USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 45
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RICHMOND PEARSON'S BILL. Having secured the $100,000 subscription from Buncombe county, the officers of this road seemed satisfied to keep its terminal at Hendersonville indefi- nitely. Consequently, in 1885, Hon. Richmond Pearson, of Buncombe, introduced a bill in the legislature to declare forfeited the charter of the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad Company, but before it could be read a second time, the railroad company began work and in 1886 completed the road to Asheville. During the time the road's terminus remained at Hendersonville Buncombe county was paying interest on the $98,000 of bonds which had been issued.
THE SOUTH AND WESTERN RAILROAD. The South and West- ern railroad was completed from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Huntdale, Yancey county, North Carolina, in 1900. It was afterwards built to Spruce Pine in 1904.
THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY IN THE MANGER. From the decision of the Supreme court in the case of the Johnson City Southern Railway against the South and Western Railroad Company 15 it is clear that the Southern Railway Company in 1907 attempted to defeat the building of this incomparable railroad now crossing the mountains from Marion, North Carolina, to Johnson City, Tennessee, by alleging that it (the Southern) was seeking to condemn land along the North Toe river in Yancey county for the purpose of constructing a railway from the coal fields to tidewater, when in point of fact it "did not in good faith intend to construct a railroad over the line
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in controversy," but had caused the Johnson City railroad to be "incorporated for the purpose of hindering, delaying and obstructing the building of a railroad along the North Toe by the South and Western Railway Company which was in good faith constructing a railroad from Johnson City to Spruce Pine in North Carolina, and was oper- ating the same. " 15
THE SOUTHERN'S PLAN. The plan of the Southern Rail- way had been to pretend that it meant to build a railroad along this river, although it was well aware that the South and Western had already built such a road along the stream from Johnson City to Spruce Pine; and, by appealing to the courts, to prevent the real road from changing its track from the east to the west bank of the river in order to obtain a bet- ter grade, which it had commenced to do in November, 1905, while the dummy corporation the Southern railway was using for this purpose had not been incorporated till December of the following year. Upon this the court said:
COURTS NOT TO BE USED TO PREVENT PROGRESS. "It is not of so much interest to the public which of two corporations build the road as it is that, by using the courts in the way suggested, they prevent either from doing so. If the course proposed by the 'Southern Railway' be permitted, the State has granted her franchise, with its sovereign power, to her own hindrance. If in creating two corporations she has conferred power upon both by which, through the instru- mentality of her own courts, the building of railroads may be retarded, if not ultimately defeated, and her mountain fastnesses remain locked in their primitive isolation, the legislature may well consider whether some restriction should not be put upon corporations enjoying such power. If the course proposed by the 'Southern Railway' be permitted, railroad building may be 'tied up' indefinitely by repeatedly renewed condemnation proceedings, contested until the end has been reached, and then withdrawn, only to be repeated in another form." 15
THE CAROLINA, CLINCHFIELD AND OHIO RAILROAD. The South and Western, also known as the "Three C's, " but now the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, was completed to Marion, in 1908. It is the best constructed railroad in the mountains, the grades and curvatures being far less than those of the Southern from Old Fort to Morristown.
W. N. C .- 31
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ALLEGED PEONAGE. During the time the heavy work on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge was being done, con- struction companies were given contracts for the building of certain sections of the line. Among these contractors was the Carolina Construction Company. Labor was hard to get, and in order to secure laborers this Construction Com- pany paid the expenses of certain men to their camp. They worked half a day and slipped off, were followed, captured, returned to camp and imprisoned till nightfall, when they were taken out and severely whipped. The facts appear in Buck- ner v. South & Western Railway Co., 159 N. C., going up on appeal from Buncombe county. This was known as the "peonage case."
THE SNOW BIRD VALLEY RAILROAD. The Kanawha Hard- wood Company, with that progressive and public spirited Vir- ginian, J. Q. Barker, at its head, came in 1902 and constructed the Snow Bird Valley logging railroad for a distance of fifteen miles from Andrews over the Snow Bird mountains to the head of Snow Bird creek in 1907-08. The Cherokee Tanning and Extract Company began business in 1903, and the Andrews Lumber Company, under the management of Mr. H. R. Camp- bell, came in the spring of 1911, and have since completed fifteen miles of logging railroad of standard gauge into heavily timbered lands in Macon county on Chogah creek. This com- pany has also built a saw mill near Andrews with a capacity of 80,000 feet a day.
EAST TENNESSEE AND WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD. This road was completed from Johnson City, Tenn., via Elizabethton to the Cranberry iron mines in 1882. It is a narrow gauge road. In 1900 or thereabout it was extended to Pinola or Saginaw, in what is now Avery county. This extension was paid for in coffee for a long time, funds being short, and was called the Arbuckle line. Its real name, how- ever, is
LINVILLE RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY, and was built by E. B. Camp, who owned a considerable body of timber near Saginaw, the company operating the road and saw mills being the Pinola Lumber and Trading Company. Both companies went into the hands of a receiver, how- ever, and were bought in by Isaac T. Mann of Bramley, W. Va. He got the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company in-
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terested in it and both properties finally went to that company, including a very good inn, called the Pinola Inn. A majority of its stock was transferred to the Cran- berry Iron and Coal Company in April, 1913 by the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company.
HENDERSONVILLE AND BREVARD RAILROAD. This road was built in 1894 by the late Tam C. McNeeley. Thos. S. Boswell was the engineer, and after it went into the hands of a receiver in 1897 he operated it as superintendent, when it was bought by J. F. Hays and associates, who afterwards organized
THE TRANSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, and in 1900 ex- tended the road to Rosman, N. C., a point ten miles southwest of Brevard. From there it was to have been constructed to Seneca, S. C., which would have given a shorter route south from Asheville by 35 miles; but the Southern Railway leased it and that put an end to that scheme. In 1903 this road, as the Transylvania railroad, was extended to Lake Toxaway, nine miles beyond Rosman, and it was in this year that the Tox- away Inn was built, the lake having been dammed in the same year, Thos. S. Boswell having been the engineer.
"The building of the Transylvania road and its extension, resulted in the construction of the plant of the Toxaway Tanning Company at Rosman, N. C., in about 1901, as I recall. This has also resulted in the development of the Gloucester Lumber Company at that place; this concern is operating 20,000 acres on the western end of the Pisgah Forest tract of the Vanderbilt estate and have their mills located at Rosman, and carry on quite a large operation, with probably 20 miles of railroad. Also, at Rosman is located the plant of the Shaffer Lumber Company, and they have a line of railroad running to the south from Rosman and have quite a large operation with their mills located on their line of road. Also, the building of the Transylvania resulted in the location of the plant of the Brevard Tanning Company at Pisgah Forest, two miles northeast of Brevard, which has had a very successful operation." 16
THE ELKIN AND ALLEGHANY RAILROAD. The great draw- back to Alleghany county has been the lack of a railroad. The legislature of 1907 authorized the State to furnish not less than 50 convicts for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Elkin to Sparta. The State took stock in this road
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to the amount of the work done by the convicts, and the work of grading was begun in the fall of 1907. In the early part of the year 1911 the directors, John T. Miles, Capt. Roth, H. G. Chatham, R. A. Doughton, A. H. Eller, C. C. Smoot, Henry Fries and others, succeeded in interesting John A. Mills in this enterprise, and he helped to procure the financial aid. And now the railroad has every appearance of being rapidly pushed to completion. The train is now running to the foot of the mountain, nearly halfway to Sparta.
THE PIGEON RIVER RAILROAD. This was one of the first enterprises planned by the Champion Fiber Company; but it decided that a flume from Sunburst to Canton would be cheaper and answer its purposes as well as a railroad. This proved impracticable, on account of difficulties in securing rights of way; and a railroad was commenced a few years ago, of standard gauge, and it is now completed.
GEORGIA AND NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD. The Georgia and North Carolina railroad, from Marietta, Georgia, to Murphy (ch. 167, Laws of 1870-71) was the first railroad to run into Cherokee, and the late Mercer Fain was its first president and was the most active in its construction. It reached Murphy in 1888, and at first was a narrow gauge. It was afterwards absorbed by the Marietta and North Georgia railroad, which extended it from Blue Ridge, Georgia, to Knoxville, leaving the Murphy end a mere branch. It was originally intended that this road should go down the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers to Chattanooga, but others had already obtained a charter for a road by that route which they refused to surrender or assign except upon prohibitive terms. Hence the route via Blue Ridge was adopted. The dog-in-the- manger policy has thus prevented a road down the Hiwassee river and has not produced any benefit to those who not only would not build themselves but would not allow others to do so.
THE APPALACHIAN RAILROAD. There is also a short railroad which leaves the Murphy branch about five miles east of Bry- son City and runs a short distance up Ocona Lufty creek.
TALLULAH FALLS AND FRANKLIN RAILROAD. This road was completed from Cornelia, in Georgia, via Tallulah Falls and Rabun Gap to Franklin, in 1908. It affords an outlet for a large section of this region, and practically makes the whole of Macon county tributary to Georgia. If the Southern
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Railway would complete the link between Franklin and Al- mond, and down the Little Tennessee river from Bushnel to Maryville, Tenn., Franklin would have two other outlets, one into our own State via Asheville, and into Tennessee via Bushnel and Murphy. 17 This is more of the dog-in-the- manger spirit.
THE DAMASCUS LUMBER COMPANY RAILROAD. In 1902 the Hemlock Extract Company, D. K. Stouffer, manager, was built, and several years afterwards the Damascus Lumber Company built a narrow gauge railroad from Laurel Bloomeryin Tennessee, on the Laurel Railway Company's line, over the Cut Laurel gap. It is operated exclusively as a logging road, but the grade, generally, is good enough for a standard road, and there is no reason why it should not be electrified and operated as it is for freight and passengers. Its terminus at Hemlock is only 19 miles from Jefferson, the county seat of Ashe county, the grade down Laurel creek to the North Fork of the New river is good, and the road should be extended to Jefferson at least, the principal barrier to mountain roads having been overcome in the passage of the Cut Laurel gap.
THE TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD was com- pleted to the mouth of Big creek on the Pigeon river about 1897, and then extended two miles up to Mount Sterling post office, where there has been a large saw mill plant since about 1900. The design is to complete this line up the Pigeon to Canton at least; and ultimately up the Pigeon to Sunburst, and thence into Transylvania county. Should it get as far as the mouth of Cataloochee creek it will have tapped the finest body of virgin hardwood timber left in the mountains.
ASHEVILLE AND CRAGGY MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. On March 29, 1901, the city of Asheville authorized the Craggy Mountain Railway Company to transfer its rights over Charlotte street to the reorganized Asheville Street Railroad Company. Mr. R. S. Howland operated this road to Overlook Park, on Sunset Moun- tain, several summers; but, by September, 1904, he had dem- onstrated to his own satisfaction that it could not be made to pay. In that month it was torn up and the rails and ties used to build a track from the Golf Club to Grace and thence to the French Broad river at Craggy Station on the South- ern Railway, and the Weaver Power Company plant and dam, then but recently erected, and to the factory of the
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William Whittam Textile Company, which had been incor- porated February 1, 1902. He also built a trestle across the French Broad river to the opposite bank, where the Southern Railway established a station called Craggy.
QUARRY. Meantime, however, not losing sight of the objective point of the Craggy Railway Company, Mr. How- land graded a roadbed and laid a track for a steam railroad from the new Music Hall at Overlook Park, to Locust Gap, a distance of about two miles, and opened a new quarry about a quarter of a mile from the Music Hall, with a track ex- tending down to it. He also leased a part of the old James M. Smith property, in rear of the present Langren Hotel, where he established bins, and from which he sold all sorts of stone, bringing it down the mountain by a steam dummy engine, and hauling it through the streets of Asheville with a large electric motor engine. The ties and rails on the track to Locust Gap and to the new quarry were also taken up and placed on the railroad leading to Grace and Craggy Station. He also graded a traction road from near Locust Gap through the lands of J. W. Shartle, C. A. Webb and others to Craven Gap at the head of Beaver Dam creek, and thence to within half a mile of Bull Gap at the head of Ox creek on the North and Bull creek on the south. This road is to form a part of the projected automobile road from Asheville via Mitchell's Peak, and thence along the crest of the Blue Ridge to Blow- ing Rock. During this time Mr. Howland experimented with steam traction engines; but they were not satisfactory for the mountain roads.
ASHEVILLE LOOP LINE RAILWAY. Mr. Howland operated the railroad down to Craggy Station and to the Elk Mountain Cotton Mill till April, 1906, when he sold that portion of the railroad between New Bridge on the Burnsville road and Craggy Station to the Southern Railway, but continued to run cars from the Golf Club to New Bridge. The sale of the lower portion of this railroad also carried with it the corporate rights, etc., of the Asheville and Craggy Mountain Railroad Company, and it then became necessary to organize the Asheville Loop Line Railway to operate what was left of the Craggy Moun- tain Railway. This company, during the summer of 1906, leased from the Southern Railway that portion of the railway between New Bridge and Craggy Station and operated the en-
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tire line from the Golf Club to the river. The water im- pounded by the Weaver Power Company dam was called Lake Tahkeeostee, and proved quite an attraction to summer visitors who were in Asheville in great numbers during the season. The railroad paid a slight profit.
ASHEVILLE RAPID TRANSIT RAILROAD. During the fall of 1906 Messrs. Culver and Whittlesey, attorneys, and Mr. R. H. Ting- ley, civil engineer, of New York City, got control of the Loop Line railroad and determined to rebuild the track to the Music Hall on Sunset mountain. To do this they formed a new corporation called the Asheville Rapid Transit Com- pany, December 18, 1906, and in March of 1907 obtained a franchise to build an electric railway from the corner of Water street and Patton avenue across North Main street, and thence along Merrimon avenue to a point near the Manor, and thence over private property to the Golf Club. In order to secure this concession from the city they deposited $1,000, to be forfeited in case they did not commence to build the rail- way into town by the following September and complete it within a few months thereafter.
MERRIMON AVENUE LINE. These gentlemen secured enough money to reconstruct the track up the mountain to the Music Hall, which was in full operation by July 4, 1907, on which day two thousand passengers were transported over the new road. They continued to operate the road during the summer and opened a restaurant and moving picture show at Overlook Park. But the money they had expected to borrow for the completion of the railway into the city via Merrimon avenue could not be obtained, and they abandoned the enterprise, turning the property back to Mr. R. S. How- land in the spring of 1908. As there were several local debts due by the company the board of aldermen very consider- ately returned the $1,000 which had been deposited as a forfeit, upon the abandonment and release by the company of all rights on the streets, on condition that it should be so applied. In June, 1908, Mr. R. S. Howland took charge of the company again; but the company, not hav- ing paid the Asheville Electric Company for the power which had been furnished for some time previous, the latter company refused to supply electric current for the operation of cars to Sunset mountain. An arrangement, however, was
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soon afterwards made for power to operate the cars from the Golf Club to New Bridge and this continued to be done till August 27, when the Rapid Transit Company was placed in the hands of a receiver. It was sold in December, 1908, to R. S. Howland and associates for $25,000. By an arrange- ment between Messrs. LaBarbe, Moale & Chiles and R. S. Howland the latter was to have the roadbed from the Golf Club to New Bridge and certain other property, and the former the track up the mountain and ten acres around Music Hall. This led to some litigation between these parties, which, however, was adjusted in 1911.
EAST TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD. During 1909 R. S. Howland built a trolley railroad from New Bridge to Weaverville, thus giving a continuous line from Grace to Weaverville. By a subsequent agreement with the Ashe- ville Electric Company and the Asheville and East Tennessee Railroad Company, as this Weaverville railway company is called, under its charter, the latter has the right to operate its cars over the track of the former from Grace to Pack Square. This line passes over Merrimon avenue under a franchise granted the Asheville Electric Company by the city soon after its rights over that avenue had been abandoned by the Rapid Transit Company. Both the Merrimon Avenue line in the city and the railway from Grace to Weaversville have proven great conveniences to the public.
SUNSET MOUNTAIN RAILWAY COMPANY. Under this name LaBarbe, Moale and Chiles operated the road up Sunset moun- tain to Music Hall during the summer of 1910, but soon sold it to the E. W. Grove Park Company, who also bought about 300 acres on Sunset mountain from the Howlands. The track has been removed and the roadbed converted into an automobile road.
THE HIWASSEE VALLEY RAILROAD. In 1913 Clay and Cher- okee counties each voted $75,000 for the construction of a rail- road from Andrews via Marble down the Hiwassee river to Hayesville, crossing Peach Tree and Hiwassee at the Clay county line. It will be 35 miles long, standard gauge, etc., and will be operated by electricity from a power plant to be erected on Hiwassee river. A question has arisen as to the legality of the vote, and the company is now enjoined from proceeding further in securing aid from either county. J.
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Q. Barker is president, and Samuel Cover, treasurer, and D. S. Russell, secretary.
BETTER THAN RAISING CORN AND COTTON. If Ashe, Clay, Graham, and Watauga counties, four of the richest counties in the mountains naturally, had railroads the enhanced value of their property would give the State a larger and more constant revenue from taxation than she now derives from the raising of uncertain crops of cotton and corn on the State farms by working her convicts in that malarious section of the State. If these convicts were taken to the healthful and in- vigorating climate of the mountains and put to work grading railroads, for their support in provisions alone, it would not be long before every county west of the Blue Ridge would be adequately served with an outlet for their crops, lumber and minerals, while new health and pleasure resorts would be opened up for summer tourists and health seekers.
Ashe is less known than any mountain county, but it is the finest of them all, agriculturally and in minerals and water power. Yet in the decade between 1900 and 1910 its popu- lation decreased from 19,581 to 19,074. Clay's population fell from 4,532 in 1900 to 3,909. Yet the lands of Clay are rich and productive and its jail is empty nine-tenths of the time. Watauga, which in many respects is unsurpassed, gained only a little over one hundred inhabitants in the same period. These three fine counties are really retrograding for want of railroads. If the increase in population and wealth of Buncombe in 1880, before railroads reached its borders, com- pared with its population and wealth in 1913, is an index of what railroads accomplish for communities, it will be evident that the convicts could be more advantageously employed in the mountains building wagon- and railroads than in raising precarious crops of cotton and corn near Weldon.
The territory that in 1911 was erected into the county of Avery is more mountainous and was formerly more inac- cessible than any other part of the mountains. Yet, having a railroad, it gained nearly. 2,000 in population in the last ten years.
OTHER RAILROADS. In November, 1912, the county of Watauga by a large majority voted $100,000 toward the con- struction of a railroad through Cook's Gap, Boone and down the Watauga river, and the State has since provided thirty
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convicts for work thereon. Work has already begun. The Virginia - Carolina Railway obtained from the Legislature of North Carolina in 1911, authority to construct a railroad from its line in Grayson and Washington counties, Virginia, into the counties of Ashe and Watauga, and in June, 1913, let the entire line to the Callahan Construction Company, from Konarok, Va., via Jefferson to Todd, or Elk Cross Roads; all grading to be completed by July, 1914. That the link between Canton and the mouth of Big creek, near Mount Sterling post office, will be built shortly seems probable, as the line has only to follow the Pigeon river to complete this link, thus opening up a large boundary of timber and acid wood and bark in the Cataloochee valley. There is also hope that a railroad will be built from Saginaw (Pinola) to Mortimer or Collettsville. A lumber road from Black Mountain station to Mitchell's peak is being constructed rapidly.
THE BLATHERSKITE RAILROAD. This road has been build- ing (in the newspapers) for ten years or more, but never hauls any freight or passengers. It is quiescent until there is talk of a bona fide railroad, and then it develops a state of activity and construction (still in the newspapers) wherever it is pro- posed to locate such new railway.
NOTES.
1From Asheville's Centenary.
"Hill's, p. 259.
"Col. Win. H. Thomas was more active in securing this amendment than anyone else. "Harrison's Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway.
"Under the act incorporating the Western North Carolina R. R., commissioners were appointed to take subscriptions to the capital stock in Salisbur y, Lincolnton, Newton, Statesville, Hendersonville, Lenoir, Boone, Taylorsville, Morganton, Marion, Rutherford- ton, Shelby, Mocksville, and Asheville. The act provided for the construction of a rail- road to effect a communication between the North Carolina R. R. and the Valley of the Mississippi, no route being specified.
"Shipp Fraud Com. Rep., pp. 250 and 307.
7Wm. A. Eliason Testimony, Shipp Fraud Com., p. 357.
·J. W. Wilson before Shipp Fraud Commission, p. 365.
"Harrison's "Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway."
10Fairfax Harrison's "Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway." 11Letter from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., July, 1912.
12Fairfax Harrison's "Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway." 1ªLetter from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., July, 1912.
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