*1897 merged into Atlantic Coast Line Railroad of South Carolina. Never made it to Augusta.

1870, leased the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad, with route modifications in South Carolina.

The purchasers of the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad received a charter in March of 1870 from the legislatures of North Carolina and South Carolina as the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad.

In 1872 the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad leased the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad for ninety-nine (99) years. That lease was cancelled in 1878 due to the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta's bankruptcy; it was sold in 1879 and reorganized in February of 1880 under the same name.

By a curious turn of events, eight years after the dissolution of its lease with the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad in 1878, the lessee became the lessor and vice versa, when on June 1, 1885, the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad took a ninety-nine (99) year lease on the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad. This lease remained in effect until it was cancelled on July 18, 1898, in order that the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad entered as a separate unit into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad of South Carolina.

In 1898, it was merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad of South Carolina, which subsequently merged into the overall Atltantic Coast Line Railroad in 1900.

By 1848, trains operated between Manchester and Junction (now known as Kingville). A fire decimated the town of Manchester, SC on January 25, 1855, with one-fifth of the town burned. The Civil War brought Potter's troops into the town on April 11, 1865. Potter established his headquarters at Richard Singleton's plantation, while his troops began mass destructions of rails, homes, stores, homes, supplies, and anything else of value. During the Reconstruction era, many of the residents of Manchester lived a life of subsistance. When the Wilmington, Columbia, & Augusta Railroad built a new depot at Wedgefield, the residents of Manchester began to move away until the only reminder of the town is the historical marker, a few miles south of Wedgefield.

From a January 22, 1880 article in the New York Times:

BALTIMORE, Jan. 21. - A meeting of the first mortgage bondholders and holders of the registered certificates of the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company was held to-day, at the office of Horace Abbott, in this city, to take steps to reorganize the road. The committee, consisting of B.F. Newcomer, Chairman; T.C. Jenkins, John S. Gilman, Frank P. Clark, and P.R. Tompkins, reported that it had purchased the railroad in the interests of the first mortgage bondholders. The report of the committee was adopted, and it was decided that the road be at once reorganized. An election for officers was then held, with the following result: President - R.R. Bridges; Directors - W.T. Walters, S.M. Shoemaker, B.F. Newcomer, H.B. Short, George S. Brown, George C. Jenkins, H.B. Plant, J.G. Cameron, and Enoch Pratt. The company will begin with $900,000 capital stock, and bonds will be issued to the amount of $1,600,000, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, payable in gold, in New-York City, on the first days of June and December. The plan of reorganization will give every holder of $2,000 worth of old bonds, with accompanying coupons and certificates, $1,000 in new bonds and six shares of stock.

After this reorganization in 1880, it is unclear if the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad entered into another lease agreement with the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad, whose lease it had terminated in 1878. Since both were pulled into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad by 1900, it is difficult to ascertain just what the newly-reorganized Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta Railroad actually owned - that is, if the Wilmington & Manchester was truly resurrected - and it seems that it was. Confused? Me, too.

Towns on Route (in NC):

Wilmington

Mears Bluff (1880s)

Navassa (1916)

Leland (1898)

Farmer's Turnout (1878) > Turnout (1887

Malmo (1888)

Robeson > New Berlin (1907)

Freeman (1886)

Byrdsville

Bolton

Turnout No. 1 > Waccamaw (1883)

Wananish (1899)

Flemington > Lake Waccamaw (1883)

Artesia (1907)

Bogue > Hallsboro (1884)

Whiteville Depot (1874) > Vineland (1885)

Peacocks Store

Chadbourn (1882)

Grists Station > Grists (1892)

Cerro Gordo

Fair Bluff

NC/SC State Line