Lathrop Based Publication Since 1998
LATHROP / WESTON RANCH / FRENCH CAMP
Copyright © 2007 Lathrop Rush -
last updated: June 4, 2008
STANFORD, THE BEGINNING
By the former Mayor of Lathrop,
Mac Freeman (edited by Lenora Bigalow)
When writing the “HISTORY OF LATHROP-PART 2”, I said,
“Stanford called his new town Lathrop in honor of his wife’s
maiden name, Jane (Lathrop) Stanford. He later told his
brother-in-law, Charles Lathrop, that he named Lathrop after
him. A few years later, he told an old college friend, Lathrop
Tracy, that he named Lathrop and Tracy after him. Was
Stanford a manipulator, a comedian, a jerk or a politician? You
be the judge.
While I picked a combination of Stanford being a jerk and a
politician, I feel I should tell the “rest of the story”. Most men
who have contributed much toward history have a complex
and grating personality and are sometimes criticized for being
eccentric. As Ben Franklin once wrote, “He that speaks much
is much mistaken”.
Amasa Leland Stanford was born in Waterviliet, New York to a
well-off farming family. After an excellent secondary and higher
education, Stanford entered an elite law office to prepare for a
career as an attorney. He passed his bar exam in 1848 and
moved to Wisconsin to hang his shingle. Two years later he
married Jane Eliza Lathrop.
He was successful, but his office and library were destroyed by
fire. So, in 1852 he decided to join several of his brothers in
their mercantile business in the gold fields of California, leaving
his wife in Albany, New York until he was settled. Working hard
for three years, Stanford prospered. He bought out his
brother’s store in Sacramento and returned to Albany for his
wife.
He continued to make enormous sums of money by selling
equipment to gold minors in northern California. He also became
involved in politics, first as a justice of the peace, then as the
unsuccessful Republican candidate for state treasurer, and in
1859 as the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate.
He was finally elected governor in 1861, when the Civil War
split the Democratic vote, and he played a large part in
keeping California loyal to the Union. Stanford succeeded not
only in holding California in the Union, but also saw to it that
the state contributed substantially to the Union victory.
While Stanford was governor he made no attempt to separate
his political office from his private business interests. When his
term ended in 1863, he declined to run for governor again,
choosing instead to become president of the Central Pacific
Railroad. He and the other three partners known as the Big
Four, risked their enormous wealth on what most said was a
“fool’s errand”, building the first transcontinental railroad.
Stanford used his influence to secure massive state
investments and federal land grants for the railroad project.
By 1854, there were almost 16,000 miles of railroad track in
America. Most of the track was in the Northeast. Some was in
the South. Travelers could go from New York to the Missouri
River. That was the end of the railroad line going west. They
had to take a boat across the river and continue on ox-drawn
wagons, stagecoaches, horseback, or on foot. The western
trek took many months, depending on where they settled.
Leaders in government and business talked about building a
transcontinental railroad. Northern politicians wanted it to take
a northern route, and of course southern politicians wanted it
to take a southern route. But, what would be the best route?
Along came a young, smart engineer named Ted Judah. Having
plenty of experience building railroads all over the East, he
knew a transcontinental railroad was feasible. The Federal
Government argued until the Civil War started in 1861. After
the Southern politicians left in 1861, the Northern politicians
chose the Northern route. The route was named the Union
Pacific because they hoped it would help keep the Pacific
states of California and Oregon along with other Northern
states in the Union. The Federal Government also gave a gift
of ten square miles of Public land for each mile of track laid in
1864 to the builders. The next year it was increased to twenty
square miles.
Judah spent months surveying the wilderness mapping a good
route through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He took it upon
himself to raise the money to build the railroad. He eventually
persuaded the Big Four to get “on board”. He convinced them
that his railroad would make them rich men. As it turned out,
Judah realized their greed was paramount with all decisions
made. He had disagreements with them about everything from
economics to the actual route of the tracks. In 1863 Judah
went back East to discuss railroad operations with the rich
Vanderbilts, and a possible buy-out with the Big Four. After he
sailed for New York, he caught yellow fever when he crossed
the Isthmus of Panama and died after reaching New York. That
left the Big Four to do it their way, and get rich doing it.
The groundbreaking ceremonies for the Central Pacific took
place in Sacramento, California on January 8, 1863.
The Union Pacific Railroad Company started laying tracks
eleven months later, in Omaha, Nebraska Territory going West
on December 2, 1863.
At one point during the building of the railroad, there were
14,000 Chinese together with 2,000 whites and 6,000 horses,
all working together in a monumental effort. Stanford was
instrumental in getting Chinese workers, after first arguing that
they were too small and weak. Most of the white men were at
the gold fields. The Chinese turned out to be a wise decision
as they proved to be hard working and reliable. At the time of
the railroad’s completion, eight out of every ten Central Pacific
laborers were Chinese. The Chinese were the ones chosen to
lay charges and blast through the Sierra Nevada Mountain
pass. The Chinese wove reeds into large baskets. Then a
Chinese crew lowered a Chinese workman in the basket down
the cliff side. They drilled holes into the rock, added explosive
powder, and lit a fuse. The worker was hauled up quickly. He
only had a few seconds before the explosion. Most made it,
but some didn’t. When the Chinese workers were no longer
needed, Stanford made them scapegoats by encouraging the
California legislature to pass taxes and unfair regulations which
specifically targeted Chinese.
Tracks were built continuously when possible, but usually it
was piecemeal. For example, when building over the Sierra
Nevada mountain range, they could not work when snow was
up to thirty feet deep. So they would have to build tracks in
areas where the weather permitted while waiting for the snow
to melt. They eventually built forty miles of snow sheds in the
highest elevations to keep snow off where they wanted to lay
tracks. With no power tools of any kind, they used picks,
shovels, wheelbarrows, black powder and one-horse dump
carts. They eventually started to use the more effective
nitroglycerin. (Dynamite was in scarce supply until the civil war
was over). They had to blast out a grade with nitroglycerin
when possible. Tunnels through the mountains were dug while
the region was covered under the deep snow packs. Materials
and equipment had to be shipped 15,000 miles around Cape
Horn from the east, taking eight to ten months.
As the railroads progressed, “canvas towns” sprung up. If the
towns endured, they would eventually build wooden stores and
houses and become a growing town. That’s how Lathrop got
started. Lathrop was a division point where switching and
“making up” trains was accomplished. A roundhouse was built
with twelve engine compartments full of locomotives. Stanford
also built a large hotel and restaurant. The downtown area of
Lathrop built first on Seventh Street, next to the tracks.
Homes were then built on Fifth and Sixth Streets The area
between Lathrop Road to the south, and Warren Avenue to
the north, Harlan Road to the west and Avon Street to the
east was nicknamed “Lathrop Acres”, because it was generally
divided into one acre lots. That’s where I grew up.
On May 10, 1869 the “Last Spike Ceremony” was conducted at
Monument Point near Promontory, Utah. Stanford hammered in
the “Gold Spike” which signified the completion of the
transcontinental railroad. The first daily passenger train
between Omaha and Sacramento took place on May 15, 1869.
Later, passengers completed the longer trip of 3,167 miles from
New York to Sacramento in seven days flat. By 1870 the cost
between New York and San Francisco was $136 for a first
class ticket, $110 for coach, and $65 for third class. Before
the railroad, the trip would cost more than $1,000 and take
months.
By the early 1870’s, the Big Four had a monopoly in place
(coining the phrase), “charging all the traffic will bear”. They
set rates so their customers could stay in business and make a
little profit, but not very much. In March of 1887, Congress
established the Pacific Railway Commission to regulate the
railroad. The Interstate Commerce Commission was created in
1887 to regulate all carriers that hauled goods between states.
The Big Four’s monopoly was broken when the “People’s
Railroad” was completed in the San Joaquin Valley in 1898. The
Big Four financially supported politicians who favored their
railroads. Collis P. Huntington, one of the “Big Four”, insisted
there was nothing wrong in contributing money or railroad
passes to politicians whose ideas were like his own. He felt this
was quite different from bribery. Some things never change.
At the death of each of the Big Four, they were worth the
following: Huntington, seventy million, Crocker, forty million,
Hopkins, twenty million and Stanford thirty million. Thirty million
would be equivalent to one billion in today’s dollar.
If it wasn’t for the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln would be best
known as the president who was instrumental in the building of
the transcontinental railroad, instead of the president who
presided over the Civil War and freed the slaves.
The transcontinental railroad created time zones. Every city,
village and town operated on their own time. The railroads set
up time zones across the country that followed the sun. They
called it “standard time”. These time zones made railroad
schedules work. The transcontinental railroad united the
country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and set
the stage for a time of great growth.
As an interesting note, when Stanford took a mighty swing at
the spike, he hit the tie instead. Thomas Clark Durant, the
Union Pacific vice president, did not do any better. His feeble
swing did not even hit the tie. Finally, a regular rail worker
drove home the last spike. A fitting ending to the first half of
Stanford’s accomplishments.
