East Tennessee State University
Archives of Appalachia
Box 70295
Johnson City, TN 37614-0138
Request Information here.
Telephone: (423) 439-4338
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Title: |
Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railway Records |
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Collection Number: |
Accession No. 96 |
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Physical Description: |
175 linear feet - ledgers, manuscripts, photographs, and oversized maps |
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Creator: |
Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railway |
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Repository: |
Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University |
Provenance: The records of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway were placed in the Archives of Appalachia in three separate donations. The first group of records were deposited at the archives in July 1980 by John W. Thomas, general manager.
For many years the records generated by the various departments of the railroad were housed in the basement of the general offices in Erwin, Tennessee. In 1977 the railroad offices were inundated by a disastrous flood. The water level rose to several feet in the basement destroying many of the official records and severely damaging most of those remaining.
In June 1980 retrieval of those records began as archives' staff inventoried the basement repository and noted all salvageable records. Sampling techniques appropriate to specific record types were employed in cases where sizable volumes of similar records existed. Wherever possible, reports for each year or entire record groups were taken. Because the Accounting Department was relocated to Florida in 1971, few financial ledgers remained in the Erwin facility.
A second group of records were placed in the Archives of Appalachia on May 11, 1984 by R. Harvey Chappell, Jr., an associate of the law firm Christian, Barton, Epps, Brent and Chappell which was representing the interests of the railway. The records largely concerned the corporate activities of the railway and were shipped to the archives from Richmond, Virginia.
The third group of records was deposited in the archives on December 26, 1988 by Michael E. Tilley, president of the Watauga Valley Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society. These records had been stored in a vault at the general offices in Erwin, Tennessee.
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processing Information: Processing was completed and the collection opened for research in 1981. Subsequent revisions were accomplished as additions were received.
The building of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway was the realization of a quest to connect Cincinnati, Ohio with Charleston, South Carolina by traversing the Blue Ridge Mountains. Attempts by the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad (1886-1893) and the Ohio River and Charleston Railroad (1893-1902) failed to produce a railway through the mountainous Blue Ridge barrier. In 1902 George L. Carter acquired the remaining assets of the financially beleaguered Ohio River and Charleston Railroad, consisting of operating track between Johnson City and Boonford, and began operation under the name of the South and Western Railway. Financial backing from a syndicate of New York bankers enabled Carter to complete line construction from Huntdale to Spruce Pine, North Carolina in 1903. His primary objective was the construction of a railway that would connect developing coalfields of southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
In 1905 Carter began expanding the "Clinchfield route," with financial support from New York's Blair and Company, by constructing routes simultaneously south of Spruce Pine and north of Johnson City, Tennessee using portions of the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad's old road beds. The 59th Congress of the United States eventually authorized Carter's South and Western Railway to build bridges across both the Clinch and Holston Rivers in 1906 and by March 1908 a charter had been granted to Carter for the creation of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway. The route connecting Dante, Virginia to Spartanburg, South Carolina was completed in 1909 and an additional 35-mile section spanning between Dante and Elkhorn, Kentucky was finished on February 9, 1915. The first train load of coal arrived in Johnson City from Dante in March 1909 and the first passenger train to travel the full length of the rail line occurred in July 1915.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad leased the properties of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway on October 16, 1924 for 999 years. Through this agreement the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway, the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway of South Carolina, and the Clinchfield Northern Railway of Kentucky were consolidated under the name of the Clinchfield Railway Company. In 1948 the Clinchfield Railroad installed its first diesel electric locomotives and gradually began phasing out its use of steam engines. New methods of traffic regulation were introduced in 1949, and by 1954 the entire line utilized central traffic control. The installation of radio communication was begun in 1955, and in that same year passenger service was discontinued. On November 1, 1980 the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a merger between the Clinchfield Railroad Company and the Chessie System to become the Clinchfield Division of the Seaboard System Railroad.
The 309 mile route of the Clinchfield Railroad crossed five states and four distinct water sheds, utilized 55 tunnels, and traversed elevations ranging from 742 feet at Spartanburg, South Carolina to 2,678 feet at the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The construction of the Clinchfield Railroad established a building precedent of tunneling through mountain barriers rather than establishing "low grade" road beds that circumvented rugged terrain. In an effort to establish track capable of hauling "heavy tonnage coal trains through mountainous territory" the company burrowed wider tunnels, constructed easy curves that would not exceed a maxium of 8 degrees, restricted all bed grades to 1.2 percent, and replaced many wooden truss bridges with steel girder bridges. Several wooden trestles between Erwin and Spruce Pine were replaced with fills. In addition 60 pound track was replaced with 85 pound rails and water tanks were installed every 10 miles.
The Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway records contain 341 manuscript boxes, 21 oversize Hollinger boxes of engineering drawings and blueprints, 110 boxes of rolled maps and blueprints, 211 volumes, and photographs documenting the preliminary construction, management, operation, and the financing of the railroad company between 1899 and 1983. The content of this collection is broken down into three distinct groups of records: original acquisition, first addendum, and second addendum.
Original Acquisition:
The original acquisition consists of minute books, corporate annual reports, annual reports of the general manager, annual reports of the Louisville and Nashville Law Department, correspondence, engineering files, accident and personal injury files, special excursion files, general subject files, Holston Land Company correspondence and ledgers, Black Mountain Railway ledgers and financial statements, vouchers for the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway, Meadows Company, Carolina Company, South and Western Railway, and the McCabe Company, publications, and payroll ledgers documenting the general operation of the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway between 1899 and 1979. The original acquisition is broken down into twelve series.
First Addendum:
This addition contains the same type of material as the original acquisition and has been arranged in series and subseries that parallel the original acquisition. New types of material in this addition include typed corporate minute books of board of directors meetings of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad and related companies; annual reports to the Interstate Commerce Commission, state regulatory agencies and stockholders; correspondence, legal agreements, deeds and title abstracts concerning the Holston Land Company and Black Mountain Railway; and miscellaneous accounting and financial reports of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway and its related companies.
The records largely concern the corporate operation and financial matters of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway and its related companies. Subjects covered include company organization; acquisition of property and equipment; reporting relationship with regulatory agencies; and the construction of railroad facilities.
The types minute books in this addendum are duplicates to the photocopies of minutes in the original acquisition. However, since the two sets of minute were not exact duplicates, the researcher should check both groups.
The records span from 1905 to 1967. An arrangement parallel to the original acquisition was followed. Additions were made to the following series: Series I, Minutes; Series II, Annual Reports; Series VII, Subject Files; Series VIII, Holston Land Company; Series IX Black Mountain Railway; Series X, Vouchers; and Series XIII, Accounting Files.
Second Addendum:
This addition contains the same type of material as the original acquisition and has been arranged in series and subseries that parallel the order of the original group of documents. New types of material in this addendum include property rental agreements, property changes/engineering report ledgers, blueprints of new equipment designs, and preliminary line maps documenting the general construction and operation of the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway between 1902 and 1983.
While both previous acquisitions contain several different types of maps, the second addendum includes manny of the preliminary survey maps illustrating the track layout, bridges, track crossings and stations. The maps measure approximately 3 feet by 25 feet and are individually boxed. They are labelled and arranged according to the original survey map numbers. In addition to these maps, there are two seismographic blue-print maps of the entire Clinchfield route dating 1949. The blueprints contain mile posts, bridges, rail crossings, stations, rail and track bed gauges, and significant geographical characteristics. The blueprints measure approximated 2.5 feet by 105 feet and are boxed similarly to the preliminary line maps.
Important subjects covered in the collection include:
Agriculture
Altapass Inn Company
Appalachian Region, Southern--Economic conditions
Bennett, W. M.
Big Poor Summit
Bigley, F. C.
Black Mountain Railway Company
Bolton, Charles L.
Boy, D. C.
Brewer, R. F.
Campion, J. J.
Caples, M. J. (Martin Joseph), 1864-1931
Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway
Carolina Company (North Carolina)
Carolina Company (Tennessee)
Carter, George L., 1858-1936
Catlett, Charles
Chemical industry
Clinch Mountain (Tenn. and Va.)
Clinchfield Northern Railway of Kentucky
Clinchfield Portland Cement Corporation
Clinchfield Railroad
Clinchport (Va.)
Coal mines and mining
Collective labor agreements
Community development
Copper Creek (Va.)
Cumberland Corporation
Daniels, Josephus, 1862-1948
Davis, George Evan, 1875-1955
Dibbell, William E.
Dickenson County (Va.)
Elkhorn Southern Railway
Emig, John C.
Enloe, S. W.
Erwin (Tenn.)
Fruit-culture
Fullers Gap (Wise County, Va.)
Furniture industry and trade
Gate City (Va.)
Goforth, James A.
Guest River (Va.)
Harris, Allen
Harris Manufacturing Company
Henry, S. T.
Hice, J. W.
Holston Land Company
Holston River (Va. and Tenn.)
Huntdale (N.C.)
Industry--Location
Interstate Mercantile Company
Iron mines and mining--North Carolina
Johnson, J. Fred (John Frederick), 1874-1944
Johnson City (Tenn.)--History
Kelsey, V. V.
Kemler, W. H.
Kingsport Southern Railway
Kingsport (Tenn.)--History
Lick Creek and Lake Erie Railroad Company
Linville River Railway
Lumbering
McCabe & Company
McKinney Gap (McDowell County and Mitchell County, N.C.)
Mead, George Houk, 1877-1963
Mead Pulp and Paper Company
Meadows Company
Miller, John A.
Mineral industries
Moccasin Gap (Scott County, Va.)
Phetteplace, L. H., 1871-1950
Pikeville (Ky.)
Potter, Mark W. (Mark Winslow), 1866-1942
Pound River (Va.)
Railroad accidents
Railroad Retirement Act of 1935
Railroad travel
Railroads
Railroads--Design and construction
Railroads--Employees
Railroads--Equipment and supplies
Railroads--Freight
Ritter, William McClellan, 1864-1952
Roberts, Henry
Sinking Creek (Tenn.)
South and Western Railroad of North Carolina
Southport Harbor Company
Spartanburg Land Company
Spruce Pine (N.C.)
Starnes Bend (Scott County, Va.)
Sykes Mill
Textile industry--Southern States
Unaka Springs (Tenn.)
Watauga River (N.C. and Tenn.)