Augusta, Georgia - History (part 15 of 17)

In 18 18 Governor Rabun informed the Legislature that bank stock commanded too great a premium to warrant inve.stment, but that he had purchased two hundred shares in the stock of the Steamboat Company for $100,- 000, being par. By the terms of the contract of purchase the company was to secure the State by a mortgage on real estate for the $100,000 and eight per cent, interest thereon. By the next year the company appears to have begun operations on the Savannah River, the joint committee on internal improvements reporting: "With regard to the Savannah River from Augusta down, we have the pleasure of stating that an efficient use of machinery appears to have been introduced into their system of operations."

By 1823 the Steamboat Company was in full operation on the Savannah, and possibly on other rivers. At the same time there was a steamboat line operating from Hamburg to Charleston. While the distance from Hamburg to Charleston was about twice as great as from Augusta to Savannah, the freight on the Charleston line was no more than that charged on the other. The consequence was that the cotton of Upper South Carolina went 7'ia Hamburg to Charleston, to the detriment of Augusta and Savannah. Between Hamburg and Charleston competition in the steamboat business was free, and this competition had forced rates down. The monopoly enjoyed by the Steamboat Company of Georgia enabled them to fix their own rates between Augusta and Savannah. Recognizing the advantage given her by this state of affairs South Carolina fostered the commerce of Hamburg in every way. In 1 82 1 the town was exempted for five years from taxation and at a later period it is stated that a bounty of $100,000 was voted to sustain it in its competition with Augusta. It was not long before memorials begun to pour in upon the General Assembly of Georgia, which appointed a special joint committee to consider the grievances complained of by Augusta, Savannah, and Darien.

This committee made a voluminous report which begins by saying that the commerce of those cities lias wofuUy fallen off, that rents have suffered an unprecedented diminution, notwithstanding which half the houses are vacant, that real estate has diminished in value one-half, and that the income of all classes dependent on commerce is constantly decreasing. The causes of this decline, the committee then proceeds to consider. One prominent cause it finds in the monopoly enjoyed by the Steamboat Company as respects steam transportation between Augusta and Savannah. While it is admitted that freights have been reduced by the use of steam, as compared with what they were before, it is found that they are not as low as they would be if there were no monopoly, and for proof of this it is shown that freights by the Charleston line where competition was free are, proportionate to distance, but half as much as those on the Georgia line. The report says on this subject : " The bounty of-Providence has given us a noble river. The ingenuity of man has taught us to navigate it by steam, and we have marred these blessings by closing it against individual enterprise. The waters of the Savannah, which every principle of sound policy required us to preserve as free as the breezes of the mountains from whence they flow, are hermetically sealed by legislative enactment against the adventurous spirit of our citizens The rights which have been granted must be respected. The plighted faith of the State must be preserved. But if it shall appear to the Legislature that the existence of these rights is injurious to the commercial and agricultural interest of the State, that the injury which they operate is not confined to the inhabitants of Savannah and Augusta, but extends to all who deal in the markets of these cities, that it is not limited even to them, but embraces also the inhabitants of Darien, and that portion of our citizens who dwell on the waters of which it is the outlet to the ocean ; that the aggregate of this loss amounts up to a sum more than sufficient to extinguish this chartered claim with tlie full and free consent of the proprietors ; that the means are within the control of the State, without the advance of a dollar from its treasury, then it is respectfully suggested by the committee that the duty to do so is imperative, that it is demanded by a due regard to the interests of the people of Georgia. The Steamboat Company is indebted to the State in the sum of $100,000. It is understood that the stockholders will be willing on the release of this debt to relinquish all claim under their charter. Can it be doubted that sound policy requires the adoption of the measure?" The committee therefore offered the following among other resolutions looking to the improvement of the commercial status : "That it would greatly conduce to the interest of the State at large, and would essentially promote its commerce, if the rivers of the State were open to the individual enterprise of its citizens, to accomplish which it is necessary to obtain the voluntary surrender of the chartered rights of the Steamboat Company of Georgia; and it being understood that the stockholders in the said company will be willing to surrender their claims under said charter on being released from the debt due by them to the State, it is expedient to release the said debt on the condition of receiving such surrender, and his excellency the governor be authorized and requested to take the necessary measures for carrying this into effect."

These recommendations passed in the shape of a resolution, " That his excellency the governor be requested to ascertain from the Steamboat Company of Georgia the lowest terms on which the said company will surrender its charter to the State and that he be requested to communicate the result, together with such information as he may be able to obtain, tending to show the expediency or inexpediency of the State's making the said purchase to the next Legislature."

In 1824 the Steamboat Company memorialized the Legislature to rescind the contract of 1820, whereby $100,000 of the internal improvement fund had been invested in its stock. While called an investment, the transaction seems to have been a sort of conditional loan to the company, of which it had then repaid $32,000, and the answer to the memorial was that if the company would in six months thereafter pay into the treasury $68,000, and surrender its exclusive right of steam navigation of the rivers of the State the State would return the company its stock and mortgages, rescind the original agreement of loan and give the company an acquittance in full of all demands. The next year the company tendered the governor the sum of $68,000 in bills of the Bank of Darien, which his excellency declined to receive on the ground that he construed the resolution to mean gold and silver, or specie funds.

After this we find no trace of any effort to deprive the Steamboat Company of its exclusive privileges. To the contrary, in 1833. the company was authorized to run a railroad or canal from Augusta to such point below the shoals and obstructions near the city as it might deem advisable, and for this purpose was authorized to condemn such land as might be necessary for the road bed or canal, and for three hundred feet on either side. No other canal or line of rail was to be constructed within ten miles of the route selected by the company, without its consent. For twenty-five years the company was to have the right to use its railroad or canal, and at the expiration of that time the State was to have an option upon it at par value, but if not then bought the property and franchise were to remain to the company forever. In the same year the Central Railroad was incorporated, and in 1838 the Augusta and Waynesboro road, now the Augusta and Savannah, and the completion of these connecting systems was probably the cause of no action being taken by the Steamboat Company.

In 1834 the charter of the Steamboat Company was extended for twenty years after December 19, 1837, the termination of its original charter, but without the exclusive privilege originally granted. The act declares that after De- cember 19, 1837, tlie exclusive franchise section of the charter shall stand repealed, but it is evident that some years before that the company had intimated its acquiescence in the chartering of other steamboat lines. The first of these charters being in the year 1834 when the old company's charter was granted, there was probably some tacit understanding whereby in consideration of an extension the company was not to enforce its exclusive franchise against new lines.

Be that as it may, in 1835 sundry citizens of Augusta and Savannah, namely Amory Sibley, Gazaway B. Lamar, John Bones, Moses Roff, Charles Lippitt, John M. Adams, David W. St. John, James Hubbard, William P. Rathbone, Samuel D. Corbitt, and David L. Adams, were incorporated as the Iron Steamboat Company, with a capital stock of $100,000. in shares of $iOO each, increasable by a two-thirds vote to $400,000. The company was authorized by steamboats, or any other kind of vessels, to navigate any of the waters of Georgia for passenger or freight traffic, and to insure freights against fire or marine loss. There were to be twelve directors, seven resident in Augusta and five in Savannah. The main office was to be in Augusta, and the Savannah directors were to manage the business at that end of the line.

In 1836 the Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company was incorporated with a capital of $80,000, increasable by a two-thirds vote to $150,000. This company was authorized to navigate any of the waters of the State with vessels propelled by steam, either employed alone, or in warping, towing, or otherwise impelling other boats and vessels, rafts, floats, or arks. The incorporators were Samuel H. Parkman, William Duncan, Henry Harper, J. and W. Harper, John P. King, G. B. Cumming. Benjamin Burroughs, Edward Padelford, P^ay & Co., Adams & Burroughs, Samuel D. Corbitt, Daniel Kirkpatrick, and John S. Combs.

In 1 85 I George W. Garmany, Moses A. Cohen, Jeremiah W. Stokes, Orlando A. Wood, Joseph J. Claghorn and John Cunningham, jr., (Wood, Claghorn & Co.), Alexander Thomas, James Skinner, Andrew Burnside and Edward J. Jones and Samuel N. Papot (Jones & Papot), were incorporated as the Union Steamboat Company of Georgia and South Carolina, for the purpose of conducting a carrying trade by steam and other boats on the Savannah River, with a capital stock of $21,500, increasable to $100,000. From running between Hamburg, Augusta and Savannah, this line was often called the Augusta and Hamburg Steamboat Company.

In 1859 James J. Field, Eliel Lockhart, Drury B. Cade, Joel T. Lockhart. Foster Blodgett, jr., and William Gibson were incorporated as "The Augusta. Petersburg and Savannah River Steam and Pole Boat Navigation Company of Northeastern Georgia," with a capital of $100,000, increasable to $i,ooo,000. The object of this company was the opening and clearing out a channel in the Savannah and Tugalo Rivers to the Georgia boundary line so as to admit the passage of light steam and pole boats of at least fifty tons burden. The office was fixed at Augusta, but the company did not get into operation, the war soon afterwards breaking out.

By act of September 22, 1887, Zachariah McCord, James Tobin, James J. Dicks, Joseph H. Day, and Benjamin H. Smith, jr., were incorporated as the Augusta Steamboat Company. The previous incorporation of this company under the general navigation act of 1881 was confirmed, and it was declared that as the charter was granted to secure water navigation and the benefit of competition, any contract by it with any railroad company intended to defeat competition or encourage monopoly should be void, and the stock of any officer or stockholder concerned in such agreement should be ferfeited, and to that end any stockholder, or any merchant in Augusta, or any member of the Augusta Exchange might institute proceedings.

This closes the list of incorporated steamboat companies doing business on the Savannah from Augusta, and it but remains to trace the history of the vessels employed.

The first use to which steam was put was, as has been seen, in towing or warping. The early steamboats were mere tugs of small power, which painfully towed the ordinary river boats, or arks, along the straight stretches of the river, and warped them around the bends. The next step was that the steamboats were made longer and stronger, and with a barge lashed on either side plowed their way up and down the stream. Then the third era was entered on and the steamboat itself carried the freight. During all this while the sidewheel was used, and it was considered a very startling and useful innovation when Mr. John Moore adopted the idea in vogue for some years prior on the Western rivers, and employed one large stern wheel, thus enabling the width and consequent carrying capacity of the vessel to be greatly increased.

The names of most if not all the steamboats navigating the river have been preserved to us, and we have pretty full accounts of the catastrophes closing some of their careers. The Steamboat Company of Georgia had at various periods some thirteen boats: the Enterprise, Sam Howard, Savannah, Augusta, (No. i). South Carolina, Georgia, Tugalo, Cherokee, Tennessee, T. S. Metcalf, D. L. Adams, A7igusta(No. 2), Chatham. The boats named Augusta had illluck, the Augusta No. i being destroyed by fire at the city bridge, and the Augusta No. 2 burned at Gray's Point. The D. L. Adams, was sold for use on a South American river, and the Chatham was captured while running the blockade during the war.

The Iron Steamboat Company ran six boats : the Free Trade, John Randolph, Lamar, Hamburg, Sibley, and W. H. Stark. The Hamburg was burnt at Hager Slager, and the Stark sunk at Silver Bluff.

The Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company had three boats, the Oglethorpe, which blew up at Beck's Ferry ; the Elbert, which was burned at Buzzard's Bay, and the Hamburg.

The Steamboat Company of Georgia and South Carolina, commonly called the Augusta and Hamburg line, had two boats, the H. L. Cook and the Oregon. The latter sunk in 1854.

Besides the incorporated companies there were a number of private lines. Gazaway B. Lamar ran eight boats, the William Gaston, built at Augusta; the Governor Taylor, G. B. Lamar, Free Trade, John Randolph. Mary Snmviers, De Rosetto., and Lamar. The Free Trade and Lamar were Iron Steamboat Company's vessels. The G. B. Lamar ^z^s burnt at Savannah; the Free Trade blew up at Baldnaker's Point ; the John Randolph was destroyed at the bombardment of Charleston, and the Lamar was captured running the blockade. The Mary Summers was used in the Mexican War.

Samuel Moore and Thomas N. Philpot ran the Fashion line at the outbreak of the war, consisting of the John A. Moore, burnt afterwards on the Edisto River; the Talomico, sunk at Blanket Point, and the Columbia.

There were some twenty odd other boats running at various times before the war between Savannah and Augusta, many of which were the subject of disaster. The Christopher -wdi?, burnt at Blanket Point; the Governor Troup, at Half Moon; and the Ell Cell, on the South Carolina coast; the Sylvan was burnt, as also the R. H. May, which was burnt a short distance below Augusta. It was the first steamboat from Augusta to Savannah after the cessation of hostilities. The Amazon was sunk at Sand Bar ferry; the Elize, at Old Keefe's Point ; the Leesbnrg, at Gray's Point; the Hard Times, at Kirk's Bar; and the R. E. Lee, within a mile of Savannah ; the Eclipse blew up at Mill Stone Landing ; and the J. G. Lawton, at Gum Stump Landing. The vessels which lived out their lives were the Washington, on which La Fayette visited Augusta; the Tvanhoc, Forester, Santee, LLancock, Fashion, Columbia, Union, Express, Inez, St. Claire, and Baudry Moore.

The Charleston line, or the one plying between Hamburg and Charleston, had fifteen boats: The Henry SJinltz, which blew up at the Augusta bridge from an explosion of powder in her hold; the William Lowndes, burnt at Flour Gap; Cain, burnt at the foot of Campbell street, near the present location of the Riverside Mills; the Caledonia, sunk about the same place; St. John,%\\\'iV at Gray Point ; Edgefield, sunk at Burton's Ferr}' ; Duncan McCraig, blown up at dock ; the Pendleton, Liberty, Andrew Jackson, John D. Morgan, John Stoucy, William Scabrook, Charleston, and Augusta of Charleston.

It will be seen that about seventy steamboats navigated the Savannah from about 1820 to 1865. As many as fifteen in a week would arrive and depart, but the dangers of the voyage were many. About thirty were destroyed, some thirteen burned, six blown up, and eleven sunk. Three were lost at Gray's Point, two at Blanket Point, the rest scattered along the river.

Since the war the boats put on the river hav^e been the PV. T. Wheless, burnt at Savannah; the Alice Clark, lost on the CaroHna coast; the Mary Fisher, sunk at Parachucla; the Katie, the Ethel, Neiv South, Progress, and Advance.

Before passing from the subject of the Savannah River we must give some account of the bridge over that stream at Augusta, the same having been a great highway of traffic with the city for about one hundred years. In 1768 the Colonial government established a ferry from tl>e center of the city to the blufif just opposite, on the Carolina shore. In 1790 this ferry franchise was lodged by the Legislature of Georgia in Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, with the further right to build a bridge over the river at or near the ferry site. The bridge was to be at least sixteen feet in width, and, as a rent therefor, Hampton was annually to pay to the commissioners of Augusta fifty pounds sterling, securing such rental by a mortgage of the bridge and one acre of land on the South Carolina side, on which the bridge abutted. The master, professors, and all students for the time being, of Richmond Academy were forever to pass free, but on all others Hampton was empowered to levy a toll according to rates specified in the act: Foot passengers, threepence; man on horseback, sixpence; four- horse wagon, loaded, four shillings and eightpence, etc. The bridge was to be ready for use February 17, 1791, and this condition seems to have been complied with. The "Yazoo Freshet," of 1796 swept it away, and in the next year the Legislature renewed Hampton's grant and gave him two years in which to replace the structure. It appears that in 1799 this was done, but some years later this new bridge was destroyed, and in 1809 the Legislature empowered Walter Leigh and Edward Rowell to construct another with following tolls : Foot passengers, six and one-fourth cents; hogshead of tobacco, twenty-five cents ; four- horse wagon loaded, $i, etc., etc.

This, too, was destroyed, and in 1814 the Legislature granted the bridge franchise to John McKinne and Henry Shultz. In 1813 the Legislature of South Carolina had granted Henry Shultz and Lewis Cooper the right to build a toll-bridge from the South Carolina bank to Augusta. Cooper assigned his interest to John McKinne, and hence in 18 14 the above stated Georgia grant. At the time this was made McKinne and Shultz had already constructed " a strong, elegant, and substantial bridge." Tlie Carolina and Georgia grants agreed in their rate of toll, which was as follows : Wagon and team, or fourwheeled carriage, seventy-five cents; two-wheeled carriage or c.irt, thirtyseven and one -half cents ; rolling hogshead, twenty- five cents; man and horse, twelve and one-half cents; foot passenger, si.K and one-fourth cents ; cattle, six and one-fourth cents; hog, sheep, or goat, four cents.

Prior to 1823 the Bank of the State of Georgia had become the owner of the bridge, the same having been sold on execution against McKinne and Shultz, and in that year the legislative committee appointed to inquire into the causes of Augusta's then commercial decline, found as one of the reasons that business was driven away by tlie tolls levied at the bridge. They therefore reported " that it would greatly conduce to the prosperity of the commerce and agriculture of the State, by preventing the diversion of the former from Augusta and Savannah to Hamburg and Ciiarleston, to purchase the bridge over Savannah River between Augusta and Hamburg, and to render it free under proper regulations to persons trading with Augusta. And that the same may be done without any advance of money from the treasury, either by the transfer of stock held by the State in the Bank of the State of Georgia, the present proprietors of the bridge, or by a pledge of the taxes of the county of Richmond for a term of years equal to that during which the citizens of Hamburg are exempted from taxation [/. e. five], the Bank of the State of Georgia having signified its willingness to transfer the same, at cost, for the purpose aforesaid." The report was tabled, and matters, therefore, so far as the bridge was concerned, remained as before.

In 1830 the Legislature of South Carolina renewed to the Bank of the State of Georgia the bridge franchise granted to Shultz and Cooper in 1813, for the period of fourteen years after the expiration of the old franchise in December, 1 834, and in 1 833 the Legislature of Georgia renewed to the Bank for ten years the franchise given by it to Shultz and McKinne.

In 1834 the Legislature conferred on J. K. Kilburn, James Harper, Jonathan Meigs and William Harper, their associates and assigns, the right to build a bridge across the Savannah at the western end of the city from the end of McKinne or Mill street, and to charge the same rates of toll thereon as were allowed at the lower bridge. This bridge was swept away in the freshet of 1 840.

In 1838 the Bank of the State of Georgia sold the lower bridge to Gazaway B. Lamar, and in 1840 Lamar and the then owners of the upper bridge sold both to the city council of Augusta.

In 1840 the Legislature confirmed this purchase, and enacted that council should thenceforth "have all the powers, authority, and privileges vested by law in the late ov\ ners of said bridges, and the exclusive privilege of building, erecting, and keeping up bridgt-s across the Savannah River at Augusta within the corporate limits of said city (which are hereby extended on the north over said river to the boundary line between this State and South Carolina), with power to collect the toll now authorized by law, in relation to the bridges standing at the time of such purchase. Provided that nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to impair the right, title, claim, or interest of any person or persons in and to the lower bridge, commonly called the Augusta bridge."

Out of this act grew an acrimonious controversy as to the true boundary line between South Carolina and Georgia. The whole question supposed to have been settled by the convention of Beaufort was reopened, and while the right of the city council of Augusta to maintain and operate the lower bridge was established in the Htigation which ensued, it appears that this result was arrived at on principles which left the boundary question still open.

In 18 1 3 South Carolina granted Shultz and Cooper the right to operate a toll-bridge over the Savannah for twenty- one years, or till 1834. Shortly thereafter Cooper assigned his interest to John McKinne. In 18 14 Georgia granted Shultz and McKinne a similar right for twenty years, or until the same period as the Carolina grant, to wit : 1834. The bridge was built by Shultz and McKinne under these concurrent grants, and about 1823 became the property of the Bank of the State of Georgia by purchase. In 1830 South Carolina renewed the Shultz-Cooper grant to the Bank for fourteen years after the expiration of that grant, or till 1848. In 1833 Georgia renewed its Shultz- McKinne grant to the bank for ten years after its expiration, or up to 1844. In 1838 the Bank sold the bridge to Gazaway B. Lamar, who in 1840 conveyed to the city conncil of Augusta. In the same year Georgia confirmed this purchase and granted the council the exclusive right to maintain bridges across the river within the corporate limits. Up to 1843 the city held as assignee of Lamar and under the South Carolina renewal of 1830 and the Georgia renewal of 1833. After 1843 and up to 1848, the expiration of the Carolina renewal, the city held, so far as South Carolina was concerned, under that renewal, but 1848 arrived, the Carolina renewal expired, and the war began. In 1845 South Carohna had vested the bridge franchise in the South Carolina Railroad Company from and after 1848, but in 1848 this grant was withdrawn and the franchise granted to Shultz and McKinne with the proviso that they should not collect toll until the litigation then pending in the Supreme Court of the United States as to the right of the city to the bridge was determined. It was there held that the city had the rights of the State Bank, and was therefore a grantee under South Carolina till 1848. In 1849 South Carolina granted the bridge franchise to Shultz and McKinne with the right to take toll, the idea being that the grant to the city council had come to an end in 1848. As matters then stood, the city had a Georgia grant and Shultz and McKinne had a Carolina grant. It was claimed that the Georgia grant was all sufficient upon the ground that the jurisdiction of Georgia extended to the northern bank of the Savannah. South Carolina denied this and a voluminous correspondence ensued between the officials of the two States. The South Carolina Legislature denounced the levy of tolls at the bridges as an "obstruction to the commerce and intercourse between the people of Georgia and South Carolina." Colonel I. W. Hay ne, attorney- general for South Carolina, presented an extended report to Governor Means of that State, going to show that the jurisdiction of Georgia only extended to the middle of the stream. A copy of this was transmitted to Governor Howell Cobb, of Georgia, who claimed that his State owned to the north bank, Attorney- General Hayne rejoined, and Governor Cobb laid the matter before the Georgia Legislature. After a time the controversy died down, but no one can read the official correspondence without recognizing that the real boundary was left as unsettled as it was found. The present laws of South Carolina say the Savannah River is the boundary between that State and Georgia, "the line being low- water mark at the southern shore of the most northern stream of said river where the middle of the river is broken by islands and middle threads of the stream where the river flows in one stream or volume." The present laws of Georgia say: "The boundary between Georgia and South Carolina shall be the line described as running from the mouth of the River Savannah, up said river and the rivers Tugalo and Chattooga to the point where the last named river intersects with the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, conforming as much as possible to the line agreed on by the commissioners of said States, at Beaufort on the 28th of April, 1787." What was agreed on remains, as has been seen, disputed.

In 1827 the Legislature of Soutli Carolina authorized the formation of a company to construct a canal or railroad between Charleston and Hamburg, which is the origin of the South Carolina Railroad, one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the United States. In 1833 it was in operation between Charleston and Hamburg, and in 1836 entered Augusta. With the success of this then novel experiment the railroad history of Augusta begins.

In May, 1828, the first company was organized, and the next )'ear one hundred feet of railroad track were laid in Charleston along Wentworth street, and the first car drawn by a mule. In June, 1829, the stockholders directed the beginning of the road between Charleston and Augusta. The first mile of the road was built in 1830, and the cars were propelled by large sails. The first steam locomotive ran over the road in 1831 ; capacity of freight cars, 6,000 pounds; seating capacity of coaches thirteen persons. In 1836 Augusta and Charleston were connected. The Columbia branch was completed in 1842, and shortly afterwards the two roads were consolidated under the name of the South Carolina Railroad Company. It is unnecessary to dwell longer upon the early history of the road or to more than mention its many vicissititudes during the war and immediately after. The company lost heavily by the war, and was left in a most deplorable condition financially and otherwise. It managed to struggle along, however, until 1878, when the old road was put into the hands of a receiver.

Shortly after this event the road was bought by its present owners, and became the South Carolina Railway Company, when as by the touch of a magic wand there sprang up palace cars, swift locomotives, steel rails, mogul engines capable of hauling fifty cars, freight cars of forty thousand pounds capacity, immense wharves and warehouses at tide water where ships can unload directly into the cars, neat and improved stations all along the line, and a general air of thrift everywhere, demonstrating that the new life infused in the corporation affected all with which it came in contact.

The wharves, as mentioned above, of the South CaroHna Railway now run to tide water, where they have a wharf frontage of one thousand feet. The depth of water at low tide is twenty-five feet. The largest ships can come alongside at any time, and eight or nine vesels can be loaded or unloaded at one time. There are two warehouses with storage room for fourteen thousand tons bulk guano ; a storehouse for general merchandise of three thousand tons capacity, and four other storehouses of two thousand tons. There are one hundred thousand square feet in wharf room. An automatic railroad runs from the edge of the wharf back into the ^varehouses. Bulk guano is unloaded from the ships by a derrick which projects from the elevated road directly over the ship. Great iron buckets are lowered and raised from this derrick by steam, the buckets descending rapidly into the hold of a ship, where they are filled and immediately hoisted up to the automatic car. As soon as the car is loaded, it moves off by its own weight, rushes along the railroad and disappears into the warehouse, where its load is dumped into bins, and the cars return like a flash to the starting point, ready for another load. All this work is done automatically. Freight is loaded and unloaded from ships by an endless movable platform, something on the order of a treadmill. The boxes and packages, placed on one end, are carried smoothly along without the slightest jar to the place where they are to be taken off. The whole is worked by steam. Cotton shipped from Augusta, for foreign or domestic ports, can be unloaded from the cars into the ships.

The success of the South Carolina Railroad stimulated like enterprises in Georgia. In 1831 the Legislature authorized "the formation of a company for constructing a railroad or turnpike from the city of Augusta to Eatonton, and thence westward to the Chattahoochee River, with branches thereto." The company was to be called the Augusta and Eatonton Turnpike and Railroad Company. Its capital was fixed at $1,000,000, with liberty to double the same, and subscriptions were to be taken under the superintendence of commissioners at Eatonton, Milledgeville, Sparta, Warrenton, Monticello, Madison, Greensborough, and Augusta, the commissioners at the latter place being William Gumming, Samuel Hale, and P. H. Smead. On $350,000 of stock being subscribed the company was ipso facto to be formed, and an election was then to be held for a president and twelve directors. In this election shareholders were to vote by the following scale : i to 2 shares, i vote ; 3 to 4, 2 ; 5 to 6, 3; 7 to 8, 4; 9 to II, 5; 12 to 15, 6; 16 to 20, 7 ; 21 to 26, 8; 27 to 33. 9; 34 to 40, 10; and for each 10 over 40, i vote. The charges were fixed at not to exceed fifty cents per one hundred weight, and twenty-five cents per cubic foot on articles of measurement, for each one hundred miles, and six cents per mile for passengers. The company was exempted from taxation for ten years, and given the right to farm out its franchises. This seems the first railroad act in Georgia, and while never becoming operative, having been repealed two years after, serve to show that Augusta first contemplated railway transit in the State of Georgia.

In 1833 there was passed "an act to incorporate the Georgia Railroad Company, with powers to construct a rail or turnpike road from the city of Augusta, with branches extending to the towns of Eatonton, Madison, in Morgan county, and Athens, to be carried beyond those places in the discretion of said company." The company to be organized under this act was directed to confine its first efforts to the completion of a railroad communication between the city of Augusta and some point in the interior of the State, to be determined by the stockholders, and, on the completion of such communication, which was to be called the Union Railroad, to construct three branch roads, one to Athens, one to Eatonton, and one to Madison, and if it deemed proper, to continue the Athens branch to the Tennessee River. For thirty-six years the company was to have the exclusive right of constructing railroads to Augusta from any point within twenty miles of said main line and branches. The stock of the company was fixed at 15,000 shares of $100 each, and the organization was to be completed on this basis, but thereafter was increasable to such amount as the company might think its necessities required.

To open subscriptions commissioners were appointed in the following places for the shares of stock mentioned, namely: Athens, 2,500; Eatonton, 2,500; Madison, 2,000 ; Greensborough, 1,500 ; Warrenton, 500; Crawfordville, 500; Washington, Lexington, Appling, and Sparta, each 1,000; and Augusta, 1,500, Thomas Gumming, William H. Turpin, William C. Micou, and John W. Wilde being the commissioners at that point. The books were to be opened on February 5, 1834, and remain open ten days, at the end of which time the lists were to be sent the Athens commissioners, William Williams, James Camak, Stephens Thomas, and William Bearing, who were to aggregate the subscriptions, and if five thousand shares had been taken, were to call a general meeting of stockholders for organization, the residue of the stock to be sold subsequently. Each stockholder was entitled to one vote for each share, and a president and twelve directors were to be elected, to serve twelve months. The company on being organized was to be known as the Georgia Railroad Company. It was authorized to condemn such land as might be necessary for its purposes and was empowered to build railroads, or common roads for the use of steam carriages thereon, in its discretion. It was given the exclusive right to transport freight and passengers over its lines, provided the tariff did not exceed fifty cents per hundred weight on heavy articles, and ten cents per cubic foot on articles of measurement for each hundred miles, and five cents per mile for passengers. (This clause of the charter has been construed by the Supreme Court of the United States as giving no right to the company to fix its own charges, not exceeding the maximum stated, but as granting simply the exclusive right to transport, leaving the State free to fix charges in its discretion by means of a railroad commission or otherwise.) After the expiration of thirty-six years from the completion of any of the roads mentioned in the charter to Augusta, the exclusive right of the company to build and use railroads within twenty miles of its lines, was to lapse, but as to its own works the charter was perpetual. The stock was exempt from taxation for seven years after completion of any of the lines, and thereafter was only to pay a tax of one half of one per cent, on net income. This clause, also, has been before the Supreme Court of the United States and by that tribunal held to be a contract between the State and company, which forever inhibits the former from any other or higher rate. It was further provided that whenever the holders of as many as three thousand shares should unite to build any of the branch roads, they should become a separate company or companies, and be called respectively the Eatonton Railroad, the Greensborough and Madison Railroad, and the Athens Railroad, but such separate companies, if formed, might unite with each other.

This act was the result of the successful completion of the South Carolina Railroad. On July 4, 1833, that line was in full operation between Charleston and Hamburg, and its stock which up to that time had been a drug in the market, was quoted at 105. The fare for the full trip, 136 miles, was $6.75, with an allowance of 75 pounds of baggage ; for less distance, five cents per mile. The company had five engines, the " Best Friend," having four wheels, received December i, 1830, and costing $4,000; the "West Point," four wheels, received April 2, 1831, and costing $3,250; the "South Carolina," having eight wheels, received January 3, 1832, cost $5,000; the " Charleston," eight wheels, received March 4, 1833, cost $5,750, and the " Edisto," eight wheels, received June 5, 1833, cost $5,750. On May 10, 1833, its receipts were from freight, $67.22; passengers, $49.65; total, $116.87; ^"^ ^or the week ending May 10, it reports 400 passengers carried, showing an annual carriage of some 20,000 passengers, and a gross revenue of about $43,000, small figures now, but great then.

In Augusta a public meeting to consider the building of a railroad from Augusta to Athens, was called for July 20, 1833, by Samuel Hale, W.W. Montgomery, James M'Laws, William T. Gould, and John P. King, and at the meeting Henry H, Gumming, W. W. Montgomery, James Harper, James W. Davies, and William C. Micou were appointed a committee to organize a company.

The result was the act above mentioned. The line from Augusta to Athens first received attention and sometimes was called the Athens Railroad Company, as in an act of 1834 in which the city council of Augusta and trustees of Richmond Academy were empowered to convey to the company ten acres of the town common lots, but in 1835 a healing act was passed in which it was declared that the true name was the Georgia Railroad Company, and confirmed to that corporation all conveyances under the other style.

In 1835 the charter of 1833 was amended. The amendatory act opens with a recital " that the people of the West have in contemplation to make a communication between the city of Cincinnati and the Southern Atlantic coast, by means of a raih'oad, and the best route for said communication is beUevcd to be through the State of Georgia, and the building of the Georgia Railroad is now in progress, and will be an important link in the line of said communication." The stockholders of the Georgia Railroad Company were incorporated as the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. The stock was fixed at $2,000,000, one-half of which might be applied to banking purposes (one-half of such part to be in gold and silver coin) until the completion of the road to Athens and one of the southern branches through Greensborough, after which time any unemployed capital might be used in banking. A history of the banking adjunct of the Georgia Railroad will be found elsewhere in this work in the chapter on banking, and we need here, therefore, only briefly recapitulate the further provisions of the act as to this particular franchise ; the company was authorized to establish branch banks, not exceeding three in number, at such points in the State as it might deem best, always first obtaining the consent of the municipal authorities ; the debt of the company was never to exceed three times the amount of its capital stock, and on a failure to pay its bills on demand in specie a penalty often per cent, in addition to the usual ate of interest, was to accrue ; for the redemption of such notes the stockholders were individually liable in proportion to the number of shares by them held respectively.

Apart from the banking franchise, the act of 1835 had the following provisions : The principal office was located at Athens, and all elections and stockholders' meetings were to be held there unless the directors should otherwise order on special occasions ; the Union Railroad, or main branch, was to be completed in four years from the date of the act, or by December 18, 1839, and the Athens branch, and one of the Southern branches through Greensborough, to be designated by the stockholders was to be completed in six years, or by December 18, 1841, and upon default the banking franchise was to be forfeited ; if the main road was completed by the time ordered that franchise was to continue for twenty-five years thereafter. Nothing in the charter was to prevent the State from chartering a railroad from Macon to the Tennessee line, or one crossing the Georgia road at any point west of Eatonton, Madison, or Athens. Finally it was provided that no foreigner should directly or indirectly own stock in this company on pain of forfeiture thereof to the State. This act was accepted by the stockholders on January 12, 1836.

A few days after this act another was passed allowing the company to build a branch of its railroad to Warrenton and thence to Sparta, or to allow others to do so and connect with the Georgia road, which act was accepted by the stockholders May 10, 1836.

In 1836 the company was relieved from producing its books in court in any case in which it might be a party, and its officials were excused from attend- ance as witnesses in like case, it being provided that the testimony required should be taken by a commission. In the same year the company was empowered to build a branch road from Washington, Wilkes county, to intersect its main line at some point in Taliaferro county, and to increase its capital stock $200,000 for that purpose. In this year the company declared its first dividend. The capital stock was then $858,615, and dividend No. i paid in November, 1836, was $26,018.

In 1837 the company was authorized to extend its road from Madison via Covington to the State road, which amendment to its charter was accepted May 15, 1838.

In 1839 the road was in operation to Greensborough, trains leaving Augusta at 6 A. M. and reaching Greensborough at i P. M., or eighty-three miles in seven hours; fare, $4.25.

In 1840 the restriction on foreigners holding stock was modified so as to allow not exceeding one-third of the stock to be so held, which amendment the company accepted May 11, 1841.

In 1843 the company was empowered to receive its own stock in payment of debts due it, provided that the capital was not thereby reduced below $2,000,000, and a summary method was directed for the collection by the company of debts due it by stockholders by levy on their stock as in cases of foreclosure of mortgages on personal property. In this year the main line was constructed to Atlanta, and two years later the branch roads were built.

In 1850 the company was allowed to increase its capital stock to $5,000,- 000, provided the banking capital of $1,000,000 should not be increased, and was empowered to subscribe for $250,000 stock in the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. The right to construct a branch road to Washington which had lapsed, was renewed. In this same year the Washington Railroad and Plank Road Company was authorized to construct a rail or plank road from Washington to the line of the Georgia Railroad, and in 1852 this company was consolidated with the Georgia Railroad.

In 1858 the company was authorized to construct a branch road from Greensborough or Madison to Eatonton, and increase its capital stock sufficiently to enable it so to do, but in the next year the act was repealed.

The company had now been in existence a quarter of a century, and from its earlier reports we gather much interesting information as to its establishment.

The building of the road was slow work. On November i, 1837, it was opened for business with twenty miles of track, the northern terminus being Berzelia. The progress from that time may be seen by the following tabular statement of miles in use :

The 213 miles completed in 1847 comprised the main line from Augusta to Atlanta 171 miles and the Athens branch 39 miles. Not until 1847 was the Athens branch run by steam ; in that year a small engine weighing 3,36 tons was put on, relieving the horse-power which had up to that time been employed at a cost of $1,280 per annum. The rolling stock consisted in 1847 of 13 passenger cars, 8 with 8 wheels, and 5 with 4 wheels, 149 freight and stock cars, 65 flat cars, 3 8-wheel baggage and mail cars and 23 locomotives. The names, weight, and commencement of service of these engines are given by John Edgar Thomson, the chief engineer of the road at that time, as follows:

Besides the " Fairy" were three other light weights named "Chinkapin," "Dart" and "Swallow." The largest locomotive then in use on the road, called by the chief engineer, "eight- wheel passenger engine," cost $7,500 laid down. Of the 22 engines in 1847 ^2 were on the road in active use and good order, 5 were in round-house in complete order and ready for use, and 4 were under repair. The total cost of repairs to locomotives during the eleven years the road had then been in operation was $71,591.42. The "Pennsylvania," the first engine put on the road, had cost for repairs $6,804.59, O"" ^^ average of $618.59 per annum.

The names of the stations then on the main line, their distance in miles and decimals from Augusta, and height above sea level we condense from some valuable tables in the chief engineer's reports :

The chief engineer reports the cost of a "close freight-car," or, as now termed box-car, $600, and says 20 additional ones have been ordered to supply increased demand for transportation, and that another passenger engine is needed. A new round-house, to accommodate 16 engines, is under way. The road was then laid with the plate rail, which was considered too light, and 700 tons of iron of the form of an inverted [\, had been ordered to relay that part of the road between Augusta and Belair.

The average number of passengers per day had increased to 92, as against 66 in 1846, and the whole number carried was 33,354. The number of cotton bales transported was 94,897, an increase of 38,076 over the year previous. The cost of carriage of a passenger per mile was reported as 2.05 cents and of freight if cents per ton per mile. The rate on produce for the full length of the line, 171 miles, was from 16 to 25 cents per cwt. From this report we learn that the Western and Atlantic Railroad was then at Dalton, that the Nashville and Chattanooga road had been determined on, and that the Montgomery road was being extended to tap the Western and Atlantic.

The treasurer's report for the year ending March 31, 1847, showed receipts $409,935.46, and expenses $157,902.36, a net profit on the road of $252,- 033.10. That the Georgia road was managed with great skill, is shown by a comparison with some of the then leading lines in the United States. The table showing this is curious and interesting, and is here subjoined as affording a view of railroading some forty years ago.

In 1849 the president, Hon. John P. King, the presiding officer of this company from its inception, reports that the receipts were $608,130.48, and the expenses $282,290.55 ; net profits $325,839.93. The number of bales of cotton carried was 157,502, an increase of 70,768 over the preceding year. The Memphis Branch Railroad, from Kingston to Rome had been completed and was in full operation. The Nashville and Chattanooga would be completed ere the close of the year, and the State road and the Nashville and Chattanooga were being vigorously pushed. Appended to his report the president gives a very valuable and interesting report by F. C. Arms, superintendent of transportation. There were 25 engines, one, the best of them all, he says, built at the company's shops in Augusta at a cost of $7,000, 16 in use on the road, 4 in shop, ready for use, and 9 under repairs. The " Pennsylvania," the oldest engine on the line, is reported on the road in complete order, and is described as a six- wheel engine with two drivers, and credited with a service of 243,945 miles. There were 14 passenger cars, 3 baggage and mail cars, 10 stock cars, 136 box cars, and 79 platform cars. To accommodate increasing business 4 new freight engines, 50 box and 25 platform cars had been ordered; conductors cost $5,642.49; engineers and firemen, $14,959.75; wood, $14,- 57373 ; keeping of track, $66,054.99.

At this time Mr. L. P. Grant was chief engineer. He speaks of the n shaped rail having displaced the flat bar rail, but as being itself displaced by a rail of the x shape, weighing 58 pounds per lineal yard, to be laid on cross ties two feet and three inches apart. He says : " In changing the plan of track from that now in use with the flat-bar, no loss will accrue in cross- ties and stringers. The former can be turned on their edges and moved sufficiently to one side to avoid the gains, and the latter can be cut into cross-tie lengths, supplying about the number that will be needed, in addition to those now in the track." The total length of bridges is reported as 7,900 feet, but it is said that by earth embankments this can be reduced to 3,000 feet.

For the year 1850 the receipts were $676,966.10, and expenses $291,- 299.91, leaving a net income of $385,666. 19. The president reports that the State Road had opened to Chattanooga in November, 1849, but from the difficulty of passing the tunnel had not as yet gotten fairly into operation. The Montgomery and West Point line would be completed in a few months and the Nashville and Chattanooga and Georgia and East Tennessee roads were making satisfactory progress. In June, 1849, the management had reduced the fare to three cents per mile, which appeared to work well. Negotiations were in progress looking to a branch road to Washington. Mr. Arms, superintendent of transportation, reports 65,438 passengers carried, making 179 per day, an increase of Ji over the preceding year. Owing to the partial failure of the cotton crop, but 133,810 bales had been carried, a falling ofl" of 23,692 bales. The rolling stock was 29 locomotives (nineteen on the road and six ready for use), 16 passenger cars, 3 baggage and mail cars, 14 stock cars, 165 box cars, and 79 flats. A site for a new freight warehouse had been purchased on Campbell and Walker streets, and the passenger depot needed enlargement.

The chief engineer's report for this year dwells on the necessity of heavier rails and larger locomotives. It states that the work of relaying the track from Augusta to Union Point had cost $226,467.66, and that when this work was complete the company would have about 1,500 tons of old flat-bar iron for sale, the quality of which was superior. Not so much could be said of much of the new iron. English manufacturers had thrust an inferior grade of railroad iron on the market, and the report advocates the establishment of an American rolling mill convenient to the railroads of the State. The increase in the weight of engines has led to a strengthening of the bridges on the road. The report enters at large on the subject of the deterioration of iron rail. It is said that this question has not received the attention it requires, and that owing to the fact that so many diflbrent makes and weights of rail had been used on the road, it was extremely difficult to obtain reliable data. The weight of iron on the main line is considered to average 68 tons per mile, and on the branches 25 tons, making the total about 12,700 tons. Of this 3,000 tons had been in use ten years ; 4,200 for five years, and 5,500 for a year. The average limit of service is put at twelve years, and loss of weight by lamination 15 per cent, on which data the value of deterioration is estimated at $33,000 per annum. From this year's report it appears that the South Carolina road was then the longest in the country, 240 miles, and the Georgia next, with 213 miles. The Central had 191, and the Baltimore and Ohio, 179.

From the reports of 185 I it appears that the State had no equipment of its own on the Western and Atlantic road, and that the Georgia road used its own rolling stock thereon, much to the detriment of that stock, some fifty miles of the State Road being laid with the old plate rail, or flat bar, which was much broken and worn. It was then in contemplation to relay this part, as also to furnish a sufficiency of cars for the road to do its own local business. As matters then stood, connecting roads were obliged to furnish cars for both through and local traffic on the State Road. The outfit of the Georgia road this year was 35 locomotives, 17 passenger cars, 4 baggage and mail cars, 14 stock cars, 181 box cars, and 109 flats, and 200 more freight cars had been ordered. The company had issued $250,000 bonds to aid in paying its subscription of $500,000 to the Nashville and Chattanooga and Atlanta and La Grange roads. The former was nearing completion, and 25 miles of the latter were in operation. The Montgomery and West Point Road was complete, and the Memphis and Charleston and East Tennessee and Georgia progressing. The receipts were $784,408.64, and expenses $363,523.25, a net income of $420,- 885.39. ^^ t^^^ ^''"^ ^^^^ various railroad companies of the county had held a convention to correct the -abuse of dead-heading, and the Georgia road had assented to the resolution adopted by that body that no free tickets should be granted except to directors or employees, and that employees should not ask or accept free passes on other lines. During this year 91,237 passengers were carried and 132,800 bales of cotton. The chilled iron tire was used en the driving-wheels of some of the engines and found to give satisfaction, and as many as eighty-six freight cars were built at the company's shops. In this year, also, the chief engineer recommends the adoption of what he terms the " compound rail," that is so laid that the joints on one side of the track did not correspond with the joints on the other, as up to that time had been the case. He also recommends ballasting.

In 1852 President King reports receipts, $859,472.45 ; expenses, $438,- 384.52; net profits, $431,087.93. This year heavy repairs were made. The timber beyond Madison having been in use since 1845-46 needed replacing, but for the first time in its history the road is reported as being perfectly equipped in all respects. The road was all laid in heavy iron and all machin- ery and appliances in excellent condition. It is stated tliat since 1849 the following subscriptions had been made to the stock of other roads, namely: Atlanta and LaGrange, $279,700; Nashville and Chattanooga, $210,000; Georgia and East Tennessee, $10,000. During the year not a single run off or other accident had occurred, but the road had suffered some from fires supposed to be incendiary.

Mr. F. C. Arms, the general superintendent, reported 111,091 passengers carried, and 139,769 bales of cotton ; passengers income, $265,201.27; freight, $486,498.41. A disastrous fire had occurred at Camak, supposed to be the work of an incendiary, whereby three cars, two loaded with cotton, and the depot had been consumed, and four platform and two box cars had been burned near Stone Mountain. The rolling stock consisted of 346 cars; passenger, 20; mail, 5; stock, 32; box, 289; and flats, 181 ; and 40 locomotives. Some of the new engines were the "California," "Oregon," "Ohio," "Indiana," "Hercules," "Richard," "Peters," "Augusta," "Atlanta," "Union," "Constitution," "Fire Eater," "A. J. Miller," and "Howell Cobb." Four locomotives and 214 cars had been added during the year, 141 of them built in the company's shop. A j^ rail, weighing 59 pounds per yard, in bars 24 feet long had been adopted, to be laid on cross ties two feet apart, with a bottom splice four feet long at each joint, riveted to the flanges of the rail. This method had been advised by Mr. L. P. Grant, the chief engineer, but was subsequently found to have also occurred to some other parties who had patented the same. In the report of this year the names of the directors are first given; they were Hays Bowdre, B. H. Warren, Joseph C. Fargo, William D. Conyers, John Cunningham, James W. Davies, William M. D'Antignac, John Bones, Thomas N. Hamilton, Elijah E. Jones, Antoine Poullain, A. J. Miller, Pleasant Stovall, Paul F. Eve, and Charles Dougherty.

For 1853 the receipts were $1,030,01 1.42; expenses, $559,578.23; net income, $470,433.19. The dividend was raised from seven to eight per cent. The Nashville and Chattanooga, and Atlanta and LaGrange roads were reported as near completion, and looked forward to as valuable feeders. With the South Carolina Railroad the company had made arrangements for the location of a depot in Augusta about 600 yards from its own, the Georgia road contributing $30,000 to the expense. Eight new engines had been ordered at a cost of $64,000, and passenger depots at Augusta and Atlanta had been contracted for, the latter being a union depot with other lines. The Washington branch would be complete by August.

The superintendent reports 117,621 passengers, and 194,742 bales of cotton carried ; also that the rolling stock consisted of 43 locomotives and 565 cars. The new plan of laying rails had removed the old evil of clattering joints, and had worked admirably in all respects. From the locomotive statistics it appears there had been a marked increase in the weight of engines from

For 1856 the receipts were $1,176,644.21, expenses $587,327.06, net income $589,317.15. The wheat crop of this year was enormous and taxed the capacity of the road to its utmost. In 1854, the heaviest prior year, 429,486 bushels had been hauled; this year, 1,172,331, nearly three times as much ; flour, which had not previously exceeded 30,000 barrels, showed 60,514 carried, and the heaviest freight ever known of cotton, 205,503 bales, was superadded, making a volume of produce which called into incessant service every engine and car. The rolling stock was 48 locomotives, 16 passengers, 32 freight, and 704 cars, and 6 more engines had been ordered. This year the directors were John Bones, Samuel Barnett, William M. D'Antignac, John Cunningham, Asbury Hull, George T. Jackson, Thomas B, Phinizy, Richard Peters, Hays Bowdre, William D. Conyers, James W. Davies, Thomas N. Hamilton, Elijah E. Jones, Antoine Poullain, and Benjamin H. Warren, with one vacancy.

In 1857 the old wooden way stations were replaced by brick and stone. The increased length of engines and tenders necessitated new turnouts. There is great complaint of the very inferior quality of railroad iron then manufactured. The annual wear and tear of rails is estimated at $50,000, and to .show that the quality manufactured has deteriorated instead of improved with time, the president instances that the last lot put upon the road is in the worst condition, and that some twenty- five miles which had then been about sixteen years in use was the best on the line. The other railroad stocks held by the company had begun at last to pay, the Nashville and Chattanooga three per cent, and the rest, with the exception of East Tennessee and Georgia, eight per cent. Atlanta and LaGrange had paid a bonus of thirty per cent. The Memphis and Charleston road had opened, and the Nashville and Northwestern was well under way. The receipts were $1,314,563.48, expenses $785,- 188.54, net profits $i;20,374.94. The banking adjunct was at this time paying about one-sixth the gross receipts, and making handsome profits. Nine new locomotives were bought during the year, making 54 in all ; there were 706 cars and 40 additional freight cars ordered. George W. Evans was added to the directory this year.

In 1859 the president reports the bonded debt as $373,060, all incurred for stock in other roads, and urges its extinction at maturity, and the adoption of the policy of a fixed rate of dividend rather than a fluctuating rate, now high, now low. A fixed rate of seven per cent, he thinks attainable, all over to extinguish the debt and relay the track. The road paid $1,154,621.08 and the bank $134,324.20, total $1,288,945.28, expenses $672,747.40, net profits $616,197.88. Mr. George Yonge was now superintendent, and pays a high

In i860 President King warns the stockholders that new roads are seriously threatening their business. The Virginia line and Charleston and Savannah road are already competitors, and a line from Griffin I'ia Newnan to North Alabama, and an extension from Eatonton to Madison will still further affisct the company. As a remedy roads were suggested from Warrenton to Macon, from Madison to Barnesville, from Covington to Griffin, from Atlanta and Marietta to Jacksonville. There were 56 engines and 634 cars. The fertilizer traffic began to loom up, 4,529.791 pounds having been hauled, the computation not being by tons at that date. Edward R. Ware was added to the directory.

In 1862 the president says: " But little produce has been moved, and the purchase and consumption of goods for domestic purposes has been small. Travel and traffic have been diverted from the usual channels, and regular commerce and the trade connected with it have been broken up or greatly deranged. The business therefore has been derived from unusual, and often unexpected sources. The heaviest class of transportation has been in arms, military supplies, and munitions of war. Also heavy groceries from New Orleans, the two Carolinas and Virginia have been forced over our road by the blockade of the coast. For travel we have been mainly dependent on the transportation of troops, and travel connected with the movements of the army, and refugees from an invaded coast have furnished no inconsiderable item." The figures of receipts and disbursements being in a depreciated currency cannot be justly compared with those of preceding years. Such as they were, receipts were $997,612.12; expenses, $566,071.55; net, $431,540.57. To meet the depreciation of the currency the superintendent urges an increase of ten per cent, in fares, and from ten to twenty in freight. All through rates were abolished and all transportation charged for at local rates. To meet the anticipated scarcity of railroad supplies purchases of material had been made to the amount of $167, 1 8 1 .43. To the Confederate States the bank had loaned $500,- 000, to the State of Georgia $300,000. The stocks in which the company had then invested were Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company, $250,000; Rome Railroad Company, $123,150; East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company, $10,600; Atlanta and West Point Railroad Company, $464,000 ; Georgia Western Railroad Company, $2,500; Milledgeville Railroad Company,

For 1863 the receipts were $1,555,404.63; expenses, $512,439.54; net profits, $1,042,965.09. Two dividends aggregating fourteen per cent, were paid. This apparent prosperity was only due to the temporary impulse of the war. The reliable business of the country was small. Much of the rolling stock had been ordered by the Confederate government on other roads and into other States. Moreover the government had taken possession of the rolling-mill at Atlanta, which the company in conjunction with some others, had started a few years prior to the war, and thus deprived it of the opportunity to have its old iron re-rolled. In fact a quantity which had been sent there had been impressed for military purposes.

The superintendent reports that, so fir, the supplies laid in in advance have been able to keep the road up, but that next year difficulties must be encountered from the scarcity of material even at the enhanced prices. He says in particular that all of the good pig-iron needed for wheels is being cast into ordnance. He recommends an increase of one hundred per cent, in the rates of transportation.

In 1864 the president reports the road as running at a heavy loss, and says: " It has made no real profit for the last two years, and is making nothing now. The more business it does the more money it loses, and the greatest " favor that could be conferred upon it, if public wants permitted, would be the privilege of quitting business till the end of the war." To explain this he says that the ruined condition of the road and rolling stock from hard usage in government service is such that it would take much more than all reported profits to put it in the condition it was in 1861. The low rates paid for government transportation, the fact that rates for private business have only been increased ninety per cent., and the increase in cost of every element of working and maintaining the road to an average of 3,865 per cent, are also adverted to. The banking department is reported as having made little since the loan of its credits and effects to the government in 1861, and what it has made has been required for taxes. The banking charter, the president reminds the stockholders, is to expire in December, 1864, and as the Legislature declines to grant a renewal except on onerous conditions, he advises that it be permitted to lapse without further effort. The receipts from the road were as follows : From Confederate government, $818,689.72; from others, $1,456,665 25; total, $2,275,354.97 ; expenses, $1,916,348 ; net, $359,006.97.

The superintendent, Mr. George Yonge, reports that he cannot keep the road up at all on the government exemption from military service of one man per mile ; also that it is not possible to increase fare and freight to a figure which will be commensurate with the increased price of railway supplies. From some tables given by Mr. Yonge may be seen how prices rose.

In the spring of 1865 the war came to a close, and for the year ending April I, 1865, the loss was $389,177.06. The road west of Greensboro had been destroyed and was so left by the company, but the Confederate government had placed that part in condition for at least temporary use. No convention of stockholders was held in 1865, but in 1866 the usual annual convention was held, and in the reports then presented we find a very clear and interesting account of the history and operations of the road during the fiscal years 1864 and 1865.

In the latter part of 1864 all the improvements at Atlanta, and the road, depots and bridges, from Atlanta to the Oconee were destroyed, partly by the Federal and partly by the Confederate forces. The company did not think it to its interest to rebuild that portion until the cessation of hostilities, but the Confederate government did so in a superficial and temporary manner. Some of the iron used in this work was taken by force from other roads, and at the close of the war these demanded restitution of their property. In addition to the destruction of eighty miles of track, the depots at Atlanta, Decatur, Lithonia, Conyers, Rutledge, Buckhead, Stone Mountain, Social Circle and Covington were burned, and some three hundred cars had been carried off and lost on other roads, or destroyed. The lapse of the banking franchise in December, 1864, had left the company without that once profitable auxiliary, and $400,000 of the old banking bills then in circulation were to be paid. The negroes belonging to the company, valued at $26,255, were emancipated. There were on hand, and worthless. Confederate bonds to the amount of $653,- 100; in Confederate notes, $339,842.51 ; Georgia war bonds, $150,000 ; Georgia treasury notes, $195,587.60. On the exchange of old Confederate currency for new there had been a loss of $113,617.87 ; an account of $674,- 245.29 against the confederate government for transportation was valueless, and in short the losses all told amounted to $2,732,522.71, of which $500,000 was in damage done to the road and its outfit, estimated on a gold basis. There were left 22 engines in running order and 29 needing repairs, and 378 cars, many utterly worthless.

On the cessation of hostilities the Georgia Road transported to their homes, free, nearly 100,000 Confederate soldiers, paroled, or prisoners of war released from Northern prisons. On October i, 1865, Mr. E. W. Cole was made superintendent, and his report of operations of the road from May 15, 1865, when the accounts began once more to be kept in Federal currency, showed that from that period to March 31, 1866, the receipts were $1,155,397.92, and the expenses $640,478.95, showing a net profit of $514,- 918.67.

This encouraging showing was due to ephemeral causes, however. There was an immense amount of traveling just after the war by refugees and others returning to their homes ; then all the hoarded cotton of the country was seeking export, and owing to the destruction of several competing lines, the Georgia road had a more than normal trade. From passengers there was received $362,548.13; freight, $761,974.37, and from the United States government for transportation, $30,875.42. The work of restoration was at once begun. Some 500 tons of new rails were at once laid, and 271 more tons ordered. The machine shop at Atlanta was rebuilt, as also many of the depots. Among the locomotives, the " South Carolina," which had been on the road since November I, 1845, and the " Oothcalooga," from October 28, 1846, survived all the many perils of time and war, and in 1866, after twenty and twenty-one years service, respectively, were reported as in running order. Both were Baldwin engines.

The board of directors in 1866 was John Bones, James S. Hamilton, Benjamin H. Warren, George T. Jackson, Richard Peters, Samuel Barnett, John Cunningham, James W. Davies, Nathan L. Hutchins, George W. Evans, William D. Conyers, Elijah J. Jones, Antoine Poullain, Massilon P. Stovall, and Edward R. Ware.

By 1867 the company had put in 283,900 new cross-ties, built two new bridges of iron, and nine new depots, and increased its cars from the 70 which came out of the war to 399, and its engines from 12 to 28, and paid for all out of the profits. In addition to this, $756,806 of the old bills had been redeemed. Still this left much of war's ravages unrepaired. Of the 700 cars on hand at the outbreak of hostilities, but 70 had been left at the close of the war as stated, and many of these were worthless. Of the 50 locomotives, but 12 could be trusted. The track had run down so as not to be safe even with a schedule of 10 miles per hour.

In 1867 work on the Augusta and Macon road, connecting with the Georgia road at Caniak by the Warrenton branch, was pushed forward vigorously. But 55,714 bales of cotton were transported, about one-fourth of the quantity hauled in i860.

By 1868 the war debt of $1,000,000 had been pretty well extinguished. The bills had been redeemed until but $129,476.12 was outstanding. In this report President King dwells upon the idea that local business must be the main reliance of railroad companies. Despite many drawbacks the planting interest had recovered ground, and the cotton freight was 1 12,708 bales, or about double that of the preceding year. Two new engines were the first in eight years. The cars had been increased to 473, of which 23 were passenger. Stevens Thomas and Thomas J. Burney were added to the directory this year.

In 1869 the grain freight of the road began to rise into new importance. This year 1,059,043 bushels were brought from the West against 487,828 the year before. This year an office of discount and deposit was opened with agencies at Atlanta and Athens. The net earnings increased to $83,542.60 over those of 1868, owing to the local business improving. The Macon and Augusta Railroad, though unfinished, was about paying its own expenses. Between 417 and 418 miles of road had been relaid with new iron. In September, 1868, Mr. E. W. Cole, superintendent, accepted the office of president of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, and Mr. S. K. Johnson, assistant superintendent, acted as superintendent. For the fiscal year 1869 the earnings of the Macon and Augusta Railroad were $45,123.52; expenses, $47,282.47. The United States tax on dividends was a heavy burden at this period, being

The receipts for 1870 were $1,456,183.85; expenses, $1,027,197.13; net, $428,986.72. The passenger receipts this year were unusually heavy, which the president attributed to the emigration of a suffering and discontented population from the old planting States to the Southwest There were indications, however, of a revival of prosperity in Georgia, prominent among which was the heavy traffic in guano, as evidencing a large scope of agricultural operations, 31,609,513 pounds being hauled this year. The president notes that a sort of railroad mania had at this era seized upon the public mind, and observes that some of the very serious burdens imposed on railroad enterprises seem to have been overlooked. Among them he refers to the accumulated taxes, two and one half per cent, on passenger gross receipts, five per cent, on cost of equipment with additional excise and tariff charges, five per cent, on income, and State and county taxes superadded. Still in addition, the deadhead abuse, and a multiplicity of" damage suits." The United States government tax this year was $27,15 1.06. This year miscellaneous freight exceeded the cotton transportation three to one, and the total receipts of the road were $198,841.33 in excess of the most favorable year before the war, namely 1859. This year the Green Line was in operation, the principle being that all connecting companies should provide a set of cars, the property of the combination, and transport them over their lines, each company receiving a pro-rata of the entire freight sale. The completion of the Augusta and Port Royal Railroad is announced and considered a great gain to the company.

The question of substituting steel for iron rails was then agitating the railroad world, and as showing the tenacity of the former it is mentioned that a section of rail on the Erie Road which had been in use for twelve months on an 8 5 -foot grade, and over which 3,000,000 tons had passed, showed wear of only one thirty-second part of an inch. A thousand tons of iron rails were this year ordered, but the superintendent recommends that thereafter only steel rails be used. By this year all the bridges had been put in order, and a roundhouse built in Augusta at a cost of $40,000. Josiah Sibley was added to the directory this year.

In October, 1873, Mr. John P. King, so long the president, informed the directors that bodily affliction disqualified him from giving proper attention to the duties of his office, and Mr. James W. Davies, a veteran director, was appointed president pro tern. Mr. King, while acknowledging the compliment conveyed in still retaining him in the presidency, declared it was necessary his wishes for retirement should be respected, and a new presiding officer elected. In this year the net profits of the road were $526,578.29. There were 52 locomotives and 791 cars. The guano freight was 39,171,240 pounds; cotton, 273,293 bales; grain, 1,107,382 bushels.

The year 1875 was a bad year. No dividend was declared, and salaries and wages were reduced twelve and a half per cent. The Supreme Court of Georgia so construed the tax clause of the charter as to make all the property of the company taxable, which at one swoop cut off $82,125.90. As has been heretofore remarked, this decision of the State Court was reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that the taxing power of the State was limited to the one-half of one per cent, on net income stipulated in the charter.

The annual reports from which we quote the summary now in hand are replete with many sagacious observations on the railroad business, and among others in this of 1875 President King lays it down as an axiom that " side lines are always troublesome, and short branches are generally a dead weight upon the main line." In his long experience, dating from the infancy of railroading, Mr. King had gained much valuable knowledge, and his reports are well worth careful study in this important field.

The year 1876 manifested little improvement over 1875. The receipts of the road were $1,194,324.07, and the expenses $641,677.93. The heavy expenditures for repairing the ravages of war began to draw to a close. The superintendent, Mr. S. K. Johnson, again urges the propriety of steel rails, lasting twenty years over iron, iron lasting only five. In this year an unusual accident occurred, namely the explosion of a passenger locomotive. The change of engines from wood to coal burners was also mooted. Two had been so changed, and shortened the time between Atlanta and Augusta thirty minutes. There were 53 locomotives and 856 cars. The cotton freight was 206,- 255 bales, a considerable falling off from that of the few preceding years. Of guano 57,094,045 pounds were hauled.

The report for 1877 shows the financial stringency still continuing, but that the road was managed with close economy, and that its operating expenses were 56^ per cent, of gross earnings, as against 62 per cent, on the Central Railroad, 61^ on the Atlanta and West Point, 61 on the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta, and 57^ on the South Carolina. There were 48 locomotives and 831 cars. The policy of coal-burning engines was fully approved, and thereafter as fast as locomotives were overhauled they were converted into coal-burners. The use of steel rails was also permanently determined on. The iron rails would not last over five years, and frequently only two, while the steel seemed to show no appreciable wear, and the cost of laying was the same. The cotton freights, owing to the prevalence of yellow fever in Savannah, which forced this product over the Georgia road, was 272,602 bales ; the guano freight was 74,415,168 pounds, or some 37,000 tons ; receipts were $1,1 43,- 128.24; expenses, $643,110.30; net, $500,017.94. This year the Legislature empowered the road to issue $1,000,000 of six or seven per cent, bonds to

In 1878 dividends were passed. A combination to control the Port Royal, and thus cut the Georgia road off from the sea was discovered, and to secure a controlling interest in the stock of that road so as to prevent the success of this hostile move, the directors determined to indorse the bonds of the Port Royal for $1,000,000. This year the operating expenses rose to 7iyper cent, of gross earnings. The policy of inclosing the tract with wire fence was initiated this year. Cotton receipts were 220,540 bales ; guano, 72,339,587 pounds. This year's report is the last made by Hon. John P. King, president of the road from its inception in 1838. General E. P. Alexander became his successor, with the following board of directors : James W. Davies, James S. Hamilton, Stevens Thomas, M. P. Stovall, George T. Jackson, L. M, Hill, Josiah Sibley, H. D. McDaniel, George Hillyer, John Davison, William M. Reese, Charles H. Phinizy, John H. James, Joel A. Billops, N. L. Hutchins, and H. H. Hickman. The operating expenses fell to 66 per cent. The reports for this year give very full details of the operations of the company, but present no special points of general interest.

In 1880 there are intimations of trouble with the railroad commission on the subject of rates, the commission claiming the right to fix rates and the company denying the same, relying on the provisions of its charter. After lasting some time this controversy was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States against the road. The earnings this year were $1,169,524.14; expenses, $766,448.93. Cotton freights decreased, but guano reached 82,817,538, an increase over the year previous year of some 14,000 tons.

At the convention for the fiscal year 1880, Colonel Charles H. Phinizy was elected president of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. The report for this year shows gross receipts, $1,369,964.42 ; expenses, $955,442,- 51. The haul of cotton and guano was unprecedented, being 295,849 bales, and 58,277 tons. About ninety miles of track had been laid with steel rails, with rails enough on hand to lay the rest of the main track. There were 49 locomotives and 938 cars.

In this year the road was leased to the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia at an annual rental of $600,000, the bank continuing its operations separately. The road is still conducted under the lease, and it only remains to add that the railway equipment and management of this venerable company are unsurpassed for excellence.

We here subjoin a statement of gross receipts, expenses, cotton, grain, and fertilizer freight of this time-honored company from 1838 to April i, 1889 :

The history of the banking operations of this company will be found in the chapter on banks and banking of this work. The present status of the road may be thus summarized : It embraces 372 miles of track, and the terminal points are Augusta, Atlanta, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Washington, Monroe and Warrenton. It has immense machine shops in Augusta, where it works from 160 to 175 hands; pays $i 10,000 of wages annually, and turns out yearly freight and passenger cars, and repairs its engines, manufacturing often 200 cars in a year. It has a grain elevator with a capacity of 150,000 bushels of wheat and corn. It passes through and into twenty counties of the State, the richest and most fertile, taking them as a whole, having an aggregate of $98,- 838,879 of wealth, arid $37,316,280 of city property.

The road is run in the most progressive manner. It has its entire main line laid with steel rails, and largely ballasted with rock. It runs accommodation trains at terminal points, and lightning trains on a fast schedule, of 171 miles in a little over five hours. Its cars are elegant and comfortable, and its yellow trains have become the symbol of traveling safety and luxury. Everything is kept up to perfection. Whatever science furnishes for railway improvement this model railroad utilizes. And its freedom from accident, due to a management of supreme ability, is something remarkable.

The Central Railroad system is the vastest single instrumentality of Georgia advancement. Its splendid scheme of commercial links, its noble ocean steamers, its massive system of wharves, elevators, presses, depots and structures, its immense facilities for the easy and speedy execution of a prodigious business, the perfect method and efficiency of its management, and the peculiarly solid character of its stocks and securities, make it a wonderful industrial organization.

The Central Railroad was chartered December 14, 1835. Colonel Cruger made the first experimental survey in 1834 at the cost of the city of Savannah. In 1835 the Central Railroad and Banking Company was organized, with W. W. Gordon, the originator of the scheme, as president. In 1836 it began work, and was completed to Macon October 13, 1843, ^ distance of 190 miles, on which day a train passed over the whole line to the depot at Macon. The first report was made May 20, 1838. L. O. Reynolds was chief engineer of construction. In July, 1838, passenger trains began running regularly the first 26 miles. The first report of business for August, September, and October, 1839, shows 2,310 passengers, paying $5,244, and freight, $20,232. In 1838 the charter of the branch road to Augusta was granted, and Savannah subscribed $100,000 to that branch.

During the year 1842 Mr. W. W. Gordon, the projector and genius of this enterprise, died, and Mr. R. R. Cuyler was elected president. Forty years later, in 1882, the Central Railroad Company, in grateful recognition of Mr. Gordon's great service, erected a beautiful monument to his memory in the Court House Square on Bull street in Savannah.

The ninth report, made March 29, 1844, reports the completion of the road at a cost of $2,581 ,723, including rolling stock, depots, etc. This also included $68,000 lost by freshet of 1841. The road had 14 engines. The receipts of the road the year of completion, 1843, were $227,531 of which $37,329 were from carrying 10,461 passengers. Among the freight were 47,133 bales of cotton. The expenses were $134,341, or 73.8 cents a mile, leaving a profit of

At this time a connection with Augusta was mooted. As chartered in 1833 the company was called "The Central Railroad and Canal Company of Georgia," and empowered to construct a canal or railroad from the city of Savannah to the city of Macon. In 1835 the charter was amended so as to change the name to " The Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia," the canal franchise being taken away and a banking privilege given in its stead. The railroad franchise remained as before, namely to construct a railway between Savannah and Macon. This charter has never been amended so as to permit the Central road proper to enter Augusta. This it does by a lease of the Augusta and Savannah Railroad Company. The Central road was constructed from Savannah to Macon via Millen and it now remains to trace the history of the road from Augusta to Millen.

In 1838 a railroad company named the Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad was incorporated to construct and operate a railroad " from the city of Augusta to Waynesboro, and thence to some suitable and proper point of junction with the Central Railroad." The Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad was given a perpetual charter and empowered to rent or farm out its franchises to any individual or company. In 1847 its charter was so amended as to allow it to begin construction of its line of road at any point on the line of the Central in Burke county, and thence proceed to Waynesboro, and thence to Augusta. In 1850 the charter was again amended so as to authorize it to contract with the city council of Augusta for a site for a depot in the city of Augusta and the right of way thereto, and in 1852 the right of way was granted as also the land bounded by Calhoun, Washington and Hall streets and now known as the Central freight depot.

In 1852 the Central Railroad and Banking Company was empowered "to lease and work for such time and on such terms as may be agreed on by the parties interested, the Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad." In 1856 the name of the Augusta and Waynesboro was changed to the Augusta and Savannah Railroad. In 1862 the Central leased the Augusta and Savannah and has since operated it under authority of the above stated act.

The war put its destructive hand on the Central Railroad. Its income was reduced at one stroke $657,385, or over one-third. It carried freight for the Confederate government at fifty per cent, under its regular rates, and took into its treasury $342,600 of Confederate treasury notes. The falling off was in cotton, hides, copper, lumber, fertilizers, and there was an increase in corn, lard, bacon, flour and wheat. The steamship companies in which the road invested wound up operations, and the railroad was notified that the amount of $360,935 had been remitted to England to its account

The Central road patriotically subscribed to various charitable and war funds. The transportation of troops ran the passenger receipts in excess of freights, and the banking profits were more than doubled. Cotton fell off to almost nothing. The road accumulated over a million and a quarter of Confederate and nearly three-quarters of a million of Georgia war securities and money. The year 1863 showed increased passenger earnings, diminished freights and rolling stock, and increased accumulation of war securities ; shipments of tobacco, bacon and corn grew.

The year 1 864 is a blank. From Gordon to Savannah 1 39 miles of the road was destroyed by Sherman's army, and for 40 miles width its line was devastated. The president. Colonel R. R. Cuyler, died. William B. Johnston was elected president. The thirtieth report was made December i, 1865, by John W. Anderson, acting president, when the road from Macon to Eatonton, 58 miles; from Augusta to Waynesboro 32 miles ; and from Savannah to No. 6^, 66^ miles, was opened. The amount of $704,000 of mortgage bonds was issued. Colonel William M. Wadley was elected president, and started energetically upon the rehabilitation of the road, which was in a bad condition. He made report March i, 1866, showing 63 miles to be repaired, cars numbering 539 and scattered, and engines reduced to 44 in number in bad order, with 14 only fit for use. Railway connection with Augusta had been reopened. On the 4th of December, 1866, President Wadley made the thirty-first official report. Connection with Macon was made June 12, 1866. The total cost of reconstructing the road was $1,068,632.

The year 1867 ^^^ the Central Railroad well re-established. Its capital stock was $4,661,800 representing the railroad and its appurtenances, worth $4,472,000 and $869,803 of stocks and bonds in other companies. The loss by war in bank operations had been $485,055. The expenditure in renewing the railroad was $1,357,140. The cotton business grew to 272,427 bales.

In 1868 the business of the road fell off $212,226. Seeing in the construction of rival lines and the loss of through business by competition, injury to his road, Mr. Wadley began that far-reaching plan of expansion, which resulted in the present massive and profitable railway and steamship scheme of transportation. Mr. Wadley projected with a broad generalship, and his successor. Captain Raoul, executed with fine ability his predecessor's grand ideas. This year of 1868 he invested in the Montgomery and West Point Railroad, the Western Railroad from Montgomery to Selma, and the Mobile and Girard Railroad, and a through freight system with the New York steamers was established.

In 1869 the Central Railroad leased the Southwestern Railroad, and bank agencies were established at Macon and Columbus as well as at Albany.

In 1870 Mr. Wadley bought for the company the Vale Royal Plantation, on the canal next to the river, where the splendid wharves of the road now lie.

In 1 87 1 Mr. Wadley leased the Macon and Western Railroad, as another protective measure in his broad plan of development. He also began branches to Blakely and Perry.

In 1873, by act of Legislature, the Central and Macon and Western roads were consolidated. The road had been capitalized at $5,000,000 the previous year, and in 1873 the capital stock had been increased to $7,500,000. An issue of $5,000,000 of bonds by the road was authorized by the Legislature for various purposes. Besides the road and its appurtenances, valued at $7,500,000, the concern owned other property amounting to $4,104,990, consisting of real estate, stocks, bonds, steamers, and railroads. The road owed $5,179,000 of liability, $3,686,500 on bonds as principal, and $1,492,500 as indorser.

In 1879 the Central obtained a controlling interest in the Vicksburg and Brunswick Railroad Company and the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Company.

In 1 88 1 the Central, as has been stated, leased the Georgia road at an annual rental of $600,000, the lease running ninety-nine years. On the lOth day of August, 1882, the genius of this magnificent Central system. Colonel William M. Wadley, died at Saratoga, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and in his seventeenth year as president of the company. General E. P. Alexander was elected president. His report summarizes the condition of the road : Mileages, 1,150 miles, main system, estimating steamship company at 250 miles. Connecting system, 458 miles; total, 1,608 miles; capitalized at $25,995,150 and stocked at $7,500,000, making an aggregate of $33,495,150, or $20,830 per mile. The 458 miles connecting system were the Central's proportion in 857 miles of railway, making the whole mileage it influenced 2,009. The policy of Mr. Wadley has been steadily pursued until the Central Railroad and Banking Company now dominates the railway system of Georgia.

The Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville Railroad Company extends from Augusta to Sandersville via Gibson, in Glasscock county. It traverses Richmond, Glasscock, Burke, and Washington counties and lays open some of the finest agricultural lands in the State. The aggregate wealth of the counties traversed is $36,500,000; the farm lands are worth $5,400,000, and the crops $4,350,000. The cotton yield is about 50,000 bales yearly. The road is seventy-five miles long, and is a narrow guage. It is only a question of time when it will be prolonged in an air line to Thomasville, opening up the immense timber and naval store resources of southern Georgia.

The Augusta and Knoxville Railroad Company owed its origin to a desire for direct communication between Augusta and Knoxville. It was completed as far as Spartanburg, South Carolina, and then passed into the hands of the