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    Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska
    Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska
    Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska
    Ebook123 pages3 hours

    Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska

    By Eugene Miller

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    About this ebook

    Building the transcontinental railroad was America's greatest feat of the 19th century. This book chronicles the first three years of construction during which crews crossed Nebraska. Starting from Omaha the "Oxbow" route meant much sought after early money. The faltering progress toward Fremont highlighted the need for better planning and tight organization, a challenge met when the Casement Brothers, (former Generals) were put in charge. As the construction rolled westward past the 100th Meridian the big moneymen celebrated with at elaborate promotional junket, hosting many influentials on "The Great Excursion" to the end of the rails. Throughout Nebraska the camp-followers and hanger-on brought along the dance halls, whiskey mills, and "the hell-on-wheels", towns that flourished for only days then moved on with their customers.
    During those magnificent years young photographer Arundel C. Hull followed taking many first-ever images of those towns, their new buildings, and their characters.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEugene Miller
    Release dateJun 7, 2012
    ISBN9780972851183
    Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska
    Author

    Eugene Miller

    Eugene Arundel Miller is the youngest grandson of Arundel C. Hull, who was one of the earliest photographers to travel along the Union Pacific Railroad during its construction in the late 1860s. Intrigued by stories of Hull’s travels across the Nebraska plains and into the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, Miller researched Hull’s early life and organized his photos to write his biography and Miller’s major book “Rail-road 1869, Along the Historic Union Pacific”. The book traces construction of the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha to Promontory during 1867 to 1869 and incorporates many photographs by Hull and other contemporary photo-graphers. The original book, republished as a printed State-by-State series, and as an abridged e-book series, is offered for the continued enjoyment of travelers, railroad buffs, students, and historians.

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      Book preview

      Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Through Nebraska - Eugene Miller

      Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific

      Through Nebraska - Abridged

      By Eugene Arundel Miller

      Smashwords Edition

      e-book ISBN 978-0-9728511-8-3

      Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without prior written permission from the author/publisher except for brief quotations for the purpose of review.

      For the unabridged print edition

      see ISBN: 978-0-9728511-5-2

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 Introduction

      Chapter 2 Ground Breaking

      Chapter 3 Omaha

      Chapter 4 Elkhorn Station and Fremont

      Chapter 5 Columbus

      Chapter 6 Grand Island

      Chapter 7 Kearney Station

      Chapter 8 Plum Creek (Lexington)

      Chapter 9 The Great Excursion & 100th Meridian

      Chapter 10 North Platte

      Chapter 11 Ogallala

      Chapter 12 Four Julesburgs

      Chapter 13 Sidney

      Chapter 14 New Challenges in Wyoming

      Chapter 15 A Final Word

      Chapter 1 Introduction

      In the early 1800s the young American nation struggled to define itself: its government, its economy, its identity. As the country’s frontier crossed the Ohio River, eyes turned farther west. The vast open lands between the populated east and the Pacific Ocean seemed an insurmountable barrier to trade and expansion.

      Asa Whitney, an obscure New England merchant foresaw a trade link connecting the eastern half of America with its West Coast and the Pacific. Inspired, Whitney wrote up a plan of action - A Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific to be built privately with government incentives: grants and government backed bonds.

      Asa Whitney’s vision became reality when the Pacific Railway Act became law in 1862. Government land grants and government backed bonds emerged as the great inducements for private investment. However, government decisions were stalled by Congressional disagreements.

      When the Civil War removed the Southerners from the Congressional debate, the promoters got busy, ready to seize a great entrepreneurial opportunity. The newly formed Union Pacific Railroad won entitlement to build westward from the Missouri River. In California the Big Four, Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker, and Stanford, formed the Central Pacific Railroad with their own capital and received government approval to build eastward from Sacramento. When construction started in 1864, the two railroads were a whole country apart. But during the following four years, as their respective rails drew closer, an increasingly intense race developed. The government had not clearly determined the railroad meeting point and each company raced to construct as many miles of track as possible to reap the benefits of land grants and government backed bonds.

      Investors could readily see that a completed railroad across the country would hasten settlement of the western lands and that railroad companies could monopolistically control rates for freight and passengers. The early Union Pacific officials had an even greater view. They pontificated The profit is not in operating the railroad but in BUILDING it! The entire enterprise thus attracted dreamers, schemers, and influence peddlers, giving rise to all manner of skimming, side deals, and corner cutting.

      In this Nebraska book we follow the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha westward during the first three years of construction. We track the Union Pacific as it struggles to build the first few miles out of Omaha, then picks up speed as it becomes better organized in Columbus. We follow the surveyors and construction crews as they run into trouble with displaced Native Americans (known then as Indians), from Grand Island westward. And then we shudder at the lawlessness in the new towns of Ogallala, Julesburg, and Sidney.

      Later, in subsequent volumes, we shiver during the most severe winter weather in decades, then swelter as the workers tame the great Wyoming desert and blast their way down the steep hard rock canyons of Utah. Finally, we enjoy the celebration and libations during the grand finale, driving the Golden Spike at Promontory.

      Union Pacific Railroad 1864-1869.

      Railroads created hundreds of new jobs and brought thousands of new inhabitants to the West. The entire nation was changed in ways that could not have been imagined. During the next century these first 1,094 miles of the Union Pacific Railroad grew into a nationwide transportation system.

      Union Pacific Directors.

      Among the thousands of individuals who contributed their energies and efforts in creating the monumental transcontinental railroad, many characters emerged larger than life for their roles in the construction effort.

      There are many other lesser known individuals who added to the record of the railroad’s monumental effort and its effects. Among them are:

      Arthur N. Ferguson, a young man from Bellevue, Nebraska, signed on as a surveyor's rod man in the railroad’s corps of engineers. His diaries survived the years and describe his adventures as part of a location survey crew in Nebraska and into Wyoming during 1865 and 1866.

      Leigh Freeman and Fred Freeman were a pair of unrepentant Southern sympathizers. They seized an opportunity to buy a dying local newspaper at Fort Kearny, Nebraska and created The Frontier Index, a newspaper-on-wheels. The Freemans and their newspaper moved westward, sometimes following, but often ahead of the railroad.

      Arundel C. Hull. At age 21 this young photographer could not resist the excitement and adventure offered by construction of the railroad. In the spring of 1867 he gathered together his photographic gear and started west from Omaha traveling from town to town. At each stop he picked out interesting views he thought were saleable, made photographs with glass-plate negatives, and developed them on the spot. After making a few prints, he sold what he could and moved on.

      Among the most notable of many colorful characters was: John A. (Jack) Morrow. Morrow's ranch and way-station lay near the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers in western Nebraska. He was widely known to charge outrageously high prices for supplies. Also discomfiting were the frequent wagon train robberies in the vicinity widely alleged to be Morrow's doing.

      Union Pacific Construction 1864-1867.

      Chapter 2 Ground Breaking

      In 1863 the investors in the newly organized Union Pacific Railroad maneuvered for their personal positions and set the stage for their momentous effort.

      The Board of Directors elected General John Dix President and financier Thomas C. Doc Durant, Vice President and General Manager. Peter A. Dey, an experienced civil engineer, became Chief Engineer. All three men had been involved in construction of a railroad across Iowa. Dey eschewed the personal maneuvering but saw his new appointment as the best position in my profession… Durant saw it as an opportunity to bolster his many private interests.

      Chief Engineer Dey surveyed four locations along the Missouri River as possible sites for a river crossing and a location for the Union Pacific’s eastern terminal. He recommended that the terminus be at Bellevue, Nebraska. From there the rails could follow a uniform slope up the Elkhorn Valley, across the divide, and then follow the Platte Valley westward. His second choice for the terminal was Omaha. From Omaha, the route was directly west up a rather steep grade at first but the route was considerably shorter, an advantage for future railroad operations. Rivalries immediately erupted between the two towns. After Doc Durant took the report and recommendations to President Lincoln, wealthier Omaha was approved as the terminus. Many of the railroad interests had already bought up land in Omaha and directly across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. President Lincoln himself owned a quarter section of land in Iowa directly across the river from Omaha. On December 2, 1863, Doc Durant received the President’s approval of the crossing location and telegraphed Dey to start construction at once. That very afternoon there was a groundbreaking ceremony with great ballyhoo at the foot of Omaha’s Davenport Avenue. But it would be months before any actual track was laid.

      With the initial route decided Engineer Dey proceeded to lay out the route from Omaha directly westward to the Elkhorn River. He estimated construction cost to be $20,000 to $30,000 per mile, but as work began, and against Dey’s advice, Doc Durant raised it to $50,000 per mile. The profit-taking had begun.

      Durant apparently decided he needed a more compliant engineer and early in 1864 appointed Col. Silas Seymour his Consulting Engineer. Seymour was immediately directed to re-survey the route and terminus, a duplication of Dey’s work. That fall Seymour announced that the location should be changed.

      The Oxbow Route

      Instead of going west from Omaha the railroad was to go south around the Missouri River oxbow near Bellevue, through the low bluffs to Muddy Creek, west past Papillion, and then

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