We continue with Alex Christophers Pandora's Box,with more on the Southern Gold Rush,which I must have slept through in class.A narrative on the Railroads in the South,and the chapter on Payseur that has been making the rounds on the internet without accreditation to Christopher.
22
SOUTHERN GOLD RUSH
The history of the Carolina gold rush is written in red clay, where after a rain a Cherokee Indian could find a
gold nugget in the sunlight. But now the nuggets are gone and with each rain a little of the history, little of the
red clay filters down further filling the old shafts and pits of American's first gold field.
In North Carolina there were gold fields from Cherokee county east to the Piedmont and in the Piedmont from
the Virginia line to South Carolina, where gold was found in at least seventeen counties. Across the Piedmont
section of both Carolinas there are places where the ground has the appearance of an old battlefield pitted with
holes and scarred with trenches. But no armies fought here, only hordes of men armed with shovels, picks and
gold pans each fighting his personal battle with the rock and red clay.
At best, history is an imperfect account, and so we will never really know some of the fascinating details or
exactly where it was that an Indian, a Spaniard or an Englishman first plucked a gold nugget from a Carolina
streambed.
The Spaniards, the English and the French made strenuous efforts to find gold in the Carolinas. But the reports that DeSoto and Laudonniere sent back to Europe seem to have reflected more hope than actual discovery.
The Indians, knowing the white man's obsession with gold, apparently discovered the quickest way to rid
themselves of unwelcome visitors was to tell of the vast amounts of the precious metal in the mountains to the
north and in rivers to the west, rivers so rich with gold that the sand was colored yellow!
Whether white men mined gold in any quantity before the Revolutionary War will probably remain an
unanswered question. There are fleeting references like fragments of shard that seem to say some gold may
have been found near the Oliver Mine in Gaston County, the Dun Mine in Mecklenburg County, and placer
pits in Cherokee County, North Carolina, as well as the Brewer Mine in south Carolina.
The mystery deepens because other metals such as copper and iron occur in these areas, particularly at the
Brewer Mine in South Carolina. A miner named Fudge dug copper out of the Brewer Mine location before the
Revolutionary War, but if he found any gold he didn't say so.
The Indians probably dug for mica and copper. In their society copper, which could be made into cooking
utensils as well as jewelry, was much coveted.
But the first substantiated record of a gold find, which touched off the first gold rush in America, was the
discovery of a 17-pound gold nugget by a farmer's son in Cabarrus County in 1799.
Conrad Reed didn't go to church that Sunday because his father had only one horse, so he was left to baby-sit
while his mother and father rode off double to attend services. Conrad and the two younger Reed children
were playing in Little Meadow Creek, which ran across the Reed farm, when they saw a shining yellow rock
in
the shallow waters. It was about the size of a shoe and when Conrad reached to pick it up he found that it was
surprisingly heavy.
Naturally, he showed his find to his father who took it to the silversmith in Concord the following week to see
if the rock had any value. The silversmith must have had a one-metal mind, for he told John Reed the rock
was of no value. Reed took it home and for three years he used the rock as a doorstop.
Among all the superlatives which North Carolina claims, it has so far overlooked the claim to the world's most
expensive doorstop because this rock was 17 pounds of almost pure gold. It was one of the largest nuggets
ever found in the eastern United States.
The year 1800 dawning on North Carolina found it a frontier state of small farms. The War for Independence
won. most people barely eked out a living, yet in a Cabarrus farmhouse rested a golden doorstop that was to
change the course of many lives and the destinies of towns and cities. By 1800 DeSoto's expedition had been all but forgotten. References to gold were regarded as legendary and were certainly unheeded by men like
John Reed who were trying earnestly to make small farms provide for the needs of their families.
No one had ever heard of John Reed in 1800 and there was really no reason they should have. He had been
born in Germany, conscripted into the army and then loaned to the king of England to fight the rebellious
colonists. The regiment of Germans landed on Long Island and were then reassigned to the southern theater of
war where the British were preparing to launch an attack on Charleston. Some reports say Reed took part in the battle of Charleston and then deserted. Other historians say he stuck it out with the British until the battle
of Camden, in any case Reed's heart was not in the fight. His sympathies were more with the small farmer
and back country men who opposed the oppression of the king, be he German or English so, over the hill Reed went, along with some of his like-minded German friends. They headed into the less
populated portion of North Carolina to a place in the northern part of then Mecklenburg County, now a part of
Cabarrus County. There were German-speaking people to be found there and to the north was another group
of German settlers, the Moravians at Salem. John Reed had never learned to read or write English and so it
was natural that he was attracted to an area where he could understand the people and be understood himself.
After Reed had settled on land which he was able to purchase from the State of North Carolina, he married a
local girl named Sarah Kiser (Kisor) and they began to raise a family. Sarahs' sister Susannah Kiser married
Daniel Payseur in about 1814 and this made Daniel and John Reed brothers-in-laws. Just another back country
settler, another immigrant born to live and die plowing the red clay country of Piedmont Carolina except for
one event. His son had found a yellow rock and in 1802 on a trip to Fayetteville, that was recognized as pure
gold. The jeweler there purchased it for $3.50.
When he finished buying his farm supplies John saw some coffee beans. "Imported from South America,"
said the store clerk. He took them home to his wife, Sarah, and she cooked the coffee beans with pork the next
night for supper. When he tasted them Reed knew he had been swindled! But the real swindle was the
purchase of a 17-pound gold nugget for $3.50. Even though word traveled slowly in those days. Reed
eventually heard that the jeweler had sold the gold from the nugget for several thousand dollars, perhaps more.
Back to Fayetteville went an angry German. History does not record the conversation between Reed and the
jeweler but when Reed left Fayetteville for the second time he had apparently been more fairly compensated.
More important than that was John Reed's going back to Little Meadow Creek to look for other golden rocks.
An there they were! The rocks shone yellow in the morning sun beneath the surface of the swiftly running
stream. Most of them were small but he could have filled a quart jar with them in half an hour. He saw in the
sunlight on his own farm what Hernando DeSoto had seen only in his dreams.
At that moment, John Reed, small farmer, German immigrant, former British private, was the richest man in
North Carolina!
Not only in the stream, but in the gravel beside it, were gold nuggets weighing up to 28 pounds. Although
Reed did not know it at the time, the very hills on his farm carried quartz veins filled with gold ore. Until this
time, in Europe, any gold discovered belonged to the king. In fact gold found by expeditions of Spaniards or
Frenchmen was automatically the property of their kings. Thus, there had never been a gold rush. What sense
was there in rushing in to get something the king's men would appropriate?
But on this morning in 1802 John Reed was an American and when he looked at the gold, it was the first time
a man knew that the golden riches he had found belonged not to the king, as decreed in European countries,
but to him. America's gold rush had begun!
Reed associated himself with partners and they began to pan the steam gravel with the help of slaves. Meadow
Creek and the surface diggings near the stream were probably the richest "placer" fields in North Carolina. In
1803 a nugget weighing twenty-eight pounds was found just under the surface of the ground by a gray headed
old slave named Peter. At that time that was the largest gold nugget found in the united states.
The early mining was of the "placer" or "deposit" type. The miners never dug deep holes but worked the rich
gravel of stream beds and adjacent areas. In the east this was called "deposit" or "branch" mining while in the
west the term "placer" was used. It was not for several decades that shafts were sunk and the miners went
underground.
Elias Boudinot. Director of the United States Mint, writing to President Thomas Jefferson in 1805, said that
"very considerable" quantities of gold had been brought to the mint from the North Carolina gold fields since
the first "virgin gold" had been deposited at the mint in 1804.
The first person of national fame to reach the gold area of North Carolina was probably William Thornton.
M.D., designer, architect and friend of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Thornton had won the
competition to design the nation's capital.
Thornton arrived in Concord. North Carolina in 1806. just four years after Reed's discovery of gold in
Meadow Creek. He found the local inhabitants knowledgeable in matters of gold ore and discovered
increasing mining activities. After examining the diggings and gold nuggets and talking with prospectors he
went back to Washington to form the North Carolina Gold Mine company.
On the board of directors were Thomas Tudor Tucker. Treasurer of the United States, and John P. Van Ness,
President of the Bank of the United States. Thornton traveled in important circles but he was ahead of his
time. It would be several decades before large mining companies would really begin to move into Carolina.
However. Thornton's foresight was so extraordinary that he was the first to realize that the real wealth of gold
was in the lodes under the ground rather than the placer diggings by the streams.
Before he could follow up his gold mine development (he wanted the North Carolina State Legislature to
charter the company), he was swept up by other duties. George Washington asked for his help in supervising
construction of buildings in the capital and President Jefferson appointed him to head the new patent office.
When the British burned Washington, Thornton saved the patent records from the holocaust, comparing their
destruction to the burning of the library in Alexandria.
Unfortunately, he never found time to further pursue his interest in gold mining, but back in North Carolina
along the streams of the Piedmont other men were panning, planning and dreaming.
From 1804 to 1828 all domestic gold coined by the united states mint came from North Carolina. Thousands
of foreigners. Welsh, Cornish, German, Austrian, Polish and Italian poured into the Piedmont area of the state,
each one dreaming of becoming another John Reed. Northern Carolina was becoming known as the "Golden
State."
In 1828 Sam Martin, tired and broke, passed through Rutherfordton on his way north up Cane Creek Road.
Martin had left his native Connecticut years before to hunt gold in South and Central America. He never
found much. Stopping at Brindletown, he spent the night with a shoemaker and his family. That night Martin's
thoughts may have been on the frustrating years of failure. But the next morning in the sunlight he saw flecks
of gold in the clay between the logs of the shoemaker's home. Borrowing a dishpan from the shoemaker's
wife, he panned more gold from the nearby stream than he had seen in all his travels.
This is one of several legends about the discovery of gold at Brindletown. The Burke County gold rush was off and running. Brindletown became a bustling gold boom town and there were others like Bissell,
Brackettown, Huntsville and Vein Mountain. Sam Martin and the Shoemaker became partners. Martin taught
Anderson how to pan for gold and in return for the knowledge, the Shoemaker provided the land containing
the gold.
Sam Martin was one of those elusive men who appear only for a moment on the pages of history books. He
stayed a brief six months in Brindletown but it was long enough. One day Sam Martin loaded saddlebags
heavy with gold, climbed into a handsome carriage with black hat atop his head, clothes no longer patched but
tailored of the finest broadcloth and taking reins in hand rode out of Brindletown up the Morganton turnpike
and make his historical exit. Brindletown flourished and then it, too, disappeared even from the maps.
The Haile Mine was to South Carolina what Gold Hill was to North Carolina, the state's greatest gold producing area. The gold-bearing ore extended up the hillsides and the mining of this ore led to the discovery of the veins or lodes. For twenty years the lodes were mined by leasers, each leasehold being an area fifty feet square. The deepest of the holes at this time was about twenty-five feet.
The deepest of the holes at this time was about twenty-five feet. Ore was separated in rockers and in 1837 a five stamp mill was erected. Benjamin Haile would have been pleased to learn that his discovery led to the production of over six and a half million dollars in gold. This mine was the most profitable and consistent producer in the state.
Burke County was not the only place gold was discovered in 1828. Haile washed the mud and gravel out of his
pan with infinite patience until there was nothing left but sand and fine gravel swishing around the edge. And
then he saw small gold flecks mixed with the sand! His discovery was to produce one of the great gold mines
of eastern America. The following year, 1829, the first shipment of gold from Benjamin Haile's land reached
the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. This was the first domestic gold to be sent from South Carolina.
Gold was discovered in 1828 at the Brewer property over the line in Chesterfield County, but these were not
the only two discoveries in South Carolina. The miners in North Carolina followed the gold-bearing streams
of the South Mountain area into Cherokee, Spartanburg and York counties as well. The miners went up and
down the stream of the Piedmont area with the speed of boll weevils crossing a cotton field, and multiplying
just as fast. In the Smyrna area of York County and part of adjoining Cherokee County there were at least fifty
different places where miners were digging and prospecting.
At the Brewer Mine in Chesterfield County, placer deposits were distributed for nearly a mile along the ridge
between Little Fork Creek and Lynch's River. By 1843 as many as 200 miners in groups of three to six were
mining leases twelve feet square. Some of the "pay dirt" must have been extremely rich because even the
miners in the California gold rush would have considered this a very small claim.
At one time, the Brewer Mine was operated by the DeSoto Mining Company, Incorporated, an apt name and
one that would have pleased Hernando DeSoto who was also looking for gold at one time in South Carolina.
The Civil War played havoc with the gold mines. Some mines like the Haile were converted to mining copper
by Confederate authorities and others were abandoned for lack of manpower. Sherman made a special point of
sending a detachment of troops to burn and destroy the buildings and equipment at the Haile Mine on his
march through South Carolina.
Before the War there were twenty-one working mines in Chesterfield and Lancaster counties, nineteen mines
in operation in Spartanburg. Union and York counties, while Greenville and Pickens counties had eight
working placer mines. Abbeville and Edgefield counties had ten working mines. This made a total of fiftyeight operating mines before energies and manpower were devoted to the Confederate cause.
During the Reconstruction period total gold production in South Carolina remained less than ten thousand
dollars a year, a fraction of what it had been before the war.
It was as if the gold had gone with the wind that blew across South Carolina after Sherman's march.
The gold rush started by a German farmer attracted another German who was to become perhaps the most
famous name attached to the Carolina gold Rush. He was Christopher Bechtler, Sr.
Bechtler skilled hands minted the first gold dollar ever made in America. Born in Pforzheim, Germany in
1782, he was a skilled gunsmith with a knowledge of metallurgy, perhaps because the area in which he lived
in
Germany was a gold mining region. By the 1820's there was an abundance of skilled artisans in his area and
reports of rich gold fields in North Carolina had reached Europe. Unlike Reed, this second German whose
name would always be associated with the Carolina gold Rush, came to America willingly and made his way
to Rutherfordton. confident his knowledge of metallurgy was needed in the booming mining state of North
Carolina.
Shortly after Christopher Bechtlers' arrival in the area, altho the facts are not known precisely whether he really
just happened up in Rutherfordton or if he was known by Daniel Payseur. but at any rate the two became
acquainted and according to the old family record Bechtler went to work for the family minting gold coins.
Per this family's way of doing business Bechtler was the front man. not the owner. Many of the mines in this
area and other part of the Carolinas were owned by the Payseur family such as Kings Mountain Gold Mining
Company and many others but they were always in the name of someone else not the real owner of the land.
This chapter is to basically give you an idea of the enormous wealth in the south and another good reason why
it was so important in later years for the government to seize control of the lands and was part of the cause of
the Civil War.
Money was in scant supply. The nearest mint was in Philadelphia, the roads were bad and the highwaymen
were good. It was safer to ship gold to Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, and from there to England.
The Bechtlers settled on a knoll some three and a half miles north of Rutherfordton on what is today Highway
221 and Christopher Bechtler prepared the dies from which he could coin two denominations-fifty and five
dollar gold pieces. It is strange that there were no laws then against the private coining of gold although there
were laws regulating the coining of copper. Bechtler opened his shop in Rutherfordton in 1831 directly
opposite William Twitty's Tavern, according to advertisements in the local paper. The small ads which
Bechtler ran in the paper along with word of mouth references exchanged most likely at the tavern convinced
the local miners that Bechtler was not only skilled but honest.
In 1832, because of the demand, he added a one-dollar gold piece to the other two coins and thus it happened
that it was not the United States Mint but a German immigrant from Rutherfordton who made America's first
gold dollar.
Dragging its golden feathers a bit, the United States Mint did not begin coining gold dollars until 1849. Bechtler was apparently more in touch with the needs of miners and shopkeepers. Until Bechtler's
dollar commonly called a "piece of eight" which was the standard monetary unit throughout the entire colonial
period. Even after the Revolutionary War ended, the Spanish dollar and its fractional parts continued to
circulate in the country with official sanction until 1857. A quarter of a dollar thus became known as "two
bits," continuing the old Spanish term.
It is incredible but in the little shop in Rutherfordton during the first nine years that Bechtler operated it,
Christopher Bechtler's books show that from January 1831 to February of 1840 he coined $2,241,850.50 in
gold coins. When the Bechtler coins reached the U.S. Mint officials there immediately tested them and to their
surprise found the coins to be absolutely correct in gold content. Some people thought Bechtler was putting an
extra pinch or two of gold in his coins to insure their acceptance. Actually, the reason some Bechtler coins
were heavier than others was that some of them contained foreign metals and Bechtler had enough skill to
compensate for this by adding the extra weight of gold so the measure of gold would be accurate.
In the 1830's the American monetary system was in a chaotic state, caused in part by President Andrew
Jackson's dispute with the United States bank, whose autonomy he resented. The U.S. Mint at Philadelphia
had produced silver dollars as early as 1794 and gold ten dollar coins as early as 1795. But many of these had
been melted down for their metal content which was higher than the European coins circulating in this
country.
The silver half-dollars were being hoarded by state and private banks to back their own paper money. Banks
municipalities and even merchants issued paper money and tokens but through the "hard times" the Bechtler
gold pieces were a bright spot. Merchants in the Southeast gladly accepted them.
Christopher Bechtler's son. August, carried on the family tradition, identifying his coins with the initial "A".
All of the Bechtler coins are extremely rare and prized by collectors.
Finally, in 1835. because of the increasing pressure of southern congressmen. Congress passed an act
establishing branch mints in Charlotte. Dahlonega, Georgia and New Orleans. Louisiana.
The establishment of these government mints were to accommodate the large amounts of gold being mined all
over the south that you just won't hear very much about. There were not only the large discoveries of gold in
the Carolinas' but also in the area of Dahlonega, Georgia and on down into the area of Heflin, Alabama. The
engineer that researched the gold deposits for the Payseurs found what he called the largest and riches gold
deposit that had ever been located in that area of Alabama and then he disappeared without a trace, his name was Hudson. Many other gold deposits were mined in this general area that is why the mint was put in New
Orleans, Louisiana.
The really rich gold mines were kept secret and only a few trusted people were allowed to work at them and in
those days usually there were vast cotton fields all around the gold mine and in order to outsmart the robbers
in
the south at that time that were hot on the trail of gold, the gold was packed inside large bales of cotton and
shipped in plain view of everyone on the railroads which conveniently went right through the cotton fields and close to the gold mines. And then on to a cotton mill close to the mint for off-loading.
Gold Hill Mining Company
No one can really talk long about the Carolina Gold rush before mentioning Gold Hill. The very name sounds
like that of a western mining camp.
In March of 1843 eastern Rowan County began to boom, particularly the area surrounding the mine, and a
name had to be selected for the post office. One cold, windy night miners and laborers crowded inside a small
store to deliberate and when Colonel Barnhardt suggested "Gold Hill" region was made in 1823 by Dennis
Olmstead who had just been appointed state geologist. The region was located north of the Reed Mine just
over the line in Rowan County.
Because Gold Hill came along later and most of the gold was not placer or streamed gold but in veins deep
under the ground, the Gold Hill mines were usually incorporated and operated by a company rather than by
individuals or small groups of miners in partnership.
What was happening at Gold Hill was typical of the new direction gold mining was to take. Before the Civil
War Gold Hill had been developed and operated but not owned by Colonel Barnhardt who had made it into
the most famous gold-producing area in the state. The war came and gold mining virtually ceased. To the
north of Gold Hill and not far from Lexington was Silver Hill and it was there that silver and lead were mined.
From 1861 to 1865 lead was in such great demand for bullets that the miners were exempted from military
service.
Soon the comment became general. "The Rebs are killing Yankees with silver bullets!" This was partially
true for the lead and silver occurred together and there was no time to extract the silver.
About 1880, a distinguished gentleman arrived from Wall Street in New York, his name was George Newman.
At about the same time from New Jersey came another man named Thomas A. Edison, both men wanted gold
Hill, but for different reasons. Edison, who lived in a rooming house in Charlotte for several months while
making an attempt to buy the Gold Hill holdings, thought he could devise a flotation method using electricity
to recover gold as a by-product while also separating the copper and silver. He set up a small laboratory in the
basement of the old Charlotte Mint where he conducted his experiments.
George Newman was particularly interested in the Gold Hill area because of the copper (which was later
mined there as well as gold).
Newman purchased as a trustee for the Payseurs the Gold Hill interest and it was incorporated as " The Gold
Hill Consolidated Company" with its offices at 30 Broad Street which if you start checking was the offices
that
the Trustees for Payseur operated out of and also the railroads. There was much activity at Gold Hill about the
turn of the century as George imported special trainloads of well-heeled investors from New York to look over
the fabulous properties of L. C. Payseurs*.
Gold Mine Use in later Years
One of the elements commonly found in old gold mines is Uranium. This, of course is required for the production of atomic energy.
At Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the Center for the American Museum of Atomic Energy, and what is believed to
be the world headquarters of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
The federal highway from the gold fields of Dallas, North Carolina, dead ends inside Oak Ridge Tenn, in the
Federal Facility, where the Center for the American Museum of Atomic Energy now stands.
The Manhattan Project which built the first two atomic bombs. "Fat Man" and "Little Boy", was directed by
Major General Leslie R. Groves, from both Oak Ridge Tennessee, and Los Alamos. New Mexico (where the
design and the building of the bombs took place between 1943 and 1945 under the leadership of Dr. J. Robert
Oppenheimer). The Oak Ridge, Tennessee uranium processing facilities supplied the uranium. Guess where
the Uranium came from?
The processing facilities have since been shut down and the building, for want of a better use, has been turned
into the American Museum of Atomic Energy, in order to perpetuate the land title.
On the original Payseur Lands, on the banks of the Catawba River, near Lincolnton, North Carolina, now sit
two nuclear power plants, run by Duke Power Company, of Charlotte, North Carolina. McGuire 1&2, at Cowans Ford Dam, which became operational in September, 1981, and May of 1983 respectively.
Incidentally, both of them utilize the "Pressure Water Reactor" system of generation, and all the reactor and
generation equipment was supplied by Westinghouse. Of course, these facilities arc right next to the old gold
mines in the region.
Duke Power Company is the tenant on these lands, of Lancaster and Chester Railway Company and the
Lancaster Cotton Mills.
According to the Springs family, the Lancaster and Chester Railway Company, letter dated December 4, 1939,
specifies "Mr. Payseur held Certificate Number I...", this letter signed by A.P. Mc Lure. Vice President and
General Manager of Lancaster Railway Company.
The same family and company in a letter dated October 6. 1981, says "for the record. L.C. Payseur did not
own Certificate number 1 of this corporation" this signed by R. Carl Hubbard. Secretary and general counsel.
Carl Hubbard is the attorney and Secretary of the one time Bank of Lancaster, and numerous other entities for
which the Springs family managed for L.C. Payseur and others.
In 1909, The Southern Power Company of New Jersey leased L.C. Payseur land and constructed the original
feed lines for electric power for North and South Carolina. These power feed lines are sub-leased to Duke
Power Company. According to Duke Power Company, these lines are leased by Duke Power Company from
the Lancaster Cotton Mills. The Supreme Court of South Carolina, September 22, 1925, case number 11835,
Lancaster Cotton Mills v. South Carolina Tax Commission Et al.
"The petition of the Lancaster Cotton Mills, as made on behalf of itself and Fort Mill Manufacturing
Company and Lancaster Light and Power Company, all of which are affiliated, shows: that the returns made
under the requirement of Acts of Congress under the Regulations of the Treasury Department were made by it
in its behalf and in behalf of the other companies mentioned and are consolidated returns. That, since the year 1917, income tax returns have been mad by it to the Treasury Department of the federal government on a
fiscal year basis; this fiscal year commencing on the first day of July, and ending on the third day of June of
each year, and that it continuously made such returns up to and including the fiscal year 1923-24, alleging that
it has a right to make such...". They are all one and the same.
The lease referenced by Duke Power Company specifies "Lancaster and Chester Railway Company to the
Springs Cotton Mills, dated "This tenth day of June, 1940:, executed by Lancaster and Chester Railway
Company, by Elliott Springs. President.
Conclusion: The power lines leased to Southern Power Company of New Jersey, by L.C. Payseur. later
appeared, after L.C. Payseur's death, in the name of the Lancaster and Chester Railway Company, being
leased
to (the Springs Cotton Mills, (Formerly Lancaster Cotton Mills through the name change by Elliott Springs)
and to Duke Power Company.
23
THE RAILROADS BUILDING AN EMPIRE
Efficient and effective means of transportation and communication across the whole country are vital to any
government, especially in times of War. It had already been proven by the Romans in the European conquests
of 100-50 B. C. that if you could get your troops into a given battle arena faster than the other guy, you
would win; also, if you could let your generals who were fighting a particular battle be aware of what was
happening around them, and in turn allow them to let you know what was happening in their immediate
vicinity- then you could centralize the whole war effort and control it more effectively. Intelligence gathering
as to what the enemy was doing, or even as to who the enemy was in the first place could not take place
without communications. By the time of the War of 1812 with the British, the speed of transportation and
communications facilities was such that Major General Andrew Jackson, (who was to become President
Andrew Jackson in 1828), defeated the British in a battle on January 8th, in New Orleans, two weeks after a
peace treaty had been signed with the British.
At sea the fastest ships could, at best, offer average speeds of 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Over land the quickest means of communication was by horseback, which, by operating strings of relay stations, an average speed could possibly be accomplished of 20 m.p.h. A more leisurely pace, around an average of 10 m.p.h.. was afforded by coach, which also, of course was a very expensive business, and the best speed offered by either wagons or canal barges was less than 5 m.p.h..
At sea the fastest ships could, at best, offer average speeds of 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Over land the quickest means of communication was by horseback, which, by operating strings of relay stations, an average speed could possibly be accomplished of 20 m.p.h. A more leisurely pace, around an average of 10 m.p.h.. was afforded by coach, which also, of course was a very expensive business, and the best speed offered by either wagons or canal barges was less than 5 m.p.h..
When traveling upon or through rough terrain, and especially where a rough path had been established, and
inclement weather would cause the "road to become deeply rutted, muddy, and in a short while, virtually
impassable, even on horseback. There was a way to overcome this problem which had been developed in
Europe, but it required a small feat of engineering. Cut down some of the surrounding trees and fashion the
trunks in such a way that they have one flat side. Lay a series of these tree trunks across the "road" flat side up, then put more planks lengthwise across those tree trunks (or "cross-ties") running in the same direction as
the "road". Make the distance between the planks about the same as the distance between the wheels of a
wagon or coach, and, as a last step, place two planks upright along the sides of the lengthwise planks to stop
the wheels of the coach from being drawn off the original lengthwise plank. This method of building wooden
roads was so effective, it was discovered that if you made the cross-ties big enough, and did not load the
carriage to much, the "road" could even be built across swampland, this new "Technology" was quickly
accepted and adopted and became known as "Plank Roads".
Of course, after a few wagons had used the plank roads, the upright and lengthwise planks would wear out, but trees were plentiful, and many people were happily employed in maintaining the road. The next logical step was obvious: in order to minimize the amount of wear on the road, and consequently minimize the maintenance expenses, replace the planks with steel rails, and put steel wheels on the wagons. Thus was born the "railroad".
In 1804, in England, a new means other than horses of drawing the coaches along this "railroad" had been
invented by Richard Trevethick; a simple steam engine. Colonel John Stevens, built the first American steam
engine in 1825.
The possibilities for great improvement of the communications and transportation facilities in the United States, in utilizing this new railroad technology, from both the military and civilian standpoint, was not lost on who should get to build this new system? Very few people had the expertise, or ability, or financial capability to do it.
Why not allow those who had the direct experience in the area of transportation and communications develop the system? Besides, it was virtually impossible to get into the communications business without going through those who were already "there".
The rules (not laws) were fashioned and adopted:
(a). To get into the business of communications and transportation all you had to be was a subsidiary or division of the Steamship Company. (Note: only one!)
(b). To divert or dam a river or build a canal you had to be a canal company, to be such you had to be a subsidiary or division of a steamship company as in rule (a).
(c). To be a railroad company you had to be a division of or a subsidiary of a canal company (as in rule (b)).
According to the old records that were found the first railroad operated in this country was about 1826 and its
name was the Best Friend of Charleston which was built by the West Point Foundry for the Charleston and
Hamburg Railroad, then under construction by the owners of the South Carolina Canal and Railway Company.
After breaking a wheel on its first run. the Best Friend performed rather better on its second attempt, reaching 20 mph with a train carrying 40 of the company's employees.
By 1828 the Rutherford Railroad Construction Company was formed for the purpose of laying 2800 miles of track covering an area from the interior states to the east coast and along the east coast to Charleston South Carolina. Public awareness started bringing attention to the Rutherfordton. North Carolina, where the company was based, and the corporate records are hidden, so they renamed the company the Georgia Pacific Railroad Construction Company, which went on to build all the railroads in the United States.
Congress had approved a plan to give land to the railroad companies. The land was given in various proportions contingent upon their constructing a predetermined distance of track age (usually 20 miles) within a specified time frame. Also contingent upon the terrain encountered, whereas greater parcels were granted in blighted areas than in thickly wooded areas because the engines burned wood for fuel, and the rails, cross-ties and coaches were made of wood.
On December 25 the Best Friend inaugurated the first regular steam hauled service in America on the Charleston and Hamburg's first six miles of track. The owners were proud of this accomplishment of engineering and patents in the new frontier called America because they had only been in this country a short time and the family name was Payseur.
A further rule (later to become law) was adopted to accommodate the different type of companies, and this rule, simply stated, was that should a railroad begin in one place, say Washington, go to a canal or river, or ocean, there to transfer (passengers and/or freight) to a barge or riverboat or steamship, and continue along the water ways, be they canal or river or ocean, (Atlantic or Pacific) to another point, then re-embark upon the railroad, then Congress would consider that to be a continuous railroad. If the railroad company is the same as canal company definitely be construed to be continuous!
On February 28, 1827, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was chartered in Maryland and was under the same ownership as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, which had begun work on its canal the same year, namely the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was in turn owned by Whitney Steamships, (obviously, a Steamship Company). The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, which now forms a part of the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern Railway System (under the colloquial name of "The Chessie System") was also formed shortly thereafter as a division of the canal company of the same name.
Upon his inauguration into the White House in 1828, Andrew Jackson fulfilled a promise he had made earlier to a particular group of friends, associates and advisors (who were ultimately to be known as his "Kitchen Cabinet"). These friends, associates and advisors had already proved themselves to be capable in the areas of finance and transportation, by virtue of the fact that they were already the owners of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and Jackson granted them the monopoly for the whole of the United States in two major business areas, the first of which was Railroads, the second of which sprang out of the railroads which became known as "Banking". The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company began construction on its 380 mile railroad on July 4, 1828.
Shortly thereafter, the steam engine was further improved in 1829 by successful railroad engine, "The
Rocket",
and Mr. Stevenson was commissioned to build the first steam engine to arrive in the United States, "The
America", which arrived in New York in January, 1829 and was duly delivered to the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company, for use on their new railroad along their canal tow path from Rondout. New York, via the Ohio River to the Carbondale (Coal) Mines in the southern tip of Illinois, between the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, but it was not the first locomotive, the "Stourbridge Lion".
The "Stourbridge Lion" was one of three engines, built by the English company of Foster, Rastrick, which
were delivered to Rondout. The other two the "Hudson" and "Delaware" were destroyed by fire in their sheds,
leaving the "Lion", after extensive testing in the West Point Foundry, to be shipped to Honesdale. On August
8, 1829, the Stourbridge Lion ran on a three mile length of wooden plank road, returning to its starting point,
thereby claiming the title of first to run. This ill-fated engine, after a series of mishaps, was eventually
relegated to the lowly position of static boiler in the Carbondale foundry house..
At this stage it is important that two important points are brought to the reader's attention. First, the roads initially were plank roads, not railroads. It was some time afterwards that the railroad rails as we know them today were developed, and then only in England. Even as late as the Civil War, railroad companies were busily importing iron rails from England, and those rails already laid down by that time were being as swiftly dug up and re-smelted for weapons and gunboats. Secondly, the railroad companies, generally speaking, were not the ones who built the plank roads, railroad construction companies specialized in the building, and usually built the roads for the companies, while the companies ran the roads after they were built.
Boom Time
The fact that the plank and railroads were the largest contributor to the development of The United States of America can hardly be disputed. No country went so far so fast. This is clearly shown by the fact that by the end of 1828, six short months after the Stourbridge Lion ran, there were more than two thousand eight hundred miles of plank roads and railroads laid in the eastern U.S.
By far the largest contribution to this and subsequent "Boom and progress" came from Congress itself. The plank road companies, and the builders of the plank roads, managed to convince Congress that, in order to build and run the roads, land was needed, and in large quantities.
The Plank Road Companies could not be expected to run their roads over someone else's land, it had to be their own. or they could obviously not guarantee their ability to keep the lines open; the "landlord" might throw them off his land. Congress, recognizing the importance of the railroads, granted the companies all the land they needed, from one hundred to two hundred feet each side of the center line of the road bed, wherever the road went. The company got to decide where they wanted to go. Every time twenty miles of plank road was completed, Congress gave over that twenty mile strip to the company. Where the Company crossed land which had already been settled, and thereby already belonged to someone, they had the ability to buy it from the owner, or they could buy the right of way over the land. The road companies seldom exercised their ability to buy a right of way over somebody's land in the beginning, because Congress also gave them the power to condemn the land and force the owner, legally, to sell it to the railroad.
Next the companies needed timber for cross-ties and planks in order to build the road, as well as maintain it thereafter. They also needed wood for fueling the engines. The companies would therefore need a great deal of timber, so. in order to make sure the railroad companies had all the wood they needed to build both the plank road and fuel the engines. Congress granted the Railroad Companies every other odd numbered square mile each side of the center line of the road bed for various widths, depending on how miles each side of the center line of the road bed, and again, the land was granted upon completion of each twenty mile strip of plank road.
In addition to being granted the land, the companies also had the power to buy the sections (square miles) which had not been granted to them by Congress. The land was granted to the companies in widths between three and forty miles each side of the center line of the road bed.
In order to comprehend the amount of land granted to the companies for the construction of the plank and railroads, and assuming the land was to be granted out to ten miles on each side of the center line of the railroad bed, to a total area of four hundred square miles (20x20) with the odd numbered sections represented by " ". Assuming the lines were built in North/South Directions, then for every twenty miles of road bed would be as follows: constructed, the odd numbered sections of land given to the company (represented in the diagram by " ")
NORTH/SOUTH LINE
But that is only forty (40) square miles; there are still a lot of square miles of land for the taking. If another railroad was built to make a cross-roads, then every other odd numbered section (square mile) again could be captured:
NORTH/SOUTH AND EAST/WEST
Another 35 square miles, total now is 75 square miles; but that is definitely doing things the hard (and expensive) way, it takes two steps, one vertical, (north/south) run, and one horizontal (east/west) run, amounting to 40 miles of track age. The same thing can be achieved with one 28 mile line run diagonally, South West to North East, as follows:
DIAGONAL LINE NUMBER 1
and if you now run another line across the same area from North West to South East.....
DIAGONAL LINES I AND 2
The next step for the railroads, in the situation where Congress was granting land ten miles each side of the railroad, was to build parallel railroad lines ten miles apart and you then (you, the railroad company) control every square mile of land wherever your tracks go. If the grants were for fifteen miles each side of the line, then build lines fifteen miles apart, and so on.
From the start of the railroads in 1828, to the start of the Civil War in 1861, every State in the Union east of the Mississippi, and the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota on the western side of the Mississippi all contained extensive railroad system. The grants of land to the railroad companies, and therefore, for the most part, to the railroad construction companies, were extensive, with the Northern (Union) States receiving the following certification as to the amounts of land they were to receive by June 30, in the year 1868:
State Acres
Illinois........................................ 2,595,053
Missouri ................................... 1,715,434
Iowa ......................................... 2,770,700
Michigan....................................2,715,399 Wisconsin..................................1,528,480
Minnesota .................................2,315,292
Total Acreage 13,640,358
or, 21,314 square miles, which excludes the land allocation for the Union States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky; and the following Southern States received allocations of acreage for:
State Acres
Alabama...................................2,288,134
Mississippi ................................. 908.680
Louisiana ................................ 1.072,404
Arkansas ................................. 2,512,359
Florida ..................................... 1,760,467
Total Acreage ...........................8,542,044 182
or, 13.347 square miles, which figure excludes those lands granted to the Southern States of Virginia. Tennessee. North Carolina. South Carolina, Texas and Georgia.
The land granted to the individual States was, of course, turned over by those States to the respective Railroads, which, as mentioned earlier, had previously mortgaged those lands to Railroad Construction Companies.
On page 308 is a map which shows the total amount of land which was granted by Congress to the various
States for transfer to the railroad companies. It is interesting to note that the railway grants up to 1871 are
shown, not thereafter, and that the area as shown in black represent 131 million acres of land. The land
granted to Michigan (2,715, 399 acres) is not shown; Texas, where a couple of railways eventually claimed
some small portion of its land is not shown, and the remaining eastern States, where the saturation of railways
(would claim a large amount of land (probably about one third), is also not shown. Notwithstanding these shortfalls, the total amount shown, including Michigan, amounts to more than 208.930 square miles!
Of course, when you owned the land, you also owned everything else in, on. and under it, this included, coal, minerals, ores, copper, gold etc.. It was the race to get all this "free land" that sparked the great building boom, the so-called "American Industrial Revolution" which was to end with the Civil War.
Hundreds of small privately organized companies sprang up to take advantage of this new means of transportation. Millions of dollars were won and lost in the gambling in stocks, bonds and shares of these companies in their individual efforts to cash in on the new opportunities afforded by the railroads.
Almost every railroad company which was formed before the American Civil War was created by an Act of the Congress of the particular State in which it was to run, and the Act usually created the Railroad Company as a Body Politic and Corporate, under the laws of that particular state.
Needless to say. the respective Congress offered the privilege of ownership of these railroad companies only to those businessmen who were men of substance, integrity, means and influence in their respective State congresses. The ownership of any railroad was considered to be the ultimate responsibility, and one which could not be taken lightly.
After incorporation, the new Railroad Company, exchanged preferred shares for assets transferred to it from its primary stockholders and owners, and the company sold its common stock to raise capital to operate. Thus it became a mark of importance as to which type of stock certificate you owned. If it was a certificate for preferred stock, it denoted that you were one of the owners. If you held certificate number one (1) you were the primary and most important owner.
Although it is trumpeted throughout the history books that the railroad companies were granted all this land, such a report is. for the most part, inaccurate. True, the land was granted to the States, for those States to turn over the same land to the railroad companies as promised. It was granted to the proper railroad company each time twenty miles of railroad had been constructed, but the railroad construction companies got it; not the railroad companies.
THE RAILROAD
CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES
No railroad company could even hope to raise either enough capital, or enough expertise to build the railroad lines itself; building the lines required vast resources in men and materials, so the newly formed railroad company would contract for the help of one of the very few railroad construction companies then in existence.
Generally speaking, the newly formed railroad company would not have enough money to pay its construction company, but it would be getting the land from Congress when the line was built, so the Company had no choice but to mortgage the land it had been promised from Congress to its construction company, which then built the railroad lines. Once the line was built, title to the land was retained by the Trustee of the mortgage, the railroad company would then sell its common shares to the general public, and use that money to buy its rolling stock, engines, carriages, flat cars, etc... and only then could it begin to run the railroad. After a while it might make some money, from which it would pay off the mortgage and eventually get title back to the land.
If, for whatever reason, the new Railroad Company failed to pay off its mortgage, the construction company would claim the land by default.
It is usual in business to expect the "lag time" before the company begins to operate at a profit, and this time had to be taken into account and allowed for by the construction companies.
With just a few railroad construction companies in existence, the competition was fierce, and the money from the railroad companies, initially, came in very slowly. The workers on the huge railroad construction gangs were paid in gold and silver coins; not paper money, so only the construction companies with vast resources to support them (usually gold and silver mines) survived the early years.
The construction of the railroads continued at a furious pace, with almost all the companies mortgaging their future land holdings to the construction companies, with the end result that, by 1860, almost every Railroad Company in existence held its land under mortgage to the railroad construction companies.
By virtue of those economics, and the circumstances surrounding them, and the simple fact that
(a), its owners also owned the biggest share of the most productive gold mines east of the Mississippi;
(b), the same family also owned the steel rolling mills at. North Carolina, which made the rails and other steel products for the railroad construction companies and the railroad companies
(c), the same family also owned the majority of the land in which coal, for fueling the steel mills, was found
(d). the iron ore for the same steel mills also came from family land, and, last but not least
(f), that all these facilities and resources had direct rail links with just about every railroad in existence; by 1861 the Rutherfordton Railroad Construction Company of Rutherfordton. North Carolina, emerged as the predominant and most important builder of the railroads.
RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT
The new technology of railroads sparked the biggest development boom the 1800's had ever seen. The Railroads created towns and communities in places otherwise undreamed of.
The developmental process was swift, and usually adopted the same pattern; The railroad company having built a stretch of track, in some cases several hundred miles in length, needed water for the steam engines, so, at various places along its track, the railroad company drilled or dug one or more wells, and erected a water tower, at which the train would thereafter stop and fill up with water.
A few more facilities than the water tower were needed for the discerning traveler, so in a relatively short time, around each water tower, where the train stopped, a small community sprang up.
First, usually, the company upon the realization of moderate profits, and should the passengers wish to alight from the train, built a platform and station house. The passengers also needed to eat, so a restaurant arrived, usually run by the railroad company itself, or by a contractor or Trustee, and supplied by the local farmers and commodity producers; eventually the local producers realized they could use the railroad to send their products to market further away, where they could sell it for more money, so stockyards, a blacksmith, a livery stable and other ancillary businesses sprang up.
The railroad company would "import" other goods, usually selling them to the locals through its own general store, and eventually a whole town appeared around the water tower. Of course the water tower also supplied this new town with water, thus becoming the water company.
Travelers needed to rest and have somewhere to conduct their business, and they also needed some way to transact their financial business, so the railroad company charters were written to contain the ability for the company to erect hotel facilities and, most importantly, "depository institutions", better known today as banks.
On April 12th, 1861, Fort Sumter in South Carolina came under attack, heralding the beginning of the Civil War, and with that event the development of the railroad system of the United States came to an abrupt halt. Included in this chapter are maps that show the early railroads which were in existence at that time.
The
railroad most important for our purposes from this time, the Wilmington Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad,
which extends northward from Wilmington, North Carolina, to the crossroads at Goldsboro, then easterly to
Raleigh, then onwards around the top of the crescent to Charlotte, then on eastwards into Rutherford County.
The predominance, by two to one, of northern railroads over southern on
the verge of the Civil War is made clear above. Except mainly for the
Erie and its connections, the North was standard gauge or close to it
(four feet nine or ten), the South below Richmond mainly five feet.
There were no direct rail routes between them, by ferries across
the Ohio or the Potomac.
Daniel married a woman by the name of
Susannah Riser or (Kisor) around the
year of 1814 approximately, (all
marriages of this family's bloodline are
through all issue of the families to this
date, as they say, "we keep the marriage
in the family"). Susannah was the sister
to one Sarah Riser which married a
German by the name of John Reed who
owned the Reed Gold Mine and started
the gold rush fever in the Carolinas. The
Payseurs were also involved with gold
mines. In Daniel's business years before
his death he was instrumental in acquiring,
holdings,
banks,
with
vastrailroad
his wealth
holdings in
construction
from gold
numerous
companies,
railway companies, canal companies,
tramway companies, companies for the
manufacture of railroad engines, railway
cars, railway sleeping cars (Pullman),
steam tractors and plows now known as
International Harvester, Colt Firearms
(Gatling Gun), Wagons and Buggies, now
known as Cadillac cars. He owned huge
plantations of cotton, tobacco, timber and
corn, he also owned the manufacture of
cotton. Eli Whitney, of the cotton gin.
Susannah and Daniel had two sons the first born was Adam and then Jonas. At some time in Adams young
adult life he was murdered and all of the family assets were set up to pass to Jonas W. Payseur upon his father
Daniel's death. Jonas carried on the family tradition and increased the family holdings to include steam ship
companies now known as. United Fruit Company, Mining Equipment Co., Aluminum Company of America
(ALCOA)., Mining companies for Coal, Iron, Copper, Gold and Silver and was the main supplier to the
government for gold and silver. They started the meat processing company now known as Armour and
Company and started the cattle and stock yards across America at the railroad yards.
While the Payseurs were busy buying property during the Civil War, the Union government was actively seizing all property and public records. The reason for this search and seizure was to find out who owned what property, so it (The Government) could seize more property.
All of the public records were seized from each county courthouse in every Confederate State and taken to Bradford, North Carolina, where they were meticulously studied, some of them totally rewritten, thence to be returned to their original places (if they had not been destroyed) at a later date. This information was found out after I was doing research in the southern courthouses. I couldn't figure out how the same handwriting kept showing up in all these different record books all across the south, in different states, on the same dates.
My friend was kidding me when I voiced this question and he told me that they got around in flying saucer back then.
In order to conceal the family interests from both the government and Quantrill's Raiders. (Quantrill had married into the Springs Family) the Payseurs bought things in family names, (fathers-in-laws, brothers-in laws etc., etc..) such as Smith, Giles, Moore. Poore, Hawkins. Coon, Payseur, Bashore, Bason. Hudson, Kaiser, Lettson, Reed. Throughout all of it, when forming corporations, he always held Stock Certificate number one (1). Which was always a special type of voting, "Class "A" type" preferred stock and always signified prime ownership.
Jonas W. Payseur married Harriette Smith and their eldest son was Lewis Cass Payseur. Lewis Cass is on record in the library of congress as being a postmaster from 1877 to 1883 in North Carolina. Lewis carried on the family tradition by being instrumental in adding such business to the list as the United States Postal Service, the Federal Reserve, the United States Military Railroad Security Police of the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad, known today after many name changes and years of obscurity as the C.I.A. There are many different levels and branches of this organization. They acquired huge forest from coast to coast for wood products and manufacturing of (utility poles, cross ties, railroad cars, furniture, boxes etc., etc., and the automobile manufacture now known as General motors corporation.[Hard to swallow on the Federal Reserve claim as that cannot be The Federal Reserve of 1913,however it would not surprise me if there was a Federal Reserve in that time under some corporation,wait till folks wake up to the Federal Reserve of The U.N. D.C]
During the depression of the late eighteen hundreds, (thanks to the shortage of cash that was in circulation) the Rutherfordton Railroad Construction Company, extended credit to the railroad companies in exchange for their Stock (preferred stock, of course, which carried voting rights and also their government granted land patents as collateral of the credit) to finish the expansion of the railroads.
When the railroad companies bankrupted, their stock was forfeited to L.C. Payseur, and the railroad companies whose stock L.C. held were thereby amalgamated under one railroad. Southern Railway Company.
Along with these railroad companies came their land acquired from congressional land grants. All of the railroad companies were set up on new 99-year leases . The majority of these leases expire on the 17th of June 1993, this lease merged with Norfolk Western Railway to extend it through the merger and name change of Norfolk Southern to Dec. 31, 1993.
The Payseur family and the railroads acquired the monopoly for the manufacturing of electrical power. The monopoly for pipeline companies for water and fuels now known as Standard Oil or Exxon oil. Exporting and Importing of goods and foods.
The family estate was always passed to the eldest son of the eldest son in the family, it was believed that the women had no brains and were not worthy of knowing any more than how to have babies and entertain family and business associates. So for many generations the women were treated like mushrooms.
Unfortunate for the peoples of the world Lewis Cass Payseur was unable to produce a male heir, he and his wife Mary Alice Hudson Payseur had three daughters, Una. Pearl and the eldest Lola Madelyn who married George Gatling, (Gatling guns), and none of them were privileged to very much detailed information about the families holdings. However they were entrusted with the family genealogy and kept very accurate records.
With the death of Lewis Cass he left no male heir to his fortune, so in solution to this he appointed Lolas' (eldest daughter) husband to manage his Payseurs affairs.
The family secrets were kept hidden from the women for the most part up until Lola Payseur Folgums husbands' death in the mid 1950's. Lola's husband had been appointed by Lewis Cass as his personal business manager and of course he knew everything and it was all kept in the records in the family safe in there home. After Mr. Folgums death I'm sure curiosity got the best of Lola and sent on a search!
It is known that she went through all of her fathers and husbands personal record of the families business and locked everything away ordering in her will that it not be opened until five years after her death.
The family really wasn't to concerned about what was there because they had plenty of money, everyday they had checks come in the mail or money was deposited into their bank accounts from stock dividends. Five years came and past and the family had forgotten about opening the safe.
In about the year of 1971 the family decided to sell the old estate, it was at that time the family decided to open the safe. It was then they discovered power and vast holdings the estate held. The family had to make some major decisions and fast!
One of the things that the family discovered was the information about the 99 year leases, and the fact that the family owned all the railroads and the lands granted to the railroads associated with this ownership were hundreds of corporations in the united states and around the world. On the day that the safe was opened the family found hundreds of stock certificates where L.C. Payseur held "Stock Certificate #1 - type A"- denoting the principle, or major ownership of each corporations.
Since about 1972, the family has been trying to regain control of the leased corporations to clear up the mess that has happened with everything and the frauds that have been committed.
The following pages are documents that show L. C. Payseurs ownership of various companies.
The following is a list of only one third of the companies which are listed in public records as the assets of Lewis Cass Payseur which have been assigned to the Lewis Cass Payseur Trust Company Inc.
All of the Companies listed here were each issued, upon formation, fifty thousand (50,000) preferred, or special "Class "A" Shares, those being the only such shares authorized and issued, which shares represented the true ownership of the corporation.
L. C. Payseur owned nine tenths of all of the preferred share issued of each of these companies forty five thousand (45,000) and the rest of the world owns only five thousand (5,000) shares of the issued stock.
Common shares, or "non-voting shares" are the ones, where applicable, which are traded on the stock exchange, and they do not reflect the ownership as is commonly thought.
Note: Companies listed in the Fortune 500 Magazine of May 5, 1980 are noted by the name of the Company followed by "(#—)",
This is not a complete list of the Payseur Assets as this is only one third of his holdings, the estate was filed in three different locations with different assets listed at each state and county site that it was filed in. In another attempt to cover up the ownership trail, but you can get an idea of the magnitude of his holding with this 1/3 list.
Cheraw & Chester Railroad Company
Leased for 99 years to the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company, executed October 3, 1882. and recorded in the Court of Probate and the County Recorder's office of Chester County. South Carolina.
Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, South Carolina Division:
Along with the liens of the "iron rails and cross-ties" of lines under 99 year leases which have been merged into the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company: some known as:
Catawba Valley Railway Company: Chester County, South Carolina
The Chattanooga. Augusta and Charleston Air Line Railway Co., recorded in Chester County, South Carolina.
The Memphis / Charleston Railroad Company: The Seaboard Air Lines System of Railroads Company, as recorded in the office of the Probate Judge in and for the County of Dorchester, South Carolina, in Book "S 23" at Page 7, Dated December 9. 1899.
The Port Royal Railroad Company, as recorded with the office of the Probate Judge of Barnwell County, South Carolina.
The Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad Company, as recorded in the County of Chester, South Carolina, formerly known as the Wilmington. Charlotte and Rutherfordton Railway Company, as formed in the City of Lincolnton, North Carolina, by the Payseur family.
Buffalo, Union and Carlisle Railway:- Union. South Carolina
C. and W.C. Railway: Anderson. South Carolina
Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company:- Richland. South Carolina
G. & F. Railway Company: Greenwood, South Carolina
C. N. & L. Railway Company: Newberry, South Carolina
H. and B. Railway Company:- Colleton, South Carolina
C. and L. Railway Company:- Chesterfield, South Carolina
C. M. and C. Railway Company:- Chesterfield, South Carolina
Northwestern South Carolina Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Atlanta and Charlotte Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Ashville and Spartanburg Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg, Union and Columbia Railway Company:- Spartanburg. S. C.
Columbia and Greenville Railway Company:- Greenville. South Carolina
Southern Railway Company, South Carolina Division:- Columbia, South Carolina
South Side Railroad Co.:- Connecting Atlanta. Georgia with Washington, D. C.
Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad Company and Alabama Mineral Land Company of New York parent to the famed Standard Oil now Exxon Oil.
Ashley Branch and Coal Line Railway Company
Georgia. Carolina and Northern Railroad: and its 99 year lease to Seaboard Air Line Railway Company
King's Mountain Gold Mine and Railroad Company: Companies listed in Real Property Book 1734 Page 62 et. seq.. Court of Probate, in Alabama
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Nashville and Decatur Railroad
The Great Southern Railroad Line
South and North Alabama Railroad
Mobile and Montgomery Railroad
Georgia Pacific and T. A., Louisville Ky.
Pennsylvania Railroad: See Chart on Penn Central Company, 6.5 Billion Dollar Empire
Mexican Railway:- Mexico City, Mexico
Mexican Central Railway:- Guadalajara, Mexico
New York Central Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
Mobile and Ohio Railroad
Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad Company (the Federal Reserve)
Narrow Gauge, Camden, Lancaster, Charlotte, all in North Carolina
Georgia Pacific Railroad Company (#56)
Pullman Company (builders of Pullman cars for the Railways)
Banks and Related Companies
Bank of Lancaster:- Lancaster County. South Carolina
First Bank and Trust Company:-Of Lancaster, South Carolina The Lancaster Building and Loan Association
The Bank of Heath Springs
The Bank of Charleston
The Bank of Kershaw
Kershaw Mercantile and Banking Company
National Loan and Exchange Bank of Columbia
First National Bank of Camden
National Exchange Bank of Chester Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York
New York Trust Company
The Bank of Richmond
National Loan and Exchange Bank of Camden
Raleigh Savings
Bank American Trust and Savings Bank - Birmingham, Al.
Birmingham Trust and Savings Bank - Birmingham, Al.
Chase National Bank
Riggs National Bank
Hanover National Bank - New York
Brandywine Bank - Maryland
Hamilton National Bank
South Carolina National Bank
Jefferson Savings and Loan Association
Bank of South Carolina
Bank of New York
Bank of Macon, Georgia
Pennsylvania National Bank
Sandoz Bank
Painsville. Ohio Bank
The Eureka Cotton Mills
The Springstein Cotton Mills
Dan River Cotton Mills:-Danville, VA
Lorav Cotton Mills
Belton Cotton Mills
The Lancaster Cotton Oil Company
The N. K. Fairbank Company (Cotton Oil). Chicago. III.
Thread and Sewing Machine Companies
Singer Manufacturing Company:-New York
The New Home Sewing Machine Company:-30 Union Sq.,
New York Household Sewing Machine Company:- Providence, Rhode Island
Hartford Sewing Machine Company:-Connecticut
Renington Sewing Machine Company
Domestic Sewing Machine Company
Clark's O.N.T. Cotton Thread Company
Corticelli Silk Thread Company
Pharr and Long Clothiers 42 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, N.C.
J.P. Coats Thread Company
Willimantic Thread Company and/or Willimantic Linen Company
Chicago-Kenosha Hosiery Company:-Kenosha, Wisconsin
E.C.Stahn and Company:-Chester, S. C. (Watches, Jewelry and sewing machines)
Electric and Power Companies
Southern Power Company
Duke Power Company
Lancaster Light and Power Company
Potomac Electric Company
General Electric Company ....................(#9)
Gold and Silver Companies
Reed Gold Mine
Gastonia Gold Mine
Gold Hill Mining Company
King's Mountain Gold Mine (and Railway Company as above) Clyta Oro Mining Company-Supplied all the gold for the Federal Reserve
Union Silver Company
Lotowana Silver Mining Company
Iron and Steel (and other metals) Companies
Lincoln Iron Company (formerly Lincolnton Tin Mine and Smelter) now Carnegie Steel)
Woodward Iron Company
Ingall's Steel Company
The Ingalls Iron Works Company of Birmingham. Alabama Carnegie Steel Company
Aluminum Company of American (ALCOA) .................(#63)
Motor Vehicle Companies
American Motors Company..............(#109)
General Motors Corporation ................. (# 2)
Cadillac Motor Car Company
Carolina Cadillac Company Studebaker Carriages and Wagons Company
Insurance Companies
Home Insurance Company 119 Broadway. New York (From Orrville and Selma, Alabama, allegedly the parent to all insurance companies )
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York
Old American Insurance Company:- Kansas City
William's and Gregory Insurance Company:- Lancaster. S. C.
Tobacco and Related Companies
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company........ (#39)
George W. Helme and Company (Helme's Railroad Mill Snuff) Helmetta, N.J.
American Tobacco Company
Regalia De La Francis Cigar Company
Watch Companies
Elgin National Watch Company
National "Elgin" Watch Company
Illinois "Springfield" Watch Company
American "Waltham" Watch Company
The Centennial (1776-1876) Watch Company
Waterbury Watch Company
Land and Real Estate Companies
Alabama Mineral Land Company of New York
Woodgin Plantation:-Leased to Frisco Railroad
Bondurant Plantation:-Leased to St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad
T. M. Hughes Real Estate Agency:-Lancaster, S. C.
Food and Other Household Goods
Gail Borden, Eagle Brand Milk Company ......... (#73 Borden) The Genesee Pure Food Company .... (#50 General Foods) Heinzs Pickle Company...(#139 Heinz 57)
The American Cereal Company........ (#176 Quaker Oaks) United Fruit Trading Company:- Linked to Grace Shipping Lines
Armour and Company:-(Formerly Armour Meat Packing Company)
The Lancaster Hardware Company
Mimaugh's Department Store
Bibb's Stove and Range Company
Swift and Company
The Woolson Spice Company
Cleveland's Baking Powder Company
White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer Company
Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company
King's Buckwheat Flour Company
Lustro Cleaners Company
Lincolnton Drug Company: Became Rexall Drugs
Fleming Brothers Cologne
New Mown Hay Sachet Colgate and Company. Perfumers of New York
Boll Brothers Manufacturing Company Harrisburg, Pa. (metal beds and bedding)
Tarrant's Aperient Seltzer Company
Celluloid Eye Glasses Company (Patent #03-13-1877) S.O.M. Company
Steele and Price Manufacturing Company (Yeast, flavoring extracts etc., Chicago, III.)
Brown's Iron Bitters Company
Richmond Heater Company (wood burning heaters)
Charles W.S. Banks Furniture Company Baltimore, Md Peloubet and Company, Bloomfield. NJ - Mfr. Standard Brand Organs
Ehvet Magnesia Mfg Company
Boston Rubber Shoe Company
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Miscellaneous Companies
Colt Firearms Company..................(#165)
Standard Oil Company.........(#10, #6, and #32)
Exxon Corporation............(#1)
B. F. Goodrich Company.............. (#112)
Sherwin-Williams Paint Company ................ (#251)
The Fort Mill Manufacturing Company
Catawba Fertilizer Company
Lancaster Manufacturing Company
Western Union Telegraph Company
Ashley Phosphate Fertilizer Company
Steamship (British) Manhattan
Lancaster Mercantile Company
Pearl Powder Company
H.S. Robinson and Company
Walter A. Wood Company of New York
Knapp and Company of New York
Scott and Bowne Manufacturing Company of New York
Reinthanl and Newman of New York
J. Lichtenstein and Son of New York
Bimbel Brothers Stores New York and Philadelphia
Rochester Photo Press of Rochester, New York
Newmond and Company Buffalo, New York
I. C. Hood and Company
E.W. Hoyte and Company
Dr. J. C. Bayer and Company- Bayer Aspirin Co.
Hill and Greene
Ed V. Price and Company
W. B. Clapp, Young and Company
Hurst, Purnell and Company
National Twist Drill and Tool Co.
Millhiser's Manufacturing Company
Joseph Emmanuel and Company
Silverine Company-Onieda Silver Co.
J. P. Stevens and Brothers (paper mill)
The Hamilton Company of Canada
Cabbet and Company of Spain
In order to keep the true ownership hidden from the government and the public all of these companies and hundreds more were tucked away in parent corporations and companies, almost all of the railroads across the united states were merged into the new "Southern Railway", merger of 1906 that J. P. Morgan helped orchestrate for Payseur.
The Southern Railway, which contained almost all of the railway companies were hidden in one little insignificant short railway line that was called the "Lancaster and Chester Railway Company". The family joke is that they own a little railroad company by the name of the L&C Railway Company and it has a spur line called Southern Railway, which is obstinately all the railroads. They also own one other important little railroad, "The Cheraw and Chester Railroad Company".
The Lancaster and Chester Railway, was owned by a cotton mill by the name of the "Lancaster Cotton Mill", which was owned by L.C. Payseur, the name of Lancaster Cotton Mill was changed in the 1930's to Springs Mills Inc. but the ownership was still by L.C. Payseurs'. It is very important that you remember this one little paragraph.
L.C. Payseur also owned "The Bank of Lancaster", which in recent years has gone on a name changing tangent the last known names were the (NCNB) North Carolina National Bank then it merged with its self and became known as NationsBank For a short digression, research discovered that in the 1980's George Bush became the chairman of the executive committee of First International Bank of Houston. He also became a director of Fist International Bank shares. Inc. ("InterFirst"). InterFirst became the largest bank in Texas and was reportedly running speculation all over South America, China and Europe. Later InterFirst merged with Republic Bank in 1987 to form First Republic Bank, eventually as it appeared all banks in Texas got into a non sovereign situation if you can believe that. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with the connivance of the IRS, awarded the assets of First Republic Bank to the North Carolina National Bank in exchange for no payment whatsoever on the part of NCNB. Why should they have to pay themselves? NationsBank, which is reputedly a darling of the intelligence community, which is not quite right but makes some sense, being as the banks and CIA are owned by the railroad.
Payseur also owned "Southern Power Company" which is today known as "Southern Company" and owns the control of all power companies in the united states by law that states that only railroads can manufacture electricity. That is why everyone that comes up with a better and cheaper form of energy and would become a threat to the power company is put out of business. Because the railroad has a monopoly at least until the 99 year leases are up.
Payseur owned "The Lancaster Manufacturing Company", which controlled the production of all wood products, such as railroad ties, railroad cars, service poles, furniture, paper etc., etc.. This is were the railroad land grants come in w i t h such names as Boise Cascade, Weyerhaeuser, Crown Zellierback. Mead, Regency companies using the railroad land leased to them "only" from Payseur to product trees for wood products. These companies do not own the land they operate under leases, they do not have the right to sell railroad or timber land that they use. they do not own the land nor the companies.
Mr. Payseur also owned a company by the name of "The Lancaster Cotton Oil", this company started the manufacture of fertilizer and other related items.
Leroy Springs was appointed President of all of Mr. Payseurs companies to oversee them, he was also Mr. Payseurs' attorney and a trustee for his affairs. He was trusted with all kinds of important documents, affidavits and secrets, as to who the true owners were of these companies. Remember that it was stated earlier that the northerner's couldn't get the southern people to work for them, so Northerners would appoint the old ex-confederate officers to run the companies owned by Yankees after the Civil War and all the confiscation. That is how Leroy Springs got involved with the Lancaster Cotton Mill, and the other companies. He was a manager not an owner.
Next
THE SPRINGSTEINS
Of course, after a few wagons had used the plank roads, the upright and lengthwise planks would wear out, but trees were plentiful, and many people were happily employed in maintaining the road. The next logical step was obvious: in order to minimize the amount of wear on the road, and consequently minimize the maintenance expenses, replace the planks with steel rails, and put steel wheels on the wagons. Thus was born the "railroad".
The possibilities for great improvement of the communications and transportation facilities in the United States, in utilizing this new railroad technology, from both the military and civilian standpoint, was not lost on who should get to build this new system? Very few people had the expertise, or ability, or financial capability to do it.
Why not allow those who had the direct experience in the area of transportation and communications develop the system? Besides, it was virtually impossible to get into the communications business without going through those who were already "there".
The rules (not laws) were fashioned and adopted:
(a). To get into the business of communications and transportation all you had to be was a subsidiary or division of the Steamship Company. (Note: only one!)
(b). To divert or dam a river or build a canal you had to be a canal company, to be such you had to be a subsidiary or division of a steamship company as in rule (a).
(c). To be a railroad company you had to be a division of or a subsidiary of a canal company (as in rule (b)).
After breaking a wheel on its first run. the Best Friend performed rather better on its second attempt, reaching 20 mph with a train carrying 40 of the company's employees.
By 1828 the Rutherford Railroad Construction Company was formed for the purpose of laying 2800 miles of track covering an area from the interior states to the east coast and along the east coast to Charleston South Carolina. Public awareness started bringing attention to the Rutherfordton. North Carolina, where the company was based, and the corporate records are hidden, so they renamed the company the Georgia Pacific Railroad Construction Company, which went on to build all the railroads in the United States.
Congress had approved a plan to give land to the railroad companies. The land was given in various proportions contingent upon their constructing a predetermined distance of track age (usually 20 miles) within a specified time frame. Also contingent upon the terrain encountered, whereas greater parcels were granted in blighted areas than in thickly wooded areas because the engines burned wood for fuel, and the rails, cross-ties and coaches were made of wood.
On December 25 the Best Friend inaugurated the first regular steam hauled service in America on the Charleston and Hamburg's first six miles of track. The owners were proud of this accomplishment of engineering and patents in the new frontier called America because they had only been in this country a short time and the family name was Payseur.
A further rule (later to become law) was adopted to accommodate the different type of companies, and this rule, simply stated, was that should a railroad begin in one place, say Washington, go to a canal or river, or ocean, there to transfer (passengers and/or freight) to a barge or riverboat or steamship, and continue along the water ways, be they canal or river or ocean, (Atlantic or Pacific) to another point, then re-embark upon the railroad, then Congress would consider that to be a continuous railroad. If the railroad company is the same as canal company definitely be construed to be continuous!
On February 28, 1827, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was chartered in Maryland and was under the same ownership as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, which had begun work on its canal the same year, namely the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was in turn owned by Whitney Steamships, (obviously, a Steamship Company). The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, which now forms a part of the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern Railway System (under the colloquial name of "The Chessie System") was also formed shortly thereafter as a division of the canal company of the same name.
Upon his inauguration into the White House in 1828, Andrew Jackson fulfilled a promise he had made earlier to a particular group of friends, associates and advisors (who were ultimately to be known as his "Kitchen Cabinet"). These friends, associates and advisors had already proved themselves to be capable in the areas of finance and transportation, by virtue of the fact that they were already the owners of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and Jackson granted them the monopoly for the whole of the United States in two major business areas, the first of which was Railroads, the second of which sprang out of the railroads which became known as "Banking". The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company began construction on its 380 mile railroad on July 4, 1828.
At this stage it is important that two important points are brought to the reader's attention. First, the roads initially were plank roads, not railroads. It was some time afterwards that the railroad rails as we know them today were developed, and then only in England. Even as late as the Civil War, railroad companies were busily importing iron rails from England, and those rails already laid down by that time were being as swiftly dug up and re-smelted for weapons and gunboats. Secondly, the railroad companies, generally speaking, were not the ones who built the plank roads, railroad construction companies specialized in the building, and usually built the roads for the companies, while the companies ran the roads after they were built.
Boom Time
The fact that the plank and railroads were the largest contributor to the development of The United States of America can hardly be disputed. No country went so far so fast. This is clearly shown by the fact that by the end of 1828, six short months after the Stourbridge Lion ran, there were more than two thousand eight hundred miles of plank roads and railroads laid in the eastern U.S.
By far the largest contribution to this and subsequent "Boom and progress" came from Congress itself. The plank road companies, and the builders of the plank roads, managed to convince Congress that, in order to build and run the roads, land was needed, and in large quantities.
The Plank Road Companies could not be expected to run their roads over someone else's land, it had to be their own. or they could obviously not guarantee their ability to keep the lines open; the "landlord" might throw them off his land. Congress, recognizing the importance of the railroads, granted the companies all the land they needed, from one hundred to two hundred feet each side of the center line of the road bed, wherever the road went. The company got to decide where they wanted to go. Every time twenty miles of plank road was completed, Congress gave over that twenty mile strip to the company. Where the Company crossed land which had already been settled, and thereby already belonged to someone, they had the ability to buy it from the owner, or they could buy the right of way over the land. The road companies seldom exercised their ability to buy a right of way over somebody's land in the beginning, because Congress also gave them the power to condemn the land and force the owner, legally, to sell it to the railroad.
Next the companies needed timber for cross-ties and planks in order to build the road, as well as maintain it thereafter. They also needed wood for fueling the engines. The companies would therefore need a great deal of timber, so. in order to make sure the railroad companies had all the wood they needed to build both the plank road and fuel the engines. Congress granted the Railroad Companies every other odd numbered square mile each side of the center line of the road bed for various widths, depending on how miles each side of the center line of the road bed, and again, the land was granted upon completion of each twenty mile strip of plank road.
In addition to being granted the land, the companies also had the power to buy the sections (square miles) which had not been granted to them by Congress. The land was granted to the companies in widths between three and forty miles each side of the center line of the road bed.
In order to comprehend the amount of land granted to the companies for the construction of the plank and railroads, and assuming the land was to be granted out to ten miles on each side of the center line of the railroad bed, to a total area of four hundred square miles (20x20) with the odd numbered sections represented by " ". Assuming the lines were built in North/South Directions, then for every twenty miles of road bed would be as follows: constructed, the odd numbered sections of land given to the company (represented in the diagram by " ")
But that is only forty (40) square miles; there are still a lot of square miles of land for the taking. If another railroad was built to make a cross-roads, then every other odd numbered section (square mile) again could be captured:
NORTH/SOUTH AND EAST/WEST
Another 35 square miles, total now is 75 square miles; but that is definitely doing things the hard (and expensive) way, it takes two steps, one vertical, (north/south) run, and one horizontal (east/west) run, amounting to 40 miles of track age. The same thing can be achieved with one 28 mile line run diagonally, South West to North East, as follows:
DIAGONAL LINE NUMBER 1
and if you now run another line across the same area from North West to South East.....
DIAGONAL LINES I AND 2
The next step for the railroads, in the situation where Congress was granting land ten miles each side of the railroad, was to build parallel railroad lines ten miles apart and you then (you, the railroad company) control every square mile of land wherever your tracks go. If the grants were for fifteen miles each side of the line, then build lines fifteen miles apart, and so on.
From the start of the railroads in 1828, to the start of the Civil War in 1861, every State in the Union east of the Mississippi, and the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota on the western side of the Mississippi all contained extensive railroad system. The grants of land to the railroad companies, and therefore, for the most part, to the railroad construction companies, were extensive, with the Northern (Union) States receiving the following certification as to the amounts of land they were to receive by June 30, in the year 1868:
State Acres
Illinois........................................ 2,595,053
Missouri ................................... 1,715,434
Iowa ......................................... 2,770,700
Michigan....................................2,715,399 Wisconsin..................................1,528,480
Minnesota .................................2,315,292
Total Acreage 13,640,358
or, 21,314 square miles, which excludes the land allocation for the Union States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky; and the following Southern States received allocations of acreage for:
State Acres
Alabama...................................2,288,134
Mississippi ................................. 908.680
Louisiana ................................ 1.072,404
Arkansas ................................. 2,512,359
Florida ..................................... 1,760,467
Total Acreage ...........................8,542,044 182
or, 13.347 square miles, which figure excludes those lands granted to the Southern States of Virginia. Tennessee. North Carolina. South Carolina, Texas and Georgia.
The land granted to the individual States was, of course, turned over by those States to the respective Railroads, which, as mentioned earlier, had previously mortgaged those lands to Railroad Construction Companies.
On page 308 is a map which shows the total amount of land which was granted by Congress to the various
States for transfer to the railroad companies. It is interesting to note that the railway grants up to 1871 are
shown, not thereafter, and that the area as shown in black represent 131 million acres of land. The land
granted to Michigan (2,715, 399 acres) is not shown; Texas, where a couple of railways eventually claimed
some small portion of its land is not shown, and the remaining eastern States, where the saturation of railways
(would claim a large amount of land (probably about one third), is also not shown. Notwithstanding these shortfalls, the total amount shown, including Michigan, amounts to more than 208.930 square miles! Of course, when you owned the land, you also owned everything else in, on. and under it, this included, coal, minerals, ores, copper, gold etc.. It was the race to get all this "free land" that sparked the great building boom, the so-called "American Industrial Revolution" which was to end with the Civil War.
Hundreds of small privately organized companies sprang up to take advantage of this new means of transportation. Millions of dollars were won and lost in the gambling in stocks, bonds and shares of these companies in their individual efforts to cash in on the new opportunities afforded by the railroads.
Almost every railroad company which was formed before the American Civil War was created by an Act of the Congress of the particular State in which it was to run, and the Act usually created the Railroad Company as a Body Politic and Corporate, under the laws of that particular state.
Needless to say. the respective Congress offered the privilege of ownership of these railroad companies only to those businessmen who were men of substance, integrity, means and influence in their respective State congresses. The ownership of any railroad was considered to be the ultimate responsibility, and one which could not be taken lightly.
After incorporation, the new Railroad Company, exchanged preferred shares for assets transferred to it from its primary stockholders and owners, and the company sold its common stock to raise capital to operate. Thus it became a mark of importance as to which type of stock certificate you owned. If it was a certificate for preferred stock, it denoted that you were one of the owners. If you held certificate number one (1) you were the primary and most important owner.
Although it is trumpeted throughout the history books that the railroad companies were granted all this land, such a report is. for the most part, inaccurate. True, the land was granted to the States, for those States to turn over the same land to the railroad companies as promised. It was granted to the proper railroad company each time twenty miles of railroad had been constructed, but the railroad construction companies got it; not the railroad companies.
THE RAILROAD
CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES
No railroad company could even hope to raise either enough capital, or enough expertise to build the railroad lines itself; building the lines required vast resources in men and materials, so the newly formed railroad company would contract for the help of one of the very few railroad construction companies then in existence.
Generally speaking, the newly formed railroad company would not have enough money to pay its construction company, but it would be getting the land from Congress when the line was built, so the Company had no choice but to mortgage the land it had been promised from Congress to its construction company, which then built the railroad lines. Once the line was built, title to the land was retained by the Trustee of the mortgage, the railroad company would then sell its common shares to the general public, and use that money to buy its rolling stock, engines, carriages, flat cars, etc... and only then could it begin to run the railroad. After a while it might make some money, from which it would pay off the mortgage and eventually get title back to the land.
If, for whatever reason, the new Railroad Company failed to pay off its mortgage, the construction company would claim the land by default.
It is usual in business to expect the "lag time" before the company begins to operate at a profit, and this time had to be taken into account and allowed for by the construction companies.
With just a few railroad construction companies in existence, the competition was fierce, and the money from the railroad companies, initially, came in very slowly. The workers on the huge railroad construction gangs were paid in gold and silver coins; not paper money, so only the construction companies with vast resources to support them (usually gold and silver mines) survived the early years.
The construction of the railroads continued at a furious pace, with almost all the companies mortgaging their future land holdings to the construction companies, with the end result that, by 1860, almost every Railroad Company in existence held its land under mortgage to the railroad construction companies.
By virtue of those economics, and the circumstances surrounding them, and the simple fact that
(a), its owners also owned the biggest share of the most productive gold mines east of the Mississippi;
(b), the same family also owned the steel rolling mills at. North Carolina, which made the rails and other steel products for the railroad construction companies and the railroad companies
(c), the same family also owned the majority of the land in which coal, for fueling the steel mills, was found
(d). the iron ore for the same steel mills also came from family land, and, last but not least
(f), that all these facilities and resources had direct rail links with just about every railroad in existence; by 1861 the Rutherfordton Railroad Construction Company of Rutherfordton. North Carolina, emerged as the predominant and most important builder of the railroads.
RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT
The new technology of railroads sparked the biggest development boom the 1800's had ever seen. The Railroads created towns and communities in places otherwise undreamed of.
The developmental process was swift, and usually adopted the same pattern; The railroad company having built a stretch of track, in some cases several hundred miles in length, needed water for the steam engines, so, at various places along its track, the railroad company drilled or dug one or more wells, and erected a water tower, at which the train would thereafter stop and fill up with water.
A few more facilities than the water tower were needed for the discerning traveler, so in a relatively short time, around each water tower, where the train stopped, a small community sprang up.
First, usually, the company upon the realization of moderate profits, and should the passengers wish to alight from the train, built a platform and station house. The passengers also needed to eat, so a restaurant arrived, usually run by the railroad company itself, or by a contractor or Trustee, and supplied by the local farmers and commodity producers; eventually the local producers realized they could use the railroad to send their products to market further away, where they could sell it for more money, so stockyards, a blacksmith, a livery stable and other ancillary businesses sprang up.
The railroad company would "import" other goods, usually selling them to the locals through its own general store, and eventually a whole town appeared around the water tower. Of course the water tower also supplied this new town with water, thus becoming the water company.
Travelers needed to rest and have somewhere to conduct their business, and they also needed some way to transact their financial business, so the railroad company charters were written to contain the ability for the company to erect hotel facilities and, most importantly, "depository institutions", better known today as banks.
On April 12th, 1861, Fort Sumter in South Carolina came under attack, heralding the beginning of the Civil War, and with that event the development of the railroad system of the United States came to an abrupt halt. Included in this chapter are maps that show the early railroads which were in existence at that time.
24
LEWIS CASS PAYSEUR 1850-1939
For a moment let us digress back to the
time when the former Crown Prince of
France, now Daniel Payseur (1785-1860)
arrived in America. While the Payseurs were busy buying property during the Civil War, the Union government was actively seizing all property and public records. The reason for this search and seizure was to find out who owned what property, so it (The Government) could seize more property.
All of the public records were seized from each county courthouse in every Confederate State and taken to Bradford, North Carolina, where they were meticulously studied, some of them totally rewritten, thence to be returned to their original places (if they had not been destroyed) at a later date. This information was found out after I was doing research in the southern courthouses. I couldn't figure out how the same handwriting kept showing up in all these different record books all across the south, in different states, on the same dates.
My friend was kidding me when I voiced this question and he told me that they got around in flying saucer back then.
In order to conceal the family interests from both the government and Quantrill's Raiders. (Quantrill had married into the Springs Family) the Payseurs bought things in family names, (fathers-in-laws, brothers-in laws etc., etc..) such as Smith, Giles, Moore. Poore, Hawkins. Coon, Payseur, Bashore, Bason. Hudson, Kaiser, Lettson, Reed. Throughout all of it, when forming corporations, he always held Stock Certificate number one (1). Which was always a special type of voting, "Class "A" type" preferred stock and always signified prime ownership.
Jonas W. Payseur married Harriette Smith and their eldest son was Lewis Cass Payseur. Lewis Cass is on record in the library of congress as being a postmaster from 1877 to 1883 in North Carolina. Lewis carried on the family tradition by being instrumental in adding such business to the list as the United States Postal Service, the Federal Reserve, the United States Military Railroad Security Police of the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad, known today after many name changes and years of obscurity as the C.I.A. There are many different levels and branches of this organization. They acquired huge forest from coast to coast for wood products and manufacturing of (utility poles, cross ties, railroad cars, furniture, boxes etc., etc., and the automobile manufacture now known as General motors corporation.[Hard to swallow on the Federal Reserve claim as that cannot be The Federal Reserve of 1913,however it would not surprise me if there was a Federal Reserve in that time under some corporation,wait till folks wake up to the Federal Reserve of The U.N. D.C]
During the depression of the late eighteen hundreds, (thanks to the shortage of cash that was in circulation) the Rutherfordton Railroad Construction Company, extended credit to the railroad companies in exchange for their Stock (preferred stock, of course, which carried voting rights and also their government granted land patents as collateral of the credit) to finish the expansion of the railroads.
When the railroad companies bankrupted, their stock was forfeited to L.C. Payseur, and the railroad companies whose stock L.C. held were thereby amalgamated under one railroad. Southern Railway Company.
Along with these railroad companies came their land acquired from congressional land grants. All of the railroad companies were set up on new 99-year leases . The majority of these leases expire on the 17th of June 1993, this lease merged with Norfolk Western Railway to extend it through the merger and name change of Norfolk Southern to Dec. 31, 1993.
The Payseur family and the railroads acquired the monopoly for the manufacturing of electrical power. The monopoly for pipeline companies for water and fuels now known as Standard Oil or Exxon oil. Exporting and Importing of goods and foods.
The family estate was always passed to the eldest son of the eldest son in the family, it was believed that the women had no brains and were not worthy of knowing any more than how to have babies and entertain family and business associates. So for many generations the women were treated like mushrooms.
Unfortunate for the peoples of the world Lewis Cass Payseur was unable to produce a male heir, he and his wife Mary Alice Hudson Payseur had three daughters, Una. Pearl and the eldest Lola Madelyn who married George Gatling, (Gatling guns), and none of them were privileged to very much detailed information about the families holdings. However they were entrusted with the family genealogy and kept very accurate records.
With the death of Lewis Cass he left no male heir to his fortune, so in solution to this he appointed Lolas' (eldest daughter) husband to manage his Payseurs affairs.
The family secrets were kept hidden from the women for the most part up until Lola Payseur Folgums husbands' death in the mid 1950's. Lola's husband had been appointed by Lewis Cass as his personal business manager and of course he knew everything and it was all kept in the records in the family safe in there home. After Mr. Folgums death I'm sure curiosity got the best of Lola and sent on a search!
It is known that she went through all of her fathers and husbands personal record of the families business and locked everything away ordering in her will that it not be opened until five years after her death.
The family really wasn't to concerned about what was there because they had plenty of money, everyday they had checks come in the mail or money was deposited into their bank accounts from stock dividends. Five years came and past and the family had forgotten about opening the safe.
In about the year of 1971 the family decided to sell the old estate, it was at that time the family decided to open the safe. It was then they discovered power and vast holdings the estate held. The family had to make some major decisions and fast!
One of the things that the family discovered was the information about the 99 year leases, and the fact that the family owned all the railroads and the lands granted to the railroads associated with this ownership were hundreds of corporations in the united states and around the world. On the day that the safe was opened the family found hundreds of stock certificates where L.C. Payseur held "Stock Certificate #1 - type A"- denoting the principle, or major ownership of each corporations.
Since about 1972, the family has been trying to regain control of the leased corporations to clear up the mess that has happened with everything and the frauds that have been committed.
The following pages are documents that show L. C. Payseurs ownership of various companies.
The following is a list of only one third of the companies which are listed in public records as the assets of Lewis Cass Payseur which have been assigned to the Lewis Cass Payseur Trust Company Inc.
All of the Companies listed here were each issued, upon formation, fifty thousand (50,000) preferred, or special "Class "A" Shares, those being the only such shares authorized and issued, which shares represented the true ownership of the corporation.
L. C. Payseur owned nine tenths of all of the preferred share issued of each of these companies forty five thousand (45,000) and the rest of the world owns only five thousand (5,000) shares of the issued stock.
Common shares, or "non-voting shares" are the ones, where applicable, which are traded on the stock exchange, and they do not reflect the ownership as is commonly thought.
Note: Companies listed in the Fortune 500 Magazine of May 5, 1980 are noted by the name of the Company followed by "(#—)",
This is not a complete list of the Payseur Assets as this is only one third of his holdings, the estate was filed in three different locations with different assets listed at each state and county site that it was filed in. In another attempt to cover up the ownership trail, but you can get an idea of the magnitude of his holding with this 1/3 list.
Railway. Railroad and
Related Companies
Lancaster & Chester Railway Company Cheraw & Chester Railroad Company
Leased for 99 years to the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company, executed October 3, 1882. and recorded in the Court of Probate and the County Recorder's office of Chester County. South Carolina.
Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, South Carolina Division:
Along with the liens of the "iron rails and cross-ties" of lines under 99 year leases which have been merged into the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company: some known as:
Catawba Valley Railway Company: Chester County, South Carolina
The Chattanooga. Augusta and Charleston Air Line Railway Co., recorded in Chester County, South Carolina.
The Memphis / Charleston Railroad Company: The Seaboard Air Lines System of Railroads Company, as recorded in the office of the Probate Judge in and for the County of Dorchester, South Carolina, in Book "S 23" at Page 7, Dated December 9. 1899.
The Port Royal Railroad Company, as recorded with the office of the Probate Judge of Barnwell County, South Carolina.
The Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad Company, as recorded in the County of Chester, South Carolina, formerly known as the Wilmington. Charlotte and Rutherfordton Railway Company, as formed in the City of Lincolnton, North Carolina, by the Payseur family.
Buffalo, Union and Carlisle Railway:- Union. South Carolina
C. and W.C. Railway: Anderson. South Carolina
Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company:- Richland. South Carolina
G. & F. Railway Company: Greenwood, South Carolina
C. N. & L. Railway Company: Newberry, South Carolina
H. and B. Railway Company:- Colleton, South Carolina
C. and L. Railway Company:- Chesterfield, South Carolina
C. M. and C. Railway Company:- Chesterfield, South Carolina
Northwestern South Carolina Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Atlanta and Charlotte Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Ashville and Spartanburg Railway Company:- Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg, Union and Columbia Railway Company:- Spartanburg. S. C.
Columbia and Greenville Railway Company:- Greenville. South Carolina
Southern Railway Company, South Carolina Division:- Columbia, South Carolina
South Side Railroad Co.:- Connecting Atlanta. Georgia with Washington, D. C.
Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad Company and Alabama Mineral Land Company of New York parent to the famed Standard Oil now Exxon Oil.
Ashley Branch and Coal Line Railway Company
Georgia. Carolina and Northern Railroad: and its 99 year lease to Seaboard Air Line Railway Company
King's Mountain Gold Mine and Railroad Company: Companies listed in Real Property Book 1734 Page 62 et. seq.. Court of Probate, in Alabama
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Nashville and Decatur Railroad
The Great Southern Railroad Line
South and North Alabama Railroad
Mobile and Montgomery Railroad
Georgia Pacific and T. A., Louisville Ky.
Pennsylvania Railroad: See Chart on Penn Central Company, 6.5 Billion Dollar Empire
Mexican Railway:- Mexico City, Mexico
Mexican Central Railway:- Guadalajara, Mexico
New York Central Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
Mobile and Ohio Railroad
Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad Company (the Federal Reserve)
Narrow Gauge, Camden, Lancaster, Charlotte, all in North Carolina
Georgia Pacific Railroad Company (#56)
Pullman Company (builders of Pullman cars for the Railways)
Banks and Related Companies
Bank of Lancaster:- Lancaster County. South Carolina
First Bank and Trust Company:-Of Lancaster, South Carolina The Lancaster Building and Loan Association
The Bank of Heath Springs
The Bank of Charleston
The Bank of Kershaw
Kershaw Mercantile and Banking Company
National Loan and Exchange Bank of Columbia
First National Bank of Camden
National Exchange Bank of Chester Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York
New York Trust Company
The Bank of Richmond
National Loan and Exchange Bank of Camden
Raleigh Savings
Bank American Trust and Savings Bank - Birmingham, Al.
Birmingham Trust and Savings Bank - Birmingham, Al.
Chase National Bank
Riggs National Bank
Hanover National Bank - New York
Brandywine Bank - Maryland
Hamilton National Bank
South Carolina National Bank
Jefferson Savings and Loan Association
Bank of South Carolina
Bank of New York
Bank of Macon, Georgia
Pennsylvania National Bank
Sandoz Bank
Painsville. Ohio Bank
Cotton Mills
Lancaster Cotton Mills:-Now known as Springs Mills Inc. of Lancaster, S. C ................. (#319) The Eureka Cotton Mills
The Springstein Cotton Mills
Dan River Cotton Mills:-Danville, VA
Lorav Cotton Mills
Belton Cotton Mills
The Lancaster Cotton Oil Company
The N. K. Fairbank Company (Cotton Oil). Chicago. III.
Thread and Sewing Machine Companies
Singer Manufacturing Company:-New York
The New Home Sewing Machine Company:-30 Union Sq.,
New York Household Sewing Machine Company:- Providence, Rhode Island
Hartford Sewing Machine Company:-Connecticut
Renington Sewing Machine Company
Domestic Sewing Machine Company
Clark's O.N.T. Cotton Thread Company
Corticelli Silk Thread Company
Pharr and Long Clothiers 42 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, N.C.
J.P. Coats Thread Company
Willimantic Thread Company and/or Willimantic Linen Company
Chicago-Kenosha Hosiery Company:-Kenosha, Wisconsin
E.C.Stahn and Company:-Chester, S. C. (Watches, Jewelry and sewing machines)
Electric and Power Companies
Southern Power Company
Duke Power Company
Lancaster Light and Power Company
Potomac Electric Company
General Electric Company ....................(#9)
Gold and Silver Companies
Reed Gold Mine
Gastonia Gold Mine
Gold Hill Mining Company
King's Mountain Gold Mine (and Railway Company as above) Clyta Oro Mining Company-Supplied all the gold for the Federal Reserve
Union Silver Company
Lotowana Silver Mining Company
Iron and Steel (and other metals) Companies
Lincoln Iron Company (formerly Lincolnton Tin Mine and Smelter) now Carnegie Steel)
Woodward Iron Company
Ingall's Steel Company
The Ingalls Iron Works Company of Birmingham. Alabama Carnegie Steel Company
Aluminum Company of American (ALCOA) .................(#63)
Motor Vehicle Companies
American Motors Company..............(#109)
General Motors Corporation ................. (# 2)
Cadillac Motor Car Company
Carolina Cadillac Company Studebaker Carriages and Wagons Company
Insurance Companies
Home Insurance Company 119 Broadway. New York (From Orrville and Selma, Alabama, allegedly the parent to all insurance companies )
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York
Old American Insurance Company:- Kansas City
William's and Gregory Insurance Company:- Lancaster. S. C.
Tobacco and Related Companies
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company........ (#39)
George W. Helme and Company (Helme's Railroad Mill Snuff) Helmetta, N.J.
American Tobacco Company
Regalia De La Francis Cigar Company
Watch Companies
Elgin National Watch Company
National "Elgin" Watch Company
Illinois "Springfield" Watch Company
American "Waltham" Watch Company
The Centennial (1776-1876) Watch Company
Waterbury Watch Company
Land and Real Estate Companies
Alabama Mineral Land Company of New York
Woodgin Plantation:-Leased to Frisco Railroad
Bondurant Plantation:-Leased to St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad
T. M. Hughes Real Estate Agency:-Lancaster, S. C.
Food and Other Household Goods
Gail Borden, Eagle Brand Milk Company ......... (#73 Borden) The Genesee Pure Food Company .... (#50 General Foods) Heinzs Pickle Company...(#139 Heinz 57)
The American Cereal Company........ (#176 Quaker Oaks) United Fruit Trading Company:- Linked to Grace Shipping Lines
Armour and Company:-(Formerly Armour Meat Packing Company)
The Lancaster Hardware Company
Mimaugh's Department Store
Bibb's Stove and Range Company
Swift and Company
The Woolson Spice Company
Cleveland's Baking Powder Company
White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer Company
Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company
King's Buckwheat Flour Company
Lustro Cleaners Company
Lincolnton Drug Company: Became Rexall Drugs
Fleming Brothers Cologne
New Mown Hay Sachet Colgate and Company. Perfumers of New York
Boll Brothers Manufacturing Company Harrisburg, Pa. (metal beds and bedding)
Tarrant's Aperient Seltzer Company
Celluloid Eye Glasses Company (Patent #03-13-1877) S.O.M. Company
Steele and Price Manufacturing Company (Yeast, flavoring extracts etc., Chicago, III.)
Brown's Iron Bitters Company
Richmond Heater Company (wood burning heaters)
Charles W.S. Banks Furniture Company Baltimore, Md Peloubet and Company, Bloomfield. NJ - Mfr. Standard Brand Organs
Ehvet Magnesia Mfg Company
Boston Rubber Shoe Company
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Miscellaneous Companies
Colt Firearms Company..................(#165)
Standard Oil Company.........(#10, #6, and #32)
Exxon Corporation............(#1)
B. F. Goodrich Company.............. (#112)
Sherwin-Williams Paint Company ................ (#251)
The Fort Mill Manufacturing Company
Catawba Fertilizer Company
Lancaster Manufacturing Company
Western Union Telegraph Company
Ashley Phosphate Fertilizer Company
Steamship (British) Manhattan
Lancaster Mercantile Company
Pearl Powder Company
H.S. Robinson and Company
Walter A. Wood Company of New York
Knapp and Company of New York
Scott and Bowne Manufacturing Company of New York
Reinthanl and Newman of New York
J. Lichtenstein and Son of New York
Bimbel Brothers Stores New York and Philadelphia
Rochester Photo Press of Rochester, New York
Newmond and Company Buffalo, New York
I. C. Hood and Company
E.W. Hoyte and Company
Dr. J. C. Bayer and Company- Bayer Aspirin Co.
Hill and Greene
Ed V. Price and Company
W. B. Clapp, Young and Company
Hurst, Purnell and Company
National Twist Drill and Tool Co.
Millhiser's Manufacturing Company
Joseph Emmanuel and Company
Silverine Company-Onieda Silver Co.
J. P. Stevens and Brothers (paper mill)
The Hamilton Company of Canada
Cabbet and Company of Spain
In order to keep the true ownership hidden from the government and the public all of these companies and hundreds more were tucked away in parent corporations and companies, almost all of the railroads across the united states were merged into the new "Southern Railway", merger of 1906 that J. P. Morgan helped orchestrate for Payseur.
The Southern Railway, which contained almost all of the railway companies were hidden in one little insignificant short railway line that was called the "Lancaster and Chester Railway Company". The family joke is that they own a little railroad company by the name of the L&C Railway Company and it has a spur line called Southern Railway, which is obstinately all the railroads. They also own one other important little railroad, "The Cheraw and Chester Railroad Company".
The Lancaster and Chester Railway, was owned by a cotton mill by the name of the "Lancaster Cotton Mill", which was owned by L.C. Payseur, the name of Lancaster Cotton Mill was changed in the 1930's to Springs Mills Inc. but the ownership was still by L.C. Payseurs'. It is very important that you remember this one little paragraph.
L.C. Payseur also owned "The Bank of Lancaster", which in recent years has gone on a name changing tangent the last known names were the (NCNB) North Carolina National Bank then it merged with its self and became known as NationsBank For a short digression, research discovered that in the 1980's George Bush became the chairman of the executive committee of First International Bank of Houston. He also became a director of Fist International Bank shares. Inc. ("InterFirst"). InterFirst became the largest bank in Texas and was reportedly running speculation all over South America, China and Europe. Later InterFirst merged with Republic Bank in 1987 to form First Republic Bank, eventually as it appeared all banks in Texas got into a non sovereign situation if you can believe that. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with the connivance of the IRS, awarded the assets of First Republic Bank to the North Carolina National Bank in exchange for no payment whatsoever on the part of NCNB. Why should they have to pay themselves? NationsBank, which is reputedly a darling of the intelligence community, which is not quite right but makes some sense, being as the banks and CIA are owned by the railroad.
Payseur also owned "Southern Power Company" which is today known as "Southern Company" and owns the control of all power companies in the united states by law that states that only railroads can manufacture electricity. That is why everyone that comes up with a better and cheaper form of energy and would become a threat to the power company is put out of business. Because the railroad has a monopoly at least until the 99 year leases are up.
Payseur owned "The Lancaster Manufacturing Company", which controlled the production of all wood products, such as railroad ties, railroad cars, service poles, furniture, paper etc., etc.. This is were the railroad land grants come in w i t h such names as Boise Cascade, Weyerhaeuser, Crown Zellierback. Mead, Regency companies using the railroad land leased to them "only" from Payseur to product trees for wood products. These companies do not own the land they operate under leases, they do not have the right to sell railroad or timber land that they use. they do not own the land nor the companies.
Mr. Payseur also owned a company by the name of "The Lancaster Cotton Oil", this company started the manufacture of fertilizer and other related items.
Leroy Springs was appointed President of all of Mr. Payseurs companies to oversee them, he was also Mr. Payseurs' attorney and a trustee for his affairs. He was trusted with all kinds of important documents, affidavits and secrets, as to who the true owners were of these companies. Remember that it was stated earlier that the northerner's couldn't get the southern people to work for them, so Northerners would appoint the old ex-confederate officers to run the companies owned by Yankees after the Civil War and all the confiscation. That is how Leroy Springs got involved with the Lancaster Cotton Mill, and the other companies. He was a manager not an owner.
Next
THE SPRINGSTEINS
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