Southern Railway's Spencer Shops - History - Secret Negotiations, Building at A New Location

Secret Negotiations, Building At A New Location

The development of the facilities for Spencer Shops started with John Steele Henderson. He was a Confederate veteran, a former state senator and Rowan county's largest landholder at the time. History records that Henderson entered into secret negotiations with Southern Railway officials for land acquisitions for the proposed major facility to act as a type of front dummy entity to prevent price speculating. He was to buy the land secretly for the new shop complex and sell it back to the railroad at or near the low price he paid. It was already known in 1896 by the public that the Southern Railway was looking for potential land for this facility and at the time the Charlotte area was seen as the logical choice for the complex. It would not seem unusual for the largest county landholder to acquire more land, so this plan of using a "front" person for acquiring large parcels of land for this purpose could keep the real purpose secret from the public. Most thought anyway that the facility was going to be put in the Charlotte area.

In January 1896 Henderson began buying large tracts of land two miles (3 km) north of Salisbury directly on Southern Railroad's main line. He then sold most of it back to the Southern Railway for slightly more than he paid for it. Henderson did profit however from this secret arrangement. He sold land that he owned in this area to other people that worked for the shops. At the turn of the century he even sold some land back to Southern Railway for a large profit that he had kept for himself.

The workmen constructing the shops began on March 23, 1896, turning the first shovels of 75,000 cubic yards (57,000 m3) of dirt moved in the construction. It opened for business on August 19, 1896, with Samuel Spencer presiding at the opening ceremonies.