SOUTHERN MINNESOTA RAILROAD

minus of this road, and the grant included all railroad construction in
the southeastern part of Minnesota.
    The company had very elaborate plans (on paper). A canal was
to be constructed from IIokah to Target Lake, thence to the Mississippi
river, of sufficient size to enable any steamboat plying the upper river
to make a landing at Hokah.
     The company accomplished no construction and failed to meet its
obligations to Minnesota, as -did several other companies that were or-
ganized later.
     A charter was granted by the state of Minnesota to Col. Stoddard
and his associates March 4, 1864, to build, construct and operate a rail-
road under the name of the Southern Minnesota Railroad      Company
from Houston county west through the southern tier of counties to the
western boundary of the state.
     A meeting of the stockholders was called for a date early in March,
1864, at Chatfield, Minn., to elect a president. The candidates for the
office were T. B. Stoddard, H. T. Rumsey, H. I. Bliss, and G. Van
Steenwyck. Stoddard was objected to on account of his age, he being
64. Rumsey was a bankrupt and had only a small following. Neither
Bliss nor Van Steenwyck could muster enough votes, so the meeting
adjourned for one month.
     On April 17, 1864, the adjourned meeting was held at Chatfield
 and Stoddard was elected president. One of the first acts of the meet-
 ing was to change the eastern terminal from Hokah to Grand Crossing.
     Grand Crossing was located on the northeast edge of lot 2, section
 23, town 104 N. range 4 W., on the western bank of Raft Channel. It
 has often been asked why it was not located farther south at the end
 of the proposed bridge. At this point the main channel of the river
 (directly across) is less than one-third of a mile wide. Traffic on the
 river was heavy with log and lumber rafts, freight and     passenger
 steamboats. This traffic would have interfered seriously with the load-
 ing and unloading of the car ferry at the lower point. Its actual loca-
 tion was above the main current and so out of the way of this traffic.