498 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI very naturallj', anxious to take advantage of this liberal offer of assistance, and accord- ingly a meeting was called of the citizens of Charleston and such othei-s as might be in- tei-ested, to begin work looking to the con- struction of the road. This meeting was held Jime 9th, 1853, in the court house at Charles- ton, and was presided over by Judge Noah Handy, as chairman. John C. Thomas was secretary. It was determined first of all to discover the cosi of constructing the rail- road across the swamp along the line of the projected road from Cairo to Fulton. George "Whitcomb, Harrison Hough, H. M. Molder, H. M. Ward, A. M. Bedford, John Byrd and Felix Badger were appointed as a committee to investigate this cost of construction. It was then determined to call together a large number of citizens from the southeast and alst) from Kentucky and Tennessee, to fur- ther consider the possibility of building the road. This meeting was held at Benton, Missouri, November 14th and 15th, 1853. Not much was done at the meeting, further than to adojit resolutions advocating the building of the Cairo & Pulton road by way of Bloomfield, and asking that the St. Louis & Iron Moiuitain Railway Company extend their road to a crossing with the Cairo & Fulton. On September 12th, of the same year, the Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company had been organized in Stoddard county, with John IM. Johnson as president. The capital stock of the new corporation was fixed at $1,500,000.00, divided into 60,000 shares of the par value of $25.00 each. The incorporators of this railroad did not have the means to build it, and it had been provided before the act of incorporation to secure from some of the interested counties subscriptions to the cap- ital stock of the railroad. These subscrip- tions were to be paid in land at a value of $1.00 per acre. Subscriptions were received from the coimties, as follows : Stoddard County $150,000 Butler County 100,000 Dunklin County 100,000 Scott County 50,000 Ripley County 19,500 Total $419,500 In accordance with the terms of the agree- ment made, the county courts of the counties mentioned conveyed to the Cairo & Pulton Railroad Company, lands at the value of $1.00 an acre to the amounts mentioned. This transfer of large bodies of land at a minimum price, resulted in very great loss to the counties, and in long continued litiga- tion. A meeting was lield in Charleston in 1853 to determine whether it was possible to pro- ceed to survey the line of the new railroad. The meeting asked the county court of Mis- sissippi county to provide funds not to ex- ceed $500.00, for the purpose of a survey. This the county did, but the surve.y was not made. The Cairo & Pulton Railroad Com- pany had, in the meantime, been incorporated by the state of Arkansas, and the chief engi- neer, J. S. Williams, had made a survey of the road through Arkansas and extended his survey through Missouri and reported to the legislature of IVIissouri in February, 1855. Immediately following this report, the legis- lature proceeded to incorporate the Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company in Missouri, and to pass an act to issue bonds of the state to the new company, equal to the amount that it had expended, but not to exceed $250,-
