Some of the fairest, most productive counties of the great Prairie State lie upon its Eastern border, and among the chiefest of these is Vermilion County.

Although settlers came here at an early day, yet the commencement of its rapid growth was not until many years later.  It was the railroad that did so much toward the encouragement of sturdy tillers of the soil to come to the fair and fertile prairies.  Since then the county has enjoyed a steady growth, until to day it stands among the foremost counties of the great Northwest.  In the growth and development of her vast resources, in her agriculture and stock-raising, in all departments of labor in which busy man is engaged; in her churches and schools, in civilization and culture, Vermilion County has taken a front rank.  Well may her people be proud of their product; well may her pioneers turn with pride to their achievements.  Within a half century a wilderness has been subdued and converted into beautiful farms and thriving, populous cities, and a community established commanding the admiration of the county.

 The Wabash Railway

            This was the pioneer road of Vermilion County and consequently contributed most to the development in the early days of Danville, and the extensive coal and agricultural interests of the county, and still continues to do so.  It’s main line from Quincy and St. Louis, to Toledo and Detroit, traverses this county from East to West.  At Danville connection is made with all the main roads.  Centering there, it has about fifty miles of road including side tracks in the county.   And at Tilton are located commodious round houses for the accommodations of this division.  It is present traffic facilities, are not surpassed by any road in the West, and with its extensive Easter, Northern, Western and Southern connections, its customers have all the benefits of the great marts of trade and commerce in this country.  The Wabash is now one of the most extensive railway systems of the country, and owing to its splendid faculties and connections with the seaboard traffic, and the principal Southern and Western cities, is destined to do more toward the development of the agricultural and material resources of the Mississippi valley, than any other road, with its continuous line from Detroit and Toledo to St. Louis, where it crosses the Mississippi on the most magnificent steel bridge in the world.   From there its lines traverse northwestward through Missouri and Iowa, to Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines; it has borne no unimportant part in at he development of those three great commercial emporiums.

Ohio, Indiana and Western 

This line has, including side tracks, about twenty-eight miles of road in Vermilion County an transverses the county due east and West of Danville.

 Chicago and Eastern Illinois 

This road has more miles of track than any other line in the county, and extends through the county on the east side from north to south.  This is a great coal road of the county and has exercised a superlative influence in the development of that industry in Eastern Illinois.

 Cairo, Vincennes & Chicago 

   Is being operated by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad and is mentioned in the reference made in regard to that road.

 The Danville, Olney and Ohio River Road 

            Is likewise operated by the management of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company.  The important stations on this line in the south part of the county are Sidell, Indianola, and Sandusky.

Illinois Central Railroad

           The Leroy and West Liberty Branch of the Central traverse through Ross and Middle Fork townships from east to west.  At Alvin it crosses the line of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.  That point is also the most important station in this county.  Heming, Potomac and Armstrong are other stations on the line in this county.

Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad

            Has about eleven miles of road in the extreme southeast corner of the county, the important station being Ridge Farm.

Lake Erie and Western 

          This road traverses the extreme northern part of the county from east to west and has contributed in a large measure to the building up of the thriving town of Hoopeston, the second town in the county.  At that point it crosses the line of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.

TWO PROMINENT RAILWAY LEADERS
FROM DANVILLELAND

By Car Clive Burford
(Contributed by Mary Paulius)

            The Danville area is the native locale and the boyhood home of two presidents of major American railroads of today.

            I do not believe there is another area in the United States, not even excepting the more populous find, within about 55 miles, or within two adjoining counties, the birthplaces of two men who are serving as top executives of two of America’s greatest railroad systems.

            I refer to Ernest E. Norris, born in Hoopeston, Vermilion County, Ill., who learned telegraphy in the Hoopeston up-town office of the Western Union Telegraph Company and who is now president of the Southern Railway System, with headquarters in Washington, D. C., and Roy B, White, who was born in Metcalf, Edgar county, Ill., and who learned “the key” in the little old depot at Dana, Ind., of Indiana, Decatur and Western railroad later the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, and now the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, who is now president of the Baltimore and Ohio, the headquarters in Baltimore, Md.

Ernest Eden Norris

            Born in Hoopeston, ILL., January 21, 1882, Ernest E. Norris spent his childhood and youth in that city, where he attended the public schools.  One of his first jobs was collecting and delivering packages of laundry for Dimcock’s Laundry, Kokomo, Ind., as Hoopeston had no laundry at that time.  “Ernie” Norris, as he was then called made the rounds each week using a one-boy wagon in the summer, a one boy-power sled in the winter.

            During vacations,, he worked as a messenger boy for the Western Union, incidentally learning telegraphy at the same time.  He was also employed as telegraph operator by the Western Union, in Watseka, Ill.,  where he worked until he was “fired”, the specific charge against him being that the boys and girls of the town congregated in the office to the displeasure of an elderly lawyer who occupied adjoining offices.  Today, Mr. Norris is a member of the board of directors of the West Union Telegraph Company, which one time “fired” him as a youthful telegraph operator.  Where, in all of broad America, can you beat this for a rollicking good story of ultimate success?    

            After losing his job at Watseka, Norris began casting about for a new connection.  Incidentally, he read in a Chicago newspaper that the assistant station agent of the Chicago and Northwestern railway at Arlington Heights, Ill., had died.  Norris, with plenty of youthful nerve, applied in writing to the station agent at Arlington Heights for the job—to Norris’ amazement he was immediately taken on at $35 a month.  He served the Northwestern in various capacities until 1902 when he joined the Southern Railway System as car service agent.

He served the Southern in the following assignments:  road trainmaster, Norfolk, VA: assistant superintendent and superintendent, Knoxville, Tenn.; superintendent, Atlanta, GA: general superintendent, Knoxville, Tenn., and assistant to the president, Washington, D. C. until 1919.

Norris then became vice-president of the Mobile and Ohio railway December 11, 1919 and was appointed its receiver June 3, 1932.  He then rejoined the Southern as vice-president November 1, 1933, and within recent years he has succeeded to the presidency.

Mr. Norris is a director of the Riggs National Bank, Washington, D. C.; The Railway Express Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company.  He is a Mason and a Shriner, a member of the Manhattan Club, New York, and the Metropolitan Club, Washington.

“Ernie” Norris learned telegraphy in the uptown office of the Western Union in Hoopeston about 1895.Hoopeston was mighty proud – as the city had a right to be – of the fact that it was metropolitan enough to have an “uptown” or “city” office of the Western Union.  The office was then at the end of the hall over the bank of Hamilton and Lateer, later Hamilton and Cunningham, at the northwest corner of Main and Market Streets.  The bank was later nationalized under the name of the Hoopeston National Bank.  The area at this street corner was destroyed by a serious fire which devastated the business district of Hoopeston in 1937.  The corner itself, where the bank occupied the first floor and the telegraph office the farthest north office room upstairs, has never been rebuilt.  When “Ernie” Norris visits his native city today, his old Western Union site is merely a nest of ruins.

One of the delightful events in the successful career of Mr. Norris was April 18, 1939, when his Hoopeston and Danville friends tendered him a “welcome home” banquet at the Wolford Hotel, Danville.  The late Scott Ingle of Hoopeston was toastmaster.  Jokes, wisecracks and take-offs filled the air in true Gridiron fashion, the event being one long to be remembered both by Ernest E. Norris and by his wealth of friends in Vermilion Co.

Roy Barton White

 A product of the village life of Metcalf, Edgar county, Il and of nearby Dana, Vermillion County, Ind., is Roy Barton White, who was elevated to the presidency of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company June 1, 1941.