Railroads drove N.C. growth

By Buddy Gettys

For the Salisbury Post

It is Saturday, Jan. 4, 1855, in Salisbury. The day is cold, with icicles hanging from the downspouts and along the rims of overflowing rain barrels. The temperature has hovered around freezing since Christmas Eve. But the excitement downtown cuts through the cold air as an estimated 15,000 people, equaling the population of Rowan County, have gathered to celebrate the arrival of the first three trains pulled by steam locomotives belching smoke and cinders across the gray sky, rolling along on new shining rails, connecting Salisbury to the city of Charlotte.

The slowly moving freight trains are loaded with people hanging from the doors of rail cars and waving to the crowd. Local folks line both sides of the tracks for two miles, cheering. Brass bands from Salisbury and Concord are performing downtown, and cannons are fired from a distance along the town limits.

A weather-beaten old farmer dressed in bib overalls and a thick canvas hunting coat is telling a reporter from a Charlotte newspaper, “I could pile more farm goods on one of these rail cars than I could haul with 10 or 20 loads on my wagon and four horses.” He spits tobacco juice between the new crossties and shakes his fist in the air.

“Huzzar for North Carolina, Old Rip awakes! Clear the track!” he exclaims while waving the trains onward.

People were happy because things had changed, and they were seeing results. The political winds in Raleigh were now blowing in a different direction. A General Assembly that had dominated policy since the middle of the 18th century refused to consider improvements to state highways, canals or the extension of the railroad. The state Constitution adopted in 1776 gave eastern North Carolina predominate power. Although the Constitution allowed for every taxpayer to vote on members of the House of Commons, it restricted only to those owning 50 acres of land the opportunity to vote for the members of the Senate. The people of eastern North Carolina controlled large plots of land and slaves, and they were able to control the state government for almost 75 years.

Without significant infrastructure in the west and Piedmont, the amount of trade a farmer could accomplish was restricted to what he could carry on his wagon and the condition of the roads. For that reason thousands left North Carolina for more progressive states in the south and mid west. From 1820 until the 1850s, the mostly rural state of North Carolina declined 17 percent in population. But in 1835, a statewide referendum ratified the work of the 1834 convention on the reforming of the state’s antiquated constitution and changed all of this, giving power to the all the people as opposed to only those with wealth. The historic vote was a turning point in the history of North Carolina.

One of the first actions by a new General Assembly in 1837 was the adoption of policy that gave financial aid to the building of the North Carolina Railroad. With improvement sweeping the state, Rowan County exerted itself to get on the band wagon and succeeded. Rowan and Guilford led all other counties in subscriptions for bonds and were assured of places on the route. This led to the celebration that occurred on this day in 1855.

It was a great thing for Rowan County, and undoubtedly gave a start toward industrial development which had borne a tremendous amount of fruit over the past 150 or more years. By 1870 Rowan, with 17,000 persons, had eight textile mills and rated ninth in industry, and 15th in agriculture.

Three months after the railroad reached the center of Salisbury, it was completed to the Yadkin River. On Feb. 5, 1856, at 3 p.m., the last bar of iron was laid on the North Carolina Railroad completing a connection between Charlotte and Goldsboro. Rowan farmers parked their wagons and shipped by railcar to the markets, becoming competitive with the rest of the South. They found that the railroad charged only half the cost of transportation by wagons. It was a win-win situation for the state, the farmers and the consumer.

All of the construction was just in time to support the Civil War in moving troops from Columbia and Charlotte to the front lines of Northern Virginia. The local railroad was later attacked and damaged by Stoneman’s Raiders. But repairs were quickly completed after the war, and by early 1867 the trains were moving across North Carolina again, carrying cotton and tobacco and other farm supplies to the northern and western market places.

The state of North Carolina, acting on the success at building the Central North Carolina Railroad, continued its efforts even during the Civil War, and by 1863 the state-owned rails crisscrossing the state like a web. The state Legislature chartered the Western North Carolina Railroad from Morganton to Salisbury by 1866. This route, too, was financed in part by the state and in part by private capital.

In 1896, a 162–acre site just north of Salisbury was selected for the largest steam locomotive repair facility in the country … the Spencer Shops. This site was selected because it was half way between Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and on a double-track main line, in addition to lines reaching Knoxville, Savannah and Charleston converging at that point. The facility, now the North Carolina Transportation Museum, was Rowan County’s major employer for more than 60 years.

In a few short years after “Old Rip” awoke, Salisbury became one of the most important towns in the Piedmont due to steel rails that by the turn of century had latched America together. Many local folks lived a prosperous life by wielding a wrench or a brakeman’s lantern and keeping the smoke belching and the wheels rolling.