Samuel Spencer Monument After Samuel Spencer, the first president of Southern Railway, was killed in a Virginia train collision in 1906, the railroad's employees contributed funds to build a memorial. Crafted by the renowned sculptor Daniel Chester French, the seated bronze figure was completed in 1909. The monument originally sat in a plaza in front of Atlanta's Terminal Station. When that structure was torn down in 1972, it was moved to a small plaza at Peachtree (Brookwood) Station, better known as Atlanta's Amtrak Station. It now stands in a park at the intersection of Peachtree and West Peachtree streets, near Peachtree Center. A photograph of the monument at its Terminal Station location is online at the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society website. It accompanies an article on Spencer by Richard L. Hillman. Spencer, a native of Columbus, Georgia, earned a degree in civil engineering in 1869 and soon thereafter went to work as a railroad man. He eventually became president of six railroads, including the Baltimore & Ohio in 1887-88 and the Southern beginning in 1894. Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. Copyright, Steve Storey. Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home