Hodgepodge of Author's Notes from My Book, Cole by Zina Abbott

 I recently completed Cole, part of the Cupids & Cowboys series. The following are taken from the Author’s Notes in the back of the book:

 

CP Huntington Locomotive after restoration

 

Beginning in 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad began either leasing other lines, or buying them out. What I did learn was that, for decades, former California governor, Leland Stanford, and the other officers of the Central Pacific ended up having their hand in almost all the railroad business in the state. By 1885, the C.P.R.R. was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad and later consolidated with that line to become Southern Pacific Railroad.

Santa Fe train southeast of Merced 1994, before the line became the BNSF

 

One exception to C.P.R.R. involvement was the Santa Fe Railroad that built a line in the San Joaquin Valley. Although that company has changed names several times and is currently known as the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway, the Santa Fe tracks pass within a mile of my house.

 

Portion of 1871 Bancroft Map, notations added

Unfortunately, Leland Stanford, et al, got into a snit with Stockton and basically went to war against the city. Instead of having Stockton as one of its major stations on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, the company created the town of Lathrop, named after Stanford’s brother-in-law, to serve that role. The location was originally known as Wilson’s Station. This line, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad line, started at Lathrop, which connected to the Western Pacific line. The first Western Pacific Railroad company failed and was absorbed by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1870. For twelve years, every effort was made to bypass Stockton by transporting travelers and shipping freight to San Francisco first before it would be taken to or from Stockton. Stockton was not printed on the railroad maps of the time.

Eventually, the connection was made with Stockton, and the San Joaquin Valley Railroad became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Its tracks are about three miles from my home. As a rural letter carrier, I used to deliver mail along S.P. Avenue built next to the tracks.

One of the financial difficulties railroads ran into throughout California was that so much of the land was tied up in Mexican land grants. Largely due to the support the United States received during the 1846-48 war with Mexico from many of the Californios—those Mexican citizens who lived in Alta California—the United States recognized ownership of land originally granted by the Mexican government. Although proving such land claims was not always easy and is a different topic for a different discussion, one of the repercussions for railroads was that said land was not considered federal territory. [I found it difficult to find public domain maps of Mexican land grants, but you might get some ideas of where they were located and how they might have affected the building the railroad by CLICKING HERE and by CLICKING HERE.]

[This book by Attorney Henry Beard is titled The lands granted to and withdrawn for the benefit of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, and was published in 1877. It is in the public domain.]

[Mexican grant land] did not qualify as land that railroads would be granted to be sold for profit. Since the sale of land along qualifying rail line right-of-ways was how many railroads made their profit, many railroads that built in California ran into financial difficulty. That is one of the reasons behind the failure of the first Western Pacific Railroad that built mostly along the coast. Most of the land was Mexican land grant land, and had to be purchased.

It was also due to the number of Mexican Land Grants in California that there was not a lot of land available for homesteading, particularly on the coast or in the central valley (Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley).

Regarding land ownership and women, California is one of the few community property states in the United States. The ability of women to own land was established in the first state constitution in 1850. Married women were allowed to own land separate from their husbands. Land owned by women before their marriage remained their sole property and could not be claimed by a husband after marriage. Likewise, land owned by men prior to marriage remained their sole property.

Land and other assets gained by the couple after marriage was community property to which the wife had a claim. For most of the 1800s, women could inherit up to one-half of the estate of her deceased husband, but she could not will or devise her half away from her husband. Upon her death, one hundred percent of the estate was inherited by the husband.

California community property laws, which were influenced by Mexican property laws, were the standard used by other community property states to develop their laws.

Several years ago, under my real name, I put together a presentation on California laws and how they affected women. My synopsis for that is still available on my Robyn Echols website HERE.

 

 

Cole, book 8 in the Cupids & Cowboys series is currently on preorder and will be released April 1st. Please CLICK HERE to find the book description and purchase link,

 

 

 

 

Sources:

http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2008/07/mexican-land-grant-to-us-state-capital.html

https://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=15

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_lands_granted_to_and_withdrawn_for_the_benefit_of_the_Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Company_of_California_(IA_landsgrantedtowi00bearrich).pdf

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~cagha/history/sanjoaquin/sanjoa-1923-244.txt

TEN MILES OF TRACK IN ONE DAY by Zina Abbott

 

During six years, the builders of the Central Pacific, at times numbering 14,000 men, had pierced the snow covered, granite walls of the high Sierra and extended their trail of iron over the barren plains 675 miles eastward. For more than five years the Union Pacific had been building westward. Officers of both roads were fully aware of the future advantages that would accrue to the company having the longest mileage. This rivalry extended through the ranks—from the presidents to the track laborers. There followed some marvelous feats of track-laying.

Irish Rail Workers -- UPRR

The Irish tract layers average 2.3 miles a day. Considering they had the Sierra Nevada Mountains to cross, plus stretches of the Rocky Mountains, the average track laid per day by the Central Pacific was less. Once the men had everything they needed at their disposal, they could lay down track rather quickly. Engineers estimated that, if all conditions were perfect, it was possible to lay ten miles of track in one day.

Delays in obtaining and moving men, supplies and equipment forward caused the daily average to be far less. However, in an effort to prove who were the best rail builders, competitiveness drove the two railroads to contests in laying track. First, the Union Pacific broke the record with six miles of track in one day. When Charles Crocker and his crew made up primarily of Chinese workers were challenged to beat that, they did so by a mile. The competition escalated. Crocker bragged that his men could lay ten miles in one day. Vice President Durant of the Union Pacific took him up and wagered $10,000 it could not be done, and that his money was "covered."

For several days Crocker and his construction superintendent, J. H. Strobridge, marshaled their forces and laid their plans. Ties were hauled ahead by two horse teams and distributed along the right-of-way. For some distance the ties were spaced on the already graded road bed. Rails and track materials were moved up from the rear and held in trains ready to advance. More than four thousand men and hundreds of horses and wagons were on the spot. Every man knew his particular job, taught by many months of track work. No one would get in the other fellow's way. In the Central Pacific camp, the patient and methodical Chinese were stirred to a pitch of excitement never shown before, and shared with the few hundred whites the anxiety to "get at the job."

Chinese Rail Workers - CPRR

The original date set to meet that challenge was April 27th. However, a mishap with one of the engines delayed the event by one day. The Union Pacific scoffed, but starting at 7:00a.m. the morning of April 28th, the Central Pacific crew of eight Irishmen and hundreds of Chinese set about to prove their skill.

The following is from the book, Museum Memories, Volume 1:

By the time Promontory was selected as the meeting point, Central Pacific tracks had reached Monument Point, just north of the lake shore [Great Salt Lake]. Three sprawling grading camps with about 275 tents were located there. Although the Transcontinental line was not yet completed, increasing numbers of immigrants were moving westward by rail rather than by wagon train. They took the Union Pacific from Omaha to the terminus just beyond Corrine and hired stagecoaches from there to Monument Point. Then they boarded a Central Pacific train and arrived in California just a little more than a week after leaving Omaha.

Both railroads were benefiting from the increased ticket sales, but competition between the companies had become a habit, and officials pressed their contractors were more speed. A great rivalry as to which company could lay the most track in one day had commenced early in 1868. UP made six miles, and the CP laid seven mile soon afterward. The UP topped that feat with 8 and 1/2 miles. Charles Crocker then announced that the Central Pacific could lay ten miles in one day. Thomas Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific, wagered $10,000 that it could not be done.

Consequently on April 29 [sic], 1869, only fourteen miles from Promontory Summit, the work commenced. Several prominent men from the East and the West came to see the phenomena, and a committee from the Union Pacific arrived to document the progress. Crocker had planned the operation with exact precision. Ties have been placed on the roadbed the previous night, and five locomotives, each pulling 16 cars with enough supplies for two miles of track, were in position. A large diverse crew was on hand. There were Caucasians born in the United States, former slaves with African ancestry, European immigrants, Mexicans, French Indians, a few Native Americans, and more than 3,000 Chinese.

At the first light of dawn, the men were ready to go. The Chinese workers leaped onto the flat cars and began throwing down kegs of bolts and spikes, bundles of fishplates (metal plates used to join the rails), and the iron rails. The flat cars had rollers along their outer edges to make it easier to slide the rails off. As this operation was being mounted, three “pioneers” moved out along the grade, aligning the ties that had been placed the night before. Next, the foreman shouted “Down!” and a team of eight Irish workers (two at the front of each rail and two at the back on each side of the bed) grabbed the 560 pound rails with tongs and dropped them into position. Two men followed and aligned the rails with a portable track gauge to maintain the correct with. Chinese workers came right behind and placed spikes in the proper places atop the rails. Others carried the bolts and fishplates in buckets. Teams of ten (five for each rail) then drove the spikes. Each worker would drive his assigned spike and then walk forward to the same spot on the next rail without passing another man, allowing the worker to proceed at a walking pace.

The next team of “straighteners” repaired any defects. Then came one crew to ballast the rails and another crew of fillers. These were followed by a group of four hundred tampers. Empty cars were moved to sidings to make room for the ones next in line, and the entire process was repeated over and over. The string of 1,000 workers advanced at the rate of a mile an hour. Chinese with pails strung over their shoulders moved among the men with water and tea. The telegraph construction party kept pace with the railroad crews, digging holes, putting in the polls, and stringing the wire.

 

Railroad camp near Victory, Utah, where stopped for lunch during ten mile day.

By the time the whistle announced the noon meal at 1:30 p.m., the workers had laid six miles of track. They named the site “Victory” (later Rozel, Utah) because they knew by then that they would be successful. The workers and several distinguished guests took an hour for lunch, and another hour was used to bend rails for the curves that lay ahead. Construction engineer J. H. Strobridge had a reserve crew standing by, but the first crew was intent on completing their unprecedented feat, and they forged ahead.

By 7:00 p.m. the Central Pacific was ten miles and fifty-six feet farther than it had been at dawn, an achievement that had never been done before and has never been matched since. The eight Irish track-layers had put down 3,520 rails. They had lifted 125 tons of iron rails plus the weight of the tongs, and amazing eleven tons per man per hour! The spikers drove 28,160 ties that have been put into place by the Chinese, and the bolt crews put 14,480 bolts into place. To demonstrate the quality of the new track, engineer Jim Campbell ran a train over it at forty-two miles per hour. Then the last of the five construction trains was backed down the long grade to the construction camp at Monument Point. Twelve hundred men piled onto the flatcars for the ride, smiling, cheering, and congratulating each other.

You can also read an excellent article about this event on the Central Pacific Railroad museum site by CLICKING HERE.

Did UP vice president Thomas Durant ever pay Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific the $10,000 that he lost on the bet? There is no evidence he ever did.

There is a replica of the sign that marks the end of the ten miles and fifty-six feet of track laid that day about two weeks before the Golden Spike ceremony that joined the two railroads. The original sign, most of the paint worn off, was donated to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum in Salt Lake City. In commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad that took place in Utah, the museum has commemorative pins of the Ten Mile Day available in their book store and gift shop.

Escape from Gold Mountain is now offered digitally exclusively on Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited program.  The book is also available in print format on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Here are the purchase links:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

Sources:

Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), Pgs. 425-27.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/Ten_Mile_Day.html (May 1928 issue of the Southern Pacific Bulletin)

CPRR Through Nevada & Utah by Zina Abbott

On an earlier blog post, which you may find by CLICKING HERE, I talked about the Chinese laborers who worked years grading, using explosives, and building track for the Central Pacific Railroad through the Sierra Nevada Mountains—a construction feat many engineers of the 1800s said could not be done.

August 28, 1867 – The Sierra Nevada Mountains were finally "conquered" by the Central Pacific Railroad, after almost five years of sustained construction effort by its mainly Chinese crew about 10,000 strong, with the successful completion at Donner Pass of its 1,659-foot (506 m) Tunnel #6 (a.k.a. the "Summit Tunnel").

December 1, 1867 - Central Pacific opened to Summit of the Sierra Nevada for a total of 105 miles.

June 18, 1868 - The first passenger train crosses the Sierra Nevada to Lake's Crossing (modern day Reno, Nevada) at the eastern foot of the Sierra in Nevada.

However, the CPRR did not stop at eastern foot of these mountains.  The year 1868 was one of feverish activity for both railroads. Two years earlier, the Central Pacific has successfully lobbied Congress to add an additional Amendment to the Railroad Act. The CPRR was no longer bound by a 150 mile limit from the California border, and the companies were permitted to grade 300 miles ahead of the end of track with the meeting point still undetermined.

 

Last remaining passenger car at Promontory Summit, May 10, 1869. Note the terrain.

The two railroad companies—Central Pacific RR and Union Pacific RR—could draw two-thirds of the government bonds as soon as the grade had been completed and before the track was laid. Congress had utilized the power of competition within the free enterprise system to speed construction. Both railroads took advantage of this provision. Once they reached the Promontory Mountains in Utah, they both kept grading track while they passed each other, sometimes within shouting distance. For the sake of the money involved, they probably would have continue building until they reached the opposite oceans if some sane heads in Washington D.C. had not called a stop to the travesty and insisted on a central meeting place.

Once they reached the relatively flat country of Nevada, Charles Crocker, the CPRR construction manager, announced a construction goal of a mile of track every working day. The route ahead was over a terrain that offered none of the difficulties encountered in the mountains, and the "mile-a-day" push went into high gear. Over 10,000 employees responded with almost superhuman effort. Approximately six thousand horses sped the work along. Canvas towns sprang up as the railhead was pushed steadily eastward. On October 1, 1868, the line reached Winnemucca, 325 miles from Sacramento.

 

End of track taken in 1868 in Nevada

They continued through the territories of Nevada and Utah. From 1865 to 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese laborers worked on the Central Pacific Railroad, which ran from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah.

 

Construction train in Alkali desert - ctsy of Union Pacific RR Museum, Ogden, Utah

I did not find a lot of information about the work effort through this region. What I know from traveling along Interstate I-80 which pretty much follows the route of the railroad tracks (as well as the earlier California Trail and the First Continental Telegraph) is that there is a whole lot of desert and very little water or vegetation other than scrubby sage in places. Out of necessity because the railroad needed water for its steam engines, the track was laid as close to water sources as possible.

Railroad in Nevada 2018, early summer after an exceptionally wet spring

Chinese Railroad Workers

 

Because of discrimination, the tens of thousands of Chinese workers—at one point constituting over 80% of Central Pacific's workforce (some estimate as much as 90%)—have been mostly forgotten, despite their contribution to an enormous feat of civil engineering and the terrible hardships they endured. While the Irish workers were paid $35 per month and provided housing, the Chinese were only paid at first $27 and then $30 per month but not provided housing. All of this in spite of the freezing temperatures, avalanches, and the dangers of their work that cost perhaps thousands of their lives. The Chinese workers likely put up with these injustices because many of them had come from Guangdong Province in China, which at the time was stricken with poverty and political upheaval. To them, laying tracks for the transcontinental railroad might have seemed a better place to be than back home.

Although originally, there was speculation that the Chinese were too small in stature to make good rail workers, this group proved all the nay-sayers wrong. The Chinese took daily sponge baths. Since they drank only tea made from boiled water, they were not subject to the diseases caused by drinking from contaminated streams and lakes. Young Chinese employees carried tea to the workers by means of yokes over their shoulders with clean recycled powder kegs hanging from each end. Thus, their tea was known as “powder tea.”

They also had their own cooks, and their healthful provisions were purchased from Chinese merchants. While the Americans dined on boiled beef and potatoes, beans, and coffee, the Chinese ate a variety of food, including oysters, fish, abalone, Oriental fruits, and scores of vegetables, including bamboo sprouts, seaweed, and mushrooms. Although they used opium on Sundays, they did not drink alcohol and returned to work on Mondays free of the hangovers that plagued their American counterparts. As a whole, the Chinese remained healthy.

 

Chinese Railroad Workers

Unfortunately, even though the Chinese workers had been essential to the success of building the Central Pacific Railroad, the owners and managers had no more respect or consideration for these laborers than most Americans. Once the railroad was completed, the workers were dismissed from employment without provisions to transport them back to California. They were forced to make their own way.

(Author’s note: Many of them chose to stay in Utah, even working their way down to Salt Lake City and probably points south. While perusing the microfilm of the early Salt Lake County death records for death and burial information on my great-great grandparents as well as other family members, I noticed several entries over the decades for single Chinese men who had found work in the county.)

I found this interesting personal story in Museum Memories, Volume 1, published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers:

“Nearly all of the Chinese laborers saved money while working for the Central Pacific. Some returned to China with their savings, and other settled in California where they raised families and became an integral part of the population.

“Frank Woo said that his great-grandfather saved almost every cent that he earned while employed by the railroad and took it home to China. While working in Nevada and Utah, he raised chickens which were able to live off the land. Woo traded eggs for rice and other foods. He improved his diet by eating red berries from the wolfberry plant, which was indigenous to the Great Basin. He understood herbal medicine and knew the pharmaceutical properties of native plants. For example, he used dandelions to heal bruises. He obtained unclaimed clothing from his buddies who were doing laundry for the construction crews.”

CPRR Locomotives

Until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad's opening of its own shops, all locomotives had to be purchased by builders in the northeastern U.S. The engines had to be dismantled, loaded on a ship, which would embark on a four-month journey that went around South America's Cape Horn until arriving in Sacramento where the locomotives would be unloaded, re-assembled, and placed in service.

 

Governor Stanford 4-4-0 locomotive

The Central Pacific's first three locomotives were of the then common 4-4-0 type. With the start of the American Civil War in the East, the CPRR had difficulty acquiring engines from eastern builders. What was available to them were the smaller 4-2-4 or 4-2-2 models. 

CPRR#113 FALCON, a Danforth 4-4-0, at Argenta, Nevada, March 1, 1869 (Photo: J.B. Silvis)

Locomotives at the time came from many manufacturers, such as Cooke, Schenectady, Mason, Rogers, Danforth, Norris, Booth, and McKay & Aldus, among others. The railroad had been on rather unfriendly terms with the Baldwin Locomotive Works, one of the more well-known firms. It is not clear as to the cause of this dispute, though some attribute it to the builder insisting on cash payment (though this has yet to be verified), which was particularly difficult until after the line had been built to a point where the railroad qualified for the Federal grant money.

The CPRR eventually purchased 53 miles of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit to Ogden, Utah Territory, which became the interchange point between trains of the two roads. 

Escape from Gold Mountain will initially be offered on more than one vendor. The release day is scheduled for September 4, 2019. It is currently on a pre-order sale on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. On September 5th, the book will move to its regular ebook price. If you are a Nook reader, the book will only be available for Nook purchase for a short time before it will be offered digitally exclusively on Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The book will also be offered in print format and will continue to be offered for sale as a paperback on both vendors.

Here are the purchase links:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

Sources:

http://sciencenetlinks.com/blog/snl-educator/apahm-2014-building-transcontinental-railroad/

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/05/07/chinese-transcontinental-railroad-ghosts-of-gold-mountain-gordon-chang

Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), Pgs. 404-407.
Wikipedia