Page 35 - John Anderson

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Cincinnati Southern Railway. The Cincinnati Southern Railway was
then in the process of completing the Cincinnati to Chattanooga
segment. Joseph was engaged in this railroad construction for four
years and was promoted twice during this period. The City of
Cincinnati, Ohio is the only municipality in the country to own an
interstate railroad. An Ohio law enabling the creation of the Cincinnati
Southern Railway was enacted on May 4, 1869. Cincinnati voters
adopted a resolution designating Chattanooga as the southern
terminus one month later. Workmen spiked the last rail in place on
December 10, 1879. The first freight train completed the route from
Cincinnati to Chattanooga on February 21, 1880. The first passenger
train followed on March 8 the same year. The middle section of the
336 mile line from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, where 27 tunnels
helped the line traverse 160 miles of rugged mountain country
between Wilmore, Kentucky and Emory Gap, Tennessee, kept an
assortment of civil engineers busy almost from the day the line
opened for traffic.

In 1873, the Price family had heard about the new frontier being
developed along the Halifax River in Florida and made arrangements
to spend the winter at John Andrew Bostrom’s boarding house,
Bosarve. John Price, his daughter (Josephs’ younger sister) with a
party of friends, eight in all, spent the winter on the Florida east coast.
Joseph Price remained in Kentucky at the time working on the
railroad project which was under extreme schedule constraints. The
planned excursion included a trip down the coast to Jupiter on board
John Andrew Bostrom’s large open sailboat, “The ARK.” Having
collected many natural souvenirs along the way, including a barrel of
sweet Florida oranges from the Dummet Plantation wild groves, the
winter vacation proved a resounding success and delightful stories
about the journey abounded.

Young Joseph Price was so impressed with the exciting stories about
the family trip experiences and the flourishing east Florida
countryside that he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, C.B.

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