Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-06-01

/ ~ tHtoNN' w GNPRCAb
/ through the next season. A second
summer was spent in surveying, will
equally encouraging results. Their
Judah was dispatched to San Francis
co to secure subscriptions for incor-
porating the Company, but, after a
month of faithful canvassipg, return
ed home without receiving q dollar
A poor engineer had started the
paper; two plain hardware MGR
chants had put il in business shape
aud now, not rich San Francisco, but
unpretending little Sacramento, was
to make it success. Even after the
Central Pacific Company was char.
tered by the California Legislature,
only two San Franciscans subscribed
for shares, and ono Of them was a
woman.
The Company sent judah to Wash
!! ington. where he hung up, his charts
in the Committee Rooms, explained
that California was ready to take
hold in earnest, and though the civil
war was raging, invoked the aid of
the nation. A few railway enthusiasts
from New York and Massachusetts,
were already passing the same re-
quest. AZ last the hour was pro
pitious, Neither Congress nor the
Eastern public comprehended that
our commerce and travel demanded
such a road. Public opinion was not
yet ripe for il as a business enter
prise. But the conflict for the I'm
ion had already accustomed the
North to such lavish outlay that the
expense seemed less frightful than of
yore. 1t has also shown that in case
of foreign war the isolated Pacific
Coast would be our weak point, and
even now some mntterings were
heard about q Pacific republic. In
the language of the hour, contin-
entail railway was a Military Neces~
sity and as such, 1862, one was
chartered from the Missouri to the
Pacific, with an endowment of un-
paralaled richness. Thomas G. Du-
rant and few other live spirits of
the Union PaciGc (the east end of
the line) were full of faith in the en-
terpiise; but old and safe New York
capitalists regarded it as chimerical,
and the franchise as practically
worthless. The charter could not
have been sold in Wall St for 81
600 900 But the Union Pacific af-
ter many struggles, at last made a
beginning and built:
In 1865 ..... 40 miles In ls63......... 425 miles
In 465 miles In ls69...... los miles
In 1867 245 miles - M
,l,eSo miles
This is marvelously rapid work for
a rough country, much of it destitute
of wood, water, and supplies. For
300 miles east Of Salt Lake Valley
the line averages nearly 1000 feet
above the sea At this great eleva-
ton sno VS. abound. Daring the win
tor 19Ga-9--no trains went through
for two or three weeks, though du-
ring the same period 20 miles of track
were laid at the end of the line. The
Company, in its keen race with the
Central Pacific-building eastward
to meet twas naturally indifferent
to the rage of passengers. A little
experience, however, will teach how
to overcome the SHOWS
Omahaand Council Bluffs, Siamese
Twins towns at the eastern terminus
of the line, grow with its growth
and strengthen with its trength.-
| Omaha has nearly 90, 900 people, and
Council Bluffs 10000, with railways
divergisg in various directions. Du-
ring construction the terminal sta
ton" moving forward with each adj
vance of the track, was usually a
place of 5,000'or 10000 inhabitants
Right upon the desert would spring
up a crowded city, with enormous
warehouses daily newspapers, streets
thronged with hundreds of freight
teams starting westward, and church
es, banks and neutrality-suspicious. In
a few weeks the scene would shift.
and all this varied life disappear,
leaving only q little station, with its
water tank and group Of forlorn
dwellers. In Wyoming, for $50 miles
the line traverses the dreary Bitter
4 Greek region. Here the alkali water
is not only unfit to drink, but cannot
even be used in the engines, as it de-
i posts q sediment choking and clog
i ging up the boilers. Until some
method of neutralizing its noxious
qualities can be discovered water
train supplies tanks along this entire
distance. 49, a afe..-s4 s.fs
Indians have thrown one or two
trains off the track, but in general
they have kept very clear of the
locomotive. In Kansas, however,
| they have committed many outrages.
| Going to California in 1867, ola the
the Kansas Pacific Road, and thence
by stage, through Denver and Salt
! Lake, was hazardous undertaking
Near Fort Wallace, one dav in June,
a coach which carried five passengers
one soldier, and driver, had a run
ming fight for five miles with q humid
red mounted Sioux and Cheyennes
The travellers made the best resist
ance they could with their rifles, and
kept the savages at little distance
while the driver put his horses tC
their utmost speed Every man or
! board, except one, was killed or seri
ously wounded. An old frontier
friend OF NINE Charles H. Blake
happily escaped with a broken arm
/ and wound in the head At las
the vehicle. with it's bleeding and dy
ing inmates, reached the shelter o
Big Timbers Station, and the savagei
sullenly retired without having Ia
ken single scalp. The fight wal
J probably one of the last, aud certain
" one of the most remarkable in tn,
history OF the plains. The Unior
f Pacific road found for the first 50l
, miles west from Omaha the easies
route ever followed; the Central Pa
} eific, for 1870 cast from Sacramento
, one OF the hardest. Before receivin:
any Government bonds the latte
! company must build and equip fort,
! miles which would carry the tract