Initial Ownership and Related Companies
The initial owners of the company were Lewis Alfred Loomis, Jacob Kamm, I.W. Case, H.S. Gile, and B.A. Seaborg. L.A. Loomis was a pioneer on the Long Beach Peninsula. He had formed the Ilwaco Wharf Company in July, 1874. In addition to Loomis, incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company included Robert Carruthers, George Johnson, Abraham Wing, and Captain J.H.D. Gray. They sold shares and raised $2,500 to build a pier and freighthouse on Baker's Bay at Ilwaco, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Later, on February 23, 1875, L.A. Loomis and some of the same incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company incorporated the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company, with the goal of buying a steamboat and running passengers and freight across the Columbia from Astoria to the Ilwaco wharf that they'd built. They sold stock again, raised $25,000 in working capital, and for $22,000, bought the steamboat General Canby.
Other steamboats making the run to Ilwaco in the days before the railroad was built include the U.S. Grant, the R.R. Thompson, and the General Miles. From 1884 to 1888, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company is reported to have put the Alaskan (sidewheeler) on the run from Portland to Ilwaco.
For a number of years the company struggled to make a profit, relying on government mail and troop transport contracts, which did not pay much. Eventually L.A. Loomis and some of his fellow entrepreneurs settled on the idea of building a railroad to replace the stage coach line that they had used to make the connection between Ilwaco and points on the Long Beach Peninsula. Loomis and others incorporated the Ilwaco, Shoalwater Bay & Grays Harbor Railroad on November 23, 1883. Survey work was commissioned, to be done by Major A.F. Searles, of Portland. It was estimated that the railroad could be built for a cost of $5,000 per mile. This meant that it would take about $100,000 to build the railroad. The company's founders raised the money through sale of stock, which took several years to reach a level of capital where construction could begin.
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