station of the Underground Railroad for the poor runaway slaves soon learned where friends were. Deacon Cone's cabin...was one place, for it had an attic for a hiding place. There were other places also, for those helping them had regular stations, and at night, or under grain or hay, by daylight some of the young men would get them on to the next station, and toward a land of safety.'" It was also discovered in 1999 that the structure of the Geneseo Historical Society was, too, used as a "stop" on the Underground Railroad.Even before the church was constructed, the first school was established when R.R. Stewart's daughter, Miss Susannah Stewart, began teaching classes in a one-room school house in 1837. It was built with puncheon floors, round poles, and the old wagon covers they used to make the journey. Expansion The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, also known as the Rock Island Line, was surveyed in 1850 to run from Chicago to Rock Island with a prominent stop in Geneseo. The line was completed in June 1854 and, immediately thereafter, the Grand Excursion promotional voyage that took prominent politicians and well-off citizens on a voyage to and down the Mississippi, stopped in the small town. Although Geneseo had grown at a near stand-still since its inception, reaching only 500 persons by 1850, it soon exploded to 5,500 just 11 years later (within the 10-square mile area). As a testament to the power of the railroad, it was quoted by an editor of the Rock Islander, who visited Geneseo, that there were "one hundred new buildings erected in Geneseo" in 1854 alone and "seventy [more] built in the present year [1855]." Due to its large growth, Geneseo officially became a town in 1855, by an act of the Illinois State Legislature, and a city in 1865. Like many towns that experienced a growth spurt in the middle of the 19th century, Geneseo's wealthier families constructed many of their homes in accordance with Victorian Architecture and a large number of them remain today, giving credence to the name "Victorian Geneseo." Simultaneously with the expansion of the town, Geneseo's first newspaper, the Geneseo Democratic Standard, started in August 1855 by James Bowie. It collapsed not a year and a half later. In June 1856, I.S. Hyatt founded the Geneseo Republic and began publishing in a building on Main Street. Although founded