NP, NODC 3/6A/1861

From the New Orleans Daily Crescent
 
March 6, 1861
 
The Progress of our Railroad
   On the 11th day of February, there was a meeting of the directors of the M. & El Paso railroad Co. {Memphis, El Paso & Pacific RR}, at Paris. Simpson H. Morgan, the president, resigned his situation, and judge H. A. Bennett was elected president. Judge Bennett passed through our town on Tuesday, on his way to New Orleans, to make arrangements to have iron shipped at once. He is in high spirits and reports more favorably upon the prospects of the main road. The branch road, in which we are more directly interested, is progressing finely under the management of Capt. J. H. Pratt, the energetic contractor. Two estimates have been made and we are gratified to know that the contractors on the road have all been promptly paid, and a respectable force is now at work, and, to make the prospects of our road more certain, judge Bennett will have shipped immediately iron enough for twenty-five miles. In addition, the legislature, at their recent session, passed a relief bill which gives us ten sections of land to every mile, to be drawn upon the local work of every five miles, when completed. This five miles we learn from Capt. Daniels, the chief engineer, can if necessary, be completed in thirty days. This gives us a cash basis, at the minimum price of land-certificates, of fully twenty-five thousand dollars for every five miles, when completed -- and to add to the gratification of all interested in this great work, we were reliably informed that the stock subscriptions are being promptly paid. Taking all things into consideration, the failure of the crops last season, the hard times consequent upon the federal disturbances, and the great pressure in the money market, these results are unprecedented. We therefore give it as our candid opinion that the early completion of our branch road, which puts us into immediate connection with the great west, is a fixed fact. There can be no failure in this great enterprise as long as the present able and efficient president and directory have control of its affairs, and our energetic friend, Capt. Pratt, has the superintendence of the construction.
Jefferson Gazette

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