hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

ORGANIZATION. 645
gress, individual states, nor syndicates of capitalists
had yet been found willing to lay hold of so stupendous
and hazardous an enterprise as that of constructing a
Pacific railway at that time, the audacity of the Sacramento
corporation in attempting the most difficult
portion of it appears an act of madness or of inspiration.
Few were found to give material encouragement
to the project, and many said that those Sacramento
merchants who had ventured upon it would sink their
personal fortunes in the caflons of the Sierra.
Of those men, four, at least, have been much before
the country. The combination was a fortunate one
for its purposes. None of them were rich; 1 * all had
been accustomed to struggle with hardships in their
youth. Stanford was a leader in the republican party
just coming to the front in California, and was governor
of the state through the most critical period of
the formation and launching of the Central Pacific
railroad company upon the sea of experiment. He
had some practical knowledge of railroad construction,
having been in the service of his father, a contractor
on canals and railroads. He had also the reading of
a lawyer, and had practised in the courts of Wisconsin
previous to coming to California. Personally he was
strong and enduring, exhibiting great tenacity of purpose
and power to execute it, with a certain reserve
which indicated unknown qualities behind his massive
brows.
Huntington, a native of Connecticut, was one who,
as a business man, had few equals in the land of his
nativity or adoption. Energetic, quick-sighted, but
cool in execution, despising nothing that had a dollar
in it, nor any fair means of making a profit, he had
saved and gained thirty or forty thousand dollars
16 1 quote from a memorial to congress the sworn statement of Leland
Stanford and brother that the value of property owned by the firm in 1862
waa $32,950; of Charles Crocker that he was worth $25,000 at the same
period; of Mark Hopkins that he was worth $9,700; of C. P. Huntington
that he had property amounting to $7,222; and of Huntington & Hopkins
that they owned $34,115 in 1862. Petition qf the Stockholder qf the Central
Pacific R. R.
HIST. CAL., VOL. VII. 86