Virginian in 1909--Early plans

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 12, 1909

WHY ROGERS HAD TO BUILD THE VIRGINIAN
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Original Intention Was to Construct Only Enough to Connect Holdings With Other Roads
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AFTER SCALP OF PRESIDENT OF CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO
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At Meeting of Stockholders Held in Richmond Yesterday New Directorate, Dominated by Standard Oil Interests, Was Chosen
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PENNSYLVANIA MEMBERS OF OLD BOARD ARE RETIRED
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    The stockholders of the Chesapeake and Ohio met yesterday in New York and as has been frequently predicted in the Daily Telegraph elected several new members on the board of directors.  The action of the stockholders is significant, as it clearly shows that Edwin Hawley, thought to be acting for men connected with the Standard Oil Company, was able to show enough voting strength to change the directorate of the company and place on the board men from Richmond, Va., and what is much more significant, men connected with the National City Bank of New York and a large New York Trust Company, allied interests of the Standard Oil, which is extremely friendly to H. H. Rogers, who has built the Virginian Railway in spite of opposition from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
    A close study of the men on the boards of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Norfolk and Western and the Virginian Railway, taken together with the fact that only recently Robert Fleming, a well known English and American financier, who is largely interested in the Canadian railroads, has made a special trip over the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, in company with the chairman of the board of that company, and the fact that he has also visited the lower Norfolk and Western and Virginian territory in addition to that owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio, would make it appear that there is a big deal on whereby this part of the south is to be developed in the near future, and that all the interests will work for the same end.
    The new directors elected yesterday by the stockholders of the Chesapeake and Ohio are K. A. Vanderlip, Edwin Hawley, H. E. Huntington and Frank Castles, of New York, and Frank Trumbull and Fred Scott, of Richmond, Va.  The men whom they succeed are Samuel Rea, J. P. Green, Walter G. Oakman, George H. Bowdwin, T. J. Fowler and Martin Erdman, who retired from the directorate.
    A special from Richmond to the Daily Telegraph, received last night says:
    "A special dispatch from New York tonight says that at a meeting of the board of directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad [sic] today the control passed from the hands of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania and into the hands of the Hawley syndicate.  This transfer was affected by the resignations of Samuel Rhea, H. McK. Twomley, Walter G. Oakman, John P. Green and Thomas W. Fowler as directors of the road, and the election of Edwin Hawley, Frank A. Vanderlip, John W. Castles, Frank Trumbull and H. E. Huntington.
    The change of ownership of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway, taken together with the fact that after years of skirmishing in the courts and in secret, the Virginian Railway, known to be the property of H. H. Rogers, has secured the necessary traffic arrangements from the Chesapeake and Ohio, which all asserted could never be done, is significant.  This, as was said by the Telegraph, shows that the interests are at last friendly and this friendship could only be made possible through a change of management.  From a significant remark made by the former president of the Virginian two days after the present company was made possible by the joining together of the Tidewater and Deepwater companies, it was thought at that time by the Daily Telegraph, to whose representative the remark was made, that President Stevens, of the Chesapeake and Ohio, would have to quit because of his formidable opposition to the building of the new railroad.  During a conversation held at that time it was said that the original plan of H. H. Rogers was not to build a line from the Fayette, Wyoming, Raleigh, Logan and Mingo fields to Tidewater but the opposition from the Chesapeake and Ohio was so strong that it was necessary.
    H. H.Rogers, who had with other New York and New England interests secured control of a large amount of coal lands through the Hewitt heirs, wanted to open the lands and his plan was to build enough railroad to bring the coal to the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western, on whose lines it was expected that it could easily be taken to Tidewater.  When opposition from the Chesapeake and Ohio and friendly rivalry from the Norfolk and Western railway developed Rogers finally decided to build a railroad of his own.  Captain Page, who had surveyed the Hewitt property and who was himself a large coal land owner and operator, was taken into the secret and together with other interests and Dr. J. O. Green, son of the late Norman Green, who maintains an office at Peck Slip in New York and at the present time is president of the Tidewater Corporation of Virginia, was a member of the clique which took charge of the work of constructing the new railroad.
    With large plants at Page and Ansted and miles of coal in sight the company knew that when the time came it would receive all the backing it needed.  That time evidently has come, now that the new road which has been built without outside aid is the marvel of Wall street.
    Whether or not the fact that Dr. Green, a son of the late president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, is connected  with the concern would mean that George Gould and the Standard Oil crowd are and have been working together or not is unknown, but it would look as if a plan was on foot at that time to build a line across the country.
    While the western part of the Virginian was under construction the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway fought the new road and was bested in the matter of the Jenny's Gap tunnel and this is a matter which has never been forgotten by anyone concerned in the trouble and surely not by the Chesapeake and Ohio which company had to pull up its tracks from Jenny's Gap to Lester and lose a tunnel which it had built at a cost of $75,000 [See "The Battle for Jenny's Gap, by Ed Wiley, The Arrow, Vol. 17, No.2 Mar./Apr. 2001].  The Norfolk and Western, it will be remembered, commenced to build a road from Giatto and Wyanoke to the Guyandotte river, where it was to join with the Chesapeake and Ohio, but when the Jenny's Gap suit commenced the Norfolk and Western said they would stop their work until the suit was settled in favor of the Chesapeake and Ohio.  The suit went against that railroad and the Norfolk and Western finally decided that it would not pay to mine coal along the Giatto extension over to Clark's Gap because it was said there was a serious fault in the coal near Clark's Gap.  Meanwhile, the Virginian had put a few men to work making a cut close to the Jenny's Gap tunnel and it was supposed that the new road had given up the idea of winning the suit but the Norfolk and Western did not make the mistake of taking the bait, with the result that it earned the friendship of the Standard Oil interests and it was possibly due to H. C. Frick more than anyone else that the work was stopped.  Nevertheless the Norfolk and Western has never pulled up that track although the Chesapeake and Ohio has torn part of its line up and it is now said that the Piney Creek branch, which was the Jenny's Gap extension, has been sold to the Virginian [See Tom M's 1/26/2009 posting about this on the Mailing List].
    As the work of constructing the Virginian continued the obstructions placed in the way of the new road by the Chesapeake and Ohio continued until the whole railroad world wondered what the Virginian would do when it had finished its construction work.
    This problem was in part settled when it was discovered that the new road was building twenty-five miles of track into the Winding Gulf country where there were large beds of coal.  Although this road went through seven miles of coal owned by the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company it was said and known that there was good coal further up on Stone Creek,  Tommys Creek and Thomas Creek, in addition to a number of other forks, up all of which, the former president of the Virginian told a Daily Telegraph man some time ago, the new road had secured rights of way.  Later it was discovered that the Virginian planned to build eleven miles of road up some of the forks in addition to the twenty-five miles up the Winding Gulf proper.  What coals would be opened was the part which puzzled the experts, but now it has come to light that the McCreery Brothers, of Beckley and Hinton, are negotiating with New York and Boston parties for the lease of their coal properties in Raleigh, Fayette and Wyoming counties.  These properties are said to be the best in that section and the Daily Telegraph learned some time ago from a man who lives in Wyoming, and who said that he had drilled the properties known as the McCreery properties, that the coal there runs from seven feet to eleven and as high as twenty feet in thickness.  If this is the case it is hard to tell who owns the leases as it has been thought that the McCreery interests are friendly to the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company.
    In the Mingo, Logan, Kentucky and Virginia fields it is said the same interests which planned the Virginian are making surveys.  It is further said and known that the Norfolk and Western has options on Mate Creek but it now appears that the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio with Messrs. Potter, Fleming and local interests, is also making a play for that field and may go from Dante over through the fields leading past Matewan and into Mingo and across the Norfolk and Western into Logan, from which point it will make a detour coming to the Ohio river at Ironton, from which point it will give easy access to the Ohio and be in a fair way to do business when the results of the deepwaterways conferences are made public through the deepening of rivers and the building of locks and dams.
    Some of the same interests which are connected with the Carolina Clinchfield and Ohio and the Clinchfield Coal Corporation are connected with the ownership of coal lands through which such a proposed line would run and it is possible that the development is being made for self-protection upon the acquisition of Pocahontas properties by the United States Steel crowd and the Standard Oil crowd, so that that body of men may have a coal property which will answer their needs as a necessary commercial commodity, which is indispensable in the manufacture of steel.
    The far seeing policy of the Flat-Top Land Association and the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company together with the demands of the Norfolk and Western, which originated and were made twenty-five years ago, and which provided for coke ovens for the manufacture of coke, may just now be having their innings with the result that should the steel and Standard Oil crowds step in they will find a property which is in shape for handling and suited to their every need.
    It would be absolutely impossible to secure any official verification of some of the deductions made, but that they are logical is the opinion of every man who is interested in the local field, but who has been making hay while the sun shown and put by the driblets for a rainy day and is now perhaps to be given a chance to get out and enjoy life like a Coal Oil Johnny.
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[As is usual with the microfilm copies of the newspaper there were some semi-illegible initials and names but the best interpretations are shown.  Some of the more unusual surnames were searched on the Web and found to exist as shown.  Some of the speculation by this reporter, particularly about the CC&O expansion north of the N&W, was wild as viewed from today's perspective.]

Gordon Hamilton
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