"We keep hoping to hear the trains passing - it will not seem so lonesome"

Henry Edison Eaddy (1832-1912) was a turn of the 20th century Johnsonville correspondent for the local paper. He was known to his readers as the "Sage of Possum Fork" for his articles in the Kingstree County Record. In an April 1, 1909 entry, he discusses mad dogs, river steamships, the need for better roads, and the soon to be completed line bringing trains across the Pee Dee River.  Eaddy laments in his article, "We are looking for the railroad to start up again; we can hear the locomotive whistle over on the Marion side, where they are tramming logs to the Pee Dee to be towed to Georgetown, so we keep hoping to hear the trains passing.  It will not seem so lonesome."

1911 Rand McNally Map showing G & WRR through
Andrews but no line running North to Johnsonville

This was 2 years before passenger rail service was completed through Johnsonville. The Georgetown & Western Railroad was first chartered as the Georgetown and Lane's Railroad in 1881 by the S. C. General Assembly. The new company constructed logging lines in and around Andrews, including a 28 mile branch that went northward from Andrews to the Pee Dee River between 1901 and 1911. However, the Georgetown & Western went into receivership from 1902-1912 and the Seaboard Air Line Railway subsequently took an interest and gave the carrier financial assistance. Seaboard anticipated a new line to come. It was likely this promise of the old logging line "starting up again" that Henry Eaddy was referring to when he noted hearing the distant train whistles coming from the Marion County side of the Pee Dee.

J. H. Owens, Johnsonville field and express agent, takes
a Morse code message at the new Johnsonville station, 1952. 
(Florence Morning News)

In 1911, the Georgetown & Western Railroad broke ground on the new branch from Andrews north to the Pee Dee River near Poston, and on December 1st a jointly-owned bridge was constructed across the Pee Dee, joining this line with the North & South Carolina Railroad. The N&SC RR had constructed tracks from Gibson, NC to Poston.

A 1911 land sale to sell lots along the line at Hemingway brought buyers by train from Georgetown, and in September 1912 the Johnsonville Land Sale repeated the feat and brought a massive crowd to Sylvester Briley Poston's lots offered at Johnsonville.  Before this sale, Johnsonville was basically a post office near the current location of the American Legion Hut and a few general stores.  This sale put the new center of town at its current location firmly on the railroad map and led to incorporation in 1913. It seems the younger writers at the County Record sat up and took notice, as they attended the event and wrote a glowing review: 

"The railroad runs through the town, a depot is already built on the property and a regular schedule maintained as far as the Pee Dee River.  The property is beautifully situated for the building up of a town.  Johnsonville is two miles from Ards Cross Roads and two miles from Lynch's River, and in one of the most healthful and well-to-do sections of the county... The people of Eastern South Carolina have reason to know that Johnsonville is on the map."

Seaboard Air took control of the line in 1915. It was briefly nationalized during the railroad crisis brought on by World War I and was run by the U.S. Railroad Administration from December 28, 1917 to March 1, 1920. 

The SAL's East Carolina Line (H Line) was the unofficial name of their line running from Hamlet, NC through Johnsonville and eastern South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia. Officially designated on Seaboard employee timetables as the Andrews Subdivision from Hamlet to Andrews, and the Charleston Subdivision from Andrews south, the line was called the East Carolina Line by Seaboard employees due to its location in eastern South Carolina. With connections to the Seaboard's main line at both ends, the East Carolina Line was frequently used as an alternative freight route for the company.  It also had the benefit of providing a more direct route between Charleston and Savannah than SAL's competitor, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, whose main line between the two cities was located a short distance to the west.

SAL 2028 - the Boll Weevil - on the Hamlet to Savannah line. 
Photo from the King/Marsh collection, colorized by Tom Alderman.

One familiar site on the line was the little train affectionately known as the Boll Weevil for its insect-like appearance.  The Boll Weevil was one of two lightweight, streamlined diesel-electric railcars built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1936 for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. SAL 2028 ran the Hamlet to Savannah line and called frequently at Johnsonville.   Everlina Jacobs remembered the big depot downtown and train service in those days:   

"When the train used to run down through here they called it Boll Weevil - from Hamlet to Savannah!  The train would come, and we'd pay 25 cent to ride to Hemingway, 25 cent to come back. I'd catch the train many a days. It was 2 dollars and something to Savannah, Georgia. What they called the Depot was right there on the corner across from David [Evans] and them's business - a great, big ol' building. The train would stop there."

As train travel continued to boom, Johnsonville replaced it's early 20th century wood-frame station with a more compact modern concrete block building in October 1951.  It included a waiting room for passengers, a freight and express agent's office, and loading platforms.

Johnsonville's train station in 1956 

In 1967, SAL merged with it's competitor Atlantic Coast Line to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) and passenger service was soon discontinued.  The familiar little Boll Weevil - Unit 2028 - was renumbered to 4900 after the merger and reassigned to operate the Champion line in Florida between Lakeland and Naples. Unit 2028 was removed from service and scrapped after Amtrak took over national passenger service in 1971.

In 1980 SCL merged with Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation.  Today, the segment of the line from Hamlet to Charleston is still in service as CSX's Andrews Subdivision. It now connects to the A Line in Charleston just north of Ashley Junction.