USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 93
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" I also thank the brethren who have aided to build this, our first railroad. They have acted as elders of Israel, and what higher praise can I accord to them, for they have worked on the road, they have graded the track, they laid the rails, they have finished the line, and have done it cheerfully ' without purse or scrip.'
" Our work is not one for individual benefit, but it is an aid to the develop- ment of the whole country, and tends to the benefit and prosperity of the whole nation of which we form a part.
" To all present I would say, let us lay aside our narrow feelings and preju- dices, and, as fellow-citizens of this great republic, join in the celebration of this happy day.
" May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us all."
Telegrams expressing regret at their inability to accept the invitation of President Young to be present at the celebration, were read from Governor Stan- ford, president ; A. M. Towne, Esq., general superintendent ; and S. S. Mon- tague, chief engineer, of the Central Pacific road. Music from the Camp Douglas Band.
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The vice-president of the Utah Central, being called upon for a speech, the following response was made by William Jennings :
" Ladies and gentlemen: I stand before you this day with feelings in my breast which I feel myself inadequate to express. I am proud that I am a citizen of Utah, and that I am participating with you in this celebration of laying the last rail and driving the last spike of the Utah Central,-the first line of railroad that bas been constructed in this Territory. I am proud to think that the last spike in the last rail of the Utah Central is constructed of our native iron ; but more because of the wonderful progress in the development of our Territory that has been made since our arrival here, twenty-two years ago. (Cheers.) The con- struction of thirty-seven miles of railroad may, in the eyes of some, seem but a trifling affair : but when the inconveniences attending our isolated position are considered, and it is remembered that we have not had the ready facilities of com- merce enjoyed by those who live on or near the sea-board of the Atlantic or Pacific, and that the Utah Central is the result of home enterprise, and has been con- structed solely by the laboring population of Utah, I think it is justly entitled to be considered a great enterprise. The Union and Central Pacific lines and almost every line of railroad throughout the country, have had to be assistad largely by State or National aid, when in course of construction ; but the Utah Central has had neither, but is the result of the enterprise, unity and labor of the people of Utah. I feel proud of the achievement, and on this occasion, I wish to express my joy and pleasure at being one with you.
" To the workmen who have aided in the construction of this road, I tender my thanks. I have been with and travelled amongst them a great deal during the past summer, and I am happy to be able to say that they have labored content- edly and with a spirit becoming Latter-day Saints.
" I hope that we shall soon see the day when the 'iron horse' will not only place us in direct communication, as it does to-day with San Francisco in the west, and Boston and New York and all the principal cities of the east, but that there may soon be a chair. of railways extending to every city in Utah and through our neighboring 'Territories of the Rocky Mountains."
A salute of one gun and music by martial band, were followed by a speech from superintendent of Utah Central Railroad, Jos. A. Young :
" I can say to you who hear me to-day, that speaking is not my forte,-the part I have taken in connection with the building of this railroad has been the working part and not the speaking part. But I feel proud to-day that I have lived to witness the consummation of this great event in our history as a people. When we came to these valleys over twenty years ago, barefooted, almost without clothing, without provisions, trusting on the arm ot God for aid and protection, we found the country barren and desolate, and we have need to be thankful to our Heavenly Father that we have lived to take part in the laying of the last rail and driving of the last spike of the Utah Central Railroad. I consider it something that we, as a people, may justly proud be of. We have been accused of being ex- clusive. Where is our exclusiveness now ? We invite the East and the West, the North and the South to come up to Zion and learn of her ways. The more our
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actions and works, as a people, are investigated, the higher we stand in the esti- mation of those whose good opinion is worth having. (Cheers. ) I hope that the last spike of this road will be but the first of the next, which shall extend from this place to the Cotton Country (Dixie) and I trust to live to see the day when every nook and place in this Territory, that is capable of sustaining human beings, will be settled with good, honest, hard working people, and that the same will be ac- cessible by railroad, that we may travel from one settlement to another and carry our passengers in comfortable cars ; and thus show those who want to know, what we are doing." Salute of one gun and music by the Tenth Ward Brass Band.
Col. B. O. Carr, of the Union Pacific line was then introduced to make a speech. After presenting the regrets of Superintendent Meade, at his inability to be present, the following remarks were made by Mr. Carr :
" This is an occasion of congratulation to all of you, but to us who are stran - gers, it is more of an occasion of wonderment than anything else. We, who have come recently from the East, never expected to find anything like this in this country. It is something like forty years since the first railroad was laid in the United States, and twenty years ago there were only six thousand miles laid in this vast country ; but when the Union and Central Pacific lines were completed there were over forty thousand miles. The Utah Central Railroad, although only thirty- seven or thirty-eight miles long, is perhaps the only railroad west of the Mis- souri River that has been built entirely without Government subsidies ; it has been built solely with money wrung from soil which, a few years ago, we used to con- sider a desert, by the strong arms of the men and women who stand before me. And almost everything used in its construction, but especially the last spike, is the product of the country.
" Your superintendent, Mr. Young, said that you are not an exclusive people ; but I think, ladies and gentlemen, that you are very much so, so far as the western country is concerned, in accomplishing so much as you have with so little means and so few advantages to do it. (Great cheering). All that I have to say further in regard to exclusiveness, is that I cannot imagine how any man, whether ' Mor- mon,' ' Gentile,' saint or sinner, can do other than feel happy at the com- pletion of this road. I wish it the utmost success on its journey to the far South."
Salute of one gun, and music by Capt. Croxall's Brass Band.
Chief Engineer of the Western Division of the U. P. R. R., T. B. Morris, Esq., was introduced, and addressed the assembly :
"I have but one word to say to the working men of Utah, and that I will say briefly : I have been fifteen years engaged in railroad business ; but I have never seen a single road made to which capitalists did not contribute their money, or the responsibility of which did not fall upon the Government or the State in which said road was made. But here, nearly forty miles of railroad have been built, every shovel full of dirt of which has been removed by the working men of Utah, and every bar of the iron of the road has been placed in position by their labor. (Loud cheers.) You can publish to the world that the working men of Utah built and own this road.
" I have said one thing, and I want to say one thing more. Do not stop
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where you are. When you laid the last two rails to-day, they stuck out a little. That means-" Go on ! "
Salute of one gun, and music by Camp Douglas Band, succeeded by the fol- lowing remarks from John Taylor.
" I am glad to meet with such a large assemblage of people as are present to witness and take part in so important an event as that which has brought us here to-day. Like you all, I have been very much interested in the completion of this railroad. I hope to see the time when this city will be connected with the re- motest parts of our Territory by railroads, that we may meet the cars in every settlement. We have but one railroad among us for the time being ; but there is a long one east and another west, and we can go east and west; and by and bye we shall be able to go north and south and stretch out in every direction. Our course has been onward and will continue to be so from this time forth and for- ever. I will conclude by saying, success to the Utah Central Railroad."
Music by the martial band.
Mr. Campbell, superintendent of the Utah Division of the Central Pacific was next introdused, and made a short, and we are informed a very good speech, but we regret to say that his remarks were inaudible and we were unable to report them.
Speeches were expected from Hons. G. A. Smith, D. H. Wells, and Geo. Q. Cannon ; the former requested to be excused on account of indisposition, the two latter were excused because of the length of exercises and the very cold weather.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder H. W. Naisbitt, and the immense con- course of spectators quickly dispersed.
The following toasts and sentiments were handed in :
" Utah Central Railroad extends her iron hand of welcome to the East and West."
" Our Railroad-The first fruits of the marriage of the oceans."
" Prest. B. Young-Our Pioneer in Peace, Art and Science, and all that is the true wealth of Utah."
" The U. C. R. R .- May her last tie soon be bedded on the soil of the State of Deseret."
The Utah Central road was opened for traffic on January 10th, 1870. It continued under the presidency of Brigham Young, Sen., for a short time and then his son, Superintendent Joseph A. Young, succeeded his father as president of the company ; but in February (17th), 1871, he resigned the presidency and his original office of general superintendent, when his father resumed the presi- dency and Feramorz Little was appointed superintendent. John Sharp succeeded Little in 1871, and in 1873 he was elected president of the company, as well as continued in the superintendency of the road.
The Utah Southern was the second local railroad enterprise in which our cit- izens engaged ; for it is worthy of particular remark that the community co-op- erated with all their faith and means to build these home railroads, under the counsel and management of their leading men.
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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.
The Utah Southern Company was organized January 17th, 1871, by the fol. lowing named stockholders :
Joseph A. Young, William Jennings, John Sharp, John Sharp, Jr., Feramorz Little, James T. Little, LeGrande Young, L. S. Hills, S. J. Jonassen, Thomas W. Jennings, James Sharp, Geo. Swan, Jesse W. Fox, D. H. Wells, C. Layton. William Jennings was elected president of the company, John Sharp, vice-presi- dent and Feramorz Little, superintendent. Jennings afterwards resigned the pres- idency and was succeeded by Brigham Young, who, however, soon gave place to Wilham Jennings again, and under this management the road was run until the re-incorporation of the Utah Southern under the control of the Union Pacific.
On the first of May, 1871, the Utah Southern ground was broken. The road was opened for traffic to Sandy, 13 miles from Salt Lake, in September, 1871 ; to Lehi, 31 miles from Salt Lake, September, 23d, 1872 ; to Provo City, 48 miles, in December, 1873 ; to York, 75 miles, April Ist, 1875 ; to Juab, 105 miles from Salt Lake, June 15th, 1879.
The Utah Southern, running through a rich agricultural country, passing a line of the most flourishing settlements of the Territory, greatly developed the South, created a reciprocal commerce between it and Salt Lake City, and from the onset was a profitable and well managed road.
The Utah Southern Railroad Extension was organized January 11th, 1879, by the following named stockholders :
Sidney Dillon, Jay Gould (New York); S. H. H. Clark (Omaha); A. G. Campbell, Matthew Cullen (Frisco, Utah); John Sharp, W. H. Hooper, William Jennings, L. S. Hills, Feramorz Little, J. T. Little, H. S. Eldredge; with Sidney Dillon president.
The Utah Southern Extension was commenced at Juab and rapidly pushed througth to its terminus. The road was opened for traffic to Deseret, 52 miles from Juab, November Ist, 1879; to Milford, 121 miles, May 15th, 1880 ; to Frisco, 137 miles. June 23d, 1880.
The Horn Silver Mine was the cause of the Utah Southern extension which was built to this mine. Campbell, Cullen, Ryan and Byram built one-quarter of the road and they were also its chief promoters.
The Utah Central Railroad, the Utah Southern Railroad, and the Utah Southern Railroad Extension were consolidated under the name of Utah Central Railway Company, July Ist, 1881, with the following named directors :
Sidney Dillon, Jay Gould, Frank G. Brown (New York); Fred L. Ames ( Boston); John Sharp, Feramorz Little, William Jennings (Salt Lake City); S. H. H. Clark (Omaha); William B Doddridge (Evanston, Wyoming). Sidney Dillon was elected president ; John Sharp, vice-president and general superintendent ; James Sharp, assistant general superintendent ; Geo. Swan, secretary ; L. S. Hills, treasurer ; Francis Cope was appointed freight and passenger agent, and Jesse W. Fox, chief engineer.
This consolidation of the two parent lines with the Southern Extension gave an aggregate extent of 280 miles, running from Ogden to Frisco under one man- agement.
The Union Pacific Company holds the control, but Utah has the distinction
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of a voice among the directors of the U. P. Co. In the preparation for the building of the Utah Southern, in 1871, John Sharp went east as the purchasing agent for this company ; and becoming extensively associated with the Union Pacific directors, he was finally elected one of them. In March (25th), 1885, he was again elected one of the directors of the U. P. R. R., the board of which stands at the present thus :
C. F. Adams, F. L. Ames, Jr., Elisha Atkins, Ezra S. Baker, F. G. Dexter, Mahlon D. Spaulding, S. R. Callaway, Gen. G. M. Dodge, Henry H. Cook, Sid- ney Dillon, David Dows, Andrew H. Green, John Sharp, Hugh Riddle, James A. Rumrill.
THE UTAH NORTHERN.
The Utah Northern, now known at the Utah & Northern Railroad, like the Utah Central and Utah Southern, was eminently a home enterprise. Its builders were the Mormons, and the people certainly expected, when they constructed these roads, becoming stockholders for their labor, etc., that they would per- manently own and control them ; and so undoubtedly did the organizers and contractors. But subsequent experience proved to all concerned that in Utah, as elsewhere, these local roads were sure, from their very necessities of extension, to pass out of the hands of the original owners and incorporators, into the con- trol of the great railroad companies of the country that are spreading their gigantic hands over these Western States and Territories, as their fellows had before done over the railroads of the Eastern States.
John W. Young, in the spring of 1868, had boldly launched out in taking contracts in the building of the Union Pacific and Union Central Railroads, which netted him from forty-five to fifty thousand dollars. This result, coupled with his natural genius for railroad building, encouraged him to engage in the more com- prehensive railroad enterprises which grew out of his projects ; and though his projects and operations for a while fell into disrepute, when his roads passed into the hands of the Union Pacific company, they became numbered with the perma- nent railroads of the West.
After taking a prominent part with his brother, Joseph A. Young, under their father, in organizing and building the Utah Central, serving for some time as secretary and treasurer of the same, and next taking part in the organization of the Utah Southern, he started for the Eastern States to induce capitalists to take hold of a particular project of his own conception, as applied to the railroad system of Utah. Despite the adoption of the popular gauge by the other roads in Utah, Mr. Young, with genuine sagacity as to the future requirements of the railroad system of the Rocky Mountain region, had the nerve to adopt the narrow-gauge on the Utah Northern and Utah Western. He succeeded in obtaining the potent financial help of Mr. Joseph Richardson, an eastern capitalist, who undertook to purchase the iron and equip the road. Mr. Richardson forthwith came to Salt Lake City to consult with President Young, who heartily endorsed the enterprise and undertook to enlist the co-operation of the people of the North to build the narrow-guage road projected by his son. This much ensured, Mr. Richardson, with John W. Young and George W. Thatcher, proceeded to Logan, where the project met great popular enthusiasm. The following telegraphic messages (fur-
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nished to the author) between Bishop Preston and President Young, relative to the probable ultimate control of the road, will to-day be very suggestive of the Bishop's sagacity :
Copy of telegraphic message from Bishop Preston to President Young and answer in regard to the building of the U. N. R. R.
" LOGAN, AUGUST 15th, 1871. " Prest. B. Young, Salt Lake City:
" Will it be wisdom for us in Cache County to grade and tie a railroad from Ogden to Soda Springs, with a view to Eastern capitalists ironing and stocking it, thereby giving them control of the road? The people feel considerably spir- ited in taking stock to grade and tie, expecting to have a prominent voice in the control of it ; but to let foreign capitalists iron and stock it will, if my judgment is correct, give them control.
"W. B. PRESTON." THE ANSWER. "SALT LAKE CITY, AUGUST 15th, 1871. " Bishop Preston, Logan :
" The foreign capitalists in this enterprise do not seek the control; this is all understood. What they want, and what we want, is to push this road with all possible speed, if you decide to have one, so that it shall run through and benefit your settlements and reach Soda Springs as soon as possible.
" BRIGHAM YOUNG."
In a few days after the receipt of this telegram, Bishop Preston called to- gether the leading citizens and laid before them the railroad project ; whereupon they voted that they would go to work and build the railroad, and take stock for grading and tieing the road.
The organization of the company to build this road was effected August 23d, 1871, with John W. Young, president and superintendent, and Bishop Preston, vice-president and assistant superintendent.
In less than a month later, ground was broken at Brigham City, Box Elder County. The first rail was laid at Brigham Junction, March 29th, 1872 ; and the road was completed to Logan January 31st, 1873, and completed to Franklin, Idaho, in May, 1874, which for a number of years thereafter was its northern ter- minus. A branch line of four miles, extending the Utah Northern to Corinne was completed on June 9th, 1873, and the road was extended south to Ogden, and opened for traffic February 8th, 1874.
John W. Young was soon succeeded in the superintendence of the road by Moses Thatcher, who conducted its affairs with marked satisfaction to the com- pany and the public until he was succeeded by M. W. Merrill. January, 1877, George W. Thatcher was appointed superintendent. In February, 1879, the Utah Northern went out of the hands of the old company into the hands of the Union Pacific, and the Utah & Northern R. R. (its present name) had then grown into gigantic proportions.
Up to the date of its passage into the hands of the Union Pacific Company, Bishop Wm. B. Preston was vice-president of the Utah Northern, and the people
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of Cache Valley principally owned the road. It was sold at a great sacrifice ; but the new company for awhile paid due respect to the former ownership by retain- ing George W. Thatcher in the superintendency. And here it seems due to the local management to make note of its efficiency. The Salt Lake T'ribune said :
" Under the superintendency of George W. Thatcher, Esq., the Utah & Northern R. R. is the best conducted road in the country." A correspondent of the Tribune, of date July, 1881, says, " Superintendent Thatcher is congratulated for his rare executive ability. With a division nearly four hundred miles in length -the longest on the Union Pacific line-he has worked thirty-eight locomotives, pushed the construction, running timber, iron and supplies, avoided all delays in shipment of the enormous freight going to the front, gathered hundreds of car loads of rock from alongside the road by the section hands for the foundations of Eagle Rock,-and all this while experiencing difficulties in changing hands, the constant changing of the nomads experienced in railroading, etc. *
* * Mr. Thatcher-probably the youngest division superintendent of the Union Pa- cific Company-has more than average chance of becoming one of the leading railway men of the West."
The special correspondent of the Dubuque Herald, in reporting " A trip to the Great West," in company with Assistant Attorney-General Joseph K. McCammon, of the United States, Thomas L. Kimball, assistant manager of the Union Pacific, and other distinguished personages, wrote thus of Superintendent Thatcher, who accompanied them : " But I feel personally under special obliga- tions to Mr. Thatcher, of Logan, Utah, superintendent of the Utah Northern Railway. His courtesy and kindness was not the veneering of ordinary polite- ness; it was the thoughtfulness and consideration that come from the heart of a man, who, of whatever creed or position in life, is ' a man for a' that,' and who regards every other human being, of whatever color or condition, to be 'a man for a' that.' "
" The party in question was sent out by the government to make a treaty with the Indians. McCammon, in behalf of the government, went out with these railroad chiefs to attend a council of the Indians occupying the Ross Fork Reservation, to learn their feelings in regard to the grant of right of way to the Oregon Short Line Railway.
" One other testimonial from the journalistic mouthpiece of our local papers : The Salt Lake Herald says : ' It is paying a deserved compliment to the superin- tendent, George W. Thatcher, Esq., to say that the road is well managed. It is seldom that a man in his position can do his duty to the company and retain the genuine esteem of the employees ; but Mr. Thatcher possesses the faculty which enables him to do this. The road is carefully managed and most efficiently con- ducted ; accidents rarely, if ever, occur, and every possible emergency is provided for. Mr. Thatcher's knowledge of the community through which the road runs, enables him better than any other to fill his position ; while his long connection with the road and his natural aptitude for the business, have given him an experi- ence which is indispensable in a man in his position and renders his service of great value. ' " 49
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Under the management of the Union Pacific Company the road was rapidly extended to Butte, Montana, a distance of 416 miles from Ogden. It was next extended to Anaconda and Garrison where it connects with the Northern Pacific.
The general travel on this line is through Cache Valley, Idaho, to the Soda Springs, the mines, and to all parts of Montana, and also to the Yellowstone National Park. It crosses the Oregon Short Line at l'ocatello, by which route the passenger is brought within forty hours of Portland, Oregon. This road has done much for the development of northern Utah, and everything for the development of Idaho and Montana. It is accounted the best paying road of the Union Pacific, and is a narrow gauge, which gives plausibility to the " pet idea" of Mr. John W. Young, the projector of the Utah Northern, that the narrow gauge is the railroad system best adapted to these mountain regions. At present W. B. Dod- dridge is the superintendent of the road, with W. P. P. St. Clair division super- intendent.
THE DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN RAILWAY.
A Utah corporation was organized July 21st, 1881, by the consolidation of three companies-namely : the Sevier Valley Railway Company, Salt Lake and Park City Railway Company, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway. William Palmer was and is to date, January, 1886, the president of the amalgamated lines ; M. T. Burgess was the first engineer, but he was succeeded by George Goss, under whose direction most of the construction was accomplished. Henry Wood was the first superintendent ; he was succeeded by W. H. Bancroft. This railway was leased, August Ist, 1882, to the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company of Col- orado, which company in July, 1884, repudiated the lease, since which time the property has been in the hands of the court with W. H. Bancroft as receiver.
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