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East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Co. and the Richmond and Danville Railroad Co. - $1,000 (Uncanceled)

Inv# RB7181
East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Co. and the Richmond and Danville Railroad Co. - $1,000 (Uncanceled)
State(s): Georgia
Tennessee
Virginia
Years: 1890

$1,000 5% Uncanceled Gold Bond printed by Homer Lee Bank Note Company, N.Y. All but 6 of 100 coupons remain.

The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1869, the ETV&G played an important role in connecting East Tennessee and other isolated parts of Southern Appalachia with the rest of the country, and helped make Knoxville one of the region's major wholesaling centers. In 1894, the ETV&G merged with the Richmond and Danville Railroad to form the Southern Railway.

While efforts to establish a railroad in East Tennessee began in the 1830s, financial difficulties stalled construction until the late 1840s. The East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad was built between 1847 and 1859, connecting Knoxville, Tennessee with Dalton, Georgia. The East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad was built between 1850 and 1856, connecting Knoxville with Bristol, Tennessee. Knoxville financier Charles McClung McGhee formed a syndicate which purchased both lines to form the ETV&G in 1869, and largely through McGhee's efforts, the new ETV&G bought out numerous other rail lines across the region. By 1890, the ETV&G controlled over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of tracks in five states.

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, East Tennessee struggled to overcome the economic isolation created by its natural barriers, namely the Blue Ridge Mountains on the south and east and the Cumberland Plateau on the north and west. Shortly after the advent of railroads in the 1820s, the region's business leaders began discussing railroad construction as a way to relieve this isolation. In the mid-1830s, several businessmen, among them Knoxville physician J. G. M. Ramsey, planned and promoted a line connecting Cincinnati and Charleston (which would have passed through East Tennessee), but the Panic of 1837 doomed this initiative.

In 1836, a group of businessmen chartered the Hiwassee Railroad, based in Athens, Tennessee, which sought to construct a line from Knoxville southward to Dalton, Georgia, where it would join a planned extension of the Charleston and Hamburg line, providing Knoxville with a link to the Atlantic Coast. Like its competitors with the Cincinnati and Charleston, the Hiwassee ran into financial difficulties, and the Hiwassee Company nearly collapsed. The company was forced to focus on turnpike construction and iron production to survive.

In 1844, the Charleston and Hamburg extension to Dalton was completed, and Knoxville and Athens businessmen again entertained the idea of building a rail line to Georgia. The Hiwassee Company was recharted in 1847 as the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, and with renewed support from the Tennessee state legislature, work on the line began the following year. By 1852, the line had reached Blair's Ferry (modern Loudon, Tennessee), just southeast of Knoxville. On June 22, 1855, the first train rolled into Knoxville over the East Tennessee and Georgia's tracks.

On July 4, 1855, as Knoxvillians celebrated the arrival of the railroad, track work began on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, which sought to connect Knoxville with Bristol, Tennessee, where it would join existing tracks to create an unbroken rail line from New York to Memphis. Under the direction of Jonesborough physician Samuel B. Cunningham, this line reached New Market in 1856. After overcoming financial and engineering difficulties, the tracks from Knoxville to Bristol were completed on May 14, 1858, with Cunningham personally driving the last spike.

During the 1850s, virtually every major business and political leader in Knoxville was involved in railroad building. In 1852, congressmen Horace Maynard, William Montgomery Churchwell, and John H. Crozier, along with attorney Oliver Perry Temple and minister Thomas William Humes, chartered the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad, which planned to build a line northward into Kentucky, where it would join existing lines to Cincinnati and Louisville. By the outbreak of the Civil War, however, this company had laid just nine miles of track.

The railroads in East Tennessee provided a major supply route between Virginia and the Deep South, and thus both Confederate and Union forces considered the region of vital importance. On November 8, 1861, East Tennessee Union loyalists destroyed five railroad bridges, forcing the Confederate government to invoke martial law in the region. Throughout the war, both Confederate and Union forces destroyed railroad tracks and facilities to prevent them from falling under the other's control.

After the war, Knoxville businessman Charles McClung McGhee (1828–1907) and several other investors formed a syndicate which purchased both the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. In 1869, the two lines were consolidated to form the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, with Thomas Calloway as president, and McGhee and Richard T. Wilson as agents. As a nexus between northern financiers and local interests, McGhee was able to obtain for the ETV&G large amounts of capital, and the new company rapidly expanded.

In 1869, the ETV&G bought the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad, which had been revived after the war, and over the subsequent decade extended its tracks to the Kentucky state line at Jellico. During this same period, the ETV&G acquired the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which connected Memphis and Chattanooga, the Georgia Southern Railroad, which connected Dalton with Rome, Georgia, and the Macon and Brunswick Railroad, which connected Macon, Georgia with Brunswick, Georgia on the Atlantic Coast. By 1882, the ETV&G had completed tracks from Rome to Macon, connecting these last two lines.

In the early 1880s, the ETV&G managed to build a line through the rugged French Broad valley along the Tennessee-North Carolina state line to join with the Western North Carolina Railroad system, and provide a direct link from Knoxville to Asheville. The company also built a line connecting its tracks at Clinton with the Cincinnati Southern Railway tracks at Harriman. By 1890, the ETV&G controlled 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of tracks, stretching as far south as Meridian, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama, westward to Memphis, and eastward to Brunswick.

In the mid-1880s, overspeculation in railroad construction began to take its toll on the ETV&G's finances. In 1886, the company was reorganized as the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (as opposed to "Railroad"), and eventually came under the control of the Richmond Terminal Company conglomerate. After the collapse of Richmond Terminal in the early 1890s, New York financier J. P. Morgan formed the Southern Railway, which purchased the ETV&G and the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and consolidated the two in 1894. In 1982, the Southern Railway was acquired by the Norfolk Southern Corporation, which currently manages most of the former ETV&G system.

The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia and later on 3,300 miles (5,300 km) of track in nine states.

Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its 140-mile (230 km) line between Richmond and Danville in 1856. During the American Civil War, the railroad was a vital link between Richmond, the Confederate capital, and the rest of the Confederacy. After the Civil War, the railroad grew to become the 3,300-mile Richmond and Danville Railroad Company System.

Placed in receivership in 1892, the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company was sold in 1894 and conveyed into the new Southern Railway Company (later the Norfolk Southern Railway) in 1896 and 1897.

The new Richmond and Danville Railroad was championed by Whitmell P. Tunstall, a lawyer in Chatham, Virginia, who was also a member of the Virginia General Assembly. After many years, Tunstall secured a charter for the new railroad on March 9, 1847. In the same year, the state of Virginia took a 60% interest in the capital stock of the company, which it would hold until 1871.

Construction on the 144.7-mile (232.9 km) line began on January 31, 1848 under the supervision of Col. Andrew Talcott, who was later to become the Richmond and Danville's general manager. By 1850, the new railroad had reached Coalfield Station, near the coal mines in an area known today as Midlothian in western Chesterfield County. There, it competed with the mule-powered Chesterfield Railroad. Lawsuits followed, but the older railroad, the first in Virginia, was quickly supplanted by the competition. The Virginia General Assembly allowed the Richmond and Danville Railroad to buy the Chesterfield Railroad for as much as two hundred thousand dollars in 1848.

By the end of 1851, the new line had reached Jetersville in Amelia County. Two years later, it was completed to a point near Drakes Branch, and had been graded to South Boston in Halifax County. On May 16, 1856, the railroad had finished construction of the main line.

In 1856, the Richmond and Danville Railroad was 140.5 miles long, with bridges over the James River, the Staunton River and the Dan River. Its stations included:

Known as the "first railroad war," the American Civil War devastated the South's railroads and economy. In 1862, the Richmond and York River Railroad — acquired after the war by the R&D — played a crucial role in George McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

In 1862, the R&D employed 400 laborers, 50 train hands, 30 carpenters, and 20 blacksmiths. The railroad also employed 300 slaves, some of which it owned and some whose labor it rented from local planters. If a rented slave was injured or killed, the railroad reimbursed his or her owner; in one instance, the R&D paid $1,379.44 for a slave killed in an accident. Some enslaved women were put to work as maids in ladies' dining cars.

The Richmond and Danville Railroad was an essential transportation link for the Confederacy throughout the war. It provided the production of south-central Virginia to Richmond. When the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad was cut in 1864, the R&D's connection with the Piedmont Railroad was the only remaining connection from Richmond to the rest of the South.

The Confederate Army was often handicapped by an ability to transport supplies efficiently from depots to forces in the field. In one case, the war forced the Confederate government to over-rule objections by North Carolina. That state had blocked construction of a rail connection from Greensboro to Danville, fearing that post-war trade from North Carolina's Piedmont would continue to flow to Richmond via the R&D.

Following successful Union attacks on April 1, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee abandoned Petersburg and head west and south in an attempt to join Gen. Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina.

After evacuating Richmond the next day, on April 2, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet left Richmond on the R&D. The departing Confederates set fire to the bridge across the James River between Richmond and Manchester. They traveled to Danville, where they attempted to set up a temporary government.

On reaching Amelia Courthouse during the morning of April 4, 1865, Lee searched the commissary stores, finding abundant ordnance but no food. Lee waited 24 hours in vain there for R&D trains to arrive with badly needed supplies. Union cavalry, meanwhile, sped forward and cut the Richmond & Danville at Jetersville. Lee had to abandon the railroad, and his army stumbled across rolling country towards Lynchburg. On the morning of April 9, 1865, Palm Sunday, Lee met Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean's home near Appomattox Court House to surrender.

With the support of Virginia Governor Francis H. Pierpont, Algernon S. Buford became president of the 140-mile (230 km) R&D on September 13, 1865. Repair work began on war-damaged tracks, including the bridge across the James River between Manchester and Richmond.

Over the next 20 years, Buford, Richmonder James H. Dooley, and other leaders extended the railroad's trackage to 3,000 miles through construction and acquisition. Early acquisitions included the Piedmont Railroad in 1866 and a 25-year lease of the North Carolina Railroad in 1871.

In 1871, the Southern Railway Security Company acquired the 60 percent stake in the railroad held by the state of Virginia. Another large shareholder was the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

In 1877, Buford joined with Andrew Talcott, Thomas Mann Talcott, and others to form the Bon Air Land and Improvement Company, a land investment that added a resort train stop in Bon Air six miles east of Richmond.

In 1880, control of the R&D was acquired by William P. Clyde and interests that controlled the Richmond, York River and Chesapeake Rail Road Company.

In 1881, the Richmond and West Point Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company was organized to develop and expand the R&D, whose charter limited its control of connecting railroads.

In 1882, the R&D, along with the North Carolina Railroad, Northwestern North Carolina Railroad, Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad, Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line Railway and the Columbia and Greenville Railroad lines were being operated as the Piedmont Air-Line System advertised as the shortest line between New York, New Orleans and Texas. One improvement that year was the installation of two steam powered Nutter car hoists in north Danville, Virginia in order to allow truck exchange to allow cars to be exchanged across the break of gauge with the Virginia Midland Railway.

In or about 1886, the Richmond and West Point Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company acquired a majority of R&D Company stock, and thus control of the railroad.

By 1890, the R&D System covered 3,300 miles (5,300 km) of track in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. However, the R&D System had become financially unstable during all the growth. After the Richmond and West Point Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company, declared bankruptcy, the R&D Company was pulled down with it. Receivers were appointed to take possession of its property, including its subsidiaries, on June 15, 1892.

On June 18, 1894, the R&D was sold in foreclosure. Its property was surrendered to Southern Railway Company for operation on July 1, 1894, even though the deeds of conveyance were not completed and filed until later. Reorganized by J.P. Morgan and his New York banking firm of Drexel, Morgan and Company, the R&D was merged with five other railroads to form the new Southern Railway.

The R&D property was formally conveyed to Southern Railway Company by deeds dated January 9, 1896, and August 30, 1897. The Southern Railway Company, incorporated in Virginia on the same date, June 18, 1894, controlled over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of line at its inception. Samuel Spencer became Southern's first president.

Norfolk Southern Corporation, a holding corporation, acquired control of Norfolk and Western Railway Company and Southern Railway Company and their affiliates and subsidiaries on June 1, 1982, after approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Effective December 31, 1990, Southern Railway Company changed its name to Norfolk Southern Railway Company. Norfolk and Western Railway Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Railway Company rather than a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Corporation. In 1999, the system grew substantially with the acquisition of over half of Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail).

Presidents

  • Whitmell P. Tunstall (1847 – February 19, 1854)
  • A. F. D. (Adolphus Frederick Danberry) Gifford (February 19, 1854 – April 13, 1854) (acting president)
  • Vincent Witcher (April 13, 1854 – December 10, 1856)
  • Lewis E. Harvie (December 10, 1856 – September 12, 1865)
  • Algernon Sidney Buford (September 13, 1865 – December 16, 1886)
  • George S. Scott (1884, December 21, 1887 – December 18, 1889)
  • Alfred Sully (December 16, 1886 – December 21, 1887)
  • John H. Inman (December 18, 1889 – March 16, 1892)
  • Walter G.(George) Oakman (March 16, 1892 – 1894)

Vice presidents

  • A. F. D. Gifford
  • A. Y. Stokes (1868 or before – 1880/1)
  • Joseph N.(Napoleon) DuBarry (Btw. 1876 and 1878 – 1880/1)
  • Thomas M. Logan (1881/2 – 1883), 1st VP
  • T. M. R.(Thomas Mann Randolph) Talcott (1881/2 – 1883, 1888/9 – 1889), 2nd VP 1881/2–1883, 1st VP 1888/9–1889
  • Joseph Bryan (1881/2 – 1884), 3rd VP
  • Calvin S. Brice (1884), 1st VP
  • Alfred L. Rives (1883 – 1885/6), 2nd VP
  • Frederick W. Huidekoper (1885 – 1885/6), 1st VP
  • Walter G.(George) Oakman (Fall 1883 – 1887, 1887 – May 1, 1891), 3rd VP Fall 1883–1887, 2nd VP 1887–1888, 1st VP 1888–May 1, 1891, Pres. 1892–1894
  • Alexander B.(Boyd) Andrews (1886/7 – 1894), 3rd VP 1886/7–1889, 2nd VP 1890–1894
  • Henry Fink (Apr. 30, 1887 – Dec. 16, 1887)
  • J. W. Johnston (1890), 3rd VP
  • Peyton Randolph (1891), 3rd VP
  • John A. Rutherford (1892 – 1894), 3rd VP

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Condition: Excellent
Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
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