| Annual Report of the Macon & Brunswick RR |
| as of January 1, 1866, |
| President's Report |
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| Macon & Brunswick Railroad Office |
| Macon, February 1, 1866 |
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| To the Stockholders of the Macon &
Brunswick railroad: |
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| Gentlemen, |
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On behalf of the board of directors, I respectfully
present to your consideration the following report:
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| The year just closed has
witnessed the final scenes of a struggle which for over four years has
enveloped our country, and which for fierceness and destruction of
life and property has seldom or never been equaled. Three times have
Macon and our road been in imminent peril, but have escaped by rare
good fortune the sad fate which has befallen almost every interest in
the southern confederacy. |
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We have been called on to lament during the year the
death of two of the most prominent members of this board of directors,
George Walter, and old and tried friend, and A. E. Cochran, the
presiding officer of this company. Both of these gentlemen have been
connected with the road since its first inception and have contributed
greatly to its success; the resolutions adopted by the board on the
occasion of their decease bear testimony to this fact, and to their
own individual worth.
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Hawkinsville extension -- At the close of the war
the road had progressed to the junction of the Hawkinsville branch,
forty miles from Macon. The business of this section was extremely
light and with no prospect of improvement, net earnings not meeting
the expenses. The Central road being destroyed, an extension of the
road ten miles to Hawkinsville promised so great an addition of
business, that it was decided immediately by the board to reach that
point. *****
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Bonds -- Some $330,000 of bonds were issued in the
year 1862, made payable twenty years after date in "lawful money
of the Confederate States," value of Confederate money at the
date of issue to gold being as 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 to 1. *****
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Cotton -- The proceeds from the sale of these
bonds, together with $60,000 additional, were invested in cotton,
making $390,000 in all. Taxes, warehousing, loss, charges and
interest, would swell the above to fully $500,000 confederate money.
Out of 2,030 bales of cotton thus purchased 700 bales were burnt, (no
insurance,) sold to meet current expenses of road, or spent in various
ways during the progress of the war, leaving 1,332 bales on hand at
the date of the surrender; 84 bales of this amount had at once to be
given to the Southwestern railroad in exchange for 135 tons of light,
worn-out rail to relay 2 1/2 miles of our road, the iron for which had
been impressed by the confederate government at the very close of the
war for the use of the Macon & Western and Georgia railroads.
*****
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Respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
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Geo. H. Hazlehurst
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Acting President
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