DIY History | Transcribe | Building the Transcontinental Railroad | Grenville M. Dodge correspondence with Thomas C. Durant, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1858

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Grenville M. Dodge correspondence with Thomas C. Durant, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1858

Page 04

living in New York and Boston. the resident land owners have no more generally than is included in their farms and had rather pay interest on the Bonds than to sell lands. but to obtain lands, some, promise or exchange of Bond would have to be made. I consider the Swamp Lands of Shelby and Audubon Counties far superior to any private lands that could be obtained Those can be got at $1.25 per acre in exchange for stock also in Dallas & Guthrie when the company can offer the proper inducement for them to vote them. Let it be known here that the company did not intend to do any thing here and sixty days would not pass before every vote would be rescinded in this part of the state and the company, would be placed in a position where here after it could not obtain any aid from the Missouri to Des Moines Rivers our friends would turn to the Bitterest enemies adding to that distrust which now is almost impossible to over come By finishing 20 or 40 miles at this end you can get title (under present [discussion?]) to all the Government Lands belonging to the Company, and by putting under process of construction a portion of the work you can carry every county from here to Polk for any reasonable ammount of Lands or Bonds. I have stated the facts in relation to this portion of the state pretty fully - and although I would much rather see the road pushed from East to West, still under the circumstances I have considered that the Company and interests enough at stake to justify the expending of a portion of the Bonds this fall to secure the whole I have been very careful and guarded in my promises knowing, the aversion that the company have of making more than they always lived up to. I have started the proposition for the Swamp Lands in Shelby County and would like the Contract between the Company & County Judge drawn up and sent me. They suppose that you will let a portion of the work in that County, and with present prospects it will carry. the Right of Way through this County has been mostly obtained In Shelby we shall have no trouble
I am very Respectfully yours
G.M. Dodge

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living in New York and Boston. the resident land owners have no more generally than is included in their farms and had rather pay interest on the Bonds than to sell lands. but to obtain lands, some, promise or exchange of Bond would have to be made. I consider the Swamp Lands of Shelby and Audubon Counties far superior to any private lands that could be obtained Those can be got at $1.25 per acre in exchange for stock also in Dallas & Guthrie when the company can offer the proper inducement for them to vote them. Let it be known here that the company did not intend to do any thing here and sixty days would not pass before every vote would be rescinded in this part of the state and the company, would be placed in a position where here after it could not obtain any aid from the Missouri to Des Moines Rivers our friends would turn to the Bitterest enemies adding to that distrust which now is almost impossible to over come By finishing 20 or 40 miles at this end you can get title (under present [discussion?]) to all the Government Lands belonging to the Company, and by putting under process of construction a portion of the work you can carry every county from here to Polk for any reasonable ammount of Lands or Bonds. I have stated the facts in relation to this portion of the state pretty fully - and although I would much rather see the road pushed from East to West, still under the circumstances I have considered that the Company and interests enough at stake to justify the expending of a portion of the Bonds this fall to secure the whole I have been very careful and guarded in my promises knowing, the aversion that the company have of making more than they always lived up to. I have started the proposition for the Swamp Lands in Shelby County and would like the Contract between the Company & County Judge drawn up and sent me. They suppose that you will let a portion of the work in that County, and with present prospects it will carry. the Right of Way through this County has been mostly obtained In Shelby we shall have no trouble I am very Respectfully yours G.M. Dodge