Laurens Railroad
Appearance
The Laurens Railroad was a 5 ft (1,524 mm)[1] gauge shortline railroad that served the South Carolina Upstate region before, during and after the Civil War.
The line was started in 1854.[2]
By 1861, the 32-mile line was carrying 8,500 passengers a day.[3]
Among the line's presidents was Henry William Garlington (1811-1893), a planter who signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession in 1860.[4]
The railroad apparently went out of business sometime after the Civil War.[5]
By 1881 it had been reorganized and was operating as the Laurens Railway. It survived under that named until it was bought by the Columbia, Newberry and Laurens Railroad in 1894.[6]
References
- ^ Confederate Railroads - Laurens
- ^ Origins of Southern Radicalism: The South Carolina Upcountry, 1800-1860, Lacy K. Ford, page 241
- ^ The Railroads of the Confederacy, Robert C. Black, 1998, page 136
- ^ Laurens County, S.C., Delegates to the 1860 Secession Convention
- ^ Blue Notes, Laurensville Female College, May 2010
- ^ South Carolina Railroads/ Laurens Railroad