Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/198

 Oregonian of August 30, 1865, at the time he retired from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company:

Col. J. S. Ruckel on Monday resigned the Presidency of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company preparatory to taking his departure for the East where it is his intention to assume charge of his own individual interests in quartz milling, etc. He has very valuable interests to attend to, which will require his undivided attention, which led to his resignation. In Col. Ruckel the people of Oregon have always found an example of persevering industry, which has assumed to open up the country and tend to the development of its resources. The first heard of Col. Ruckel in Oregon, although he had visited California the year previous to the discovery of gold there, was during the time when the steamer Fashion was under his control, some ten years ago. Next, in his enterprise in the construction of the Mountain Buck, and proprietor of the railroad on the Oregon side of the Columbia at the Cascades, all of which were enterprises then with little hope of prosperity. At the time of the organization of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Col Ruckel became one of the members of the incorporation, taking the Mountain Buck in with him. Subsequently the Oregon side of the Cascades was added to the capital stock of the company. For some years he acted as traveling agent for the company, and last year was chosen its president, to succeed Capt. J. C. Ainsworth, whose term expired. We might take the reader along the route from the coast at the mouth of the Columbia, and to the source of that stream, and even beyond it, to show the results of the enterprise, and the investments made by Col. Ruckel and his associates, but their liberal policy is too well known to the most of our citizens to require full details. It is sufficient to say of Col. Ruckel, that he has a spirit and determination to surmount any obstacle, and if felt disposed to put a railroad across the Rocky Mountains, to connect the Columbia with the Mississippi, he would as surely accomplish the purpose as he has the new stage road, in connection with Mr. Geo. Thomas and others, across the Blue Mountains to La Grande, in the Grand Ronde valley, from Wallula, lately completed, and which is said to be unsurpassed by any road in the country. On the discovery of the ledge known as the Rockfellow