NASHVILLE, CHATTANOOGA AND SAINT LOUIS 'RAILWAY, The. The first advocate of the building of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, the first railroad com pleted in the State of Tennessee, was Dr. James Overton, a man of far-reaching sagacity, daunt less courage and great faith in his well-matured convictions. In 1843, he offered himself a can didate for the legislature, basing his canvass on the promise that he would do all in his power to secure the construction of a railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga, to connect with the proposed Western and Atlantic Railroad, char tered to be built from Atlanta to Chattanooga, thus creating a large link in' a great trunk line to extend from the Atlantic Coast to the Mis sissippi River. At that period, Chattanooga, or Ross Landing as it was then called, was but a small trading point in a wild, mountainous region, lately vacated by the Indians. Dr. Overton, with a keen foresight, however, recog nized that this was the focus to which the lines of traffic from the Southern States must con verge, and he believed that if connections should be opened between that point and Nash ville the latter place would be able to control the large cotton trade of Georgia and Alabama. These arguments made little impression on the minds of the people, however, and Dr. Overton was not only defeated but the title °Old Chat tanooge was applied to him by those who derided his scheme as the impracticable dream of a visionary. Two years after the defeat of Dr. Overton the necessity for other outlets from Nashville besides the Cumberland River brought the subject of railroads under agita tion again, and, through the pressure of many influential citizens of the State, the legislature passed an act on 11 Dec. 1845 incorporating a railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga. In 1847 this act was amended to permit the town of Nashville to subscribe the sum of $500,000 for the benefit of the road, and °to raise money on loans by pledging the faith of the corpora tion; by pledging a portion of its taxes; by mortgage or otherwise to an amount not ex ceeding what might be demanded for the calls on the stock?' The town of Murfreesboro, Tenn., also subscribed . 1,000; the city of Charleston, S. C., $500,111; and the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company of Augusta, Ga., $250,000. The balance of an approximate capital stock of $2,000,000 was subscribed by individuals in Nashville and along the line of the proposed road. Shares of stock had then a par value of $25 each and in many instances the subscriber paid for his stock by actual work on the line or in materials furnished. The State also gave material assistance by lend ing its endorsement to the bonds of the com pany issued from time to time on completed miles of road.
The first general meeting of the stockholders was held in the City Hall at Nashville on 24 Jan. 1848. V. K. Stevenson, who had so earnestly labored in the interest of the road, was elected the first president. Other presidents of the road to date are as follows: Michael Burns, 17 Feb. 1864 to 15 Aug. 1868; E. W. Cole, 15 Aug. 1868 to 15 Sept. 1880; J. D. Porter from the latter date to 10 Sept. 1884;J. W. Thomas, Sr., from then to 12 Feb. 1906; J. W. Thomas, Jr., 28 Feb. 1906 to 17 Dec. 1913; Maj. E. C. Lewis, 19 Dec. 1913 to 1 April 1914; and John Howe Peyton from the latter date to the pres ent time. The first contract for any of the actual construction was let in August 1848 for cutting the tunnel under the Cumberland Moun tain. Construction on other parts of the line began the latter part of that year. The first train ran from Nashville to Antioch on 13 April 1851, and when, on 4 July of the same year, a train arrived at Murfreesboro the event was made the occasion of a great celebration, people from all the country round being on hand to greet this sign of progress. By April 1852 the road had reached Bridgeport, Ala., on the Ten nessee River, from which communication was immediately established with Chattanooga with the aid of steamboats; but the entire line, 151 miles in length, was not completed until Febru ary 1854. At that time the equipment of the road consisted of 17 engines, bearing names instead of numbers, among which were the Tennessee, Nashville, Chattanooga, Governor Sevier and Governor Blount; 11 passenger cars freight cars. The iron rail used in track was purchased in England and delivered at Nashville for about $45 per ton. In Novem ber 1871 the company acquired by purchase from the State of Tennessee the railroad prop erties of the Nashville and Northwestern Rail road Company, a line extending from Nash ville, Tenn., to Hickman, Ky. In 1873 the name of the corporation was changed from that granted in the original charter, °The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company,° to °the Nashville, Chattanooga and Saint Louis Railway.° The Western and Atlantic Railroad, extending from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Atlanta, Ga., is leased for 29 years from 27 Dec. 1890. The Paducah and Memphis division, extending from Paducah, Ky., to Memphis, Tenn., with a branch from Lexing ton to Perryville, is leased from the Louis ville and Nashville Railroad Company for 99 years from 14 Dec. 1895. The several branches of the present system were built under separate charters, some of them by independent corpora tions. The parent company, therefore, operates its present mileage under the charters granted originally to the various corporations which have been merged from time to time into its line.