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History
by Lowell Ross
"In 1852, the South
Carolina Legislature granted a charter to the Blue Ridge Railroad Company, which
was formed to build a railroad connection between Charleston, South Carolina,
and Knoxville, Tennessee. The railroad
was laid out to connect existing track in Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxville
via the Blue Ridge Mountains. The major
obstacle to this work was Stumphouse Mountain in Oconee County, South
Carolina. The construction of the
railroad required three tunnels in Oconee: Middle, Saddle, and Stumphouse.
Stumphouse Tunnel was to be constructed 5,863 feet through solid granite.
At the same time in
Charleston, South Carolina, a group of businessmen formed the German
Colonization Society which had as its purpose the purchase of a tract of land in
the foothills suitable for sale to German immigrants. After considerable study, the Society, in
November, 1849, purchased from Colonel Joseph Gresham 17,000 acres in Pickens
District and proceeded to lay out a town named Walhalla. By the time the
railroad was being surveyed in 1853-54, Germans were actually living in
Walhalla, and the Society took an active role to insure that the railroad would
run through the new town. The original
contract for the railroad was awarded to Bangs and Company, who agreed to
complete the railroad from Anderson, South Carolina to Knoxville, Tennessee, in
fifty-four months from January 1, 1854. Anson Bangs withdrew from the company,
and the corporation re-organized with the name A. Birdsall and Company. By 1856, no work had been done on Stumphouse
Tunnel, although much of the road bed to the north had been prepared. Bangs and Company/Birdsall was dismissed in
March, 1856, for incompetence, and the work came to a stop.
A new contract was
negotiated with George Collyer and Company, but the company abandoned the work
in November, 1857. A new contract was
entered into with Garret, Junter, and others of Virginia, who assigned the
contract to Humbird and Hitchcock, who began work in December, 1857.
Members of the
German Colonization Society and, no doubt, the new residents of Walhalla were
excited about the prospect of a major railroad company running through the town
and expected land values to escalate substantially. The enthusiasm was dampened somewhat,
however, by complaints of Walhalla residents about the transients who were now
lingering around the railroad project.
By 1857, about 700 people lived in Walhalla, and there were a number of
stores, shops, and other businesses, including four breweries. A church and a school were organized, and
plans were made for an academy to be located in the new town.
By late 1858, track
had been laid as far as Pendleton, and plans were made to complete the track on
to Walhalla. Stumphouse Tunnel was being
constructed at the rate of approximately 90 feet per month, the work proceeding
from both the western and eastern ends and from each direction of shafts. Seven steam engines were at the site
ventilating shafts, pumping water, and pulling out rock. Some 1,200 people lived at Tunnel Hill, near
the tunnel, and some 600 men (Germans and Irish—mostly Irish) were on the
payroll of Humbird and Hitchcock.
In November, 1858,
the President, Directors, and Chief Engineer made the following report to the
Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Blue Ridge Railroad Company, held in
Charleston, SC:
The progress in the
Stumphouse Tunnel, 5,863 feet in length, is very satisfactory. Messrs. Humbird
and Hitchcock commenced the 1st December, 1957, and have manifested great energy
and skill in the conduct of the work. . . .
Three shafts are excavated to grade.
The most eastern is
worked out; that is, the tunnel has been extended beyond it. The last shaft is
within thirty-seven feet of the depth required to work the tunnel. For the first three months, the average
monthly progress in the heading was 83 feet.
For the second three months, the monthly average was 118 feet. Time was lost in fixing proper machinery in
shaft No. 4. For the next three months,
the average progress was 109 feet. Time
was lost in this period, also, by the fixing of necessary machinery. In September and October, the average monthly
progress was 160 feet. This rate of
progress, it is expected, will be maintained until next March, when shaft No. 3
will be sunk to necessary depth. After
that time, with a competent force of workmen, a monthly progress of 200 feet is
confidently expected. At this rate the
tunnel would be completed in less than two years. . . . The shafts of a tunnel
are the most tedious and costly part of the work. They serve to ventilate the tunnel and to
expedite the excavation; each shaft, at grade, presenting two faces, from which
the excavation of the tunnel is worked in opposite directions.
The Chief Engineer,
Walter Gwynn, reported as follows:
At the date of
the last Annual Report, we were working from six points; two in shaft No. 1, two
in shaft No. 4, and one at each end of the tunnel. The heading between shaft No. 1 and the
eastern portal was driven through in February.
Since then the bottom has been carried past the shaft, so that it is now
inoperative in facilitating the work, and only subserves the purpose of a
ventilator. Shaft No. 2, however, was sunk to grade about the same time that the
bench passed shaft No. 1, and destroyed its efficiency, so that we had
immediately two new points of attack presented to supply the two lost in shaft
No. 1; and thus we maintained our six working faces; viz: two in shaft No. 2;
two in shaft No. 4, and one at each end of the tunnel. Shaft No. 3 is now sunk within 37 feet of the
point required for working the heading drift.
This depth will be attained in the course of five months, when the
excavation will be carried on from eight faces.
There have been excavated to the full section (that is bench and heading)
1,856 feet, and 2,375 feet of heading, leaving 3,488 feet of heading and 4,007
feet of bench yet to be done. The
average monthly drive for the last three months has been one hundred and fifty
feet, and this will probably be exceeded in future. When the headings start from No. 3 there will
be an average monthly drive of more than 200 feet.
Counting the
contents of the tunnel alone, it is more than one-third done. Embracing the shafts, the work is five-eights
done. In point of time, embracing both
tunnels and shafts excavated, rather more than two-thirds have been done.
The Irish workmen at
Tunnel Hill comprised the largest concentration of Catholics in Upstate South
Carolina, which did not go unnoticed by the Catholic Church. Father J.J.
O'Connell held services for the faithful wherever he could find a suitable
building. Father O'Connell claims that
at the invitation of the congregation (who did not have a minister), he "opened
and preached the first sermon in the new unfinished [German Evangelical]
Lutheran Church at Walhalla," (chartered in 1853). Father O'Connell supervised the construction
of a framed Catholic Church (dedicated to St. Patrick) and an adjoining priest's
house at Tunnel Hill. Father Lawrence
was the first resident priest at Tunnel Hill, although Father O'Connell was a
frequent visitor. Father O'Connell
organized a school, conducted by James Caisy and Cornelius Gorman. It came to Father O'Connell's attention that
some of the Irish had a propensity for ardent spirits so he organized St.
Patrick's Temperance Society, which he claimed contributed to the peace of the
village. A hotel and several saloons
were constructed at Tunnel Hill to serve the workers and visitors to the
tunnel. A cemetery (which is still
visible) was soon found necessary to bury the workers who died from injuries
received while working in the tunnel.
In the summer of
1858, a rumor circulated at Tunnel Hill that the State did not intend to
continue the funding of the railroad. In
an effort to save the work, the company held a celebration on August 19 to drum
up popular support for the railroad.
Flags were flown, the workers marched, and St. Patrick's Temperance
Society passed in procession behind a marshal on horseback and in front of two
priests and the German military company, in uniform, commanded by Captain
Dietrich Bieman. Benjamin Perry (a
native of what is now Oconee County and who was, in 1865, appointed Governor of
South Carolina by President Andrew Johnson) was the featured speaker of the
day. Colonel Allen of Barnwell County
also addressed the crowd. A quantity of
barbecued meats was served to one and all.
By late 1858,
Walhalla had grown to about 1,000 people within the town limits and another 200
- 300 just outside of town. The Bieman
and Schroder hotels competed for the business of the railroad people who came to
Walhalla. An effort was made by members
of the German Colonization Society to move the courthouse of Pickens District
from Pickens Village to West Union or Walhalla.
The townspeople expected Walhalla to grow into a major railroad
center.
In spite of the
dreams of the people of Charleston, considerable effort on the part of many
people of the state, and sizable expenditures, the railroad across the mountains
was not meant to be. The South Carolina
Legislature refused to grant further funding to the railroad in 1859, ending
South Carolina's western connection.
Tunnel Hill quickly disappeared.
Civil War deserters burned the floor and weather-boarding of St.
Patrick's Catholic Church for fire wood.
After the Civil War,
there was some effort made to resume work on the railroad, resulting in a major
scandal. In 1868, the State guaranteed the bonds of the railroad to the extent
of $4,000,000 on condition of retaining a statutory lien upon the entire
property in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee.
In the summer of
1869, the executive committee of the Blue Ridge Railroad awarded a contract for
construction to three Pennsylvanians, whom H.H. Kimpton recommended to
carpetbagger Governor Robert Scott as "our friends." It was agreed that Scott's brother-in-law,
George W. Waterman, for a valuable consideration would receive one-eighth of all
profits arising out of the contract. Of the three Pennsylvanians, "Honest John"
Patterson was the most important. He had
been a state legislator, an army captain, and a small town banker, but never a
railroad contractor. Construction could
not begin because the Blue Ridge bonds could not be sold except at a discount so
great as to make them hardly worth selling. As late as September 1870, the bonds
remained in the possession of Kimpton and Clews.
In 1871, Harrison,
president of the railroad, bribed through the legislature (over Governor Scott's
veto), an act renewing the State's guarantee, but giving Henry Clews, Henry
Gourdin, and George S. Cameron a first mortgage on the railroad. On February 3, 1872, the legislature was
bribed to repeal its guarantee of the $4,000,000 of bonds and to order that they
be taken up in exchange for $1,800,000 of revenue bond scrip, the latter to be
retired by a three-mill tax on the people for four years. The State Supreme
Court in 1873 and the United States Supreme Court in 1904 annulled the
scrip."
"Walhalla, South Carolina,
is the geographic center and the county seat of Oconee County which has a
population of approximately 65,000 people.
Lake Keowee borders the county on the north and Lake Hartwell borders it
on the south.
Walhalla has 14 antique
shops and 11 restaurants. There are 7
major parks in Oconee County with hundreds of picnic tables, numerous camps
sites, recreational vehicle hook-ups, boat-launching ramps, and many other
recreational facilities. Some of the
most popular places to visit include:
Walhalla fish hatchery, located in a virgin Hemlock forest; Oconee
Station, the oldest building in Oconee County; Old Pickens Presbyterian Church
(the only remaining building in Pickens Village-one-time county seat); John C.
Calhoun mansion; and the Duke Energy Visitors center.
There are 8 golf
courses within a 20 mile radius of Walhalla.
There are a number of motels and bed and breakfast inns in the area with
varying accommodations.
Clemson University
is 18 miles from Walhalla where many activities may be found, including
football, basketball, baseball, and a series of performances at the Brooks
Center.
Walhalla is
approximately equidistant from Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta
Georgia. The Greenville-Spartanburg
(GSP) Airport is about 90 minutes (2 hours to the gate) from Walhalla."
From:
Stumphouse
Tunnel
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