Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad (Indiana Division)

Pumpkin Vine Railroad grade in 2007

Drawing from the 1877 Warren County Atlas, looking northeast from Baltimore across the Wabash River, with the Pumpkin Vine bridge in the background

The Indiana Division^[1] or Coal Branch of the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad (also known as the "Pumpkin Vine Railroad") was constructed in 1872 from Bismarck, Illinois, across Warren County, Indiana, across the Wabash River near the river town of Baltimore, to Covington in Fountain County. There it connected with an existing line that carried coal north to Covington from the coal mines at Snoddy's Mill in the Coal Creek area, a few miles to the south. The area was also known as Stringtown because it consisted of a series of small settlements; this name is still used locally.

Sumner Station was located near the intersection of this new line with the existing Wabash Railroad; G. W. Johnson saw an opportunity and established the town of Johnsonville at this intersection, and a post office opened there on December 2, 1875. There was a labor riot at the mines in Stringtown in April 1878; Governor James D. Williams sent the Wabash Guards to maintain order, but four men were killed; this situation brought a sudden end to the supply of coal from the mines,^[2] and by 1880 trains had stopped running on the "Pumpkin Vine". The rails were taken up within a few years.

As of 2007, there are still several places where traces of the grade can be seen, and in a few wooded areas small sections of the grade are virtually untouched (though of course grass-covered and with no ties or rails).

References

1. ^ Elmer G. Sulzer, Ghost Railroads of Indiana, Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0253334837, p. 40 (including pages from 1876 and 1879 employee timetables)
2. ^ Clifton, Thomas, ed (1913). Past and Present of Fountain and Warren Counties Indiana. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen and Company. pp. 137–138. http://www.archive.org/stream/pastpresentoffou01clif#page/n45/mode/2up. Retrieved 2010-09-19. 

• Warren County Historical Society (1966), A History of Warren County, Indiana.
• Warren Republican newspaper, March 7, 1872.
• Warren Republican newspaper, January 1, 1880.