Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 24

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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"The year 1877 closed with Charles B. Wright as president, and the other officers remaining as be- fore. The year was signalized by complete success in running trains over the Dakota division in win- ter, trains on which were delayed less than those on the New York Central road. Thus was dispelled the illusion that Nature had placed an embargo on railroading in those northern latitudes. A remark- able trade was springing up with the territories trib- utary to the upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Thirty steamboats were plying those waters, con- necting at Bismarck with the terminus of the road. The mining developments in the Black Hills had found a convenient outlet at Bismarck, and the nu- merous military posts and Indian agencies contrib- uted to an increase of business. Thousands of emi- grants were flocking to the Red river valley, and the British province of Manitoba was yielding a large percentage to the growing traffic of the road. The most important event of the year was the arangement made with the Western Railroad Com- pany of Minnesota to complete their line from Brainerd to Sauk Rapids, so as to secure a more direct communication with St. Paul than by the cir- cuitous route of the St. Paul & Duluth. This arrangment was satisfactorily made.

"The delay of congress in extending the time for the completion of the road prevented the company from making any arrangements for the extension of the line into Montana. During this year the Pa- cific division was extended to the Puyallup coal fields, thirty-one miles.

"The year 1878 was not marked by any very notable event. The officers remained the same. Frederick Billings was chairman of the executive committee, and H. E. Sargent was the general man- ager. There was a large increase of the local busi- nes. Many improvements were made in the road and its equipment. Wheat farming in central Da-

kota had become very active and profitable. The railroad between Sauk Rapids and St. Paul was con- trolled by the trustees of the mortgages made by the first division of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company. Upon the opening of the road from Brainerd to Sauk Rapids, arrangements were en- tered into with these trustees whereby Northern Pacific trains were run over this road, thus making St. Paul practically one of the terminal points of the line.

"By the resignation of President Wright on ac- count of ill health, Frederick Billings had become president of the company. The financial year was changed from September to June 30. The acreage of wheat along the line in Dakota had doubled, and the quantity of land being taken by settlers was phe- nomenal. The work of construction had been sus- pended for six years, and much material had reached the limit of duration, and the work of re- newals had become a necessity. Five successive abundant harvests along the line had demonstrated the productive capacity of the soil. A better feel- ing prevailed. It was now the judgment of the stockholders that construction should be resumed at both ends of the line. A contract was let to Wal- ker, Bellows & Company for one hundred miles from Bismarck, westward. Work was begun in January. The work from the Columbia river, east- ward, was also initiated. The great transcontinen- tal enterprise was alive again. The Casselton branch was placed under contract, and the Yellow- stone division was also definitely located.

"The year 1880 opened with seven hundred and twenty-two miles of main track actually in opera- tion. An important link of twelve miles, from Ainsworth to Wallula, connected the Pacific divis- ion with the road of the Oregon Railroad & Navi- gation Company. During the year a system of grain elevators was established along the line from Duluth west. A foreign emigration agency was established in Europe. The company settled down in the belief that their grant of lands remained un- impaired until there was a declaration of forfeiture authorized by congress. The supreme court of the United States avowed this principle, and the execu- tive officers of the government would follow the de- cision. Hence less interest was felt in the extension asked of congress. This year began the relations . between the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Rail- road & Navigation Company, in reference to traffic and joint use of lines. Henry Villard was presi- dent of the latter company. Harmonious and mu-

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tually advantageous relations were temporarily es- tablished between the two companies.

"It has been said that the building east from Ainsworth, and depending upon the precarious nav- igation of the Columbia river, was a suicidal policy and placed the company wholly at the mercy of a rival line. That rival company soon came into control.

"We approach an epoch which is memorable in the history we record. Under Mr. Billings' vigor- ous administration the public had resumed faith in the enterprise. This year President Billings com- pleted a sale to a syndicate, consisting of Drexel, Morgan & Company, Winslow, Lanier & Company, and August Belmont & Company, of $40,000,000 of general first mortgage bonds. These bonds speedily became a favorite security. The enterprise flour- ished, and the work of construction advanced rap- idly. In the midst of events, a new power was at work. The hand of Henry Villard was felt. Here begins the close relation which now subsists be- tween the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company and the Oregon & Transcontinental Company and the Northern Pacific. The Transcontinental Com- pany is a consolidation of the steamship companies and the companies owning the railroads to overcome the rapids of the Columbia river. The Transconti- mental Company was organized under the laws of Oregon, for the general purpose of constructing rail- ways, and more particularly to secure harmony be- tween the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The progress of the Northern Pacific had now fully in- vaded the Pacific coast, and was threatening the in- terests of these rival companies. The Oregon & Transcontinental Company, with Henry Villard as president, and Horace White as secretary, had be- come rich and powerful. It possessed $30,000,000 of actual capital.

"The glamor of romance surrounds the financial career of this extraordinary man. Henry Villard was born in Speyer, the capital of Rhenish Bavaria, in 1835. His father sat upon the supreme bench of that kingdom. He was educated at the university, and like most of the university students in Germany, was somewhat erratic in his youth. He first came to Belleville, Illinois, where some of his relatives still live. He studied law ; yet, like Carl Schurz, he soon adopted journalism as a profession. His first con- spicuous task was an engagement to report the cel- ebrated Lincoln-Douglas political discussion. In 1859 he went to Colorado, to write about the new

gold discoveries for the 'Cincinnati Commercial.' In 1860 he was doing political correspondence for the 'New York Herald,' and at that time sustaining confidential relations with Mr. Lincoln. He sub- sequently became conspicuous as a war correspond- ent. For two years, from 1868 to 1870, he was sec- retary of the American Social Science Association.

"In person, Mr. Villard is tall and of robust physique. His blue eyes, brown hair, expansive forehead, and fresh, genial face mark the good humor and frankness of the man. He lives on Mad- ison avenue, New York, and has a country house at Dobbs' Ferry. His wife is a daughter of the late William Lloyd Garrison, the great champion of the anti-slavery movement.

"While in Germany, in 1874, events occurred which first brought him in connection with railway affairs. The German bondholders of certain Amer- ican railway securities, which had defaulted in their interest, sent him to the United States as their rep- resentative. In these financial transactions, con- nected with the Kansas Pacific, he met and success- fully encountered Jay Gould. Subsequently, in a vessel fitted out by John Roach, he went around the cape to Oregon to look after the interests of the same friends in the budding railways of that region. He soon mastered the projects and possibilities of those distant provinces, and became himself largely inter- ested in the development of eastern Oregon and Washington territories. He shortly became pres- ident of the consolidated railway and navigation companies on the Pacific coast, where he made both reputation and money.

"His success grappled to him as with hooks of steel the capitalists who had been enriched by his genius. In the field of activity, in the prosecution of the interests of his own company, he encountered the Northern Pacific, which was now entering the domain where Villard was established. The first speck of war arose out of the determination of the Northern Pacific to build a line to Portland, on the north side of the Columbia river, and thus crowd out Villard's company, which had proposed to con- struct a line on the south side of the river. After a fruitless attempt at a compromise of their diffi- culties, Villard came to New York, and conceived the idea of quietly purchasing, in open market, a con- trolling interest in the Union Pacific.

"He thereupon organized the celebrated 'blind pool.' This was a daring scheme, in which his friends were asked to place millions of money in his hands for an unknown purpose. No receipt was

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given. Confidence, perfect trust, was the only basis of the transaction. It is without parallel in the his- tory of financial operations, and bespeaks the implicit trust of his friends in his ability and integrity. Eight millions of dollars were thus put into a 'blind pool.' Northern Pacific stock was quietly bought, and ere the directory was aware, the controlling in- terest of the line was in the hands of its reputed enemies. It was supposed that the Villard coalition only intended to minify the great transcontinental highway, and use it simply as a feeder for their Oregon properties. The grandeur of the purpose was not yet understood. Alarmed at the situation, well did Billings write Villard, 'Why put a pistol to the breast of the Northern Pacific at Ainsworth and Wallula, and say, thus far and no farther.'

"As a measure of safety, the directory deter- mined to issue $18,000,000 of old stock, to the orig- inal parties in interest, in order still to retain their supremacy. There was originally $100,000,000 of capital stock. In the reorganization it was agreed to classify it as follows: $51,000,000 preferred stock to the bondholders, and $49,000,000 common. Of this common, $18,000,000 was yet unissued. Villard immediately brought suit (April 1881), in the supreme court of New York City, to restrain the issue of this $18,000,000. He alleged that the common stock represented nothing, that nothing had ever been paid for it ; that the preferred stock was all that was legitimate. Intense interest gathered about the contest. In the midst of it Mr. Billings, who was the largest stockholder in the old regime, seems to have parted with a majority of his stock. The suits were withdrawn, and the Villard combination remained masters of the situation. Mr. Billings re- signed the presidency, which was held, temporarily, by A. H. Barney, bridging over the time till the annual election, when Henry Villard was duly in- staled president, Thomas F. Oakes, vice-president, and Herman Haupt, general manager.

"The history of the closing years of this enter- prise would be incomplete without some notice of the man whose marked executive ability has con- tributed so much to its completion. Thomas Fletcher Oakes was born in the city of Boston, in 1841, and educated in its schools. In 1863 he was in a bank- er's office in New York. In 1866 he went west with Samuel Hallet, and became purchasing agent for the contractors on the Kansas Pacific, where he re- mained till the completion of the road, when he was appointed general freight agent of the line, and in 1875 was made general superintendent. About that

time Villard was appointed receiver of the road, and thence dates the origin of the connection between the two men. Subsequently Mr. Oakes was made superintendent of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad. When Villard had become president of the Consolidated Railway & Navigation Companies in Oregon, he at once secured Mr. Oakes' services as vice-president and general manager of that system and with great vigor and energy he built most of the lines. When the Villard combination had se- cured control of the Northern Pacific, Mr. Oakes came at once to New York, and was made vice-pres- ident and executive manager. To his great ability and energy we are indebted for the marvelous rapid- ity with which the last eight hundred miles of the line was completed. He is the first executive officer of the road who made the complete overland trip of the line. The superintendency of all detail man- agement belongs to him. Villard devised the general schemes, and Oakes executed the mass of details. The one is the financier, and the other the executive manager. It is a case of Napoleon and his grand marshal, Ney.

"The Oregon & Transcontinental Company was now the principal owner of the stock of all the lines in Washington and Oregon, and of the Northern Pacific besides. Of all the combinations, Henry Villard was the head. The new policy was to be enunciated. It soon became manifest that the Ore- gon & Transcontinental Company was to be used as a powerful auxiliary in the completion of the Northern Pacific. It at once gave the latter project the strong support of its immense capital, and ena- bled it to push construction without a moment's halt. It furnished means to build branches, which the Northern Pacific, under the charter, had not the power to do, and thus prevent the encroachment of rival lines. As the controller of the vast traffic of the comprehensive system of railroad, ocean and river lines already developed in Oregon and Washı- ington, it will now compel that aggregation of busi- ness through the main artery-the Northen Pacific. In this wider view of the whole matter, it will be seen that the Villard association of companies proves to be of immense valne to the nation's northern highway to the Pacific. It has brought to it im- mense support and unexampled progress. From Lake Superior to Puget sound the hum of activity has prevailed. Lateral branches, such as the Na- tional Park line, the Palouse branch, Fergus & Black Hills, Little Falls & Dakota, and Fargo & Southwesern, have been constructed. Duluth has

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conquered the prejudices against it, and grown with amazing rapidity. Bramnerd, Moorhead, Fargo and Bismarck have grown with marvelous strides. New cities have sprung into existence, such as Jamestown, Mandan, Miles City, Billings, Glendive, Livingston, Bozeman, Spokane Falls, Ainsworth, Portiand, Seat- tle, and Tacoma, and other cities on the Pacific slope have doubled their population. The iumber trade, fisheries and mining interests have doubled in a single year, under the incentive of this national highway. Population along the opening lines has increased an average of one hundred and fifty per cent. The volume of emigration in numbers and character has been a marvel, and the absorption of land has been on the same extraordinary scale. The creation of empire which is progressing under the spur of the completion of the Northern Pacific is without a parallel in the history of the world. At last we stand in the presence of the completion of this colossal enterprise. It is greater than the fin- ishing of a pyramid, or any of the seven wonders of the world which excited the admiration of antiquity. The dream of Carver, of Whitney, of Cook, is an accomplished fact. To Villard belongs the honor of completing this imperial work, and with it his name will be forever associated.

"Into the valley of the Red river of the North, and for fifty miles without a curve, passes through the great wheat farms of the valley. From the Red river valley to the Yellowstone the country is gener- ally broad, rolling prairie, of rich farming lands, excepting where the Little Missouri cuts a deep gorge through the plateau, being bounded on either side for twelve to twenty miles by the broken forma- tions known as the"Bad Lands,' which afford shelter for stock and abundant grazing. The Yellowstone country, from the east boundary line of Montana, westward to the Belt range, consists of elevated plateaus, with various broken mountain ranges on the south, all adapted to grazing, cut by broad val- leys, from a mile to six miles in width, through which the Yellowstone and its tributaries run, where the soil is a rich loam, well adapted to farming by irrigation. Central Montana is generally a moun- tainous country, and is cut by the main range of the Rocky mountains, with various collateral ranges, between which lie numerous fertile valleys. The mountains are covered with nutritious grasses, and are well supplied with pine timber. The soil in the valley is rich and productive and, wherever water can be obtained for irrigation, abundant crops of wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, etc., are raised.

In the western part of Montana, along Clark's fork of the Columbia, and around Lake Pend d'Oreille, in northern Idaho, there is a very extensive stretch of valuable timber, consisting chiefly of pine and fir and red cedar, with considerable white pine in the vicinity of Lake Pend d'Oreille. From this lake, which has an altitude of two thousand feet, down to Wallula, the road runs over the elevated plateau known as the great plateau of the Columbia, which, west of Spokane Falls, is generally devoid of timber, though the soil is rich and adapted to general farming.

"The climate of the country ,through which the line passes is modified, to a greater or less extent, by the physical features of the country which it trav- erses. In Montana the mountains flatten out to the northward, the general elevation of the country being lower than in either Wyoming or Colorado. As the result of this flattening of the mountain ranges toward the north the warm winds from the great gulf stream of the Pacific ocean penetrate as far eastward as the Missouri valley. The winter cli- mate of Washington Territory, Montana and west- ern Dakota is materially modified by these west winds. The winters in Montana are less rigorous than those in Colorado or Dakota. The snowfall is greater than in Colorado, but the snows remain on the ground but a short time, and sometimes snowfall a foot in depth will disappear before the warm 'chinook' winds from the west in a single day. These facts account for the abundant grasses and remarkable advantages possessed by Montana as a cattle-raising country. The coteau that divides the waters of the Red river of the North from those of the Missouri river, serve as a barrier to diverge the cold north winds coming down from the Arctic circle across Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Missouri valley and the country westward has a winter cli- mate, generally much milder than that of the Red river valley and of Minnesota.

"The territory of Washington possesses two dis- tinctive climates. The country west of the Cascade range has the climate of the Pacific coast, and is covered with enormous forests of red and yellow fir and cedar, and perhaps, taken all in all, is the most extensive and valuable forest belt in the United States. The climate of the coast is remarkably equable and uniform. On Puget sound, which is never frozen over, the thermometer rarely falls be- low twenty degrees, and snow falls only in small quantities, and rarely lies on the ground long enough to afford sleighing. There are the wet and the dry

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seasons, which are characteristic of the Pacific slope. The summers are delightfully pleasant and bracing without being very warm.

"East of the Columbia river, on what is known as the great plains of the Columbia, and along the east slopes of the Blue mountains, where the gen- eral altitude of the country is one thousand five hun- dred to three thousand feet, the rainfall again be- comes greater, and there is a stretch of country of perhaps two hundred miles in length by eighty in breadth which has no superior as a farming country anywhere in the United States.

"In the contingency of snow blockades, the Northern Pacific has decided advantages for pro- tection over the Union and Central Pacific lines. While those lines have been compelled to erect and maintain forty miles of snow sheds, at great expense, the Northern Pacific will need no such structures. There will be no serious inconvenience arising from detentions by snow at any point west of the Mis- souri river. The mountain ranges are crossed at so low an altitude, comparatively, that little or no delay from snow will occur in Montana and Washington territories. In Dakota, where the difficulties from the snowfall have, in previous years, caused some delay, the improved appliances, and additional pro- tection afforded from the planting of trees, and the erection of snow fences, has already obviated any fear of serious blockades. In the unusually severe winter of 1882 and 1883, the trains of the Northern Pacific were not delayed exceeding twenty-four hours at any time. The Northern Pacific has adopted the wise plan of planting groves of trees along the line of its road in Dakota as permanent protection against drifting snow. Fifteen thousand young trees were set out on the right of way during the past year, and arrangements have been completed for setting out young trees along the entire - line through Dakota. The low altitude at which the Northern Pacific crosses the mountain ranges is another great advantage. Glendive, where the road strikes the Yellowstone, is due north of Cheyenne. The altitude of this and some other towns on the line is given below. Glendive, 2,070 feet, 4,000 feet lower than Cheyenne; at Livingston. 4,500 feet, or 600 feet lower than Denver ; at a point near Boze- man, 5.565 feet, 500 feet lower than Cheyenne, and 3.000 feet lower than Sherman, the highest point on the Union Pacific, and 2,500 feet lower than the highest point reached by the Central Pacific on the Cascade range. In general it may be stated that, while there are more than 500 miles of the entire

line of road between Omaha and Sacramento which exceed 4,000 feet in altitude, in the 2,000 miles be- tween St. Paul and Portland, on the Northern Pa- cific road, there are not more than 250 miles which exceed 4,000 feet.

"The Northern Pacific grades compare favora- bly with, and are perhaps better than those of any of the other transcontinental lines. The heavy grades are concentrated at the three points where the lines cross the mountain divides, and at these places as- sistant power is provided. . These mountain grades are as follows: Crossing of the Belt range near Montana, 20 miles, 116 feet ; main range near Hel- ena, same number of miles and same grade ; crossing of the Coriacan divide, 12 miles, 116 feet.

"On all the other divisions of the road the grades are no greater than the average grades of the rail- roads of Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, and will compare favorably with the average grades of the roads east of the Mississippi. The maximum grades and curves are required by law not to exceed those of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The maximum is only reached on the Northern Pacific in crossing the mountain ranges, the maximum exclusive of the mountain ascents being sixty-six feet. The grades on the other divisions are generally lighter than those of eastern roads, and on the Yellowstone di- vision, for a distance of three hundred and forty miles, the maximum grade is twenty-six feet, and the maximum curve is six degrees.

"In this connection the following table, show- ing the altitude of the following points on the line of the road, will be of interest :

"From Duluth or Superior City, 602 feet, to Brainerd, Minnesota, 1,220 feet; Fargo, Dakota, 940 feet ; Jamestown, Dakota, 1,410 feet ; Bismarck, Dakota, 1,680 feet ; Glendive. Montana, 2,100 feet ; Miles City, Montana, 2,200 feet ; Billings, Montana, 3.210 feet ; Livingston, Montana, 4.450 fet ; Bozeman tunnel, Montana, 5.565 feet ; Bozeman, Montana, 4.838 feet ; Helena, Montana, 4,266 feet ; Mullan tun- nel, Montana, 5.548 feet ; Missoula, Montana, 3,318 feet ; Spokane Falls, Idaho, 1,900 feet ; Ainsworth, Washington, 340 feet ; Portland, Oregon, sea level ; Kalama, Oregon, sea level; Tacoma, Washington, sea level."

The total length of the main line of the North- ern Pacific from Duluth to Puget sound is about two thousand miles. Its total cost will run up. for the main line alone, to over one hundred millions of dollars. It passes through the states of Minne- sota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 24

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432