Hiawassee Valley Ry. Co.
General Offices

Andrews, N.C., June 6, 1913¹

To His Excellency,
Locke Craig, Governor of North Carolina,
Battery Park Hotel, Asheville, N.C.

The undersigned, the resident directors of the Hiawassee Valley Railway Company, do most respectfully and urgently invite you to visit Andrews at any time between the 9th and 13th of June, and remain at least one day, and as much longer as we may be able to urge you to sojourn with us.

On this occasion the directors and officers of the Hiawassee Valley Railway Company wish to confer with you as Governor, concerning the securing of a number of State convicts to aid in the construction of the Hiawassee Valley Railway, incorporated by the last General Assembly for the purpose of building and operating a railroad from here through the Peachtree country and up the Hiawassee River to Hayesville, and thence to Hiawassee, Ga. and to the Blue Ridge mountains.

Your are authorized, as we believe, to recommend that a certain number of convicts be assigned in aid to this construction by a special act of the General Assembly of 1911, which special act, as we are advised, has not been repealed or modified.

We have recently organized and have a Board of twenty directors, ten of them being citizens of Andrews and Valleytown Township, and the other ten being citizens of Clay County, and we trust it will suit your pleasure to visit Andrews for a conference touching this matter, because it is rather expensive to have our entire Board of Directors call on you at Raleigh, or even at Asheville, and knowing the love of your Excellency for the mountains, we feel sure that a trip to Andrews at this time would be a pleasant relaxation from the burden of official duty, and if you will permit us, when you come we will be glad to take you in a carriage to Hayesville and examine the line of the proposed railway. The road from here to Hayesville is now in very fair condition and the trip could be made, should you decide to go to Hayesville, with very little fatigue.

We sincerely hope that you will accept this invitation, and when you come we have arranged for your comfort, apartments with private bath at the Hotel Russell.

Yours very respectfully,

Directors.

C. M. Watson
W B Fisher
W. H. Reno.
T. J. Hill
J. M. Kilpatrick.
J D Stanberry
O. F. Williams.

J Q Barker President
D S Russell Secretary
S. E. Cover. Treasurer

1. Though marked "answered" on June 10, 1913, the governor's response was not found among his papers.