St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-06-14
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.
A Famous Western Railroad Builder
Visits the scenes Of his Childhood.


A man whose long life contains more
interesting experiences than that Of the
average citizen is ]. Harvey Strobridge,
who with his wife, is spending few
days at the home of his nephew, F. G..
Strobridge of West Barnet. Mr.. and
Mrs. Strobridge were the guests over
Sunday of Mr.. and Mrs. Z. X. Somers
and were much interested in brief visit
to st. Johnsbury. He is a resident of
San Francisco and came East via Guate.
mala and the Central American route
He is native OF Albany and a veteran
railroad builder. In his earlier days he
worked on the Boston & Fitchburg, YER
mont Central and Naugatuck railroad
in Connecticut. These were then the
principal railroads in New England
Our readers will be interested in a brief
sketch of the life work Of this man.
For 81 years an associate of Crocker,
Huntington, and others high in reputa-
tion as makers of great railroads, Mr.
Strobridge has had prominent part in
the building OF number of the great
lines that cross the western part of the
American continent. He was already
engaged in the business of road building
before his first trip to the Pacific coast,
having worked at it for four or five years
in the latter 40s.
In '49 Mr.. Strobridge went to San
Francisco, leaving pier 8, East river,
New York, on Jan. 80, in the ship Or
pheus. The voyage around the Horn
took over five months, the ship arriving
in front of the great camp, with but few
buildings, which marked the site Of the
now beautiful city, on July s.
One of the first railroads, if not the
very first, to be built in California, was
| from Sacramento to Fusom a distance
of % miles. Mr.. Strobridge was en-
ployed on this. Another was from San
Francisco to San Jose, and he worked on
| this as well.
But it was in the Cos that Mr.. Stro-
bridge reached his greatest success and
fame as builder of railroads, when, as
superintendent, he built the Central Pa.
ciic road from Sacramento to Promon.
wi MOuhldlu. uSlC WClC dS luduy dc
$4,000 men employed at one time on
this great road, and very high wages
were paid-in gold, too, at time when
currency was worth only 3S and 40
cents on the dollar.
The last rail of the Central Pacific
road was laid on May 10. 1869. Soor
after that Mr.. Strobridge built the
Southern Pacific road through Calfor
MIA, Arizona and New Mexico, and for E
distance OF 500 miles into Texas, thi:
now being the famous Sunset route
Then he built the railroad up the Sacra
mento Valley, over the Siskiyou Noun
tains into Oregon, going as far north a:
Ashland, and known as the California &
Oregon railroad. These and many other
roads have been largely built by the
gentleman who is now visiting in this
state, and whom it is a source Of pleas
ure to hear tell of his experiences in those
by-gone days.
When the railroad was first built
through Nevada there was little there in
the way OF population, he says, except a
few struggling mining camps. Today il
is prosperous grazing country, with
thousands of acres of hay and many
thousands of head of cattle, sheep and
horses. This growth did not come in a
day nor year, but slowly and by de.
grees.
More rapid was the growth which he
witnessed in California, where the coun
try, better fitted for agriculture than
Nevada and some of the other states
built up almost as soon as the railroad
touched it.
Mr.. Strobridge did not cross the coun.
try on this trip to the East by any OF the
railroad lines on which he has worked SO
arduously, but voyaged south from San
Francisco to the Isthmus of Panama
and crossed it, resuming his water jour.
ney on the easternmost side.