Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/132

126 and was raising the money for and pushing construction work on all these lines. But he proved his matchless ability by successfully carrying out these great enterprises, and on September 8, 1883, completing the Northern Pacific across the continent and connecting its steel bands with those of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company at the long since abandoned town of Ainsworth on the north side of Snake River just above its confluence with the Columbia. And thus was planned and formed what I have named "The Oregon Railroad System." How long Villard was considering this idea I have no means of stating. He doubtless mentioned it to others, but the first time I heard of it was at the dinner table of the late Senator Nesmith, at his farm on the La Creole in Polk County in 1874, while I was accompanying Villard on a trip of observation through the Willamette Valley. The grand conception was his in origin and execution; and although hampered by doubters and opposed by powerful enemies he triumphed over all obstacles and made its success the most enduring monument of his fame as one of the most forceful characters and honorable men of his day and generation. The people of Oregon have but slightly comprehended and do yet but little appreciate the great work he wrought for the State. He planned his work upon "the lines of the least resistance"; he worked in harmony with the laws of nature and upon plans laid down by the great architect of our planet; and his record and his work is invincible. And now, after spending years of effort and millions of money to reverse the plans of Villard and carry the trade of the "Inland Empire" over the Cascades to Puget Sound the great capitalists of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads are forced to admit the correctness of Villard's plans and expend ten million dollars to rectify the blunder of opposing them. It was the keen foresight of Henry Villard that