Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/246

The payment for the property disclosed in part its ownership, or its indebtedness:

Cash paid Harrison Olmstead on the delivery of the deed $ 9,000

Notes given him, payable in 9 months—

August 6, 1863, six in number....$ 3,753.00 10,684.00 10,000.00 5,000.00 2,216.19 8,346.81 40,000

Note given Ladd & Tilton, Portland bankers, payable June 1, 1863, with interest at 2½% per month 106,000

$155,000

It is a fair presumption that $49,000 was all that Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead, and their unnamed partners, including, as before stated, possibly Joseph Bailey, Captain McFarland, Captain Van Bergen and D. H. Olmstead, got for their outlay of money and time, outside of the profits received from the operation of the property, whatever they may have been. The six notes may have represented the respective interests of that many individuals as partners.

The Oregon Portage Railroad in itself was not of much value to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company; to them the value of the purchase lay in the ownership it gave of the entire portage. It was now impossible for any intending competitor to obtain by purchase or construction equal facilities with themselves, and the only independent route over the portage was the none too good military wagon road on the Washington side, which in fact was from time to time made use of by invaders who sought to share in the Columbia river trade.

To the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company D. F. Bradford presented on March 31, 1863, the claim of Bradford & Co. for their agreed share of the