The Kansas City and Cameron Railroad was the subsidiary of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad

The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first railroad to cross Missouri starting in Hannibal in the northeast and going to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwest...

 which built the first bridge across the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 at the Hannibal Bridge

Hannibal Bridge

The First Hannibal Bridge was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River and was to establish Kansas City, Missouri as a major city and rail center....

.

The bridge established Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 rather than Leavenworth, Kansas

Leavenworth, Kansas

Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

 or St. Joseph, Missouri as the dominant city in the region.

The Hannibal and St. Joseph was the first railroad to cross the state of Missouri and it carried mail for the Pony Express

Pony Express

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...

. However, when it was time to build a bridge across the river, Robert T. Van Horn

Robert T. Van Horn

Robert Thompson Van Horn was a lawyer, the owner and publisher of the The Kansas City Enterprise, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri during the parts of the Civil War, member of the Missouri General Assembly, and representative to the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States.Born in East Mahoning...

, Kersey Coates

Kersey Coates

Kersey Coates was a Kansas City, Missouri businessman who developed Quality Hill, founded the Kansas City Board of Trade, and one of the businessmen who attracted the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad to the city....

 and Charles E. Kearney

Charles E. Kearney

Charles Esmond Kearney was the first president of the Kansas City and Cameron Railroad which as a subsidiary of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and built the Hannibal Bridge establishing Kansas City, Missouri as the dominant city in the region.He was born in Ireland before emigrating to Texas...

 put together a package to persuade the railroad to create a cutoff 50 miles east of St. Joseph at Cameron, Missouri

Cameron, Missouri

Cameron is a city in Clinton and DeKalb Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 8,312 at the 2000 census.The Clinton County portion of Cameron is part of the Kansas City, MO–KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the DeKalb County portion is part of the St...

to go to Kansas City to hook up with lines going on to Texas. Kearney was the subsidiary's first president.