N&W in 1903 -- Guyandot and Tug River

[NW Mailing List]

In 1903 M.J. Caples was associated with Pocahontas Coal& Coke Company which N&W purchased in 1901, Joseph I. Doran was General Solicitor of the N&W and A.J Hemphill was Secretary and Assistant Treasurer of N&W.

When the N&W took over the various railroads in McDowell County, WV (Iaeger & Southern, Tug River and North Fork, West Virginia South Western, Caretta Railway Company) Joesph Doran and A.J. Hemphill were normally named to the Board of Directors.  Caples was recognized as an able railroad engineer and had been on the Board of Directors of the Iaeger & Southern and Tug River and North Fork.

I have never found any reason for the community of Hemphill to be named for Hemphill other than A.J. Hemphill.  An excerpt from my upcoming book:

"Hemphill was established as a community when the N&W decided to have a coaling station at the location in 1902.  Hemphill was named for Mr. A. J. Hemphill who was Secretary of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company and assistant Treasurer from 1897.  He left the N&W after 22 years of service on March 1, 1905 to become a Vice-President of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York."



"The Welch Coal & Coke Co. opened the Welch No. 1 and Hemphill mines in1903. The Hemphill mine was also known as the Welch Coaling station for the N&W.  These mines were located 0.5 and 1.0 miles from Welch.  They mined the Pocahontas Thin Vein or Tug River Smokeless that averaged 3 feet 4 inches thick.  The first coal shipment was made on July 5, 1903 with the N&W consuming about 99 percent of the coal produced at the Hemphill mine in its first year of operation.  However after that first year the coal was sold on the market"



The mines in the area of Hemphill weren't chartered until 1902 and the mining company decided to have Mine No. 1 and Hemphill Mine and since none of the stockholders were named Hemphill, it is a resonable assumption that the N&W named the location after A.J. Hemphill and the community and tunnel name followed similar to the N&W naming of Huger.



I have never discovered any information to invalidate the assumption noted above.



Alex Schust 





----- Original Message ----- 

  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: N&W Mailing 1List 
  Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 4:05 PM
  Subject: N&W in 1903 -- Guyandot and Tug River


  RAILROAD CHARTERED THAT WILL DEVELOP VAST COAL DEPOSITS
  ------
      The Guyandotte and Tug River Railway Company, of Welch, W. Va., has been granted a charter to build and operate a railroad from Clark's Gap to a point where the Norfolk and Western railroad crosses Pine Creek.  Capital, $50,000, incorporators, T. W. R??th??d [blurred], J. I. Doran, of Philadelphia, A. J. Hemphill, of Spring Lake, N. J., and M. J. Caples, of Philadelphia, and E. H. Allen, of Lansdowne [?? blurred, best estimate], Pa.

  Bluefield Daily Telegraph
  June 21, 1903

  [This railroad, owned by the N&W, would have connected the end of the N&W's Bluestone Extension, i.e., Widemouth Branch, at Clarks Gap -- the same Clarks Gap that was the summit of the Virginian Ry's main line -- with the N&W's Ohio Extension at Wharncliffe, 62.27 miles.  See the attached excerpt from the 1903 Annual Report map.  This line, and some branches, were shown as a proposed line on Annual Report maps through the 1927 Annual Report.  In 1926 the N&W, C&O and VGN all requested ICC permission to built in this territory.  In 1928 the ICC  authorized the VGN to build along the Guyandot River into Gilbert and the G&TR RR to build between Wharncliffe and Gilbert, which became the N&W's Gilbert Branch.  From 1928 through 1936 Annual Reports the proposed line was shown as extending only from Clarks Gap to Pineville and a connection with the VGN.  This remainder of the original proposal was never built, and this remainder was not shown after 1936.  Note that previous postings to the Mailing List revealed M. J. Caples to be N&W Pocahontas Division Superintendent in 1904 and Chief Engineer on the construction of the Clinchfield RR a few years later.  Also, is there any connection between A. J. Hemphill and the Hemphill Tunnels on the Pokey Div.?  Finally, be advised that there have been several different spellings of the name of the subject river through the years.]

  Gordon Hamilton


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