| Annual Report of the New Orleans, Jackson
& Great Northern RR |
| as of March 1, 1866 |
| President's Report |
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| Eleventh Annual Report of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company |
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| Office of the New Orleans, Jackson &
Great Northern Railroad Company |
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New Orleans, April 5, 1866
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Gentlemen,
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| As required by the charter,
in behalf of the board of directors, I submit the following statement,
showing the condition of the road when received on the 24th of June,
1865, and its subsequent management up to the 28th of February, the
close of the fiscal year of the corporation. |
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From my report which I had the honor to make to the
governor and legislature of the State of Louisiana, under date of
December 12, 1865, showing the operations of the road up to the 1st of
December, I make the following extracts, which exhibit the condition
of the company anterior to and during the first years of the war, its
condition subsequent, and when received on the 24th day of June, 1865.
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In the annual report, dated December 1, 1860, made by my
predecessor, H. J. Ranney, the progress made in the construction of
the road, its financial condition, its receipts and expenditures, the
rolling stock on hand, are all fully set forth. For a more complete
understanding of the then condition of the company, the following
extracts from the report alluded to are submitted:
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The road has been completed with a single track, together
with the necessary side tracks, depot buildings and water stations
from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi -- a length of two hundred and
six miles -- in a substantial and permanent manner, equal to any road
in the United States, with the exception of a portion between the city
of New Orleans and the Pass Manchac, which portion is now being filled
and raised in such a manner as to prevent any future delays or
accidents.
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On that portion above Canton, known as the extension,
twenty-six miles have been graded, at a cost of two hundred and twenty
thousand dollars, ($220,000,) and an additional section of fourteen
miles to the town of Kosciusko, is under contract, and will be
completed during the year 1861; another section, extending south from
Aberdeen, Mississippi, to the intersection of the Mobile & Ohio
railroad, (length nine miles,) is under contract, the graduation of
which is nearly completed and ready for the rails, which can be laid
in season to take off the next crop, should the receipts of the road
equal our sanguine expectations. In addition to the work done on the
above nine miles, there has been more or less work done upon about
forty miles of the line through Monroe county, above and below
Aberdeen, at an expense of about $85,500.
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| The amount expended in the construction of the
road from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi, including the
right of way, real estate, depot buildings, station houses,
iron rails, wood and water stations, and workmanship of all
kinds up to date, has been |
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$5,549,211.81 |
| For locomotive engines, cars, tools, &c., in
the machine shop |
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1,044,661.20 |
| For graduation, right of way, and real estate,
&c., north of Canton |
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445,000.00 |
| Total cost of road and rolling
stock |
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7,038,873.01 |
| The amount of indebtedness for money borrowed,
upon first mortgage bonds is |
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$2,645,000.00 |
| Loans from the State of Mississippi |
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205,000.00 |
| Amount of bills payable |
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735,335.73 |
| Total loans and bills payable |
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3,585,335.73 |
| The earnings of the road from freight and
passenger trains from 1st December, 1859, to 30th November,
1860, as shown by statement H, was |
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$1,272,682.87 |
| The amount disbursed for transportation during
the same period was |
$811,547.79 |
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| From this must be deducted for expenses incurred
previous to November 30, 1859, and paid during the current
year |
115,853.51 |
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695,694.28 |
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| Add for amount outstanding and unpaid on 30th
November, 1860 |
20,276.25 |
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| Actual cost of transportation from December,
1859, to November 30, 1860 |
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715,970.53 |
| Leaving the net earnings for the year ending
November 30, 1860 |
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556,712.34 |
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We have on hand, in complete order and ready for service,
45 locomotive engines, 37 passenger cars, 9 baggage and express cars,
503 freight cars, 57 gravel and hand cars.
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This quantity of rolling stock is sufficient to transport
double the amount of freight and passengers which passed over the road
during the past year. Of the above, eleven locomotives and eleven
first-class passenger cars have never been coupled to a train, and are
now in the depot, perfectly ready for use whenever they may be
required for the increasing traffic of the road.
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| The total earnings of the
road, from freight, passengers, and mails, for the 12 months ending
December 31, 1857, were $277,088.24; for the 12 months ending December
31, 1858, were $593,093.69; for the 12 months ending November 30,
1859, were $964,958.66; for the 12 months ending November 30, 1860,
were $1,272,862.87. Showing a regular increase of more than $300,000
each year since 1857, notwithstanding the interruptions to the traffic
from the extraordinary storms, crevasses, and short crops of the two
years just passed. |
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The above extracts show the financial condition of the
road, the amount of rolling stock on hand, the amount of capital
expended, the length of road finished and under contract, and its
receipts and expenditures up to the date of rendition, December 1,
1860.
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| On the 1st day of January,
1862, another, and the last, annual report of President Ranney was
made to Governor Moore, from which the following extracts are made to
show the condition of the company at that date: |
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The road, as far as completed, a distance of two hundred
and six miles, to Canton, Mississippi, is in the best possible
condition, being equal, and, indeed, better than any railroad in the
confederacy as to capacity, condition, machinery, rolling stock,
&c.
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| The gross earnings of the
road from the transportation of freight and passengers, for the year
ending January 1, 1862, have been $1,128,537.85. The cost for the
same, including repairs of the road, engines, cars, &c., has been
$531,590.40, yielding a net revenue of $596,947.45, which has been
applied to the reduction of the floating debt, payment of interest on
loans, and the extension of the road. |
| The graduation of that portion of the road from
New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi, together with the rolling
stock, depot buildings, real estate, right of way, law
charges, salaries, interest on loans, repairs, and renewals,
and all other contingencies, including the graduation,
bridging, &c., beyond Canton, known as the extension, has
been, to the 1st of January, 1862 |
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$12,513,829.11 |
| Of this amount there has been received from
stockholders |
$4,664,267.15 |
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| From sale first mortgage bonds |
2,665,000.00 |
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| From railroad earnings |
4,473,781.95 |
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| From loans from the State of Mississippi |
220,000.00 |
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| From interest coupons of bonds of the State of
Louisiana and the city of New Orleans |
264,480.00 |
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| For bills payable and outstanding balances over
and above amount due to the company |
226,300.01 |
12,513,829.11 |
| The debt due and outstanding on
January 1, 1862, was: |
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| Loans received from the State of Mississippi |
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$220,000,00 |
| Bills payable, due, and maturing in 1862, 1863,
1864, and 1865 |
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256,773.04 |
| Paymasters' bills payable |
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35,149.80 |
| Bills payable, of small denominations |
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32,220.00 |
| Balance due on pay-roll account |
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5,174.96 |
| Amount due sundry persons for bills, railroad
balances, and other accounts |
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34,236.84 |
| Coupons due on first mortgage bonds, including
those due 1st January 1862 |
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237,720.00 |
| First mortgage bonds, due in 1886 |
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2,665,000.00 |
| Sundry balances due parties and railroads in the
north |
$9,296.62 |
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| Bills payable, due as above |
174,835.81 |
184,132.43 |
| Total liabilities |
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3,670,407.07 |
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| The above extracts exhibit
the condition of the company's affairs in January, 1862. After that
date only a small amount of work was done on that portion of the road
north of Canton, the contractors abandoning the work with the consent
of the then president. No portion of that part of the road has been
completed. |
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On the 24th of April, 1862 {the
date the Union navy passed the forts on the Mississippi and arrived to
take possession of New Orleans}, the rolling stock and
locomotives of the company were taken possession of by Major General
Lovell, and removed to that part of the road north of Ponchatoula,
where it remained under his absolute control for twenty days, at which
time it was returned to the control of the officers of the road, who
continued to manage the same during the years 1862, '63, '64 and a
portion of 1865, up to the date of the surrender of the department by
General Taylor.
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On the 27th day of August, 1862, the directors then in
Mississippi met in the town of Canton, and fixed the domicile of the
company, for the time being, at that place. Their attention, by
regular meetings of the board of directors, was given to the business
of the company for a period of eight months, subject to the control of
the confederate military authorities.
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| In the spring of 1863, a
large amount of confederate securities being on hand, the attention of
the board was given as to their best disposition. Although doubts were
entertained as to their power to invest any assets on hand in cotton
or other property, yet they resolved, at a meeting of the board of
directors, on the 11th March, 1863, to purchase from three to five
thousand bales of cotton near the line of the road, the proceeds to be
applied to the principal or interest on the bonds of the company, and
for the purchase of material for the use of the same. |
| To effect the end proposed by
the resolution, a committee consisting of Messrs. Fellowes, Warren and
Fearn, was appointed, who proceeded to purchase some seven hundred and
fifty bales, when that section of the country was invaded by the
federal forces, and as the confederates retired, five hundred bales
which had been purchased and stored at Canton were burned by order of
the confederate General Jackson. |
| The remainder has been in
part and is still being delivered, by the parties from whom it was
purchased. Some parties from whom purchases were made have refused to
comply with their contracts. Proper means will be taken to enforce a
compliance. |
| The 8th day of April, 1863,
was the date of their last meeting in Canton, as, shortly after that,
the country was disturbed by the raid of General Grierson, and the
subsequent invasion of Generals Grant and Sherman, in May, when
Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, was captured, and
much of the road in its vicinity torn up and destroyed. |
| After the meeting of the 8th
of April, 1863, the control and management was exclusively that of the
president, superintendent and other employees of the company. |
| In the year 1863 and '64, the
rolling stock and locomotives were, with a few exceptions, destroyed
or damaged by the contending forces in that district, and rendered
unfit for service. On the 1st of May, 1865, the company was deprived,
by death, of the services of H. J. Ranney, who had been its president
since June, 1860. ***** |
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Reference is here made to treasurer's statements, A, B
and C, accompanying the report. Statement A being receipts and
expenditures of the road from 1st March, 1862, to 16th October, 1863,
as per books kept in New Orleans, embracing a period of time from the
1st May, 1862, to the 16th October, 1863, when no receipts and but few
expenditures were made, owing to the fact that the headquarters of the
road were removed to Canton, Mississippi. Statement B being the
receipts and expenditures of the company from the 16th June, 1862, to
the 29th May, 1865, embracing all the transactions of the road while
the headquarters were located in Mississippi.
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| This statement shows a
balance on hand, in confederate obligations, of $972,906.27, which
amount, had it been available, would have been, at the time,
sufficient to have paid the overdue coupons. |
| ***** |
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Efforts to pay off all the coupons held in the southern
States, by advertisements, &c., met with but the limited success
stated above. *****
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| ***** |
| There having been no election
of directors since the third Monday of April, 1862, the question of at
once ordering an election was considered by them {the
directors, on June 2, 1865}. ***** |
| ***** At the time the road
was turned over to the board of directors {June,
1865}, it was being used, and was in good
condition as far as Ponchatoula, 47 miles north of this city. From
that point to Brookhaven -- a distance of 81 miles -- the road had not
been used since the spring of 1863, as most of the bridges between
those points had been destroyed by the different armed forces
traversing that section of the country. That portion of the road not
having received any attention since 1862, it became enveloped with
briers, bushes and grass, the undisturbed growth of three years
causing, by shade and moisture, the decay of the pine timber used in
its construction. There was scarcely a single bridge on that section
that was not wholly, or in part, destroyed by fire, or rendered unfit
for use by decay. Of the cross-ties of this section, fully three
fourths have to be replaced to render the road safe for the transit of
cars and locomotives. From Brookhaven to Jackson, a distance of 55
miles, the road, though dilapidated, was in use, save some two and a
half miles immediately south of the latter place, where the road-bed
had been torn up and the bridges and cross-ties burnt. |
| From Jackson to Canton, the
present terminus of the road a distance of twenty-three miles -- the
road, though much out of repair, having been often torn up and
destroyed, was still being used. Of the splendidly equipped road of
1861 and '62, of the 49 locomotives, 37 passenger cars, (many of which
had never been used,) and 550 freight, baggage and gravel cars, there
remained fit for use, though in damaged condition, between Jackson and
Canton, 1 locomotive, 2 second-class passenger cars, 1 first-class
passenger car, 1 baggage and 1 provision car, 2 stock and 2 flat cars. |
| On the section between
Jackson and Brookhaven, there were in use 2 locomotives, damaged,
having been partly burned; 4 box cars, one of which was used for
passengers, and 9 flat cars. All the other locomotives have been
burned or damaged by time and exposure, and rendered unfit for
service. The amount of rolling stock turned over to the company by the
military authorities of New Orleans consists of 1 locomotive, 1
passenger car, 4 box and 10 flat cars, 1 baggage and 2 cattle cars. |
| Of all the depot buildings
and platforms attached, wood-sheds, and water stations and division
houses, which were in complete repair in 1862, there remained only the
buildings at Osyka, Magnolia and Summit; the remainder having all,
from time to time, been destroyed by the armed forces in their
vicinity. |
| ***** In the short space of
thirteen days, under his {B. H. Greene},
the gap of two and a half miles, immediately south of Jackson, was
rebuilt, including a large bridge, thus closing a break that had
existed since May, 1863 ***** |
| C. C. Shackleford |
| President |
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