To DanHyde Member from Cedar Hill Where was the 160 acres purchased from the Atlantic & Pacific and when? Atlantic & Pacific was in Missouri became the parent company of the Southwest Pacific Railroad of Missouri 1866 to 1868 (the Fremont 1st crowd of investors); Was the land purchased somewhere between Franklin and Arlington, MO ? In the defaulting 1868 the Southwest RR and the A&P RR had to deed their land ownership's over to the next owners, the South Pacific of Missouri. So the land purchase was not from the South Pacific of Missouri 1868 to 1870. The 1868 South Pacific of Missouri built the South West Branch from Arlington to west of Springfield by May of 1870, also graded beds to Seneca, MO. Also the South Pacific of Missouri changed the track gauge from narrow gauge to standard gauge from Franklin to Arlington 1868 to 1870. In 1871 the South Pacific operated from Franklin (Pacific) to ~ Seneca (all across the State). The Southwest Pacific paid ~ $1,700,000 in 1866 to the State of Missouri after the default of the Pacific's South West Branch also in 1866. In 1868 the Southwest Pacific defaulted on their bonds sold for the South West Branch. So they lost over 2,000,000. Fremont investors failed in Missouri. In 1868 the State of Missouri sold the South West Branch for ~ $350,000 to the new investors of the South Pacific of Missouri Railroad. A great low price! ~ 10% of the prior invested. Together the Pacific and Southwest Pacific Railroads likely had invested over $3,000,000. In 1870 the Atlantic & Pacific as a new parent operating company purchased the land of the South Pacific of Missouri (the South West Branch) from Franklin (Pacific, MO) to Seneca. They used the Atlantic & Pacific as the reporting marks and called it the Missouri Division of the Atlantic & Pacific; .... but legally they used the South Pacific Inc. as a name of the operating Missouri Division until 1873 when the A&P absorbed the South Pacific legally and then calling such as the Atlantic & Pacific Missouri Division Inc. They still had the ~ $7,000,000 debt of the South Pacific. They had sold separate bonds for the Missouri Division 1870, where much of those investors came from the Directors of the South Pacific. The A&P Missouri Division 1870 went into receivership in 1875. The Missouri Division incorporated a group of investors and opened the group as the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Inc. 1876. The SLSF group who purchase the Missouri Division from the receiver by a bid on the steps of the Capital of Missouri. The new St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Inc. 1876 had absorbed ~ $7,200,000 debt of the South Pacific. Much of the investors of the new SLSF were the same directors of the South Pacific. It ended up that the Atlantic & Pacific operated by tract rights from others except for a spur branch to a mine they owned. The A&P operated in the west, central and Midwest so they developed a big name with the public. [ Also in 1876 the Pacific Railroad became the Missouri Pacific]. For all that legal maneuvering, the Atlantic and Pacific was known as a predecessor of the Frisco; the other being the Pacific Railroad of Missouri. But in fact the real predecessor was the South Pacific of Missouri who constructed and operated the standard gauge from Pacific to ~ Seneca; and the other being the Pacific Railroad who constructed the narrow gauge from Franklin to Rolla in ~ 1860 [ as well they had first graded the railbed to Arlington]. (Information & data is from the State of Missouri Historical Society) .
