On November 8, 1838, the first railroad steam locomotive ever operated in Illinois transported a select group to what was then the end-of-track, eight miles east near Chapin, IL, and back to Meredosia.

The legislature of the State of Illinois authorized the sale of the original track between Meredosia and Springfield to Nicholas H. Ridgely, who paid $21,000 for the road.

Ridgely was eventually granted an extension of his charter to include the entire line of the Northern Cross, which he reopened to Decatur.

The land for the Northern Cross Railroad was surveyed and a contract was bid to build the line between the autumn of 1837 to April 1838 along a twelve-mile strip from Meredosia to a 19th-century settlement called Morgan City (not current IL town).

The construction method was to lay "parallel lines of mud sills (ballast), eight or ten inches square, under where the rails would come", in places that did not have a firm foundation.

As the rails were used, these ends often curled up, causing damage (snakeheads) to the undercarriages of the cars and serious injury or death to unlucky passengers.

The state ran the deteriorating line until 1847, then auctioned it for $21,000 (2.5% of its original cost) to Nicholas Ridgely, who renamed it the Sangamon and Morgan.