History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1923, Part 48

Author: Reed, G. Walter
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1026

USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1923 > Part 48

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The train steamed out of the depot with its guards, the crowd that had assembled outside of the sentry-line looking sullenly on and cast- ing an occasional jeer at the trainmen and sol- diers. It passed on out of sight, six of the soldiers perched on the locomotive and the rest scattered along on the car platforms, with rifles ready to repel attack. "The blockade is broken at last," said some of the railroad offi- cials, not dreaming of the terrible fate impend- ing over the occupants of the train. It was nearly an hour after its departure, and the rail- way officials were awaiting news of its arrival at Davisville, when a colored Pullman porter came running into the depot and proceeded to Superintendent Wright's office with a message from Conductor Reynolds, stating that the train had been wrecked at the long trestle, two miles from the city, and Engineer Clark and several United States soldiers were killed. In a few minutes the wrecking train was pre- pared and sent, with a couple of coaches, to the rescue, carrying several surgeons and men with stretchers, as well as a number of armed soldiers. As the wreck had occurred on the trestle, it was difficult to get on the farther side of it, and there was some delay before the wrecking train returned with the wounded men, who were immediately cared for.

Conductor Reynolds stated that the train was running about twelve miles an hour when it came to the trestle. As soon as it struck

the trestle there came a crash, and he evacu- ated the mail-car in which he was, as quickly as possible : the engine had gone over and lay in about six feet of water and deep in the mud, with two express cars piled on top of it. En- gineer Clark and three soldiers lay buried un- der the engine, and others were floundering in the water, one soldier named Dugan having his arm cut off, being caught between the engine and a trestle beam. Denekamp, the fireman, saved his life by jumping when he felt the engine topple. Besides Engineer Clark, Pri- vates Clark, Byrne, Lubberdon and Dugan were killed, the latter dying that evening. An inspection of the track told that the wreck- ers had done their work well. The spikes and fishplates of a rail had been pried up and taken away, leaving the rail in place, with nothing to show that it was loose, and deceiv- ing the engineer. As it was reported that sev- eral men were lurking in the brush on the other side of the river along the track. a squad of cavalry was sent to scour the ground. Such was the revulsion of feeling in the crowd over the horrible plot, that the crowd cheered them as they swept by. The Southern Pacific imme- diately offered $5,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of one or all of the murderers, and the United States district attorney offered $2,000 more.

During the afternoon four men were ar- rested and lodged in the county jail. They were Salter D. Worden, A. G. Greenlaw, Wil- liam Burt and H. E. Rodmer, the first being charged with wrecking the train, and the oth- ers with conspiracy and obstructing the mar- shal. Detectives who had been investigating found that Worden had hired a team and wag- on and taken a party of four or five into Yolo County, the team being returned without them. It was also learned that Worden stopped a lineman of the Western Union Tele- graph Company and took his tools from him. Worden presented himself at the stable later in the day, and was arrested, and some dyna- mite and fuse was found to have been left in the wagon by the wreckers when it was re- turned.

The wrecking of the train caused a revulsion of feeling in the community. A great number of citizens who had sympathized with the strikers suddenly awoke to the fact that mur- der and violence like this could not be con- doned, and that it had placed the leaders be- yond the pale of sympathy. They realized that the talk of peaceful resistance to the law was only a hollow pretense, and that the men most active in the strike were prepared to go to any length in order to carry out their purpose. The naked fact stood out in bold relief in all its hideousness and could no longer be ignored.

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Men whose heated imagination had placed the strikers and their leaders on the pedestal of martyrdom realized that they had been de- luded and their ardor of sympathy suddenly cooled. The press of the state, which had largely expressed itself as on the side of the strikers, changed its tone and voiced the gen- eral horror and indignation at the cowardly act. An attempt by a number of men on the morning of the 24th to wreck a Southern Pa- cific train by taking up the rails on the track near Arcade Station, on the grant, and who fought a pitched battle with the soldiers who discovered them, augmented the revolution in the minds of the people. It is probable, also. that many strikers, whose passions had been excited to a high pitch by the organizers and leaders, began to realize whither their zeal was leading them. An attempt was also made at Dutch Flat on the 18th to wreck a train by pil- ing obstructions on the track. Fortunately it was discovered in time to save the train, which had on board a large number of women and children. In consequence, Colonel Graham or- dered that anyone found tampering with the rails should be shot first and allowed to ex- plain afterwards. The strikers began to fall away from the organization, and when the notice was given on the 17th by the company, that those who had not resorted to violence or destruction of property could return to work when the whistle blew on the morning of the 18th, several hundred men gladly availed them- selves of the opportunity, and in a few days all the men that were needed were once more at work, only a couple of hundred of the vio- lent strikers being barred out. Some of these began to threaten the men who returned to work, but Colonel Graham quickly put his sol- diers on patrol duty to protect the workers, and the recalcitrant strikers soon decided to let them alone.

The regular soldiers were not at all back- ward in obeying orders regarding the strikers. They had been deeply angered by the das- tardly slaughter of their comrades in the wreck at the long trestle, and were eager to avenge their death if the strikers gave them provoca- tion to do so. The militia shared this feeling, for they also had been abused and threatened. A number of strikers and sympathizers had been arrested for insulting soldiers, but a much sterner lesson was necessary, and on the 13th it was given. A number of soldiers had been detailed to ride on the flat cars and protect the railroad employees in their work in the yards, there being many cars of valuable freight that should be moved to more secure quarters. Captain Roberts and Lieutenant Skerret, with men of Battery L, 5th Regiment, U. S. Artil- lery, some marines, and Company F of the 3rd

Infantry, N. G. C., were overseeing the switching, when they were abused and stoned by a group of men in the rear of the sheds, and some shots were fired at them from the sheds. The soldiers made a rush for them, when most of them threw up their hands, but some ran away. They were called on to halt, but not heeding the warning, the troops fired, wound- ing two, one of whom, named Stewart, died that night. A number of prisoners were also gathered in, and held to answer before the federal court.

On the 19th Debs telegraphed to the Oak- land strikers' executive committee to effect a settlement with the company, allowing the men to go back to work, and on the 22nd the local union declared the strike off.

In the meantime Knox, Compton and Mul- len, who had been arrested, were charged with the murder of Engineer Clark and the soldiers. Their preliminary examination began at Woodland on the 18th, before the justice of the peace. The case against Worden was post- poned for a time. A number of telegrams sent by Knox were produced in court, among them one to a person living in Willows, which read, "Sacramento, July 7, 1904-To Lizzie Mc- Millan Sehorn, Willows, Glenn County, Cal. : We need financial assistance, but armed assist- ance would be more acceptable. John Bu- chanan, by H. Knox."

These dispatches were offered in corrobora- tion of the charge of conspiracy against the defendants, and the manager of the Postal Tel- egraph Company testified that they were sent through his office. Arthur J. Wilson, owner of the stable, stated at the preliminary exami- nation of Knox, Compton and Mullen, at Woodland, that Worden asked for a wagon that would hold nine people, but that he could only furnish one that would hold six. Worden presented an order which read: "Give bearer a rig to go to Brighton. H. A. Knox."

The trial of the defendants was long drawn out. There was difficulty in getting a jury. as public sentiment ran high on both sides; also many were afraid to serve on the jury, as threats and intimidation were charged to have been made against jurymen and witnesses. The result of the trial was generally looked upon by unprejudiced people as a miscarriage of justice, the evidence clearly pointing to the guilt of the defendants. Worden, who was an impulsive, erratic man, and was regarded largely as the tool of the three conspirators, was the only one to suffer, and was found guilty and sentenced to hang. His sentence, however, through influential intervention, was commuted to imprisonment for life. In 1912 he presented an application for parole. It was

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found impossible to convict Knox, Mullen and Compton, and they escaped punishment.

The strike cost California many millions of dollars, ruined a large number of fruit-growers through the loss of their crops, paralyzed busi- ness for several months, and accomplished nothing of the purpose for which it was inau- gurated. It is to be hoped that another one like it will never visit this coast.

September 30, 1911, the employees belonging to an association similar to the American Rail- way Union of 1894, which attempted to con- solidate the various railway unions into one, with a managing board to make all agree- ments with the various railroads of the United States, and to claim recognition of the consoli- dated unions and the concession of certain de- mands, went on a strike. Quite a few em- ployees forfeited their chance for pensions in the near future by joining the strike, while a number of others refused to go out.

Reminiscences of the Railroads

Some interesting reminiscences in relation to the early railroads were related to the writer by James G. Patterson, the pioneer mentioned in a previous chapter. Mr. Patter- son had a great fund of recollections to draw on, concerning both himself and others, and gives one many an insight into the methods and incidents of the early days. Speaking of the Freeport road, and other early railroads, he said :

"It was projected by stockholders and bond- holders of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, John H. Carroll and George Mowe, who bought land and incorporated in 1863-1864. I was ordered down from the Auburn Railroad in March to commence grading. I graded the track into Freeport and went back to work on the Auburn road. I came back in July and laid the rails, and finished in October, about the 10th, I think, and as soon as I got the side track in, they built a wharf for steam- boats and leased it to the Sacramento Valley Railroad for two years. They sounded the river at midnight and found thirty-five feet of water, and no one knew of the survey. Car- roll was a stockholder of the Valley road, but they bought the ranch in their own names so that no one would know it was for the Valley road. There was a bar up the river near the Edwards place, where the steamboats often got aground at low water, and frequently they would not reach Sacramento until noon or later the next day. The steamboat from San Francisco used to arrive at Freeport at 11 p. m., and the train would start as soon as the passengers got aboard with their baggage. The stages connected with the trains at Lat- robe, and passengers ate breakfast at Placer- ville and went on over the mountains by day-

light and landed in Virginia City at 3 p. m., twenty-three hours from San Francisco. The road was built to sell to the Central Pacific, which was done. The Central Pacific bought the Sacramento Valley road October 13, 1865 -the last day 1 worked for them.

"All the ties and rails for the Freeport road came up on vessels, and when I began to lay the road old Captain Kidder brought me up one and a quarter miles of rails and only one car of ties, and only four ties to a pair of rails. I told him that I couldn't lay them that way, as I had only five men and they could not handle the iron and carry it so far. The en- gine was a light one, but it was a greyhound to run, and I asked the engineer if four ties at the ends and middle of the rails would carry the engine. He said it would, so I put down a tie every six feet. The next day he gave us plenty of ties, and two of my men on the car unloaded them. I walked along ahead and held up my hand as a signal to throw them down. They unloaded a whole train and then pulled the train out of the way. Then we shoved the ties in under the rails.

"When the Central Pacific was laying its track near Gold Run, Strowbridge was super- intendent of construction, and Maker was fore- man of the track-layers. They were experi- encing the same trouble in regard to rails and ties that I had, and the work was proceeding slowly. There was an Irishman, Ned Hussey, working for Maker, and he became impatient at the way the work was going on. 'Av ye had Jim Patterson here, he'd show yez how to get this thrack down,' said he to Maker. 'What do you know of Jim Patterson and what he would do?' asked Maker. 'H --- to your sowl. didn't I work undher him in laying the thrack on the Freeport road and the Valley road?' was the retort. 'Well, what did he do?' asked Maker. Hussey explained to him, and he asked the engineer if the track would hold up the engine in case he laid fewer ties and had them put under the rails afterwards. The en- gineer said it would. and Maker hustled down to Strowbridge and told him about it; Strow- bridge told him to go ahead. Maker had a big gang of Chinamen and he put them at work. The consequence was that he laid six miles of track the next day, and when additional ties came, the Chinamen slid them under the rails and spiked them down. They hustled the track-laying from that time on. till the road got to Promontory and met the Union Pacific gang.

"This was the only road built in California where the people did not know anything about it. I kept the engine out on the old Jackson road, and used to sneak in in the morning with the engineer and fireman and again at night to bring them back. the men boarding on the road, so no one knew anything about it. 1

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built the first movable cook-house in this part of the country for the men to board in, and bought provisions from the ranchers, who let the men sleep in their barns and outbuildings. My men were stevedores, who knew nothing but how to work, and I pushed things lively. Engineer Pope was running the engine, and sparking Sam Rich's adopted daughter. Some days we laid a half mile and some days a mile of track, as we could get material. Old Page was owner of the Lake House then and would not let us grade across his land, so we had to lay the rails on the ground after the matter was fixed, and then haul dirt in for a road-bed. The trouble was adjusted afterwards. When the track was all finished I ran an excursion train over the road to Freeport. I stopped along the road and invited the farmers' fam- ilies to get aboard. Then a reporter got hold of it and published an account of the road, so the people found out what I had been doing.

"People nowadays do not realize the condi- tions that prevailed in early days. At the time of the 1862 flood I went to Elk Grove, sick. The water was all over the country, and they had to run a steamboat to Routier's to bring supplies for the people. There was only one sack of flour at Elk Grove, and George Bates had that and divided it with his neighbors. That was what is known as old Elk Grove now; the present Elk Grove was not in exist- ence until after the railroad was built. You can judge how the water covered the country when they built a barge at Buckner's at old Elk Grove, right on the upper Stockton road, to go to Stockton for supplies.

"Robinson asked me if I could work, and I told him yes. There was very little hay in the country for the horses and it was hard to get at that. I went over to Deterding's and paid $40 a ton for some old, rotten hay. The roads were awful, and teams were stalled every- where. I went over to Salisbury's and en- gaged some hay at $40, to be delivered to me the next morning, and when I went after it the fellow told me he had sold it for $45, so I had my trouble for my pains. I could not get to Florin or Perkins, as the water was too high.

"The high water washed away a part of the Sacramento Valley Railroad tracks, and the ties and rails were scattered all over the coun- try. I began gathering them up, and it was a job to get them out of the mud with the teams. Where Agricultural Park is, was covered with railroad iron, and iron was iron in those days, when it had to come round the Horn. Robin- son came to my camp where the Buffalo Brew- ery stands and asked me, 'How much iron have you got?' 'All there is here,' I answered. "That is not enough,' says he. I kept on gath- ering it up, and was going along by Gerber's, near the hospital, and saw some railroad iron in the mud. They had held a fair out at Buck

Harrigan's that year. So I hauled it out with the teams, and it was hard work. I found a good deal had 'floated' down there on the slough that runs through the county hospital grounds. Still we were short of iron. 'Tear up the side- track at Brighton,' said Robinson. 'I won't do it,' said I. 'There are a lot of rails at Buck Harrigan's that I will get.' 'Go to it,' said he. A good many bosses would have discharged me for answering that way, but I never worked under a better boss than Robinson.

"When they built the S Street sewer a few years ago, they found some rails under ground, and one of the men said there must have been a track there in the early days, but I told him the rails came there during the flood. Romeo Carroll built a corral out that way by splitting ties and driving them into the ground end- ways. I asked him where he got them and where I could find the rails, but he only laughed, and would not tell me. There are lots of rails today buried in the slough that runs through the William Curtis place.

"It was tough on the people when every- thing was flooded so. All the box cars were full of families, and the water stood all about them. You couldn't see the wheels or the trucks. I was afraid they would go down and be washed away, so I got the two engines ; the Garrison was in front and the Robinson be- hind. We cut the train in two parts and ran half of it out across the break between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. The water was running through fast, and I got stringers across and anchored them with anchors from the vessels on the river. Then I dumped in two carloads of cobbles that were to have been shipped to San Francisco for paving streets. When that was done, we had connections made from Six- teenth to Twenty-first Street so that we could transfer our Folsom passengers. I was afraid the other part would go before we could get it out, but we saved it.

"I worked for Colonel Wilson in 1859 and 1860 on the Marysville road; Montague was the engineer. The road only got to Lincoln. and was sold to the Central Pacific, which road had hard times, and there is more than one little bit of interesting history concerning it that but very few know. Before it got to Newcastle it was out of money, and C. P. Huntington was sent to Boston to try to make a raise. On the steamer, going to Boston, was Judge Slauson, a Boston attorney, and as Huntington had also come from Boston, they became good friends. Some of Slauson's clients, moneyed men of that city, had become in- volved in a deal whereby they stood to lose $7,000,000, or thereabouts, and he had been sent for to go East and help them out. Hunt- ington confided to Slauson the financial diffi- culties of the road and asked him to get his clients to buy out the promoters. 'They have

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money,' said he, 'and can carry it on and win out and make money. We will sell out the road to them, rolling stock and all, for $1,500,000.' Slauson told his clients, but they said they knew nothing about railroading, and they stood to lose $7,000,000 already. Slauson bundled them off to Europe, where papers could not be served on them, and saved them $4,500,000. Then he got busy among his friends and raised $250,000 for Mr. Huntington on second mortgage bonds. As soon as he re- ceived the money the company began to work again and built the road to Clipper Gap. Then the change came and the mountains were brought down to Roseville and they got their $48,000 a mile. The first thing they did after they got money was to buy Sam Brannan's

mortgage and foreclose on the California Cen- tral. Charles Crocker bought one share of the stock for the purpose and served an injunction on Robinson to prevent his taking the rails on the Auburn road. My father and Stanford were very friendly, and they held three meet- ings in my father's house at Folsom with the Sacramento Valley Railroad people before the California Pacific started from Sacramento. Robinson wanted to have one director on the board if they bought the road, but they would not consent. Finally the purchase was made. My father paid the Valley road the first money it ever received for freight. when it brought him up a ton of seed wheat for $1.50, the reg- ular rate being established at $3."

CHAPTER XXXVII COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION

T HAT the richest cargoes carried by river navigation anywhere in the United States are carried on the waters of the Sacramento River, is shown in reports by the Federal rivers and harbors engineers, and in data compiled by the local chamber of com- merce. The value of the tonnage transported on this stream, which is the fifth largest in America, is $95.99 per ton average, based upon 1920 figures. The official report further shows that the increase in the percentage of tonnage transported on the Sacramento over a period of ten years is greater than on any other waterway in the United States. The yearly value of the traffic on the Sacramento is $96,296,181, which is as great as all the ship- ping of Los Angeles Harbor, and is larger by $20,000,000 than the value of the cargoes shipped annually on the Mississippi between the Missouri and Ohio Rivers.

As a further illustration of the immense ton- nage and value of the commerce on the Sac- ramento, it can be stated that the annual ton- nage carried on the river is more valuable by $26,000,000 than the cargoes passing in and out of Toledo, Ohio, on the Great Lakes. One- seventh of the shipping of San Francisco Har- bor is furnished by the Sacramento River.

Furthermore, the statistics show the value of the Sacramento River cargoes to be five times as great as the shipping in and out of San Diego Harbor, and $36,000,000 greater than the commerce carried on the Columbia 17

River. During the past two years the average tonnage carried on the river has been 1,500.000 tons yearly. Ten years ago it was 425,000 tons. The products shipped consisted chiefly of celery, asparagus, grain, oil, beans, rice, fruits, canned goods, fish, flour, mills stuffs, sugar, potatoes, merchandise, and vegetable products.

Any section of a country which has a water- way connecting it with tidewater is fortunate indeed, and no section could be more fortunate in that respect than the Sacramento Valley. The Sacramento River flows through the whole extent of the valley. from Shasta County on the north, to Solano County on the south, a distance of about 300 miles. The twelve counties embraced in this area have a com- bined acreage of 11,456,528 acres, and an ag- gregate population of about a quarter of a mil- lion. The area of the valley is 17,815 square miles. The distance to Red Bluff, the head of navigation, is 201 miles from Sacramento, and to the mouth of the river, near Collinsville, about sixty-five miles. The debris from hy- draulic mining filled the bed of the river- which in the early days afforded plenty of water for occan-going steamers and vessels to come to this city-so that navigation became difficult for vessels drawing over about four feet of water, during the late summer and fall ; but the government, by the use of a snag-boat and the erection of wing dams, has deepened the channel so that even the large steamers put

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History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1923, Part 48

Author: Reed, G. Walter Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1026

Author: Reed, G. Walter
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1026