Kankakee Railroads

Book excerpt: Tracks for the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central Railroad were established in the vicinity of the Kankakee River in 1853. The Kankakee Depot was set up and soon thereafter the Associates Land Company had a 49-block town laid out around the depot. By the beginning of the 20th century, Kankakee, a town that formed because of the railroad, was a thriving industrial city, as well as a railroad center served by five major railroad lines. This book traces the history of Kankakee's railroads from 1850 to 1950. Photographs from the Kankakee County Historical Society archives illustrate the stories of the trains, depots, and workers who made the railroads of the late 19th and early 20th centuries an economic and industrial force in Illinois and the Midwest.