USA > Nebraska > Compendium of history, reminiscence, and biography of Nebraska : containing a history of the state of Nebraska also a compendium of reminiscence and biography containing biographical sketches of hundreds of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of Nebraska > Part 19
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The next reunion was held September 14, 1864, when the members of an "Editorial Convention" assembled at Nebraska City, the object as ex- pressed in the call being to adopt uniform rates of advertising. T. H. Robertson was elected pres- ident, W. H. H. Waters secretary, and a commit- tee was appointed to prepare a schedule of prices. The rates as adopted secured publishers $2.50 for weekly subscriptions, $1.00 per month for daily subscriptions, $5.00 per year for tri-weekly sub- scriptions. Legal and transient advertisements to be inserted at the rate of $1.50 per square for first insertion, $1.00 for each subsequent insertion, and the price of all job work advanced fifty per cent.
In January, 1873, a preliminary meeting of the "Nebraska Press Association" was held in Lin- coln, at which Major Caffrey acted as chairman and J. A. MacMurphy as secretary. With the ap- pointment of committees the meeting adjourned until February 27, 1873, at which time a constitu- tion and by-laws were adopted. No meeting was held in 1874, but the organization has been main- tained, increasing in importance and in the num- ber of members and with growing zeal in the pro- fession up to the present day. Its membership is representative of all sections of the state, and its tendency the creation of personal good will and harmony.
STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.
The organization of the Nebraska State Medi- cal Society was effected at a meeting held in Oma- ha June 24, 1868. It was then declared that such an institution "organized and conducted so as to give frequent united and emphatic expression to the views and aims of the medical profession in this state, must at all times have a beneficial in- fluence and supply more efficient means that have hitherto been available here for cultivating and advancing medical knowledge, for elevating the standard of medical education, for promoting the usefulness, honor and interests of the medical profession, for enlightening and directing public opinion in regard to the duties, responsibilities and the requirements of medical men, for exciting and encouraging emulation and concert of action in the profession, and for facilitating and foster- ing friendly intercourse between those who are engaged in it." The members of the society were by the constitution divided into three classes- delegates, members by invitation and permanent members. The constitution was signed by the fol-
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lowing as the charter members: G. C. Monell, M. D .; H. P. Mathewson, M. D .; James H. Peabody, M. D .; J. C. Denise, M. D .; S. D. Mercer, M. D., of Douglas county; R. R. Livingston, M. D., of Cass county ; D. Whitinger, M. D., N. B. Larsh, M. D., of Otoe county, and J. P. Andrews, M. D., and August Roeder, M. D., of Washington coun- ty. The first officers elected were as follows: Gilbert C. Monell, president; Robert R. Livings- ton, vice president; N. B. Larsh, second vice pres- ident; J. C. Denise, corresponding secretary ; S.
D. Mercer, permanent secretary; Daniel Whitin- ger, treasurer.
The first annual convention was held at Ne- braska City, June 1 and 2, 1869. The society is today in prosperous condition, and growing in power and influence. It has from time to time issued full and valuable reports of its proceed- ings, accomplishing as far as possible that which it aimed to do-elevating the standard of medi- cal education, and promoting the usefulness, hon- or and interests of the medical profession.
CHAPTER V
RAILROADS.
The question as to who it was that first sug- gested the possibility of building a railroad across the continent has been a disputed one. It was discussed by public men early in the century, and was mentioned in various journals and news- papers, but it gradually assumed more definite shape and culminated finally in the organization and construction of the Union Pacific railroad. While the scope of this work forbids an extended history of each particular road that has aided in the progress of the state, the inception and build- ing of the great Union Pacific is so intimately connected with the pioneer history of Nebraska that the writer believes a more extended history of its inception and growth will be found inter- esting in this connection.
The claimants for the honor of having first in- troduced the subject of a trans-continental rail- way to the American people have been numerous and persistent. The subject has been mooted time out of mind, and the question, "who first suggested the Pacific railway?" propounded and repeated incessantly. It is said that Jonathan Carver foreshadowed its construction as early as 1778, and if true he was fartherest ahead of all men of the age in which he lived. When during succeeding years it was again and again men- tioned and pronounced impractical, California, rich in wealth and resources, sprang as if by magic from the desert, and the undertaking be- came an enterprise of the present rather than of the future. Since then the march of progress has with magestic tread swept across the continent, populating the valleys, developing the agricultur- al resources of the plains, bringing to light the hidden mineral wealth of the mountains and in- scribing her name on the brightest pages of his- tory in every state. Upon the banks of the Fath-
er of Waters the steps of progress impatiently lingered, but spanning that stream she swept along her magnificent career. Next she reached Nebraska, touching into life with her magic wand the hidden wealth therein sleeping. The Rocky mountains were crossed and the Queen of the Pacific reached.
As early as 1835 the Rev. Samuel Parker, in his journal of a trip across the continent, recorded an opinion that the mountains presented no insup- erable obstacle to a railroad. In 1836 John Plumbe, Jr., a Welshman, but a naturalized American, residing at Dubuque, commenced in person at his own expense the survey of a route for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific ocean, directing public attention to its importance in several well-written articles in the newspapers of the day. In 1838 he succeeded, through the in- fluence and efforts of the Hon. George W.Jones, in procuring an appropriation from congress to de- fray the expenses of locating the first division of the line, devoting his entire attention to and making constant exertions for the promotion of this great national object. He lived until after the gold discoveries of California, and used them as additional arguments in support of his pet scheme. Among the many claims is also that ad- vanced by the friends of John Wilgus, formerly a resident of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. A full review of the Wilgus claims are contained in an article published in the Uniontown (Pennsylvan- ia) Republican-Standard, from which we quote the following :
"Many public men bask in borrowed light, and in no instance is this proposition more signally illustrated than in the case of Hon. Thomas H. Benton, who, as history records, is the accredited father of the Pacific
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railroad. Men of true moral and intellec- tual worth are more often modest and unassum- ing, and though deserving the gratitude of their fellow men, live in obscurity, and go to their re- ward hardly known outside the village in which fortune cast their lot. Such a man was John Wil- gus, the man who above all others is entitled to the credit and honor of originating the idea of a railroad to the Pacific. Born in comparative ob- security in a small town in southwestern Pennsyl- vania in the latter part of the last century, he very early gave promise of having more than bright intellect. Poverty and a lack of schools stood in his pathway, but his insatiable desire for learning was only limited by insurmountable ob- stacles incident to a new settlement on the border. The Bible was his companion from his youth, and in his manhood and declining years he who sought a controversy on religious dogmas must come fully armed and equipped. He had examined in detail all controverted points, read all the standard au- thors on Bible lore, memorized whole chapters and books of the Bible, and from studies and re- searches in the various departments, culling here and there logic and analogy, and with a memory never at fault when a topic was once scanned, he was a formidable opponent. While yet a young man he conceived the idea of a railroad to the Pa- cific, and this not when railroads were out of their swaddling clothes, but in their infancy, be- fore mountains had been scaled and rivers spanned. He contemplated and suggested congressional aid by giving ten miles of public land on each line of the surveyed routes, laying the road out so as to run through the county seats of successive counties. The eastern terminus should be the western shore of Lake Su- perior, near the present site of Duluth, also that it should cross the Rockies where the present road crosses, and its western terminus should be the Bay of San Francisco. Drawing a map and plan of his proposed railroad, he drew up a letter de- tailing the plans and methods and the reasons for the same, and forwarded the whole to Hon. An- drew Stewart, who was then a representative in congress from Fayette county, Pennsylvania. The plans and details were shown to a number of members, and it was thought advisable to have any proposition relating thereto come from a western man, and Mr. Benton, who was nearing the zenith of his glory, was selected. Mr. Benton arose in his place in the senate on the following day, and proposed the building of a railroad to the Pacific. Mr. Stewart wrote to Mr. Wilgus the disposition made of his submissions. Years after, in the later years of Mr. Stewart's life, when the Pacific road was building, he wrote a letter to Mr. Wilgus, recognizing him as the original pro- poser of the road, and complimenting him upon the grand consummation about to dawn upon his early hopes."
The letter referred to, and which is the only
evidence now obtainable to substantiate Mr. Wil- gus' title to the honor, reads thus:
Uniontown, Pa., June 25, 1869. Jolın Wilgus, Esq., Brownsville, Pa.
Dear Sir: I have just received your letter of yesterday, inclosing your communication to the Commercial in reference to a correspondence be- tween us relative to the "Pacific Railroad" be- tween twenty and thirty years ago, and request- ing me to give you my recollections in reference to that matter.
I have a perfect recollection of having received numerous letters from you, urging me as a mem- ber of the committee on railroads and canals to call the attention of congress to this subject, in which you took so much interest.
Your first route was from Lake Michigan, by the Columbia river, to the Pacific, but after the acquisition of California yon changed it from St. Louis to San Francisco. Of this route you sent me a very handsome map, following, according to my recollections, very nearly the route on which the road has been lately built, which map I had, as you say, suspended in the hall of the house of representatives for the inspection of the members.
I drew up a resolution authorizing the president to employ a corps of engineers of the United States army to examine and report upon the prac- ticability of the proposed project, which resolu- tion I submitted to a number of members of con- gress, but especially to those of the west, who were most favorably disposed.
Upon consideration and reflection, however, I concluded that the resolution had better be first offered in the senate, being a smaller body, and where the small western states were comparative- ly much stronger than in the house. I therefore took the resolution with your map to the senate, where I was advised by those friendly to the pro- ject to hand the papers to Colonel Benton, whose son-in-law, Colonel Fremont, had made the pre- liminary explorations. I did so, and he promised to attend to the matter in which he also took a very lively interest. I advised you of this ar- rangement, with which you expressed yourself as satisfied, and said yon would write to Colonel Benton on the subject, who afterwards informed me you had done so.
Without referring to the journals to which I have not now access, I can not undertake to state the action of the senate on the subject, but may do so hereafter, and should I find anything further material to your inquiry, I will let you know.
Very respectfully your friend, etc., A. Stewart.
Lewis Gaylord Clarke in 1838 wrote to the Knickerbocker: "The reader is now living who will make a railway trip across the continent." In 1846 Asa Whitney began to urge the project of building a line from the Mississippi to Puget Sound if congress would donate public lands to the width of thirty miles along the entire road. Later experience has shown that the proceeds
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sought by Whitney would have been utterly in- sufficient. His plan was conceded to be superior to that submitted by Mr. Plumb, but it was not acted upon. In 1850 the first Pacific railroad bill was introduced into congress by Senator Benton, of Missouri. "Old Bullion" contemplated a railroad only "where practicable," leaving gaps in the impassable mountains to be filled up by wagon roads. The Alleghanies were not even then crossed by an unbroken railway, but by a series of inclined plains, upon which the cars were drawn up and let down by stationary en- gines. In all ages mankind has sought the short- est, most expeditious and economical route to market. The work was demanded in a national point of view, and across the state of Nebraska must the road be built. The questions which pri- marily suggested themselves-would it pay ? how should it be built? and where was it to leave the frontier ?- were made the subjects of careful consideration. In 1851 the Hon. S. Butler King submitted a plan which received almost universal approval. It was, practically, that the govern- ment should guarantee to any company or per- sons who would undertake and complete the road a net dividend of five per cent for fifty or one hundred years, the road to be constructed under the supervision of an engineer appointed by the government, the cost of the road not to exceed a certain sum, and the guaranty not to begin until the road was completed and equipped for opera- tion. In 1853-54 nine routes were surveyed across the continent on various parallels between British America and Mexico, under the supervision of Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war. The re- sults were summarized in the interests of the ex- treme southern line. Up to this period the Ca- nadians and many residents of the United States believed that a railway could not be built south of the British possessions unless it was carried far down toward Mexico. In spite of all this, how- ever, the Union Pacific shouldered the enterprise, and in four years built a total of 1,090 miles. With each returning session of congress there- after convened the benefits and peculiarities of these several routes were submitted. The imprac- ticability of building the road had been from time to time removed by reports of engineers engaged in surveying designated routes, and many advo- cates were found to urge that the geography of the country and other features of excellence dem- onstrated incontestibly that the old Mormon trail up the Platte river was the most available.
A number of appeals were made to congress, urging that a reasonable grant of land and other aid be made as would give an impulse to the building of the road. As regarded the Platte valley route, its superiority was insisted upon, and the truth of history cited in that behalf. In the early days of Brigham Young's domination, trusty emmissaries were by him dispatched for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of the best road from the Missouri to Salt Lake. After
every possible and impossible route had been ex- plored, this shrewd leader, who had more at stake than any man who ever crossed the western prairies, chose the North Platte route. The speed and safety with which he and his followers traversed it attest a sagacity which only a thor- ough knowledge of the country would enable him to employ. The first emigrants to California crossed the Missouri at St. Joe, Leavenworth, Kansas City, Independence and elsewhere, but after the country had been explored thoroughly the emigration of 1852 was by way of Council Bluffs and the north Platte route. From the earliest days of the territory the people and offic- ial representatives of Nebraska favored the speedy completion of a line through the valley of the Platte. The proceedings of the legislature
prove this. Every governor from Cuming to Saunders advocated the measure, and a most ur- gent spirit was manifested from 1855 to 1865.
On January 20, 1858, a committee of congress, through Senator Gwin of California, reported a bill which proposed to locate the road at some point between the Big Sioux and Kansas rivers to San Francisco. It provided for the donation of alternate sections of land on each side of the route, and $12,500 per mile, the same to be ad- vanced on the completion of every twenty-five miles of the road until $25,000,000 was reached, the amounts to be returned in mail and army ser- vice and transportation, etc. This bill, however, was killed in the senate. At the session of 1859-60 another effort was made and a bill intro- duced in the house by Mr. Curtis of Iowa. It provided for the construction of a road across the continent, with branches from two points on the navigable waters of the Missouri to converge and unite within two hundred miles of that stream, thence run to the Sacramento river. The bill ran through a long and excited debate, and was amended in several particulars, and finally was rejected by congress. The great difficulty at this time seemed the selection of a route.
In 1861 the war came on and monopolized pub- lic attention, but early in 1862 the possibility of constructing the road was again brought up, and at this time first took definite shape. On Febru- ary 5, 1862, Mr. Rollins, of Missouri, introduced a bill to aid in constructing a railroad and tele- graph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean. The bill was finally passed by both houses of congress June 24, 1862, and was approved July 1, 1862, thus creating "The Union Pacific Railroad Company." The bill provided for the amount of the capital stock, the election of directors, the right of way through public lands, the extin- guishment of Indian titles, the dona- tion of alternate sections except mineral lands, the conveyance of lands upon completion of forty consecutive miles of road, and the issue and pay- ment of bonds therefor, besides various other pro- visions. The act was amended later, and the company was formally organized October 29,
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1863, by the election of a board of thirteen direc- tors. Work on the road was commenced at once, and progressed rapidly. On March 13, 1866, it was announced that sixty miles of the road had been completed, and awaited examination by the commissioners of the government. The comple- tion of the road occurred on May 10, 1869. The foregoing covers briefly the facts leading up to the inception and building of the Union Pacific.
PIONEER RAILROADS IN NEBRASKA.
The Union Pacific railroad was the first railway enterprise commenced in Nebraska. The mere talk of the project of building this line from the Missouri river westward to the Pacific attracted a great deal of attention to the west, and espec- ially was emigration to Nebraska hastened by this. The location of the road and the commence- ment of operations looking to the building of its route tended to fill up Nebraska, then a territory with a thrifty population, as also to develop the agricultural and mineral wealth of the country beyond. The immediate effects were, of course, experienced by that portion of the domain through which the road passed, and in other portions of the territory as its influence grad- ually extended. The great empire west of Omaha along the base of the Rocky mountains, rich in mineral wealth beyond any other por- tion of the country, filled up rapidly with the people. The productive lands of Nebraska were brought into requisition to furnish them with wheat, corn, potatoes and other cereals and esculents, and the wholesale merchants of the metropolis contributed to their necessities. The building of the road cheapened transporta- tion and in every way promoted the growth and development of Nebraska.
The bill passed by congress creating the "Union Pacific Railroad Company," which was approved July 1, 1862, provided for the construction of a continuous railroad and telegraph line from "a point on one hundredth meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, between the south margin of the Republican river and the north margin of the valley of the Platte river, in the territory of Ne- braska, to the western boundary of Nevada terri- tory." This great national enterprise was form- ally organized in the city of New York October 29, 1863, by the election of the first board of direc- tors as has already been stated. At that time four lines of railroad had been projected and were in process of construction across the state of Iowa -the Burlington & Missouri ; the most southern ; the Mississippi & Missouri, the next north ; the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska, farther north, and the Dubuque & Sioux City. The first named was in operation about one hundred miles westward from Burlington, with its western terminus undecided. The Mississippi & Missouri was in operation from Davenport to Grin- nell, with its western terminus decided as Coun- 4 1/2
cil Bluffs, opposite Omaha. The Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska road was in operation from Clinton and Lyons to Marshalltown, and the Dubuque & Sioux City was operated a short distance west of Du- buque, with its western terminus at Sioux City. For this latter road a connection with the trunk line of the Pacific road was expressly provided in the act of congress incorporating the Union Pa- cifie, obliging that company to construct a branch to a point opposite Sioux City whenever a road should be completed there to cross the state of Iowa. At this time there was great anxiety throughout the west as to what place on the Mis- souri river the president would select as the ini- tial point of the Union Pacific road, and Omaha, it was insisted upon, offered superior inducements in that connection. On the morning of Wednes- day, December 2, 1863, the engineer of the road received a telegram from New York, announcing that the president of the United States had fixed the initial point of the road on "the western boundary of the state of Iowa," opposite Omaha, and directing him to formally "break ground" and inaugurate the great work. To aid in the construction of this great national highway, the United States government conferred upon the Union Pacific a magnificent land grant, amount- ing to over twelve million acres, contained in al- ternate sections of one square mile each within a breadth of twenty miles on either side of the rail- road, and extended along its entire line. The act passed by congress required that one hundred miles of the Union Pacific railroad between the Missouri river and the one hundredth meridian be completed within three years after filing of the company's assent of the organic law filed June 27, 1863. Considerable delay was occas- ioned by various interests fighting to secure the location of the line where it would serve specula- tive enterprises, but in 1865 the work of construc- tion was being pushed with vigor. On March 13, 1866, it was announced that sixty miles of the road had been completed and awaited examina- tion by the commissioners of the government. Soon after the first hundred miles were completed in July, 1866, one hundred and thirty-five miles were announced as ready for the "cars" west of Omaha. The final completion of the line to the Pacific ocean, one of the great events of the cen- tury, occurred on May 10, 1869. On that day two oceans were united and a continent was spanned by the bands of iron, over which was to flow the commerce of the nation. An early writer, speaking of this event, said: "Fruitful as has been the present century in important discoveries and useful inventions, varied and multiform as have been the improvements wrought out by patient toil and unequaled energy of the men of the age in which they lived, no sin- gle achievement will compare in its immediate and ultimate consequences to the material pros- perity of the people, not only of America, but of Europe and Asia, with the grand work which
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reached its final consummation on Monday, May 10, 1869."
The bridge across the Missouri river at Omaha was completed in March, 1872, at a total cost of one million four hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars.
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