He appeared every night, like myself, at about nine o'clock, in the office of Mr. Tyler, to learn the news brought in the night Associated Press report. He knew me from the Bull Run campaign as a correspondent of the press.

Villard returned to Europe helping German investors acquire stakes in the transportation network and returned to New York in 1886. He then succeeded in obtaining a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific property and organized a new corporation that was named the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. He died of a stroke at his country home in New York in 1900.

He supported John C. He visited Oregon that summer and being impressed with the region's natural resources began acquiring various transportation interests in the region. Villard returned to Europe helping German investors acquire stakes in the transportation network and returned to New York in 1886.