| Annual Report of the Savannah, Albany &
Gulf RR |
| as of May 1, 1861, |
| President's Report |
| |
| President's Report |
|
|
Office of the Savannah, A. & Gulf R. R. Co.
|
|
Savannah, May 1st, 1861
|
|
|
|
The President and Directors respectfully submit to the
Stockholders, the following Report upon the affairs of the Company
during the past fiscal year.
|
|
The statement of the Treasurer hereto appended fully
exhibits the present condition of the Finances of the Company.
|
|
The Gross Earnings have been as follows, viz:
|
| From Freight |
$146,993.38 |
| From Passage |
78,268.34 |
| Due for three quarters Mail Service |
8,853.86 |
| Total Gross Earnings |
$234,115.58 |
|
|
To which should be added $871 of installments collected
on the Capital Stock, making $234,986.58. Of this sum, $8,853.86, due
by the Government of the late United States for transportation of
mails, we have no expectation of realizing, and in losing it, the
Company may well congratulate itself, that it is no longer the
pensioner of a government, which has at no time recognized the true
importance of its enterprize, and has been constantly deficient in
promptness and regularity of payment. The amount of $9,394.13 due by
the Agent of Transportation, is chiefly on account of Saw Mill Men,
whose credits have not reached maturity.
|
|
The funded debt of the Company amounts to $329,200,
$19,000 of 7 per cent. bonds payable in ten years, having been issued
for the purchase of the Williamson Tract, on the Western side of the
Depot, and in settlement of the claims of Mr. Wm. Way, for damages for
the Right of Way.
|
|
The Board having recently purchased 20 acres of land
adjoining the Depot on its Eastern side another issue of 7 per cent.
bonds, payable in ten years, is about to be made on this account. The
funded debt of the Company may be properly, therefore, said to be as
follows:
|
| Bonds guaranteed by the City of Savannah |
$320,000 |
| Bonds issued to Estate of W. P. Bowen |
10,200 |
| Bonds issued to Estate of Williamson |
12,000 |
| Bonds issued to W. I. Way |
7,000 |
| Bonds issued to Planter's Bank |
12,000 |
| Total funded debt |
$341,200 |
|
|
The floating debt of the Company amounts to $110,7825.63.
This sum, so largely in excess of the amount shown in our last fiscal
statement, has been created chiefly by the necessary expenditures for
Rolling Stock, and motive power; for buildings in the Savannah Depot,
and for the embankments of the Altamaha, and the Great Ogechee. We
will not here give vent to now common place murmurs, over the
depression of the times, restricting our resources and forcing us to
seek unexpected credit.
|
|
This Company has continued the operation and maintenance
of the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad during its whole progress, and it
finally having become necessary to establish some basis for the
division of the earnings of the two Roads, a committee from each Board
was appointed for this purpose. The Report of the Joint Committees
suggested the following basis of adjustment which was adopted by both
Boards:
|
|
"Ascertain first the earnings of both Roads from the
time the cars reached the first station of the Atlantic & Gulf
Railroad, until it reached the next station. Then deduct all expenses
of both Roads including repairs of both Roads, and keeping up rolling
stock; the net income then to be divided to each Road in proportion to
capital invested; and so on, from station to station, as the Road has
progressed, or, as it shall progress , as long as this arrangement
shall be continued by both Companies -- the rolling stock at the
termination of this agreement, to be left in as good condition, as it
is at present, and when any part of the same shall have been so worn
or used as to be unfit for service, the same shall be replaced by and
at the joint expense from the joint earnings, and charged, to general
expense account of both Roads.
|
|
This arrangement shall be subject to abrogation on three
months' notice by either party."
|
|
This rule of division of earnings, which was not arrived
at without mature reflection and a careful analysis of the peculiar
relations of the two companies, would seem to be equitable and
mutually liberal. The result of the adjustment of all accounts up to
this date shows a balance in favor of the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad
of $20,146.40.
|
|
The last annual Report of this Company indicated the
probability of the early determination of a Railroad connection
between the Savannah, Albany & Gulf, or the Atlantic & Gulf
Railroad, and the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad. Negotiations which
were the subject of the most earnest discussion have finally resulted
in the establishment of a connection 47 miles in length between
Station 12, (Lawton,) on the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad, and the
Live Oak Station on the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad, being about
22 miles from Lake City and about 12 miles from Columbus, near the
Suwanee River. A connection further westward or further eastward would
have been preferable to this Company, and of more immediate value to
the people of both States; but in the failure to obtain a more liberal
line, this has been finally accepted and let to responsible
contractors to be completed in July, 1862. We would here, however,
state that the contract being based entirely upon stock payments may
be avoided by contractors upon a hostile invasion of the State.
|
|
The line of connection thus agreed upon, will doubtless
subserve the most important objects of a connection with Florida. A
line to Lake City, which has been earnestly urged, would have
presented the greatest conveniences to the country East of the Suwanee;
a line from Quitman, or its vicinity, to Monticello would be to West
Florida what the Lake City line would have been to East Florida. The
connection now however established may be regarded as a compromise
between the two, and may, at least for a time, subserve the objects of
both in any important degree.
|
|
As already stated the time for the completion of the
construction upon this line is July, 1862. The very level character of
the country is favorable in an eminent degree to cheap railway
construction. Its sandy soil will afford the best possible road bed
for permanency or for original formation by easy labor, while it is
covered by an almost unbroken forest of virgin pine, affording
abundant material for superstructure and bridging. The cost of 102
miles of the Main trunk, involving the cost of passing over several
rivers requiring lengthy trestles and bridges, has amounted to about
$9,400 per mile.
|
|
There is perhaps no country in the world so favorable to
economical railway construction as that surrounding and drained by the
Okefinokee Swamp. The country dips into this swamp by an almost
imperceptible gradient from an elevation above mean tide water at
Savannah of about 160 feet. Strange as it may appear, Station 10, (Glenmore,)
lies 154.872 feet, Station 11, (Homersville,) 179.897 feet, Station
13, (Stockton,) 192 feet, or an average of 175.589 feet above mean
tide water, and about 150 feet above the Depot at Savannah. These
facts alone would seem to show the practicability of draining the
swamp, which was, however, fully established by the survey of Mr. R.
L. Hunter, made in 1857, under a commission of the State. The levels
calculated by Mr. Hunter show the surprising result that the average
elevation of the Okefinokee Swamp is 116.18 above mean tide water, and
about 90 feet above the depot at Savannah.
|
|
By the construction of the Florida connection of the
Savannah, Albany & Gulf Railroad, the Okefinokee Swamp is actually
enclosed on three of its sides by the great highway of modern
commerce, which each of these railroads actually cross some of its
greater ramifications. Will it ever be penetrated by a vigorous and
enlightened industry, bringing the light of the prolific sun into its
dreary shades, and redeeming its luxuriant coverts from the waste of
primeval nature.
|
|
The track of the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad reached the
Town of Thomasville, in the county of Thomas, 200 miles from Savannah,
on the 30th of last month. We are gratified to know that the
enterprise of the Directors of that company has not been checked by
the political and financial convulsions of the country, and that with
the same energy and determination which has characterized their
previous labors they have renewed their contracts for the extension to
Bainbridge. Abandonment would be almost a crime against this most
important enterprise, involving, in its final completion to the Gulf,
the most momentous results to the commercial and social power of the
Confederate States. If important to commerce and society as a certain,
short and secure medium of transportation between the Atlantic and the
Gulf, it is equally important in its military results. It would render
the occupation of the Tortugas and of Key West by a hostile force
comparatively innocuous and useless.
|
|
The rapid extension of the Atlantic & Gulf Road has
produced the most satisfactory results to this Company, to the country
thorough which it has passed, and to the commercial interests of
Savannah. The gross income from the operation of the two Roads has
been doubled in the past two months; it should be trebled in another
year.
|
|
The results of the past year hardly indeed afford a
proper basis of estimate of the operations of the coming year, the
shortness of the crop of 1860, and the national disturbances having
deprived the country of a part of its resources, and forced every
interest to an extraordinary economy. With the restoration of peace
and security, and the vigorous renewal of our industries under the
protection of a Southern Government, legislating for Southern
interests alone, we entertain no fears for the future prosperity of
the enterprise. Although these Rail Road has been built through a
county scarcely populated, until their tracks were laid, they are
already successful beyond the anticipations of their early projectors.
Their prosperity must accumulate with a denser population, with the
development of new, and now untried industries, and with the extension
of the fertile fields of Southern Georgia.
|
|
The value of the taxable property in the counties through
which the two Rail Roads pass, exclusive of the county of Chatham,
amounts to $41,000,000. If to this amount, be added the value of the
taxable property of other counties, which will discharge their
productions over this line, the sum will be $47,000,000; about one
thirteenth of the whole taxable property of Georgia. The income of
the two Companies amounts to nearly one half of one per centum of this
sum, which has been chiefly realized, since the passage of the
Withlacoochee River, in October last.
|
|
If we may be permitted to institute a comparison with the
early experience of the Central Rail Road, under nearly similar
circumstances, it will be surprising to find that the result is not
unfavorable to the future prospects of this enterprise. The Central
Rail Road was completed to Macon, 190 miles, and a train passed over
the whole line on the 13th of October, 1843. The total receipts of the
Company from November 1st 1842 to November 1st, 1843, amounted to
$184,919. The Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road was completed to
Thomasville, 200 miles from Savannah, and a train passed over the
whole line on the 17th of April last. The total cash receipts
of the two Companies from May 1st, 1860 to May 1st, 1861 amounted to
$215,967.59. It may not then be unsafely asserted that the unaided
local business of these two Companies compares favorably with the
early results of one of the most successful rail road enterprises in
this country. Assuming the valuable basis of calculation afforded by
the history of the Central Rail Road, the prospects of the second
great rail road enterprise of Savannah are not without the most
cheering promise of success. The value of produce carried over our two
Roads in the past year has amounted to about $1,500,000. It may be
safely assumed that the amount of return freight is equal, making the
total amount of transportation, say, $3,000,000. The freight on this
amount is about four per centum, while the receipts from passage,
mails, etc., should be three-fourths nearly of the receipts from
freight. An estimate upon those data would make the earnings of our
two companies for the past fiscal year $210,000, while the actual
receipts exceed this amount. Supposing then that our Freights in the
coming year amount to one-third increase, the total receipts will
reach $280,000; if our freights double, as may not be unreasonably
anticipated under ordinary circumstances, our receipts will reach
$420,000 in the fiscal term of 1861-62.
|
|
We beg leave to refer to the subjoined report of
Superintendent Fulton for a full statement of our Rolling Stock and
its condition, and of the general condition of the line, and to his
detailed tables of transportation and other valuable data. Our
experience has convinced us of the practicability and economy of
embanking a large portion of trestle, which was originally constructed
to test the water way of the line; it has proved a most unfortunate
feature in the road, daily becoming an increasing source of exhausting
expense. Every effort will now be directed to the removal of all the
wood work possible on the line, and reducing the whole road to
effectual permanency. It will involve a large outlay from the income
of the next year, but it will forever remove an expenditure which may
be said to be doubled every five years.
|
|
John Screven
|
|
President
|
|