Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Samuel Spencer Papers, #3477, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Partial microfilm copy available.

Acquisitions Information

Gift 1960

Additional Descriptive Resources

A more complete finding aid for this collection is available at the Southern Historical Collection.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas and Taylor de Klerk, December 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
• Benning, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1814-1875.
• Drexel, Morgan & Co.
• Gas companies--Illinois--Chicago.
• Gas companies--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
• Industries--Georgia--Columbus--History.
• Industries--Illinois--Chicago--History.
• Industries--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.
• Long Island Railroad Company.
• Mexico--Description and travel.
• Public utilities--Southern States--History.
• Railroads and state--United States--History--20th century.
• Railroads--Southern States--History.
• Railroads--Tennessee--History--20th century.
• Savannah and Memphis Railroad Company.
• Southern Railway (U.S.)
• Southern States--Economic conditions.
• Spencer, Henry B.
• Spencer, Samuel, 1847-1906.
• Stockyards--Illinois--Chicago.
• Tennessee Railway Company.
• West (U.S.)--Description and travel.
• Westinghouse, George, 1846-1914.

Spencer, native of Columbus, Ga., was president of six railroads, including the Baltimore and Ohio, 1887-1888, and the Southern, 1894-1906. He was a director of at least ten railroads and of several banks and other companies.

Through 1869 the papers consist of personal correspondence while Samuel Spencer was at the Georgia Miliary Academy, serving in the Confederate Army, and at the universities of Georgia and Virginia. Beginning in 1870 there is both personal and business correspondence and a large quantity of business papers, including company reports, surveys, financial statements, bills, receipts, legal papers, lists of stockholders, engineering notes, scrapbooks, and other items pertaining to many of the railroads for which Spencer was engineer, manager, or director, in particular the Baltimore & Ohio, Southern, Savannah & Memphis, and Long Island roads, and to other companies with which he was connected, including the Columbus (Ga.) water works; Pittsburgh & Chicago Gas & Coal Co;, West Virginia Oil Co.; two coke manufacturing firms; the Union Stockyard Company of Chicago; Westinghouse Electric Corporation of Pittsburgh, including correspondence with George Westinghouse; and New York bankers Drexel, Morgan & Company, for whom he was the railroad expert.

Other correspondents include many national business and political leaders of the post Civil War period, among them his father-in- law, Henry Lewis Benning (1814-1875), Georgia Supreme Court justice and Confederate brigadier general. Also included are Spencer's detailed letters while traveling in the western United States and Mexico, 1885, and materials, 1915-1919, of his son, Henry B. Spencer, relating to the Tennessee Railway Company. A scrapbook contains clippings, correspondence, and speeches on railroad regulation, 1905-1906.

• Oversize papers (XOPF-3477/1)
• Oversize volume (SV-3477/1)
• Ambrotype photograph (SF-P-3477/1)