Missouri Car & Foundry Company
Madison Car Company
Madison Car Works
The Missouri Car & Foundry Company was established about 1876 at St. Louis,
Missouri, by William McMillan, a brother of James McMillan, co-founder of the
Michigan Car Company.
Capitalized at $100,000 by a mixture of St. Louis and Detroit investors, it was
apparently intended to be a branch of the Michigan Car Company. (James’
obituary in the New York Times even goes so far as to say he bought it “in order
to make a good place for his brother.”) But other than a good working
relationship, there is nothing to suggest Missouri Car & Foundry was in any way
tied to Michigan Car & Foundry. William McMillan became Treasurer and General Manager of the company.
Business was begun in a plant covering five acres at Dickson and Main Streets.
Five years later the increasing business of the firm necessitated an enlargement
of its facilities, and they were moved across the Mississippi River to East St.
Louis, Illinois. This plant was destroyed by fire about 1880 and the company
returned to St. Louis, where it built new facilities on the line of the Iron
Mountain Railroad between Anna and Dorcas Streets.
Sometime about 1879/80, McMillan bought out his business partners, and increased
both the business capital and the size of its plant.
White suggests that in 1884 Missouri Car bought the Indiana Car Company at
Cambridge City, Indiana. What they did with that company is not mentioned,
{245}
but the name of the Indiana Car Company is included in the list of Car Builders
in the 1887 edition of Poor’s Directory of Railway
Officials.
We don’t know how the depression years of 1884/85 effected Missouri Car &
Foundry, but one can imagine they were tough times. Then in 1886, the works was
almost completely destroyed by fire. The loss was estimated as between $150,000
and $200,000 [$3 - 4 million in today’s buying power), and only partially
covered by insurance.
One source says that in 1891 Missouri Car & Foundry erected a plant across the
Mississippi River from St. Louis at Madison, Illinois, and that each facility
produced 900 - 1,000 freight cars monthly, in addition to castings and general
foundry output. Though this dovetails with what we know of the Madison Car
Company, at this point we have no evidence that firm was indeed begun by
Missouri Car & Foundry.
In 1893, Missouri Car & Foundry produced two of the largest wood-framed boxcars
ever produced. They were 60' long and 9'-2" high on the inside (this in a day
when a typical boxcar was 30-35' long and 7'-6" high inside at the most). These
early Hi-Cube cars were built for the St. Louis firm of Mansur & Tebbetts to
ship buggies. They were too large to travel the eastern railroads, with critical
clearance restrictions, so were used exclusively in the west. The side of the
cars were painted as giant billboards to advertise the buggy manufacturer.
{48}
In 1899, its then President,
William Keeny Bixby, decided to expand Missouri Car & Foundry by merger and acquisition.
On 6 March 1899, he purchased at auction the Madison Car Company across the
Mississippi River from St. Louis at Madison, IL. {41}
He then engineered a consolidation with the
Michigan-Peninsular Car
Company of Detroit, followed by 12 other independent car builders
to become the
American Car & Foundry
Company, of which he was the first
President, serving from 1899 to 1901. He thereafter became Chairman of the Board, then retired in 1905.
The Madison Car Company was founded
at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1890.
A news item in the Davenport, Iowa, Morning
Tribune for 4 October 1890 says, “The Madison Car Company’s works of
St. Louis, Mo., will be located on the east side of the river, near the approach
to the Merchant’s bridge.” [In an area then known as Madison Landing, and later
as just Madison.]
By October 1891, Madison was turning out 300 box cars a month,
working on an order of 1,000 for the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad. All
were being equipped with Westinghouse air brakes.
{121}
But apparently Madison was one of the casualties of the 1893
stock market crash that ultimately took down 15,000 commercial firms, 600 banks
and 74 railroads. Just a month later it was in bankruptcy. Its assignee, Paul
Fusz was applying to the courts for an order to run the works to complete
contracts, and as this would require some two months, it would allow at least
that much time to make arrangements “for the permanent settlement of present
difficulties.” {122}
An article in the Decatur (Illinois) Weekly
Republican two days later expands on the situation, saying assets are
$918,000 while liabilities are $1,223,000. It also points out that the company
had built a large new plant, “and has endeavored to build up a city similar to
Pullman.” It further pointed out the company had been in “straitened [sic]
circumstances” for some time, and that the company had employed 600.
Apparently the company came through this period all right,
because by 1895 it is known to have split an order of 2,000 cars by the MKT
Railroad with the Missouri Car & Foundry, with the latter building 800 while
Madison built 1200. Note was made that it was “the biggest order given here in
many years.” {123}
But though Madison survived the 1893 crash, it apparently did so
by selling bonds secured by a mortgage on its properties. And in January of
1897, it was unable to pay the interest on those bonds. The St. Louis Trust
Company, holder of the bonds forced a sale, which was to be held on 12 July
1897.
In an article describing the situation, the
New York Times for 5 June 1897 calls the Madison plant “one of the
most extensive and elaborately equipped in the country.” The works covered 11
acres, and it was said to have cost more than $1 million for the plant and
real estate.
We can't be sure just who bought the property at auction, or
whether the auction was ever actually held. An article in the 27 November 1897
Newark (OH)
Daily Advocate says the Madison Car Company had
been “absorbed” by Missouri Car & Foundry
Company. An article in the 27 November 1897
Chicago Tribune says much the same thing, but adds, “The East Side
car works, which have been idle a year, will be reopened as soon as possible,
giving employment to 2,000 men. The works will be operated as part of the
Missouri Car & Foundry company”
But a news item in the local Edwardsville (Illinois)
Intelligencer for 15 December 1897 says, “The plant of the Madison
Car Company has been leased to the Missouri Car
& Foundry Company, of St. Louis, for a term of five years. The foundry is now in
use and the full plant will be in operation by January 1.”
We don’t see any further news of Madison until 1908, when the
Decatur (Illinois)
Daily Review reported that a representative of
the Madison Car company had been in Decatur (in central Illinois about 110 miles
above Madison) looking over condemned cars owned by the Wabash Railroad with an
eye to buying 80 - 100 to be “repaired, repainted, and sold to interurban and
small steam railroad lines.”
During the 2nd World War, the Madison plant built military items
such as boat sections for invasion craft, dry dock sections, box and flat cars
for overseas military railroads.
Kaminski/American says they built no
less than 6,500 42-inch gauge railroad cars for Army and export purposes.
Kaminsky says the Madison plant was closed by ACF in 1950, but
another source says production of railcars continued after the war. And during
the car shortages of the late 1970s, the Madison plant built thousands of box
cars of the “railbox” design, as well as Coalveyer “bathtub” coal cars for
public utilities, and flatcars for the Trailer Train Company and for various
railroads. There followed a severe downturn in car purchases in the
1980s and the plant was closed in 1982.
Cast of Characters
—
William McMillan (1841-1901) was born
at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. At age 16 he
became a clerk in a hardware store. Six years later he moved to Ingersoll,
Ontario, where he opened a hardware store of his own. Four years later he sold
that enterprise and moved to Detroit, Michigan. There, with four special
partners, he opened the wholesale hardware house of William McMillan & Company.
Two years later, he withdrew from that business and moved to St. Louis,
Missouri, where he founded the Missouri Car & Foundry Company.
McMillan became the Chairman of the
Board of Directors (of MC&F or of AC&F?). He was also a benefactor of Washington
University of St. Louis.
