THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CACHE JUNCTION: A CONTROVERSY
By Larry D. Christiansen, 2006
What is in the name of a place? In 1889 and into the 1890s a new railroad junction had plenty of names and monikers attached to it. At first they were mostly location designations such as—Bear River Junction, Cache Valley Junction and continued with "city at the mouth of the narrows," "town at the narrows," or "little town over the river." By late April of 1890 the Union Pacific Railroad ( U.P.R.R.) officially designated the location as "Cache Junction," which in most cases would have cleared up the name confusion. However, at this time the leading newspaper in Cache Valley, highly upset over the establishment of the new railroad junction and Logan losing the main line of the railroad, started a verbal crusade against the railroad company and became creative, and a bit malicious, and added more names for the new junction they disliked such as— "Mr. Gates’ little town," "Gatesville," "Cammeronville [should have been Cameronville]," "U. P. commercial centre on the dreary and waterless waste near the Narrows," "The Junction Burg on the Bear," "Gatesville metropolis," and went on to "Mr. Kiesel’s junior Ogden" and "Mr. Kiesel’s New Town." When not ignoring events in and about Cache Junction’s establishment, this newspaper went to the other extreme in belittling the junction and in February of 1891 declared "Cache Junction is dead. . . . nothing will resurrect the defunct station." Now to the story that produced this view—primarily from the newspaper’s own words.
Some background for a quick review of the situation in regard to a railroad in Cache Valley is essential. As the Central Pacific and Union Pacific neared the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point in early 1869, there arose much interest in Utah to have rails extend into other areas, producing the first regional line between Ogden and Salt Lake City by the Utah Central Railroad in 1869-70. There was talk and prospects for other regional lines, and in northern Utah, especially Cache Valley, there developed a feeling that they were being left "out in the cold." In the summer of 1871, William B. Preston, a prominent local LDS Church leader in Logan, wrote to Brigham Young proposing that the Church add to their local railroads being built or planned, one to northern Utah. President Young liked the suggestion but decided not to be involved personally or have it as a general Church project. Instead he encouraged the northern Church leaders to build the road, and he chose his son John W. Young, with close association with his father in railroad matters, to spearhead the endeavor. The organization and financial arrangements for the creation of the Utah Northern Railroad were involved and complex, beyond the scope of this article except to say that local Church leaders played important roles in the new company with Logan playing a core role. However, the local finances were inadequate for such a project; John W. Young went east and was able to obtain from the Richardson brothers of New York the commitment to furnish the rolling stock and rails for the new railroad. A crucial factor in getting eastern capital was the promise by general and local Church leaders to provide donated labor Some local funds were raised but the most important aspect on the home front was that the local Church leaders would supply the work force on a combination voluntary basis and voucher system (wherein was a promise to pay later double the face value in company stock), and the leaders would get the work done by taking stock for grading, supplying timber including ties and tying the line. This unique cooperative venture succeeded because it was a quasi-church operation, or appeared to be. It is estimated that the capital outlay by easterners was equal to the local contributions of labor, ties, timber, vouchers and local cash donations. The Utah Northern Railroad was in business and the work commenced by local bishops calling forth the farmers along the line to form the working crews. The first eighty miles of track depended almost entirely on voluntary or church-called donated labor. So in this railroad there was a special connection to it; they thought it was their road since it was not a railway built to them, but one built in large part by them.
Logan was reached by the Utah Northern Railroad in early 1873 and it became the headquarters for the company, and it came to have a six-stall roundhouse, a turntable, a commodious passenger depot and a freight station, mechanic shops and stores for railroad supplies plus loading and unloading facilities along with coaling and watering amenities. Thus the city at the mouth of Logan Canyon became in word and deed the "Queen City" of Cache Valley and in part the queen bee of the narrow gauged railroad with its rails three feet wide. The railroad laid its tracks northward through the villages alone the eastern side of the valley and reached Franklin, Idaho, by late April of 1874. With an eye on extending the rail northward through Idaho and into Montana, supplying and tapping the rich mines, the future of the narrow gauged railroad and Logan’s role in this venture looked good as viewed by the local newspaper. But the Utah Northern Railroad ran into financial trouble which went from bad to worse, forcing the company to turn to Jay Gould, a railroad "robber baron" entrepreneur, who bought out the New York financers for $400,000 (about forty cents on the dollar) and the local interests for $80,000 (about ten cents on the dollar). Gould had involved several of his Union Pacific partners in the refinancing of the railroad, which in January of 1877 was reorganized as the Utah & Northern Railroad. The new company became a subsidiary of the Union Pacific. The new company foresaw the potential mining bonanza in and around Butte, Montana, and with professionals in charge and experienced managers and adequate money, the Utah & Northern build its road north to Butte by December of 1881. With one of the longest narrow gauged railroads extending from Ogden to Butte some 450 miles, and far different from the original Utah Northern with almost no important local or Church leaders, Logan was no longer secure as queen bee of the railroad, especially since it was so close to the Ogden starting point and so little of its track ran in Utah. Of this distance only 76 ½ miles were in Utah with a little over 206 miles in Idaho and the final 180 miles or so in Montana. This was hard to swallow or accept by Logan, and the community’s newspaper made it a major issue in its columns.
The Utah & Northern division of the Union Pacific had in 1880 decided to establish its main mechanical shops at Eagle Rock (soon to be known as Idaho Falls) and construction on the shop began in the fall. Logan lost much of the work of the mechanical shops and several railroad workers. The local paper speculated the Eagle Rock shops would come to employ 600 workers which should have been in Logan. But instead of Logan becoming a bigger and more important rail center, it was losing much of what it previously had. The negative impact upon Logan was accelerated by fires; first in March of 1881 the burning down of the Logan’s considerable roundhouse, and next by the 1885 burning down of the mechanical shops at Logan. The number of railroad workers at Logan continued to drop. The railroad company had good and sound reasons for shifting its principal mechanical shops and repair facilities into Idaho, but with myopic vision the Logan newspaper believed they had the best location and available workers, and so guessed there were other sinister factors involved. In its columns were printed a host of nasty charges that the closing of the Logan shops was due to fear and jealousy of the other railroad division in Idaho through petty spite by dumb officials who were not only unprincipled rascals but Logan’s enemies who were doing this deliberately. In The Utah Journal’s own words on August 22, 1886: "Since the removal of the shop from Logan is believed to be the work of petty spite against individuals in this city it is proper to resent if possible the intended injury by adoption means for self-protection and benefit." The newspaper suggested the people of Cache Valley boycott the railroad and haul goods in and out by teams and wagons. Six months later the newspaper chronicled the loss of railroad jobs at Logan from eighty men in 1880 to fifty-six in February of 1885 and down to thirty in February of 1886, and then concluded:
". . . there is no knowing what the future may bring forth. The desire of the railroad officials is to leave Logan entirely in the cold, and we lately heard a prominent railroad man express himself to this effect. To tell the truth, our citizens are already greatly neglected, and have certainly not received that consideration from the U. & N. Company which should have been theirs." (The Utah Journal, Feb. 20, 1886.)
The above quote summarized the newspaper’s rationalization as to Logan’s fate and the whole blame for its drastic decline. According to the paper, she deserved better for economic value given to the railroad, and also for all she had done for it in the early years. On May 5th in "A Clean Sweep" article the paper bemoaned the final loss of a railroad shop, decline in employees and as "almost every wheel, bolt, tool, machinery" that was at Logan were ordered shipped north, and "Outside of a few clerks in the office, only six men will be employed" at Logan. Along with chastising the railroad and telling what should have been Logan’s fate, The Utah Journal in May 5, 1886, wrote that it was all "shabby— the decidedly contemptuous treatment Logan is receiving at the hands of the men who manage the Union Pacific Railroad." Thus, the first phase of the Logan newspaper’s theory of conspiracy against its community was in place.
Close on the heels of the above described losses at Logan came more bad news that the former queen bee would lose her place on the main railroad line between Ogden and Butte, and a new and primary railroad facility would be built on the west side of the valley. The Logan newspaper had been skirmishing with the enemy (Utah & Northern Railroad division of the Union Pacific) for sometime, but before long it became a war.
The proposed change in the route was to eliminate the poor grade to enter Cache Valley and to shorten the main line. When the narrow gauged Utah Northern Railroad first surveyed the route by which this first railroad would enter Cache Valley in the early 1870s, the leader, James H. Martineau of Logan, decided that the way via the pass or narrows of Bear River Canyon was superior to crossing over the heavy grade of Cache Hill (Hampton or Mendon Divide) but the company’s directors chose the shorter but steeper route of ascending the summit. When the rails were laid the numerous deep cuts and high fills along with the giant "S" shaped roadbed over a three mile section wherein the road gradient averaged ninety feet per mile proved the directors’ over-ruling the survey was not wise. This hill would be the trouble spot for this railroad. When the old Utah Northern was reorganized under the new name of Utah & Northern in January of 1877, it now had professional railroaders take charge from the initial Utah railroad promoters. Officials of the new Utah & Northern Railroad rode over the line in October of 1877 and pronounced their satisfaction with all aspects of the narrow gauged line except the steep grade to reach Cache Valley over the Bear River bench (Cache Hill). However, their main goal was to a extend its rails through Idaho to the mines of Montana. While the Utah & Northern was building the narrow gauged road northward, some other factors came into play such as the U.P.R.R.’s 1881 decision to build the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon. Still some considerations were given to changing the route of the railroad line in and through Cache Valley. The only newspaper in the valley, The Logan Leader on June 10, 1881, in an article entitled "U.P. Surveyors" wrote:
"Ten surveyors in the employ of the U.P. . . . went on a special over the U. & N. to a point near Summit where they left the road and proceeded to the ‘narrows,’ Bear river canyon, where they commenced to lay off a grade. They seemed to be in a hurry to get on the ground. Our county surveyor, Edward Hanson, Esq., had been sent to the locality by the same party some days before the latter arrived, so as to make a show of surveying the road until the party should arrive and fix its location..
"This move is doubtless intended to forestall the C. P. [Central Pacific] and the Utah & Wyoming, as both these companies had talked of running a road through Bear river canyon, and is one of a series of maneuvers by which these companies are trying to out-general each other."
--The Logan Leader, June 10, 1881.While the Logan paper was unconcerned about this survey of the Bear River narrows, a view from the Ogden Daily Herald on November 4, 1881, cast these surveying activities in a more serious light.
"The engineer corps of the U. P. railroad has been for the past three weeks engaged in making the final survey and locating the long contemplated cut off on the U. & N. railroad between Oxford and Ogden. The amended line leaves the main line near Deweyville, thence passes through Bear River Canyon, to Weston, Idaho, thence to the main line at or near Oxford.
"The editor of the Oxford Enterprise learned from the engineers that this section of road will be built, early next season, and will shorten the distance between Ogden and Oxford about 36 miles, which is of considerable importance, besides will save the very heavy grades between Deweyville and Mendon, and at the crossing of Bear River [in Idaho near Battle Creek].
"This new line will be used for through travel and freight, but the old line via Logan will still be used for local traffic."
--Ogden Daily Herald, Nov. 4, 1881.Notwithstanding the projected shortening and improving of the Utah & Northern’s line did not take place in 1882 as the Oxford newspaper stated, still it was the intention of the company. Other matters such as the construction of the Oregon Short Line, the creation of Pocatello, a hurricane leveling the ten-stall roundhouse at Eagle Rock, a labor-union strike at Eagle Rock closed the railroad shops which caused the railroad to move its headquarters and shops down to Pocatello plus many other situations and problems in the Union Pacific kept this from taking place. The list of advantages to improve and shorten the line continued to increase. At Ogden and Pocatello the junction with standard and narrow-gauge lines caused a problem of transference of cargo, and a call for more freight needed to be addressed. In 1886 the U. & N. purchased ten new locomotives from the Brooks Brothers Locomotive Works, and these "Brooks Moguls" were heavier and more powerful. The heavier engines caused the rails on certain curves to give away, forcing the company to strengthen the narrow-gauge roadbed including the rails to the heavier or standard weight rails. The next logical step was to switch the narrow-gauge line to the standard gauge (4 feet 8 ½ inches). This came to most of the U. & N. line in 1887, specifically on July 24th, on the line from Pocatello to the Montana terminus. The old narrow-gauge line from Pocatello (actually McCammon as the 12 miles of track to Pocatello was shared by the Utah & Northern and the Oregon Short line) to Ogden remained in operation while a new and shorter standard gauge line was constructed during 1889 and 1890 and a new railroad junction created. What follows is how the Logan newspaper reacted to this change, and the few other newspapers are quoted to provide context and information. The spelling errors particularly in regard the word "gauge" which will be repeatedly spelled as "guage" are the Logan newspaper’s rending.
November 19, 1887 - page 2 under "Logan Needs."
"Another Railroad.
"A Central School House.
"A Public Library
"A Cracker Factory[The list continued with – "A Boot and Shoe Factory; A Tannery; Woolen Mills; A Pickle Manufactory; A Pork Packing House; A Beef Canning Factory; A Fruit Cannery; A Stove Foundry."]
* * In the same Nov. 19th issue on page 2 under "Railroad Matters."
"While the people of Ogden and Salt Lake have reason to rejoice because of the rapid time made by ‘The Overland Flyer’ on the U.P. road those of this county have reasons to complain. The people between Ogden and Pocatello are not only deprived of earlier mails from the east by reason of those trains, but they are thrown nearly a day later because of the change of the arrival and departure of trains from Ogden on the U. & N. R.R. There is a decided objection to the present arrangement. The people of this region desire a little benefit of the fast time made between Omaha and Ogden. They are anxious to get their express and mail without it being delayed at Ogden fourteen hours.
"There seems to be no reason why this should be unless it is that the U.P. system desires to force the through travel for the north to take a run down to Salt Lake for a few hours while waiting for the departure of the Utah & Northern express. . . . It would be a fitting time to make a move in the interest of another railroad to this valley. It seems that the U.P. officials are determined to treat Logan, as it were, with contempt. The railroad shops have been taken away from here. One by one moves have been made to make this city a little way-side town. The people have continued their patronage just the same to the company. No strong efforts have been made to get independent of the one railroad monopoly. . . . When the people here were less numerous and not so wealthy as today, they built a railroad, and surely today they are strong enough to have influence in getting one to come here. Let something be done, and that speedily."
--The Utah Journal, Nov. 19, 1887.* * * *
June 20, 1888 - page 1 under "Logan City."
"In very center of all this grandeur and wealth, is the Northern Queen City, Logan; than which there is scarcely another town in Utah that can boast of more magnificent resources and natural attractions. In some respects the town is without a rival in all the West, from the Great River to the Golden Coast. . . .
"Realizing that Logan must grow to a large and wealthy city, and become an important social, commercial and educational center: in fact, that she is destined to be the foremost city on the line of the Utah & Northern Railroad, between Ogden and the great mining camp of Butte, Montana;. . . and . . . the numerous manufacturing industries that shall surely, some day, be established within her limits. . . . The commercial status of Logan, while not by any manner of means languishing, is not what future possibilities will yet make it."
--The Utah Journal, June 20, 1888.* * * *
January 5, 1889 - page 2 under "Portends No Good."
"The course of the railroad surveyors in Malad and other places portend no good for Logan. There is a cloud in the sky and the sooner it is blown away the better it will be for this city. The matter is one that concerns both railroad and city. It is not altogether a one-sided affair. We have always claimed and do now claim that the business of Cache Valley is worth careful consideration from the railroad company. If it does not receive it somebody is at fault and the matter should be remedied.
"If the intention is to still farther slight the interests of this city and county the people of the city and county have it in their power to do something for themselves. Other roads, no doubt, would like to have a branch line enter so productive a valley as this. . . . Some inducement might be offered out of these roads to pass through here in its course. . . .
"The Utah & Northern management would do well to seriously consider a change before making one in the route of their present road. The people of this city have too much at stake to indifferently view a change. They earnestly protest against a change. Thousands of dollars a year have been paid the railroad company for freight and passenger fare, and the amount is yearly increasing.
"If the protests are unheeded let something be done in the way of inducing another road to come here. We believe that if the protests are unheeded a good large bonus could be raised, and that much patronage could be guaranteed any road that would come to Logan."
--The Utah Journal, Jan. 5, 1889.* * * *
September 21, 1889 - page 3 under "Slighting Logan."
"The Union Pacific is also straightening out some of the kinks in their lines in the west. On the Utah & Northern, just north of Ogden, the line at present runs up over a big hill to Logan, and it is being changed to run up the Bear river, thereby giving a better grade and shorter line, but leaving Logan to one side. It will be connection with the line by a narrow gauge spur. Graders are now at work on the proposed change.
--Desert News. [The above excerpted from this SLC paper and the Logan paper still had the last word. ] . . . ."There is only one fault with the above, it is untrue as far as Logan is concerned. General Manager Cumming says Logan will be on the main line and a broad line at that; so we may be forgiven if we accept Mr. Cumming’s statement before that of the $15 a week man on the Denver News even though it have the authority of having appeared in the columns of the Deseret News."
--The Utah Journal, Sept.21, 1889.* * * *
September 21,1889 - page 4 under "Logan and the Railroads."
"It is a fact that parties, who fully designed coming to Logan, have been frightened away by the published report that Logan was to be left off the main line of the Utah & Northern, and attached thereto by a narrow guage branch. Perhaps we are none the worse off; but while we do not so much mind people giving us the go-bye, so do not want it to be on the ground that Logan is to be left out in the cold so far as railroads are concerned.
"In the first place, whenever a change is made in the Utah & Northern it will be a broad gauge, and this change will be made for the more economical operation of the road by avoiding the necessity for transferring goods which now exists. Cache valley ships out thousands of car loads of freight yearly, and brings in nearly as much. If the settlements in Cache are to be left on a narrow guage, all this freight will have to be transferred at the junction with the main line. As this would defeat the very purpose for which the change is to be made--there being only about 150 to 200 miles of narrow guage--it is the height of nonsense to made the assertion.
"There had been in the past no folly too great for the Union Pacific to undertake, and this naturally followed the running of a road by persons located all the way from 1,000 to 2,500 miles from the road itself; but to say that the Union Pacific is willfully about to separate itself from a valley of 20,000 supporters and invite the incoming of a rival road, would be an exhibition of folly that even its most desperate opponents will not have the hardihood to charge to it, once he knew the conditions.
"Moreover, we have the emphatic assertion of General Manager Cumming, repeated in this issue, that while a course so idiotic had once been determined upon, it had later been changed and is now definitely settled that Logan will not be left out; and the settlements in Cache will have a broad guage where they now have a narrow. It appears to Mr. Cumming’s sense that the previously contemplated change was suicidal, and it appeard [sic] in the same light to Vice-President Holcomb when Mr. Cumming pointed the proposed follys out to him.
"We need have no uneasiness. Were the Union Pacific to do such a thing it might in reality prove a blessing since it would hasten the coming of another line. A valley with the present and prospective riches of this and with so large a population, and such great resources, will not long be left the rapacity of one road. The Utah & Northern has been for years, and is to-day, the best paying road the Union Pacific owns; and this is a fact known to other roads. It is as certain as that day will follow night, that this business of the U.P. over the U. & N. will be divided at no distant date with some other road. Until that time, until we have some competition, we can expect little consideration from the Union Pacific and as little accommodation as ever.
"But Logan will grow. The Union Pacific will not leave her out and she will have other railroads to deal with before long.
"And for evidence read this:
"ON ROAD, September 21, 1889.
R. W. SLOAN, Esq., Logan, Utah."I am to-day in receipt of your letter of the 18th inst., inquiring concerning rumors which have reached you to the effect that when the gauge of the Utah & Northern is widened, Logan will be left out on one side, and the main line will not run through that point.
"I reply to your question I have pleasure in saying that Mr. W. H. Holcomb, our Vice-President, has decided positively that when the gauge of the Utah & Northern is widened the main line shall follow the present location of the Utah & Northern as nearly as possible, and, in particular, that the new line shall be built on the present location through the city of Logan.
"I am sorry to hear that rumors of a contrary decision have caused any uneasiness in your town, and in order to quiet these rumors you may make any use of this letter you see fit.
I am, very truly yours,
C. M. CUMMING."
--The Utah Journal, Sept. 21, 1889.* * * *
October 19,1889, page 3 under "Railroad Notes."
"A new phase of our railroading has been developed, and it shows how successfully a really good railroad can deprive itself of freight. The wheat from the south end of the valley is being hauled through Brigham city by teams to Corinne. As the JOURNAL received it, the price paid for grain at Corinne is seventy-five cents per bushel, but we do not want this figure taken as a fact and people to start off there with wheat because of this. we only state that this information has been given to the JOURNAL. We cannot vouch for it. Well, the statement is fact the wheat is being hauled to Corinne and shipped on the Central Pacific and the teams haul back coal from Brigham city which is purchased there at the same figure it commands in Ogden.
"The fact that Logan is robbed of all this trade would never cut the slightest figure. This, we know; for if there is one thing that a railroad cares less for than weather it is all things that do not give immediate returns to the railroad. But place the Utah & Northern loses the hauling of the wheat one way and the hauling of the coal the other, we expect something will be done, if it is only to increase the price of coal at Brigham City. But it is to such phases that the ways of railroad in Utah brings us.
"Perhaps, however, the company is waiting to broaden the guage before doing anything--as this is the excuse given for refusing every other improvement, it ought to be good for the loss of business by that road through the ___?_ [illegible] of horses and farm wagons."
--The Utah Journal, Oct. 19, 1889.For almost a decade the Logan newspaper had been strongly encouraging its readers to boycott the Utah & Northern Railroad by reverting back to old ways of hauling goods in and out of Cache Valley by teams and wagons. Its reasoning was that such action would financially hurt the railroad,- causing the railroad to give better serve to the area. However, in the instance cited above this very practice was having a negative impact upon Logan. The city was "robbed of all of all this trade"—by the farmers hauling their grain out of the valley and then returning with coal bought in Brigham City, Logan’s middlemen—mill owners or grain jobbers and coal dealers—were losing business that they had come to dominate with the coming of the railroad. It was somehow the railroad’s fault that the world was being tipped upside down wherein Logan wasn’t on top getting her cut of all financial transactions. Furthermore, each time there came word of some new business on the west side of the valley such as a roller mill and wholesale house (see Feb. 4, 1891 issue), it was viewed disapprovingly by this newspaper as hurting Logan of what she deserved. Such losses to Logan could be detrimental to the Logan newspaper, and surely it ought to have better. The paper was quick to charge other newspapers with inconsistency under similar circumstances, but the Logan newspaper probably would have- responded that it was consistently for Logan and against the railroad, or so it seemed.
* * * *
October 30, 1889 - page 3 under "Local Points."
"A gentleman from Salt Lake and well acquainted to railroad circles offered to bet that the D. & R.G. would build to Cache Valley next summer. ‘They are going to do a sight of construction, and Logan and this valley are a little to rich for any one company to control and give such outrageous service to.’"
** Same issue of Oct. 30th on page 3 under "Utah & Northern."
"In a report to the Tribune, it is stated, with Bishop John Sharp as authority, that the Utah & Northern guage is to be ordered between Ogden and Pocatello immediately on the opening of next spring."
--The Utah Journal, Oct. 30, 1889* * * *
November 16, 1889 - page 4 under "Another Apology."
"The building of the Oregon Short Line and the broadening of the U. & N. from Pocatello north had a too-fold [sic] object--to induce public traffic away from Utah and to put the markets and the grains of Nebraska against the nearer markets of Cache Valley. The same policy was pursued when P. R. McConnell undertook to force it as good reasoning that the Union Pacific was doing right when it hauled Nebraska flour fifteen hundred miles to Butte for $1.00 per hundred pounds and made the people of Logan pay seventy-five cents a hundred to haul their flour three hundred miles to the same place. . . .
"When the U. & N. was broadened to the north, an effort was made to throttle this little branch built by the sweat and money of a thrifty, progressive people, and for which they generously paid in chips and whetstones the munificent sum of nine cents on the dollar. If there had been the slightest disposition to do anything for the Utah & Northern as a recompense for taking the railroad shops away (but holding, nevertheless, the lands for which the continuance of these shops had been donated) the rolling stock taken from the broadened guage could at least have been placed upon the still narrow bed and given to promote the comfort of Cache Valley patrons of this road. But engines and cars that could not be sold were side-tracked and are side-track to-day, and the rolling stock now doing service on the road is simply sick; it has broken down hand-running for two days doing down hill."
--The Utah Journal, Nov. 16, 1889.
* * * *
December 14, 1889 - page 3 under "Railroad Notes."
"It is evident that Logan is at last coming to be recognized as of some importance by the Union Pacific officials, and the more her record is looked into the less distinct grows the apprehension many seem to have cherished that she will be left off from the Union Hoe [?]. A city that earns, with the beastly service of a narrow guage road that is on its last legs, the sum of $20,000 a month, is not be sneezed at even by a railroad magnate; and when the increase on the cash remitances are shown to be $5,000 a month above what they were the year before, the recognition is of a more forcible character.
"There is not longer any doubt that the road will be broadened and every effort is being made to have the whole thing in running operation before the first of next June. Among the other changes the old pig sty that has served Logan for a depot for so many years is to give place to a new stone passenger depot, of modern architecture.
"Word was received this week that the resident engineer, Mr. Gates, would probably be here on Thursday, accompanied by the architect. . . . Mr. Gates arrived in Logan . . . last night."
--The Utah Journal, Dec. 14, 1889.
**** [The Logan newspaper changed from The Utah Journal to The Logan Journal on New Year’s day 1890.]
* * * *
January 11, 1890 - page 2 under an "Arenner Railroad." ["Arenner" ?]
"A gentleman--not a resident of Utah--who has been examining into the affairs in this section, stated he would gladly advance $100,000 toward a railroad scheme that would connect this valley with Salt Lake.
"About six years ago, when this road still employed a few Utah men to work for it, the net earnings were sixty-six and two-thirds per cent of the gross earnings. Since that showing was made, no one in Utah had been able to learn to what extent the Union Pacific has been feecing [sic- fleecing] the people of this section. Day and night, summer and winter, the whole year round, there is never sufficient accommodations for the passenger and freight traffic over this road. It is simply phenomenal.
"At Logan the export and import business has practically doubled in twelve months. The increase throughout the whole valley has almost corresponded with the increases in Logan. That the Union Pacific should so long have enjoyed the monopoly of fleecing this valley is one of the singular things of existence. The surprise is the greater still when the thorough detenation [?] of the Union Pacific, by all the people along the line of the Utah & Northern is taken into consideration.
"It is too late in the day for the Union Pacific to adopt a policy to win the regard of the people, even were it disposed to, and we have every evidence that consideration for the people of Cache Valley is as distant from their minds as is the old axiom--honesty is the best policy.
"Certainly the business of the Utah & Northern invites competition.
"It invites a competition which grows stronger every years because of the growth of business.
"It invites a competition that is sure to come, sooner or later, as the people of this valley may determine.
"One of the prominent men of this valley said to the writer within a week, ‘I graded a large part of the U. & N. and received practically nothing for it. I am willing to do as much, for the same price, for any road that will come through this valley and relieve us from the monopoly and treatment of the Union Pacific.’
"We know that several surveys have been made through the valley. We know it is too rich long to be left to the leeching process of the Union Pacific and if the bean eaters of Boston had any conception of the feeling of the people in this valley for them and their road, they might be induced to look at matters a little differently. The bare suggestion is, however, absurd.
"Certainly we can hope for no adequate relief while this concern operates the only road in the valley.
"Logan is the best town on the Union Pacific system in the Rocky Mountains, barring Salt Lake, Ogden, Park City and Butte City, and still it is the only town that is as unfortunately situated.
"The business will justify another road and we must work for it."
--The Logan Journal, Jan. 11, 1890.
* * * *
February 15, 1890 - page 2 under "Imbecile Railroading."
"However, ridiculous the charge may be there are always people willing to believe it against the Union Pacific. So far as this valley is concerned this railroad management of it by the Union Pacific officials has been marked by outrage and imbecility. The latest exhibition of it is in the work now progressing in this valley. A right of way is being purchased from a point near the entrance to the narrows up north to Weston, in Idaho; and also from the same point strait to a connection with the present route from Mendon. The stipulation in the consolidation is that Logan shall be kept on the main line of the Utah & Northern when it is broadguaged. That this stipulation is to be carried out is shown by the fact a stone depot is to be erected here this spring and their road is even now being broadened. All trains are to be run over it, the service is to be maintained, as now. Yet an additional road is to be built running along the west side of the valley where there is not trade to be had, no population, nothing whatever to tempt, except the fact that it is shorter.
"If there were any competition; if, any less were to be paid for freight; if any advantage were to be acquired for the present policy of imbecility. But that two roads But that two roads should be operated for the same trade and for no advantage whatever is one of those insane things that no railroad but the Union Pacific would be guilty of. It shows that engineers who know nothing but straight lines and tangents and gradients, direct where this road shall be. When the men who have the securing of trade and management of the road say the idea of the engineer’s is absurd, and yet the engineer’s ideas prevails, it can be safely set down that such a road is managed with as much imbecility as possible.
"We would like to wager that there is not another road in the country that would be guilty of the absurdity of running two roads, operating them both, paying increased expenses, when one of the roads will do the work and does the work.
"Fortunately we have a little revenge. The railroad is fleecing us all the time; now they are buying land all over the country, holding useless line; they propose to operate them and that will increase their expenses without giving them benefit to the people of the west part of the valley, and, taken all in all, we can rejoice at the imbecility of the road.
"If the Union Pacific management were not characterized by such intelligence in its system of extortion, we would have no reason to complain at its idiocy in other respects."
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 15, 1890.* * * *
February 19, 1890 - page 3 under "Local Points."
"The people of Clarkston are rejoicing over the prospects for a railroad passing near their town, and are confident it will increase the wealth of that little settlement."
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 19, 1890.November 12, 1890 – page 4 under "Newton News Notes."
"The railroad and Cache Junction is about two miles from our public square, and when we have a bridge over the river, we shall be almost like a railroad town. It is a good thing to have a railroad managed in the interests of the people as well as the company. How far the U.P. fulfils this requirement is hard to say, but it may be said, they can be better than they have been."
--The Logan Journal, Nov. 12, 1890.Initially the newspaper asserted that in its crusade against the Union Pacific it spoke for all of Cache Valley, but there were other opinions, especially in the area west and north of Bear River. Logan was always the prime concern of the paper; however, on occasions it began to include the eastern side of the valley.
* * * *
April 5, 1890 - page 2 under "Another View of It."
"It has been asserted that the real intention of the U.P. engineers is not to leave the east side of the valley, but merely to persuade the people that such is the design, until the cities and the County raise bonuses, and probably bond themselves sufficiently to coix [?coax] the railroad to treat us as we deserve . . . . we recant nothing of what was said in the preceding issue, that the diverting of the main line from Logan and the cities on the east side of the valley is simply a scheme of the engineers to put money in their own pockets. . . .
"Now as to the laughable part of it: This great company is to have two lines in Cache County, perhaps three, where now it controls all the trade, by one. The more miles covered by tracks in the County the more taxes it will have to pay into the County, and when this County is bonded for a bonus to a railway company, the Union Pacific will help pay for the construction of a railroad in proportion as it has miles of tracks in the
County. Let us pray that the Union Pacific is trying its Kansas dodge here."
--The Logan Journal, April 5, 1890.* * * *
April 9, 1890 - page 2 under "That Concern Again."
"It looks as though the people of this valley were beginning at last to appreciate the outrageous treatment which they are receiving at the hands of the U.P. and its representatives.
"We may add that there is no immediate intention of the Union Pacific to broaden the guage along the east side of the valley. The work of making a standard guage will be crowded on the west side, however, and the intention now expressed is to have trains running between Butte and Salt Lake on the new route by September first.
"We might also say that the proposed depot at Logan was put forward as a bone to satisfy the public while the valley is being burglarized.
"And we could add, if trains on a standard guage are not to run between Pocatello and Salt Lake before next September, that Logan will not see a broad guage U.P. car in her depot during 1890.
"This is part of the scheme of the engineers to build up a town at the mouth of the Narrows which shall command the trade of the valley. It means that Z.C.M.I. with its $150,000 stock will have to move to the new point or suffer a loss of its wholesale trade in the north. It means that the roller mills and grain shippers here and at other points on the east side of the valley will have to load grain on narrow guage cars and then pay for transferring the truck at the proposed U. P. commercial centre on the dreary and waterless waste near the Narrows.
"It means that Mr. Cardon will have to confine his sale of furniture to Logan trade; and that all who have any northern trade must suffer a loss of it or a ruinous discrimination. Perhaps we have been doing the Union Pacific an injustice all this time, and been extreme, but before the lapse of many weeks people will not think so, if they do now.
"So far as the JOURNAL is concerned, it does not care a rap. No amount of railroads can make the western side of this valley to hold the trade; for while the men there are as honest and as energetic and the soil is good, nature has said it shall not be. She has given her wealth of water to the east--in the Wasatch range; and some day, sooner or later, a railroad will come into this valley that will do us some sort of justice and we will live to see the U.P. cars empty and a rival’s loaded down.
"If not another firm in town does it, the JOURNAL will have every pound of its coal hauled from Ogden and Brigham City by team the coming winter before the U.P. shall have a pound of it under existing conditions; and the same will be done in regard to the other freight. It will come as safely, it will come more speedily and if it does cost a little more we will have the satisfaction of knowing that the money goes to a friend of the valley and not to its high-way enemy. If others feel like doing the same thing, we can easily cut down the revenue of the U.P. and have that satisfaction. It others do not, well and good; we will do it ourselves. At any rate the JOURNAL will not give a dollar it can by any reasonable means avoid to a concern that does all it can to destroy its very existence and the success of those that support it.
"We can raise $100,000 for a new road in ten days when the opportunity presents.
"If the merchants here and the people are satisfied to continue to be robbed rather than band together for mutual protection, we can stand it with the rest. But we need only note the conditions of Provo, Nephi and the little settlements elsewhere and then mark what has happened to us in the last two week to see what the U.P. engineer’s scheme has done for us."
--The Logan Journal, April 9, 1890.Up to this point in its struggle with the railroad, the paper had primarily blamed the railroad officials for not knowing how to run a railroad because they were idiots and imbeciles, who for some reason were out to hurt Logan. Finally the Logan newspaper added the final element to its conspiracy theory that it developed several years earlier. It was all part and parcel of a "scheme" mentioned twice in the above article. "This is part of the scheme of the engineers to build up a town at the mouth of the Narrows which shall command the trade of the valley. . . . at the proposed U. P. commercial centre on the dreary and waterless waste near the Narrows." Shortly the newspaper would key in the final element to its conspiracy charges—that the motive behind the plot was the hope for monetary gains. Although the newspaper declared that "No amount of railroads can make the western side of this valley to hold the trade . . . nature has said it shall not be," still, the chosen place apparently needed the newspaper’s assistance.
* * * *
April 16, 1890 - page 2 under "Another Promise."
"We publish elsewhere a letter from Mr. Nibley. It contains very pleasant news. But we confess little faith in it. We have had the assurance of Mr. Holcomb before on this subject, and it has not materialized. Through Mr. Cummings--formerly holding the position now occupied by Mr. Rossegule, it was emphatically announced last fall, and on no less authority than this same Mr. Holcomb, that Logan would not be taken off the main line of the U. & N. and that the gauge would be broadened and trains running between Butte and Salt Lake not later than the beginning of the June that is almost upon us. That there may be no misunderstanding as to the rare value attaching to the assurances conveyed by Mr. Holcomb, we herewith publish a letter that has already found its way into the column of this paper. After reading both, we have no doubt that the most profound confidence will be reposed in the utterances of Mr. Holcomb, and in those of every other representative of this road, not excepting our good townsite friend Mr. Gates.
[Repeats the September 21, 1889 letter of Mr. Cumming to R. W. Sloan printed in full under that date.]
"Mr. Rossegule has made similar statements to those contained in Mr. Nibley’s letter; but he admits that the engineers have so far failed to discover a way of connecting the loup with the main line on the north; and if, by such fatal combination of circumstances as are perhaps dimly understood by engineers interested in the disposal of lots in a railroad town, there shall not be discovered any practical way of making this connection, then Logan will have to be content to remain on a spur, to have only a narrow guage service, to wait at this ‘junction’ for through trains, to have every pound of freight both ways transferred at this ‘junction,’ and to have her whole trade, together with that on the east side of the valley distracted to the ‘city at the mouth of the narrows.’ The history of this Territory for the past twenty years justifies the assumption that this is the design. At it has long appeared to us, we may say in perfect frankness that we have little faith in Mr. Holcomb’s assurances; and we also think that the gentleman of large physical proportions, who is called the resident engineer and who is as Mr. Gates, is much better posted as to what will and what will not be done than Manager Holcomb or Superintendent Ressegule, or Mr. Riter. Mr. Gates, in a pet [?] said he did not know if his road would put a new depot at Logan."
--The Logan Journal, April 16, 1890.* * In the same April 16th issue on page 4 under "Mr. Holcomb Talks."
"C. W, Nibley, Esq. interviews the Vice President."
"As To Logan’s Prospects."
"He Promises Broad Guage, New Depot, Better Service—
The Junction Burg on the Bear.""The following letter explains itself:
"R. W. Sloan, Esq., Editor Logan Journal;--At Pocatello to-day I met Mr. Holcomb who is First Vice-President and General Manager of the Union Pacific system, and in conversation asked him for the definite plans of his company (if it was consistent to make them public) with respect to the changing of the line through Cache Valley and leaving Logan and other settlement out in the cold, and also about the locating of a town at the junction of the roads, northwest of Logan. I told him the people were considerably exercised over the matter and felt that the interests of our county and the company’s interests should be mutual.
"Mr. Holcomb said that the contracts were let to make a broadguage loup (not a spur) from the junction referred to around to Mendon, Logan, Smithfield, Richmond, Franklin and Preston, thence west to connection with the main line. That this work is to be completed this season. That the towns named are to have through train service north and south daily, as well as the local service which now runs between Preston and Ogden. That, in fact, Cache Valley will have much better service when the guage is widened that we have every had before. That the main line will carry through trains of coal, salt, lumber and the like, and perhaps a fast mail train, and that Logan could gain little or nothing from having such trains run through the town, while the company saves about thirty miles haul on all such through business. That the city at the mouth of the narrows would be about such a city as McCammon now is, for, said Mr. Holcomb, ‘McCammon is a more important junction that that one in the Cache Valley will be, and you know what McCammon is.’
"With this view of the case I can not see that Logan will be hurt much, if any, by the changes referred to.
C.W. Nibley.
P.S.--Mr. Holcomb and Superintendent Rirez both understand that Logan is to have a new depot when the track is broadguage."
--The Logan Journal, April 16, 1890.* * * *
April 22, 1890 - page 4 under "Brigham City Notes."
"Numerous men and teams are now employed on the broad gauge grade from Deweyville to the Narrows. Culverts, made from the fine sand stone from the quarry below Collinston station, are being placed all along the line, and the cutting and filling is being rapidly pushed to completion. Over a dozen men are employed at the quarry, getting out, trimming and hauling the stone."
--The Standard (Ogden), April 22, 1890The coverage of the work on the new line through Bear River Canyon received the barest notice in the Logan newspaper with much better coverage in the Ogden and Salt Lake papers. The other papers also knew the correct spelling of the word "gauge" and the Logan paper would eventually get it right.
* * * *
April 26, 1890 - page 4 under "Railroad Pickings."
"The town at the Narrows in which Mr. Gates is said to be so interested, is to be called Cache Junction. Mr. Gates is modest.
"It is stated, that the work of grading for the new road from Cache Junction to Mendon will begin within ten days.
"The machine for spotting the ties preparatory to broadened the guage has been run over the road between Pocatello and Ogden. . . .
"A new depot is now being put up at Clifton. We will wager a cookie that Mr. Gates has some town lots at Clifton and that he has skipped Logan to put in a depot at Clifton because he has no lots in Logan and has secured some landed possessions in Clifton, directly or indirectly.
"There are some splendid timbers at Mendon to be used at Mr. Gates’s town near the mouth of the narrows. They are Oregon timbers, however.
"Mr. Gates, it is said does not like the JOURNAL. Be comforted, Mr. Gates, be comforted. The JOURNAL returning good for evil, is passionate in its adoration of you."
**Same April 26th issue on page 4 under "The Logan Depot."
"Mr. Gates, after whom Gatesville is to be named, would not let the builders begin on the Logan depot after that for Mendon had been finished, though they wanted to, and said it would save time. Mr. Gates does not intend to have Logan interfere with the sale of his lots in Gatesville if Mr. Gates can help it. Mr. Gates is a good railroad man. He looks after his own interests."
--The Logan Journal, April 26, 1890.* * * *
May 3, 1890 - page 3 under "Items from the North."
[The author of the following letter traveled via the Utah & Northern Railroad from SLC to Cache Valley in April of 1890 -- a few extracts from the letter] --
"Brigham City, with its fertile soil, extensive orchards and farms, and many and beautiful rows of trees, next claims attention. . . .
"Wending northward, the county is less attractive for some distance. Swamps and ponds and dry gravelly soil follow in succession till the train begins to climb the Divide that separates the valley of the Great Salt Lake from Cache Valley.
"While going up the incline one can gaze westward toward Bear River, and occasionally catch glimpses of men engaged on the great Bear River Canal or on the new real bed for the Union Pacific. The latter, on its change of this division to a standard gauge, follows the river, and in place of climbing over the hill, enters Cache Valley by a big tunnel through the Narrows. Then instead of heading direct for Logan, it turns northward, keeping to the west side of the valley till the Bear River is passed, and the difficulties of Battle Creek are avoided. The connection with Logan and other cities in the valley is to be made with a loop, running eastward from the Narrows, skirting the east side of the valley till Franklin is accessed and then taking the nearest route for a connection with the main line. . . .
[After arriving in Logan--]
"A great deal has been said of the poor service of the Union Pacific. For my own part, my experience with the railway was satisfactory. The train was only ten minutes behind on a three hours’ run during a rainstorm. It looks as though the railway men are doing their best under the circumstances of running a small section of narrow gauge track in the midst of a broad gauge system, and over a route that is open to many objections because of the engineering difficulties constantly met with. When the standard gauge is completed there is every reason to believe that the service will be just as good as in other parts of the country, because the facilities will be equal.
AGE
Logan, Utah, April 21, 1890.
--Deseret News Weekly, May 3, 1890.
The above comments, particularly the last paragraph, would not have fit well in the Logan newspaper, where much, if not most, of the "great deal has been said of the poor service of the Union Pacific," found plenty of newsprint. Frequently the Ogden and Salt Lake newspapers differed considerably from the Logan version.
* * * *
May 7, 1890 - page 4 under "Trouble at Collinston."
"The Farmers and Graders Out Gunning For Each other."
(Special to Journal)"Collinston, May 6.--Trouble exists here between the farmers and railroad graders. The farmers have corralled the graders and are armed to the teeth. They refuse to let the work proceed. Graders are also getting armed assistance. It appears that the route has been changed from that agreed upon and secured and the railroad coolly went ahead and ran the lines in new directions without consulting the farmers and they have determined to stop the outrage. There are fears of serious trouble as the farmers are armed and determined and the graders are not reputed to be given to too much peacefulness."
--The Logan Journal, May 7, 1890.* * * *
May 21, 1890 - page 4 under "Railroad at Clifton."
"Fifteen men have commenced work at Clifton, which is to be the main point of the U. & N. It is here that Mr. Gates has his town lots. The foundation is being put in for a depot 40 x 22 feet, and it is assumed that other buildings will also be erected. An eight inch pipe is about to be driven in with the hope of arearing an artesian water flow."
--The Logan Journal, May 21, 1890* * * *
May 28, 1890 - page 4 under "Railway Items."
"The Committee’s Work--President Adams’ Dispatch."
"All but two of the committee of nine appointed to confer with the railroad officials, met in the bank last Saturday night and agreed to present a written statement of the conditions here and of Logan’s needs and demands. . . .
"Dispatches to President Charles Francis Adams and General Manager Holcomb were also framed stating that an interview was desired by a committee of Logan business men on mutually important business. These were forwarded, the following answer was received yesterday.
"G. W. Thatcher --Will be in Salt Lake about the first week in June and will make appointment to meet you at Ogden.
Charles F. Adams."
". . . . On Saturday last Mr. Gates, the resident engineer of the U. & N., telegraphed Geo. W. Thatcher that he had mailed him plans for the proposed depot at Logan, and asked that bids be invited for the work. The plans came on Saturday. They propose a building about 160 feet long . . . the centre part two stories high, the remainder one. . . . waiting rooms . . . ticket offices, express and baggage rooms, on the ground floor, with offices upstairs. . . . In every way the depot is a very creditable one--that is the plans are; but the plans come in such an unofficial way that we are tempted to place little confidence in them. They are accompanied by specifications, and some of our contractors are estimating the work, preparatory to making bids.
"The structure as outlined by the plans is estimated to cost between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars."
--The Logan Journal, May 28, 1890.* * * *
June 7, 1890 - page 4 under "The Railroad Magnates."
"They Came; Saw, and Were Conquered."
"By Logan’s Showing."
"A Visit Fraught With Benefit to the City and County."[On Wednesday morning Pres. Charles F. Adams of the Union Pacific and party came to Logan and was met by a committee and taken by carriage to the bench for a view of the city and county from the roof of AC and then held a meeting at the bank].
". . . the committee impressed upon Mr. Adams the worth and importance of this city and county, and the necessity of a better service, connection with the main line, and of a new depot in Logan.
"At the bank a long and animated discussion of facts was held. There were present of the party of railroaders besides President Adams, Vice-President and Gen. Mgr. Holcomb, Engineer Gates, and Mr. Cameron; of the committee of business men, Messrs. George W. Thatcher, C. D. W. Fullmer, R. W. Sloan, Fred Turner, J. T. Hammond, R. S. Watson, A. P. Farr, Jr., A. G. Barber, and T. B. Cardon. There were also present Hon. Moses Thatcher . . . a large number of prominent citizens of Logan. The committee presented to Mr. Adams that Logan had long been dealt with by the Union Pacific in a manner nothing short of outrageous; that the engines were worthless, the rolling stock run down, the road in bad repair, and the employees negligent of their duties. They held that the coaches were in such a condition as to be unfit to ride in. They held that in the winter a train on time was an exception. They held that Logan and Cache county pay many hundreds of thousand of dollars every year into the treasury of the Union Pacific for which they receive such inadequate service. They held that the intention of place Logan on a spur and build up the west side of the valley, by running the main line through that portion was an attempt to undermine this city, to hinder her development and destroy her prestige. They held that the whole thing was a scheme to further the interests of railroad officials who were interested in real estate. They held that the business which is done by the Union Pacific in this valley is of such importance as demanding that the people should received great consideration from the rail road and a depot commensurate with the size of this city should supplant the coweb dedecked piggly which now does duty at the depot. They maintained that persons riding in the cars were compelled to protect themselves from the rain with umbrellas. They asserted that no return was made for the great outlay of Cache Valley, for the Union Pacific had spent practically nothing here for years.
"They contended that Logan should have a roundhouse, railway shops, should be a division terminus, possess terminus paraphernalia, and should be enabled to earn back a portion of the enormous sum annually paid out. Here were cheap land, an abundance of water, every material and all things requisite for the running of shops, and they should be established here.
"President Adams paid much attention to the points advanced by the committee, and showed great interest in all affairs pertaining to this valley. He made many inquiries as the discussion progressed, and seemed to be impressed with a sense of the justice and propriety of the cause for which the committee contended. He turned many times to his subordinated and gave them new instructions concerning the management of the road in this valley. He promised that a depot should be built in this city at once. He promised a through train each way daily between Preston and Salt Lake City as soon as the broad guage was finished. He also made further requirement which will result in the benefit of this section so far as railway matters are concerned.
"There was, however, one great point of difference between the two parties--and that was the question as to whether the main line should run by way of Logan or whether a spur should be built to Logan and the main line should be run direct from Bear River Narrows to Clifton. President Adams argued, and with great earnestness, that it would be folly for the Union Pacific to haul its freight--including salt for the Montana smelters, and coal. . . by way of Logan or thirty miles further than was absolutely necessary. He maintained that such circulation would largely increase the cost of the company, without materially benefiting Logan, and that a well appointed side line between Logan and Ogden would fulfill the requirements of Cache Valley and prove as satisfactory to the residents here as would connection with the main line. The committee took a decided stand in opposition to this argument, and contended that the ridiculous part of it would be the running of two lines of railroad parallel to each other at a double expense, when one road would fulfill all ordinary requirements . . . . although Mr. Adams held to original proposition, it was felt that the arguments set forth made considerable impression upon him. He further promised to have a broad guage road built from the main line around to Logan and Mendon and up to Preston by October 1st, 1899; and to have an elegant fifteen thousand dollar depot built at the foot of Second street the present summer and fall. He promised to cause this valley to have a perfect service, both in the matter of passenger and freight trains.
"After long discussion and a complete understanding as to what the railroad would and would not do, the committee determined to rest satisfied with the promises made, at present, and to make a report of their labors to the body of __?_ _?_ and business men which had appointed them. . . .
"Altogether the committee felt that it had achieved a great victory, for President Adams left with a distinct understanding than [sic -that] Logan was no longer a cipher--a nonentity on the line of the Union Pacific, but that it was a powerful and growing metropolis and business center of a rich and prosperous section. . . ."
--The Logan Journal, June 7, 1890.* * * *
June 25, 1890 - page 4 under "Local Points."
"The D. & R. G. will be in Logan in one year."
** Same June 25th on page 4 under "Our Railroad."
"What has become of Mr. Gates’ little town over the river, Gatesville, Cammeronville, or what? . . .
"A fine depot--fine considering the rat-hole heretofore used--is being put up by the U.P. at Richmond. Mr. Gates has told them the U. & N. would work for the people of Richmond, and he hoped the people of Richmond would work for the U.P. That’s what’s the matter. For six long years the people of Richmond and Cache valley generally have been working for the Union Pacific. They want to work for another railroad for awhile in future. . . .
"At the meeting of the committee on railroads with President Adams, Resident Engineer Gates disembowel himself, figuratively speaking, by demanding proof before any charge was made. But the charge was made and Mr. Gates was practically squelched. He wanted proof that U.P. employees had asserted that the design was to force the trade of Cache county to the other side of the valley, and it was only in mercy to so small an official that members of the committee who could have testified to the statement of Mr. Sloan, did not themselves give the proofs, and yet he could not deny the charge that C. V. Bugue and J. S. Cameron had secured one hundred acres of land near the lands purchased near the U.P. for a junction, nor could he deny the statement of Mr. Cameron, who was present, that the land had been bought by Mr. Gates. He could only say they had been secured for the Union Land Company in case the grounds owned by the U.P.R.R. were insufficient for depot and switch purposes. Mr. Cameron told Mr. Nibley that the junction in Cache Valley would be just like that at McCammon, yet Mr. Gates puts the Union Land Company in the gap to protect the Union Pacific and buys one hundred acres of land to hold until the Union Pacific needs them. This thing is just about the size of an excuse we should expect from such a man as Mr. Gates. It is worthy of him, but it nevertheless came dangerously near furnishing the proof that Mr. Gates claimed [?]. If lung and voice power were brains, Mr. Gates would be a very brainy man."
--The Logan Journal, June 25, 1890.* * * *
June 27, 1890 - page 1 under "Grievances in Cache."
". . .President Adams promised many reforms, but no argument could avail to secure a promise from him that Logan should be placed upon the main line of the Utah & Northern. As it now stands we are to be put upon a spur, so-called, which will leave the main line at Bear River Junction, proceed straight south to Mendon, thence east to Logan, and north to Preston--a line about forty or fifty miles in length."
--The Standard (Ogden), June 27, 1890.* * * *
July 5, 1890 - page 2 under "Railroad Assurances."
"Mr. Holcomb, general manager and vice-president of the Union Pacific system, said that by October first of this year the people of Logan could ride from Logan to Salt Lake in a chair car over a broad guage road, and that without change of cars. Mr. Adams, president of the road, was present, and acquiesced. Now we want to believe both these gentlemen, but if we are to, work will have to commence speedily."
--The Logan Journal, July 5, 1890.* * * *
July 12, 1890 - page 2 under "Mr. Barlow’s Letter."
"Elsewhere appears a communication from Mr. Barlow, resident U.P. Engineer. It is pleasant to note that Mr. Barlow has adopted the practice of his worthy predecessor and devotedly reads the JOURNAL. Contrary to Mr. Barlow’s expectation we do not expect the impossible. Messrs. Adams and Holcomb, however, made certain promises to the people and we are endeavoring to keep these promises clearly before the minds of those for whose benefit they are made. That the U.P. is spending a quarter of a million dollars a month is not manner of concern to the people of this valley, as they get as little of it as possible and as it is not done in any sense for their benefit. If any benefit shall be derived from it by the people of Cache, it will not be through any design of the road Mr. Barlow represents. What the people of Cache and Logan want is just what was promised them; this they are not getting. We were assured of better service. It has been growing so much worse that it is almost an outrage to collect fare for the dastardly service rendered. Several other promises wee made, among them the promise of a depot, the construction of which was to commence forthwith. Outside of the drawing of plans and the selection of a site and an indirect request for bids nothing has been done."
** Same July 12th issue on page 4 under "He Flays Us."
"U.P. Resident Engineer Barlow Slugs ‘Journal.’"
"Promises Will be Fulfilled."
"He Tells the ‘Journal’ a Few Thing it did Know and One Thing it Did Not.""Franklin, Idaho, July 7, 1890.
"EDITOR LOGAN JOURNAL.-- The head of your editorial column entitled ‘Railroad Assurances’ sounds singularly out of place to any one acquainted with the facts, and is misleading to others. ‘Thirty days have passed and nothing is done.’ Do you suppose we can begin the broad-gauging in the Logan yard? and where you could see it without leaving your sanctum?"We are spending a quarter of a million dollars per month at present; and still you say nothing is being done. Bear in mind that we have to work from our broad gauge connection at Ogden and McCammon until the branching point at Cache Junction--is reached. After which the line to Logan and northward will be broadened and you must remember that the work we are now doing is just as essential __?_ _?_ [illegible] you broad gauge connections as they were being done in Logan corporation. Your own towns people do not seem inclined to bid on the depot construction, plans and specification having been open to them for some time. We will now have to submit them to other builders for construction.
"You will notice that inside two weeks the grading will start on the new line from Cache Junction to Mendon--but you probably will not see any broad gauge track laid between Cache Junction and Logan till along in September, as the broad gauges from neither end can reach it before then. And early in October, just as promised, it will reach Logan with as much certainty as it is possible to predict.
"Again, in referring to Mr. Holcomb you say ‘he will have to induce his employees to work.’ In viewing this I can only consider the source from which it emanated. All the plans now being carried out were made months ago, and when you what ‘Mr. Adams promised on the 4th of June,’ do any for a moment imagine that it will be the result of any such persistent and uncalled for nagging and slurring as has from time to time appeared against the employees of this company.
"Hoping you will consider this in the same spirit of fairness with which it is written. I am yours truly,
J. Q. Barlow
Res. Eng. U. P. Ry."
--The Logan Journal, July 12, 1890.* * * *
July 12, 1890 - page 4 under "Railroad."
"The Logan Depot and Local Builder’s Notes."
"Ten cars were on the north bound passenger U. & N. the other night, and even then there was not standing room.
"An effort will be made to have the U. P. put on an extra train between Oxford and Collinston on the Twenty-fourth to accommodate visitors to Logan on that day.
"Two tie trains run over the U. & N. daily and the ties are strung along the broadened track.
"It is said Mr. Barlow, Resident Engineer, is confident trains will be operated on the new line by September 1st, 1890.
"The time table for the valley and terminal points will hereafter appear in the JOURNAL.
"It is said Cache Valley contractors are given the grading between Mendon and Cache Junction.
"Gatesville is a dead duck. The railroad committee killed it.
"The express business for this point has doubled since the office was moved up town and Mr. Fullmer took hold of it.
"Rob Mardock has at last got his lumber--only fifty days coming 800 miles.
THE DEPOT QUESTIONS.
"Mr. Barlow in his letter to the JOURNAL stated that local builders were not willing to bid on the depot for Logan. The plans were submitted through Geo. w. Thatcher, Esq., to Peterson & Sons, Cole Bros., Bluemell & Anderson and Smith and others: and were inferred by him of the address to which bids should be sent. Mr. Erastus Peterson is authority for the statement that his firm did send in a bid, while Cole Bros. state that they did not, as they were not stone masons and could get none to bid on the work.
"Mr. Woodsie the U. P. agent here states that he is confident Mr. Barlow has never received any bids. So it stands.
"There is so much work to do and so few men to do it that we doubt very much if local builders could do the work this season even were they awarded the contract; and it has all along been the idea that, even were the railway employees having the matter in charge disposed to give the contract to Logan parties, still the work would need to be down outside.
"That Logan is to have a fine depot is settled, but the agitation is due to the fact that that work which it was promised would be commenced this spring has not yet been contracted for. . . ."
--The Logan Journal, July 12, 1890.* * * *
July 19, 1890 - page 4 under "Railroads."
"Work on the Utah Northern is being pushed vigorously. Track is going down at the rate of two miles a day, the work being prosecuted from McKammon south and from Ogden north, and the grading is advancing from several points. The main line will be equipped with the standard gauge and trains running by Sept. 1, next, and the Cache valley loop is to be ready thirty days after."
--The Logan Journal, July 19, 1890.* * * *
July 26, 1890 - page 4 under "Seen on Our Streets."
"F. A. Mitchell, Esq., who owns a big ranch on the west side of Cache near the dear Gatesville metropolis."
--The Logan Journal, July 26, 1890* * * *
July 30, 1890 - page 4 under "Railroad Pointers."
"With railways building north and south of us and east, we need not worry ourselves over the coming of new roads. They will come.
"We are in receipt of authentic information that the only cause for delay in beginning the depot hers is the difficulty, almost impossibility, of getting materials. . . . .
"The grading is all done from the north down through the Narrows and track laying is going ahead as rapidly as supplies can be obtained. The fact is that the U. P is behind in its own material just as are private parties who are depending upon it for lumber. There is no possible relief until the narrow gauge is abandoned. Everything indicates that the standard gauge cars will be running between Butte and Salt Lake cities by September 1st of this year, the date promised. Immediately thereafter work will commence on our end."
--The Logan Journal, July 30, 1890.The Logan newspaper’s above comment—"we need not worry ourselves over the coming of new roads. They will come."—was mentioned often by the paper obsessed with the idea of getting another railroad into Cache Valley. It frequently predicted the coming of another railroad with zero per cent accuracy. Their cheering news and declaration of August 23, 1890 (see below), made interesting reading at the time, but today comes closer to ecstatic humor.
* * * *
August 13, 1890 - page 4 under "Utah & Northern Tracks."
"The Narrow Gauge Rapidly Giving Way to Broad Local."
"Track laying on the Utah and Northern is progressing one and half miles per day from the north, and half a mile per day from the south. It is all new work in the former, while north of Ogden the standard guage steel is being laid on either side of the narrow gauge ribbons. While the through lines rims directly north from Collinston, a standard gauge branch will be built to Logan, and thence north to Hyde Park, Smithfield, Richmond, Franklin and Preston. For the present the branch will end at Preston, but it will be continued along the old roadbed to the main line again. In speaking of this branch yesterday, an official said to a reporter, ‘Now, don’t you call this Logan line a ‘side track.’ Everybody is hot up there because Logan is left off the main road and I have had to lick six country editors in the last two weeks to keep them from jumping me.’ There are 1000 men at work, 600 under the contractors, grading, and 500 more in the company’s employ, laying track and building bridges. The saving of twenty miles will be a big thing for the road on through travel, to say nothing of reducing the grades from 116 to 35 feet throughout."
--Tribune. [Much news of the road was excerpts from other news papers.]* * In the same Aug. 13th on page 2 under "Local News."
"If the railroad man who gave the U.& N. railroad item to the Tribune, which appears elsewhere, had the sense of an oyster and would keep his mouth shut, he would not make such an ass of himself. The engineers claim they save thirty miles, he says twenty, by the new main line. He says it reduces the grade from 116 to 35 feet. This is not true. If the twenty miles is saved the grade remains the same. The fact remains that the U.P. is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for the sake of paralleling its own lines a distance of twenty-eight miles--the two line being about eight miles apart. It is reserved for the engineers of a very distant era to prove that there is a grain of railroad sense in doing this. There are railroad men who are fools--and they follow talk what they do not understand."
--The Logan Journal, Aug. 13, 1890.* * * *
August 13, 1890 - page 4 under "Railway Notes."
"The work of laying the third rail of the Utah and Northern railroad between Ogden and McCammon which was commenced last February is progressing favorably. The new grade is not finished to sixteen miles west of Logan and eight miles from Cache Valley Junction.
"The old roadbed is not used near Logan, but the grade passes to the west across the valley. Three hundred men are now employed and the management intends to have everything completed before snow files."
--The Standard (Ogden), Aug. 13, 1890.* * * *
August 16, 1890 - page 4 under "Our Broad Gauge."
"Preparation Making to Begin the Work Without Delay."
"The Union Pacific has made the first genuine break toward fulfilling the promises made to the railroad committee appointed to interview President Adams and General Manager Holcomb. At the meeting which followed the appointment of this committee, Mr. Adams promised us a broad gauge track this fall and Manager Holcomb said it would be in operation by the first day of September. It was also promised that we should have a new depot forthwith. A good many other things were promised at the same time, but these particularly, and that we should be placed in a loop and not on a spur save for a few months. Since the promises were made there has not been the first occular [sic – ocular] demonstration of the beginning of their fulfilment. On Tuesday, however, there were signs--a train of fifteen cars of ties--broad gauge ties, passed through Logan and these ties were distributed along the line between Logan and Mendon. Another train came in Wednesday, and the work is to be kept going from now on until the ties are strung along the whole length of the local broad gauge line.
"It is not likely that the work on the main line will be finished and cars run over the new standard gauge between Salt Lake and Butte by Sept. first, the day announced.
* * * [contract for Logan depot to be let within two weeks.]
"Track laying from the north will be completed as far as Cache Junction--just this side the narrows--by Saturday night, after which there will probably be a delay of a week or ten days owning to a lack of materials to prosecution the work. But for the difficulty of getting materials, broad gauge connections from Logan to all points will be made before snow flies, however."
--The Logan Journal, Aug. 16, 1890.* * * *
August 23, 1890 - page 4 under "The U. and N."
"The railroad is running past Weston, but Weston is not to have a depot. When the surveyors were going over the line and the line was being established, the Union Pacific agents continued their customary hog practice of demanding that the people give them a certain amount of land and they would build a depot and make a town plot and sell lots there. Weston people declined to do anything of the kind. So the depot is to be built three miles away from the town, in a field because a tract of land was given the railroad to plot and make a town of. If the truth were known the whole reason of the main line going on the other side of the valley is because the people of this side do not make a land or money purse to feed the U.P. hogs who run the road merely as a land speculation scheme. There are idiots in this city who believe the U. P. want to help this valley. Not in any way. Its whole trade and the people in it might go headlong to shoel [sic -Sheol or hades] if the parties who run it could make a few more dollars by such a doleful event.
"We didn’t like Mr. Gates because he freely stated that they would kill the trade this side of the valley. But he wasn’t big enough and the U. P. has concluded it isn’t. It is not big enough to belly [? or bully] rag a little place like Weston, and so it shows how the people are to be benefited by planting the depot three miles away from the only settlement in the vicinity.
"But there are other railroads and they are coming this way."
* * Same Aug. 23rd issue on page 2 under "Another Railroad."
[Telling of surveyors of a RR company reaching Logan after having made a direct line from Ogden to Logan through the southern part of the valley reducing the distance between the two places to 40 miles.] –
"The U. P. short cut on the other side of the valley will not now amount to much for them now. With this railroad and the gold mines between Logan and Smithfield the prospects are cheering beyond anything in a long time."
--The Logan Journal, Aug. 23, 1890.* * * *
August 27, 1890 - page 4 under "The U. & N. Widening."
"The U.P. is suffering for its past iniquities. It is moving heaven and earth to complete the line to Ogden from Butte by Sept. first, but by reason of its wilful destruction of the rolling stock and the discharge of men, it has crippled its own work. It is impossible to get its ties from Oregon, and it is waiting for angle iron to tie the rails with. . . .
". . .Everything is backward because the U. P. saw fit to cripple the U. & N. by disposing of its rolling stock.
"Roadmaster Tombs states that he will have the road from Mendon to Preston so fixed that it can be broadened in nine hours. The force between Mendon and Smithfield has been increased and forty men are now at work putting in enough broadgauge ties to carry the wider iron when it comes.
"The work from the junction to Mendon will, of course, have to be finished before broadgauge trains can be run this way. The work of putting this in shape--the line between Cache Junction and Mendon--cannot be undertaken before the main line is completed, and this work is delayed for the reason stated."
* * Same Aug. 27th issue on page 4 under "The County Roads."
"Ill Feeling Developing on the West Side of the Valley."
"Roads Changed Yearly."
"They Rejoice That a Railroad Will Relieve Them When the County Court Fails."
"Ill-feeling, or bad feeling, or disgusted feeling about the roads on the west side of the valley is growing among the people living there."[A feeling that the county never spends a dollar of the general taxes for the west side of the valley and even worse some of the county roads are changed every year...seeing local poll taxes for roads this year that] --
"will be part of another man’s field next year."
" ‘You folks are kicking about the railroad coming on our side of the valley,’ spoke another. ‘But we thank God for it. Poor as it may be, or bad as it may treat us, it will never be as poor as the roads our county court gives us, nor will it treat us as badly as our county court treats us.’
[When the reporter asked for instances he was given examples where individual wanting to save a little fencing go to the court and get accommodate by switching the roads and it happens without consulting those who travel these roads. . .another example the road from Clarkston to Weston changed again this year.]
"‘. . .On the east side of the valley all efforts are being made to shorten the roads and make them direct, and you have had railroads. On our side of the valley we are not even left alone to try and make a road that will be the same for two years hand running. We have to go to Logan to pay our taxes, to record our deeds, to attend meeting of all kinds, and we are driven around in every conceivable manner. Thank God the railroad is coming. We will give Logan a pretty wide berth after that.’
. [Mentions bad feelings about the location of a bridge over the river that would only benefit Smithfield.]
"How true these assertions are we are not prepared to state, but it is bad to have people feel as they do for any cause. . . . ."
--The Logan Journal, Aug. 27, 1890.This was not welcome or good news for the Logan newspaper as their constant, possibly excessive, haranguing of the railroad in everything in relation to an evil-design to hurt Logan and the eastern side of the valley. All of this coupled with its harping and snide remarks about the west side had caused a reaction from some who also adopted the newspaper’s idea of boycotting the enemy, who this time was Logan and not the U.P.R.R.
* * * *
September 6, 1890 - page 2 under "Another Railroad."
"Sometime a railway will be built into this valley which will be a rival to the Union Pacific. The people will be friendly to it."
--The Logan Journal, Sept. 6, 1890.* * * *
September 20, 1890 - page 4 under "Utah & Northern Gauge"
"All that remains of the Utah & Northern standard gauge to be connected up are four miles between Ogden and Deweyville and six miles between Deweyville and McCammon. Four days ought to fix the whole business."
--The Logan Journal, Sept. 20, 1890.* * * *
September 27, 1890 - page 4 under "The Utah & Northern Gauge."
"It Will be Broadened by Monday Evening Next."
"On Monday next the last rail of the standard gauge will be laid on the main line between Ogden and Pocatello, and in a few days when surfacing has been completed, the line will be thrown open for through traffic between Salt Lake and Butte. Then the legend at the tail end of northbound trains at Salt Lake station will read, ‘This train for Butte and Helena.’
"A Salt Lake paper contains information to the effect that the Logan siding will be finish ‘bye and bye.’ However this may be, Loganites will take satisfaction from the fact that Engineer Barlow promises work on the spur will be pushed as rapidly as possible and they will undoubtedly ride on a broad guage track before snow flies."
* * In the same Oct. 27th issue on - Page 4 under "Local Points."
"The graders are at work between Mendon and Cache Junction, where the branch is to strike the main line in this valley."
--The Logan Journal, Sept. 27, 1890.* * * *
October 1, 1890 a host of anti- Union Pacific Railroad. Articles -
Page 2 under "A Pledge Of" -- a long list of accusations against the Union Pacific with Comments such as -- ". . .it is better that the emergency be me and overcome than that we remain forever in bondage," to the railroad; and the president of the RR is a "smallheaded, fat-bellied Boston beaneater, who knows as much about rail-roading as he does about the honest treatment that one honest man owes another." Then another jab – "The Union Pacific is the enemy of every home, every industry and every independent and justice loving man in this county--in this territory."
Page 2 under "Criminal Railroading Proposal" -- more indictments of promises made and not kept concerning improved service, broad gauge rails, improved cars, etc. and the pinch for Logan "We have not a depot." And to make matters worse – "The depot promised us has been greatly reduced in appearances and size." Plus this charge—"It is also asserted that the iron now on the old U. & N. narrowgauge track is to be used with the broadgauge engines. No new iron is to be put down. This is to be laid on about every fifth tie, as only that many seem long enough to carry the widened rails. If this is the way the road is to be broadened we can understand how, in fourteen days, out of a possible accident for each day, there are reported fourteen accidents on the Oregon Short Line. The Union Pacific seems neither to have regard for the business rights nor the lives of the people that deal with it."
Page 2 under "Local News" - Two short comments –
"Why not start teams out again to do our work again instead of the abortive thing which is called a railroad for this valley?"
"We will be lickspittals and nothing else as long as we suffer the Union Pacific ignoramuses to railroad for us."
Page 4 under "The U. P. Coal Outrage" -- cost of coal to go up a dollar per ton and possible shortages, etc., all due to the U. P.
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 1, 1890.* * * *
October 11,1890 - page 2 under "Local News" -
"The Democrat is in error. Logan does not ‘mourn’ though she is justly indignant. Logan is too enterprising and active to ‘mourn.’ She is serenely going on attending to her own business and negotiating for a real railroad to take the place of the U.P. apology. The U.P. will be the looser in depriving itself of our friendship. You hear us!"
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 11, 1890.* * * *
October 15, 1890 – on page 4 under "He Gets after Us."
"Because we say Things about the Union Pacific."
"The New Petition for Favors Should Now be, ‘Give us this Day Our Daily Bread, Oh, U.P’""EDITOR JOURNAL.-- Owing to the continued attacks of our city paper upon the present officers and servants of the Union Pacific R.R. Co., I desire, as a citizen of Logan, in behalf of such as entertain more equitable views, to enter protests against so much reckless and unwarranted charges.
"The city and not the JOURNAL is obliged to bear all the evil consequences in making an enemy of the road on which we depend for our daily bread. No one contend but that we have grievances to bear from the Union Pacific, but they cannot be remedied by vindictive personal attacks. I am a believer in justice and fair play, whether to individuals, corporations or the servants to corporations; and I think it due to the dignity and honor of the city that something besides spite, prejudice and incorrect statements be given expression in the city organ. Do not understand me to intend any personality whatever, but merely to state facts. It was publicly stated that the depot now being built was to be far inferior to the one originally planned, and it was alleged that this constituted a breach of faith on the part of the railroad Co. To bring about the construction of such a building, the corporate authorities first appropriate a given amount; then plans are submitted and bids read before it can be fully determined whether or not the cost will come within the appropriation. If not, it must be changed or more appropriation allowed. The latter is generally impracticable, the urging of which often defeats the whole project. The new Agricultural College boarding house has just passed through a similar experience. It is bad faith on the part of the Territory?
"But the facts are that the changes are inconsiderable. The Logan depot is to be finished in all respects equal to the Ogden and Cheyenne depots. It is to have spacious and well appointed waiting rooms, with ticket office, separate from the freight department; to have ladies dressing rooms, etc., etc., and in fact to be a depot perfect in all its appointments, with ample accommodations for years to come. It is to be 98 feet long by 40 with several platforms extending considerably beyond the width of the street. The 16 feet taken off its length is taken from the baggage rooms, the main part not having been changed in any particular. The only change of any importance to the building is in leaving off the cupola. This damages its appearance when viewed from Second street. The substructure of the cupola has not been changed, and it could be added at any time with little cost. If we have not mortally offended the officers of the road, a committee of citizens asking to have it placed upon the building, would not doubt be received with courtesy and favorably answered.
"As to the much mooted coal question, it is simply a matter of business. The U.P. Railroad owns three coal mines and naturally wants their coal used. The Logan coal dealers, probably owing to the prevalent__?_ [illegible] have for a long time past ordered their coal from coal mines owned by a rival railroad company. The U. P. advance the traffic on coal over their line from such other company’s mine $1 per ton, but made **[two lines illegible] ** . . . excepting the company of the JOURNAL, as a business proposition, would have taken the same course. The JOURNAL wants to compell the U.P. to help the D.& R.G. railroad to sell their coal in Logan, and they naturally object. Now all this furore about coal has completely subsided, the dealers having given their orders to the U.P. Company. When the D. & R.G. spend their money and build a road to Logan it then have some of the coal patronage, but we ought not to run across the country a foot to give them a trade they have not sought or done anything to merit, while the U. P. is in the very act of broadening the road at an enormous expense as well as erecting a handsome and costly depot which should be a credit to any city.
"Other statements have been publicly made that ought to be publicly corrected, because they are wrong and not just. We believe the general managers and local officers of the Union Pacific are both gentlemen and men of ability and vituperations toward them is not called for. To assail the management of a railroad company of the magnitude of the Union Pacific which spans the western half of a continent involving vast and intricate operations needs a cautious and careful pen. Logan fares the same as all other towns upon railroads where there is a monopoly of the traffic. All roads are alike trying to make money. The U.P. company should be judged by the same rules as others. To say that they have a personal spite at Logan is ridiculous. The road is too large and its affairs too vast to be entertaining spite at anyone. The spite seems to be all on the other side.
"We have many causes to condemn against the Union Pacific. Their obligations and responsibilities are great and we would like to have them act better than they are. But the American people never have had and never will have justice at the hands of any road which holds the monopoly of traffic. It is equally so with individual enterprises. Only give them the chance and they will rob.
"Competition is the only permanent remedy in either case. The railroad history of every city on the continent similarly situated attests the truth of the statement. The JOURNAL cannot change the nature of men or infirmities of corporations. We ought to make the best of our situation and treat those who help sustain the commercial life of the city and valley as men who are at least our equals.
Respectfully,
H.E. Baker.* * In the same Oct. 15th issue on page 2 under "Delegate Election."
"Mr. Baker After the ‘Journal.’"
"In this issue of the JOURNAL Mr. H. E. Baker, manager of the U.O.M. & B. Co., of this city, make a vigorous defense of the Union Pacific railway. In doing so he has found it necessary to criticize this paper, and he does it in no unmistaken terms. If Mr. Baker is himself as anxious to learn as he seems to be to teach, he will probably be a wiser man by the time he has read this article.
"We hardly think Mr. Baker occupies a position from which he can fairly criticize this paper. The fact that his daily bread is largely dependant upon the railroad is rather against him and will cause what he states to be accepted with a strong idea that he is far from disinterested.
"If Mr. Baker had written the last sentence of his criticism first, and given in the consideration it deserves, he would never have penned the other portions, nor would he have placed himself in the position of defending a monopoly which he declares will ‘rob.’ He writes: We ought to make the best of our situation, and treat those who help sustain the commercial life of the city and valley as men who are at least our equals.
"This is Mr. Baker’s broad contention. It is his principle. We agree with it. In that agreement we aver that the arrogant and inflated creatures who hold positions under this system and who partially derive their livelihood and fine clothes from the hard and patient labors of the people of this valley, are bound to regard these same people as their equals and treat them as such. For even Mr. Baker, in his more than passing friendship for the railway, will not contend that the Union Pacific is not helped and sustained in its commercial life by this city and this valley. It is exactly on Mr. Baker’s ground that all the exception has been taken to the Union Pacific by this paper.
"If, as Mr. Baker so freely volunteers, he is a lover of justice and fair play, why does he go so far out of his way to record his friendship for what he concedes is a monopoly that will ‘rob.’ We hardly think Mr. Baker, when he reads his own utterances in cold type, will desire to have his readers estimate the strength of his affection for ‘justice’ and ‘fair play’ upon his specious and groundless defense of a ‘monopoly’ that does ‘rob.’ Moreover, we are compelled to suggest that the gentleman take unto the warmth of his own heart the advice he tenders the JOURNAL about reckless and unwarranted charges. For example, Mr. Baker says: ‘The city and not the JOURNAL is obliged to bear all the evil consequences of making an enemy of the road on which we depend for our daily bread.’ If we are dependent on the Union Pacific for our daily bread, it follows that there is no daily bread for us if there is no railroad. Now, Mr. Baker does not mean what he says; but he does mean that the Union Pacific can do us harm. To this also we consent, and it is exactly because of this harm that we have seen fit to criticize the Union Pacific.
"Referring to Mr. Baker’s statements regarding the new depot, we are glad to learn so much about that long-promised and still delayed structure. In fact, if we can rely upon Mr. Baker’s letter in this respect as born of a knowledge of the facts, he is possessed of more information about the road than any employee on it that we have yet met, and we confess with admiration a respect for the extent of this information. Nevertheless, he has not seen the plans, or having seen them, he has gazed on them as one looking through a glass darkly, for these are changes beyond what Mr. Baker enumerates. But, were he right in this one respect, it is hardly justification for the lengthy criticism he made in this paper, because he concedes that point of this paper--that the depot has been changed. It is not what was promised.
"The coal question is the gist of Mr. Baker’s article, and it is unfortunate for him that, in trying to make a case against this paper, and behalf of the railroad, he has found it necessary to resort to the very things he condemns in the JOURNAL--to reckless and unwarranted charges. The Logan coal dealers, whether guilty or not of the high crime of imbibing the prejudices of this paper, have not, for a long time past, ordered their coal from mines owned by a rival road. They have only done so when unable to secure coal from the Union Pacific mines. If Mr. Baker were as really anxious to be just as he seems to be desirous of condoning and justifying the infamous conduct of the officers of the Union Pacific, he would have known that Union Pacific engineers have taken the cola belonging to private parties in Logan, and to which that road or its employees had no more right than they had to Mr. Baker’s lumber, and used it in their engines, to try and mitigate the service of so thoroughly incompetent a system as the Union Pacific. If the U. P. has enough coal to sell why does it force its employees into a position where they are repeatedly compelled to take fuel that they have no right to? Why is it U.P. engines have to be fed on the coal from the mines of a rival’s road? With all due respect to your position, Mr. Baker, it will not every carry hail, much less hold water. What has been stated by this paper is absolutely true--that the U. P. raised the freight on a rival road’s coal at a mine when it could not and did not furnish coal from its own mines, either for commercial purposes or for its own consumption.
"Despite all Mr. Baker’s submitting, there are some things the editor of the JOURNAL would not do for money. And the editor of the JOURNAL has fully as exalted an opinion of many men with whom he is acquainted, even though Mr. Baker does intimate otherwise. For Mr. Baker himself admits what the U. P. does to be robbery.
"We wish to call Mr. Baker’s attention to one other error in his communication, and that is the intimation that we should give our business to the company that has built its line to us, and not to the D. & R. G., until that road builds here for our trade. The error in this is that the Union Pacific, instead of building to us, has built away from us. The road that runs to Logan was built by the people of this valley at a time when money was scarce and labor meant bread. It was given--for that is practically the truth--to the Union Pacific because of assurances that it shall be made a blessing and not a curse to them. And now that it has fallen into the hands at present controlling it, is used as a means of oppression and robbery--for Mr. Baker says it will rob--and its representative are seeking to destroy the investment of those that build it up. Furthermore, Mr. Baker says we would do as the Union Pacific does, if similarly placed, and thus he justifies its conduct, and then he says we should not secure the only redress left to us--to seek help from another road until that road builds to us.
"Mr. Baker will do well to think twice before he attempts another justification of the Union Pacific. That it is his right to befriend it no one denies. That it is the right of this paper to defend those who support and maintain it from the villainous treatment of an irresponsible and worthless set of men so far as railroading is concerned we will undertake to make even Mr. Baker see.
"We do judge the Union Pacific by the same standard that we would other monopolies. But the Union Pacific it is that injures us, and we do not see the wisdom of scouring the wide world to attack all monopolies because of the one at our door. Sufficient to the day is the monopoly thereof.
"And we attack the management of the road personally because the management of the road is personally responsible for its condition. Of what use would it be to us to attack the system? What has a railroad system to do with the freight charges, or the wrecks, or the poor service on some of its branches?
"Mr. Baker will have to come again before he can make the JOURNAL see eye to eye with him; and we mean nothing personal either."
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 15, 1890.If there was one thing the Logan newspaper could not accept on its coverage of the railroad in Cache Valley was criticism. The two articles above (Oct. 11th and 15th) are prime examples. When another newspaper thought the Journal’s coverage amounted to mourning on this issue, it reacted indignantly that such was not the case with emphasis added—"You hear us!"
On the last criticism (Oct. 15th) the newspaper’s critique came on page 2 while the letter it was addressing came on page 4. The newspaper controlled the positioning and the subheading to slant it all to their advantage, such as "The New Petition for Favors Should Now be, Give us this Day Our Daily Bread, Oh, U.P." It was a catchy subheading but way out of place. Thereafter it went downhill fast as the newspaper played fast and loose with what Mr. Baker wrote in his letter to the newspaper, especially in what the paper stated he said in regard to the railroads robbing the people. In this and in other ways they twisted his meaning and sometimes his words, taking them completely out of context to say what the newspaper wanted him to say so it could be turned back against him. In this respect the newspaper sank about as low as a paper could go while continuing to maintain they knew what was right, fair and just. Of course that was all about the U.P.’ s spite being the cause of all of Logan’s railroad losses, problems, etc., etc., etc.—just as the paper had so many times repeated ad nauseam. In a contest with words, especially volume, it was hard to best a newspaper who not only controlled the amount but by usage could use words as weapons. This newspaper was not about to recant anything, but charged ahead and damned other’s opinions, fair play or anything close.
The newspaper lectured Mr. Baker that if he was as anxious to learn as to teach, he would be much wiser after reading the paper’s comments on his letter. He was informed that he should "think twice" before attempting to justify the U.P. or by intimation dare to question the ways and means of the newspaper’s coverage of the situation with the railroad. It even informed the writer that if he had written his last sentence first and given it careful consideration "he would never have penned the other portions, nor would he have placed himself in the position of defending a monopoly which he declares will ‘rob.’"
The paper included that last sentence—" We ought to make the best of our situation and treat those who help sustain the commercial life of the city and valley as men who are at least our equals." A careful reading of both the letter to the editor and the paper’s response reveals that it was the newspaper who decided that Mr. Baker was defending a monopoly by twisting his words. Then in a bold and shifty maneuver they declared they were doing precisely what Mr. Baker had suggested in his closing sentence and launched more tirades against the U.P. and parroting the words "rob" or "robbery" often.
Early in the newspaper’s critique of Mr. Baker’s letter, it dismissed him as not creditable with these words-- "We hardly think Mr. Baker occupies a position from which he can fairly criticize this paper. The fact that his daily bread is largely dependant upon the railroad is rather against him and will cause what he states to be accepted with a strong idea that he is far from disinterested." He was the manager of one of Logan’s major businesses—the U. O. M. & B. Company or United Order Manufacturing and Building Company—and their lumber and much of its supplies came in by rail. However, no one had a bigger vested interest in this struggle than the Logan newspaper. In the short term the controversy generated helped the newspaper circulation, and elevated its status, at least in its own mind, as a crusading paper with power and influence. Whether for good or bad, it brought several visits to Logan by U.P.R.R. officials to attempt to defuse the hullabaloo continually fanned by the local paper. More important the Logan newspaper went from the high hopes of their city being the queen bee with six fold or more increase in railroad jobs, better and faster service with prosperity for the city and the paper, to wondering their fate when Logan lost its main line status with only a dozen railroad jobs and lesser service on a spur or branch line. The high-hopes line lead towards the newspaper’s growing into being a bigger, most prosperous factor and influence with ready access to fast news and information coming in and out, while the branch line could forecast just the opposite, including a loss of circulation and influence.
* * * *
October 18, 1890 - page 4 under "Train Talk."
"It is the expressed intention of having the broadguage road to Logan in operation by Oct. 20th. We are ready to wager a hat that it is not in operation Ly [? by] the 20th.
"The smoke of the engine laying rails between Mendon and Cache Junction can be seen daily.
"The poor rails east of Mendon are being taken up and replaced by steel ones.
"The spikes are being driven in the ties along the line from Mendon to Preston preparatory to widening the rails on the day when the new road is ready between Mendon and Cache Junction for the operation of the broadgauge engine and cars.
"It is said the transferring is being done at Deweyville by one or two men and some boys, that they have no facilities whatever and it is no wonder so little is being accomplished.
"It is reported that the C.P. is to build into Malad, running a branch from Deweyville and that quite a little excitement existed there a day or two ago."
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 18, 1890.* * * *
October 22, 1890 - page 4 under "Broad Gauge."
"The U.P. to Run on its Track Next Sunday."
"The following dispatch passed over the wires yesterday from Supt. Ressegule to Gen’l Freight and Passenger agent Becks at Salt Lake City. ‘The gauge will be widened in Cache Valley and we will commence running standard gauge trains on Sunday, Oct. 26. We will run on the same time as now . . . .
"This means, if we read it right, that Cache Valley is to have three trains a day." . . . .
[This was immediately followed by an excerpt from the S. L. Tribune as follows--]
"THE CACHE VALLEY BRANCH"
"Word was received at the Union Pacific offices yesterday that the Cache Valley branch would be standard gauged on Sunday next, October 26th. . . . So the Logan JOURNAL can lay down its mane, sheath its claws and acknowledge that the Union Pacific has carried out its promises. --Tribune, Oct. 21.
[But the Logan paper had the last say in its column.]
"Nevertheless, the Union Pacific has not kept its promises with the people of Cache, and it is hardly consistent in the Tribune to send its linen with joy one week and sink it with curses to the lowest depths the next week. We will be as fair to the Union Pacific as the Union Pacific is to us."
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 22, 1890.* * * *
October 25, 1890 - page 2 under "Mr. Adams Remarks."
"In his interview, published in the Ogden Standard, Mr. Charles F. Adams, speaking
of the change in the road had in Cache Valley, remarked that the Union Pacific had certain points to reach and could not go several miles out of its way that the people of Logan might see the train go by. There is no doubt that Mr. Adams said this . . . .
[followed by a long rehashing for the umpteenth time of the U.P. dumb plans to take the main line away from Logan and run a spur parallel to it, etc.]
"If anything could show the utter vapidness of Mr. Adams’ remarks it would be the facts given above. It was the work which, in the view of all the circumstances, was the folly of fools, or a malicious determination to do mischief, because of certain personal advantages to be acquired by the doers.
"Do not let any person imagine that we have had occasion to forget or recant the position taken regarding the design to build a town at the mouth of the narrows where the jobbing trade of this valley was to be concentrated. Recent developments have made it even more clear that the charge was true. No explanation was ever made to the charge that lands had been bought beside those necessary for depot grounds; and though Mr. Adams declared he would decapitate any officer of the road doing such a thing, a silence came over him profoundly at variance with his voluble self when it was established that the lands had been purchased, but that they were bought for the Union Land Company. The Union Pacific main line was changed, at enormous expense, from the east to the west side of the valley, because it was thought a popular and a prosperous town would be built up at the junction of the Cache Valley branch and the main line, and it was stated by a very interested party that the trade of the east side of the valley would be centered at the new town to the damage of Logan and the cities on the east. It is also a fact that Union Pacific employees approached land owners in the vicinity of the lands purchases for railroad purposes, and offered to take their lands, plat them, build a town on them and divide the profits, and if these employees had any inducements to offer on their own account they have yet to be divulged.
"That the Union Pacific, under the circumstances, may desire to do all it can for Logan and the settlements on the east side of the valley we will not dispute; but that the changing of the main line was necessary or wise, we must dispute, as well as the assertion that there was no intention to injure Logan.
"The future will tell its own tale, but we confidently advise people to look out for Gatesville and see whether U. P. promises are to be relied on."
* * Same Oct.25th on page 4 under "Logan’s Broadgauge."
"Four Trains Each Way Daily."/
"At the Union Pacific office in Salt Lake city, they are at work upon a new time table for the Cache valley branch of the Utah Northern, and which will go into effect on Saturday next. There will be four trains each way daily between Preston, Logan and Mendon and Cache Junction. . . ."
* *Same Oct. 25th on page 4 under "The Only Train To-day."
"The only train that will find its way over the Utah & Northern to-day past Logan
is the one going south that leaves here at 6:27 in the morning. The track is to be broadened to-day, and on tomorrow morning the arrangement is to run trains to Salt Lake by way of the narrows. There is no reason why the track cannot be broadened in the time named. It could be done in two hours, but if we get it done in one day we shall be well satisfied. Logan with four trains a day is not to be sneezed at."
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 25, 1890.* * * *
November 9, 1890 - page 2 under "Union Pacific Improvements."
". . .The gauge has been widened between Ogden and McCammon, a distance of 111 miles, and between Cache Valley Junction and Preston, a distance of 50 miles."
--The Standard (Ogden) , Nov. 9, 1890.* * * *
November 15, 1890 - page 4 under "The Produce Supply."
"The demand for cars from this valley is simply remarkable, and while there has been a relief it is by no means such relief as the valley needs. We doubt if there has ever been a period in the history of Cache when there was such an abundance, and when there was so rank a demand for the abundance of its products. There has been a temporary scarcity of money, due to the fact that the railroad company was changing it gauge, and failed to furnish practically any cars at all. Now, the roads are good, there is a market for everything, and it is impossible to get cars in anything like satisfactory numbers. Wellsville needs forty cars, Logan close on 150, Smithfield, Richmond and Franklin each not less then sixty, while there is naturally a demand on the other side of the valley. As long as the weather holds good from one to two trainloads of produce could be shipped out every day. The quick returns this would bring in would give the valley more ready money that it has perhaps ever had at any one time; and the prosperity which now exists would be of value in the possession of coin of the realm. The company is, however, doing much more than it has at any previous time within months to furnish cars and returns will be coming in very shortly; when we may look for lively times."
--The Logan Journal, Nov. 15, 1890.* * * *
November 26, 1890 - page 2 under "Blessed Relief."
"In the language of ex-President Cleveland we ‘challenge the right’ of any person to rejoice more heartily over the effectual let down of that inflated creature, Charles F. Adams. In the history of the Union Pacific, and that history is anything but what one would wish to boast, if has never known a time when all the people along its lines were so intensely antagonistic to it. Every newspaper, from the largest to the least, has denounced the reckless conduct, the inefficient accommodations and the incompetent management of the road. Self-sufficient in all things, Mr. Adams could treat neither the public nor his employees with any reasonable degree of courtesy, and the public found it was under no obligation to treat Mr. Adams’ road nor his management of it with that respect his presence seemed to inspire in the men that hung upon his arrogant whim for their dust-lapping situation. Mr. Adams’ management of the Union Pacific will yet stand upon record as having been the most idiotic, expensive, unsatisfactory, unprofitable, self-seeking, and disastrous epoch in all the U. P annals up to date--and in view of its past, all will be free to concede this to be a most sweeping declaration." . . . .
"The intimation of the JOURNAL, often made, that the Union Pacific railway was operated as a tail-piece to a colossal land-acquiring syndicate, has found lodgment in the heads of stockholders. If an investigation into the affairs of the Union Land Company shall be prosecuted as vigorously by Mr. Adams’ successors as he prodded into the affairs of his favorite McKibben, his defaulting contracting agent, Cache Junction will not stand as the only real estate scheme in the interest of which this great railway system was permitted to run. In this valley the sinking of [four words illegible]. . . ready to flow over their banks and then their directed abandonment that others might be brought to a like condition--all the work done at U. P. expense--with lands adjourning the property of a land company, which had been purchased by some such creatures as Gates, and deeded to such other creatures as Cumming and Bogue as trustees--is but one of many instances.
"There is absolutely no doubt of the truth of the oft published JOURNAL statement that there was a determination to ruin the business of this side of the valley by distracting its trade in the interest of a land movement at Gatesville. There is no doubt that the 100 acres of land which Gates bought near Cache Junction and which he deeded to Cameron and Bogue as trustees for the Union Land Company, and which was not for depot grounds or switches, was part of this scheme, and that it lies there yet a constant menace—through the aid of the U. P.--to the trade, established business, homes, and the general business prosperity of this side the valley. God grant that a mob, whose eager chasing of the dollar would bring them to the doing such vile things, may be made to sink to the infamy they merit. And in the eternal fitness of things, to Mr. Gould should be delegated the work of accomplishing this desired end--for they hate him so heartily that any humiliation inflicted by him or in connection with his name would be doubly severe on the physically rotund and intellectually bloated Charles Francis Adams."
--The Logan Journal, Nov. 26, 1890.The Logan newspaper had by this time named and coarsely described the villains in this "Greek tragedy" foisted upon Logan and to a lesser extent the east side of Cache Valley plus put the final touches to the paper’s grand evil conspiracy theory. In its words the "Union Pacific railway was operated as a tail-piece to a colossal land-acquiring syndicate. . . . There is absolutely no doubt of the truth of the oft published JOURNAL statement that there was a determination to ruin the business of this side of the valley by distracting its trade in the interest of a land movement at Gatesville." By becoming the accuser, the judge and the jury, the newspaper had signed, sealed and decided the whole case. But it wasn’t through for apparently it thought that each time the charge was repeated was just another confirmation of it. Proverbially, it almost broke its own arm patting itself on the back for its fine work.
* * * *
December 3, 1890 - page 4 under "Local Points."
"The good people of Newton and vicinity are clamoring for a bridge over the Bear river. They propose to present a monster petition to the county court at its next regular meeting. There is talk of letting the railway furnish bridges for its own trade, however."
--The Logan Journal, Dec. 3, 1890.* * * *
December 10, 1890 - page 4 under "Our Only Railroad."
"The Cheerful Record of Its Operations Continues Unbroken."
"Potatoes to Salt Lake in Six Weeks"
"Trains Sent Out Half an Hour Ahead of Time--Discriminating Against Logan--A Friendly Voice.""If the JOURNAL has made any mistakes about the Utah & Northern they remain to be discovered in the future. Up to date every prediction is being verified.
"When Charles Francis Adams was in Logan and met here with the citizen’s committee on the railroad, his highness instructed Manager Holcomb and Superintendent Ressegule not to make any increases in the rates in are [sic -or] out of the valley. This charge was given because of the statement that there was a determination of discriminate against the east side of the valley; and that changed the main line was only in furtherance of the scheme. The reason for the discrimination was to build up the west side of the valley at the expense of the east because of the real estate interests of the Union Land Company and U.P. understrappers on the west side. Thereupon, Mr. Adams, in his righteousness, declared the thing should not be done; that the rates would remain the same and he called on Messrs. Holcomb and Ressegule to see this command carried out, and they promised to.
"An Idaho gentleman is authority for the statement that rates from Logan north have been increased from five to thirteen per cent. Inquiry at the depot here fails to verify the statement and therefore the JOURNAL does not make the charge as true. But our authority is good and it is stating nothing extravagant to assert that their agent at Logan is just as likely not to know his freight rates as not to have a time table.
"And no time table has been furnished for this station yet.
"A gentleman in Southern Idaho wanted to learn what were the chances of getting orders of merchandise filled in Logan compared with Ogden in the matter of promptness. So he ordered two sacks of sugar from Logan and two from Ogden.
"It took two days to get the sugar from Ogden and seven days to get it from Logan.
"The result of this is that the business is being diverted to Ogden away from Logan and the cities on the eastern side of the valley. This is how the U.P. is helping Logan.
"It will be remembered that the JOURNAL predicted that Logan would be discriminated against. How far was the JOURNAL wrong?
"It was promised that we would have better service when the gauge was broadened. When the railroad committee called attention to the treatment received in the past at the hand of the U.P., General Manager and Vice President Holcomb stated that ‘was ancient history,’ and because this committee was slow to accept promises, he remarked: ‘These people will believe nothing you tell them.’ How the service has been improved, the following instance will testify.
"In October a car of potatoes was shipped to Salt Lake. That car reached Salt Lake in December--this month.
"It took over thirty days to ship potatoes less than ninety miles over the U.P.
"This is how the service has improved.
"But one train connects this valley with the through passenger from Butte to Salt Lake. That train leaves here at 11:15 at night. We have already published that its habit is not to make connection with that train. This train is a mixed one consisting of all the freight cars the trainmen will haul and one caboose--how clean we leave persons who travel thereon to tell. On Sunday night a gentleman at Smithfield took to the depot a couple of lades who designed traveling on this ‘mixed’ train. When he reach the depot he was informed that the conductor said he had been telegraphed to leave half an hour ahead of time, and so the train had gone.
"This is in beautiful contrast to the passengers who waited last week at Logan from 11:15 p.m. until 5:15 a.m. the next day for a train that had to come from Preston to Logan--a distance of only twenty-seven miles.
"The JOURNAL called editorial attention to the light rails the U.P. was using on the track from Mendon to Preston, and stated they were not safe. Reports now come in that the discovery of broken rails is very common--and when the cold weather sets in we may look for it to be much worse. If this is true it will be no fault of the U.P. nincompoops if an accident does not follow.
"So far as the minor hands are concerned they are men well qualified for their work. The U.P. has no better roadmaster than Mr. Toombs. The conductors and the depot agents are in the main obliging and gentlemanly; but, if we except S.W. Eccles, we do not know a man on the U. & N., who has sense enough to take the advice of men under him who do understand a business of which he knows nothing. We do not think the compliment to Mr. Eccles will help him in any way coming from the JOURNAL, but he is thorough railroad man. His misfortune is that which befell dog Tray--he is in poor company.
"Either the people of Cache are being wilfully wronged, or the men who control the road running through this valley have about as much sense as the man who put a mustard plaster on his head to cure the heart disease.
"Logan is the capital of one of the grandest counties the eye of man ever gazed upon. The valley is one of magnificent distances. Its boundless acres are fair and fertile, its streams of water are pure and plentiful, its cities are models of cleanliness and good order, its people are industrious, enterprising and wealthy. It has all the elements of a great and prosperous commonwealth, and all that ought to make it a desirable ally of any enterprise--railroad, canal, manufacturing plant or anything else--that lives upon the support of the country adjacent to it. Yet Cache has but one railroad and that, at least in the case of our northern neighbors, a grinding monopoly which has treated is patrons with contempt and utterly ignored the commonest courtesies of business.
"The JOURNAL would be false to its friends if kept silent under the outrages to which they are subjected. It would itself be worthy of contempt if it failed to point out and appropriately stigmatize the promises broken, the insult offered and the injuries wrought by this unfeeling corporation. The Standard therefore admires its manhood, endorses its method, and wishes success to its resistance. And when it speaks in tone as unmistakable as the following, we think it a shame that some company with capital and energy does not begin to move to music that ought to be just such as they have been waiting to hear. We quote from both the local and the editorial pages of the latest issue.
"‘Twenty men have told JOURNAL representatives that they would give all the way from $500 to $5000 to secure another railway which would relieve them from the infamous treatment they are receiving at the hands of this road.’
"‘When the time comes that another road solicits for the business, it will have to act very shabbly to keep the JOURNAL from using the whole influence in its power to have the U.P. treated as the U.P. has treated this valley.’
" ‘As a consistent friend of the Union Pacific, the Standard deplores the necessity for such talk as the foregoing. But unless there is a speedy chance in the treatment of Cache county, the time is not far distant, just as sure as the sun shines, when Cache Valley will be able to get along without the U.P., better than the U.P. can get along without Cache Valley.--Ogden Standard.’" [Only the portions in double quotes are from the Ogden paper.]
--The Logan Journal, Dec. 10, 1890.* * * *
January 7, 1891 - page 8 under "Logan and Provo"
"A Statement of Freight Business Done in Both Places."
"Logan Away in the Lead"
"With a Smaller Population Logan Receives One-Third More Freight and Sends Out Two-Thirds More Goods.""Provo has been viewed as a city while Logan has been talked of as a wayside station beside her.
"Provo has two railroads and Logan has had a jim crow thing that it would have been a libel on railroading to call a railroad.
"Provo has had the U. P. help her because of the presence of the rival D. & R. G., while the U. P. has been doing its best to get away from the trade of this valley.
"Provo has had the freight competition and the accommodation that the competition of two railroads gives. Logan has been held under a very odorous heel; it has been said of Logan that the U. P. did not care a d--n for its trade, and this was said by an official of the road; and we have had ample evidence of the fact that this was the disposition, by the treatment of people and of the fact that it has taken two months for a carload of freight to go from here to Salt Lake over the U. P.
"Provo had a population about 400 larger than Logan was credited with when the census was taken, yet we have all along contended that Logan did one-third larger business than Provo and the evidence will be seen in the statement here given, and which is the official report of the U.P. for it business of 1890.
"In the output Provo is credited with 69,000,000 pounds of coal and 29,000,000 of stone to which she is not entitled. Provo ships neither coal nor stone that she does not receive. The coal comes from Pleasant Valley and the stone from Spanish Fork canyon, and are credited to Provo, though she is not more entitled to the export credit than Logan is to all the coal that is shipped past her to Butte, and the grain that goes past her to Colorado. The merchandise business of Logan is greater--the general business by one-third and the exports by about two-thirds. See the proof" [two tables of goods--
received &shipped from Logan and Provo] . . . .
"Leaving out Provo’s coal and stone shipment credits, her general business, which is represented in the same lines as Logan’s, is but 1,790,000 pounds, as against the 11,275,685 pounds credited to Logan."
--The Logan Journal, Jan. 7, 1891.* * * *
January 17, 1891 - page 2 under "Willard."
"January 10, 1891.
"EDITOR JOURNAL"- we went aboard the U. & N. train. The train came in exactly on time to the minute. . . . This being our first experience aboard train since the road has been widened to the standard gauge, we took more not of things in general. The train sped along nicely at a rate of half a mile per minute until we arrived at Cache Junction. The coaches were quite clean and comfortable, and the track in pretty fair condition as we experienced little or no jarring. On arriving at the narrows, the train reduced its speed. The full light of day gave us a grand view of everything during our passage through these dangerous regions. There is nothing to compare with this pass, in all of Weber Canyon. Only a few miles in all, but those miles are valuable to the lover of grand scenery. How safe the track along hers is is a question. At this time of year there is but little danger anywhere; but when mild weather comes we may look out for a shaking. Travelers may feel perfectly safe while enroute along here as the company have men in charge who know what they have on hand, and should there be danger they will know it before anyone else.
"The late change of track has put Willard City, Box Elder County in a bad plight. Had the town been a prairie-dog village they could not have treated her any worse. By what I could learn, the people had petitioned the company to set the depot directly west of the city on high grounds, where it would be most convenient to all. Instead of this, the company drove their stakes away north in the most swampy part of the fields, where it would mire a saddle-blanket. After much talk the company concluded to move the depot a little south--not out of the swamps, however, and there it will be built contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants. . . ."
--The Logan Journal, Jan. 17, 1891.* * * *
January 31, 1891 – page 10 under "Local Points"
"The question ‘What does Cache Valley most need’ is answered nine times out of ten with ‘another railroad.’ Why then do we not have it? The valley was strong enough twenty years ago to bring one here and amply able now to bring another."
--The Logan, Journal, Jan. 31, 1891.* * * *
February 4, 1891 - page 4 under "AND WE SAID IT."
"The most heretic is now about ready to accept THE JOURNAL’s opinion of the design of the lickspittals who existed on the U. P. in the days when Gates was resident engineer for that road in this vicinity. Every week verifies the statements that the intention was to destroy this side of the valley and to make Cache Junction the distributing point for Cache County and the rich country of Southern Idaho. This would help the sale of town lots at the convenient points selected by the Union Land Company for their disposal. Did those who objected to the assertions of this paper take note of what was said concerning the immaculate Mr. Adams by those who turned him out? They said he was interested in a packing house in Kansas which made profits and to which the U. P. railroad hauled goods without a profit: If Mr. Adams would do this he would also belong to a land company which would make the Union Pacific build up its interest at the expense of the people along its line and at a loss to the owners of the road’s stock; and THE JOURNAL declared that the Union Pacific was operated as an adjunct to a colossal real estate scheme, and in that scheme there were fellows small enough to do small things. One of these was to try and make a few thousand dollars out of the place called Cache Junction and at other points in the valley north, and to accomplish this end the trade of the eastern side of this valley was to be destroyed. If this side of the valley has had any consideration since then, it has yet to be discovered.
"And now the rumors comes that Cache Junction is to have a large roller mill built there and it is to have a wholesale house heavily stocked, and whether the railroad people or (the small fry) are in it or not, it is true that some of these smaller fry have shown a remarkable intimacy with what was to be done and is yet to be done.
"But the Union Pacific was not big enough to make this valley nor was any man connected with it big enough to make it; nor is there now any man connected with it big enough to destroy Logan nor the prosperous cities built on the eastern side, for the benefit of land speculators and some scoundrels who have had a little power to do much mischief and delay a good work, but not to destroy it. There has been too much patience, heroism, good faith and honest labor expended in making Cache Valley what she is, to be destroyed by the money making whiffits of any corporation, even though as great as the U. P.
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 4, 1891.* * * *
February 14, 1891 - page 4 under "Local News"
"Somebody ought to come and tell us again how patient we should be, how moderate in our expression, how guarded in our conduct toward that most exemplary, piously friendly, heaven embodying concern--the Union Pacific railroad."
* * In another Feb. 14th and- page 4 under "Local News"
"The Union Pacific must like to keep up its vitality by draining the body blood of this valley. Well, the U. P. has about had its last inning. We can get our freight from Ogden in three days by team while it takes a month by the railroad. The first is safer in more ways than one--we do not get robbed, you know."
* * A third item from Feb. 14th - page 8 under "Petersboro Pointers."
"Cache Junction is dead. The saloon is the liveliest establishment in the place, and its best customer is said to be the bar tender. The people generally fear nothing will resurrect the defunct station."
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 14, 1891.* * * *
February 25,1891 - page 1 under "Weston Wisps."
"The JOURNAL tried very hard to get the Union Pacific upon the East side of the valley; but we cherish no hard feelings as we have the railroad. It is true it is not much to be thankful for, but we are taught not to despise small things. There is no shadow of a doubt but the Union Pacific is small enough. We look for the day when a ‘fact’ railroad will be built past us."
--The Logan Journal, Feb.25, 1891.* * * *
February 28, 1891 - page 1 under "Petersboro Pointers."
"The bartender of a certain saloon in that neighborhood feels aggrieved at a certain statement made in THE JOURNAL recently. We wish to state it was written entirely in a spirit of humor, without wishing to cast any reflection upon the well known and popular young man, but rather to show that Cache Junction is not making the immense headway in regard to inhabitants that railroad men had fondly hoped it would. We trust the young man will believe what we say and take in the spirit it was intended.
"The boarding houses do a good business. Railway passengers are always hungry before they have an opportunity to leave Cache Junction.
"Work on the new Bear river bridge is progressing rapidly, a large number of men being employed upon it."
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 28, 1891.While it may be true that "the pen is mightier than the sword," still the print media can be spineless and craven in some instances, especially in regard to money for advertisements, so the truth in patent medicine claims cannot be discussed, nor can advertisers (present or potential) be offended. The Logan newspaper in the above case of the bartender took the cowardly willy-nilly way out of a situation its choice of words had created—fire away from the hip then duck for cover if need be under the lame excuse that it was all done in humor. Maybe they should have followed that sage advice they so freely and abundantly gave Mr. Baker in their October 15, 1890 issue about the wisdom of reading utterance in cold type, especially on reckless and unwarranted comments and above all, think twice before jumping.
* * * *
February 28, 1891 - page 1 under "OUR NEW DEPOT."
"An Elegant Structure Almost Completed."
"Logan and the Union Pacific To Be Congratulated.""The new depot promised the citizens of Logan by the Union Pacific is a substantial fact and will largely atone for years of systematic neglect.
"There are those who say THE JOURNAL has not been willing to give the railroad company credit for the good it has done this valley. We repudiate such assertions, we have been, are now, and will be more than willing to give praise where it has been earned. The past few months have given us many changes and improvements which are fully appreciated. The gauge has been broadened, neat and substantial stations have been erected all along the line, and the service in some respects improved, though still very far from satisfactory. The last and by far the best station being built will soon be completed in the beautiful capital of our magnificent valley. Steadily and quietly the work is being done which will help to make Logan famous, and soon are towns-people and the traveling public will see a material evidence that the railway company at least partially appreciates the hundreds of thousands of dollars which have poured into its coffers from this vicinity.
"If some respects the depot is finer and better than any in the west, there being no room for comparison with any in Utah except the Union depot in Ogden, and even that is not so good in some important particulars, notably the covered platform next to the track; which is considerably longer than that building, being about 180 feet, and is twenty-two feet in width. This feature will no doubt be appreciated as there is nothing similar to it in the Territory.
"The building is 100 x 40 and composed of the very best material--a light colored stone, taken from quarries in the valley, and St. Louis pressed brick, with heavy iron corner supports including the coroners on each side of the doors. . . .
"There will be two large, well appointed waiting rooms, each being 30 x 23 feet in size, and opening from each will be ladies’ and gentlemen’s toilet rooms and lavatories. . . .
"A room in the south end of the building, 37 x 18, will be set apart for a baggage room and one in the north the same size, will be used for an express office. The ticket office will be between the two waiting rooms. . . .
"There is a commodious basement in which will be placed one of the best furnaces to generate steam to heat the whole building and also for storing several tons of coal.
"Each room will be well lighten with electricity, arrangements having been made with the Logon Light Power and Heating Co., for that purpose. . . . the building will probably be completed by April first and will cost, with heating and lighting arrangements, not less than $20,000.
"We will at last get the kind of depot we deserve and the Union Pacific is to be congratulated."
--The Logan Journal, Feb. 28, 1891.* * * *
April 22, 1891 - page 4 under "The Old Thing Again."
"An item in the Ogden department of the Salt Lake Herald, reads as follows:
"TO BOOM CACHE JUNCTION.
"‘It is rumored that a syndicate of Ogden real estate men are buying up land at Cache Junction and will place lots on the market in a few weeks. The plan is to get up a large excursion from Ogden and Salt Lake, and sell the first lots at auction. It is the opinion of a good many that a fair sized city can be builded [sic] there.’
"It is not unlikely there will be an excursion and the sale of lots; but it is very unlikely that they will bring much more than they cost as farm lands, and this for two reasons: Money is hard to secure and there is precious little show for any marked growth to Cache Junction. Reference, however, is made to the item as a still further public admission of what THE JOURNAL a year ago predicted would be undertaken. This is part of the scheme which petty U. P. officials in this vicinity had worked up and which Charles Francis Adams and Engineers Bogue and Cameron were small enough to lend themselves too that a few paltry dollars might be gained. It was to build up a town there so that these lands might be sold to good advantage that the main line was directed from the old site and the east side of this valley placed on a brach [sic - branch] line. One member of the committee appointed by citizens to have the change stopped was interested directly in the main line being changed, and had been indirectly approached by the U. P. pettifoggers to join with them in the planned destruction of this side of the valley that they might make a little money out of the sale of a few acres of land sub-divided into city lots. The U. P. railroad was run as a tailpiece to the kite of large and small real estate deals, and there were few so small that they had not a chance to stick a finger in the pie and steal a few plumbs at the expense of honestly established industries and investments. We would hardly mind wagering a cooky that a certain U. P. bully is mixed up in this recent scheme."
--The Logan Journal, April 22, 1891.* * * *
June 3, 1891 - page 8 under "GATESVILLE REVIVED."
"It is Bought Out by a Syndicate that Talk Improvement."
"Since the exposure of the design of the U. P. mob under Adams with their determination to sacrifice the east side of the valley for a real estate scheme on the west side, little has been said about Gatesville.
"Every day and every movement has conspired to verify the statements of THE JOURNAL that the whole change of lines in this valley was brought about in the interest of a real estate deal.
"When the crowd running the thing was let out, the plan fell through for a time, and the former owners recently sold out their town site to a syndicate which has at its head ex-Mayor Kiesel, of Ogden.
"Mr. Kiesel was in Logan on Monday and at Gatesville on Tuesday. He states that his company will spend $100,000 in improvements there, and the plan of the syndicated is to build a town at that place. In fact all that THE JOURNAL declared would be attempted is to be undertaken, except that it will be done by new hands.
"There is little doubt that the closing out of Z.C.M.I’s wholesale business here has done much to encourage such a movement, as it leaves the valley almost without a local jobbing house and there is little doubt that every effort will be made to force the trade of the valley to this point. But it will fail. It can only succeed by the aid of the railroad and it is extremely doubtful if that can be gotten by the new hands.
"The plan was to name the place after S. H. H. Clark, General Manager and vice-president of the road, but it is averred that Mr. Clark has declined the distinguished honor, being unwilling to lend himself to a scheme that would be construed as leaning toward the proposed town as against the present populous portion of the valley.
"If the spending of the proposed $100,000 would leave that money in Cache county one would feel well about it, but it may be accepted as a fact that the mechanics will be brought from Ogden and pretty well all they eat and drink also. "But the money is not yet expended and the town is not yet built, nor is the trade of the valley diverted to Mr. Kiesel’s junior Ogden. He has many obstacles to overcome and we misjudge the people on the east side of the valley if they will quietly let Mr. Kiesel walk off with the trade persimmon."
--The Logan Journal, June 3, 1891.* * * *
June 3, 1891 - page 8 under "Railroad Kings."
"Logan Visited by Sidney Dillon, S.H.H. Clark."
The visiting railroad officials – "There were, besides President Dillon, Vice-President Clark, Supt. W. H. Bancroft, of this division and Supt. Dickenson and some ten other gentlemen.
"They had their private car and took time to examine the route the whole way along."
[After a tour of Logan . .]
"They all expressed themselves as pleased and delighted. Mr. Clark, the General Manager, took occasion to state that not only would they not injure Logan, but they proposed to help her. There is very reason to believe that the loup promised by the Adams regime and which they never intended to build, (for real estate reasons) will be constructed.
"There was a general sentiment expressing contempt at the folly of constructing the road north from Cache Junction and thus paralleling the line already built, and had the present change in the control of the road been made before that line was built it never would have been constructed."
--The Logan Journal, June 3, 1891.It can be seriously disputed as to whether these high Union Pacific officials expressed exactly what the newspaper had them saying, or if it was how they were interpreted. The last paragraph in the article in which "There was a general sentiment expressing contempt at the folly of constructing the road north from Cache Junction and thus paralleling the line already built," was so close to the newspaper’s line of thought and reasoning, and so countered to the official positioning of the railroad that it would be hard to accept without questioning. The Journal over time developed quite a knack at interpreting and/or turning others’ words to confirm their hopes and contentions.
* * * *
June 3, 1891 - page 8 under "Local Points."
"Edwards, Evans & Edwards shipped a carload of brick to Logan on Saturday from their yard near Cache Junction."
"Ex-Mayor Kiesel of Ogden, who is charged having purchased Gatesville, offered the county $1,000 yesterday toward building a bridge across Bear River between his proposed town and Newton."
--The Logan Journal, June 3, 1891.* * * *
June 17, 1891 - page 1 under "A County Court Mishap."
"The County Court took a trip to Cache Junction on Wednesday. Hon. F. J. Kiesel and others interested in the new town were present and made it as pleasant at possible for the Court. The Court examined the ground, looked over the roads thereabouts and prospected for a site for the new bridge, if the court determined to put one in. The water width is 200 feet there, so it will take a pretty good bridge. If the bridge goes in it will be a wooden one."
* * Same June 17th issue - page 4 under "Local News."
"That the U. P. was in the land business under Adams is now as clear as day, and the only reason that the scheme of Bluffer Gates was not carried out was due to the information in the possession of THE JOURNAL and the very free use this paper made of it. The Cache Junction scheme is but one of many of the same piece, and which still hang fire. It was an infamous piece of business, and THE JOURNAL’S charge that the U. P. under Adams, was run as a tail piece to a gigantic real estate scheme is being established by abundant proof."
* * Same June 17th issue - page 8 under "Mr. Kiesel’s New Town."
"The Ogden merchant prince, Mr. F. J. Kiesel was in town again on Monday. He says they will have their town around Cache Junction platted this month. The name has not yet been determined on, but his old friends in this valley say Mr. Kiesel shall not be forgotten when it come to naming the streets of the new city. The syndicate has purchased 500 acres around the present Cache Junction--the buy including Card’s 160 acres and the 160 acres of Eli Bell. A grain elevator is to be erected there, the Continental Oil company purpose erecting an oil depot there; Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee, will build a reservoir there for their beer to be stored in bulk and bottles. Mr. Kiesel says the people of Ogden are taking a great deal of interest in the new town, and will invest there, ‘but’ says he, ‘our greatest encouragement comes from Logan.’ He says the town will help the whole valley and Logan in particular, being the centre of the official and principal city in the valley. We may therefore look for work next month in the new town.
"Mr. Kiesel, Mr. Post and Mr. Schramm, all interested in the new scheme; were inquiring into the cost of building materials Monday, and talking to masons. The rumor is that they are about to begin to build a hotel.
"This is the town that one Gates, a U. P. blow hard, had platted and with which he proposed to wipe out the industries on the east side of the valley. Acting for the Adams ring he sold it out for $8,000, a profit it is said of 100 per cent. Since then, however, Mr. Kiesel and his co-partners, have purchased additional land, though the intention now is to plat only 120 acres of the 500 acre tract. The U. P town plant has been abandoned and an entirely new one is to be made."
--The Logan Journal, June 17, 1891.* * * *
September 9, 1891 - Page 8 under "County Court."
"The propositions of different bridge builders for a bridge over the Bear River at Cache Junction were opened and listened to. Each present was given an opportunity to be heard and explain his plans. A majority were for iron bridges. The bids ran from about $7,000 down to $1,030, which was accepted--but the higher bids were for iron bridges—the lower for wooden. Mr. Thomas Hillyard was the successful bidder. He also was awarded to put in the bridge over the Logan at Benson--wooden--for $575."
--The Logan Journal, Sept. 9, 1891.* * * *
September 26, 1891 - page 4 under "The Proposed Bridge."
"The bridge across Bear River near Cache Junction, seems to be wanted by all in that neighborhood and if arrangements can be made ought to go in, but it ought never to go in if the County is to pay Mr. Gates, a former U. P. resident engineer, for a right of way. This Gates, backed by Charles Frances Adams, and the land speculators with him, is the person who proposed to injure the whole of the eastern side of the valley so as to make a little money by building up a town at Cache Junction. The change of manage- ment of the road spoiled the plan. Then they sold out to Fred J. Kiesel and others. If Gates is to get $500 for a right of way, or any sum, let the arrangement be made by those induced to purchase the land there. The people of this County will not endorse the expenditure of one nickle of their taxes for the benefit of that man or those associated with him. The bridge should not be put in until a right of way can he had without cost to the County."
--The Logan Journal, Sept. 26, 1891.* * * *
October 31, 1891 - page 8 under "Local Points."
"The wooden bridge which is to connect Cache Junction with Newton, will be completed within thirty days. Contractor Hillyard, has a full force of men employed in its construction."
--The Logan Journal, Oct. 31, 1891.* * * *
December 9, 1891 - page 5 under "County Business."
"The sum of $1,225 was appropriated to pay the balance on the Cache Junction and Benson Bridges."
* * Same Dec. 9th issue - page 8 under "Local Points."
"The County Court has accepted the bridges over Logan and Bear River. These are the new wooden bridges and made a direct rout to Petersboro, and close connection between Newton and Cache Junction."
* * Same Dec. 9th issue and page 8 under "Newton Notes."
"A substantial wooden bridge has been built across Bear river between Newton and Cache Junction--another improvement."
--The Logan Journal, Dec. 9, 1891.* * * *
December 19, 1891 - page 4 under "That Road."
". . . No one can dispute that the County Court is doing largely the best it can with the means at its disposal. We can point to little that has not been well spent; but there is no denying the fact that the roads and bridges leading in the direction of Petersboro and Cache Junction have not suffered for want of attention. It is a question as to where the County can spend its limited revenue to the best advantage."
[Newspaper then argues Logan needs more attention even though it had a city poll tax and hadn’t received county money for city roads that should change because county people travel on the city roads, etc.]
--The Logan Journal, Dec. 19, 1891.* * * *
Cache Junction received almost no coverage of its creation and development from the Logan newspaper. Possibly this was to confirm its own contentions about the "Junction Burg on the Bear."
The Logan newspaper loved to cite others’ coverage of things as confirmation or proof of its charges. Occasionally something occurred that they reported such as this 1896 wreck covered below.
August 20, 1896 - page 1 under "RAILWAY WRECK."
"Cache Junction the Scene of a Heavy Collision."
"The Butte Express Runs Into a Standing Freight Train--Squaw Probably Fatally Injured--Incidents of the catastrophe.""The first railway wreck in this vicinity for a long time occurred at Cache Junction on Tuesday morning at 9:30.
"The through Butte express on the main line, which should have pass the Junction at 6:30 a.m., did not reach there until 9:30. At the time of its arrival a freight train was standing on the main line.
"Following the rules of the company, knowing the express was overdue, the conductor of the freight sent out a flagman the regulation distance, a half mile, to warn the express that the track was occupied.
"The signal was observed, and, under ordinary conditions, in plenty of time for the train to have been brought to a standstill before reaching the freight; but the unforeseen happened; the air brakes failed at the critical moment and [two or three words illegible] . . . the utmost efforts of the engineer to reversed his engine and did all in his power to stop the train, the express went crashing into the freight.
"Bystanders say the shock was so heavy that for a few seconds neither train could be seen for dust. When this cleared away it was found that the pilots of both engines were broken off, the mail and baggage car on the express was badly damaged and the platforms and steps of some of the other cars broken. On the freight, the third car from the engine, a flat car, was broken squarely in two, the heavy iron braces underneath being twisted like corkscrews. The breaking of this car in the manner indicated is considered providential, as it acted as a spring, greatly tending to break the terrific force of the impact.
"Fortunately no member of either train crew was hurt, and the passengers escaped injury other than a severe shaking up and fright. Two Indian squaws and a buck who were riding on one of the platforms were not so fortunate. Both women received internal injuries, and it was thought certain that one of them would die. The buck escape with a scalp wound.
"Attached to the Butte express was a Raymond excursion car on which were a number of ladies who were delighted, after recovering from their fright, that they had been in a wreck, and who took a number of kodak views to prove to skeptical Eastern friends the truth of their hair raising experience.
"On the broken flat car two ‘Weary Walkers,’ members of the patriotic order of ‘The Sons of Rest,’ were reclining at the time of the approach of the express, exchanging reminiscences and speculating on the number of cold hand-outs they might secure before reaching Butte. The rumbling approach of the rapidly oncoming train was not noticed until it got within a hundred yards without any indication of stopping, when contrary to all precedent and much against their natural inclination, they got a hurried move on them and reached a place of just in time to save the railway company the expense of a double funeral, and the subsequent trouble of seeing that their graves were kept green."
--The Journal, Aug. 20, 1896.However, the article published on the second day after the accident was brief and perhaps overly concerned with the humorous aspects. It was on the front page with articles on gold and silver bugs, a suicide at Fillmore, a discussion of journalistic courtesies in Idaho, Tabernacle services plus advice as to what to do when one’s hair begins to fall out. There was no follow-up or even mention of the wreck in its later issues. The wreck came on Tuesday the 18th and the Logan paper’s coverage came the following Thursday, its next date of issue. But, the Ogden paper The Standard and the Deseret News had their coverage on the 19th as did The Salt Lake Tribune. Could it be that the Logan newspaper’s limited coverage reflected its bias against Cache Junction and the west side of the valley, viewing them as largely insignificant and not worthy of more of its space? The best coverage of the wreck was as follows:
**August 19, 1896 - page 5 under "A HEAD-END COLLISION"
"Serious Wreck at Cache Junction;"
"Brakes Failed to Work.""Butte Express Ran into a Freight on the Main Line, Smashing Both Engine Pilots, Telescoping the Baggage Cars and Fatally Injuring a Squaw--Close Call for the Passengers--Number of Salt Lake People on the Express--Details of the Accident."
"A special from Logan received by The Tribune last night gave the particulars of a collision on the Union Pacific at Cache Junction yesterday morning. A squaw riding on the ‘blind baggage’ was fatally wounded and one of the bucks was cut about the head. The express messenger received a few bruises, but none of the passengers were hurt.
"A freight was standing on the main line and the Butte express was three hours late. The freight had sent a flagman ahead, to stop the Butte train, which was coming at a lively rate. The air brakes did not work, however, and though the speed of the express was greatly slackened by the efforts of its crew, it crashed into the freight, head to head, and only the fact that the express was slowing up and the engineer of the freight had started to back, prevented a horrible accident.
"BAGGAGE CARS TELESCOPED
"The pilots were knocked off both engines and into a thousand fragments. Before the baggage cars was a car of racing horses which escaped any injury, but the two baggage cars telescoped and their ends were wrecked. It was here that the Indians were riding and they all were badly shaken up and bruised. The car steps and platforms on the passenger coach were knocked off.
"On the freight the third car from the engine was broken in two and doubled in an upward movement greatly reducing the force of the shock, which would otherwise have been much more severe. Two tramps jumped off the flat car just in time to escape death.
"One of the engines was derailed.
" SALT LAKE PASSENGERS.
"The train arrived in Salt Lake at 5:10 p.m., just eight hours late. On board were . . . .
"A car of Raymond Yellowstone tourists were also on board and after the collision they were out of their car taking snap shots at the wreck with their kodaks and with the assistance of a doctor in their party, ministering to the wounded Indians. Bystanders said that when the trains came together a great cloud of dust arose and they thought both trains were demolished."
--The Salt Lake Tribune, August 19, 1896.* * * * *
An assessment – It was at best a tie between the U.P.R.R.’s faults (high freight charges, poor service and feeble public relations) and the Logan newspaper’s coverage of the railroad’s dealings in Cache Valley (slanted and biased coverage with reckless and unsupported charges). However, when the newspaper wrapped up all charges, especially wherein Logan received less, into one package charging it all was part of a dastardly conspiracy at the high levels of the Union Pacific to deliberately hurt Logan to foster a giant real estate scheme at Cache Junction, it exceeded the bounds of fairness, even in the realm of journalism. They were into "yellow journalism," howbeit a local intermountain version, and Mr. Hearst and Mr. Pulitzer would have been proud of them. Today their dubious ways and means of propaganda over professional journalism, don’t garner as much praise and self-congratulations as the newspaper heaped upon itself. Even if the railroad or some of its employees purchased a hundred acres of land adjacent to what the Union Pacific had earlier purchased, and which the newspaper decided was above and beyond what they would ever need, it didn’t prove their conspiracy theory. From 1880 the newspaper had been obsessed that any negative change in the railroad in their community was a deliberate move to hurt Logan. Ten years later they added the creation of Cache Junction to their theory as the capstone. The newspaper oft-cited charges (it called them "proofs") were about as well placed and accurate as the newspaper’s numerous predictions that another railroad was about to come into Cache Valley and compete with the U.P. Only the gold mine adjunct will be cited here: "The U. P. short cut on the other side of the valley will not now amount to much for them now. With this railroad and the gold mines between Logan and Smithfield the prospects are cheering beyond anything in a long time." (The Logan Journal, Aug. 23, 1890.)
Furthermore, the paper’s suggestion to have Jay Gould investigate the activities of Charles Francis Adams would have been like giving the care of the sheep to the big bad wolf of railroad financing. When the president of the Union Pacific became the targeted enemy, he was a "smallheaded, fat-bellied Boston beaneater, who knows as much about railroading as he does about the honest treatment that one honest man owes another," or the "physically rotund and intellectually bloated Charles Francis Adams." And then there were the jocular monikers it used for the new railroad junction cited at the beginning of this article. Perhaps in some instances the newspaper-generated humor, whether accidental or intended, has a more lasting standing than its news reports.