The Oak Lawn 
subdivision on 
the west side of 
Friendship was 
platted to take 
advantage of 
the building. 
boom that 
would follow 
the railroad 
surveyed to 
come through 
the village in 
1893. The 
diagonal line 
at the bottom 
of the subdivi- 
sion shows the 
route the 
railroad would 
take--had it 
been built. 
 
were spiked down in Wisconsin--none in Adams 
County. As the 1890s dawned, the county board 
issued a blanket invitation and a promise of public 
aid to "any railroad" to build in the county. None 
accepted the offer, but neither hope nor speculation 
diminished in Adams County. 
In November 1892, the Adams County Press 
published a notice of "railroad rumblings" that 
inspired a decade of speculation related to the 
"Princeton line." The paper reported that "one of 
the chief engineers of the Chicago and North 
Western Railroad" was supervising a crew "to 
drive the stakes" for a "permanent line" from the 
North Western's terminus in Princeton to Necedah 
by way of Friendship. 
The line was surveyed to approach Friendship 
from the southeast either along or just south of what 
later became Airport Drive and continue northwest 
through the village and beyond. It would cross the 
Wisconsin just south of the mouth of the Big 
Roche-A-Cri in Strong's Prairie at "Carmon's 
Rock" 
"This looks as if the C & NW people mean 
business for sure this time," said the Adams County 
Press, and other newspapers agreed. The La Crosse 
 
Tribune opined that the North Western needed a 
new through line across the state so it could ship 
coal from Sheboygan to the Mississippi River. The 
Fond du Lac Reporter said that the North Western 
had to build a new line soon since all its present 
trackage was overburdened with traffic headed for 
the Chicago World's Fair. The definitive word 
came from the Milwaukee Sentinel which stated, 
"There is no question that the road will be built this 
coming season..." 
Friendship's chances looked so good--at least 
in the newspapers--that County Treasurer 
Sophronius Landt, hotel keeper William Knight and 
newspaper editor Solon Pierce platted the Oak 
Lawn subdivison on the west side of the village. It 
was bounded on the north by "Prairie Street," (now 
County J) and on the south by the railroad right-of- 
way which ran roughly from the present comer of 
Fifth and West Street to Fourth and Quincy. 
Appropriately, one of Oak Lawn's north-south 
streets was named "Raymond" in honor of the 
railroad engineer who supervised the survey that 
prompted the excitement. 
Railroad fever was contagious. In the spring of 
1893, so many new homes were going up in Oak 
Lawn the Press reported that two blocks "look like 
a lumberyard." The editor of the Westfield Central 
Union newspaper reported that, "Our neighbors up 
at Friendship are as much elated over their prospect 
of a Railroad as though it were a reality...plating 
additions, tearing down Chimney Rock..." This last 
was a reference to the unsucessful attempts of home 
builder Peter Sorenson to quarry stone out of 
Friendship Mound by means of blasting powder. 
"They have a pleasant little burg and a select 
class of people," continued the Westfield editor, 
"whose average moral quality will not be improved 
by the influx that will come with the railroad." 
He needn't have worried. By the end of the 
summer of 1893, the latest outbreak of railroad 
fever was on ice. The North Western did not carry 
it plans beyond the survey stage in Adams County 
and instead ran a new line from Princeton to 
Wautoma and Wisconsin Rapids. In Adams 
County, the North Western's "Princeton" line 
became another entry in the long list of phantom 
railroads unbuilt. 
 
By the turn of the century, the railroad situation 
had not changed, but other conditions in the county 
 
86 
 
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