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G
Eugene Gordon
Biography
Eugene Cornelius Gordon was born on June 17, 1845, in Georgia.
Gordon, the brother of Confederate Gen. John Brown Gordon, served as a major in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He later founded and led the Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company near Decatur, Alabama.
Gordon was instrumental in constructing several railroads in the southern United States, including the Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad, which built a narrow-gauge line between Clarksville, Tennessee, and Gracey, Kentucky.
Gordon died in July 1913 while taking the train from Memphis, Tennessee, to his home in Amarillo, Texas. The Decaturs Daily called Gordon “a big hearted, big brained man” in his obituary.
H
Frank Hamby
Biography
Frank Hamby joined the Western and Atlantic Railroad circa 1865.
Tom Lee Hamby
Engineer
Biography
Tom Lee Hamby concluded a 50-year career in railroading on January 31, 1939, when he stepped down from the cab of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway’s “Dixie Limited” for the final time.
Hamby began his railroad career in November 1889 with the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
“Railroading is something that gets into your blood,” he told The Atlanta Journal at the time of his retirement.
His career was not without peril. In 1911, while bringing a freight train into Dalton, Georgia, his fireman spotted another engine barreling toward them on the same track. Hamby slammed on the emergency brake and jumped, narrowly escaping the wreckage.
In 1925, he was at the throttle of the Dixie Flyer near Chickamauga when it collided head-on with Train No. 95. He again jumped, rolling the length of two telegraph poles. That time, his injuries took nearly a year to heal.
In both incidents, Hamby was cleared of any fault, and dispatching errors were found to be the cause.
Born in Gwinnett County and raised in Cobb County, Hamby made his home in Smyrna, Georgia, throughout his career.
Luther Claude Hames , Sr.
Motorman
Biography
Luther C. Hames (November 1, 1892-November 13, 1968) joined the Atlanta Northern Railway in 1910 at 17 years old.
On Monday, January 2, 1928, Hames was the motorman of an Atlanta Northern interurban car when it crashed in the Jonesville community south of Marietta, Georgia. Six people died in the wreck or soon afterward.
The wreck did not harm his standing within the community. After his tenure with the railroad, he was elected as Cobb County’s tax receiver in 1948 and served as the county’s deputy tax commissioner from 1956 to 1963. His son later served as a judge in Cobb County.