In the 1830s, early settlers of St. Charles built new industries along the Fox River. By 1950, the town had lumber, flour, grist, paper and carding mills, an iron foundry, condensed milk and pottery factories, and a linseed and castor oil plant, with several of these located near this area. With transportation opportunities provided by a railroad spur that ran from the trestle bridge to Main Street, St. Charles became a major dairy center by the early 1900s. The St. Charles Condensing Company produced evaporated cream that won top international awards, and the St. Charles Pure Milk Company, precursor of Colonial Café and Ice Cream, built its first milk processing plant on the city's west side. Other businesses flourished in this east side district after 1920, including Hawley Products Co., which became well known for radio equipment and Boy Scout and U.S. Army pith helmets. The Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company completed a railroad bridge over the Fox River in 1886, passenger service began on July 31, 1887, the fare to Chicago was 99 cents, and the railroad reorganized in 1892 as the Chicago Great Western Railway. Workmen constructed a footpath along the Fox River from Malo Street to Pottawatomie Park in the early 1930s, and it was named Langum Trail for St. Charles mayor and physician Ival G. Langum, who established work programs and a soup kitchen for unemployed men and their families during the Great Depression; the path was renamed the Freedom Trail in 1976. On the west side of the Fox River at State Street in 1928, Simon Anderson, founder of the Colonial Ice Cream Company, helped with the company's last ice harvest, using ice packed in saw dust and stored in an ice house to refrigerate dairy products and freeze ice cream. After more than a century, industry had left this Fox River area, creating space for expansion of the city's fire and police departments.