Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1913-08-15
Early ReCOIleCtiOnS
of Old NOxubee.

thereafter, | remember that the whole
management of the Mobile & Ohio rail
road was in The hands of l.. j. Fleming
who signed as "chief engineer and gen.
eral superintendent. even the notices
in the passenger coaches warning pas
sengers of the danger Of standing up
on the platform when the train is in
notion" being signed by him with his
full rank and title. 1t is true he had
division superintendent under him, but
there vert no general orders given
where their names figured, they all be-
ing signed by Mr.. Fleming.
After Mr.. Fleming died, which was
along in the seventies, the title of
"chief engineer and general superinten-
dent" was dropped and "vice-president
and general manager" adopted. which
rule holds to this day.
Speaking Of railroading in the sixties,
80 far as the M. 4 O. was concerned,
there being no telegraph service to give
train orders or to tell whether trains
were on time or otherwise, | have
known soldiers and others coming to
Shuqualak to take the train to camp on
the platform, under the protruding sta
tlon house roof, some times as long as
two days and nights, afraid to leave.
not knowing what moment the train
would hove in sight. many times during
the wait going out and putting theil
ears down to the rail to see il they
could hear the noise telling of the APP
preaching train.
During these long waits the patience
OF the agent, Tom Dunlap, was put t.
the test, esr ecially il those waiting
were women and children, for at nigh
his sleep was disturbed by their ever
and anon pounding at the door to "as
certain the time and to say the,
Thought they heard the train coming
and for him ito get up" (often all {
mistake), and throughout the day wait,
asking him over and over again, eff he
had any idea when She would come "
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The first regiment of soldiers | ever
saw loaded on a train in a body was the
24th Alabama. they being hurried from
to luka, a battle being emf
nent there, and being loaded on u
train Q200 in number) and
like sardines in the cars and or
top, and the cars showing as the train
passed Shuqualak all the weather
boarding knocked off by the soldiers
with the butts of their rifles, it being
this or sutfocate, as the weather
was warm-a lengthy train for the
engines, wood burners). of those
lays being about eighteen cars. On
his train was the Shuqualak contingent
soldiers carried to Mobile when the
war broke out by Lieutenant W. r
and joining the Gulf City Guards
that place, and afterwards sent to
where they became a portion
the Oath Alabama regiment, when
The companies were being formed into
regiments at the army post there.
y =
In the %fifties, when ~Shuqualak be-
large enough to be incorporated
and the question of ditch drainage
up, the contract was given to
Tom O'Brien, father of the John O'Brien
who was killed by a negro at Wahalak
A few years back, whom he was trying
% arrest. the family after the war hav-
ng removed to Wahalak. Mr.. Tom
O'Bricn was a one-legged man, but
here was no man who could do more
iitching in a day than he could. |
it was in the year 1858 that Mr..
o'Brien landed in ~Shuqualak, (not long
from lreland), his wife having [
lied in Ireland before his coming over. {
lis family consisting of himself and two
children. John and Annie, John being {
about ten years of age and Annie eight, ]
hey occupying the house first on the
light, near the depot on the street !
eading out in the direction of where |
Mr.. Campbell lived, east of town. mo !
family of people wei lived in |
.Shuqualak than the O'Briensl. {
y y .
In my %recounting of S~huqualak citi- {
.ens, inadvertently overlooked Thos.
a druggist, who served
through the war as such in the medical
of the army of Virginia,
md who. after the war, for quite v
while, conducted a drug store at Shu-
lualaS, dying there in the early seven t
les. u
DR.. P. H. Hamilton, who was classic t.
n education, and who distinguished v
himself as regimental surgeon during t
ne war, after coming home in 1865, b
ook up lecturing before again entering f
pom his practice and made a most sue h
essful round of several states, includ- t
ne Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, dur r
the time receiving many press no. c
Ices from leading dailies commenting b