Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/143

Rh pony express,—that went up like smoke. The road to California was finally finished, thanks to the genius of Henry Villard, but he worked after the initiative of that east side company that was organized by my enterprise on November 17, 1866. With this Gaston had no honorable connection nor part nor lot with anything connected therewith from start to finish.

After my day as secretary of that company it was entirely reorganized as the Oregon and California Railroad Company by the Holladay interest, and all legal complications ended. When able to command material now stored at Salem, Oregon—consisting of newspaper files and correspondence with such journals as the Sacramento Union carried on for many years, I shall try to wrest from them features and history of that time.

During the years I was secretary of the company we had offices open, negotiated various matters, made contracts, issued bonds to raise means to meet engagements, received subscriptions, and donations were made by public spirited people to help pay expenses for what was considered a public enterprise. I had very little for my services, as I drew only a few hundred dollars for the three years' time, preferring to look to future success for recompense rather than draw from our small incidental fund. In fact, my services were never paid for as Holladay ignored my claim.

It may pass for history that in the full tide of his profligate career, the Sacramento Union, at that time the most influential paper on the coast, in one of its regular letters from its long-time Oregon correspondent, contained a brief sketch of the way Holladay carried on business and "carried on" otherwise. The result was that this carried such weight that the financial magnates who bought his bonds called a halt and refused to advance