Some of Abraham Lincoln's first law cases were for the Alton & Sangamon Railroad.

In 1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral car was moved from Chicago to Springfield, Illinois on the C&A Railroad.

Fire equipment was moved on the C&A Railroad from Bloomington, Illinois to Chicago to help fight the "Great Chicago Fire" that Mrs. O'Leary's cow supposedly started.

When the depot was built in 1879 there were 38 stars on the American Flag.

In 1879 Rutherford B. Hayes was president.

William Jennings Bryan came to Independence on October 10, 1908 while on tour for his third campaign for president.

Jessie James robbed the C&A train three times near the Glendale, Missouri depot, which was located at 39^th Street and Selsa Road. The name of this depot was later changed to Selsa because of these robberies.

President Woodrow Wilson stopped at the Independence C&A Depot on September 6, 1919 while waiting for the proper time to arrive in Kansas City. He was on his League of Nations Tour and a large affair was planned upon his arrival.

The two Railway Express baggage carts in the baggage room are both original C&A carts. One came from Roodhouse, Illinois and the other is original to the Independence Depot.

The last passenger train stopped at the depot in 1960.

The depot building was abandoned in 1972 waiting to be demolished.

Friends of Chicago & Alton Depot moved the structure to the present location in 1996 and started restoration.

First Sleeping Car -- The "Springfield"

First Dining Car -- The "Delmonico"

First Reclining Sleeping Car -- which was designed by Dr. Horton of Kansas City, Missouri

First to connect the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes

First to build an all steel bridge in the U.S.A. -- built at Glasgow, Missouri

First to place railroad ties closer than normal for smoother ride

In 1834 a few visionaries in Springfield, Illinois, including a young legislator named Abraham Lincoln, proposed laying tracks to connect Springfield with the Mississippi River. Nothing happened until a six-man Alton group, led by the town's most prominent businessman, Benjamin Godfrey, received a charter on February 27, 1847 for the Alton & Sangamon Railroad.

Despite difficulties faced raising capital, the incorporators witnessed the laying of the first rails at the City of Alton Public Landing in 1850.

Two years later on September 9, 1852 the first train made its 72-mile maiden run. Then, under the name Chicago & Mississippi, in October 1853 the line was extended north to Bloomington, Illinois, then in July 1854 to Joliet, and finally in March 1858 to Chicago over the leased rails of the Joliet & Chicago Railroad. By then the company had been renamed the St. Louis, Alton, & Chicago Railroad.

After a scandalous period caused by one Henry Dwight Jr. of New York, the company was turned over to the courts, but emerged in February 1861 as the Chicago & Alton Railroad. East St. Louis was reached in 1864 through the lease of the Alton & St. Louis Railroad. The St. Louis, Jacksonville, & Chicago Railroad was leased in 1868 adding a route from Godfrey to Bloomington. A branch was added between Dwight and Washington in 1869.

Finally, an extension to Kansas City, Missouri was laid in 1879, completing the railroad's famous "Triangle" of service between the Midwest's three great cities Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City.

The Chicago & Alton Railroad was reorganized on April 3, 1900, under Edward H. Harriman, and renamed the Chicago & Alton Railway. The famous name Chicago & Alton lasted for 70 years until 1931 when the Baltimore & Ohio took possession of the company out of receivership and renamed it the Alton Railroad.

In 1942 the B&O Railroad returned the company to the courts and on May 31, 1947 the Gulf Mobile & Ohio Railroad added it to its system, exactly 100 years after the first rails had been laid at the Alton Public Landing.

Constructed in 1879, the Chicago & Alton depot employed distinctive architectural and design features standard to the company's station at that time. Today it is thought to be one of two, two-story, frame stations and one of the oldest depots in the state.

The depot employed standardized architectural designs utilized by railroads beginning in the 1870s. This was also an efficient advertising device, a corporate symbol easily recognizable to the traveling public. The paint scheme used on this depot is more colorful than was normally used.

In towns where rail traffic required around the clock staffing, railroad companies erected depots with second floor accommodations for the agent and family.

The frame, combination plan station with second floor living quarters was selected for Independence. By this time the Stick Style ornamentation was standard for the Company. Stick Style is considered by some authorities to be the wooden version of the High Victorian Gothic.

The first floor consists of a waiting room, station agent's room, and a baggage room. The second floor is divided horizontally by the stairway opening. The three south rooms are a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and a parlor. Each of the rooms is now furnished in the period circa 1879. On the north side is the artifacts room, originally used as a bedroom and storage room. There are hundreds of original C&A and railroad objects found here and throughout the depot.

One depot agent's wife, at the turn of the century, had a piano in the parlor to entertain the traveling guests in the waiting room below.

In April 1960, the depot was closed to passenger and freight traffic. Thereafter, only telegraph operators manned the station until it was abandoned in 1972.