| From the Clarksville, Tenn. Jeffersonian |
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| March 20, 1861 |
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| The Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad |
| As the last rail upon this great
enterprise will be spiked to the earth today, and the line of railroad
from Louisville to Memphis, be made complete, we improve the occasion
which is appropriate, to group together some facts in the history of
the work, which will not be without interest to the reader. |
| This road commencing at the Kentucky State
line, and ending at Paris in Henry county, Tennessee, is eighty-three
miles in length. It was commenced in the summer of 1856, and is
finished today. t was built mostly by the citizens of the county of
Montgomery and city of Clarksville. The aggregate cost of the road was
about two million s of dollars, and it will probably go into operation
with less debt upon its shoulders than any work of similar magnitude
in the Western country. |
| The road runs through the counties of
Montgomery, Stewart, Benton and Henry, yet with the exception of about
$25,000 subscribed in Henry county, the county of Montgomery, with
only 25,000 inhabitants furnished the means for its construction. It
is a noble monument of their liberality and enterprise, and they are
certainly entitled to great praise. |
| The road connects at the Kentucky State
line with what is called the Memphis Branch of the Louisville &
Nashville Road, which road connects with the main road to Louisville
near Bowling Green; and at Paris, the other terminus, it connects with
the Memphis & Ohio road, thus completing the connection between
Louisville and Memphis, and making greatly the shortest and most
expeditious, as well as the most pleasant route between the two
cities. |
| It was, we believe, in the early part of
the year 1819, that the idea of a road from Louisville to Memphis was
first broached in this community. At that time, however, the scheme
had few advocates -- the greater portion of our people were decided in
the expression of their preference for a road from Nashville to the
Ohio River at Henderson, there to make connection with the Northern
system of Roads. This route was regarded as the most feasible, and as
possessing greater advantages for us, for the reason that it
penetrated the great coal fields of Western Kentucky. Through the
stupidity of those having the control of the Nashville Henderson
charter, Clarksville was thrown out of the line of that road and our
means went to the construction of the link between Louisville and
Memphis. Now our locomotives whistle along a finished road from
Louisville to Memphis, while the owls still hoot along the line from
Henderson to Nashville, and mules still wallow in the mud with their
heavy loads of produce. |
| The charter for the Memphis, Clarksville
& Louisville Road was obtained on the 28th of January, 1852. On
the 25th of May, 1853, 850,000 of stock having been subscribed, the
Commissioners met and elected the following named gentlemen the first
Board of Directors, viz: |
| E. Howard, W. Broaddus, J. lder, Wm. M.
Stewart, I. D. West, Bryee Stewart, W. H. Drane, J. Cobb, W. P. Hume,
D. Browder, G. A. Henry, H. F. Beaumont, J. A. Trice and Thos. W.
Wisdom. |
| Dr. Joshua Cobb was elected President;
Thos. W. Wisdom, Secretary; and W. P. Hume Treasurer. |
| The preliminary survey of the line was
made in 1853, by a company of engineers, under the charge of Everett
Peabody. Nothing further was done during that year. |
| On the 3d of June, 1854, Maj. G. A. Henry
was elected President. Shortly after, Julius Adams was elected Chief
Engineer, and the locating survey was ordered. An attempt was made
this year to consolidate this Road with the Memphis & Ohio
Company, which failed of success. |
| W. B. Munford was elected President, on
the 28th of June, 1855, and continued in that position until the 30th
of June, 1858, when he was succeeded by W. A. Quarles. |
| On the 27th of March, 1856, a convention
of representatives of this Road and the Memphis & Ohio, met at
Paris, to make another effort to consolidate the two companies,
authority having been given by the Legislature. But, like former
attempts, it resulted in nothing. |
| President Munford was authorized, on the
12th of March, 1856, to advertise for proposals, and put that portion
of the Road between the Cumberland River and the State line, to
contract. G. B. Fleece was appointed Chief Engineer. |
| About this time sprang up that great
excitement, so well remembered by all of our citizens, concerning the
upper and lower routes. The original location had been upon a line
below the town, and many of the citizens were apprehensive that if it
was built on that line, and a bridge thrown over the river below us,
that Clarksville would lose the advantages of the Road which she had
paid so much and labored so hard to secure. An angry and exciting
discussion grew out of the differences of opinion on the subject. The
papers, for weeks, were filled with editorials and communications on
either side, public meetings were held, and the whole enterprise
seemed about to fall upon the hill between "up" and
"down" town. Various engineers were consulted, and all
except Mr. Fleece, the Chief Engineer of the Road, agreed that the
upper route could only be built by a ruinous and unjustifiable
sacrifice of the means of the Company. He insisted that the cost of
the upper route would only exceed that of the lower route $45,000. The
upper route was adopted, and the accuracy of Mr. Fleece's estimates
"determined," by only "practical and
demonstrative" test -- the construction of the Road. |
| On the 30th of April, 30 miles of Road and
the Cumberland and Red River bridges were contracted for, with Messrs.
Champlin, Holman & Co. The contract was, however, abandoned in
December of the same year, by consent of all parties, and the 30 miles
re-let to small contractors. |
| The financial report of the Company, made
on the 22d of May, 1856, shows that at that time the Company had
received $6,008, and expended $4,367, and that the capital stock of
the Company was $1,305,700. |
| From this time the work progressed very
satisfactorily along the whole thirty miles, which had been put to
contract up to the period of the great panic of 1857, when the Company
became so much embarrassed on account of its inability to make
collections, that it was compelled to suspend all contracts between
here and the Tennessee river, and the work was not resumed until the
following summer. |
| W. A. Quarles, Esq., assumed the
Presidency of the road, on the 30th of June, 1858, and put the
remaining portion of the road between the Cumberland and Tennessee
rivers under contract. In 1860, he put the 26 miles between the
Tennessee river and Paris also under contract. More work was done
under his administration than under all of the others which had
preceded him combined. He resigned the office and was succeeded by R.
W. Humphreys, Esq., on the 13th of November, 1860. |
| When Mr. Humphreys took the road,
available means of the Company had been nigh exhausted in executing
the tremendous amount of work which had been under contract for two
years past, the road was still unfinished, and probably the period of
Mr. Humphreys administration has been as trying as any of equal
duration in the history of the road. But all obstacles have
disappeared before the energy of Mr. Humphreys and his officers, and
the road is an accomplished fact. |
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