Jedediah Hotchkiss

[NW Mailing List]

Gordon:

You are so right when you attribute Jackson's success to Hotchkiss
during the "Late Unpleasantness" and that is an understatement to say
the least. Little know or at least long-forgotten was the fact that he
was involved in a number of railroad projects in his beloved
Shenandoah Valley after said War and in other areas as well.

Among the projects he was involved were the WCC&St.L in the early
1870's along with some of the Valley RR, I think some of the C&O west
of Staunton and what became the Fredericksburg & Orange RR. I am going
from memory on these but they are just a few.

Bob Cohen

He lived a long and enriched life and was truly missed when he died I
think it was in the late 1890's

Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:14:35 -0400
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: N&W in 1909--Princeton

In my comments on the message below I should have pointed out to those
who might not be familiar with Jedediah (Jed) Hotchkiss the
significance of the Jed Hotchkiss 1880 and 1881 maps in the NWHS
Archives. Jed Hotchkiss was Stonewall Jackson's cartographer in the
Civil War. Among other things, historians attribute the success of
Jackson's valley campaign directly to him.


Bluefield Daily Telegraph
December 14, 1909

MAY ENTER PRINCETON
 ------
Norfolk and Western Likely to Touch One of Important Points on Virginian
Roanoke Times:  Everyone concerned with the industrial business of the
Princeton section of the states of Virginia and West Virginia has for
a year now predicted that the Norfolk and Western, by reason of the
building of the Virginian railway on a low grade, would of necessity
be forced to build the original route through Princeton by way of the
Stinson Gap at the head of Rocky Hollow to the mouth of Widemouth. The
Norfolk and Western has never abandoned this route, and it is now
rumored that it now intends to build this line. Whether this will be
done cannot now be stated, but the fact that there are engineers on
this line between Stinson Gap and Princeton and between Princeton and
Sand Lick adds much to the rumor.

The supposition that the Virginia [sic] could extend a line from
Princeton to Bluefield is without foundation. The Virginian will go to
Pocahontas, tap the upper coal fields and bring the product of their
mines through Princeton as the shortest route to the seaboard and the
easiest grades.
------
[It is interesting that this article states, "The Norfolk and Western
has never abandoned this route." None of the NWHS Archives' three 1890
and 1891 Jed Hotchkiss maps of proposed railroad lines into the "Great
Flat Top Coal Fields" shows a line through Princeton although one 1890
map shows that some elevations were taken near Princeton and also Sand
Lick Church. Does anyone know of any other evidence that the N&W
proposed to reach the coal fields by way of Princeton. Incidentally,
Sand Lick flows into the Bluestone River from the east with its mouth
just north of the mouths of Crane Creek, Flipping Creek and Simmons
Creek, which all flow into the river from the west.]

Gordon Hamilton