around 6 years old, I had my chance to ride the rails. My Grandfather Clark lived in Trenton, and my Dad was going over to see him and took me with him. We went down to the rail yard and my Dad found an empty boxcar going to Trenton (I don't know how he knew.) and helped me up and climbed up himself. He slid the door shut 'til we were out of the yard. Then he opened the doors and sat me down in the door. I remember it seemed we were going 100 miles an hour (we were going maybe 30). We made it to Trenton fine."

"Later, in the winter we made the trip again. I had a sheepskin coat that I was very proud of. We got in a car that was empty and my Dad told me to be quiet: if we got caught, they would put us in jail. Before we got moving, the door slid open and there stood a railroad man -- he said "Hey, you guys will freeze in there. Come on back to the caboose where it's warm." (He was from Milan and knew Dad.) We went back and got in the caboose. I got over in a corner in back of the big old pot-bellied stove. They kept telling me to take off my coat, but I knew if I did, they would take us to jail and keep my new sheepskin coat so I sat there and stayed "HOT" 'til we go to Trenton."

For many years, the only connection with Milan and the outside world was the railroad. Most of the commodities, hardware, machinery, building materials and fuel, anything needed, was brought in by rail (there were stock pens south of where Con Agra [Premier Foods] is.) Probably, the livestock was driven to town by the farmer. All that is left of the railroad is the caboose and depot in Milan and Green City and many fond memories of days past.

"I can still stand beside the depot, shut my eyes, and hear trains moving and commotion around the depot, and, maybe, Mr. Goggin using the telegraph."

"This has been some of my memories of growing up around a railroad town."

Charley Clark
Milan, Missouri