University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XVI

SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS IN THE
REBUILDING OF THE OLD DOMINION

The Old Dominion of 1860 has passed into the realm of
legend. Already romance has adopted it for her own and has
woven about it a shadowy and unreal atmosphere of lavender,
old lace, and hoopskirts, mint-juleps, duelling pistols, and
blooded horses. The passing of the old regime and the grinding
years of suffering, toil and poverty, which came in its
stead, made the people look back to the days before the war as
the golden age. Every man was the possessor of many acres
worked by many servants—a gentleman and a scholar and
withal a judge of good whiskey. Every woman was a lady fair,
a queen who ruled her domain with grace and charm. The
authors who created them have exaggerated those virtues and
those vices which they most admired until a type has appeared
which cannot be found in history. Character has been replaced
by caricature. This romantic presentation has brought a reaction
among later writers, some of whom have gone so far as
to deny the charm and romance which rightly belongs to that
period. They are even more in error.

The Virginians of 1860 were very much like their descendants
of 1820; but they lived in a different world. They were
not all large landholders with many servants. In 1860 there
were 52,128 slave holders in Virginia (including West Virginia)
out of a white population of 1,047,299. "Of the 52,128
slave holders in Virginia" according to a recent historian,
"one-third held but one or two slaves; half held one to four;
there were but one hundred and fourteen persons in the whole

State who owned as many as a hundred each, and this out of a
population of over a million whites."[1]

Mr. Beverley B. Munford adds, "By this same census the
area of Virginia was fixed at 64,770 square miles, divided into
148 counties. By an analysis of the census returns, it will appear
that, in the portion of the State lying west of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, embracing eighty counties and 37,992 square
miles, there were 596,293 whites and only 66,766 slaves; while
in the remaining sixty-eight counties containing 26,778 square
miles, there were only 451,006 whites and 424,099 slaves. Even
with respect to this last mentioned portion of the State the
slaves were not evenly distributed but were congested in certain
well defined localities. Thus of the 424,099 slaves in the
sixty-eight counties lying each of the Blue Ridge, 173,109 were
in twenty-two counties situated between James River and the
North Carolina border known as the "Black Belt," the white
population of which was only 128,303.[2]

There was no "slave-holding class" in Virginia as distinguished
from a "non-slave-holding class." It is as incorrect
to make such a division of Virginia society in 1860 as it
would be to divide present society into "houseowning" and
"non-houseowning" classes, or into "automobileowning"
and "non-automobileowning" classes. A man—whatever his
social standing—who had sufficient money or credit, might buy
a slave. The possession of that slave added not one cubit to
his social stature.

The planters were not, as a rule, men of large fortunes, nor
did they live in mansions like Westover and Brandon, although
there were not a few large and well-built homes throughout
the Commonwealth which testified to their owners' good taste
and large families. Their furniture was simple, but made on
good lines, and almost every family which was acquainted
with its ancestors owned some old pieces, of which it was justly
proud. Most of the homes of the best families were simple but

substantial frame buildings, with the hall in the center and
rooms on each side. As the family increased in size, so did the
house. This rambling characteristic often added to the charm
of the houses but not to their convenience. The owners of
these homes lived frugally and simply. But they read good
books and sent their sons to college and their daughters to the
"seminaries." There was no aristocracy based on wealth,
although wealth was and always has been one of the foundations
for aristocracy.

There were, however, many families, which, for generations,
had kept a standard of decent living and culture. They
formed an aristocracy based on culture and good breeding.
But there was no caste between to prevent the inclusion in this
group of those who proved themselves worthy. Merit had its
due recognition. As the children grew up, some stayed on the
farms, some went into professions, and others left the State to
win their fortunes. In 1860, nearly 400,000 Virginians were
living in other commonwealths. They had sufficient leisure to
cultivate the social graces. There were many house parties,
dances, and picnics. Both men and women rode behind the
hounds in the fox-hunts.

Although often pictured as devil-may-care and even profane,
they were, as a rule, God-fearing, church-going, and Sabbath-keeping
people. Of course, there were many—as there
always have been—who trod the "primrose way;" but even
these never doubted the inspiration of the Scriptures and were
reverent at heart in religious matters.

Virginians had a code of morals and of honor which was
often misunderstood. They owned slaves; but justified slavery
by Scripture and by the belief that it was the only solution of
the race question. And it should not be forgotten that their
attitude was that of the whole country a generation earlier.
They were not enthusiastic on the subject of temperance.
Temperance became a great moral issue only after towns began
to develop and when certain elements in society needed to

be restrained. Virginia was slow in developing an urgent need
for regulating the liquor traffic.[3]

Whatever their faults, the men of Virginia were jealous
of their honor as gentlemen and of the stainless name of their
women. It was dishonorable to play unfairly the game of life.
They had to be honest even when they sinned. If a man drank,
he must drink in moderation, and in the spirit of good fellowship.
If he gambled, he must not take unfair advantage. In
other words, he gambled honestly. If he were indiscreet in
his relations with women, he went without the charmed circle
of his own group. If he proved that he could not be trusted—
if he cheated, or stole, or lied, or harmed a woman's reputation—he
became a social outcast. This honor code is reflected
in the honor "systems" of the colleges and universities of the
Commonwealth today, and its influence still permeates society.

Out of an old conception of a man's obligation to defend
the good name of himself and his friends the institution of
duelling arose. Duelling soon died out in the North after the
killing of Alexander Hamilton. But "affairs of honor" were
frequent in the South until after the War of Secession. In
1853, Lucian Minor, speaking of the Virginia anti-duelling law
of 1809, says that it had proven extraordinarily successful "in
putting an end to that absurd mode of `gentlemenly satisfaction'."[4]

But duels continued and greatly increased in number after
the war. Those who had participated in duels or who had
borne challenges were barred from holding office. But for
several years each legislature removed these political disabilities.
Many prominent citizens were involved in duelling in
one way or another during this period.[5] There was so much
opposition to duelling before 1880, however, that would-be
duellists were forced to play hide-and-seek with the officers

of the law, and sometimes all parties were arrested. Affairs
which might have finished tragically, thus came to a laughable
end.

The last duel was fought in Virginia in 1880 between W. C.
Elam, editor of the Whig, and Col. Thomas Smith, son of Ex-Governor
William Smith. Mr. Elam had written an editorial
in the Whig, Mahone's organ during the Readjuster period,
on "Political Pirates," which reflected discredit upon Colonel
Smith's father and others. Failing to secure a satisfactory
explanation from Mr. Elam, Colonel Smith challenged him for
a duel. The principals, their seconds, and surgeons met at
six o'clock in the morning of June 6, 1880, on the bank of a
creek back of Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. They took
their places twelve paces apart and both fired. Colonel Smith
was not hit, but Elam was struck in the chin. After Elam had
fallen, Smith told him that he regretted having shot him, to
which Elam replied that he had rather receive a wound than
to give one. Elam's wound, fortunately was not fatal. John
S. Wise challenged Dr. George Ben Johnston the same year.
But both were arrested and put under a $5,000 bond.[6] A number
of such incidents occurred during the next few years, with
similar endings.

Politics and love for office were perhaps over emphasized
in the life of the people. But it resulted in the choice of able
office holders and in honest government. The great stress on
politics may well have resulted from the worthy records of
such men as Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Marshall, Monroe,
and other founders of the Republic, who cast a halo about
political affairs in strong contrast to the sordid atmosphere
of the politics of the seventies and eighties.

The twenty years following the end of the war in 1865
brought great changes in social and economic conditions in the
Commonwealth. These years of humiliation, political strife,

Pipe Foundry, Lynchburg

bitterness, and poverty can hardly be imagined today. Many
of those who lived during that period shortened their days
through toil and cares. They sacrificed themselves for the
next generation. A prominent citizen of Prince Edward
County wrote to his brother in February, 1877, "Our people
are today much poorer than they were at the close of the war.
You could not fail to be exceedingly distressed were you to
ride over our country and see the condition of the farms.
* * * Our lands have so far declined in value that a short
time ago F—R—'s fine farm (his home place) of
1,500 acres, with excellent dwelling house and improvements,
was sold for less than $2,000."[7] Almost four years later, in
December, 1880, he wrote, "Times are harder in this country
than they have ever been known to be by the oldest inhabitant.
Our people are 50 per cent poorer than they were at the close
of the war. Among your acquaintances I can enumerate many
who, at the close of the war, were in prosperous circumstances,
some of them wealthy; who now live from hand to
mouth, you might say on the verge of starvation. These are
a few of them, T— T—, F— R—, A— V—, J— D—, J—
K—, (not as poor as the others but living upon his salary),
D— P—, C— P—, C— C—, C— R—, E— R—, J— A — R—;
and poor Captain P— has lately failed again and conveyed his
property to his creditors; also H— C—, J— L—, etc., etc.
All of these men are utterly insolvent."

The struggle which these men and women made to adjust
themselves to new conditions, to make a living, and at the
same time send their children to school and to keep a decent
standard of life was heartrending. Gen. J. D. Imboden, of
Richmond, wrote in 1886, "To those of us who passed through
that period [after the war] it appeared that the people, when
they again entered upon the `battle of life,' required to be
sustained by a sublimer courage to rise from their prostrate

Richmond Telephone Exchange, 1885

condition than they had shown even in following Lee and
Jackson on the bloodiest fields of the war."[8]

The war and its aftermath brought an economic and social
revolution. In many cases farms were deserted by their
owners, who moved to the cities or out of the State. The large
farms were often broken into smaller ones. White and colored
renters appeared. The exodus of former owners and
the cheapness of land enabled many who had only small
amounts of land to improve their condition. It called into
manufacturing and other business men who would have remained
on the plantation. It not only changed the social
customs and conditions in the country but also aided in the
growth of towns and cities. Among the many social changes
which resulted in great part from new conditions was the
changed status of women.

Women in Virginia were educated as well as the men, but
they were not trained for any profession or trade. They were
taught to entertain and to charm—and they learned their lesson
well. Their chief occupation was housekeeping. The
maiden sisters who did not choose that profession often taught
their sisters' children or helped with the housekeeping.
Sometimes they taught school. Women's sphere was very
limited. They took no part in politics and only a very few
engaged in business. Even teaching in the public schools was
at first a man's occupation. Some few women kept boarders,
and when they did, their "boarding house" was in fact a
"boarding home," and the landladies were true hostesses.

Within the last twenty-five years the status of women has
been revolutionized. In matters of dress they are more sensible
but equally charming. During this period they began to
ride horseback astride in divided skirts. It was most shocking
to many. Now, if they please, they may dress in knickerbockers,
bob their hair and drive their automobiles at higher speed

than that of the passenger train of their grandmothers' day
without causing any disturbance. They may vote and hold
office, raise their voices in public, conduct business and enter
the professions. In 1923, women—two of them—were elected
to the General Assembly.

Economic changes, better facilities for education, the
tendency everywhere to broaden the sphere of women's
activity, have brought a change in public opinion. Virginia
women first entered the business world as untrained assistants
in the offices of certain insurance companies of Richmond
which had a reputation for solidarity and conservatism.
Later, they appeared as trained stenographers. Gradually
other fields opened to them. The World War hastened the
change by calling women into industries of all kinds.

In 1918, the ancient College of William and Mary established
a new priority in Virginia when it opened its doors to
women. After attempting vainly for a decade to establish
coordination at the University of Virginia, women students
for the first time registered in the graduate and professional
departments of that institution[9] in the session of 1920-21.

The men of the Old Dominion have watched with some
anxiety the transition which has taken place. They have
often opposed the changes. A Virginia woman who has been
intimately associated with women in industry has rightly observed
on this point: "Let it be said, after all, in common
fairness that the Virginia man's attitude towards the problematic
new woman advancing upon him has in it elements of
insight and chivalry which our women will do well to ponder
as they reach for a wider life; * * * It cannot be entirely
unfortunate that, in this time of woman's bewildering emancipation,
one section of the country shall steadily emphasize
without over-emphasizing the value of that certain delicacy
of femininity which, when all is said, remains one of the chief
assets of women, of the new era as of the old."[10]

Docks at Newport News

One of the greatest factors in transforming the social and
economic life of Virginia was the development of the railroads.
Virginia issued on March 8, 1827, her first charter
to a railroad. Permission was given for the building of the
thirty-two mile Winchester and Potomac Railroad from Winchester
to Harpers Ferry, where connection was made with
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. By 1838, the State had
issued bonds to aid in building seven railroad lines in Virginia.
At that time, the Virginia Legislature, under the
leadership of Alexander H. H. Stuart, decided upon a definite
system of building railroads and provided a uniform law for
their incorporation. By 1860, thirty years after the introduction
of the locomotive, there were 1,350 miles of railroads
in the State. The rapid increase in railroad building after
1838 is shown by the fact that the railroad mileage had grown
from 147 in 1840 to 384 in 1850; and by 1860 there were 1,350
miles of railroads in operation in the Commonwealth. These
figures show that Virginia, through State aid and local subscriptions
to stock, had increased the mileage of her railroads
more than three and one-half times during the decade preceding
the war. The growth of railroads would have been
even more rapid had it not been for the General Assembly's
unfortunate attachment for the James River and Kanawha
Canal scheme. There were, in 1860, fourteen railroads chartered
by the State.[11]

These roads were planned to bring the products of Virginia
to her own ports and to connect with systems being
developed in other states. The Petersburg Railroad from
Petersburg at the head of Tidewater, to Weldon, North Carolina,
made connections with a line to the southward through
the Carolinas and Georgia. The Richmond and Danville
joined railroads to the South further from the coast when the
Confederate Government, during the war, practically forced

through a fifty-nine mile line from Danville to Greensboro.
The Virginia and Tennessee road joined with the Southside
railroad to Petersburg at Lynchburg and connected at Bristol
with another southern line still further west, the East Tennessee,
Virginia and Georgia road. The Virginia Central
from Richmond to Covington was to be extended finally to the
Ohio River. The produce of the valley and the coal of the
Southwest would be brought by railroad lines to Alexandria,
which was to become a rival of Baltimore. The extent of railroads
in Virginia when war began may be seen from the map
below.

The railroad companies offered great inducements to
travel. The Virginia Central, for example, advertised a night
train going north through Alexandria on which "The cars are
furnished with the most improved NIGHT SEATS." The
Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad tempted the people of Richmond
with this notice: "Passengers by this route leave Richmond
at 4:30 A. M., and breakfast in Petersburg at 6, reach
Norfolk at 10:30, and land at Old Point or Hampton at 12 M.,
allowing ample time for all preliminary room arrangements
and a SALT WATER BATH before dinner."

Since the newly invented Bessemer process of making
cheap steel had not then come into general use, there were no
steel rails on these roads. The iron rails had already begun
to deteriorate by 1861. The lack of manufacturing facilities
and the blockade prevented the substitution of new rails.
Since the State was a great battleground of the war, a tremendous
burden was placed on its railroads. In 1862, Governor
Letcher recommended that the General Assembly should
enact laws to prevent their further injury by reducing the excessive
speed of trains. "Passenger trains now pass," he
said, "at the speed of sixteen miles per hour, and freight
trains at the speed of about twelve miles per hour. This speed
should be reduced to ten miles per hour for passenger trains
and eight miles per hour for freight trains, unless in case of
great public necessity."

At the end of the war, the railroads and railroad facilities
of all kinds were in a most dilapidated condition. The Southside
Railroad between Lynchburg and Petersburg was so
worn, and contained so many rotten ties, that trains going at
very slow rates were sometimes derailed and ditched. General
Stoneman's troops had destroyed its continuation, the
Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, in the spring of 1865. In
1867, Virginia sank into a state of suspended animation, and
"U. S. Military District No. 1" marked the place where she
had been. The uncertainty of the political future, and the
utter destitution of the people, prevented for a while, the
securing of capital for the rebuilding of railroads.

A new era in railroad building began when Virginia became
herself again in 1870. It was made possible at that
time through the efforts of Mathew F. Maury. He prepared
and published in 1868 his first or Preliminary Report on the
resources of Virginia called the Physical Survey of Virginia,
a pamphlet of about ninety pages, in which he called the attention
of Commodore Maury as a scientist, and as an authority
which had not been exploited, and planned in a series of maps
the railroad lines which were necessary to develop these resources.
He also showed the tremendous possibilities of
Hampton Roads as a great national seaport, nearer to the
West and better fitted by nature and location than New York
harbor to be a great gateway for commerce. The reputation
of Commodore Maury as a scientist, and as an authority
on commerce, gave this little report a wide circulation, and
resulted in the bringing of much capital into the State for
carrying his suggestions into execution.[12]

Between 1860 and 1870, only ninety-nine miles of railroads
were built. But during the fifteen years after 1870, 981 miles

Joseph R. Anderson

were constructed. In 1885 there were thirty-two railroads in
Virginia having an aggregate length of 2,430 miles. Even
more striking were the improvement and consolidation of the
old lines. During these fifteen years of progress the three
roads which formed a continuous line from Petersburg to
Bristol were consolidated into one efficient road, the Norfolk
and Western. The Lynchburg and Danville Railroad was
completed and joined with the roads between Lynchburg and
Alexandria, thus bringing under control of one corporation,
the Virginia Midland Railway Company, a line from north to
south through the State. In 1886, this road passed into the
hands of the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company.

During the '70s and '80s, three railroads in the Valley of
Virginia were completed. These were leased by the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company. They formed one continuous
line from Winchester to Lexington, and gave a ready
market in Baltimore to the produce of the Valley. (Before
1861 the Baltimore and Ohio had already gained a door into
Virginia along the Winchester and Potomac Railroad, but the
state legislature was very slow in allowing Baltimore to gain
the trade of the rich section west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.)
These three roads, together with the Winchester and
Potomac, became known as the "Valley Railroad."

In 1882, a parallel line, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, was
completed from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Roanoke, Virginia,
along the western base of the Blue Ridge. It was practically
a branch of the Norfolk and Western and became eventually
a part of that system. It not only furnished a direct route to
the North through the Valley of Virginia but also made available
to the manufacturers of the State a great store-house of
mineral wealth.

While Baltimore was reaching out for the trade of the
Valley, which she had coveted in vain for fifty years, she was
capturing for herself at the other side of Virginia the rich
counties of the Eastern Shore. By 1884, railroad lines leading
south from that city had been consolidated and extended

down the center of the peninsula to Cape Charles. This road,
the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (the "Nyp
and N") has made the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland
a magnificent garden for the many great cities along its
route. And it has helped to convert that region into the richest
agricultural section in the United States. Direct freight
connection with the cities on Hampton Roads is obtained
through ferries and barges which transport passengers and
long trains of cars across Chesapeake Bay.

On March 1, 1873, the Covington and Ohio Railroad[13] completed
its track across the Alleghany Mountains to the Big
Sandy River. A few years later, in 1878, it was sold to a company
headed by Collis P. Huntington, and its name was
changed to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The road was
then extended from Richmond down the Peninsula to Newport
News. This work was hurried to completion in time for the
Yorktown celebration of 1881. Another evidence of cooperation
in railroad activities was the building (1886) in Richmond
of a "union depot of large and imposing dimensions."
"This new departure in the right direction," as it was described
at the time, was made by the Richmond and Petersburg
Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac
Railroad.[14]

It was not until 1872 that the Richmond, Fredricksburg,
and Potomac Railroad extended its line beyond Aquia Creek
to form with the Alexandria and Washington Railroad an all-rail
route from Richmond to Washington. And even in 1885
a traveler from Richmond to Washington passed over the
tracks of five different railroad companies.

One of the most interesting of the purely local roads completed
during this period was the Richmond and Alleghany
Railroad. The road was formed by the purchase of the properties
and franchises of the James River and Kanawha Canal
Company, now vanquished after a long struggle, and the

Dr. Walter Reed

Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company. It followed
the tow-path of the old canal as far as the latter had been completed,
and joined the Chesapeake and Ohio at Clifton Forge
in Alleghany County. It was later merged with that road.

It may be seen from this brief account that, during the
fifteen years prior to 1885, the railroads extended their lines
down the Peninsula, though the Eastern Shore, into the Valley
of Virginia, and across the Piedmont region between
Lynchburg and Danville. Alexandria was brought into connection
with the road to Richmond. Other new routes were
built or projected.

One of the most encouraging features of this period of
railroad development was the breaking down of much of that
economic isolation which was typified in the railroads, and
which was one of the chief reasons for the War of 1861. At
the outbreak of that war, rail communication to the North
was very inadequate. In fact, with the exception of the Winchester
and Potomac Railroad, (which was only thirty-two
miles long in Virginia), no cars went north across the state
line. The Virginia Central, which was the only road to the
northwest, was being extended westward to the Ohio, but it
had not at that time crossed the Alleghanies.

One may frequently read in the Richmond newspapers of
1860 such notices as this: "No mail from the North was received
by the afternoon train yesterday" because of the delay
of the boat, which brought the mail down from Washington
to the railroad terminal at Aquia.

But even when new railroads were built across the boundary
lines of the State, the trains on many Virginia roads
could not run on their tracks because of difference in gauges
of Northern and Southern roads, and even of those within
the State itself. The Southern States had not adopted the
standard gauge when it had become universal elsewhere.
This unfortunate difference in gauge between most of the
railroads south of the Ohio and the Potomac and north of
them had for years been a source of endless inconvenience

and expense. On February 2, 1886, representatives of Southern
railroads met in Atlanta and decided on a program for
changing the gauge of 13,128 miles of track in the South,
which included nearly all the roads in that section of the country.
Of this total, 981 miles were in Virginia. It was decided
that the entire change should be made on June 1, 1886, between
3:30 a. m. and 4 p. m., during which time the running of all
trains would be suspended. Exception was made in the case
of a few roads—none of which were in Virginia—which were
to be changed on the day before. Some roads had been preparing
for this emergency several years. In order that the
final work might be completed as rapidly as possible, everything
was made ready for shifting the one line of rail to the
proper place. All the spikes on the inside of that rail which
were not absolutely necessary were drawn; the ties were
smoothed and spikes driven along the new inside line of the
rail. On June 1, the number of working men was doubled and
the work was finished by the time scheduled. The few remaining
inside spikes were pulled; the rail was drawn in to its
proper place against the newly driven spikes, and was held in
place by spikes driven on the outside. The importance of this
achievement cannot be overestimated. Railroads had ceased
to be sectional.

This expansion in railroad building was accomplished only
through great sacrifices by the people of Virginia. Prior to
1860, when a railroad company was chartered in the Commonwealth,
the state government, practically without exception,
agreed to become a stockholder to the extent of three-fifths of
the capital stock. State bonds were issued to secure the money
required and the State's interests were carefully guarded by
the Board of Public Works, which supervised all internal
improvement companies in which the state government was
interested. Millions of dollars were also subscribed by individuals
and by local governments. The public debt which
had been incurred in this manner was so burdensome after
1865 that the Constitution of 1869 did not permit the State to

borrow money for aiding internal improvements, or appropriate
money for their aid. The State therefore, could not
render direct aid to the railroads.

A few of the companies were able to secure money and to
reconstruct their lines within a few years. Those companies
which were not so fortunate were aided by the Commonwealth.
It is recorded, for example, that the General Assembly by
act of March 1, 1876, gave to the Chesapeake and Ohi Company
the property of the Covington and Ohio Railroad, a state
work which had cost Virginia $3,206,461.83; and the Assembly
by act of February 14, 1867 "transferred" the common stock
owned by the State in the Manassas Gap Company to the
Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Company—a loss to the
State of $2,280,000.[15]

In most cases the Commonwealth sold its interests at a
sacrifice or relinquished her prior rights in favor of new creditors.
Some of these transactions were absolutely necessary
for the economic recovery of the State; others seemed to have
been more liberal than was justifiable and were subject to
much adverse criticism. The most notorious example of this
occurred in connection with the Atlantic, Mississippi, and
Ohio Railroad. By the act of June 17, 1870, authorizing the
formation of that company out of the four corporations whose
lines extended more than 400 miles from Norfolk across the
State line at Bristol, Virginia, exchanged her claim on the
component lines, amounting to $5,191,404.41, for $5,000 in
cash, and a second mortgage of $4,000,000, provided the first
mortgage did not exceed $15,000,000. This arrangement enabled
the new company to borrow money and to put the road
into good condition. But poor financial management[16] soon
brought it into bankruptcy and it was sold to Philadelphia
financiers. In this transaction, which was arranged by the
president of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio, the Legislature
passed a bill, of which H. H. Riddleberger was patron,

authorizing the Board of Public Works to sell its mortgage
lien of $4,000,000 for $500,000—all that was saved out of the
State's claim to $5,191,000 in round numbers.[17] There was
some compensation, however, even for this disgraceful transaction.

The company was reorganized as the Norfolk and Western
on May 3, 1881. Within the next four years, it had added
the seventy-four mile New River branch line to give an outlet
to the Great Pocahontas coal region of Tazewell County, and
had about half completed a fifty-four mile road to the Cripple
Creek iron region in Pulaski, Wythe and Smythe counties.
The company had also gained control of the Shenandoah Valley
Railroad, which was completed in 1882. This road made
connection with the Norfolk and Western at Roanoke. So
skillfuly was this railroad managed that mining and manufacturing
cities and towns sprang up and flourished along its
way, and farming became more diversified and more profitable.
The Chesapeake and Ohio is another great coal-carrying
road. Recently the Virginian, a third great line, has been
built across the State from West Virginia, past Roanoke and
the vicinity of Lynchburg, to Norfolk.

Virginia now (1923) has eight great trunk lines within her
borders. Most of them have resulted from consolidations
which were already taking place during the '80s. They have
become parts of great national systems.

There were 4,609 miles of steam railroads in Virginia in
1921, an increase of 2,179 miles since 1885. The total length
in 1921 of track in the State including second, third, and fourth
tracks and yard-tracks and sidings was 7,701 miles. The
growth of railroads may be seen from the following figures
and maps:

Year, 1840, number of miles in operation (single track),
147; 1850, 384; 1860, 1,350; 1870, 1,419; 1880, 1,893; 1885,
2,430; 1920, 4,609.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has for nearly a century

owned about one-sixth of the voting capital of the Richmond,
Fredricksburg, and Potomac Railroad Company, of the par
value of $275,200, to which has been added, from time to time,
dividend obligations of the said company of the par value of
$602,200, and having a present estimated total market value
of over $2,000,000, which stock and dividend obligations, together
with all dividends paid thereon, have, by the General
Assembly of Virginia, been constituted a part of the sinking
fund of the State for the purpose of purchasing and retiring
the outstanding bonds of the Commonwealth.[18]

This is now the only railroad in which the State is a stockholder.
It is a connecting link between great competing lines
north of the Potomac and those south of Richmond, and serves
as a common highway for through trains of competing lines.
In order that this road may be impartial and neutral in dealing
with these roads, and that the State's interests may not
be put in jeopardy, it has been the policy of the State to prevent
the road from merging with any of the competing lines.[19]

Besides its stock in this railroad, the Commonwealth owns
an interest in five turnpike companies.[20] It is the purpose of
the State, however, to incorporate these works in the State
Highway System as soon as possible.