| From the Hind County Gazette (Raymond, Miss.) |
| |
| April 18, 1877 |
| |
| The following correspondence
will explain itself, and be published for the purpose of inviting
attention to what is deemed an opportunity for the investment of small
amount of capital with a certainty of higher returns. there is almost
a certainty that general Martin's Rail Road will pass Raymond at not
distant date, which is but an additional argument why the Raymond and
Bolton Rail Road should be rebuilt, as each Rail Road will be of great
advantage to the other. Messer Hamilton & Hebron, the enterprising
Lessees of the Penitentiary, will have perhaps 500 or 1,000 laborers
on their hand at no distant day, and, in our judgment, they should all
be put upon Rail Road work. The Plantation is no place for it, nor
should it be allowed to antagonize the skill and industry of our
honest Laborers and Mechanics. We invite the attention of men of
energy and enterprise to the correspondence: |
| The Raymond & Bolton Rail Road |
| Raymond, Mississippi |
| March 17th, 1877 |
| |
| Messer Hamilton & Hebron, Lessees State
Penitentiary |
| Jackson, Mississippi |
| |
| Gentlemen, |
| I desire to invite your
attention to an enterprise which in my judgment, you could make quite
profitable to yourselves, and which at the same time would add
{several lines missing} Which at the same time would add greatly to
the prosperity of Hinds, as a county, as well as contribute largely to
the convenience and future indolence and thrift to an extensive area
of territory, already thickly settled, in the geographical centre of
the County. |
| I refer to the reconstruction
of the Rail Road known in former times as the "Raymond &
Bolton Railroad." The old line of this Rail Road is about Six and
Three-Quarters miles in length, and tresses as easy a line for a Rail
Road as can be found in any country. There is not a cutoff of any
magnitude, not a fill of importance, and but one bridge will be
necessary (Over Baker's Creek, near Bolton,) that cannot be built by
ordinary laboring hands. |
| Some Five years ago, about
Five miles of the Road bed was re-graded, and made ready for
construction, and the entire line could now be placed in proper
condition for wood work with but the slightest expense and very
rapidly. |
| The Railroad was originally
built, about 1838, at great expense, and entirely on credit, by a
company. The Company soon became involved in Lawsuits. Some of the
Suits involving "The Right-of-Way." And during the financial
storm and disasters which came thick and fast upon the country from
1839 and 1844, became insolvent, and permitted its Rail Road to go to
ruin. |
| The Rail Road was
reconstructed in 1852, by an individual, and successfully operated
until 1858 {under the name Raymond RR},
when severe losses from another enterprise so crippled the owner,
financially, that he became unable to keep the Road up,
notwithstanding a handsome dividend paid on the capital invested. And
with the commencement of the War, the Road was again utterly
abandoned. |
| ***** |
| George W. Harper |
| ***** |
|