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History of Burlington, North Carolina
Folks from all over the state attended a big meeting held at William Albright's place in Chatham County in 1828 where there was talk of building railroads and about how one day there would be tracks clear across North Carolina from east to west. Twenty years had passed, however, and nobody had started building such a railroad. More than 20 years later, there were only two railroads in the whole State and both of them were down east.
The General Assembly had chartered a North Carolina Railroad Company and authorized it to issue $3,000,000 worth of stock to build a railroad from Goldsboro to Charlotte. The State, itself promised to buy two-thirds of the stock as soon as private investors raised the other $1,000,000.
The big question was which way this railroad was going to run. That was the main question everyone was asking. The company engineers stated that the shortest distance was by way of Pittsboro and Asheboro, but there were a lot of curves and steep grades along that route. Maybe they would build it by way of Hillsboro and Graham and Greensboro. It was twenty miles farther that way.
General Ben Trollinger, who ran the cotton mill at Haw River, suggested that the road be constructed by his mill. He was willing to build a bridge which would be needed across the river. Several other influential men backed his idea. The railroad must come through Alamance County, they said. And so it did.
Land along the proposed railroad became valuable. Dozens of families left their homes in the Hawfields section and moved to the village that came to be known as Mebanesville and later as Mebane.
Nearly two years passed before the necessary money was in hand, but at last, in the summer of 1851, the first ground for the new railroad was broken at Greensboro, and the mighty project got underway. Four thousand tons of iron arrived from England to be forged into spikes and rails. Eighteen hundred men and boys both slave and free, began laying the tracks. While thousands of citizens anxiously waited, the iron ribbon spread slowly across the State.
Four years after the work started, the construction crew reached the village of Mebanesville. The first "iron horse" arrived there on a Spring day in 1855, and one citizen recalled colorful details of the event: "The first locomotive, at that time the eighth wonder of the world in the surrounding country, came puffing up to the depot at Mebanesville. Eyes sparkled in expectation of a three mile ride to Back Creek Bridge. This was indeed a proud and glorious day for old Alamance.
The engine which stood ready to pull the car in which the whole crowd packed for a free ride bore the name of that grand old man and noble statesman, Giles Mebane.
The era of bad roads and poor travel was ended; the era of the "iron horse" had begun.
Before the first rails were laid, the North Carolina Railroad Company selected a location where they could build, repair and do maintenance. It was a good, well-elevated piece of land slightly west of the village that is now Glen Raven, almost equally distant from both ends of the railroad.
The Board of Directors had turned down Greensboro, Hillsborough, Goldsboro and several other cities in favor of this site. With confidence they sent agents to buy the necessary lots. They were shocked when it suddenly became apparent that the people in western Alamance did not want the railroad shops and that they could not be persuaded to sell land to the railroad.
Slightly affronted at this refusal, the Directors put their hands together once more and chose a second site. They could route the tracks a block north of the Alamance County Courthouse in Graham and would build the shops on the edge of that small village.
The news struck Graham like a swarm of bees. Preposterous! To have their neat little village ruined by a railroad. Think of all the smoke and noise. Why think of the menace those iron monsters would be to wandering livestock, not to mention unwary citizens and the dignity of the county court. No railroad or railroad shops were going to be put up within a mile of their courthouse. They passed an ordinance to that effect.
For the Railroad Company, this was insult added to injury. They decided to ignore these impertinent Alamance residents. Maybe Greensboro would be better at that. Had not Ben Trollinger come to the rescue at this point, the county might have lost the shops altogether. General Trollinger was a man of foresight. The railroad, he said, could build shops on his property two miles west of Graham. The offer was quickly accepted before the General could change his mind, and in his report to the stockholders in 1854, the Railroad President announced the choice.
Company officials regarded the "Sylvan" location of the repair shops as a great advantage. The shops were expected to occupy a number of buildings and employ many men. Company headquarters would also be placed here. Since employees and their families would need to live within walking distance, a town would necessarily develop.
To foster the new town-building campaign, it was decided to drop the descriptive but dowdy name Company Shops and give the village a title of more dignity. The one chosen was “Vance.” (Eight of the twelve directors had just been appointed by that official). The new name appeared in a newspaper notice of October 1863 advertising a forthcoming sale of town lots. Not surprisingly, the sale of lots was slow until after the war, although company housing construction helped the village to grow. It numbered 300 persons by July 1864, but there was still no church or school. The name Vance persisted in Railroad communications until July 1864 when the stockholders voted to return to Company Shops.
Shortly after the shops were finished in 1857, the railroad company decided to build a hotel boarding house not to exceed $8,000 in cost. The hotel was a large two-story building of brick and wood with wide verandas on three sides. By the time it was completed the cost was nearer $30,000.
The Hotel was only a stone’s throw from the railroad tracks and soon the fame of the culinary skill of Nancy Hillard spread all along the railroad. Trains were stopped for twenty minutes at the village to allow passengers to eat lunch in the massive hotel dining room.
By 1857, the village had grown to twenty seven buildings. Thirty-nine white men, twenty Negro slaves and two free Negroes were employed in or around the shops.
Company Shops was a quiet, complacent little village until the telegraph came in 1861. Conversation in the dining room of the Hotel suddenly changed to anxious discussion of the national situation. Abraham Lincoln had become President, South Carolina and other Southern States seceded from the Union.
Then it came. On a quiet morning in April 1861, the clanking telegraph instrument brought an ominous message. Fort Sumter had been attacked by South Carolina troops…the War was on.
In 1886, the North Carolina Railroad Company decided to transfer its operations to Manchester, Virginia, and the railroad offices and shops at Company Shops were closed.
With removal of the business which had given the village its name, Company Shops threatened to become a ghost town. There were a few stores along Main Street, but most of the present business district consisted of vacant lots. Three cotton mills and the two year old Burlington Coffin Factory were the only sizeable industries in the village.
Since the railroad shops no longer operated here, the citizens of Company Shops began to discuss the need for a more suitable, more distinguished name for their town. Just how the name Burlington was selected is a story with several variations.
In February 1887, several of the town’s leading citizens held a meeting for the purpose of selecting the name. The meeting was dominated by an influential civic organization of the day known of “Knights of Labor”, and there was considerable debate between the members of this group and others on the name suggested. Among those most prominently mentioned were “Holtsville” and the polysyllabic “Carolinadelphia.”
Soon realizing that they were making no progress the citizens present decided to appoint a committee of seven men to whom they would entrust the selection of a name for the town. They, in turn, retired to a small room and, after some deliberation, chose the name, “Burlington.”
Later, a committee member said the name was selected from the U.S. Postal Guide. Another version of the story claims that the name was suggested from those which had been listed on a paper which had been hung in the window of the drug store. The third version is that an aged and respected Negro who was present listened to the committee’s arguments and finally proposed that the town be named for a large Jersey bull named “Burlington” after the Vermont city from which it came, and which was allowed by its owner through the streets of Company Shops.
With a new name, and “I’ll tell the world” as its motto, the village of Burlington began its history in 1887.
The city of Burlington was incorporated and a charter was issued by the State Legislature on February 14, 1893.
The railroad shops were reopened for a brief period about 1890, but the North Carolina Railroad moved its headquarters to Spencer, NC in 1897, and the last of the railroad operations at Burlington came to an end.
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