Page:The Pacific Monthly volume 17.djvu/745

Rh this errand was a lawyer from Ohio, named Joseph Gaston, at that time residing at Salem, Ore. Mr. Gaston was a natural promoter. He possessed great energy and enthusiasm, a man of action, coming of good stock, his cousin being Governor of Massachusetts, one uncle a member of Congress and another Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Being deeply impressed with the value of the proposed railroad, he entered into the project with a zeal that carried with it conviction not only to others but also to himself.

The completion of the survey was the first step. While in comfortable circumstances, he was not able to furnish the amount necessary himself, neither was he able to raise it. In its absence, a rather unique expedient was adopted. Among his neighbors was a Captain Barry, an ex-army officer and an engineer competent to conduct the survey. Between him and Gaston an engineering party was organized. For their salary they agreed to await the completion of the survey and the financing of the line, while for their expenses and subsistence Gaston agreed to arrange. This he did by getting the residents along the survey to entertain and transport the party while in their vicinity. In this he was entirely successful. Not only was the party fed and housed, but in most cases their entertainers dropped all other work and gave their time and assistance.

At the same time Gaston was using his utmost endeavors to secure the financial aid necessary to carry on the work. Through personal appeals, letters and circulars, he approached every one in the Willamette Valley whom he thought could help. So successful was he that, when the Oregon Legislature convened in the Fall of 1864, he was able to present Captain Barry's complete report of the survey in printed form. This gave a favorable view of the practicability of the proposition, showing it was entirely feasible to build a railroad from Jacksonville on the south to St. Helens on the Willamette on the north, it being considered advisable to make that point the terminus, although Barry's survey was extended through to Portland.

The report met with favorable consideration on the part of the Legislature. A bill was introduced and passed, granting what was considered ample aid from the state, namely, $200,000, to the company that should construct a railroad of not less than one hundred miles in Length in the Willamette Valley.

The following November (1864) an organization, known as the Willamette Valley Railroad Company, was formed with a view of taking up the proposition. Neither Barry nor Gaston were interested in this and, lacking their co-operation and on account of the inadequacy of the grant, nothing came of it.

Joseph Gaston

These gentlemen had other plans in view. In their joint interest Barry proceeded to Washington, D. C., and, with the assistance of Gaston and the Oregon members of the House and Senate, was enabled to procure the passage of an act of Congress granting aid towards the construction of a railroad between some point in the Sacramento Valley, California, on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad to Portland, Oregon.

The California and Oregon Railroad Company, being already in the field with a line part of the way, was designated as the recipient as far as the Oregon-California state line, and an organization to be chartered by the Oregon Legislature was to receive it for the line thence to Portland.

This aid was to be in the form of the grant of alternate sections of land lying