road to Daniel F. and P. F. Bradford, and they rebuilt the little road in 1856,
making many improvements on it. This road was on the north side of the
river, and the Bradfords owned it and all the land between the river and the
mountain on that side of the river. While the Bradfords were rebuilding this
road, the Indians attacked them and killed two men, the others fleeing in all
directions. A fort and blockhouse was built near by, and here General Phil
Sheridan had his first battle.
This railroad gave the Bradfords an advantage in the transportation busi- ness up the river that could not be set aside. They had boats on the lower river, and they had the pass and had no hesitation in demanding the lion's share — "all the traffic would bear." If the charge on the freight from Portland to The Dalles was forty dollars a ton — and that was the rate for many years — the Bradfords took twenty dollars of the forty for hauling it six miles around the Cascades on their little road.
These profits were a great temptation to opposition, and soon after. Col. J. S. Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead got possession of the land on the south side of the river and built another little tramway portage road on the south side of the river, and putting on their steamboat, "Mountain Buck," there were soon two competing lines for the freight business from Portland to The Dalles; the Bradfords on the north side of the river putting on the "Mary" and the "Hassalo" above the Cascades, and Ruckel and Olmstead putting on the "Wasco" to run opposition above the Cascades.
And now at tliis time the portage around the "dalles of the Columbia," above the town of The Dalles, was made by teams hauling the freight, and Mr. Or- lando Humason had control of this pass. So that the line of transportation for freight from the Portland merchants to any customer on the upper river above The Dalles was divided into five sections, and five separate monopolies had to be paid and satisfied before the goods could .reach that customer on the upper Columbia, and the aggregate cost of all these charges to the head of The Dalles monopoly was fifty dollars a ton.
Here then was the opening for an organizing man — a man who had the ability and address to take all the parties in all these little monopolies that had agreed to scalp everybody that came along, and make them all work together in a single combine or single corporation to accomplish the same end in making profits. Besides the men and boats named interested in this business, was the boats owned by Ben Stark and his partner and they had to be considered and provided for.
The man who had been studying the proposition most, and had evolved defi- nite and practical ideas of managing the growing business, now came to the front — Capt. J. C. Ainsworth. The remainder of the story with such additions as may be necessary to make it complete, will now be told by Miss Irene Pop- pleton, graduate of the Oregon University, who has had access to the manu- script on this subject prepared by Captain Ainsworth for his children.
"The result was that in April, 1859, a general combination of all the inter- ests as far as the middle landing of the Cascades under the name of the Union Transportation Company, with J. C. Ainsworth and J. S. Ruckle as agents. By this arrangement Bradford & Co. were to have all of the business from the middle landing to The Dalles, Ruckel & Olmstead withdrawing their steamer "Wasco" from the route.
At the time these negotiations were entered into, the Stark party were known as the Columbia River Steam Navigation Company, and Ruckel & Olmstead's line as the Oregon Transportation Company. The rates of passage were, at this time, from Portland to the lower Cascades, $6; passage over the portage from $1 to $3. This Union Transportation Co. continued to work pretty well for about one year, but there was great difficulty in conflicting ownership and interests of steamers and portages. A closer consolidation of interests seemed to be necessary, and Mr. Ainsworth set about to accomplish this, trying if pos-
