UM alumnus Briggs Smith and wife Dot (center) donate a special piece of memorabilia to the historic Oxford-University Depot, a 1908 map of all train stops in Mississippi. Joining them to accept the donation are (from left) Beth Sanders, business manager for the Division of Outreach and Continuing Education; Tony Ammeter, associate provost and director of outreach and continuing studies; Emily Ferris, associate director of outreach; and Laura Antonow, director of college programs in the division. Photo by Pam Starling/Division of Outreach and Continuing Education
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi alumnus Briggs Smith (BSPH 62, JD 66), of Batesville, learned about trains from a young age. His grandfather was an engineer for the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, commonly known as the GM&O, in Meridian in the 1940s and ’50s.
“He would let my brother, sister and I ride on the caboose and go up and down the railroad tracks looking around,” Smith said.
“The railroad has always been a part of my family. When I was older and became an attorney, I helped the railroad whenever I could.”
An attorney in Batesville for the past 50 years, Briggs and his wife, Dot, are loyal Ole Miss fans who attend sporting events and Ford Center theater productions faithfully.
In 1995, the couple was visiting Hawaii for a seminar in Maui when a piece of Mississippi history passed right before their eyes.
“We were in a store on the island and saw a historic map of the Mississippi railroad system hanging on the wall,” Dot said. “We knew we had to have it.
“Can you believe that they (the shop owners) would think that anyone would come to their store in Hawaii and buy this map of Mississippi railways?”
The map, discovered in a shop in Hawaii, includes all the train stops in Mississippi in 1908 and information on the rail lines serving the state. Photo by Pam Starling/Division of Outreach and Continuing Education
The framed print was shipped back to Mississippi, where it hung at Briggs’ law office in Batesville for more than two decades. After retiring last year, he decided the map needed a new home.
Dot had attended an event at the renovated Oxford-University Depot a few years ago. She remembered admiring all the interesting memorabilia from when the building was once a bustling train stop for students coming to campus and passengers traveling to and from Oxford, she said.
Originally completed in 1860 and refurbished in 1866, the Oxford depot served trains running from Canton to Grand Junction, Tennessee. It also connected the city and the university to major railroad lines around the country.
“I knew the old train depot on the Ole Miss campus would be the perfect place for it,” Dot said. “It’s a great conversation piece.”