Virginian in 1910--Beckley

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
July 14, 1910

BECKLEY JUBILANT OVER VIRGINIAN PLANS
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Work Will Be Commenced at Once On Extension From Pemberton, A Distance of Six Miles
    It is reported here that the Virginian Railway will commence work at once on the extension of the Virginian from Pemberton to Beckley Junction, a distance of six miles.  Here the road will connect with the Piney River and Paint Creek Railroad, owned by Sam Dixon, but which it has been reported, Dixon has optioned to the Virginian.  Sam Dixon is completing an extension of the White Oak Railroad which will extend for five or six miles to Bishop, where it will connect with the Piney River and Paint Creek Railroad, giving the Dixon mines double connection with the Virginian.  This will be of additional benefit to the town of Beckley, as it will give it much better connections than it now has, enabling the people to easily reach the Virginian or the Chesapeake and Ohio.
    A road about eight or nine miles in length has been graded by the McKell interests from the McKell holdings on Upper Loop Creek through Pack's branch to connect with the Virginian at Paintsville.  The grading of this stretch of road has been rushed and rails will be laid in a short time.  This will give the McKell holdings additional railroad facilities.
    The Virginian also has a force of engineers at work revising the lines of its fifty mile branch down the Guyandotte river from Mullins [sic].  This revision will not materially change the route but will enable the road to get the best possible route through right-of-way it already owns.  It was over this route that the Virginian originally expected to reach Point Pleasant but it [is] understood those plans are not yet matured.
    It is understood that the Virginian has recently been able to sell some bonds to cover the expense of the additional work which it is about to do and has decided that certain improvements must be made to properly develop its large property.
    The people of the town of Beckley are jubilant over the plans of the Virginian and those from that town who ** are the greatest local boosters a county ever had.  The town of  Beckley has sold its $40,000* bonds for the construction of paving and sewerage ** and it is understood the money will be paid over on the 18th of this month.  Shortly afterward work will be commenced on the grading and paving so that Beckley may take its place among the up-to-date towns of West Virginia.  The continually increasing coal output on the Virginian in that neighborhood and the bringing of Pemberton and the Winding Gulf to the very doors of Beckley bid fair to make the town a hustler and the people there are not slow to awaken to the fact.  Beckley is even nearer to the coalfields in its section than Bluefield is.  In fact, it has the mines of the Raleigh Coal and Coke Company within the town limits, while Bluefield is twelve miles from the nearest mines.
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[** One word was too blurred on the microfilm to transcribe.  *The amount was blurred on the microfilm, so the best interpretation is shown.]

Gordon Hamilton
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