Railroad

The Chicago & Rock Island railroad came into Morris in 1852. It soon put the I&M Canal out of business and the town grew to the north toward the railroad. At lot of livestock was shipped by rail. There was a stockyard at the Morris Depot, and at Stockdale—located several miles west of here. Huge consignments of cattle and sheep from Iowa and points west were off loaded and corralled for a while at this big farm full of stock sheds to rest and fatten up before being loaded back onto the rail cars headed for the Chicago Stockyards.