Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-06-01

Anderson a Railroad Center.

| So far as the railroad situation is
concerned, our neighboring city of
Anderson seems to be right in the
middle of the road and is certainly
in the saddle at this time. While
the Black Diamonds double-track
scheme was wild and visionary, the
movement is eventuating in the con-
struction of single track road from
Knoxville to Anderson and along to
tho coast. Very few people were
aware that the great Southern Rail-
way magnates had their eyes upon
Charleston, and yet the natives were
asHonishcd when Col, Andrews went
down there to spy out the land,
which resulted in the purchase of
the South Carolina and Georgia
property. Not many persons know
that the Southern controls the Cen
tral of Georgia, and is anxious to
make direct Northern connection
for their Macon and Athens branch,
which can be done by building from
Athens to Anderson, distance of
only sixty miles, and thereby make a
connection with their line to Green
vile. This movement would estab.
lish through line to the North
through portion of the territory
now occupied by the Seaboard Air
Line, and overy invasion of that ter
ritory only weakcns the most for
midHble :;"a! cf the Southern.
But tho most important line that
Anderson will get in tho near future,
and which seems at present the least
probable, is the extension of the
Savannah Valley to the thriving
town of Easloy, which will be fol-
lowed by the purchase of the Pick
ems road, and this will in turn be ex-
tended across the mountains to
Cumberland Gap. The G.. & w. G..
must have an outlet from Anderson,
and the line from Anderson to Eas-
ley can be built cheaper than any
line of its length in the State, as it
will cross no stream Of any conse-
qucnce and run o.. a ridge the entire
way. This is not all, however, that
is in store for our ncighbor. The
Columbia, Ncwberry and Laurens,
which is now operated and con-
trolled by the Atlantic Coast Line,
will be obliged to extend its sphere
of operations further up the country.
The construction of road from
Laurens to Anderson will necessa-
ri!y develop Tho magnificent water
power at Wares Shoals on the
Saluda river, while Bolton would
then be on an almost direct line to
Anderson, and Bolton is to have a
100000 cotton mill in very short
time, for whose freight the Coast
Line would be apt to compete. This
is the railroad situation as it appears
to US, and it would give Anderson
outlets in eight different directions,
making it the greatest railroad CEN
ter in the State.
We are not bit jealous of An
derson, in whose prosperity and
progress we will always rejoice, but
it does seem little queer that our
enterprising neighbor, which has
given less than any of the surround
ing counties for the construction of
railroads, should be reaping such a
harvest at the close of the nine
teenth century. Twenty-Five years
ago Anderson refused to make a
county subscription to the Air Line
Railroad, while Greenville, Pickens
and Spartanburg invested hundreds
of thousands of dollars to secure tho
road. "Evcrything comes to him
who waits" and Anderson is about to
realize the truth of this saying, while
Greenville is seemingly Indifferent to
the outcome of the railroad agita-
ton, and does not even got enthuscd
over the prospect of an electric line
-Greenville Mountaineer.