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<DIV><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>March 31,
1909</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>TO WELCOME FIRST COAL TRAIN OVER
VIRGINIAN</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>H. H. Rogers Invites Distinguished Men to Official
Opening of His New Railroad</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left> The official opening of the Virginian
Railway, of which H. H. Rogers is president and practically sole owner, will
take place on April 3, when the first trainload of coal to be brought from the
beginning point of the road, at Deepwater, W. Va., will arrive at the terminal,
at Sewalls Point, near Norfolk, Va.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The arrival of this cargo of coal will be
witnessed by Mr. Rogers, who will then officially declare the road open for
traffic. With him will be a party of his friends and officials of the
road, made up of the following: H. H. Rogers, Jr., Samuel L. Clemens (Mark
Twain), Franklin Q. Brown, George H. Church, Urban H. Broughton, G. H. Hyams,
James M. Beck, Ralph Ashcroft, Melville E. Slone, Raymond Du Puy, William R.
Coe, and William E. Benjamin. This party will leave New York on April 1 on
one of the boats of the Old Dominion Line for Norfolk, arriving there April
2. The next day they will go to Sewalls Point to witness the opening of
the road, and in the evening will attend a dinner at the Hotel Monticello given
in their honor by the citizens of Norfolk.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> Among the guests, in addition to Mr. Rogers
and his party, will be Gov. Swanson of Virginia, United States Senators John W.
Daniel and Thomas S. Martin, and the members of congress from Virginia and the
presidents of all the transportation lines entering Norfolk. Speeches will
be made by "Mark Twain," Governor Swanson, James M. Beck, Melville E Stone, and
others.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The following day the party will begin a trip
of inspection over the road, stopping at convenient points on the way to spend
the night. One of these stopping places is Roanoke, Va., where there will
be another dinner. It is expected that they will return to New York about
April 7.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The Virginian Railway was organized in April,
1907, as a consolidation of the Deepwater Railway and the Tidewater Railway,
which had been under construction for several years from Deepwater, W. Va., on
the Kanawha river, to Sewalls Point, Va. The road, which has but recently
been completed, is 443 miles in length and traverses a rich bituminous coal
territory in West Virginia, from which its chief traffic is expected to be
derived. The road has been constructed with such low grades and such heavy
bridges that trains hauling 4,000 tons of coal can be run over it with entire
safety. Its officials say.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The cost of the road has been approximately
$40,000,000, about half of which has been put up by Mr. Rogers personally.
The first public financing done by the road was in February, 1907, when it was
more than half completed.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The Tidewater Railway then sold $10,000,000 6
percent notes. There was no further appeal to the public for funds until
May, 1908, when the company offered for sale $17,000,000 five-year notes.
The proceeds from the sale of these notes was devoted to retiring the former
$10,000,000 note issue and to completion of the construction of the line.
The only public financing the road has done since then has been the sale
of $3,750,000 5 per cent equipment trust notes in the latter part of 1908.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The company has spent $2,000,000 in the
construction of a steel superstructure "fendered" pier at its terminal at
Sewalls Point. The pier is 1,000 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 65 feet
high, and will be able to accommodate colliers with a carrying capacity of
10,000 tons each, of which the company will have a fleet of ten or twelve.
The company recently placed an order for 1,500 all-steel 50-ton coal cars to
cost about $1,500,000.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The authorized capital stock of the
Virginian Railway is $36,000,000, and the authorized funded debt $33,500,000
first mortgage 5 per cent 50-year gold bonds. All these bonds are pledged
under the $17,000,000 note issue. Most of the stock is held by Mr.
Rogers.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>There was only a small incidence of blurring in the
microfilm of this article, but there could be errors, particularly in numbers
and proper names. Please post any corrections. Finally, is
there any evidence that the Virginian ever had a fleet of ten or twelve
10,000-ton colliers as mentioned in the article?</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Script size=6>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>