Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1906-11-23
CHAPTER xxx.

had set in early. Temple found
it exceedingly difficult to secure
d the assistant surveyors. rodsmen,
chainmen and the rest. whose services
were absolutely necessary, but by dint
of hard work he at last completed the
organization of his several engineering
corps and set to work surveying the
line, locating 1t. establishing grades
and the like.
Hurry 1t as he might, the work was
very slow because of the bad weather,
but at least it went forward, and early
in January gangs Of men were sent
into each county to make a show. at
least. of construction work and thus to
avoid all possibility of the forfeiture OF
the county and town subscriptions.
The greatest difficulty encountered
was In meeting the requirement that a
car should actually cross the line be-
tween the two counties by noon of the
10Th of March. That part of the line
was peculiarly difficult Of access. 1t
could be reached only by a twenty-five
mile journey across, country, over
roads which In the winter were well
nigh impossible In order to build
any sort Of railroad line at the point
involved it was necessary to carry
across country all the tools, earth cars
and construction materials, together
with large company Of workmen.
Huts must be built to shield the men
from the severity of the weather, and
provisions for them must be hauled
over twenty-five miles of swamp roads.
In order to do so streams mrst be
bridged for the wagons and In many
places the road must be ''cOrdurOyed'
for many miles Of its extent-that Is to
say, it must be paved with unhewn
logs laid side by side across it.
1t was near the end Of February.
therefore. before anything like sys-
tematic construction at that point
could be got under way.
Meanwhile Duncan's mission to New
York had been successful, though 1t
was attended by much of difficulty.
He had secured the necessary stock
subscriptions, and. better still, he had
succeeded in inducing one Of the great
trunk lines OF the east to guarantee
considerable bond issue on the part Of
the new road under an agreement that
when completed it should be made In
effect an extension of the eastern COM
psny's lines.
The only problem now was to pre-
vent that diversion of the proposed
line which Tandy was openly trying to
bring about. The New York capitalists
whom Duncan had secured as stock
holders in the enterprise were, many
of them, disposed to look upon the pro-
posed change of terminus from Cairo
to the rival city with good deal of IA
vor. Such change would considera--
bly, shorten the line to be built, and the
connection southwest from Padutah to
Memphis was in some respects more
desirable one than that from Cairo.
But Duncan had secured from the
capitalists trustworthy promise that
the line should be built to Cairo, as
originally planned, provided the Cairo
PEOPLE, with Duncan, Hallam and Stat
ford at their head, should protect the
subscriptions of the two hesitating
counties by meeting the requirement
imposed at Tandy's suggestion. Thus
everything depended upon the compile
ton of track across that county line
before noon on the 10Th day Of March.
Temple had succeeded in getting the
work started, but the task was her
culean one. Duncan hurried to the
scene of action as soon as he returned
from New York to Cairo. He found
that the space to be built over was
very low lying and that the nearest
source of supply for earth with which
to build the high embankment required
was nearly two miles distant.
Temple had begun work at that
point. He was extending an embank-
ment thence toward the point where