Chicago, Galena, Dubuque & St. Pauls Direct! Illinois Central Railroad [caption title]

Buffalo: Clapp, Matthews & Co, 1856. About very good.. Small broadsheet, approximately 5 x 12 inches. Matted. Short interior tear near left edge. Light dust soiling. Scarce broadsheet advertisement promoting direct rail travel to points in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota on the Illinois Central Railroad, the first federal land grant railroad in the United States. The recto advertises that, "Two daily express trains will leave Pana, (running in direct connection with Trains of the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad,) for Galena, Dubuque, St. Pauls, Dunleith, Rock Island, Bloomington, and all points North and North West," saving time by eliminating the (truncated) connection in Chicago. The verso promotes the availability of, "Over two million acres of farming lands in tracts of forty acres and upwards, on long credits and at low rates of interest," and goes on to praise the fecundity of the land and the generosity of the financial terms in expectedly glowing fashion. Not in OCLC; the offer of "over two million acres" corresponds to other Illinois Central promotional material from 1856. (Inventory #: 1101)