Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-11-09
Decidedly Interesting.

|
bored by the Oldest people of Char
lesion, and whose achievement as
pioneer railroad builder most of th
young folks read with great intere st
The following is the story published
by the Journal concerning DR.
Smith
A man is in Atlanta to-day who
has the distinction of having helped
to build the first American railway
He is DR.. w. w. Smith, of Willis
ton, S. c., who is the guest of Mr.
Charlie Tillman. DR.. Smith is the
grandfather of Mrs. Tillman. lie
was born in Barnwell county, South
Carolina, in 1918, and is, therefore,
S6 years of age. He is both minis.
tor and physician.
According to DIR. Smith the first
railroad in the United States was
the South Carolina Railroad, after
ward called the Charleston and Au-
gusta Railroad running from Char
lesion TO Augusta, distance of one
hundred and forty miles.
DIR. Smith was one of the CORDS of
surveyors of the road, beginning at
Charleston in the year 1926. He
says that they were seven years
building the road, and that he helped
in the work throughout that time.
The road was completed in 1888.
Below arc given some of the facts
as furnished by DR.. Smith:
The first motive power used on
this road was wind, utilized in sails
made of cloth on the cars.
DIR. Smith is the inventor of the
lever switch. Before his invention
they moved the rails by means of
wedges.
In building the road a heavy grade
"as encountered at Aiken, S. c.,
where there was a stationary engine
that pulled the cars up the grade by
ropes and windlasss. There was q
double track at that place and car
loaded with rocks furnished the
weights to help pull up the cars.
The locomotive had two smoke
stacks, one at each end. In going
to Charleston one of the stacks was
used and in comming back the other.
There were no spark arresters and
everybody along the route had to
watch their property to prevent it's
being burned up.
One hundred miles a day was
good travelling in those days.
When night came on all hands
struck camp and waited for day
light to come in order to proceed.
The track was composed of ties
md 32-foot stringers, on which
band of iron about like a common
ire was laid and nailed down to tho
wood.
A track walker went ahead of the
engine every day to knock down the
'snakc-heads," or nail heads to pre-
'ent accident. The dread of the
was the "snake-heads" or
rails protruding above the iron rail,
or they were prolific seources of ac-
ldents. The conductors collected
he fares from the outside, walking
N boards about like the open street
ars are now arranged.
Edward Roath and Nathan COL
erbanks were engineers on this
road. They died a few
ears ago.
There were no convcniences on
he cars as in this day and time.
he cars stopped at stated intervals
Dr. the convenience of the passen-
ers.
The mail facilities were meagro {
nd very primitive. A split stick
'rved for mail bag, as letters were ,
ut in sticks and handed up to tho {
onductcr and were thrown out the c
'me way. l
DIR. Smith introduced the plan of
avlng the outer rail on q curve
'ado higher thar The other rail.
The coupling links were made of c
ood, 80 that when a car ran off it c
ould break and save the others q
ON running off.
Tristan Tupper was one of the ,
residents of this road, and intro '
uced some novelties during his ad-
inistration.
lie had tho cars remodellod and q
'apcd like q barrel. This was done
that in case they ran off they |
ould roll down tho hill and not '
'rt 80 many passengers. 1t was 8
fought they could be rolled back !,
ith tho same degree of case. a
Thore was afterward an effort