U.P. engineering survey party in the Wasatch Mountains, 1866.
Union Pacific

Organization of the Union Pacific

The 1862 Act also named 163 men, 25 of whom constituted a quorum, to form the Board of Commissioners of the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company. These men were to work out a provisional organization of the company. When $2 million had been subscribed to Union Pacific capital stock and 10 percent of this amount paid in cash to the U.S. Treasury, the provisional officers were to give way to permanent officers.

A quorum of commissioners met at Chicago on September 2, 1862, and elected provisional officers. Within a year the requisite stock had been subscribed and 10 percent in cash paid to the Treasury. In October 1863, the stockholders gathered to form a permanent organization. They chose 30 directors, and elected officers: Maj. Gen. John A. Dix, president; Thomas C. Durant, vice president; Henry V. Poor, secretary; and John J. Cisco, treasurer. General Dix never took office, and until 1869 Vice President Durant guided the affairs of the Union Pacific.