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Greenwood County and Its Railroads: 1852-1992 by James H Wade Jr
Greenwood County and Its Railroads: 1852-1992 by James H Wade Jr
Hard Cover w/DJ
258 pages
Copyright 1993
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Acknowledgments 4
Chronology5
Chapter I - Greenwood County Railroads - An Historical Overview 9
Chapter II - The First Line - Greenville & Columbia Railroad and
Successors 16
Chapter III - The Augusta Connection - Greenwood &
Augusta Railroad and Successors 47
Chapter IV - The East and West Line - Chester, Greenwood &
Abbeville Railroad Company and Successors 82
Chapter V - The Textile Line - Ware Shoals Railroad 117
Chapter VI - The Electric Line - Piedmont & Northern Lines128
Chapter VII - The Last Line - Georgia & Florida Railroad151
Chapter VIII - Norfolk Southern Corporation 172
Chapter IX - Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and Successors 175
Chapter X - Other Railroads Chartered to Construct Lines in Greenwood County 188
Chapter XI- Track Removal From Downtown Greenwood 200
Chapter XII - Railroad Anecdotes, Stories and Tales 212
Chapter XIII - Potpourri 228
Appendix 235
Bibliography 256
INTRODUCTION
When I came to Greenwood in 1947 as a salesman for Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, I was immediately fascinated with the town and its friendly residents. The same day I arrived I was fortunate to find a furnished room at the home of Mrs. D. G. Gambrell on Oakhaven Court. She and her sister, Miss Ella Mays, not only treated me like a son, but introduced me to a little blond named Louise Fridy whom I later married.
Having lived in Birmingham, Alabama all 26 years of my life (except for three and one-half years in military service during World War II), I knew nothing about Greenwood except what my over-zealous sales supervisor had told me. It was smaller than I had been led to believe--that Irish boss of mine swore the population was at least 50,000.
Then the Southern Railway passenger and freight stations, along with the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway station, were situated in the heart of Greenwood's Square. It seemed to me then that railroad tracks ran everywhere, and they did. Seven or eight were on the square. There was a line crossing Oak Avenue and Main Street connecting the Seaboard Air Line Railroad with the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway; tracks were in the rear of buildings on the south side of Maxwell Avenue; rails ran up the middle of Oregon Avenue; and just barely out of sight of the Square were the Seaboard Air Line and Georgia & Florida Railroad yards. The Piedmont & Northern Railway had a freight yard within the city limits parallel to Grove Street while Maxwell Yards of the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway were located west of Connie Maxwell Children's Home.
I always enjoyed breakfast at the Star Cafe on Main Street, because from there I could see Southern Railway Train Number 18, with its immaculate green-painted and gold-trimmed steam locomotive, parked across the street at the passenger station. The lengthy early morning pause in downtown Greenwood allowed the train crew and passengers time to eat breakfast before proceeding to Columbia.
My sales territory was Aiken, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenwood, and McCormick counties. When scheduled to travel to Anderson, I looked forward to driving on the stretch of U.S. Highway 178 between Hodges and Shoals Junction, where the Southern Railway parallels the west side of the highway and the Piedmont & Northern Railway the east side. It was a rare occasion when I did not observe rail activity while motoring along that six-mile portion of road situated between the rail lines.
In 1948, I was transferred to Charleston where I lived for two years. Then I voluntarily returned to Greenwood in pursuit of the profession for which I was trained--accounting.
After reappearing, I continued to spend much of my spare time photographing locomotives and trains, gathering railroad information, and train watching. Even raising a family, (two sons who did not share my enthusiasm for railroading), passing of the steam era, demise of passenger service, and railway consolidations did not adversely affect my interest in railroads. To the contrary, those events heightened my curiosity even more. However, I never contemplated the preparation of a recorded history of Greenwood County railroads until requested to do so by R. B. Curry, Jr. in conjunction with his Greenwood County history project.
Prior to 1897, Greenwood County was a part of Abbeville County. Reference has been made throughout this book to Greenwood County long before it became a separate political subdivision. Such referral is to the territory comprising the present boundaries of Greenwood County.
In Chapter II, I have made reference to the Greenville & Columbia Railroad (later Southern Railway and now Norfolk Southern Corporation) as "The First Line"--it was the Upstate's first railroad, reaching Greenwood County in 1852.
Chapter III is called "The Augusta Connection." I chose this title because it illustrates what the people of the little upstart village of Greenwood had accomplished through 14 years of effort when the Augusta & Knoxville Railroad entered Greenwood's limits in 1882--they had built a railroad directly connecting Greenwood with the area's favorite trading city, historic Augusta, Georgia. The "Augusta Connection" became Greenwood County's second road and is currently a part of the CSX Transportation, Inc.
Greenwood was also instrumental in getting a third line to construct through its borders. The title for Chapter IV, "The East and West Line," was not originated by me, but by local newspaper reporters who occasionally used this descriptive geographic name when referring to the Chester, Greenwood & Abbeville Railroad and its successor, the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway, during organization and construction (18851892). Today, this line is one of CSX Transportation's major segments.
Greenwood County's fourth railroad was built in 1904 by the Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company to transport supplies and materials to and from its textile plant at Ware Shoals. Since the Ware Shoals Railroad initially was a privately-owned line, serving only a textile mill, this was my reason for selecting "The Textile Line" as the title for Chapter V.
The titles of the next two chapters are obvious. Chapter VI, "The Electric Line," tells the story of the Piedmont & Northern Railway, an interurban electric line, which arrived in Greenwood in 1912; whereas, Chapter VII, "The Last Line," gives historical coverage to the last railroad line to come to Greenwood. The year was 1929 and the Georgia & Florida was the railroad.
Other historical items and events pertaining to Greenwood and its railroads are reported in other sections of this publication, including separate chapters on the Norfolk Southern Corporation and the CSX Transportation, the two surviving lines currently serving the County. There is a chapter describing the lines chartered to construct in the area which failed; one tracing the history of track removal from downtown Greenwood; and a chapter in which are logged railroad stories, anecdotes, tales and events--some factual, some legendary. The final chapter, "Potpourri," includes miscellaneous recorded articles ranging from Marshal Foch's visit in 1921 to the story of hobo hangouts.
August 1, 1993James H. Wade, Jr.
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