Union Pacific Railroad Collection, 1874 - 1996

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Summary

Title:
Union Pacific Railroad collection
Dates:
1874 - 1996
Abstract:
This collection is comprised of 9 series. Series 1 contains payroll records for the locomotive department in Cheyene, WY from October 1872 as well as payroll records for the track, bridges, construction, and Superintendent station and car department for December 1874.
Extent:
2 Linear Feet 6 boxes
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Union Pacific Railroad Collection, MS 54, California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, Sacramento, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection is comprised of 9 series. Series 1 contains payroll records for the locomotive department in Cheyene, WY from October 1872 as well as payroll records for the track, bridges, construction, and Superintendent station and car department for December 1874.

Biographical / historical:

The Union Pacific Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1862 in the wake of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha, Nebraska. They were part of the railroads that came together at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869 as the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Subsequently, UP took over the Utah Central extending south from Ogden, Utah, through Salt Lake City, and the Utah & Northern, extending from Ogden through Idaho into Montana, and it built or absorbed local lines that gave it access to Denver and to Portland, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest. It acquired the Kansas Pacific (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad). It also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas.

UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872. Its early troubles led to bankruptcy during the 1870s, the result of which was reorganization of the Union Pacific Railroad as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24, 1880, with its dominant stockholder being Jay Gould. The new company also declared bankruptcy, in 1893, but emerged on July 1, 1897, reverting to the original name, Union Pacific Railroad. Such minor changes in corporate titles were a common result of reorganization after bankruptcy among American railroads. This period saw the UP sell off some of its holdings; the Union Pacific Railway, Central Branch became the Central Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Southern Branch was acquired by the newly-incorporated Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad in 1870. However, the UP soon recovered, and was strong enough to take control of Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in 1901 and then was ordered in 1913 by the U.S. Supreme Court to surrender control of the same. The Missouri Pacific and Missouri Kansas Texas both came back into the UP fold in the 1980s. In 1996, UP finally acquired SP in a transaction envisioned nearly a century earlier. [Wikipedia]

Acquisition information:

Gift of Hugh Campbell, 1990 (1874 payroll)

Gift of Victor F. Baumbach, 1990

Gift of Fred Neese, 1985

Processing information:

Formerly part of MS 57, MS 65, MS 36

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into nine series:

Series 1: Personnel records

Series 2: Engine crew register

Series 3: Audited vouchers

Series 4: Firearms records

Series 5: Miscellaneous

Series 6: Accident reports

Series 7: Correspondence

Series 8: Valuation records

Series 9: Land records

Physical location:
Statewide Museum Collection Center
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Library Archives staff
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-12-12 17:15:24 +0000 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research by appointment. Contact Library Staff.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Union Pacific Railroad Collection, MS 54, California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, Sacramento, California.

Location of this collection:
111 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814, US
Contact:
(916) 323-8073
Library.CSRM@parks.ca.gov
Website