AR, NOJ&GN 3/1/1866 P

Annual Report of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern RR
as of March 1, 1866
President's Report
 
Eleventh Annual Report of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company
 
Office of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company
New Orleans, April 5, 1866
 
Gentlemen,
   As required by the charter, in behalf of the board of directors, I submit the following statement, showing the condition of the road when received on the 24th of June, 1865, and its subsequent management up to the 28th of February, the close of the fiscal year of the corporation.
   From my report which I had the honor to make to the governor and legislature of the State of Louisiana, under date of December 12, 1865, showing the operations of the road up to the 1st of December, I make the following extracts, which exhibit the condition of the company anterior to and during the first years of the war, its condition subsequent, and when received on the 24th day of June, 1865.
   In the annual report, dated December 1, 1860, made by my predecessor, H. J. Ranney, the progress made in the construction of the road, its financial condition, its receipts and expenditures, the rolling stock on hand, are all fully set forth. For a more complete understanding of the then condition of the company, the following extracts from the report alluded to are submitted:
   The road has been completed with a single track, together with the necessary side tracks, depot buildings and water stations from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi -- a length of two hundred and six miles -- in a substantial and permanent manner, equal to any road in the United States, with the exception of a portion between the city of New Orleans and the Pass Manchac, which portion is now being filled and raised in such a manner as to prevent any future delays or accidents.
   On that portion above Canton, known as the extension, twenty-six miles have been graded, at a cost of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, ($220,000,) and an additional section of fourteen miles to the town of Kosciusko, is under contract, and will be completed during the year 1861; another section, extending south from Aberdeen, Mississippi, to the intersection of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, (length nine miles,) is under contract, the graduation of which is nearly completed and ready for the rails, which can be laid in season to take off the next crop, should the receipts of the road equal our sanguine expectations. In addition to the work done on the above nine miles, there has been more or less work done upon about forty miles of the line through Monroe county, above and below Aberdeen, at an expense of about $85,500.
The amount expended in the construction of the road from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi, including the right of way, real estate, depot buildings, station houses, iron rails, wood and water stations, and workmanship of all kinds up to date, has been $5,549,211.81
For locomotive engines, cars, tools, &c., in the machine shop 1,044,661.20
For graduation, right of way, and real estate, &c., north of Canton 445,000.00
   Total cost of road and rolling stock 7,038,873.01
The amount of indebtedness for money borrowed, upon first mortgage bonds is $2,645,000.00
Loans from the State of Mississippi 205,000.00
Amount of bills payable 735,335.73
   Total loans and bills payable 3,585,335.73
The earnings of the road from freight and passenger trains from 1st December, 1859, to 30th November, 1860, as shown by statement H, was $1,272,682.87
The amount disbursed for transportation during the same period was $811,547.79
From this must be deducted for expenses incurred previous to November 30, 1859, and paid during the current year 115,853.51
695,694.28
Add for amount outstanding and unpaid on 30th November, 1860 20,276.25
Actual cost of transportation from December, 1859, to November 30, 1860 715,970.53
Leaving the net earnings for the year ending November 30, 1860 556,712.34
   We have on hand, in complete order and ready for service, 45 locomotive engines, 37 passenger cars, 9 baggage and express cars, 503 freight cars, 57 gravel and hand cars.
   This quantity of rolling stock is sufficient to transport double the amount of freight and passengers which passed over the road during the past year. Of the above, eleven locomotives and eleven first-class passenger cars have never been coupled to a train, and are now in the depot, perfectly ready for use whenever they may be required for the increasing traffic of the road.
   The total earnings of the road, from freight, passengers, and mails, for the 12 months ending December 31, 1857, were $277,088.24; for the 12 months ending December 31, 1858, were $593,093.69; for the 12 months ending November 30, 1859, were $964,958.66; for the 12 months ending November 30, 1860, were $1,272,862.87. Showing a regular increase of more than $300,000 each year since 1857, notwithstanding the interruptions to the traffic from the extraordinary storms, crevasses, and short crops of the two years just passed.
   The above extracts show the financial condition of the road, the amount of rolling stock on hand, the amount of capital expended, the length of road finished and under contract, and its receipts and expenditures up to the date of rendition, December 1, 1860.
   On the 1st day of January, 1862, another, and the last, annual report of President Ranney was made to Governor Moore, from which the following extracts are made to show the condition of the company at that date:
   The road, as far as completed, a distance of two hundred and six miles, to Canton, Mississippi, is in the best possible condition, being equal, and, indeed, better than any railroad in the confederacy as to capacity, condition, machinery, rolling stock, &c.
   The gross earnings of the road from the transportation of freight and passengers, for the year ending January 1, 1862, have been $1,128,537.85. The cost for the same, including repairs of the road, engines, cars, &c., has been $531,590.40, yielding a net revenue of $596,947.45, which has been applied to the reduction of the floating debt, payment of interest on loans, and the extension of the road.
The graduation of that portion of the road from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi, together with the rolling stock, depot buildings, real estate, right of way, law charges, salaries, interest on loans, repairs, and renewals, and all other contingencies, including the graduation, bridging, &c., beyond Canton, known as the extension, has been, to the 1st of January, 1862 $12,513,829.11
Of this amount there has been received from stockholders $4,664,267.15
From sale first mortgage bonds 2,665,000.00
From railroad earnings 4,473,781.95
From loans from the State of Mississippi 220,000.00
From interest coupons of bonds of the State of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans 264,480.00
For bills payable and outstanding balances over and above amount due to the company 226,300.01 12,513,829.11
   The debt due and outstanding on January 1, 1862, was:
Loans received from the State of Mississippi $220,000,00
Bills payable, due, and maturing in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865 256,773.04
Paymasters' bills payable 35,149.80
Bills payable, of small denominations 32,220.00
Balance due on pay-roll account 5,174.96
Amount due sundry persons for bills, railroad balances, and other accounts 34,236.84
Coupons due on first mortgage bonds, including those due 1st January 1862 237,720.00
First mortgage bonds, due in 1886 2,665,000.00
Sundry balances due parties and railroads in the north $9,296.62
Bills payable, due as above 174,835.81 184,132.43
   Total liabilities 3,670,407.07
   The above extracts exhibit the condition of the company's affairs in January, 1862. After that date only a small amount of work was done on that portion of the road north of Canton, the contractors abandoning the work with the consent of the then president. No portion of that part of the road has been completed.
   On the 24th of April, 1862 {the date the Union navy passed the forts on the Mississippi and arrived to take possession of New Orleans}, the rolling stock and locomotives of the company were taken possession of by Major General Lovell, and removed to that part of the road north of Ponchatoula, where it remained under his absolute control for twenty days, at which time it was returned to the control of the officers of the road, who continued to manage the same during the years 1862, '63, '64 and a portion of 1865, up to the date of the surrender of the department by General Taylor.
   On the 27th day of August, 1862, the directors then in Mississippi met in the town of Canton, and fixed the domicile of the company, for the time being, at that place. Their attention, by regular meetings of the board of directors, was given to the business of the company for a period of eight months, subject to the control of the confederate military authorities.
   In the spring of 1863, a large amount of confederate securities being on hand, the attention of the board was given as to their best disposition. Although doubts were entertained as to their power to invest any assets on hand in cotton or other property, yet they resolved, at a meeting of the board of directors, on the 11th March, 1863, to purchase from three to five thousand bales of cotton near the line of the road, the proceeds to be applied to the principal or interest on the bonds of the company, and for the purchase of material for the use of the same. 
   To effect the end proposed by the resolution, a committee consisting of Messrs. Fellowes, Warren and Fearn, was appointed, who proceeded to purchase some seven hundred and fifty bales, when that section of the country was invaded by the federal forces, and as the confederates retired, five hundred bales which had been purchased and stored at Canton were burned by order of the confederate General Jackson.
   The remainder has been in part and is still being delivered, by the parties from whom it was purchased. Some parties from whom purchases were made have refused to comply with their contracts. Proper means will be taken to enforce a compliance.
   The 8th day of April, 1863, was the date of their last meeting in Canton, as, shortly after that, the country was disturbed by the raid of General Grierson, and the subsequent invasion of Generals Grant and Sherman, in May, when Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, was captured, and much of the road in its vicinity torn up and destroyed.
   After the meeting of the 8th of April, 1863, the control and management was exclusively that of the president, superintendent and other employees of the company.
   In the year 1863 and '64, the rolling stock and locomotives were, with a few exceptions, destroyed or damaged by the contending forces in that district, and rendered unfit for service. On the 1st of May, 1865, the company was deprived, by death, of the services of H. J. Ranney, who had been its president since June, 1860. *****
   Reference is here made to treasurer's statements, A, B and C, accompanying the report. Statement A being receipts and expenditures of the road from 1st March, 1862, to 16th October, 1863, as per books kept in New Orleans, embracing a period of time from the 1st May, 1862, to the 16th October, 1863, when no receipts and but few expenditures were made, owing to the fact that the headquarters of the road were removed to Canton, Mississippi. Statement B being the receipts and expenditures of the company from the 16th June, 1862, to the 29th May, 1865, embracing all the transactions of the road while the headquarters were located in Mississippi.
   This statement shows a balance on hand, in confederate obligations, of $972,906.27, which amount, had it been available, would have been, at the time, sufficient to have paid the overdue coupons.
   *****
   Efforts to pay off all the coupons held in the southern States, by advertisements, &c., met with but the limited success stated above. *****
   ***** 
   There having been no election of directors since the third Monday of April, 1862, the question of at once ordering an election was considered by them {the directors, on June 2, 1865}. *****
   ***** At the time the road was turned over to the board of directors {June, 1865}, it was being used, and was in good condition as far as Ponchatoula, 47 miles north of this city. From that point to Brookhaven -- a distance of 81 miles -- the road had not been used since the spring of 1863, as most of the bridges between those points had been destroyed by the different armed forces traversing that section of the country. That portion of the road not having received any attention since 1862, it became enveloped with briers, bushes and grass, the undisturbed growth of three years causing, by shade and moisture, the decay of the pine timber used in its construction. There was scarcely a single bridge on that section that was not wholly, or in part, destroyed by fire, or rendered unfit for use by decay. Of the cross-ties of this section, fully three fourths have to be replaced to render the road safe for the transit of cars and locomotives. From Brookhaven to Jackson, a distance of 55 miles, the road, though dilapidated, was in use, save some two and a half miles immediately south of the latter place, where the road-bed had been torn up and the bridges and cross-ties burnt.
   From Jackson to Canton, the present terminus of the road a distance of twenty-three miles -- the road, though much out of repair, having been often torn up and destroyed, was still being used. Of the splendidly equipped road of 1861 and '62, of the 49 locomotives, 37 passenger cars, (many of which had never been used,) and 550 freight, baggage and gravel cars, there remained fit for use, though in damaged condition, between Jackson and Canton, 1 locomotive, 2 second-class passenger cars, 1 first-class passenger car, 1 baggage and 1 provision car, 2 stock and 2 flat cars.
   On the section between Jackson and Brookhaven, there were in use 2 locomotives, damaged, having been partly burned; 4 box cars, one of which was used for passengers, and 9 flat cars. All the other locomotives have been burned or damaged by time and exposure, and rendered unfit for service. The amount of rolling stock turned over to the company by the military authorities of New Orleans consists of 1 locomotive, 1 passenger car, 4 box and 10 flat cars, 1 baggage and 2 cattle cars.
   Of all the depot buildings and platforms attached, wood-sheds, and water stations and division houses, which were in complete repair in 1862, there remained only the buildings at Osyka, Magnolia and Summit; the remainder having all, from time to time, been destroyed by the armed forces in their vicinity.
   ***** In the short space of thirteen days, under his {B. H. Greene}, the gap of two and a half miles, immediately south of Jackson, was rebuilt, including a large bridge, thus closing a break that had existed since May, 1863 *****
C. C. Shackleford
President

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