Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/114

108 Breitbarth, McLaughlin & Klippel, W. H. S. Hyde, John E. Ross, Aaron Chambers, Mike Handly, Granville Sears, R. S. Belknap, U. S. Hayden, John Neuber, H. Ammerman, Beall & Brother, Wm. H. Herriman, Haskell Amy, Alexander French, Albert Bellinger, James Thornton, Woodford Reames, E. K. Anderson, D. P. Anderson, Joshua Patterson, D. P. Brittain, J. V. Ammerman, Plymale & Bros, and Joseph Gaston, all residents of Jackson County.

Upon consultation with the above subscribers to this fund the writer of this paper was appointed agent to collect and disburse the money subscribed by these men in subsisting the surveying party until May, 1864, and to procure further subscriptions along the proposed line to continue the survey north to the City of Portland, and to organize a company and apply to Congress for a grant of land in aid of the construction of a railroad from the Columbia River to San Francisco, passing through the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue River valleys; and in pursuance of this authority this original subscription of money in aid of such railroad was collected, the surveying party subsisted in Jacksonville until May, 1864, when it again took up the line of survey where Elliot and Belding had abandoned it, and under the supervision of Col. A. C. Barry it was extended to Portland, which point was reached on October 1, 1864. To carry on the business part of the undertaking and present the proposition to Congress a company was organized under the name of "The California and Columbia River Railroad Company," and of which J. Gaston was made secretary, and A. C. Barry, chief engineer. The results of this survey were then (October, 1864,) laid before the Oregon legislature, then in session, and a bill, prepared by the secretary of the company, was introduced in the Senate (S. B. No. 14), which provided for granting to a railroad to be