Nov 7, 1867 Alta Article
Cc: jwengine@hotmail.com (john white)
John White recently sent me an article from (I believe) the Cincinnati Journal of Commerce of December 10, 1867. It claims to quote an article from the Alta of November 7 which gave a description of the Central Pacific work completed to date, including a discussion of the Summit tunnel and other tunnels in the area. If someone has easy access to the Alta, I'd like to confirm the date of the article in that paper.
The Cincinnati paper misleadingly titled the article "The California Pacific Railroad." It estimates completion to a junction with the Union Pacific in a year and a half – at Fort Bridger (the CP folks could wish it had gone that way).
Jack also sent another, shorter article from the Cincinnati Journal of Commerce dated November 6, 1867, which quotes an undated issue of the Grass Valley Union. In addition to the Summit Tunnels, this article discusses the track laying from Coburn's Station (Truckee), with reportedly already 9 miles of track laid and an engine (one) and construction train at work. This article estimates that the Coburn's Station section will not be connected to the line through the Summit Tunnel until July 1868 because of snow, with eventual completion to the UP connection in 1870.
He also sent another article from the Cincinnati Journal of Commerce of September 8, 1870 about a Chinese crew of 70 hired on a year-long contract to work in a large laundry in Belleville, New Jersey, north of Newark. Part of an attempt to introduce Chinese labor into the Eastern and Southern US.
—Kyle
Cincinnati Commercial 12-10-1867, possibly from the Alta California 11-10-1867
(Wendell suspects this is the article
datelined Nov. 7, but printed in the Alta Nov 10, 1867.)
The Cincinnati article is in fact a reprint of
the Alta Californian article from Nov. 10, 1867. They left off the last part
of the article, which I attach here from the Alta Californian.
Cincinnati Commercial 11-6-1867, from the Grass Valley Union
Cincinnati Commercial, 9-8-1870
(The New Jersey Chinese.)
Courtesy of John White and Kyle Wyatt.
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 5:57 AM
8 Comments:
From: "John Snyder" johnsnyder@onetel.com
I seem to recall that the Alta [California newspaper] is available on microfilm at the [California State Library] California Room. You may possibly find the [Grass Valley] Union there as well.
—John Snyder
From: "John White" jwengine@hotmail.com
I can't believe I accidently found something old/new on California by reading through the Cincinnati papers but they and most other papers of the time copied articles from around the nation. The New York Times did a lot of this but tended to print only very condensed versions. Interesting what's out there if you just keep looking, but my old eyes are getting too weary to do much more microfilm reading. The Chinese article is not very politically correct but I found it interesting.
—Jack
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
I was able to confirm that the Cincinnati article is in fact a reprint of the Alta Californian article from Nov. 10, 1867. They left off the last part of the article, which I attach [above] from the Alta Californian. (I appologize for the low scan resolution ... )
The addition includes a brief piece on a brakeman who fell off a freight train (and lived); and also a longer piece about four white ruffians who robbed several Chinese. Eventually they tried the wrong group of Chinese – results one White killed, one injured, and all White survivors arrested. Nobody seems particularly upset by all this – the feeling in the article seeming to suggest that the Whites got their proper come-uppance. Two of the Whites were known naer-do-wells already.
—Kyle
From: "Don Snoddy" ddsnoddy@cox.net
The whole New York Times index, back to 1851 is online [at Proquest]. To get the whole article you have to pay, but you do get a summary for nothing.
Very handy.
—Don
From: "John White" jwengine@hotmail.com
I think editing was rather crude at the time – if the article was too long for the space available they simply cut the end off.
—Jack
From: "John White" jwengine@hotmail.com
The title of the paper was the Cincinnati Commercial.
—Jack
"BELLEVILLE [New Jersey] – Suddenly the basement of a church built in 1725 is the hot news in town. Rutgers researchers are descending this morning on the Dutch Reformed Church, using ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves of ... several Chinese workers who were among those who built the Central Pacific Railroad and then came back to live, work and ultimately die in Belleville about 150 years ago. These people were among the very first Chinese settlement on the East Coast ... "
—The Jaffe Briefing - November 14, 2019
Also see, "Unearthing NJ's Past: University Students Search Church Basement for Remains of Some of First Immigrants," NBC 4 New York
"Many Chinese workers who helped build the Central Pacific Railroad ... settled here, lived here, raised families here and eventually died here. Some of their graves can be seen in the cemetery behind the church; others have disappeared from the landscape. Some were buried out back and it is now believed that their resting places were covered over during one of the church’s expansions. 'Belleville was a place that accepted these Chinese workers with open arms,' Mayor Michael Melham said. 'Belleville was the site of the first Chinatown on the East Coast. If there are workers in the ground under the church, we want to recognize their historical significance and give them a proper burial, if possible.'”
—TAP info Passaic Valley, by CHUCK O'DONNELL, November 14, 2019
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