Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/311

1 OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD 273 Valleys to the Columbia River." It was again urged in the legislature of 1870 and a pledge was required of the mem- bers of Congress before election to support the amend- ment. As soon as Congress passed the amendment, Hunt- ington withdrew his support to Pengra and the Philadel- phia company refused to continue their negotiations with Gaston and the whole project failed. Gaston was then in a worse fix than ever. He had no hope of backing to complete the road. The company was in a state of insolvency. On the other hand, Holladay, as ever, was master of the situation and through representa- tives bought up the outstanding indebtedness of the West Side Company and threatened to foreclose. The directors rather than go into court were therefore willing, when in August, 1870, Holladay made the proposition to build the road and pay the company "the sum of one dollar in consideration of such transfer and assignment of said franchises and lands granted by said Act of Congress." We have thus traced the history of the Oregon Central Company of Portland to its merger with the Holladay interests. It is not our plan to carry the history of this branch further except inasmuch as it relates to the history of the East Side Company with which we are more par- ticularly concerned. We now turn to the history of that road under the regime of the picturesque Ben Holladay. i^'B, III. REORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT UNDER HOLLADAY. A. The Question of Legality. From the time of the organization of the East Side Company, Gaston had tried to bring the East Side Com- pany before the courts. The first attempts were to con- test the organization of the East Side Company. This was done by having the people protest the giving of right of way to the company on the ground that the company had no legal existence. Upon this question, however, 4*