The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-10-09

the soul but the people we're too
philosophical to rail about it.
After the war the companies Aber-
deem sent to the front returned in
squads, for the bloody fields OF Vir
glnla and Tennessee and Georgia
retained as many Aberdeenians as
they gave back to the walks Of peace,
and Of those who came back many
were manned, and many grown dis
contented with the wreck of home
and factory that fed the greedy NAV
of war, sought homes and pursuits in
other cities and States. The town
was virtually prostrated and ruined.
The employees of the foundry, the
machine shop, the cotton gin factory,
the carriage factories aud other es'
adjustments left for other fields Of
labor and all silent and deserted, were
the places once busy with the hum of
industry. Then fire swept away a
quarter Of million ofproperty, and
the town seemed fated. All this time
the people were trying to make terms
for the completion of the old road
and the building of new ones. A
company was organized to build a
road from Memphis via Aberdeen to
Selma, Alabama. 1t was nearly
graded from Memphis to Holly
Springs and from Aberdeen to Oko-
Iona, and the money gave out. Then
a company was organized to build a
road from here to Birmingham, Ala,
the prospectus announcing for the
first time to the public the existence
Of the vast mineral deposits that have
since become famous, but the enter
prising projectors could not control
the worlds attention nor its money,
and after paying for the surveys and
obtaining the charters the now almost
wearied people were forced to sue
cumb to circumstances, and later
strangers built partially OH the fran
chises from neighboring town far
on towards the goal Aberdeen had
discovered and so eagerly sought.
At last, determined at any cost to
have rail connection with the outer
world, the city issued bonds to the
extent of sl25, 900, but Wall street
had too many securities of that kind,
and refused to buy. Then the people
turned each to the other, every man
agreeing to indorse for his neighbor
to the extent of his possessions, and
these rejected bonds, covered on the
back with &e autographs of home
people, were taken here at eighty-tive
cents on the dollar. Then in 1869
the branch was built,nine miles away
to Muldon, to the NJ. & O. main line.
In six years, by taxation, the debt
and interest had been paid. In the
course of time the cotton purchases
and resultant trade had grown from
one thousand bales'in 1869 to twenty
five thousand in 1883, representing
in the one product Of cotton an ex-
penditue Of over a million and a
quarter of dollars. Meanwhile the
population had increased to nearly
five thousand people. This year the
Illinois. Central, which had fallen
heir to the franchises and property
of the county's first project, and
built branch from Durant, one
hundred and ten miles, the Canton,
Aberdeen and Nashville road, giving
the city her long desired connection
with New Orleans, and the benefit of
two railroads and a river-hep pceforth
our progress will be onward and up-
ward, for the boom" that is now
upon her is perceptable to the least
impressionable of her visitors.
The depots of the Illinois Central
and of the Mobile & OHIO roads are
both on her beautifully shaded main
avenue, Commerce street, but at op.
positite ends, over mile apart, and
in the rear of the city they have uni-
ted in bending a crescent where their
tracks come together at the great
steam cotton compress, that was
erected last fall at cost of ovel
$4,000, home capital, and though
not under headway until October
paid it's stockholders thirty per cent
dividends The depot for the new
road was donated to the company
by the city at cost to the citizens ol
nearly $4,000. The Illinois Contra
will have shops and division super
intendent at Aberdeen. The town il
certainly favored in possessing two
great railroads, the Mobile Il Ohio
and the Illinois Central, the officer!
of which General Manager Jordan
Passenger Agent Waller, and Super
intendent Hosford of the former, ,ani
President Clark of the latter, arr
fully awake to the needs of the coun'
try through which their lines pass
, and they are doing their full share
:, towards its development. &.
, Continued on second page.