N&W in 1911--Two killed

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The town was Northfork. The branch line was North Fork which referred to the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek.

The N&W originally referred to the location as Forks of Elkhorn (1890) and then North Fork Junction (1892). A post office was established as Northfork in 1901 and the town of Northfork incorporated in 1901.

Pages 110-115 of "Billion Dollar Coalfield" are about North Fork/Northfork and the companion community of Clark.

The N&W was not necessarily inclined to change its names just because a community changed the community name.

One of the more interesting examples was the railroad named communities of East Vivian, Vivian and West Vivian. The coal company named the community of East Vivian, Clausen. Vivian was known as Bottom Creek and Tidewater. What the N&W called West Vivian was named before the railroad got there as Totten and then Norwood. Eventually Clausen became known as Vivian and Norwood/West Vivian became known as Kimball. 

Alex Schust
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  Subject: N&W in 1911--Two killed


  Bluefield Daily Telegraph
  June 27, 1911

  TRAIN KILLS TWO
  ------
  Body of One Man Dragged Half Mile, Leaving Pieces Along Track
      William Woods, colored, was killed by falling off a freight train early Sunday morning on the Northfork branch.  The train dragged the body nearly a half mile before dropping it, leaving pieces all along the route.  Sunday evening about 4:30 John Napper, colored, was run down and killed by a freight train above Gilliam.  He was instantly killed, being very badly cut up.  A watch and $70 were found on the body.
  ------
  [Gilliam was on the North Fork branch about a mile north of the town of North Fork, McDowell County, WV.  Geographers seem to favor the name "Northfork," whereas the N&W track charts, maps and station lists that I checked used "North Fork."]

  Gordon Hamilton



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