Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/385

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RADLROAD 343 actions of the company, etc. It is possible by means of these to set the dates on certain occurrences that would otherwise be hard to place. The newspapers used for this have been: The Oregonian The Oregon Sentinel The Oregon Statesman The State Journal Law Suits—In the study of any railroad, lawsuits must needs be a great source of information. The courts are full of litigation by the company. The most important cases to be noted, however, are: Holladay vs. Elliott Newby vs. The Oregon Central. Oregon and California Railroad vs. the U. S . Just a word should be added as to the use of lawsuits. Decisions usually give the main points in the history of the case, but to stop with this would be to stop before the most prolific source has been reached. The trans- cript of evidence contains the statement of the witnesses and the exhibits are usually certified copies of the docu- ments. Thus the most of the documents concerning this company are found in the transcript of evidence of the case O. and C R. R. vs. U. S., and not the decisions. In this case eighteen volumes were necessary to print the evidence and the largest part of the material consists in documents. Oregon Legislature—Beginning with 1864 and going up to 1868, both the Laws and the Journals contain ma- terial upon the railroad. Unfortunately, the University library does not have all the Journals, but the missing onesmaybefoundinO.andC.R.R. vs. U.S. Oregon and California—Reports of Henry Villard to Stockholders. Miscellaneous documents may be found in the Oregon Historical Society Collection. O. and C. R. R. vs. U. S. This case contains practically every document relating to the history of the road.