Clarke County GaArchives History - Books .....Athens Railway & Electric Company 1923 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 1, 2005, 11:22 pm Book Title: History Of Athens And Clarke County Athens Railway & Electric Company THE year 1870 saw the beginning of street railway operation in Athens when Mr. William Bailey Thomas, later the owner of the Tallulah Falls Railway, built and operated for a short time a freight railway on Oconee St., which was intended to haul goods from the terminal of the Georgia Railroad near Carr's Hill to the then center of Commercial Athens at Broad and Thomas St. This railroad was known as the Athens Street Railway, but it was short-lived. Later, in the year 1877, a charter was obtained for the Athens Transfer Railroad Co., which projected a line from a junction on the Northeastern, now the Southern Railway, about five miles from the city to a point on the Georgia Railroad several miles from the city. This, perhaps, could not be classed as a street railroad and at any rate it appears never to have materialized. In 1885, a promoter named Snodgrass wended his way from Texas to Athens and obtained a charter for the Classic City Street Railway Co., really beginning the history of passenger railway transportation in the city. A number of the older citizens will recall the breaking in of the little Texas mules that were shipped untamed from the wilds of the former independent Republic on the Rio Grande. These daily exhibitions of cow boy skill and resourcefulness and opposing mulish stubbornness attracted as much attention as does a game of baseball nowadays on the Y. M. C. A. ground on a summer afternoon. The little rails were laid on Broad, College, Clayton, Lumpkin, Hancock, Pulaski, Prince and Milledge, the little cars were unloaded and placed upon the rails and the little mules were hitched to the ears and Athens had made a step forward. Money, in no small quantity, rolled into the bank and prosperity seemed to be the portion of the new venture. Mr. Snodgrass, however, .became homesick for the fertile fields of Texas, and although he deplored the necessity of giving up his adopted home he was finally persuaded to transfer the property to Athens people for a consideration that perhaps recompensed him for the time, money and trouble expended in floating this infant industry. Before many months the new management was convinced that appearances are sometimes deceptive and street car transportation in Athens seemed to be doomed. But Messrs. E. G. Harris and John T. Voss came up from Macon and with faith in the city purchased the property, extended the lines and after a few years discarded the little Texas mules and substituted electric motor equipment, so that one June 23rd, 1891, electric cars were operating on the streets of Athens. In those early days of electric traction the equipment was more or less crude and unreliable and the labor untrained. The stringency of 1893 proved too serious a handicap for the owners of the property and a receivership became necessary, Mr. George A. Mell taking over the property as the representative of the court with Mr. T. P. Hunnicutt as superintendent. After some months of operation the receiver was faced with a failure to meet the actual operating expenses and having no available assets upon which to draw for the deficit he saw no way out but to abandon operations. Appreciating the grave consequences to the community, following the withdrawal of its public transportation facilities, a company of men of vision and civic loyalty under the leadership of Mr. W. S. Holman, approached the receiver with a proposition to guarantee him against operating loss, if he would allow one of their number to direct the operations of the property subject to his approval. This proposition appealed to the receiver and the plan was in force until the sale of the property in June 1894. In the meantime, a company with a board of directors consisting of Messrs. W. S. Holman, J. Y. Carithers, A. P. Dearing, J. A. Hunnicutt and C. D. Flanigen had been formed and to this company the property was transferred following the sale. A little later Dr. J. A. Hunnicutt transferred his interest to Mr. Wm. T. Bryan, who then became a strong factor in the development of the property. The small steam plant located just below the present steam and substation soon proved inadequate and the property at Mitchell's Bridge was acquired and developed. In October 1896, the street railway generator was moved to the new hydro-electric station and on December 12th, 1896, Brumby's Drug Store was lighted by current generated from the white coal of the Middle Oconee River. Later a contract was made with the city for street lighting and in 1898 an additional turbine was installed at the Mitchell Bridge plant to care for the increasing load due to the growing popuarity of electric lighting and to the acquisition of the property and contracts of the electric lighting department of the Athens Manufacuring Company and the City of Athens. In 1900 the need for more generating equipment being realized the water power at Tallassee Shoals was purchased and plans laid for a complete and radical change in the generating and distribution methods made possible by the great advances in the art following the development of three phase apparatus under the Tesla patents. A substation was erected on Prince Avenue and three phase electric current from Mitchell's Bridge was merged with that generated and transmitted from Tallassee on a common switchboard and from that switchboard distributed throughout the city. In 1904, the record low water period in the rivers of Georgia, the Company realized that a steam auxiliary was absolutely necessary if continuity of service was to be maintained. So, the first unit of the present combined steam and substation was installed on the property on which the first 100 H. P. steam station wag located. This station was modern and up to date in every respect, the steam turbine purchased being the first horizontal turbine erected in Georgia and the boilers the second of their type in the State. Both these types are now universally accepted as the best engineering practice. In 1908, a turbine of twice the size of the first unit was installed and in 1918 an additional unit four times the size of the first units was added. In the meantime Barnett Shoals was developed and put in service in 1911, adding 3700 H.P. to the Company's capacity. Today the total capacity of the four stations is 9800 H.P., but all of this is only available when the river flow is sufficient to furnish a full supply of water to all water wheels. In 1910, all the property of Athens Electric Railway Company was transferred to Athens Railway and Electric Company with the following officers and directors. W. T. Bryan, President; J. T. Carithers, First Vice-President; C. D. Flanigen, Second Vice-Presi-dent; John White Morton, Secretary; C. D. Cox, Treasurer; W. S. Holman, A. H. Hodgson, J. M. Hodgson, Billups Phinizy and John R. White. At the annual meeting of the stockholders held in 1913, a majority of the common stock of the Company having been acquired by Henry L. Dougherty & Co., the New York interest was represented on the directorate by Messrs. Henry L. Doherty, Frank W. Frueauff, C. T. Brown and H. H. Scott. Captain James White and Mr. C. L. Proctor were also elected, Captain White for his second term. In its nearly thirty years under the same operating management the Company has grown from its initial installation of 100 H.P., to the present generating equipment of nearly 10,000 H. P., and has met all demands for power at rates lower than any other company in the State. The Company has not lagged behind in contributing its full share in money and man power toward the success of all progressive activities of the community. It had been the aim of the management to install such equipment and render such service as would be in full accord with the impressively attractive features of the community and the civic ideals of its progressive men and women of affairs. The present directorate of the Company includes: C. D. Flanigen, President; Henry L. Doherty, Vice-President; Billups Phinizy Vice-President; D. B. Carson, Vice-President; J. M. Billing, Secretary and Treasurer; J. M. Hodgson, Abit Nix, J. F. Tibbetts, J. J. Wilkins, Sidney Boley, R. E. Burger, B. F. Hardeman, C. H. Phinizy, E. L. Carithers and T. I. Carter. In the operating department, Thos. A. Gibson is General Superintendent; Henry M. Hughes, Superintendent of Production; Joel J. Fowler, Superintendent of Distribution; Robert G. Davis, Superintendent of Transportation, and Henry A. Pendergraph, New Business Manager. 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