Annual report of the Raleigh and Gaston Rail Road Company

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REPOET
OF THE
Ifvakigji ^ fetoti ^nilrnnh Cntnimmi.
1855.
\^.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING
/ Q¥ THE
Itnrklioliitrs of tjjt Unlriglj k (§m\m Hailraaii
HELD AT RALEIGH, NOV. 1, 1855;
REPORTS OF THE PRESIDENT, TREASURER, &•,
RALEIGH:
PRINTED BY HOLDEN & WILSON, " STANDARD " OFFICB.
1855,
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Ensuring Democracy through Digital Access (NC-LSTA)
http://www.archive.org/details/proceedingsofann1855rale
PllOCEEDINGS.
At the Ffth Annual Meeting of tlie Stockholders of the Ra-leigh
and Gaston Railroad Company, held at Raleigh, om
Thursday, the 1st day of November, 1855 ;
On motion, Col. Jno. D. Hawkins was called to the Chair,
and W. W. Va^ss and J. J. Davis appointed Secretaries,
A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Rouliiac, Hamilton
and Yass, was appointed to ascertain the amount of Stock
represented, who subsequently reported that there were pres-ent
5,571 shares in person, and 2,531 shares b}' proxy—^being
a majority of all the Stock.
Alfred Jonids, Esq., presented his commission as the rep-resentative
of tlie State.
On motion. Dr. Haukis, Mr. CUrjiiNGTox, and Dr. Nelson,
of the Roanoke Valley Railroad Company, were invited to
take seats in the meeting.
Dr. E. A. Ckudup, President, read the Report of the Presi-dent
and Directors, which, on motion, was adopted.
T. Brown Venallk, Chairman Committee of Finance and
Inspection, presented his Report, which w^as i*ead and adopted.
Geouge "W. Moedecai oflered the following Resolution (as
a substitute for tlie one proposed by Feancis E. Rives, Esq.>
Adopted
:
HesoheJ, That tiie President and Directors of tlie I\r>lcigh and Gaston
Railroad Company be, a"Vid lliey are hereby instructed te iiuikc all the nec-essary
arran<reinents and contracts for rc-buildinn; the Bridge across the
lloanoke at Gaston, as soon as tliey shall receive sufficient assurances from
the Greenville Kailroad Company—or in the event of the amalgamation of
that Companj' with the Petersburg and Roanoke Railroad Company—from
the President and Directors of the latter—of their determination and inten-tion
to re-build the said Railroad in a permanent manner, with a substan-tial
iron rail.
lion. L. O'B. Beancii offered the following Resolutidn.
Adopted
Resolved, That the President and Directors be, and they are hereby in-structed
to ascertain and report to the next Annual Mcetir.g, wliether any,
and if an3% what arrangements, can be made for merging this and the Roan-oke
Valley Railroad Company into one Corporation.
A Memorial from smidry persons praying the establishing
of a Depot at the junction of tlie Roanoke Valley Road and
the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad, was presented, and referred
to the Board of Directors of the latter Company.
The meeting then went into the election of four Director.^
for the ensuing year, and Geo. W. Mordecai, Thos. Milleiu
RoBT. A. Hamilton and Dr. Yv^m. J. Hawkins w^ere declared
duly elected.
On motion of Francis E. Rives, Esq., the President and Di-rectors
were requested to make sucli dividends, and at such
periods hereafter, as they might think proper.
Hon. L. O'B. Branch oft'ered the following Resolution,
which was adopted
:
Resolved, That the Board of Directors Yi^y to Mrs. — Aycock, one hun-dred
dollars per annum, for fii^e years, as a gratuity for a negro killed on
the Road : Provided, That it shall toniiinate on her death, if it should oc-cur
before the termination of tive years.
A commission was read from his Excellency, Thos. Bragg,
President cx-officlo of the Board of Internal Improvement, ap-pointing
Gaston IT. Wilder, John G. King and Allen C.
Perky, Directors for the ensuing year, on the part of the
State.
On motion, the Report of the President and Directoi-s, and
accompanying documents, were ordered to be printed for the
use of the Stockholders.
The following gentlemen were re-appointed members of the
Annual Committee of Finance and Inspection, viz : T. Brown
Venable, J. B. G. Roulhac, and Ciias. L. Hinton.
Thanks being tendered to the President and Secretaries,
On motion, the meeting adjourned.
JOHN D. HAWKINS, Chairman.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT.
The President and Directors of the Raleigh <fc Gaston
Raih'oad Company respectfuHy submit to the Annual Meet-ing
of the Stockholders the folloAving Report
:
Since your last Annual Meeting, the late worthy and
honorable President having resigned in May, Geo. W. Mor-decai,
Esq., of Raleigh, was elected by the Board of Direc-tors,
President jpro te.mpore\ and at a meeting of the Direc-tors,
subsequently held at Ridgeway, in the latter part of
June, Robt. A. Hamilton, Esq., of Granville, was elected to
till the vacancy in the Board of Directors, caused by the re-signation
of Mr. Branch ; and at the same time, the honor of
presiding over the affairs of the Company was conferred by
the Board upon the present incumbent.
The uniform success which Las attended the operations of
the Company—the entire freedom from those casualties
seriously affecting life and property, to which all Railroadb
are liable, and wliicli occur so frequently on many—is re-garded
as just cause for congratulation. !Not a single acci-dent
occurring in the past year, of a character suthciently
grave to require reporting to your body, reflects well on the
immediate superintendents and operatives of the Road, whose
alacrity and iidelity in the discharge of all duties assigned
them, and their devotion to the interest of the Company, en-title
them to your consideration.
By reference to the Statement herewith submitted, and a
comparison with the preceding Annual Re]iorts, it will be
ficen that the business of the Road is gradually and steadily
increasing—the receipts for the past year, on Freight par-ticularly,
exceeding those of the previous year by nearly
twenty-live per cent.
This is a fact worthy of consideration, in endeavoring to
an-ive at a just estimate of the value of the Stock of the Com-pariy
; for this increase in the receipts of the Road is not the
result of any sudden and precarious cause, producing a large
influx of business liable to be again diverted into some othei-channel,
but is due to the greatly improved and growing
prosperity of the country through which the Road passes
—
the source to which the Company must continue to look for
their future profits, and which may be still fnrther increased,
by extendiug»such facihties as t]icy are enabled to do, for tlie
greater development of the agricultural and mechanical re-
sources of tliat part of the State which mast ever rely on
your lioad, as tlie only means of transporting its productions
and its consumptions.
It will be observed, by reference to the annexed State-ment,
that while the receipts on Fricght have increased t<»
iiearly twenty-tive per cent, on last year, as before stated,
from Passengers they have considerably diminished. This
we ascribe to the total Suspension for several months of all
business with the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad, and with
Portsmouth and JS^orfolk, caused by the heavy calamity
which befel those devoted cities during the past season, and
from which connection our receipts usually amounted to be-tween
four and live thousand dollars per n)ontli. About tiie
same time, also, a change in the scliedule for the passenger
train on the North-Carolina Road, to a more convenient
hour for leaving here, nuxy possibly have diverted some trn-
- vel by the way of Goldsboro', which otherwise would have
gone over our Road.
STATEMENT.
THE KECEIPTS from all sources, for the Year ending GOth
September, [6^i'\ 1 ave been, incliulin<!: the balance on
hiind the first of the vcur $ SM,4ii 0;;
THE EXTRAOKUINAllY EXPENSES, not churseablo to
to the busines? of the yeai', have been as follovvs :
Dividend No. i^, SiO'NT'Jl Oil; Divlden'd No. 1, SS-15 00;
Interest on Funded Debt, $i]J':',n Oi); Sinking Fund,
S.3,000 t)0; Bills Payable- Jiauk Debt, in full, §„'()-
000 00—Interest, do., ^892 V-i; Connection N. C.
Road, $274 7G; New Machinery and Cars, S7,710 2.5;
Purchased Stock in Roanoke Valley U. U. Co.,
»7,7i:0 00; Culverts, Bridges & Ditching, $'".,1143 19;
Building Car Shed.s, §2,742 5'J; Construction and
Equipment. ^2r,,4>'0 74, §144,908 ."iO
VOR CURRENT EXPENSES, as folKnv.s:
Train Wages, §13,bS5 05; Agents and Laborers at De- %
pots, $1<,341 20; Wood, $12,'.i(>?. 4H ; Od & Waste,
§3,;">51 80; Stock Killed and Goods Lost, §1,112 79;
Overseers, Laborers and Timber, ?;21,.')00 79; Shop
Labor, $12,9^,-) 2.3; Materials for do.. |;7,9ti3 21 ;
Coal, ^inr, 80; Wheels and Axles. ^3,480 8i»; Sahi-ries,
!j;3,433 33; Contingencies, being Directors'
I'ay, Advertising, Printing Blanks, Postage, Ac,
^]',2H 19 ". 91,99i 5"!
[.cavino' on hand, on the 30(h .'September, over and above Or-dinary
and Extraordinary Expenses, a balance of $ 77,.'i84 Oi
To exclude from the estimate both Receipts and.Expenditnres
of an Extraordinary character, the Receipts from Trans-portation
fir the year have been—
For Freight, ." $122,027 2fi
Passengers, 01.122 59
Mail 9.990 00
Iig.-^.isg 8.'.
Ordinary and Current Expenses, a.s above 91,994 52
Leaving a Profit, on the year's operations, of |!101,145 S3
being more than ten per cent, on the Capital Stock of the
Company,
Out of the net proceeds of the last year's business, tiie Board«
of Directors, after appropriating five thousand dollars to the
."^inking fiuid, whicli lias been ordered to be invested in State
Bonds^ and which raises that fund now to thirteen thousand
dollars, have declared a dividend of six per cent, payable on
the 12th day of December next ; the balance, after paying
the six per cent, dividend, the Board would respectfully rec-ommend,
Siiould be withheld, and applied to the construction
of such works as may be necessary to promote the interest of
rhc Company, among which we specially call your attention
to the condition of the Bridge across the Roanoke, at Graston,
and would recommend its early reconstruction, whenever the
G-reenville and Roanoke Railroad. Coraj^any shall give as-surance
that their Road shall be re-laid with a heavy bar, U,
T, or some similar iron.
By the reconstruction of this work, and suitable arrange-ments
with the Greenville and Roanoke, and Petersburg and
Roanoke Railroad Companies, we should be enabled greatly
to expedite travel, and place passengers going North, iive or
.six liDurs in advance of present time—a circumstance which
may, very soon, be of great practical importance to our Com-pany.
At your last annual meeting, tliere was an outstanding bank
debt against the Company, of twenty tliousand dollars, which
lias been paid ; and, excepting the funded debt, for the pay-ment
of which provision has been made by the sinking fund
before referred to, and about twelve thousand dollars for equip-ment
furnished to the Road, dnring the past year, in the way
of one first class Engine—-the Alamance—purchased in Phila-delphia
on time, an<l which has not yet fallen due ; and also
tive box cars, purchased in Portsmouth, at a cost of six hun-dred
and fifty dollars each, on time, which also is not due
—
neither of wluch items appears in the account—the Company
may justly be said to be out of debt.
Tlie contract with the Roanoke Valley Railroad Company,
referred to in the last annualreport, went into operation about
the first of March last. The articles of agreement between the
two Companies requiring a notice of six months to be given,
before either party could terminate the contract, our Board,
in the month of August last, ordered such notice to be given,
which was accordingly done.
A resolution, passed at your last annual meeting, requiring
the Board of Directors to adopt such means as would restrict
the system of free tickets to the narrowest limits, has been
i^trictly complied with, and the system of free travel over our
Road is, at present, wholly suppressed.
8
The Road is at present, in good condition for travel, and
entirely safe ; several culverts along which had fallen in, are
in process of re-construction. The bridges are all safe except
that at Gaston, to which reference has been made, and which
will be more fully reported to you by the Committee of Inves-tigation.
The present rolling equipment of the Road is complete,
consisting of twelve Engines, namely : The Alamance, Wake,
Halifax, Graham, Warren, Granville, Raleigh, and Franklin,
first class Engines, and in good order, except the Raleigh and
Franklin, which will soon require some repairs. The Torna-do,
Glarksville, Tempest, and Volcano, second class Engines,
and in good working order. During the past year, the Ala-mance
was added to the list, as before stated, and the Gran-ville,
Glarksville, and Volcano entirely rebuilt, in the shops of
the Company, and are now as good as new. This constitutes
the entire motive power of the Road, and which, by the de-mands
of the business of the Road, is kept in constant service.
Four first class Passenger cars, and one do. in shop being re-built,
and nearly complete : two second class Passenger cars,
two Post Office cars, sixty-three good eight-wheel box cars,
five inferior do., foity eight-wheel flat cai-s, five dirt cars, and
five more ordered, but not received, together with a supply of
Hand-cars, constitutes the entire rolling stock of the Road.
By way of acquainting you still more fully with the condi-tion
of the Road, but which v/ili more properly be matter for
the consideration of .your Board of Directors tlie ensuing year,
we would call attention to the following particulars : First, the
tresseling between Weldon and Gaston, and v/ould recom-mend
that it be filled in with dirt at the earliest possible pe-riod—
at least before it shall become necessary to I'en'cw the
timbers ; and also the constructing of good stone culverts,
wherever they may be required. A Waro-hoiise at Weldon,
with a shed attached, is regarded as essential to the interest
of the Company, and Vv^ould greatly promote the comfort of
Passeno;ers.
The Ware-houses along the line are fast falling to decay
;
and from their construction almost a double cost is incurred
in tending them. It will be recollected these were built at
the time of the original construction of the old Road, now
more than fifteen years ago.
We would recommend the re-building of Ware-houses of
the most economical form, and of the most durable material
;
stone or brick, as the means of the Company may justify. A
good brick Engine house at Raleigh, is regarded as indispen-sable
for the proper protection of the Locomotive Machinerv
of tlie Company.
Along the line qf the Road several Hydraulic Rams have
been placed—thereby eftecting a considerable saving to the
Company in supplying the Engines with water. We would
suggest that steam or horse-power be used along the Road
in preparing wood for the Engines ; as a more economical
means than that nov/ used. We would farther suggest that an
annual assessment be made of the equipment of the Road,
as a means of arriving at the real value of the pro})erty of
the Company—for a Railroad may break while declaring a
dividend. The improved equipment of a Road certainly
should not be rejected in calculating the prolits of the Road.
The Tariff for both freight and passengers will require re-modeling,
and sjiould be made to harmonize, as near as may
be, with the other roads of the State.
Upon the completion of the X. C. Road during the com-ing
year, it may be found necessary to the interest of your
Road to incur the expense of running an extra Passenger
Train of Cars, in order to connect with that road at this
place. For further particulars, we respectfully refer to the
reports of the Treasurer and the Committee of " Finance and
Investigation." .-
E. A. CRUDUP, President
REPORT
OF THE
COMMITTEE OF FINANCE AND INSPECTION.
The Committoo of Finance and Inspection, of the Ealeigh
and Gaston Raih-oad Company, submit the following Report:
That they have examined the books of tlie Treasurer of the
(Company, and find them to be correct; and tliat the annual
exhibit, as contained in the statement accompanying the re-port
of the Treasurer, is a true and correct representation of
rhe financial condition of the Company.
By reference to this statement, it will appear that the in-come
of tlie Road, after paying the floating liabilities, and the
yearly sum for the sinking fund, will pay a dividend of six
per cent, and have a large surplus in the Treasury.
Tlie Directors, in the opinion of your Committee, acted
wisely in declaring a dividend of only six per cent, instead of
consuming the entire income of the Road in dividends. Al-though
it may be said by some, that the tJ'ue policy is to de-clare
as large dividends to the Stockholders as the receipts of
the Road would justify, after paying the current expenses
;
yet, in the opinion of your Committee, in the present situa-tion
of this Road, this policy is decidedly erroneous. If the
Road was in first rate working order, and all of its works per-manently
built, then this policy would be correct. Rut in the
present condition of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad, many
repairs are needed, and a large expenditure of money re-quired
to keep it in good working order. Indeed, the great
increase of 'business on the Road requires daily increased ac-commodations
for receiving, storing and conveying ofi' Freight
and for p)re9erving the Engines and other property of the
Company. ISTew Depots at some of the important points on
vhe Road, of lai'ge capacity and constructed of more perma-nent
materials are required. For, although the cost may bo
large at first, yet being once built, and placed in good con-dition,
they will save to the Company, in the yearly expendi-ture
for repairs, as well as for damages to goods necessarily
exposed to the weather, ])y reason of the want of room for
storage.
The Committee would especially bring to the attention of
the Stockholders, the fact that there is no Engine House in
the City of Raleigh for the protection of the Engines while af.
11
the Depot or undergoing repairs, and would advise the build-ing
of a suitable house for that purpose. They would also
again suggest the building a shed and wai'c-Iiouse at Weldon.
and call the attention of tlie Stoekholders to the great incon-venience
under which we labor from the want of'tliese build-inc^
s.
The Koad has been thoroughly examined, and this Com-mittee
Report, that the ti'ack-way of the Road is in tine order
and appears to be working well. They would suggest tlie
propriety of increasing the ditching force on the Road, as in
many places ditching is greatly needed to protect theRailwav
in heavy rains from being overflowed with mud and Avater.
The Com.mittee would again call the attention of tlie Stock-holders
to the Bridges on the Road. All the bridges between
Raleigh and Gaston appear to be in good condition. The
bridges between Weldon and Gaston are of superior work-manship
and very strong, but "injuring for the want of paint.
The bridge at Gaston calls more especially for some action on
the part of this Company. At the last meeting of the Stock-holders,
this Com.mittee i-eported the unsoundness of thi^
bridge, and advised tlie discontinuance of the running the
mail train over it. This bridge has been again thoroughly ex-amined,
and the opinion of this Committee heretofore ex-pressed,
has beeji completely confirmed. Within the last
year, the bridge has given away materially, and about the
centre has broken nearly tlirough and started down the river,
[ndeed, s(S apparently unsafe has it become, that no one can
tell at what time it m.ay fall. At the last meeting, this Com-mittee
recommended certain action to be taken together with
tlie Greenville and Roanoke Railroad Conipany, in regard to
a thorough repair, or re-building of this bridge ; as yet, we
have heard of no definite arrangement being made. ' Occu-pying
the position that we do, being the shortest route to the
luarkets of Petersburg and Richmond, this bridge at Gaston
becomes an important matter to the success of our Road ; but
this is in a great measure impeded' by the failure of the
Greensville and Roanoke Company to re-lay their Road v.-ith
heavy iron rail. This Committee' would advise that the Di-rectors
of this Road be instructed to have the bridge at Gas-ton
re-built as soon as the Greensville Company shall re-lay
their track, or give satisfactory proof of their intention to do
30 without delay. The Committee would also bring to the
attention of the Stockholders, the condition of the Road be-tween
Gaston and Weldon, especially that portion of the Road
which is laid on tressels. The construction of this connection,
on account of the hurried manner in which it was built, nc'c-
12
fsssarily left many parts incomplete—although perfectly se-cure
at present, yet, from the nature of the material used!| it
will require replacing very soon. This Committee would,
therefore, recommend that those parts of the Road now sup-ported
by tressels, be filled in with earth, and a good embank-ment
made. •
Tliere is one other matter to which the Committee would
call the attention of the Stockholders; and tliat is a thorough
revision of the tariffs, both of Passengers and Freight, on the
Road. In the opinion of the Committee, they are very de-fective.
"While it is true that Railroads" should be managed
:io as to bring in the largest dividends to the Stockholders, it
is equally true that to enable them to do so, they must so reg-ulate
their prices for Travel and transportation of Freights, as
to put down all competition. Travel should be made cheaper
than by private conveyance, and Freights should be so regu-lated
as to call out from the country every marketable article.
Your Committee would recommend a decided reduction, both
in tliG price of Passage and of Freight. They would further
suggest that the Directors do make an arrangement with the
Roads connecting with our Road, especially those in this State,
for the establishment of an uniform tariff of so much per ton
per mile for Freight, and so much per mile for Passengers.
Your Committee would also reconnnend a decided reduc-tion
of the Freights upon all fertilizers, beheving that the
Company will be more than doubly compensated in the
Freights upon the increased productions of the country, con-sequent
upon their use by the farming community.
Should the same prudent system of management which
heretofore obtained on this Road be kept up for the future,
your Committee feel warranted in predicting a success which
Jms heretofore been unparalleled in the history of Railroad
tmterprises in our State.
T. BROWN VENABLE, Chairman.
«
14
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