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Life and Times of the
Central Pacific Railroad
Keepsake Series, The Book Club of California, 1969
Rogers Locomotive


[Click on images below to see enlargements.]

Contract and Finance Company

Leland Stanford's Contract and Finance Company Stock CertificateThe above reproduction of Stock Certificate number 11 of the Contract and Finance Company is one of at least ten (numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, each for 1,000 shares) owned by Leland Stanford.  These shares passed into Stanford's estate on his death and are signed on the back by Jane L. Stanford, his widow and executrix of his estate.  Through Mrs. Stanford almost all the Stanford property came to the University.  These stock certificates along with the Stanford letters and papers, came to the Stanford Collection, which later became the Stanford University Archives.

The Contract and Finance Company was the construction company created by Stanford Huntington, Hopkins and Charles and E. B. Crocker on October 28, 1867, to succeed the financially exhausted Charles Crocker and Company.  The new company was to complete the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad from the California-Nevada border to the junction with the Union Pacific Railroad.

There seem to have been two other related reasons for creating the Contract and Finance Company.  Financing was difficult, as the railroad was mortgaged and in debt; and new partners were needed to bring in additional money.  It was hoped that, by creating a new construction company that would acquire the railroad's assets in return for building, this end would be accomplished.

This was not to be the case.  (Leland Stanford later stated: "We did not succeed in any quarter in interesting others and finally gave it up.")  Huntington had telegraphed to Crocker: "Take as much as you are forced to but as little as you must."

In the end, each of the Associates took a fifth interest.  It was an improvement over the Charles Crocker and Company arrangement in which all but Crocker were silent partners.  Under the new arrangement, each would legally share assets in proportion to his investment.

The contract granted to the Contract and Finance Company provided for construction and all necessary equipment for the railroad (depots, locomotives, cars, machinery, purchase and installation of rails, ties, etc.).  Payment was to be $43,000 cash per mile and an equal amount of Central Pacific stock.  With the success of this venture, the basic plan behind the Contract and Finance Company was expanded and used in the formation of what culminated in the gigantic holding company, the Pacific Improvement Company.

If the Contract and Finance Company had failed, and in 1867 the possibilities of failure were great, there would have been no money, a pile of worthless stock and a gigantic debt for the five partners.  The history of the state of California would have been vastly different and the names of the "Big Four" would have been known only to a few historians and devoted railroad buffs. PATRICIA J. PALMER

This is Number One of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The certificate is reproduced through the courtesy of Stanford University. Patricia J. Palmer is Manuscripts Librarian at Stanford.

COPYRIGHT © 1969 BY THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA



POSTER:  $100 Currency $65

POSTER:  $100 Currency $65Through passenger traffic on the Central Pacific was predominately westbound as travelers came west to San Francisco the focal point for people destined to other places on the Pacific Coast.  In an effort to balance traffic loading, bargain rates were offered eastbound passengers.  Second-class tickets were $100 for the trip to New York but if time was not important, the more patient traveler could pocket a savings of $35.  (Westbound traffic continued to grow at a faster pace than eastbound traffic for several years, notwithstanding the bargain rates.)
 

The word "currency" at the top of the poster was not without significance.  At that time coin (gold) commanded a premium over currency and prices were frequently quoted in "coin" or "currency" as the case might be.  Central Pacific accounts were segregated between the two forms of monetary exchange.  Nearly all of the railroad operating expenses were settled in coin while revenues included a substantial amount of currency.  Separate accounts were maintained through 1878.
 

This is Number Two of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.




Dutch Flat Route

CPRR Schedule July, 15, 1864Driving Central Pacific eastward over the High Sierra from the isolated Pacific Coast was one of man's great achievements in terms of both construction and logistics.  Undertaking such a project took real courage.  For instance, it was determined only a few years before that a locomotive could be driven uphill.

Despite assertions of many historians, the transcontinental railroad was not the Big Four's first interest in transportation.  In 1857, Leland Stanford was a stockholder and director of the 44 million dollar "California & New York Steamship Co."  That same summer, he and Collis Huntington were involved in "The Wagon Road Company" which crossed the Sierra via Placerville in thirteen hours' less time than the old route by way of Oroville.

Two years later, Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker not only were among those who greeted Horace Greeley on his arrival in Sacramento during his famous trip on behalf of the Pacific Railroad—but they also accompanied him on his speaking trip through that section of California.  It is thus obvious that Engineer Theodore Judah's initial contact with the Big Four was directed toward men already familiar with the need for such a project.

Central Pacific's story is well known.  Its completion assured Judah and the Big Four a permanent place in American history.  Less known—but no less important, however—is their construction of the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Wagon Road.  (Ironically, this competed with the road via Placerville, completed only four years before).  The Dutch Flat road was built to offer a stage and wagon connection with Central Pacific, producing vitally needed dollars as the rails moved slowly eastward.  Equally important, it was conceived to move men, supplies and material to forward survey and construction camps.  Without this vital tool, Central Pacific could not have breached the Sierra to reach Reno as early as June 19, 1868.

It is unfortunate that this farsighted move led to charges of "Dutch Flat Swindle" in turn a politically effective "swindlers' swindle" by backers of the rival Sacramento Valley Railroad, the Placerville wagon road and others.  Their libelous charges that Central Pacific intended to build only to Dutch Flat, where construction would be abandoned, were most easily disproven when the railroad continued to build eastward on reaching Dutch Flat July 5, 1866.

But getting there took some doing.  It involved not only all the hardships of pioneer mountain construction, but a "muckraking" opposition as well.  The desperate charges brought on the well-known tie-up of Central Pacific at Newcastle and the loss of a vital (and mild) year's construction before CP won its case.  Except for this, CP would probably have met Union Pacific at Cheyenne rather than at Promontory.  Also, because of this, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana came into the financial orbit of the East rather than that of San Francisco and the West.

When the Sierra tunnels held up construction from the West, the wagon road made it possible to move men, locomotives, freight cars, supplies and construction material over the summit to Truckee, where crews built westward up the eastern slope and eastward toward Reno, saving months and helping to assure a meeting in Utah.  During the dread winters of 1866, 1867 and 1868, it was often the only link construction workers had with the world west of the Sierra and it helped save many lives.

Yes, the Dutch Flat road was important in more ways than one.  Its story didn't begin and end with Central Pacific's construction and completion.  It served the mountain communities for many years after it was abandoned by the Big Four on completion of the railroad.  Later, much the same route was followed by the original highway to Reno—but, that is another chapter of history. GEORGE KRAUS

The "Up Trains" and the "Down Trains" operated only between Sacramento and Newcastle when Central Pacific reached that point in 1864, for charges of "Dutch Flat Swindle" permeated California with the odor of a scandal, later easily disproven.

This is Number Three of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The announcement is reproduced through the courtesy of the Southern Pacific Company. George Kraus is the author of High Road to Promontory.



POSTER:  Australia, China and Japan

POSTER:  Australia, China and JapanPrinted by the Sacramento firm of H.S. Crocker, one of the brothers of Charles Crocker, this poster, published shortly after the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, offered merchant princes a new route linking the Orient with Europe.  Forming the first "land bridge" across the United States, passengers boarding the Silver Palace Sleeping Cars were whisked from San Francisco Bay to New York City in just six days and 20 hours.
 

Born in Massachusetts, Alban Nelson Towne came to the Central Pacific in September 1869, from the Burlington Railroad to begin his career with the C.P.R.R., first as General Superintendent and then as General Manager of the successor Southern Pacific Company (Pacific System).  Moving with the Central Pacific from Sacramento to San Francisco in 1873, he eventually built a fine residence at 1101 California Street (Nob Hill).  Though his mansion was consumed by the fire of 1906, a physical memory still exists in the form of six Ionic columns which now stand by Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park and, with a touch of nostalgia, are called "The Portals of the Past."
 

This is Number Four of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.




The Rose Bud Letter

The Rose Bud Letter"The Promontory Summit MapUnion Pacific is nearly out of powder" wrote Sam Montague, Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific, on March 20, 1869, to Butler Ives, Division Engineer of the C.P.R.R. east of Promontory.  Ives had been chief location engineer for the road in Nevada and Utah and in a prophetic vein had written his brother in February that the two roads were expected to meet in May.  Another letter of April 24 from Ives to a friend, George Clark of San Francisco, said that he was told to stop all work on grading and structures east of Blue Creek by Leland Stanford per his secretary, E. B. Ryan. Ives was also ordered by Montague to "keep Governor Stanford informed of Union Pacific demonstrations at the point where they cross us east (sic) of Blue Creek. They have not cut our line yet."

During March several hundred of Crocker's Chinese were attacking the rock work at Red Dome (Ombey), 50 miles west of Promontory.  Both sides were straining to complete the maximum track mileage, and it requires little imagination to picture the short tempers that must have been common among the inhabitants of both camps.  That more violence did not occur between the rivals is miraculous.

Promontory, the ultimate site for posterity, was originally called North Pass or Ives Pass, in deference to the man whose location work was followed by both railroads.  It was on either side of here that the last construction problems were met and conquered.  The Central Pacific's Mormon Contractors had made a giant fill just yards from the Union Pacific's big trestle (above Surbon) while at Blue Creek (Lampo) both roads chose trestling to achieve the final drop to the valley floor.

Congress decided the historic meeting place for the rails and selected the Union Pacific road bed to be used Ogden to Promontory. The operating demands of the Central Pacific, however, dictated exchanging the UP grade for the CP grade for four miles (1) from the rock cuts eastward circa 1871.  What had been so strenuously fought for with muscle in the spring of 1869 was not to prevail entirely for either company.  With a requisite amount of time for study engineering judgment supplanted legislative decision.  In effect the tracks met "at the Rock Cuts on the eastern slope of the Promontory" but it was not to be for about two years after Crocker's Rose Bud message to Mark Hopkins. LYNN D. FARRAR

Note: Rose Bud Springs fed the tanks at Terrace, an important division point for fueling andwatering locomotives.

(1) A report in 1874 shows cost of change $114,360.45.

This is Number Five of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The letter is reproduced through the courtesy of the California State Library. The map was prepared by the Southern Pacific Company. Lynn D. Farrar is Valuation Engineer for the Southern Pacific Company.



The Hewes Receipt

The Hewes ReceiptFortunate is the individual who, in the pursuit of history, comes upon a document that sheds new light upon an important event. It was through just such a happy set of circumstances that the original receipt for the Gold Spike used to join the Central and Union Pacific Railroads was discovered by Robin Lampson in 1937.  At the time, Mr. Lampson was engaged in preparing broadcasts for Wells Fargo Bank on the subject of early California history.  One such broadcast mentioning the spike driving incident was heard by Mrs. Henry Edmonds Chandler, a niece of David Hewes, contributor of the spike.  A visit to Mrs. Chandler's residence produced the inevitable trunk of family mementoes, and Eureka!—the receipt and other items to excite the adventurer.

David (Steam Paddy) Hewes ran a successful land-office and mercantile establishment in San Francisco.  Later, with the help of the first steam shovel seen in San Francisco, Hewes leveled sand hills and filled in some of the East-of-Market area.

Although financial circumstances prevented Hewes from joining the railroad builders, he had long espoused such a development.  Consequently, when the joining was imminent and according to Hewes, "no proper sentiment being expressed by the people of the Pacific Coast ... I felt hurt and mortified that there was no recognition being made of such a great event. At the last moment I said, 'There was one last thing to be done, a last tie and a last spike to be furnished before the great work can be finished."

Hewes had a spike with an attached unfinished nugget prepared at Schulz, Fischer and Mohrig.  The nugget was to be used to fashion rings and trinkets as mementoes of the event.  Apparently Mohrig, the only name correctly spelled, acknowledged receipt of payment.

Why the finishing of "2" gold spikes?  Did Mohrig count the attached nugget as a second spike, or were two finished?  Sufficient evidence exists to give credence to the possibility that another spike was prepared, for a purpose lost to history.

The receipt was given to Wells Fargo by Mrs. Chandler, and when the gold spike was returned to Stanford University after many years on exhibition in the Wells Fargo History Room, the receipt came with the spike and is now in the Stanford University Archives.

RALPH W. HANSEN

This is Number Six of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The receipt is reproduced through the courtesy of Stanford University. Ralph Hansen is Stanford University Archivist.



POSTER:  Great American Overland Route

POSTER:  Great American Overland RoutePOSTER:  Great American Overland RoutePOSTER:  Great American Overland RouteThe importance of the Overland Route, of which the rails of the Central Pacific formed the western segment, was brought into sharp focus in this revision of the earlier travel poster.  By this date, July 1872, the San Francisco ticket office had been moved from California Street to No. 2 Montgomery Street.

As attractions for the traveler, scenic considerations competed with engineering features.  At the top of this poster were two line drawings featuring the American River Canyon and the Palisades along Nevada's Humboldt River.  The novel snow shed then called a "snow gallery" drew the attention of the observer.  Rated as construction marvels of their day, snow galleries stretched along the rails for 40 miles.  Rotary snow plows made possible a reduction in snow sheds to less than six miles.  Not all railroad men were favorably impressed; one veteran described his run as "railroading in a barn."

The Assistant Superintendent John Corning died a few years later, but a town in Northern California perpetuates his name.

This is Number Seven of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.



An Invitation and Menu
Central Pacific Railroad, Sacramento, 1869

Diner InvitationThe Dinner Menucompletion of the transcontinental railroad in May, 1869, was a great boon to California and especially the western terminus of the road, Sacramento.  Already by September of that year the local newspapers were commenting on the rapid growth the completion of the railroad had had on that city.  It is not surprising, therefore, that the citizens of Sacramento felt called upon to tender a complimentary banquet to those men who organized and built the Central Pacific Railroad and brought such prosperity to the city.

The Sacramento Union announced the banquet in its issue of September 24, and in the issue of September 28 reports "The banquet tendered the Directors and other officers of the Central Pacific Railroad Company takes place at the Golden Eagle Hotel this evening, at half past eight."  The ex post facto account of the banquet in the Union next day says it "was a grand success."  The hotel was decorated inside and out with evergreens and "the dining hall tastefully ornamented."  Somewhat over two hundred dignitaries and plain citizens sat down to "the tables which were loaded with all the substantials of the market, and dainties in profusion."  A glance at the menu will quickly reveal the truth of this statement.  Seven French wines, one Spanish sherry and a sauterne of uncertain locale accompanied the courses.  Edgar Mills, son [sic] of the prominent western banker Darius Ogden Mills, acted as master of ceremonies.  Speeches were made by State Senator Henry Edgerton, Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad and ex-governor of California, and "numerous others."  Among the guests were Admiral David Glasgow Farragut of Civil War fame, and several gentlemen from San Francisco and other neighboring cities.  Farragut had been on the west coast revisiting the Mare-Island Navy Yard which he had established a few years before the Civil War, and had been wined and dined in San Francisco.  The Admiral left by train the day following the banquet for the East and had a severe heart attack in Chicago on the way.  It could possibly have been brought on as a result of the lavish entertainment he had experienced in San Francisco and Sacramento.

The original ticket to the dinner was printed on a heavy white paper stock.  This copy was issued to C. E. Fisher, whose name shows very faintly on the last line.  He was probably the Charles E. Fisher listed in the Sacramento directory of that date as a printer and "state expert."  The latter title possibly refers to a position as advisor on state printing.  The dates 1863 and 1869 on the top of the card recall the years of the beginning and completion of the western end of the railroad.

The original menu was printed on silk by Russell and Winterburn in Sacramento, and is now quite darkened with age but still in good condition.  The Golden Eagle Hotel at 189 K Street in Sacramento, site of the banquet, was first constructed as a wooden frame building in 1851 by D. E. Callahan, who still owned it in 1869.  He rebuilt it of brick in 1853 and continued to make additions to it as conditions required.  It was still in operation as late as the turn of the century.  CAREY S. BLISS

This is Number Eight of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The invitation and menu are reproduced through the courtesy of the Huntington Library. Carey S. Bliss is Curator of Rare Books at the Huntington Library.



The "Goat Island Grab"

The "Goat Island Grab" LetterOne The "Goat Island Grab" Maphundred years ago, when Californians became convinced that the Pacific Railroad would soon be accomplished, various towns fronting on San Francisco Bay competed for the prize of western terminus.  Among places favorably mentioned was Goat Island (Yerba Buena) in San Francisco Bay.  The island served as a military base and would-be fortress.

Leland Stanford's letter of February 5, 1867, stating that the Central Pacific Railroad Company "should at once extend our line to Goat Island and announce the fact" was almost certainly anticipated.  There was a pamphlet published in the same month, titled "The Future of Vallejo."  Its concern was in telling anyone who would listen that the Pacific Railroad terminus should be established at Vallejo rather than at San Francisco (via San Jose), and definitely not at Oakland!  If this booklet had been planned to stir up emotions in "the city," it couldn't have been better done.  It told that the Western Pacific (CPRR extension) preferred the "Stockton and Goat Island Route," sixty miles longer than a line via Vallejo.

On March 28, 1868, the State Legislature passed an act granting to the C.P.R.R. 150 acres of tide lands immediately north of Goat Island for the company's western terminus, and the right to construct a connecting bridge from the Contra Costa shore, subject to the expenditure of $ 100,000 for improvements within four years.

As the railroad neared Promontory, renewed clamoring about the terminal fined the newspapers.  The Oakland Daily Transcript on January 8 stated that Oakland must surely become the terminus because the property interests of the Western Pacific "lie on this side."  That town was aglow with pride when the mayor, Dr. Samuel Merritt, received a telegram on February 22 from Leland Stanford assuring him that they had not changed their plans about their line to Oakland (in order to give the "best possible accommodations to the business of San Francisco").  This line was built, together with the famous Long Wharf.

In 1871 the Goat Island plan was again in the news.  An Oakland paper predicted that the Long Wharf of the C.P.R.R. would soon be extended to Goat Island as "one vast pier of solid masonry," and later, an "immense suspension bridge" was to cross the gap to Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.

Early in 1872, the San Francisco papers were again full of stories concerning the "Goat Island Grab."  The Chamber of Commerce printed a booklet; mass meetings were held; the supervisors spent $308.84 to send their resolution to Washington by telegraph protesting the cession of the island to "Stanford & Co."  There was reason for speed: the House of Representatives was considering a bill on this matter.

On March 11, 1872, Stanford wrote San Francisco Supervisors that the Central Pacific worked in the best interests of the city and that "The occupancy of Goat Island simply means the transfer of the business of the Oakland wharves to the Island, and nearer and better facilities for the business of San Francisco. . . ."

Meanwhile, the 1868 tideland permit was about to expire.  An extension of time, approved by the California legislature, was vetoed by Governor Booth.

The battle was renewed when the Alta California on April 1 printed a large map showing the railroad to Goat Island, along with five articles.  All through April, newspapers on both sides of the bay carried stories of agitation on San Francisco.  The Transcript of April 24 reported that the Central Pacific plan had an excellent chance in Washington, where it was hoped to "force the Goat Island cession bill to a final and favorable vote for the railway magnates."  This was certain to lead to depressed spirits in "the metropolis of the sandy peninsula," said the Oakland paper.

On May 22, 1872, the Transcript reported that the bill, which had passed the House on March 13, had been "killed for the present session of Congress. . . ."  Goat Island as a rail terminal was destined to be heard from again, even into the present century, and even for the orange-colored cars of Borax Smith's "Key Route." TED WURN

Thanks to librarians in the California Room, Oakland Public Library, for making available materials necessary for the accomplishment of this research.

This is Number Nine of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The map is reproduced through the courtesy of the California State Library, the letter through the courtesy of Stanford University. Ted Wurm is the author of The Crookedest Railroad in the World and other books.



Nelson Railroad Guide, 1871

Nelson Guidebook 1871These Nelson Guidebook 1871delicate lithographs, relatively little known to modern travelers, were an attractive come-on to tourists in their day.  Judging by the attitudes of the persons in the open observation car, they were, even then, blasé travelers.  The small girl is more interested in her book, the man with the field glasses may be looking at a deer, but no one is paying the slightest attention to the ubiquitous talker.  The gentlemen on the right with the timetable in his lap has tired even of reading that.

No matter how one spells Palisade, this is a delightful view of a small segment of the way west, and promises much more to the passenger who is prepared to open his purse, stand the dust and grime, and the occasional meals available en route. The view is little changed today, but that is about all that has not changed—for the better? JOHN BARR TOMPKINS

This is Number Ten of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. This material is reproduced through the courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. John Barr Tompkins is Head of Public Services at the Bancroft Library.

Sacramento to Promontory Schedule


The Clipper Gap Holdup

The Clipper Gap Holdup LetterThe Black Bart affair was by all odds James B. Hume's most famous case but Wells Fargo's detective was involved in many other memorable investigations.  The Clipper Gap holdup of the Southern Pacific's Overland Express on a snowy Christmas Eve of 1888, for example, seemed at first to fit the requirements of "the perfect crime."

As the train crawled up the canyons between Auburn and Colfax in a torrential rainstorm, Wells Fargo messengers Robert Johnston and Emery Carpenter received the surprise of their lives.  Out of nowhere, two bandits suddenly appeared outside the doors of the express car!  They broke the windows with hatchets and pointed pistols at the messengers to gain admittance.  While one rifled the safe of 54 money parcels ($5,037), missing one package of $500 and another of $10,000 in gold over which Johnston surreptitiously managed to kick a piece of canvas, the other stood guard.  It took them only five minutes.  Then, ordering their captives to kneel facing the wall, the bandits vanished.  So shook-up were the messengers that it was a hobo who finally gave the alarm when the engine stopped at New England Mills to take on water.

The rains sluiced away the robbers' tracks from the point where they had jumped off the slow-moving train but Hume found that the ingenious pair had used a rope ladder to descend from the express car roof to the doors.  The case began to crack by January 22, 1889 when he wrote this confidential letter to his wife.  He not only had good identifications from the messengers and the tramp, he had located the cabin in which the men had holed up before and after the robbery and had quizzed the man who had bought rope for them at New England Mills to attach to the metal rungs and grappling hooks made up for them at Grass Valley.  But Hume was distracted by other cases and had to turn the investigation over to his top aide, Jonathan Thacker.  It was not till July 25, 1889, that H. L. (Jack) Gorton stood trial for his part in the holdup.  Sentenced to ten years in San Quentin, he confessed and implicated his brother, George, who was never apprehended.

The case was not as big as the Sontag and Evans series of encounters with the S.P. but it was a beautiful operation and Jim Hume agreed with veteran trainmen of the times who pronounced the Clipper Gap holdup to be "the neatest and best job on record."

RICHARD H. DILLON

This is Number Eleven of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The letter is reproduced through the courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank. Richard H. Dillon is the author of James B. Hume, Wells Fargo Detective, and other books.



POSTER:  C.P.R.R. Time Schedule

POSTER:  C.P.R.R. Time Schedule, November 22, 1875About the time this schedule was issued, ferries from San Francisco to Oakland were using the "New Landing foot of Market Street," a predecessor of the present Ferry Building.
 

Ferries and connecting local trains carried patrons to Oakland, Alameda, Fernside and Brooklyn.  Fernside, at the east end of Alameda island, is today a district of attractive homes.  Brooklyn, located on the east side of Lake Merritt and now part of Oakland, was for a short time a separate municipality.
 

Certain trains to points in Northern California originated in Vallejo and to connect with those trains, passengers continued to board the Vallejo Steamer at the Broadway Wharf.
 

Theodore H. Goodman, whose name appeared countless times on Central Pacific and Southern Pacific tickets and timetables, came to the Central Pacific from the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad (Erie RR) to serve as General Passenger Agent, a post he held from 1868 to 1905.
 

This is Number Twelve of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.


Courtesy The Book Club of California.


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