Why the Names Dehurt and Pierpont ?

[NW Mailing List]

Apparently, one George Pierpont established the Pierpont Brick Works, 
predecessor of the Salem Brick Company:

https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1990/rt9005/900524/05250466.htm

Grant Carpenter

On 8/5/2021 5:44 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> Abe
>
> Freight rates were very complex and heavily regulated at this period 
> in time. I will try to answer your question in part with a simplified 
> answer..
>
> 1."So it seems to me that those names, Dehurt and Pierpont, were 
> created for purely commercial purposes, probably weighbilling purposes.
> Why did those locations/businesses even need special names, since they 
> were only two miles from Salem, and Salem was the governing Agency ?"
>
> a. Rates published to or from Salem or any other point only applied to 
> the locations in that switching district.  The switching district for 
> a Station was generally published in the carriers switching tariff. If 
> the tariff did not specifically publish the switching limits by naming 
> the mile post etc of such limits they had a provision that if not 
> named the switching limits would be the corporate limits for the town 
> etc. So I must conclude at that time period these two points were not 
> part of Salem by tariff application. Governing agent has nothing to do 
> with freight rates.
>
> Now there are exceptions to this and some cases Salem rates may apply 
> under the aggregate of intermediate rule published in tariffs. This is 
> not a factor.  Both Dehurt and Pierpont were published as stations In 
> the Open & Prepay station list. Pierpont was listed as late as 1963 
> and perhaps later.   You do not need a building to have a rate 
> station.  Just a point you can publish rates from or to.
>
> 2. But my real question is:  Why were those two particular NAMES chosen?
>
> I have no idea. Deyerle was named for the Deyerle family.  The name 
> was changed to Glenvar around 1901. Perhaps one of the wise men of 
> Salem could answer this.
>
> Jim Blackstock
>
>
> 2021 2:52 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>> The Lists of Officers, Agent and Stations issued by the N&W 
>> Accounting Department carried for some years (1940s-1950s) the names 
>> Dehurt and Pierpont, between Salem and Glenvar.
>> Salem had Statistical Number 1259; Dehurt was 1261; Pierpont was 1262.
>> For DEHURT, the notes column states, "Shipments for Foutz Bros. 
>> Molasses Service may be forwarded with freight charges COLLECT, 
>> billing will be handled by Agent at Salem, Va."
>> For PIERPONT, the notes column states, "Shipments for Salem Brick 
>> Company may be forwarded with freight charges COLLECT, billing will 
>> be handled by Agent at Salem, Va."
>> Neither Dehurt nor Pierpont appear in any Time Tables, so I suspect 
>> there was no passenger shelter there, and one could not buy a ticket 
>> to either location.  And the Time Table Special Instructions do not 
>> mention either location as a place "for which time is not shown by 
>> name in the Time Table, but at which [certain] trains will stop on 
>> signal for passengers." (Gunton Park, Copenhaver, Government Siding, 
>> and a few others, were listed in the Special Instructions as such 
>> flag stops.) And there is no conceivable way in which those distinct 
>> names would be of any benefit to the Agent at Salem, or to the crews 
>> switching the sidings.
>> So it seems to me that those names, Dehurt and Pierpont, were created 
>> for purely commercial purposes, probably weighbilling purposes.
>> Why did those locations/businesses even need special names, since 
>> they were only two miles from Salem, and Salem was the governing 
>> Agency ?
>> But my real question is:  Why were those two particular NAMES 
>> chosen?  There does not seem to be anything in the history of the 
>> area which would make the words Dehurt and Pierpont significant.  In 
>> the normal procession of human history, names have always referred to 
>> something, whether the antecedent was topological, personal (the name 
>> of a person or landowners,) related to some historical event, or such 
>> like. That is to say, names are not arbitrary:  names have meanings 
>> in one sense or another.
>> So, how are the names Dehurt and Pierpont significant (meaningful) in 
>> those locations?  To what antecedent factors do they point ?  Why 
>> were they chosen?
>> This is one of those questions I wish I had put to the venerable Bill 
>> Harman (1922-2000, R.I.P.)  Perhaps some of our 
>> Wise-Men-in-Residence, like Bishop Blackstock and Cardinal Bundy, 
>> will understand such matters, far too profound for a mere Box Car 
>> Jockey such as myself.
>> Attachment, showing the 1954 listing for Dehurt and Pierpont.
>> -- abram burnett
>> ..Seedless Turnips..
>>
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