Kewanee
Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Railway
#7 in a Kuhlman builders photo. When incorporated, the company proposed building a 31-mile system between Kewanee and Galesburg.  The Kewanee local system began operating on July 9, 1903 (and expanded over the next few years), and the 8.3 mile interurban line southwest to Galva began operating on December 6, 1906.   However, nothing further was built, and by August 1923 the company was placed into receivership and service suspended on October 20, 1923.
The Kewanee Public Service Company (KPSC)  took over everything and reconstructed all of the local streetcar trackage,  Interurban service resumed on September 3, 1924 and local Kewanee service resumed on November 29, 1924 after six single-truck second-hand Birney streetcars were received from Detroit.   On September 26, 1926, the North American Light & Power Company purchased the KPSC.
Automobiles, concrete highways and isolation doomed the interurban line, and the last car operated on December 31, 1932.  Decreased revenue because of the Deptression resulted in the local Kewanee streetcars being replaced with buses on December 15, 1935.
Caption data from Stephen M. Scalzo
Bill Volkmer collection
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