Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 60

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 60

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commerce among the States. But the court held that when the State had granted a company the right to fix its rates within maxi- mum limits, it could not interfere with charges so long as the com- pany kept within those limits. Only one company had no maxi- mum prescribed by its charter, and this one, the Natchez & Jack- son, appealed to the supreme court of the United States. The supreme court of the United States, on appeal from Judge Hill, in 1885 reversed the lower court, and upheld the constitutionality of the supervision law in all particulars.

In 1888 the board was required to revise the railroad assess- ments, and the duties of a Board of Control of the penitentiary were added, which became onerous after the cancellation of the lease to the Gulf & Ship Island railroad.

The board reported at the close of 1889 that the results of rail- road supervision had been to secure an uniform rate of three cents a mile for passengers, except on one narrow guage line. This was not secured without much tedious negotiation. They formulated the "Mississippi Classification" of freight rates in 1886, and on this basis, also on the basis of the Mississippi Valley and the Southern Association classifications, endeavored to secure uniformity in the classification of freight. The Southern Association classification was adopted throughout the State in 1888, except by the Illinois Central road, operating one-fourth of the mileage in the State, against which suits were begun, and withdrawn when the road sub- mitted under protest. The Illinois Central was operating a num- ber of roads, and deriving the profit therefrom, but prior to 1889, freight passing from one of the lines to another took the local rate of each line. The company was required in 1889 to establish a straight tariff. In a variety of ways, and in various cases, the com- missioners secured similar arrangements for the benefit of the public.

On September 19, 1900, the board issued an order fixing the rates on cotton seed. Injunctions were obtained in the United States court by the Illinois Central system against the enforcement of the rates, but subsequently the suits were dismissed, and the rates adopted, which it was estimated would save $60,000 annually to shippers. A case was brought against the Gulf & Ship Island road, to test the power of the board adversely to its charter, but the chancellor and the supreme court sustained the latter, "the effect of which is to guarantee the road its charter privileges." (Atty. Gen. report.)

The commission in its report of 1900 complimented Mr. Fish of the Illinois Central, and Mr. Russell, of the Mobile & Ohio, upon their success in developing their properties and advancing the in- terests of the country. Yet, said the board, the present adjustment of rates is not fair, and if a readjustment were denied, the public weapon of taxation must be resorted to.

By the law of 1890 it was made unlawful for a railroad to dis- use a depot without the consent of the commission, and the board

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was given jurisdiction of the adequacy of passenger car service, and condition of road way and bridges.

The commission reported in 1906, "we have made a great many improvements for the public convenience in the matter of depot and passenger facilities. We have materially increased the as- sessed valuation of railroads and telephones, and telegraph compa- nies doing business in this State, the total increase in valuations amounting to $2,814,794. We have adopted such modifica- tions and reductions in freight rates and regulations as seemed proper, and made many orders of great importance, involving dif- ferences in freight charges of many thousand dollars." An order that Illinois Central fast trains should stop at Magnolia had been resisted, and appeal taken by the road from Judge Niles to the United States supreme court. The Alabama & Vicksburg railroad had appealed from the State supreme court to the United States supreme court in opposition to the fixing of a grain rate from Vicksburg to Meridian. The State supreme court had sustained the board in the Pontotoc depot order, and there were other cases of important litigation.

Railroads. (Also See Internal Improvements.) In 1830 a rail- road was completed for several miles out of Charleston, S. C., on "which was operated a wonderful'steam car, running 15 miles an hour. In April, 1831, a railroad four and a half miles long, from New Orleans to Lake Ponchartrain was opened. In the same year the Mississippi legislature chartered a railroad company to build from Woodville, Miss., to St. Francisville, La. The subscrip- tion to the stock was nearly completed in 1832. when also, a route had been surveyed from Vicksburg to Warren, 55 miles, and a large part of the stock taken. A railroad meeting was held at Nat- chez. October 10, 1834, presided over by James C. Wilkins, and addressed by John T. Griffith, Felix Huston and Adam L. Binga- man, to promote the building of a railroad to Jackson, with future extension to the Tennessee River. Delegates were chosen to a convention which met at Gallatin in December, the object being to open up the interior of the State. Surveys were made, and be- fore January, 1836, seven and a half miles of the road was put under contract, upon individual responsibility, in anticipation of an act of incorporation. This was "The Mississippi Railroad." According to Acting Governor Quitman's message of 1836, the Vicksburg Commercial Railroad & Banking Company, the Grand Gulf & Port Gibson, and the Woodville & St. Francisville Com- pany had received favorable charters (1835). and were proceeding "with energy to the construction of their several useful works of internal improvements." The Commercial Company was to build a railroad from Vicksburg to Jackson, with a bank attached for the manufacture of capital ; the other two were of the same nature : and in 1836 the Mississippi & Alabama Company was chartered to build the road from Jackson east, with a bank at Brandon that soon became notorious, its downfall causing the suicide of the president ; also the Mississippi Company, at Natchez, of which

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John A. Quitman was president, which established a bank at Nat- chez and started the railroad from Natchez northeastward. The proposed Lake Washington & Deer Creek road also had its bank; there was another at Columbus, and the Benton & Manchester project was similarly provided.

A complete statement of the railroad situation was printed by the Woodville Republican in January, 1837, from which it appears that about 700 men were then employed constructing the Wood- ville & St. Francisville road, to be 29 miles long. A line from New Orleans to Liberty was projected. On the Natchez-Jackson rail- road several hundred hands were at work, out from Natchez, and bets had been made that cars would be running to Washington, six miles, by July 4th. It was hoped that the public spirit that supported this enterprise would not abate until "the traveler might in the same day, drink from the Tennessee in Tishomingo and the Mississippi at Natchez." A locomotive and train was running on the road in May, 1837, when the financial crash came. Several hundred hands were also at work on the Grand Gulf & Port Gib- son road, 71/2 miles long. A line was projected from Grand Gulf via Raymond to Jackson. About 800 hands were at work between Vicksburg and the Big Black on the Vicksburg & Jackson line. Other chartered roads, not yet so far along as actual work, were the Manchester & Benton, Pontotoc & Aberdeen, Narkeeta, Jack- son & Brandon, Jackson & Mobile, and the Noxubee. Most of these would be mere feeders of the river traffic. The proposed New Orleans & Nashville line, which threatened competition with the river, was bitterly opposed. Governor McNutt, in January, 1839, said the Vicksburg & Jackson road would be completed in 1839 and rapid progress was being made with the Mississippi rail- road. Little had been done by the railroad-banking concerns toward building the Grand Gulf & Port Gibson, St. Francisville & Woodville and the Mississippi & Alabama (the Brandon bank), and the various other railroad-banking companies had confined their operations mainly to the issue of paper money. (See Bank- ing.) The Mississippi railroad company (Natchez & Jackson) owned 78 slaves. It laid iron on 2412 miles of track, before the collapse of the bank. A tornado in 1840 destroyed some of its extensive buildings. Its locomotive, the first in Mississippi, was exhibited at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. The Vicksburg & Jackson had been built 28 miles out from Vicksburg in January, 1840, at a cost of nearly $2,000,000. The Woodville and St. Francis- ville road was intended to connect on the south with the proposed Bayou Sara Railroad, to extend 101 miles from New Orleans along the left bank of the Mississippi, to St. Francisville, and on the north with a road to run from Woodville to Natchez and ulti- mately to Vicksburg. It is a curious fact that Woodville still re- mains the northern terminus of this line of road, which now constitutes the Bayou Sara Branch of the Y. & M. V. railroad.

The Vicksburg road to Clinton was the first 54 miles constructed of the present Alabama & Vicksburg. A grand barbecue was given

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followed by a ball at the Galt House in Clinton, on the date of the arrival of the first train from Vicksburg. "But the festivities were interrupted by a terrific tornado which in the afternoon swept the country and tore up the rails for miles. Carriages and wagons were conscripted to carry the visitors from Vicksburg back to the city, and soon order was brought out of chaos." (M. H. S., Vol. 7, p. 291.)

By the year 1840, 83 miles of railroad had been built in Mis- sissippi, composed of the railroads above mentioned, with an ag- gregate mileage of 61.75; Jackson & Brandon, 14 miles, and the Grand Gulf & Port Gibson, 71/4 miles. The interests of the Vicks- burg and Brandon companies were transferred to the Southern Railroad Company which, in 1854, was granted an extension of time to March 8, 1858, to build the road from Brandon to the State line. It was aided by a land grant. The Mobile & Ohio was incorporated in Mississippi February 4, 1848, and completed April 22, 1861.

In 1850 the cost of construction and equipment of railroads in Mississippi aggregated $7,998,298, and in 1855 there were 226 miles of railroad in operation according to the annual report of the Railroad Journal, N. Y. The New Orleans road in January, 1856, was graded north as far as Brookhaven and cars were run- ning to Osyka. From Jackson northward, the road was con- structed and in operation early in 1856 as far as Canton. The total mileage is given as 862 in 1860. De Bow's Review, Vol. 28, gives the following figures for that year: Grand Gulf & Port Gib- son, miles operated, 8; Memphis & Charleston, 27 in State; Mis- sissippi & Tennessee, 80; Mississippi Central, 187; Mobile & Ohio, 169 in State, and Columbus Branch, 14; New Orleans, Jack- son & Great Northern, 118 in State; Raymond road, 7; Southern, 83; West Feliciana (Woodville road), 7 in state. The New Or- leans, Jackson & Great Northern was complete with single track, and necessary side-tracks, depot buildings and water stations, from New Orleans to Canton, a distance of 206 miles, and its con- struction is said to have equalled that of any railroad in the United States. North from Canton, the Mississippi Central extended the line to Jackson, Tenn., and formed a link in the great through route between New Orleans and Chicago, while the Mississippi & Tennessee connected Grenada with Memphis. In April, 1861, the Mobile & Ohio was completed to the Tennessee line, and was in running order from Mobile to Columbus, Ky. The Vicksburg & Jackson, and Brandon (Mississippi & Alabama) lines, united un- der the name of the Southern (A. & V.), were completed as part of a through line June 3, 1861. These, and the Memphis & Charles- ton, through Corinth, were the railroads fought over during the war. The railroads built before the war were aided by loans from the State, as well as by land grants from the United States. (See Internal Improvements and Chickasaw School Fund.) After the war began the railroads came largely under the control of the Confederate military authorities. When the Union Armies en-

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tered the State they destroyed the roads, rolling stock and depots, to impair the Confederate means of communication, and in cases where the Union troops rebuilt the roads for their own use, they were destroyed by Confederate troops.

The State government favored the railroads by permitting them to pay an indebtedness to the State of about one million dollars in depreciated State and Confederate money, in 1863 and later. But after the war this act was held to be unconstitutional and the roads were required to pay in sound money. The companies were also authorized to issue scrip to circulate as money. "The Mo- bile & Ohio was empowered to issue $300,000, the Mississippi Cen- tral $300,000, the Mississippi & Tennessee $125,000, the Southern $150,000, the West Feliciana $50,000, the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern $300,000." (Garner's Reconstruction.)

The railroads were finally all seized and operated by the Mili- tary Railroad department of the United States army, and $45,000,- 000 was expended by the United States in the entire South in repair and equipment, which was a debt against the roads when restored to the companies. Practically none of the railroads were able to pay the debt, and it went by the board. The debt of the Mississippi railroads on this account was over $1,000,000. In Gar- ner's Reconstruction, pp. 142-45, is given an account of the mis- fortunes of several roads in war times. The Memphis & Charles- ton was fought for and in turn damaged by both armies. From Pocahontas to Decatur, 114 miles, it was in 1865 almost entirely destroyed. The Memphis & Tennessee, from Grenada to Mem- phis, had also been almost continuously raided. The first train. after 1862, went through on January 3, 1866. The Mississippi Central, from Canton to Jackson, Tenn., was a wreck and the company carried a debt of $1,500,000. In the summer of 1865 hand cars were used between Oxford and Holly Springs and pas- sengers were ferried across the Yalobusha River at Grenada. The N. O., J. & G. N., New Orleans to Canton, which had been com- pleted at a cost of $7,000,000 and was said to be the best equipped road in the South, was seized by General Lovell, on behalf of the Confederacy, in 1862, but later restored, and was in operation as far north as Ponchatoula, the more northern part having been wrecked as a continuous line by the raids of Sherman and Grier- son. In 1865 Gen. Beauregard was elected president, 78 bridges were rebuilt, rails laid, and equipment supplied, and trains began to run regularly between New Orleans and Canton October 3, 1865, for the first time since May, 1863. The last rail of the Mo- bile & Ohio, built mainly by English capital, was laid just before the firing on Fort Sumter. At the end of the war the company lost what was due it from the Confederate government. $5,000,000. All the bridges and trestles were destroyed north of Okolona, and the road was generally wrecked in the vicinity of Meridian. None of these suffered more than the Southern (Vicksburg to Meridian), during the war one of the most important military lines of the South. To put it out of condition was the first step in the siege

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of Vicksburg in 1863, and it was afterward destroyed as far east as Meridian by Sherman.

In 1866 the railroads memorialized the legislature for the repeal of a tax of one-half cent a mile on each passenger carried, in which they said that their whole property had been heavily mortgaged before the war to pay for construction. The creditors in the North and Europe were urging the payment of six years interest, delinquent during the war. Owing to the ravages of war the com- panies had been for 18 months struggling for life. They had suc- ceeded beyond their most sanguine hopes, but the stockholders had never received a dollar since the roads were built, and divi- dends could not soon be expected. This was signed by Gen. Beau- regard, president of the New Orleans road, A. M. West, president of the Central, F. M. White, president of the M. & T., Sam Tate, president of the M. & C., M. Emanuel, president of the Southern, M. B. Pritchard, superintendent of the Selma & Meridian, and Abram Murdoch, for the M. & O. This was without avail. In January following the governor reported that the Southern had agreed to an arrangement and was collecting the tax, but the others had done nothing. He asked for a law authorizing com- pulsion. The legislature of October, 1865, appointed a joint com- mittee on Internal Improvements to investigate the conduct of the railroads which had received charters, to ascertain whether they had faithfully discharged their duties to the State and people, ac- cording to the spirit and letter of their charters, or had violated them and worked a forfeiture of the charters. The constitutional conventions of 1865 and 1868 refused to recognize the validity of the settlements of 1863, and subsequently the courts held that the State could recover the full amount of the loans. When the N. O., J. & G. N. was about to go into the hands of a receiver in bankruptcy, in 1870, Governor Alcorn, in a message to the legis- lature, declared the company had broken faith with the State in every instance of their mutual contracts, defaulting in payments of loans and interest, and neglecting to build the Aberdeen Branch as required in the charter. He urged the enforcement of the pen- alties of forfeiture of charter, and the seizure of the property. A compromise act was passed in April, 1872, and the debt of the New Orleans road was paid, $213,000 in auditor's warrants, and $81,000 in warrants issued as a subsidy to the Ripley railroad. Treasurer Wasser refused to accept the latter, and later, Governor Powers executed an act of the legislature in aid of the Ship Island road, by transferring to it $110,000 of the auditor's warrants in exchange for first mortgage bonds of the road last named. Eleven miles of the Mississippi Valley & Ship Island road were completed in 1873, in order to draw from the State this subsidy of $110,000, after which the road subsided.

The period following the war was one of renewed enthusiasm in railroad projects. The constitution of 1869. the State being again in a speculative period similar to that of 1835-45, required the legislature to provide for the organization of a Board of Pub-

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lic Works. But a clause was adopted prohibiting the loan of the credit of the State, and the taking of stock in improvement enter- prises. The rebuilding of the levees involved some heavy finan- cial transactions. (See Levees.) Many companies were chartered by the legislatures, particularly in 1870 and 1871. In the latter year a general railroad act offered $4,000 from the State treasury, for every 25 miles of road constructed by September 1, 1875, by any company that had finished no construction in May. The New Orleans road was authorized to issue bonds to the amount of $3,500,000, and all forfeitures to the State were released on condi- tion that the line should be built from Canton to Kosciusko by January 1, 1872, and to Aberdeen within five years, as required in the original charter. It was also pledged that on such comple- tion, the governor should transfer to the N. O., J. & G. N. com- pany "all the stock owned by said State in any and every railroad company whose road is in whole or in part within this State." Subscriptions to stock by counties and towns, and donations of land were also authorized for various proposed roads. The sub- sidies granted the Vicksburg & Nashville and Mississippi Valley & Ship Island roads amounted to about $1,000,000. Counties and towns were embarrassed by the resulting taxation. Governor Ames urged, in 1875, the revocation of the charters.

A large number of railroad lines were surveyed in 1872 and grading was begun on the following: Memphis & Selma, Mobile & Northwestern, Vicksburg & Ship Island, Vicksburg & Nash- ville, Prentiss & Bogue Phalia, Natchez, Jackson & Columbus. These projects were dependent almost exclusively on private aid and county subscriptions, some counties voting extravagant sub- sidies. The Ripley railroad was the only one to qualify for the State subsidy, and received from the treasury, in warrants, $81,- 968. On the advice of the attorney-general the State treasurer gave notice that he would not receive these warrants in payment of dues to the State, but Governor Powers promised that they would be received for face value on the debt due from the N. O., J. & G. N. company, and thus prevented their repudiation. In 1873 the legislature voted to give the Vicksburg & Nashville rail- road, on certain conditions, the trust funds known as the Three per cent. and the Agricultural land scrip, amounting to $320,000, and receive the note of the company secured by first mortgage bonds. In the opinion of Governor Ames it was a pure steal of the trust funds. The company had not completed any of its road in February, 1874, when Ames recommended the repeal of the donation.

Under the old laws the railroads were exempt from taxation until 1874. In the legislature of 1873 there was an attempt to prolong this exemption ten years by smuggling a provision to that effect into an act regarding the Liberty & Woodville rail- road. "Aside from having been exempt from taxation," said Gov- ernor Powers in 1874, "these companies, with one exception, are now indebted to the State for moneys loaned (Chickasaw and In-

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ternal Improvement funds) on which they have for the past eight years been paying no interest." Suit was pending against the Mobile & Ohio. In the summer of 1873 most of the railroads agreed to pay taxes upon a valuation of $5,000 per mile; but the N. O. & M. and M. & O. would not agree to this. No taxes had been paid, early in 1875. The railroads paid taxes in 1875, to the amount of $12,383, which was distributed to the counties. The legislature of 1875 levied a tax of $75 per mile which most of the roads paid, the Mobile & Ohio and a few others, contending for charter exemption. One of the most glaring forms of "graft" of that period must have been with the connivance of the railroad companies, i. e., the payment of commissions to tax collectors on railroad taxes they did not collect. In one case $23,400 commis- sions for levying and collecting a tax of $600,000 were paid, though not a dollar of revenue reached the State. (Powers' message, 1873.) The legislature of 1872 and 1873 made provision for sell- ing large areas of forfeited lands along their right of way, to the Vicksburg, Pensacola & Ship Island railroad, later known as M. V. & S. I. and the Memphis & Vicksburg, at two cents an acre, as aid to those enterprises. Many other railroads were similarly favored. The two companies above named made a demand for deeds in 1881, but they were refused by Governor Stone on the ground that the companies had failed to meet the conditions of the laws, and the lands had been disposed of by the abatement laws of 1874 and 1875. In March, 1876, the supreme court affirmed a judgment in favor of the State against the Mobile & Ohio for $397,866; but there was an appeal to the United States supreme court. In the same year there was a similar judgment and appeal in the case brought under the law of 1867 to compel the New Or- leans, Mobile & Texas railroad to maintain a drawbridge over Pearl River. The latter was finally decided in favor of the State. Under an act of legislature in 1877, the State settled with the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans railroad company, the indebt- edness of the Mississippi Central, which was merged in the new company. The company gave its notes for $136,158. An act of 1878 permitted the Mobile & Ohio to compromise its indebtedness to the State and counties, on account of taxes, by the payment of $25,000. The 990 miles of railroad in the State in 1870 were but slightly increased by 1880 (to 1,127) and much of the increase was in narrow gauge roads, notably the Natchez, Jackson & Colum- bus from Natchez to Martin City, and the Ship Island, Ripley & Kentucky from Middleton, Tenn., to Ripley.

After 1880, mainly in the first five years, there was a great growth of railroads. A statement of the railroad work in 1881-82 noted the purchase of the old Southern road by the Erlanger syn- dicate, who were building a road from Meridian to New Orleans ; the road from Natchez to Jackson was completed; the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans had begun a branch to Yazoo City from Jackson ; R. T. Wilson, of New York, had begun the building of the line from New Orleans to Memphis, paralleling the river; the

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 60

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020