[or-roots] MM Melvin and the O & C RR

Leslie Chapman reedsportchapmans at verizon.net
Tue Feb 24 18:33:43 PST 2009


At last I have found hard evidence linking my great grandfather and the O &
C Railroad;

Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol VII

ariticle on; The Genesis of the Oregon Railway System by Joseph Gaston which
starts on page 105. On page 111-112; The Oregon Lesgislature met in
September, 1866, six weeks after Congress granted the lands in aid of the
road. It was decided to abandon the orininal organization which had so far
promoted the enterprise, and accordingly the writer of this paper prepared
articles for the incorporation of "The Oregon Central Railroad Comapny,"
[why have I always thought it was 'Oregon and Califonria"?]the office and
headquarters of which should be at Portland, Oregon. These articles were
signed by J.S. Smith [etc, etc] M. M. Melvin, [etc etc].

Gaston goes on to apparently defend the actions of the company and claim
credit for himself as well as give his authority to write the history as he
being at the time [1902] the only surviving founder. The article is followed
by another one on the subject of the Oregon Central by S. A. Clarke which
begs to differ with Gaston on some pertinent facts.

I haven't read it in it's entirety, but it looks to be very interesting. The
two article together run to page 144 and I  notice in one othe evidentiary
documents grampa's name is spelled Melvine??

Les C

PS there are several Oregon Quarterly editions available on google books to
download.




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