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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tunga>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>January 6,
1910</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=5>NO DOUBT ABOUT COMING OF VIRGINIAN</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG><FONT size=4>Big New York Financier Says Rogers Road
Will Enter Bluefield in Near Future</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG><FONT size=4>LARGE COAL LAND DEALS
CONSUMMATED</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>------</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>J. P. Morgan Interests Said to Have Purchased Holdings
of Numerous Companies in Undeveloped Clinch Valley Territory</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>DEVELOPMENT OF SECTION IS SURPRISING TO
UNINITIATED</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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 [<EM>sic</EM>] 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 [<EM>sic</EM>].</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>As usual some names and figures were blurred on the
microfilm, so the best interpretation is shown.</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=6 face=Script>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>