The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-10-17
FROM CHARLESTON
TO CINCINNATI.

f'N i'tN Al NN''NN il.'.f AND Ill
ROUTES SUGGESTED.
Knoxville (renn) Sentinel.
Away back in the thirties, nearl
two-thirds of Il century ago, when rail
roads in this country were very new
Robert Y. lIayne, John G.. Calhoun
and probably other brainy South Caro-
linians, formed Il rough plan for tn,
building of railroad from Charleston
then the foremost Southern port, t
Cincinnati. This gigantic scheme o
internal improvement was never car
ried out, but in the march of progres.
other developments in the way of rail
road building, not literally the same
but answering the purpose for which
1layne and Calhoun planned their road
have long since materiaizcd.
The primary object of tapping the
great center of western trade by a rail.
road having deep water middle AT.
lantiC coast port as its terminus, which
these great South Carolinians had in
view, has been accomplished by the
building of not one only, but several
highways of travel and commerce.
The road planned by Hayne and Cal
hOun was to have been known as The
Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston
railroad. The company was organized
and great deal of the capital stock
paid i'll before the project was aban-
doned on account of the panic of 1887.
The route was to include Columbia
Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville,
Maysville and Cincinnati. The first
meeting of the stockholders was held
in Knoxville January 9th, 1897. At
that meeting the route was discussed
and partially adopted. That portion
definitely decided upon was through
the valley of the French Broad, as the
most feasible way of passing the
mountains. Before this meeting of
stockholders a railroad convention was
held in Knoxville in July, 1886, fur
the purpose of furthcring the project
General IIayne was elected president
of this convention, he being the chief
mover in the undertaking, and six
months later when the stockholders
held their first meeting here he was
elected president of the company
which had been formed at the conven-
ton previously held and also at other
meetings. General Haynes idea was
to raise money for the road by issuing
bonds predicated upon the credit of the
States Through which the road was to
run, each State bearing pro rata share
AS governor of South Carolina he was
better enabled to forward his purpose.
The building of this road was first
suggested, it seems, by +. S. Thomas,
who was at one time editor of the old
Charleston City Gazette, and who later
became editor Of the Cincinnati Daily
Evening Post. He first projected il in
his mind during the war of 1912, and
tells about it in his published remi
absences. He says:
"Bcforc and during the war | re-
sided in Charleston and was engaged in
editing and publishing the Daily City
Gazette, of that place, and the Caro-
lima Gazette, weekly. | used about
sixty pounds of paper per
day, which, while the war lasted, cost
me fifteen to twenty cents per pound
freight from Baltimore. then pro-
jected railroad fol the Atlantic
coast, without calling it by that name !;
my plan was 10 lay the rails, which
were to be of wood, upon piles driven
into the earth. | suggested my plan
to the late Gov. Charles Pinckney,
Peter Treneau, Esq, and Col. Thomas
Lebre, at one of our weekly meetings,
at Mr.. Treneau's house, when it met
the fate of most projects that are new
in their nature, and gigantic in their
extent; it was laughed at as being, if
ut all practicable, a hundred years too
soon TO be thought of. l gave myself
no further trouble or thought about
that or any other railroad, until the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad was pro-
iected, when, being a resident Of Bal
timOre, and having lost my fortune, /
had nothing to give but my time, and
devoted two or three weeks of that,
Immediately preceding the opening of
the books,to visiting the workshops and
factories and urging upon their inmates
the great utility of the undertaking,
and the prosperity of every one becom-
ing stockholder, if only for share.
In the fall of 1927, | came
out to Ohio and went down as far down
as Louisville. On my return stopped
fortnight in this city. The idea then
struck me of railroad from this city
to Charleston, and The superior advan-
tages it would have over all others from
the circumstances of its being from
North to South, and thus bringing to.
gethcr people who are strangers to
each other, and whose products are SC
admirably calculated for beneficial
exchange"
Mr.. Thomas then tells of how he
suggested the project to q number OF
Cincinnati business men, but he re-
ceived little encouragement. Among
those were DR.. o. Farchild, Messrs
Allicon Owen, VIM. S. Smith, Hugh
Mclean and Francis Shields. About 6
year before his death, which occurree
in 1889, Hayne wrote from Charleston
to Mr.. Thomas, who was then in Gin
cinnati, saying among other things:
/" We fear no competition from othel
cities on the Atlantic coast. In tht
vast trade which will be received from
the popular and fertile regions of tht
West into the broad, Atlantic ther,
will be enough fog us all. Genera
Bernard, in one Of his reports, la
mented that there were no practicable
routes for railroads and canals acros
the Alleghanics, that in process o
time they would all be found made