Joseph Gaston

“ Returning now to the Oregon Central Company we find it in 1869 robbed of the land grant which it was justly entitled to, but not wholly driven out of the field. The citizens of Portland, Washington, Yamhill, and Polk counties stood loyally by the old company, and not only gave financial aid to the extent of grading and bridging the first twenty miles of its roadbed, but also threw into the scale the weight of their political influence, declaring that no man should represent Oregon in Congress who would not labor to secure another grant of land in aid of their road. ”

“ On this plunder Holladay came to the Pacific Coast, bought the line of ships to Oregon and got into the Oregon railroad. He was a man of splendid physique, fine address, and knew well how to manage the average human nature. ”

“ Jacksonville was the county seat and trade center of the beautiful Rogue River Valley which has been more benefited by railroad transportation than any other community between the Columbia River and San Francisco Bay. Steamboats could run up the Sacramento River one hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco; and other boats could get up the Willamette River one hundred and twenty-five miles from the ship landing to Eugene, and teams, pack trains, and stage lines could serve a limited trade and population in all the region on the north and south route between these river-boat termini. ”

“ In seeking the best line for a railway between two distant points, all other inducements being equal, the line of location, like all other forward movements of human effort, will proceed along the line of the least resistance. Two facts determined the location of this Oregon and California railroad. ”

“ The pioneer farmers saw the necessity and the immense benefits to be gained from a railroad which should pass through their valley from Portland to San Francisco, and resolved, although poor in purse, to make the best effort they could to secure such a road.
In the spring of 1863 S. G. Elliott, of California, had arranged with George A. Belding, a civil engineer, of Portland, Oregon, to make an instrumental survey for a line of railroad from Marysville to Portland, on their joint account. They commenced their work at Marysville in California in May and reached Jacksonville in October. ”

“ Besides these independent lines the work of development by branches, feeders, and extensions of the main system, has been going on steadily for years, as population and business would justify. Many such additions have been added to the lines east of the Cascades, as well as in the Willamette Valley, showing the purpose to cover the whole territory of the Columbia River water shed with a network of branch line roads. The most notable of this work is that carried out by Mr. Richard Koehler, who has held the reins as general manager of the Oregon & California road for thirty-two years. ”

“ No man was more considerate or generous in praise and assistance to those who worked with or under him or whose work he had made use of. In the days of his prosperity his purse was open wide to all works of charity and benevolence, chief of which in Oregon was $50,000 to the State University for an irreducible fund at least $400 of the interest from which to be used annually in the purchase of books for the University library. ”

“ Sporadic meetings had been held and corporations formed prior to that time in several places in the Willamette Valley proposing to build railways, but nothing had resulted but talk not worth recording. That the first substantial effort to develop the State by railroad transportation should have taken form at a small interior town three hundred miles from a reliable seaport is quite remarkable, but not unreasonable. ”

“ The physical features of the region to be developed offered a series of beautiful valleys, rich in all the resources to support a railroad, and so located as to form nearly the shortest line between the termini of the road, and through which it could be constructed centrally through the greatest length of these valleys, and at the lowest cost, and serving the majority of population and interests. ”

“ With this $8,000,000 Villard purchased a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific, got control in June, 1881, and was elected president in September. He immediately started an army of men to complete the great work. J. L. Hallett, of Washington County, was superintendent of construction on the west end, Hans Thielsen of Portland, chief engineer, and the work was pushed with such force and vigor that an observer might have supposed that the entire army of the United States was pushing construction of a military work in time of a great war. ”

“ This scheme carried out would give a continuous land grant from the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada, to Eugene, and Portland and Astoria. And upon this foundation, C. P. Huntington, then in the zenith of his power as a railroad financier and constructor, agreed to furnish the capital and build the railroad from Winnemucca to Eugene, Portland and Astoria, giving Oregon a more direct connection to the East than by the California route. ”

“ He came to the United States in 1853, tarried with relatives near Belleville, Ill., for a year, then drifted into journalism, became a war correspondent in the civil war, made friends with influential people, attracted attention by his ability and genial manners, made some money in speculations, went back to Germany on a visit and made the financial friends at Frankfort, who afterwards employed him to look after their interests in investments in America, and put him on the highway to his great success. ”

“ This he declined, but offered to submit their scheme to the incorporators of the Oregon Central Company and if they approved, Mr. Elliot could use their organization to advance his scheme. But upon submitting the Elliot scheme to the incorporators supporting Gaston, every one of them opposed it. Accordingly, Elliot and his Salem friends, on April 22, 1867, incorporated the Oregon Central Railroad Company of Salem, the incorporators being S. A. Clarke, John H. Moores, George L. Woods, and I. R. Moores. ”

“ Then a reorganization took place, the holders of the bonds surrendering their securities for preferred stock, and advancing more money on a new mortgage to extend the road to Ashland in Jackson County. ”