Life and Times of the Central Pacific Railroad (2024)

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Lifeand Times of the
CentralPacific Railroad
KeepsakeSeries, The Book Club of California, 1969


[Click on images belowto see enlargements.]

Contractand Finance Company

Theabove reproduction of Stock Certificate number 11 of the Contract and FinanceCompany 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. Theseshares passed into Stanford's estate on his death and are signed on theback 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, cameto the Stanford Collection, which later became the Stanford UniversityArchives.

The Contract and Finance Companywas the construction company created by Stanford Huntington, Hopkins andCharles and E. B. Crocker on October 28, 1867, to succeed the financiallyexhausted Charles Crocker and Company. The new company was to completethe construction of the Central Pacific Railroad from the California-Nevadaborder to the junction with the Union Pacific Railroad.

There seem to have been two otherrelated reasons for creating the Contract and Finance Company. Financingwas difficult, as the railroad was mortgaged and in debt; and new partnerswere needed to bring in additional money. It was hoped that, by creatinga new construction company that would acquire the railroad's assets inreturn 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 interestingothers 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 Associatestook a fifth interest. It was an improvement over the Charles Crockerand Company arrangement in which all but Crocker were silent partners.Under the new arrangement, each would legally share assets in proportionto his investment.

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

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

This is Number Oneof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The certificate is reproduced throughthe courtesy of Stanford University. Patricia J. Palmer is ManuscriptsLibrarian at Stanford.

COPYRIGHT © 1969BY THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

Throughpassenger traffic on the Central Pacific was predominately westbound astravelers came west to San Francisco the focal point for people destinedto other places on the Pacific Coast. In an effort to balance trafficloading, bargain rates were offered eastbound passengers. Second-classtickets were $100 for the trip to New York but if time was not important,the more patient traveler could pocket a savings of $35. (Westboundtraffic continued to grow at a faster pace than eastbound traffic for severalyears, notwithstanding the bargain rates.)

The word "currency" at the top ofthe 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 accountswere segregated between the two forms of monetary exchange. Nearlyall of the railroad operating expenses were settled in coin while revenuesincluded a substantial amount of currency. Separate accounts weremaintained through 1878.

This is Number Twoof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.

DrivingCentral Pacific eastward over the High Sierra from the isolated PacificCoast was one of man's great achievements in terms of both constructionand logistics. Undertaking such a project took real courage.For instance, it was determined only a few years before that a locomotivecould be driven uphill.

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

Two years later, Huntington, MarkHopkins and Charles Crocker not only were among those who greeted HoraceGreeley on his arrival in Sacramento during his famous trip on behalf ofthe Pacific Railroad—but they also accompanied him on his speaking tripthrough that section of California. It is thus obvious that EngineerTheodore Judah's initial contact with the Big Four was directed towardmen 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 Americanhistory. Less known—but no less important, however—is their constructionof the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Wagon Road. (Ironically, thiscompeted with the road via Placerville, completed only four years before).The Dutch Flat road was built to offer a stage and wagon connection withCentral Pacific, producing vitally needed dollars as the rails moved slowlyeastward. Equally important, it was conceived to move men, suppliesand material to forward survey and construction camps. Without thisvital tool, Central Pacific could not have breached the Sierra to reachReno as early as June 19, 1868.

It is unfortunate that this farsightedmove 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 thatCentral Pacific intended to build only to Dutch Flat, where constructionwould be abandoned, were most easily disproven when the railroad continuedto 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 broughton the well-known tie-up of Central Pacific at Newcastle and the loss ofa vital (and mild) year's construction before CP won its case. Exceptfor this, CP would probably have met Union Pacific at Cheyenne rather thanat Promontory. Also, because of this, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montanacame into the financial orbit of the East rather than that of San Franciscoand the West.

When the Sierra tunnels held up constructionfrom 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 thedread winters of 1866, 1867 and 1868, it was often the only link constructionworkers had with the world west of the Sierra and it helped save many lives.

Yes, the Dutch Flat road was importantin more ways than one. Its story didn't begin and end with CentralPacific's construction and completion. It served the mountain communitiesfor many years after it was abandoned by the Big Four on completion ofthe railroad. Later, much the same route was followed by the originalhighway 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 reachedthat point in 1864, for charges of "Dutch Flat Swindle" permeated Californiawith the odor of a scandal, later easily disproven.

This is Number Threeof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The announcement is reproduced throughthe courtesy of the Southern Pacific Company. George Kraus is the authorof High Road to Promontory.

Printedby the Sacramento firm of H.S. Crocker, one of the brothers of CharlesCrocker, this poster, published shortly after the completion of the firsttranscontinental railroad, offered merchant princes a new route linkingthe Orient with Europe. Forming the first "land bridge" across theUnited States, passengers boarding the Silver Palace Sleeping Cars werewhisked from San Francisco Bay to New York City in just six days and 20hours.

Born in Massachusetts, Alban NelsonTowne came to the Central Pacific in September 1869, from the BurlingtonRailroad to begin his career with the C.P.R.R., first as General Superintendentand then as General Manager of the successor Southern Pacific Company (PacificSystem). Moving with the Central Pacific from Sacramento to San Franciscoin 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 nowstand by Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park and, with a touch of nostalgia,are called "The Portals of the Past."

This is Number Fourof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.

"TheUnionPacific is nearly out of powder" wrote Sam Montague, Chief Engineer ofthe Central Pacific, on March 20, 1869, to Butler Ives, Division Engineerof the C.P.R.R. east of Promontory. Ives had been chief locationengineer for the road in Nevada and Utah and in a prophetic vein had writtenhis 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 ofBlue Creek by Leland Stanford per his secretary, E. B. Ryan. Ives was alsoordered by Montague to "keep Governor Stanford informed of Union Pacificdemonstrations 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'sChinese were attacking the rock work at Red Dome (Ombey), 50 miles westof Promontory. Both sides were straining to complete the maximumtrack mileage, and it requires little imagination to picture the shorttempers 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 forposterity, was originally called North Pass or Ives Pass, in deferenceto the man whose location work was followed by both railroads. Itwas on either side of here that the last construction problems were metand conquered. The Central Pacific's Mormon Contractors had madea 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 finaldrop to the valley floor.

Congress decided the historic meetingplace for the rails and selected the Union Pacific road bed to be usedOgden to Promontory. The operating demands of the Central Pacific, however,dictated exchanging the UP grade for the CP grade for four miles (1) fromthe rock cuts eastward circa 1871. What had been so strenuously foughtfor with muscle in the spring of 1869 was not to prevail entirely for eithercompany. With a requisite amount of time for study engineering judgmentsupplanted legislative decision. In effect the tracks met "at theRock Cuts on the eastern slope of the Promontory" but it was not to befor about two years after Crocker's Rose Bud message to Mark Hopkins. LYNND. FARRAR

Note: Rose Bud Springs fedthe tanks at Terrace, an important division point for fueling andwateringlocomotives.

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

This is Number Fiveof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The letter is reproduced throughthe courtesy of the California State Library. The map was prepared by theSouthern Pacific Company. Lynn D. Farrar is Valuation Engineer for theSouthern Pacific Company.

Fortunateis the individual who, in the pursuit of history, comes upon a documentthat sheds new light upon an important event. It was through just sucha happy set of circ*mstances that the original receipt for the Gold Spikeused to join the Central and Union Pacific Railroads was discovered byRobin Lampson in 1937. At the time, Mr. Lampson was engaged in preparingbroadcasts 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 familymementoes, and Eureka!—the receipt and other items to excite the adventurer.

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

Although financial circ*mstancesprevented Hewes from joining the railroad builders, he had long espousedsuch a development. Consequently, when the joining was imminent andaccording to Hewes, "no proper sentiment being expressed by the peopleof the Pacific Coast ... I felt hurt and mortified that there was no recognitionbeing made of such a great event. At the last moment I said, 'There wasone last thing to be done, a last tie and a last spike to be furnishedbefore the great work can be finished."

Hewes had a spike with an attachedunfinished nugget prepared at Schulz, Fischer and Mohrig. The nuggetwas to be used to fashion rings and trinkets as mementoes of the event.Apparently Mohrig, the only name correctly spelled, acknowledged receiptof 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 anotherspike was prepared, for a purpose lost to history.

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

RALPH W. HANSEN

This is Number Sixof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The receipt is reproduced throughthe courtesy of Stanford University. Ralph Hansen is Stanford UniversityArchivist.

Theimportance of the Overland Route, of which the rails of the Central Pacificformed the western segment, was brought into sharp focus in this revisionof the earlier travel poster. By this date, July 1872, the San Franciscoticket office had been moved from California Street to No. 2 MontgomeryStreet.

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

The Assistant Superintendent JohnCorning died a few years later, but a town in Northern California perpetuateshis name.

This is Number Sevenof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.

An Invitation and Menu
Central Pacific Railroad,Sacramento, 1869

Thecompletionof the transcontinental railroad in May, 1869, was a great boon to Californiaand especially the western terminus of the road, Sacramento. Alreadyby September of that year the local newspapers were commenting on the rapidgrowth the completion of the railroad had had on that city. It isnot surprising, therefore, that the citizens of Sacramento felt calledupon to tender a complimentary banquet to those men who organized and builtthe Central Pacific Railroad and brought such prosperity to the city.

The Sacramento Union announced thebanquet in its issue of September 24, and in the issue of September 28reports "The banquet tendered the Directors and other officers of the CentralPacific Railroad Company takes place at the Golden Eagle Hotel this evening,at half past eight." The ex post facto account of the banquet inthe Union next day says it "was a grand success." The hotel was decoratedinside and out with evergreens and "the dining hall tastefully ornamented."Somewhat over two hundred dignitaries and plain citizens sat down to "thetables which were loaded with all the substantials of the market, and daintiesin profusion." A glance at the menu will quickly reveal the truthof this statement. Seven French wines, one Spanish sherry and a sauterneof uncertain locale accompanied the courses. EdgarMills, son [sic] of the prominent western banker Darius Ogden Mills,acted as master of ceremonies. Speeches were made by State SenatorHenry Edgerton, Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroadand ex-governor of California, and "numerous others." Among the guestswere Admiral David Glasgow Farragut of Civil War fame, and several gentlemenfrom San Francisco and other neighboring cities. Farragut had beenon the west coast revisiting the Mare-Island Navy Yard which he had establisheda 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 andhad a severe heart attack in Chicago on the way. It could possiblyhave been brought on as a result of the lavish entertainment he had experiencedin San Francisco and Sacramento.

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

The original menu was printed onsilk by Russell and Winterburn in Sacramento, and is now quite darkenedwith age but still in good condition. The Golden Eagle Hotel at 189K Street in Sacramento, site of the banquet, was first constructed as awooden frame building in 1851 by D. E. Callahan, who still owned it in1869. He rebuilt it of brick in 1853 and continued to make additionsto it as conditions required. It was still in operation as late asthe turn of the century. CAREY S. BLISS

This is Number Eightof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The invitation and menu are reproducedthrough the courtesy of the Huntington Library. Carey S. Bliss is Curatorof Rare Books at the Huntington Library.

Onehundredyears ago, when Californians became convinced that the Pacific Railroadwould soon be accomplished, various towns fronting on San Francisco Baycompeted for the prize of western terminus. Among places favorablymentioned was Goat Island (Yerba Buena) in San Francisco Bay. Theisland served as a military base and would-be fortress.

Leland Stanford's letter of February5, 1867, stating that the Central Pacific Railroad Company "should at onceextend our line to Goat Island and announce the fact" was almost certainlyanticipated. There was a pamphlet published in the same month, titled"The Future of Vallejo." Its concern was in telling anyone who wouldlisten that the Pacific Railroad terminus should be established at Vallejorather 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," itcouldn't have been better done. It told that the Western Pacific(CPRR extension) preferred the "Stockton and Goat Island Route," sixtymiles longer than a line via Vallejo.

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

As the railroad neared Promontory,renewed clamoring about the terminal fined the newspapers. The OaklandDaily Transcript on January 8 stated that Oakland must surely become theterminus because the property interests of the Western Pacific "lie onthis side." That town was aglow with pride when the mayor, Dr. SamuelMerritt, received a telegram on February 22 from Leland Stanford assuringhim that they had not changed their plans about their line to Oakland (inorder to give the "best possible accommodations to the business of SanFrancisco"). This line was built, together with the famous Long Wharf.

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

Early in 1872, the San Franciscopapers were again full of stories concerning the "Goat Island Grab."The Chamber of Commerce printed a booklet; mass meetings were held; thesupervisors spent $308.84 to send their resolution to Washington by telegraphprotesting the cession of the island to "Stanford & Co." Therewas reason for speed: the House of Representatives was considering a billon this matter.

On March 11, 1872, Stanford wroteSan Francisco Supervisors that the Central Pacific worked in the best interestsof the city and that "The occupancy of Goat Island simply means the transferof the business of the Oakland wharves to the Island, and nearer and betterfacilities for the business of San Francisco. . . ."

Meanwhile, the 1868 tideland permitwas about to expire. An extension of time, approved by the Californialegislature, was vetoed by Governor Booth.

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

On May 22, 1872, the Transcript reportedthat the bill, which had passed the House on March 13, had been "killedfor the present session of Congress. . . ." Goat Island as a railterminal 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." TEDWURN

Thanks to librarians in the CaliforniaRoom, Oakland Public Library, for making available materials necessaryfor the accomplishment of this research.

This is Number Nineof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The map is reproduced through thecourtesy of the California State Library, the letter through the courtesyof Stanford University. Ted Wurm is the author of TheCrookedest Railroad in the World and other books.

Thesedelicatelithographs, relatively little known to modern travelers, were an attractivecome-on to tourists in their day. Judging by the attitudes of thepersons in the open observation car, they were, even then, blasétravelers. The small girl is more interested in her book, the manwith the field glasses may be looking at a deer, but no one is paying theslightest attention to the ubiquitous talker. The gentlemen on theright 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 promisesmuch more to the passenger who is prepared to open his purse, stand thedust and grime, and the occasional meals available en route. The view islittle changed today, but that is about all that has not changed—for thebetter? JOHN BARR TOMPKINS

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

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

As the train crawled up the canyonsbetween Auburn and Colfax in a torrential rainstorm, Wells Fargo messengersRobert Johnston and Emery Carpenter received the surprise of their lives.Out of nowhere, two bandits suddenly appeared outside the doors of theexpress car! They broke the windows with hatchets and pointed pistolsat the messengers to gain admittance. While one rifled the safe of54 money parcels ($5,037), missing one package of $500 and another of $10,000in gold over which Johnston surreptitiously managed to kick a piece ofcanvas, 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 thealarm 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 butHume found that the ingenious pair had used a rope ladder to descend fromthe express car roof to the doors. The case began to crack by January22, 1889 when he wrote this confidential letter to his wife. He notonly had good identifications from the messengers and the tramp, he hadlocated the cabin in which the men had holed up before and after the robberyand had quizzed the man who had bought rope for them at New England Millsto attach to the metal rungs and grappling hooks made up for them at GrassValley. But Hume was distracted by other cases and had to turn theinvestigation over to his top aide, Jonathan Thacker. It was nottill July 25, 1889, that H. L. (Jack) Gorton stood trial for his part inthe holdup. Sentenced to ten years in San Quentin, he confessed andimplicated his brother, George, who was never apprehended.

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

RICHARD H. DILLON

This is Number Elevenof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. The letter is reproduced throughthe courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank. Richard H. Dillon is the author of JamesB. Hume, Wells Fargo Detective,and other books.

Aboutthe time this schedule was issued, ferries from San Francisco to Oaklandwere using the "New Landing foot of Market Street," a predecessor of thepresent Ferry Building.

Ferries and connecting local trainscarried 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 NorthernCalifornia originated in Vallejo and to connect with those trains, passengerscontinued to board the Vallejo Steamer at the Broadway Wharf.

Theodore H. Goodman, whose name appearedcountless 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 1868to 1905.

This is Number Twelveof twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Clubof California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinentalrailroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed andprinted by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.

Courtesy TheBook Club of California.