The Portland daily press., 1883-09-10


HISTORY OF THE ENTERPRISE.
Although the first projected railroad line
across the continent to the Pacific coast, the
Northern Pacific is the last to be completed,
as long ago as 1886 the project of bnilding a
railroad from New York City to the mouth OF
the Columbia River was discussed in the news
papers. In 1845, Asa Whitney, New York
merchant, proposed to Congress to build rail-
road from the head OF Lake Michigan to the
mouth of the Columbia, in case it would give
him land grant, sixty miles in width, for
the whole length of the line. This plan was
embodied in bill which was before Congress
for a number of years, and In 1847 came near
passing. Whitney may fairly be regarded as
the father of the Northern Pacific enterprise.
He traversed the country from Maine to Lou
isanna. addressing public meetings and legls-
lative bodies, and spent his entire fortune in
the work.
In 1853 the government made surveys OF five
routes to the Pacific. The Northern route
was surveyed by an expedition under Isaac I.
Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory,
who had been regular army officer. his re-
port was very favorable, showing that the
mountain passes were lower than in my other
portion of the Rocky Mountain system, the
line entirely practicable, the grades moderate,
and the winter climate of the country much
milder than had generally been supposed.
When the Union and Central Pacific Com
panies were chartered in 1862, strong effort
was made to obtain q charter for the North
ern line. 1t failed at the time, but was re.
vived in 1864, when the Union and Central
Companies were before Congress asking for
legislation subordinating the Government lien
to their first mortgages.
JOSIAH PERHAM AND THE CHARTER.
The man who succeeded in getting the chart
or was Josiah Perham, who had organized
company, under the sanction of the Legislature
of Maine, called The Peoples Pacific Railroad
Company and had attempted in 1867, to OBJ
tain the Union Pacific charter for his corpora
tion. Failing in this, he turned his attention
to the Northern route, and by promising to ask
for no subsidy in bonds or money from the
Government, he obtained in 1864 a charter,
coupled with a land grant Just double III area
that given to Union and Central Pacific Compa-
MES The Northern Pacific grant embraces the
alternate sections of land for twenty miles on
each side of the road in the States, and for for
ty miles in the Territories, with an additional
ten miles on each side as an indemnity limit,
within which lands may be selected to compen-
safe for those taken by settlers inside of the
original grant. Perham had been merchant
in Maine, and also in Boston, and was princi-
pally known for his success in organizing rail-
road excursion parties; in fact he was the in
ventor of the cheap excursion. He tried IN
vain for nearly two years to obtain capital for
the Northern Pacific Company, of which he
had been elected president. The obstacle in
the way, beside the tendency in the public
mind to regard the northern belt of States and
Territories "a O salnl-afCtlc region, was c1l6QY
clause which Perham himself had inserted
IN the charter, and which prohibited the COM
pany from mortgaging its road or land grants,
or issuing bonds. Perham's idea was that one
hundred millions of the stock of the company
would at once be taken by popular subscrip-
tions.
In December, 1866, he turned over the fran
chise to a syndicate of New England capital
lists for barely enough to pay his debts. and did
not live to see spadeful OF earth turned in
the prosecution of the enterprise for which he
had obtained from Congress a grant OF land
greater in extent than many of the kingdom of
Europe. He died at Boston in 1868.
THE JAY COOKE LOAN.
The second president of the company was
Ex-Governor j. Gregory Smith, of Vermont,
President of the Vermont Central Railroad
Smith and his associates spent over four years
in q vain attempt TO induce Congress to make
grant of bonds to aid in building the road, or
to guarantee the interest ON the company's
stock. In order to strengthen this project for
congressional aid the organization of the COM
pany was changed under Smiths
management, and number of OF emf
nent railroad men brought in, including
j. Edgar Thompson, of the Pennsylvania,
Robert Burdell, of the Erie, William G. Far
go, of the New York Central, G.. W. Cass, of
the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chic ago, and
William B. Ogden, of the Chicago & North
western.
the construction of the road till Jay Cooke
came to the aid Of the enterprise with his great
reputation as successful hnancier. he OBJ
tanned legislation in Washington, authorizing
the issue of bonds and changing the main line
of the road, so that it should run down the
Columbia River to Portland, and thence north
to Puget Sound, instead of across the tremen-
dous barrier of the Cascade Mountains. Cook
first proposed to place the Northern Pacific
loan in Europe, but his plans to this end were
defeated by the breaking out of the Franco
German war.
He then put the bonds upon the American
market using the same meanss to populariZe
them which he had successfully employed in
selling the great war loans of the United
States government. In two years time, begin
ming in the spring of 1870, he sold about $780,
100000 of bonds. In 1870, with the means
supplied by him, the company began to build
its line, commencing work at Thompson juno
tion, twenty-three miles west of Duluth. Jay
Cooke was then building a line from st. Paul
to Duluth, and the Northern Pacific bought
half interest in the twenty-three miles from
its junction to Duluth Duluth was an obscure
hamlet in the forest, inhabited by perhaps
hundred people. II had no harbor, but good
one was obtained by cutting a canal across
long, narrow sand-bapk enclosing the Bay of
Superior, Construction was also begun, in the
same year, on the extreme western division of
the road, running from the Columbia River at
Kalama northward to Puget Sound. In 1871
the ROAD was nulSneu across minnesota 20 the
Red River OF the North, and in 1928 it was
built as far as the Missouri River, where
town was laid out and named Bismarck. On
tho Pacific side 105 miles of road, between
the Columbia River and Puget Sound, were
completed by the fall Of 1873, and terminal
city laid out in dense fr forest, on the Sound,
aud named Tacoma.
BANKRUPTCY AND REORGANIZATION.
The panic of 1878 destroyed the banking
hnuaa of .Tau Gnnka q rora1r1ad for
the time, the Northern Pacific enterprise. The
company was left with bonded debt of about
$30000000, drawing interest at the high rate
of $40 per cent, and with considerable
floating debt
The earnings on its completed division were
barely sufficient to pay operating expenses.
The country traversed by its line had scarcely
begun to attract settlers, President Smith re-
signed and was succeeded by General George
w. Cass, and he, in turn, by Charles B. Wright
of Philadelphia. Nothing could be done for
time but TO persuade the creditors of the COM
pany not to press their claims and to wait for
the storm to blow over. In 1875, however, the
finances OF the company were reorganized In
very successful manner. The bondholders
agreed to take preferred stock in lieu OF their
bonds and the directors put the company
through bankruptcy court in an expeditions
and inexpensive manner, fighting off all the
sharks and railroad wreckers that hang about
great corporations in distress, The SUCCESS of
Frederick Billings of Vermont who after.
wards became president During Mr.. Wright's
administration, which lasted from 1873 to 1879,
the company managed to pay off its floating
debt, and to operate the completed portions OF
its road SO as to gradually accumulate little
surplus over running expenses.
1t also built thirty miles of road on the Pa
cihc coast, from Tacoma to the extensive coal
field on the western side of the Cascade noun
tains. Mr.. Csss and Mr.. Cheney, two of the
directors, opened wheat farms in the Red Riv-
er valley Of the north, which demonstrated
that that region was peculiarly adapted for
wheat culture Settlers began to come into
Northwestern Minnesota and Northern Dako-
ia, along the line of the road new towns
sprang up, and with this influx OF population
the affairs of the Northern Pacific wore, year
by year, brighter look.
WORK BEGUN AGAIN.
In 1879 the company ad so far recovered its
credit that it was able to borrow money to re-
sumo construction operations on a large scale.
III began To hnild from the Mis90uri rivar