The "Air Line" Company was set up to be a holding company, with the actual construction done by a series of local firms established under state laws. The first, and only, one of these was incorporated under the state laws of Indiana on 16 April 1904 and was the "Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railroad" (GSB&C). It contracted the "Co-operative Construction Company" (formed for the purpose by one of the promoters named Jonathon D. Price) to begin work, and obtained the necessary land by having another promoter, Colonel Upshaw P. Hord, persuade local farmers to exchange land in return for shares.