NP, TD 1/1/1861

From the New Orleans True Delta
 
January 1, 1861
 
Louisiana Intelligence
Baton Rouge, Grosse Tete & Opelousas Railroad
   The president of this road, Col. A. V. Donald, supplies some interesting information regarding its progress, from which we extract the following:
   The entire receipts of the road for the past year to December 1, amount to $36,000, an increase over that of last year. The assets of the company amount to $263,787.03, to which may be added the rolling stock, valued at $35,000. The entire indebtedness of the company reaches the sum of $102,850.97, showing a balance in favor of the company over all its liabilities of $160,936.06, or, with the value of the rolling stock added, $195,561.09. This showing, we think, will favorably vie with the annual showing of our other state roads. The cost of the Livonia section will not exceed $85,00 per mile -- one of the best and most satisfactory evidences of the great cheapness of slave labor in railroad building.
   In order to complete the road to Livonia, a distance of twelve miles from the Bayou Grosse Tete, subscriptions were received amounting to $80,000, which, with the assets of the old stock, and the receipts of the old road, work was immediately commenced with thirty-five newly purchased negroes, on the 3d day of January last. Everything is now progressing finely and by the middle of January the section will be completed.
   The company, immediately upon the completion of the Livonia section, will commence upon the third and last section, to the Atchafalaya river. The distance from Livonia to that point is about thirteen miles, and it is calculated will be completed by the 1st of January, 1862. The clearing and grading will occupy the hands of the company about seven months, while the remainder of the work can be done easily in the remaining five. All the necessary materials, money, and labor are on hand for the purpose.

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