With the Southern's historic "Best Friend of Charleston" helping set the stage for the opening event, the people of Bamberg, S. C., on May 9 launched a week-long celebration honoring the city's 100th anniversary.
At 11:30 that morning the centennial celebration officially began as J. R. Brosnan, Southern's Charleston division superintendent removed the cover from a historical marker commemorating one of America's first railroads. Sunlight glinted from an attractive aluminum sign marking the original track location of the pioneer South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, earliest Southern Railway predecessor line and owner of the history-making "Best Friend."
Removal of a canvas cover reveals a new historical marker at the original track location of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company lit Bamberg. J. R. Brosnan (at left of marker), Charleston division superintendent, represented the Southern. w. Reese Hart (at microphone), chief of development, South Carolina State Development Board, worked with the Southern in producing this marker and four others to be placed at other cities in the state. |
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Gathered with local citizens for the unveiling ceremony were" Southern Railway representatives, city and state officials, members of South Carolina's State Development Board and a number of honor guests, among them several former governors of the state.
During the program following the unveiling, speakers credited the Southern with making a major contribution to South- Carolina's present growth; just as its pioneer predecessor helped open to trade the undeveloped area of the state a century and a quarter ago.
The historical marker is one of five being erected by the Southern in cooperation with the State Development Board of South Carolina to show highway travelers the location of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company. Marker sites were selected where main north-south tourist highways cross the old track location. One is in Bamberg, the others at Charleston, Summerville, Branchville and Aiken.
Following the unveiling, the people turned their attention to the "Best Friend," curiously examining the locomotive and climbing aboard the two box-like cars. Parents took snapshots of their children standing beside the train and newspaper photographer's trained cameras on newsworthy subjects sitting at the controls of the little engine.
The "Best Friend of Charleston" had come to Bam- berg at the request of. the centennial's hospitality committee. The committee wanted to set up a rail- road display reminiscent of the past century. Having learned that the Southern owned a full-size, operating replica of the historic train, the group asked the Southern to put the train on exhibition at Bamberg during the centennial week. The Southern was glad to oblige.
At Bamberg, the train drew the attention of thou sands as it stood on a house track near the Southern's freight station. Only a few yards away, the iron - capped wooden rails of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company once passed through what is now Bamberg.
Many of the people who viewed the toy-like train asked the Southern Railway visitors questions like: "What happened to the original 'Best Friend?' "- "What part does the train have in Bamberg's history?" - and "How is the history of the Southern Rail- way related to Bamberg's?"
Believing that its readers might also be interested in the answers to these questions, Ties presents here a brief history of the "Best Friend" and its owners, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company.
On Christmas Day in 1830 the "Best Friend of Charleston" stamped its name on the dusty pages of history by becoming the first steam locomotive to pull a train of cars in regular service on this continent. It made its initial run on the first completed six miles of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company.
But six months later, on June 17, 1831, the "Best Friend" exploded when a workman tied down a safety valve on the boiler to shut off the loudly hissing steam. With the running parts salvaged from the wreck, a new locomotive was built and named "Phoenix," after the bird in Egyptian legend which, consumed by fire, rose in youthful freshness from its own ashes.
By October, 1833, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company opened to its entire length-136 miles from the port city of Charleston to the town of Hamburg, across the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga. At the time the pioneer railroad gained another niche in history-it was the world's longest railway. For 11 years afterward the railway operated under its contradictory name ( the company originally contemplated dredging a canal to be operated in connection with its proposed "Rail Road" but the plan was dropped before anything was ever done about it) . Then, in early 1844, the SCC&RR merged with the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company and the two adopted the name South Carolina Railroad Company.
At some time during that period the railway erected a water tank near a cypress swamp on its line approximately midway between Charleston and Hamburg. The point became known as Lowery's Turnout. Envisioning its possibilities as a town site, five men bought a plot of land around in the water tank in 1852. When the quintet incorporated their real estate holdings into a town on December 19, 1855, they named it after one of the owners, Major William Seaborn Bamberg, a veteran of the Mexican War .
As the years went by, the town of Bamberg gained in stature and its railway underwent several changes in ownership. The Civil War left the road physically wrecked and financially shaky. That, plus unwise and overzealous postwar expansion plans drove its owners into bankruptcy. In 1881 the South Carolina Railroad Company was reorganized with a slight change in name as the South Carolina Railway Company. Under this ownership it continued to expand until it included all of what is now the Southern Railway's present Charleston division except the line from Camden, S. C., to Marion, N. C., which the Southern acquired in 1899.
In 1894 the South Carolina Railway became the South Carolina and Georgia Railroad Company, but it, too, defaulted on its obligations. The Southern Railway Company acquired control of the SC&G in 1899, and in 1902, a lease was executed between the two railways giving the Southern the right to operate the South Carolina & Georgia Railroad Company for 999 years from July 1, 1902. The lease, still in effect expires in the year 2901 A.D.
Bamberg today is a growing community proud of its past and confident in its future. During the centennial celebration Bamberg citizens looked back on a century of achievement in which, the city heads publicly stated, Southern played a key role.
To the thousands of good wishes the town received on its 100th anniversary, the Southern added its congratulations and the hope that Bamberg will continue to prosper and grow during the coming years.