The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-11-13

Z "ho was president or the We
| Feliclana Railroad for about TWEEN
| years before it's sale to the Y. g. M
! H. H. Every point in the biograpl
] was gone over carefully with Juds
! McGehees family, and neither mai,
! nor expense was spared to secu,
F.! racts, and in their correct perspectiv
/ But as is usual in local history, thel
! were great clouds of haziness. wit
comparatively small actual data to Q
on The relation following Is probabl
as near correct as will ever be Obtain
able' Any one who has ever made
. conscientious attempt to write the he
ginnlngs OF history will sympathiz
with the Great Emperor when he dc
Dned history as Simply the lies upo,
which mankind has agreed"
WEST FELICTANA RAILROAD,
On March rs, 1881, the West Felician,
Railroad was incorporated in the Stat,
or Louisiana. The writer does not at
tach to the conception of this enter
prise the brilliancy of initiative thai
some OF the family would attribute. II
was rather the child of necessity than
OF inspiration. The country was of red
clay substratum and entirely bare of
rock or any other ballast The roads
were simply impossible during the wet
weather of winter and it was necessary
to introduce some mechanical means
OF moving the crops to the Mississippi
River, twenty-five miles distant Judge
McGehee was undoubtedly one of the
Leading spirits in the conception and
development CT the enterprise, He was
also, as certainly, splendidly assisted
by other able men of his neighborhood,
Building a railroad at that time, when,
according to our information, there was
only one other steam road in existence
In the United States, was not the com.
paratively easy work it is at the pres
ent, and, though the road was onlv
twenty-five miles long, it took a great
many years in its construction, and
eventually cost in the neighborhood of
$4,000 per mile. Some people posi-
lively refused to allow it to pass
through their plantations at all, and
the laws regarding right-of-way had
not been so definitely fixed as at pres.
ent. AS land-holders frequently owned
from two to three thousand acres in a
single body, and were as powerful as
the feudal barons of the middle ages,
they could effectually block an enter
prise of this kind almost indefinitely.
It was, however finally pushed to COM
oletion. Edward McGehee, though not
oy profession lawyer, generally was
Us sponsor and represented 1t in whole L
n In part in these contentious. A mem. Ii
'er OF the Louisiana legislature writes: '
I first became acquainted with Judge Y
acGehee soon after 1850, being at that
line a member of the legislature of lr
louisiana. / was called from my seat IA
arly one morning into the lobby and c
Introduced to him; he promptly ex- |,
lained to me the object of the inter. s
lew. There was pending before the e
legislature a bill for the relief of the o
'oodville and West Feliciana Railroad T
Company, In which he was one of the ID
tockholders, and on which he desired ir
~ favorable consideration. OF course IL,
e obtained what he desired at the W
ands Of the legislature. 1t was but a lin
lort time after this first acquaintance lfu
lat | became professionally acquaint- r,
! with him." h,
A few years after the railroad above lir
luded to had been partly constructed, lin
rupture occurred under the leader In
Zip of Isaac McCord, between the rail.
ad contractors and the railroad COM b,
my, who were then locating bank to
Woodville, Mississippi. A very con. lin
derable amount of work had been tie
me upon the railroad. The contrac. We
RS had also dealt very literally with in
e hands. They finally abandoned va
cir contract for alleged violation on te
e part OF the railroad company, lay. la,
their claim for damage, loss of IS
ofits, and arrearages of payments for an
'rk done, at $35O,O0O. The case was Or
me years in court before it was tried, tn
d special term of the district court me
the parish of West Feliciana was br,
nVened to try it. On March 3, 1916, no
case was called with the railroad Lii
d banking company represented by Is;
.Jor Joseph Johnson and Judge Ed VIII
I'd McGehee. The trial lasted some mi
IT months and the testimony formed tru
'ut one thousand pages. At the con. I
sion of the trial the jury returned a Dol
dict reducing the plaintiffs demand Ho
m $S5O,0OO to six and a quarter yes