Oregon+Central+Railroad

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Jessie Sweeney, MLS


 * Ben Holiday’s Railroad**

While Portland and its neighbors to the east had a prosperous railroad, communities to the west such as Forest Grove and Hillsboro in Washington County, and McMinnville in Yamhill County to the west didn’t like being without them. By 1870, two railroad lines were proposed for Oregon. The story of their beginning is quite interesting. An excerpt from the Portland City Directory from this year reported the following:

//During the past year, two lines of railroad have been projected in Oregon: The Oregon Central Railroad (East Side), running from Portland along the east bank of the Willamette River to Eugene City in Lane County, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. This line designs to traverse through Clackamas, Marion, Linn, Benton, and Lane counties. The Oregon Central Railroad (West Side) contemplates starting from Portland and running along the west bank of the Willamette River to some point at the head of the Willamette Valley, traversing through Washington, Yamhill, Polk, Benton and Lane Counties.//(1)

The line was projected to help with the needs of the state in terms of the agriculture and commercial industries. Legal battles raged between those with interests in both companies when Ben Holiday, a transportation businessman who had moved from California in 1868, became involved. He sided with and took control of the “East Side” company, eventually gaining control of the “West Side” company as well.iii In lining up communities outside of Portland who were interested in having the railroad pass through their cities, Ben Holiday demanded each city contribute a large sum of money for him to provide rail and a station within their town. While the town of Cornelius provided the requested funds to establish a station within the town, neighboring Forest Grove and Hillsboro refused on the basis that they found the cost to be completely unreasonable. A newspaper article gives a clear view of the citizens’ feelings regarding the situation at the time:

//When we look at the facts it is easy to see how it was that the West side road was ruined. Holiday and Halsey, in order to build up their town site at Cornelius, refused business at Forest Grove and Hillsboro and McMinnville, where most of the business of the counties had been done…The attempt to concentrate the business at any one point and refusal to accommodate every point was madness//.(2)

An article from 1927 on the movement of the railroad provides a few more details: “//Mr. Holiday would not build his line through Hillsboro and Forest Grove without cooperation of the communities in the form of free gifts of land to the railroad//.”[vii] As a result, Holiday built a stop one mile south of Forest Grove, in the neighboring town of Carnation, with the aid of an 1872 land donation.The line that was created to be very short for the time, and had it been extended to 1,000 or 2,000 miles longer it could have greatly improved business for all of the area’s surrounding communities. As it was, many county imports still had to be transported by wagons. This scathing article accused Holiday of grabbing up land and selling it for hugely inflated prices. “//They have robbed the company by selling land to it worth only two or three thousand dollars, for $130,000, grabbing the money which was borrowed from bondholders and robbing not only the people along the line but also the (…) bondholders to whose interests they pretend to be so devoted.//”[viii] Newspapers during this time referred to this pressing issue as the “//West side railroad controversy//”(3). For a long time after the confrontation, trains were routed through Hillsboro and Forest Grove without stopping at either point.

Eventually, Holiday’s railroad failed. Sparse populations of the time resulted with too low ridership on the railroad, leading to the railroad’s bankruptcy. In 1873 Holiday was forced out, and the railroad’s interests were taken over by German investors. Henry Villard was sent as their representative to look over the company’s interest. Henry Villard, born Henrich Hilgard, grew up in German Palatine in 1835 and immigrated to the United States at when he was eighteen years old “//after a disagreement with his father. He adopted the name Villard to prevent his father from learning of his whereabouts and forcing him back to Germany and service in the army//.”(4) He grew up around the Midwest working as a reporter, covering the presidential election of 1860, then the Civil War. He also studied law, railroad promotion, and finance. He worked so hard he had a physical breakdown, and as a result traveled to Europe to find relief. It was while in Europe in 1872 and 1873 that a group of German bondholders who had invested in Holiday’s failed railroad asked him to become their agent.

Villard gained control of the Oregon & California Railroad and other previously owned by Holiday in early 1876, as well as railway and river transportation properties, which he reorganized into the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. Between then and January of 1884 he continued his efforts to build a railroad empire while at the same time attempt to hide a looming money crisis. Then, in the face of his financial crisis he resigned from his position at Northern Pacific and surrendered control of the company. Eventually the Oregon & California Railroad was leased on July 1, 1887 by the Southern Pacific Company, who later purchased the lines.(5)

Citations] 1. Edwin Culp, //Early Oregon Days//, Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1987. p45. 2. //Washington County Independent//, 6/24/1875 3. //Washington County Independent//, 7/1/1875 4. Schwantes, Carlos. //Railroad Signatures Across the Pacific Northwest//. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1993, p61. 5. "//Historic Landmarks Board: History//," taken from []

See also: Wikipedia's Oregon Central Railroad