Pierce County  Georgia Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Bob Hurst lat@wayxcable.com


Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/crawford.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


NORTH, SOUTH BIRMINGHAM STREETS IN OFFERMAN RECALL THE DAYS OF B&B RAILROAD
Offerman And Nicholls Shared Controversy Over Railroad Lines

BRUNSWICK'S RITZ THEATER WAS ONCE GENERAL AGENCY FOR B&B
From Here, Helen Gould's Railroad Reached Toward Alabama

By Robert Latimer Hurst

The Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad had made plans to go
through Offerman, Georgia, in Pierce County to Nicholls in
Coffee County. For the Brunswick-based operation, it seemed
simple enough. The 1890s had found this port city anxious to
give muscle to its economic base by competing with
Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville. 

Of course, other railroad lines extended out of Brunswick --
the Brunswick and Western on the Plant System and the Albany
and East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, which would become
the Southern Line. But this was the last of the nineteenth
century, and railroading could do no wrong in the eyes of
most. Tracks were laid through these rural communities,
placing their names on maps and giving them outlets for
various products.

The B&B's general office was found in downtown Brunswick on
Newcastle Street, where the present Ritz Theater is now
located. Dean Broome, in his "History of Pierce County,
Georgia, Volume I," underscores that this line had made its
plans carefully from land acquisition to laying of the
tracks. Most other railroad systems had done the same thing.
But the B&B had something quite different, considering the
time period. Its chief officer was a woman!

Helen Gould, who owned the B&B, gave the line quite a jolt.
She did not sit back in her private car or office and pass
the orders to some subordinate. Miss Gould, in her working
outfit, including the boots, a well-smoked cigar and her
ever-present pistol, took control. And Offerman and Nicholls
would test her skills.

The B&B left Brunswick and entered Thalmann so passenger
connections could be made with the Seaboard Air Line to
Savannah or Jacksonville. All seemed fine, even though Miss
Gould's tracks competed with the Plant System's route out of
Nahunta. But this owner knew that she had a gold mine
because Brunswick was beginning to attract tourists to its
beaches and other resort facilities.

By 1901, B&B had begun that passenger service with five
round trips daily from Brunswick to Thalmann and return. Its
line ran beside the Southern and Plant systems in downtown
Brunswick, with its shops a former cotton mill. In 1902, the
talk was that the company was very serious in aiming toward
Alabama.

Public relations heralded this "as the shortest route from
Birmingham to the Atlantic seaboard ... (It will bring) the
finest timber lands, cotton fields, cotton factories and the
trucking and fruit land of Georgia and Alabama nearer to
tidewater than ever before, but it will also have the great
advantage of being able to fix the freight rates on all
these products and other exports as timber, coal, iron,
steel, coke and their by-products."

Stocks and franchises were bought; and affiliates, such as
construction, steamship and express companies, were
established. All based on the expected success of this line.
Now, B&B reached toward the Plant System's Jesup - Folkston
connection at Hortense. Approaching Offerman on the Plant's
Jesup - Waycross tracks became the next major push.

The reading public had begun to look carefully at the
monopolistic practices of railroads since the newspapers
carried stories daily about the actions of the J.P. Morgans,
the Andrew Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, the Harrimans, the
Rockefellers and the Goulds. Now, another Gould was involved
in an almost fanatical effort to get her work completed from
Offerman to Nicholls.

"The Southern Pines Company of Georgia constructed sawmills
in South Georgia during the 1890s, including Granville,
Nicholls, Hazlehurst, Offerman and Saginaw. The Waycross Air
Line was one of their primary lines of access to the port of
Brunswick during the 1890s," writes C.T. Trowell in his
"Douglas Before Memory." This author points out that, in
June, 1899, the Southern Pines Company began surveying the
route of a new tramroad from Nicholls to Offerman "through
uncut pine timber." If this line were completed through
Offerman to Brunswick, here would be another direct route to
the port. 

Adopting the name "Offerman and Western Railroad," this
track began work immediately to secure its route. Its people
even announced that an extension to Ocilla, Georgia, was
already being planned. And this news did not set well with
the Waycross Air Line.

The Offerman and Western reached Nicholls in 1900. It began
work that would cross the Waycross Air Line tracks so that
it could serve the Southern Pine Company's lumber mill. But
getting across the WAL became troublesome. The Waycross-
based company balked. In fact, the arguments turned into
violence as resentment built up because of the refusal of
one line to cooperate with another.

Editor Broome writes this version: "When Miss Gould's
railroad reached Offerman, she was refused permission to
cross the Plant System with her railroad. She promised her
employees a barrel of beer in addition to extra pay if they
would build her railroad across the Plant System line late
at night after the Plant System employees were in bed.

"The next morning when the Plant System employees reported
for work, the B&B railroad had crossed the Plant System.
That night the B&B employees were guests at a big beer
party."

Eventually, this clash of the two railroad lines led to a
court battle, and the Offerman and Western applauded the
decision. The legal system favored the new line being
allowed to cross the older railway's tracks. The crossing
took place, according to Trowell, at 6:00 p.m. on March 12,
1900. Tempers, again, reached high degrees, with time as the
cooling agent.

Now, lines were being surveyed for the O&W to extend from
Nicholls to Ocilla. By July, 1902, the Brunswick and
Birmingham, which had now purchased the O&W, entered
Offerman forming its desired link with its newly acquired
but controversial line and providing that route from
Brunswick to Nicholls. Birmingham was still a long way away,
with many other pathways and by-ways to cross. But Pierce
County's Offerman and Coffee County's Nicholls had set a
precedent and had also provided an illustration of what it
was like during those days when everyone "rode the rails"
and almost every town, village, stop-in-the-road could boast
of a railroad terminal. 

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