| Annual Report of the Mobile & Ohio RR |
| as of April 1, 1861, |
| President's Report |
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| Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the
Stockholders of the |
| Mobile & Ohio Rail Road Co. |
| Held in Mobile, May 7, 1861 |
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| To the Stockholders of the Mobile &
Ohio Rail Road Company |
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The President and Directors of your Company present the
following Report of their proceedings for the past year:
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| Report |
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By our last Annual Report you were informed that the
track was laid from Mobile, North as far as Okolona, including the
Columbus (Miss.) Branch; and that it was laid from Columbus, Ky.,
South to a point two miles below Jackson, Tennessee. Since that
Report, and since your last Annual meeting, we have laid down one
hundred and nineteen miles of track, completing the entire line
between Columbus, Ky., and the City of Mobile. The last bar of iron
was laid and the last nail driven in the presence of a large crowd of
spectators, and with appropriate ceremonies, on the Twenty-Second
day of April, 1861.
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In ordinary times, with our road finished, we might
safely expect a large increase of income. And the time would seem
appropriate to enter on a review of our financial condition, and make
suggestions in regard to the future. But in the present uncertain
condition of things, with a hostile army at Cairo, and a threatened,
if not actual blockade of the Port of Mobile, and the whole country in
arms, almost entirely breaking up commercial intercourse and the
ordinary business transactions of the country, it would be unsafe, at
present, to make estimates of income or propose measures of future
policy. This we leave until the development of events may throw
additional lights on the subject.
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Of one thing, however, we can speak with confidence and
certainty -- that your road, running though four States, will furnish
in times of peace a great artery of commerce and in war a
powerful arm of defence; and that in peace or in war its
influence will be exerted in support of Southern Commerce and the
maintenance of Southern institutions.
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For the receipts and disbursements, and the operations of
the several departments during the past year, we refer to the appended
tables and the Report of the Chief Engineer and General
Superintendent. These tables and statements furnish all the material
facts relating to the progress, completion and present condition of
your great enterprise.
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We take great pleasure in repeating the announcement,
made in our last report, that "to the heads of the several
departments too much praise cannot be awarded for their faithful and
laborious discharge of duty,"
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All of which is respectfully submitted.
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Milton Brown, President
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Mobile & Ohio Rail Road Company
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