Railroads of Meridian

1 ANTEBELLUM BEGINNINGS

5 1 ANTEBELLUM BEGINNINGS • Development of permanent communities in most of the Gulf states began with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, signed in 1830 at the end of the War of 1812. This agreement ceded to the U.S. government lands previously controlled by indigenous tribes of Choctaws, Chickasaws, and others. Credit for establishing Meridian’s predecessor, a settlement known as Sowashee, belongs to Richard McLemore of Virginia , who purchased several thousand acres and began recruiting new settlers. The village was named for a nearby stream that flooded the area regularly. Thus, the Choctaws had given it the name “Angry Water.” Eventually, McLemore sold large plots around the village to two ambitious businessmen, Lewis Ragsdale and John Ball, who soon began to lead in the development of a larger town. By late 1833 much of McLemore’soriginaltracthadbeenincorporatedinto Lauderdale County, which by 1850 included five villages , with Marion as the county seat. Meridian’s First Railroad Theinitiallinetoreacheast-centralMississippibegan in the port of Mobile, Alabama. Always considered a poorer cousin to its western neighbor near the mouth of the Mississippi River, Mobile found its shipping tonnage in a declining position in the mid-1840s after its ranking among U.S. ports dropped from third (behind only New Orleans and New York City) to sixth position in a scant six years. Much of this was due to the rapid expansion of railroad building along the Eastern Seaboard during this period, as the complementary roles of railroads and waterborne transportation began to evolve. Such activity had been largely absent along the Gulf, as the major cotton states (Alabama ,Louisiana,andMississippi)containedatotalof only 165 miles of trackage in 1848. As usually happened during this period of U.S. development, there were a few farsighted individuals who attempted to stir local communities into action .InMobilethatpersonwasNorthCarolinanative Marshall J. D. Baldwyn. Born in 1810, he migrated to Mobile and served as a sheriff but eventually became atirelessadvocateforaraillinetappingtheimportant agriculturalregionsthatsurroundedtheportcity.Itis said that his hatband contained ink sketches of route maps that he could easily produce when engaged in conversation to promote the city’s need. Unfortunately, Baldwyn’s original vision was so breathtaking in scope that it often stifled serious 6 R AILROADS OF MERIDIAN discussion. Even the local newspaper characterized it initially as being preposterous. What astonished the local citizenry was that he had proposed a 460-mile railroad to the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois, with a connecting link to Saint Louis. His Gulf–Illinois line would be 44 miles longer than the Erie Railroad, then under construction as the nation’s longest rail route (New York City to Buffalo). Eventually, Baldwyn’s persuasive speeches were able to convince many area residentstoattendatownmeetingonJanuary11,1847, at which a committee of fifty-six influential citizens, including some from Mississippi, was appointed to beginplanningfortheMobile&OhioRailroad.More importantly,sufficientfundingwasraisedtohireCity EngineerLewisTroosttoperformapreliminaryroute survey. After Troost’s strongly favorable report was completed , M&O supportersapproachedtheaffected state legislatures for charters, all of which were granted in February 1848 in this order: Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky,andTennessee.Thefledglinglineappealed for supporters to provide initial financial support for construction with a subscription drive that began on May 2. It was closed twenty days later after a total of 699 individuals had purchased 6,217 shares at $100 each. Formal organization of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad was held on June 7, 1848, with prominent Mobile merchant Sidney Smith being named president. A native of Massachusetts, Smith had become a civic leader in Mobile, and his personal endorsement signified stronglocalsupportofthenewrailroadventure.With early financial backing from the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee as well as the U.S. government (see below) and numerous online communities, M&O construction began in 1852, following Troost’s survey,whichpointedthetracksnorthwestwardfrom Mobile into Mississippi and then parallel to the Alabama -Mississippi state line for the entire distance to the Tennessee state line. This alignment line was dictated both by the larger number of established Mississippi settlements as well as by the course of the Tombigbee River, which passed through a sparsely populated region near the western boundary of Alabama (Lemly). Two-year timelines for M&O construction progress , reported in the M&O’s 1861 annual report, are as follows: first biennial (33 miles), second (120), third (102), fourth (112), fifth (117). Thus only a decade was required to build the 486-mile line between Mobile andColumbus,Kentucky,animpressivepace,considering the severity of financial and political problems it encountered (see below). M&O construction crews reachedthevillageofMarion(LauderdaleCounty)in October 1855, but prior activity of the surveyors in the vicinityofSowashee,somefivemilessouthofMarion, had alerted local leaders to begin a campaign urging...