were completed and in good working condition. To grade this forty miles, to bridge the wide and rapid American River, to purchase iron for the track, and rolling stock for its equipment, was no easy task to be accomplished by half a dozen citizens of a small inland city of California. They had unlimited faith, however, in the ultimate success of their undertaking, and were willing to pledge all they were worth to ensure its success. In 1861, a charter was obtained from the Legislature of California, under which a meeting of stockholders was at once held. Leland Stanford was elected President of the Corporation, and C. P. Huntington, Vice President; positions which they have both held from that time to the present. On the 22d day of February, 1863, Governor Stanford, in the presence of the State Legislature and of a large concourse of citizens, shovelled the first earth, and commenced the Pacific Railroad grade. From that day, work upon the line has not been delayed for a single week. Obstacles of a serious character were constantly met, but were as speedily surmounted. The war for the preservation of the Union was at its height. The fate of the Nation was hanging in a balance which occasional successes, and occasional reverses, kept constantly swinging to and fro. The national finances were disarranged, the national credit was at a low ebb, and capitalists throughout the country were exceedingly distrustful of untried schemes. Rival enterprises, or those that were considered rival, met the projectors of this national work in the money markets to which they applied, and sought to neutralize their efforts to obtain capital by misrepresenting their intentions, and by discrediting their integrity.

Toll roads over the Sierras, the owners of which the Washoe traffic had converted into millionaires, were arrayed against the new and more expeditious route, which would, when completed, destroy the profits of the old ones. Strange as it may appear, in a State the very existence of which would seem to depend upon a Pacific Railway, a

*In his address, upon this occasion, Governor Stanford predicted that the Pacific Railroad would be completed in 1870. The result has more than verified his prediction.

violent, unscrupulous, and unyielding anti-railroad cabal was evolved from the various opposing interests that were at this time in the full tide of success. Large amounts of money were raised to litigate the Central Pacific Company at every stage of their progress, and to follow them with annoying law suits from court to court. These embarrassments only seemed to increase the ardor of those who had determined to push the work. The vice-president of the company, Mr. Huntington, established himself in New York, as the financial and purchasing agent of the enterprise, and was early recognized as one of the most prominent and successful financiers of that great moneyed centre. The amount of iron, rolling stock, and material necessary to be purchased, and to be kept constantly on the way, was immense; but although it had to traverse more than half the length of two oceans, the calculations of its departure from New York and of its arrival at the wharves of Sacramento, were careful and exact, and the supply never failed to be at hand when wanted upon the road.

While the public were apathetic, or at best indifferent, the managers of the work at the California end were active and on the alert. Always keeping within the requirements of the Act of Congress, as to grades and curves, and as to the general character of the work, they nevertheless found at the termination of each year a greater amount of roadway completed than was stipulated by government. On the 25th day of November, 1867, the Summit tunnel was opened, and work was in a good state of progress upon a dozen other tunnels between that point and the Truckee river. Meanwhile, a sufficient quantity of iron, locomotives and cars, for more than forty miles of road, had actually been hauled by teams over a portion of the mountains, so that in the spring of 1868, the Central Pacific Company were enabled to lay track from the East and from the West, until a connection was made near the Summit on the 17th of June of that year. When, a year or two previous, the laying of a mile of track per day was promised, railroad men in all parts of the world wondered at the extravagant proposition; yet

two and three miles became an ordinary day's work during 1868 and 1869, and upon one occasion a distance of ten and a quarter miles of track were laid in one day between dawn and dark. Thus the great work progressed without cessation, and at a rate of progress that, in its earlier days, would have been counted as marvelous. Early in 1869 the through line was completed, and a connection made with the Union Pacific road.

We have dwelt upon this great enterprise in connection with our sketch of Governor Stanford, because he has been identified with it from its earliest inception to the present time. Elected from the first as its highest executive officer, he has attended faithfully to its interests, and has given to the project some of the best years of his life. Now that the work is accomplished, he is directing his attention to similar enterprises of less magnitude perhaps, but still important in the development of the resources of his adopted State.

Governor Stanford, in his public and private life, may truly be regarded as one of California's representative men. Arriving upon these shores at an early period, with but moderate means at his command, he at once assumed a prominent position among the merchants and business men of the new State. Without those brilliant attainments which are sometimes the result of a thorough collegiate education, he has at his command a generous fund of useful knowledge; and he has rarely been at fault in his judgement of others, or in his estimate of important measures, whether connected with his official, or his business career. Never backward in asserting his principles, he is yet willing to defer to the opinions of others; and in his intercourse with men, his object seems to be to gain information upon all points at issue.

Physically, he is larger than the average of men. Having been inured to labor in the open air in his boyhood, and having avoided, during his whole life, excesses of all kinds, he is at the present time capable of bearing an amount of bodily fatigue, and of travel without rest, that few men could endure. With a retentive memory for facts and details, a keen perception of affairs, and

quick reasoning powers, he yet arrives at conclusions by patient mental labor. Not easily excited, nor over sanguine in temperament, he readily grasps large schemes, and usually works out his plans to a successful consummation. His favorite theory in judging of others is, that all men are possessed of good qualities, and that our estimate of individuals whom we do not thoroughly know, is generally below the standard which their merits deserve. In consequence of his firm belief in this theory, he is charitable towards the faults of others-never harboring revengeful feelings, and never indulging in longtime resentments. In considering matters relating exclusively to business, he is reticent to a degree; but he is at all times a conscientious and willing listener. Where some men strive by labored argument to convince, he strives to convince by the ceaseless assiduity with which he labors to accomplish results. In social life, he is unreserved in his conversation, earnest in his hospitality, warm in his friendship, and cordial in his intercourse with all.

JOHN BIGLER.

BY THE EDITOR

OHN BIGLER, who was so prominent and active in the early settlement and development of California, and who has played so conspicuous a part in the political history of the State, was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the seat of Dickinson College, January 8th, 1805.

He is of German descent. The family has been established in America for more than a century. Both the paternal and maternal grandfather of John Bigler fought under Gen. Morgan in the Revolutionary war. His father was a farmer: for many years he was engaged in the milling business in Cumberland and Perry counties, Pennsylvania. During the noted "Whisky Rebellion" in the western part of that State, 1791, 1794, he was a private soldier under Gen. Washington.

John was the eldest of five sons. The Pennsylvania statesman, William Bigler, is a younger brother. John entered college at Carlisle; but soon after he commenced his studies, his father removed to Mercer county, north of Pittsburg, and placed him in a printer's office in that city, where, for a few years, he applied himself to "the art preservative of all arts." After the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1827, he removed to Bellefonte, Centre county, and took editorial charge of the Centre County Democrat. He continued the editing as well as the publishing of this journal from 1827 until 1832. In 1828, though but a youth, he advocated with zeal and efficiency the election of Gen. Jackson, for whom his county gave a majority of more than sixteen hundred votes. He then commenced the study of law, which he pursued until