Corporate Public Relations of the First Transcontinental
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When the Locomotive Puffs: Corporate Public Relations of the First Transcontinental Railroad Builders, 1863-69 A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Leland K. Wood August 2009 © 2009 Leland K. Wood. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled When the Locomotive Puffs: Corporate Public Relations of the First Transcontinental Railroad Builders, 1863-69 by LELAND K. WOOD has been approved for the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Scripps College of Communication by Patrick S. Washburn Professor of Journalism Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii Abstract WOOD, LELAND K., Ph.D., August 2009, Journalism When the Locomotive Puffs: Corporate Public Relations of the First Transcontinental Railroad Builders, 1863-69 (246 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Patrick S. Washburn The dissertation documents public-relations practices of officers and managers in two companies: the Central Pacific Railroad with offices in Sacramento, California, and the Union Pacific Railroad with offices in New York City. It asserts that sophisticated and systematic corporate public relations were practiced during the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, fifty years before historians generally place the beginning of such practice. Documentation of the transcontinental railroad practices was gathered utilizing existing historical presentations and a review of four archives containing correspondence and documents from the period. Those leading the two enterprises were compelled to practice public relations in order to raise $125 million needed to construct the 1,776-mile-long railroad by obtaining and keeping federal loan guarantees and by establishing and maintaining an image attractive to potential bond buyers. Also, relationships had to be established and maintained with members of Congress, the California state legislature, and federal regulators; with workers and potential workers; and with journalists. In addition, the companies’ images among the general public also had to be established and maintained. The railroad leaders sometimes faced public- relations dilemmas in which the material produced to build relationships with one audience might damage relationships with another audience. The dissertation concludes iii that, despite the enormous challenges faced in the construction of the railroad, the companies’ leaders persisted in their attention to public relations and developed practices that continue to be used. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Patrick S. Washburn Professor of Journalism iv Acknowledgments This work would never have reached this point without the able and longstanding guidance of Dr. Patrick S. Washburn. Also, Ohio University as a whole provided me with a substantial fellowship to begin my Ph.D. studies and its faculty members have been guiding and helpful lights on my pathway. Others were of material assistance at archives: Kathryn Hodson at the University of Iowa Library; Diane Cooter at Syracuse University; Greg Galer at Stonehill College; and Susan Jellinger at the State Historical Society of Iowa Library in Des Moines. Laura Bowers at Owen Library at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown was an important first reader and cheerleader. Sewell Harper Claycomb of Westmoreland, New York, provided important financial support by offering a place to stay for six weeks. v This work is dedicated to my mother, Lila Marie (Claycomb) Wood, whose guidance and love have made all things possible. I am one of Lila’s boys . vi Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Getting Up Steam ........................................................................................ 12 Chapter 3: A Steam Whistle Signal: The Train Is Ready to Board .............................. 33 Chapter 4: All Aboard ................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 5: The Conductors ........................................................................................... 97 Chapter 6: Locomotive Breath .................................................................................... 129 Chapter 7: Unscheduled Stops .................................................................................... 155 Chapter 8: Pulling into the Station: Letting Off Steam .............................................. 181 Glossary of Names ...................................................................................................... 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 200 Appendix A: Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 ................................................................. 206 Appendix B: Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 ................................................................. 221 Appendix C: Pacific Railroad Act of 1866 ................................................................. 236 vii List of Figures Page Figure 1: Map of the Transcontinental Railroad ............................................................. ix Figure 2: Periodical Circulation, 1869 ............................................................................54 Figure 3: Cover Page of July 1868 Editorial Excursion Scrapbook ...............................62 Figure 4: Brick Pomeroy, “Wilkes Booth the Second” .................................................77 Figure 5: “Every Public Question with an Eye only to the Public Good” .....................85 viii Figure 1: Map of the Transcontinental Railroad ix Chapter 1: Introduction Leland Stanford, Central Pacific Railroad Company president, missed when he tried to deliver the first blow on an elusive 18-ounce golden last spike of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. He struck the rail instead, and the resounding clang drew snickers from the crowd of mostly railroad workers. He passed the silver-headed ceremonial maul to Thomas Durant, Union Pacific Railroad Company vice president. He hit the rail, too, instead of the spike, with the second attempted blow to what was said to be a spike of gold.1 He may have missed in sympathy with Stanford. The first blows delivered around 12:30 p.m. were greeted with cheers from the 500 to 1,000 spectators, whistles from locomotives and music from a military band.2 They were assembled in the middle of nowhere between the Wasatch Mountain Range and the Great Salt Lake, 1,086 miles west of Omaha, Nebraska, where the Union Pacific directors had begun, and 690 miles east of Sacramento, where the Central Pacific organizers had launched their enterprise. The ceremony was to celebrate the unification of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific rails into one continuous line. The connection of the merged railways to existing railroads east of the Missouri River meant the United States had a railroad that crossed the North American continent and the world’s first transcontinental railroad. 1 “Eyewitness Tells of ‘Last Spike’ Driving” in Southern Pacific Bulletin, May 1926. Although billed as the Golden Spike Ceremony, one railroad worker said the last spike driven at Promontory was a standard‐issue iron spike, not the precious gold one which, he said, had been set aside after its presentation, along with other special spikes of gold and silver. The 18 ounces of gold in 1869 would have been the equivalent of about six months’ wages for railroad laborers. A ceremonial polished laurel tie with silver plate also was not placed and souvenir‐seekers whittled away several standard ties put in last. 2 There were two bands at the ceremony – a military band from the 21st Regiment of Infantry from Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City and a community band from Ogden’s 10th Ward with new instruments that cost $1,200. See Charles Edgar Ames, Pioneering the Union Pacific: A Reappraisal of the Builders of the Railroad (New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts Meredith Corporation, 1969), 338‐339; Maury Klein, Union Pacific: Birth of a Railroad, 1862‐1893 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1987), 224; and Grenville Mellen Dodge, “Autobiography” (unpublished, on microfilm) at the State Historical Society of Iowa Library in Des Moines, Iowa), 952. 1 The Civil War, some contemporary commentators said, had resulted in a binding of the Union, north and south. Now, according to the Rev. John Todd, who delivered the ceremony’s invocation, the transcontinental railroad would tie the Union east to west with ribbons of iron, “giving all the institutions of the east power to kiss the young sister at the West, and breathe our love upon her.” 3 Two historians said of Stanford’s miss that he was nervous and bothered by wires dangling from the head of the ceremonial maul.4 Those wires, and wires wrapped around the last spike, were to serve as an oversized telegraph key to capture the last hammer blows, transmitting Morse