of keeping the whole country together, and in a very short time, June 16, 1860, a bill was passed "to facilitate communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States by electric telegraph." Congress was to grant an annual subsidy of $40,000 for ten years and a quarter of a section of land for every fifteen miles of line. For this the telegraph company promised to send government messages free to the above amount, the rate of any message being limited to $3 for every ten words.

Jeptha H. Wade, another prominent figure in the building of the new line, succeeded in consolidating the four lines in California and in obtaining a concession of $100,000 from the state for the work. It was finally agreed that the California State Telegraph Company and the Western Union Company should extend their lines to Salt Lake and there unite. On January 11, 1861, the Pacific Telegraph Company was incorporated in Nebraska with a capital stock of $1,000,000 to carry out the contract of the Western Union Company, while on the western coast the Overland Telegraph Company was organized in San Francisco with a capital stock of $1,250,000 to carry out the obligation of the California State Telegraph Company. The question of route was the first to be decided. This work was given to Edward Creighton, a well-known line builder, and it was his recommendation that finally led to the selection of the route April 12, 1861, from Omaha to Salt Lake via Fort Kearney, Laramie, South Pass, Forts Crittenden and Churchhill, across the Sierra Nevada mountains to Sacramento and San Francisco. Mr. Creighton offered to take charge of the work of construction, so he was given the contract for building the eastern section, while Mr. James Gamble, who had done such efficient work in building the first line in California, was given charge of the work in the west. Two years was the time set by most people as the shortest time possible in which the work could be accomplished, but they had not reckoned with the western spirit or the western energy.

On July 4th, 1861, ground was broken for the erection of the first poles. To give some idea of the magniture of the work, Mr. Reid says in his book "The Telegraph in America," nearly a thousand oxen were found necessary for the transportation of the camps, food, wire and poles. In California the work was divided into two sections. One started east from Carson City, Nevada, and the other worked west from Salt Lake. Mr. Stebbins took charge of the work from Salt Lake eastward, four hundred miles and Mr. Creighton the remaining seven hundred miles from Omaha.

It seems almost incredible that the gigantic task was completed in a little over four months, but such was the case. October 19th, the eastern section was completed, and five days later Mr. Gamble's

work was finished, and the first message flashed across the wire October 24, 1861.*

To his Excellency, the President,

Washington, D. C.

San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 24, 1861, 7:40 P.M.

I announce to you that the telegraph to California has this day been completed. May it be a bond of perpetuity between the states of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific.

(Signed) Horace W. Carpenter,

President Overland Telegraph Company. In 1864 the Pacific Telegraph Company, which had been organized primarily to carry out the contract of the Western Union in building the new line, was merged with that of the Western Union by an issue of $3,000,000 of Western Union stock in exchange for its own stock. Within four years the line was abandoned and a new one was constructed along the route of the new railroad.

In 1866 the Western Union purchased a controlling interest in the California State Telegraph Company, which had previously absorbed the Overland Telegraph Company and henceforth all the lines in California became part of the Pacific Division of the great Western Union Telegraph Company. Lines were extended in every direction following the railroad, and it was not long before the state became a net-work of telegraph lines. Bancroft gives the following dates which shows how fast the different cities were connected. Humboldt County was reached in 1864, Portland in 1865, and Mendocino County in 1870. South it was the same; Los Angeles had been reached as early as 1860 by the Atlantic Company; and Santa Barbara and San Diego in 1870.

In considering any history of the telegraph of the western coast mention must be made of the proposed Collins' overland route which drew the attention of the world to this section of the country as the connecting link of a line that would circle the globe. Submarine cables had been laid between short distances and attempts been made to even cross the Atlantic, but very few people had any faith in the ultimate success of the work of Cyrus Field. With the completion of the line connecting the two coasts in 1861, the agitation began for its extension to the far north, to cross the sea at Behring Strait, a distance of thirty-nine miles with a maximum depth of one hundred sixty feet, and thence to connect with a great trunk line from Asiatic Russia which was to extend over the entire eastern world, south to China and India and east to the British Isles.

*Taken from the War Diary of David Homer Bates, Lincoln's private telegrapher, 1861-1865. "Oct. 25, 1861. Received the first message today from California."

Its instigator and leading spirit in the undertaking was Perry McD. Collins, the American commercial agent to Russia. The Russian government promised to build a line from Moscow to the Pacific, a distance of over seven thousand miles and began the construction of the line. Other important routes were also mapped out in Asia and plans made to start the work at once.

In our country the California State Telegraph Company was constructing its line north from San Francisco through Oregon and Washington to Vancouver. The distance yet to be covered to Behring Strait via Sitka was 1800 miles through an unknown wilderness of thickly wooded territory.

The plans to finish this construction of the Russian-American Telegraph were formally submitted to the Western Union Telegraph Company September 28, 1863, and again March 16, 1864. In the letter, Mr. Collins offered to transfer his rights and privileges of certain valuable grants which he had obtained, if the company would undertake the building of the line from the Columbia River to the mouth of the Amoor River in China. The offer was accepted by the company and 20,000 shares of special stock, called extension stock, valued at $100 each, was issued. The stock found ready sale and was soon all taken up, mostly by the members of the Western Union itself. The work, which was to be completed within two years, began with sanguine hopes in 1865.

Surveys were made by a well-known electrician, Frank L. Pope, who succeeded after a long, hard trip in reaching Behring Sea and mapping out the route to be taken. It was due north to the mouth of the Stekine River, 57 degrees north; from there inland along the foot-hills to Fort Pelly; then along the waters of the Yukon and Kvitchpack Rivers to Behring Sea. Work progressed very rapidly. In a few months the line was completed as far north as 55 degrees north to the mouth of the Skeena River, a distance of 850 miles. A Russian, Serge Abasca, in the services of the Western Union, was sent to the Asiatic coast to survey and map out the line from Behring Sea to the mouth of the Amoor River and steps were being taken to begin the work at once.

There was great enthusiasm everywhere. Mr. Reid says in his book, "The holders of the Russian extension stock as they read and reread these glowing accounts of the work being done felt themselves to be the happiest and most fortunate of mortals. To them the birds on every tree sang of gold." But the work came to a sudden stop. When the news came that the Atlantic cable was at last an assured fact, that even the lost cable of the last year had been recovered, and that the two continents were speaking to each other, all the stockholders of the Russian-American line realized the folly of carrying the work farther. All knew that the competition

would be too one-sided and all attempts to complete the work were abandoned, even though $3,000,000 had already been spent in the undertaking. The Western Union assumed the loss and offered to redeem the extension stock by a new issue of bonds. Some denounced this proceeding, but as most of the stockholders of the worthless stock were members of the Western Union, it was allowed to pass, and the great Extension line passed into history.

The history of the telegraph from that day has been one of steady growth. In 1867 Mr. James Gamble who did so much in the construction of the first line in California, became the General Superintendent of the Pacific Division of the Western Union, which included the territory of the entire coast as far west as Utah. He held the position until the early 80's. He was succeeded by his assistant, Mr. Frank Jaynes, who held the position until a few years ago in 1910, when the merger between the Western Union and the Bell Telephone Company took place and the entire system was revised. Mr. C. H. Gaunt is now the head of the entire division.

The local office of the Western Union Telegraph Company has had the same phenomenal growth as the other parts of the city. In the early 70's the office was on Court Street, between Main and Spring, and the manager was Mr. R. R. Haines. Mr. E. A. Beardslee was the next manager, and the office outgrew its old quarters and moved to the corner of First and Spring. Twelve years ago Mr. Ralph Miller took charge of the work in Los Angeles. and with the trend of the city to the south the office was moved to its present location on Spring Street near Sixth. In 1910 Mr. S. A. Lawrence succeeded Mr. Miller, and he is now the manager of the Los Angeles office.

San Francisco has the largest office in the state. It has twentyone branch offices, 421 employees, operators, clerks, etc., and messengers. In the state there are 27,410 miles of wire, 791 offices and 1977 employees.*

The only other telegraph company which has ever become a factor in the state is the Postal Telegraph Company. Mr. Albert B. Chandler, a well-known man in telegraph circles was its promoter, backed largely by the wealth of John Mackey. It was built in the 80's. It gets its strength and has been able to compete with the Western Union because of its cables, especially those of the west, for it is the only company which is connected with the Orient. The Pacific Cable was completed between San Francisco and Honolulu Christmas Eve, 1902, and finished to Manila July 4, 1903.

*Letter of Mr. Frank Lamb, Assistant Superintendent of the Pacific Division of the Western Union Telegraph Company under Mr. Frank Jaynes.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF GLADSTONE.

BY C. C. BAKER.

Of the many towns which rose and fell during the great boom of 1887, none had a more spectacular existence than Gladstone. This was due to the fact that its promoter was a press agent of ability who professed to see in this town a future rival of Los Angeles itself.

The name Gladstone was given by its promoters to the vicinity of the old post office of Centro, which was located at the northeast corner of the present Citrus Avenue, the boulevard leading from Covina to Azusa, and Broadway, which intersects Citrus Avenue about two miles north of Covina. It was named in honor of the great English premier and it is said that a deed to a lot in the townsite was sent him and his picture was kept on display in the office of the promoters.

In 1878 Dr. E. E. Dunkenson opened the first store in Centro, and covered the neighborhood with a peddler's wagon. He continued there till 1880. E. M. Haskell opened the next store there in the fall of 1882, and on December 31, 1885, received his commission as the first postmaster of Centro, it being supplied, as was the entire district, by star route, service daily from Puente, on the Southern Pacific. In the meantime there had appeared two blacksmith shops, a cutlery factory, a shoe shop, a harness shop, a Chinese laundry and the Centro Hotel, locally known as the Pull Tight Hotel, under the management of W. P. Barnes and John Malone, both now residents of Azusa. Centro's prosperity had begun.

The construction of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad and the San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railway, the completing links of the Santa Fe's line into Los Angeles, to a junction at the San Gabriel River in the latter part of April, 1887, brought the boom to that valley. George D. Whitcomb, promoter of Glendora, was a personal friend of C. W. Smith, general manager of the Santa Fe; J. F. Crank, president of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, was an incorporator of the Azusa Land and Water Company, promoting Azusa. Whether or not these facts affected the route, when the junction of the two roads was effected, Glendora and Azusa had a railroad, while Gladstone, which lay between them, was left two miles south of it.

On April 16, 1887, were signed the articles of incorporation of the