Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-11-20
WORK RI! OF WILLARD.
Sketch ofthe Railroad Building Trium-
phs Of the Late Financier
N Henry Willard.
Triumphal Progress Of the Willard train
at Driving Of the Golden
Spike.
Importance Of the Work, as Exploiting
the Resources Of the Great
Northwest Country.

Says the Chicago Times Herald:
Fifty miles west of Helena, in the
dreariness of mountain peaks uncov-
cred with trees, on Sept. 8, 1883, stood
Henry Willard, William NJ. Evarts,
Gen. Grant, Frederick Billings, young
Willard and a host Of other distin-
guished and distinguished people to
witness the driving OF the last spike
on the Northern Pacific road, the com
pletion of the line whose first work
had commenced in 1864. The spot
where the last hal was laid and the
final golden spike driven is 1,19S miles
from Lake Superior and S47 miles from
Puget Sound, or 1,2O5 miles from st.
Paul and FOG miles from Portland, Ore.
Willard, once humble newspaper re-
porter, the husband of William Lloyd
Garrison's only daughter, the runaway
son of a Bavarian jurist, had reached
the day of his greatest fame He had
completed a transcontinental line, the
building Of which was herculean task
compared with the construction of
either the Union Pacific or the South.
ern Pacific. He had taken an almost
ruined property and convinced the:
world Of finance that honestly man
aged it was "a paying investment.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific the
1triumphal progress of the Willard train.
was heralded. The magnate, with his
American friends and foreign fnan-s
ciers, journeyed from New York to st.
Paul and Minneapolis, where he was
received with all the pomp of a con-t
5queror which he was. He had con-
quered the mountains, the plains, and
the savage streams Of the Northern
Pacific right of way. Cities were
decorated Banquets were held.
Delegations met the Willard guests.
Local newspapers of the northwest set
aside all other news for the story Of
the completion of the great transcon-
Etinental way The boom of the North
Dakota country had it's first inception.
Where twenty years before Sibley and
his soiu1ers had driven ahead of Them
the Sioux into the Missouri river coun-
try, now puffed and painted the loco
motive of the Willard special. Fargo
was ablaze. Jimtown' celebrated as
it never had before. Bismarck was
thronged with Indians, cowboys and
soldiers, come TO meet this man who
had won where Jay Cooke failed. Man
dan cheered him on his journey. Miles
City jubilaIed for a week. Helena
could hardly contain itself. On board
the special everywhere was gay and
hospitable. There was such eating,
Whining and dining as many of the
party had never witnessed before.
True, the ghost Of the stock market
was at the feast, and Willard began to
fall at the instant that he was most
3trillmp phant, hut to the honor Of the
dead financier no informed man be-
3lieyes his ruin was deserved.
From Portland on the Pacific coast,
eastward the celebrations were just as
great as they we're to the east OF Hell:
.ena. The north Pacific coast had suf-
fered from lack OF direct connection.
with the Great Lakes and the Atlantic
coast. Willard had been the first TO
sunite all the steamship and railroad
interests Of Oregon and Washington
and Join them to the fortunes of the
Northern Pacific He made Tacoma
and Seattle possible. ne connected
Washington and Oregon. He show
cred the way TO active trade with the
Orient. He Heralded the resources
of th great northern slope through
the east 10 penned-in Idaho he gave
an ouitl let, The dsolat tion Of western
Montana was ended forever So the
Pacific coast jonrneyed toward the
pc&nk where the last spike was to be
driven, Just as gay and joyful as the
Willard party coming from the Allan
tic. No settlement existed where the.
east and west section OF track met. /
The construction engineers erected
temporary paviiions. One Of these
was for the ladies Il the party. AM
other was for the band of the Fifth
United States infantry Sill another
was for the important guests Min
Ing prospectoTs, cowboys, Indians,