The $6 Million Secret: How Seattle’s Future Railroads Were Sold to Washington Politicians

The Sun's Washington special gives the disposition of the twenty-four shares of Northern Pacific Railroad as follows: Smith, President of the Vermont Central Railroad and his friends took one interest; Tom Scott, of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, and his friends, another; George W. Cass, President of the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne Railroad Company, and his friends, ten shares; Sam Hooper, and his friends, two shares; W. G. Fargo, another; William Windom, Bill King, and other Minnesota capitalists represented by them, one share: and the other four shares were allotted as follows: Thad. Stevens, one in the name of Riley Blaine one in the name Stewart; John Sherman, one in the name of Cook; U. S. Grant, one.

The twelve shares Jay Cooke Company held were drawn upon for allotments to the army of lobbyists they had employed here from time to time. One share was divided between Edmunds, Postmaster of Washington, and Sam Wilkinson, another split-up among his friends. Dent and Page got their interest through Thad Stevens' man, Riley. Schuyler Colfax did his business directly with Cook, and so did John Sherman.

There were $81,000,000 of stock to be divided among these twenty-four shares, and equal amounts of the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Land Company’s stock, as well as a goodly number of the seven-thirty first bonds which came through another credit mobilier, which is called the Construction Company, which built the road, taking the bonds therefor, and dividing the surplus over and above the cost of the road among the ground-floor stockholders. Each one of these twenty-four interests was entitled to $337,000 of the railroad company stock, and a like amount of Sound company stock, making in all $6,750,000.