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Images of America Richmond County and the Seaboard Air Line Railway SCL SC
Images of America Richmond County and the Seaboard Air Line Railway by Stephen Massengill and C Vernon Vallance
Soft Cover
Copyright 2005
128 pages Indexed
Hamlet
Rockingham
SAL
Wrecks and derailment
Blewett Falls and Electric power
Cotton and Textile mills
Winter pays a brief visit
People, possums and peculiarities
Beyond the County Line
At the beginning of the 20th century, the economy of Richmond County was dominated by agriculture and textile manufacturing located principally in and around the city and county seat of Rockingham. After 1900, the small town of Hamlet developed into a railroad center. Soon after the opening of Hamlet's railroad shops, freight terminal, and passenger depot, the town became widely known as the "hub" of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, which by 1901 connected New York City with Tampa, Florida. Five railroad lines extending from Hamlet served most of the major seaports along the Atlantic coast. The railroad industry provided numerous jobs and spawned other related businesses. The population of Hamlet grew from 600 people in 1900 to some 5,000 inhabitants by the early 1920s. The county's textile industry benefited greatly from the convenient rail facilities as well as from the construction of the Blewett Falls Dam on the Pee Dee River and the resulting electrical power the dam generated for the manufacturing enterprises.
Richmond County was fortunate to have in its midst one of the more gifted photographers in the state during the first quarter of the 20th century. Frederick "Frank" Marchant (1872-1942), a native of Philadelphia, settled in Hamlet after 1900. Apparently, the town's emergence as an important railroad junction and the promising economic environment attracted him to the small town. Marchant may have worked in the field of civil engineering as a surveyor for the Seaboard for several years before turning to a career in photography about 1907. He rented space for a studio on the second floor of O.T. Goodwin's wholesale grocery store on Raleigh Street. Marchant's work was so highly regarded that he served for a number of years as the official photographer for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
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