Chapter VIII – Developers Acquire Timber Land

Camden was also looking into the potential development of iron ore deposits in Pocahontas and Greenbrier Counties in West Virginia, and Allegheny and Craig Counties in Virginia.  In late 1890 he became a member of a syndicate planning for the development of iron ore on 50,000 acres on Potts Creek, near Covington, Virginia.  Camden had in mind from the beginning the extension of his WV&P to a junction with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway at some point.  With the involvement in the iron ore in Virginia, Camden now had a reason for the extension and began a correspondence in December 1890 with C&O President M. W. Ingalls about a junction.  Davis was also invited to extend the WVC&P to Huntersville to give him a connection with the C&O.
Negotiations between Camden and C&O officials continued until the summer of 1891 when an agreement was reached to join their lines in the Greenbrier Valley, with Marlinton as the probable meeting point.  The WV&P would enter the Greenbrier Valley by building a line up the Williams River and down Stony Creek to Marlinton.  The C&O planned to extend its Hot Springs Branch to Marlinton by way of Knapps Creek.
Even before Camden and the C&O finalized their plans, McGraw must have been fairly certain that Marlinton was to be a railroad junction as in February 1891 he acquired the farms at the mouth of Knapps Creek and made plans for the development of a town.  For this purpose  the Pocahontas Development Company was organized in September 1891.5  
McGraw was able to draw a remarkable number of people together as incorporators of the new venture.  Joining him, Camden, and Davis were W. Va. Governor A----- B. Fleming and W. Va. Secretary of State William A. Ohley, of Charleston; Francis M. Durbin, a bank official from Parkersburg; Joseph E. Sands and J. Milton Hartley, bank officials, and J. Ed. Watson, a  --- from Fairmont; T. Moore Jackson, a bank president from Clarksburg; George M Whitescraver, a bank director from Grafton; John Blackshere, an oil company official from Mannington; and Jacob W. Marshall, a cattle and stock dealer, of Randolph County.  Principal office of the new corporation was located in Grafton.
The Board of Directors of the Pocahontas Development County was made up of the incorporators with the exception of Davis.  McGraw was President, Whitescarver was Secretary and General Manager, and Durbin was Treasurer.  In the list of directors, Marshall's address is given as Marlinton.  (Durbin's name became the name of a future town in northern Pocahontas County.)
The purposes for which the PDC was incorporated were many and far reaching.  Included were  buying timber and manufacturing the same into lumber and other wood products; mining a great variety of minerals, including coal, iron ore, and limestone and manufacturing from these resources; owning, operating and aiding in the construction of works of internal improvements; leasing and selling any real estate the corporation may acquire; and laying out a town, selling lots, laying out, grading and paving streets, "owning and operating street-car and telephone lines," and providing gas and electric power.6
The development company published a prospectus for the planned new town of Marlinton "The future manufacturing and industrial center of the Virginias" located at the upcoming junction of the W. Va. and Pittsburgh Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.  "Preliminary Prospectus of a new Town, located in a rich, beautiful and fertile country, among a prosperous, progressive and generous people, published for the consideration of Investors, Manufacturers, Mechanics and all live men, who desire an investment or a healthy home, in a place which, in the near future, must develop into that which nature intended it should be, 'One of the Best Towns in West Virginia.' "7
       perhaps more from booklet

McGraw and his associates also encouraged the moving of the Pocahontas County court house from Huntersville to their new community.  (This was not a new issue for the county; court house removal from Huntersville had been proposed several times before in the county’s history.)  The Pocahontas Development Company offered a free lot in the new town for a court house and $5,000 cash towards its construction as an inducement to the change in county seat.  
Upon the petition of 697 voters, on  ----- the County Court approved presenting the removal question to a vote.  The change was approved on December 8, 1891, by a vote of 940 to 475.8
A lot drawing for the new town took place on June 1, 1892, with 191 lots drawn and assigned for a total of $42,020.9   check
However, as 1891 passed into 1892, doubts about the extension of the WV&P Railroad to Marlinton surfaced.  Right-of-way surveys were made and rumors reported work being let to contract, but no dirt was turned.  As early as February 1892, doubt was being expressed by C&O Railroad Vice-president Decatur Axtell to McGraw that Camden would build his proposed railroad.
Also, Camden’s commitment to using Marlinton as the junction point between his railroad and the C&O wavered, even as the decision to do so was confirmed by the two companies.  He had his surveyors study the possibility of reaching the Greenbrier River by building the railroad up the Cherry River and down Spring Creek as early as the late summer of 1891.  By the end of the year he was discussing this route with C&O officials.  In December of 1892, Camden wrote to Ingalls that “there is no doubt that we will want to use the Cherry River line.”10
During this period the C&O was also surveying a number of routes for railroads into Pocahontas County.  One was the planned extension of the Hot Springs Branch to Marlinton.  Another left the main line near Covington, Virginia, and crossed the Allegheny Mountain to Anthonys Creek.   A third began at White Sulphur Springs and came up Anthonys Creek.  The latter two used either the main branch of Anthonys Creek or the North Fork of that stream to reach Knapps Creek and then to Marlinton.  
Discussion between the C&O and the WV&P continued though 1892, but by the end of the year it was plain that the plan of connecting the two companies in the Greenbrier Valley was abandoned, at least for the time being.  The reasons for this outcome are varied, but a main one was no doubt the economic downturn that led to the Panic of 1893, causing the C&O to be unwilling to undertake any new projects.
Also, the WV&P was financially burdened by its construction projects and land purchases. The iron ore in the Covington area eventually proved to be of low grade with cost of production high and suspicions of this were evident even in the 1890s.  Finally, the surveys of both the C&O and WV&P routes would have indicated they would be costly to build and maintain; only the C&O line from White Sulphur Springs avoided a major mountain crossing.
The WV&P never did reach the Greenbrier River.  It slipped into financial trouble in the mid-1890s and was placed into receivership in 1898.  In 1899 it was sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  That year the line was extended up the Cherry River to the site of the new town of Richwood.  This town was the location of the main mill of the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company.  CRB&L acquired the land holdings of Camden in August 1907 when 134,842 acres were transferred to it from the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad.  (Camden did harvest a small amount of his timber on the Williams River as related in Chapter VI.)11   

 As it was beginning to look as if the C&O/Camden plan for a railroad into the Greenbrier Valley was not going to occur, McGraw began to look elsewhere for a railroad that would serve the region.  Without a railroad, his extensive land holdings were almost worthless, so he turned to Davis as a possible builder of the needed rail line.
In 1892 McGraw attracted the interest of some investors in New York state in his lands in the Greenbrier Valley.  In a letter to Davis on October 21 of that year, McGraw reported that he had just returned from New York, “where I have concluded the sale of the 16,000 acres of land on the east branch of the Greenbrier River to the Rochester syndicate to which I previously sold the 11,800 on the west branch of the same stream.  This gives these gentlemen 27,000 acres on the waters of the Greenbrier, and they are anxious to take up the question of the location of their saw-mill and pulp mills.”   
The main purpose of McGraw’s letter was, no doubt, to encourage Davis in plans to build a railroad into the valley, so he continued, “From the plans formulated by them and the extensive character of their proposed works, combining the manufacture of lumber and the establishment of a pulp mill and tannery, I have no doubt but that their operations will be of such an extent as to attract the attention of the railroad which would get the benefit of their shipments.  They would begin at once the manufacture of the necessary lumber towards the building of these mills and getting their timber ready, if they had assurances that the road would be built to Marlinton.  Their plant at that place will cover 80 acres, which they have already selected and up which they would like to build.”
Next came the warning of the result of the lack of action by Davis.  McGraw wrote, “Of course, they bought this land for the early manufacture of lumber, and if there is to be no reasonable assurance of the railroad reaching the Greenbrier river above the C&O connection at Ronceverte they will abandon the proposed plant at Marlinton and make their location at Ronceverte in connection with the boom which is now there and owned by the St. Lawrence Boom & Lumber [sic] Co."
“I do not know whether you have in the press of other affairs been able to take up the matter of your proposed extension, but  would be very glad if you could give me some information upon the subject which I might be permitted to communicate to them.  They are very energetic people and are ready now to commence the development of their extensive holdings on the Greenbrier River.”12 
The men referred to by McGraw were Henry H. Craig, Eli M. Upton, Marcemus H. Briggs, John N. Beckley, all of Rochester, New York, and Alfred A. Howlett, of Syracuse, New York.  In December 1892 a charter was issued to the Rochester Boom and Lumber Company, incorporated for the purpose of a “general lumber and timber business, boom and booming business, iron, coal, pulp all pertaining thereto.”  The principal office of the company was to be at Marlinton.  The five men listed before were the incorporators.13 
McGraw’s letter to Davis gave a possible connection between the New York men and the Greenbrier Valley.  McGraw reported to Davis that Howlett, a contractor for the War Department, had recently visited with Davis’ son-in-law, U. S. Senator Elkins, in Washington.  As a guess, Elkins had told Howlett about the development opportunities in West Virginia.
The 11,800 acre land sale McGraw referred to in his letter to Davis was made in July 1892.  The tract was made up of land on the headwaters of the West Fork of the Greenbrier River and the headwaters of the Laurel Fork in Randolph County.  The purchasers were Craig, Upton, Beckley, and Howlett and they paid $70,800 for the land.14
The reference to the sale of 16,000 acres on the East Fork is not certain but might refer to the sale of 19,348 acres to Upton that was finalized by a deed in March 1893.  McGraw received $116,088 from this sale.  In April Briggs purchased 10,012 acres from McGraw, located in the Elk River watershed.15 
Eventually, all this land was placed in Upton’s name.  The 11,801 acre tract was transferred to him in March 1893 and the Elk River property in January 1897.16
In a short newspaper account of the incorporation of the Rochester company in February 1893, it was stated that the company “is to build a mill at this place [Marlinton] next summer to be the largest in the state.  The work done on the boom last fall was only a beginning.”17 
(No other reference has been found to a boom at Marlinton.  McGraw had the Greenbrier Boom and Lumber Company incorporated in February 1891, which was authorized to construct and operate booms and dams on the Greenbrier River in Pocahontas County, but this company was probably superceded by the Rochester company.)18    
Davis seems to have been interested and did correspond with Chesapeake and Ohio officials in November 1892 on a possible connection between the WVC&P and their railroad.  However, nothing was done by either company, probably because of the Panic of 1893.
Continuing to look for a way to get his railroad, in July 1894 McGraw approached Davis with the idea of the Rochester Boom and Lumber Company building its own railroad from the Forks of the Greenbrier River to a connection with the Dry Fork Railroad in --County.  The Dry Fork connected with the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg.
(The Dry Fork Railroad was incorporated in December 1892 by the owners of the Condon-Lane Boom and Lumber Company.  The railroad was under construction the following summer, beginning at Hendricks on the WVC&P, and completed to Horton the following summer.  At Horton the lumber company erected a sawmill.  Under its charter, the railroad was authorized to build to the Greenbrier River and down that river to the C&O.)19
However, the idea of the Rochester B&L Company building a railroad to the Dry Fork seems to have been premature for the economic conditions and nothing came of it. 
Although the Dry Fork plan did not materialize, Davis kept an interest in a southern extension of his railroad.  In 1894 and 1895 he had surveys done for a railway route from Elkins to the Greenbrier River and continued discussions with McGraw and his associates.  He also kept in contact with C&O President Ingalls concerning joining their two railroads.  
An additional player in the game of building a railroad to the Greenbrier Valley was the United States Leather Company, of New York City.  In 1894 and 1895 this company purchased hemlock bark on 107,000 acres in Tucker, Pendleton, Randolph, Pocahontas, and Highland Counties from the Condon-Lane Boom and Lumber Company.20 
Following a meeting in New York in late October 1895 between McGraw and United States Leather Company officials, McGraw and Davis prepared a memorandum of agreement, dated November 27, on the conditions under which a railroad would be built south from Elkins.  The major points were:
• At the Forks of the Greenbrier the U. S. Leather Company will erect a tannery, the Rochester Boom and Lumber Company a sawmill, and a group from Ronceverte a sawmill
• Davis, Elkins and associates will take 60% of the stock in the new railroad with McGraw, U. S. Leather Company, and their associates 40%
• The West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad will operate the new railroad and make a liberal traffic agreement with it
• Other parts of the memorandum involved the issuing of bonds for construction and other financial aspects of building and operating the new line.21
The negotiations between all parties continued into the new year and included the extension of the proposed railroad south from the Forks of the Greenbrier to a junction with the C&O at some point.  Davis preferred making the junction at Huntersville or Driscol (Minnehaha Springs) while McGraw naturally wanted to take the line to Marlinton.  
An additional agreement was made on McGraw’s contribution to the project in a memorandum dated February 20, 1896.  The main points were:
• McGraw will provide 8,000 acres of iron ore and timber lands
• McGraw will obtain the right-of-way, free of charge to the railroad, from the headwaters of the Greenbrier to Douthards Creek
• McGraw will provide $50,000 in cash and receive stock in exchange
• McGraw and his associates are to begin erecting a sawmill at the Forks of the Greenbrier when the railroad construction begins
• In return Davis will arrange the construction of a standard gauge railroad from Elkins “as early as practicable, consistent with the conditions of the money market.”22
At first Davis seemed to be ready to begin construction on the new railroad but by late February 1896 he was beginning to express doubts about the financial feasibility of the project.  Davis occasionally referred to the proposed extension of his railroad from Elkins in his correspondence in following months, but no action was taken to begin construction and 1897 arrived with no railroad into the Upper Greenbrier Valley.
McGraw finally tired of waiting for Davis to begin work and in March of 1897 he annulled the 1896 memorandum (s) - check --  and turned towards the C&O as the more likely source of a railroad into his holdings on the Greenbrier River.  As related in the next chapter, the C&O was the railroad company to finally construct a line into the Upper Greenbrier Valley.

In October of 1897 the name of the Rochester Boom and Lumber Company was changed to the Greenbrier River Lumber Company.   Under this new name, the company became the owner of almost all of the lands that McGraw had acquired since 1883.  Upton transferred 35,034 acres to the renamed company and McGraw transferred 66,872.5 acres.  For the Upton transfer the price was only $1 and "other valuable consideration” but McGraw’s deed called for him to receive $668,725.23 
At a meeting of the company stockholders on September 22, 1897, approval was given for $400,000 in bonds to be issued by the Greenbrier River Lumber Company.  A trust deed was recorded the next month that up the land as security for the bonds.  Signing the trust deed as President of the GRLCo was G. M. Warner and J. N. Beckley signed as Secretary.24
The next month the C&O obtained the charter for the Greenbrier Railway Company.  According to recollections of C&O Vice-president Decatur Axtell, the formation of this company followed conferences between C&O President Melville E. Ingalls and owners of timber land in the Greenbrier area.  Axtell did not name the timber owners, but as related in Chapter V, they included representatives from the St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company and another major company that had begun to purchase land in Pocahontas County, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company.  It would seem reasonable to assume that McGraw and his associates might have also been involved in the discussions.
In February 1898 the Greenbrier Valley Construction Company was incorporated with McGraw and others in the Greenbrier River Lumber Company as incorporators.   -- need the source on this  - It was reported that this company was to build the Greenbrier Railway.25 
Testimony by West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company attorney Charles F. Moore in a deposition in a legal case in 1909 helps confirm that this was the plan.  Moore stated he was told by Ingalls in 1899 “that the franchise for the construction of the branch line had been turned over by the Railroad Company to the officers and associates of the Greenbrier River Lumber Co., with the idea of their building a private line connecting with the Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. . . .”26    

what would the “franchise” for constructing the line be? - was there an actual contract/agreement between the C&O and McGraw’s group -  Moore states that Ingalls goes on to say “. . . but that they had been so slow starting the work that he was absolutely sure he could get the franchise back” and the C&O would build the line itself

In July of 1898 several of the principals of the Greenbrier River Lumber Company made a visit to the area.  According to the news report in The Pocahontas Times, Beckley, Upton, C. E. Bissell, of Rochester, C. M. Warner, G. E. Warner, of Syracuse, and McGraw spent the night of July 1 at Marlinton and went on to Ronceverte the next day.  At Ronceverte they were scheduled to meet with the chief engineer of the new railroad, who was reported to have completed all preliminary surveying necessary to decide on the route for the line.27 
However, the Greenbrier Construction Company never turned a shovelful of dirt on the proposed railroad and other than being incorporated, no further references to it have been found.  Why McGraw and his group did not proceed with construction is not known, but as a guess, the cost of such a large project was probably a major factor.  As related in the next chapter the C&O quickly moved to build the railroad on its own, with construction beginning in 1899.
The Greenbrier River Lumber Company did, however, actually cut some of the timber on the lands that had been acquired by McGraw, although not a large amount.   The company located a sawmill on a site just north of Marlinton on the grade of the new C&O branch line, across from the mouth of Stony Creek.  In September 1900 it was reported the mill was under construction, the cutting of timber was taking place on Marlin Mountain, on the river side slopes, north of Marlinton, and the railroad grade north of the mill site was temporarily used as a tramroad.  In February 1901, the company was reported to be cutting logs on Marlin Run, “which were snaked thro’ town on the late snow.  They are taken to a skidway near 5th street and loaded on flat cars to be taken to the mill about a mile up the river.”28 
A year later the company replaced the original mill with a larger one.  Work on the mill, equipped with a band saw, was underway in October 1901.  The same month the company was adversing for "Good Laborers."29    
In March 1902 there was the report that "John Falen, foreman of the Greenbrier River Lumber Companys [sic] mill, was hurt Wednesday morning by his coat being caught in a live roll and his shoulder dislocated.  He had presence of mind enough to divest himself of his coat before he was worse hurt.  The roll was one of those carrying slabs from the band saw, and was covered in especially to avert this kind of accident, but by some mysterious means he got his coat caught and received the injury.  Dr. [- - - - -] Cunningham put his shoulder in place."  This was the only report of an injury/death found in relation to the operations of the Greenbrier River Lumber Company.30
At some point in 1902, the C&O installed a side track at the mouth of Monday Lick Run, without doubt for the Greenbrier River Lumber Company.  A C&O bill of lading for October 12, 1903, listed a shipment of supplies from Marlinton to the lumber company at Monday Lick.  The car contained 65 sacks of oats, 53 bales of straw, 25 sacks of ----, 2 barrels of flour, 2 cases of corn, 2 cases of peaches, 2 cases of peas, 1 box of groceries, and 200 stakes for (lumber) cars.31 
A side track at the mouth of Improvement Lick Run, also installed in 1902, was certainly for GRLCo, as in April of that year the company contracted with John Cleek and George Dolan for cutting, hauling, skidding, and loading on C&O cars "all the merchantable saw timber" on Improvement Lick.  The contract also called for the peeling, hauling and loading the bark from hemlock and chestnut oak trees.  Cleek and Dolan were to load from 12,000 to 25,000 feet per day.  For their work the partners were to be paid $4.50 per thousand feet for logs ($5 for oak) and $3.50 per ton of bark under the agreement.32 
Before 1902 was out, the logging contractors felt they were being underpaid by the company as they filed a case in the Justice of the Peace Court in December seeking $126.66 for work done since May.  On January 1, 1903, Justice N. C. Rogers awarded them only $9.50.  The partners then filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court.  The case went to trial on October 10, 1903, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict.  It was finally dismissed in October of the next year after the plaintiffs failed to appear in court.33 
Two news items in the Times in 1902, first in May and second in August, were:
• Buckeye news "The Young Brothers have contracted from the Greenbrier Lumber Company and are cutting with George Lightner as foreman and Dennis Kellison as head cook, while just across the river is J. Edgar Auldridge, extensive farmer and stock dealer, who will supply the near camps with beef and vegetables during the summer season."34
• "The Greenbrier Lumber Company has perhaps a thousand cords of tan bark to be shipped from their siding below Marlinton.  It would seem that cutting tan bark would be a profitable industry as it utilizes what has heretofore been a waste product.  To the saw mill man it is so especially, as the price of the bark alone will pay for the cutting of the timber, and then there is so much hemlock and chesnut [sic] oak good for nothing else."  This little article was prophetic, as tan bark was soon one of the most important aspects of the timbering industry in the valley.35
Other C&O side tracks south of Marlinton that may have served Greenbrier River Lumber Company were:

The Pocahontas Tanning Company had a longer impact on the valley than did the Greenbrier River Lumber Company.  In 1904 the company erected the tannery at Frank that continued in operation until 1994. 
The tanning company did not retain the land it purchased but over a period of years sold tracts to various lumber companies, retaining the rights to the hemlock and rock oak bark needed for the tanning process.  The major sales were:

While looking to build a railroad into the Greenbrier Valley, Henry G. Davis continued to acquire land and timber rights in Pocahontas and Highland Counties.  His purchases came to 16,630 acres of land and 8,900 acres of timber rights.  Most of the timber rights, 6,740 acres, were in Highland County, mainly on Laurel Fork.  Of the land purchases, 5,940 acres were on Allegheny Mountain and in both counties, the other land purchases and balance of the timber rights were scattered over Pocahontas County - on Allegheny Mountain, Williams River, Elk River, and the East and West Forks of the Greenbrier River.46 
Davis had the Pocahontas Timber Company incorporated in July 1901 and transferred the property he had acquired to it the next month, in exchange for 1,500 shares of stock.  Joining Davis as incorporators of the company were Kate A. Davis (Mrs. Henry), J. T. Davis (his son John), Charles S. Robb, and C. M. Hendley, all of Elkins.47 
Under its own name, Pocahontas Timber Company purchased additional property, coming to 532 acres of land in three tracts on Allegheny Mountain, joining the larger tract already acquired and and timber rights on another 1,000 acre tract in Highland County, on Back Creek.48   
What actual plans Davis had for the Pocahontas Timber Company are not known.  As it turned out, the company operated only as a land holding concern and never harvested any of the timber itself.  Over a period of years the company’s land and timber rights were sold to those who did cut the timber.  The sales were:
• 1904  1,639 acres of timber to W. Va. Pulp and Paper Company
• 1905  476 acres of land and 8,159 acres of timber to John Innes
• 1905  1,554 acres of timber to J. E. Gillingham 
• 1905  2,112 acres to W. P. Mahaffey, et al
• 1905  9,200 acres to Dunmore Land and Timber Company   might be only 8910 ac. - check
• 1905  725 acres to A. E. Smith 
• 1911  2,716 acres to WVP&P  
• 1912  1,489 acres to WVP&P
• 1913  200 acres to WVP&P
• 1917  mineral rights on 1,689 acres to Davis Land Company

Although the plans for railroad building in the Upper Greenbrier Valley by Davis, Camden, and the C&O were the most viable, they were not alone in making plans for a railroad into the region.
In the period between the end of the Civil War and 1900, the author has located the names of more than thirty railroads that included the Greenbrier Valley in their proposed routes.  “Proposed” is the operative word, as most of these railroads had no more than an a paper existence.  A few actually did run surveys (let’s hope the surveyors got paid) and maybe one or two actually laid a rail, but the residents of the Greenbrier Valley never saw any of them constructed.
The year the Civil War ended, 1865, a line named the Monongahela and Lewisburg R---- was incorporated to build from Monongala County to a connection with the proposed C&O route through the state.  A precise route was never decided, but a stock investment in this company was taken under consideration by the Pocahontas County Board of Supervisors  (Post-Civil War name for the county courts in the new state for a brief period of time).49
The Pocahontas County Court considered twice in the 1870s the purchase of stock in the Washington, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad.  This route for this company in connecting the cities of its name was through Pocahontas County.  It was to enter the county at the head of Knapps Creek, down that stream to the river, up Stony Creek, and on west by way of Williams River.  This company did lease some mineral rights in Pocahontas County in 1873 and 1874 and  built some grade near Harrisonburg, Virginia, but that seems to have been the extent of it activities.50
A location map and profile was filed at the Pocahontas County Court House in 1881 for the Kanawha and Chesapeake Railroad.  The map indicated a route from Marlinton, up Stony Creek, through a 300 foot tunnel to the Williams River, and on to Webster County.
Another potential railroad company was named the Kanawha and Ohio R----, which was planning a line up the Gauley River to a possible junction with the WVC&P.  By June of 1887, this company had surveyed a route up the Gauley River, into Pocahontas County by way of the Williams River, through Marlin’s Bottom, up Knapps Creek, and on into Virginia.  Men from ----- were the incorporators of this rail company.  However, the survey seems to have been all this company did.51
make sure these two are not the same

In the mid-1880s the Chicago, Parkersburg and Norfolk Railway came before the Pocahontas County Court seeking support.  Incorporated by men from Parkersburg, a route for the rail line was surveyed along the Elk River from Webster County, up Big Spring Fork of Elk, across the mountain to Clover Creek (by way of a 2,850 foot tunnel), down that stream to the river, then to Knapps Creek, Huntersville, and on to White Sulphur Springs.52
Col. Henry B. Hubbard, of Wheeling, was at Huntersville on business in 1885 and was surprised to find much opposition to the proposed railroad.  He saw what he believed to be the many advantages to the area from a railroad, but upon reflection, he began to see that the opposition might make good sense.  “. . . they are a preeminently pastoral people with no desire for the rush, strife and turmoil of trade, but perfectly satisfied with their thousand acres covered with flocks and herds, and the comforts and influences derived from them.  A tripling or quadrupling of the value of their lands would not add to their happiness nor change their occupation, but would add to the amount of their taxes without producing an extra blade of grass.”53
Needless to write, the CP&N Railway was not constructed.
In the mid-1890s, a railroad aiming to passing through the Greenbrier Valley actually was laying steel.  The Chesapeake and Western Railroad had has its goals to connect the West Virginia coal fields with the tidewater area of Virginia and to open up the Shenandoah Valley around Harrisonburg.  A map dated 1894 shows the rail line starting near Harrisonburg and splitting into two possible routes in the Greenbrier Valley.  One route entered the valley near Travelers Repose and the other at the headwaters of Knapps Creek.  On the map two routes joined at Marlinton and from there went down the river toward Rupert by way of Renick, Frankford, Williamsburg, Clintonville, and Meadow Bluff.  On another map, the proposed route from Rupert on to Charleston was given.
Work began at Harrisonburg in June 1895 and it was completed to Bridgewater on the west and Elkton to the east in less than a year.  However, lack of funds ended construction and the hopes of Greenbrier Valley promoters that this line would be the one to first provide rail access to the area’s resources.
No information has been found that any of the other numerous railroads with the Greenbrier Valley included in their routes did even as much as proposed railroads described in the preceding paragraphs.

As the new century approached the bulk of the timber resources of the Upper Greenbrier Valley were still protected from cutting by the lack of the necessary transportation.  This quickly changed as the Twentieth Century opened.