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Murfreesboro Railroad Company by E Frank Stephenson Jr North Carolina SoftCover
The Murfreesboro Railroad Company by E Frank Stephenson Jr
Soft Cover
32 pages
Copyright 1996
CONTENTS
Section of the old trackbed and right of way for the Murfreesboro RR
1895 Map of the Seaboard Air Line RR system with Murfreesboro RR on it.
The Murfreesboro RR Company
1885 Engineers map for the construction of the route of the Murfreesboro RR
Stock Certificates for the Murfreesboro RR Company
Murfreesboro citizens along a section of the Murfreesboro RR about 1895
Length of the Murfreesboro RR
Passenger Fare Murfreesboro to Pendleton
Dates of Train Service to Murfreesboro
Seaboard Trains that Served Murfreesboro
Pay Scale for the Murfreesboro RR Commissioners
Murfreesboro to Windsor RR
Camp Manufacturing Company RR
1895 photograph of John Henry Pruden
1996 view of the RR at Pendleton NC looking south towards Conway NC
A Sept 20, 1937 aerial view of the corner of Broad and Winder streets showing old Murfreesboro train station
One of the trains that came to Murfreesboro
A section of the old trackbed and right of way for the Mufreesboro RR
The Original train schedule for the Murfreesboro RR
PREFACE
Once upon a time a hundred years ago the town of Murfreesboro echoed with the sound of passenger and freight trains, yes real trains pulling into the train station that stood on the southeast corner of Winder and Broad Streets. Similarly when the train was ready to depart for its 6.87 mile journey through the beautiful pine forests of Hertford and Northampton counties to Pendleton, the booming voice of a burly conductor for the Murfreesboro Railroad would bellow "ALL ABOARD"! On the days when the train was scheduled to come to Murfreesboro, the ladies of the town would not hang out their wash for the fear of it being soiled by coal dust and soot coming from the train engine. Citizens of Murfreesboro could tell when the train was coming to town without even knowing its schedule because they could hear the wail of the train's whistle long before the train arrived at the Broad Street station.
One only has to imagine how excited the citizens were particularly the children of Murfreesboro when the first train arrived in town back in December 1891. Their excitement and expectation no doubt ran high as the citizens of the Meherrin River town had waited since 1877 for the first train to appear. The people of Murfreesboro were proud of their new train and they had every reason to feel that way because if it had not been for the citizens of Murfreesboro passing a crucial and special railroad bond issue for $25,000 in 1887 the train probably would have never come. The excitement for the train was so high that a new street was approved and cut beside the Murfreesboro Baptist Church between Main and Broad streets allowing easy access to the train station. This new street was first named Railroad Street. Later it was renamed Winder in honor of J. H. Winder, superintendent of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Winder had pushed hard to see the railroad to Murfreesboro built as quickly as possible.
The Murfreesboro Railroad was indeed a very big hit and financial success. For a brief five to six years the railroad prospered and successfully fought off several attempts to derail it. While the railroad was highly successful with both passenger and freight business the steamship companies that served Murfreesboro and docked at the foot of Broad Street on the Meherrin River were losing business both passenger and freight to the railroad at an alarming rate. Soon open warfare developed between the owners of the railroad and the steamship companies respectively. Some of the railroad stockholders attempted a power grab on the Murfreesboro waterfront by trying to hog all the wharf leases in an effort to squeeze out the steamship companies. At about the same time a lethal squabble over rates and fares developed between the Murfreesboro Railroad Company and the parent company, the Seaboard Airline Railroad Company. Since very few records of the Murfreesboro Railroad have survived, it is impossible to determine exactly what caused its death. The owners of steamship companies did everything they could to kill the Murfreesboro railroad and we do know that the fight with the Seaboard Airline Railroad ultimately resulted in that company sending a crew in here under the cover of darkness on May 7, 1897, and physically taking up the railroad tracks.
It is extremely unfortunate that all parties involved did not have the foresight and wisdom to realize that the railroad was the way of the future for Murfreesboro. Today about the only evidence remaining of the Murfreesboro Railroad Company are some old rusty railroad spikes, old stock certificates, the company's corporate seal, copies of its charters, a platt, and traces of the beautifully engineered but abandoned track bed along the old train route between Murfreesboro and Pendleton.
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