Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-11-04
SIN Trying TO Build the Rabun Gap Road.

""'no oh"p "oo PuoiohOuT' III Now
Orleans before the civil war. The
copy we have bears the date of
September, 1850. We have been
reading it with great deal of interest
and we have been much surprised at
some of the things we have found in
| it.
There is strong editorial urging
Southern text books for Southern
schools. 1t was urged that 'the
sentiments and ambitions of the peo-
pie of the North are totally different
from those of the people of the South.
~ y We should have text books
written by Southern authors, in order
that the truth about Southern history
may be taught our children" How
familiar that sounds! We have read
something almost exactly similar
within the very recent past.
There is an account of the forma-
tion of society by the farmers of
Alabama for the purpose of securing
accurate statistics as to the growing
cotton crops. 1t was stated that
"the planters are kept in suspense as
to the amount of the crop, the rela-,
tion of supply and demand, and the
uncertainty of higher or lower prices"
That, TOO, has familiar ring. With
in the past very few years the farmers
of the South have been trying to get
this information that the farmers of
fifty years ago wanted, and last year
the work was undertaken by the
census bureau of the Federal Gov
erpment. Dr.
There is an interesting article on
the Importance of an isthmian canal,
in which the Nicaraguan, route is
strongly urged by "E. g. Squier, late
charge d'affairs to Central America"
How like recent political literature
does this sound. But it was written
more than fifty years ago.
In the department devoted to the
review of current events there is an
article that we will copy in full on
account of its intense local interest.
1t is as follows:
GA Better Road from the Valley
of the Tennessee to the Seaboard
than by the Present Georgia and
Carolina Improvement.
"a convention was held at Ander-
son, S. O., to take incipient measures
in furtherance of this route, which
has been indicated by us in previous
issues. There were present from
Tennessee II, from Georgia Ia, from
North Carolina S, from South Caro-
lima 72. The Hon. j. b. O'Neal was
unanimously elected president of the
convention. The following action
was taken:
"Resolved, That in the opinion of
this convention it is entirely prac-
ticable to connect by railroad the
valley of the Tennessee and the
Seaboard at Charleston at the Rabun
Gap and Anderson Court House, and
that duty and interest demand a
speedy completion of the work.
"2. solved, That committee
OF three he appointed by the president
Of this convention to act in coniunc.
tion with the board of directors of
the Blue Ridge Railroad, to memo
rialize the Legislature of South Caro-.
lima upon this subject, and to ask for
a confirmation of the charter of the
said company, and an extension of
its chartered privileges to Anderson
Court House, and TO solicit aid from
the said State in the construction of
the said road.
"3. Resolved, That committee
of seven be appointed, in like man, err,
whose duty it shall he to prepare and
publish suitable address to the peo.
Pile Of the several States interested
in the said road.
"4. Resolved, That the South
Carolina Railroad Company and tho
Greenville and Columbia Railroad
Company he requested to complete
the surveys of the route of the road,
now undertaken, and now they
furnish To the committee upon the
memorial information of the surveys
at as early a day as may be conven-
lent"
On the committee on the memorial
the Hon. T G. Perrin was appointed
chairman on the address, Col. j. A.
Whitsides, of Tennessee.
How interesting this is, and how
familiar it all sounds. Yet that
meeting was held more than fifty
years ago. 1t lis probable that Mr..
Crayton is now the only person living
who was present on that occasion.
And we are still trying to build that
railroad "to connect the valley of the
Tennessee with the seaboard at
J Charleston"