RAILROAD HISTORY - HENDERSONVILLE TO LAKE TOXAWAY
One of Transylvania Railroad's locomotives early 1900's
late 1880's ~ FRENCH BROAD VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY
1891 ~ HENDERSONVILLE & BREVARD RAILWAY, TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CO.
1897 ~ THE TRANSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY (Hendersonville, N. Carolina)
1906 ~ SOUTHERN RAILWAY
1982 - NORFOLK SOUTHERN
1891 ~ HENDERSONVILLE & BREVARD RAILWAY, TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CO.
1897 ~ THE TRANSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY (Hendersonville, N. Carolina)
1906 ~ SOUTHERN RAILWAY
1982 - NORFOLK SOUTHERN
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RAILROAD
FROM HENDERSONVILLE TO LAKE TOXAWAY by Jerry Ledford, Etowah NC Research and photographs by J. Ledford, Etowah NC & Austin Art Studio / Gerald Ledford Collection In the late 1880’s, a group of Hendersonville and Henderson County businessmen organized the French Broad Valley Railroad Company to build a railroad between Brevard and Hendersonville. A route was surveyed and construction started, but all work on the proposed line soon came to a halt. In the early 1890s, T.C. McNeely came to Hendersonville along with a civil engineer named Thomas S. Boswell. These two men acquired the assets of the French Broad Railroad Company. Together, they organized a new company to build the railroad between Brevard and Hendersonville. It was chartered in 1891 and known as the Hendersonville & Brevard Railway, Telegraph & Telephone Company. Thomas Boswell surveyed the grade between Brevard and Hendersonville. Construction on the railroad progressed rapidly and by midsummer 1895, the rails had almost reached Brevard. The company had acquired a small American 4-4-0 locomotive to haul construction supplies. On July 26th, 1895, engineer Ben Edgerton and his black fireman named Phillips were hauling heavy railroad rails, crossties and other construction material as they approached the wooden trestle that spanned the French Broad River between Horse Shoe and Etowah. This was at the Cannon Farm which was later named Horse Shoe Bend Farm when it was bought by Bert Cantrell. The railroad still uses that same crossing and original stone abutments today. As the locomotive started out on the trestle, engineer Edgerton heard loud pops and cracks. The locomotive, it’s tender and 2 cars ended up in the river as the trestle collapsed. Edgerton and his fireman ended up on the bank of the river unhurt. The railroad to Brevard formally opened on October 25th, 1895. By December 1896, the railroad was already in financial trouble and a receiver was appointed by the court. In 1897 the bankrupt Hendersonville & Brevard Railway, Telegraph & Telephone Company was sold. It was acquired by J.F. Hayes and associates at auction, and the line became controlled by the Toxaway Company, builders of Lake Toxaway. The railroad was renamed the Transylvania Railroad Company after the sale. The sale included 22 miles of track, all bridges, trestles, and buildings, two locomotives, one first-class car, one combination car, three boxcars, one flatcar, and two handcars. Hayes was appointed general manager of the company and promptly directed the extension of the existing line to the town of Toxaway (renamed Rosman in 1904) in 1900. By 1903, the line was pushed an additional 11 miles to its ultimate end point at Lake Toxaway. This made a total of 42 miles from Hendersonville to Lake Toxaway. Hayes wanted to keep going to Seneca, South Carolina, but things did not work out long enough for that to happen. The stations along the line from Hendersonville west to Lake Toxaway were Hendersonville, Yale, Horse Shoe, Etowah, Blantyre, Penrose, Davidson River, Pisgah Forest, Brevard, Selica, Cherryfield, Calvert, Rosman, Quebec, and Lake Toxaway. There were 5 flag stops along the line as well. Flag stops were places where the train would stop only if someone had raised a flag to let the engineer know they were waiting to be picked up. The flag stops were West Hendersonville and Davis between Hendersonville and Etowah. Fodder Stack was between Etowah and Penrose. Galloways and Reids were flag stops between Brevard and Lake Toxaway. On May 29th, 1903, the Southern Railway purchased 249 shares of the Transylvania Railroad Company, gaining controlling interest. I have the stock certificate that bears the signature of the officers of the Transylvania Railroad and Samuel Spencer, the first president of the Southern Railway. This was the document that was used to show Southern’s purchase of controlling interest of the Transylvania Railroad. Southern Railway absorbed the Transylvania in 1906. (continued, below) |
Southern Railway Timetable September 29, 1912. Four passenger trains a day.
Transylvania & Henderson Counties, the South Carolina border escarpment. Map: T. Fetters book, Logging Railroads of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, Vol. I, 2007
Carr Lumber 1917 line into Etowah. Map: T. Fetters book, Logging Railroads of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, Vol. I, 2007
Transylvania Railroad Compay
General Offices, Brevard, North Carolina Local Schedule, Effective Sunday, October 21, 1900 Stations between Hendersonville and Toxaway Condensed Through Schedules between Spartanburg and Brevard, between Asheville and Brevard |
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(continued)
Freight and passenger traffic grew rapidly on the railroad as sawmills and businesses started and began to ship products on the line. Some of the large sawmills were; Carr Lumber Company at Pisgah Forest, Eugene Shaffer and Gloucester Lumber at Rosman, and Moltz Lumber at Lake Toxaway. The Olin/ Ecusta paper mill and Etowah Brick plants came later and were big shippers on the railroad. Farmers shipped produce and livestock as well. Rail traffic grew so fast that Southern Railway created a separate division called the Transylvania Division. It was absorbed into the Asheville Division in 1921. Because of the resort at Lake Toxaway, in the summer there were 4 passenger trains that ran every day on the line. Passenger trains 5, 6, 7 and 8 were the numbers of the daily trains. Number 5 and 7 ran from Lake Toxaway to Asheville, and 6 and 8 ran from Asheville to Lake Toxaway. Special Pullman coaches and sleepers were occasionally seen in the consists of the passenger trains. They were chartered by wealthy people who came to the resort at Lake Toxaway. About one month after the Great Flood of July 1916, the Lake Toxaway dam broke in August 1916. The Toxaway Inn closed and passenger traffic dropped drastically, never again to recover. Passenger trains were still on Southern’s timetable until 1948. By then, the single daily passenger train was a mixed train hauling freight cars and a single passenger coach. In 1920, Louis Carr of Carr Lumber Company began to purchase right of way for a new logging railroad from Etowah to his timberlands on North and South Mills River. Construction on the rail line started in 1921. The railroad joined with the Southern Railway at Etowah and ran through the present day golf course. Eubank Road near the golf course is on the old railroad grade. The locomotives were stored and serviced just off Eubank Road as well. The Carr Lumber railroad was also used to haul pipe for the construction of the Hendersonville water reservoir and treatment facilities. The railroad was finally taken up after Carr had finished logging on North and South Mills River sometime in early 1935. Business and industry continued to use the railroad until the last major shipper, Ecusta, closed in 2002. Today the rails sit unused, only to serve as a reminder of its former importance. There is talk of turning the railroad into a hiking and biking trail, but this remains to be seen. Below, end of page: Remembering Engineers John Mulkey and Avery Morgan
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The train wreck of July 26, 1895 between Horse Shoe and Etowah
Photos and text caption below from, "Hendersonville & Henderson County - A Pictorial History," Barber Bailey, 1988, p. 35. Photos included in the Baker-Barber Collection, Henderson County Library & Community Foundation. |
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"In 1895 a temporary trestle was built across the French Broad River between Horse Shoe and Etowah. Under the weight of a work engine and a heavily loaded tender, the trestle collapsed, plunging the engine into the river, but causing no serious injury to the crew. A year earlier, the Hendersonville-Brevard Railroad Company had begun service between the two towns by way of the French Broad Valley. A few years later, financial difficulties arose and the enterprise was reorganized as the Transylvania Railroad Company, with the route extending nineteen miles beyond Brevard to the Toxaway resort area. The company was eventually absorbed by the Southern Railroad [in 1906, and Norfolk Southern in 1982].
Pulled at first by a small woodburning locomotive with a shrill whistle, the train was often called the Teapot. Again, because of the terrain it covered, it earned the name Swamp Rabbit. Frequent stops were necessary to take on cordwood cut and stacked beside the tracks for the train's use, and to let passengers on and off at stations only a few miles apart. For many years a small waiting room, marked "West Hendersonville," stood northwest of the crossing on South Main Street." |
The trestle over French Broad River today, site of 1895 collapse when the 'Teapot' train was making its way down the tracks.
Passenger engine at Brevard early 1920's Southern Railway (Joe Wilde, Lake Toxaway photo, Jerry Ledford Collection)
Transylvania Railroad stock certificate. May 29, 1903
Back of June 1, 1903 Transylvania Railroad stock certificate with signatures of officers of the Transylvania Railroad and Samuel Spencer, Southern Railway president. This document shows Southern's purchase of controlling interest of the Transylvania Railroad.
Ecusta Plant, Pisgah Forest, Transylvania County
Ecusta Plant, Pisgah Forest, Transylvania County
Last steam locomotive in regular service at Brevard June 6, 1952
One of the first diesels in front of a steam engine at Brevard (Austin Art Studio / Gerald Ledford Collection)
Tariff schedule - the cost to ship freight, July 1, 1903
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Engineers John Mulkey and Avery Morgan
Two other engineers on the line that I know about were John Mulkey and Avery Morgan. John Mulkey was the engineer on the daily freight to the Ecusta paper mill in the 1980s and 1990s. Avery Morgan lived in Etowah. His wife taught at Etowah Elementary. Avery was a long time engineer with Southern, working for them beginning in 1923. He was an unrecognized hero too. During World War 2, Avery was bringing a train up Saluda Grade loaded with ammunition. Harold Hall, the last president of Southern Railway said this about trains on Saluda Grade, “ Probably you recall one when an ammunition train almost reached the top of Saluda Mountain and ran away backwards. As I recall there was only one individual who remained with the train and that was the engineer of the helper. I am not absolutely sure, but I believe his name was Avery Morgan ... He stayed with the train and did what little he could to retard the speed of the train and in any event undoubtedly kept it from going over the end of the runway track. In my book that's a real hero." Soon after Southern Railway began using diesels, Avery was running through Etowah on a diesel when he hit Bernice Roberts at a crossing. Bernice was in a Ford and did sustain injuries, though not life threatening. Avery apologized to Bernice, asking why Bernice didn't hear him blowing for the crossing. Bernice told me that he always knew the sound of Avery’s steam whistle and wasn't used to the sound of a diesel air horn! |
Engineer W. Avery Morgan, Sr., Southern Railway Company - b. 15 June 1891 d. 28 May 1981 - photo courtesy of "The Chief" 1941 Annual, Etowah High School
Engineer John Lester Mulkey, Norfolk Southern Railway - b. 16 Dec 1940 d. 4 Nov 2014 - photo courtesy of Becky Lawrence
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~ additional sources ~
Frank L. FitzSimons, "From the Banks of the Oklawaha, Vol. 1,"
Terry Ketcham, Etowah NC, member Apple Valley Model Railroad Club
"The Chief" 1941 Annual, Etowah High School
Frank L. FitzSimons, "From the Banks of the Oklawaha, Vol. 1,"
Terry Ketcham, Etowah NC, member Apple Valley Model Railroad Club
"The Chief" 1941 Annual, Etowah High School