HISTORY OF ASTORIA RAILROAD 233
he wrote (Oregonian, June 27, 1891), "has ever put one dollar between these points (Hillsboro and Clatsop City) ex- cepting myself." The loss to Reid was heavy and he never fully recovered.
After Huntington withdrew, Reid went to work to get other financial backing (Oregonian, May 31, 1890, VI). He turned to English capitalists. It was announced October 9, 1890, at Astoria, that an English syndicate had agreed to take $3,000,000 bonds for a subsidy of between $275,000 and $300,000 for payment of the first two years' interest (Ore- gonian, October 11, 1890). Their engineer, James McNaught, reported that the route presented no serious engineering diffi- culties (report in Oregonian, May 19, 1891). The plan was to build into the Willamette Valley; also to connect with the Northern Pacific. To finance the Astoria and the Willamette Valley divisions, Reid incorporated August 18, 1890, the Port- land, Salem & Astoria Railway, Edward T. Johnson and J. H. Smith being the other incorporators.
The Englishmen failed to perfect the deal, however, and in January, 1891, Reid could go no farther, and dropped out. He had graded eight miles out of Hillsboro and seven and one-half miles up Lewis and Clark River (work described in Oregonian, January 1, 1891). Reid tried to keep the project alive by organizing a new company of his own, the Portland, Nehalem & Astoria Railroad, to which the Astoria & South Coast conveyed its right of way between Hillsboro and Clatsop City, upon which division Reid had expended his own money (Oregonian, June 27, 1891). It was Reid's plan to build the road independently of the Astoria interests, but he did not succeed. The Seaside division, with some $55,000 debts, re- verted to the Astorians, and was kept alive by D. K. Warren and other creditors, until early in 1892, when it was taken over by the Schofield-Goss Syndicate, to be mentioned here- after.
Astoria now turned temporarily to the Goble route, for which was organized in July, 1891, the Columbia River & Astoria Railway, by B. Van Dusen, D. K. Warren, Walter C.
