Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-05-16
The Memphis Railroad Celebration.

board with the Mississippi River, mulitudes
tiocked to Memphis IL witness the interest.
ing ceremonies. Fifty hours travel will
now carry us from Charleston to Mempbis.
distance of 760 milesl We find the
Memphis papers filled with accounts of the
great jubilee, and we annex one which, while
1t gives condensed account Of every thing
OF interest that occurred, at the same time
furnishes an interesting statement of the cir
cumstances attending the origin of this great
enterprise, now consummated. Our read .
ers will be Interested and instructed by a
porue"l of it,
The Memphis Bulletin says ii is very
proper spirit of jubiaion on account of the
completion Of the Memphis and Charleston
Railroad, by which the Atlantic and the
Mississippi are mixed and mingled into one,
is suggestive of recoections of those who
first conceived the great idea, aud will ava
ken remembrances in many bosom of one
vino was at ouce the Bayard of his times as
n soldier and the Dewitt Clinton of the
Southwest as profound and far-reachinp
statesman. That one so intimately identified
with this great achievement was Edmund
Pendleton Gaines.
In 1882 or 1888, John c. McLcmore.
(now Of California, but then and for long
years after resden. of Tenuessre,) sug.
gested to Robertson Topp the feasibility and
Practicabi!lty of constructing railroad from
Memphis to Charleston. These two intro
duced the subject to Gen. Gaines, in the
view OF agitating it in the public mind He
accorded in the idea enthusiastically, stating
that his mind had been long occupied by
The conviction that railroads would prove a
better and surer system Of national defenses
than large standing armies and Notifications.
a public meeting was called and held, over
which Gen. Gaines presided and com
mlttee, consisting Of Gen Gaines, Col. John
Pope and Robertson Topp, Esq, was ap-
pointed TO attract to the project the atten-
ton OF the country-in the various modes
OF speeches and addresses to public meet
ngs, Governors of States, etc. Gen. Jack
son was then President, and upon being
applied to, promptly dispatched Col. Long
OF the Typographical Engineers, to make a
reconnaissance and nrvey of the route.
The. Memphis aud Charleston Railroad
was born in that. conference between the
three individuals we have mentioned d-Gen.
Gaines, John G. McLemore and Robertson
IoPP. Its early existence was ricketty in
the extreme. Topp, then young lawyer,
struggling to combine with the fruits of his
practice the elements of that splendid for>
tune he has since worked out in accordance
with his original faith in the future of Mem.
phis, called the attention of Benz. REYNOLDS
and the chief men of The Chickasaw Nation
to the expediency of approprialing strip
oil twenty miles oflheir lands. to be appro.
priated 10 The building of this road. Had
the suggestion been adopted il would have
made it the richest of all the tribes and Civ
EN- to Memphis to day $4,000 inhabitants
But neither Reynolds nor the Colbe,ts had
any more perception of the new era steam
power had inapgurated, than the masses :;
and they, like the million, laughed at and
passed the project by.
1t was estimated that during the first
three days of May there were 10000 visi
to"t in Memphisto witness and participate
IN This lsrailroad jubilee. Out OF such a con
gregation-a procession of the largest and
grandest kind was formed to move through
the chief Streets after which all then as
sembled at Court Square, where the fol-
lowing organization was had.
President of the day Hon. A. Fl. Doug
lass, Mayor of the city OF Momphis.
Vice Presdeut--Samue Tate, Presidon:
of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad
Frank NJ. White, President Afississippi and
Tennessee railroad Robertson Topp, Pres
ident Memphis and Ohio Railroad; John
Robertson, President Memphis and Little
Rock Railroad
seeretaries--J: II. McMahoo, John r.
McClanahan, j. p. Pryor and I'M. Pa
fridge, of the Memphis Press. Mr.. Heart,
of the Charleston Press Mr.. A. r Lamar,
Ed. of Georgian, Of the Savarrah Press
Messrs. Clay and Figures, of the Huntsville
Press Mr.. Holmes OF the st. Louis Press.
THE sPEAKING,
An address of welcome was then deliv
cred by Mayor Douglass on behalf of the
CITY and citizens Of Memphis, closing by
10 the immense asscmblaee his
Honor VIM. Porcher Miles, Mayor of Char
lesion, and member elect to the next Con.
gress, who had been selected in the unex
pected absence of Gov. Jones, to address
them on the OCCASION
We shall not mar the recollection of this
beautiful, chaste and eloquent effort, by any
attempt at tie slightest sketch even of tile
glowing thought, the lofty and polished die.
ton, and the delicateIy appropriate senti.
ments with which it abouiided.
lle was followed by Hon. VIM. Cohen
Of Savannah; Hon, w. w. Boyce, NJ. C.
South Carolina; Mark Cooper, OF Georgia;
and II. y. CuyIer, President of the Georgia
Central iiailroad.