The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16


 superintendent. and James '. Andrews
 secretary and treasurer.
 On Saturday, the first day of July
 1881. there was a meeting of the stock. i holders of the company at Dr. Le. grand's office on Commerce street al which the report was that for 8 dis. tance of ten miles, from Montgomery to Showdown, the work was progres, sing we'll and the contractors expected | hy the first of August to have the road. 1 bed and everything ready for the fay ing of the iron. So great was the con- fidence felt in the importance of this work that financial conditions were l getting clearer. and at this meeting 501 shares out of the total of 7S7 were rep resented. The stockholders passed a resolution that the directors be instruc. ted to take all necessary steps to raise the funds to complete the road fifteen miles further or twenty-five miles from Montgomery in all By the opening oi the next cotton season in September the road was constructed to Ada, twenty one miles south of Montgomery and
 finally in the early part of 1882 to i Bradleyton. five miles beyond the boundary line between Montgomery and Crenshaw counties and thirty-sev- en miles from Montgomery.
 This was the beginning of the de- velopment of that magnificent section of Montgomery to the West and South west of Montgomery, and it was due ta the keen foresight and splendid busi- ness judgment of Dr. Legrand.
 In the year 1876 charter was se- cured under the laws of Alabama and Georgia for a railroad known as the Alabama Midland" to be constructed between Montgomery and Bainbridge, Ga, distance of 175 miles. CaptaIn O. c. Wiley of Troy was the first nres- | ident. and work was begun in 1897. Bv the first day of May 1900, it was com pleted, and Major Bradford Dunham made General Manager. On the night Of the 18th of May the business men of Montgomery gave an elaborate banouet to the promoters of the road and tbe citizens living along the line between Montgomery and Bainbridge. Come time berore the Alabama Midland mad l bought the Montgomery Southern changed the little narrow gauge into a standard guage, completed 1t to the town of Luverne in Crenshaw county. fifty-two miles from Montgomerv and used the original Montgomery Sontb- ern to get into Montgomery from Sprague Junction, nineteen miles from Montgomery.
 Up in the city of New York was A man who was a national figure in the industrial world who had done more for the south Tn the way of developing the country than perhaps any other man up to that time. This man was Henry R. Plant, the head of a gigantic sys- tenn of railroad and steamship lines which bore the name of "The Plant system" Mir. Plant had been watching closely the progress of the Alabama Midland ever since work was started on 1t over thirteen years before. Ho already had on the Atlantic Seaboard his own rails and connections from the East to Florida. The Alabama Midland by the building of a connecting gan from the old Savannah, Florida ana Western to Bainbridge. would give hin, a route from the West to Florida Tyc Saw how he could get cars from Chica- go to Montgomery over the Louisville and Nashville. the Alabama Midland from Montgomery to Bainbridge and on over the Savannah, Florida and Wes- tern to Jacksonville and Florida points His plans carried to a nicety and in June. 1900. less than a month after inc Midland was completed to Montrom- cry the Plant System bought tba Alabama Midland the long cherished dream of Mfr. Plant for a Western con nection to Florida was no longer ephemeral. Major Dunham from being superintendent of the Midland was call,