Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-30

Il
printed at the expense of the Government
| And still further. The interest thus early
manifested, continued with undated force
was signalized in the closing days of his
official life by summary of transconti-
mental railroad construction up to that date,
1888, so exhaustive as to the leading facts
that am at loss touching the scope he
expects me to give to this paper. The sum-
| mary may be found in General Sherman's
last report to the Secretary of War, includ-
ing the exhaustive statistics of Colonel Poe.
(Ex. Doc. l, part q 4Sth Congress, first Ses-
sion, pages 4647 and 253-317.)
WHOSE CONCEPTION WAS THE OVERLAND.
Under all the circumstances, therefore, /
must assume that he expects me to con6ne
my remarks to something of an elabora-
ton of the details of the construction of
those lines with which l was personally
identified, more especially that which first
of all linked the two oceans together.
Before proceeding with this, however, a
single observation in reference to the
priority of claim may NOT be uninteresting
or out of place.
In General Sherman's summary, referred
to above, it is stated that 1t would now be
impossible to ascertain who was the first to
suggest the construction of railway to
connect the eastern portion of our country
with the Pacific coast. 1t is probable that the
idea in some form occurred to several per-
sons. Very recently E. V. Smalley, in his
History of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
has presented the claim of DR.. Samuel Ban
croft Barlow, of Granville, Mass, to this
distinction, details the evidence upon
which the claim is founded, and shows
that as early as 1884 possibly in 1889 DR..
Barlow advocated the construction of
railrOQd from, NoU Vnrk ~ tho y,1nr Of
the Columbia river by direct appropria-
tons from the treasury of the United
States. But in presenting this claim to
priority, is it not possible that the fact has
been overlooked that Dr. Barlow's paper in
the Inteltigencer, of Westfield, Mass, was
called forth by a series of articles upon the
same subject, published in the En,naigrant,
of Washtenaw county, Michigan Territory?
And is not, therefore, that unknown writer
of those articles really entitled to whatever
credit attaches to priority of suggestion"
MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS IN 1916.
While this statement is true, so far as
we are now able to ascertain, it is singu-
lar fact that before a mile of railroad was
laid in any part of the world a design of
connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific
Ocean by means of steam carriage was
preached, if we can believe the following
statement, which l quote from the memo
rial of Robert Mills, of February 1S, 1916
"a. r. Doc. 173, Twenty-ninth Congress,
first session.:
The author has had the honor of being,
perhaps, the first in the field to propose to
connect the Pacific with the Atlantic by a
railroad from the head navigable waters of
the noble rivers disemboguing into the
ocean. In 1919 he published work on
the internal improvement of Maryland,
Virginia and South Carolina, connected
with the intercourse of the States of the
West"
THE following extract from this work
will present the idea then formed, both of
the practicability and importance of this
intercourse to the nation" ETC., etc.
Then follows description, inclosed by
quotation marks, of scheme of steam To-
comotion between the headwaters of the
the Columbia, too long for repetition on an
occasion like this.
BEFORE THE RAILROAD AND NOW,
l shall confne my paper to the acts and
works of those who first took hold, as citi-
zens, and in a private capacity built the
Pacific roads.
When l first saw the country west of the
Missouri river it was without civil govern
ment, inhabited almost exclusively by In.
dams. The few white men in it were yoy-
ageurs, or connected in some way with the
United States army. 1t was supposed to be
uninhabltable, without any natural re-
sources or productlveness, vast expanse
of arid plains, broken here and there with
barren, snow-capped mountains. Even
Iowa was unsettled west of the Des Moines
river.
1t cost the Government, in those DAYS.
from one to two cents per pound to haul
freight 100 miles 10 supply its posts; and l
was at one time in the country between
Humboldt and the Platte nearly eight
months without seeing white man, other
than my own employees.
Now, from the Missouri river to the Pa
cific, from the Red River and the Rio
Grande to the British possessions, the ter
ritory is under civil law
The vast region is traversed its entire
length by five great transcontinental lines
of railroad. There is hardly a county in it
not organized, and it is safe to say that
there is not township that is without an
occupant. Its plains TEEN with all the
products grown east of the Missouri river.
1t las become the great corn and wheat
producing belt of the United States its
mountains are the producers of millions of
ores, and from every range and valley iron
ehN SooAs AZ dIt Dcll1E
mined
1t is is said that railroad enhances ten
times the value of the country through
which it runs ard controls, but the value
of this country has been enhanced hum
dreds of times. The Government has
reaped from it thousand fold for every
dollar it has expended and the Pacific
roads have been the one great cause that
made this state of affairs possible The
census of 1890 will place in this territory
fifteen millions of people, and in twenty
years it will support forty millions.
AN EARLY EXPERIENCE
1t is difficult, / doubt not, for You to
comprehend the fact that the first time
crossed the Missouri river was on raft,
and at point where stands the CITY of
Omaha to-day. That night slept in the
tepee of an Omaha Indian.
When | crossed my party over TO make
the first explorations not one of US had any
knowledge OF Indians, of the Indian Ian
guage or plains-craft. The Indians sur
rounded our wagons, took what they
wanted, and dubbed US "squaws" In nv
exploring, ahead and alone, / struck the
Elkhorn river about noon. Being tired, |
hid my rifle, saddle and blanket, sauntered
out into secluded place in the woods with
my pony and lay down to sleep. / was
awakened, and found my pony gone
looked out upon the valley and saw an In
dian running off with him. | was twenty
five miles from my party, and was terrified.
Ii was nv first experience, for / was very
young. What possessed me do not know.
but grabbed my rifle and started after the
Indian, hallooing at the top of my. voice.
The pony held back, and the Indian, see
ing me gain upon him. let the horse go,
jumped into the Elkhorn and put that river
between US.
The Indian was a Pawnee. He served
under me in 1865, and said to me that |
| made so much noise he was heep scared -
Within a radius of ten miles of that
same ground to-day are FIVE distinct lines OF
| railroad, coming from all parts of the coun-
try, concentrating at Omaha for a connec-
ton with the Union Pacific.
THR FIRST PRIVATE SURVEY AND ExPLoRA.
OF the Pacific Railroad was caused by the
failure of the Mississippi and Missouri,
now the Chicago Rock Island and
Pacific Railroad. to complete its project
The men who put their money in that
enterprise conceived the idea of working
| up scheme, west of Iowa, that would be an
inducement to capital to invest in carrying
| their project across Iowa to the Missouri
river. They also wished to determine al
what point on the Missouri the Pacific rail