Deepwater in 1903 - At War

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FIRE AND SMOKE IN THIS RAILROAD WAR
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    Beckley, W. Va., Dec. 2 -- The fight that has been waged by the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Deepwater railways through this and other counties has been one of the most desperate railroad wars ever known in the history of the country.
    The Norfolk and Western has combined forces with the Chesapeake and Ohio and the two roads are now resorting to every expedient that human ingenuity can suggest to hamper the construction of the Deepwater, which is destined to become the great rival of both.  At many points the engineers of the Chesapeake and Ohio and Norfolk and Western have run their surveys directly over those that have been made by the Deepwater surveyors and at these points the fiercest legal fighting will be the result.
    Recently a jury in Raleigh county for the second time returned a verdict of twenty-five thousand dollars for the Deepwater road against the Chesapeake and Ohio for the latter's right to use Jenny's Gap, where the Deepwater stole a march and bought up all the land about the pass.  Judge Sanders promptly set the verdict aside and the case will be fought through the higher courts.  Near the postoffice of Rock, in this county, the forests were fired and a determined effort made to expel the Deepwater engineers from the field with fire and smoke.  For days the region in which the survey is being made was rendered untenable.
    The war is still on, and the next developments are awaited with interest.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
December 3, 1903

Gordon Hamilton
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