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John Robinson leads a march of Negro children from their cramped quarters above a blacksmith shop on Collinsville Avenue to the all-white Henry Clay School at Collinsville and St. Louis Avenues. The protest leads to the school district building the first school for the colored at Sixth and St. Louis. This building was later used as the central office for District #189 schools. Robinson was assisted in his efforts financially by a railroad porter named Morton Hawkins. Eads Bridge and tunnel are leased by J. P. Morgan and Solon Humphreys to Jay Gould, owner of the Missouri Pacific and Wabash Railroads. in return, Gould agrees to pay taxes. bond interest, and preferred stock dividends amounting to almost $750,000 annually. Gould is the most notorious railroad builder/speculator in the entire nation. The general offices of his railroad empire are in St. Louis. As a whole, Gould is an asset to the developing cities of East St. Louis and St. Louis, but, in the words of historian Primm, "He toyed with railroad empires the way other men gambled with cards." The Wiggins Ferry people are forced to cooperate with Gould since he controlled many of the railroads both east and west of the bridge. An Illinois court invalidated the pool agreement but it secretly continued until 1887 when "pooling" was outlawed by the Interstate Commerce Act.
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