Railroad fever spread like a wild prairie fire across the Kansas plains in the early part of 1870. The Kansas Pacific Railway had just crossed the entire state from the Missouri River to the western border and was about to reach Denver. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, building toward southwest Kansas, had temporarily halted a few miles north of Osage City. A new supply of iron rails was all they needed to reach Emporia while the summer was yet young.

The month of March witnessed a surge of activity toward the southern border. The Union Pacific Southern Branch merged with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, affectionately known as the KATY. The line was rapidly building southeast past Emporia. Following the Neosho River valley, the KATY was about to reach Humboldt. The KATY was not alone in feverishly building a southern route through

Indian Territory to Texas.

Ninety miles to the east, building south from Lawrence, the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston also looked to the Cherokee Nation, hoping to lay tracks across Cherokee land in order to reach Texas. Texas and the lucrative cattle trade was the ultimate goal, but the LL&G had reached Richmond, 15 miles south of Ottawa.

At the same time, the Border Tier Road was laying tracks from Kansas City through the eastern tier of Kansas counties bordering Missouri. Tracks had already reached Fort Scott in December 1869. Both the LL&G and the Border Tier were owned and operated by railroad magnate James Joy, often called the Joy roads.

All three competing railroads had negotiated rights with the Cherokee Nation many years before in the 1860s. However, only one railroad would be allowed to enter Indian Territory, thus the race was on. The first railroad to reach the Kansas-Indian Territory border would be given exclusive rights to build through Indian Territory.

Joy and his Border Tier had run afoul of the settlers of southeastern Kansas in 1869. Joy had gained control of lands that had been settled by prospective homesteaders years before.

Settlement had begun in 1857, with a surge of Civil War veterans shortly after the war. They claimed the lands in good faith believing they would be able to buy the land at $1.25 per acre when land offices were established. Little did the settlers know that Joy had purchased, for $1, the former Osage-Cherokee land known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands from the federal government.

Joy bought the land for $1 per acre and set up an office to collect his price of $2 to $5 per acre. Furious settlers formed a protective association they christened the Land League.

In short order, the camp of a grading crew was burned, destroying everything in sight. Along the line, construction crews were threatened with more of the same. At Baxter Springs, the railroad men anxiously called for law and order.

The federal government responded by sending four companies of the 6th Infantry and a company of 7th Cavalry to protect the railroad workers. The presence of the troops only angered settlers all the more, considering that earlier they had asked for military protection from the railroads.

Instead, U.S. soldiers “danced like puppets” to the tune of James Joy and his mighty railroad. The Council Grove Republican noted that the “troops of the Republic” were doing the bidding of “King Joy.” Joy’s swindle was seen as an attempt to use troops to remove settlers from the land and put the railroad company in possession ... the actual presence of troops has never scared us for one moment.”

In another column, correspondent W.R.L. observed that, “Men who had seen the Flag of our Union on hundreds of battle fields where it was the symbol of national unity and human freedom,” were not about to allow that honorable flag to be “prostituted” on the neutral land.

In spite of the obstacles, the Border Tier laid track through to Baxter Springs. They were within reach of their prized destination, the Cherokee Nation border.

Meanwhile, KATY General Manager Col. Robert Smith Stevens, was more than 10 miles from the border when the Border Tier, believing they had reached the border south of Baxter Springs, held a grand celebration. The KATY’s Irish Brigade laid track in record time, recording up to 2 miles per day. Colonel Stevens was right there, urging them on when they built through Chetopa without resting. Joy’s other road, the LL&G, had fallen behind turning to other Kansas destinations rather than the border.

James Joy learned too late that the “border” south of Baxter Springs was 2 1/2 miles short of the official Kansas border on the 37th parallel. The KATY reached the border, 2 miles below Chetopa, before Joy’s Border Tier could act. Col. Stevens had defeated the great James Joy to win the right to build the KATY through Indian Territory in the epic 1870 railroad race for the border, on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@ kans.com.