The North Carolina Railroad
by Allen W. Trelease
North Carolina
Railroad schedule
announcement from
the Greensboro
Patriot, March 1355.
What does this
schedule tell you
about traveling by
train in the
mid-1800s? Why
does the schedule
say that the railroad
connects with other
railroads and "lour
horse post
coaches"? How long
do you think it would
take to ride a horse
or wagon between
some ol these
locations? Compare
your estimate with
how long you think it
would take to ride a
train in the
mid- 1800s or how
long it would take
you in a car today.
nr
AIT
Ж
-1’
Ш
\TortIi Onroll
li ler M outlay, J
pliflu Railroad will
olfiun Rullrmnd.— On
January let 1 N55, the N
and nf-
•rth Car*
- - - - t. be opened Ibrthe truiiS] mrtutiuit
£>f passengers nut! freights from Goldsboro'
’htsrn’e 20 milen west of Raleigh.
PtJinsettger train leavos GMtMmro’ daily
“ “ passes Raleigh “
*• u arrives at Durhum
в
“
RETURN1! KG:
Passenger train louveo Durham !a
‘ ‘ *‘ “ puseoo Raleigh
to Dur*
об
A.M.
oo
40
daily
omit *•
1(1 “ arrives ut Goldsboro’ 0
Connecting with the United State s mail
the . " 1 : 1
им-..
00 P.M.
00 “
4'2 “
ruin on
the Wilmington anti .Rnluiyh Railroad
ш
Golds*
boro’; the Raleigh »iul Gaston Hailroud, and Messrs
Bland
й
Dun li ’o mail lino of four horse pot
es at DurhaniV) nun
ham, Gieenetmto’, J
ion to Suliubnry ; fro
North Carolina Rui
daily-train,
Л
throt
boid’ every Thnrudaj
mg dady via
urnostown, Salem utid
n which point to Char
road Company ore ri lining a
'It freight train leaves Uulds-
for Durham V, returning every
uy. A VVuy Uojyhi train, will run «very Thurs-
to otalliiig rt and lotniii same
is
t eoaclt-
Om-
Lexittg-
olte the
Jflrid ..
day. Iron) Goldsboro
dijty, atn| vviR ttiahe
oxtru tripe» when necessary.
WALTER GW YN
Jan. 1, 1855.
Chief Engiiteer.N. C. R.
r-horse
The undersigned are running daily fot ,„„c0
Poet Coaches between Durham's and Salisbury,
CMiiiecting with the Ruil Road Cara at those .
a« followB :
Leave Durham's forTJreoneboro’, at 7 4(
Arrive at Gieottuboro’ at 1, A.M.
Leave Greensboro’ for Durham 'a at 8, I*.
Arrive at Durham's at 2, P. M.
Leave Greensboro’ for Salisbury at 8, A. M.
Arrive at Salisbury at 10. P. M.
LeaVe Salisbury for Greensboro’ at 2, A. ’
Arrive at Greensboro- at 7, P. M.
.Going West, those stages pass through Sa
places,
, A. M.
|M.
I.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; ami re liming
East, they
раза
through Salem on Tuesday, Tlinrs*
«Say, and Saturday. The . other i.uye in eac i weelc
they- go diiect through by Jamestown.
The eubscribara
яге
making fi
making firrangaments
to givu inrough ticbqia to Weldon. N. ,C .
•burg, Va, £ic BLAND fciD
GrboiiBburo’-JaVii. T855.
era, on
Peturs-
t NN.
The North Carolina Railroad
(NCRR) was chartered in
1 849 and became one of the
longest railroads in the country
when it was completed in 1 856. It
runs in a 223-mile arc from
Goldsboro to Charlotte, by way of
Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, and
Salisbury. Like many railroads built
in that era, the NCRR could not
have been built without government
financial aid. In fact, the state
bought three-quarters of its stock.
A stock is a share in a company,
and someone who has bought
stock owns it and is called a
stockholder. In return the governor
got to appoint two-thirds of the
railroad’s board of directors and to
cast three-quarters of the votes at
stockholders' meetings. A board of
directors is a group of people that
oversees a company. The state
also got three-fourths of the annual
dividends— or profits— on the
stock. The NCRR’s chief fundraiser
and first president was former
Governor John Motley Morehead
of Greensboro. William A. Graham,
Paul C. Cameron, and other
financial and political leaders of the
1 850s also helped plan and guide
the great enterprise.
For over fifteen years, the
NCRR operated as an independent
railroad. It was originally intended
to connect western North Carolina
with the state’s eastern seaports.
Before the Civil War (1 861 -1 865), it
quickly became, with its
connecting roads, part of a major
north-south railway route running
from New Orleans, Louisiana, to
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