Georgia Mountain Laurel May 21

Page 82

from the Rabun County Historical Society

Working on the Tallulah Falls Railroad Meager Wages, Women Hewing Crossties and Frozen Overalls By Dick Cinquina

R

abun County was remote and isolated, populated by subsistence farmers scratching out a living on hardscrabble mountain land. The Tallulah Falls Railroad opened Rabun and the surrounding region to the outside world. The TF also brought badly needed jobs. Working on the TF involved backbreaking labor for paltry wages, typically about one dollar per day. But mountain men and women eagerly sought railroad jobs, since meager pay was better than no money at all. Much of the following narrative about railroad jobs and the men and women who did them is drawn from oral histories compiled by the Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center in Mountain City. Picks, Shovels and Mule-Pulled Scrapers The TF used some of the roadbed prepared by the defunct Blue Ridge Railroad decades earlier.

Preparing miles of new roadbed for tracks was the first work offered by the TF. Carving a route through mountainous terrain was done laboriously with picks, shovels and scrapers pulled by mules. When rock outcroppings were encountered, “cuts” were blasted. Will Seagle, who worked on the TF from the Georgia state line to Franklin, recalled the time when dynamite used to blast a cut accidentally exploded. “I seed him (one of the workers) a-goin’ up (in the air)…I run and jumped in the river and got him out… he didn’t have a rag nor a shoe on him. Flesh was a-dropping off of him. Boy, he was pitiful. He lived till midnight and then died.” “I drove steel (making holes for the dynamite),” Seagle continued. “There was two of us. There should be a right-hand man and a left-hand man. There was a colored man there, and he was a left-hand man, and the boss asked me, ‘Mr. Seagle, do

Rail tongs allowed workers to pick up and move heavy sections of rail. Photo courtesy of Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center

Dick Cinquina holds graduate degrees in history and journalism, making his work for the Rabun County Historical Society a natural fit for his interests. He is the retired president of Equity Market Partners, a national financial consulting firm he founded in 1981. In addition to writing monthly articles for the Georgia Mountain Laurel, Dick helped produce the Society’s new web site and is involved with the renovation of the group’s museum. After vacationing in this area for many years, he and his wife Anne moved to Rabun County in 2018 form Amelia Island, Florida.

80 GML - May 2021


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Articles inside

A Salute to the Vanishing Mule

5min
pages 90-91

Foxfire

6min
pages 86-89

Rabun County Historical Society Working on the Tallulah Falls Railroad

10min
pages 82-85

By the Way – A Pottery Jar for FDR?

3min
pages 80-81

Transformation Realized

6min
pages 76-79

This Home’s Image Reflects Unforgettable Lifestyle

3min
pages 68-71

Sanctuary, Livability at the End of the Road

3min
pages 72-75

Reeves Hardware Renovation

4min
pages 62-63

Pet Health – Tis the Season for Allergies

3min
pages 56-59

Madison’s on Main

6min
pages 60-61

Mental Health – The Illness of Addiction

4min
pages 54-55

Aery Chiropractic – Clayton has a new Doctor in Town

2min
pages 51-53

Service With a Smile

1min
page 50

Adventure Out

3min
pages 20-23

WHO will help?

4min
pages 26-29

The Family Table

6min
pages 38-43

The Art of Charlie Dingler

4min
pages 30-33

Bon Appetit

2min
pages 34-37

Cover Artist - Robert Stephens

5min
pages 14-19

Being a Christian is a Relationsbip

5min
pages 44-45

Why - Firmly Rooted Flower Farm

3min
pages 24-25
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