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HISTORY
OF THE HOCKING VALLEY RAILWAY CO.
Edward Miller and Chris Burchett
For an even further detailed history, be sure to
get The Hocking Valley Railway by Ed
Miller. It is undoubtedly the definitive source on the Hocking.
The
history of the Hocking Valley, as with other railroads, is one of boom
times and depression. The Hocking Valley Railway Company was the largest
railroad in Ohio, extending from the Lake Erie port of Toledo through
Columbus, and on to the Ohio River port of Pomeroy. Coal was the main
business, yet it kept the finest passenger service in the State of Ohio.
A connection to Chicago was available via the Erie Railroad at Marion.
Despite the fact that the Hocking Valley was such a large railroad until
the merger of 1930, very little is known about it. Efforts are being
made to create a historical society housing artifacts and detailed
information about the railroad, its affiliates and successors. But until
that time arrives, a small compilation on the history of the HV has been
assembled to educate persons about the "biggest little railroad in
Ohio", otherwise known as the Hocking Valley Railway.
The Hocking coal fields were among the
earliest exploited. As early as 1825, Hocking coal was used for
blacksmithing work in Nelsonville and the surrounding area. The export
of coal from the area started when James Knight took a six-horse team
load of fifty-eight bushels to Columbus from Nelsonville (62 miles).
Keep in mind that this was when roads were dirt, poorly maintained, and
wandered all throughout the hills. The amount in return for the delivery
by Mr. Knight - four cents per bushel.
The quickest way to deliver coal at the
time was by canal. Ohio was a large supporter of canal construction and
built a vast network all across the state. The Ohio Canal, running from
Cleveland to Portsmouth, was the main canal Ohio built, with several
"tributaries" extending from it. One of the tributaries built
was the Hocking Canal, connecting Athens with the Ohio Canal at Carroll,
just north of Lancaster. In 1841, the Hocking Canal was officially
opened. When the ground-breaking of the new canal was being celebrated
in September 1831, a prominent citizen of Columbus, who was a spectator
but not a participant, is said to have remarked, "Make as much ado
as you like over your muddy ditch, but before twenty years pass most of
its traffic will be carried on wheels." The prediction came true in
less than forty years.
Although the canal was much quicker than
taking the "highway" to Columbus, it also had its
shortcomings. Seasonal traffic was the main problem with the canal
system, as it had to be shut down in the winter. And though there was
much celebration with the coming of the canal, the realization began to
set in that this new transportation is likewise too slow. After all,
there was a speed limit of four miles per hour, and this was imposed to
keep the wake created by the barges from eroding the sides of the canal!
Rails were desperately needed.
Recognizing the need for dependable
transportation in his district, U.S. Congressman of Ohio John Chaney
proposed legislation for the construction of the "Hocking Valley
Railroad" from Lancaster to the Ohio River in 1834. This was a full
two years before tracks were ever constructed in Ohio! Unfortunately,
his proposal was tabled and nothing ever came about. In the 1850s,
public meetings for a railroad from the Athens County coalfields to
Columbus were reignited once again. On July 11, 1853, a meeting was held
in Lancaster and action taken to incorporate the "Hocking Valley
Railroad Company." The stock of the new corporation amounted to
$2,000,000. However, these plans were not carried out due to jealousies
and dissensions which arose. Surveys were made and stock subscriptions
made, but no line was built. Another incident which helped stop
construction of the new railroad was legislation passed by the General
Assembly of Ohio on April 10, 1856, entitled "An Act to Protect the
Investments of Municipal Corporations in the Stock of Railroad
Companies." In short, this act stated that "no railroad could
be constructed through a county, save by the consent of the legal votes
of the county, despite constitutional right of eminent domain."
This bill only applied to Athens and Washington Counties. This,
naturally, discouraged the promoters of the new railroad, as no outlet
to the Ohio River could be had except through Athens County. This act
was later repealed, however. It wouldn't be until the latter years of
the War Between the States that a railroad would actually be started.
On April 14, 1864, the Mineral Rail Road
Company was incorporated to build a railway from Columbus to Athens, 72
miles, with a capital stock of $1,500,000. Aside from preliminary
surveys and securing some right-of-way, nothing was done toward
construction. Milbury M. Greene, who operated salt works at Salina (now
Beaumont), seven miles north of Athens in the Hocking River Valley, took
up the project in 1867 and labored continuously, attempting to gain
subscriptions to the capital stock from Southern Ohioans, but with
little success. He then went north to Columbus and presented the
railroad there, though with cool reception and much discouragement.
Greene was finally able to interest some of the wealthier citizens,
including Peter Hayden, Benjamin Smith, William Dennison, George M.
Parson, William G. Deshler, W. B. Brooks, and several others. On June
26, 1867, the Franklin County Court decreed that the name be changed to
the Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad Company. Peter Hayden was
elected president and Greene vice president and Chief Engineer. Some
investigation was made as to the amount of coal, iron, and salt to be
shipped annually from the region. Although no geological report was in
existence at the time, it was known that a very rich vein of coal
averaging six feet in thickness existed on either side of the line. The
deposits of coal were considered almost inexhaustible and the quality of
the coal was decided as good. Subsequent investigations revealed that
the major amount of coal tapped by the original lines of the Columbus
& Hocking Valley Railroad was the Middle Kittanning or No. 6 coal.
This coal predominates in Athens, Perry and Hocking Counties. The
transport of coal was the greatest business on the C&HV and
successors Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad and Hocking
Valley Railway.
The preliminary survey was conducted by W.
W. Graves and was completed in May, 1867. At this time, the name of the
road was changed to the Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad Company.
By this time sufficient stock was subscribed to start construction. On
May 22, 1867, a contract was made with the Dodge, Case & Co. to
construct the road complete and ready for rolling stock in eighteen
months, at a cost of $865,000. Construction under this contract had
proceeded to such an extent that on July 16, 1868, an engine and car
were run over the track from Columbus to Canal Winchester, a distance of
fourteen miles. On January 13, 1869, the members of the General
Assembly, State officers, and citizens journeyed over the road from
Columbus to Lancaster at the invitation of the President and Board of
Directors. The train consisted of an engine and twelve coaches, carrying
a total of 720 passengers.
On January 20, 1869, regular
passenger and freight trains were instituted between Columbus and
Lancaster. The first freight train from Nelsonville arrived at Columbus,
August 17th of the same year. This train, filled with coal, came from
the mines of Brooks and Houston and consisted of twenty-two cars of
twelve tons each. It had a small cannon aboard, the discharge of which
gave notice of the approach of the train at various points along the
line. The first passenger train was operated between Columbus and Athens
on July 25, 1870. The Straitsville Branch was opened for traffic on
January 2, 1871. At this time, mines on the line had been opened to the
extent that there was a daily production of 250 cars, (twelve tons each)
or 3,000 tons of coal. The Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad
Company proved a gold mine from the very beginning not only to the
original investors, but for Columbus as well. The property was such a
paying investment, that a move was soon started to extend the line to
Toledo! Accordingly, the Columbus & Toledo Railway was incorporated
in 1872, and was financed largely from local subscriptions along the
line. Construction was finished and the road was opened in January 1877.
The former C&O Pomeroy Subdivision
(ex-HV River Division) from Oldtown (Logan) to Gallipolis was originally
the Gallipolis, McArthur & Columbus Railroad Company. Incorporated
March 3, 1870, under that name, it was sold to the Columbus &
Gallipolis Railway Company in November 1877. Construction from Logan to
Gallipolis was not yet completed when, in August 1878, it was again sold
to the Ohio & West Virginia Railway Company. This road was built by
capital independent of the Columbus & Hocking Valley Railway
Company, and largely adverse to it. The road was completed from Logan to
Gallipolis in October 1880, and from Gallipolis to Pomeroy in January
1881.
For some time prior to 1881, there existed
a close operating agreement between the three companies. As the Ohio
& West Virginia had no outlet into Columbus except over the rails of
the Columbus & Hocking Valley, while the Columbus & Hocking
Valley had to use the Columbus & Toledo tracks into Toledo, it was
decided therefore, to consolidate the three companies into the Columbus,
Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway Company. In this merger, the capital
stock of the road, which had been largely Columbus-owned, passed into
alien hands. The road had been constructed, almost wholly, by the
Columbus capital or by subscriptions along the line. Its offices and
shops had always been in Columbus, and so it became known as
"Columbus' own road." The railroad became widely known for the
kindly relation between employer and employee, and familiarly known as
"The Buckeye Route." Columbus always entertained a kindly
feeling for the Hocking even after the capital stock passed from local
control.
Under the consolidation of the three
roads, which was effected July 1881, the termini Walbridge, a point near
Toledo; Pomeroy on the Ohio River; and New Straitsville and Athens in
the very heart of the coal region. An agreement was made with the
Pennsylvania Railroad in 1876 to use its tracks from Walbridge to the
docks on the west side of the Maumee River in Toledo. This agreement
automatically terminated when the road came under the control of the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. This agreement was extended to June 30,
1914, at which time the company's new docks in East Toledo were
occupied. The road was extended in 1890 from Walbridge to Rockwell, a
distance of 1.86 miles, from which point tracks of the Lake Superior
& Michigan Southern Railroad (later New York Central) were used into
Toledo for passenger and interchange business. Other branches were later
added, giving entrance into the cities of Wellston, Jackson, and Murray
City. In 1914, at the completion of the company's new docks in East
Toledo, the tracks of the Toledo Terminal Railroad from Walbridge to
Starr Avenue, a distance of 3½ miles, began to be used for lake coal
shipment. A second track was constructed on the "Terminal" for
this purpose.
In 1870, B. E. Smith was elected President,
with Peter Hayden resigning. Milbury M. Greene was elected President in
1874 and continued in this capacity under the consolidation until July
1, 1886, and was succeeded by Stevenson Burke. He occupied the
presidency for a few months before the next annual meeting, at which
time John W. Shaw, having purchased the holdings Mr. Burke, was elected
president.
It is interesting to note that Stevenson
Burke, upon leaving the CHV&T, built the Toledo & Ohio Central
from Toledo to Gallipolis, and on to Charleston, West Virginia via the
Kanawha & Michigan. Two divisions were constructed north of
Columbus: the Eastern Division from Bremen to Toledo, via Fostoria; and
the Western Division from Columbus to Toledo via Findlay. Both lines
paralleled the HV's Toledo Division.
Mr. Shaw resigned and was succeeded by
Christopher C. Waite who served in the capacity of president from 1889
to 1896. Waite came to the CHV&T with extensive railroad experience
and immediately set about the work of reducing grades, rebuilding
bridges, and introducing heavier equipment on the line. It assumed its
position as the principal coal-carrying road in the state.
In 1895, the Wellston & Jackson Belt
Railway was built by the Hocking Valley group from McArthur Junction,
near Dundas, to Jackson - a distance of 17.5 miles - with the CHV&T
wholly owning the company. This subsidiary passed through the coalfields
of Jackson County and was fully opened in February 1896. The property
was quite prosperous, especially under Mr. Waite's direction, until the
panic years of 1892 and 1893 when the earnings ran so low that they
could not cover the fixed charges. Application for Receivership was
filed in February 1897. The appointment was asked in order to conserve
the assets of the Company and to prevent a dissolution of the property.
Nicholas Monsarrat was appointed Receiver on February 25, 1897 and the
property was operated under his direction until March 1, 1899. At this
time the road was reorganized under M. E. Ingalls and G. H. Gardner,
acting as reorganization managers. It then became the Hocking Valley
Railway Company.
In March 1910, the control of the
Hocking Valley was acquired by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. N.
Monsarrat served as president from time of the reorganization to 1910.
On March 22, five members of the board of directors resigned and were
replaced with C&O men, among whom were Frank Trumbull and George W.
Stevens, elected chairman and president respectively.
The C&O's purpose of acquiring the
Hocking Valley was to give it an outlet to the Great Lakes, via Toledo,
for westbound coal originating in West Virginia. As the Big Sandy fields
in eastern Kentucky were opened in 1904, the coal was delivered to the
Norfolk & Western at Kenova. Improving its western connections, the
C&O purchased the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville in 1910. Coal
became important on this line, but the flow to the Great Lakes was
denied it. Therefore, the C&O acquired the HV, which also controlled
the Toledo & Ohio Central and Kanawha & Michigan. The K&M
was very important in the acquisition, as it was the C&O's
connection to the Hocking out of Gauley Bridge, near Charleston, West
Virginia. With this connection now under its control, the C&O began
shipping coal to Toledo and connections at Columbus and Fostoria. This
new arrangement produced satisfactory results, even though coal had to
be back-hauled from the Big Sandy and Logan fields to Gauley.
In 1914, the U.S. District Court ordered
the C&O to release its K&M interest under the Sherman Act, thus
isolating the HV. The solution? Build a route to connect with the HV. On
May 11, 1914, the Chesapeake & Northern, a wholly-owned C&O
subsidiary, was formed and built a line from Edington, Kentucky, on the
Cincinnati Division near Russell, Kentucky, to Waverly, Ohio, on the
N&W main. The C&O negotiated trackage rights with the N&W
for hauling a specified number of trains to Columbus. This arrangement
with a competitor never proved entirely satisfactory, and from 1926 to
1927, the Chesapeake & Hocking completed the line from Waverly to
Valley Crossing. Because of the new connection, an immense bridge -
Limeville Bridge (also known as Sciotoville Bridge) - was constructed
across the Ohio River from a point near NJ Cabin in Kentucky to
Sciotoville, Ohio.
By the 1920s, the Hocking fields were
largely depleted, and the mass of branches south of Columbus became
backwater area, while the Toledo Division boomed. As an economy measure,
and a plan of the Van Sweringen brothers, the Hocking Valley was
absorbed into the Chesapeake & Ohio system and became the Hocking
Division. The Mound Street shops in Columbus and the Logan shops were
phased out as "unnecessary facilities." Throughout the 1940s
and '50s, the Hocking Division continued to decline south of Columbus
and coal traffic continued to climb on the Columbus Subdivision.
Abandonments continued to occur south of Columbus to alleviate the
financial problems associated with them.
The Hocking Valley had basically the same
motive power of contemporary lines of the time while independent. The
4-4-0 design was prevalent across the system throughout the nineteenth
century, the 2-8-0 design stronger in the early twentieth century.
Builders were mainly Rogers Locomotive Works until 1880 and Brooks
thereafter. With the control of the C&O in 1910, two of its designs
were transplanted to the HV: the 2-8-2 HV Mikados of 1912-13 were
duplicates of the C&O's 1911 design, and the twenty 2-6-6-2 Mallets
of 1917-18, duplicates of the C&O Mallets, were designed for hauling
heavy coal assignments north of Columbus. Additional 2-8-0
Consolidations were added until 1911. Passenger traffic was handled by
modern 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s of 1904-13 vintage. In 1920, the HV picked up
sixteen secondhand 2-10-2 Santa Fe types from the Lehigh Valley that had
been built a year before. These were the last engines bought by the HV,
save for the ten 0-8-0s from Lima Locomotive Works in 1926 and fifteen
American Locomotive Company 0-8-0s in 1930. The entire HV roster was
absorbed into the C&O roster following the merger of 1930, but most
of the engines continued on the former HV lines, rather than being
dispersed across the C&O system since they were too small for most
of C&O's uses. However, the Santa Fes did move to Virginia. The
4-6-0s continued on branchline passenger trains until they were
discontinued 1949-50. The only Hocking Valley locomotive to survive the
scrapper's torch was C&O No. 701, former HV No. 171, a 2-8-0 built
by ALCO-Richmond in 1911. It had been moved to Clifton Forge, Virginia,
where it operated on the Hot Springs Branch local. At the end of steam,
it was donated to the City of Covington, Virginia, where it has been
most recently displayed in Convington's Mian Street Park. It is still in
fairly good condition today.
The tracks of the Athens Subdivision are
still completely intact, being operated by the Indiana & Ohio
Central, a part of Fortress, as the Logan Line. The double track was
long ago removed in the 1930s, but one can still find remants of the
former second track in form of passing sidings and industrial tracks.
The I&OC hauls mainly lumber, grain, clay, sand, glass, and metal
products.
Part of the Armitage Subdivision is still
intact with tracks from Logan to Nelsonville, operated by the Hocking
Valley Scenic Railway. This railroad operates regular passenger
excursions every weekend from April through December. The HVSR
originally operated on the old Monday Creek Branch south of Nelsonville,
but moved to the Armitage Subdivision between Nelsonville to Glen Ebon,
a point just north of Athens. Soon after, though, the Glen Ebon route
was removed in 1985 in favor of the current line in order to keep from
being isolated, as the C&O was to abandon the line from Logan to
Nelsonville. The rest of the Armitage Subdivision south of Nelsonville
is now the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway, a rails-to-trails project. For
those interested, it also affords good railfanning opportunities of
Norfolk Southern's former Conrail (ex-T&OC) West Virginia Secondary
near Armitage and on south to Athens.
The Pomeroy Subdivision from Logan to
Pomeroy is gone, except for a seven-mile stretch from Gallipolis to
Hobson, near Pomeroy. This line is still owned by CSXT, but only the
trains of Norfolk Southern traverse the route. This is an agreement that
is over 100 years old and has passed through numerous railroads.
CSXT has no connection with the tracks,
except by going through the interchange yard at Point Pleasant, West
Virginia, and crossing the old Kanawha & Michigan bridge across the
Ohio. In 1983, a unit coal train began a short-lived operation from
Southern Ohio Coal Co.'s loadout near Minerton to American Electric
Power's Gavin power plant in Cheshire on the Ohio River. The train ran
daily until the mine was flooded around 1987 and service was
discontinued. Gavin now receives its coal via a system of conveyor
belts. CSXT subsequently removed the line between Minerton and
Kanuaga (where the NS trackage rights begin) in 1992.
|
The Hocking Valley Railway
By Ed Miller
Be sure to get your copy of Mr. Miller's comprehensive print resource of
the Hocking Valley Railway. Click
here to order your copy today!
|
