While former Gov. John Motley Morehead was identified as the primary figure in the development of the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) in the early 1850s, there’s another fellow who needs a turn in the limelight.
He is North Carolina Sen. Calvin Graves of Yanceyville in Caswell County, who served as the state senate speaker.
It was left up to Sen.
Graves to cast the deciding vote on Jan. 27, 1849, to determine whether to pass
the bill in favor of building the 223-mile rail line from Charlotte to
Goldsborough (as it was known then).
Writing for NCPedia, the late Dr. John L. Humber (shown below) set the stage: “Plagued from its very beginning by conflicting geographic features and political boundaries, North Carolina found it difficult to reconcile the resulting economic differences…between the eastern and western sections of the state.”
Railroads presented an
opportunity, beginning in the 1840s, to tie the state together both
economically and politically, Humber reported.
North Carolina’s first railroad in 1840 connected the port city of Wilmington to Weldon in Halifax County near the Virginia border. At 161 miles, it was the longest railroad line in the world at the time, taking on the name of the Wilmington and Weldon.
The new railroad passed within about a mile of the community of Waynesborough in Wayne County on the Neuse River.
Wayne County was named in memory of U.S. Army Gen. Anthony Wayne, who a daring, aggressive military leader during the American Revolutionary War.
Nicknamed “Mad Anthony” for his
fiery temper and audacity on the battlefield, he was a trusted commander under
George Washington and instrumental in securing the Northwest Territory.
Essentially, a new town formed along the railroad tracks.
The settlement was named “Goldsborough’s Junction,” honoring Maj. Matthew Tilghman Goldsborough, assistant chief engineer with the railroad line.
(The town was incorporated in 1847 as “Goldsborough” and shortened to “Goldsboro” in 1869.)
Both of these early
railroads had a north-south orientation. They connected eastern North Carolina traders
with the bountiful Roanoke River Valley and with Virginia railroads that served
Norfolk and northern markets.
Storyteller Michael Sheehan (shown below) of Chapel Hill said: “Western interests felt left out of the railroad boom. If a new railroad were to run from Charlotte to Goldsborough and connect there with the Wilmington and Weldon, western products could be routed to the state’s principal seaport at Wilmington.”
Legislation to build the NCRR
on the Charlotte to Goldsborough route was sponsored by Sen. William Shepperd
Ashe of New Hanover County.
“On Jan. 18, 1849, the
measure came to a vote in the N.C. House of Commons,” Sheehan said. “It passed
on a vote of 60 in favor and 52 against; the bill moved over to a polarized senate.”
When the senate vote was called on Jan. 27, the tally revealed a 22-22 deadlock.
“All eyes turned to the front of the chamber, where on the dais sat Calvin Graves,” Sheehan said. The senate speaker “would cast the tie-breaking vote on a bill that…would define the state of North Carolina for decades to come.”
Sen. Graves’ Caswell County district bordered Virginia and sat just below Danville.
His constituents wanted to the rail line to run from Charlotte to Danville, passing directly through Caswell County, bringing economic prosperity to the district. In Danville, the new railroad would connect with the Richmond and Danville Railroad.
“Yet, Sen. Graves
believed that the east-west North Carolina Railroad would bring prosperity and
economic unity to the state” in a way a Charlotte-Danville railroad could not,
Sheehan said.
“Without hesitation, Sen. Graves cast his tie-breaking vote in favor of the North Carolina Railroad bill,” Sheehan said. “He had weighed loyalty to his district and…his own political future…against what he saw as best for all of North Carolina.”
In the end, Sen. Graves chose “conviction over constituents,” one historian said.
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