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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tunga>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>July 14,
1910</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>BECKLEY JUBILANT OVER VIRGINIAN
PLANS</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>Work Will Be Commenced at Once On Extension From
Pemberton, A Distance of Six Miles</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The Virginian also has a force of engineers
at work revising the lines of its fifty mile branch down the Guyandotte river
from Mullins [<EM>sic</EM>]. 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 [<EM>is</EM>] understood
those plans are not yet matured.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[** One word was too blurred on the microfilm to
transcribe. *The amount was blurred on the microfilm, so the best
interpretation is shown.]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=6 face=Script>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>