USA > Georgia > The history of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, embracing the three important epochs: the decade before the war of 1861-5; the war; the period of Reconstruction, v. 2 > Part 30
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ONE of the most powerful elements in Georgia's striking progress has been that her people early learned the value of the railroad, as an irresistible instrumentality of advancement. And it has been a curi- ous exemplification of her potential destiny, that in the last year or two this State has been the focal point of five stupendous railroad combi- nations, including thousands of miles of track, radiating through a quarter of the vast Union, and involving hundreds of millions of property. And it is a fact, significant and honorable, that the majority of the mas- ter spirits of these colossal enterprises are from Georgia. It is no acci- dent that this supreme pre-eminence has fallen to our commonwealth, but it is the result of adequate causes-her geographical advantages, her superb resources, and the genius of her men.
We have now in Georgia 2,616 completed miles of railroad property in the State, estimated as worth sixty millions of dollars. The capi- tal stock in 1880 was $31,380,650; funded and other debt, $24,136,- 727-total $55,517,342. These roads cost 849,676,723. They earned
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632
LEADING GEORGIA RAILROADS.
88,416,625, net earnings being 83,429,018, of which $1,619,936 was paid as dividends, and 81,051,111 as interest. The first railroads built were the Central, from Savannah to Macon, 191 miles in length, and the Georgia railroad, 171 miles, from Augusta to Atlanta. The experimen- tal survey for the Central Road was made by Col. Cruger, at the cost of the city of Savannah, in 1834. The Central Railroad and Banking Com- pany was organized in 1835, the road begun in 1836, and completed in 1843. The master spirit of this initial enterprise was W. W. Gor- don, Esq., a gentleman of uncommon energy and administrative ability. The charter of the Georgia road was granted in 1833. A part of it was operating in 1837, and the road completed in 1845. The Macon and Western Railroad was chartered in 1833, the charter amended in 1836, and the road completed from Macon to Atlanta, 103 miles, in 1846. These roads had been constructed by private capital. Our enterprising people immediately turned their energies to connect- ing our completed triangular system from Savannah and Augusta, to Atlanta, with the great West. Some bold spirits, among them Hon. Alex. H. Stephens, chartered, and voted the State's money to the West- ern and Atlantic Railroad, 138 miles, from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tenn. This road was completed in 1850. The Air Line was chartered in 1856. Mr. Jonathan Norcross was the first president. The road was located in 1860. Work was not begun until 1867, under Col. Buford as president. The first ground was broken March, 1869, and the first rail laid October, 1869. The road was completed August 26, 1872, the 265 miles from Atlanta to Charlotte costing $7,950,000. The name, Col. J. G. Foreacre, has a powerful and honorable connection with this great road. He was its general manager for years, and is a gentleman of extraordinary ability and enterprise. He is now presi- dent of the North-Eastern Railroad. Still another name of strong prominence that had connection with the Air Line, is Maj. John B. Peck, who has long managed the South Carolina road, an able railroad writer as well as manager.
To show the benefits of railroads, on the Air Line road, the popu- lation decreased from 1850 to 1860, when there was no railroad, at least two per cent., or from 108,800 to 105,247, while on the Western and Atlantic railroad it increased thirty-five per cent., or from 98,208 to 132,549. The enhancement of property in value was over twenty-two millions, or eighty per cent. greater on the State road. After the Air Line road was built, the increase in fourteen counties was fifteen millions in four years, and 2,000 voters, representing 14,000 people.
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633
WILLIAM M. WADLEY.
The South-western Railroad, 143 miles, from Macon to Eufaula, Ala .; the branch from Gordon to Eatonton, 38 miles; the branch from Augusta to Millen, 53 miles; from Barnesville to Thomaston, 16 miles; from Fort Valley to Columbus, 71 miles; from Perry to Fort Valley, 12 miles; from Smithville to Arlington, 59 miles; from Cuthbert to Fort Gaines, 22 miles; from Griffin to Carrollton, 60 miles, all now belong by purchase or lease to the Central, making 787 miles.
The Georgia Railroad, 171 miles; Macon branch, 78 miles; Washing- ton branch, 18 miles; Athens branch, 40 miles; Hartwell road, 10 miles, and Lawrenceville road, 10 miles, making 327 miles, have been leased by the Central Railroad, giving that enormous corporation 1,114 miles of track in the State, besides its outer connections of the Western Railroad of Alabama, Montgomery and Eufaula road, and Port Royal and Augusta road, running its total to 1,494 miles of road. It is in close sympathy with the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, 89 miles, one of the most valuable and best managed railways in the South, whose stock has valued high, and whose governing spirit has been Col. L. P. Grant, one of the most capable railroaders in the Union. The gentle- man whose name is most identified with the Georgia Railroad is Hon. John P. King, once a United States Senator, and for forty years a real railroad monarch, able, far-seeing, public-spirited and influential. The genius of this powerful combination is William M. Wadley, a gentle- man of iron force of character and a capacity for broad enterprises. Mr. Wadley is a large, noble looking man, with a face of singular benevolence of expression. He began in the humblest capacity on the Central Road. He has risen to a masterful pre-eminence through an individuality, unusually strong, simple and direct, with a vigorous posi- tiveness of will, and far-reaching conceptions, and yet with a narrowed range of thought in some matters due to lack of early culture. He is a great-brained and indomitable man. His superb system, grasping the most vital railways of the State, connecting at Savannah with the Northern ports by a magnificent line of Ocean steamers, clutching the South Carolina seaport metropolis of Charleston, with its roads, holding a direct link with Alabama and Mississippi and the great West, is a monument to his consummate and sagacious audacity. Mr. Wadley builds solidly, and he is one of the Railway Kings, not only of Georgia but of the South.
The Macon and Brunswick Railroad was begun in 1859 and finished in 1869, costing four millions for the 196 miles, including the branch to Hawkinsville. Col. George H. Hazlehurst was the ruling spirit of this
634
COLONEL E. W. COLE.
enterprise, a charming gentleman, and an accomplished railway manager. This road, whose history is romantic in the extreme, is the corner stone of the famous Cole-Seney combination. The history of these colossal railway movements in Georgia is a glowing chapter of startling sur- prises, sudden, secret and overwhelming purchases on a gigantic scale, splendid demonstrations of individual management, and formidable coalitions of capital and genius. And connected with these dramatic audacities of railway enterprise, have been some touching episodes of personal strategy, success and disappointment. Col. E. W. Cole, long in charge of the Georgia Railroad, had while President of the Nashville and Chattanooga and St. Louis roads, conceived and carried out appar- ently a powerful scheme that gave him supremacy to the Georgia coast. In the very hour of success, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, under Victor Newcomb's daring young guidance, bought the Nashville and Chattanooga road, dethroned Cole and clutched his great scheme. It was like Sedan to Napoleon, seemingly, the end of an empire.
Col. Cole bore his downfall philosophically. He had in his long rail- road career demonstrated abilities so conspicuous, judgment so sound, executivé power so superlative, and a scope of conception so accurate and broad, that when he organized in a few days a plan covering a cash expenditure of sixteen millions of dollars, and gathering into a compre- hensive and symmetrical chain the scattered links that railroaders had struggled with for years, the country gave to the indomitable Cole the acclaim due to his enterprise and genius. Taking Brunswick, Georgia, as his ocean terminus, he bought the Macon and Brunswick road, Selma, Rome and Dalton road, East Tennessee and Virginia road, leased the Memphis and Charleston road, and has thousands of hands building the gaps from Macon to Rome, through Atlanta. Baffled in leasing the Cincinnati Southern, he has perfected his scheme by securing connec- · tion with Norfolk and by Knoxville to Kentucky, and from Morristown to the Carolina roads. His associates are Mr. George I. Seney of the Metropolitan bank of New York, whose gifts to the Georgia colleges have so endeared him to the people of our State. The whole line of this combination includes 2,138 miles, penetrating the seven states of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia, and represents fifty millions of dollars.
The Brunswick and Albany railroad, like the Macon and Brunswick road, a Georgia enterprise full of romantic eventfulness in its construc- tion, begun before the war and finished since, a memento of the most tragic episode of Reconstruction, embroidered with the association of
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635
THE ERLANGER SYNDICATE.
over five million of fraudulent bonds, has been made the initial link of another vast railway scheme, known as the Erlanger syndicate of Frank- fort capitalists in Europe, represented by Mr. Fred Wolfe. This line extends from Brunswick, Ga., to New Orleans, and from New Orleans through Chattanooga to Cincinnati, and from New Orleans to Texas. It owns besides the Brunswick and Albany road, the Vicksburg and Shreveport, and the Vicksburg and Meridian, the Memphis, Holly Springs and Selina roads, and has leased the Cincinnati Southern. It has invested over twelve millions, and is building between three hundred and four hundred miles of new road. The Erlanger line embraces at present one thousand six hundred and thirty-one miles of road, worth forty millions of money, and it is still extending. It includes at present the following lines:
Cincinnati Southern, .
326 miles.
Alabama Southern,
296
Meridian to Vicksburg,
145
Vicksburg to Shreveport,
196
Meridian to New Orleans,
193
Eutaw to Memphis,
175
Eutaw to Selma,
52
Selma to Albany,
163
Albany to Brunswick,
85
Total,
1,631
Mr. Wolfe has twenty-five millions to invest. Baron Erlanger, the head of the syndicate, is the husband of the daughter of John Slidell, Confederate Commissioner to Europe, captured on the British steamer Trent. To the historic fact of Slidell's embassy and the affectionate devotion of his daughter to the South, do we owe this enormous invest- ment of capital, commencing in Georgia, in the railways of the South.
The Georgia Western Railroad, running from Atlanta into the inex- haustible coal fields of Alabama, has been a cherished project of Georgia enterprise for years. Starting and failing, organized and reorganized time and again, finally Gen. John B. Gordon caught up the unutilized and affluent opportunity, and has given it life. He and his brothers, E. C. Gordon, Walter Gordon and Gov. A. II. Colquitt, organized the Georgia Pacific Syndicate, with twelve and a half millions of capital, to build a line from Atlanta through Birmingham, Ala., to the Mississippi river. That rich and powerful syndicate, the Richmond and Danville, already owning the Air Line road in Georgia, has taken in the Georgia Pacific. This magnificent scheme covers the following roads:
636
THE GREAT LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAILROAD CO.
140 miles.
Richmond to Danville, Va., . Piedmont Railroad, Danville to Greensboro, N. C., . 49
North Carolina Railroad, Goldsboro via Greensboro to Charlotte, N. C., . 223
.
North-western North Carolina Railroad, Greensboro to Salem, N. C., 29 Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad, Charlotte to Atlanta, Ga., 269
N. & C. Narrow Gauge branches,
70
Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad, Charlotte via Columbia to Augusta, Ga., . 191
Columbia and Greenville Railroad, Columbia to Greenville,
143
C. & G. branches,
85
68
48
Virginia Midland Railroad, Alexandria to Danville, Va.,
233
Manassas Junction to Strasburg, Va.,
62
Franklin Junction to Roey Mount, (N. G.,)
37
Orange C. H. to Gordonsville, Va.,. .
9
Warrenton Junction to Warrenton, Va., .
9
Richmond, York River and Chesapeake Railroad, ..
39
North-eastern Railroad and Georgia, Athens to Lula, Ga.,
40
1,899 “
Add to this net-work of 1,895 miles the Georgia Pacific from Atlanta to Greenville, Miss., and Arkansas City, and its branches, of 500 miles, and we have the superb aggregate of 2,395 miles, worth seventy-five millions of dollars, with Atlanta and Richmond its centers. The Pres- ident of the Richmond and Danville Company is N. S. Buford of Rich- mond ; Vice Presidents, George W. Perkins of New York and A. Y. Hokes and T. M. Logan of Richmond, with T. M. R. Talcott as General Manager, A. Pope, General Agent, and R. Temple as the Chief Engineer. The Georgia Pacific remains under the Presidency of Gen. John B. Gordon.
We now come to the powerful combination, that seems to be invinci- ble, spreading its strong tentacles ubiquitously, clutching new conquests with a giant's hand, preserving an acknowledged supremacy amid all the shifting changes of railway domination, and enlarging its colossal rule with a steady, irresistible force. Working in an impenetrable secrecy, its purposes are only discovered when successful. It in some way crushes rivalry, while it has a masterful capacity of beneficial coali- tion. The Louisville and Nashville combination is the mysterious and potential organization to which allusion is made. It inaugurated its first startling movement in invading Georgia and dethroning the irrepres- sible Cole. It is bound in a cordial alliance with Wadley's gigantic system in Georgia. It bought a majority interest in the Western and
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Spartansburg, Union and Columbia Railroad, Alstou to Spartansburg, S. C., Ashville and Spartansburg Railroad, Spartansburg to Hendersonville, N. C., Western North Carolina Railroad, Salisbury to W. F. Ashville,
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'Loop' n M. Wadley .
GEORGIA'S
rait
RAILWAY MAGNATES.
637
GENERAL E. P. ALEXANDER.
Atlantic railroad, and but for the wily brain and firm nerve of Joseph E. Brown, whose forethought framed, and whose skillful management enforced, the provision in the law of the lease that kept the control of the road in the hands of the original lessees, and made a forfeiture of the lease the penalty of discrimination, this subtle and iron-handed cor- poration would have obtained the possession and guidance of this regnant little State road of ours. And it has been a curious piece of railway drama, that this steady, diminutive railway of 138 miles, planted in Northern Georgia, has held its imperial monopoly of power and business, firm amidst toppling syndicates, unaffected in a hurly-burly of vast changes and the war of massive schemes, making every one of the stupendous enterprises of thousands of miles of steel track, typifying millions of aggressive capital, pay tribute to its sovereignty. No rival has yet sprung into life, though King Cole is seemingly about to accom- plish the achievement.
It is an interesting fact, that the active spirit of this colossal combi- nation, the Louisville and Nashville, is our own brilliant young Georgian, Gen. E. P. Alexander, a noble officer of the South in the war, and now one of the railway magnates of the Union. He is carrying ably a vast responsibility. Wadley and Cole are nearing sixty years in age. Alexander is in the forties, and may well be called the young Napoleon of the railways. The Louisville and Nashville has over 3,300 miles of road, worth one hundred' millions of dollars, covering the South and the West. An instance of its daring and watchfulness is shown in the fol- lowing recent movement in Georgia.
In 1853, the Savannah, Albany and Gulf railroad was projected. Dr. John P. Sereven was the master-spirit, and his son, Col. John Sereven, succeeded him. The road was done to Thomasville, 200 miles, in 1861, and almost destroyed during the war, and rebuilt to Bainbridge, 236 miles, in 1867. It has branches, Dupont to Live Oak, forty-nine miles; Thomasville to Albany, fifty-eight miles; and the Waycross and Florida division from Tebeauville to Folkston, thirty-four miles, extending to Jacksonville. This road had a million dollar subscription from the State, and $1,200,000 from Savannah. It is in the hands of a new com- pany, and bears the name of the Savannah, Florida and Western rail- road. The Louisville and Nashville road has, with its accustomed sagacity, combined with the Savannah, Florida and Western railroad, which extends its line to Chattahoochee, Florida, connecting with the Pensacola and Mobile road, now constructing by the Louisville and Nashville Company, and forming a direct and unbroken trunk line from
638
GEORGIA THE CENTER OF GREAT R. R. SCHEMES.
New York by Savannah to New Orleans. Thus does a Georgia line, starting from a Georgia seaport, afford the main Atlantic Southern outlet for another grand scheme. The Louisville and Nashville covers its shining tracks of steel from Norfolk to New Orleans by two routes, from Louisville to Pensacola, and from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
Again, Mr. Garrett, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, is said to be seeking his own line from Danville, Va., through Spartansburg, S. C., to Atlanta, at a cost of ten millions of dollars. These colossal enterprises stagger the imagination, and yet they are realities. The whole tendency of railway management is to vast consolidation, which is now experiment. It remains to be seen whether the huge net-works of railway will prove homogeneous and successful systems, or loosely knit schemes, heterogeneous and inharmonious. One thing is certain, and that is that in the face of these sweeping systems, State railroad commissions, governing isolated links of great chains, must be power- less to regulate them, especially in the absence of a uniformity of policy in the States. It looks as if a National commission must ultimately be a necessity.
It is another evident contingency of this consolidating phase of rail- roadism, that the still larger combinations of the North and West may be expected to have an eye to the South, sooner or later, and with their illimitable capital and herculean enterprise, we may look for disarrange- ments of our Southern syndicates. Jay Gould has 12,000 miles of rail- way, from New York to California and Mexico. Railroads are secured by purchase of a bare majority of their stock. When it becomes to the . interest of Gould or Vanderbilt, in the rushing development of Georgia and its enhanced value in a commercial view, to turn a longing eye here, we may not unreasonably anticipate a flutter and displacement of our present syndicates.
Be this as it may, Georgia to-day occupies a position unparalleled in the Union. Ten thousand miles of railway corporations, aggregating 300 millions of money, are pouring capital into and seeking control of Georgia commerce. Between twenty and twenty-five millions of capital from the North are being invested in railways in Georgia to perfect grand schemes. In every part of the State new iron pathways, besides those long lines already mentioned, are opening up the counties to the march of progress. The Marietta and North Georgia railroad, twenty- four miles from Marietta to Canton, is building on to the Carolina border. The North-eastern road, thirty-nine miles from Athens to Lula,
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639
THE RESOURCES OF GEORGIA.
is swiftly extending; a road from Gainesville to Dahlonega is in process of construction; from Arlington to Blakely in Early county, the link is almost done; the North and South road from Columbus to Hamilton is booked for Lagrange; the Augusta and Knoxville road has its four- teen miles built in Georgia, and is going on; innumerable charters have been granted; Atlanta and Alabama, Rome and Chattanooga, Rich- mond county railroad, Rome and Lagrange, Cumming and Suwannee, Buena Vista road, Logansville road, Rome and Carrollton, Kingston and Gainesville, Tennille and Wrightsville, Covington and Ocmulgee, Covington and North Georgia, Covington and South River, Hawkins- ville and Florida, Jeffersonville and Southern, Belt road, Cleveland and Lulu railroads.
It would not be proper to conclude reference to our Georgia railroads without some allusion to its fine array of Superintendents, men of superior capacity and character. Among these are Mr. Raoul, Mr. Wm. Rogers and W. F. Shellman of the Central, Gen. Wm. McRae of the State road, Col. H. S. Haines of the Savannah, Florida and Western, Mr. I. Y. Sage of the Air Line, Mr. John Green of the Georgia, and Mr. J. M. Edwards of the Macon & Brunswick. A change has been just made in the Railroad Commission, Col. N. C. Barnett retiring, and Col. L. N. Trammell taking his place. Col. Barnett filled the place well. Col. Trammell has all the qualities to make a superior Commissioner. He brings to the high duties a splendid practicality, ambition to serve the public interest, and natural diplomacy.
The resources of Georgia are not fully known. The Geological sur- vey, so well conducted for five years by Dr. George Little, still incom- plete, presents such an exhibition of varied wealth, even in its partial exe- cution, as places our commonwealth foremost in its transcendent natural advantages.
The results of the survey have been: 1st, a collection of ten thousand specimens of minerals, rocks, ores, fossils, plants and woods, represent- ing every county in the State, arranged in geographical position, so that any one may walk through the room on county lines and see samples of everything which would be seen by traveling over the whole State.
2. A topographical map of the State, half completed, showing the county lines as now established by law, county towns, villages, post- offices, churches, schools, mills and roads.
3. A geological map of the State, showing the different formations and periods in its history, and the mines in operation.
640
THE MINERALS OF GEORGIA.
4. A hypsometric map showing the elevations from tide water to 4,811 feet on the Blue Ridge.
5. A map showing the river systems and drainage areas.
6. County maps of Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga, Murray, Whitfield, Gordon, Bartow, Floyd, Polk, Cobb, Fulton, Hall and Haber- sham, and of the Okefenokee Swamp, embracing portions of Clinch, Ware and Charlton counties.
7. A map of the Ocmulgee River, from Covington to Macon, show- ing all the sites for manufactories in a distance of seventy miles, with an aggregate fall of 400 feet, with an atlas representing the topography of the separate falls.
8. A map of North-West Georgia with two sections, showing the geological features from the North-west corner of the State to the line of metamorphic rocks, in Bartow county.
9. Unfinished maps of the counties in the western half of the State, for which all the data have been collected on sectional maps.
10. Gold mines have been put in successful operation in Rabun, Towns, Union, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Cherokee, Cobb, Paulding, Haralson, Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Hall, Habersham, Lincoln, Ogle- thorpe and Meriwether. In 1874 there were twenty-five stamps in Lumpkin; in 1881, 425. The 400 increase represent about 400,000 dol- lars of investment of capital.
11. Copper has been worked by the Hunt & Douglas process, in Haralson county.
12. Lead has been mined in Lincoln county.
13. Manganese mines have been opened in Polk, Floyd and Bar-
tow. From the last $60,000 worth was shipped during the last year.
14. Iron mines have been opened, and large shipments made, from Bartow and Polk and Dade counties, and over 100 miles of outerop of fossiliferous iron ore located in Dade, Walker and Chattooga counties.
15. Coal has been mapped over a territory of 175 square miles.
16. Soapstone is now worked into blocks for furnaces and kilns and stoves, in Atlanta, from the mines in Cherokee.
17. The largest acid chambers in America have been built at At- lanta, for the manufacture of sulphuric acid and the mills for produc- tion of acid phosphates. These form the basis for the fertilizers, of which Georgia consumed last year 85,000,000 worth.
18. The North-eastern railroad is well under way to reach the gold, , asbestos, serpentine and corundum of North-east Georgia.
19. The Marietta and North Georgia railroad is moving toward
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64
MINING IN GEORGIA.
the iron, marble, mica, graphite, talc, soapstone and gold of North Georgia.
20. The Georgia Pacific is building to the gold, copper, magnetic iron, asbestos, mica and corundum of West Georgia, the coal-fields of Alabama, and the cotton belt of the Mississippi.
21. Georgia has taken the first rank of the Southern States, from the publication of its resources for mining, manufacturing and agricul- ture, its climate, health resorts, mineral waters, timber and variety of soils.
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