[Letterhead]
Southern Pacific Company
65 Market Street
BUREAU OF NEWS June 28, 1943
ERLE HEATH
Editor
Mr. Dave L. Joslyn,
2164 Castro Way,
Sacramento 17, Cal.
Dear Dave:
Our information on Sam Montague is probably as sketchy as yours.
The first reference made to Montague in our engineering department records is a letter dated July 1, 1863, written by T. D. Judah, des- cribing progress of the survey on the second division of the railroad reaching to within six miles of the Sierra Nevada summit. He wrote:
A party, under the charge of S. S. Montague, Esq., are in the field making a permanent location of 2nd division."
Montague was working as a location engineer under Judah at that time, so it seems likely he was with Central Pacific from its beginning, or very nearly so.
Annual reports show that Montague was acting chief engineer in 1864 (after Judah's death), 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869 and was chief engineer in 1870 and until his death September 24, 1883. He was succeeded by William Hood, October 10, 1883.
Suggest you look in Sacramento papers of September 24, 1883, or a day or two later, for write-ups in connection with the death or funeral. If you find anything definite that would be of interest to us, we'd like to have it.
Thanks, and good luck to you. You seem to keep quite busy in your retirement.
Cordially,
Erle Heath
