The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad | Page 2

reared Mid chaos and disorder. We wake to find
ourselves midway In continental station, And send our greetings either
way Across the mighty nation.
We reach out towards the golden gate And eastward to the ocean. The
tea will come at lightning rate And likewise Yankee notions. From
spicy islands off the West The breezes now are blowing, And all
creation does its best To set the greenbacks flowing.
The eastern tourist will turn out And visit all the stations For Pullman
runs upon the route With most attractive rations.
--From the Chicago Tribune, May 11th, 1869.

The First Trans-continental Railroad.
CHAPTER I.
The Project and the Projectors.
President Jefferson First to Act on a Route to the Pacific--Lewis and
Clark Expedition--Oregon Missionaries--Railroad Suggested--Mills
1819--The Emigrant 1832--Parker 1835--Dr. Barlow's Plan--Hartwell

Carver's--John Plumbe's--Asa Whitney--Senator Benton's National
Road.
It would appear that Thomas Jefferson is entitled to the credit of being
the first to take action towards the opening of a road or route between
the eastern states and the Pacific Coast. While he was in France in 1779
as American Envoy to the Court of Versailles he met one John Ledyard
who had been with Captain Cook in his voyage around the world, in the
course of which they had visited the coast of California. Out of the
acquaintance grew an expedition under Ledyard that was to cross
Russia and the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, thence take a Russian trading
vessel from Sitka to the Spanish-Russian settlement on Nookta Sound
(Coast of California) and from there proceed east overland until the
settlements then confined to the Atlantic Seaboard were reached.
Through the efforts of Jefferson the expedition was equipped and
started. The Russian Government had promised its support but when
the party had crossed Russia, were within two hundred miles of the
Pacific, Ledyard was arrested by order of the Empress Catherine, the
then ruler of Russia, and the expedition broken up.
Jefferson became President in 1801. In 1803 on his recommendation,
Congress made an appropriation "for sending an exploring party to
trace the Missouri River to its source, to cross the highlands (i. e.
Rocky Mountains) and follow the best route thence to the Pacific
Ocean."
So interested was Jefferson that he personally prepared a long and
specific letter of instructions and had his confidential man placed in
charge. "The object of your mission," said Jefferson, in this letter of
instruction "is to explore the Missouri River and such other streams as
by their course would seem to offer the most direct and practicable
communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce."
This expedition known as the Lewis and Clark, made in 1804-1806,
brought to light much information relative to the West and
demonstrated conclusively the feasibility of crossing overland as well
as the resources of the country traversed.

As a result the far West became the Mecca of the fur trappers and
traders. Commencing with the Astoria settlement in 1807, for the next
forty years or until the opening of the Oregon immigration in 1844,
they were practically the only whites to visit it outside of the
missionaries, who did more or less exploring and visiting the Indians
resulting in the Rev. Jason Lee in 1833 and Dr. Marcus Whitman in
1835 having established mission stations in Oregon.
The next record is of one Robert Mills of Virginia who suggested in a
publication on "Internal Improvements in Maryland, Virginia, and
South Carolina," issued in 1819, the advisability of connecting the head
of navigation of some one of the principal streams entering the Atlantic
with the Pacific Ocean by a system of steam propelled carriages. (H. R.
Doc. 173, 29th Cong.) This was before there was a mile of Steam
Railroad in the world, and under the then existing circumstances was so
chimerical as to hardly warrant mention.
In a weekly newspaper published in 1832 at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
called "The Emigrant," appeared what was probably the first suggestion
in print on the advisability of a Pacific Railroad. The article suggests
the advisability of building a line from New York to the Mouth of the
Oregon (Columbia River) by way of the south shore of Lake Erie and
Lake Michigan, crossing the Mississippi River between 41 and 42
north latitude, the Missouri River about the mouth of the Platte, thence
to the Rocky Mountains near the source of the last named river,
crossing them and down the valley of the Oregon to the Pacific. It
further suggested that it be made a national project, or this failing the
grant of three millions of acres to a Company organized for the purpose
of constructing it. No name was signed to the article, but the
probabilities are that it was written by S. W. Dexter, the Editor of the
paper.
With the