Forging the Bee Line Railroad, 1848–1889: The Rise and Fall of the Hoosier Partisans and Cleveland Clique By Arthur Andrew Olson III

Abstract

In today’s globally interconnected economy, it is difficult to imagine an era when transportation enterprises were small and locally oriented. Yet that situation prevailed in Indiana during the formative years of the railroad industry, immediately prior to the Civil War. In telling the story of the Bee Line, Andrew Olson does far more than merely describe a single railroad whose corporate existence has long since disappeared. Instead, he deftly traces the Bee Line’s transition from a company that was of and for the residents of the Hoosier state to one that was a pawn of regional, national, and even international financial interests.