The engine on the corner of Jesse Jewell Parkway and West Academy Street, which the city of Gainesville may be relocating, bears the name “Gainesville Midland.” That was a railway connecting Gainesville to Athens. In 1904, Gainesville, Jefferson and Southern Railroad became Gainesville Midland Railway. The railway started carrying passengers in 1906 and mail the year after that. The company was reorganized in 1936 under the name Gainesville Midland Railroad. The railroad supported industrial growth, particularly in the textile industry, which emerged in the 1900s, according to David French, museum services manager with the Northeast Georgia History Center. “(The railway) shipped a lot of raw materials to the mills here in Gainesville,” French said.