Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/408

294 posed railroad from Winnemucca to Eugene (incorporated as "Oregon Branch Pacific Railroad"), should also have a grant of lands for his company. This scheme, carried out, would give a continuous land grant from the Central Pa- cific Railroad in Nevada, to Eugene, Portland and Astoria. And upon this foundation, C. P. Huntington, then in the zenith of his power as a railroad financier and constructor, agreed to furnish the capital and build the railroad from Winnemucca to Eugene, Portland and Astoria, giving Oregon a more direct connection to the east than by the California route. This scheme was de- feated by Ben Holladay, then also at Washington, who, within ten days after congress passed the Oregon Central grant to McAlinnville. induced Senator Williams to amend the Pengra bill by providing that the Winnemucca road should connect with the Holladay line at a point in the Rogue River valley. This provision would, of course, prevent all connection with the McMinnville line, and give Holladay control of all roads from the Rogue River valley to Port- land. Holladay was quick to see that the Pengra bill would bring to Oregon a giant in energy and ability who would dwarf his own pretensions and soon drive him from the field ; and with a selfishness and vanity which knew no lim- its, he demanded the sacrifice of the interests of the state and the ruin of the man who was willing to befriend him. Upon this change being made in the Winnemucca bill, Mr. Huntington promptly withdrew from his offer to finance the road, and the whole scheme to get another road into Oregon through the Klamath lake region failed. Had not the Winnemucca (Oregon Branch Pa- cific) proposition been thus emasculated, southeastern Oregon, the Nehalem valley, and Astoria, would have had practically a transcontinental railroad more than thirty years ago; and Eugene would have been the junction of two great lines. But for this, the Midas touch of Huntington would have made the south- eastern Oregon plains and the Nehalem wilderness prosperous and populous with a commerce and population equal to anything on the Pacific coast; Port- land would have had a population of half a million, and Astoria would have had a population of 50,000. Driven from this opportunity which Huntington himself sought, he turned his attention to Arizona and Mexico, and gave to the arid deserts of the south the wealth which should have been the reward of Oregon enterprise. It was the most damaging blow to the growth of the state which Oregon ever suffered; for it not only deprived the state of a great rail- road, and its consequent development, but it wrecked the political career of its greatest man — the man who was beyond all question the greatest statesman, most brilliant orator which the Pacific coast ever sent to the United States senate — and deprived the state of his eminent abilities. Ben Holladay and John H. Mitchell by this act ruined Judge Williams for life and did Portland and the state of Oregon an incalculable damage.

Upon this land grant to the Oregon Central Company, and upon one mil- lion dollars construction bonds thereon, English capitalists advanced a million dollars to build the road from Portland to the Yamhill river, where it stood still for ten years at the Holladay town of St. Joe. The same capitalists were induced by Mr. Villard to advance further capital to extend the road from St. Joe (long since deserted) to McMinnville and Corvallis. the present terminus. In the work of building this west side road, the citizens of Portland contributed in cash and lands $150,000, the people of Washington county $25,000, and the people of Yamhill county about $20,000.

The coming of Henry Villard to Oregon in 1874 was the fact of largest importance to the development of the northwest. Mr. Villard had been by his friends in Germany placed in charge of their interests in the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and had proved so faithful and canable in managing his trust that when similar investments in Oregon had been jeopardized by Ben Holladay, he