USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 36
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A number of citizens called on him at his hotel for a general inter- change of views. While no conclusion was reached, a committee con- sisting of General Hughes, Governor Evans, Mayor De Lano, Gen. F. M. Case, Major W. F. Johnson, et al., was appointed to confer with Col. Archer on the following day. Archer told them his company desired and intended to build to Denver, but the subsidy had given out and they were, therefore, thrown upon their own resources. A contribution from Colorado would hasten the issue in view. The committee, now fully advised of the true state of affairs, resolved upon the organization of a Board of Trade for the purpose of effecting a compact association of the business men in a form that would enable them to operate unitedly in any scheme that should be perfected to attain the main objects of all interests-a railway. Dr. J. H. Morrison, Henry M. Porter and Fred Z. Salomon were appointed to formulate a plan for such organization. One of the propositions advanced was to bring all available influence to bear upon Congress for the extension of the subsidy to the Eastern Division in behalf of its construction to Denver, and failing in that, to rely wholly upon the bonds already voted, and such cash subscriptions as could be obtained.
The committee called a meeting in Cole's Hall for the organization of a Board of Trade, November 13th, when the following officers were chosen :
President, John W. Smith; First Vice-President, General John Pierce; Second Vice-President, Isaac Brinker; Directors, William M.
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Clayton, J. H. Morrison, F. Z. Salomon, J. M. Strickler, George Tritch, D. H. Moffat, Jr., R. E. Whitsitt and J. S. Brown ; Secretary, Henry C. Leach ; Treasurer, Frank Palmer.
On the evening of the 14th, a second meeting, which took the broader plane of a public assembly, was held in the same place. The hall was crowded in anticipation of an address from George Francis Train, who had arrived that day. W. M. Clayton presided, and J. M. Strickler acted as Secretary. A committee of three-Henry C. Leach, J. H. Morrison and F. Z. Salomon-was instructed to prepare a consti- tution and by-laws for the Board of Trade. General Hughes made a spirited address upon the necessity of organization, because united effort was needed to meet the dangers then menacing the life of the city. Col. Archer being present, was invited to speak. He had little to say except that his road had been completed to a point twenty miles west of Hays City, and that when it arrived at Pond Creek the company would require aid from our citizens or it could come no further in this direction. Then by the universal desire, George Francis Train mounted the rostrum. Knowing the object of the large gathering, he began with the absorbing question of how to build a railway to the Union Pacific. As every one knows, Mr. Train arrogated to himself the distinction, in which he took infinite pride, of being the one colossal egotist of the age. His style of speaking, whether in private life or in public, was bombastic to the last degree, yet intermingled with the masses of trash were many thoughts worthy of profoundest respect. It will be comprehended by the reader of 1889, that in those days we were like drowning men, eagerly catch- ing at every shred of hope that offered, and while in more prosperous times we have been inclined to accept the common verdict respecting Mr. Train's sanity, in the days of which we are treating, in our extremity we hailed this fanciful yet forceful prophet of good tidings and valuable suggestions with a heartiness that was a rare thing in his experience.
To begin with, he claimed to have been the original projector of the Union Pacific railway, and had broken ground for it at Omaha, thereby making that city its initial point. To supply the company with
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ample funds, he had introduced the French system of Finance-(Credit Mobilier) which pushed the work forward. In considering the action taken here, he said the people had made a mistake in throwing their influence in favor of the Eastern Division, and by antagonizing the Northern line. The Kansas road could not be built to Denver in two years, and reiterated the old statement that it was going south without any intention of coming here, even by a branch. Col. Archer had said Denver could have his road by paying two millions of dollars for it. The Union Pacific was only one hundred miles to the northward, why not build in that direction when it could be done for much less money ? It would be a comparatively easy matter ; there was a natural road bed down the Platte to Cheyenne, on which the road could be constructed for twenty thousand per mile at the maximum, and possibly for twelve to fourteen thousand. This road he declared must be built, or the town would be given up, as everybody would move away. We must force the Eastern Division to surrender its land grant through this Territory, and the scheme must be organized at once.
On the 16th the Board of Trade met again, when General Pierce offered a series of resolutions which constituted the base of the first rail- way built upon the soil of Colorado, and therefore one of the momen- tous events in its history. First, That a committee of five be appointed to select corporators for a railroad company, and that these corporators form a company to build a road from Denver to Cheyenne, or any other point on the Union Pacific railroad, and file the papers necessary for the same.
Second, The appointment of a committee of three to examine the general incorporation law, and prepare such amendments as were required, for presentation to the legislature.
Third, The appointment of a committee of five to take into con- sideration the expediency of building a railway from Denver to Pond Creek.
It is needless to say, that this well digested proposition was adopted with great enthusiasm. Pierce and his co-laborers had been thoroughly
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awakened to the exigencies of the case. It was a warning to all prop- erty holders that they must act in unison and that quickly, to prevent still greater depreciation of values, and the wholesale emigration of people to the exciting fields springing up all along the continental rail- way. Sustaining his resolutions in a speech, he entered upon a thorough exposé of subject, presenting the estimates of F. M. Case, relating to the cost of grading, tieing and bridging the road one hundred and ten miles, making the total expense, including engineering and incidentals, about five hundred thousand dollars. If this sum could be raised and the work accomplished, there was no doubt but that some company could be found to iron it and furnish the rolling stock.
On the first resolution to form a railroad company, the chair appointed Gen. Pierce, Bela M. Hughes, A. Steele, W. F. Johnson and F. M. Case; and on the second, Messrs. Hughes, Evans and Clayton.
On the 18th a mass meeting was held in the Denver theater, with especial reference to arousing all the people to the importance of prompt action and earnest co-operation. W. F. Johnson presided, and John Walker was made secretary. The chairman stated the objects and discussed them at some length. Governor Evans followed with the declaration, among others, that Denver could and would be made a great railway center, an assumption that was not generally accepted. It was too much to hope for, and the aspirations of the majority would have been well satisfied with one railroad, even if it had to be run by horse power-anything to put them into communication with the outer world, and break up the intolerable monotony of isolation. He predicted also, that in fifty years Denver would be the great bullion center of America. No one believed that either, yet both prophecies were verified twenty years later.
General Hughes in debate was like a war horse charging with all his might. Always an eloquent and impassioned speaker, on this occa- sion he surpassed himself. The time for talk and temporizing had passed, and the time for action had come. We must strip for the work and rely wholly upon ourselves, our energy, muscle and money. "When
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we have said that the road shall be built," it was half accomplished. Then producing the incorporation papers, he read them to the audience, which was thereby advised of the organization of the "Denver Pacific Railroad Company."
General Pierce dealt almost entirely with the statistical and finan- cial features, giving estimates of the volume of traffic the road would secure, suggesting various plans for raising the means to build it, and advancing the idea that every property owner could well afford to mortgage his estate for half its value in order to pay his subscriptions to this work, since in its completion it would be worth more than double its present value.
General Case chalked out on the blackboard a system of railroads covering the Territory, and gave a compendium of their cost, etc.
John W. Smith, John Evans, Luther Kountze, Joseph E. Bates, D. H. Moffat, Jr., Bela M. Hughes, John Pierce, W. F. Johnson, and William M. Clayton were the directors of the new company, who elected Bela M. Hughes, President ; Luther Kountze, Vice-President ; D. H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer ; W. F. Johnson, Secretary, and F. M. Case, Chief Engineer. At the Board of Trade meeting held on the 19th, the result of this election was announced, whereupon Major Johnson, in one of the powerful speeches for which he was noted, made the systematic arrangement of the plans decided upon by the company, and the importance of the great work to be done in which every able-bodied citizen was urged to take part, so clear to the large audience, there seemed to be no further occasion for public meetings, but rather a demand that everybody now strip for action and stay in the field until the road should be completed. He announced that subscrip- tions would be solicited on the following conditions :
In case the city or county should issue bonds for building the road, the stockholders would be entitled to the privilege of canceling their individual subscriptions by taking a like amount of such bonds, only ten per cent. to be called for during one month of time. Some had offered to take stock and pay for it in work on the road ; others agreed to
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furnish ties for a certain distance. Committees were sent out to canvass the entire city for donations of cash, work, or subscriptions to the stock, and they were very successful. John H. Martin, then proprietor of the old Planter's House, offered rooms for the use of the company free of charge. In one day the subscriptions aggregated two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. This result would be regarded as almost miraculous if obtained in 1889, but in 1867 with a poverty stricken city of less than four thousand inhabitants, it was simply astounding. It was a case, however, in which the only alternative was pay or perish. The joyful news was made the subject of an associated press dispatch which carried it all over the Union. As the enthusiasm increased, the Denver Pacific Company, grown strong under the public support, enlarged the sphere of its contemplated operations to cover about every practicable route in the Territory, in furtherance of its scheme to make Denver a great railway center. Maps were drawn and published, illustrating the radiation of these iron highways from the common center as spokes from a wheel hub. Not much faith was inspired by these fulminations. Den- ver was in the strait of one perishing from hunger, who feels as if one good square meal if he could only get it, would open the gates of para- dise to his suffering soul. So they said, let us build one, and see how that works, then if we need another, and can get the means, we will build it.
In Cheyenne, where many former residents of Colorado were estab- lished in business, the jubilation over the brightening prospect here was scarcely less pronounced. Mr. B. L. Ford, the great caterer who had spent some years in Denver-then established in Cheyenne-and Harry Rogers, formerly Vice-President of the First National Bank, sent in a generous subscription to the railway fund, amounting to thirty-seven hundred dollars. About this time also, the Board of Trade began to move in the direction of locating the territorial capital at Denver as an eternal fixture, feeling that it had been long enough on wheels, and should have a permanent abiding place. As the initial step to this pro- ceeding a committee selected for the purpose began searching for a
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suitable location or site for a capitol building. Naturally, this manœuver excited a belligerent feeling in Golden, which had long enjoyed the pres- tige of being the capital. The rivalry between the two places had been sharpened by Loveland and Carter's railway operations, and of course this endeavor to rob them of their one cherished institution brought out the full strength of their opposition.
At the meeting of the Legislature on the 2d of December, 1867, a bill was introduced providing for the transfer, upon the condition that the citizens of Denver should provide a suitable site and deed the same to the Territory free of charge. Loveland, who had been the controlling spirit of the place from its foundation, mustered his friends and girded his loins for a long and bitter fight. Denver responded with a powerful lobby, fortified with material inducements. After several days of hot discussion, the bill passed and was approved, whereupon the Legislature adjourned to meet in the new capital the following day. Quarters were secured in the Colorado Seminary for the executive offices and the House of Representatives, and a vacant storeroom on Larimer street for the Council or Senate. The commissioners appointed by the acting Governor to locate the Capitol site were A. A. Bradford of Pueblo, William M. Roworth of Central City, and Joseph M. Marshall of Denver.
The action taken here in the formation of a company to build a road to Cheyenne, developed renewed entreaties from the Eastern Divi- sion managers not to be rash, with some candid advice against trusting our future to promises that could not be realized. But as it was well known that this company was in deep distress for the want of funds, and as it was impossible to raise the two millions demanded by Colonel Archer, no further negotiations were made in that direction until after the work of grading the Denver Pacific was completed.
On the 27th of December, the county commissioners ordered a special election for the 20th of January, 1868, upon the question of sub- scribing five hundred thousand dollars to the stock of the Denver Pacific railroad. Meanwhile, Messrs. Loveland and Carter had not been
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idle, though repeatedly disappointed in their endeavors to perfect their enterprise through the enlistment of eastern capital. They had a com- pany but no funds. Nevertheless, determined to keep the matter alive, on the first day of January, 1868, they inaugurated work on the Colorado Central & Pacific at a point on the northern limit of the town near the present location of the Union Pacific freight depot. The able bodied citizens assembled with picks and shovels, formed in procession, and marched to the spot where the first ground was to be broken. During the day about two hundred feet of road bed was graded, and ready for the ties, but it was not until the fall of 1870 that the iron was laid and the locomotive shrieked its entry into the beautiful basin where now nestles one of the prettiest towns in the State. At the inauguration ceremonies, embellished as usual with speeches, and possibly stimulated by a few bottles of wine, Capt. E. L. Berthoud, chief engineer of the Colorado Central, offered this prophetic sentiment :
"Golden City and Denver: May the influence of railroads extend their borders until their streets are united, and the houses upon them stand side by side."
Though not yet verified, who shall say that in the fulness of time, or perhaps ten or twenty years hence at the existing rate of progress from North Denver toward the mountains, it may not be actually demonstrated ? Already there is a continuous line of settlement, and though not as densely populated as the gallant Captain foresaw that one day it would be, the complete realization of his vision is by no means a very remote possibility.
On the evening of January 13th, 1868, Judge J. P. Usher-Secre- tary of the Interior under Abraham Lincoln-and Ex-Governor Carney of Kansas, addressed the Denver Board of Trade upon the crisis of the railway situation. They were here as the representatives of the Eastern Division company, and took this method of presenting its views, prospects and intentions. Both made exhaustive speeches, setting forth the details of their mission, and stoutly protesting against the folly of attempting to secure railway connection by building to Cheyenne, concluding with a
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proposition to our people to turn their energies and their means in the direction of Pond Creek.
Major W. F. Johnson made the first reply in a ten minute speech, which for keen analysis and powerful argument that stripped the whole question of all the sophistries thrown around it by these wily diplomats, Usher and Carney, was never surpassed in the annals of the period. He left absolutely nothing to build even the shred of a hope upon that the work begun by the Denver Pacific Company, though hampered by great difficulties, would be abandoned. The Kansas road might come or not, the Denver Pacific would be completed. The people had solemnly resolved that nothing should interrupt the plans laid out. He was fol- lowed by General Bela M. Hughes in an address of great power. He told them that we had waited and longed for the Eastern Division to demonstrate its good intentions, but when Col. Archer came and demanded a bonus of two millions of dollars as the ultimatum of that company, the people rejected it once for all, and immediately instituted an enterprise of their own. They proposed to build and pay for their line, and no proposition which Usher or his associates could advance looking to its desertion, would be entertained for a single moment. They would be glad to have the Kansas road, but it must come, if at all, upon its own resources. Not content with this rebuff, a second meeting was held the following day, but without further result.
At the election on the 20th of January the county commissioners were authorized by a very large majority of the voters to issue the half million of bonds to the Denver Pacific Company Among the advices received at the time, was a letter from Gen. G. M. Dodge, which stated that he had been to New York with Gen. Pierce to make arrangements look- ing to the early construction of the Denver Branch. The Union Pacific directors then announced their readiness to build the branch, provided Denver came forward promptly with its part of the agreement, and would have it completed by the next autumn. There would be no delay on their part. If Denver had her money ready they would give her the road, and that speedily.
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General Pierce returned from New York February 23d, and reported to a meeting of citizens on the 24th. He had entered into a contract which provided that as fast as the Denver company should grade and tie a road bed from Cheyenne to this city, they would place the iron and rolling stock thereon, the laying of the iron to commence when the first twenty miles should be graded, and so on to the end. The contract provided further, that the road should begin at Denver on the east side of the Platte, and run thence to Cheyenne by the most direct and practicable route, the location to be approved by the chief engineer of the Union Pacific. About the last of February, General Hughes resigned the presidency of the company, and was succeeded by Major W. F. Johnson.
The Arapahoe County bonds having been prepared and issued, Mr. D. H. Moffat went East to negotiate them, stopping at Cheyenne en route, where he was invited to appear before the council of that city and explain the programme of arrangements, since a proposition had been made to its authorities to vote bonds in aid of the enterprise. As a result of this conference with Mr. Moffat, a committee was appointed by the council-our townsman Mr. Joseph T. Cornforth being one of the number, to meet the directors of the D. P. Company with a view to further negotiations.
Major Johnson died March 5th, 1868, and on the 16th Governor Evans was elected his successor. He went to Chicago and delivered an address to the Board of Trade, stating the condition of affairs here and urging a subscription of two hundred thousand dollars to the bonds, claiming that the amount would soon be returned to the trade of Chi- cago through the increased business of Colorado that would follow rail- way communication. Though he labored diligently for some time, the effort proved wholly abortive.
A contract for building the road was negotiated and signed at Cheyenne, through the joint efforts of John W. Smith, A. B. Daniels and Fred Z. Salomon, and the undertaking assumed by T. C. Durant and Sidney Dillon. Denver was to expend half a million dollars in
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grading, tieing and bridging, and the remainder was to be done by the other parties to the contract.
The Board of Trade, unwilling to accept failure in Chicago, appointed F. Z. Salomon, J. S. Brown and Henry M. Porter a committee to go there and make a thorough canvass of the business men for sub- scriptions to the Arapahoe County bonds, in connection with Governor Evans, and a committee from the Chicago Board of Trade. At the same time General Pierce was vigorously working Cheyenne on the plan of offering contracts to parties who would agree to take thirty-three per cent. of their pay in Denver Pacific stock.
At a meeting of the Board of Trade May 4th, Gen. Pierce announced that Messrs. Durant and Dillon, whom he met at Cheyenne, were not satisfied with the previous contract, and there- fore a supplemental paper had been drawn to meet the exigencies more fully, whereby those gentlemen agreed to build the entire road, and a sub-contract was taken by the Denver Pacific company to expend five hundred thousand dollars on the line, as before stated. The route between Denver and the Platte crossing on the east side had been approved, but between that point and Cheyenne it was disap- proved. Durant and Dillon proposed to have it examined by the Union Pacific engineers. Within two weeks from the date of this report work would begin at the northern end of the line. When finished, the Union Pacific would lease the road on terms that would insure eight per cent. on its stock, which in effect amounted to a guaranty of our county bonds.
On Monday, May 18th, 1868, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the work of grading the Denver Pacific began at a point about one mile north of the city as then defined, between the grounds of the Colo- rado Agricultural Society and the Platte River. Wagons, carriages and all sorts of vehicles conveyed all the people they would hold to the historic spot, and great numbers marched out in groups. It is perhaps needless to add that a brass band was chartered for the occasion, or that an abundant supply of "wet groceries" or dusty
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throat lubricants, had a part in the enthusiastic procession. Within the hour something over a thousand people gathered to witness the inauguration of what to them seemed the greatest enterprise of the age. At a quarter-past eleven the band opened with a lively quickstep, and simultaneously two teams began plowing, Lyman Cole and T. G. Ander- son each driving a team, while the handles were guided by Miss Nettie Clark and Mrs. F. J. Stanton. Billy Marchant opened a keg of beer, and General Pierce suggested three cheers, which brought forth a thundering response. John W. Smith did the primary shovel work, and Governor Gilpin made a characteristic speech in which some notable predictions were advanced. This ended the preliminary ceremonies, when the grading proceeded in the regular way by men paid for this part of the performance.
Despite all the efforts of the committee, no considerable amount, if indeed any part of the bonds, were negotiated in Chicago. On the 24th of June, 1868, the capital stock of the Denver Pacific was increased from two millions to four millions by vote of the directors, an act impelled by their contract with the Union Pacific, which exacted a certain amount of the stock per mile in addition to the consideration already named. When the bonds were voted, it was upon the understanding that the county was to receive in exchange one-fourth of the stock. The increase reduced its share to one-eighth. But the contract left the company no other alternative.
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