News-Record.com

Columnist Jack Scism who keeps track of the past for the News & Record in the Guilford Record points out November will be the 100th anniversary of the death of Samuel Spencer.

The name may stump many, except for railroad buffs and residents of the towns of Spencer and East Spencer. Samuel Spencer created those towns and a whole lot more. Through his railroad mergers, he helped pull the South from the economic dumps it had withered in following the Civil War.

After serving in war himself under Gen. Nathan Forrest, Spencer attended the universities of Georgia and Virginia and became a railroad man. He eventually became president of the Long Island and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads.

In 1894, with Spencer serving as an adviser, multi-millionaire J.P. Morgan and others bought the bankrupt Richmond and Danville Railroad, which included 3,300 miles of track in the South. The line connected here with the North Carolina Railroad from Goldsboro to Charlotte.

They buyers turned the R&D into Southern Railway and expanded the line by leasing and buying other railroads. Eventually, the Southern had a network of lines that, to use its logo, served the South.

As Southern's president, Spencer linked together an eastern main line from Washington to Atlanta through Greensboro. The company decided to locate its main repair shops half way between Washington and Salisubry.

The exact point was in Rowan County and two towns named for Spencer arose to supply workers to the shops. The shops remained busy until Southern quit using steam locomotives in 1953. The huge complex is now the site of the N.C. Transportation Museum.

The Southern prospered under Spencer and brought many travelers to Greensboro, who spent money on lodging and shopping while waiting for connections to other cities. After the merger of Southern and Norfolk & Western railraods in the 1980s, the old Southern main line has stayed busy with freight trains. By then Southern was out of the passenger business.

Spencer owned a hunting preserve in Friendship township, near what's now Piedmont Triad International Airport. In his private rail car, he occasionally brought wealthy northerners with him to Guilford County to hunt.

He was traveling here with four friends Thanksgiving Day, 1906, when the train, with his private car attached to the rear, stopped near Lawyers, Va., south of Lynchburg, to repair a broken drawbar on a coach.

An operator at a station about three to the north failed to stop another southbound passenger train. The flagman on Spencer's train was walking up the tracks to place flags warning a train was ahead. But it was too late. The other train roared by the flagman and rammed into Spencer's car. Spencer was killed, along with his guests and two porters.

The towns of Spencer and East Spencer continue on in his honor and a statue of Spencer is said to decorate a park in Atlanta.