The Seney Syndicate expands their railroads

The Seney Syndicate created the Lake Erie & Western Railway from several short lines running in Ohio and Indiana. The combined line ran from Fremont, Ohio to Bloomington, Illinois. It ran in the territory of William Vanderbilt's arch-rival, Jay Gould and his Wabash Railroad. Gould was a ruthless entrepreneur and by 1881 he owned fifteen percent of all the railways in America. His unscrupulous practices won him the enmity of the public, who called him the Robber Baron. The Syndicate knew that their investment in the Lake Erie & Western Railway could not survive rate wars with Gould's Wabash or a downturn in the economy, without expansion. The investors made plans to extend the line to Cleveland, Chicago, and St. Louis. Although such an expansion promised a great increase in the use of the line, it would also run it into William Vanderbilt's territory. The Seney Syndicate would face the two most aggressive railroad tycoons in American history in their bid to build the Nickel Plate Road.

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