page_title: Joseph P. Gaston
section_title: Oregon and Central Railroad
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph P. Gaston / Oregon and Central Railroad
caption_attribution_description: English: Joseph Gaston, Oregon historian
context_page_description: Joseph P. Gaston was an American railroad executive, journalist, and historian based in Oregon. He is remembered as the namesake of Gaston, Oregon, the Joseph Gaston House, and the Gaston-Strong House. Gaston was the first president of the Oregon Central Railroad and an outspoken opponent of railroad executive Ben Holladay. He authored the three-volume Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders and the four-volume The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811 to 1911.
context_section_description: In 1863 the California and Columbia River Railroad, a company founded in Marysville, California, sent surveyors north to map a route from Marysville to Portland. A dispute regarding both the route and its financing erupted between surveyors Simon G. Elliott and George H. Beldon, and the survey party disbanded in Jacksonville. Gaston agreed to continue the survey and hired Beldon and A. C. Barry to complete the route from Jacksonville north to Portland. As a result of the Barry survey, Congress enacted the Oregon and California Railroad Act in the mid-1860s that allowed the Oregon Legislature to award land grants and subsidies to a railroad that could complete the work. The Oregon Central Railroad was formed by Gaston, Jesse Applegate, Joel Palmer, William S. Ladd, and other investors for this purpose.
  Barry's route followed the west side of Oregon's Willamette Valley, but it was not the only proposed route. Gaston became involved in a lengthy dispute with Simon Elliott and Ben Holladay, railroad builders who favored an east Willamette Valley route, and Holladay eventually gained control of the federal land grants. Later, Gaston tried unsuccessfully to obtain a separate land grant from Congress, and he was eventually forced to sell his interest in the railroad to Holladay.
  During this time, Gaston also served as editor of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. From 1874 to 1875, he served as editor of Portland's Daily Bulletin, and it is not known whether Gaston's interest in journalism was to promote his railroad plans.
caption: Gaston as depicted on the frontispiece of his Portland, Oregon: Its History...
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