March High Iron

[NW Mailing List]

February 20, 2009

Hello, Jerry and Jo:

Here's a tidbit for the March HIGH IRON:

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The Town of Boyce will celebrate its centennial in 2010.  In preparation, the RMSL has been copying the Town Council Minutes and extracting citations about the relationship between the Norfolk & Western Railway and the Boyce community.  This HIGH IRON and several future issues will include highlights from these gleanings.

Although the town developed because the newly-built Shenandoah Valley Railroad (SV) crossed the Winchester and Berry's Ferry Turnpike.  This toll road stretched from Winchester to a ferry approximately where U.S. Highway 50 now crosses the Shenandoah River.  Much of the route still exists as Clarke County Road 723, which is West and East Main Street within the town boundaries.  1881 is generally agreed as the year when settlement of what is now Boyce commenced.

The SV Railroad became a reason for the town's existentence.  Agricultural products being shipped outbound from Millwood, plus other passenger, freight, express, and telegraph services available to central Clarke County residents, could be obtained at newly-founded Boyce which was seven miles east of Winchester.  While seven miles may not seem far, in the toll-road era of wagons, there was a substantial savings in cost and time.  A drive over Route 723 today will reveal several steep hills as well as streams to ford.  What now takes fifteen minutes consumed several hours during the 1880s and 1890s.  Hence, Boyce began to flourish as a center of commerce --all spurred by the railhead that in 1890 became the Norfolk & Western.

If Boyce was flourishing as a community, why did residents decide in 1910 that it should incorporate as a town?  A 1914 summary in the HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY holds several clues.  George B. Harrison, who served as the Town's Recorder and Treasurer between 1910 and 1924, wrote these lines:

"THE Town of Boyce was incorporated by the Circuit Court for the County of Clarke on the 28th day of November, 1910, having at that date a population of 312.

...

"The N. & W. Railway passes through the centre of the business portion of the town, which at the time of the building of the Railroad in 1881 was dense woods; and the community since its renaissance on the 4th day of October, 1900, when it was visited by General J. C. Hill, Railroad Commissioner, in his official capacity, has taken on all the push and energy of a railroad town.

...

"The Norfolk & Western Railway in kind response to the requests of the community has erected a magnificient station of latest design and material with spacious grounds and facilities, fully equipped and provided with electric light and water.

"In addition to the Public Well the town owns the Electric Plant and lot on the Railway in the centre of the town, and has added thereto an alternating current plant with ninety kilowatt dynamo, so as to meet any possible demand for light or power; a switch will bring the coal to the power-house."  [SOURCE: HISTORY OF CLARKE COUNTY, pages 46-47]

Greater insight into incorporating the Town of Boyce has come from the Town Council Meeting Minutes.  The town records are kept in the Town Hall's vault, formerly the Bank of Clarke County building.  Although not specifically stated, the reasons appear to be that incorporation was needed so that the Town could own and manage real estate and services to citizens.  One was to purchase and maintain a public water well.  The other was to establish an electric generating plant.  Once incorporated, the Town of Boyce became the local electric utility for several years.  It operated the plant, upgraded it, managed the distribution system, and collected the charges.

Public water and electricity were key elements of an agreement with the N&W for building the new station building during 1913.  More will be said about that in a future article, but the Town Council minutes include this first citation about the present depot:

"Resolved:
	That the Council of the Town of Boyce extend to Mr. P. H. Mayo its most hearty thanks for his successful efforts in obtaining a better Railroad Station than at first proposed and at a more favorable location.--"  [SOURCE: TOWN OF BOYCE COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES, December 2, 1912, page 97.]

Mr. P. H. Mayo played a pivotal role in the Town's development.  Of $167 raised to pay for the Town's incorporation expenses, he donated $100.  Mr. Mayo was not on the Town Council, but was a catalyst for Boyce's evolution.  This entry suggests that he was the chief negotiator with the N&W Railway for the station building.  As a part of his activities, it seems that he raised the $17,500 for purchasing and and constructing the building, which apparently supplemented the N&W's originally-budgeted $7,500.  The source of funds and precise amounts from each are not revealed in the meeting minutes, but they appear to come from Messrs. Mayo and Robert Powell Page, as well as Mrs. Hattie B. Gilpin.

Another aspect of the agreement with the N&W for a "first-class" station at Boyce was that the Town would guarantee water and electricity for the building.  Town incorporation thereby facilitated agreement upon station features, even though it may not have been foreseen in 1910.

To be continued.

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Best wishes,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com