Virginian in 1910--Bluefield

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
January 6, 1910

NO DOUBT ABOUT COMING OF VIRGINIAN
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Big New York Financier Says Rogers Road Will Enter Bluefield in Near Future
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LARGE COAL LAND DEALS CONSUMMATED
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J. P. Morgan Interests Said to Have Purchased Holdings of Numerous Companies in Undeveloped Clinch Valley Territory
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DEVELOPMENT OF SECTION IS SURPRISING TO UNINITIATED

    E. W. Mollahan, of Washington, director in the Fidelity Banking and Trust Company, of this city, said yesterday to a Daily Telegraph representative that he received information in New York City on Monday from a director of one of New York's largest trust companies which is closely allied with the Virginia [sic] Railway interests which enabled him to say positively that the Virginian Railway is coming to Bluefield.  Mr. Mollahan had some transactions with the bank and the director, who knew that Mr. Mollahan was financially interested in the Fidelity Banking and Trust Company and Washington concerns which have real estate in this city as well as personally owning a tract of land in South Bluefield in the Fairview addition, during the conversation said that the Virginian Railway would run through Bluefield in a short time and put Bluefield on the map.  Mr. Mollahan said yesterday that the information was given in a conversational way and on this account he did not care to make public the name of the director nor the name of the bank, although it is known that the conversation occurred in the offices of the Carnegie Trust Company, of New York city [sic].
    Mr. Mollahan said yesterday that he could not give any information as to when the road would come but judged that the time is not far off.  He could not say anything about what route would be adopted but intimated that the Virginian interests have acquired property in this section which they feel they can develop best and with greater profit with their own railroad.
    The Carnegie Trust Company was acquired only a few days ago by the Standard Oil interests and the change of control created quite a sensation in New York where sensations are few and far between.  Whether the acquiring of banks and trust companies is a plan whereby financial assistance can be secured for the construction of the road is not known, but it is thought to have an indirect bearing on the local situation.
    It was also learned yesterday that several large purchases of coal lands in southwest Virginia have been successfully carried through.  A man who is in a position to know said yesterday that J. P. Morgan interests have secured by purchase the Big Axe Coal and Coke Company, with 17,000 acres; the Clinch Coal and Iron Company, 6,300 acres; the Buckhorn Iron and Improvement Company with 8,300 acres, as well as 1,800 acres which were secured from H. C. Stuart.  In addition to this it is claimed that W. L. Dennis, who had options on about 70,000 acres in Buchanan county, has nearly closed the deal whereby that property has been transferred to the same interests.  The only deal which is said to be pending is that which has been reported from above Swords Creek and that tract only contains about 1,800 acres.  It is said that the price asked for this property is considered too high.  The continual activity in this section is surprising to those who have no real knowledge of the value of the coal in this section.  How soon it will be developed depends greatly on how soon the $100,000,000 Panama canal bonds are sold.  If these bonds are sold in New York, where preparations are being made for the handling of them by combinations of capital, it will be only a short time before those same bonds are used for the building of the Virginian Railway by the Rogers and Morgan interests together with the development of the Clinch Valley section.
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[As usual some names and figures were blurred on the microfilm, so the best interpretation is shown.]

Gordon Hamilton
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