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L. A. Abshire
Engineer
Biography
L.A. Abshire was an engineer on the Indiana, Alabama and Texas Railroad by 1886. Abshire left Clarksville, Tennessee, in March 1887 for Decatur, Alabama, where he engaged in the sawmill business.
James D. Adams
Conductor
Biography
James D. Adams, affectionately known as “Uncle Jim” to generations of travelers, died at midnight on Nov. 12, 1914, at the home of his sister in Smyrna, Georgia. He was 67 years old.
Adams was one of the most seasoned railroad conductors in the South, with a distinguished career that spanned nearly half a century. He began his service with the Western & Atlantic Railroad around 1867. He spent the last 35 years of his career as a conductor, a role in which he became a familiar and respected figure to countless traveling men across the state.
He was survived by his wife, five sisters, and one brother. Six nephews, all employed by the Western & Atlantic Railroad, were chosen to serve as pallbearers.
The funeral procession departed Atlanta on the morning of Nov. 14, 1914, via the Western & Atlantic line, with interment at McDaniel Station, marking the final journey of a man who spent his life in motion.
J. N. Alsup
Biography
J.N. Alsup was the contractor for the new Electric Street Railway of Clarksville, which replaced a mule-drawn system. He told the local newspaper the project would cost $38,000.
Alsup was the motorman of the first electric streetcar to rumble down Franklin Street. He sold his stock and was no longer connected with the system by June 1897.
Andrew Jackson Anderson
Engineer
Biography
Andrew Jackson Anderson, a native of Hamburg, South Carolina, joined the Western and Atlantic Railroad in 1860 or 1861 and was Jeff Cain’s fireman before becoming an engineer.
Robert A. Anderson
Superintendent
Biography
R.A. “Bob” Anderson began his career with the Western & Atlantic Railroad in about 1856.
The Locust Grove native began his career as a clerk in the railroad’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, freight office. After two years in that role, he was promoted to general freight agent.
In 1863, he left the railroad to serve for the Confederacy, holding a role in the engineering department.
After the state leased the line in 1870, Anderson was named general superintendent, and he assumed the superintendent role in about 1882 after William MacRae resigned the post.
When the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway leased the line from the state in 1890, he was named general superintendent of the Western & Atlantic’s property. However, with his health failing, he resigned from the post after only a few months.
Preston Stanley Arkwright
President
Biography
Preston Stanley Arkwright, a corporate lawyer originally from Savannah and son-in-law of former Governor Alfred H. Colquitt, was hired as the president of the newly formed Georgia Railway and Electric Company in 1902.
Arkwright also served on the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway board.
Arkwright served as president until May 1945, when he moved into the role of chairman of the company’s board. He died on December 2, 1946, just a few weeks after his wife, Dorothy Colquitt Arkwright