Living with the octopus: Life, work, and community in a Western railroad town (Nebraska)

Railroads were America's first big business, pioneering the corporate form of business, fueling industrialization, and promoting westward expansion. They changed the pattern of settlement and dramatically altered the human geography of the country. By the turn of the twentieth century they were also blamed for many of the ill effects of industrialization: the inequality of wealth, the concentration of economic power, and the undermining and corruption of the political system.; This case study examines the impact of the railroad on a single stretch of track in western Nebraska, focusing on the town of Alliance. It seeks to understand how railroads affected the social, economic, and political life of the areas that relied upon their services. This study uses the manuscript census records, local newspapers, and corporate documents to illuminate the relationship between the railroad and the people that it served.; This study assesses the overwhelming influence of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad on the development of the panhandle of Nebraska and the surrounding area. The CB&Q dictated where towns would be located and insured that the railroad controlled the land where towns were established. It also determined the shape of those towns. The railroad fostered an economy that was principally based on ranching and farming. Railroad workers dominated the community, but their lives were spent in dangerous work that took them away from their homes for long stretches during each work week.; This study reveals the complicated relationship between the railroad and the community. The railroad controlled the markets and transportation, but CB&Q management was careful to make adjustments in response to protests by workers and farmers, even when the corporation had the ability to defeat oppositional organizations. The corporate structure also mitigated protest. The workers and townspeople did not experience the railroad as a corporate leviathan, but rather as a specific person: the local superintendent. Most importantly, the railroad provided jobs and economic opportunities. Residents may have had some misgivings about the control of the railroad, but the railroad was crucial to their own material advance and well-being. At a local level, the octopus was often more benign than malignant.