Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-03-17

ions to their bonds have been made, and t.
carry on the work with all diligence until
nifty miles or narrow gauge railroad Is com
pleted and equipped beginning at Clarks
| vile.
&c. GORDON,
Pres't Indiana, Alabama & Texas r. r. Co
CIarksviIle' Tenn, March 10, 1888
The chair said he would like tC
hear the proposition discussed.
Loud calls were made for Judge
Wood and he came forword to adj
dress the meeting. He said: 81
arise to address you with very pecu
liar feelings. / am strongly attached
to GAINESVILLE and her people.
came here eighteen months ago al
most an entire stranger, didn't
know but one man in your city. ]
had a new scheme to propose which
/ had been presenting to the people
all along the line from the Tennes-
see river to this point and had met
with but little encouragement. The
people all said we have been de-
ceived so often that we have nc
confidence in railroad schemes AT
GAINESVILLE you did me the honor OF
a large audience composed of the
lawyers, doctors and first citizens OF
the place. | laid before you prop
Osition which several of your citi-
zens said was the best scheme for
building railroad they had ever
heard. They asked me what ex-
pected them to do and did it in
three weeks after the proposition
was made. Nothing had ever given
me more pleasure. i wrote Major
Gordon of the success / was meet
ing with. / expected to have the
same response from the people along
the line in Kentucky. Judge
Smith and Mr.. Brandon of this city
went with me 10 Kentucky. We
made speeches at different places
and employed agents to work up an
interest in the matter. was author
lied to employ agents at from $50 to
500 per month and did so.
Our proposition was, you build
one mile in five and we will build
the other FOUR From the excite
ment and feeling manifested l was
sure we would raise 100000, but
when the general meeting was held
at Princeton they came up with
only one-tenth of the amount prom
ised. We concluded to try them
again, Judge Darby, of Princeton,
and Major Bingham, of Wallonia,
assisted me and we worked hard,
but only a few thousand dollars
were subscribed. They asked us if
we couldn't reduce the amount, and
we did reduce it TO 100000. The
city of Evansville had signitied her
willingness to aid in constructing
the road, but after waiting some
time longer the scheme was report
ed failure. felt bad. l felt sad.
l went home and we determined to
direct our attention to building 80
miles North and 80 miles South of
the Tennessee river. | didn't come
back here because | had done all
could here. Judge Smith and Judge
Darby wrote me that they couldn't
raise the money to build the road
through Kentucky. We never gave
up the idea of building the road.
Major Gordon set his head to work
out this scheme several years ago,
and has thought of it continually
since. No man ever made any
thing great or succeeded in the OBJ
ject he undertook unless he thought
of it continually. Major Gordon
has never Responded of building
this road, never thought of such
thing. L can't tell you everything
connected with this matter but /
will say this much. Last Summer
had been so far per-
fected that we felt certain work
would be begun on the road by the
1st of September. But the decline
of l.. d n. and Memphis q Charles
ton stock, and all southern stocks,
scared off the Wall street men we
were negotiating with and we failed
to realize our expectations"
From this Judge Wood went on
to state how much attention Major
Gordon had given the project, said
that Major Gordon had spent $685.
600 out of his own pocket on the
scheme, and it could be inferred
from the earnestness he evinced that
he intended to push the railroad to
completion. When he came to
speak of the plan under considera-
ton he said: 1.-THE time has pass
ed when stock holders expect to !
reap any benefit from the stock sub
scribed to a railroad. The plan !
proposed offers the capitalist of
an opportunity to invest |
in interest bearing bonds. These
bonds are to be secured by mort
gage not only on 100 miles of rail
road but on some of the best miner
al lands in Alabama and Tennessee
worth 81 100000. question if there
IS another railroad anywhere that
gives additional security to the
mortgage on the road. These
bonds will be just as good as U. S.
bonds and pay per cent. interest.
suppose after the road is built we
'ail, you have got your mortgage
md the road is worth the money
and in addition to that you have
he land"
A SECOND BIRMINGHAM.
He went on further to state that
hey would begin work in 10 days
after the required amount was
'aised and would first build the
Dad so miles North and 80 miles
south of GAINESVILLE. He pointed
,ut the immense advantage Clarks-
Vile might expect to derive from
he road. The town lays between