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Show PIONEER OF RAIL YIELDS TO DEATH J AMES CAMPBELL, a pioneer railroad builder, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and one of the historic characters char-acters of the west, died at the Cullen hotel in this city yesterday from an attack at-tack of pneumonia. The disease was contracted con-tracted in Dry canyon, where Mr. Campbell, Camp-bell, despite his 70 years of age, was superintending the construction of a concentrating con-centrating mill. Mr. Campbell began railroading rail-roading over a half century ago, and superintended the construction of the Southern Pacific from California to Ogden. Og-den. During his . lifetime he broke the world's record for fast track-laying, and was for years a superintendent of the Salt Lake division of the Southern Pacific Pa-cific road. In early days he was conductor con-ductor on an Illinois road, and there met Abraham Lincoln, about whom he used to tell many interesting reminiscences. .me acaui oi Mr. uampDeu marKs ine passing of one who knew railroad work from its infancy, and who saw the wheels of progress roll over the untamed west and convert its sage brush-covered plains into productive farms, well stocked cattle cat-tle ranges and busy cities. He saw the day when he and one clerk handled all the business of the Southern Pacific between be-tween the coast and Ogden, that now requires re-quires hundreds of clerks to look alter. Such is the progress he has witnessed in half a century. Interested in Dry Canyon. Mr. Campbell has for years been a resident resi-dent of Los Angeles. Cal.. but about a year and a half ago he came to this city, and became interested in some mining operations in Dry canyon. He took up his residence at the Cullen, and has made that his home since. At his advanced age he undertook to supervise the construction con-struction of a mill in Dry canyon for the Mono Mining -& Milling company, in which he was interested, and successfully completed the work onlv a short time ago. The altitude there was too much for him. and he contracted a cold that soon resulted in an attack of pneumonia. A few days ago it became evident that he could not withstand the attack and his wife was summoned from their home in Los Angeles in time to reach his bedside before his death. Railroaded in the '50s. Mr. Campbell was born in Londondery, Ireland, in 1832, and came to America when a lad 11 years of age. When but a young man he turned his attention to railroading, rail-roading, and in the early '50s took up that work. His ability as a builder was quickly quick-ly recognized by the railroad company and in the '60s he was sent west to superintend the construction of the Southern Pacific from California to Ogden. This work he attended to from the time the first grading grad-ing was commenced until the last spike was driven that completed the road to Ogden. This was at the time when the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific were racing with each other, the former from the west and the latter from the east, for the right of way to the coast. Track-laying was being pushed with all speed, and it was while laying this track that Mr. Campbell - broke the world's record for fast track-laying, by laying ten miles more of track in a day than any other man has ever laid in the same length of time. After completing this work Mr. Campbell Camp-bell was made division superintendent of the Salt Lake division of the road, and he spent many years of his life- looking after the interests of the road. In those days big railroad offices and numbers of clerks were unknown in the western railroad rail-road world, and Mr. Campbell in his later life has remarked to ' his friends that when he was division superintendent of the Southern Pacific he and one clerk handled all the business of the road. Now hundreds of clerks are required to handle the increase of business that has come in a half century. After severing his connection with the railroad Mr. Campbell Camp-bell went to California to live, and resided re-sided there until he came here a year and a half ago. Tales of Abraham. Lincoln. - It was in the early days of railroading in Illinois that Mr. Campbell met Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln. At, that time Mr. Campbell Camp-bell was conductor on a road running between be-tween Springfield and Bloomington, and it was on this train that he saw Lincoln and learned the characteristics and peculiarities pe-culiarities of the great statesman. He was full of reminiscences of these times, and often told them to his friends. Some of . these stories, that were told to Fred L. Davis, who enjoyed the friendship of Mr. Campbell, were related to The Herald by Mr. Davis yesterday. One of these stories, showing the oddity of Mr. Lincoln's Lin-coln's character, Is that when he was traveling about. on the train in those days he always insisted upon riding on top of the cars. -The cars in those days were much lower than they are now, and Mr. Campbell, who was the conductor on the Bloomington-.road, used to tell how Mr. Lincoln always insisted upon crawling crawl-ing up on top of the car. When the train whirled through the country towns with a figure wearing a tall'stove-pipe" seated on top, everyone knew that "Abe" Lincoln Lin-coln was making a journey. As illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's ability to make himself at home wherever he might be, Mr. Campbell often related the story of an amusing incident that occurred oc-curred in Bloomington in the early days. Mr. Lincoln was riding on top of Campbell's Camp-bell's train as usual. when he saw a man in Bloomington with whom he had some business. He asked Mr. Campbell to stop the train, and when this had been done, he walked over to the person he wanted to see and told him to come to his office. The man asked with some surprise if Mr. Lincoln had an office in that place, and was assured by Mr. Lincoln that he had. Walking over to the sidewalk, Mr. Lincoln Lin-coln sat down on the edge of the walk, and, lifting his "stove-pipe" from his head, placed it on the sidewalk, and, drawing some business papers from it, remarked that wherever he put his hat down, there was his office. Mr. Lincoln transacted what business he had with the man. and, putting the papers back in his hat and replacing that upon his head, boarded the train and continued his journey. |