Luxemburg

Engine #35 eases past the W.W. Cargill elevator in Luxemburg, en route to a station stop.

W.W. Cargill:

William Wallace Cargill bought his first grain elevator in 1865 in Iowa. By the time the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western was built in 1891 his company owned about 70 grain elevators throughout the upper Midwest, including several on the Green Bay, Winona, & St. Paul RR (predecessor to the GB&W). The Luxemburg grain elevator in this photo was built about the same time the railroad was constructed through town in 1891.

Cargill recognized the KGB&W as an ideal way to connect his grain elevators with a year-round port on Lake Michigan. He was a major bondholder when the railroad was organized, and he was on the first Board of Directors of the line.

In addition, Cargill purchased the GB&W's dock facilities on the west bank of the Fox River (which had become excess property after the KGB&W connection to Lake Michigan was in place) and established a large coal yard there. This coal yard was sold to C. Reiss Coal Company in 1904 and still operates today.

W.W. Cargill was an investor in the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western Railroad. He owned several grain elevators along the route, such as this one in Luxemburg. In addition, he owned a large coal yard in Green Bay. In this photo, KGB&W #35 is leading eastbound mixed train no. 36 to Kewaunee.

Engine KGBW #35 has a clouded, but interesting history. This 4-4-0 engine may have gotten its start as Green Bay & Lake Pepin #6, one of the earliest engines purchased by the Green Bay Route. It also might have been one of the locos involved in a fire at the Marshland engine house in the late 180os and subsequently repaired. Around 1906 references to #6 mysteriously disappeared, right about the time that KGB&W #35 (also a 4-4-0) appeared on the roster. #35 was scrapped in 1936; one of the last 4-4-0s left on the Green Bay Route.

The lettering on the KGB&W boxcar in the foreground is typical of their boxcars. The elevator burned in a fire on July 5, 1912 and was rebuilt later that summer.

Who are the people in photo? Who knows, all my great-grandparents were farmers in the area at this time, it could be one of them! Ninety years later, Luxemburg's grain elevators and feed mills are still served by rail -- see "Railroad still comes to Luxemburg" from the April 6, 2000 Luxemburg News and there are reports that 25-car unit trains will begin serving the feed mills in 2002.

This postcard view is from a real photo by H. Montgomery, Hartford WI. A cropped version of this photo appears on page 96 of Stan Mailer's Green Bay & Western.