Building The Transcontinental Railroad
The year was 1874. The Panic of 1873 had begun in September of the
previous year. The nation’s first transcontinental railroad had been
completed in 1869, and 35,000 miles of new track had been laid across
the country.
Banks and other industries were putting their money into railroads,
and the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co had overextended itself and
declared bankruptcy. Other financial institutions followed suit, and
within a few months 89 of the country’s 364 railroads had gone
bankrupt.
President Ulysses S. Grant was in his second term. And Jacob
Blickensderfer, a civil engineer and railroad surveyor, had been
assigned by the President to examine and re-measure the streets around
the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Jacob had come to Washington in March and had spent three weeks taking
calculations on different streets in the city and had also uncovered
major overpayments to the contractors which he needed to include in
his report to President Grant.
Security was not as tight as it is today, and Jacob left his hotel and
walked to the Capitol where he entered the grounds and saw the
President’s private secretary, General Orville Babcock, on the porch.
The general invited him in to see the President and they visited for a
few minutes before Jacob made the report of his findings to General
Babcock.
Jacob was used to hobnobbing with important people. He had been
appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864 as one of the 158 men
chosen to represent the government in building a transcontinental
railroad.
In April 1867, he had been appointed by President Andrew Johnson to
examine the Rocky Mountains and determine the eastern base for the
railroad. The Union Pacific had a contract to build a railroad
westward from Omaha through the Rockies and across the Wyoming plains
into Utah.
In November of that year he was asked to take on the responsibility
of Division Engineer for the Utah project, and in the months to come
he traveled with his crew of engineers and surveyors over some of the
most rugged terrain in America, sometimes walking, sometimes riding
horseback, or in stagecoaches or wagons, enduring great hardship.
The weather caused many delays and they met up with wild Indians who
threatened their workers and murdered several of them. Jacob slept
many nights on the ground, and many times their food supply ran out
before they were able to re-stock it.
Nothing ever seems to change in the realm of government and politics,
and there were internal power struggles and disunity among the Union
Pacific employees and later between Union Pacific and Central Pacific
as they attempted to work together on this immense project.
Finally, on May 10, 1869 about 1000 people met at Promontory Point for
the Golden Spike Ceremony.
The following quote is taken from Jacob’s diaries in a book written
by his niece, Norah Lee Brown:
“Engines Number 119 and Number 60 were run to the end of the
respective tracks. Ties were thrown down on the gap between the two
engines. The Chinese carried one rail and Casement’s ironmen lifted
the other. A polished laurel tie was laid into position, and the last
rail clanged into place. Heads bowed as prayer was offered, then
(Governor) Leland Stanford made a speech. After several attempts, the
iron spike was finally driven home.”
Two months later the first transcontinental train crossed the nation
in six and one-half days.
Finally, Jacob Blickensder could work on fulfilling another dream –
that of building a home for himself and his wife Louisa. The site he
had chosen was a beautiful place, with rolling hills and lots of small
streams, and rich black soil.
There he would become a neighbor to his eldest son, a Civil War
veteran, who had chosen to exercise his veteran’s option to purchase a
land grant, in a little rural community in Laclede County, Missouri,
called Oakland.
It would be another 15 years before he would actually build the
Oakland Mansion and the Oakland Moravian church which later became the
Oakland Methodist Church. It was my privilege to pastor for 12 years
in the church he built which we call the Oakland Heritage Church of
God.
In the interim, he accepted the position as Chief Engineer with the
Atlantic Pacific Railway, and then went to Canada to examine the line
for the Canadian Pacific Railway to make sure it met the same
standards required by Union Pacific.
He had purchased 494 acres of land at Oakland in 1881 and planted an
orchard. Later that year he purchased another 220 acres on which he
eventually built the dream home for Louisa and himself.
In April of 1882 he purchased another 80 acres for a church site and
requested Moravian church leaders for permission to build a church
house there.
I will finish this story in next week’s column. Every week when I
write I always have more material than I have space to use, but this
time I am going to write a Part Two because “The Rest Of The Story”
is as compelling as the history I have given you today.
And there is still much interest in this area about the mansion, how
it was built, as well the church and the cemetery, and of course what
eventually happened to the Blickensderfer family in Oakland.
The year was 1874. The Panic of 1873 had begun in September of the
previous year. The nation’s first transcontinental railroad had been
completed in 1869, and 35,000 miles of new track had been laid across
the country.
Banks and other industries were putting their money into railroads,
and the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co had overextended itself and
declared bankruptcy. Other financial institutions followed suit, and
within a few months 89 of the country’s 364 railroads had gone
bankrupt.
President Ulysses S. Grant was in his second term. And Jacob
Blickensderfer, a civil engineer and railroad surveyor, had been
assigned by the President to examine and re-measure the streets around
the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Jacob had come to Washington in March and had spent three weeks taking
calculations on different streets in the city and had also uncovered
major overpayments to the contractors which he needed to include in
his report to President Grant.
Security was not as tight as it is today, and Jacob left his hotel and
walked to the Capitol where he entered the grounds and saw the
President’s private secretary, General Orville Babcock, on the porch.
The general invited him in to see the President and they visited for a
few minutes before Jacob made the report of his findings to General
Babcock.
Jacob was used to hobnobbing with important people. He had been
appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864 as one of the 158 men
chosen to represent the government in building a transcontinental
railroad.
In April 1867, he had been appointed by President Andrew Johnson to
examine the Rocky Mountains and determine the eastern base for the
railroad. The Union Pacific had a contract to build a railroad
westward from Omaha through the Rockies and across the Wyoming plains
into Utah.
In November of that year he was asked to take on the responsibility
of Division Engineer for the Utah project, and in the months to come
he traveled with his crew of engineers and surveyors over some of the
most rugged terrain in America, sometimes walking, sometimes riding
horseback, or in stagecoaches or wagons, enduring great hardship.
The weather caused many delays and they met up with wild Indians who
threatened their workers and murdered several of them. Jacob slept
many nights on the ground, and many times their food supply ran out
before they were able to re-stock it.
Nothing ever seems to change in the realm of government and politics,
and there were internal power struggles and disunity among the Union
Pacific employees and later between Union Pacific and Central Pacific
as they attempted to work together on this immense project.
Finally, on May 10, 1869 about 1000 people met at Promontory Point for
the Golden Spike Ceremony.
The following quote is taken from Jacob’s diaries in a book written
by his niece, Norah Lee Brown:
“Engines Number 119 and Number 60 were run to the end of the
respective tracks. Ties were thrown down on the gap between the two
engines. The Chinese carried one rail and Casement’s ironmen lifted
the other. A polished laurel tie was laid into position, and the last
rail clanged into place. Heads bowed as prayer was offered, then
(Governor) Leland Stanford made a speech. After several attempts, the
iron spike was finally driven home.”
Two months later the first transcontinental train crossed the nation
in six and one-half days.
Finally, Jacob Blickensder could work on fulfilling another dream –
that of building a home for himself and his wife Louisa. The site he
had chosen was a beautiful place, with rolling hills and lots of small
streams, and rich black soil.
There he would become a neighbor to his eldest son, a Civil War
veteran, who had chosen to exercise his veteran’s option to purchase a
land grant, in a little rural community in Laclede County, Missouri,
called Oakland.
It would be another 15 years before he would actually build the
Oakland Mansion and the Oakland Moravian church which later became the
Oakland Methodist Church. It was my privilege to pastor for 12 years
in the church he built which we call the Oakland Heritage Church of
God.
In the interim, he accepted the position as Chief Engineer with the
Atlantic Pacific Railway, and then went to Canada to examine the line
for the Canadian Pacific Railway to make sure it met the same
standards required by Union Pacific.
He had purchased 494 acres of land at Oakland in 1881 and planted an
orchard. Later that year he purchased another 220 acres on which he
eventually built the dream home for Louisa and himself.
In April of 1882 he purchased another 80 acres for a church site and
requested Moravian church leaders for permission to build a church
house there.
I will finish this story in next week’s column. Every week when I
write I always have more material than I have space to use, but this
time I am going to write a Part Two because “The Rest Of The Story”
is as compelling as the history I have given you today.
And there is still much interest in this area about the mansion, how
it was built, as well the church and the cemetery, and of course what
eventually happened to the Blickensderfer family in Oakland.
Note: This essay was published in the Lebanon Daily Record on April 18, 2012
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