Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-09-10

III WV 1900 49," , ioi ioTty miles In the
territories, With an additional fen
miles on each side ms an indemnitv
limit, within which lands NAV be
selected TO compensate for those taken
By settlers inside of the original grant.
Perham had been merchant i'm
Maine, and also in Boston, and was
principally known for his success in
organizing railroad excursion partics.
in fact he was the inventor Of the cleap
excursion system. He tried in vain
for nearly two years To obtain capital
for the Northern Pacific company. OF
which he had been elected pre-, ident.
fhe obstacle In the way, beside the
tendency of the publ mind to regard
the Northern belt of states and terri
tories as seni-actic region, was
CHI. rs y clause which Perham himself
had inserted In the charter, which pre-
hibited the company from mortgaging
its road or land grants, or Issuing bonds.
Perhams idea was that one hundred
millions OF The stock Of the company
would at once be taken by popular
subscriptions.
In December, 1895, he turned over
the franchise to "a syndicate of New
England capitalists for barely enough
to pay his debts; and did not live to
see the first spaderul Of earth turned
in the pros evuiion Of the enterprise for
which he had obtained from congress
grant OF lands greater in extent than
many OF the kingdoms of Europe. He
died at Boston IN 1868.
THE JAY GOULD LOAN.
The second president OF the company
yss Ex-Governor j. Gregory Smith, Of
Vermont, president of the Vermont
Central railroad. Smith and his asso.
cistes spent over four years in vain
attempt to induce congress to take II
grant Of bond to aid in building the
road, or to guarantee the interest on
the company's stock. In order TO
strengthen this project for congress
sional aid the orcaniZ ltion If the COM
pany was changed under Smith
management, and number OF emf
nent railroad men brought in, includ-
ing j. Ed ar Thompson, OF the Penn
sylvania, Robert Burdell, of the Erie
William G. Fargo, of the New York
Central, &. w. Cas-, of the Pittsburgh
Fort Wayne & Chicago, and William
Is. Ogden, Of the Chicago and North
| western.
! No progress was made towards COM
! mencing the construction OF the road
1 I'LL Jay Cooke came to tn. aid of the
enterprise with his great reputation as
\ successful tinancier. He obsainad
! legislation in Washington. auth )riz /.
| ing the issue of bonds and changing
the main line OF the road, 40 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.
/ Cooke first proposed To place the
| Northern Pacific loan in Europe, but
{ his plans to this end were defeated by
| the breaking out of the Flanco-G erman
war.
He then put the bonds upon the
American market, using the same
means to popularize them which
he had successfully employed in
selling the great war loans of the
! United states government. In two
years time, beginning in the spring of
1870, he sold about $50, 000, 900 of bonds.
In 1870, with the means supplied by
him, the company began to build its
| line, commencing work at Thompson
junction, twenty-three miles west of
Duluth. Jay Cooke was then build
ing line from ST. Paul to Duluth and
the Northern Pacific bought half in.
terest in the twenty-three miles from
its junction to Duluth. Duluth Wac
an obscure hamlet in the forest, inhab-
tied by perhaps a hundred people. 1t
had no harbor, but good one was OBJ
| tanned by cutting a canal across a long,
narrow sand-bank enclosing the Bay
or Superior. Construction was also
begun, In the same year, on the eX-
IRENE western division OF the road,
running from the Columbia river ut
: H. nj 70, 4
| IN 1871 the road was finished across
Minnesota to 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 the Pacific side l0j miles OF road
between tie Columbia river and Puget
sound, were completed ny the fall OF
1873, and terminal city laid out in u
dense fir forest, Oh the sound, and
named Tacoma.
! BANKhEPTCH AND RE0RGANIZArIoN.
The panic of 1873 DESTROYED the
banking house of Jay Cooke q Co
and paralyzed, for the time, the North
ern Faciic enterprise. The company
WAS left with bonded deb. of ABOUT
5000 900, drawing interest at the
high rate of Z $40 per cent, and with
q considerable floating debt.
Inc earnings on IFS completed divis-
ion were barely sufficient to pay oper-
ating expenses. The country trayer-ed
by its line hid scarcely begun to at
tract settlers. Pr, sidcnt Smith re-
81 sned and was succeeded by Gen.
George w. Ciss, and he, in turn, by
Chas. 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
1873, however. the finances OF the com
pany were recognized in very sue
cessiul manner The b)ndholders
agreed to take preferred stoc!. in
lieu of their bonds, and the direc-
tors put the company through .
bankruptcy court in an expeditions
and inexpensive manner lighting Oft
all the sharks and railroad wcecGers
that hang about great corporations in
distress. The success of this achieve.
ment was largely due to the Hon.
Frederick Billings OF Vermont. who
afterwards became pres ident. During
MIR. Wrights administration. which
lasted from 1919 to 1879, the the com.
pany managed to pay off its floating
debt, and 10 operate the completed
/ nf if.s i Al