HISTORICAL MEMOIR. Vll 



for more than a year and a half, and some were sold as high 

 as 110. Some important amendments to the charter were 

 granted at the same session, by an act approved March 1, 1851. 

 Persevering in the effort for a grant of public lands, Congress, 

 on the 10th June, 1852, passed an act granting to the State of 

 Missouri the alternate sections of land in a strip six sections 

 in width on each side of the line, for the construction of a 

 railroad from St. Louis to the western boundary of the State. 

 Soon after the passage of this act, the Company petitioned the 

 Governor to call an extra session of the Legislature, and the 

 then Governor, Mr. King, complied with the request. So 

 largely had individuals entered the public lands the previous 

 year or two, in consequence of the railroad surveys, that it was 

 soon discovered that the grant would be of little value for con- 

 structing a railroad in a direct line westward from St. Louis 

 to the Western boundary. Therefore, in view of the im- 

 mense district of country lying at the South-west, known to 

 be desirable in soil, climate and minerals, yet inaccessible, and 

 also in view of the probability that a good route for the Na- 

 tional road to California might be found along the 35th paral- 

 lel, it was deemed advisable to make a fork in the line of road, 

 and run the main trunk nearly west in the direction of Kansas, 

 via the State capital, and the fork or Branch in the South- 

 western direction. To the road from St. Louis to the point of 

 divergence from the main line, and thence to the South-west 

 boundary of the State, the State granted the lands by the act 

 of December 20th, 1852, without bonus and with an ex- 

 emption from taxation, until the road could pay a dividend ; 

 and with also a further loan of 11,000,000 to the main line, 

 and 81,000,000 to the South-west branch. The right of pre- 

 emption to actual settlers already on the lands, at |2.50 per 

 acre, was, however, reserved. 



Mr. Allen, President of the Company, was appointed the 

 agent of the State to select the lands, and for that purpose he 

 went to Washington City. The lands selected, and the sched- 

 ule of which, as furnished by the General Land Office, has the 

 force of a patent, amounted to about 1,200,000 acres. 



The Pacific Railroad Company, having surveyed a route for 

 a Branch Railroad to the Iron Mountain, to cross the Meramec 



