Read Ebook: The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad Its Projectors Construction and History by Bailey William Francis

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At times the Company was paying as high as five hundred thousand dollars per month interest. And in fact it was claimed by several of the directors that the paramount reason for the haste displayed in building the road was not so much the competition with the Central Pacific as it was to get rid of the enormous interest charges they were paying and which they would cut off upon the road being accepted by the Government and the consequent receipt of Government Bonds.

Selection of Omaha as Eastern Terminus--Celebration Over Breaking Ground--Speech, George Francis Train--Commencement of Work--Conditions October, 1864--Routes Considered.

The first move towards the construction of the road was the selection of an eastern terminus which by the Charter was left to the President of the United States. This was fixed by President Lincoln on December 2nd, 1863, the official announcement being as follows: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do upon application of said Company designate and establish such first above named point on the western boundary of the state of Iowa east of and opposite to the east line of Section Ten in Township fifteen, north of range thirteen, east of the sixth principal Meridian in the territory of Nebraska."

"Done at the city of Washington this 7th day of March in the year of our Lord 1864.

Abraham Lincoln."

Immediately upon receipt of advice as to the President's action on December 2nd, 1863, the citizens of Omaha regardless of their connection with the road arranged to break ground for the Union Pacific Railroad and to properly celebrate the commencement of the work and especially the selection of their city as the eastern terminus, which was accordingly done. The spot selected for the initial point was near the Ferry Landing and not far above where the Union Pacific shops are now located. This particular spot with the first mile of track constructed, was long ago swept away by the Missouri River.

The ceremonies were commenced by asking the Divine Blessing on the enterprise in a prayer by the Rev. T. B. Lemon, Pastor of the First Methodist Church in Omaha. The Reverend Gentleman petitioned that the road make one the people of the East and West. That it would result in peopling the waste places of the West; that it might lend security to those on the frontier, and other similar requests, all of which have been fulfilled to a degree that is past being coincidental. The first earth was then removed by Governor Saunders of Nebraska Territory, Mayor Kennedy of Omaha, George Francis Train and others assisting. Congratulatory messages were received from different parts of the country. Speeches were made by A. J. Poppleton and others, the day being wound up by a banquet in the evening. The speech of the day was delivered by George Francis Train, then in his heyday, which is so characteristic of the man and of the ideas then prevalent relative to the road and the results of its construction as to warrant the following somewhat lengthy extracts:

"I have no telegrams to read, no sentiments to recite. The official business being over and as I happen to be lying around loose in this part of the country at this particular time, it gives me a chance to meet some of the live men of Nebraska at the inauguration of the grandest enterprise under God the world had ever witnessed.

"America is the stage, the world the audience of today, while one act of the drama represents the booming of cannon on the Rapidan, the Cumberland and the Rio Grande, sounding the death knell of rebellion, the next scene has the booming of cannon on both sides the Missouri to celebrate the grandest work of peace that ever engaged the energies of man. The great Pacific Railroad is commenced and if you know the men who have hold of the enterprise as well as I do, no doubt would arise as to its speedy completion.

"Four thousand years ago the Pyramids were started, but they simply represented the vanity of man. The Chinese wall was grand in conception, but built to break the tide of invasion. The Suez Canal was gigantic, but how limited all those things appear in comparison to this enterprise.

"Before the first century of our nation's birth we may see in the New York Depots, some strange Pacific Railroad notices such as,

'European passengers for Japan will please take the night train. Passengers for China this way. African and Asiatic freight must be distinctly marked For Pekin via San Francisco.'

"Ere ten years go by I intend to let the European traveller get a new sensation by standing on the ridge pole of the American Nation and sliding off into the sea.

"One day a dispatch will come in--we have tapped a mountain of copper, nineteen miles square, later on--we have just opened up another field of coal--or--we have struck another iron mountain this morning--when Eureka--a telegram electrifies the speculators in Wall Streets and gold drops below par--at ten this morning we struck a pick into a mountain of solid gold.

"The Pacific Railroad is the nation, and the nation is the Pacific Railroad. Labor and capital shake hands today. The lion and the lamb sleep together. Here in the West are the representatives of labor and in the East are those of capital. The two united make the era of progress. Steam, Gas, and Electricity are the liberty, fraternity, and equality of the people. The world is on the rampage. Events are earthquakes now.

"Ten millions of emigrants will settle in this golden land in twenty years."

Early in 1864 work was begun on the first hundred miles. The actual work being commenced within the corporate limits of Omaha in February. About one hundred thousand dollars was spent in grading a due westerly route out of Omaha. This was abandoned on account of it being so hilly, and a route south and thence west was adopted. The ties for this section were cottonwood from the Missouri River bottom lands, treated with a view of making them last. It was found that the treatment was not effective and for the balance of the road, hard wood ties from Michigan, Indiana, and even as far east as Pennsylvania were used, some of them costing as much as two dollars and fifty cents laid down in Omaha.

At this time there was no railroad completed into Omaha from the East. The Chicago and Northwestern being the first to reach there, and its first train ran into Council Bluffs on Sunday, January 17th, 1867. Consequently all supplies, other than those coming to them via the Missouri River, had to be wagoned from Des Moines, Iowa, one hundred and thirty-three miles.

On the Missouri River the Company had in service six large steamboats carrying supplies and material for construction from Kansas City where there was railroad connection with the East by way of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Everything had to be brought in, the country being destitute of even stone and lumber, involving great expense and delays. While the level country enabled rapid progress to be made in grading, it was almost impossible to bring forward the requisite material to keep up with the graders and track-layers.

Everything was still held at war prices, iron, ties, lumber, provisions, etc., while currency and the Government bonds on which they were relying, were greatly depreciated in value. Labor was scarce and only to be had at extravagant figures.

In the report of one of the Government inspectors, made in 1864, when the grading had progressed some twenty miles out of Omaha, he stated: "There are now some two hundred men employed on the work and a like number of horses and oxen, together with two excavating machines that are doing the work of many men. It is confidently expected that this Section will be ready to be laid with rails by June 1st, next." This he regarded as very commendable but as compared with four years later, when there were nearly twelve thousand men engaged and track was going down from two to ten miles a day, it seems anything else but satisfactory.

A great amount of the preliminary work in the way of reconnoissance, surveying, and even locating was done under Governmental auspices previous to 1860, most of it by officers of the army. All of their reports and surveys were by action of Congress given to the Railroad Company, thus saving them greatly in time as well as in money. In addition to the Government surveys the Company investigated and did more or less surveying before deciding upon the route to be followed through the Rockies.

In the report of the Government directors for 1866 they refer to the following eight routes as having been investigated during the preceding year by the Company, viz.:

The first seven of these routes included Denver en route. Something that the Company considered essential and which was very reluctantly abandoned.

Completion of Eleven Miles--Excursion--Officers--Labor Supply--Ex-Soldiers--Methods Employed--Progress Made--Headquarter Towns--Rough Times--Competition With Central Pacific for Territory--Stations--Buildings, Etc.

As we saw in our last chapter, ground was broken at Omaha, December 2nd, 1863. This, however, was more in the nature of a jollification on the part of the citizens of Omaha over the selection of their city as the eastern terminus of the line,--it being under the auspices of "the leading citizens," organized and enthused by the irrepressible George Francis Train.

Grading was commenced in July, 1864, and track-laying the spring of 1865. The start was not auspicious, the line was originally located directly west from Omaha, but after one hundred thousand dollars had been spent, it was abandoned on account of the hills and consequent heavy grades, and two new lines were surveyed, one to the north and then west and the other south nearly to Bellevue, Kan., and then west. This latter was called the "Ox-bow Route" and was finally selected by the Company, notwithstanding violent opposition on the part of the people of Omaha, who feared that the Company would cross the Missouri at Bellevue, thus leaving Omaha out.

September 25th, 1865, saw eleven miles finished, and in November an excursion was run from Omaha to the end of the track, fifteen miles. This was gotten up by Vice-President Durant, who took an engine and flat car, inviting about twenty gentlemen to go with him on the first inspection trip to Sailing's Grove. Among the excursionists was General Sherman who gloried in the undertaking and expressed regret that at his age he could hardly anticipate living until the completion of the work. The party was very enthusiastic, and as the narrator naively puts it "as the commissary was well supplied, the gentlemen enjoyed themselves."

For a number of reasons the work dragged. It took one year to complete the first forty miles. The lack of rail connections east of Omaha were, previous to January, 1867, when the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad reached Council Bluffs, a very serious occasion of expense and delay. The work was new, those in charge were not at that time experienced, funds were scarce, and the credit of the Company not yet established, and as a result the average rate of progress during the first twelve months was but a mile a week.

The work of construction was in charge of Vice-President and General Manager, Thomas C. Durant.--The location, General Granville M. Dodge, Chief Engineer, formerly General of the United States Army and who had up to this time been in charge of the department. The operation of the line, forwarding of material and supplies, actual construction, etc., was in charge of Samuel B. Reed, General Superintendent and Engineer in charge of Construction. The track laying was done under contract by "Casement Brothers" while Mr. H. M. Hoxie was ubiquitous with the title of General Western Agent. Colonel Silas Seymour of New York was Consulting Engineer and Mr. W. Snyder, Assistant Superintendent and General Freight and Ticket Agent.

Another of the reasons for the slow progress made up to 1865 was the scarcity of labor. The surrounding territory had no surplus workmen and the East had not as yet grasped the idea that the road was actually under construction. With the disbandment of the armies, both North and South after the war, this situation was changed for the better. Large numbers of the ex-soldiers drifted West and were glad to find steady work at remunerative wages with the construction forces.

The Secretary of the Interior in his annual report for 1866 stated that out of fifteen hundred laborers employed on the Pacific Railways, three hundred were negroes and performed their duties faithfully and well, and he recommended legislation looking to the employment of more of the surplus freedmen on the same work. Among the officials,--engineers and bosses,--there were many who were ex-officers in the army. Thus the Chief Engineer had been a General, the Consulting Engineer, a Colonel, the head of the track-laying force, a General. This can best be explained by quoting from a paper on trans-continental railroads read by General Dodge, before the Society of the Army of the Tennessee at Toledo, Ohio, September, 1888.

"The work was military in character and one is not surprised to find among the superintendents and others in charge, a liberal sprinkling of military titles. Surveying parties were always accompanied by a detachment of soldiers as a protection against Indians. The construction trains were amply supplied with rifles and other arms and it was boasted that a gang of track-layers could be transmuted into a battalion of infantry at any moment. Over half of the men had shouldered muskets in many a battle."

The same facts are brought out by the following extract from a newspaper of that day.

"The whole organization of the road is semi-military. The men who go ahead are the advance guard, following them is the second line cutting through the gorges, grading the road and building the bridges. Then comes the main body of the army, placing the ties, laying the track, spiking down the rails, perfecting the alignment, ballasting and dressing up and completing the road for immediate use. Along the line of the completed road are construction trains pushing 'to the front' with supplies. The advance limit of the rails is occupied by a train of long box-cars with bunks built within them, in which the men sleep at night and take their meals. Close behind this train come train loads of ties, rails, spikes, etc., which are thrown off to the side. A light car drawn by a single horse gallops up, is loaded with this material and then is off again to the front. Two men grasp the forward end of the rail and start ahead with it, the rest of the gang taking hold two by two, until it is clear of the car. At the word of command it is dropped into place, right side up, during which a similar operation has been going on with the rail for the other side,--thirty seconds to the rail for each gang, four rails to the minute. As soon as a car is unloaded, it is tipped over to permit another to pass it to the front and then it is righted again and hustled back for another load.

"Close behind the track-layers comes the gaugers, then the spikers and bolters. Three strokes to the spike, ten spikes to the rail, four hundred rails to the mile. Quick work you say,--but the fellows on the Union Pacific are tremendously in earnest."

Or as another writer has it, "We witnessed here the fabulous speed with which the line was built. Through the two or three hundred miles beyond were scattered ten to fifteen thousand men in great gangs preparing the road-bed with plows, scrapers, shovels, picks, and carts, and among the rocks, with drills and powder were doing the grading as rapidly as men could stand and move with their tools. Long trains brought up to the end of the track, loads of ties and rails the former were transferred to teams and sent one or two miles ahead and put in place on the grade, then spikes and rails were reloaded on platform cars and pushed up to the last previously laid rail and with an automatic movement and celerity that was wonderful, practiced hands dropped the fresh rails one after another on the ties exactly in line. Hugh sledges sent the spikes home,--the car rolled on and the operation was repeated; while every few minutes the long heavy train behind sent out a puff of smoke from its locomotive and caught up with its load of material the advancing work. The only limit to the rapidity with which the track could thus be laid was the power of the road behind to bring forward material."

The above description applies to the later period of construction, when the forces had become thoroughly organized and the work systematized. The following table shows the rate of construction:

Ground broken at Omaha December 2nd, 1863. Work commenced at Omaha Spring, 1864. 11 Miles completed to Gilmore September 25th, 1865. 40 Miles completed to Valley December 31st, 1865. 47 Miles completed to Fremont January 24th, 1866. 50 Miles completed March 13th, 1866. 100 Miles completed June 2nd, 1866. 247 Miles completed to the 100th Meridian October 5th, 1866. 305 Miles completed December 31st, 1866. 414 Miles completed to Sidney, Wyo. August, 1867. 516 Miles completed to Cheyenne, Wyo. November 13th, 1867. 573 Miles completed to Laramie, Wyo. May 9th, 1868. 745 Miles completed December 31st, 1868. 1033 Miles completed to Ogden, Utah March 8th, 1869. 1086 Miles completed: To Promontory, Utah April 28th, 1869. Formal connection made May 10, 1869. Regular train service commenced July 15th, 1869. Completed according to Judicial decision November 6th, 1869.

The progress made was daily wired East and published in the principal newspapers. Thus in the "Chicago Tribune" items such as "One and nine-tenth miles of track laid yesterday on the Union Pacific Railroad" appeared in every issue.

During the construction of the line, headquarters were established at different points at the front, which were used as a basis of operations for the construction of the section beyond. These places enjoyed a temporary boom, some of them like Jonah's Gourd to wither up and die away, others profiting by the start are today points of importance. The first of these was North Platte, Nebraska, its selection being caused by the delay incident to bridging the river. This was the terminus of the road during the fall of 1866 and up to June 1867. During this time it was the distributing point for all the country west. The mixture of railroad laborers, freighters, etc., all of them with more or less money, inaugurated a rough time and was the beginning of the wild scenes that attended the construction of the line. The town during the winter had a population of five thousand and over a thousand buildings. With the completion of the line to Sidney, Wyo., in June, 1867, the rough element left and established themselves at that point, leaving at North Platte about three hundred of the more sedentary law-abiding class who had determined on that point for their home. In moving to the front, houses were torn down, loaded on cars to be taken to the new site and there re-erected.

When it was known that Cheyenne was to be the terminus for the winter of 1867-1868, there was a grand hegira of roughs, gamblers, prostitutes from all along the line and from the East. The population jumped to six thousand. Dwellings sprang up like mushrooms. They were of every conceivable character. Some simply holes in the ground roofed over, known as "dug outs," others of canvas, while some few were of wood and stone. Town lots were sold at fabulous prices. The only pastimes were gambling and drinking. Shooting scrapes with "a man for breakfast" were an every day occurrence, and stealing so common as to occasion no comment. It is said of old Colonel Murrian, the then Mayor of Cheyenne, that he advanced the City's script eighteen cents on the dollar, by inflicting a fine of ten dollars on those who "made a gun play" i. e. shot at any one,--and that it was his custom to add a quarter to the fines he inflicted, making them ten dollars and twenty-five cents or twenty-five dollars and twenty-five cents, with the explanation that his was dry work and the extra quarter was to cover the stimulant his arduous duties required.

Such conditions brought about an uprising on the part of the more respectable element. Vigilance committees with "Judge Lynch" in command, took hold and from his Court there was neither appeal, nor stays. Witnesses were not held to be essential. The toughs were known and the judgments of the Court generally right. At least the defendants were not left in a condition to make complaint or appeal. The Vigilance Committee during the first year of its existence hung or shot twelve of the desperadoes, and were instrumental in sending as many more to the Penitentiary. The effect was to compel the tough element to either leave or abide by the laws and to put the decent element in control.

The next headquarters was Benton, Wyo. In two weeks a city of three thousand inhabitants sprang up as if by the touch of Aladdin's Lamp. It was laid out in regular squares, divided into five wards, had a Mayor and Board of Aldermen, a Daily Paper and volume of ordinances for the City Government. It was the end of the freight and passenger service and the beginning of the division under construction. Twice a day, long trains arrived from and departed for the East, while stages and wagon trains connected it with points in Idaho, Montana, and Utah. All the passengers and goods for the West, came here by rail and were re-shipped to their several destinations.

Twenty-three saloons paid license to the city, while dance halls and gambling dens were even more numerous. The great institution was the "Big Tent." This was a frame structure, one hundred feet long and forty feet wide, floored for dancing, to which and gambling it was entirely devoted. A visitor to the city thus described it: "One to two thousand men and a dozen or more women were encamped on the alkali plain in tents and shanties." Only a small proportion of them had aught to do with the road or any legitimate occupation. Restaurant and saloon keepers, gamblers, desperadoes of every grade, the vilest of men and women made up this "Hell on Wheels" as it was most aptly termed. Six months later, all that was left to mark the site was a few rock piles and half destroyed chimneys together with piles of old cans. The city after a tumultuous existence of only sixty days had "got up and pulled its freight" to the next headquarters.

Green River, Bryan, Bear River City, and Wasatch were the headquarters successively. The first, owing to the railroad having made it the end of a division and located shops there, has survived; the other three are but memories.

At Bear River City, the tough element who had been driven out of the different points East, congregated in large numbers, proposing to make a stand, it being supposed it would become a permanent town. The law abiding element numbered about a thousand, the toughs as many more. Three thugs were hung for murder, and in a reprisal the town was attacked on November 19th, 1868, by the tough element. They seized and burned the jail, then sacked and destroyed the plant of the "Frontier Index," a printing outfit that followed up the railroad, issuing a Daily Paper, and which had been particularly outspoken in its denunciation of the lawless element. They then proceeded to attack some of the stores, but were met by the townspeople and in the pitched battle that ensued, badly defeated. They made an undignified retreat, leaving fifteen of their number dead in the streets. From this time on the tough element fought shy of the city and with the extension of the road, its business left. Today there is not a thing to indicate that a town of four or five thousand had ever stood there.

The tough element started in to make Rawlins one of the "Hells" but the decent element had had enough and proceeded to clean up the town--showing they proposed to stand no foolishness.

The last of the railroad towns was Wasatch located at the eastern end of the longest tunnel on the road. In fact it was the delay occasioned by this work that gave rise to the town. When the line was put down a temporary track was built around the obstruction so as to permit the materials for the track beyond to reach the front. This place originally had a machine shop, round house and eating station all of which were removed to Evanston in 1870.

Upon the passage of the supplementary Charter in 1864 the restriction confining the Central Pacific to the State of California was withdrawn and they were authorized to build for one hundred and fifty miles east of the California boundary. This latter restriction was also withdrawn by Congress in 1866, leaving the meeting point to be determined by the rapidity of the construction of the respective lines, or as the Act of Congress put it, they could locate, construct, and continue their line until it should meet the Union Pacific continuous line. With the experience of three years behind them and the Land Grant, Government Bonds and prospective earnings, not to speak of the element of pride ahead, the two lines entered into a race the like of which had never been seen. The rivalry extended from the Presidents of the respective Companies down to the boy who carried water to the graders. Both forces, justly proud of their achievements, considered themselves a little better than the other. One form of the rivalry was as to which outfit could get the greatest amount of track down in one day. The Union Pacific's forces led off with six miles, soon after the Central went them a mile better. Then seven and a half miles were put down by the Union Pacific; the Central Pacific forces not to be outdone announced they could get down ten miles inside of one working day. Vice-President Durant offered to wager ten thousand dollars it could not be done, and the Central Pacific outfit resolved it should be done. Waiting until there were but fourteen miles for them to lay, they started in and laid ten miles and two hundred feet from seven A.M. to seven P.M., using four thousand men in the operation. And then the Union Pacific outfit was mad. They claimed if they had massed their forces, made special preparation, etc., they could do better than their competitors, but they could not prove it for there was no more track to lay.

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