ee eee Ce ee eee - -

196 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

boats were first put on the line between Wilmington and Charles-
ton, say in 1839, possibly a little before, the Cape Fear River
had to be lighted at the expense of the railroad company, as
navigation at night was a necessity, but Congress in 1840 appro-
priated $5,000 a year for this service and lighting the river has
since been a charge of the General Government.

Perhaps nothing more strongly marks the difference in rail-
roads between 1842 and 1895 than the fact that between Mon-
day noon, July 11, 1842, and Thursday night, July 14, 1842,
three heavy trains were lost between Wilmington and Weldon.
No one could tell what had become of them. A deluging rain

had submerged the country between the Roanoke and the Tar
Rivers, causing three breaches in the road-bed. One or more
trains got between the rivers and lost all communication with
the outer world, and one or two others had been thrown from
the track, in a like situation, by failen trees.

Nothing has been said about perils of travel in those days
of snakeheads and slow brakes, but time and space are up.

SENEX, JR.

THE PUBLIC SPIRIT OF WILMINGTON.

(The Fayetteville Observer of January, 1850.)

The public spirit of the citizens of our sister town is really
amazing; it seems to have no limit when any scheme is pre-
sented which is regarded as essential to the prosperity or honor
of the place. And the resources of the community seem to be as
abundant as the spirit with which they are employed is liberal.

Some twelve or fourteen years ago, when the population was
but three or four thousand, she undertook to make a railroad
161 miles long (the longest in the world), and a steamboat line

of equal length. For this purpose she subscribed more than
half a million dollars, we believe.

This accomplished with almost the total loss of the half mil-
lion, so far as the stock was concerned, however profitable in
other respects, one might have expected a pause at least if not a
total cessation in the march of improvements, and so it would
have been with almost any other people. But soon the Wil-
mington and Manchester Railroad was projected, and Wilming-
ton subscribed to it $180,000. ‘Then came the Deep River and
Navigation Company, and she gave $30,000 to $40,000, we
believe, to that. Next the Central Railroad, and she subscribed

Early Years 197

about $50,000, and finally, it being found necessary to raise an
additional sum for the Manchester Road, she held a meeting
on the 5th inst., at which $50,000 more, making $230,000 in
all, was subscribed to that work. (This was increased to
$100,000 by the 10th, making $280,000.)

Thus this community, even now not containing more than
eight or nine thousand inhabitants, of whom probably not more
than two-thirds are white, has contributed to public works eight
or nine hundred thousand dollars—nearly as much as is re-
quired from the State to secure the Central Railroad.

With all this prodigious expenditure, who hears of any pres-
sure of bankruptey—any interruption of her onward course
of prosperity? Truly, “There is that scattereth and yet in-
creaseth.”’

It is not for the purpose of honoring Wilmington merely
that we make this statement, but it is to encourage the friends
of internal improvement throughout the State, and, if possible,
to remove the objections of those who doubt the policy or profit-
ableness of the system.

ACTIVITIES ON THE RIVER, 1850-1860.

In the fifties there were frequently as many as ninety vessels
in the port of Wilmington loading or unloading, or waiting for
berths at anchor in the stream. The wharves were lined two
vessels deep, and those waiting for orders were moored nearly
as far down the river as the Dram Tree. It was a season of
great activity.

Also, a large coastwise business in corn in bulk was carried
on with Hyde County, and for this trade a fleet of small
schooners called “Corn Crackers” was employed. It was most
exhilarating on a fine day to see this tiny fleet, twenty to thirty
white wings, rounding the Dram Tree, led by the We’re Here,
I’m Coming, and So Am I, with every stitch of canvas spread to
the favoring breeze on the last stretch to the Custom-house
Wharf.

Direct importations of coffee from Rio de Janeiro, of sugar
and molasses from Cuba, Jamaica, and Demerara, of hoop-
iron and cotton ties from England, of salt from Turks Island

and Liverpool employed many square-rigged foreign vessels ;
and three times as many beautifully lined American schooners