ENPages
Robinson_04241876__0198
A. I don't call any other to mind just now. — Many others.
Q. 200 Was Mr. Strowbridge directly in your em= =ploy, or was he a contractor doing piece=work?
A. He was not a contractor.
Q. 201 Did the Contract and Finance Company do any other thing than perform the grading which you have mentioned?
A. They completed the road in every respect.
Q. 202 What did they do?
A. Hired men to do the blasting tunneling, grading, track=laying, and all work necessary to complete the road.
Q. 203 Did that Company furnish any material?
A. Furnished all the material. — To what Company as you refer: the Contract and Finance Company?
Q. 204 To the Contract and Finance Company.
A. They furnished the material.
Q. 205 What material did they furnish?
A. All the material necessary to complete a railroad.
Q. 206 Did they furnish the ties?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 207 Where did they obtain those ties?
A. Wherever they could get them. Mostly in the sierras.
Q. 208 The rails?
[bottom left margin:] 31
Robinson_04241876__0199
A. They were obtained from various mills in the East.
Q. 209 Who purchased the rails which were used by the Contract and Finance Company?
A. I don't remember who did.
Q. 210 Who delivered the rails that were used in the construction of the railroad to the Contract and Finance Company?
A. They were taken from the vessels upon which they were brought here by lighters belonging to the Contract and Finance Company.
Q. 210 What vessels
A. Vessels which came from New York, and from the various ports where the iron was shipped.
Q. 211 At whose instigation or request were the rails taken from those vessels?
A. At the instigation of the various employes [employees] of the Contract and Finance Company.
Q. 212 Ever at your instigation?
A. I presume so. I don't remember any particular instance.
Q. 213 Do the books of the Contract and Finance Company show all those transactions?
A. I think they do.
Q. 214 Who acted as the agent of or on behalf of the Contract and Finance Company in purchasing those rails?
[bottom left margin:] 32
Robinson_04241876__0200
A. I don't know.
Q. 215 How were they paid for?
A. That I don't know.
Q. 216 Did you ever, as secretary, pay for any?
A. I think the payments were made by me as secretary: I don't remember.
Q. 217 Will the books show such payments?
A. Yes.
Q. 218 Did Mr. C. P. Huntington make any such purchases, to your knowledge?
A. I don't know whether he did or did not, personally.
Q. 219 Did you ever have any correspondence with him in relation to any such purchases?
A. I don't remember that I ever did.
Q. 220 These vessels from which you took the rails, I understand you to say, came from New York?
A. From the ports from which they were shipped.
Q. 221 From Atlantic ports?
A. From Atlantic ports.
Q. 222 You don't know who made such payments.
A. I do not.
Q. 223 You have no knowledge upon the subject?
A. I suppose they were made to the parties from whom the rails were purchased.
Q. 224 Who made payments to those parties?
[bottom left margin:] 33
Robinson_04241876__0201
A. I don't know.
Q. 225 You have no knowledge upon the subject?
A. I have not.
Q. 226 How did you make payment for the material — ties and rails — that you received?
A. I made payments for ties to the parties from whom we purchased them.
Q. 227 Can you name any of the parties from whom you purchased?
A. Ties?
Q. 228 Yes sir.
A. I cannot, just now. I cannot remember them. There were a great many of them.
Q. 229 Can you name any of them?
A. They were the various lumber com= =panies at Truckee. I don't remember their names.
Q. 230 Let me ask, by way of refreshing your memory: Did you ever buy any ties from Friend & Terry?
A. I don't think we ever did. We purchased things from them, but no ties.
Q. 231 Did you ever buy any from a person named West Evans?
A. Yes.
Q. 232 Did you ever buy any from myself, for the Contract and Finance Company?
A. Yourself?
Q. 233 Yes sir.
[bottom left margin:] 34
Robinson_04241876__0202
A. I think we traded with you for some ties: either borrowed or bought.
Q. 234 Did you buy any from MacPherson & Wetherby [McPherson & Weatherby]?
A. I don't remember — about ties.
Mr. Sanderson: Have you reference to material used in the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad?
Mr. Cohen: Yes sir.
Q. 235 I will ask you how you made pay= =ment for those ties which you bought, or for any of them?
A. I could not say.
Q. 236 By paying the amount of the bill right down?
A. Generally, I think.
Q. 237 Did you ever make any payment by check?
A. Yes: we sometimes remitted a check to persons at a distance. When I speak of cash I refer to checks as much as coin.
Q. 238 When you bought and paid for ties what entry did you make upon the books of the Contract and Finance Company, if any?
A. I suppose I charged the amount to the parties to whom it was paid.
Q. 239 To what account would you charge
[bottom left margin:] 35