27911 
 U58Di
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Commodore Byron McCandless
 
 How We Built The 
 Union Pacific Railway 
 
 AND 
 
 Other Redlway Papers and Addresses 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE 
 
 Chief £na;ineer Union Pacific Railway 
 1866.1870
 
 COMPLIMENTS 
 
 GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE
 
 I'HE Monarch Printing Co. 
 
 COUNCrL BLUFFS 
 IOWA
 
 How We Built 
 
 THE 
 
 Union Pacific Railway 
 
 AND 
 
 Other Railway Papers and 
 Addresses 
 
 By 
 
 MAJOR GENERAI, GRENVIIvIyE M. DODGE 
 Chief Engineer Union Pacific Railway 
 
 1866-1870
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 How We Built the Union Pacific Railway 5 
 
 Address at the Omaha Centennial 51 
 
 The Building of the Union Pacific Railroad and Its Relation to 
 
 Council Bluffs and Western Iowa 57 
 
 Fortieth Anniversary of Driving of the Last Spike 67 
 
 What I Know of Harriman 7 5 
 
 A Tribute to General Dodge 81 
 
 Speech of G. M. Dodge in Congress, March 25, 1868, on the Union 
 
 Pacific Railroad 87 
 
 The Civil Engineer in an Early Day and in the Civil War 97 
 
 Address at Banquet of Commercial Club, Omaha 127 
 
 Address on "The Pioneers and Development of the West" 139 
 
 Letter to the Iowa Railway Club 147 
 
 Description of Norwich University 153 
 
 Norwich University in the Civil War 157 
 
 Address Before the Vermont Society of New York 165 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Faces page 
 
 Major-General G. M. Dodge 5 
 
 Dale Creek Bridge 17 
 
 General Dodge and Party of Exploration 23 
 
 General Grant and Party Visit General Dodge 31 
 
 Temporary Trestle, Promontory, Utah 3 3 
 
 S. B. Reed 37 
 
 General J. S. Casement 38 
 
 Six Passenger Trains Snowed In 47 
 
 City of Rocks 51 
 
 Twin Monks 57 
 
 Joining of Tracks 67 
 
 The Locomotives Touched Noses 69 
 
 Cedar Pass, Utah 71 
 
 Monument Point, Great Salt Lake 7 5 
 
 Eagle Nest, Utah 81 
 
 Laramie Peak, Wyoming 83 
 
 Laramie River Canyon, Wyoming 8" 
 
 Thos. B. Morris and Party 
 
 Tunnel No. 3, Weber Canyon "" 
 
 Divide of the Continent 
 
 Camp on Snake River Range 114 
 
 Humboldt Wells 121 
 
 Chief Engineer's Office, Omaha, 1866-70 127 
 
 Entrance to North Platte Canyon 133 
 
 Thousand Mile Tree, Weber Canyon, Utah 135 
 
 Julesburg Stage Station, Wyoming, 1867 139 
 
 Union Pacific Railway Crossing, Green River, Utah 147 
 
 General Dodge's Camp, Blackfoot Creek, Utah 153 
 
 Bear River Bridge, Utah 15"7 
 
 Cottonwood Grove, Weber Canyon, Utah 165

 
 MA.TOU GENERAL G. M. DODGE 
 
 Chii't" ICiv^inoer I'nion Pacific Itailway. ISOO-ISTO
 
 HB 
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
 In 1836 the first public meeting to consider the project 
 of a Pacific railway was called by John Plumbe, a civil engineer 
 of Dubuque, Iowa. Interest in a Pacific railway increased from 
 this time. The explorations of Fremont in 1842 and 1846 
 brought the attention of Congress, and A. C. Whitney was 
 zealous and efficient in the cause from 1840 to 1850. The first 
 practical measure was Senator Salmon P. Chase's bill, making 
 an appropriation for the explorations of different routes for a 
 Pacific railway in 1853. Numerous bills were introduced in Con- 
 gress between 1852 and 1860, granting subsidies and lands, and 
 some of them appropriating as large a sum as $96,000,000 for 
 the construction of the road. /(One of these bills passed one of 
 the houses of Congress. The results of the explorations ordered 
 by Congress were printed in eleven large volumes, covering 
 the country between the parallels of latitude thirty-second on 
 the south and forty-ninth on the north, and demonstrating the 
 feasibility of building a Pacific railway, but at a cost on any 
 one of the lines much larger than the Union Pacific and Cen- 
 tral Pacific were built for. It is a singular fact that in all these 
 explorations the most feasible line in an engineering and com- 
 mercial point of view, the line with the least obstacles to over- 
 come, of lowest grades and least curvature was never explored 
 and reported on. Private enterprise explored and developed 
 that line along the forty-second parallel of latitude. 
 
 This route was made by the buffalo, next used by the 
 Indians, then by the fur traders, next by the Mormons, and 
 then by the overland immigration to California and Oregon 
 It was known as the Great Platte Valley Route. On this trail, 
 or close to it, was built the Union and Central Pacific Railroads 
 to California, and the Oregon Short Line branch of the Union 
 Pacific to Oregon. 
 
 In 1852 the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company 
 was organized to build a line westward across the State of 
 
 958727
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Iowa as an extension of the Chicago and Rock Island, then 
 terminating at Rock Island, Illinois. The principal men con- 
 nected with this line were Henry Farnum and Thomas C. 
 Durant. Peter A. Dey, who had been a division engineer of 
 the Rock Island, w^as the Chief Engineer of the M. & M. in 
 Iowa. He was a man of great ability, probity and integrity. 
 
 In May, 1853, Mr. Peter A. Dey left the Rock Island, of 
 which he was a division engineer stationed at Tiskilwa, and 
 commenced at Davenport, Iowa, the first survey of a railroad 
 line across the State of Iowa. I had been with Mr. Dey about 
 eight months as rodman, and vmder his direction had made a 
 survey of the Peoria & Bureau Valley Railway in Illinois. Mr. 
 Dey was made chief engineer of the M. & M., aud took me to 
 Iowa as assistant, and placed me in charge of the party in the 
 field, certainly a very fine promotion for the limited experience 
 I had, and it is one of the greatest satisfactions and pleasures 
 of my life to have had his friendship from the time I entered 
 his service until now. Mr. Dey is not only a very distinguished 
 citizen of Iowa, but is one of the most eminent engineers of 
 the country. He was known for his great ability, his upright- 
 ness and the square deal he gave everyone, and he has greatly 
 honored his State in the many public positions he has held. 
 I look back upon my services with him with the greatest 
 pleasure. He has a wide reputation as a civil engineer and 
 railway constructor, and in later years as Railway Commis- 
 sioner for the State of Iowa. 
 
 In 1853 he gave the orders for the party that surveyed the 
 first line across Iowa to examine the country west of the Mis- 
 souri River. This was to determine where the M. & M. (now 
 the Rock Island) line crossing Iowa should terminate on the 
 Missouri River, in order to take advantage of, and, perhaps, 
 become a part of the prospective line running west up the 
 great Platte Valley, then the chief thoroughfare for all the 
 Mormon, California and Oregon overland immigration. It fell 
 to my lot to be chief of this party. My examinations virtually 
 determined that a railway line extending west from the Mis- 
 souri River should go by way of Sarpy's Point (now Bellevue), 
 or directly west from Kanesville, afterwards Council Bluffs,
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 where the Mormons from Naiivoo were then resting on their 
 way to Salt Lake. 
 
 My party crossed the Missouri River in the fall of 1853 
 on fiat-boats. The Omaha Indians occupied the country where 
 we landed, and after obtaining a line rising from the bluffs 
 west of where the city of Omaha now stands, I gave directions 
 to the party to continue the survey while I went on ahead to 
 examine the country to the Platte Valley some twenty-five 
 miles farther west. I reached the Platte Valley about noon 
 the next day, and being very tired, I lariated my horse and 
 laid down with my saddle as a pilloAV and with my rifle under 
 it, and went sound asleep. I was awakened by the neighing 
 of the horse and when I looked up, I saw an Indian leading 
 the horse --towards the Elkhorn River, pulling with all his 
 might and the horse holding back, evidently frightened. I was 
 greatly frightened myself, hardly knowing what to do, but I 
 suppose from instinct, I grabbed my rifle, and started after 
 the Indian hollering at the top of my voice. The Indian saw 
 me coming, let the horse go and made his way across the Elk- 
 horn River. This Indian afterwards was an enlisted man in 
 the battalion of Pawnees that served under me in the Indian 
 campaigns of 1865, and he told JMajor North, the commander 
 of that battalion, that he let loose of the horse because I hol- 
 lered so loud that it frightened him. On obtaining my horse, 
 I saddled up and made my way back to the party that was 
 camped on the Big Papillion on the emigrant road leading 
 from Florence to the Elkhorn. The camp was full of Omaha 
 Indians and they had every man in the party cooking for them. 
 I saw that we would soon lose all our provisions, and as the 
 party was armed, I called them together and told them to get 
 their arms. I only knew one Indian word, "Puekechee," which 
 meant get out. That I told them, and while the Indians were 
 surly, they saw we were determined and they left us. I don't 
 believe there was anyone in the party that had ever seen an 
 Indian before or had any experience with them. We were all 
 tenderfeet. It taught me a lesson, never to allow an Indian 
 in my camp or around it without permission, and this was my 
 instructions to all our engineering parties. Those who obeyed 
 it, generally got through without losing their stock or lives.
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Those who were careless and disobeyed, generally lost their 
 stock and some of their men. As soon as we had determined 
 the line from the Missouri River to the Platte, we returned 
 to Iowa City, which was the headquarters of the M. & M. 
 Railway. 
 
 The times were such that the work on the M. & M. Railway 
 was suspended for some years. Meanwhile I located at Council 
 Bluffs, continuing the explorations under the direction of 
 Messrs. Farnum and Durant, and obtaining from voyagers, 
 immigrants and others all the information I could in regard 
 to the country further west. There was keen competition at 
 that time for the control of the vast immigration crossing the 
 plains, and Kansas City, Port Leavenworth (then the govern- 
 ment post), St. Joseph and Council Bluffs were points of con- 
 centration on the Missouri. The trails from all the points 
 converged in the Platte Valley at or near old Fort Kearney, 
 following its waters to the South Pass. A portion of the Kan- 
 sas City immigration followed the Valley of the Arkansas west, 
 and thence through New Mexico. The great bulk of the immi- 
 gration was finally concentrated at Council Bluffs as the best 
 crossing of the Missouri River. From ray explorations and the 
 information I had obtained with the aid of the Mormons and 
 others, I mapped and made an itinerary of a line from Council 
 Bluffs through to Utah, California and Oregon, giving the 
 camping places for each night, and showing where wood, water 
 and fords of streams could be found. Distributed broadcast 
 by the local interests of this route, this map and itinerary had 
 no small influence in turning the mass of overland immigration 
 to Council Bluffs, where it crossed the Missouri and took the 
 great Platte Valley route. This route was up that valley to 
 its forks, and then up either the north or south fork to Salt 
 Lake and California by way of the Humboldt, and to Oregon 
 by way of the Snake and Columbia rivers. This is today the 
 route of the Union and Central Pacifies to California, and the 
 Union Pacific to Oregon. 
 
 After collecting all the information we could as to the 
 best route for a railroad to the Pacific, I reported to Messrs. 
 Farnam and Durant, who paid out of their private funds for 
 all mv work. In 1857 or 1858 they asked me to visit New York.
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 In the office of the Rock Island Railroad, over the Corn Ex- 
 change Bank in William Street, I was brought before the 
 Board of Directors of that road, and the Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri Railway, together with some friends who had been called 
 in. The secretary of the company read my report. Before he 
 was half through nearly every person had left the room, and 
 when he had finished only Mr. Faruam, Mr. Durant, the reader 
 and mj'self were present. I could see that there was lack of 
 faith and even interest in the matter. One of the directors 
 said in the outer room that he did not see why they should be 
 asked to hear such nonsense, Init Messrs. Farnam and Durant 
 did not lose faith. Since our survey in 1853, other companies 
 had made surveys in Iowa, all concentrating at Council Bluffs. 
 Farnam and Durant felt that if they could stimulate interest 
 in the Pacific road it would enable them to raise funds to 
 complete their line across the State, and authority was con- 
 ferred upon me to begin Avork at Council Bluffs and build 
 east through Pottawattamie County, if I could obtain local 
 aid. This we secured, and the road was graded through that 
 county, when we were called east to continue the work from 
 Iowa City west. 
 
 In 1854, when Nebraska was organized, we moved to its 
 frontier, continuing the explorations under the patronage of 
 Messrs. Farnam and Durant, and obtaining all valuable infor- 
 mation, which was used to concentrate the influence of the 
 different railways east and west of Chicago to the support of 
 the forty-second parallel line. 
 
 In 1861 we discontinued the railroad work because of the 
 Civil War. The passage of the bill of 1862, which made the 
 building of a trans-continental railroad possible, was due pri- 
 marily to the persistent efforts of Hon. Samuel R. Curtis, a 
 Representative in Congress from Iowa, who reported the bill 
 before entering the Union service in 1861. It was then taken 
 up by Hon. James Harlan of Iowa, who succeeded in obtaining 
 its passage in March, 1862. 
 
 Up to 1858, all the projects for building a railroad across 
 the continent were regarded as the Pacific roads ; each route 
 mentioned having a particular name. The line along the forty- 
 second parallel of latitude was designated as a line from San
 
 10 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Francisco to a point on the Missouri River not farther north 
 than Council Bluffs and not farther south than Independence, 
 Missouri, and was called the Pacific Railroad. The line sur- 
 veyed by Stephens along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude 
 was called the North Route. The route along the thirty-eighth 
 and thirty-ninth parallels, as the Buffalo Trail. It received that 
 name from Thomas H. Benton. The route along the thirty-fifth 
 and thirty-second parallels, as the South Route. The Govern- 
 ment, however, made no explorations along the forty-second 
 parallel ; that was done by individual enterprise. In 1856, both 
 political parties in convention passed resolutions favoring a 
 Pacific railroad, and in 1857, President Buchanan advocated 
 it as a reason for holding the Pacific Coast people in the Union, 
 and it was this sentiment that gave to the forty-second parrallel 
 line the name of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1858, a select 
 committee of fifteen was authorized by Congress on Pacific 
 railroads and in the Thirty-fifth Congress, second session, this 
 committee allowed the Hon. Samuel R. Curtis of Iowa to report 
 the bill, and if I recollect rightly, this was the first bill that 
 took the name of Union Pacific. In the Thirty-sixth Congress, 
 General Curtis became the champion of the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road, and it was advocated then as a strong element in holding 
 the Union together. Curtis' bill passed the house in December, 
 1860. It failed to become a law, as the question of secession 
 was up then and Lincoln had been elected President. In the 
 extra session of the Thirty-secona Congress in July, 1861, 
 Curtis reintroduced the bill and he left Congress to enter the 
 army. When Representative Campbell of Pennsylvania be- 
 came chairinan of the committee. Senator Harlan of Iowa, who 
 had been elected to the Senate, became the strongest advocate 
 of the bill in the Senate. Lincoln advocated its passage and 
 building, not only as a military necessity, but as a means of 
 holding the Pacific Coast to the Union. This bill became a 
 law in 1862, and there is no doubt but what the sentiment that 
 the building of the railroad Avould hold the L'^nion together 
 gave it the name of the Union Pacific. 
 
 The Union Pacific Railway was organized on September 2, 
 1862, at Chicago, Major-General S. R. Curtis, of Iowa, being 
 chairman of the commissioners appointed by Congress. The
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 11 
 
 organization was perfected by making Henry B. Ogden, of 
 Chicago, President; Thomas W. Olcott, Treasurer, and Henry 
 V. Poor, Secretary. Mr. T. C. Durant selected Peter A. Dey 
 to make a reconnoisanee from the Missouri River to Salt Lake 
 to be reported at the next meeting of the Board. Mr. Dey 
 immediately entered upon his work and extended his recon- 
 noisanee through to Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 In the spring of 1863, when in command of the District 
 of Corinth, Mississippi, I received a dispatch from General 
 Grant to proceed to Washington and report to President Lin- 
 coln. No explanation coming Avith the dispatch, and having 
 a short time before organized and armed some negroes for 
 the purpose of guarding a contraband camp which we had at 
 Corinth, which act had been greatlj^ criticised in the army and 
 by civilians, I was somewhat alarmed, thinking possibly I was 
 to be called to account. But on arriving at Washington I dis- 
 covered that my summons was due to an interview between 
 Mr. Lincoln and myself at Council Bluffs in August, 1859. 
 He was there to look after an interest in the Riddle Tract he 
 had bought of Mr. N. B. Judd of Chicago. I had just arrived 
 from an exploring trip to the westward. It was quite an event 
 for an exploring party to reach the States, and after dinner, 
 while I was resting on the stoop of the Pacific House, Mr. 
 Lincoln sat down beside me, and by his kindly ways soon drew 
 from me all I knew of the country west, and the results of 
 my reconnoisances. As the saying is, he completely "shelled 
 my woods," getting all the secrets that were later to go to 
 my employers. 
 
 Under the law of 1862 the President was to fix the eastern 
 terminus of the Union Pacific Railway, and, remembering our 
 talk in the fifties, he wished to consult me in the matter. 
 Several towns on the Missouri River were competing for the 
 terminus, but Mr. Lincoln practically settled the question in 
 favor of the location I recommended. He issued his first order 
 on November 17, 1863. It was in his own language, and as 
 follows : 
 
 "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do 
 hereby fix so much of the western boundary of the State of 
 Iowa as lies between the north and south boundaries of the
 
 12 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 United States township within which the city of Omaha is 
 situated as the point from wdiich the line of railroad and tele- 
 graph in that section mentioned shall be constructed." 
 
 This order was not considered definite enough by the 
 company, and on March 7, 1864, President Lincoln issued the 
 second executive order, as follows : 
 
 "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do 
 upon the application of said company, designate and establish 
 such first named point on the eastern boundary of the State 
 of Iowa east of and opposite to the east line of Section 10, in 
 Township 15, South of Range 13, east of the sixth principal 
 meridian in the Territory of Nebraska." 
 
 On March 8, 1864, he notified the United States Senate 
 that on the 17th day of November, 1863, he had located the 
 ■'Eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Eailway within the 
 limits of the township in Iowa opposite to the town of Omaha." 
 Since then, he says the company has represented to me that 
 upon additional survey made it has determined upon the pre- 
 cise point of departure of the branch road from the Missouri 
 River, and located same within the limits designated in the 
 order of November last. 
 
 He was very anxious that the road should be built and dis- 
 cussed that question with me. 
 
 I explained to him as clearly as I could how difficult it 
 would be to build it by private enterprise, and said I thought 
 it should be taken up and built by the Government. He ob- 
 jected to this, saying the Government would give the project 
 all possible aid and support, but could not build the road ; 
 that it had all it could possibly handle in the conflict now 
 going on. But the Government would make any change in the 
 law or give any reasonable aid to insure the building of the 
 road by private enterprise. 
 
 After my interview with the President, I proceeded to 
 New York and met Mr. T. C. Durant, then practically at the 
 head of the Union Pacific interests, and other interested per- 
 sons. After I had presented the President's views they took 
 new courage, and at the yearly meeting of the company, Gen- 
 eral John A. Dix was made President, Thomas C. Durant, Vice 
 President, H. V. Poor, Secretary, and J. J. Cisco, Treasurer.
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 13 
 
 They then submitted to Congress the necessary changes needed 
 in the law of 1862, in order to bring the capital of the country 
 to their support. 
 
 In the fall of 1863 Mr. Durant had personally instructed 
 Mr. Dey to organize parties for immediate surveys to deter- 
 mine the line from the Missouri River up the Platte Valley, to 
 run a line over the first range of mountains, known as the 
 Black Hills, and to examine the Wasatch range. In his report 
 Mr. Durant said : '"It is here that the information derived from 
 the examinations made by General G. M. Dodge, and those 
 made last year by Peter A. Dey, who was sent out by the com- 
 mittee appointed by your Board of Commissioners, proved of 
 great value, as the present parties will avail themselves of the 
 examinations made by these gentlemen, and will first run the 
 lines which they found most practicable." In accordance with 
 these instructions, Mr. Dey placed B. B. Brayton in charge of 
 the party examining the Black Hills, and at Mr. Dey's request, 
 Brigham Young placed his son. James A. Young, in charge of 
 the surveys over the Wasatch. Mr. Dey, who had become chief 
 engineer, placed engineering parties in the field covering the 
 territory from the ]\Iissouri River to Salt Lake. 
 
 Ground was broken at Omaha for the beginning of the 
 road on the 1st day of December, 1863, and after the passage 
 of the Act of 1864 about $500,000 was spent in grading and 
 surveys. 
 
 A question as to the location brought a disturbing contest 
 between Omaha and tlie company. Mr. Dey had located the line 
 due west to the Elkhorn River. The consulting engineer, Colo- 
 nel Seymour, recommended a change, increasing the distance 
 nine or more miles in thirteen. The main argument for adding 
 nine miles of distance in thirteen miles of road was that it elim- 
 inated the eighty and sixty-six foot grades of the direct line. 
 If this had been done there would have been some argument for 
 the change, but they only eliminated the grades from the Omaha 
 summit west, while it took three miles of sixty and sixty-six 
 foot grade from the Missouri River to reach this summit, and 
 coming east the Elkhorn summit was an eighty-foot grade, so 
 by the change and addition of nine miles they made no reduc- 
 tions in the original maximum grades, or in the tonnage hauled
 
 14 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 in a train on the new lines over the old line, if it had been built. 
 The grades at Omaha and Elkhorn have been eliminated since 
 1900, and the new management are adopting the old Dey line 
 for the distance it saves, and bringing the grade to the road's 
 maximum of forty-seven feet to the mile. It was Mr. Dey's 
 intention that when traffic demanded the original short line 
 grades would be reduced to whatever maximum grade the 
 road should finally adopt. After a long contest and many 
 reports the Government provided that the change should only 
 be made if the Omaha and Elkhorn grades were eliminated, 
 the first by a line running south from Omaha two miles down 
 the Missouri Valley and cutting through the bluffs to Muddy 
 Creek, giving a thirty-five foot maximum grade, and the Elk- 
 horn by additional cutting and filling without changing the 
 line, but this was never done. The company paid no attention 
 to the decision but built on the changed line, letting the grades 
 at Omaha and Elkhorn stand, and the Government commis- 
 sioners accepted the road, ignoring the Government's condi- 
 tions for the change, and bonds were issued upon it, although 
 it was a direct violation of the Government order. The final 
 decision in favor of the change and the ignoring of Mr. Dey's 
 recommendations in letting the construction contracts, caused 
 Mr. Dey in January, 1865, to send in his resignation. He stated 
 in his letter of resignation that he was giving up "the best posi- 
 tion in his profession this country has offered to any man." 
 
 The officers of the Union Pacific then requested me to 
 return and take charge of the work. I was then in command 
 of the United States forces on the plains in the Indian cam- 
 paigns, and General Grant was not willing that I should leave, 
 so I finished my work there and went to Omaha on the 1st of 
 May, 1866, and assumed the duties of chief engineer, having 
 been allowed leave of absence through the following letter 
 of General Sherman : 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE 
 MISSISSIPPI. 
 "Major-General Dodge. "^t. Louis, May 1st, 1866. 
 
 "Dear General: I have your letter of April 27th, and I 
 readily consent to what you ask. I think General Pope shpuld
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 15 
 
 be at Leavenworth before you leave, and I expected he would 
 be at Leavenworth by May 1st, but he has not yet come. As 
 soon as he reaches Leavenworth, or St. Louis, even, I consent 
 to your going to Omaha to begin what, I trust, will be the 
 real beginning of the great road. I start tomorrow for Riley, 
 whence I will cross over to Kearney by land, and thence come 
 in to Omaha, where I hope to meet you. I will send your letter 
 this morning to Pope's office and endorse your request that 
 a telegraph message be sent to General Pope to the effect that 
 he is wanted at Leavenworth. Hoping to meet you soon, I am, 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 "W. T. SHERMAN, M.-G." 
 
 The organization for work on the plains away from civili- 
 zation was as follows : Each of our surveying parties consisted 
 of a chief, who was an experienced engineer, two assistants, 
 also civil engineers, rodmen, flagmen and chainmen, generally 
 graduated civil engineers, but without personal experience in 
 the field, besides axe men, teamsters and herders. When the 
 party was expected to live upon the game of the country a 
 hunter was added. Each party would thus consist of from 
 eighteen to twenty-two men, all armed. When operating in a 
 hostile Indian country they were regularly drilled, though 
 after the Civil War this was unnecessary, as most of them had 
 been in the army. Each party entering a country occupied by 
 hostile Indians was generall}' furnished with a military escort 
 of from ten men to a company under a competent officer. The 
 duty of this escort was to protect the party when in camp. 
 In the field the escort usually occupied prominent hills com- 
 manding the territory in which the Avork was to be done, so as 
 to head off sudden attacks by the Indians. Nothwithstanding 
 this proteetion, the parties were often attacked, their chief, or 
 some of their men killed or wounded, and their stock run off. 
 
 In preliminary surveys in the open country a party would 
 run from eight to tAvelve miles of line in a day. On location 
 in an open country three or four miles would be covered, but 
 in a mountainous country generally not to exceed a mile. All 
 hands worked from daylight to dark, the country being recon- 
 noitered ahead of them by the chief, who indicated the streams
 
 16 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 to follow, and the controlling points in summits and river 
 crossings. The party of location that followed the preliminary 
 surveys, had the maps and profiles of the line selected for loca- 
 tion and devoted its energies to obtaining a line of the lowest 
 grades and the least curvature that the country would admit. 
 
 The location party in our work on the Union Pacific was 
 folloAved by the construction corps, grading generally 100 
 miles at a time. That distance was graded in about thirty 
 days on the plains, as a rule, but in the mountains we some- 
 times had to open our grading several hundred miles ahead 
 of our track in order to complete the grading by the time the 
 track should reach it. All the supplies for this work had to be 
 hauled from the end of the track, and the wagon transportation 
 was enormous. At one time we were using at least 10,000 ani- 
 mals, and most of the time from 8,000 to 10,000 laborers. The 
 bridge gangs ahvays worked from five to twenty miles ahead 
 of the track, and it was seldom that the track waited for a 
 bridge. To supply one mile of track with material and sup- 
 plies required about fortj^ cars, as on the plains everything — 
 rails, ties, bridging, fastenings, all railway supplies, fuel for 
 locomotives and trains, and supplies for men and animals on 
 the entire work, had to be transported from the Missouri 
 River. Therefore, as we moved westward, every hundred miles 
 added vastly to our transportation. Yet the work was so 
 systematically planned and executed that I do not remember 
 an instance in all the construction of the line of the work 
 being delayed a single week for want of material. Each winter 
 we planned the work for the next season. 15y the opening of 
 spring, about April 1st, every part of the machinery was in 
 working order, and in no year did we fail to accomplish our 
 work. After 3866 the reports Avill show what we started out 
 to do each year, and what we accomplished. 
 
 The following extract from a letter written to me by Gen- 
 eral W. T. Sherman as to Avhat we promised to do in 1867, 
 which was only about one-half what we prepared to do and 
 did accomplish in 1868, indicates how one year's experience 
 helped us in the progress of the next. It also shows, what the 
 country now seems in a great measure to have forgotten, that 
 the Pacific Railroad, now regarded chiefly in the light of a
 
 < 3 
 
 c
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 17 
 
 transcontinental, commercial highway, was then looked upon 
 as a military necessity and as the one thing positively essen- 
 tial to the binding together of the republic East and West : 
 
 ''St. Louis, January 16, 1867. 
 ■ ' My Dear Dodge : 
 
 ■ ' I have just read with intense interest your letter of the 
 14th. and. though you wanted it kept to myself, I believe 
 you will sanction my sending it to General Grant for his indi- 
 vidual perusal, to be returned to me. It is almost a miracle 
 to grasp your purpose to finish to Fort Sanders (288 miles) 
 this year,' but you have done so much that I mistrust my own 
 judgment and accept yours. I regard this road of yours as 
 the solution of the Indian affairs and the Mormon question, 
 and, therefore, give you all the aid I possibly can, but the 
 demand for soldiers everywhere and the slowness of enlist- 
 ment, especially among the blacks, limit our ability to respond. 
 Each officer exaggerates his own troubles and appeals for men. 
 I now have General Terry on the upper Missouri, General 
 Augur with you, and General Hancock just below, all enter- 
 prising young men, fit for counsel or for the field. I will en- 
 deavor to arrange so that hereafter all shall act on common 
 principles and with a common purpose, and the first step, of 
 course, is to arrange for the accumulation of the necessary 
 men and materials at the right points, for which your railroad 
 is the very thing. So far as interest in your section is con- 
 cerned, you may rest easy that both Grant and I feel deeply 
 concerned in the safety of your great national enterprise." 
 
 It was not until after November, 1867, when we had been 
 at work two years, that we got railroad communication with 
 the East at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the initial point of the Union 
 Pacific Eailway by the completion of the Northwestern Rail- 
 way. Till then the Missouri River had been the sole route 
 over which supplies could be had. It was available only about 
 three months of the year, and our construction was limited 
 by the quantities of rail and equipment that could be brought 
 to us by boat in that time. In twelve months of work after 
 we had rail communication, we located, built and equipped 
 587 miles of road, working only from one end, transporting
 
 18 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 everything connected with it, an average distance of 800 miles 
 west of the Missouri Eiver. This feat has not yet been sur- 
 passed. In accomplishing it we crossed the divide of the 
 continent and two ranges of mountains, one of which was 
 the Wasatch, where in the winter of 1868-69 we had to blast 
 the earth the same as the rocks. 
 
 Our Indian troubles commenced in 1864 and lasted until 
 the tracks joined at Promontory. We lost most of our men 
 and stock while building from Fort Kearney to Bitter Creek. 
 At that time every mile of road had to be surveyed, graded, 
 tied and bridged under military protection. The order to 
 every surveying corps, grading, bridging and tie outfit was 
 never to run when attacked. All were required to be armed, 
 and I do not know that the order was disobeyed in a single 
 instance, nor did I ever hear that the Indians had driven a 
 party permanently from its work. I remember one occasion 
 when they swooped down on a grading outfit in sight of the 
 temporary fort of the military some five miles away, and 
 right in sight of the end of the track. The Government Com- 
 mission to examine that section of the completed road had 
 just arrived, and the Commissioners witnessed the fight. The 
 graders had their arms stacked on the cut. The Indians leaped 
 from the ravines, and, springing upon the workmen before 
 they could reach their arms, cut loose the stock and caused 
 a panic. General Frank P. Blair, General Simpson and Dr. 
 White were the Commissioners, and they showed their grit by 
 running to my car for arms to aid in the fight. We did not 
 fail to benefit from this experience, for, on returning to the 
 East the Commission dwelt earnestly on the necessity of our 
 being protected. 
 
 From the beginning to the completion of the road our 
 success depended in a great measure on the cordial and active 
 support of the army, especially its commander-in-chief. Gen- 
 eral Grant, and the commander of the Military Division of 
 the West, General Sherman. He took a personal interest in the 
 project. He visited the work several times each year during 
 its continuance, and I was in the habit of communicating with 
 him each month, detailing my progress and laying before him 
 my y>lanR. In return T received letters from him almost every
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 19 
 
 iiiontli. We also had the cordial support of the district com- 
 manders of the country through which we operated — General 
 Augur, General Cook, General Gibbon and General Stevenson, 
 and their subordinates. General Grant had given full and 
 positive instructions that every support should be given to 
 me, and General Sherman in the detailed instructions practi- 
 cally left it to my own judgment as to what support should 
 be given by the troops on the plains. They were also instructed 
 to furnish my surveying parties with provisions from the posts 
 whenever our provisions should give out, and the subordinate 
 officers, following the example of their chiefs, responded to 
 every demand made, no matter at what time of day or night, 
 what time of year or in what weather, and took as much inter- 
 est in the matter as we did. 
 
 General Sherman's great interest in the enterprise orig- 
 inated from the fact that he personally, in 1849, took from 
 General Smith, Commander on the Pacific Coast, the instruc- 
 tions to Lieutenants Warner and Williamson, of the engineers, 
 who made the first surveys coming east from California, to 
 ascertain, if possible, whether it was practicable to cross the 
 Sierra Nevada range of mountains with a railroad. ' These in- 
 structions were sent at General Sherman's own suggestion, 
 and the orders and examination preceded the Act of Congress 
 making appropriations for explorations and surveys for a 
 railroad route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean 
 by four years. General Sherman's interest lasted during his 
 lifetime, and was signalized in the closing days of his official 
 life by a summary of transcontinental railroad construction, 
 the most exhaustive paper on the subject I have ever seen. 
 
 When I took charge as Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific 
 Railway in 1866, I knew that my first duty would be to deter- 
 mine the crossing of the line over the Black Hills, a bold, high 
 spur of the Rocky Mountains, and I concentrated my engineer- 
 ing forces for that purpose. It had already been ascertained 
 that we could get down to the Laramie plains from the sum- 
 mit going west, but the route had not been determined going 
 east. In my examinations made while coming home from the 
 Powder River Expedition in 1865 I had found what I believed 
 to be the most practicable route from the summit to the foot
 
 20 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 of the mountains on the east, and directed that it be examined. 
 This was immediately done, and the route was found practi- 
 cable. 
 
 After the battle of Atlanta, my assignment to the Depart- 
 ment of the Missouri brought the country between the Mis- 
 souri River and California under my command, and then I 
 was charged with the Indian campaigns of 1865 and 1866. 
 I traveled again over all that portion of the country I had 
 explored in former years, and saw the beginning of that great 
 future that aAvaited it. I then began to comprehend its capa- 
 bilities and resources ; and in all movements of our troops and 
 scouting parties I had reports made upon the country — its 
 resources and topography; and I, myself, during the two 
 years traversed it east and west, north and south, from the 
 Arkansas to the Yellowstone, and from the Missouri to the 
 Salt Lake basin. 
 
 It was on one of these trips that 1 discovered the pass 
 through the Black Hills and gave it the name of Sherman, in 
 honor of my great chief. Its elevation is 8,236 feet, and for 
 years it was the highest point reached by any railroad in the 
 United States. The circumstances of this accidental discovery 
 may not be uninteresting. 
 
 While returning from the Powder River campaign, 1 was 
 in the habit of leaving my troops and trains, and with a few 
 men, examining all the approaches and passes from Fort Lar- 
 amie south over the secondary range of mountains known as 
 the Black Hills, the most difficult to overcome with proper 
 grades of all the ranges, on account of its short slopes and 
 great height. When I reached the Lodge Pole Creek, up which 
 went the overland trail, I took a few mounted men — I think 
 six — and with one of my scouts as guide, went up the creek 
 to the summit of Cheyenne Pass, striking south along the 
 crest of the mountains to obtain a good view of the country, 
 the troops and trains at the same time passing along the east 
 base of the mountains on what was known as the St. Vrain 
 and the Laramie trail. 
 
 About noon, in the valley of a tributary of Crow Creek, 
 we discovered Indians, who. at the same time, discovered us. 
 They were between us and our trains. I saw our danger and
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 21 
 
 took means immediately to reach the ridge and try to head 
 them off, and follow it to where the cavalry could see our 
 signals. We dismounted and started down the ridge, holding 
 the Indians at bay, when they came too near, with our Win- 
 chesters. It was nearly night when the troops saw our smoke 
 signals of danger and came to our relief; and in going to 
 the train we followed this ridge out until I discovered it led 
 down to the plains without a break. I then said to my guide 
 that if we saved our scalps I believed we had found the cross- 
 ing of the Black Hills — and over this ridge, between Lone 
 Tree and Crow Creeks, the wonderful line over the mountains 
 was built. For over two years all explorations had failed to 
 find a satisfactory crossing of this range. The country east 
 of it was unexplored, but we had no doubt we could reach it. 
 The year 1866 was spent in determining the crossing of 
 the Rocky Mountains or the Black Hills and the approaches 
 to them from the east. It was the great desire of the company 
 to build the line through Denver, Colorado, if possible, up the 
 South Platte Valley and crossing the mountains west of Den- 
 ver and reaching Salt Lake by the Yampa, White and Uinta 
 Valleys, and I covered the country from the Laramie Canon 
 on the north to the Arkansas on the south, examining all the 
 mountain passes and approaches and* examined all these lines 
 personally. These surveys demonstrated that there was no 
 question as to where the line should cross these mountains. 
 The general examination of the plains along the east foot of the 
 mountains showed that the plains rose from the Arkansas 
 north until they reached their apex at the valley of Crow 
 Creek, near where Cheyenne now stands. Then they fell to 
 the north towards the Laramie, and when we came to examine 
 the summits of these mountains, we found their lowest alti- 
 tude was in the vicinity of the Cheyenne Pass, so that there 
 was no question as to where our line should run. The line up 
 the Platte and up the Lodge Pole and by the Lone Tree Pass 
 which I had discovered, was far superior to any other line, and 
 it forced us to abandon the line in the direction of Denver and 
 we had in view the building of a branch from Crow Creek 
 to Denver, about 112 miles long. I reported the result of my 
 examination on November 15, 1866. to the company, and on
 
 22 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 November 23, 1866, the company adopted the lines which 
 I had recommended, and 1 immediately proceeded to develop 
 them for building the next year. We also examined this year 
 the line by the way of the North Platte, Fort Laramie, Sweet 
 Water Creek and the South Pass, reaching Salt Lake by the 
 way of the Big Sandy and Black Fork. This line avoided the 
 crossing of the Black Hills and the heavy grade ascending 
 from the east to the summit and the ninety-foot grade dropping 
 down into tlie Laramie plains, but this line was some forty 
 miles longer than the direct line by the Lodge Pole, and on 
 this line there was no development of coal as there was on the 
 line adopted by the company, and on presenting this question 
 to the Government, they decided against the North Platte 
 and South Pass line. The chiefs of parties for this work were : 
 James A. Evans, M^ho was an engineer of great ability, Mr. 
 P. T. Brown, who w^as an assistant engineer, a young man 
 who started out in 1864 as a rodman. He made the surveys 
 through Clear Creek to the Middle Park, over the Burthud 
 Pass ; also the Boulder Pass. On this pass in November, the 
 party was caught in the severest snow storm known in the 
 mountains, and he was obliged to abandon his pack train and 
 save his party by working his way eastward through the storm 
 to Boulder Creek. His stock drifted to Middle Park. There 
 they wintered near the hot springs. I received knowledge 
 through one of my old mountain friends that they were there 
 in good condition, and we recovered them in the spring. Mr. 
 L. L. Hills, assistant engineer, had charge of the surveys on the 
 Lodge Pole line and up the Cashe La Poudre River to Laramie 
 Plains, and Mr. J. E. House had charge of the surveys, sound- 
 ings and examination of the Missouri River. Mr. F. A. Case, 
 division engineer, was completing the examination of the passes 
 through the main range, made the year before, and Mr. F. H. 
 Ainsworth w'as running the lines in the Platte Valley, while 
 Mr. Thomas H. Bates had charge of the surveys in Utah and 
 west to the California state line. The explorations and surveys 
 of 1866 had only confirmed the reconnoissance made in the 
 fifties by Mr. Dey and myself of the general route of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad, so that for the years to come our work 
 would be almost entirelv devoted to the final locations.
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 23 
 
 In the spring of 1867, I received a letter from General 
 Grant suggesting that in my explorations during the year 
 1867, I take with me his chief-of-staff, General John A. Rawlins, 
 for the benefit of his health. General Rawlins had shown a 
 tendency towards consumption and it was thought that three 
 or four months in camp on the plains would be of great benefit 
 to him, I, therefore, wnth great pleasure invited General Raw- 
 lins to accompany me with such friends as he might select. He 
 came to me at Omaha, bringing with him Major J. W. McK. 
 Dunn, A. D. C. and John E. Corwith of Galena, Illinois, and 
 added to this party on my invitation was John R. Duff, son of a 
 director of the road, and Mr. David Van Lennep, my geologist. 
 We had as an escort two companies of cavalry and two of 
 infantry under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. K. Miz- 
 ner, who had with him Lieutenant J. W. Wheelan and Dr. 
 Heni-y B. Terry, Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A. They accompa- 
 nied me during the entire summer. We started out the first of 
 June and went to the end of the track, which was then at North 
 Platte, and from there we marched immediately up the Platte, 
 theja up the Lodge Pole to the east base of the Black Hills, 
 where we were joined by General C. C. Augur, who w^as then in 
 command of that department with his staff. General Augur's 
 instructions were to locate the military post where I located the 
 end of the division at the east base of the mountains, and after 
 a thorough examination of the country, I located the division 
 point on Crow Creek, where Cheyenne now stands, and named 
 it Cheyenne, and General Augur immediately located just north 
 of the town the military post of D. A. Russell. We spent the 
 Fourth of July at this place, and General John A. Rawlins 
 delivered a very remarkable and patriotic speech. 
 
 At this time the heaviest settlement was Denver, some 
 112 miles away. While we were camped here, the Indians 
 swooped down out of the ravine of Crow Creek and attacked 
 a Mormon grading train and outfit, that was coming from Salt 
 Lake to take work on the road, and killed two of its men. Our 
 cavalry hastily mounted and drove off the Indians and saved 
 their stock. We buried the men and started the graveyard of 
 the future city, now the capital of the State of Wyoming.
 
 24 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 In the spring of 1867 there was a party in the tield under 
 L. L. Hills, running a line east from the base of the Rocky 
 Mountains. The first word I received from it was through the 
 commanding officer at Camp Collins, who had served under 
 me while I commanded the department. He informed me that 
 a young man, named J. M. Eddy, had brought the party into 
 that post, its chief having been killed in a fight with the 
 Indians. I inquired who Eddy was and was informed that 
 he was an axeman in the party, and had served under me in 
 the Civil War. I ordered him to meet me with his party on 
 the Lodge Pole as I traveled west. He turned out to be a 
 young boy who had entered the Thirteenth Illinois when only 
 16 or 17. The fight in which Mr. Hills, the chief, was killed, 
 occurred some six miles east of Cheyenne, and after the 
 leader was lost young Eddy rallied the party, and by the 
 force of his own character, took it into Camp Collins. Of 
 course, I immediately promoted him. He was with me diu'ing 
 the entire construction of the Union Pacific, rising from one 
 position to another, until he became the General Manager of 
 portions of the great Southwestern System. He died in the 
 railway service. 
 
 After meeting this party, I completed the location of the 
 line to Crow Creek, at the foot of the mountains, now known 
 as Cheyenne. 
 
 We marched west across the Black Hills and Laramie 
 Plains and passed through Eattle Snake Hills Pass, following 
 down a stream that emptied into the Platte just opposite Fort 
 Steele and at a point where the Union Pacific now crosses the 
 North Platte River. We crossed this stream by swimming 
 our horses and proceeded west. The country from the Platte 
 west to the Bitter Creek is very dry, no running water in it. 
 and before we reached camp. General Rawlins became verj' 
 thirsty, and we started out in an endeavor to find running 
 water, and I discovered a spring in a draw near where the town 
 of Rawlins now stands. When General Rawlins reached this 
 spring he said it was the most gracious and acceptable of any- 
 thing he had had on the march, and also said that if anything 
 was ever named for him, he wanted it to be a spring of water, 
 and I said then. "We will name this Rawlins Springs." It
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 25 
 
 took that name. The end of one of our divisions happened to 
 be close to this spring, and I named the station Rawlins, which 
 has grown now into quite a town and a division point of the 
 Union Pacific road. 
 
 As soon as I had determined the line over the Black Hills, 
 1 learned that one of the parties which was trying to work 
 west from the North Platte had found the maps of the country 
 misleading. Endeavoring to find the summit of the continental 
 divide, this party had dropped into a great basin. Percy T. 
 Brown, the chief of the party, finding himself in an unknown 
 country entirely different in character from what had been 
 expected, took eight of his escort and started to explore the 
 region. When near the center of what is now known as the 
 Red Desert, he was attacked by 300 Sioux Indians, working 
 south to the Bridger Pass stage road coming from the Sweet- 
 water. Brown took measures to defend himself, occupying, 
 after a severe contest with the Indians for its possession, a 
 small hill, and fighting from 12 o'clock noon until toward 
 night, when he was shot through the abdomen. He then or- 
 dered the soldiers to leave him and save themselves, but they 
 refused and allowed the Indians to get hold of the stock, after 
 which the redskins withdrew. The soldiers then made a litter 
 of their carbines and packed Brown upon it fifteen miles 
 through the sage briish to Laclede station, near Bridger 's 
 Pass. Their laborious efforts to save him were made in vain, 
 however, for Brown died at the station. 
 
 Upon an examination of this country, we discovered that 
 the divide of the continent had let down from the Wind River 
 Mountains on the north to Medicine Bow, the beginning of 
 the main Rocky iMountains on the south from an elevation of 
 13,000 feet. to one of 7,000 into an open plain, and that the 
 divide was in reality a great basin about eighty miles across in 
 its widest part east and west, and 100 to 150 miles northwest 
 and southeast in its longest part. The streams running into it 
 sink, leaving a red soil over the entire basin, from which it 
 receives the name of the Red Desert. The Union Pacific Rail- 
 way crossed the Red Desert near its southern limit, between 
 the stations of Creston and Tipton, a distance of about thirty- 
 four miles.
 
 26 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 In the basin we found and rescued the party headed by 
 Thomas F. Bates, which was coming from Green River east. 
 When I reached what is now Creston I discovered Bates and 
 his party. They had been in the widest part of the basin for 
 nearly a week without water, and were almost exhausted. 
 When we discovered them they had abandoned the line and 
 were taking a course due east by the compass running for 
 water. At first we thought them Indians, but on looking 
 through my glasses I saw that they had teams with them. 
 We went to their relief at once and saved them. They were 
 in a deplorable condition from thirst. 
 
 On the western rim of the basin, as I left it, I ran into the 
 remains of some old wagons and other articles which indicated 
 that some military force had tried to cross there. Afterwards 
 I learned that it had been Colonel Steptoe's expedition to 
 Oregon, and that in crossing from Bridger's Pass trying to 
 reach northwest, they struck this country and were obliged 
 to abandon a portion of their outfit. This demonstrated that 
 no knowledge of this depression was had by anyone until we 
 developed it in our surveys. We had great difficulty in obtain- 
 ing water for the operation of our road through the basin, 
 being obliged to sink artesian wells to a great depth. After 
 reaching the west rim of the Red Desert you immediately drop 
 into the valley of Bitter Creek, the waters of which flow into 
 the Pacific. The crossing of the continental divide by the 
 Union Pacific is thus by way of an open prairie of compar- 
 atively low elevation, about 7,000 feet, instead of a mountain 
 range. The work of building the road there was unexpectedly 
 light, and it almost seems that nature made this great open- 
 ing in the Rocky Mountains expressly for the passage of a 
 transcontinental railway. 
 
 The law of 1862 provided that the Union Pacific and 
 Central Pacific should join their tracks at the California State 
 line. The law of 1864 allowed the Central Pacific to build 
 150 miles east of the state line, but that was changed by the 
 law of 1866, and the two companies allowed to build, one east 
 and the other west, until they met. The building of 500 miles 
 of road during the summers of 1866 and 1867, hardly twelve 
 months' actual work, had aroused great interest in the countrv,
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 27 
 
 and much excitement, in which the Government took a part. 
 We were pressed to as speedy a completion of the road as 
 possible, although ten years had been allowed by Congress. 
 The officers of the Union Pacific had become imbued with 
 this spirit, and they urged me to plan to build as much road 
 as possible in 1868. I have already alluded to the completion 
 of the Northwestern Railway in December. 1867, to Council 
 Bluffs, Iowa, which gave us an all rail connection with the 
 East, so that we could obtain our rail material and equipment 
 during the entire year. The reaching of the summit of the 
 first range of the Rocky Mountains, which I named Sherman, 
 in honor of my old commander, in 1867, placed us compara- 
 tively near good timber for ties and bridges, which, after 
 cutting, could be floated down the mountain streams at some 
 points to our crossing, and at others to within twenty-five or 
 thirty miles of our work. This afforded great relief to the 
 transportation. 
 
 In the fall of 1867, when we closed our work and ended 
 our track at the summit of the Black Hills, the company was 
 apparently at their end, so far as finances w^ere concerned and 
 were greatly disturbed as to the future. When I had received 
 all of my parties' reports, extending to the California State 
 line, and had completed the profiles, maps and estimates, I 
 went on to New York and met the Board of Directors, and 
 when they saw the very favorable line that we had obtained 
 over the Black Hills, across the Laramie Plains and over the 
 divide of the continent, where they had expected to meet very 
 heavy work, and also the line over the Wasatc^i Range to 
 Salt Lake and from there on west, they were very much 
 encouraged. The estimates on this line were not more than 
 one-half of. what they had expected and then a few miles 
 west of Cheyenne, they would commence receiving $48,000 in 
 Government bonds per mile for 150 miles and from there on, 
 $32,000 in Government bonds per mile, which was a great 
 advance on the amount that they had received on the 630 
 miles from the Missouri River to the east base of the moun- 
 tains, which was only $16,000 in Government bonds per mile, 
 while the cost of the work had been very heavy on account 
 of the long distance rails, timber, supplies and everything had
 
 28 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 to be hauled and the extra cost from the fact that the country 
 furnished nothing for the road. The company immediately 
 made extraordinary effort to provide the money to build to 
 Salt Lake, and during the winter I received instructions to 
 make every effort to build as much line as possible the coming 
 year, and the company forwarded to us at our base on the 
 Missouri River an immense amount of rails, fastenings, etc., 
 as we then had rail connections by the Northwestern road all 
 the way to Council Bluffs. 
 
 We made our plans to build to Salt Lake, 480 miles, in 
 1868, and to endeavor to meet the Central Pacific at Hum- 
 boldt Wells, 219 miles west of Ogden, in the spring of 1869. 
 1 had extended our surveys during the years 1867 and 1868 
 to the California State line, and laid my plans before the 
 company, and the necessary preparations were made to com- 
 mence work as soon as frost was out of the ground, say about 
 April 1st. Material had been collected in sufficient quantities 
 at the end of the track to prevent any delay. During the win- 
 ter ties and bridge timber had been cut and prepared in the 
 mountains to bring to the line at convenient points, and the 
 engineering forces were started to their positions before cold 
 weather was over that they might be ready to begin their 
 work as soon as the temperature would permit. I remember 
 that the parties going to Salt Lake crossed the Wasatch Moun- 
 tains on sledges, and that the snow covered the tops of the 
 telegraph poles. We all knew and appreciated that the task 
 we had laid out would require the greatest energy on the part 
 of all hands. About April 1st, therefore, I went onto the 
 plains myself and started our construction forces, remaining 
 the whole summer between Laramie, and the Humboldt Moun- 
 tains. I was surprised at the rapidity with which the w6rk 
 was carried forward. Winter caught us in the Wasatch Moun- 
 tains, but we kept on grading our road and laying our track 
 in the snow and ice at a tremendous cost. I estimated for the 
 company that the extra cost of thus forcing the work during 
 that summer and winter was over $10,000,000, but the instruc- 
 tions I received w^ere to go on, no matter Avhat the cost. Spring 
 found us with the track at Ogden, and by May 1st we had 
 reached Promontory. 534 miles west of our starting point
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 29 
 
 twelve months before. Work on our line was opened to Hum- 
 boldt Wells, making in the year a grading of 754 miles of line. 
 
 The Central Pacific had made wonderful progress coming 
 east, and we abandoned the work from Promontory to Hum- 
 boldt Wells, bending all our efforts to meet them at Promon- 
 tory. Between Ogden and Promontory each company graded 
 a line, running side by side, and in some places one line was 
 right above the other. The laborers upon the Central Pacific 
 were Chinamen, while ours were Irishmen, and there was much 
 ill-feeling between them. Our Irishmen were in the habit of 
 firing their blasts in the cuts without giving warning to the 
 Chinamen on the Central Pacific working right above them. 
 Prom this cause several Chinamen were severely hurt. Com- 
 plaint was made to me by the Central Pacific people, and I 
 endeavored to have the contractors bring all hostilities to a 
 close, but, for some reason or other, they failed to do so. One 
 day the Chinamen, appreciating the situation, put in what is 
 called a "grave" on their work, and when the Irishmen right 
 under them Avere all at work let go their blast and buried 
 several of our men. This brought about a truce at once. From 
 that time the Irish laborers showed due respect for the China- 
 men, and there was no further trouble. 
 
 When the two roads approached in May, 1869, Ave agreed 
 to connect at the summit of Promontory Point, and the day 
 was fixed so that trains could reach us from New York and 
 California. We laid the rails to the junction point a day or 
 two before the final closing. Coming from the East, represent- 
 ing the Union Pacific, were Thomas C. Durant. Vice President, 
 Sidney Dillon, who had taken a prominent part in the con- 
 struction of the road from the beginning, and John R. Duff, 
 directors, together with the consulting engineer and a carload 
 of friends. From the West the representatives of the Central 
 Pacific were its President, Leland Stanford. Mr. Collis P. 
 Huntington, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Colton, and other 
 members of that company, and Mr. Montague, chief engineer, 
 and a detachment of troops from Camp Douglass, Salt Lake 
 City. The two trains pulled up facing each other, each crowded 
 with workmen who sought advantageous positions to witness 
 the ceremonies, and literallv covered the ears. The officers
 
 30 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 and invited guests formed on each side of the track leaving it 
 open to the south. The telegraph lines had been brought to 
 that point, so that in the final spiking as each blow w^as struck 
 the telegraph recorded it at each connected office from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific. Prayer was offered, a number of 
 spikes were driven in the two adjoining rails, each one of the 
 prominent persons present taking a hand, but very few hit- 
 ting the spikes, to the great amusement of the crowd. When 
 the last spike was placed, light taps were given upon it by 
 several officials, and it was finally driven home by the chief 
 engineer of the Union Pacific railway. The engineers ran 
 up their locomotives until they touched, the engineer upon each 
 engine breaking a bottle of champagne* upon the other one, 
 and thus the two roads were wedded into one great trunk 
 line from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Spikes of silver and gold 
 were brought specially for the occasion, and later were manu- 
 factured into miniature spikes as mementoes of the occasion. 
 It was a bright but cold day. After a few speeches we all 
 took refuge in the Central Pacific ears, where wine flowed 
 freely, and many speeches were made. 
 
 Telegrams were sent to President Grant, Vice President 
 Colfax, and other officials throughout the country. I did not 
 fail to send a message to my old commander, who had been 
 such a helpful factor in the building of the road, and I received 
 this message in response : 
 
 "Washington, May 11, 1869. 
 "General G. M. Dodge: 
 
 "In common with millions, I sat yesterday and heard the 
 mystic taps of the telegraph battery announce the nailing of 
 the last spike in the great Pacific road. Indeed, am I its friend? 
 Yea. Yet, am I to be a part of it, for as early as 1854 I was 
 vice president of the effort begun in San Francisco under the 
 contract of Robinson, Seymour & Co. As soon as General 
 Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections in his new 
 command on the Pacific, I will go out, and, I need not say. will 
 have different facilities from that of 1846, when the only way 
 to California was by sail around Cape Horn, taking our ships 
 196 days. All honor to you, to Durant, to Jack and Dan Case- 
 ment, to Reed, and tlie thousands; of bravo fellows who have
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 31 
 
 wrought out this glorious problem, spite of changes, storms, 
 and even doubts of the incredulous, and all the obstacles you 
 have now happily surmounted. 
 
 "W. T. SHERMAN, General." 
 
 That night the visitors started east and west, leaving the 
 engineers and working parties to arrange the details for con- 
 ducting the business of each road at this terminal. It was only 
 a day or two before trains bound for the Atlantic and Pacifir 
 were passing regularly. 
 
 During the building of the road from Sherman west, many 
 questions arose in relation to the location, construction, the 
 grades and curvatures of the work. All through I stood firmly 
 for my line, for what I cons-idered was a commercially econom- 
 ical line for the company, and for what I thought we ought 
 to build under the specifications of the Government. News of 
 the contest between the company and the contractors reached 
 Washington through the Government Commissioners. Generals 
 Grant and Sherman were much interested, and in 1868 they 
 came West with a party consisting of Major-General Phillip 
 H. Sheridan, General August Kautz, General Joseph C. Potter, 
 General Frederick Dent, General William S. Harney, General 
 Louis C. Hunt, General Adam Slemmer, Sidney Dillon and T. C. 
 Durant, who wired me to meet them at Fort Sanders, then the 
 headquarters of General Gibbon. The questions in dispute be- 
 tween myself and the contractors were then taken up, and 
 Generals Grant and Sherman took decided grounds in the mat- 
 ter, supporting me fully, so that I had no further trouble. A 
 view of this gathering of officers was caught by a local photog- 
 rapher, who happened to be at the post and is reproduced here. 
 Probably no more noted military gathering has occurred since 
 the Civil W\ir. 
 
 Two changes were made by the contractors in the line so 
 as to cheapen the work, and this was at the expense of the 
 commercial value of the property. This was always opposed by 
 the division engineer who located the line, and he was sup- 
 ported by the chief engineer. The changes were always made 
 when the chief engineer was absent. The company would agree 
 to a change, and the work on the changes would be so far
 
 32 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 advanced that it was too late to rectify the matter when the 
 chief engineer returned. The first change was of Mr. James 
 A. Evans' location on the eastern slope of the Black Hills 
 from Cheyenne to Sherman. Evans had a ninety-foot equated 
 grade with a six degree maximum curvature. It was a very 
 fine location, and the amount of curvature was remarkably 
 small for a mountain line. It rose ninety feet to the mile in 
 a steady climb. Colonel Silas Seymour, the consulting engineer, 
 undertook to reduce this grade to eighty feet, but increased 
 the curvature so much that an engine would haul more cars 
 over Evans' ninety-foot grade than on Seymour's eighty-foot 
 grade, but Seymour was obliged, when he reached the foot of 
 the mountains, to put in a ninety-foot grade to save work as 
 he dropped off the foot hills to the plains, and a portion of 
 this grade remains today. When Evans took up the change in 
 his report and compared it with his line, he made it so plain 
 that the change was wrong that the Government directors 
 adopted it for their report. 
 
 The next change was from Laramie River to Rattlesnake 
 Hills, or Carbon Summit. The original line ran north of Cooper 
 Lake, and O'Neil, who had instructions to locate on that line, 
 changed it, by order of Colonel Silas Seymour, consulting en- 
 gineer, to a line dropping into the valleys of Rock Creek and 
 Medicine Bow River, to save work. This increased the length 
 of the line twenty miles, and caused the report that we were 
 making the road crooked to gain mileage and secure $48,000 
 per mile of the bonded subsidy. The amount of grading on 
 this line was about one-half of that on the original line. Dur- 
 ing 1903 and 1904, in bringing the Union Pacific line down to 
 a maximum grade of forty-seven feet to the mile, except over 
 the Wasatch Range and Black Hills, the company abandoned 
 this principal change made by the consulting engineer, and 
 built on or near my original location, saving about twenty 
 miles in distance. It was this change that brought Generals 
 Grant and Sherman to see me, and insist on my remaining as 
 chief engineer. At the time this change was made the chief 
 engineer was in Salt Lake, and did not know of it until it was 
 practically graded. He entered his protest and notified the
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 33 
 
 ooiiipauy that he woiikl not submit to such changes without 
 being consulted. 
 
 I remember that the progress of the work was then such 
 that Generals Grant and Sherman were very enthusiastic over 
 the belief that we would soon reach the summit of the Wasatch 
 Mountains, but I could not convince them that a junction 
 of the two roads was in sight within a year. When you con- 
 sider that not a mile of this division of the road had been 
 located on April 1st, 1868, that not a mile of this work had 
 been opened ; that we covered in that year over 700 miles of 
 road and built 555, and laid 589 miles of track, bringing all 
 of our material from the Missouri River, it is no wonder that 
 Generals Grant and Sherman could not understand how the 
 problem before us would be so speedily solved. As each 100 
 miles of road was completed there came a general acclaim 
 from all parts of the country to our great encouragement, 
 while from our chiefs in New York there was a continual 
 pressure for speed, they giving us unlimited means and allow- 
 ing us to stretch our forces out hundreds of miles, no matter 
 what additional cost it made to each mile of road. Then we 
 had the sympathy of the whole Mormon Church with us, Pres- 
 ident Young giving the matter personal attention, and seeing 
 that the line over the Wasatch Mountains, down the canon 
 and westward was covered by Mormons to whom we let con- 
 tracts, and we had the additional incentive that the Central 
 Pacific was coming east nearly as fast as we were going west. 
 
 We had only one controversy with the Mormons, who had 
 been our friends and had given the full support of the church 
 from the time of our first reconnoissances until the final com- 
 pletion. It was our desire and the demand of the Mormons 
 that we should build through Salt Lake City, and we bent all 
 our energies to find a feasible line passing through that city 
 and around the south end of Great Salt Lake and across the 
 desert to Humboldt Wells, a controlling point in the line. 
 We found the line so superior on the north of the lake that 
 we had to adopt that route with a view of building a branch 
 to Salt Lake City, but Brigham Young w^ould not have this, 
 and appealed over my head to the Board of Directors, who 
 referred the question to the Government Directors, who fully
 
 34 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 sustained me. Then Brighani Young gave his allegiance and 
 aid to the Central Pacific, hoping to bring them around the 
 south end of the lake and force us to connect with them there. 
 He even went so far as to deliver in the Tabernacle a great 
 sermon denouncing me. and stating a road could not be built 
 or run without the aid of the Mormons. When the Central 
 Pacific engineers made their survey they, too, were forced to 
 adopt the line north of the lake. Then President Young re- 
 turned to his first love, the Union Pacific, and turned all his 
 forces and aid to that road. 
 
 During the building of the road the question of bridging 
 the Missouri River was under discussion, and continuous exam- 
 inations of the river in sounding, watching currents, etc., was 
 had. Three points were finally determined upon as most feasi- 
 ble First — Child's Mill, which was a high bridge, the short- 
 est, and reached Muddy Creek with a thirty-five foot grade, 
 avoiding the heavy sixty-six foot grade at Omaha. Second — 
 Telegraph Pole, right where there was some rock bottom, this 
 to be a low draAv-bridge. and Third — -The M. & M. crossing 
 for a high bridge. The latter was decided upon more especially 
 to meet the views of Omaha, and for aid that city gave the 
 company. We began work on the bridge in 1868, and con- 
 tinued it in 1869 and 1870, but the company found it impos- 
 sible to continue, as they had no funds, and they could not 
 issue any securities under their charter to pay for the work. 
 1 was very anxious the bridge should be built to utilize the 
 thousand acres of land I had bought for our terminals in Iowa, 
 and to fix permanently and practically the terminus in Iowa. 
 The company proposed to me to organize a bridge company 
 to interest the Iowa roads terminating at Council Bluffs, and 
 ask authority from the Government to construct the bridge 
 and issue securities upon it. the Union Pacific agreeing to use 
 the bridge and make its terminals and connections with the 
 Iowa roads on the Iowa side. I incorporated the Council Bluffs 
 Railway & Missouri Bridge Company, and went before Con- 
 gress for perniission to bridge the Missouri River at the M. 
 & M. crossing. I saw all the Iowa roads. They agreed to give 
 their aid, but made the condition that their connection with 
 the TTnion Pacific should be on the Iowa side. I went to Wash-
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 35 
 
 ingtou, presented the bill, passed it through the House and 
 left it in Senator Harlan's hands to pass it in the Senate. This 
 was very quietly done, but Omaha got alarmed, and Governor 
 Saunders, who was a personal friend of Senator Harlan, took 
 the matter up, and I think went to Washington. The Omaha 
 people interested themselves in stirring up opposition in Coun- 
 cil Bluffs. A public meeting was held at the corner of Broad- 
 way and Pearl Streets, over which Mr. J. W. Crawford 
 presided. I was very seriously criticised and the independent 
 bridge scheme denounced, the contention being that the bridge 
 should be a part of the Union Pacific, although it was entirely 
 and solely in the interests of Council Bluffs, and would have 
 brought the terminus and business of the Union Pacific to 
 the Bluffs, as they had entered into an agreement with the 
 Iowa roads to that effect. The public meeting was addressed 
 in favor of the bridge by Messrs. Pusey, Officer and myself, 
 also Mr. Caleb Baldwin and others, and was opposed by 
 Messrs. James Montgomery, Larimer and others. The meeting 
 passed resolutions asking our Senators to defeat the bridge 
 bill. Senator Harlan acted on this resolution and defeated the 
 bill in the Senate, and Saunders and Omaha accomplished their 
 work. The Union Pacific Company was greatly disgusted and 
 disappointed, and dropped for the time all efforts to build a 
 bridge. K the bill had passed the bridge would have been built 
 in the interests of Council Bluffs and the Iowa roads. The 
 Union Pacific later on applied to Congress, which passed a 
 bill authorizing the Union Pacific to build a bridge, issue 
 bonds and stock upon it, the interest upon them to be paid 
 from the revenue of the bridge, and placed it entirely in their 
 control, but the Union Pacific had no great interest in coming 
 to Council Bluffs or Iowa, and made their terminus at Omaha, 
 and forced the Iowa roads over the bridge until 1875, when the 
 United States Supreme Court decided that the Union Pacific 
 should be operated from Council Bluffs westward as a con- 
 tinuous line for all purposes of communication, travel and 
 transportation, and especially ordered them to start all through 
 passenger and freight trains Avestward-bound from the Bluffs. 
 This came too late to cure the mischief the town meeting had 
 accomplished, as the T^nion Pacific had its interests centered
 
 36 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 in Omaha, its offices located there, and the Iowa roads had 
 made their contracts and gone there, and the Bluffs has only 
 reaped the benefit of its terminal that the growth of business 
 has forced to them, whereas by law, by economy of operation, 
 and by the ample terminals made to accommodate it, it should 
 have been the actual terminus, and should have received full 
 benefit of it, not only from traffic of the Union Pacific, but from 
 the traffic and interest of the Iowa roads. The Union Pacific 
 completed the first bridge crossing the Missouri River and 
 opened it for traffic on March 22, 1872. 
 
 One of the most difficult problems we had to solve was to 
 keep sufficient material at the terminals to supply the daily 
 demand. This work fell to Webster Snyder and his assistant, 
 FT. M. Hoxie, who had charge of the operation of the com- 
 pleted road. They were both young men in the business then, 
 but have been at the head of great corporations since. They 
 performed their work successfully and with ability. Hoxie 
 said to me once, in answer to a question, ''We do not take 
 our hand off the throttle night or day until we know the front 
 is supplied." 
 
 The operating department also had the Indians to contend 
 with. An illustration of this came to me after our track had 
 passed Plum Creek, 200 miles w^est of the Missouri River. The 
 Indians had captured a freight train and were in possession 
 of it and its crews. It so happened that I was coming down 
 from the front with my car, which was a traveling arsenal. 
 At Plum Creek station word came of this capture and stopped 
 us. On my train were perhaps twenty men. some a portion of 
 the crew, some who had been discharged and sought passage 
 to the rear. Nearly all were strangers to me. The excitement 
 of the capture and the reports coming by telegraph of the 
 burning of the train, brought all men to the platform, and 
 when I called upon them to fall in. to go forward and retake 
 the train, every man on the train went into line, and by his 
 position showed that he was a soldier. We ran down slowly 
 until we came in sight of the train. I gave the order to deploy 
 as skirmishers, and at the command they went forward as 
 steadily and in as good order as we had seen the old soldiers 
 climb the face of Kenesaw under fire.
 
 S. B. REED 
 Superintendent of Construction, Union I'afific Kailway
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 37 
 
 Nearly all the engineers and chiefs of the different units 
 of the construction of the line have risen to distinction in their 
 profession since the road was built. The chiefs of the parties 
 were S. B. Reed, F. M. Case, James A. Evans, Percy T. Brown, 
 L. L. Hills (the two latter killed by the Indians), J. E. House, 
 M. F. Hurd, Thomas H. Bates, F. C. Hodges, James R. Maxwell, 
 John O'Neil, Francis E. Appleton, Colonel J. 0. Hudnut, J. F. 
 McCabe, Mr. Morris and Jacob Blickensderfer. 
 
 Our principal geologist was David Van Lenuep, whose 
 reports upon the geology of the country from the Missouri 
 River to the Pacific have been remarkably verified in later and 
 more detailed examinations. 
 
 The superintendents of construction were S. B. Reed and 
 James A. Evans, both of whom had been connected with the 
 road since 1864. They had independent and thorough organ- 
 izations. Mr. S. B. Reed was a very competent engineer, and 
 had had large experience in his profession. He was very suc- 
 cessful in utilizing the Mormons in his work west of the Green 
 River. Mr. Reed and Mr. Hurd afterwards made some of the 
 most difficult locations over the mountain ranges for the Cana- 
 dian Pacific. 
 
 Mr. Reed's principal assistant was M. F. Hurd, who served 
 in the Second Iowa infantry during the Civil War. I detailed 
 him on my staff as an engineer, and, although a private, he won 
 distinction in all the campaigns for his ability, nerve, bravery 
 and modesty. On the Union Pacific, as well as other trans- 
 continental lines with which he has been connected, he has 
 performed some remarkable engineering work. He has had to 
 fight many times for the lives of himself and party, and no 
 matter what odds have been against him, he has never failed 
 to maintain his position and win his battles, though at times 
 the chances looked desperate. 
 
 The track laying on the Union Pacific was a science. Mr. 
 "W. A. Bell, in an article on the Pacific Railroads, describes, 
 after witnessing it, as follows : 
 
 "We, pundits of the far East, stood upon that embank- 
 ment, only about a thousand miles this side of sunset, and 
 backed westward before that hurrying corps of sturdy oper- 
 ators with a mingled feeling of amusement, curiosity and pro-
 
 38 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 found respect. On they came. A light ear, drawn by a single 
 horse, gallops up to the front with its load of rails. Two men 
 seize the end of a rail and start forward, the rest of the gang 
 taking hold by twos, until it is clear of the oar. They come 
 forward at a run. At the word of command the rail is dropped 
 in its place, right side up with care, while the same process 
 goes on at the other side of the car. Less than thirty seconds 
 to a rail for eacli gang, and so four rails go down to the min- 
 ute. Quick work, you say, but the fellows on the Union Pacific 
 are tremendously in earnest. The moment the car is empty it 
 is tipped over on the side of the track to let the next loaded car 
 pass it, and then it is tipped back again, and it is a sight to 
 see it go flying back for another load, propelled by a horse 
 at full gallop at the end of sixty or eighty feet of rope, ridden 
 by a young Jehu, who drives furiously. Close behind the first 
 gang come the gangers, spikers and bolters, and a lively time 
 they make of it. It is a grand 'Anvil Chorus' that those sturdy 
 sledges are playing across the plains. It is in a triple time, 
 three strokes to the spike. There are ten spikes to a rail, four 
 hundred rails to a mile, eighteen hundred miles to San Fran- 
 cisco — twenty-one million times are those sledges to be swung 
 — twenty-one million times are they to come down with their 
 sharp punctuation, before the great work of modern America 
 is complete." 
 
 The entire track and a large part of the grading on the 
 Union Pacific Railway was done by the Casement Brothers. 
 General Jack Casement and Dan Casement. General Casement 
 had been a prominent brigade and division commander in 
 the Western army. Their force consisted of 100 teams and 
 1,000 men, living at the end of the track in boarding cars and 
 tents, and moved forward with it every few days. It was the 
 best organized, best equipped and best disciplined track force 
 I have ever seen. I think every chief of the different units 
 of the force had, been an officer of the army, and entered on 
 this work the moment they were mustered out. They could lay 
 from one to three miles of track per day, as they had material, 
 and one day laid eight and a half miles. Their rapidity in track 
 laying, as far as I know, has never been excelled. I used it sev- 
 eral times as a fighting force, and it took no longer to put it
 
 GKXEKAL J. S. CASEMENT 
 
 Casement Bros, laid all tho track and did a large part of the 
 grading of the Union Pacific Uailway
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC o9 
 
 into fighting line than it did to form it for its daily work. 
 They not only had to lay and surface the track, but had to 
 bring forward to the front from each base all the material 
 and supplies for the track and for all workmen in advance 
 of the track. Bases were organized for the delivery of material 
 generally from one to two hundred miles apart, according 
 to the facilities for operation. These bases were as follows : 
 First, Fremont ; second, Fort Kearney ; third, North Platte ; 
 fourth, Julesburg ; fifth, Sidney ; sixth, Cheyenne ; seventh, 
 Laramie ; eighth, Benton (the last crossing of the North 
 Platte); ninth. Green River; tenth, Evanston; eleventh, 
 Ogden, and finally Promontory. 
 
 At these bases large towns were established, which moved 
 forward with the bases, and many miles of sidings were put 
 in for switching purposes, unloading tracks, etc. At these 
 prominent points I have seen as many as a thousand teams 
 waiting for their loads to haul forward to the front for the 
 railway force, the Government and for the limited population 
 then living in that country. I have seen these terminal towns 
 starting first with a few hundred people until at Cheyenne, 
 at the base of the mountains, where we wintered in 1867-68, 
 there w^ere 10,000 people. From that point they decreased until 
 at Green River there were not over 1,000. After we crossed 
 the first range of mountains we moved our bases so rapidly 
 they could not afford to move with us. 
 
 In 1865 Oakes and Oliver Ames of Boston became inter- 
 ested in the enterprise, bringing their own fortune and a very 
 large following, and really gave the first impetus to the build- 
 ing of the road. There was no man connected with it who 
 devoted his time and money with the single purpose of benefit 
 to the country and Government more than Oakes Ames, and 
 there was never a more unjust, uncalled for and ungrateful 
 Act of Congress than that which censured him for inducing, 
 as it is claimed, members of Congress to take interest in the 
 construction company. When they took it there was no neces- 
 sity for the company having influence in Congress, for there 
 was nothing we could ask that Congress did not give, and it 
 certainly never occurred to him that he might secure benefits 
 from their votes. Now that the Government has been paid
 
 40 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 every dollar that it invested, with interest, it is time that the 
 Congress of the United States should wipe that unjust Act 
 from its record. 
 
 The instructions given me by Oliver Ames, the president 
 of the company, were invariably to obtain the best line the 
 country afforded, regardless of the expense. Oakes Ames once 
 vvrote me, when it seemed almost impossible to raise money to 
 meet our expenditures: "Go ahead; the work shall not stop, 
 even if it takes the shovel shop." 
 
 The Ameses Avere manufacturers of shovels and tools, and 
 their fortunes were invested in that business; and, as we all 
 know, the shovel shop went. When the day came that the 
 business of the Ameses should go or the Union Pacific, Oakes 
 Ames said: "Save the credit of the road; I will fail." 
 
 It took a man of courage and patriotism to make that 
 decision and lay down a reputation and business credit that 
 was invaluable in New England and one that had come down 
 through almost a century. To him it was worse than death; 
 and it was the blow given by the action of Congress which, 
 followed by others, put him in his grave. 
 
 In February, 1875, Mr. Jay Gould, who had become heavily 
 interested in the Union Pacific Railway, in connection with 
 Messrs. Ames, Dillon and the Board of Directors, conceived 
 a plan of paying to the Government in addition to the sum 
 it was then receiving from the company a sum of money each 
 year that should be used as a sinking fund, which at the matur- 
 ity of the Government bond, would liquidate that indebtedness. 
 The Hon. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, a Government director, 
 and myself, were selected to go to Washington to present the 
 matter to the Government. General Grant was then President, 
 and General Benjamin F. Bristow Secretary of the Treasury. 
 We presented the proposition to General Grant, who looked 
 upon it favorably, and referred it to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury for the purpose of having a bill drawn which would 
 carry out our views. The entire Cabinet was in favor of the 
 proposition with the single exception of Mr. Jewell of Con- 
 necticut. Upon the report of General Bristow. General Grant 
 drafted a message to the Congress of the United States, rec-
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 41 
 
 ominending the passage of an Act that would carry out this 
 plan. 
 
 In the meantime rumors of what we were doing had 
 reached New York, where there was a large short interest 
 in the stock of the Union Pacific. This interest immediately 
 gathered its forces and influence and sent persons to Wash- 
 ington to represent to the President that the proposed action 
 of the Union Pacific was a mere stock-jobbing scheme for the 
 purpose of twisting the shorts on Union Pacific stock, and 
 their representations made such an impression on General 
 Grant that he never sent his message in, and the company, 
 receiving the treatment it did, then abandoned for the time 
 all efforts to make a settlement with the Government. Gen- 
 eral Grant often said to me in later years that he regretted he 
 did not settle the matter at that time. This demonstrates that 
 at the moment the Union Pacific began to be prosperous the 
 men who put their money in it and built it made the first 
 effort to pay the debt due the Government at or before its 
 maturity. If their offer had been accepted the earnings of the 
 company demonstrated that they would have been able to 
 have met their agreement, and at the maturity of the debt 
 it would have been paid. This is one of the many instances 
 in which the Union Pacific Railway has endeavored to fulfill, 
 not only in letter, but in spirit, every obligation it owed to 
 the Government, and I undertake to say that the Government 
 of the United States, from the time the road was finally com- 
 pleted and in continuous operation, has never fulfilled any 
 one of its obligations to the company, except the simple giv- 
 ing of its credit at the time of the building by the issue of 
 its bonds. 
 
 How well our work was performed is shown by the re- 
 ports of the distirigtrislied commissions appointed by the Gov- 
 ernment to examine the road during its construction and after 
 its completion. 
 
 Commissioners Horace Walbridge, S. M. Felton, C. B. 
 Comstock, E. F. Winslow and J. F. Boyd examined the road 
 in 1869 to ascertain the sum of money that was necessary to 
 complete the road under the Government specifications, and 
 the sum found necessary on the Union Pacific was $1,586,100,
 
 42 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 and on the Central Pacific $576,650. The amount required on 
 the Union Pacific was only about one-half as much as the 
 chief engineer of that road had found necessary to complete 
 the road under the company's own specifications, and the 
 company not only spent this, but a much larger sum in the 
 work. 
 
 The last commission composed of Major-General G. K. 
 Warren, United States Army, J. Blickensderfer, Jr., and James 
 Barnes, civil engineers, concluded their report in part, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 ''The foregoing shows that the location of the Union 
 Pacific Railway is in accordance with the law, and as a whole 
 and in its different parts the most direct, central and practi- 
 cable that would be found from Omaha to the head of Great 
 Salt Lake. Taken as a whole, the Union Pacific Railway has 
 been well constructed. The energy and perseverance with 
 which the work has been urged forward, and the rapidity 
 with which it has been executed, was without parallel in 
 history. In grandeur and magnitude of the undertaking it 
 has never been equalled, and the country has reason to con- 
 gratulate itself upon this great work of national importance 
 so rapidly approaching completion under such favorable aus- 
 pices." 
 
 When the Canadian Government determined to build a 
 Pacific railway, they had the Union Pacific examined, and 
 after that examination they provided in their contracts that 
 the Canadian Pacific should be built upon the Union Pacific 
 standards, and when completed should be in its location and 
 construction equal to it, thus paying a high compliment to 
 the builders of the Union Pacific, and after the completion 
 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, engineers of the Union Pa- 
 cific were selected to examine that road to determine if its 
 construction was up to the standard required. 
 
 The Blickensderfer and Clement report made a compar- 
 ative analysis of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, their 
 location, construction, grade, curvature, etc., giving to the 
 Union Pacific credit for being superior in most of these mat- 
 ters. The last and most critical examination of the location, 
 grades, etc., came within the last three years, when under the
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 43 
 
 reorganized company it was determined to reduce the grades 
 to a maximum of forty-seven feet going east or west except 
 at two points, the eighty-foot grade at Cheyenne going west, 
 and the eighty-foot grade at the head of Echo Canon going 
 east. 
 
 The President of the Union Pacific, Mr. E. H. Harriman, 
 at a banquet in Denver in 1904, stated that after the three 
 years' examination, and the expenditure of fifteen to twenty 
 millions of dollars to change the grades to a maximum of 
 forty-seven feet to the mile, it had been demonstrated that 
 not a mile of road had been built to increase the distance and 
 obtain subsidies, that the location and construction was a 
 credit to the engineers and executive officers who built the 
 road. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Berry, ehief engineer of the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road, who had charge of the changes, pays this tribute to the 
 engineers of the road : 
 
 "It may appear to those unfamiliar with the character 
 of the country that the great saving in distance and reduc- 
 tion of grade would stand as a criticism of the work of the 
 pioneer engineers who made the original location of the road. 
 Such is not the case. The changes made have been expensive 
 and could be warranted only by the volume of traffic handled 
 at the present day. Too much credit cannot be given General 
 G. M. Dodge and his assistants. They studied their task thor- 
 oughly and performed it well. Limited by law to a maximum 
 gradient of 116 feet to the mile, not compensated for curv- 
 ature, they held it down to about ninety feet per mile. Taking 
 into consideration the existing conditions thirty-five years 
 ago ; lack of maps of the country, hostility of the Indians, 
 which made United States troops necessary for protection of 
 surveying parties, difficult transportation, excessive cost of 
 labor, uncertainty as to probable volume of traffic, limited 
 amount of money and necessity to get the road built as soon 
 as possible, it can be said, with all our present knowledge of 
 the topography of the country, that the line was located with 
 very great skill." 
 
 The principal changes made by the Union Pacific Railroad 
 since 1900, was first the change from the Muddy Creek line
 
 ^ 
 
 44 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 out of Omaha to the original Dey line, now known as the 
 Lane Cut-off, which saves eleven miles in fourteen miles dis- 
 tance. The next is the line from Sherman to the Laramie 
 Plains, where by long tunnels and heavy work, the grade is 
 reduced from ninety feet to forty-seven feet maximum. The 
 third change is the Cooper Lake line, which is changed from 
 Rock Creek and Medicine Bow to near the original location 
 of the Union Pacific, with a saving of twenty miles in dis- 
 tance. This is the change made when the line was building 
 by the contractors against the protest of the chief engineer of 
 the road and caused Generals Grant and Sherman to come to 
 Fort Sanders for a conference. The fourth change was on the 
 Central Pacific road from Ogdeu across Bear Creek, arm of Salt 
 lake, known as Lucien Cut-off, saving fifty miles in distance and 
 avoiding the heavy grades over Promontory Point. The orig- 
 inal survey of the Union Pacific was from Ogden across Bear 
 Creek, arm of Salt Lake, to south end of Promontory Point, 
 but as stated in another part of this paper, was abandoned 
 because of the twelve-foot of higher water in the lake in 1869, 
 when the line was built, than in 1900, when the change was 
 made. I understand the lake has been rising about one foot 
 a year since this cut-off was completed. In a letter which I 
 received from Mr. James R. Maxwell, assistant engineer, he 
 makes the following statement of the result of their survey 
 in 1867: 
 
 ''The boat we used in sounding the lake was made of 
 inch boards and not caulked very well, and the heavy water 
 soon shook the caulking out of the bottom and it did seem for 
 a short time that we would have to take to the water. That 
 was on our way back from Promontory Point to Mud Island. 
 After we landed the Topographer told me that he could not 
 swim ; if I had known that, he would not have been on the 
 boat. When I found twenty-two feet of water where Captain 
 Stansbury had only ten, I knew that that line was not feasible 
 then. I was told by a Mormon bishop that on two occasions, 
 the annual rise was six feet above any previous record and 
 that it remained so, covering thousands of acres of farming 
 land at northeastern side of the lake."
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 45 
 
 This part of the lake that was sounded by this party was 
 east of Promontory Point. The water to the west of Promon- 
 tory Point being twice as deep as that towards the east ; there- 
 fore, it was impossible for ns wnth our means to build a rail- 
 road across the lake and we were forced around the north end 
 of the lake and over Promontory Point. 
 
 The first surveys of the Union Pacific Railway were made 
 in the fall of 1853. The first grading was done in the fall of 
 1864. The first rail was laid in July, 1865. Two hundred and 
 sixty miles were built in 1866, 240 in 1867, including the ascent 
 of the first range of mountains to an elevaiton of 8,235 feet 
 above sea level, and from April 1, 1868. to May 10. 1869, 555 
 miles of road Mas built, all exclusive of temporary track and 
 sidings, of which over 180 miles was built in addition, all at an 
 approximate cost, in cash, of about $54,000,000. 
 
 Of late years there has been a great deal of criticism and 
 comparison of the building of the Union Pacific and Central 
 Pacific Railroads, favoring the latter. The theory is that be- 
 cause the Central Pacific had the Sierra Nevada Range to 
 tackle at first, it was a more difficult problem, financially and 
 physically, to handle than the Union Pacific end, but this is 
 a very great mistake. The Union Pacific had to bring all of 
 its material, ties, bridging, etc., from tide-water by rail or by 
 river. They had to build the first 630 miles Avithout any mate- 
 rial on its line to aid them except the earth, and for this they 
 only received $16,000 per mile in Government bonds. There was 
 no settlement on the line to create any traffic or earnings along 
 the Avhole distance, which was very difficult in appealing to the 
 people to buy the bonds and furnish money for the company. 
 In comparison to this, the Central Pacific started at Sacra- 
 mento with a- tide-water base coming right up to it. so that 
 all the material that had to come from foreign or domestic 
 ports had the cheapest rates by sea. Then from Sacramento 
 they had built over the mountains to Virginia City to the 
 great Bonanza mines at Virginia City, which gave them a 
 large traffic at high rates, and gave them very large earnings. 
 Then again, only a few miles east of Sacramento, the east base 
 of tlie Sierra Nevada Range commences, and they received 
 immediately $48,000 in Cover-nment 1)onds per mile for the
 
 46 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 150 miles, and $32,000 in Government bonds from there on to 
 Salt Lake, a distance of barely 200 miles, more than the 630 
 miles that the Union Pacific had to build on $16,000 per 
 mile. This favorable condition for the Central Pacific was 
 such that the representatives of that road had very little 
 difficulty in raising all the money they needed and having 
 for nearly one-half of their road a fine traffic to help pay the 
 interest on their bonds. 
 
 I do not speak of this in criticism of the work of the Cen- 
 tral Pacific, which was remarkable, and like that of the Union 
 Pacific, has never been excelled, but only in comparison of 
 the difficulties the two companies had to overcome. I am not 
 surprised that some of the public should take this view of the 
 matter when the later literature of the Union Pacific seems 
 to take the same view and devote what praise it has to the 
 work of the men who built the Central Pacific, overlooking 
 almost entirely the struggles of those who initiated the work on 
 the line of the Union Pacific and who furnished the funds to 
 explore the country and determine the feasibility of the route 
 and stood by it for nearly twelve years before the Central 
 Pacific was thought of. The fact is, the Central Pacific ob- 
 tained no right and did not think of going east of the Cali- 
 fornia State line until after the laws of 1865 and 1866 had 
 been enacted, which gave them the right to come east of the 
 State line of California and made them a part of the trans- 
 continental line. 
 
 The operation of tlie road the first winter, 1869-70, gave 
 us a test of whal we might expect from the snow. In building 
 the road, we studied the mountains to get our lines upon the 
 slopes that were the least exposed to heavy snows and slides, 
 but we had no means of fighting the snows in the Laramie 
 Plains except l)y fences and sheds, and none were put up until 
 the year 1870. so that when the heavy snows fell in the winter 
 of 1869-70. it caught six of our trains west of Laramie that 
 were snowed in there some weeks. As a precaution in starting 
 our trains from Omaha, we put on a box car with a stove in 
 it and loaded with provisions, so as to meet any emergency. 
 These six trains that were caught in the snow between Laramie 
 and the divide of the continent, had these supplies, and also
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 4 7 
 
 were supplied with sledges and snow-shoes from Laramie. 
 They had with them, in charge of the six trains, Mr. H. M. 
 Hoxie, the Assistant Superintendent, who managed to get 
 the trains together, but the blizzards were so many and so 
 fierce that it was impossible for men to work out in the open, 
 and even when they cleared the cuts ahead, they would fill 
 up before they could get the trains through them. Probably 
 that winter's experience with snoAv was the worst the Union 
 Pacific has ever experienced, but Mr. Hoxie handled his forces 
 with great abilitj' and fed and entertained his passengers in 
 good shape. In one train was an opera company bound for 
 California, that Mr. Hoxie used to entertain the passengers 
 with, so that when the trains reached Salt Lake City, the 
 passengers held a meeting and passed resolutions complimen- 
 tary to Mr. Hoxie and the Union Pacific in bringing them 
 safely through. A photograph of the trains was taken at the 
 time they were snowed in near Cooper Lake, and a print of it 
 is here reproduced. 
 
 I cannot conclude this discription of the building of tlie 
 Union Pacific Railway better than quoting my conclusions, as 
 stated in my final report, sent to the company and the United 
 States Government on December 1st, 1869. It is as follows : 
 
 In 1853, Henry Farnam and T. C. Durant, the then eon- 
 tractors and builders of the Missouri River Railroad in Iowa, 
 instructed Peter A. Dey to investigate the question of the 
 proper point for the Mississippi and Missouri . River road to 
 strike the Missouri River to obtain a good connection with 
 any road that might be built across the continent. I was as- 
 signed to the duty, and surveys were accordingly extended to 
 and up the Platte Valley, to ascertain whether any road built 
 on the central- or then northern line would, from the forma- 
 tion of the country, folloAv the Platte and its tributaries over 
 the plains, and thus overcome the Rocky Mountains. Subse- 
 quently under the patronage of Mr. Farnam. I extended the 
 examination westward to the eastern base of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains and beyond, examining the practicable passes from the 
 Sangre Christo to the South Pass ; made maps of the country, 
 and developed it as thoroughly as could be done without mak- 
 ing purely instrumental surveys. The practicability of the
 
 48 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 route, the singular formation of the country between Long's 
 Peak, the Medicine Bow Mountains, and Bridger Pass, on the 
 south, and Laramie Peak and the Sweetwater and Wind River 
 ranges on the north, demonstrated to me that through this 
 region the road must eventually be built. I reported the facts 
 to Mr. Farnam, and through his and his friends' efforts, the 
 prospect for a Pacific railroad began to take shape. 
 
 In after years, when the war demonstrated the road to 
 be a military necessity, and the government gave its aid in 
 such munificent grants, surveys were extended through the 
 country previously explored, its resources developed, its hid- 
 den treasures brought to light, and its capabilities for the 
 building of a railway to the Pacific fully demonstrated. 
 
 In doing this over the country extending from the Mis- 
 souri River to the California State line, and covering a width 
 of 200 miles, north and south, and on the general direction 
 of the forty-second parallel of latitude, some fifteen thousand 
 miles of instrumental lines have been run, and over twenty- 
 five thousand miles of reconnoissances made. 
 
 In 1863 and 1864, surveys were inaugurated, but in 1866 
 the country was systematically occupied ; and day and night, 
 summer and winter the explorations were pushed forward 
 through dangers and hardships that very few at this day 
 appreciate, for every mile had to be run within range of the 
 musket, as there was not a moment's security. In making the 
 surveys numbers of our men, some of them the ablest and most 
 promising, were killed; and during the construction our stock 
 was run off by the hundred, I might say by the thousand, 
 and as one difificulty after another arose and was overcome, 
 both in the engineering, running and constructing depart- 
 ments, a new era in railroad building Avas inaugurated. 
 
 Each day tauglit us lessons by whicli wo profited for the 
 next, and our advances and improvements in the art of rail- 
 way construction were marked by the progress of the work, 
 forty miles of track having been laid in 1865, 260 in 1866, 240 
 in 1867. including the ascent to the summit of the Rocky 
 Mountains, at an elevation of 8,235 feet above the ocean; and 
 during 1868. and to May 10th. 1869. 555 miles, all exclusive
 
 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 4 9 
 
 of side and temporary tracks, of which over 180 miles were 
 built in addition. 
 
 The first grading Avas done in the autumn of 1864, and the 
 first rail laid in July, 1865. "When you look back to the begin- 
 ning at the Missouri Kiver, with no railway communication 
 from the east, and 500 miles of the country in advance without 
 timber, fuel or any material whatever from which to build or 
 maintain a road, except the sand for the bare road-bed itself 
 with everything to be transported, and that by teams or at 
 best by steamboats, for hundreds and thousands of miles ; 
 everything to be created, with labor scarce and high, you can 
 all look back upon the work with satisfaction and ask, under 
 such circumstances, could we have done more or better? ' 
 
 The country is evidently satisfied that you accomplished 
 wonders, and have achieved a work that will be a monument 
 to your energy, your ability, and to your devotion to the enter- 
 prise through all its gloomy as well as its bright periods ; for 
 it is notorious that, notwithstanding the aid of the Govern- 
 ment, there was so little faith in the enterprise that its dark 
 days — when your private fortunes and your all was staked on 
 the success of the project — far exceeded those of sunshine, 
 faith and confidence. 
 
 This lack of confidence in the project, even in the West, 
 in those localities where the benefits of its construction were 
 manifest, was excessive, and it will be remembered that labor- 
 ers even demanded their pay before they would perform their 
 day's work, so little faith had they in the payment of their 
 wages, or in the ability of the company to succeed in their 
 efforts. Probably no enterprise in the world has been so 
 maligned, misrepresented and criticised as this ; but now, after 
 the calm judgment of the American people is brought to bear 
 upon it, unprejudiced and unbiased, it is almost without excep- 
 tion pronounced the best new road in the United States. 
 
 Its location has been critically examined, and although 
 the route was in a comparatively short time determined upon, 
 as compared with that devoted to other similar projects, yet, 
 in regard to the correctness of the general route, no question 
 is ever raised ; and even in the details of its location, 730 miles 
 of which were done in less than six months, it has received the
 
 50 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 praise of some of the ablest engineers of the country. Its de- 
 fects are minor ones, easily remedied, and all the various 
 commissions, some of them composed of able and noted engi- 
 neers, have given the company due credit in this particular, 
 although they may have attacked it in others, and today, as in 
 the past, the company need fear no fair, impartial criticism 
 upon it, or no examination made by men of ability and integ- 
 rity, or such as are masters of their profession. 
 
 That it yet needs work to finally complete it no one de- 
 nies, but whatever is necessary has been or is being done. 
 
 Its future is fraught with great good. It will develop 
 a waste, will bind together the two extremes of the nation as 
 one, will stimulate intercourse and trade and bring harmony, 
 prosperity and wealth to the two coasts. A proper policy, 
 systematically and persistently followed, will bring to the road 
 the trade of the two oceans, and will give it all the business it 
 can accommodate; while the local trade will increase grad- 
 ually until the mining, grazing and agricultural regions 
 through which it passes will build up and create a business 
 that will be a lasting and permanent support to the country.
 
 ''0'- 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 <? r'# ^ 
 
 
 
 I've'!
 
 ADDRESS AT THE OMAHA CENTENNIAL. 
 
 I have been asked to give ten minutes to the construction 
 of the Union Pacific Railway. Private enterprise made the 
 explorations, determined the line and built the Union Pacific 
 Railway. Although the Government spent an immense sum in 
 surveying three other routes, it did not touch the most feasible 
 route, that of the forty-second parallel. 
 
 In 1852 Farnam and Durant were building the Mississippi 
 and Missouri road, now the Rock Island. They desired to end 
 that line of the Missouri River where the Pacific Railroad, 
 following the continent forty-second parallel of latitude, would 
 commence. Under the direction of Peter A. Dey, who was then 
 the chief engineer of that line, I made the first survey across 
 the State of Iowa, and the first reconnoissances and surveys 
 on the Union Pacific for the purpose of determining where 
 the one would end and the other commence, on the Missouri 
 River. I crossed the Missouri River in the fall of 1853, and 
 made our explorations west to the Platte Valley and up it far 
 enough to determine that it would be the route of the Pacific 
 road. 
 
 The party that I crossed the Missouri River with had 
 never come in contact with the Indians. We were tenderfeet, 
 and the Omahas were very free with what we had, until I had 
 to use drastic measures to stop them. I went on to the Elk- 
 horn River, ahead of my party. They stole my horse, but I 
 got him back, so that our initiation into Nebraska was not a 
 very creditable one. 
 
 I continued these reconnoissances from 1853 on and off 
 until 1861, under the private patronage of Mr. Henry Farnam, 
 and we also, during that time, commenced work on the M. 
 & M. road in Council Bluffs, and graded it several miles 
 east, fixing its location permanently on the Missouri River. 
 The reconnoissances made by me during all this time, with 
 the information that T obtained from the Mormons and the
 
 52 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 fur-traders and travelers through the country, determined 
 the general route of the Union Pacific road as far west as 
 Salt Lake, and virtually beyond that to the California State 
 line. 
 
 In 1862 the Union Pacific Railway was organized at Chi- 
 cago, and soon after Mr. Peter A. Dey continued the explora- 
 tions, and in 1863 he placed parties over the Black Hills and 
 in Salt Lake and over the Wasatch in Utah. In 1863 I was on 
 duty at Corinth, when I was called to Washington by Mr. 
 Lincoln, who had met me in 1859 at Council Bluffs and had 
 questioned me very systematically as to the knowledge I had of 
 the Western country and the explorations I had made there. 
 Remembering this, he called me to Washington to consult with 
 me as to where the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Rail- 
 way should be. I explained to him what my surveys had. deter- 
 mined, and he fixed the initial point of the Union Pacific, as you 
 all know, on the western line of Iowa opposite this city. At this 
 interview with Mr. Lincoln, he was very anxious to have the 
 road constructed. It was my opinion then that it could not be 
 constructed unless it was built by the Government, and I so 
 informed Mr. Lincoln. He said that the United States had 
 at that time all it could handle, but it was ready to make any 
 concession and obtain any legislation that private parties who 
 would undertake the work would require. 
 
 I then went to New York City and met Mr. Durant and 
 others connected with the Union Pacific and informed them 
 of what Mr. Lincoln had said. It gave them new hope, and 
 they immediately formulated the amendments to the law of 
 
 1862, which was passed in 1864 and enabled them to push the 
 work. 
 
 The ground was broken here in Omaha in December of 
 
 1863, and in 1864 about $500,000 was spent in surveying and 
 construction, and in 1865 forty miles of road was completed to 
 Fremont. Mr. Dey, who had charge of the work up to this time 
 as chief engineer, resigned, and stated in his letter that he was 
 giving up the best position in his profession this country had 
 ever offered to any man. 
 
 In May, 1866, I resigned from the army, came to Omaha 
 and took charge of the woi-k as chief engineer, and covered
 
 ADDRESS AT THE OMAHA CENTENNIAL 53 
 
 the line with engineering parties from Omaha to California, 
 and pushed our location up the Platte Valley. 
 
 In 1866 we built 260 miles. In the winter of 1866 we 
 planned to build the next year 288 miles to Fort Sanders. As 
 our work had to all be done under the protection of the mil- 
 itary, I was continually in communication with General Sher- 
 man, who was then the commander of this department, and 
 confidentially gave him our plans as fast as they were set- 
 tled upon. 
 
 In January, 1867, I wrote him a letter, showing him what 
 we proposed to do in that year, and he answered it from St. 
 Louis on January, 1867, saying: "I have just read with in- 
 tense interest your letter of the 14th. Although you wanted 
 me to keep it to myself, I believe you will sanction my sending 
 it to General Grant for his individual perusal, to be returned 
 to me. It is almost a miracle to grasp your proposition to 
 finish to Fort Sanders this year, but you have done so much 
 that I mistrust my own judgment and accept yours." During 
 1867 we reached the summit of the Black Hills and wintered 
 at Cheyenne, where the population of nearly 10,000 gathered 
 around us. 
 
 In November, 1867, the Northwestern Railway was com- 
 pleted at Council Bluffs. Up to this time the amount of road 
 we built each year was limited to the material that we could 
 bring up the Missouri River on steamboats during about three 
 months' navigation. Reaching the Black Hills also took us 
 into the timber country, where we could obtain ties within 
 twenty-five or fifty miles from the line. It was then planned, 
 during the winter of 1867, to build as far west as possible, 
 and we laid out plans to reach Ogden, giving us five hundred 
 or more miles to build. In estimating the extra cost of build- 
 ing this 500 miles, which crossed two ranges of mountains, 
 within a year, I informed the company that it would be at 
 least ten millions of dollars. Their answer was to go ahead, 
 no matter what it cost. 
 
 During the winter of 1867, we accumulated at Cheyenne 
 all the material possible, having the Northwestern to bring 
 it to us, and we made every preparation to start our work by 
 the 1st of April. When you consider that material for a mile
 
 54 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 of road required forty cars, besides the necessary cars for 
 supplies and for the population that Avas along the line of 
 the road, you can imagine what it was to supply the material 
 at the end of the line, which on an average had to be about 
 800 miles, but Snyder and Hoxie of the operating department 
 grasped the situation and solved the problem. We reached 
 Ogden in the spring of 1869, and Promontory Point on May 
 10, 1869. During the winter of '68 the grading was done over 
 the Wasatch Mountains, and the earth was blasted there the 
 same as rock. Our track was laid on icy banks. I saw one of 
 the construction trains slide off of the bank bodily into the 
 ditch, loaded with material. 
 
 From the first day of April, 1868, until May 10, 1869, only 
 thirteen months, we built and laid track of 555 miles of road 
 and graded the line to Humboldt Wells, making the total dis- 
 tance covered by our force 726 miles, and transported all the 
 material and supplies from the Missouri River. When you con- 
 sider that not a mile of this division of the road had been 
 located until April, that we covered in that year over 700 
 miles of road, bringing all the material from the Missouri 
 River, that we had to overcome its two great physical obsta- 
 cles, two ranges of mountains, it was a task never equalled 
 then nor surpassed since. It could not have been accomplished 
 had it not been for the experience of the chiefs of the depart- 
 ments in the Civil War. 
 
 The commission appointed by the Government to examine 
 the work says: "Taken as a whole, the Union Pacific Railway 
 has been well constructed. The energy and perseverance with 
 which the work has been urged forward and the rapidity with 
 which it has been executed was without parallel in history. 
 In grandeur and magnitude of the undertaking, it has never 
 been equalled." It is impossible for me in the short time I 
 have to speak individually of the persons who took a promi- 
 nent part in the construction of the line, but they entered into 
 the work all with one spirit. They worked from daylight till 
 dark and when necessary on Sundays, and it was an esprit de 
 corps and a determination from the head to the foot of every- 
 one to accomplish the task set before them.
 
 ADDRESS AT THE OMAHA CENTENNIAL 55 
 
 The Indians were very hostile, often attacking us. I lost 
 two of uiy chiefs, and many of the men and any quantity of 
 stock. That failed to stop us, but if it had not been for 
 the cordial support of Generals Grant and Sherman and the 
 officers of the army along our lines, we would not have suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 When our track was finished to Promontory, there assem- 
 bled there the officials from the East and from the West. The 
 engineers of the two lines ran their locomotives together, each 
 breaking a bottle of champagne upon the other's engine, and 
 when the last spike was driven and the telegraph ticked all 
 over the world the completion of the first transcontinental 
 line across our continent, I did not forget to telegraph to my 
 old chief. General Sherman, who had taken such a great inter- 
 est in the work, and received from him this despatch : 
 
 "In common with millions I sat yesterday and heard 
 the mystic taps of the telegraphic battery announce the nail- 
 ing of the last spike in the great Pacific road. Indeed, am 
 I its friend? Yea. Yet, am I a part of it, for as early as 1854 
 I was Vice President of the effort begun in San Francisco 
 under the contract of Robinson, Seymour & Co. As soon as 
 General Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections in his 
 new command on the Pacific, I will go out and, I need not say, 
 will have different facilities from that of 1846, when the only 
 way to California was by sail around Cape Horn, taking our 
 ships 196 days. All honor to you, to Durant and Jack and Dan 
 Casement, to Reed, and the thousands of brave fellows who 
 have wrought out this glorious problem, spite of changes, 
 storms, and even doubts of the incredulous, and all the obsta- 
 cles you have now happily surmounted. 
 
 ''W. T. SHERMAN, General." 
 
 The rapidity of the building of the Union Pacific Railway 
 caused many comments, and often assertions that the road 
 was not thoroughly built, that to make distance and thereby 
 receive more bonds, we unnecessarily increased the length of 
 the road ; that, to save work, we often use the maximum 
 grade, and other and similar criticisms. The best answer 
 to that has been made in the last three years. The Union 
 Pacific Railway, under a very able engineer, Mr. Berry,
 
 56 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 has been engaged in reducing the grades of the road, except 
 over the two mountain ranges to a maximum of forty-seven 
 feet per mile. It has decreased the curvature and shortened 
 the line about thirty-seven miles. To obtain this, it has cost 
 the Union Pacific Railroad Company nearly one-third the 
 total cash cost of building the road. Mr. Berry, in his report 
 upon these changes, pays this high compliment to those con- 
 nected with the location and construction of the road : 
 
 "It may appear to those unfamiliar with the character 
 of the country that the great saving in distance and reduction 
 of grade would stand as a criticism of the work of the pioneer 
 engineers who made the original location of the railroad. Such 
 is not the case. The changes made have been expensive and 
 could be warranted only by the volume of traffic handled at 
 the present day. Too much credit cannot be given General 
 G. M. Dodge and liis assistants. They studied their task thor- 
 oughly and performed it well. Limited by law to a maximum 
 gradient of 116 feet to the mile, not compensated for curva- 
 ture, they held it dowm to about ninety feet per mile. Taking 
 into consideration the existing conditions thirty-five years ago ; 
 lack of maps of the country, hostility of the Indians, which 
 made United States troops necessary for protection of survey- 
 ing parties, difficult transportation, excessive cost of labor, 
 uncertainty as to probable volume of traffic, limited amount 
 of money and necessity to get road built soon as possible, it 
 can be said, with all our present knowledge of the topography 
 of the country, that the line was located with very great skill."
 
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 '^■^
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD 
 
 AND ITS RELATION TO COUNCIL BLUFFS 
 
 AND WESTERN IOWA. 
 
 To give the early history of the Union Pacific Railway, 
 and it relations to Council Bluffs and western Iowa, necessi- 
 tates the recital of the first railway surveys in Iowa. 
 
 In 1852 the M. & M., now the Council Bluffs, Rock Island 
 & Pacific Railway, was chartered in the interest and as an 
 extension of the Chicago & Rock Island Railway, which was 
 completed that year to the Mississippi River at Rock Island. 
 
 In May, 1853, Peter A. Dey left the Rock Island, of which 
 he was a division engineer, stationed at Tiskilwa, and com- 
 menced at Davenport, Iowa, the first survey of a railroad line 
 across the State of Iowa. I had been with Mr. Dey about eight 
 months as rodman, and under his direction had made a sur- 
 vey of the Peoria & Bureau Valley Railway in Illinois. Mr. Dey 
 was made chief engineer of the M. & M., and took me to Iowa 
 as assistant, and placed me in charge of the party in the field 
 — certainly a very fine promotion for the limited experience 
 I had had — and it is one of the greatest satisfactions and 
 pleasures of my life to have had his friendship from the time 
 I entered his service until now. Mr. Dey is not only a very 
 distinguished citizen of Iowa, but is one of the most distin- 
 guished engineers of the country. He was known for his great 
 ability, his uprightness and the square deal he gave every one, 
 and he has gr-eatly honored this state in the many public posi- 
 tions he has held. I look back upon my services with him with 
 the greatest pleasure. My practical experience under him and 
 the confidence he placed in me were of incalculable benefit 
 to me, and the example he set us has lasted me through my 
 life, and I shall always honor, respect and hold him in the 
 highest consideration and friendship. 
 
 We completed a survey and location to Iowa City in 
 August, 1853. Early in September we commenced the survey 
 
 —57—
 
 58 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 across Iowa, passing through Marengo, Newton, Des Moines, 
 and reaching Council Bluffs December 1, 1853, this being the 
 first railway survey across the state. Now commenced our 
 first reconnoissances for the Union Pacific Kailway. We crossed 
 the river by flat-boat and extended our lines west to the Platte 
 Valley, and determined definitely the feasibility of a connec- 
 tion with the great Platte route with roads in Iowa terminat- 
 ing at or near Council Bluffs. It is a singular fact that the 
 Government in 1853 authorized the exploration of the country 
 west of the Missouri River to the Pacific on four different 
 routes, but made no mention of the most feasible route, and 
 the one that was first built upon, known as the forty-second 
 parallel or Great Platte route. A well defined trail of this route 
 was first made by the buffalo and the Indians, followed by 
 the fur traders and trappers, then used by the Mormons to 
 Salt Lake. Following them came the great overland emigra- 
 tion to California and Oregon, and on this trail and road, or 
 close to them, was built the Union Pacific and Central Pacific 
 to California, and the Short Line branch of the Union Pacific 
 to Oregon. 
 
 In our surveys to the Missouri River, Cook and Sargent, 
 who were representatives of the M. & M. Railway in Iowa, 
 held large interests at Florence, Nebraska, and were anxious 
 that our line should terminate on the Missouri River opposite 
 that point. It Avas also stated that the Missouri River at that 
 point had rock bottom. To solve this question we ran two 
 lines, one down Pigeon Creek, and one down Mosquito, and as 
 the latter was superior in an engineering point of view, Mr. 
 Dey adopted that line. There was considerable opposition to 
 it, but his recommendation stood. The question of terminus 
 was so often discussed, and as the Bluffs people felt so uncer- 
 tain as to the final result, they proposed that Pottawattamie 
 County should vote $300,000 in bonds in aid of the road if the 
 company would commence work at the Bluffs, make it the 
 terminus and spend that money in building east through 
 Pottawattamie County. This proposition was submitted to 
 Messrs. Farnam and Durant, and accepted. The bonds were 
 voted and the money raised, and it was spent in grading a 
 portion of the road in Pottawattamie County, but the failure
 
 ITS RELATION TO COUNCIL BLUFFS 59 
 
 of the M. & M. Company in 1857 stopped work here, as well 
 as on the rest of the line in the State. The Rock Island, the 
 successor of the M. & M.. occupied the line graded in this 
 county when it was built. 
 
 In the fall of 1854 work was suspended on the M. & M. 
 road in Iowa, and I moved to the Bluffs and under the patro- 
 nage of Henry Farnam continued the explorations west for 
 the Union Pacific by getting all the information I could from 
 the Indians and fur traders and Mormons of the country we 
 were finally to occupy, until the general route of the Union 
 Pacific to the Pacific Ocean was pretty fully settled in our own 
 minds. 
 
 There was keen competition in the '50s for the control of 
 the vast immigration crossing the plains, and Kansas City, 
 Fort Leavenworth, St. Joe and Council Bluffs were points of 
 concentration on the Missouri River. The trails from all these 
 points led to and converged in the Platte Vallej^ at Kearney 
 and east of it. A southern trail led from Kansas City up the 
 Arkansas to NeAv Mexico and on to the Pacific by the southern 
 route, but was not much traveled west of New Mexico. 
 
 From my explorations and the information I had obtained 
 1 mapped and made an itinerary of the whole Platte Valley 
 route to Utah, California and Oregon, giving the camping 
 places for each night, showing where wood, grass and water 
 could be found, pointing out where the fords of the different 
 streams could be found and giving such other information as 
 would be valuable to immigrants. The interests centering 
 around Council Bluffs printed this map and itinerary and sent 
 it broadcast through the western states, and it had no small 
 influence in turning the mass of overland immigration to the 
 Great Platte route. This route was up that river to its forks, 
 and then either up the north or south fork to Salt Lake, thence 
 to California by the Humboldt and Truckee Valleys, branch- 
 ing at South Pass or Fort Bridger to Snake River and by that 
 and the Columbia River Valleys to Oregon. 
 
 Both Mr. Dey and myself returned to Iowa City during 
 the summer of 1856 to continue the construction of the M. & 
 M. road, and made everything ready for the work, when the 
 panic ctf 1857 involved Mr. Farnam financially, caused by Mr.
 
 60 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Durant pledging the paper of the tirm of Durant & Farnam to 
 meet his speculative ventures. This involved Mr. Farnam 's 
 collateral in litigation, which it took several years to unravel, 
 and Mr. Durant 's connection with the M. & M. contract was 
 fatal to the early completion of that line of railway, and Mr. 
 Farnam took no further interest in the project. 
 
 I returned to Council Bluffs and continued my examina- 
 tions until 1861. I remember that in 1859, when I returned 
 from a trip on the plains, I met Mr. Lincoln at the Pacific 
 house. Mr. Lincoln came up from St. Joseph on a steamer to 
 look after an interest he had bought in the Riddle tract from 
 N. B. Judd of Chicago. He also found here and visited some 
 old Springfield, Illinois, friends. W. H. M. Pusey, Thomas 
 Officer, and others. Mr. Lincoln sought me out, and was greatly 
 interested in the project of the Pacific Railroad, and I gave 
 him all the information I had, going fully and thoroughly 
 into it. I was very decided that the Great Platte route was 
 from our explorations and surveys the best, most feasible, and 
 far superior to any of the routes explored by the Government. 
 
 In 1836 the first public meeting to consider the project 
 of a Pacific Railway was called by John Plumbe, a civil engi- 
 neer of Dubuque, Iowa. Interest in a Pacific Railway grew 
 from this time, the exploration of Fremont in 1842 and 1846 
 brought the attention of Congress, and A. C. Whitney was 
 zealous and efficient in the cause from 1840 to 1850. The first 
 practical measure was Senator Salmon P. Chase's bill in 1853, 
 making an appropriation for the explorations of different 
 routes for a Pacific Railway. Numerous bills were introduced 
 in Congress between 1852 and 1860, granting subsidies and 
 lands, and some of them appropriating as large a sum as $96,- 
 000,000 for the construction of the road. One of these bills 
 passed one of the houses of Congress. 
 
 The results of the explorations ordered by Congress were 
 printed in eleven large volumes covering the country between 
 the thirty-second and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, and 
 demonstrated the feasibility of building a Pacific Railway, but 
 at a cost on any one of the lines much larger than the Uni^n 
 Pacific and Central Pacific were built for. It is a singular fact 
 that in all these explorations the most feasible line in an
 
 ITS RELATION TO COUNCIL BLUFFS 61 
 
 engineering and commercial point of view, the line with the 
 least obstacles to overcome, of lowest grades and least curv- 
 ature, was never explored and reported on. Private enterprise 
 explored and developed that line along the forty-second par- 
 allel of latitude. 
 
 In 1861 General S. R. Curtis of Iowa reported for the Pa- 
 cific Railway Committee of Congress, the first Pacific Railroad 
 Act, and Senator Harlan of Iowa finally succeeded in making it 
 a law, and in March, 1862, the company was organized. On 
 September 2, 1862, Henry B. Ogden of Chicago was made Presi- 
 dent, Thomas M. Olcott, Vice President, and H. V. Poor, Secre- 
 tary. In August, 1863, T. C. Durant sent Peter A. Dey to 
 examine the passes over the Black Hills and Wasatch Range. 
 
 On October 30, 1863, Mr. Durant, in his report to the 
 board, stated that the explorations formerly made by General 
 G. M. Dodge, and those made by Mr. Dey, proved of great 
 value. Mr. Dey at this meeting submitted the report of his 
 reconnoissances, and the company placed him in charge of all 
 the surveys, with instructions to develop the line through to 
 Salt Lake City. Mr. Dey took into the field parties headed by 
 B. B. Brayton, S. B. Reed, F. M. Case, Joseph A. Youns. son 
 of President Brigham Young, and soon determined that the 
 general route we had originall^^ reported upon Avas the one 
 to be built upon. 
 
 The law of 1862 did not bring the results hoped for. No 
 money could be raised under its provisions, and the only 
 result was the series of explorations made in 1863, and the 
 breaking of ground at Omaha on December 21st of that year. 
 
 In 1863, I think about June, while in command at Corinth, 
 Mississippi, I received an order to report in Washington, and 
 was informed that the President wished to see me. I had no 
 idea what the President could wish to see me about — in fact, 
 was a good deal puzzled at the order. When I reached Wash- 
 ington and called on the President, I found that he desired 
 to consult me upon the proper place for the initial point of the 
 Union Pacific, and that he had not forgotten his conversation 
 with me in 1859. 
 
 The towns on the Missouri River within a distance of one 
 hundred miles of the mouth of the Platte River were using
 
 62 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 their influence to have the terminus made at each one of their 
 places, but it was evident that Mr. Lincoln had determined 
 upon some point north of the mouth of the Platte River, so 
 that great valley could be utilized for the route of the rail- 
 road. After his interview with me, in which he showed a 
 perfect knowledge of the question, and satisfying himself as 
 to the engineering questions that had been raised, I was satis- 
 fied he would locate the terminus at or near Council Bluffs. 
 He issued his first order on November 17, 1863. It was in his 
 own language, and as follows : 
 
 "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do 
 hereby fix so much of the western boundary of the State of 
 Iowa as lies between the north and south boundaries of the 
 United States township within which the City of Omaha is 
 situated as the point from which the line of railroad and tele- 
 graph in that section mentioned shall be constructed." 
 
 This description was not considered definite enough by 
 the company, and on March 7, 1864, President Lincoln issued 
 the second executive order, as follows : 
 
 "I Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do 
 upon the application of said company designate and establish 
 such first named point on the western boundary of the State 
 of Iowa, east of and opposite to the east line of Section 10, 
 in Township 15, south of Range 13, east of the sixth principal 
 Meridian in tlie Territory of Nebraska." 
 
 On March 8, 1864, he notified the United States Senate 
 that on the 17th day of November, 1868, he had located the 
 "eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railway within the 
 limits of the township in Iowa opposite to the town of Omaha." 
 "Since then," he says, "the company has represented to me 
 that upon added survey made, it has determined upon the 
 precise point of departure of the branch road from the Mis- 
 souri River, and located same within the limits designated 
 in the order of November last." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln also took up with me the construction of the 
 road. I expressed opinion that no private enterprise could 
 build it, and that it must be done by the Government. He 
 answered that the Government had its hands full in the war, 
 hut was willing to support any company to the full extent
 
 ITS RELATION TO COUNCIL BLUFFS 63 
 
 of its power. After saying good-bye to the President, I went 
 immediately to New York and saw Messrs. Durant, Cisco and 
 others, then eonected with the company, and reported to them 
 Mr. Lincoln's words. It gave new courage to the company. 
 The law of 1864 were passed, and Mr. Dej^ let the first con- 
 tracts, and grading was started in the fall of 1864. 
 
 After the location of the road at Council Bluffs, the first 
 serious question threatening Council Bluffs was the change 
 of Mr. Dey's line from Omaha to Elkhorn, adding nine miles 
 in distance, claiming to avoid heavy work and heavy grades. 
 Many saw in this change, advocated by Colonel Seymour, the 
 consulting engineer, and Mr. Durant, the Vice President of the 
 Union Pacific, an intention of utilizing Bellevue instead of the 
 Bluffs as the real terminus of the road, and this aroused not 
 only Omaha, but the Bluffs with all the influence of Iowa 
 against such a result. 
 
 The main argument for adding nine miles of distance in 
 thirteen miles of road was that it eliminated the eighty and 
 sixty-six foot grades of the direct line. If this had been done 
 there would have been some argument for the changes, but 
 they only eliminated the grades from the Omaha summit, which 
 it took three miles of sixty and sixty-six foot, grades to reach, 
 and east of the Elkhorn summit which was an eighty-foot 
 grade, so by the change and addition of nine miles they made 
 no reductions in the original grades or in the tonnage hauled 
 in a train on the new line over the old line if it had been built. 
 
 The grades at Omaha and Elkhorn have been eliminated 
 since 1900, and the new management is adopting the old Dey 
 line for the distance it saves and in bringing the grade to the 
 road's maximum of forty-seven feet to the mile. It was Mr. 
 Dey's intention, that when traffic demanded the original short 
 line grades Avould be reduced to whatever maximum grade 
 the road should finally adopt. 
 
 After a long contest and many reports the Government 
 provided that the change should only be made if the Omaha 
 and Elkhorn grades were eliminated, the first by a line run- 
 ning south from Omaha two miles in the Missouri Valley and 
 cutting through the Bluffs to Muddy Creek, giving a thirty- 
 five foot maximum grade, and the Elkhorn, by additional
 
 64 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 cutting and filling without changing the line, but this was 
 never done. The company paid no attention to the decision 
 but built on the changed line letting the grades at Omaha and 
 Elkhorn stand, and the Government Commissioners accepted 
 the road, ignoring the conditions of the change, and bonds 
 were issued upon it, although it was a direct violation of the 
 Government order. 
 
 The final decision in favor of the change, and the ignoring 
 of Mr. Dey's recommendations in letting the construction con- 
 tracts, caused Mr. Dey to send in his resignation. He stated 
 in his letter of resignation that he was giving up "the best 
 position in his profession this country has offered to any man." 
 
 During the building of the road the question of bridging 
 the Missouri River was under discussion, and continuous exam- 
 inations of the river in sounding, watching currents, etc., was 
 had. Three points were finally determined upon as most fea- 
 sible. First, Child's Mill, which was a high bridge, the shortest, 
 and reached Muddy Creek with thirty-five foot grade, avoid- 
 ing the heavy sixty-six foot grade at Omaha. Second, Tele- 
 graph Pole, right where there was some rock bottom, this to 
 be a low drawbridge, and third, the M. & M. crossing for a 
 high bridge. The latter was decided upon, more especially to 
 meet the views of Omaha, and for aid that city gave the com- 
 pany. 
 
 We began work on the bridge in 1868, and continued it in 
 1869 and 1870, but the company found it impossible to con- 
 tinue, as they had no funds and they could not issue any 
 securities under their charter to pay for the work. I was very 
 anxious the bridge should be built to utilize the thousand acres 
 of land I had bought for our terminals in Iowa, and to fix 
 permanently and practically the terminus in Iowa. The com- 
 pany proposed to me to organize a bridge company, to interest 
 the Iowa roads terminating at the Bluffs, and ask authority 
 from the Government to construct the bridge and issue secur- 
 ities upon it, the Union Pacific agreeing to use the bridge and 
 make its terminals and connections with the Iowa roads on the 
 Iowa side. 
 
 I saw all the Iowa roads. They agreed to give their aid, but 
 made the condition that their connection with the Union Pacific
 
 ITS RELATION TO COUNCIL BLUFFS 65 
 
 should be ou the Iowa side. I weut to Washiugton, presented 
 the bill, passed it through the house and left it in Senator Har- 
 lan's hands to pass it in the Senate. This was very quietly 
 done, but Omaha got alarmed, and Governor Saunders, who 
 was a personal friend of Senator Harlan, took the matter up, 
 and I think went to Washington. The Omaha people interested 
 themselves in stirring up opposition in the BluflPs. 
 
 A public meeting was held at the corner of Broadway and 
 Pearl Streets, over Avhich J. AV. Crawford presided. I was very 
 seriously criticised and the bridge scheme denounced, although 
 it was entirely and solely in the interest of Council Bluffs and 
 Avould have brought the terminus and l)usiness of the Union 
 Pacific to the Bluffs, as they had entered into an agreement 
 with the Iowa roads to that effect. 
 
 The public meeting was addressed in favor of the bridge 
 by Messrs. Pusey, Officer and inyself, also by Caleb Baldwin, 
 and was opposed by Messrs. James, Larimer, Montgomery and 
 others. The meeting passed resolutions asking our Senators 
 to defeat the bridge bill. Harlan acted on this resolution and 
 defeated the bill in the Senate, and Saunders and Omaha 
 accomplished their work. 
 
 The Union Pacific Company was greatly disgusted and 
 disappointed, and dropped for the time all efforts to build a 
 bridge. If the bill had passed the bridge would have been 
 built in the interests of Council Bluffs and the Iowa roads. 
 The Union Pacific later on applied to Congress, which passed 
 a bill authorizing the Union Pacific to build a bridge, issue 
 bonds and stock upon it and placed it entirely in their con- 
 trol, but the Union Pacific had no great interest in coming 
 to Council Bluffs or Iowa, and made their terminus at Omaha 
 and forced the Iowa roads over the bridge until 1875, when 
 the United States Supreme Court decided that the Union 
 Pacific should be operated from Council Bluffs westward as a 
 continuous line for all purposes of communication, travel and 
 transportation, and especially ordered them to start all through 
 passenger and freight trains westward from the Bluffs. 
 
 This came too late to cure the mischief the town meeting 
 had accomplished, as the Union Pacific had its interests cen- 
 tered in Omaha, and its offices, and the loAva roads had made
 
 66 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 their contracts and gone there and the Bluffs had only reaped 
 the benefit of its terminal that the growth of business has 
 forced to them, whereas, by law, by economy of operation, 
 and by the ample terminals made to accommodate it, it should 
 have been the actual terminus, and should have received full 
 benefit of it, not only from traffic of the Union Pacific, but from 
 the traffic and interest of the Iowa roads. 
 
 The points I have mentioned are the principal ones in the 
 building of the Union Pacific that interest Council Bluffs. 
 There were others, but my article is already too long. The 
 building of the Union Pacific was of incalculable benefit to 
 the Bluffs and Iowa. General Sherman said it advanced our 
 country one hundred years. The rapidity of building was a 
 factor. Forty miles of track was laid in 1865, 260 miles in 
 1866, 246 in 1867, including the ascent to the summit of the 
 Black Hills at Sherman, 8,255 feet above the sea, and during 
 1868 and to May, 1869, 555 miles, all exclusive of 186 miles 
 of sidings and all from one end. a task never before or since 
 equalled.
 
 FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF DRIVING OF THE LAST 
 
 SPIKE ON THE UNION PACIFIC AND CENTRAL 
 
 PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
 The building of a Pacific steam road to connect the streams 
 flowing into the Atlantic and Pacific was advocated as early 
 as 1819, before a mile of railroad was built in any part of the 
 world. It took practical form when Asa Whitney, in 1845, 
 in petitioning Congress in behalf of a Pacific railroad, said : 
 "You will see that it will change the whole world." Senator 
 Thomas H. Benton in 1849 pleaded that the great line when 
 built should "be adorned with its crowning honor, the colossal 
 statue of the great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, 
 hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky Mountains, 
 overlooking the road, the mountain itself the pedestal, and the 
 statue a part of the mountain, pointing with outstretched 
 arm to the western horizon, and saying to the flying passenger, 
 'There is the East! There is India!'" Charles Sumner in 
 1853 said: "The railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
 traversing a whole continent and binding together two oceans, 
 this mighty thoroughfare when completed will mark an epoch 
 of human progress second only to that of our Declaration of 
 Independence. May the day soon come!" And it did come, 
 and all the prophecies were fulfilled when the first transcon- 
 tinental line was completed and the tracks joined at Promon- 
 tory Point. Utah, on May 10, 1869, just forty years ago. 
 
 This ceremony was one of peace and harmony between the 
 Union Pacific, coming from the east, and the Central Pacific, 
 coming from the west. For a year or more there had been 
 great contention and rivalry between the two companies, the 
 Union Pacific endeavoring to reach Humboldt Wells, on the 
 west boundary of Utah, and the Central Pacific rushing to 
 reach Ogden, Utah, to give them an outlet to Salt Lake City. 
 
 In the building of a Pacific steam road to connect the two 
 oceans two lines were graded alongside of each other for 225
 
 68 now WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 miles between Ogden and Humboldt Wells. Climbing Promon- 
 torj' Mountain, they were not a stone's throw apart. 
 
 When both companies saAv that neither could reach its 
 goal they came together and we made an agreement to join 
 the tracks on the summit of Promontory ^Mountain, the Union 
 Pacific selling to the Central Pacific fifty-six miles of its road 
 back within five miles of Ogden and leasing trackage over 
 that five miles to enable the Central Pacific to reach Ogden. 
 These five miles were not only a part of the Union Pacific, but 
 used by their line north to Idaho. This agreement was ratified 
 by Congress. Each road built to the summit of Promontory, 
 leaving a gap of about 100 feet of rail to be laid when the 
 last spike was driven. The chief engineers of the Union and 
 Central Pacific had charge of the ceremony and the work, 
 and we set a day far enough ahead so that trains coming from 
 New York and San Francisco Mould have' ample time to reach 
 Promontory in time to take part in the ceremonies. 
 
 On the morning of May 10, 1869, Hon. Leland Stanford, 
 Governor of California and President of the Central Pacific, 
 accompanied by iMessrs. Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker and 
 trainloads of California's distinguished citizens, arrived from 
 the west. During the forenoon Vice President T. C. Durant 
 and Directors John R. Duff and Sidney Dillon and Consulting 
 Engineer Silas A. Seymour of the Union Pacific, with other 
 prominent men, including a delegation of Mormons from Salt 
 Lake City, came in on a train from' the east. The National 
 Government was represented by a detachment of ''regulars" 
 from Fort Douglass, Utah, accompanied by a l)and, and 600 
 others, including Chinese, Mexicans, Indians, half-breeds, ne- 
 groes and laborers, suggesting an air of cosmopolitanism, all 
 gathered around the open space where the tracks were to be 
 joined. The Cliinese laid the rails from the west end, and the 
 Irish laborers laid them from the east end. until they met and 
 joined. 
 
 Telegraphic wires were so connected that each blow of th*e 
 descending sledge could be reported instantly to all parts of 
 the United States. Corresponding blows were struck on the 
 bell of the City Hall in San Francisco, and with the last blow 
 of the sledge a cannon was fired at Fort Point. General Safford

 
 DRIVING OF THE LAST SPIKE 69 
 
 presented a spike of gold, silver and iron as the offering of 
 the Territory of Arizona. Governor Tuttle of Nevada pre- 
 sented a spike of silver from his state. The connecting tie 
 was of California laurel, and California presented the last spike 
 of gold in behalf of that state. A silver sledge had also been 
 presented for the occasion. A prayer was offered. Governor 
 Stanford of California made a few appropriate remarks on 
 behalf of the Central Pacific and the chief engineer responded 
 for the Union Pacific. Then the telegraphic inquiry from the 
 Omaha office, from Avhich the circuit was to be started, was 
 answered : "To everybody : Keep quiet. When the last spike is 
 driven at Promontory Point we will say 'Done.' Don't break 
 the circuit, but watch for the signals of the blows of the ham- 
 mer. The spike will soon be driven. The signal will be three 
 dots for the commencement of the blows. ' ' The magnet tapped 
 one — two — three — then paused— "Done." The spike was given 
 its first blow by President Stanford and Vice President Durant 
 followed. Neither hit the spike the first time, but hit the 
 rail, and were greeted by the lusty cheers of the onlookers, 
 accompanied by the screams of the locomotives and the music 
 of the military band. Many other spikes were driven on the 
 last rail by some of the distinguished persons present, but it 
 Avas seldom that they first hit the spike. The original spike, 
 after being tapped by the officials of the companies, was driven 
 home by the chief engineers of the two roads. Then the two 
 trains were run together, the two locomotives touching at the 
 point of junction, and the engineers of the two locomotives 
 each broke a bottle of champagne on the other's engine. Then 
 it was declared that the connection was made and the Atlantic 
 and Pacific were joined together never to be parted. 
 
 The wires, in every direction were hot with congratulatory 
 telegrams. President Grant and Vice President Colfax were 
 the recipients of especially felicitous messages. On the evening 
 of May 8th. in San Francisco, from the stages of the theatres 
 and other public places, notice was given that the two roads 
 had met and were to be wedded on the morrow. The celebra- 
 tion there began at once and practically lasted through the 
 10th. The booming of cannons and the ringing of bells were 
 united with other species of noise, making of which jubilant
 
 70 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 humanity finds expression for its feelings on such an occa- 
 sion. The buildings in the city were gay with flags and bunt- 
 ing. Business was suspended and the longest procession that 
 San Francisco had ever seen attested the enthusiasm of the 
 people. At night the city was brilliant with illuminations. 
 Free railway trains filled Sacramento with an unwonted crowd, 
 and the din of cannon, steam wliistles and hells followed the 
 final message. 
 
 At the eastern terminus in Omaha the firing of a hundred 
 guns on Capitol hill, more bells and steam whistles and a grand 
 procession of fire companies, civic societies, citizens and visit- 
 ing delegations echoed the sentiments of the Californians. In 
 Chicago a procession of four miles in length, a lavish display 
 of decoration in the city and on the vessels in the river, and 
 an address by Vice President Colfax in the evening were the 
 evidences of the city's feeling. In New York, by order of the 
 mayor, a salute of a hundred guns announced the culmination 
 of the great undertaking. In Trinity Church the te deum was 
 chanted, prayers were offered, and when the services wt,re 
 over the chimes rung out "Old Hundred," the "Ascension 
 Carol" and national airs. The ringing of bells on Independence 
 Hall and the fire stations in Philadelphia produced an unusual 
 concourse of citizens to celebrate the national event. In the 
 other large cities of the country the expressions of public 
 gratification were hardly less hearty and demonstrative. Bret 
 Harte was inspired to write the celebrated poem of "What 
 the Engines Said." The first verse is: 
 
 What was it the engines said. 
 Pilots touching, head to head, 
 Pacing on the single track. 
 Half a world behind each back? 
 This is what the engines said, 
 Unreported and unread. 
 
 Not forgetting my old commander, General W. T. Sher- 
 man, who had been such an aid in protecting us in the building 
 of the road, in ansAver to our telegram, sent this despatch : 
 
 "Washington, May 11, 1869.— General G. M. Dodge: In 
 common with millions, T sat yesterday and heard the mysti.'
 
 

 
 DRIVING OF THE LAST SPIKE 71 
 
 taps of the telegraphic battery announce the nailing of the 
 last spike in the great Pacific road. Indeed, am I its friend? 
 Yea. Yet, am I to be a part of it, for as early as 1854 I was 
 Vice President of the effort begun in San Francisco under the 
 contract of Robinson, Seymour & Co. As soon as General 
 Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections in his new com- 
 mand on the Pacific I will go out, and, I need not say, will 
 have different facilities from that of 1846, when the only way 
 to California was by sailing around Cape Horn, taking our 
 ships 196 days. All honor to you, to Duraut, to Jack and Dan 
 Casement, to Reed, and the thousands of brave fellows who 
 have wrought out this glorious problem, spite of changes, 
 storms and even doubts of the incredulous, and all the obstacles 
 you have happily surmounted. 
 
 "^Y. T. SHERMAN, General." 
 
 After the ceremony a sumptuous lunch was served in Pres- 
 ident Stanford's ears, and appropriate speeches were made by 
 Governor Stanford and others, and a general .iollification was 
 enjoyed. At night each train took its way to its own home, 
 leaving at the junction point only the engineers and the work- 
 men to complete the work ready for the through trains that 
 followed in a day or tAvo after. 
 
 The one thought that was in all minds was, "What of 
 the future? What could a railroad earn that ran almost its 
 entire length from Nebraska to the California State line 
 through a country uninhabited, and. at that date. Avith no 
 developed local business upon its whole line." 
 
 My own views upon that question I expressed in my re- 
 port upon the completion of the road in 1869, in which I said: 
 
 "Its future is fraught with great good. It will develop 
 a waste, will bind together the two extremes of the nation 
 as one, will stimulate intercourse and trade, and bring har- 
 mony, prosperity and wealth to the two coasts. A proper pol- 
 icy, systematically and persistently followed, will bring to 
 the road the trade of the two oceans and will give it all the 
 business it can accommodate ; while the local trade will in- 
 crease gradually until the mining, grazing and agricultural 
 regions through which it passes will build up and create a
 
 72 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 business that will be a lasting and permanent support to the 
 company. ' " 
 
 As soon as the road was in operation, with regular trains, 
 the company called upon me to make an estimate of the earn- 
 ings of the company for the next ten years. They desired that 
 they should show a sum, if possible, equal to the interest upon 
 all the company bonds and provide for the Government sink- 
 ing fund. 
 
 This was a problem that would have challenged the imag- 
 ination of the greatest optimist of the time, for we had a road 
 1,086 miles in length. Avith few settlements upon it, and the 
 country surrounding it. from our own observations, did not 
 promise any great amount of railroad traffic. However, by 
 claiming all the known traffic between the Atlantic and the 
 Pacific, and all the trade of foreign countries seeking Japan, 
 China and Australia by this route, we built up a yearly earn- 
 ing of $5,000 per mile, hut the growth of the comitry even 
 then distanced my imagination 100 per cent, and our yearly 
 earnings in ten years rose to $10,000 or $12,000 per mile. When 
 I look back upon the growth of the country west of, the Mis- 
 souri, now supporting five transcontinental lines, with all the 
 miles of lateral roads filling the intermediate territory, with 
 the traffic on the Union Pjicific today demanding a double 
 track over its entire length. I have not the ability to even guess 
 what the future has in store. When you try to calculate the 
 business that will be created by the Government's conserva- 
 tion of the country's resources, its millions spent impounding 
 the great streams that flow east and west from the Rocky 
 Mountains, the minerals hidden in every range and foothill, 
 the agricultural growth from dry farming and irrigation, and 
 the great yearly increase in population, and that today the 
 country is comparatively only scratched. As it develops and 
 grows today, in ten years it will require 50.000 additional miles 
 of railroad to transport its people and its production. 
 
 When the Union Pacific was first built, over 90 per cent 
 of its traffic was through business. Now that figure is reversed 
 and 90 per cent of it or more is local, and this is the ease of 
 all the transcontinental and intermediate lines. There is an 
 empire building up west of the Missouri River and on the
 
 DRIVING OF THE LAST SPIKE 7 3 
 
 Pacific Coast from Mexico to Behring Strait. Already there is 
 a development that has outstripped every effort to meet its 
 demands or anticipate its necessities. To me. who traveled 
 over most of this country in the '50s and '60s, when its inhab- 
 itants were mostly Indians, and its products game and grass, 
 its growth I cannot even comprehend, and its future no man 
 can safely prophesy. 
 
 It is a great satisfaction to have lived and witnessed the 
 development of our nation, from the Lakes to the Pacific. 
 As a result of the Civil War it has made a century's growth 
 in fifty vears.
 
 ^ V ^ 
 
 
 « «J 
 
 ;! 
 
 •#'rti'-i, 
 
 ,^
 
 WHAT I HAVE KNOWN OF HARRIMAN. 
 
 While I have known Mr. Harriinau many years, I have 
 had no railroad or business connection with him. I severed 
 ray connection with the Union Pacific Railroad when it went 
 into the hands of the receivers. I was a member of the first 
 reorganization committee, known as the Brice Committee, but 
 it failed to accomplish anything from its inability to come to 
 any understanding with the Government as to the payment 
 of the Government debt. 
 
 The second reorganization committee, known as the Kuhn- 
 Loeb Committee, in 1897 succeeded in reorganizing the Union 
 Pacific, and Mr. Harriman took an active part in the road 
 from that time forward. First as a director, and after rising 
 to the presidency, he controlled, not only that property, but 
 from 1901, the Southern Pacific. 
 
 His great power in argument and ability to show results 
 and his management of these roads, brought him to the promi- 
 nent notice of the whole country and the support of its great 
 banking and financial interests. The development of business 
 along the Union Pacific made them believe the road could pay 
 the Government debt, principal and interest, and they had the 
 nerve to make that agreement with the Government. 
 
 I remember when they were considering with the Govern- 
 ment the payment of the subsidy debt that President McKinley 
 sent for me to come to AVashiugtou, and while discussing the 
 question with him, I asked him if he didn 't think a monument 
 ought to be raised by the Government to the men who built 
 that road and paid the Government debt, an unheard of occur- 
 rence at that time. He answered, "Yes," but said, "Don't 
 you think. General, a monument should also be raised to the 
 President who made them do it?" 
 
 In the first plans of the reorganization of the Union Pa- 
 cific, the main trunk line only was included, but it was soon 
 discovered that the branches, especially the Oregon Short Line,
 
 7 6 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 were as important to the success of the company as the main 
 line, and, afterwards, under the management of Mr. Harri- 
 man, those branches, except the Colorado & Southern Railway, 
 Avere made a part of the system. He saw later on that it was a 
 mistake even to leave out this branch. 
 
 During the panic of 1898 the earnings of the road fell 
 from $45,000,000 to $29,000,000: the net earnings from $16,000,- 
 000 to $4,000,000, but at the time of the reorganization, the 
 development of the country was such, and the growth of the 
 business along the road was so great, that the value of the 
 property grew all the time upon Mr. Harriman and his asso- 
 ciates. The one obstacle in the way of completing the plan 
 they had in view was that the line from Ogden to San Fran- 
 cisco, knoAvn as the Central Pacific, was owned and operated 
 by the Southern Pacific, then controlled by Mr. Collis P. Hunt- 
 ington, who absolutely refused to sell it. 
 
 Upon Mr. Huntington's death, Mr. Harriman and his asso- 
 ciates in 1901 formed the plan of buying the Central Pacific 
 from Ogden to San Francisco as its original charter provided, 
 and his success in purchasing this property is one of the keys 
 to the great success of the Union Pacific road. To accomplish 
 this, he had to spend a hundred or more millions of dollars and 
 buy not'only the Central Pacific but a road reaching from San 
 Francisco to New Orleans, and from there by steamboat to 
 New York. This was not only a bold but a very successful 
 financial operation. 
 
 One person in speaking of his great success at the time 
 of the purchase of this property and the combining of it with 
 the Union Pacific and other property that had been obtained, 
 says: "Mr. Harriman may journey by steamship from New- 
 York to New Orleans, thence by rail to San Francisco, across 
 the Pacific Ocean to China, and, returning by another route 
 to the United States, may go to Ogden by any one of the three 
 rail lines, and thence to Kansas City or Omaha, without leav- 
 ing the deck or platform of a carrier which he controls, and 
 without duplicating any part of his journey." 
 
 This purchase of his was a very far sighted, and in my 
 opinion, a master stroke, although at this time, the Govern- 
 ment is trying to divorce the two roads. This is a mistake.
 
 WHAT I HAVE KNOWN OF HARRIMAN 77 
 
 I cannot see, myself, how a railroad running from San Fran- 
 cisco to NeAv Orleans is in any way couipetitive with a railroad 
 running from San Francisco and Portland to Council Bluffs. 
 
 Mr. Harriman's heart was wholly in his work. His efforts 
 have been only to build up. not to tear down, and there are 
 instances within this year where he has gone to the aid of 
 great competitive properties on the principle that it was not 
 good policy to allow any great enterprise to fail. Though it 
 may have been competitive Avith his interests, he did not fail 
 to aid it with his advice, money and credit, which I think, 
 shows that he held a very broad view, far different from the 
 attitude most people take toward such questions. 
 
 After Mr. Ilarriman had obtained the Union Pacific, South- 
 ern Pacific and all its laterals, and branches, he began to make 
 a study of them. He went through them from beginning to 
 .end and as the business of the roads grew, he saw what the 
 future for them was, and he told me that he spent almost as 
 much money as the original cost of the road in bringing the 
 grades of the Union Pacific, from Ogden to Cheyenne, down 
 to forty-seven feet nuiximum (except two places), and from 
 Cheyenne to Omaha down to sixteen feet, and in shortening 
 tlie distance some thirty miles. . 
 
 It is said that in developing this and the Southern Pacific 
 roads and their lateral lines, he has spent over $200,000,000, 
 and it is for these reasons that I have said that his death is 
 the greatest loss to the Avestern country. 
 
 It is a very forunate thing that he has built up and organ- 
 ized these properties so completely and efficiently that it will 
 not be difficult to find some one in them to take his place and 
 carry out his plans which contemplate as much expenditure 
 in the future as has been made in the past. 
 
 I Avas much impressed as I lately came over the Union 
 Pacific, by Avhat these improvements have meant to the road. 
 I had been staying for two months in the mountains Avhere 
 other railroads cross them, and I noticed that tAvo locomotives 
 could haul from fifteen to tAventy cars only up their steep 
 grades, while on the mountain diA^sion of the Union Pacific, 
 a single locomotive could haul from thirty-five to forty-five 
 cars, and from CheA'enne east thcA' hauled fiftA'' to seventA^-five
 
 7 8 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 loaded cars. This shows where the great net earnings of the 
 Union Pacific come fronj. 
 
 Every piece of property that Harriman has taken an active 
 interest in. has immediately felt his influence and got the ben- 
 efit of his judgment in its operations and in the increase of 
 its earnings. He had a great faculty for details in these matters 
 and seemed to know intuitively how to utilize, to the best 
 advantage, the forces working under him. 
 
 His men were loyal to him because he was loyal to them. 
 He took a great interest in them, gave them full authority and 
 what is necessary for success in railroad management, stood 
 right behind them and was not afraid, at any time, to take 
 the responsibility of any of their acts. This, of course, was 
 one of the great elements of his success. You never see a 
 person along his line of roads who does not speak well of 
 him. from the top down. 
 
 I have seen it stated lately that Mr. Harriman found, on 
 taking charge of the Union Pacific, "two dirt ballasted streaks 
 of rust. The stations along the mountain grades were tumble 
 down shacks, most of the equipment fit only for the scrap pile. 
 From top to bottom, the Union Pacific suffered from bank- 
 ruptcy, brought on by political and financial intrigue." There 
 is no truth in this statement. When the Union Pacific went 
 into the receivers' hands, it was carried there by a floating 
 debt of $18,000,000. contracted in developing the property and 
 building l)ranches. The road was then earning some $45,000,- 
 000 gross, and $16,000,000 net, yearly, and was 10,000 or more 
 miles in length. The demonetization of silver destroyed, for 
 a time, the mining and other industries along the Union Pacific 
 from the Missouri River to California, reducing its earnings to 
 $29,000,000 gross per year. It could not stand this great de- 
 crease and carry its debt. 
 
 During the time it was in the receivers' hands, its operat- 
 ing organization was good and the physical condition of the 
 road was equal to or better than that of any road west of 
 the Missouri River, while no additional mileage was added 
 to it, its earnings were devoted to maintaining the property. 
 As soon as Mr. Harriman took charge of the road, it, like all 
 other railroads in the Ignited States, had to be fitted to carry
 
 WHAT I HAVE KNOWN OF HARRIMAN 79 
 
 the weight of the modern locomotives, cars, and trains put 
 upon it to handle the great increase of traffic from 1897 to the 
 present time. 
 
 Mr. Harriman saw and grasped this situation and not 
 only provided for this great traffic, but reduced the grades of 
 the road, shortened the distance, and made possible by double 
 tracking it, the handling of its increasing traffic for many years 
 to come. 
 
 The great interests that Mr. Harriman controlled and 
 those he was interested in, covers the entire continent, and 
 included not only the transportation but many industries, 
 banks, financial interests, etc., and were far too much of a 
 burden to place upon one man. But no matter how much we 
 may try to avoid the accumulation of such duties, it was 
 hard for him and will be for anyone who takes his place, to 
 stop the accumulations and combinations, for all the laws now, 
 state and national, force consolidation and combinations, while 
 this country grows in every direction, the controlling interests 
 decrease in number, and legislation and financial interest cause 
 this great change. 
 
 Under a fair wind, they all seem to prosper. They stood 
 fairly well through the panic, but the question is, how will 
 they weather any long and steady decrease in our crops and 
 any general decline of our greatly diversified business. 
 
 Although undersized in stature and frail in physical 
 strength, Mr. Harriman was the boldest fighter of these times, 
 and his success IslY, mainly, in the fact that he was considered 
 a fair fighter. 
 
 He had two sides to his character. One the public saw: 
 the other, those who worked with him and were close to him 
 saw. He had a kind word for everyone who was trying to 
 succeed. He was especially kind to those who were in his 
 immediate employ, and he had a heart that went out to all 
 appeals from those in trouble. He was devoted to his family 
 and his home. 
 
 We who knew him, can appreciate the "West's great loss, 
 but if he had to go, it was best that he should fall at the zenith 
 of his great successes, and at a time when his great work was 
 moving steadily forward, well manned and well in hand.
 
 JOHN N. BALDWIN S, GENERAL SOLICITOR OF THE 
 UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY, TRIBUTE TO GENERAL 
 G. M. DODGE ON HIS WORK IN BUILDING THE 
 UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY AT THE MEETING OF 
 THE SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE 
 AT COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, 1906. 
 
 Mr. Toastmaster. Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Though solemnized by the ceaseless mutations of time, 
 this is an occasion well calculated to awaken the buoyancy and 
 quicken the heart-bea-t of every citizen who loves his country 
 and its institutions. 
 
 In this time of great national eminence, with happiness 
 regnant in twenty million American homes, with our astral 
 emblem honored and respected throughout the world, with the 
 seat of peace of both hemispheres by the Potomac, with a 
 nation distinguished for its commerce, its wealth, its Christi- 
 anity and its enlightenment, it is meet that we should pause 
 in our onward flight to acknowledge with full hearts our love, 
 our reverence, our boundless gratitude and obligation to and 
 for our preserver and benefactor — the Union soldier. 
 
 We have Avith us tonight one of the chief actors in what 
 history truly represents as the greatest tragedy ever played 
 in the theatre of war. He saw the curtain rise on Fort Sumpter 
 and fall on Appomattox. He shared with his comrades in arms 
 the fortunes and misfortunes of military life, and like them 
 he received his plaudits and his wounds. • 
 
 I have the honor to speak of our distinguished fellow 
 townsman, our neigh1)or, our friend. General Grenville M. 
 Dodge. 
 
 If our honored friend experiences some embarrassment as 
 he listens to the recital of his deeds and achievements, he must 
 remember the pleasure it affords those "who offer their tribute 
 and their expressions of esteem, and also remember that if 
 the struggles and triumphs of the strong and successful are
 
 82 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 never to be recounted, the inspiration of worthy action might 
 be lost and many tender chords remain untouched. 
 
 "Let us, then, be what we are and speak what we think, 
 and in all things keep ourselves loyal to the truth and the 
 sacred professions of friendship." 
 
 I believe that it will be both profitable and pleasurable 
 for us to stop a moment during these tempestuous, tumultuous, 
 business-expanding, wealth-getting and property-developing 
 times, and seriously contemplate the rugged and lasting qual- 
 ities of such a man as General Dodge, and also with fitting 
 ceremony and circumstance, in the presence of the highest 
 in the community, give to him his true meed and merit. 
 
 The Army of the Tennessee is conspicuous in American 
 history. Around it is woven the story of the Civil War. It 
 participated in more than forty engagements, among them 
 being a number of the greatest battles of that war. It not 
 only participated, it was in the thick of the conflict, and was 
 often the medium through which defeat was turned into vic- 
 tory. More than once the fate of the Union depended upon 
 its prowess and soldierly valor. It was so at Shiloh, Vicksburg, 
 Corinth, Atlanta, and in fact, nearly all the great battlefields 
 of the war. As General Grant, speaking of Vicksburg, says 
 in his personal memoirs, "It looks now as if Providence di- 
 rected the course of the campaign, while the Army of Ten- 
 nessee executed the decree." 
 
 The name of General Dodge will forever 'be associated 
 with the Army of the Tennessee, its great soldier in time of 
 war and its great citizen in time of peace. He was one of its 
 best and honored commanders, a fit companion of Sherman, 
 McPherson and Logan. In the personal memoirs of Grant, 
 Sherman* and Sheridan are found the highest testimonials of 
 these great soldiers to the valor, courage, skill and bravery 
 of General Dodge. Commendation from such a source is a 
 priceless legacy. 
 
 I desire to speak tonight of the achievements and triumphs 
 of General Dodge in the ranks of private citizenship. "While 
 he has illuminated the pages of American history with his 
 deeds of valor, he has also made his impress as a private citi- 
 zen in the sphere of industry.
 
 J
 
 A TRIBUTE TO GENERAL DODGE 83 
 
 It is not the rule that men ascend to eminence by leaps 
 and bounds. It is by steady tread that we move up the rough 
 and rugged path to success. This is an age of concrete thought 
 and those of whatever vocation who rise above mediocrity 
 and reach eminence and distinction are they who subject their 
 lives to the crucible of hard intellectual and physical endeavor. 
 
 We often and wisely repeat the truism that man is the 
 architect of his own fortune. Individuality is the despot, des- 
 tiny the subject. 
 
 I do not subscribe to the doctrine that all men are created 
 equal or that at the threshold of life's contest all are equally 
 armed, but among those who are thus favored some fail while 
 others succeed, thus establishing the fact that success is a 
 reward not a legacy. 
 
 A man rising to eminence acquires that estate at tre- 
 mendous cost. Many they are who crave it but few they are 
 who are willing to strive for it in the only way it can be 
 obtained, that is, by hard and constant endeavor. And it is 
 not true that those who stand on the pedestal of fame are, as 
 a rule, those who have crossed life's chasms on the bridge of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 General Dodge's position today in the business and trans- 
 portation world represents an investment of years of hard 
 labor and useful life. Without heraldry of birth, without 
 moneyed or influential friends, but with labor, diligence, in- 
 tegrity and faith in himself, he has risen steadily and marked 
 a path across the railroad world. Studious, thoughtful and 
 indefatigable. He has had much to encounter and much to 
 conquer. He never despised an opponent and never became 
 careless, and he never feared one and therefore never became 
 unnerved. He always had faith. He may have thought some- 
 times in the struggle that right would be defeated but he 
 never believed for a moment that wrong would triumph. Fidel- 
 ity was his sovereign, loyalty his guide, and devotion his ruler. 
 He bivouacked at his post of duty and absolutely only sought 
 relief and solace in increased opportunity. 
 
 He is the very incarnation of resoluteness and determina- 
 tion. It is because he saw events and their causes, strove to 
 obviate consequences, studied to ascertain contingencies, and
 
 84 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 because of caution and foresight, that he became distinguished 
 in this realm of action, reaching a point where he had no 
 superiors. 
 
 The Pacific Raihvays were the great constructive forces 
 in the development of the country west of the Missouri River, 
 and of these the Union Pacific Mas the pioneer and the first to 
 lead the march of civilization into the wilderness. It was not 
 conceived for private ends nor born of the spirit of commer- 
 cialism, but was created to preserve a republic and projected 
 by the impulse of improvement. It is the only railroad in the 
 United States that was constructed under Federal muskets 
 and protected by Federal troops, and of which it was said 
 by the Supreme Court of the United States that the people 
 of this country would have sanctioned the action of Congress 
 in its creation if it had departed from the traditional policy of 
 the country regarding work of internal improvement and 
 charged the Government itself with the direction and execution 
 of the enterprise. 
 
 Its construction began on the second day of December, 
 1863, on the west bank of the Missouri River in the City of 
 Omaha. May 10, 1869, on Promontory Point, Utah, with simple 
 but impressive ceremonies the last spike was driven, fastening 
 the connecting rail between the Central and Union Pacific 
 Railways, completing an iron highway between the two oceans 
 and consummating one of the greatest achivements of the age. 
 
 President Lincoln, fully appreciating the genius and in- 
 domitable will of General Dodge, immediately after the war 
 called him to the task of construction of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad. He turned his face, recently bathed in the smoke 
 of musketry, towards the "Wilderness," the "Rockies," and 
 the "Great American Desert," and he surveyed and super- 
 vised the construction of that road, then a "inilitary neces- 
 sity," now one of the great systems of railways which move 
 the commerce of the world. He had no maps or charts to 
 afford him information of the topography of the country. The 
 territory traversed was designated in text books as a wilder- 
 ness designated by nature to be the eternal habitation of the 
 savage and the buffalo.
 
 A TRIBUTE TO GENERAL DODGE 
 
 Limited by law to a maximum gradient of 116 feet to the 
 mile, not compensated for curvature, he held it down to ninety 
 feet to the mile. Pressed for time, Congress impatient, the 
 people demanding an early completion, he had to contend 
 with hostile Indians, inadequate funds, lack of transportation 
 facilities, high priced labor, and numerous other obstacles, but 
 in spite of all he pushed his line across the continent, consum- 
 mating a feat in railway engineering unequalled in the history 
 of American railway construction. 
 
 To emphasize this great achievement, I speak authorita- 
 tively, officially, and with full knowledge of the facts, when 
 I say that the present management of the Union Pacific, for 
 the express purpose of shortening the line between Council 
 Bluffs and Ogden, and bettering it, if that were possible, had 
 surveys and revisions made, and expended millions of dollars 
 in eliminating gradients, curvatures and tunneling mountains, 
 with no limit as to time or means, with full knowledge of 
 the topography of the country, with all modern appliances, 
 with the services of a corps of the ablest engineers, yet it only 
 succeeded in reducing the distance less than forty miles. And 
 this reduction in mileage was due largely, in fact almost en- 
 tirely, to changes in gradients and curvatures, which were 
 rendered impossible to General Dodge by reason of lack of 
 funds. 
 
 To General Dodge these were years tense with their stress 
 and strain, heavy with unremitting toil, thrilling in danger, 
 but he still pushed ever forward and onward with the con- 
 fidence of a conqueror. He was a man of judgment and com- 
 mon sense, who spared nothing and wanted everything. A man 
 who believed in action and knew the value of every moment of 
 time. . And above all, my friends, actuated by the impulse to 
 better his country, himself and his descendents, he toiled with 
 those who overcame this wilderness and converted this great 
 "American Desert" into a "Garden of Benefits." 
 
 And to you, remaining members of the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee, now in the twilight of life, I offer the sentiment which 
 pervaded the soul of the Cumaean Sibyl, when she presented 
 her books to Tarquinius Priseus, "As you grow fewer in num- 
 bers, YOU become dearer to our hearts."
 
 y. - 

 
 SPEECH OF G. M. DODGE IN CONGRESS, MARCH 25, 1868, 
 ON THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : As there appears to be some misapprehen- 
 sion as to the true status of the Union Pacific Railroad and its 
 branches, all I desire to do is to set forth the facts in relation 
 to that enterprise. I have no defense of the company to make. 
 I leave that to the country and this House ; but, sir, I believe 
 I know as well as any man can what that company has done 
 and what its intentions are. I will notice briefly a few points 
 of the gentleman from AVisconsin. I believe that he does not 
 desire to misrepresent that great enterprise, and I therefore, 
 desire to correct a few statements that bear directly upon the 
 subject before the House. The gentleman says Government 
 has given absolute control to parties managing the Union 
 Pacific Railroad. Does he not know that the Union Pacific 
 Railroad has to build its road under the supervision of three 
 Government Commissioners, who examine and criticise every 
 mile of road built before it is accepted by the Government, 
 and that they, under oath, certify the road is a first-class 
 American road before one dollar or one cent can be obtained 
 from Government ? And this is not all ; every act of the Board 
 of Directors and of the company is criticised and scrutinized 
 ])y five Government directors, appointed by the President, and 
 forming one-fourth of the Board of Directors. One of these 
 Government directors has a position on each one of the com- 
 mittees, and nothing can be done in or out of the board but 
 what they have full cognizance of. No other of the roads receiv- 
 ing Government aid has any such board or any such supervi- 
 vision, and these directors have full knowledge of the rates of 
 freight, the necessity for these rates, etc. 
 
 The gentleman says it is a work that over sixty millions 
 of the people's money is to be invested in, whereas the law 
 prohibits the loan of over fifty millions of credit or bonds 
 to the main line, and so far not a cent of the people's money 
 
 —87—
 
 88 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 has been put into the enterprise, the company having fully 
 paid their interest on bonds: and if the money saved to Gov- 
 ernment in the transportation of Government freight, mails, 
 troops, etc., should be made a sinking fund it would pay off 
 the entire debt or entire amount of bonds -within thirty years. 
 In another place he says: 
 
 ■'If we see fit to sacrifice posterity to this giant monopoly, 
 that they will have $100,000,000 of the people's money in their 
 hands; that they (the company) will defy any legislation." 
 
 Now, sir, I do not understand where the gentleman gets 
 ^ $50,000,000 on the main road under any circumstances. The 
 his $100,000,000. as I have shown the company can only obtain 
 amount reall}' granted to the (•omi)aiiy is as follows: 
 
 For 534 miles at $16,000 per mile $ 8,544.000 
 
 For 300 miles at $48,000 per mile, namely, 150 miles 
 of mountain work from Cheyenne west, and 150 
 miles of mountain work from near Sacramento 
 
 east, which equals 14,400.000 
 
 P^)r 898 miles crossing the main divide of the conti- 
 nent, the Wasatch, Promontory, Laone, Taone. 
 and Humboldt ranges of mountains, at $32,000 
 per mile, amounting to 28,736,000 
 
 Making a total amount of bonds for tlie main 
 
 through line of $51,680,000 
 
 If the company received pay on the full length of line that 
 they will have to build to complete the road from the Missouri 
 River to Sacramento: but as, under the law. they obtain only 
 $50,000,000 for 1,832 miles of road, counting the distance to 
 San Francisco, they get an average of a little over $27,000 
 per mile ; that the Government loans its credit for the purpose 
 of obtaining an all-rail communication from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific through a country, over mountains and plains, that 
 no private enterprise would for one moment invest one cent 
 without Government aid. If this road is to be the great thor- 
 oughfare that the gentleman says it will be, then the Govern- 
 ment freight that will alone go over it will more than pay 
 their interest on the loan.
 
 GENERAL DODGES SPEECH IN CONGRESS 89 
 
 And now. sir. the gentleman says Qovernment has fur- 
 nished ever}' dollar to complete this road — -in other words, that 
 not one cent of money has been put into the enterprise outside 
 of the Government — and I deny in toto the statement of the 
 gentleman. I say, up to the present time, that that company 
 has furnished and spent more money in building the road 
 than the Government has loaned ; and according to the gentle- 
 man 's statement they have only built as yet the easiest portion 
 of the road ; he says 500 miles of the built portion is a dead 
 level, and assumes the contract to commence at Omaha. This 
 is not the fact. It commences 247 miles west of Omaha ; there- 
 fore, all his assertions and assumptions fall to the ground, 
 being based upon false premises. When you compare the rates 
 of this road with other roads you will not see so vast a differ- 
 ence as is endeavored to be shown. 
 
 The Union Pacific Railroad charge about seven mills per 
 100 pounds of freight per mile. The Great Eastern routes, 
 competing for freight between the great cities of the East 
 and the great West, charge from two and a half to four mills 
 per 100 pounds per mile, they having all the advantages of 
 civilization, concentration, transportation, the cheapness of 
 material, fuel, repairs, etc. ; while the western roads — the 
 roads east of the Missouri River — charge four and five mills 
 on 100 pounds per mile. Many of the local southern railroads 
 charge four, five. six. and as high as seven mills per 100 
 pounds of freight per mile. As to passenger fare, the Union 
 Pacific Railroad' Company is now charging 10 cents per mile ; 
 the Northwestern Railroad Company 4 cents per mile ; the 
 Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company 3I/2 cents 
 per mile ; the Richmond, Danville and Piedmont Railroad 
 Company 6 cents per mile ; and these roads are all in a heavily 
 settled country, with heavy local business, while the Union 
 Pacific Railroad runs 500 miles into a wilderness, without com- 
 paratively any local business, nearly all their freight and travel 
 going but one way. 
 
 Now, sir, the past year coal for fuel has cost the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Company from $28 to $42 per ton, delivered 
 at places for use. It has had to be obtained in Illinois, Missouri 
 and Iowa, and has had to be transported from 500 to 1,000
 
 90 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 miles before the company could use it. Again, wood, at first 
 cost, has been $6 to $11 per cord, and when laid down at the 
 points for use averaged about $18 to $20 per cord. Labor and 
 living of all kinds on the Union Pacific Railroad and branches 
 are one-third more than on eastern roads. Material for repairs 
 of road, cars, running stock, building material, and all other 
 things pertaining to the keeping up and furnishing the road, 
 liave to be transported from the East. And the gentleman 
 asks this House to burden us with rates and fares that he 
 knows the road could not earn its running expenses under. 
 
 As soon as the road reaches the coal fields 100 miles west 
 of the track, then the companies propose to reduce the rates 
 and fare themselves ; they have already reduced them some- 
 what ; and so far as these railroad companies being a grinding 
 monopoly it is far from the facts in the case, and is not sub- 
 stantiated by any proofs whatever. The gentleman, it seems 
 to me, takes a very singular way to protect the Government. 
 He charges that the bonds will never be paid; that our rates 
 are equal to old rates by wagons and stage, and he comes in 
 here with a proposition that, if adopted, Avould prevent these 
 companies from earning sufficient money to even pay the in- 
 terest on their bonds. It is the first time that I ever saw the 
 mortgagee come in and endeavor to injure the value of the 
 property of the mortgagor, and if possible put the property 
 on which he holds a mortgage in a condition that they cannot 
 only pay the mortgage, but not even the interest on the mort- 
 gage. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, as to the rates as compared with for- 
 mer rates as paid by the Government for transportation of 
 its freight. The average price paid by the Government for 
 ]865, 1866 and 1867, inclusive, on Route No. 2, from Leaven- 
 Avorth Avest, was $1.57 per 100 pounds per 100 miles, or l^/o 
 cents per mile per 100 pounds, more than double the rates upon 
 the Union Pacific Railroad and branches ; and in the last year 
 the Government has saved by transporting its freight on the 
 Union Pacific Railroad, eastern division, OA'^er Avhat it would 
 have had to pay if transported by Avagon trains over an aver- 
 age transportation of only 104 miles of railroad, $335,138; 
 or, if that road had been built 300 miles west, it Avould have
 
 GENERAL DODGE'S SPEECH IN CONGRESS 91 
 
 saved by this "great monopoly." with its "exorbitant rates 
 and tariffs," over $1,000,000. And the statement made by the 
 Quartermaster-General of the rates of freight over the plains, 
 over Route No. 1, the Great Platte Valley route, for the last 
 six years, is as follows : 
 
 ' ' Quartermaster-General 's Office, 
 
 "Washington. D. C, March 24, 18B8. 
 
 •Hon. G. M. Dodge, M. C, 
 "Washington, D. C. 
 
 "Sir: In reply to your communication of the 20th in- 
 stant to this office requesting information as to the rates paid 
 for each year for the last five years and the total number of 
 pounds of stores transported and total cost for such transpor- 
 tation on Route No. 1 for 1866 and 1867, I have the honor to 
 .state that the rates of transportation per 100 pounds per 100 
 miles on Route No. 1 for the last five years, including the 
 contract rates for the present year, are as follows : 
 
 "1864. April, $2.25; May, $2.25 ; June, $2.25 : July, $2.25 ; 
 August, $2.25; September, $2.25. 
 
 "1865. April, $2.26; May, $2.26; June, $2.26 ; July, $2.26 ; 
 August, $2.26; September, $2.26. 
 
 "1866. April, $1.45; May, $1.45 ; June, $1.45 ; July, $1.45 ; 
 August, $1.45 ; September, $1.45. 
 
 "1867-68. April, $1.64; May, $1.64; June, $1.64; July, 
 $1.64; August. $1.64; September, $1.99; October, $1.99; No- 
 vember, $1.99; December, $1.99; January, $2.50; February, 
 $2.50; March, $2.50. 
 
 "1868-69. April, $1.90; May. $1.75; June, $1.60; July, 
 $1.60; August, $1.60; September, $1.75; October, $1.75; No- 
 vember. $1.90; December, $2.00; January, $2.50; February, 
 $2.50; March, $3.00. 
 
 "This office is unable at present to furnish the number of 
 pounds of stores transported over Route No. 1 for the years 
 1866 and 1867, and the cost of such transportation for that 
 time ; but the information desired on this point has been this 
 day called for from the chief quartermaster military division
 
 92 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 of the Missouri, which, as soon as received, will be forwarded 
 to you. Very respectfully, your obedient servant. 
 
 'D. H. RUCKER, 
 
 "Acting Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General United 
 States Army." 
 
 The average is $2 per 100 pounds per 100 miles, or 2 cents 
 per mile, being 1 cent and 3 mills above above the rates of 
 the Union Pacific Railroad. The Quartermaster-General is now 
 unable to give me the precise facts as to the saving in rates, 
 but we can figure for ourselves. The Government transporta- 
 tion over the road last year was about 20,000,000 pounds of 
 freight, and the Union Pacific Railroad transported it, on an 
 average, •400 miles ; showing a saving to the Government on 
 its freight alone, at the average price of the last six years, 
 of about $1,040,000. If we take the price that the contracts 
 are let for this year and apply it to the amount of freight that 
 will be transported over from five to 800 miles of line, the 
 saving will reach nearly $2,000,000 on the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road, and nearly $1,000,000 on the Union Pacific Railroad, 
 eastern division. 
 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, what are the facts in relation to 
 the Union Pacific Railroad? This road was projected some 
 fourteen years ago. The first examination as to its feasibility 
 was made by private enterprise and private capital, and a 
 connection with it, dating back to its first inception, renders 
 me able to state some of the difficulties under which it has 
 labored. The examination made by me thereon and reported 
 to the capitalists of the United States showed that at that 
 day or this it would be impossible to build that road upon 
 private capital and credit alone. The country demanding the 
 railroad, the Republican party, in its far-seeing and liberal 
 policy, seeing the necessity of this railroad, indorsed it, made 
 it a part of their platform, and breathed life into it by the 
 bill passed in 1862. But even then, with that law and that 
 grant, it was found impossible to raise the funds to push it 
 forward or even to build a mile of the road. The Congress 
 seeing this amended the Act in 1864, and after the passage of
 
 GENERAL DODGE'S SPEECH IN CONGRESS 93 
 
 that Act this great monopoly, this great swindle, could not 
 obtain the means for one year to start the work. 
 
 A few men took hold of the enterprise, threw their for- 
 tunes and their energies into it, and the capitalists of the 
 country looked upon it as so foolish an act on their part 
 that they were actually shunned as prospective bankrupts ; 
 their paper would not be taken except upon first class collateral 
 securities, and within one year the enterpi-ise came near fail- 
 ing for want of financial support. But the energy and deter- 
 mination displayed by that company; the unheard of ability 
 displayed in pushing forward the work ; the unexpected devel- 
 opment of that country that the enterprise caused, called the 
 attention of the world to it, and now, today, the men who 
 .would not one year ago have put a dollar into it are denounc- 
 ing it aS a great monopoly, and trying to cripple it by unjust 
 and unequal legislation. If it is a success, and any money is 
 made out of it, it will be simply and merely from the fact that 
 a few men had the nerve and the foresight to throw their all 
 into the scale, and ''sink or swim" with the enterprise. And, 
 Mr. Speaker, to reach the success they have today, no person 
 can, for one moment, know or see the obstructions, prejudice, 
 and obstacles those companies have had to meet and over- 
 come. The first 500 miles of road were built without an east- 
 ern connection ; they had to start hundreds of miles away 
 from any railroad connection, in a country entirely destitute 
 of the proper means or material for building a road ; paying 
 enormous prices for labor and material ; transporting the 
 superstructure and equipment by water at from 33 to 50 per 
 cent more than it would cost to build the same length of road 
 in a country affording railroad facilities. The iron laid down 
 cost $125 a ton, equipment and everything else pertaining to 
 the road that came from the East costing in the same propor- 
 tion. 
 
 The first year the company, under these circumstances, 
 built about forty miles, the next 260, and the next 250 miles, 
 but with a lavish expenditure of money that astonished the 
 world. Who, in 1864, could have been made to believe that 
 this company would have accomplished what it has? What 
 class of men except those who had this enterprise at heart
 
 94 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 would have paid 33 1-3 per cent more for building the road 
 merely for the purpose of obtaining distance when, if they 
 had carried out onlj^ the true letter of the law, they could 
 have saved that amount and put it in their pockets? Have 
 they had at interest themselves more than the country? I hold 
 not, for I know that their orders have been to give them the 
 most miles of road in the least possible time, no matter what 
 it cost. And in their contract they have provided $7,500 per 
 mile for the equipment of the road, a sum far beyond any ever 
 before provided for a new road under similar circumstances; 
 and when built and equipped this sum will give it the best 
 machinery, the best shops, and the most liberal supply of 
 rolling stock of any road in the country for the business it 
 has to transact. During the past two years the road has been 
 built through an Indian country with all the tribes "banded 
 together and hostile. Our best and ablest men have been 
 killed ; our cars and stations and ranches burned ; our men 
 driven off and our stock stolen. Graders and track-layers, 
 tie-men and station-builders, have had to sleep under guard, 
 and have gone to their work in the daytime with their picks 
 and shovels and their mechanical tools in one hand and the 
 rifle in the other, and they often had to drop one and use 
 the other. 
 
 It may not be known l)ut it is a fact that the graders went 
 to their work as soldiers, stacked their arms by the cuts and 
 worked all day. with hostile bands of Indians in view, ready 
 to pounce upon, kill and scalp any unlucky or negligent per- 
 son who gave them an opportunity. The company paid not 
 only the cost of the work proper, but contractors were often 
 paid large sums for the risks they run. It is an easy matter 
 today, after the enterprise has been made a success, and when 
 we can just begin to see the beginning of the end, when day- 
 light begins to open on the future out of these years of dark- 
 ness, for men to noAv come in and endeavor, for some reason. 
 I know not what, to hamper these roads, to pass laws that they 
 Rnow will make them spend the energies that it is their duty 
 to put on the road and which are necessary to complete it. 
 in trying to break down the barriers that this bill, if passed, 
 will make against those roads in the financial market. And
 
 GENERAL DODGE'S SPEECH IX CONGRESS 95 
 
 I doubt if the gentleman from Illinois or the gentleman from 
 Wisconsin, who appear to make this great republican national 
 work their special objective point, would, for all the money 
 in it, stand as I have had to do, at the risk of my life, and en- 
 deavor to keep men from abandoning the work ; would travel 
 as I have done to make the surveys and construct the road, 
 obliged to keep all the time within the range of a Government 
 musket, for to be outside of it was to lose your scalp. 
 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, while the Government has been 
 liberal to this great enterprise, I hold and can prove that 
 while the road has received this liberal credit, that it will 
 bring to the treasury millions in the saving of the extra ex- 
 penses in freight. That it must and will develop a country 
 whose wealth no one today can predict. The mountains those 
 roads cross are no myth, as the gentleman states, but were 
 formidable obstructions in its path, which have been over- 
 come by the skill and energy of the company. These mountains 
 are underlaid with gold, silver, iron, copper and coal. The 
 timber ranges that those roads pass will develop an immense 
 lumber trade, and the millions upon millions of acres of Gov- 
 ernment land that they will bring into the market and render 
 feasible for settlement will bring to the Government more 
 money than all the bonds amount to ; and this land and these 
 minerals never would have brought this Government one cent 
 if it were not for the building of these roads. The inaccessi- 
 bility and the trouble and cost of developing the country 
 through which they run would have cost ten times more under 
 any other circumstances than it yould have yielded. And now, 
 Mr. Speaker, these Union Pacific Railroads, when completed, 
 will build up an interest right in the center of that heretofore 
 great unknown country, an empire that shall add to our wealth, 
 population, capital and greatness, from a source we never ex- 
 pected, and by no other means could we ever obtain.
 
 9J 
 
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 . o
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY AND IN THE 
 CIVIL WAR— ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 WESTERN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINERS. 
 
 I have been requested to talk to you about the civil engi- 
 neers of my day. This is a subject of so much importance and 
 so niuch breadth that it is almost impossible to grasp it. The 
 work of the civil engineer in developing our country and in 
 the Civil War has never been comprehended or proper tribute 
 paid to it, and I can take it up only in small details. Perhaps 
 I can show it to you more clearly by stating what I saw of it 
 personally, and this will I)e better than trying to go into the 
 subject generally. 
 
 A young boy, 20 years old, 1 left Norwich University, 
 Vermont, a military college, as a civil and military engineer. 
 My military training was of as much or more benefit to me 
 generally, perhaps, in the work I had to undertake, than what 
 I had learned of engineering, for it taught me how to com- 
 mand men; it gave me discipline, a respect for authority, 
 obedience to order, loyalty to my country, and an interest 
 in the work of my employer, which would have been impos- 
 sible for me to have obtained in any other way. I came West 
 and took an axeman's place in an engineering party on the 
 Illinois Central Railroad. Mr. Blackstone was the division 
 engineer, with headquarters at La Salle, Illinois. I was assigned 
 to a party that was running a line from La Salle to Dixon. 
 As soon as I joined it I saw its chief was a lazy fellow. He 
 soon learned that I could run an instrument, and put me at 
 that work, he staying in the house pretending to Avork up 
 the data we obtained in the field. It was a cold Avinter. The 
 thermometer often below zero, and I thought I saw plainly 
 the line I was riTuning would not be acceptable and made up 
 my mind that as soon as we returned to La Salle to leave the 
 party and seek a position somewhere else, for I was satisfied 
 that Mr. Blackstone would discharge the entire" party. I fol- 
 
 —97—
 
 98 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 lowed this inclination. When I returned to La Salle and sub- 
 mitted our work I called upon Mr. Blackstone, asking him 
 for my pay, stating I was going to leave. He greeted me very 
 cordially and seemed astonished at my request. However, he 
 paid me and I immediately left. Years after this incident, 
 when I had become better acquainted with Mr. Blackstone, 
 he used to make a good deal of fun of me by stating he knew 
 I had run the line, that it was a good line, and that he in- 
 tended to give me the chief's place and put me at the head of 
 the party, thus showing that I was a little previous in my act, 
 and that I did not knoAv how good a line I had run. 
 
 When I came West I had in mind the Pacific Railroad, 
 and as an indication to you of my enthusiasm in that quarter, 
 I quote an extract that I wrote home from Peru. Illinois. Sep- 
 tember 12, 1851. It is as follows : 
 
 "I closed my last letter by saying that there was good 
 news. A telegraph despatch was received here that the Rock 
 Island road 200 miles long was to be built, that Sheffield and 
 Farnam of Connecticut had taken the contract. This will give 
 direct connection l)y the Rock Island road with Wisconsin, 
 Iowa and Oregon, for this is the true Pacific road and will 
 soon be built to Council Bluffs, where a road from St. Louis 
 will meet it. Then from Council Bluffs to San Francisco, this 
 being the shortest and most feasible route. In an eastern direc- 
 tion, this road connects with the Michigan Soiithern, which 
 is nearly completed to Chicago, and will give us through rail- 
 road connections with New York and Boston." 
 
 The Council Bluffs I mention Avas that named by Lewis 
 and Clark, the town now known by that name not having been 
 organized at that time. 
 
 I left the Illinois Central and went to the Rock Island as 
 axeman under Mr. Peter A. Dey, who was the division engi- 
 neer stationed at Tiskilwa, Illinois. I was with Mr. Dey about 
 eight months, and under his direction had made a survey of 
 the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad in Illinois. Mr. Dey 
 was promoted to chief engineer of the Mississippi & Missouri 
 Railroad and took me to Iowa as his principal assistant, plac- 
 ing me in charge of a party in the field, which was a very fine 
 promotion for the limited experience I had. and it is one of
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 99 
 
 the greatest satisfactions of my life to have had his friendship 
 from the time I entered his service until now. Mr. Dey is not 
 only a very distinguished citizen of Iowa, but is one of the 
 most prominent engineers of this country. He was known for 
 his great ability, his uprightness, and the square dealing he 
 gave everyone. He has greatly honored his state in the many 
 public positions he has held. He has a wide reputation as engi- 
 neer and railway constructor, and in later years as railway 
 commissioner of that state. 
 
 In May, 1853, we crossed the Mississippi River at Daven- 
 port and surveyed the first railroad line across Iowa. The 
 settlements in Iowa then were confined almost entirely to the 
 country between Davenport and Iowa City. From Iowa City 
 west to Des Moines there were very few people, and from 
 twelve miles west of Des Moines to Council Bluffs there were 
 none. On reaching the Missouri River my party was instructed 
 to push west into the great Platte Valley to determine where 
 a road running up that valley would strike the Missouri River. 
 That country then was occupied solely by Indians. There was 
 scarcely a man in my party who had seen an Indian. "We 
 crossed the river in a flat boat, and I commenced the surveys 
 west from where the city of Omaha now stands. After I had 
 raised the bluffs skirting the Missouri, I left the party in 
 charge of my assistant, Mr. J. E. House, and went on alone 
 some twenty-five miles to the Elkhorn Valley, looking up the 
 country ahead. On reaching the Elkhorn Vallej^ about noon, 
 I lariated my horse, took my rifle, hid it, and, making a pillow 
 of my saddle, lay down to take a rest. I had lost a good deal 
 of sleep and was very tired. How long I slept there I do not 
 know, but I was awakened by the noise of my pony. Jumping 
 up I saw an Indian leading him towards the Elkhorn River 
 as rapidly as he could. The pony was holding back, being 
 evidently very much frightened at the Indian; I was greatly 
 frightened, hardly knowing what to do, but I grabbed my 
 rifle and rushed after the pony and the Indian yelling at the 
 top of my voice. The Indian let go the horse and swam across 
 the Elkhorn out of my reach ; and I was very glad to see him 
 go. In 1865, during the Indian campaign I made upon the 
 plains, that Indian was an enlisted man in a battalion of
 
 100 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Pawnees. He told his eoniinander, Major North, that the reason 
 he gave up the horse was I made so much noise it frightened 
 him so it nearly scared him to death. 
 
 Eeturning to the party I found them camped on the Papil- 
 lion Creek, with the camp full of Indians and every man in 
 the party cooking or feeding them. I saw that radical action 
 had to be taken or the provisions I had would all be gone. 
 My party was thoroughly armed. I got them together imme- 
 diately and notified the Indians to get out. By my prompt 
 action they saw we meant business and left us. From that time 
 until I stopped my work on the plains I never allowed the 
 party to have Indians come into camp except by the party's 
 permission. 
 
 This is the kind of responsibility the young engineer in 
 that day had to undertake. He was away from anyone to 
 advise with or to lean upon. He was responsible for his party, 
 its life and safety were in his hands, and in the development 
 of this country the risks taken and the dangers faced have 
 never been told. 
 
 From this time until the Civil War we were engaged in 
 building the railroad to the capital of Iowa, Iowa City, and 
 in making reeonnoissance west of the Missouri River for a 
 Pacific railroad. It might seem strange to you that although 
 the Government spent millions of dollars in examining differ- 
 ent routes for the Pacific railway, covering the country be- 
 tween parallels of thirty-two and forty-nine, which reports of 
 examinations were printed in eleven large volumes, no exam- 
 ination was made by the Government upon the most feasible 
 route across the continent ; that was left to private enterprise. 
 Our exploration and reeonnoissance, up to 1860, had deter- 
 mined on the forty-second parallel of latitude, practically the 
 present line of the Union Pacific Railroad crossing the conti- 
 nent. The detailed surveys had not been made, but the buffalo, 
 the Indian, the fur trader, the telegraph, the pony express, the 
 stage line, and finally the engineer, determined that line and 
 the road, when built, followed it. 
 
 In 1861 the Civil War came. I went into the service with 
 six hundred other civil engineers, who were graduates of 
 Norwich Universitv. all of whom became commissioned officers,
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 101 
 
 many of them rising to the highest rank and to the highest 
 command. Their work as civil engineers during the war was 
 only second to that of their military duties as a soldier, and 
 for this work as civil engineers they have received no credit. 
 Also there were many enlisted men detailed as engineers ; 
 they mapped out the roads and the streams; they rebuilt the 
 railroads and they destroyed them; they made many of our 
 campaigns possible by their facilities in overcoming obstacles; 
 they built temporary bridges ; they showed great ingenuity in 
 throwing up temporary entrenchments even during the bat- 
 tles, and they constructed impregnable forts ; always brave, 
 never flinching a duty, and there is no commander of a brigade, 
 division or corps but who appreciated their great and valuable 
 service. 
 
 In 1862 I was assigned to the command of the Central 
 Division of the Mississippi, with orders to reconstruct the 
 railroad reaching from Columbus, Kentucky, to Corinth, Mis- 
 sissippi, for the purpose of bringing supplies to the army then 
 concentrated at Corinth. This line of road crossed many deep 
 bayous which had been spanned by truss bridges, all of which 
 had been destroyed by the enemy as they retreated, and as I 
 looked at the task before me and saw those deep bayous with 
 no foundations, and with no possible means of putting in 
 proper piers and abutments, or furnishing proper superstruc- 
 ture, it was a problem appalling to anyone. I had two Wis- 
 consin regiments in my command, one was commanded by 
 Colonel George E. Bryant, who had been a Norwich University 
 cadet and a civil engineer. He commanded a regiment that 
 was raised in the logging camps of Wisconsin. As soon as I 
 received this order, I ordered every engineer, civil or mechan- 
 ical, or anyone who had any experience in such work in the 
 command to report to me, and I was astonished to see the 
 number of enlisted men who reported. We held a consultation 
 as to how we should handle this problem, and decided to put 
 the twelfth Wisconsin into the woods with their axes, that 
 was about all the tools we had, to make crib piers for these 
 streams. It was easy work for us to handle the culverts and 
 it was astonishing how soon we rebuilt this railroad. The log 
 cribs were bolted together by dowel pins made from the iron
 
 102 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 rods of the house truss. We made stringers thirty and forty 
 feet long and sunk our piers to a foundation that would carry 
 our trains. Within two months we had rebuilt this road, and 
 had put up at each important bridge a blockhouse, so a small 
 force could hold it against almost any enemy, and in the cele- 
 brated raid of E^orrest up through that country where he 
 destroyed most of the bridges south of Jackson, Tennessee, 
 when he struck the blockhouses in our territory he was re- 
 pulsed at every point. This drew the attention of General 
 Grant to our work, and he immediately ordered block houses 
 built at every bridge on the railroads within his command. 
 
 The ingenuity of these young engineers in putting up 
 these bridges, block houses and stockades, in overcoming every 
 difficulty, and the interest they took in their work soon con- 
 vinced me that all it needed in our army for effective con- 
 struction or destruction of a railroad was proper organization 
 of the material in hand. The mechanics in the command put 
 the locomotives and cars on their feet and run them so that 
 virtually the young engineers and young mechanics in that 
 command recreated the road, and as long as my corps was 
 under General Grant's direction or that of General Sherman, 
 whenever there was any destruction or reconstruction of any 
 kind to be accomplished, it fell to us, until the pioneer corps 
 of the Sixteenth Armj' Corps had as good a reputation for 
 their mechanical work as they had for their fighting ability. 
 
 In the fall of 1863, when General Grant was ordered tt> 
 Chattanooga, my corps Avas lying at Corinth, when it received 
 orders to join Sherman in his march to the relief of Chatta- 
 nooga. Having a much longer distance to march than any of 
 the other commands, I Avas not able to reach Chattanooga in 
 time to take part in that battle, but when I reached Pulaski 
 on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, I received orders from 
 General Grant to halt and rebuild that line from Nashville 
 to Decatur, the entire line having been destroyed. There were 
 several truss bridges crossing Duck River, and also some very 
 high trestles, some of them being 125 feet high ; also the Ten- 
 nessee River had to bo crossed. General Grant was very anxi- 
 ous to have this road built rapidly in order to feed his army 
 at Chattanooga, whicli was in great distress, and Sherman
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 103 
 
 told me the quicker I built the road the sooner I would get 
 something for my command to eat, as we were entirely away 
 from any base of supplies, living off the country, and had been 
 doing so during the entire march. 
 
 The work of the young engineers in rebuilding this road 
 is a good deal better stated by General Grant in his Memoirs 
 than I can tell you, and I will read what he says : 
 
 "I gave an order to Sherman to halt General G. M. Dodge's 
 command, of about eight thousand men, at Athens, and sub- 
 sequently directed the latter to arrange his troops along the 
 railroad from Decatur north towards Nashville, and to rebuild 
 that road. The road from Nashville to Decatur passes over a 
 broken country, cut up with innumerable streams, many of 
 them of considerable width, and with valleys far below the 
 roadbed. All the bridges over these had been destroyed, and 
 the rails taken up and twisted by the enemy. All the cars 
 and locomotives not carried off had been destroyed as effectu- 
 ally as they knew how to destroy them. All of the bridges 
 and culverts had been destroyed between Nashville and Deca- 
 tur, and thence to Stevenson, where the Memphis and Charles- 
 ton and the Nashville and Chattanooga roads unite. The re- 
 building of this road would give us two roads as far as Stev- 
 enson over which to supply the army. From Bridgeport, a short 
 distance east, the river supplements the road. 
 
 "General Dodge was an experienced railroad builder. He 
 had no tools to work with except those of the pioneers — axes, 
 picks and spades. With these he was able to entrench his men 
 and protect them against surprises by small parties of the 
 enemy. As he had no base of supplies until the road could be 
 completed back to Nashville, the first matter to consider after 
 protecting his men was the getting in of food and forage from 
 the surrounding country. He had his men and teams bring 
 in all the grain they could find, or all they needed, and all the 
 cattle for beef, and such other food as could be found. Millers 
 were detailed from the ranks to run the mills along the line of 
 the army. When those were not near enough to the troops 
 for protection they were taken down and moved up in like 
 manner. Blacksmiths were detailed and set to work making 
 tools necessary in railroad and bridge building. Axeman were
 
 104 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 put to Avork getting out timber for bridges aud cutting fuel 
 for locomotives when the road should be completed. Car 
 builders were set to work repairing the locomotives and cars. 
 Thus every branch of railroad building, making tools to work 
 with, and supi)lying the workmen with food, was all going 
 on at once, and without the aid of a mechanic or laborer except 
 what the command itself furnished. 
 
 '"General Dodge had the work assigned him tinished within 
 forty days after receiving his orders. The number of bridges 
 rebuilt was one hundred and eighty-two, many of them over 
 deep, wide chasms; the length of road repaired was one hun- 
 dred and two miles." 
 
 In 1864, when it came to the Atlanta campaign, most of 
 tlio railroad work, bridging, etc-., was done by organized rail- 
 road men under General "Wright. My command was called 
 upon only two or three times in an emergency. 
 
 I remember when we had flanked the enemy out of the 
 Kenesaw Mountain line, where our extreme right rested on 
 the Chattahocha River some miles southwest of the railroad 
 crossing. General Sherman came to my headquarters and told 
 me he proposed to flank Atlanta by moving his army to the 
 left. We all supposed he was going by the right. He said 
 to me there was a place called Roswell Shoals on the Chatta- 
 hocha where he desired to cross a portion of his army. He 
 said the shoals were shallow and described them to me, asking 
 me how long it would take for my command to build a bridge 
 over that stream. He stated his engineers had told him it was 
 a big job. I looked the matter over and told him about a week. 
 He seemed astonished and left me, but in a very short time 
 I received orders from my commander. General McPherson, 
 to move with my corps as rapidly as possible to Roswell some 
 thirty-one iniles away, and that I would receive orders from 
 General Sherman. We moved and made a march of thirty-one 
 miles without stopping except for resting our men, and reached 
 there about Sunday noon. 
 
 When I arrived there I found that Roswell had several 
 large factories that had been supplying material to the enemy 
 and I saw if I had the timber in those factories I could soon
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 105 
 
 put up a bridge across the river. The enemy occupied the 
 opposite side, and one of the most inspiring sights I ever saw 
 in my life was when I ordered the celebrated Ohio brigade to 
 ford the river and take the opposite bank. The brigade formed 
 in column with regiment front ; the corps bands were brought 
 down to the river : the artillery was placed so as to cover 
 their crossing, and as the boys stepped into the river carrying 
 their cartridge boxes on their bayonets and, with cheers, started 
 to wade across the river, the bands played, the artillery opened 
 fire, and the enemy poured in their volleys. Occasionally a boy 
 or two would strike a hole and go under, but soon came up, 
 and when they got across they rushed for the cover of a cut 
 bank, so the enemy's fire Avould be less effective. There they 
 reformed, and charging, soon cleared the works. My pioneer 
 corps now Avas very effective. It was about 1,500 strong and 
 was organized into squads Avith a civil or mechanical engineer 
 at the head of every squad. Everyone knew exactly what his 
 duty was, just where and how to go to work, and all I had to 
 do was to give the order. I immediately gave the order to pull 
 down the cotton factories, and on Monday morning you could 
 stand on the bank and see that bridge walk up, so that Wednes- 
 day at noon, in three days, I notified General Sherman that it 
 was ready for crossing. He was astonished and sent a proper 
 tribute to the young engineers for their quick Avork. My offi- 
 cial despatch to him read as f oIIoavs : 
 
 "A footbridge 710 feet long was thrown across the river 
 and from Monday noon. July 10. until AVednesday night, July 
 12, a good substantial, double track, trestle road bridge, 710 
 feet long and fourteen feet high, Avas built by the pioneer corps 
 from the command." 
 
 The cotton factories that I had torn doAvu Avere claimed 
 by a Frenchman to belong to him, he had a French flag flying 
 over his residence, but not over the factories. On Monday 
 after we had torn doAvn a portion of one of the factories, my 
 Judge Advocate came to me and told me he thought I might 
 be getting into trouble : that this Frenchman was entering a 
 protest. I had gone too far to stop taking doAvn the factories, 
 but I thought it probably better to protect myself, and com-
 
 106 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 munic-atecl with General Sherman, who Avrote me a letter dated 
 July 11, as follows: 
 
 "Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi. 
 "In the Field Near Chattanooga Eiver, July 11, 1864. 
 "General Dodge, 
 
 "Roswell, Ga. 
 "I know you have a big job, but that is nothing new for 
 you. Tell General Newton that his corps is now up near Gen- 
 eral Sehofield's crossing, and all is quiet thereabouts. He might 
 send down and move his camps to proximity of his corps, but 
 I think Roswell and Shallow Ford so important that I prefer 
 him to be near you until you are Avell fortified. If he needs 
 rations tell him to get his wagons up, and I think you will be 
 able to spare him day after tomorrow. I know the bridge at 
 Roswell is important, and you may destroy all Georgia to 
 make it good and strong. 
 
 "W. T. SHERMAN, 
 "Major-General Commanding." 
 
 You notice that General Sherman was very diplomatic. He 
 says nothing in relation to international law or the French flag, 
 but tells me I may destroy all Georgia to accomplish what I had 
 to do. Of course, I read between the lines, and went on build- 
 ing the bridge. 
 
 Sherman commenced crossing his army over this bridge 
 on Wednesday afternoon and made his celebrated flank move- 
 ment on Atlanta where the great battles of the 19th, 22d and 
 28th of July were fought and Atlanta finally occupied. 
 
 Sherman was always profuse in his praise of the young 
 engineers of the army that Avere continually at work gathering 
 up information for us. I had a very efficient corps for that 
 work under me and Sherman wrote me, thanking me for what 
 I had been sending him, saying he would store it up for future 
 use. This information concerning the streams, the villages and 
 roads was compiled at his headquarters, printed on cloth, and a 
 copy sent to each corps or division commander and was of great 
 service to us. There Avas one young man detailed to me, who 
 afterwards became a ver}'^ noted engineer, Marshall F. Hurd, 
 who enlisted from Muscatine, Iowa, in the Second Iowa In-
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 107 
 
 fantry. I soon discovered that he was a genius and of great 
 ability as an engineer, of excellent practical judgment and 
 very brave. We all tried to get him promoted and a commis- 
 sion given him so he could command officers and men, but we 
 never could accomplish it. However, he virtually got to the 
 head of the pioneer corps of the Sixteenth Army Corps, and 
 the boys all dubbed him a major; and he was known all 
 through the war as Major Hurd, not only by the men of my 
 corps but by the other corps. He would take his pioneer corps 
 out to build entrenchments, ; he never allowed them to run 
 when the skirmish line of the enemy made an attack, which 
 was often, but they would lay down their implements where 
 they were, take their rifles, and fight it out themselves. He 
 was very resourceful in an emergency. After the war he was 
 connected with us on the Union Pacific and was at the head 
 of some of the surveys both on the Union Pacific and the 
 Southern Pacific, fought battles with the Indians, and when 
 the Canadian Pacific was built he was sent for and went to 
 that Avork, running some of the important lines over the moun- 
 tain division. He was the most modest, retiring, unassuming 
 man I ever met. He now lies buried in the cemetery at Denver 
 with a monument raised to his memory and upon it a proper 
 tribute to his great work. I mention him only as one among 
 hundreds of enlisted men who performed such duties. 
 
 In May, 1865, I returned to the Union Pacific Eailway. 
 Mr. Dey having resigned as chief engineer, I Avas appointed 
 to that office. General Sherman in giving me leave of absence 
 to go there and take up this work said in his letter: "As soon 
 as General Pope reaches Leavenworth or St. Louis to relieve 
 you, I consent for you to go to Omaha and begin what I trust 
 will be the real beginning of the great road." 
 
 Almost the first despatch when I reached Omaha was one 
 from the commander at Fort Collins, Colorado, he had been 
 with me during my command of that country, telling me that 
 a young man by the name of Eddy had brought in an engi- 
 neering corps which had a fight with the Indians and the chief 
 of the party had been killed. I instructed him to have the 
 corps meet me on Lodge Pole Creek, as I was just starting west 
 over the line. I found that Eddy was a young soldier enlisted
 
 108 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 iu the Thirteenth Illinois Infantry, and had served under me 
 in the war. In this fight, after the chief had been killed, he 
 rallied the rest of his party and brought it in safety to the 
 military post. 
 
 He stayed with me during the construction of the Union 
 Pacific and also the Texas Pacific ; probably many of you know 
 him, as at one time he was general manager of the Southwest- 
 ern System ; he died in the service. I speak of hini only as an 
 example of what the engineers, during 1866, 1867, 1868 and 
 1869 had to face. The line was covered by engineers from the 
 Missouri River to the California State line, and every party 
 was thoroughly armed and had escorts, but many of our best 
 men were killed. 
 
 One of the great problems that confronted our early sur- 
 veys was the crossing of the Black Hills, a spur of the Rocky 
 Mountains. There was no trouble in obtaining a line from the 
 summit of the range and descending to the west into Laramie 
 Plains, but the country on the east dropped off so rapidly, 
 there was no stream nor any divide Ave could find that was 
 practicable for a 116-foot grade; the engineers had examined 
 nearly every stream and every divide. The divides from the 
 summit for a long distance down were favorable, but where 
 the division of the granite and sedimentary formations joined 
 there would be a drop of 500 feet in 1,000, and we could not 
 find supporting ground to hold our grade to overcome this 
 great fall. 
 
 In 1865, as I was returning from the Yellowstone country, 
 after finishing the Indian campaigns, I took my command 
 along the east base of the Black Hills, following up the Chug 
 Water, and so on south, leaving my train every day and going 
 on to the summit of the Black Hills with a view of trying to 
 discover some approach from the east that was feasible. When 
 we got down to the crossing of the Lodge Pole, I knew the 
 Indians were following us, but I left the command with a few 
 cavalrymen and guides, with a view of following the country 
 from the Cheyenne Pass south, leaving strict orders with the 
 command if they saw smoke signals thoy were to come to us 
 immediately. AVe worked south from the Cheyenne Pass and 
 around the liead of Crow Creek when I looked down into the
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 109 
 
 valley there was a band of Indians who had worked them- 
 selves in between our party and the trains. I knew it meant 
 trouble for us ; they were either after us or our stock. I, there- 
 fore, immediately dismounted, and giving our horses to a 
 couple of men with instructions to keep on the west side of 
 the ridge out of sight and gun shot as much as possible, we 
 took the ridge between Crow Creek and Lone Tree Ci'eek, 
 keeping upon it and holding the Indians awaj^ from us as our 
 arms were so far-reaching that when they came too near our 
 best shots would reach them and they soon saw their danger. 
 
 We made signals for our cavalry, but they did not seem 
 to see them. It was getting along in the afternoon as we 
 worked down this ridge, that I began to discover we were 
 on an apparently very fine approach to the Black Hills, and 
 one of the guides has stated that I said : "If we saved our 
 scalps I believed we had found a railroad line over the moun- 
 tains." About 4 o'clock, the Indians were preparing to take 
 the ridge in our front, the cavalry now saw our signals and 
 soon came to our rescue, and when we reached the valley I 
 was satisfied that the ridge we had followed Avas one which 
 we could climb with a maximum grade within our charter and 
 with comparatively light work. 
 
 As soon as I took charge of the Union Pacific, I imme- 
 diately wired to Mr. James A. Evans, who had charge of that 
 division, and who had been working on this mountain range 
 for nearly a year, describing this ridge to him, as I had thor- 
 oughly marked it by a lone tree on Lone Tree Creek, and by 
 a very steep cut Butte on Crow Creek, and a deep depression 
 in the ridge where the granite and sedimentary formations 
 joined. He immediately made an examination and discovered 
 a remarkably direct line of only a ninety-foot grade reaching 
 from the summit to the valley of Crow Creek, near Avhere 
 Cheyenne noAv stands, and this summit I immediately named 
 for my old commander. General Sherman. The Union Pacific 
 is constructed over this line and it is one of the two eighty- 
 foot grades now left on the Union Pacific that they were unable 
 to reduce during the reconstruction of the road. 
 
 In building the Union Pacific line it was our endeavor 
 to pass through the town of Denver, which, at that time, was
 
 no HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 the center of the mining interest of Colorado. We therefore 
 placed in the mountains a party under Mr. P. T. Brown, a 
 very promising young engineer, who spent part of the summer 
 and most of the fall endeavoring to force his way through 
 the mountains and find a line through the middle park, and 
 so on west to Salt Lake. The snow in the mountains was so 
 deep that even in September parties were driven out of the 
 high altitudes. Not receiving very satisfactory reports from 
 this party I joined it in November with a view of endeavoring 
 to cross the mountains at the head of Boulder Creek, at what 
 is now the Hog Back, and near where the Moffat Railroad 
 crosses the mountains. We were on this mountain November 7 
 in a terrific snow storm; one of the worst I ever saw and one 
 we could not make the mules face. I saw to save the party I 
 would have to abandon my pack train and get into the valley 
 below. We therefore unpacked our mules, cached the packs, 
 and let the mules go. They drifted with the storm. After a 
 day and night's hard struggle Avith the party we got down 
 into Boulder Valley about midnight and into a stamp mill that 
 was being built there bj^ General Fitz John Porter, and though 
 we saved the party we did not feel very comfortable from the 
 fact that we had left oiir provisions and lost our mules, and 
 not knowing that we should ever see them again. It is a 
 singular circumstance that on this day I was elected to Con- 
 gress from the Missouri River District in Iowa, but had for- 
 gotten all about the election until several days after. Henry 
 M. Teller, who Avas then a young lawyer in Central City, and 
 our attorney, sent me several telegrams notifying me that I 
 had been elected to Congress by the largest majority ever 
 given in the district. The mules drifted west into the middle 
 park and around Hot Springs and there wintered very well. 
 In the spring we received notice that they were there and 
 arranged to have them brought in to us ; they seemed to be 
 in good condition and they had lived in that high altitude 
 without food, except what they could get from browsing and 
 the buffalo grass they could graze from under the snow. 
 
 In submitting the reports of my chiefs of parties for the 
 year 1866, I said : 
 
 "I desire to call tlie attention of the company especially
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 111 
 
 to the energy and perseverance with which all of them have 
 performed their duty. Often threatened by Indian attacks, 
 sometimes without escort, and obliged to examine the country 
 alone, a portion of the time during the winter, they all have 
 had narrow escapes, have had stock stolen, camps attacked, 
 and have been caught in heavy snow storms, in extreme cold, 
 without fires : but, as yet, we have not lost any lives, nor any 
 stock of great value. In a country, uninhabited, 100 to 1,000 
 miles away from any aid, and thrown upon their own re- 
 sources, their positions have not been sinecures or their respon- 
 sibilities light. 1 have never given an order, no matter how 
 difficult to perform, or what the obstacle to overcome, but 
 they have all obeyed it with that energj^ and personal interest 
 that only under such circumstances can bring success. The 
 young men composing the parties are, as a general thing, far 
 above the average, many of them of fine education, and who 
 not only perform the duty well, but intelligently. To Messrs. 
 Evans, Bates and House, division engineers, and Messrs. Hills, 
 Brown, Hodges and O'Neil, assistant engineers, who have had 
 charge of parties. I am under special obligations ; also to Mr. 
 Van Lennep. the geologist. They are all to take the field for 
 1867." 
 
 In Jul.y. 1867, Mr. Percy T. Brown, whose division ex- 
 tended from the North Platte to Green River, was running a 
 line across the Laramie Plains. His party was camped on 
 Rock Creek where they were attacked by the Sioux. Brown 
 Avas out on the line Avitli most of the party, but those in camp 
 were able to hold the Indians off, but a small party out after 
 wood, under a promising young fellow named Clark, a nephew 
 of Thurlow Weed, of New York, was killed with one of his 
 escort, and several of the escort were wounded. 
 
 The Indians on the plains were this year very aggressive, 
 and were not satisfied with stealing. Brown, on reaching the 
 divide of the continent, found it an open prairie, extending 
 some 150 miles northeast and southwest and seventy miles 
 east and west. The Rocky Mountains had from an elevation 
 of 13,000 feet dropped down to one of 7,000 feet into an open 
 plain, and the divide of the continent is really a great basin 
 so7ne 500 feet lower than the general level of the country.
 
 112 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Brown, in reconnoiteriug the country, expecting to find 
 a stream leading into the waters of the Pacific, dropped into 
 this basin, and, in exploring it near its southern rim, he struck 
 300 Sioux Indians who were on the war path. He had with 
 him eight men of his escort, and he immediately took posses- 
 sion of an elevation in the basin, and there, from 12 o'clock 
 until nearly dark, fought off those Indians. 
 
 Just before dark, a shot from one of the Indians hit Brown 
 in the abdomen. He begged the men to leave him and save 
 themselves, but the soldiers refused to do so. They had to give 
 up their horses, and as soon as the Indians obtained them they 
 fled, and those eight soldiers made a litter of their carbines, 
 and through the tall sage brush for fifteen miles, that night, 
 they packed Brown to La Clede Stage Station, thinking to 
 save him, but he died soon after reaching the station. 
 
 In my examination of the surveys across the plains during 
 1867, I had with me General John A. Rawlins, General Grant's 
 chief of staff. General Rawlin's health was poor; he was 
 threatened with consumption, of which he afterwards died. 
 General Grant wrote me, suggesting that in some one of ray 
 trips I take him with me so as to give him the benefit of the 
 high, dry air, which it was a great pleasure to me to do. He 
 came to me with his aide, Major Dunn, Mr. Rogers and Mr. 
 John E. Corwith of Galena, and I had Mr. John R. Duff, the 
 son of a director of the company, and David Van Lennep, my 
 geologist. We had as escort two companies of cavalry, under 
 Colonel Misner, and a company of infantry to guard the trains. 
 
 The Indians were very aggressive during the summer of 
 1867. AVe were progressing remarkably Avell with the work 
 when the combined attacks of the Indians along our whole 
 line, not only on our surveying parties far west, but on our 
 graders, killing our men and stealing our stock, for a time 
 virtually blocked up our work. I was pushing west with this 
 party to overcome these detentions and reached the Red Des- 
 ert. We were then in an unknown country, where we expteced 
 to find the divide of the continent. We found the basin that 
 Brown had discovered, and, while I Avas preparing to cross 
 this basin, I discovered one of my parties, under Mr. Bates, 
 who Avas running a line from Green River east across the desert.
 
 y. -
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 113 
 
 They had been three days without water, and had abandoned 
 the wagons, and were running, by compass, due east as fast 
 as they possiblj^ could in the hope of striking a stream. "We dis- 
 covered them several miles west of us when we reached the 
 rim of the basin, and we first thought they were Indians, but 
 upon watching them closely I discovered they were white men 
 and saw they Avere in trouble. We made rapidly towards them 
 and found them in a deplorable condition; men nearly ex- 
 hausted, tongues swollen, and so weakened physically that they 
 could not make much headway. Our opportune finding of 
 them saved some of their lives. 
 
 Upon our return trip, after reaching Salt Lake, we fol- 
 lowed the Bear River up to its northern' bend and on to the 
 Snake River by the Blacksmith Fork to what is known as 
 Gray's Lake and undertook to cross the mountains from there 
 directl^y eastward to the South Pass. The country was very 
 rough. The Government at one time had endeavored to make 
 a short cut from the South Pass to the Snake River by what 
 is known as Lander's Cut-off. 
 
 When I reached the west base of the mountains I saw we 
 were going to have trouble in getting our trains over. General 
 Rawlins had become quite fatigued in the journey, and I was 
 in the habit of taking him and going ahead of the party, fixing 
 our camp where he would be comfortable for the day, and then 
 bringing up the rest of our party, escort and trains. 
 
 This day I Avent nearly to the top of the first range, and 
 when we raked away the snow to pitch our tents we found the 
 ground thick with the mountain strawberry. AVe had seen a 
 good many grizzly bears near Gray's Lake, driven from the 
 mountains by the fires, and I left positive instructions for no 
 one to go out and follow a grizzly or attempt to shoot one. 
 
 The mountains were so steep and rough I went back to 
 bring up the trains which had to be hauled up the mountains 
 with doubling up our mules and putting the infantry on pro- 
 longs ahead of them. About four in the afternoon, after we 
 had gotten the trains over the roughest of the ground. I re- 
 turned to camp and found Rawlins and Dunn away. I asked 
 the cook where they Avere, and he said he thought they had 
 gone out to folloAv a grizzly that had passed by the camp a short
 
 114 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 time before. I had with me one of our best guides, Sol Gee. 
 Knowing that if they found the bear and shot it there would, 
 in all probability, be trouble, I took Gee and we followed their 
 trail as rapidly as possible. It was but a short time until we 
 heard two shots and in a few minutes afterwards we saw 
 Rawlins and Dunn coming towards us with the greatest speed. 
 I knew then they had shot at the bear and had wounded him 
 and he was following them. I said to Sol Gee, who was a sure 
 shot, that I would drop below the trail and attract the atten- 
 tion of the bear as he passed, and if I fired and missed he must 
 be sure in his shot or the bear would get me. 
 
 As Rawlins and Dunn came up I saw the bear was close 
 to them, and I drew the bear's attention, and he turned to- 
 wards me, giving me a very good shot, but I hit him a little too 
 far back, but did not stop him and he made for me. Gee waited 
 until he got him face to face and then shot and hit him between 
 the eyes, and dropped him. He was one of the largest grizzlies 
 I ever saw. We gave the hide and claAvs to Rawlins and his 
 friends. 
 
 General Rawlins, who was a great stickler in the army 
 for obeying orders and who was sometimes very strong in his 
 language, turned to me and, in his most emphatic language, 
 said we ought to have let the bear get them for their disobeying 
 my orders, but that he was not to blame. It Avas ]Major Dunn, 
 who was crazy to kill a grizzly, and he was fool enough to 
 let him try it. 
 
 AVhen we reached the South Pass there had been gold 
 discovered just north in what was known as the Miner's De- 
 light mines. The arrival of such a party with so distinguished 
 a person as General Rawlins drew immediate attention to us 
 and we were given a lunch and a great deal of consideration. 
 Our guide, Sol Gee, when he got to the towns was apt to drink 
 too much, and when we left after our lunch in the afternoon 
 I could not find him, and I sent IMajor Dunn to hunt him up. 
 I told Dunn under no circumstances to let us get more than 
 two miles away before he joined us, because I knew the Indians 
 were in the valley of the Sweetwater and had been doing con- 
 siderable depredation. We moved on and I thought no more 
 al)ont Dunn or Gee until we had gone eieht or ten miles when
 
 'mk'
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 115 
 
 I discovered they were not with us. It -was nearly night and 
 we went into camp. I had discovered fresh Indian signs and 
 I knew they were watching us and it made me very anxious 
 for the safety of Dunn and Gee. I took half a dozen of the 
 best mounted cavalry with me and went back supposing they 
 were still at the miner's camp. 
 
 I had not gone more than three or four miles when shots 
 came tiying at us from the boulders in the road ahead. I 
 thought it was Indians and told Guide Adams, who was with 
 me, to seek cover and try to communicate with them. When 
 he called, Gee answered, and when we rode up to them we 
 found Dunn and Gee behind the rocks, thinking that we were 
 Indians. Gee had told Dunn when he heard us coming that 
 their only salvation was to get to cover and fire at us, and that 
 in the night it would probably scare the Indians away. 
 
 I asked Dunn why he had not obeyed my orders. He said 
 that when he found Gee he was not able to travel, and, of 
 course, like a good soldier, he could not leave him. After he 
 got Gee sobered up they waited until dark, hoping they could 
 make camp without being discovered by the Indians. 
 
 As we moved down the Valley of the Sweetwater we met 
 one or two of the mountain men, who informed us that there 
 was a band of Sioux in the Seminoe Gap near the mouth of 
 the Sweetwater. I knew these were the Indians that had been 
 doing the mischief all the summer and I was anxious to catch 
 and punish them. Therefore I arranged for our cavalry to 
 go around the Seminoe Mountains and cut them off or attack 
 them as we drove them through the gap towards the south. 
 I was certain they had not discovered us and we moved the 
 next morning very early, but the cavalry failed to make con- 
 nections. The Indian scouts saw us and got word to the 
 Indian camp and they got away to our great disappointment. 
 
 After we got through the gap going south we discovered 
 a small band of buffalo and General Rawlins was very anxious 
 to kill some of them, so I took him and about a dozen of the 
 best mounted cavalry and the guides and moved in towards 
 the North Platte so as to get to the leeward of the buffalo and 
 also have them between us and the train. I left strict orders 
 with the train if they saw any smoke signs for the troops to
 
 116 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 immediately come to us. I Avas suspicious by the action of the 
 buffalo that there might be Indians hunting them. We had 
 passed along about five miles and gotten well to the leeward 
 of the buffalo without their discovering us, when all of a 
 sudden I saw a band of Indians hidden on a small stream 
 watching us. I knew that meant trouble, and I immediately 
 prepared for them and made a sign by setting a fire on the 
 ridge for our cavalry to come to us. The Indians, seeing this, 
 thought I was trapping them instead of their trapping me, 
 and after following us for a time got out, and we not only lost 
 the buffalo, but the Indians also. 
 
 In the winter of 1867-68 the end of our track was at 
 Cheyenne. During that winter there had assembled there a 
 very large number of people, possibly it was the greatest 
 gambling place ever established on the plains, and it was full 
 of desperate characters. The town of Cheyenne we had 
 claimed, laid out, and leased the lots to the occupants, and 
 organized the local government. There was then no title to be 
 obtained to the town, but* we treated this as all the towns, 
 claiming it for the company, laying it out into town lots and 
 not allowing anyone to locate there without taking an agree- 
 ment from us allowing them to occupy it and agreeing to deed 
 it to them when we got a title. 
 
 There had been established there, by the Government, Fort 
 D. A. Russell, some two or three miles north of the railroad 
 track, and there was in command. General J. D. Stevenson, 
 who had served with me during the Civil War. In my absence 
 these desperate characters got together, held a meeting and 
 jumped the town, refusing to recognize the authorities we 
 had put over the town or in any way to comply with our 
 orders. They had commenced robbing our trainmen and com- 
 mitting other depredations that I knew we must stop or lose 
 all control of the railroad forces at the end of the track. I im- 
 mediately wired General Stevenson, calling his attention to the 
 condition of affairs and asking him to use his troops to bring 
 about order and a recognition of our authority, and while he 
 had no legal right in the matter he turned out his troops as 
 skirmishers and drove every citizen in the town to a mile or so 
 south of the track and then held a parley with them. He told
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 117 
 
 them that until they were ready to comply with the orders and 
 recognize the authority of the railroad company they should 
 not go back to their property ; that really the land belonged 
 to the United States and the railway was occupying it under 
 the Government's charter. This brought them immediately 
 to terms and they immediately made peace, and were allowed 
 to come back to town and we afterwards had no trouble with 
 them. I recite this only as showing the great aid the Govern- 
 ment always gave us in building the road. 
 
 In the year of 18G8 there was a great competition between 
 the Union Pacific building west and the Southern Pacific build- 
 ing east. The Union Pacific desired to at least reach Humboldt 
 Wells and the Central Pacific's great desire was to reach 
 Ogden. The Union Pacific continued its work over the Wasatch 
 Mountains throughout the winter, which was a very cold and 
 snowy one, and it cost us as much to blast the earth as it did 
 the rock, we paying as high for earth work as $3 a cubic yard. 
 
 We laid the track over the Wasatch Range in the dead 
 of winter on top of snow and ice, and I have seen a whole train 
 of cars, track and all slide off the bank and into the ditch as 
 a result of a thaw and the ice that covered the banks. We 
 built almost as rapidly through the winter as we did during 
 the summer, notwithstanding the short cold days and long 
 nights, but it was at an immense cost. We estimated that the 
 work during that winter made an extra cost to the road of 
 at least $10,000,000. 
 
 The success of the engineers in the surveying and con- 
 structing of this road was due mostly to their natural courage 
 and ability. One of the instructions given a party when put 
 into the field was, that the chief of the party must absolutely 
 command it, and at all times be ready to fight. Another was 
 the importance of never slacking their vigilance no matter 
 where they were, never being off their guard, and all those who 
 obeyed these orders generally took their parties through. Those 
 W'ho did not were soon relieved in the field or were killed by an 
 attack of Indians. Then again, these engineers were all men of 
 ability, every one of them, as far as I know, has risen to distinc- 
 tion either in his own profession or in some line of business. I 
 know of only two of the chiefs of parties who are still living.
 
 118 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 One, p. S. Hodges, is a bachelor in Boston, who occasionally 
 goes out to Salt Lake City and gathers together some of his old 
 party, giving them a taste of their old experience by putting 
 them back into camp again with a camp dinner, and ending 
 with a great banquet at some prominent hotel. One of his party, 
 Mr. James R. Maxwell, first undertook to locate the line across 
 Salt Lake where the road is now built. When I sent him out I 
 gave him Captain Stanbury's soundings. The Mormons built 
 him a boat, he put his party into it and while he was making the 
 sounding of the lake, a terrific gale came up that swamped his 
 boat and came very near drowning him and his party, and he 
 reported to me that the lake was fourteen feet higher than 
 when Stanbury sounded it in 1849, and it is a singular fact that 
 it was then at its highest known level, for from 1870 until 1900 
 it continually fell, and when the Union Pacific built the line 
 across the lake it was eleven feet lower than when the original 
 survey was made. The depth of the lake, the weight of the 
 water, and the cost of building was beyond us, and we were 
 forced north of the lake and had to put in the high grades 
 crossing Promontory Ridge. 
 
 The other is Mr. James R. Maxwell, living now in Newark, 
 Delaware. He distinguished himself especially in the building 
 of the Central Railroad in Peru, crossing the mountains at an 
 elevation of 15,666 feet above the sea, the highest railroad in 
 the world. It is of standard gauge. Mr. Maxwell is still able 
 to handle any engineering problem presented to him. 
 
 The organization for the construction of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad was upon a military basis, nearly every man upon 
 it had been in the Civil AVar; the heads of most of the engi- 
 neering parties and all chiefs of the construction forces were 
 officers in the Civil AYar; the chief of the track laying force, 
 General Casement, had been a distinguished division com- 
 mander in the Civil War, and at any moment I could call into 
 the field a thousand men, well officered, ready to meet any 
 crisis or any emergency. There was no law in the country, and 
 no court. We laid out the towns, officered them, kept peace, 
 and everything went on smoothly and in harmony. Two or 
 three times at the end of our tracks a rough crowd would
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 119 
 
 gather and dispute our authoritj^ but they were soon dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 I remember one incident when I was west near Salt Lake 
 receiving a despatch that a crowd of gamblers had taken our 
 terminal point at Julesburg and refused to obey the local 
 officers we had appointed over it. I wired General Casement 
 to take back his track force, clean the place up and sustain 
 the officers. When I returned to Julesburg, I asked General 
 Casement Avhat he had done. He replied, "I will show you." 
 He took meup to a little rise just beyond Julesburg and showed 
 me a small graveyard, saying, "General, they all died in their 
 boots, but brought peace." 
 
 The work of the engineers on the Union Pacific was a 
 very masterful one. In the beginning they had no reliable 
 maps nor any knowledge of the country, and they explored 
 it until they obtained a line across the country over which one 
 locomotive, then as well as now, could haul as many cars over 
 the line as two engines on any other of the trans-continental 
 lines. They worked summer and winter, rain or shine. My 
 yearly report upon the completion of the road describes better 
 perhaps than I can now what they accomplished, and is as 
 follows : 
 
 "They occupied the country extending from the Missouri 
 River to the California State line, and covering a width of 200 
 miles, north and south, and on the general direction of the 
 forty-second parallel of latitude, some 15,000 miles of instru- 
 mental lines have been run, and over 25,000 miles of recon- 
 uoissances made. 
 
 "In 1863 and 1864, preliminary surveys were inaugurated, 
 but in 1866 the country was systematically occupied ; and day 
 and night, summer and winter the explorations were pushed 
 forward through dangers and hardships that very few, at this 
 day, appreciate, as every mile had to be run within range of 
 the musket, as there was not a moment's security. In making 
 surveys, numbers of our men, some of them the ablest and 
 most promising, were killed ; and during the construction our 
 .stock was run off by the hundred, I might say, by the thou- 
 sand; and as one difficulty after another arose and was over-
 
 120 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 come, in the engineering, running and construction depart- 
 ments, a new era in railroad building was inaugurated. 
 
 "Each day taught us lessons by which we profited for the 
 next, and our advances and improvements in the art of railway 
 construction were marked by the progress of the work, forty 
 miles of track having been laid in 1865. 240 in 1867. and 260 in 
 1868. including the ascent to the summit of the Rocky ]\Ioun- 
 tains. at an elevation of 8,235 feet above the ocean ; and dur- 
 ing 1868 and to May 10, 1869, 555 miles, all exclusive of side 
 and temporary tracks, of wliicli over 180 miles wore built in 
 addition." 
 
 At Promontory Point, north of Salt Lake. I'tah, on ^lay 
 10, 1869, gathered there from the Atlantic and the Pacific, the 
 men who made possible this great work. They were the few 
 bold spirits Avho backed the enterprise with their fortunes, 
 their credit, and their reputation. They spent many millions 
 to meet the clamor and demand of our whole nation for speed, 
 and constructed a railroad 2,000 miles long in three years, 
 when their own interests, their charter and the Government 
 allowed them ten years to complete the work. So far as it 
 was possible for human to see. as a commercial problem, it had 
 few, if any, advocates. It was simply considered a military 
 necessity. Some day these men will stand in civil life like our 
 leaders in the Civil AYar. The engineers and the workmen 
 stood in groups watching the preparations for the driving of 
 the golden spike which should tie together with iron bands 
 this continent. The locomoties from the east and from the west 
 were run together and each engineer broke a bottle of cham- 
 pagne on their comrade's machine, and a great glorification 
 of the event was celebrated all over the country. On that day. 
 General Sherman, not forgetting the engineers and pioneers 
 of this Avork. sent me this despatch : 
 
 "Washington. May 11, 1869. 
 "General G. M. Dodge: 
 
 "In common with millions, I sat yesterday and heard the 
 mystic taps of the telegraphic battery announce the nailing of 
 the last spike in the great Pacific road. Indeed, am I its friend? 
 Yea. Yet, am I to be a part of it, for as early as 1854 I was
 

 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 121 
 
 vice president of the effort begun in San Francisco, under the 
 contract of Robinson, Seymour & Co. As soon as General 
 Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections in his new com- 
 mand on the Pacific, I will go out and, I need not say, will 
 have different facilities from that of 1846, when the only way 
 to California was by sail around Cape Horn, taking our ships 
 196 days. All honor to you, to Durant, to Jack and Dan Case- 
 ment, to Reed and the thousands of brave fellows who have 
 wrought out this glorious problem, spite of changes, storms, 
 and even doubts of the incredulous, and all the obstacles you 
 have now happily surmounted. 
 
 "AV. T. SHERMAN, General." 
 
 How well all did their Avork 1 leave to the distinguished 
 commission of engineers appointed by Act of Congress to 
 examine, revicAV and report upon the completion of the Union 
 Pacific Railroad, which is as follows : 
 
 "Taken as a Avhole, the Union Pacific Railroad has been 
 well constructed. The general route for the line is exceedingly 
 well chosen, crossing the Rocky Mountain Ranges at some of 
 the fost favorable passes on the continent, and possessing capa- 
 bilities for easy grades and favorable alignments unsurpassed 
 by any other railway line on similarly elevated grounds. The 
 energy and perseverance with which the work has been urged 
 forward, and the rapidity with which it has been executed 
 are without parallel in history. In the grandeur and magnitude 
 of the undertaking, it has never been equaled, and no other line 
 compares with this in the arid and barren character of the 
 country it traverses, giving rise to unusual inconveniences and 
 difficulties, and imposing the necessity of obtaining almost 
 every requisite of material, of labor, and supplies for its con- 
 struction, from the initial point of its commencement. 
 
 ■ "G. K. WARDEN, Brevet Major-Gen., U. S. A., 
 "J. BLICKENSDERFER, Jr., Civil Engineer, 
 "JAMES BARNES, Civil Engineer, 
 "Special Commissioners Union Pacific Railroad." 
 
 In the last five years the Union Pacific and the Southern 
 Pacific have been virtually reconstructed under the able man- 
 agement of Mr. E. H. Harriman. The Union Pacific in bringing
 
 122 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 its grades to a maxiinuin of forty-seven feet per mile excepting 
 the eighty-foot grade rising the mountains from the east at 
 Cheyenne, and the eighty-foot grade rising the Wasatch Range 
 west from the town of Echo, and in shortening the line some 
 thirty miles, has spent almost, if not fnlly, as much money as it 
 took to construct the road, and the distinguished engineer who 
 had charge of that work is now the chief engineer of the Rock 
 Island system and he pays this tribute to the engineers and 
 builders of the original line : 
 
 ''It may appear to those unfamiliar with the character 
 of the country that the great saving in distance and reduction 
 of grade would stand as a criticism of the work of the pioneer 
 engineers Avho made the original location of the road. Such is 
 not the case. The changes made have been expensive and could 
 be warranted only hy the volume of traffic handled at the 
 present day. Too nuich credit cannot be given to General 
 G. M. Dodge and his assistants. They studied their task thor- 
 oughly and performed it well. Limited by law to a maximum 
 gradient of 116 feet to the mile, not compensated for curva- 
 ture, they held it down to about ninety feet per mile. Taking 
 into consideration the existing conditions thirty-five years ago ; 
 lack of maps of the country, hostility of the Indians, which 
 made the United States troops necessary for the protection 
 of surveying parties, difficult transportation, excessive cost 
 of labor, uncertainty as to probable volume of traffic, limited 
 amount of money and necessity to get the road built as soon 
 as possible, it can be said, with all our present knowledge of 
 the topography of the country, that the line was located with 
 very great skill." 
 
 Since the public statements of JMr. Harriman and this 
 tribute by ]\Ir. Berry, we have heard no more talk of the 
 unnecessary miles of road that were built for the purpose of 
 obtaining the Government subsidy. 
 
 Upon completion of the Union Pacific Railroad I was 
 called upon by the Pennsj'lvania Railroad interests to organize 
 the construction company and build the Texas Pacific Rail- 
 road from New Orleans to San Diego, California, and in 1871 
 we marshalled our forces and covered the line with engineers 
 from Marshall, Texas, to San Diego, California. We were in
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 123' 
 
 the same condition in this work that we were on the Union 
 Pacific : without any railroad connection, depending upon the 
 Red River for our supplies and materials, and, of course, that 
 river went dry, but nevertheless, the engineers pushed on into 
 the country where they had the Indians, among many other 
 difficulties, to contend with. I put Kurd's party into the most 
 difficult Indian country. He had not been there very long 
 before I received a letter from the Governor of the State tell- 
 ing me that Hurd had attacked and killed some of the friendly 
 bands of Indians out at what was known as Sulphur Springs at 
 the foot of the Staked Plains. Hurd was too far away for me 
 to communicate with him, but I sent him the Governor's letter. 
 He was a man of few words: his work always told for itself in 
 his maps and profiles, and he answered the Governor's letter in 
 a very short response, which he sent me to approve and for- 
 ward. In it he stated that the Sulphur Springs Avas the only 
 water within fifty miles of him. when he reached there it was 
 held by the Indians and they refused to let him have any water 
 or allow him to approach the springs. They would not even 
 sell it to him, and he said, "Of course, I took the springs. I 
 don't know whether I hurt any Indians or not, and I do not 
 care, but I knew better than to go back to General Dodge and 
 tell him that I had been forced to abandon my survey by two 
 or three hundred barebacked Indians without fighting them." 
 That was the last I heard of that complaint. 
 
 On the line through Arizona we had a very noted engi- 
 neer. Captain R. W. Petriken. He was a graduate of "West 
 Point and had been in the engineering corps during the war. 
 He resigned and took service with the railroads, intending to 
 follow railroading as a business, believing there was greater 
 possibility in it for him than in the army, but he was killed 
 after a long fight with a band of Mexican Indians. 
 
 In building the Texas Pacific we went through an epidemic 
 of cholera and one of yellow fever, and were subject at every 
 town and every county line to shotgun quarantine, and not- 
 withstanding that, most of the engineers were from the North, 
 they all stayed on the work. 
 
 I remember in 1873 when we were rushing to close the 
 tracks in Te:*as, coming from the east and west to save our
 
 124 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 land grant, the epidemic of yellow fever was upon us, and 
 every morning those of us who were at the end of the track 
 could see numerous corpses taken out of the working gangs 
 and buried in the dump, and it took a brave, determined man 
 of great moral courage, who was under no obligations, except 
 that of duty, to stay and fight it out. 
 
 I remember one young engineer who was setting grade 
 and centers for the track layers. He lived in the cars that 
 housed the convicts that were laying the track, who, no matter 
 how much they wanted to leave, could not; he went out on 
 his work promptly every morning and could see the progress 
 of the fever by the number of convicts taken out and buried 
 in the dump, and that it was only a question of time when it 
 would have him in its grip. I thought it possible he might 
 leave us. so one morning I walked out and spoke to him, asking 
 him hoAv he and his men were feeling. He said very quietly 
 they had considered the situation, and they proposed to stay 
 on the job until we connected the tracks, but he stated : ''Then 
 I shall start on the first train for God's country and never 
 shall come back to this." I thanked him for his determination 
 to stay and he stated that he had been employed on the job 
 for the season and he did not propose to run because some 
 others had ; he was a specimen of the engineers who went 
 South with us. A great many of them had the yellow fever, 
 some of them died, but they all showed an esprit de corp and 
 an interest in the enterprise that would be a good object les- 
 son to many who are on similar work today. 
 
 As soon as the tracks were joined, I gave all the engineers 
 who had come from the North a leave of absence, but very 
 few of them took advantage of it. 
 
 During the years from 1870 to 1874 the line was deter- 
 mined and located through to California. Work was com- 
 menced at San Diego and some 500 miles Avas built during 
 that time in Texas, but the Jay Cook failure stopped us, and 
 it was not completed through to California until 1883, and 
 today three of the great railroads of the country occupy the 
 line that was intended at that time for only one. They are 
 the Texas Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Santa Fe. It is 
 a singular fact that the same engineers and th^ same foremen
 
 THE CIVIL ENGINEER IN AN EARLY DAY 125 
 
 Avho had joined the tracks at Promontory Point in 1869 met 
 on the plains at Sierra Blanco, Texas, in 1883, and joined there 
 the tracks that united the second continental line across the 
 continent, but under entirelj^ different circumstances. There 
 were no bands, no crowds, no speeches, and no champagne. 
 It was simply the engineers and foremen of the track laying 
 forces that shook hands at this great event, and it created 
 very little notice or comment. 
 
 There has been a general belief throughout the country 
 that it was a very easy problem to build a railroad, that the 
 railroads were over-capitalized, Avhich recent investigation has 
 demonstrated to be untrue. In my travels I' have seen men 
 riding in a Pullman car that carried a valet, a maid, a porter, 
 and a conductor, which these people generally kept busy all 
 the time, look out of the Avindow and express the opinion that 
 it was easy work or virtually no work to build a railroad 
 through the country they were passing, and make comments 
 on what it represented and what it should cost, and I often 
 used to think as I listened to them, if they had the experience 
 of the builders ; first as chief of a party to spy out a line, per- 
 haps alone in an Indian country, then followed by the young 
 engineer, carrying a rifle on one shoulder and a transit on the 
 other, camping where his day's work ended; then the bold 
 spirits who furnished the money to first construct the road, 
 that would need probably to be carried ten or twenty years 
 before it brought any income, and then by the operating de- 
 parment who had to re-construct it two or three times and put 
 millions upon millions into it to bring its commercial business 
 and the luxury of its transportation up to our date, he would 
 take an entirely different view of the enterprise. 
 
 I thank God that the criticisms of the years have finally 
 aroused the railroad world to educate the people and demon- 
 strate to them what the transportation of this country has 
 cost in lives, labor and money, and what benefits it has brought 
 to the nation.
 
 ADDRESS AT BANQUET OF THE COMMERCIAL CLUB, 
 OMAHA, NOVEMBER 10, 1906, IN HONOR OF MAJOR- 
 GENERAL G. M. DODGE AND MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN. 
 
 At a banquet given by the Commercial Club at Omaha on 
 November 10, 1906, in honor of Major-General Grenville M. 
 Dodge and Mrs. John A. Logan, in replying to remarks of 
 Doctor George L. Miller, General Dodge made the following 
 response : 
 
 It must be evident to all present how embarrassing it is 
 to me. and how difficult it is to express my thanks for all the 
 kind words and compliments that have been paid me. Omaha 
 and Nebraska have always had kindly feelings towards me, 
 and never let an opportunity pass to show it, and when I see 
 surrounding me so many of my friends and supporters in my 
 young days, when I was struggling here to build and develop 
 an empire, I feel that it is impossible to thank you as you 
 deserve. 
 
 You must appreciate the fact that when two old friends 
 like Doctor Miller and myself get together, that as the years 
 go by the appreciation of each other grows in geometrical 
 progression. The credit that he gives me belongs largely to 
 others, who spent their time, their brains, their money and 
 their credit in developing the country west of the Lakes. 
 
 As you all know, since I was 19 years old my entire life 
 has been spent in the upbuilding and development of the 
 country west of the Lakes, and in the line of my profession it 
 has been my great good fortune to knoAV and be with the 
 groups of men whose time, credit and fortunes have been 
 spent for the increasing of population and in making an em- 
 pire, where, when I began, there were only 50,000 people in 
 Chicago, and not many more than that from there west to the 
 Pacific. These men have never received the credit they were 
 entitled to. I have in mind four groups in this work, and T 
 will name them.
 
 128 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 The first were Farnam & Sheffield, who built the first 
 road west of Chicago to the IMississippi Kiver, one of whom 
 you have honored by giving his name to one of your principal 
 thoroughfares. On the completion of this work Mr. T. C. 
 Durant joined Mr. Farnam in building the Mississippi & Mis- 
 souri Railway, noAv the Rock Island, across Iowa. 
 
 The next were the Ameses and their New England fol- 
 lowing, and to them monuments should be raised, as it was to 
 their nerve and the use of their unlimited credit, that is most 
 due the success of the Union Pacific, and I never look back 
 upon their work that I do not consider the Act of Congress, 
 which drove Oakes Ames out of their halls and to his death, 
 one of the most unjust acts ever passed by Congress, when 
 he should have had their thanks and the credit due him, and 
 which some day he Avill receive for his unfailing support of 
 us all Avho were engaged on that great work. Very few of 
 you know how many times we were close to failure and he 
 saved us. I remember once when I wrote Oakes Ames that 
 Ave must have money or the Avork Avould stop, that he an- 
 SAvered to go ahead, that it should not stop if it took the 
 shovel shop to keep it going. Again Avhen the question came 
 Avhether the credit of the company should be impaired or that 
 the standing and credit of the Ameses should suffer, he said : 
 "Stand by the company and let the Ameses take care of them- 
 selves," and their commercial standing and credit did suft'er. 
 It Avas these men, aided by Dillon, Durant and their foUoAving 
 that Avere the pioneers along the forty-second parallel of lat- 
 itude and to Avhom our great prosperity today is mostly due. 
 
 The next group Avas headed by Thonuis A. Scott in that 
 great development of the SoutliAvest, and in projecting and 
 partially building the Southern line to the Pacific. He Avas 
 surrounded and supported by that remarkable body of men 
 identified Avith the interests of the Pennsj^lvania Raihvay. They 
 Avere Thompson, Roberts. Walters, Houston, Baird, McCullough 
 and others, the descendants of Avhom are prominent in all the 
 affairs of the Pennsylvania today. In the three years' Avork 
 on that line they had spent $10,000,000 Avithout selling a bond 
 or share of stock. The Jay Cook failure came and halted the 
 Avork. Scott Avas in England and had raised the money to take
 
 ADDRESS AT COMMERCIAL CLUB BANQUET 129 
 
 US to the Pacific aud the papers were Avaiting a final signature, 
 when like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky came the failure 
 of Jay Cook and virtually put the Avhole crowd in bank- 
 ruptcy. We were all called to Philadelphia. I owed more than 
 a million of dollars in Texas and the shock was so far-reaching 
 that it stunned everyone. I remember this group of men stayed 
 all day and nearly all night in Scott's room at the Philadelphia 
 headquarters and considered and discussed the situation. The 
 question was, shall we save the property or ourselves'? I told 
 them of the outcome of a similar meeting when Ames said, 
 "Save the road and let the individuals go to the wall," and 
 Scott answered that is what we will do, and these men sat 
 down and assumed the entire debt of $10,000,000 or more, put- 
 ting out their individual notes, known as the five-name paper 
 and the three-name paper, part of us signing the five-name 
 paper and the more w^ealthy and those of better credit the 
 three-name paper. This was a pretty bold movement, when 
 not one of them could really say or know whether at that 
 moment he was worth one cent. After signing these notes they 
 distributed them to each one of us to take them to such finan- 
 cial institutions as we might know and to try to sell them. 
 One million Avas assigned to me of the five-name paper, of 
 which I Avas a signer. I had no idea where I could raise one 
 oent on it. I thought everyone would look upon us and our 
 credit as I knew our financial condition to be and would .judge 
 the value of our notes accordingly. I took mine to New York 
 City ; I considered it to be the hardest and most uncertain 
 problem that I ever had to solve. I had in New York a long 
 time a small account with Oilman & Son, prominent private 
 bankers. I called on them as soon as I reached Ncav York, 
 and met Mr. Gilman, a very astute, clear-headed, calculating 
 banker, and sh'oAved him the paper. He read the five names, 
 looked up to me and said, "Why, that looks like pretty good 
 paper; I think our clients would like to have some of it." 
 and asked me to leave it Avith him. You can imagine my feel- 
 ings, and hoAV my barometer Avent up. I immediately handed 
 over to him the million. The next day Avhen I Avent to see 
 him he stated that they Avould take it and asked if I could 
 get any more. I saw then what it Avas to a man to have a good
 
 130 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 name, a good business standing and good credit, and I have 
 never forgotten it. That paper was all paid off before it was 
 due. Our work halted then in Texas from 1874 until 1880, 
 when Mr. Scott becoming sick induced Jay Gould to buy his 
 interest. Mr. Gould and his folloAving then took hold of the 
 property and built from that time on, what is known as the 
 SouthAvest System, some 10,000 miles of road. He, like the 
 rest of thein. planted his money and his credit to build up and 
 develop a partially-inhabited country, but did not live to see 
 the full fruition of his plans, but his children have. With 
 Mr. Gould and his associates I was connected from 1874 to 
 1884, and I take pleasure in paying mj- tribute to him and 
 giving him the credit he is entitled to, for he was more abused, 
 slandered and vilified tlian all the rest combined. He spent 
 his life in opening up a vast territory to the new population 
 without receiving any immediate benefit from his investment, 
 but it proved that his judgment was correct. Personally, I 
 never was with a more reliable and considerate man than 
 Jay Gould. I spent many, many millions in building the South- 
 west System, but as far as I know, I never had a dozen letters 
 from him. Everything was done by word of mouth or by 
 telegram. "When we discussed any question and came to a 
 conclusion and Mr. Gould said, "General, we will go ahead," 
 or do this or that, no matter what it meant or into what diffi- 
 culties Ave got, I never had doubts as to where Jay Gould would 
 stand. He never went back on the support of me or tried to 
 evade, as some others did. the responsibilities he had assumed. 
 When the projects looked unprofitable, he had plenty of oppor- 
 tunities to avoid great losses, but he stood by, no matter who 
 deserted, and when I compare where he put his brains and 
 millions Avith those avIio have criticized him so severely, Avho 
 would not invest a cent, except it Avas secured and brought 
 a safe interest, but he year after year had ncAv faith in the 
 future outcome of our interest in the West, I feel it Avas to 
 him that Avas due the credit instead of the criticisms. I learned 
 the value of the brains, push and combinations of Jay Gould, 
 and I say all honor to him. and you of the West sliould revere 
 and honor his Avork and name.
 
 ADDRESS AT COMMERCIAL CLUB BANQUET. 131 
 
 The third group was the California giants, Huntington, 
 Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker, and their associates. Their work 
 on the Pacific was a duplicate of Ames, Scott and Gould, and 
 though at times we were in sharp competition, in long, bitter 
 fights, I had the personal friendship of all of them. Their 
 leader was Huntington, and he was a wonderful man. For 
 years Ave were in sharp competition, but you may hunt the 
 records of all he either said or did and you won't find a word 
 uttered against me. He always spoke in the highest terms of 
 me, even Avhen it hurt his own case, and in after years we 
 were close friends. He was a great man, and has built great 
 monuments to himself from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I re- 
 member, I think it was in the '80s in one of the financial panics, 
 we were both borrowing large sums of money from the same 
 bank in New Yorlv. The companies I was connected with were 
 weak, while his wore very strong financially, and when the 
 bank called upon us for additional security, we could not 
 ahvays put it up promptly. One day the bank called upon us 
 for quite a large addition to what we had up for one of our 
 companies, and I told them it was impossible for us to meet 
 the demand, and they said they would be obliged to sell out 
 our loans, and I was in great distress, for I knew it meant 
 bankruptcy for the company. They said that M'^hen they called 
 upon Mr. Huntington for additional securities he would bring 
 down double for what they asked. That evening I met Mr. 
 Huntington, and told him our troubles, and what the bank 
 said. His eyes brightened. He said: "Sell you out, will they! 
 Well, that is just what we want, and is what we have been 
 trying to do ourselves for six months." He said: "General, 
 you go down in the morning and tell them if they can sell 
 your securities to do so, and when they get through let them 
 sell mine." I saw the point; I called at the bank, told them 
 that 1 was at the end of my rope and to sell, and when they 
 got through selling mine, Mr. Huntington said to sell his. 
 That settled that question, and their efforts from then on 
 were not to try to squeeze us, but to help us through. The 
 fact is, there was no sale for any security, which Huntington 
 and the bank knew.
 
 132 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 The groups of men I have mentioned have never received 
 the credit that they were entitled to and the great field of 
 their work should remember them and monuments should be 
 raised to their memory. 
 
 I see Mr. Meeker is here trying to raise monuments to 
 mark the old Oregon trail which I have traveled over so many 
 times, but the men that I have mentioned have marked it with 
 bands of steel and now it reaches from the Missouri to the 
 Pacific, and you can stand beside it at any place during any 
 hour of the day and you will see trains, passenger and freight, 
 passing, and they have made it the most noted route of trans- 
 portation in the world. I hope Meeker will succeed in raising 
 monuments for the old wagon trail ; it is commendable to try 
 to pass into history the work of those crossing the continent 
 in '49. 
 
 Now comes the group of workers following and sustain- 
 ing the efforts of the great men I have mentionel. Every com- 
 munity has them ; right here in Omaha you have many noted 
 ones. I see some around this table. Who has forgotten the 
 work of Dr. George L. Miller, who, all his life, was working 
 to build up this country and whose support and friendship is 
 so dear to me? With him were Saunders, Hanscom. Hitch- 
 cock, Morton and hundreds of others, and the new generation 
 that is coming after us should never let their Avork and names 
 be forgotten. 
 
 I have detained you far longer than I intended, but when 
 you say a word about these early great events, you never 
 know when or where to stop, and once more I thank you from 
 the bottom of my heart. 
 
 It is a great pleasure to have here with me and to see you 
 honor the wife and daughter of that comrade of mine, who in 
 war and peace was such a great friend. No matter whether 
 it was his magnetism in battle or his eloquence in Congress, 
 in all the years I knew him he was ready with both to aid and 
 defend me with any work I was engaged, and his good wife 
 stood by to do more if possible, and no one honors more than 
 I do the memory of my old comrade, John A. Logan, and no 
 one is truer to me than his good wife and his family.

 
 ADDRESS AT UNVEILING OF MONUMENT TO MAJOR 
 MARSHALL F. KURD, DENVER, COLORADO. 
 
 Marshall Farnam Hurd was born in Scipio, Cayuga County, 
 New York, in 1823. His father married Abbie Farnam, sister 
 of Henry Farnam of New Haven, Connecticut, the builder of 
 the Rock Island Railroad, and under whose auspices the first 
 surveys were made for the Union Pacific Railway in 1852-1860. 
 
 Hurd's father and mother died within a few months of 
 each other, leaving three small children — Irwin Newton Hurd, 
 afterward a Presbyterian minister, now deceased; Florence 
 A. Hurd. afterward Hoyt, deceased, and Marshall Farnam 
 Hurd, a baby only a few months old. 
 
 The children were separated and Marshall Farnam Hurd 
 was brought up in his uncle's family. The uncle was a noted 
 engineer in New York, and had charge of the Lockport Locks 
 in the Erie Canal, also of much other work in the State of 
 New York. From him Hurd obtained his education and prac- 
 tice as a civil engineer. His first work in his profession was 
 in New York State and afterward on the Rock Island Railroad 
 in the State of Illinois. At the beginning of the Civil War 
 he was at Muscatine, Iowa. 
 
 On July 24, 1861, he enlisted at Burlington, Iowa, in Com- 
 pany I. Seventh Iowa Volunteers. On August 23 he was trans- 
 ferred to Company A. On August 25, 1861, he was promoted 
 to fourth corporal and on July 28, 1863, was made second 
 corporal. He was taken prisoner November 7, 1861, at the 
 battle of Belmont and was exchanged October 17, 1862. He was 
 mustered out of the service August 9, 1864, by reason of expi- 
 ration of his term of service. 
 
 I first knew Hurd at Corinth, Mississippi, in the fall or 
 winter of 1862, where I was in command. I called for details 
 from the different commands for engineers. Hurd was one 
 of the men that reported to me and I put him in charge of a 
 portion of the force that was building fortifications around 
 
 —133—
 
 134 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Corinth. From that time until he was laustered out he fol- 
 lowed his profession in the army, especially in the work which 
 fell to the Sixteenth Army Corps in rebuilding the ]\Iemphis 
 & Charleston, Nashville & Decatur, Mobile & Ohio and other 
 railroads. Kealizing how competent he was as an engineer, 
 every effort was made by myself and my superior officers to 
 have Hurd given a commission, but being detailed from his 
 regiment he could get no indorsement fron it, and we failed 
 to obtain a commission for him from the United States, there- 
 fore he served all the time, although only an enlisted man, as 
 civil engineer in charge of men, and even officers. Every one 
 recognized him as a commissioned officer — many. I believe, not 
 even knowing that he was not commissioned. He was called 
 "Major," and the engineers of the other corps and divisions 
 he came in contact with always recognized him and treated 
 him as a commissioned officer. He was especially efficient in 
 throwing up entrenchments in front of the enemy. He was 
 utilized mostly by the Sixteenth Array Corps, although often 
 detailed by the commanders of the array with the Sixteenth 
 Array Corps Pioneer Corps, which consisted of al)out 1,500 de- 
 tailed raen and negroes, and was probably the most efficient 
 construction corps in either Grant's or Sherman's armies. lie 
 was known throughout the army as an officer who. when he was 
 on the line building entrenchments under fire, no matter what 
 the circumstances were, stayed with his work, however fiercely 
 attacked. Pie turned his pioneer corps, largely made up of en- 
 listed men, into fighting raen, and whenever we saw hira come 
 from his work with any portion of his pioneer corps when at- 
 tacked, we knew it was because he was driven out by a superior 
 force. Other pioneer corps would often come out when simply 
 attacked, not being able to hold their men to the work, but 
 Hurd never did, and in this way he became favorably known 
 in the Army of the Tennessee. 
 
 Hurd left me in August, 1864, in front of Atlanta, to be 
 raustered out. Not being able to obtain promotion, he went 
 back to his profession and began work on the Union Pacific 
 Railway under S. B. Reed, who was division engineer of the 
 road at that time. After the war, in 1866, I found Hurd upon 
 the Union Pacific Railwav, and during the (;onstruetion of the
 
 y. > 
 
 — cS
 
 A TRIBUTE TO MAJOR MARSHALL F. HURD 135 
 
 work he was used almost entirely in the construction forces. 
 Mr. S. B. Reed had charge of the construction -svork for the 
 contractors, and Hurd generally worked under his direction, 
 though at times he was used to examine and make difficult 
 locations. 
 
 When I Avas building the Union Pacific railway in 1867 
 Hurd had charge of the division crossing the Black Hills from 
 Cheyenne west, and one time when I was in Cheyenne he 
 started out Avith provisions for his party. I gave him a com- 
 pany of Pawnee Indians who were on the line as escort for 
 engineering parties and construction forces with me. Accom- 
 panying him was Silas Seymour, consulting engineer of the 
 Union Pacific Railway. When they reached what is known as 
 Granite Canon, the Pawnees discovered a party of Crows Avho 
 had just stolen the stock from one of the grading camps, and 
 they immediately left Hurd with his teams and provisions and 
 started for the Indians. Hurd saw nothing more of them, but 
 there were other Indians near him, and he immediately cor- 
 ralled his train and prepared to protect it with his teamsters, 
 sending word to me where he was and how he was situated. 
 The Indians saw his preparations and did not attack him. A 
 force was sent to his aid and he moved on. The Pawnee Indians 
 returned to Crow Creek, where Chej'enne is now located, bring- 
 ing with them several scalps, and evidently expecting great 
 praise for what they had done, and when I censured them for 
 deserting Hurd they were utterly disgusted, but they made 
 the nights hideous for a week with their war dances over their 
 fights and scalps. 
 
 When I left the Union Pacific Railway to go to Texas to 
 take charge of the building of the Texas & Pacific Railway, I 
 took Hurd with me and placed him in charge of the party that 
 was to make the survey across the Staked Plains to El Paso, 
 knowing that it would be a difficult country, and dangerous 
 on account of the roaming bands of Indians that were upon it. 
 Hurd with his party reached what are known as Sulphur 
 Springs, at the foot of the Staked Plains, and found a band 
 of Indians in charge of those springs. There was no Avater 
 from that point to the Pecos River, some 150 miles away. Hurd 
 opened negotiations Avith the Indians with a view of obtaining
 
 136 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 water, but they refused to let him have it, and he immediately 
 formed his party, which was armed, and made an attack upon 
 the Indians, and drove them away from the place. There were 
 at least 200 of them. Hurd made no report of this to me, but 
 a complaint was made to the Governor of the State of Texas, 
 who sent to me for an explanation. As soon as I could reach 
 Hurd I sent the complaint to him, and he answered it with a 
 few lines. He said that he found the Indians there, and that 
 they would not share the water with him or allow him to go 
 to the springs, so he attacked them and they immediately ran 
 away. Whether he hurt any of them he did not know or 
 care. He said he knew it would never do for him to return 
 to me and make a report that he could not obtain this water, 
 unless he had made an effort to do so. His reports on his work 
 were always short, giving but little description unless in- 
 structed to do so. He always relied upon his maps and profiles 
 to indicate his work. 
 
 After the completion of the Texas & Pacific surveys in 
 1874, Hurd went North, and was employed upon different 
 roads. In the '80s, he, with his uncle, S. B. Reed, was employed 
 by the Canadian Pacific Railway in locating lines over and 
 through the mountain division, and much of his work there 
 stands as remarkable examples of mountain location, and a 
 part of the Canadian Pacific Railway crossing the Rocky Moun- 
 tains is built upon lines that he located. 
 
 In 1886, when I commenced extending the Fort Worth & 
 Denver City Raihvay to Denver, after putting my forces in 
 Texas in the field I w-ent to Denver on the cars in the spring 
 of 1887. As I stepped off the train the first person I saw stand- 
 ing on the platform w^as Hurd. We were both astonished to 
 meet each other. The first question I asked Hurd was what 
 he was doing. He answered that he had just come off some 
 survey, and was at liberty. I told him to immediately proceed 
 to Trinidad, and get an outfit and make a reconnoissance for 
 me from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway east, along 
 the summit of the Raton Range, and find me the best pass over 
 that range of mountains on as direct a line as possible from 
 Trinidad to Tascosa, Texas, and to be ready to report to me 
 within two weeks in Trinidad. When I drove through to Trini-
 
 A TRIBUTE TO MAJOR MARSHALL F. HURD 137 
 
 dad I found Hurd Avaiting there for me. He said that he had 
 found a good pass and believed he could locate a line through 
 the mountains on a 1 per cent grade. I told him to organize a 
 party immediately and make the location, and he accompanied 
 me through what was then known as Emory Gap to show me 
 the line he had selected. I approved it, and he made a remark- 
 ably fine location with a 1 per cent equated grade. 
 
 After the completion of this work Hurd was employed 
 on some of the surveys in the Kocky Mountains for other com- 
 panies, until his age became such that he could no longer keep 
 the field. 
 
 In 1^74: Hurd married Maggie Fitzsimmons, at Ottumwa, 
 Iowa. She died in 1886 and is buried in Ottumwa. She was 
 a lovely, good character, a great comfort to Hurd, and her 
 death was a severe loss to him. Only a few months after the 
 death of his wife, his sister, Mrs. Hoyt, died. She was always 
 very near to Hurd, and the double loss was very hard upon 
 him. He said at the time: "I wonder who will be with me 
 when I go." 
 
 Hurd lived simply; he was never a money maker. He 
 never seemed ambitious to make money, only to do his duty 
 in whatever position was assigned him ; never was particular 
 about his salary, taking whatever was given him. His reputa- 
 tion in camp was that he could keep and ration a party on 
 less money than any engineer that was ever in my service. It 
 was said of him that all he needed to keep himself alive was 
 tobacco. I remember in driving across the country in 1887 
 from Trinidad to Tascosa, Texas, that the person I had as- 
 signed to put up the provisions for us had provided only sand- 
 wiches, which, of course, became so dry in a few days that 
 we could not eat them. I expected to obtain something for my 
 party to eat when I reached Hurd's camp. When I arrived at 
 the camp Hurd was out on the line, but I asked the cook if 
 he had anything to eat, and he said "No," that they had just 
 sent the teams to Trindad for provisions. I asked why they 
 had not sent before, and he said the reason was that the "old 
 man" had not run out of tobacco, and was never known to 
 send for provisions so long as tobacco lasted, so we had to 
 continue on our trip, living upon an antelope that I happened
 
 138 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 to kill the next day, and occasionally a few birds that we 
 shot on the prairies. 
 
 Hiird was always held in high esteem by all the engineers 
 he worked with. He was very modest and reticent, and it was 
 hard to keep him in conversation, but his work was always 
 complete and satisfactory, and he would work a party longer 
 and under more difficult circumstances than any engineer I 
 ever knew. 
 
 It is seldom that the work of such a man as Hurd is rec- 
 ognized. People forget that it is the brains, energy and self- 
 sacrifice of such men that have developed the great AVest and 
 made it the empire it is, and it is for this reason that I have 
 felt that the simple tribute I pay him is due to him for his long 
 and faithful service with me. 
 
 During the latter part of his life the home of Hurd was 
 in Denver, and it is in that city that he was laid to rest. His 
 grave is marked by a simple shaft, the inscriptions on which 
 record concisely the work of his life. They are as follows : 
 
 "Marshall Farnam Hurd. Died March 4, 1903. aged -80 
 years. Enlisted in Company A, Seventh Iowa Volunteers, Au- 
 gust 28, 1863, and served during the Civil "War. A brave, able 
 and faithful comrade ; a prominent civil engineer, modest, but 
 never failing to accomplish any work he was assigned to. 
 Many of his mountain railway locations will stand as a monu- 
 ment to his skill and adaptability to such difficult work. 
 
 "Engineer Second Division, Sixteenth Army Corps. 
 
 "Division Engineer Union Pacific Raihvaj^, Texas & Pacific 
 Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Fort Worth & Denver City 
 and other railways. 
 
 "This monument is erected by his comrade, Major-General 
 Grenville M. Dodge, in testimony of his many years of loyal 
 and faithful service under him."
 
 ADDRESS ON "THE PIONEERS AND DEVELOPMENT OF 
 THE WEST," GIVEN AT A BANQUET MARCH 10, 
 1906, IN OMAHA. 
 
 When a voice called me up on the telephone and informed 
 me that this club desired to give me a luncheon at which I 
 could meet some of my old friends, I was surprised and rather 
 objected, but the voice took me back to early days, and 'I 
 thought if those who were with me then carried their friend- 
 ship so long and desired to see me, it was a great honor and 
 satisfaction to me, and I accepted with great pleasure. 
 
 Naturally when I meet you here under such circumstances 
 my mind carries mo back to the early '50s, Avhen there was 
 no Omaha and no Nebraska. The first time I crossed the Mis- 
 souri Eiver. with a small engineering party, I was greeted on 
 this side by Indians. No white man lived here and no one in 
 my party probably had ever seen an Indian before. My duties 
 as chief of the party Avere to look up the country ahead, and 
 the young boy who ran the party is a citizen today of Omaha. 
 He was with me many years, an able, conscientious, hard 
 working, faithful man, to whom I owe much, for he faithfully 
 filled all his positions. He is well known in this city, and I am 
 glad to say has been honored by it, I speak of Mr. J. E. House. 
 
 I rode out to the Elkhorn River alone, leaving House to 
 follow. On arriving at the Elkhorn I was tired, unsaddled to 
 give my horse a chance to graze, and lay down to take a nap, 
 I was aroused by the neighing of my horse, and looking across 
 the valley saw a Pawnee Indian taking him as fast as he could 
 force him along towards the river. Naturally I was frightened 
 and hardly knew what to do, but instinct told me I nuist have 
 my horse, and grabbing my rifle I started out towards the 
 Indian, hollowing at the top of my voice. The pony was evi- 
 dently as frightened at the Indian as I was, and was stubborn 
 in his movements, and the Indian finally dropped him and tied 
 across the Elkhorn. 
 
 —139—
 
 140 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Ten or twelve years afterwards, when I was in command 
 of this department, and was ordered to open the different mail 
 and stage lines across the continent, wiiich had been closed 
 for some months by the Indians, I raised a battalion of Paw- 
 nees to aid me as scouts and placed in command of them Major 
 North, a very valuable officer, and they were of great service 
 to me. The Indian who attempted to steal my horse was one 
 of the battalion, and stated to Major North that I made so 
 much noise that I scared the pony and himself so that he got 
 away from me as fast as possible and never stopped running 
 until he reached the Pawnee village across the Platte. 
 
 On my return to the party I found it encamped on the 
 emigrant road leading from Florence to the Elkhorn at the 
 crossing of the Big Papillion. During the day the Indians had 
 been helping themselves and the party was in a far from happy 
 state of mind, in fact, the Indians had actual possession of the 
 camp, and you can see my introduction to Nebraska was any- 
 thing but a satisfactory one. 
 
 Now, if I should try to portray to you or any one the 
 experiences, the trials and the sufferings of the picket line of 
 settlement and explorations in those days, you would declare 
 it more fiction than fact. Early friendships made under such 
 circumstances are calculated to last, and it is one of the great 
 gratifications of my life that the ties that bound us together 
 never have been sundered. I cannot tell you anything of 
 Omaha today, but probably no one has a better knowledge 
 of the circumstances and facts that founded Omaha as a future 
 great city. If you knew them all, you could see upon what 
 slender threads at times its existence depended. Omaha, as a 
 city, was determined long before it was settled. It came from 
 the settlement of the location on the Missouri River of the 
 surveys made under the direction of Henry Farnam and "Wil- 
 liam Sheffield far in advance of any settlement of this territory. 
 It fell to my lot, under the direction of that distinguished 
 engineer and more distinguished citizen, Peter A. Dey, to 
 make the first survey across the State of Iowa and to determine 
 where in all probability a line .would end upon the Missouri 
 River in this parallel of latitude and where any railroad being 
 built west would leave this river. None of you know the inter-
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE WEST 141 
 
 ests involved and the matters raised in determining that point. 
 My survey demonstrated that the true engineering and com- 
 mercial line crossing Iowa should come down the Mosquito 
 and end at Council Bluffs, and going w^est the line should cross 
 to the Platte Valley and up that to the mountains, and so on 
 west. The financial interests in Iowa were favorable to a line 
 running down the Pigeon and crossing to Florence ; another 
 diversion was by Bellevue, another south of the Platte, and 
 a fourth crossing at the mouth of the Boyer, and all these lines 
 I examined. 
 
 Before my surveys had been finally determined the parties 
 interested had planted their stakes at Florence and announced 
 that as the crossing place of the Missouri River. My reports 
 were sustained by Mr. Dey, and finally the decision made was 
 reversed and the crossing determined to be opposite this place. 
 This being determined, I was authorized to commence work 
 at Council Bluffs, provided I could obtain local aid, and Pot- 
 tawattamie County gave me $300,000 in bonds and Mr. Farnam 
 furnished the funds for doing the grading and what work was 
 done up to the time that all work in the state was stopped on 
 account of the panic. There is no doubt that the final deter- 
 mination of what is now known as the Rock Island Railway 
 crossing the Missouri River, was what first drew the attention 
 of people to Omaha and that brought to the Bluffs every rail- 
 road survey at that time being made across the state, and I 
 think there are men at this table who will say to you that that 
 was the real first beginning of Omaha. 
 
 In 1859, if I recollect rightly, on my way from recon- 
 noissances west with my party, which had been out the entire 
 summer, I camped my party in Council Bluffs and went to the 
 Pacific House. At that time Abraham Lincoln was visiting the 
 Bluffs. He heard of my return from my surveys and sought 
 me out at the Pacific House, and on the porch of that hotel he 
 sat with me for two hours or more and drew out of me all the 
 facts I had obtained in my surveys and naturally my opinion 
 as to the route for a railroad west and as to the feasibility of 
 building it. I thought no more of this at the time than that 
 possibly I had been giving away secrets that belonged to my 
 employers in this work.
 
 142 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 In 1863, whilst in command of the District of Corinth, 
 Mississippi. I received a despatch from General Grant to pro- 
 ceed to Washington and report to the President. No explana- 
 tion coming Avith despatch. I was a little alarmed, for there 
 had come to me at Corinth a great many negroes and I had 
 placed them in what was known as a contraband camp and 
 had placed over them certain soldiers as guards. This caused 
 me a good deal of annoyance and trouble. The white soldiers 
 did not like the duty and took every opportunity to annoy the 
 negroes, even in some cases going as far as to shoot them. The 
 superintendent of the camp was Chaplain Alexander of an 
 Ohio regiment, a verj' able and excellent man, and he sug- 
 gested one day to me that he believed that negroes would be 
 better to guard the contraband camp than white soldiers. I 
 authorized him to raise one or two companies and I armed 
 them, solely for the purpose of guarding these negroes. I had 
 no authority to do this and I did not at the time appreciate 
 the importance that was to be given to it. There were many 
 protests against this, and in the command there was consi- 
 derable opposition to it, and I thought that my call to Wash- 
 ington was possibly to be called to account for this act. 
 
 AVhen I reached AVashington and reported to the President 
 I soon ascertained that I was there for a consultation in regard 
 to the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Kailway. He hatd 
 remembered his conversation with me on the Pacific House 
 porch, and under the law it had been made his duty to deter- 
 npne the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific road, and those 
 of you who remember that time know what pressure was 
 brought to bear on the President to name different points far 
 north and far south of this. After a long conversation with 
 me, obtaining my views fully and the reasons for them, the 
 President finally determined to make it, as you all know, on 
 the western border of Iowa, opposite this city. T'.at decision, 
 in my opinion, settled beyond all question the future of your 
 city and your state. 
 
 I wish to say here that while my surveys and my conclu- 
 sions may have been of great benefit to you, still the}' were 
 made because there was no question, from an engineering 
 point of view, where the line crossing Iowa and going west
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE WEST 143 
 
 from this river, should cross the Missouri River, and it was 
 also mj' conclusion that it was the commercial line. The Lord 
 had so constructed the country that any engineer who failed 
 to take advantage of the great open road from here west to 
 Salt Lake would not have been fit to belong to the profession; 
 600 miles of it up a single valley without a grade to exceed 
 fifteen feet ; the natural pass over the Rocky Mountains, the 
 lowest in all the range, and the divide of the continent, instead 
 of being a mountain summit, has a basin 500 feet below the 
 general level. It was a gratification to me at the time to have 
 the support of all the people in the vicinity of this country in 
 my views. There is no telling how much influence it had and 
 weight it carried, and without being invidious or partial, I 
 really think that Omaha and Nebraska today OAve more to my 
 old friend and always faithful comrade and supporter, Dr. 
 George L. ]\Iiller, for the success of these efforts, than any 
 other man. I could show you many of the benefits he brought 
 to you, even more than he knows himself, and he was the 
 most unselfish and determined continuous fighter for his city 
 and state that I ever knew, and I take pleasure here in his 
 own home in paying my tribute to him. 
 
 Now. gentlemen, this city and state for their great pros- 
 perity, after the fact, are mostly indebted to the Union Pacific 
 Railway. It blazed the way across the continent. They took 
 all the chances and solved the problem of the building of a 
 railroad to the Pacific, not only from an engineering point of 
 vicAv. but also from a commercial one, and it was, therefore, 
 easy after that for all roads to follow. It was at that time a 
 very great problem if a road built coiild ever earn its interest. 
 After its completion the Board of Directors of the company 
 recpiested me to make an estimate of the gross earnings per 
 mile for the next ten years. They desired an estimate from 
 which they could prove to the people that it would be able to 
 pay the interest upon the first mortgage bonds, and after 
 calling to my aid all the people Avho had knowledge of the 
 capabilities of the country west of the Missouri River, as well 
 as those of China and Japan, and, in fact, of all Asia, the best 
 I could do was to report to them gross earnings within ten 
 years of $5,000 per mile, and if I remember rightly, in less
 
 144 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 than five years the road earned $10,000 per mile. So you see 
 how little those who had the best knowledge of this country 
 appreciated what its development would bring about. 
 
 The earnings of the Union Pacific made it safe for any 
 other road to enter the territory, and to the Farnams. the 
 Ameses, the Dillons, Goulds, Scott, Huntington and Stamford 
 in an early day, and to Perkins, Miller, Cable, Hewitt and many 
 others of a later day, this country should give great honor and 
 no abuse. It has been the fashion in our day to hold up to 
 the coming generation the names of Astor, Vanderbilt and 
 the noted Knickerbockers as the great men, commercially, for 
 them to follow. These men invested their money in the east, 
 where it was safe and sure of dividends, but the men who 
 developed the country and brought in their millions without 
 one cent in return, they are the ones you and all others are 
 indebted to for their foresight, their risking everything and 
 finally building up a great empire west of the lakes. Most of 
 those of the earlier day have passed away, and this country 
 is now awakening to the credit due them. Avhieh I hope will 
 sometime be paid them. 
 
 When you come down to the present time, I admit that 
 I am not up to the times. I never dreamed that the Union 
 Pacific Railroad Avould control the Southern Pacific. My fear 
 was always that the ownership would be in the Southern 
 Pacific. You must not sit still and pass by what there is for 
 you here in this great control. Your business men must get 
 near to the throne, and use your energies like Miller and 
 Hitchcock, and Saunders and Millard and many others did in 
 an earlier day to take the benefits of these new developments. 
 Nor need you be afraid of the great combinations just com- 
 pleted in the northwest. It will not raise the rates of freight 
 one mill nor of passengers one cent. The men at the head of 
 that gigantic enterprise are broad-minded. They have thought 
 and built well, and they will bring stability, development and 
 great wealth, that cannot but be of great benefit to you. You 
 must not forget one of the great advantages of such combina- 
 tions to a new country. They have behind them such an im- 
 mense capital that when you go to them with any project that 
 has merit in it, for the development of your country, they are
 
 THE PIONEERS OP THE WEST 145 
 
 able to adopt it and carry it out, whilst in an earlier day 
 projects were often presented to those who controlled the 
 internal improvem,ents of this country which they saw the 
 merits of and were anxious to take hold of, but it was impos- 
 sible for them to obtain the capital at those times to do it. 
 Nor must you forget what this combination means. The coun- 
 try west of here has hardly been scratched and with the brains 
 and capital of the country pushing forward its development 
 with steam and electricty and air, what one here can prophesy 
 what fifty years will develop between here and the Pacific 
 ocean? 
 
 I know there is some nervousness among people about 
 these great combinations, but those that are not upon a solid 
 basis will topple over from their overweight, and the others 
 will continue and grow and bring stability to all kinds of busi- 
 ness. The commercial man wants to know that he can safely 
 lay down plans for six months or a year, and under such direc- 
 tion he can safely do it, and it is a mistake to attack them 
 before you are hurt. You will find greater benefits coming to 
 your country by supporting and aiding them rather than by 
 abuse and opposition. 
 
 New blood must take the place of old, and I bid you God- 
 speed in your efforts. And now, my friends, in our old age 
 the great satisfaction to all of you and to me is to know that 
 our early efforts are both recognized and appreciated : that 
 the old friendships acquired in trials and tribulations are still 
 fresh and true, and to my old friends and all of you I wish I 
 knew how to express to you what is in my heart, but I cannot. 
 I can only say, I thank you with all my heart.
 
 LETTER TO THE IOWA RAILWAY CLUB, DES MOINES, 
 IOWA, MAY 25, 1908. 
 
 Mr. C. W. Jones, President Iowa Railway Club, Des Moines, 
 loAva. 
 
 Dear Sir : It is with deepest regret that I find myself un- 
 able on account of an illness, not serious, but which makes it 
 impossible for me to travel, to be present at the reunion of the 
 old-time railway men of Iowa, for it Avas my good fortune early 
 in 1853 to cross the Mississippi River and be one of a party 
 under Mr. Peter A. Dey, one of the most distinguished railroad 
 engineers and citizens, that made the first survey across the 
 State of Iowa from the Mississippi River at Davenport to 
 Council Bluffs on the Missouri River, and to take part in the 
 building of that line to Iowa City. I think it was the first 
 railroad built in the State of Iowa. I take great pleasure and 
 great satisfaction in extending my greetings to my railroad 
 comrades of that day. 
 
 It has also been my good fortune to have continued my 
 railroad Avork from that day to this, even including the Civil 
 "War, for in my duties there I had to destroy and rebuild many 
 miles of road, so I can claim not only to have been in the be- 
 ginning, but a veteran in the service, and in all these j'^ears 
 I have seen the work of you men that has developed and 
 brought such prosperity to this country. 
 
 The men of the early day who risked their fortunes and 
 their credit to develop this great country are not only entitled 
 to our thanks, but monuments should be raised to the work 
 which they accomplished, for most of them waited many many 
 years before they received any returns from the vast invest- 
 ments which they made. The railroads of this country were 
 most of them built far ahead of the population's demand and 
 were the pioneers in the development and settlement of the 
 country. These men have never received the credit that is 
 due them, but some dav when the history of the railroads of
 
 148 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 the United States is written, the risk they took, the work 
 they accomplished will equal that of any other performance 
 in our or any other country. To you who were in the begin- 
 ning it is not necessary to relate the exposure, hardship and 
 privations that railroad men of our class had to contend with 
 and how different our work in those days was. compared with 
 what it is under the present modern conditions. Still I claim 
 we performed our work as efficiently with an interest in it and 
 esprit de corps that was equal comparatively with the work 
 of our railroad comrades of today. 
 
 "We have seen the railroads of a few thousand miles of 
 that day grow until in the United States we have nearly, if 
 not quite, 240,000 miles, and in our state we have seen built 
 a network of them that I believe covers every county in 
 the state, probably giving our state as good, if not better, 
 transportation services than that of any other state in our 
 Union, although we are simply an agricultural state and it 
 is this fact that has made our state so prominent a fa<:-tor in 
 all matters of national importance, and that has given it such 
 imiversal and individual prosperity. 
 
 The railroad problem of today is a far different one from 
 what it was in your day. Then the whole aim and effort of the 
 country was to obtain the building of railroads. Great bonuses 
 in stock were given to capital that would invest in them : it 
 was the only method of obtaining the construction of roads ; 
 even those that had land grants in our day which now are 
 considered of such great worth, added very little in the nego- 
 tiations of the securities that built the road. 
 
 The growth of the country, its business, its population has 
 brought about an entirely different stjito of affairs. Legisla- 
 tion of today for the police and control of railroads all tends 
 to prevent the building of new roads and to enhance the value 
 of old ones, so that now the transportation of the country is 
 organized in great systems instead of as in an early day where 
 every road was running in its own interest and independent 
 of every one of its connections. It is a singular fact in this 
 modern legislation that the people best equipped for forming 
 it and carrying it out have been very little considered. There- 
 fore, much of it is impracticable and has been found by the
 
 LETTER TO THE IOWA RAILWAY CLUB 149 
 
 courts impossible. That of it which has been put in force has 
 been acquiesced in by the railroads and they are working now 
 with the Interstate Commerce and State Commissions in har- 
 mony and endeavoring to comply with the laws and decisions, 
 not only in the letter but in the spirit, and, as our people get 
 experience in these matters, I have no doubt, myself, that the 
 legislation will be made practical and of benefit to the roads 
 and to the people. 
 
 Experience shows the people as they investigate this mat- 
 ter that the railroad problem is a very hard one to solve and 
 that it takes long experience to frame laws that will accomplish 
 the objects they have in view. One of the most mistaken ideas 
 that our country has in relation to the railroads of this coun- 
 try is the statement often made by officials and through the 
 press that the railroads of this country are over capitalized, 
 that their stock is mostly water. People forget that since the 
 roads were first built that out of their earnings millions upon 
 millions of dollars have gone in for their improvement and 
 betterment, for building up their great commercial business, 
 and that their value has increased with that of other products 
 and industries of our country. They forget that the life of the 
 railroad now is only about twelve years and that it has to be 
 rebuilt, so that during our time most of the roads of the United 
 States have been rebuilt three times and the rebuilding of them 
 has one-half of it come out of its earnings and all this has been 
 added to its capital without the issue of bonds or stock. 
 
 When you go back to our day and remember that our rails 
 were iron and only about forty or fifty pounds to the yard 
 in weight, our cars were of twenty tons, our locomotives of 
 thirty tons, and that now our rails are steel and run from 
 seventy-five to 105 pounds to the yard, our ears from forty 
 to sixty tons, our locomotives sixty to 100 tons on the drivers, 
 and that most of our roads in their bridges, in their shops, 
 and all of its improvements have had to be reconstructed in 
 the same way and are only today being made permanent ; 
 when you consider that in an early day the question of ter- 
 minals was never a factor, while today the terminals of some 
 roads passing through some cities cost more than the road 
 itself; when you see such roads as the Pennsylvania spending
 
 150 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 $100,000,000 to get its passenger trains only into New York 
 City, and the New York Central spending an equal amount 
 to enlarge its passenger facilities in New York ; when you 
 see such great systems in the West as the Union Pacific and the 
 Southern Pacific having spent in the last five years over $200,- 
 000,000 to reduce their curvatures and grades and to see the 
 immense sums that have to be spent all over the United States 
 to develop the capacity of the properties, you can then begin 
 to comprehend the fact which staticians who have examined 
 the question thoroughly say that the railroads of the United 
 States today are not over capitalized. In other words, there 
 has been more actual money put into them than their stock 
 and the bonds represent. This has been attested to by the 
 President of the United States, who probably has given it 
 closer attention than anyone else outside of the railroads, and 
 by the Interstate Commerce Commission, who have also given 
 it great study, and they have both given the opinion that the 
 roads today of the United States are not over capitalized, and 
 that fact is becoming patent to the people of the United States, 
 for the great increase in stockholders in the roads of the 
 United States today shows that instead of these properties 
 being in the hands of a few wealthy men, as is often asserted, 
 they are owned most in this country by a vast number of 
 stockholders, which is increasing daily. 
 
 It is the duty of us who have been long connected with 
 the roads, or who were connected with them in an early day, 
 to do what we can to educate the people of the United States 
 as to the real facts in connection with railroading. In my 
 opinion where the railroad people have been lacking in their 
 duties is in not educating the people as the years went by. 
 and setting forth more clearlj^ to them the railroad interests 
 and their intentions. The fact is that every railroad man has 
 been so busy looking after the proper administration of his 
 property that he has very seldom or ever gone into a defense 
 or explanation of his work. As a proof of this I have been a 
 railroad man continuously since I was 19 years old and this 
 is the first letter that I have ever written that in any way 
 went to a defense of the railroads of the country. T have been 
 in favor from tlie beginning with a great many otlier railroad
 
 LETTER TO THE IOWA RAILWAY CLUB 151 
 
 men of the country who were among the first to bring the 
 necessity to the Government's attention of proper legislation 
 for bringing about uniformity, in all service, reasonable and 
 fixed rates without rebates Math proper control of the railroads 
 of the United States. The necessity for this has only come in 
 the last few years, and it is recognized now almost universally 
 by railroad men, and your association can do a great deal to 
 continue it in a sensible and profitable way, and I trust at this 
 meeting a permanent organization of the railroad men will be 
 formed for this state. 
 
 Every one of you should be proud of the fact that you 
 kave been a part of and did your duty in the great railroad 
 field that numbers many of our ablest men and officials of our 
 country, that you have been a part of that great system which 
 employes over a million and a half of our population, and as 
 «ne of you, the highest compliment that can be paid me when 
 I am gone is that I was over fifty years one of the railroad 
 fraternity of the United States and did my duty to the best 
 of my ability. 
 
 It is a great disappointment to me that I cannot be present 
 with you, to first grasp by the hand my old chief, Peter A. Dey, 
 whom I hold to be one of the ablest of the railroad men of our 
 country, one of the squarest, fairest and most just of all the 
 men I ever met, and the two Houses, J. E. and George, who 
 were in ©ur little party that crossed the Mississippi River 
 m 1853.
 
 
 / ■ c 
 
 Vi^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 ■ :.^
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NORWICH UNIVERSITY GIVEN AT 
 THE ANNUAL BANQUET, APRIL 3, 1893. 
 
 We have with us this evening, besides those directly con- 
 nected with Norwich University, representatives of West Point, 
 Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Hamilton and the University of 
 Vermont, as well as a delegation from the Brooklyn Society 
 of Vcrmonters. Many of them probably do not know much 
 about Norwich University, and, for their information, I have 
 compiled from the records a short statement which I will read. 
 
 Norwich University was founded b}'' Captain Alden Part- 
 rigde, in 1819. Captain Partridge had been the commandant 
 of West Point, and left there to found a literary, scientific and 
 military academy at Norwich, Vermont, and there started the 
 first scientific, classical and military college in the United 
 States. It was the first institution to lay down a thoroughly 
 scientific course of study, and, up to the time of the Rebellion, 
 it was the only one which embraced a thorough military, classi- 
 cal and scientific course. Its second commander was Colonel 
 Truman B. Ransom, who left to take command of the Ninth 
 New England Regiment in the war with Mexico, and who was 
 killed while leading his regiment in the assault upon Chapul- 
 tepec, Mexico, his last words being, "Forward, the Ninth!" 
 The University has never had one cent of endowment. It has 
 been always poor, struggling for existence, and its cadets were 
 mostly poor boys, working their way through college by their 
 own efforts. In the War of the Rebellion its record, according 
 to its numbers, is far beyond any civil institution of learning 
 in the country. In 1864 its roster, as partially completed, 
 showed then in the service, twelve generals, twenty-five colo- 
 nels, forty field officers, fifty-five captains, 142 lieutenants on 
 the Union side. There were a great many on the Confederate 
 side, but no roster of them has ever been made. 
 
 Its roll of honor includes Harney, Buell, T. E. G. Ransom, 
 Terry, Seymour, Strong, Milroy, Louden, Seth Williams, 
 
 —153 —
 
 154 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Wright, Baxter of the Medical Department, Dewey, Abbott, 
 Converse, Colvocoresses and others of the Navy, and many 
 other equally good soldiers and sailors. 
 
 General Grant often paid high tribute to Norwich Uni- 
 versity, and, in his promotion and commendation of its cadets, 
 gave them the highest command and great honor, placing one 
 of them, a brigadier-general, at the head of a corps, where 
 he remained until he was promoted to major-general, while 
 major-generals in the same army were commanding divisions. 
 
 General Sherman never failed, when Norwich University 
 was spoken of, to commend it, and he paid it the highest hon- 
 ©rs by giving to two of its graduates (I think then the young- 
 est two generals of their rank in his army) the command of 
 corps, one of whom. Ransom (son of Colonel Truman B. Ran- 
 som, who was killed at the assault upon Chapultepec) died, 
 while leading the Seventeenth Army Corps in the (>ha»e after 
 Hood. * 
 
 In speaking of this institution publicly at one time, while 
 paying tribute to one of its cadets. General Sherman spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 "Norwich University, then, as since, a college of gi'eat 
 renown. This military school at one time almost rivaled the 
 National Military Academy at West Point, and there many a 
 man who afterwards became famous in the Mexican War and 
 Civil War first drank in the inspiration of patriotism and 
 learned the lessons of the art of war, which enabled hiai, out 
 eff unorganized masses of men, to make compact companies, 
 regiments and brigades of soldiers, to act as a single body in 
 the great game of war. I have been at Norwich, which is 
 situated on the western bank of the beautiful Connecticut 
 River, directly opposite the venerable University of Dart- 
 mouth, and believe that such picturesque surroundings make 
 an impression on the mind which purifies and imbues it with 
 an exalted lover of nature and one's country;" 
 
 Since that time Norwich University has removed to North- 
 field, Vermont. 
 
 Norwich University is today more prosperous than ever 
 before. The State of Vermont has given it official recognition, 
 and T believe that each State Senator of their legislature is
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NORWICH UNIVERSITY 155 
 
 entitled to appoint one cadet to the university, and that the 
 state pays for his tuition. 
 
 There are a few of us who meet here now yearly to keep 
 alive the spirit and principles of the college, holding closely 
 to its military department. It has stood first in work of all 
 the military colleges of our country and ranks next to West 
 Point in the graduates it turns oiit and in the service given 
 in the Oivil War.
 
 NORWICH UNIVERSITY IN THE CIVIL WAR, AT THE 
 ANNUAL BANQUET IN NEW YORK IN 1902. 
 
 1 take great pleasure in ■welcoming you to the banquet of 
 the New York Association of Norwich University. The dis- 
 tinguishing feature of this university is that nine-tenths of 
 its students are dependent upon their own efforts, not only 
 for their education, but their future in the world, and there 
 is no doubt that from this fact so many of its cadets have been 
 successful in all the walks of life. It is a military college. 
 Its first president was the first commandant of West Point, 
 and from its organization until today it has stood first in the 
 records of the War Department as compared with other insti- 
 tutions of a similar character, and second only to West Point. 
 
 In the Mexican War its president, Truman R. Ransom, and 
 most of the cadets entered the service of the United States. 
 Ransom was colonel of the New England regiment, and fell 
 in the assault upon Chapultepec. 
 
 In the Civil War 90 per cent of its living cadets entered 
 the service, mostly as officers, on one side or the other, and, 
 as the history of the university shows, many of them rose to 
 the highest rank and highest commands in the service. The 
 university received the commendations of Generals Grant, 
 Sherman. Sheridan, Thomas and others, and Norwich Uni- 
 versity cadets were alwaj's selected next to those from West 
 Point, for important and difficult demands. There are present 
 here tonight those who were cadets during the Civil War whose 
 \vhole class enlisted. In fact, the whole university turned out, 
 suspending the functions of the institution for two years. 
 
 In the Spanish War it is said that 85 per cent of its living 
 cadets volunteered for service, and were distinguished on many 
 fields. Many of them are still in the service. It was equally 
 as well represented in our navy in both wars. It was one of 
 its cadets that struck the first effective blow in the Spanish 
 War, and another cadet. Commander Colvocoresses. who com- 
 
 —157—
 
 158 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 maiided one of the vessels, after the naval battle at Manila, 
 went alongside the Olympia to pay his respects and congratu- 
 late Admiral Dewey upon his great victory. Admiral Dewey, 
 who saw Colvocoresses as he came alongside in his launch, 
 leaned over the rail and said, "Colv., old N. U. is ahead yet," 
 showing no matter what his after life or education had been, 
 he gave the credit for his success to his alma mater. 
 
 In civil life its cadets have greatly distinguished them- 
 selves as engineers, and in other professional lines. Probably 
 I can say that there is no one who has had as many of the 
 cadets of Norwich University under him as I have, both in 
 the Civil War, and later in the internal improvements of the 
 country, and to my knowledge there has been no failure among 
 them. They have universally taken their places and held them 
 until they went to higher positions. The university today is 
 the military college of the State of Vermont, which assigns to 
 it a representative cadet for each senatorial district. 
 
 I believe myself there is no education so beneficial to a 
 young man as that which gives discipline, respect for power 
 and obedience to orders, and the drill and exercise add to the 
 health of the student, so when he steps out into the world to 
 fight his way he is better equipped than those who have gone 
 through college without this physical and mental training. 
 
 I am happy to say that the university has never been so 
 prosperous as it is today. The iuterest in it is growing, and 
 it is a great satisfaction to the old cadets to see and feel the 
 high esteem in which it is held throughout the country. In 
 comparison with other colleges few in numbers, but in acts 
 and all things that go to make and defend a great country we 
 stand the peer of the best institutions of learning our cpuntry 
 has produced. 
 
 It is a great pleasure for me to welcome the large at- 
 tendance at this, our annual banquet, and to congratulate you 
 upon the prosperity of old N. U., and also upon the presence 
 of so many distinguished officers of the army, which indicates 
 better than anything else the interest taken in the growth of 
 the military colleges of the country by the AVar Department 
 and regular army, and the appreciation of their usefulness 
 in the building up of a great national reserve, such as other
 
 NORWICH UNIVERSITY IN THE CIVIL WAR 159 
 
 countrievS have, that can be placed in the field ready for service 
 in a short time. Secretary Root was the first to fully recognize 
 the advantage to the army of ultilizing their work, and since 
 his time Major-General Bell has carried out and developed 
 his plans, and a late order of his has gone forth in advance 
 of Secretary Root, as it places our honor graduates in the army 
 without mental examination. 
 
 I saw not long ago a criticism from some officers of the 
 General Staff that graduates of military colleges did not show 
 a disposition to enter the army in times of war, and citing the 
 Spanish War as an example, there being but few officers in 
 the volunteers coming from the military colleges and schools. 
 I think their conclusion does not show a very deep study of 
 the organization of our volunteer force in the Spanish War, 
 or such a statement would not have been made. There is pres- 
 ent here tonight a former distinguished officer of the regular 
 army who had charge of the organization of the volunteer 
 force in the Spanish War who can bear me out in the state- 
 ment that the policy adopted by the Government at the insti- 
 gation of the Governors of the different states was to place 
 in the service intact the National Guard of these states, and 
 the volunteer forces of the war were organized on that plan. 
 As I recollect, the regiments mustered into the service took 
 about 90 per cent of their officers and only 40 per cent of their 
 enlisted men. When it came to the enlistments for the Philip- 
 pines, the War Department took that directly under its own 
 charge, and selected the officers of the regiments, and naturally 
 and justly gave preference to officers and enlisted men who 
 had shown fitness and ability in the service in Cuba, and 
 selected them as officers in these Philippine regiments. This 
 almost excluded officers outside of the National Guard on 
 account of the limited number organized and mustered in. I 
 think it Avould have been much fairer to the military colleges 
 to have gone back to the methods of the Civil War where 
 nearly all enlistments were voluntary, and officered by the 
 Governor of each state. At that time there was in the North 
 but one military college that I know of, and that was Norwich 
 Univei*sity. In the South there were several. One that I know 
 of was in northern Alabama, in the Tennessee Valley. I saw
 
 160 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 it burned down by my troops in the campaign up the Tennessee 
 to the rear of Bragg for the purpose of destrojnng the stores 
 accumulated by him along the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. 
 A company of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry struck the military 
 institute, and considering that it came within my orders for 
 the destruction of material and supplies that could be used 
 by the enemy, burned it and reported it officially to me. As I 
 said, I saw it burn, and regretted it, as it was contrary to my 
 orders. However, since the war I have tried to aid its trustees 
 in establishing their claim for payment by the Government 
 on account of its destruction. There was another military in- 
 stitution in Virginia, and I think in one or two other Southern 
 states, though I am not certain. But take the' record of Nor- 
 wich University with which we are acquainted. The president 
 had just compiled from our records a roster of its cadets who 
 served in the 3Iexican and Civil War, and here it is; I will 
 read it : 
 
 Major-generals 8 
 
 Brevet major-generals 2 
 
 Other general officers 11 
 
 Brevet brigadier generals. , 18 
 
 Colonels 43 
 
 Lieutenant-colonels 29 
 
 Majors 37 
 
 Captains 144 
 
 First lieutenants 72 
 
 Second lieutenants 42 
 
 Surgeons 23 
 
 Foreign service '. . . 63 
 
 Privates 60 
 
 Admirals 1 
 
 Rear admirals 5 
 
 Commodores 7 
 
 Captains 5 
 
 Commanders 3 
 
 Lieutenants 11 
 
 p]nsigns '. 1' 
 
 Engineers 3
 
 NORWICH UNIVERSITY IN THE CIVIL WAR 161 
 
 Midshipmen 14 
 
 Chaplains 1 
 
 Drill masters — rank not known 3 
 
 Warrant officers and miscellaneous 8 
 
 Commissioned officers with war service 485 
 
 Total with war service 584 
 
 Total with militia service only 143 
 
 All with military or naval service 717 
 
 The enrollment at Norwich University for the thirty years 
 from 1835 to 3864 was 956, and 427 of these served in the Civil 
 War as officers, or 46 per cent of the total enrollment. Of 
 course, many of those enrolled during the thirty years had 
 died, so the percentage should really be much larger. 
 
 . The enrollment at the Virginia Military Institute for same 
 period was 1,430. Nine hundred and eighty-six of its cadets 
 served in the Civil War. of which 563 were commissioned offi- 
 cers, or 68 per cent. 1 have no doubt in case of war and the 
 opportunity was offered, the military colleges Avould furnish 
 as large a percentage as they did in the Civil War. 
 
 The attendance at Norwich University up to the time of 
 the Civil War Avas seldom more than fifty, and I think it is 
 fair to state that no institution of learning ever turned out 
 such a proportion of its students to serve its country, and none 
 other can shoAv the distinction they attained in the service. 
 Although I do not state it as a fact, I believe it compares 
 favorably with- West Point. If you go into civil life, into the 
 scientific professions, you will find that the graduates of the 
 military colleges, in proportion to their numbers, hold the most 
 important positions and have accomplished the most important 
 work. If you go into the development of the country and its 
 internal improvements you will find these graduates very 
 prominent. In the Civil War General Grant and General 
 Sherman paid their tribute to them, not only in words, but 
 in deeds. AYhen it came to the selection of officers for important 
 commands, especially independent commands, they took first 
 the graduates of West Point, next the graduates of these col- 
 leges. No matter what you read or hear, in the army and navy, 
 as in all professions and industries, the educated soldier must 
 come to the front first. The rest have to learn from years of
 
 162 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 experience what they know from the beginning, and for that 
 reason in building up a great national reserve for our country, 
 (which we are bound to have), each year our military schools 
 will become a great and prominent factor, and will be more 
 and more utilized l)y the Government. 
 
 1 am opposed to war, and will go as far as any man to 
 prevent it, but am a firm believer that peace can only be pre- 
 served by having an army and navy, and a reserve that can 
 be put into the field ready to meet any force it is possible for 
 any country to bi-ing against us. This will insure peace, and 
 I hope ere long a permanent agreement will be made by all 
 nations to arbitrate and carry out the plans of our Govern- 
 ment w'hich were so forcibly and ably presented at the Hague 
 conference. 
 
 As to the standing of these military colleges, 1 call your 
 attention to the reports of inspection made by the War Depart- 
 ment in 1903 on Norwich University. They are too long to 
 read, but nearly all the questions asked by the War Depart- 
 ment and General Staff are answered favorably, and the final 
 statement for 1907 is as follows: 
 
 "The general excellent condition of the military depart- 
 ment of this university reported last year has been maintained. 
 The w'ork here is very satisfactory, and the college authorities 
 deserve all possible encouragement and assistance from the 
 War Department in their efforts to maintain their high military 
 standing. Lieutenant Chapman's seelction for this duty was a 
 very fortunate one. 
 
 "MICHAEL -J. LENHTAN. 
 
 ■'Captain (Jeneral Staff. 
 
 ' ' Insoector. ' ' 
 
 It is a sin^ulai- fad that tlu^ eharital)le people who give 
 large sums for the maintenance and endowment of colleges 
 and schools of the country, seldom, if ever, give to the military 
 college, so that young boys who enter these schools go there 
 from an instinct or love of the military feature of them, and 
 are. therefore, of necessity l)onnd to make good soldiers and 
 good officers. Most of those who go to thest^ colleges have to 
 work their way through, and seek employment on theii- merits
 
 NORWICH UNIVERSITY IN THE CIVIL WAR 163 
 
 alone, and are taught lessons they never forget. I have in 
 view an object lesson of this kind which occurred on one of 
 our roads during this last fall. Our trainmen struck at noon 
 one day without any warning to us, and left their trains stand- 
 ing. When our employes learned this, under the lead of a 
 graduate of Norwich University who is an employe of the 
 road, they volunteered to man the trains and run them for us. 
 I think we were not obliged to bring in any additional men, 
 and in about two weeks, the strikers, seeing the spirit and 
 esprit de corps in the employes of the company, returned to 
 their work without obtaining any of the demands they had 
 made. It is the education received in these colleges that brings 
 about an interest iu their employer's work. Its graduates are 
 fitted for any position in life. First, because of the training 
 which gives them strength and health and second, because 
 daily they are taught honesty and industry, respect to author- 
 ity, loyalty to the Government, and finally absolute obedience 
 to orders.
 
 '■^t^J^m^^^^ \.%%'^%S:!i:mmmmi^ 
 
 If 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 ^C^'^SSV' 

 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE VERMONT SOCIETY OF NEW 
 YORK ON NORWICH UNIVERSITY, 1903. 
 
 For your kindly greeting, and the honor you have con- 
 ferred upon me, by electing me a honorary member of your 
 society, you have my grateful thanks. 
 
 When a young boy I spent four years among the green 
 hills, beautiful valleys, and sweet, honest, hearty homes of 
 Vermont. I thought then they were years of hard toil, of vexa- 
 tions and of submission to older boys who wore brass buttons, 
 and sat down upon me severely, and I longed to see them over ; 
 but from that day to this they were my happiest hours, free 
 from care and responsibility, and for the benefit I received, and 
 the lessons they taught me, for the discipline in mind, thought 
 and action, and the respect to authority that was drilled into 
 me, I am here tonight, not only to thank the State of Vermont, 
 but to say a few words for the institution that sent me forth 
 so well equipped to meet the world. 
 
 The Green Mountain Boys have not only always faced the 
 enemy, but have made a record on the battlefield, second to 
 no other state. Vermont's killed and wounded in battle, the 
 success of her troops and the ability with which they were 
 commanded in each engagement is known to you all. She 
 stands, if I remember rightly, second on the roster, not only 
 in killed and wounded in a regiment, but in the largest per- 
 centage of the killed and wounded, according to the number 
 of troops furnished by each state. 
 
 Among the leading officers of the army the question has 
 often been discussed why this was so. I think it was that her 
 troops were so well commanded. This came from the fact 
 that for forty-two years before the War of the Eebellion'she 
 had a standing object lesson in the necessity and benefits of 
 a military education before her youth in Norwich University. 
 
 The history of that university and its record in war and 
 peace, will demonstrate to you one of the principal reasons 
 
 —165—
 
 166 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 that has placed our little state of Vermont so high on the roll 
 of honor of this nation, and when I recite it to you I know it 
 will receive at your hands the credit due to it from the Sons 
 of Vermont. 
 
 Captain Alden Partridge, the commandant of West Point, 
 left there in 1819, to found a literary,' scientific and military 
 academy at Norwich, Vermont, and there started the first 
 private scientific, classical and military college in the United 
 States. 
 
 It was incorporated as Norwich University in 1834, and 
 was modelled after "West Point. It was the first institution to 
 lay down a thoroughly scientific course of study, and, up to 
 the time of the Rebellion, is was the only one which embraced 
 a thoroughly military, classical and scientific course. 
 
 From the time of its foundation until today, in its military 
 and scientific features, it has stood second to our national 
 academy. It is by its charter non-sectarian. The dicipline, dis- 
 tinction and duties of an officer and a soldier are maintained 
 throughout its course. 
 
 The university is maintained on less than $5,000 a year. It 
 has never had one cent endowment. It has always been poor, 
 struggling for existence, and its cadets were mostly poor boys, 
 working their way through college by their own efforts. The 
 expense of a cadet, including everything, it not necessarily over 
 $200 a year, and of cadets appointed by the state, not over 
 $150; this alone teaches economy, industry and self-reliance. 
 
 The cadets wear a uniform patterned after West Point, 
 thus avoiding extravagance in dress. Their military duties 
 and studies take every hour in the day from 6 a. m. to 9 p. m., 
 preventing idleness and negligence. The drill and exercise 
 make hearty, healthy men, who often march thirty to forty 
 miles per day carrying the equipment of a soldier. 
 
 In the War of the Rebellion its record is far beyond any 
 civil institution of learning in the country. In 1864, its roster, 
 as partially completed, showed then in the service, twelve 
 generals, twenty-five colonels, forty field officers, fifty-five cap- 
 tains, 142 lieutenants, and many non-commissioned officers and 
 privates on the I'^nion side.
 
 ADDRESS ON NORWICH UNIVERSITY 167 
 
 There were a great many on the Confederate side, but 
 no roster of them has ever been made. During the War of the 
 Rebellion the undergraduates enlisted so fast that for two 
 years there was no commencement at the university. The sec- 
 ond commander of the university was Colonel Truman B. Ran- 
 som, who resigned to take command of the Ninth New England 
 Regiment in the war with IMexico, and who was killed while 
 leading his regiment in the assault upon Chapultepec, Mexico, 
 his last words being, "Forward, the Ninth!" 
 
 The roll of honor includes Harney Buel, the three Ransoms, 
 Seymour, Strong, Milroy, Louden, Seth AVilliams, Bryant, 
 "Wright, Baxter of the Medical Department, Abbott, Converse 
 and others of the navy, and many other equally good soldiers 
 and sailors. 
 
 General Grant often paid high tribute to Norwich Uni- 
 versity, and in his promotion and commendation of its cadets, 
 gave them the highest command and great honor, placing one 
 of them, a brigadier-general, at the head of a corps, Avhere he 
 remained until he was promoted to major-general, while major- 
 generals in the same array were commanding divisions. 
 
 General Sherman never failed, w^hen Norwich University 
 was spoken of, to commend it, and he paid it the highest hon- 
 ors by giving two of its graduates (I think then the two young- 
 est generals of their rank in his army), the command of corps, 
 one of whom. Ransom (son of Truman B. Ransom, who was 
 killed at the assault upon Chapultepec), died while leading 
 the Seventh Arpiy Corps in the chase after Hood. 
 
 In speaking of this institution publicly at one time, while 
 paying a tribute to one of its cadets. General Sherman spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 "Norwich University, then as since, a college of great 
 renown. This military school at one time almost rivaled the 
 National Military Academy at West P-^int, and there many a 
 man who afterwards became famous in the Mexican War and 
 Civil War, first drank in the inspiration of patriotism and 
 learned the lesson of the art of war, which enabled him, out 
 of unorganized masses of men, to make compact companies, 
 regiments and brigades of soldiers to act as a single body in the 
 great game of war.
 
 168 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 "I have been at Norwich, which is situated oii the western 
 bank of the beautiful Connecticut River, directly opposite the 
 venerable University of Dartmouth, and believe that such pic- 
 turesque surroundings make an impression on the mind which 
 purifies and imbues it with an exalted love of nature and one's 
 country." 
 
 Next to its military renown, its cadets have won great 
 distinction as leaders in the development of this continent ; 
 they explored for our great railways not only in our own 
 country, but in others, especially in South America ; they con- 
 nected the Atlantic with the Pacific with that great continental 
 system first built, which has added so much to our civilization, 
 wealth and progress. Their aid and advice have been sought 
 in most of the great works of Europe and China ; as civil and 
 mining'engineers they have gone over, through and deep down 
 in all of our great mountain ranges — the Andes and the Alps. 
 One of its cadets, Professor Jackman, whose mathematical 
 mind has won him great renown, in 1846 conceived and pub- 
 lished the plan of an ocean magnetic telegraph cable, remark- 
 ably like that laid in 1858. It is believed by many that Cyrus 
 W. Field received his first idea of the ocean cable from Pro- 
 fessor Jackman 's publications. 
 
 In 1884 the State of Vermont enacted a law. giving each 
 State Senator the right to appoint a cadet from his district 
 to Norwich University, and appropriated $50 per year for his 
 tuition and room rent. 
 
 This state recognition made it a State Military University ; 
 added greatly to its standing and the *' esprit de corps" of its 
 cadets. 
 
 Colonel R. P. Hughes, Inspector General of the United 
 States Army, in his official report to the Secretary of War, says, 
 "The Military Department has been a marked feature of this 
 institution ever since its establishment in 1819, by Captain 
 Alden Partridge, of the Corps of Engineers, the military sys- 
 tem has been carried into the entire duty of this college, and 
 the company officers have charge of their subordinates in the 
 dormitories as well as on the parade ground. The officers who 
 are members of the senior class have a control and influence
 
 ADDRESS ON NORWICH UNIVERSITif 169 
 
 over the lower classes that make itself felt in the management 
 of the establishment. 
 
 "The Military Department can have no higher encomium 
 than that supplied by its own record in the war. I know of 
 no other institution in our country that can present such a 
 striking and practical example of the spirit of loyalty and 
 patriotism instilled into its students. This institution is send- 
 ing out each year a class of men who are well fitted, both 
 practically and theoretically, to assume command of battalions 
 should any necessity arise for such services. Although the 
 numbers are small, it is due the institution to say that in its 
 military system, discipline and instruction, it stands at the 
 head of all the colleges in' this inspection." 
 
 Lieutenant Kimball, the officer detailed by the Secretary 
 of War, for duty at the university, and its commandant, in his 
 report for 1893, says, "The year's work included a thorough 
 course of drills in all arms of the service. The cadets were in 
 camp during June with three drills a day. During this time 
 only one cadet was under arrest. Fifty-five recitations in mil- 
 itary duty and science were had. The cadets lived according 
 to the customs of our military services, and it established be- 
 tween their officers and privates, habits of respect and official 
 courtesy which they carry into their future lives." 
 
 The successfully maintaining of such institutions grows 
 more difficult each year. The natural tendency of young men, 
 especially those with ample means, is to the larger colleges, but 
 if they would stop and think a moment, or could have the 
 experience of graduates in after life, they would learn that 
 for their own benefit, smaller colleges, more remote from large 
 cities, from their temptations, are the best. In large colleges 
 the student's identity is absolutely lost; they spend four years 
 without individuality, and generally without ambition, but 
 in smaller institutions of learning they are measured, tested 
 individually ; competition gives them favorable recognition 
 by the faculty ; lifts the student to a higher plane and greater 
 efforts, and when he graduates, he carries with him a personal 
 acquaintance with the entire corps — his record, individually, 
 and success come to him every year in his life.
 
 170 HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC 
 
 Last June I attended the commencement of Norwich Uni- 
 versity at Northfield, Vermont. The Governor and his staff, 
 in uniform -were present, the Governor delivering to each 
 oadet his diploma, and speaking appropriate words before an 
 immense audience, making it a state occasion. It brought to- 
 gether delegates from different colleges, the army officers sta- 
 tioned in and near Vermont, and distinguished guests. They 
 listened to the graduating class, witnessed the drills in all 
 the arms of the service, and it was the unanimous decision 
 of all, that the soldierly bearing arid discipline, the respect 
 shown to rank and authority, and the scholarly attainments 
 of the cadets were a great credit to the university, and a great 
 honor to the state. 
 
 I had not visited the university since I bid it good-bye 
 in 1851. I saw much to give me encouragement, notwithstand- 
 ing the great difficulty under which it labors, by having to 
 earn by day labor every dollar it spends each year. It is more 
 prosperous noAV than ever. In ten years it has quadrupled its 
 attendance, has built a new hall, added materially to its scien- 
 tific and engineering appliances, has paid off its mortgages, 
 and is free from debt. Has as commandant an officer detailed 
 by the United States, who takes great interest in its success. 
 It needs badly a new drill hall, gymnasium and steam heating 
 for all its buildings, large additions to its electrical and engi- 
 neering department, and more instructors. Those there now 
 are overworked. They hardly have a moment leisure from 
 early morning until late at night. In fact, after their duties 
 with the cadets are over, they have to attend to the corre- 
 spondence and business of the university. 
 
 To obtain all this on a permanent basis, the university 
 nuist have a permanent income. From endowment, scholar- 
 ships, in fact, from every source that our colleges are helped, 
 Norwich University stands alone of all the colleges in Ver- 
 mont, without endowment. Vermont has been fortunate lately 
 in the large sums donated to its institutions of learning, which 
 is rapidly building them up, and, I appeal here tonight to the 
 Sons of Vermont, as you have made me one of you, to place 
 Norwich University in a position in the state financially, that 
 it holds in the nation intellectuallv.
 
 ADDRESS ON NORWICH UNIVERSITY 171 
 
 The record the university has made for her state on the 
 battlefield, in the inaugurating, building and managing the 
 great enterprise of the country, entitles her to your serious 
 consideration. 
 
 If you want to do honor to your state, and credit to your- 
 self for all time, let me say to you, it is best done by aiding 
 old N. U. It is no disparagement to others to state that it has 
 a wider reputation than any of the institutions of learning 
 in Vermont on account of its military and scientific record, 
 and the Sons of Vermont may rest assured that every dollar 
 planted to its benefit now or in the future will be heard from 
 more effectually hereafter than in the past, for there will be 
 as great fields for her cadets in war, science and industries, 
 national and international developments as has occurred in 
 the past, and what Vermonter or his descendant will not be 
 proud of the fact that it was his aid that enabled its cadets 
 to so distinguish themselves, that as honored a name, and as 
 great a commander as Grant, and as great a general, strategist 
 and engineer as Sherman, gave great honor, and upheld and 
 applauded before the world the deeds of the cadets of Norwich 
 University, and gave the credit for them to the education and 
 training they received at Norwich Universit}-.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 iSt j^^' 
 
 \m 
 
 
 ^'^ 3 1 1980 
 
 iDUftL APR 2 9 1980 
 
 URL 
 
 WAN 20 1994 
 
 Form L9-Series 444
 
 3 1158 00413 8235