Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-09-13
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC
RAILROAD.
The First Projected and Last
Completed Of the Great
Transcontinental
Lines.
A Brief History of the Enterprise
The Country Traversed by the Road,
and its Resources for
Settlement.

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 1885 the project of building a
railroad from New York city to the mouth
of the Columbia River was discussed in the
newspapers. In 1916, Asa Whitney, a New
York merchant proposed to Congress to
build railroad from the head of Lake Mich
igan to the mouth of the Columbia, in case
it would give him a land grant, sixty miles
in width, for the whole length of the line.
The plan was embodied in bill which was
before Congress for number of years, and in
1S47 came near passing. Whitney may fair
~ be regarded as the father of the Northern
Pacific enterprise. He traversed the coun-
try from Main to Louisiana, addressing pub
lie meetings and legislative bodies, and spent
his entire fortune in the work.
In 1858 the government made surveys of
five routes to the Pacific. The Northern
route was surveyed by an expedition under
Isaac l. Stevens, Governor of Washington
Territory, who had been a regular army Off
Ger. His report was very favorable, show
ing that the mountain passes were lower
than in any other portion of the Rocky
Mountain system, the line entirely practie-
able, 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, a strong effort
was made to obtain charter for the North
ern line. 1t failed at the time, but was re-
yiyed 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
charter was Josiah Perham, who organized a
company, under the sanction Of the Legisla-
tuIe Of Maine, called the Peoples Pacific
Railroad Company, and had attempted, in
1862, to obtain the Union Pacific charter for
his corporation. Failing in this, he turned
-iio NllSullOu " lIC NOlluClL lUulC, anu NY
promising to ask for no subsidy in bonds or
money from the Government he obtained in
1864 charter, coupled with q land grant
Just double in area that given to the Union
and Central Pacific Companies. The North
eTn Pacific grant embraces the alternate Sec
uons of land Tor twenty miles On each side
OF the road in the States, and for forty miles
IN the Territories with an additional ten
miles on each side as an indemnity limit, |
within which lands may be selected to COM
penSate for those taken by settlers inside of
The original grant. Perham had been a
merchant in Maine, and also in Boston, and
was principally known for his success in or
sanlzlng railroad excursion parties In fact
ne was the inventor of the cheap excursion
system. He tried in vain for nearly two
years to obtain capital for the Northern
faHtic 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 Terri
'oileS as Semi-arctic region, was chiefly
clause which Perham himself had inserted
III the charter, and which prohibited the
company from mortgaging its road or land
grants, or issuing bonds Perham's idea
was that one hundred millions of the stock
Oi the company would at once be taken by
popular subscriptions
In December, 1865, he turned over the
franchise to syndicate of New England cap
'alists for barely enough to pay his debts,
ana did not live to see the first spadefal of
earth turned in the prosecution of the enter
prise for which he had obtained from Con-
sreSs grant of land greater in extent than
many OF the kingdoms of Europe. He died
at Boston in 1868.
THEJAY COOKE LOAN.
lhe second President of the company was