Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/261

OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY 225 without means or reputation and has long been trying to blackmail the O. S . N. Co. He has neither friends nor credit. I don't believe he could borrow fifty dollars in Portland without giving security. * * * His railroad chart- er is worth nothing; no intelligent capital can ever be in- ducedtotakeholdofit.***Heofcoursewilltryto annoy us, but he can do nothing, and we do not fear him*****"59 Evidently lacking the confidence of the men who had means enough to undertake the financing of the Chapman project, the pioneer lawyer was defeated in his plans, meeting success only in the halls of Congress and of the Oregon state legislature, and the aid there voted he was unable to utilize within the time limits set. Leaving out of consideration the seeming lack of confidence in the man, it seems obvious that the time had not arrived for the expenditure of millions in the construction of a rail- road from Portland, or Umatilla even, to Salt Lake City, as the traffic then in prospect, through as well as local, would not begin to support the line. Further, though the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's rates were high, the whole country was very sparsely settled, and their expenses were proportionately great, with four transfers of goods across the two portages encountered before the upper country was reached, and even their best steam- boats were short lived. Other than the Chapman projects, there were several contestants for rights across the Oregon portage worthy of mention here. First in order of time was The Oregon Pacific Railroad Company which was incorporated on September 22,1874, by several persons among whom were J. L. Hallett and Hans Thielsen, both experienced rail- road builders, the one a successful superintendent and contractor, and the other a civil engineer of high standing who had been the chief engineer of the Oregon and Cali- fornia Railroad and who a few years later became chief 59 Letter J. C. Ainsworth to General Geo. W . Cass, February 15, 1873.