Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail-Road Company

In the 1830s, Daniel Drake and others proposed a rail line running from Charleston, South Carolina to Cincinnati, Ohio. A charter was sought from the Kentucky General Assembly to allow the construction of the line through the Commonwealth. The charter was passed in 1836 with provisions for branch lines to Louisville and Maysville. The line changed its name to the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Rail-Road. The company's stock sales met poor response outside South Carolina. The line sought new charters in the four states the railroad would cross, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, that would permit the company to engage in banking as well. The effort to obtain a new charter in Kentucky raised doubts about the company and engendered a fierce battle between urban rivals Louisville and Covington. The new charter lost in the legislature. The company continued to try to sell stock, raise money, and operate as a bank in the other states. The company failed in 1839 and the railroad was never built.

Railroad company chartered about 1835. The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail-Road Company was consolidated in 1843 with the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company to form the South Carolina Railroad Company. The stockholders of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail-Road Company convened for their first meeting in the First Presbyterian Church at Knoxville, Tennessee on 9 January 1837, and remained in session for six days. At the meeting it was found that the subscriptions of stock amounted to 43,332 shares.