Outgoing and incoming correspondence of J.M. (John Murray) Forbes, a Boston businessman long involved with CB&Q as an investor, as well as president and chairman of the board. Forbes initially invested in the Michigan Central Railroad in 1846 and served as its president until 1855. At the same time, he also invested in a number of small roads in and around Chicago and Western Illinois; these roads would form the first company to bear the CB&Q name when Forbes & his partners combined them in 1856. Forbes was instrumental in guiding CB&Q's westward expansion. He and his associates bought stock in the Burlington and Missouri and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroads anticipating control and consolidation in Iowa and Missouri. Forbes served continuously as a director from 1857, as president from 1878-1881; and then chairman of the board until his death in 1898. Under his leadership the Forbes Group of investors controlled policy for the entire CB&Q system, and exerted a heavy influence on public opinion and railroad legislature.