| 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 |
|