Portland, Oregon - History (part 7 of 18)

Perces Chief, stern wiieeler, built in 1863; Enterprise, stern wheeler, built in 1863; Senator, stern wheeler, built in 1863; Oneonta, side wheeler, built in 1863; John H. Couch, side wheeler, built in 1863; Iris, stern wheeler, built in 1864; Active, stern wheeler, built 1865; Webfoot, built in 1865; Alert, stern wheeler, built in 1865; Okanagon, stern wheeler, built in 1866; Shoshone, s^ern wheeler, built in 1866; Rescue, Sprav and Lucius, stern wheelers, built in 1868; Yakima, stern wheeler, built in 1869; Emma Havward stern wheeler, 756 tons, built in 1870; McMinnville, stern wheeler, 420 tons, built in 1870; Dixie Thompson, stern wheeler, 276 tons, built in 1871 ; E. N. Cooke, stern wheeler, 299 tons, built in 1871 ; Daisy Ainsworth, built in 1872; New Tenino, stern wheeler, built in 1872; Alice, stern wheeler, 334 tons, built in 1873; Welcome, stern wheeler, 250 tons, bviilt in 1874; Bonita, stern wheeler, 376 tons, built in 1875; Orient, stern wheeler, 429 tons, built in 1875; Occident, stern wheeler, 429 tons, built in 1875; Champion, stern wheeler, 502 tons, built in 1875; AlmQta, stern wheeler, 395 tons, built in 1876; S. T. Church, stern wheeler, 393 tons, built in 1876; Ocklahama, stern wheeler, 394 tons, built in 1876; Annie Faxon, stern wheeler, 564 tons, b.iilt in 1877; Wide West, stei'n wheeler, 928 tons, built in 1877; Mountain Queen, stern wheeler, 500 tons, built in 1877; Spokane, stern wheeler, 531 tons, built in 1877; Bonanza, stern wheeler, 467 tons built in 1877; Northwest, stern wheeler, 274 tons, built in 1877; R. A. Thompson, stern wheeler, 912 tons, built in 1878; S. (;. Reed, stern wheeler, 607 tons, built in 1878; Harvest Queen, stern wheeler, 697 tons, built in 1878; John Gates, stern wheeler, 551 tons, built in 1878; Willamette Chief, stern wheeler, 523 tons, built in 1878; D. S. Baker, stern wheeler, 566 tons, built in 1879; Hassalo, stern wheeler, 350 tons, built in 1880; Olympia, side wheeler, 1083 tons, built in 1883; Escort, tug, built in 1883; Alaskan, side wheeler, 1257 tons, built in 1883; S.J. Potter, side wheeler, built in 1887; Sea Home, side wheeler, built in 1889; Modoc, stern wheeler, built in 1889; Wallowa, tug, built in 1889. Of the Gov. Grover, Owyhee, Minnehaha, Josie McNear, Mountain Buck, Cowlitz, Belle, Eagle, Express and tug Donald, owned and operated by the companies named, we have been unable to learn when thev were btiilt.

Aside from the O. R. and N. Co., and its predecessors there have always been a few independent steamers on the river, making their head quarters at Portland, such as the Fannie Troup, Salem, Manzanillo, Traveler, Lurline, G. W. Shaver, and local craft. One of the most indefatigable of our independent navigators is Capt. V. B. Scott, with his two Telephones^ the first of which was destroj'ed by fire; river racers equal to anything of which the world has record. Another very solid company is that of Joseph Kellogg & Son, having two good steamboats, the Joseph Kellogg and Toledo and making a specialty' of navigation upon small streams, particularly the Cowlitz.

With the exception of a few of the older craft on the Willamette and the new iron ships Olympian and Alaskan, all the boats named were built in Oregon.

It may be remarked, however, that the Columbia ri^er steamers are a swift and powerful class of vessels; built for acflual hard service, and having a certain individuality of their own. Under John Gates many improvements were made, the stem wheel developed to its full power, and the perils of our rapid and great current overcome by the hydraulic steering gear. Some of them have reached the high speed of twenty miles per hour, and all have been able to overcome a ten and twelve mile current. As the most magnificent of swimming animals have been developed in the Columbia, so we may expect the finest swimmers of man's construction to be made on its water.

Portland's Advantages as a Railroad Centre - Early Struggles for a Railroad - Curious Features of the Contest - Labors of Simon E. Elliott, (ieorge H. Belden, Col. Charles Belden and Joseph Gaston - First Survey by Barry and Gaston - Report bv Col. Barry - Provisions of the First Railroad Bill Passed b}- the Oregon Legislature and United States Congress - The Importance of Provisions Suggested by Col. W. W. Chapman - Organization of the First Railroad Company in Oregon - Formation of a Rival Company - Contest over the Land Grant - Interesting Ceremonies in Connection with Commencement of Construction of the West Side Road - Progress of the Work - Bitter Warfare Between the two Companies - The Fight Carried into the Courts - The Legal Aspect of the Contest - Advent of Ben Holladay - His Character and Methods - Efforts to Build to the .Atlantic States - Labors of Col. Chapman - Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific - The Southern Pacific - Prominent Railroad Managers of Portland - The Narrow Guage Sy.stem.

PORTLAND i.s now well supplied with railway connection, not only with all parts of the Northwest, but with the whole of North America. She is the terminus of three transcontinental lines - the Northern Pacific, by the O. R. & N. and the Oregon Short Line, and the Union Pacific systems, respectively, and of the Sotithern Pacific by the Oregon and California Railway. She is also a terminus of the Northern Pacific on its own rails across the Cascade mountains and by way of Taconia and Kalama, and, by the routes on Puget Sound, communicates directl)- with the Canadian Pacific. The Oregon Pacific, which is push in,.;' out across middle Oregon for a junction in Idaho witli still another continental line, although maintaining a terminus at Yaquina Bay, will also seek Portland, making the fifth line from across the mountains that ultimates upon our city as the chief, or at least co-important, objective. The next line from the East will probably come down the north bank of the Columbia, reaching our depots by way of Vancouver.

Aside from these main lines, our city is also served by a number of local roads. Standing first among these is the Oregon Central, to Corvallis, on the west side of the Willamette, operating a line ninetyseven miles in length. A still greater mileage is run by the Oregonian Railway Company's lines, the Portland and Willamette Valley Road, the extension of the narrow guage system, on each side of the Willamette - to Sheridan and Airlie on the west and Coburg on the east. Another extensive line is in process of construction from Astoria to some point on the Oregon Central - Hillsboro - which, althoiigh chiefly for the accommodation of Astoria and the western part of the Willamette Valley, will conne(5l a large region with Portland and open it up to the enterprise of her merchants. There is talk of construdling a line from Hunter's Point, opposite Kalama, to Astoria, thereby furnishing a road to the mouth of the river, paralleling the Columbia and making passage more expeditious for summer travelers to the ocean beaches.

Of stri6lly local lines, i. e., of lines less than twenty miles in length and aiming to do only local business, chiefly passenger traffic for the benefit of the suburbs, there are four lines in active operation - to Vancouver, to St. John's, to Mt. Tabor and the Hawthorne Avenue line, also terminating at Mt. Tabor, and the cable line to Portland Heights. At least three others are in process of construction - to Oregon City, the W^averly-Woodstock line and the line to West Portland. Several other lines are projected, as that to Marquam's Hill and a line around the hills on the northwest of the cit}.-. Some of these will doubtless develop into longer lines - as the Hawthorne Avenue road, a standard guage, which is popularh- expected to be pushed out to the Sandy river and to Mt. Hood.

From this glance it will be seen that of all roads built and extending beyond the city limits, so as not to be enumerated with the street car lines, there are eight; there are building four, not including the Astoria road, which will enter by the Oregon Central; and two or three more are on the tapis. This list shows prodigious railroad activity, and the fact that all the lines are well .sustained and do a paying business shows the dimensions of our freight and passenger traffic. The eagerness for further construction, and the large prices paid for privileges in the city, indicate that even our present extensive system is not complete. It is the purpose of this chapter to give something of the history of the building of these roads and development of transportation b\- rail.

Turning- to the history of railroad construction in Oregon, we find there was very earl)- agitation of the subject. In 1850 a line was projected, and even advertised to be run, from St. Helen's on the Columbia, to Lafayette, in Yamhill county. It was under the patronage of Captains Knighton, Smith, Tappen and Crosby. Of course, it was never begun. General J. J. Stevens, in 1853 and for the years succeeding, wrote voluminously upon railroad connection with the East, and four roads were projected (not all to the East), one being incorporated. In 1854 a charter was granted a road to California, to begin at a point below the falls of the Willamette. In 1857 a company was formed to build a road to Yaquina Bay. None of these were constructed, however, and no rails were laid, except on the portage lines at the Cascades and Dalles, and a tramway at Oregon City, before the days of the Oregon Central.

The development of the railways of Portland is that of the State. There was practically nothing accomplished for our roads outside of Portland, or without Portland men. True, it is not to be forgotten that there was a considerable number of representative men of other sections who entered with lively interest into encouraging railroads, and became identified with the first enterpri.se. J. S. Smith and I. R. Moores, of Salem; T. R. Cornelius, of Washington County; Robert Kinney, of Yamhill; and General Joel Palmer, of the same; Colonel J. W. Nesmith, of Polk; Judge F. A. Chenoweth, of Benton; Stukeley Ellsworth and B. J. Pengra, of Lane, and Jesse Applegate, of Douglas, were among this number. Other names might be added. They were active in interesting the people of their several localities in the construction of railroads and without their aid difficulties would have multiplied. The very first mo\ements toward a road - in 1863 - moreover, came from California, with Elliott and Barry. The most radical and active mo\er was first a citizen of Jacksonville, in Soiithern Oregon. Quite a considerable portion of the first impetus came from the desire to have direct communication with San Francisco, .so that the people of Southern Oregon and the upper Willamette Valley need not be obliged to make a circuitous route through Portland, or sell and buy in her market and pay tolls on passing up and down the .lower Columbia and Willamette. The

Californians first agitating the project certainly had no aim other than to extend the tributary region of San Francisco. But with all this in view it still remains the fact that it was upon Portland that all the railway activity centered and she proved to be the only point from which to operate successfully. We are therefore justified in speaking of the railway development of Portland as that of the State, and dating the nativity of her lines from the first efforts in 1863. Whoever accomplished much in the business had to become Portlanders.

The story of our first railroads is interesting, romantic and dramatic. One is astonished at the intense earnestness, the violent contentions, the lurid combats, the savagery, the cunning, the bluster and the ludicrous or pathetic denouements. There are situations of the most amazing oddity; old and hitherto most amiable and dignified citizens of our State finding themselves perked in hyperbolical inversion before a gaping and mystified public, who were in doubt whether to break into a guffaw or to look with feigned nonchalance upon what they supposed must be a new era in morals introduced with a railroad age. What with plethoric promises of lands quadrupled in value, of produce doubled, and visions of the wealth of Aladin, and an inner feeling of the heart that the old order of toil and honesty was somehow to be superceded by an age of gigantic speculations in which wealth by the millions was to be created by corporate fiat, and the fundamental rules of arithmetic and of ancient law were to be transmitted into something easier if not better, our railroad building introduced a time at once amusing and pathetic, as well as pecuniarily progressive. The former phase of the subject must, however, be left to the student of human nature, or to the homilist. Like all great changes in the habits and outlook of the people, it was accompanied by an excitation of much ambition, rivalry, passion, and at length a general cloud burst of indignation and censure; but worked its way through to a beneficent result.

To begin with a somewhat bare account of all this, we find that in 1863 there was a Californian toiling up from the land of gold and droughts, through the valleys of the Sacramento and Shasta, with a surveying party, to run a line for a railroad from the

Sacramento to the Columbia river. This was Simon G. Elliott, of Marysville, who had but recently been listening to the expositions, prophecies and demonstrations of Judah, the first preacher in California of the Pacific railway. In the spring he had been in Eugene City, Oregon, and there interested Mr. George H. Belden, formerly of Portland, in his enterprise, and during the season of '63 the two were running the level, chain and transit from Red Bluff, California, to Jacksonville, in Oregon. There were twelve men in the surveying party, and accompanying it as general superintendent was Colonel Charles Barry, recently from the seat of civil war then raging, having resigned from the army on account of a wound received in the battle of Shiloh. This was purely an autonomous party, without legal father or mother or sponsor capitalists; spying out a railroad path for its own satisfaction, and having no means of subsistence except from contributions on the way. The land, although rugged and but sparsely populated, was sufficient to feed them, and the settlers along the route listened with awe to their stories of iron wheels that were soon to roll in their foot tracks.

In November they went into winter quarters at Jacksonville, Elliott and Belden separating on account of the delicate question of priority of leadership the rest of the way; the former going to San Francisco and the latter coming to Portland. Colonel Barry, however, staid by the party. At Jacksonville was added the most important member to the company. This was Joseph Gaston, Esq., now of Gaston, Washington County, and of Portland, Oregon, and the present editor of the Pacific Farmer. He was then editor of the Jacksonville Times. Gaston went to work with the enterprise and enthusiasm of an Achilles, and while the baker's dozen of autonomous surveyors were boarding themselves in the old hospital at Jacksonville, went about collecting means to enable them to continue the work the next summer. He was successful, and in May following, level, transit and chain were again set in motion. In September, Barry's party was at Portland, having made measurements and memoranda the whole distance from Red Bluff, California, to the public levee in our city, on which they were camped. The people on the way had been startled into life by the apparition, and the State groaning like the rest of the Union under the evils of the great war, and not yet well knowing whether there was still a nation, was aroused by this practical exhibition of faith in the future of the country and determination to be ready for the great national development just so soon as the Union was once more compacted.

Colonel Barr}- prepared a report of thirty-three pages, addressed to the "Directors of the California and Columbia River Railway Compau)- ;' " not, however, designating the members of this company by name. His pamphlet discussed the subject of routes, and summarized the findings of the surveyors. As illustrating by what means bills were paid at this stage of the work, it may be mentioned that the pamphlet was published from the office of the Salem Statesman, and the work paid for by editorial services on the paper by iVIr. Joseph Gaston.

Being in reality an address to the people of Oregon, it was admirably framed to excite interest in a general movement toward opening the State by rapid transit. As to rontes. Colonel Barry reported that there were two from Jacksonville across the Umpqua mountains; one by Grave Creek, a rugged and difficult region, with a grade of 100 feet per mile; and a second by Trail Creek, which he had onlv partially examined, but thought would prove better. Through the Umpqua \'alley he reported an easy way between the multitude of hills, with grade not exceeding eight\- feet. He preferred the Applegate Pass of the Calipooiahs to that by Pass Creek, and spoke with enthusiasm of the facility of construction down the Willamette Valley. To reach the Columbia river, he preferred a route to the Scappoose Monntains and through them by the Cornelius Pass to St. Helens, but recognized the advantage of making Portland the terminus. He named the passes of the Portland hills available as at the falls of the Willamette, by Sucker Lake and Oswego, and by the Cornelius Pass below the cit\-. He also spoke of the impossibility of accommodating the whole of the Willamette Valley by one road. By pretty careful and just estimates, he set the total cost of constructing the entire line at $30,000,000, and the net annual earnings of the road from Man,'sville to the Columbia at $5,600,000. The report was flattering, presented in a pleasing form, and had a remarkable air of ease and assurance. He accorded especial praise to Mr. Gaston for vahiable assistance and possession of scientific attainments and thoronyi^h kno\vledu;^e of railroad enterprises. Accompanying this report was a description - prepared by Mr. Gaston - of the region traversed, and of Oregon in general. It was the first of the kind ever attempted - exatl and concise.

The next step was to get the subject before the Legislative bodies. It was brought by Mr. Gaston in 1864 to the attention of the Oregon Legislature, and a bill was passed at that session to grant $250,000 to a company constructing a road from Portland to Eugene; but this sum was so comparatively small as to induce no capitalists to take advantage of the offer. In the same year Colonel Barry went to Washington Cit\' and laid the matter before the United States Congress. He was warmly supported by Congressman Cornelius Cole, and General Bidwell, of California, and by the entire Oregon delegation - Senators Williams and Nesmith, and Congressman McBride. A bill was prepared and piished through the House bv Bidwell; by Nesmith, in the Senate. An important provision had alread}- been suggested by Colonel W. W. Chapman, of Portland. When the surveyors first reached Eugene they called a meeting of the citizens to ratify their undertaking. Colonel Chapman happening to be present at Eugene on business, attended their meeting. When a resolution was brought forward to embody the sentiment of those present, he noticed no reference as to the place of beginning to build the road except at Mai'ysville in California, and seeing at once that a road if thus built would draw trade towards San Francisco during its whole process of construction, and might not be at all completed to Portland, he added the provision that the road be begun at the two termini, Portland and Marys\-ille; that the two roads thus constructed should connect near the California border; that they be constructed by two companies, a California and an Oregon, each acting under the laws of their respective States; and that neither should ever discriminate against the other in freights or fares. These provisions were embodied in the bill of Bidwell, which also provided a land grant to the amount of twenty alternate sections, or 12,800 acres per mile, aggregating some 7,000,000 acres, worth about

$5,000,000 at the time - now worth at least $30,000,000. Upon completion and equipment of the first twenty miles of road and telegraph line within two years, the land grant co-terminus was to be patented to the railroad companies; the road twenty miles further was to be built each year, and the whole to be completed by 1875. The point of value in the bill was its land grant. Opposition to the giving of the public domain to corporations had not yet developed, and the subsidy worth $5,000,000 at the least was sufficient to induce capitalists to lend money on a work costing not more than $30,000,000. Great stress was laid in arguing for the bill on the fact that the Pacific sea-board was open to the attacks of a foreign enemy, and that to make the Union and Central Pacific railways effective in repelling invasion there should be a rail line parallel to the coast to allow the speedy dispatch of troops to any point threatened. As our relations with Great Britian were not very friendly in 1866, and France and Spain were also held as invidious, this reasoning had weight with eastern statesmen. Bankers seeking investments for the bonds and notes they held of the Government were readilv led to look into the merits of such a road as that proposed. The point of difficulty was to get means to build and equip the first twenty miles. While the matter of $15,000,000 looked indescribably easy as it rolled off" Colonel Barry's facile pen, the matter of securing $40,000 in Oregon in '68 was a herculean task The most of the farmers thought they were doing well if they could produce one hundred dollars on demand. Of the financial struggle, however, some account will appear later.

At the time of the passage of the bill by the United States Congress, in 1866, there was a compau}- in California, already in existence, which was designated in the bill as the California and Oregon Railroad Company. But in Oregon no company had as yet been fonued. The singular situation was therefore seen of a land grant of some 5,000,000 acres to a company not yet in existence. To meet this difficulty and to secure to Oregon the advantage of having the road built b)- a company of her own, the bill provided that the grantee of the laud in our State should be, "Such company organized under the laws of Oregon as the State shall hereafter designate." By this provision our State was left to name the association or corporation that should proceed with the work and take the land. Immediate steps were taken to organize the company and on October 6th, 1866, Governor Woods, then the State executive, sent a message to the Legislature notifying them that a company was about to be organized under the General Incorporation Act, to be known as the Oregon Central Railroad Company, "composed of some of the most responsible and energetic business men of the State." He suggested that through this the State avail itself of the liberal grant of land by the general government, and that to secure the construiftion of the first twenty miles of road the State pass a bill authorizing the payment of interest from the State Treasury on the bonds sufficient to construcft the necessary preliminary section.

With this proposed State aid for getting the first se(?tion done, a company was provisionally incorporated with the following names: R. R. Thompson, S. G. Reed, J. C. Ainsworth, M. M. Melvin, George L,. Woods, F. A. Chenoweth, Joel Palmer, Ed. R. Geary, S. Ellsworth, J. H. Mitchell, H. W. Corbett, B. F. Brown and T. H. Cox. Joseph Gaston was appointed secretary and was authorized to open stock books, and solicit subscriptions. On February 20th, 1867, he published notice of incorporation. He also explained that in consequence of the California parties having chartered the available ships, no iron could be brought out for his operations that year, and that arrangements for an extension of time of building their road had been made with the Oregon delegation at Washington. Stock, he said, would be solicited so soon as positive assurances were received from Eastern capitalists of investment in the securities of the company, and as soon as one-half had been subscribed a meeting would be held to eledl directors according to law. This notice was generalh' published in the papers, and almost universally favorably commented upon.

The company was formally incorporated November 21, 1866, with the following names: J. S. Smith, J. H. Mitchell, E. D. Shattuck, Jesse Applegate, Joel Palmer, H. W. Corbett, M. M. Melvin, I. R. Moores, F. A. Chenoweth, George L. Woods, R. R. Thompson, J. C. Ainsworth, S. G. Reed, John McCraken, C. H. Lewis, B. F.

Brown, T. H. Cox and J. Gaston. In order to get the benefit of the Land Grant of Congress, it filed its assent to the terms of the act before Jnly 25, 1867, as provided, and was recognized as the rightful recipient of this gi'ant, conformably to conditions, by the acting Secretary of the Interior, W. T. Otto.

After getting thus far in its way, \-igorous measures were taken to obtain subscriptions of stock. The State passed a bill to pay interest on $10,000 per mile of the first hundred miles of the road built, contingent upon the completion of twenty miles. The city of Portland agreed to pay interest on $250,000 bonds for twent)" years upon conditions as to building, etc. Washington county, likewise, would pay interest on $50,000; Yamhill was expecting to pa\' on $75, 000. Private subscriptions aggregating above $25, 000 in mone\- were recei\ed, and a much greater value was donated in the shape of land from farmers and others. \'alues to nearly half a million dollars were thus accumulated - -not, of course, available to that amount on forced sale, but substantially so in permanent possession. The route was fixed to run from Portland to Eugene on the west side of the Willamette ri\-er, passing through Washington, Yamhill, Polk and Benton Counties.

While the road was thus pushing along with determination there appeared the shadow, or. double, or, as it afterwards turned out, the antagonist of the Oregon Central Railroad. This was the Oregon Central Railroad No. 2. A formidable rival of the first, it was a company organized under the same name and claiming to be the true Oregon Central Railroad, and therefore entitled to the Land Grant from the Government. It differed from the first in working for a road on the east side of the Willamette river and in the composition of its members. It may not be worth our while to give here all the particulars of the split and division in the original corporation which resulted in the formation of two companies. It is easy enough, liowever, to see the leading motive. There were two sides to the Willamette \^alley, and each side desired a railway, and to have it must get all the State and national aid obtainable. It was a matter of course that the moment that the road was fi.xed for one side (Gaston having decided to locate on the side raising the largest subsidy), there would be an attempt to divert it to the other. It was deemed idle to expect the State or Nation to ^ant substantial aid for building on both sides, and hence the quarrel began for the privileges. The company as originally incorporated embraced men on both sides of the river, but when the route was fixed for the west side - in truth, generally conformably to Barry's survey - members of the east side or those favoring it preferred to form another organization to be under their own control. The incorporators of this company - the East Side as it was popularly known - were John H. Moores, J. S. Smith, George L. Woods, E. N. Cooke, S. Ellsworth, I. R. Moores and Samuel A. Clark. It was incorporated April 22, 1867. Its first board of directors were George L. Woods, E. N. Cooke, J. H. Douthitt, I. R. IMoores, T. McF. Patton, J. H. Moores, Jacob Conser, A. L. Lovejoy, F. A. Chenoweth, S. Ellsworth, S. F. Chadwick, John F. Miller, John E. Ross, J. H. D. Henderson, A. F. Hedges, S. B. Parrish and Green B. Smith. J. H. Moores was president and S. A. Clarke, secretary.

It may very well be supposed that the two rival companies thus formed, each aiming to secure a land grant worth $5,000,000 and to build a road which should not only bring millions of money to its constructors, but be a great and famous achievement and bring benefit to the whole State, and particularly to those portions traversed, began to fight each other to the death. It was war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. The spirit of the combatants was most earnest and serious, while some of the attending circumstances were very diverting. Before the people, the west side road was able to stand on the defensive and as within the forms and requirements of law. It also maintained the position of financial integrity, and carefully eschewed and stigmatized any "wildcat " schemes. It was for the most part favored by Portland, which, being situated upon the west side of the river, rather feared the east side arrangement, as, if not actually building up a rival upon the opposite shore, at least withdrawing value from the property in the city. She was then a place of less than ten thousand people, and the injur)' of having the seat of value even a mile from her principal streets was thought to be considerable. Those living upon the original square mile looked with distrust and opposition even upon " Couch's Portland," and spoke freely against the inconvenience of walking a mile to the depot - let alone a voyage across the river to Wheeler's farm, in the woods. Washington county, always warmly attached to Portland, and enjoying many favors from her close proximity, raged against the idea of being left without a road while Congressional aid was extended for a track through Clackamas and Marion. There was also much said about the inutility and the general impropriety of a dog's having two tails - the Willamette river being averred to be good enough for the eastsiders, upon whose bank their road was to be built. A broader view was expressed by some, as the Oregonian, which, seeing that a valley fifty miles wide could not and never would be accommodated by one railway, expressed a desire that both lines be built, speaking as follows: "We must not be understood in any way as taking sides in the controversy or supposed rivalry between the east and west side lines. We want both roads built, and the people want them, and from the fact that there is as much need of the one as the other, we prefer to think there is or should be no rivalry between them." (May 26, 1868).

Such pacific counsels had, of course, no influence in disposing of the real difficulty, and so long as the existence of each company depended upon getting the grant of land, and each company was using every possible form of address to fulfill the conditions, the dispute had to be carried to a conclusion - either one or the other getting the prize.

During 1867 surveys were projected on both sides. A board of directors was chosen for the west side road May 24th, composed of Captain J. C. Ainsworth, Thomas R. Cornelius, Wm. T. Newby, J. B. Underwood and Joseph Gaston, of which Mr. Gaston was elected president and W. C. Whitson secretary. Mr. Hart was secured as superintendent of construction. Financial arrangements were busily canvassed, but there was no ground broken that year.

The spring of 1868 was bright and fair, and April blessed with the usual showers. The 15th day of that month was a jubilee in our little " clucking-hen of a city," as someone called it about that time, for the first shovelful of railroad earth was to be thrown that day. The scene of the first labors was at the then head of Fourth street, in Caruther's addition. Hither in the morning of the 15th repaired the board of directors of the Oregon Central Railroad (west side), the contractors, Messrs. Davis, Thornton & Co., and a very large and enthusiastic assemblage of citizens. At half past eleven the ceremonies began. Mr. Gaston, the president of the board, made a speech, embodying the history of the company and a statement of its franchises and finances. He outlined the general policy of the company to be to obtain enough in the way of subscriptions within the State to build the first twenty miles, and secure the government land, and upon this, and the completed work, to get loans of outside capital. He said that it was confidently believed that by the time subscription lists were closed in Portland - having referred to municipal, county and State subsidies, and to gifts of real estate by farmers and others - the required sum for the first twenty miles would be in hand. Hiram Smith, of Portland, was loudly cheered for being the first to pay his subscription of $1,000.

Concluding his speech in the hope ' ' that the work now to be formally inaugurated shall, in its completion, be made the servant and promoter of years of future growth, prosperity and wealth until here, upon the banks of the beautiful Willamette shall arise a city, holding the keys and being the gateway of, and hand-maid to, the commerce between the Atlantic and the Indies, shall rival Venice in its adornment and Constantinople in its wealth," the president of the company descended to the spot where shovel and barrow were in readiness, and amid much cheering dug the first earth.

Colonel W. W, Chapman followed in a speech, setting forth the value of the road to induce immigration, and the effect it would have to stimulate the building of a branch of the Union Pacific to Portland. The financial basis he considered exceptionally good, footing up to about two and a quarter million dollars, while the cost of construction to Eugene would not exceed two millions. He spoke with great approval of the policy of the company to employ only white men - or, at least, no Chinese - as laborers, believing that the laboring population ought to be of a permanent character, with interests common to the rest of the people. Ex-Governor A. C.

Gibbs continued the speech-making, alluding to the rise in the value of land from $2.50 an acre to $50 under railway influence; and to the immense export of wheat that Oregon would soon arrive at.

With the close of this address, the shower that had been falling passed over, the sun beamed out warm and the crowd moved to the grounds and began a frolic of digging, pitching and wheeling. A lady, the wife of Judge David Lewis, an engineer of the road, was among the first to lift a shovelful, and all present were eager to be at least able to say that they personally had a part in breaking the first ground. As the afternoou waned the crowd dispersed, and the workmen began with regular steady stroke and heave to move the yellow brown loess.

The East side road was ready to break ground two days later. A clipping from a Portland daily paper gives the following account of the event:

Thursday, .A.pril 16th, 1868, was a gala day in the history of Oregon, for it witnessed the practical inauguration of the work of the construdlion of a railway through the great Willamette Valley. The occasion was the formal breaking of the ground for the east side railroad, and the important event was celebrated in a befitting manner. The place selected for commencing work was an open field about three-quarters of a mile from the Stark street ferry landing, at East Portland, and about 500 yards from the east bank of the Willamette river. The spot where the sod was first disturbed was not far from where the old asylum for the insane then stood.

In honor of the event, flags were flying from every available flag staff in Portland. A procession was formed in the city and marched to the spot selected, where ground was to be broken. This procession was preceded by the Aurora brass band. The first division consisted of the Washington and Fenian Guards, the mayor and members of the council of Portland, the chaplain, orator of the day, the president and directors of the Oregon Central Railroad Company, the chief engineer and corps of employees. In this division was borne the shovel to be presented by Samuel M. Smith to the president of the road, and to be used in breaking the ground. The second and third divisions consisted of the fire departments of Portland and Vancouver, and citizens on horse back, in carriages and on foot. Prior to the arrival of the procession an immense crowd had assembled at the grounds to witness the ceremonies.

The assemblage, numbering not less then 5000, was called to order by Dr. A. M. Lorj-ea; Rev, A. F. Waller, the chaplain, then offered prayer. The shovel mentioned was then formally presented to the president of the road, Col. I. R. Moores. The shovel bore on it a beautiful silver plate attached to the front of the handle, with the following engraved inscription: 'Presented by Sam M. Smith to the Oregon Central Railroad, Portland, April 16, 1868. Ground broken with this shovel for the first railroad in Oregon.' The presentation speech was made at some length by John H. Mitchell and fittingly responded to by Col. I. R. Moores.

At the conclusion of the address and response President Moores then descended from the platform with the shovel in his hand. He proceeded to the center of the square, where was driven the "first stake, ' ' and threw out the first sod in the construction of the Oregon Central railroad. This was accomplished amid the loud acclamations of the multitude. The breaking of the ground was followed by three rousing cheers for the road, for the directors and contractors, during which the band discoursed "Hail Columbia." After this, all the laborers, at a given signal, fell to the work of grading. The remainder of the ceremonies consisted of addresses by Judge \V. W. Upton and Hon. J. N. Dolph. Short addresses were also made in conclusion by J. H. Reed, Joel Palmer and others.

Work was pushed on both sides all the spring and summer, and by the middle of September the west side had the main grading along the face of the mountains finished some three miles out from the city. This road was very much in the nature of a work by the people, and to incite them to effort the President made to them extensive appeals through the newspapers. In his report of May 25th 1868, officially to the Board of Directors, really to the people of the State, he reached a remarkably fine strain, reminding one of a military appeal, and well calculated to awaken enthusiasm. He says "Oregon has not yet done all that it may easily do to aid this great work, and especially those along the line who are most benefitted by the road. Every man can help some. Let every man do so and failure will be utterly impossible. Laborers must be fed and the farmers along the line can contribute flour, bacon, vegetables and all the necessaries of life, when they have no cash to spare; and this they would not feel. Teams must be supplied and supported; horses and their provender are everywhere abundant; let them be freely supplied and the work will not lag. The right of way ought to be cheerfully donated in every case. Cross ties can be easily furnished by people along the line, each furnishing a few, and taking their pay in stock or lands. In this way let a railroad spirit be aroused and stirred up to a deeper depth, and the railroad will be eminently the people's, and an Oregon enterprise, and will be pushed rapidly up the Willamette, through the Calapooiahs on to Rogue River and spreading its iron arms out on either side, will infuse new life into the whole country; make your wheat of uniform current value from Jacksonville to Portland, take out every brush, reconstruct every fann, quadruple its value, erect comfortable houses everywhere, give the farmer the full value of his labor and produce at his own door, create new towns and cities, and finally supply and serve the wants of a million of people, prosperous and happy in the enjoyment of one of the most favored spots and climes beneath the sun. ' '

The east side road being of a less popular character, and looking more to acquisition of capital, and use of modern railroad methods, was already seeking for an alliance with some capitalist ready to run their road through. They seemed to have had a wholesome distrust of popular enthusiasm in matters financial, and to count but little upon supplies or money raised in tidbits, and dependent for its cheerful delivery upon a large variety of people, many of whom were likely to be miffed or chilled by reason of the most trival or personal circumstances. They knew that promises to the people in order to be at all impressive or productive of results, must be highly colored or even extravagant; and such promises, before fulfilled must inevitably seem to many exaggerated and perhaps spurious, and even in the fulfillment would to many of sanguinary temperament seem to fall far short of their intent. They preferred to rely upon a railroad king, who, even if he ate up some of his subjects, would at least see that he got back interest upon his investments by carrying his work through to completion and would have his financial stakes well set, and thereby assure a road. With the generous and frank methods of the west side road it is impossible not to sympathize, at the same time doubting the efficiency of their plan to interest the people in their work enough to be anything like a reliable aid. The more calculating, less open, and extraordinary measures of the east side company commend themselves much less to our approbation, but nevertheless took account of some things not provided for in the other. It may seem a useless thing to revive the story of old struggles, especially as both sides got their road and things are now serene. But there are certain obligations on the historian to explain how things have come to be as they are, and hence we give the thread of the story. It is no part of our work to award praise or blame. Errors are always to be set down as evil, and unscrupnlousness is to be reprobated wherever or by whomsoever practiced. In this case, however, the reader is to sit as judge. Both companies wanted a road, and took the shortest cut to get it.

S. G. Elliott, the original engineer, came up and took charge of the working measures and forces of the east side. He was understood to represent a large amount of capital, and through him and others, Mr. N. P. Ferine and Mr. James P. Flint of San Francisco, arrangements were made with a certain "A. J. Cook & Co." to construct one hundred and fifty miles of the road. Said Cook was declared to be immensely rich and fully able to carry the work through. In a circular issued by the company it was stated that the capital stock was $7,250,000, which was the represented cost of construction. The actual cost of the road would, however, be but $5,250,000 - at $35,000 per mile. This latter was to be known as common stock, and was to be sold at ten cents on the dollar, bringing in something over $3,000, to be applied upon every mile. The other ninety per cent, was to be raised by a mortgage. Anyone buying a share was to pay $10 and receive a share marked $100, but designated as unassessable and not to be subject to any further demands for payment. It was charged by the other party that the $2,000,000 of unassessable preferred stock - the difference between the $7,250,000, or the represented cost, and the $5,250,000, or the actual cost - was for gratuitous distribution among the directors of the company and to buy the favor of prominent men in the State. In a manner as a confirmation of this charge, the statement of Col. J. W. Nesmith, that he had been offered, but refused, $50,000 stock to become a director of the east side road atid to deliver the speech at the breaking of ground, was widely circuluted. A letter from James P. Flint, from San Francisco, to N. P. Ferine, with reference to his mission to Oregon, advising the liberal use of stock, common rather than preferred, to secure the good will and co-operation of influential men, was afterwards made public. It was further said that of the whole stock but $700 had been subscribed by actual signature of responsible men; that the rest had been subscribed by the company to itself, and the incorporators had expressly disavowed any further liability than of the seven original shares. The organization of the company, by which they had elected their president and directors, was said to be contrary to the State statute, which provided that half of the capital stock must be subscribed before the officers were elected.

A spirited public contest began almost from the first between the two companies, each making copious use of the newspaper press, and warning the people of the other. The president of the west side road issued circulars not only in our State, but throughout the East, declaring that the Oregon Central Railroad, whose principal office was at Portland, was the only true Oregon Central Railroad ; that the other, doing business from Salem, was a sham and fraud; that they had no legitimate existence, no substantial bottom, no claim to public lands or franchises of any kind. He asserted that A. J. Cook & Co. was a myth; that their methods were fraudulent, their representations false, and their bonds worthless, except as made good by subscriptions of innocent and unsuspicious parties who took the ten per cent, unassessable stock, and might be compelled to pay one hundred per cent, to redeem their promises according to statute. His statements were curt and positive and in the East broke up a loan that Elliott was contracting.

The east side replied by denouncing him as one whose irregular methods had disintegrated the first company and made necessary the formation of a new. They said that he had been originally invested with power by them to fonn and incorporate a company, but he abused his trust by enlarging the number of incorporators without their knowledge, and making a secret agreement with a certain portion, principally those additionally obtained by him, to divide among themselves the profits of the road, to the injury of the others; and, worst of all, that he failed to file with the Secretary of State and the clerk of Multnomah county the records of incorporation in time for the State legislature to legally designate the company as the one entitled to the donation of government land, as provided by the United States congressional bill. They also said that in this last particular he had deceived the other incorporators and the State legislature, having affirmed that he had filed the articles.

To these personal charges Mr. Gaston at first gave little attention, preferring to continue his warnings against the rival company and his analysis of their financial standing; but when it became necessary to explain the matter before Congress, he was able to show by the affidavit of the clerk of Multnomah county and by statement of the Secretary of State that he had actually presented for filing the articles of incorporation on October 6th, 1866, and such was recognized in pencil on the articles; but upon his desire to retain them for a time to get additional names attached to tliem, he was permitted to do so, and they had eventually been filed formally on a date more than a month later and after the legislature had adjourned. The assertion that he had delayed filing the articles for the sake of working up a secret scheme hostile to the interests of the company, was thereby shown to have been at least misapprehended.

On the part of those who left the first company and organized a second, it may be very fairly said that looking as they did in the office of the Secretary of State for the articles in order to be sure that they were there, and finding no account of them - the Secretary having forgotten the circumstances of their withdrawal after their presentation - they might well have felt solicitous and looked with suspicion upon agreements that they had heard were going on without their knowledge in Portland. Thus the whole disruption and contest arose in a measure from a clerical error and a misundei'standing. This at least, gave a certain edge and bitterness to the controvers}' that would have been absent from a mere question of rivalry or pecuniary interests; for gentlemen of each party felt that their personal integrity was assailed.

The sharp and wordy battle in public print was speedily carried to the court room. After making public statements of the fraudulent character of their rivals, complaint was made on the part of the West side road and suit was brought in the Circuit Court for Multnomah county, through the prosecuting attorney of the Fourth Judicial District, to dissolve the East side company, and forbid their using the name Oregon Central Railroad on the ground that their organization had not been made in accordance with Statute - only $700 of the $7,250,000 having been subscribed when the Board of Directors was first chosen; and that it was a public fraud and statutory illegality to put unassessable stock on the market. Suit was begun also in the Circuit Court for Marion county, May 1st, 1868, on the same ground to the same purpose.

In the United States District Court at Portland suit was brought by James B. Newby, of California, to dissolve the East side company and forbid the use of their name O. C. R. R. Co., on the ground that his stock in the West side road was depreciated in value by the fraudulent use of the corporate name of the company whose stock he held. Another case was brought up from Clackamas county, relative to right of way, in which the same assertions were made as to the invalidity of the East side organization.

On the other hand, in April, 1868, the East side company brought suit through the prosecuting attorney of the Fourth Judicial District to dissolve the West side company on the ground of a secret fraudulent agreement between certain of its incorporators, and of many other irregularities; but withdrew it before a decision was reached.

These cases worked their way very slowly across demurrers and other legal obstructions from court to court, producing little but expensive litigation, retarding the sale of lands, wasting force and means, and impairing public confidence. A decision dampening the West side company was reached in the United States Distridl Court about this time, that the City of Portland was barred by the clause in its charter limiting the indebtedness of the city to $50,000, from paying the interest on #250,000 for twenty years on the West side bonds, since this created a debt of more than $300,000. It does not appear that this suit, which was brought in the name of a citizen of California who owned taxable property in Portland, was instigated by the East side company, yet it may be imagined that it was; and at all events, it had the effect of a great victory for them, and a great defeat for the West side, since it knocked a quarter of a million dollars security upon which they were greatly relying, from under their feet.

spots denied right of way being ommitted for the time. The representations of Elliott as to a contract with A. J. Cook and Company, were found to be no longer serviceable. Dr. A. M. Loryea, of East Portland, a bluff, gnarled oak sort of a man, naturally opposite to fine work, then Vice President of the company on his side the river, was allowed to go east on a fruitless search for the contractors, finding them neither east nor west, and in no way a connection of Jay Cook & Co., as they had become to be considered by the public. The blind had, however, allowed time for the completion of arrangements with Ben HoUaday, of California, (if not at first prepared by him in order to keep the name and machinery of the east side company in the hands of Oregonians until the land grant should be declared theirs, or to keep up so hot a fight against the West Side as to kill it, or to compel it to sell its franchises at a nominal price to its rivals); and in 1868, HoUaday's money began to flow into the exchequer and to energize the work of construction.

As HoUaday came here as a railroad king, and for abovit ten }ears carried all public matters with a high hand, becoming atitocrat of all lines of transportation and well nigh political dictator and transfonning the visage of the country not only, but inaugurating a new system of politics and of public proceeding generally, it will be in place here to indicate something of his aims, methods, and pre\-ious history. He was one of the marked men of the age, of keen foresight, and an ambition and self-confidence that hesitated not to seize ever>' opportunity of self-promotion. He belonged to the second order of potentates who have sprung up in America. Our sjstem of government holds public servants to so^rigid an accouut, and the public press so scrutinizes their actions, that it is not the office holder who wields the power. He is hampered by constitutional restrictions, and public espionage, and by party pledges so that his work even in the legislative hall or the executive chair, becomes little more than perfunctory, or that of a factor. But behind his sphere, clothed with unlimited power, which laws have been unable to specify or courts to define, is the money king. It is popularly believed that his power is actually unlimited, except by his own mistakes, by the opposition of rivals, or by the integrity of influential men who will not be bought. But these restrictions upon his autocracy - like that of assassination as to the limit of the Czar's absolutism - he of course refuses to recognize.

At the close of the war great opportunities were offered by the financial situation for immense speculations. That great conflict, in which men were organized and massed by the hundreds of thousands, and money was moved by the millions, had taught the country how to operate on a large scale. A spirit of daring and recklessness was also fostered. Those accustomed to risk their lives, or to see platoons of men hurled to death before long rows of cannons and bayonets, felt no hesitancy in risking so tame a thing as money, by the million dollars. A new confidence in the nation sprung up, and, as a sort of reaction from the moral strain, an intense eagerness for material advancement took possession. Money, as a power to control human action, was valued as never before, and, as is usual with new endeavors, was invested with a potency far beyond its real limit. Men of ambition, instead of following in the steps of Clay or Webster, and aiming to mould events by argument and eloquence, figured themselves as at the fountain head of the stream of gold, and by its flowing creating and transforming. It was towards railroading that the most brilliant conceptions were turned, and the West was to be the theatre of the vastest schemes. A patriotic and humanitarian feeling was mingled with these ambitious ideas, since the loyal part of the nation saw the advantage of bringing out of the wilderness States loyal to the government which had just emerged from an almost fatal struggle with secession, and setting the nation upon a granite foundation. Furthermore, the idea of renovating and populating the earth, as in old migrations, but by new improved methods of civilization, became once more fascinating to men of reflection.

HoUaday was a Kentuckian by birth, had grown up in the West, had learned every foot of countr}- between St. Louis and San Francisco upon his pony express, had breathed the California spirit of gold and adventure, and imbibed the western idea of the immensity of the future of the Pacific shores. Not exactly a disciple of Bishop Berkeley, he had, nevertheless, a practical notion that the star of empire was about nearing its zenith over the Golden Gate, and was as quick as anyone to see the opportunities for dominion as the national government was once more restored. He had had practical opportunity to see the workings of a railroad era in the Central and Union Pacific, and as by these roads his mail contracts were suspended, he very naturally turned elsewhere for a field. He had kept careful watch of the great line that had been projected into Oregon, and, keeping fully up with the operations of the companies managing it, he bided his time to seize their work when the best chance came. As an American, he was not devoid of ideality. He had in mind the development of a new empire. The pyrotechnic editorial flashes in all the papers about the seat of population being soon transferred to the strip of country between the Rockies and the Pacific were more or less present to his mind. He thought out some scheme of colonization. He was, nevertheless, a man whose selfishness dominated all else, and his practical incentive was to use the power of wealth to control a State, and perhaps a much larger area, in his own name. He showed no love for Oregon, or for the people of Oregon, but no other field was so inviting, or so well within his means.

From his subsequent acftions, it may well be doubted whether his purposes were absolutely clear to himself, or that he followed them unswervingly. If his aim was simply to build a railroad, he might have done it with less trouble and expense, and for far greater returns. If his idea was to make himself the autocrat of the State, to own legislatures and United States senators, and perhaps to extend his operations over adjoining Territorie.s and control transcontinental lines, he never followed it with consistenc}'. Upon rigid examination we apprehend that he would be found a man of strong intentions, but of unstable will, of deep schemes, but of feeble convictions, of large aims, but incapable of sustained endeavor or sacrifice, and subject to passion and prejudice. It may also be said that, although in the strength of manhood when he came to our State, an excessive lu.xury of life and diet broke his vigor long before he reached old age.

As a working scheme of morality, he let nothing stand in way of his aims, recognizing no right e.xcept the shortest way to his object. He had one, and but one, means of attaining his end and that was the i:se of his money. To buy an attorney, a judge, a city, a legislature, public opinion, was all one to him. He made no appeals to the people, neither addressing them on the side of self interest or generosity. Upon occasion he published a message something after the style of a manifesto or edict. The public new nothing of him except that he was a nabob living in unapproachable magnificence, and was at the head of all that was going. He paid his agents and let them work their way, allowing them to use profanity or religion to reach the object that he named. This was the man that appeared in his true form above the stormy rail road horizon of Oregon in 1868. J. H. Mitchell, one of the first incorporators of the original Oregon Central Railroad Company, but also an incorporator of the second, or East Side Co. , and their attorney, rendered very efficient service to Mr. HoUaday.

Two general objedls were now before this company; one to keep suits in court as long as possible in order to prevent decision upon the mooted points - since while the cases were in court the two companies seemed to, and did, stand upon the same legal ground, and neither one nor the other ihad the right to assume that it was the tnie and only company; and, in the meantime, to get an act through the Oregon Legislature, designating their company as the one to receive the grant of the United States land. They also e.xpecfted to push legislation through Congress.

Upon the assembling of the Legislatiire at Salem in 1868, a bill was brought to thus designate this company and invest it with authority to receive the land. This was an audacious move, since in the session of 1866, two years before, the old Oregon Central railroad had been designated, and the compau}- of which Joseph Gaston was president had been duly recognized, and had received from the acting Secretary of the Interior a certificate that its assent to the conditions of the land grant had been officially filed; while the assent of the East Side company - which was now seeking the bill - sent on later was returned without filing for the double reason that the time had expired, and that the other company had fulfilled the condition. But the bill was, nevertheless, introduced, and upon the minority report that there was no Oregon Central Railroad Company of any kind in existence on October 10, 1866, when the designating bill was passed by the Oregon Legislature, and that such bill was, therefore, mistaken and illegal, and the Secretary' of the Interior at Washington City had been misinformed; and also that the West Side road had no more than $40,000 capital, and that $2,500,000 stock was held by the president of the company alone. The measure was passed. This was done in opposition to the majority report that in their opinion the previous Legislature had designated a company, had declared it to be in existence, and that its articles had been provisionally filed on October 6th, four days before the original designating bill was passed. To parry the force of this last statement it was contended in the minority report that the company whose articles had been filed October 6 th, in pencil, did not appear to be the same as that of November 21st following - which was the genuine West Side Company - since the names of incorporators were changed or appeared with certain additions.

Soon after this J. H. Mitchell went with these resolutions of 1868, favoring the east side company, to Washington City to secure favorable legislation from the United States Congress, taking the dispute to a national arena. He brought to notice of our senators, Corbett and Williams, the state of affairs, and the latter, learning the understanding of the matter by the secretary of the interior, O. H. Browning, to be that there had not been, as yet, a legal company to receive the grant of land - the west side company having failed to incorporate in time, and the east side company having failed to file assent in time - and that therefore without an a<5l to revive the grant the land must lapse, or had lapsed to the government; introduced a bill to allow a year's time from date of passage for any company to file assent. This was opposed by the west side company, who were present at Washington by their president, and by S. G. Reed, as agent, on the ground that it virtually took the decision out of the courts, where it was still pending, and by putting the two companies on the same footing gave the east side a legal hold which it then did not and could not have - since under the former a<5l it was impossible for it to file its assent in accordance with the provision, the time having long since passed by. The west side also complained that, as they had taken all the first steps to comply with the conditions of the a(Sl, forming a compan)', spending money, and securing an extension of time of building, while the east side was for months doing nothing, and never got around to file an assent in time to hold the grant, they ought not to be put back on a par with a dilatory corporation, which since its formation had been maliciously opposing, hindering and trying to extinguish the only company that had had the address and expedition to save the grant to the State. In Senator Corbett they had a spokesman - Senator Williams also disavowing any hostility to them, and being anxious only to save the land - and the general spirit of the Senate was in their favor; Conkling, Hendricks and Howard speaking pointedly that the equities of the case seemed to be with the west side company, and regarding the proposed bill as prejudicial to them. It was consequently re-committed; but at the next session was brought up, and after some adverse discussion by Corbett was passed. With this legislation the east side company virtually gained its point. Under the bill it became inevitable that the company which was able to complete the first twenty miles of the road within the time specified - by December 25th, 1869 - would secure the land, which was the true prize and object of controversy. Both companies pushed forward with work of construction, but both met with delays. S. G. Elliott, on the east side, was found to be either incompetent, or, as asserted by his company, wilfully dilatory. On the west side the contractors, S. G. Reed & Co. , who had been the main stay, became disaffected, and in April threw up their contracil, leaving the road hopelessly in the lurch; and, as asserted by west side men, furnishing the necessary locomotives and iron for the completion of the rival road. Gaston applied what money was left, and carried the grading to Hillsboro. Elliott was superseded by Kidder, under order of Holladay, and by forced work the twenty miles from East Portland to Parrott Creek was completed December 24th, 1869, just in time. This consummation was appropriately celebrated.

Seeing the impossibility of his company finishing their twenty miles within the time, Mr. Gaston applied all available money, carrying the grading to Hillsboro, and went to Washington in January of 1870, to secure if possible a separate grant of land for his company. In this lie was successful, the grant being on the line from Portland to Astoria, and also to McMinnville. In the same year the old controversy as to which of the two was the rightful owner of the name O. C. Railroad Company, was decided in favor of the West Side, Judge Deady holding that this was the rightful corporation, and the other be estopped from using its designation. The East Side company having gained its government land cared no further for the name, and in March formally dissolved the Oregon Central Co., of Salem, transferring all their franchises and interests to the Oregon and Californian Railroad Company organized but a short time before, of which HoUaday became president. By this act the West Side was left to the undisputed use of the name, but this was now a barren possession. Under his new land grant Gaston made arrangements with a Philadelphia Company to build the road, but owing to the dissatisfaction of Portland capitalists upon whom he hitherto relied, he decided to sell his road - the board of directors concurring - to HoUaday. This was done in the summer of 1870. The Californian thereby became the master of the entire railroad situation in Oregon. Upon the subscription of $100,000.00 by the people of Portland, he began building the road, and in 1872 finished forty-eight miles to the Yamhill River at St. Joe.

It is instructive to notice that when the East Side road had .gained its end, and found it necessary to dispose of S. G. Elliott, its attorney declared its early acts as to the issuance of unassessable stock illegal ; and "A. J. Cook & Co. " was then admitted, or asserted to be a myth, or at least but some obscure individiial whose name was irresponsibly and fraudulently used by Elliott - thus confirming the charges of their old enemy and rival.

It was a memorable conflict, that condu6ted by the first rival railroad companies of Oregon; with matter in it for a novelist. It would be rash to intimate that Elliott with all his mythical capitalists was an agent of HoUaday all the time, the general opinion being that he was at first acting only for himself, or that the East Side Company knew the extent of his romances, which they used so well to their advantage. It would on the other hand be difficult to believe that HoUaday, or the original East Side Company, were actually imposed upon by representations as to a firm like A. J. Cook & Co. , of immense wealth and standing, when any business or banking gazetteer would inform them as to the existence or non existence of such a firm; particularly as Mr. Gaston was constantly asserting in public that this compan)' was all a pretence. To sum up the results, the West Side Company was able to prove its statements as to the irregularities of its opponent, and to come off with the original name; also to get a land grant of their own, and to make fair terms for the building of the road. The East Side Company, beginning almost without legal or legislative footing, killed the opposition of their rivals in court by so prolonging the cases as to make them of no practical injury, but rather as sort of a shield to themselves; and gained State and Congressional Legislation that gave them standing and secured for them the original land grant. Both, however, were swallowed up by the money king.

At this distance of time, it will be impossible for the great mass of the people of Oregon, coming to the State at a later day, in any wise to comprehend the character and extent of the struggle, the almost insuperable difficulties to overcome, in starting these two pioneer railroads. It is easier for Portland to raise $1,000,000 now for a railroad; than it was $10,000 in 1868.

After completing his road to Roseburg and St. Joe at a cost of about $5,000,000, and incurring a debt in Germany of about twice that sum, Holladay found himself unable to pay interest on his bonds. The country' was new, the people were unused to travel by rail. Earnings scarcely met e.xpences, and a remark made long before by a Salem gentleman that the railroad would on its first trip carry all the passengers, on its second all the freight of the Willamette Valley, and, on the third would have to pull up the track behind it, seemed not so immeasurably far from realization. Some of the interest as due was met by draughts upon the capital itself Then the avails of the steamship lines to San Francisco were turned in, but even then there was a deficit. The road was therefore claimed by the bondholders and the rights of Holladay were won.

plans and routes in view, and there happened to be two Surveyor- Generals of the State, W. W. Chapman, who served under appointment of Buchanan, and B. J. Pengra, who served under Lincoln. Chapman was a Portlander, one of the fathers of the place, and although a man of wide sympathies, naturally desired the transcontinental line to terminate at his city. He had passed a life of almost constant political activity in and about legislative halls, having been the first delegate of Iowa to Congress, and from his knowledge of parliamentary tactics was most admirably adapted to lay the foundation of a road. He, of course, only aimed to determine the lines, to secure necessary legislation promised and then interest capitalists. Without large means, he nevertheless applied from his private means enough to make a provisional running of the road, and to send an agent to London to investigate financial conditions. The route of his line he laid by The Dalles, up the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and to connect with the Union Pacific at Salt Lake. About 1869 and '70 was the period of his activity, although for a long time before this he had cherished the plan, and was making preparation. Before Congress he was indefatigable in bringing the claim of his road to notice, but met with very hostile influences. One of them was that of the Northern Pacific, which saw no occasion for a road to the Pacific Northwest other than their own. The contest in Congress narrowed down to a fight between him and them. In this emergenc}' he was left without assistance by even the delegates from his own State, but proved amply able to at least prevent the passage of a bill that would have left Portland without a road. This was the means authorizing the Northern Pacific to construct their road via the Valley of the Columbia to Puget Sound, the conditions of which would have been fulfilled by laying the rails on the north side of the river, as was shown to have been preferred by their map filed with the Secretary. By his timely protest the bill was defeated, and although unable to go forward with his own plan the way was left open for the O. R. & N. Co. , without hindrance from the Northern Pacific, or any other party. The road, earnestly advocated and agitated by Mr. Pengra, was what was known as the Winnemucca line. It was to extend from some point on the Central Pacific in

Nevada, preferably Winnemucca, to Oregon, an4 down the Cascade Mountains, by the passes of the Willamette, coming to Eugene City, and thence via the West Side road to Portland, and also to Astoria. From this point on the Central Pacific it was no farther to Portland than to San Francisco, and the people of Nevada was very much in favor of the plan, being fully seconded by their Congressman Fitch. The road was defeated, however, by an amendment made in the Senate that instead of coming to Eugene it unite with the Oregon & California in the Rogue River Valley. By this change it was effectually killed, as no company cared to build a road which must be working to Holladay's line, as this would be.

Henry Villard And The Northern Pacific

In July, 1874, Mr. Henry Villard made his first visit to Oregon. He was vested with full powers as agent for and to represent the German bondholders. His purpose in coming was to make a careful inyestigation of the general condition of the roads then built and equipped, and to inquire thoroughly into the financial affairs of the Oregon & California Railroad Company. Prior to this Mr. Richard Koehler arrived in Portland as a resident financial agent for the German bondholders. Mr. Koehler reached Portland July 25, 1874. He was installed as agent for the syndicate, the members of which obtained, by previous agreement with Holladay, a supervisory right over the management of the road in reference to operation and construction J matters and a representative in the board of directors. Holladay still remained in nominal control of the roads as president; the active and actual management, however, was retained by Villard under the powers and privileges conferred by the bondholders. This condition of affairs continued until April 18, 1876, when Holladay retired altogether from the management of the road. On the following day, April 19, Mr. Villard assumed full control. On the retirement of Holladay the following were the oflicers of the company : President, H. Villard; vice-president and treasurer, R. Koehler; secretary, A. G. Cunningham. At that time the bondholders bought out Holladay's interest and became the owners of all the stock. At the regular elections following for several years there were no changes in the officers until April, 1882, at which time A. G. Cunningham retired as secretary and George H. Andrews was elected in his place. Since that date Mr. Andrews has held that position, and, like his predecessor, has proved a most active and efficient officer.

From Roseburg To Ashland

During the time Villard represented the German bondholders, 206 miles of the additional road were constructed. This embraced the distance between Roseburg and Ashland (145 miles); the west side road from St. Joe to Corvallis (50 miles); and the short branch line from Albany to Lebanon (11.5 miles). In May, 1881 a reorganization of the^affairs of the company was effected by which the original, or Ben Holladay stock, was wiped out, and the old bonds were converted into stocks, and a new mortgage made to provide funds for the extension of the lines. Work on the extension of the road beyond Roseburg was commenced in December, 1881, under the management of Villard, and operations continued with but little interruption until the completion of the road. On the 25th of May, 1883, the road then constructed between Portland and Roseburg was leased to the Oregon & Transcontinental Company for a term of 99 years; and, on the same date, a contract was entered into between the Oregon & Transcontinental Co. and the Oregon & California Railroad Company for the construction of the incompleted portion - through to the California Line. The Oregon & Transcontinental Company constructed the road between Roseburg and a point 100 miles south of Ashland, and had let contracts for, and partially completed the Siskiyou tunnels. The Oregon & Transcontinental Company after consummating the lease, continued to operate the road until June, 20th 1884. But upon the failure of Mr. Villard, the lease and construction contracts were canceled, and the road surrendered to the Oregon & California Railroad Company, and luutual releases between the two companies executed. After this, the Oregon & California Railroad Company continued to operate its roads until December, 1884, when, at the suit of Lawrence Harrison, brought against the corporation, Mr. R. Koehler, the former vice-president and manager of the company, was appointed receiver. The road has been operated by him ever since his appointment to the receivership, which was made January 19th, 1885. The condition under which Mr. Koehler was appointed was to assume entire personal charge of the propert}', and to manage and operate the roads under the direction of the United States Court. This trust Mr. Koehler has faithfully and efficiently discharged, and the affairs of the road have been managed with due regard to every consideration of economy, compatible with the demands of the public, and the adequate facilities for general transportation.

May 5th, 1884, the road was completed to Ashland, 145 miles south of Roseburg, and 340.8 miles from Portland, and the event was the occasion for an enthusiastic celebration and of general public congratulations. Work beyond Ashland was discontinued in August, 1884. Between Roseburg and Grant's Pass the natural difficulties of constru6lion were great as compared with most of the distance previously traversed. These obstacles rendered progress necessarily slow, and the building very expensive. For the distance mentioned, the route lay through a mountainous region, necessitating sharp curvatures, and for a length of about thirty-five miles (between Glendale and Grant's Pass) grades as heavy as 116 feet to the mile had to be overcome. For the remainder of the line between Roseburg and Grant's Pass, and also between Grant's Pass and Ashland, the maximum grades do not exceed 52 feet to the mile. Nine tunnels had to be cut in construdling that portion of the line, aggregating about 7,325 feet.

The Southern Pacific

The present condition of the road is said to be excellent which speaks well for the general efficiency of the management. Notwithstanding the period of financial embarassments through which the road has passed, its condition has been gradually improved. New bridges have been built wherever and whenever the safety of the public required; the bed improved, new ties laid, and the road thoroughly ballasted. On the main line between this city and Ashland, only about 100 miles of iron rails remain, steel rails of the most improved and durable kind having been substituted. New steel rails will be laid for the 100 miles just as rapidly as the material can be procured. Already during the past season about 85 miles of road have been ballasted. At present the rolling stock of the company consists of the following property: 43 locomotives, 26 passenger coaches, 14 mail and express cars, 582 box, flat and stock cars.

Early during the present year a meeting was held in London, the result of which was the transfer of the stock and control of the corporation of the Oregon and California Railroad to the Southern Pacific Company. At that meeting an arrangement was entered into between the first mortgage bondholders of the Oregon and California railroad company, the stockholders of the same corporation, duly authorized representatives of the Pacific Improvement company, and also of the Southern Pacific companj'. Under this agreement the stockholders of the Oregon and California company sold out to the Pacific Improvement company of California. Very briefly stated, the conditions of the sale were as follows: The Oregon and California railroad company's stockholders were to receive for every two shares of preferred stock delivered, one share of C . P. stock, and for every four shares of common stock surrendered and delivered, one share of Central Pacific stock; also, a cash payment of four shillings, sterling, for every share of preferred stock, and three shillings for every share of common stock. The first mortgage bonds of the Oregon and California were to be exchanged for new five per cent, bonds guaranteed by the Central Pacific at the rate of 110 per cent, of new bonds. They were also to pay four pounds sterling for each $1,000 of the old bonds so exchanged. According to the agreement entered into, the amount of the new bonds to be issued and $30,000 per mile of standard guage railroad construdled or acquired, and $10,000 per mile of narrow guage railroad construdled or acquired. Under this mortgage there is not to be issued more than $20,000,000 of bonds in all. Under and in pursuance of this agreement, the stock and bonds were exchanged so that the corporate organization of the Oregon and California railroad company was transferred to the management. This formal transfer took place during June, 1887. While the possession and ownership of the stock and bonds of the old organization has passed into the hands of the Southern Pacific, still the custody of the property belonging to the former - rolling stock, road, depot, depot grounds, etc. - remains iu the hands of Mr. Koehler, the receiver, and the United States Circuit Court. Conjointly, the receiver and the court manage all the operations of the road the same as before the formal transfer was effected. This condition of affairs will continue until some definite adlion has been determined upon by the several parties to the agreement. The above is the present status of the Oregon and California Railroad, but what new phase affairs will assume depends upon the future adlion of the corporation into whose hands the control of the old organization has passed. For that reason, for the present the result remains entirely in conjedlure. As yet there has been no actual transfer of the corporation's property. Since the transfer the annual elecflion of the Oregon and California railroad company has been held, when the following officers were chosen: Leland Stanford, president; C. P. Huntington, vice-president; R. Koehler, second vice-president; George H. Andrews, secretary and treasurer; J. E. Gates, assistant secretary.

There have been but very few important changes among those officials who have had to personally superintend the actual and practical operations of the road during the past twelve or fourteen years. Mr. E. P. Rogers enjoys the distinction of being the ' ' Pioneer of the road. ' ' Most of those prominently connected with the early organization of the road are dead. Among those may be mentioned J. H. Moores, I. R. Moores, E. N. Cooke, Joel Palmer, J. S. Smith, S. Ellsworth, James Douthitt, J. H. D. Henderson, Greenberry Smith, A. L. Eovejoy, A. F. Hedges, W. S. Newby, J. P. Underwood, Gov. Gibbs, and last, but by no means least, Ben HoUaday. To Mr. Rogers belongs the distinction of being the eldest officer now connected with the operating department of the road. He first came to Portland in 1870, and assumed the position of general freight and passenger agent, and the exacting duties of that position he has for the past seventeen years discharged with strict fidelity to the best interests of the corporation, and to the satisfaction of the general management.

Mr. John Brandt is also an old and efficient officer of the company. Mr. Brandt came to Portland in 1873, and in Jnly of that year assumed the position of general superintendent of the road. This position he has filled proficiently for the past fourteen years. The fact that Mr. Brandt has been retained as superintendent through all the changing fortunes of the road, and under the different managements, is the highest evidence of his competency and thorough experience in the practical operations of a railroad.

One year later Mr. R. Koehler came to Oregon. As before stated, he came first as resident financial agent of the German bondholders. He entered upon the active duties of the position July 25, 1874. Since that date Mr. Koehler has been an active and prominent factor in the management of the company's affairs - as financial agent, vice president and manager, and as general receiver. His long retention by the owners of the road, and the implicit trust reposed in his ability and integrity are the best indorsements that could be offered.

Under the management of these gentlemen the roads have been operated for a long period with as rigid a measure of economy as the financial conditions of the company demanded, and yet with as much liberality and in as satisfactory a manner to the public service and the necessities of traffic as was possible under all the existing circumstances. The company was entangled in a somewhat complicated mesh of litigation during the first few years of its existence, and the corporate name has figured very extensively in the records of the United States Courts and Courts of the State, both as defendant and plaintiff to a tangled mass of suits. But when the unsettled, uncertain state of affairs is considered, when the controversies and desperate struggles for master}', the heated and bitter rivalries, and the inevitable conflict of personal and corporate interests are all taken into account, the abundant harvest of tedious litigation which followed, seemed but a natural and legitimate result.

Few roads of equal length in this country have enjoyed a similar measure of exemption from disasters, when all the disadvantages under which operations have been maintained have been taken into due consideration. From first to last there have been no serious collisions of rail accidents on the line involving the extensive loss of human life, or the destruction of much valuable property. This ver^- important fact speaks in most emphatic terms of the care, caution and good judgment displa\'ed in the management of trains for the past seventeen years.

This article would be incomplete without the mention of Mr. H. Thielsen's name, and of the important part he took in the enterprise. Mr. Thielsen first arrived in Portland March 1, 1870. He at once assumed the duties of chief engineer and superintendent combined. Practically he became the acting manager of the road. Under his supervision the twenty miles of road which have been constructed between East Portland and Rock Island were rebuilt. He had charge of the building of the entire line between Rock Island and Roseburg. Mr. Thielsen has also built the line on the West Side from Portland to St. Joe, except some little preliminary operations done prior to his arrival here. Mr. Thielsen remained in charge of the engineering department of the road, and as practical engineer until the retirement of HoUaday. Mr. Thielsen was succeeded by Mr. Koehler in 1874 in the practical management of the road. Subsequently he retired from all ^connection with the road, and soon after accepted the position of chief engineer of the Oregon Railway &: Navigation Company.

The car shops of the company were established by Holladay in 1870, and were located two and a half miles south of the east side depot. Since they were first started, from eighty to one hundred men have been kept employed. Mr. Brandt has long held the position of master mechanic. Heretofore, the facilities for making necessary repairs and building new rolling stock have been comparatively adequate to meet the requirements of the company; but now, that through connecftion has been established, the necessity for the enlargement of the shops and the increase of facilities has become imperative.

The Narrow Gu.Age System

having no other outlet for their business, the Narrow Guage System and the Metropolis city must always be mutually dependent on each other for prosperity.

This system was projected by Joseph Gaston, Esq. , who has been noticed as the pioneer of the road between Oregon and California. Mr. Gaston took up the idea of a system of cheap and economically managed lines to more perfectly develop the resources of the Willamette Valley, in the year 1877, and for that purpose incorporated a company to construct a road from Dayton to Sheridan, in Yamhill County, with a branch to Dallas in Polk County. He knew that any move of this kind would be regarded as a hostile demonstration by the owners of the Oregon Central, with which he had been formerly connected, and, therefore, to avoid drawing their fire to as late a day as possible, he commenced his road at a point distant from this city, as if it were to be an unimportant aSair. He relied for his means to carry out the enterprise mainly on the wealthy farmers of Yamhill and Polk Counties, and made much the same appeals for popular support by public meetings and otherwise, as he had formerly made in behalf of the Oregon Central line. And although the owners of the Oregon Central very early comprehended the interloper in their field of business, and put out men to talk down and oppose Gaston, he had by April 1st, 1878, made such headway as to be able to break ground at Dayton and purchase the iron and rolling stock for forty miles of track. He pushed his work with great vigor, and in six months had the first forty miles of narrow guage railroad in Oregon in operation.

After thus far succeeding the opposition did not abate their efforts to check or cripple Gaston's scheme of a system of railways coterminous with the Willamette Valle}'. They saw too plainly that it meant low rates and no profits to their lines, when compelled to compete with the little narrow guage which was already picking up produce and passengers at every cross road. Mr. Villard was then rising to his zenith of power, and first offering to buy out Mr. Gaston without pledging himself to maintain the road he had built, he turned to buying up the claims for iron and other debts against it and threw it in the hands of a Receiver. But the man who had built fort}' mrles of railroad, without a sack of flour to start with was not likely to be gotten rid of in that summary way. And Gaston quietly and speedily arranged with a syndicate of capitalists in Dundee, in Scotland, to take his road off his hands and carry out his plans of extending it not only to Portland, for which Gaston had incorporated the Willamette Valley Railroad Co., but also southwardly by branches on both sides of the Willamette River.

This brings in the Oregonian Railway Company (Limited), a corporation organized under Royal Charter in Dundee, Scotland. This company was organized through the efforts of William Reid, Esq., of Portland, who became its President. Mr. Reid quickly took the Gaston road out of the hands of the Receiver, and went to work in 1880 with great vigor to extend its lines to both sides of the Willamette, to the west side track and crossing the Willamette River at Ray's Landing and constructing from Dundee, in Yamhill County, to Coburg, in Dane County.

After successfully operating this narrow guage system, now grown to be a formidable factor in the development of the Willamette Valley, and while Mr. Reid was in the midst of his work in extending the road from Dundee to Portland, Mr. Villard entered into negotiations to lease the narrow guage lines, which lease for 99 years, was finally accomplished in the year 1882. Upon the making of the lease, the work of extending the road to Portland was indefinitely suspended.

It is but justice to record, that Mr. Reid bitterly opposed the making of this lease, and warned his constituent stockholders in Scotland, that although they might be stipulating for a handsome income on their investment it was not keeping faith with the people of Oregon, whose people and legislature had heartily encouraged the road by granting it the public levee in this city for terminal grounds, and by much other substantial aid, and that the lease would terminate badly. Mr. Villard operated the Narrow Gauge lines for about a year, and then repudiated the lease as made without authority or power, and abandoned the property to the tender mercies of the United States Circuit Court, which placed it in the hands of a Receiver for preservation during the pendency of the litigation to determine the validity of the lease.