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Southern Railway
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The Southern Railway was formed from a number of smaller roads including the Richmond & Danville. The unexpired lease between the NCRR and the R & D was cancelled and on January 1, 1896, the state leased the road to the Southern Railway for a period of 99 years. Once again the shops were moved, this time to the Town of Spencer on the Southern main line near Salisbury, North Carolina. The NCRR became a branch of a much larger rail system. Many workers who were trained at Company Shops found work at Spencer.
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"If ever a man loved railroading to the extent that it flowed through his veins, that man surely was George Cleveland Mitchell." George Cleveland Mitchell began his railroad career in 1897 at the young age of 12. He was born on a farm in Rockingham, NC to Grover Washington Mitchell and Annie Myers Mitchell, but moved to Virginia to work for railroads in that state. The young boy became an exceptionally talented carpenter whose skills eventually landed him with the job of foreman on a bridge crew for the Southern Railway.
George C. Mitchell In 19o7 Mitchell moved his family to Burlington where they lived on brick row, the former worker's houses of Company Shops. While on the bridge crew, Mitchell resided along with the other crew members on camp or "shanty" cars parked adjacent to the old Shops complex. His crew was primarily responsible for raising bridges and trestles on the Southern Railway's Danville Division, which extended from Spencer to Lynchburg and from Greensboro to Selma. He retired in 1938 after spending 33 years with the Southern Railway.
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