The undertaking required me to visit Keokuk occasionally,
and there I made the acquaintance of clever and delightful people,
among them General and Mrs. Reid, and Mr. and Mrs. Leighton. Visiting
Keokuk with some English friends at a later date, the impression they
received of society in the Far West, on what to them seemed the very
outskirts of civilization, was surprising. A reception given to us one
evening by General Reid brought together an assembly creditable to any
town in Britain. More than one of the guests had distinguished himself
during the war and had risen to prominence in the national councils.
The reputation obtained in the building of the Keokuk bridge led to my
being applied to by those who were in charge of the scheme for
bridging the Mississippi at St. Louis, to which I have already
referred. This was connected with my first large financial
transaction. One day in 1869 the gentleman in charge of the
enterprise, Mr. Macpherson (he was very Scotch), called at my New York
office and said they were trying to raise capital to build the bridge.
He wished to know if I could not enlist some of the Eastern railroad
companies in the scheme. After careful examination of the project I
made the contract for the construction of the bridge on behalf of the
Keystone Bridge Works.
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