The West Shoke.
VOL. 7-No. 10.
JL Snnl.fuMUhr.
I WmIiIdiumi si.
Portland, Oregon, October, 1881.
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RAILROAD HISTORY OK OREGON.
Forty years is a long time to look
back, at least in the history of Oregon.
The earliest emigration was on the road
here. The pioneers of that Jay were
the mountaineers and trappers who
ranged the wilds in the employ of the
Hudson's H. Co. and various missionar
ies who came to convert the Indians,
who usually disappeared from the face
of the earth without being converted
At that time there was tin enthusiast
knocking at the doors of congress with
proposition that made wise men
smile and never caused excitement in
Wall street, that has since then gone
wild with similar propositions. This
enthusiast's name was Whitman, and it
was about 1840 that his proposition to
have government appropriate land as a
subsidy for a railroad across the conti
ncnt to Oregon made congressmen open
their eyei with wonder and caused the
financial magnates to smile at the ah
surdity of the scheme that he urged with
considerable persistency. It would I a
matter of some interest to rc-rcud the
proposition as he made it public, and
ee what inducements he believed ex
istcd for (panning the continent with an
iron road long bclore California had
become national territory, and when
Oregon was not defined by metes am:
bounds, but was an unknown territory
extending from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific Ocean.
After this premature beginning it sur.
prises one to see how long the project
slept before it was again brought be
fore the public. The time came when
transcontinental road was aided by a
grant of lands of imperial extent, and
was helped by a loan of government
bonds that was sufficient in itself to
build such a road, but Oregon history
has never defined why at that time,
when congrcw was so liberal, and even
'munificent in granting aid for branches,
tome eflort was not made to secure
sufficient sulmidy to send a branch
through from some point on the Central
route to the Columbia river. It looks
very much as if, while it rained suUid
let. our congressional delegation failed
to hold the Oregon porringer right
side up. Land grants and subsidies
seemed going for the asking and no
one asked for Oregon, and finally,
when in July, late in the session of 1866,
the grant was passed for the Oregon
and California road, it docs not appear
that Oregon congressmen were promi
nent in securing it. If land grant and
subsidy had been procured twenty years
go, at the time when other grants
were legislated so liberally, and conncc
tion had Ucn made with the central
ine soon after its completion, our state
would have made a very different
showing, and have long since competed
with California, more successfully, in
securing population and in achieving
production.
In the winter of iSfyfi, bill was
introduced to aid, by a land grant, the
construction or a railroml Trout near
Sacramento to Portland or the Colum
liia, which was urged hy Simon (1.
Klliott on the pait of incorporators in
California, who included W. C.
Ralston, Alphcus Hull, Thomas Hell,
C. Temple Emmctt and number of
others, and probably no such bill would
ever have passed had not Klliott been
there, paid by hit friends in California
who provided the expense of attending
to it. The sulwidy that Oregon finally
procured she did not seek. In course
of time the California part of tin grant
went into the possession of the Central
acific people and Klliott himself came
to Oregon, hoping to push the enter
risc through from this end. The land
crant was a Ixxie 01 contention lor
n
awhile, as a rather unscrupulous adven
turcr got hold of the first incorporation
and Mild it out to Portland sculators,
hut it was left for tlur legislature todesig
nate what company should enjoy It, and
the legislature of 1870 designated the
comnanv incorporated by Elliott's
agency, and which was then controlled
by Ilcn Ilolladay, the Oregon incor
porators having wittxlrawn in favor of
Ilcn Ilolladay & to. A furtlier res-
olulion pawed congress confirming 11
designation. It is not necessary lo re
cite all tlte fiuahblet and lawsuits that
have resulted, so we proceed lo give a
brief synopsis.
S. 0. Elliott was unsuccessful in
oerating under the firm name of "J.
Cook & Co.," and after making com-
mcnccmcnt secured the- aid of Hen
Molladay, and figured as company in
that firm. Hen Ilolladay and Emmctt
and Elliott were the firm. They oper
atcd with a syndicate of Californlana
who negotiated the salo of bonds to
Zulsbach Hros., bankers at Frankfort,
and the evidence of Ilolladay, given in
court, shows that ho only realised
about 50 cts. on the dollar for the bonds
issued, and the syndicate made heavy
profit on the transaction. The road
was pushed through to Roseburg, aoo
miles, and under Holladay't manage
ment the West side road was built to
St Jo, lit Yamhill Co., and since then
has been built to Corvallis. Ilolladay
soon put Elliott out on Mime pretense
or other, and made a serious mistake
when he did so, as Elliott has devoted
his life for the ten years past to prosecut
ing his claims through the courts, and
tas caused much more esH:iise In that
way than a fair settlement of those
laims would have cost. 1 he story of
that ten years of lowing Is ciual to
romance and reminds one forcibly of
the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce,
made so famous by Dickens. Mr.
Elliott still prosecutes it, though hit
tair has grown gray and he surrender
all other prospects of life lo do so
rather lamentable conclusion to the
energy with which he entered into the
scheme when comparatively a young
man seventeen years ago,
Hen Ilolladay came to Oregon full of
the Idea of becoming railroad king,
daxlcd by the splendid success of
Stanford ami Huntington, lit owned
the Mian steamers running between
Portland and San Francisco, which,
1 I . I t. I I I I.
was a princely loriune in iiseu, aim in
earlier career showed lo what ucccs
an American can attain.
Ilolladay managed to gel rid of k
securities without l.uiUmg the lad
through lo California, mul the roads he,
dil build proved so or a speculation
that he finally turned litem over to th
landholders, ami also his steamship hot,
ml disappeared from the Acid 0 KtW
laUr in Oregon, the common accept a
lion being; that he ho not much of Lift