The Coming of the Railroad

The Coming of the Railroad. . The development of the southern West Virginia coalfields Was dependent upon transportation, specifically the railroad. In 1881, Thomas Graham and a group of investors from Philadelphia purchased the unsuccessful Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad, which operated between Norfolk and Bristol, Virginia. Through the support of the banking house of F. W. Clark and Company, it was reorganized as the Norfolk and Western Railway, with F. J. Kimball its director and later president. With the purchase of large tracts of coal-rich land by the Flat Top Land Association, a sister company also organized by Graham and Clark, all that was needed tor the large-scale development of the coal was the expansion of the railroad into the area. , F. W. Kimball led the push of the N&W into the region. The railroad reached Pocahontas, Virginia in 1882 and shipped the first car of coal from the Pocahontas mine in March of 1883. The N&W continued building westward to Higginbotham Summit, which later became the town of Bluefield. Here, the company constructed a terminal, division office, repair shops, a roundhouse and other facilities. The N&W built extensions into the coalfield and eventually extended itself westward to Ironton, Ohio, where it connected with other carriers to access mid-western markets. , The railroad exercised considerable control in the coalfields through the lease of land, owned by the Flat Top Land Association, to coal operators and by the distribution of coal cars. Ultimately, it was the N&W that played the defining role in the development of the Pocahontas coalfield in southern West Virginia. , (sidebar) , Frederick James Kimball (1844-1903), a native of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, was a civil engineer by training. At the age of 18, Kimball went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He spent two years in England learning about their rail system. After his return, he worked at a variety of jobs, became involved in the construction of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, and eventually became a partner in the Philadelphia banking firm of E. W. Clark and Company. In 1881, Kimball became the President of the Norfolk and Western Railway. His knowledge of the geology of the Flat Top Mountain, led him to build a branch line along Mill Creek, thereby opening the Pocahontas coalfield and extending the N&W lines into the area. During his tenure as President, the N&W expanded west to Columbus, Ohio, and into North Carolina. The N&W also acquired the largest landowner in the coalfield, the Flat Top Coal Land Association, renaming it the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Corporation (later known as the Pocahontas Land Corporation). He was a major contributor to the development of the Pocahontas field and in extending the routes, and shaping the future of the railway. The town of Kimball is, named for him. , (sidebar) , Bramwell was fortunate to have excellent rail service. At one point, there were as many as 16 daily train stops. It was not a coal town, rather Bramwell was a service center and residential community to many of the coal operators. This spared the town having any of the trappings of the mining towns, such as coke ovens.